Sebastián Martínez Valdivia
Sebastián Martínez Valdivia is a health reporter and documentary filmmaker who focuses on access to care in rural and immigrant communities. A native Spanish speaker and lifelong Missouri resident, Sebastián is interested in the often overlooked and under-covered world of immigrant life in the rural midwest. He has a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri and a master's degree in documentary journalism at the same institution. Aside from public health, his other interests include conservation, climate change and ecology.
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The Board of Curators' decision not to require masks comes as the state experiences the worst COVID-19 infection rates it has seen since the start of the pandemic. -
Testing of wastewater from Jackson and Buchanan counties has revealed the presence of the highly transmissible omicron variant.
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Missouri experts say omicron's mutations are concerning, but make the COVID variant easier to detectThe first U.S. omicron case was identified Wednesday — about a week after its discovery in South Africa. While there are concerns about the variant’s transmissibility, the number of mutations it possesses make it easier to detect than other strains.
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Nearly 800 Missourians died from opioid overdoses in the first half of 2021. In Columbia, a rash of overdose deaths has pushed the community to change its attitude on harm reduction efforts.
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Dr. Miranda Lam of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute was the lead author on a study showing that patients with breast cancer, lung cancer or colorectal cancer had better chances of survival if they lived in a state with Medicaid expansion.
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While hospital leaders say there are many reasons to be optimistic, there are still obstacles looming for hospital leaders in Missouri amid Medicaid expansion.
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While the state is accepting applications for Medicaid coverage under expanded eligibility, it says it can't start processing those applications before October 1.
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Last year, Missouri voters added Medicaid expansion to the state constitution through a ballot measure. But there's a major hiccup: the GOP-controlled legislature refuses to fund expanded coverage.
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Three days since Parson declared the state fully reopened have set records for single-day increases in cases, including Tuesday, which saw 434 new confirmed cases.
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The COVID crisis comes as rural hospitals have been closing — 10 in Missouri since 2014.
