Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
‘Everybody in This Community Has a Gun’: How Oakland Lost Its Grip on Gun Violence
A few years ago, Oakland won national acclaim for slashing gun-related crimes. Then the covid-19 pandemic tore through poor neighborhoods, and the murder of George Floyd fueled distrust in police. With guns readily available, violent crime has once again skyrocketed, leaving the community struggling to contain it. (Samantha Young, )
TB Exposure Reported At San Diego Shelter: San Diego County on Monday reported a tuberculosis exposure at the Golden Hall shelter in downtown San Diego. The county is working with Father Joe’s Villages and the San Diego Housing Commission to notify residents, employees, contractors, and volunteers potentially exposed between Sept. 5-28. Read more from The San Diego Union-Tribune and Times of San Diego.
Bay Area Schools Rarely Punished For Not Reporting Child Abuse, Investigation Finds: In an examination of more than 50 civil claims, a theme emerged: Many former students say they were harmed not just by educators who sexually abused them, but also by school employees who failed to report the cases to police — sometimes even after being warned directly about predatory teachers. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Below, check out the roundup of California Healthline’s coverage. For today's national health news, read KFF Health News’ Morning Briefing.
More News From Across The State
Sacramento Bee:
FBI Arrests Sacramento Doctor In Child Porn Investigation
A Carmichael pulmonologist has been jailed on a charge of possessing child pornography following an undercover FBI operation, court records say. Dr. Khursheed Haider, 48, is being held without bail at the Sacramento County Main Jail following his arrest last week and a search of his Roseville home and Mercedes-Benz, court records say. Haider, who made his initial appearance in Sacramento federal court last week, is scheduled to return to court Thursday for a hearing on whether he should remain in custody pending the outcome of his case. (Stanton, 11/28)
Sacramento Bee:
Two More Rite Aid Stores Are Set To Close In Roseville, Galt
More California Rite Aid locations, including two in the Sacramento area, have been added to the company’s closure list as part of its bankruptcy process. In October, the company confirmed it would be closing more than 150 “underperforming” stores as part of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. The two Sacramento region stores added to the closure list this week are in Galt and Roseville. (Rodriguez, 11/27)
The Oaklandside:
Oakland's Highland Hospital Has A New Vending Machine With Socks And Drug Test Kits
Highland Hospital has a new vending machine. But instead of soda, it has socks. Instead of chips, there’s condoms. And it’s all free. The “harm-reduction vending machine” launched in Highland’s emergency department this fall, offers basic supplies to anyone who needs it, with a focus on reaching those who might benefit from the substance-use services at the hospital’s Bridge program. (Orenstein, 11/27)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
For Decades, Tribes Have Helped San Diego County On Emergency Calls. Now, The Two Are Butting Heads Over Sovereign Immunity.
For decades, tribal fire departments have responded to fires or accidents off their reservations under a mutual aid agreement with the county. But last month, the county notified the tribes that it was going to terminate those agreements and replace them with ones that would require the tribes to relinquish some of their sovereign immunity that protects them from legal liability. (Mapp, 11/27)
The Oaklandside:
Q&A: Sherry Hirota On 50 Years Of Health Advocacy In Oakland Chinatown
For as long as Oakland has been a city, Chinatown has been an important downtown neighborhood and cultural hub for the city’s Asian immigrant population. And for nearly 50 years, Asian Health Services—founded in 1974 to provide healthcare for many of the area’s low-income immigrants—has been a community pillar. On Oct. 25, a one-block stretch of Alice Street between 9th and 10th streets was renamed Sherry Hirota Way to honor the organization’s impact on community health and the woman who helped to lead it for almost half a century. (McDede, 11/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
SCOTUS Abortion, Gun Rulings Prompted 9th Circuit Judge To Retire
The Supreme Court’s 2022 rulings that overturned the right to abortion and rolled back the government’s authority to restrict firearms or greenhouse gas emissions delighted conservatives but horrified supporters of reproductive rights, gun control and environmental regulation. For one judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the cases sent a message that it was time to leave. It was clear that “in most of the high-profile areas in which the court was going to issue major decisions, my own views as a judge would be out of sync with what the Supreme Court was deciding in area after area,” former Judge Paul Watford told the Chronicle last week. “It led me to start rethinking whether I would want to stay on the bench for the rest of my career.” (Egelko, 11/27)
CBS News:
COVID Variant BA.2.86 Triples In New CDC Estimates, Now 8.8% Of Cases
Nearly 1 in 10 new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are from the BA.2.86 variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated Monday, nearly triple what the agency estimated the highly mutated variant's prevalence was two weeks ago. Among the handful of regions with enough specimens reported from testing laboratories, BA.2.86's prevalence is largest in the Northeast: 13.1% of cases in the New York and New Jersey region are blamed on the strain. (Tin, 11/27)
LAist 89.3 FM:
COVID Update: A Johns Hopkins Analysis Compares California And Florida’s Response. Who Handled COVID Better?
