Schools That Erroneously Enroll Undervaccinated Children Face Possible Penalties
The California Department of Education says it will audit 166 schools statewide for having more than 25 percent of their kindergartners enrolled as conditional entrants; 107 are in the Los Angeles Unified School District. In other public health news, Stateline examines why opioid addicts in the hardest-hit communities -- such as San Francisco -- aren't getting the medications that could help them recover.
KPCC:
California Threatens To Take Money From Schools With Under-Vaccinated Kids
In an effort to get more kids vaccinated on time, the state of California says that it will financially penalize schools that wrongly admitted a high percentage of kindergartners who were overdue for their second dose of the measles vaccine. (Plevin, 1/21)
Stateline:
Few Doctors Are Willing, Able to Prescribe Powerful Anti-Addiction Drugs
Clinical studies show that U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved opioid addiction medicines like buprenorphine offer a far greater chance of recovery than treatments that don’t involve medication, including 12-step programs and residential stays. But as the country’s opioid epidemic kills more and more Americans, some of the hardest-hit communities across the country don’t have enough doctors who are able — or willing — to supply those medications to the growing number of addicts who need them. More than 900,000 U.S. physicians can write prescriptions for painkillers such as OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin. But because of a federal law, fewer than 32,000 doctors are authorized to prescribe buprenorphine to people who become addicted to those and other opioids. (Vestal, 1/18)