Latest California Healthline Stories
WHO Committee Recommends Allowing Genetic Manipulation of Smallpox Virus
The World Health Organization announced Thursday that its 20-member international advisory committee recommended last week that Russian and U.S. scientists be allowed to manipulate a gene in the smallpox virus to develop treatments more quickly, the New York Times reports.
Representatives for the hotel workers’ union Unite Here at a news conference on Thursday criticized hotel management trustees’ decision on Monday to block the use of $4.4 million from a $22 million joint hotel-union emergency trust fund to finance health benefits from December to January for about 1,400 hotel workers who have been locked out during a contract dispute, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (D) on Wednesday announced the appointment of Richard Murphy, president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, to the governing board that will oversee the distribution of $3 billion for stem cell research approved under Proposition 71, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
FDA Panel Member Removed from Review of COX-2 Inhibitors
Curt Furberg, a professor at Wake Forest University, has been removed from an FDA advisory panel set to review the safety of COX-2 inhibitors next year, after he publicly questioned the safety of Pfizer’s Bextra, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Tenet Announces Agreement To Sell Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center
Santa Barbara-based Tenet Healthcare has announced an agreement to sell Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center to CHA Medical Group, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Sutter Health Employees To Vote on One-Day Strike Over Issues in Contract Negotiations
Sutter Health employees in the next week will vote on whether they will hold a one-day strike in December to highlight issues in a “long-running contract dispute,” the Contra Costa Times reports.
Thompson Leaves Open Possible Return to Second-Term Cabinet as HHS Secretary
HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, who previously said he did not expect to be in his position when the new Medicare law takes effect, last week indicated that he has not yet discussed with President Bush whether he will remain in his current post in the second-term Cabinet, the Washington Post reports in Al Kamen’s “In The Loop” column.
Canadian Health Minister Warns Against Practice of Prescription Drug Reimportation
Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh on Wednesday warned that the Canadian government might take action to end the sale of prescription drugs to U.S. residents in the event that the practice increases and causes a “tremendous strain on Canada’s supply,” the Boston Globe reports.
Assembly Members Plan To Introduce Legislation To Allow Physician-Assisted Suicide in Some Cases
Assembly members Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) and Patty Berg (D-Santa Rosa) plan to introduce next month legislation to legalize physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients, the Los Angeles Daily News reports.
The Labor and Workforce Development Agency last week sent letters to 19 members of four state boards — including the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board and the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board — directing them to work in the boards’ offices from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. rather than offsite, the Los Angeles Times reports.