A new analysis from Johns Hopkins University looked at the differences between California and Florida’s handling of the initial COVID-19 lockdown. Where California took a strict stay-at-home approach, Florida opted to favor the wellbeing of small businesses and the state’s overall economic health. The data analysis showed that significantly more Floridians died on a per capita basis, but that doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story once you factor in demographics. While hindsight offers many lessons in how we handled the lockdown, we still have to grapple with what lies ahead. (11/27)
CIDRAP:
US Flu Cases, Hospitalizations Keep Climbing
Seasonal influenza cases continued to edge upward in most parts of the United States last week, with notable upticks in the south central, southeast, Mountain, and West Coast regions, according to the latest report today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). FluView data for the week ending November 18 show an overall 4.9% hike in flu positivity, up 0.5 percentage points from last week. The highest positivity rates were in the Mountain (11.2%), south central (7.6%), southeast (7.6%), and West Coast (7.2%) regions. (Van Beusekom, 11/27)
Sacramento Bee:
City Attorney Denounces Sacramento DA’s Threat To File Charges Over Homeless Crisis
Sacramento’s city attorney has fired back at Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho’s threat to file criminal charges over the city’s homeless crisis, accusing him of “baseless allegations” and a politically motivated campaign against Mayor Darrell Steinberg. (Stanton, 11/27)
Los Angeles Times:
What One Man’s Castle In Scotland Says About L.A.’s Homelessness Crisis
Not every homeless person in Scotland lives in a castle. But Scotland has what some California politicians and advocates have long sought: a legal right to housing. Because of that policy, the local government here must act quickly to ensure people at risk of becoming homeless find a temporary place to stay — even if that place happens to look like a Harry Potter stage set. (Bierman, 11/27)
Berkeleyside:
Food Insecurity Remains High In Berkeley
On a recent Thursday afternoon, the 20-person line at the Berkeley Food Network’s Ninth Street food distribution center flowed relatively quickly. A mother held on to her child’s hand to keep him from running around; inside, a pair of siblings made choice selections in a tub of produce. “Rent is going up, and groceries are getting more and more expensive,” one woman told Berkeleyside in Cantonese while waiting in line. Carrying a foldable shopping cart, the woman, who declined to give her name, said that for the past month, she’s been supplementing the food she gets at the pantry with trips to grocery stores for vegetables she’s more accustomed to eating, like bok choy. (Yelimeli and Kwok, 11/21)
Times Of San Diego:
San Diego-Based 'Street Vet' To Launch Food Pantry On Skid Row For Pets Of Unhoused
A new food pantry will launch on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles Monday, but this one is different because it’s dedicated exclusively to providing free food for the dogs and cats of unhoused pet owners. The pantry is the brainchild of Dr. Kwane Stewart, a San Diego-based veterinarian who over some 12 years of providing free medical services to the animals of the unhoused on Skid Row and throughout California has become known as “The Street Vet.” (Ireland, 11/27)
Military Times:
VA Delays Disputed Change In How It Pays For Veterans’ Ambulance Trips
Veterans Affairs officials will postpone a controversial rule change regarding ambulance service reimbursements after objections from industry officials and members of Congress who worried the move could endanger some veterans living in rural areas. Department leaders have not completely given up on the plan, but promised lawmakers on Nov. 22 that they will not implement the changes until February 2025 at the earliest. The new rules had been set to go into effect by mid-February 2024. (Shane III, 11/27)
The Mercury News:
In Toddler's Fentanyl Death, San Jose Parents Arraigned On Murder Charges
She grew up in a lovely home in the Almaden Valley. She was a cheerleader at West Valley College and a fan of the San Jose Sharks. She rescued kittens for a nonprofit agency. But when police arrested Kelly Richardson a day before Thanksgiving, they found her with the drugs that had turned her life to tragedy. On Monday, Richardson, 28, walked into the Santa Clara County courtroom in shackles next to her boyfriend Derek Rayo, 27. It was the San Jose couple’s first court appearance to face murder charges in the fentanyl overdose death of their 19-month-old daughter Winter — the third South Bay child younger than 2 killed by the deadly opioid in six months. (Sulek and Nickerson, 11/27)
Bay Area News Group:
Flaring At Richmond Refinery Triggers Alert Monday Afternoon
A large plume of black smoke was visible for miles in the Bay Area on Monday afternoon after flaring was reported at the Chevron refinery in Richmond. The flaring activity, which happened over a period of roughly five hours, was triggered by a loss of power to a portion of the facility, Chevron said in a social media post. (Green, 11/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
A Year After Bay Area Refinery’s Release Of Toxic Dust, Fear Lingers
The FBI agents had just begun knocking on doors when the neighbors started texting: Federal investigators were asking about the Martinez oil refinery that had belched tons of toxic dust into town. It was six months after the November 2022 incident, and Wendy Ke didn’t want to miss the chance to tell them about the ashy material her family cleaned off their car and the asthma symptoms she only recently had developed. So her husband drove around the neighborhood until he found two agents. He rolled down the window and asked them to stop by their front porch. (Johnson, 11/24)
Los Angeles Times:
UCLA Has A New Disability Studies Major
That UCLA now has a disability studies major, announced this month, is a sign that “the stigma around disability is shifting,” said Victoria Marks, a professor of choreography and chair of the UCLA program. “More and more of our communities are speaking up.” This fall, San Francisco State became just the second CSU school to inaugurate a disability studies minor. The first was Cal State Northridge last spring. UC schools have fared better, starting with the first disability studies minor in the system at Berkeley in 2003. (Sharp, 11/27)
Los Angeles Times:
California Prisoners Could Get Higher Wages Under New Plan — But Still Less Than $1 An Hour
For the first time in 30 years, the California prison system plans to nearly double most hourly wages for incarcerated workers, a proposal that comes amid a broader debate over prison labor and a push by progressive activists to prohibit forced labor as a form of criminal punishment. (Sosa, 11/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Lawsuit Seeks To Block S.F. Grants To Black Mothers, Trans Residents
To support some of its neediest families, San Francisco started a program in 2020 to provide $1,000 a month to 150 pregnant Black and Pacific Islander women, and then to their newborn children. Since then, the city and the state have offered similar subsidies to minority artists and to transgender and nonbinary residents, with a priority for non-white recipients. But the U.S. Supreme Court altered the legal landscape this June when it ruled that affirmative-action programs that allowed colleges to consider an applicant’s race or ethnicity violated the constitutional rights of white and Asian American students. And now a conservative group is claiming similar constitutional violations by San Francisco and the state of California. (Egelko, 11/27)
Bay Area Reporter:
SF World AIDS Day Event To Honor Olympic Diver Louganis
The Olympian dubbed the "greatest diver in history" will be recognized at the National AIDS Memorial Grove's World AIDS Day commemorations, which will also include its Light in the Grove benefit the night before. Louganis, a gay man who has been living with HIV since 1988, will receive the grove's National Leadership Recognition Award at 1 p.m. Friday, December 1, during the grove's public observance. Previous recipients of the award have been former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. (11/21)
Reuters:
Biden Invokes Cold War-Era Measure To Boost Medical Supplies
President Joe Biden on Monday invoked a Cold War-era measure to boost investment in U.S. manufacturing of medicines and medical supplies that he has deemed important for national defense. Biden used the first meeting of his supply chain resilience council to boast about his administration efforts to improve supply chains upended by the COVID pandemic and help bring inflation under control, but acknowledged more work needs to be done. “We know that prices are still too high for too many things, that times are still too tough for too many families,” Biden said. “But we’ve made progress." (Holland and Lange, 11/27)
Axios:
Biden Looks To Boost Domestic Drug Manufacturing Amid Shortages
Amid widespread drug shortages, President Biden is outlining a plan to increase domestic production of essential pharmaceuticals — including by leveraging a defense law used to bolster countermeasures against COVID-19. The number of drugs in shortage is higher than at any point in almost a decade, while U.S. drug manufacturers largely depend on overseas suppliers for active pharmaceutical ingredients. (Goldman, 11/28)
MedPage Today:
Biden Administration Announces Actions To Strengthen The Drug Supply Chain
"I'm proud to announce that I'll be invoking what's known as the Defense Production Act to boost production of essential medicines in America by American workers," Biden said. "You notice that people have to get certain kinds of shots overseas" because they're not available in the U.S. "Well, that supply chain is going to start here in America. "President Biden also will issue a Presidential Determination giving HHS the authority to invest in domestic manufacturing of essential medicines and medical countermeasures. "HHS has identified $35 million for investments in domestic production of key starting materials for sterile injectable medicines," according to a White House fact sheet. ( Frieden, 11/27)
Politico:
Senate Republicans Shrug Off Trump's Latest Bid To Scrap Obamacare
Yes, Republicans still say they dislike Obamacare and want to bring health care costs down. But as far as scrapping the law? “I don't see that as being the rallying cry. I really don’t,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said. “Boy, I haven’t thought about that one in a while,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said. “I just don't know what [Trump's] thinking or how we would go about doing that. That fight, as you know, was six years ago now. And so, if he’s got some ideas, we’re open to them.” (Everett, 11/27)
The Washington Post:
Trump Aims To ‘Terminate’ Obamacare Again, Despite Its Popularity
What’s clear is that an effort to “terminate” Obamacare is not something Americans are pining for. Not only were the GOP’s efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare during Trump’s term historically unpopular, but the law also appears to have gotten more popular since then. Perhaps most strikingly, this doesn’t even appear to be a major emphasis for the GOP base. (Blake, 11/27)
The New York Times:
Biden Campaign Aims To Weaponize Trump’s Threat To Obamacare
The president’s aides quickly jumped on a statement by Donald Trump that he was “seriously looking at alternatives” to the health law. (Epstein, 11/27)