Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Big Employers Are Offering Abortion Benefits. Will the Information Stay Safe?
Work-based benefits may expand access to abortion for people who live in areas where the service is unavailable, but experts warn that claiming benefits could create a paper trail for law enforcement officials to follow. (Darius Tahir, )
A Huge Win For Immigrants: California on Thursday became the first state to guarantee free health care for all low-income immigrants living in the country illegally, a move that will provide coverage for an additional 764,000 people at an eventual cost of about $2.7 billion a year. Read more from AP.
Kaiser Permanente Criticized For Long Waits For Mental Health Care: Patients, therapists, a union leader and state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, urged health provider Kaiser Permanente on Thursday to reduce excessive wait times for mental health appointments that therapists said extend at least 2.5 months in the Sacramento region. One Sacramentan said her daughter had attempted suicide several times but “was given pamphlets for meditation and sent home.” Read more from The Sacramento Bee.
In related news about mental health care —
Riverside County works to keep doors open at Palm Springs mental health urgent care
Note to readers: California Healthline's Daily Edition will not be published Monday, July 4. Look for it again in your inbox Tuesday. Below, check out the roundup of California Healthline’s coverage. For today's national health news, read KHN's Morning Briefing.
More News From Across The State
Los Angeles Times:
California To End Contract With AIDS Healthcare Foundation
California will no longer contract with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation to provide healthcare plans for hundreds of HIV-positive patients in Los Angeles County after the state accused the high-profile nonprofit of engaging in improper tactics during negotiations over rates. The foundation and its controversial founder Michael Weinstein are a powerful political force in California, with the group bankrolling rent-control measures, challenging Los Angeles planning decisions and pushing statewide initiatives to lower prescription drug costs and require porn actors to wear condoms. Weinstein called the state’s move “pure retaliation” for his group’s push for higher rates. (Gutierrez, 6/30)
AP:
California Advances Bid To Create Legal Drug Injection Sites
The California Assembly on Thursday approved a controversial bill allowing Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco to set up places where opioid users could legally inject drugs in supervised settings. The move follows more than a year of legislative consideration, with proponents saying it would save lives and detractors saying it would enable drug addiction. (Thompson, 6/30)
Bloomberg:
California To Allow Lawsuits For Marketing Firearms To Children
Gun manufacturers that market kiddie versions of firearms in California would risk being sued under legislation cleared Thursday for the desk of Gov. Gavin Newsom. The measure (A.B. 2571), which the state Senate passed 56 to 14 without debate, was partly inspired by a child-size version of the AR-15. (Cutler and Clukey, 6/30)
CapRadio:
California’s Change To Concealed Carry Permits Would Reduce Wide Variations Among Counties
Over the last decade, Orange County issued 65,171 permits to carry a concealed handgun and both Fresno and Sacramento counties issued more than 45,000. San Francisco issued 11. (Christopher, 6/30)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Arizona Women Schedule 175 Abortions In San Diego, Imperial And Riverside Counties Since Roe Overturn
Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, which operates 19 health centers in those three counties, said Wednesday that Arizona women have scheduled 175 appointments at its various locations since the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion after almost 50 years. (Sisson, 6/30)
KQED:
New State Budget Will Cover Some Abortion Transportation Costs, But Only For Travel Within California
California groups that help people access abortion care say final changes to the nearly $308 state budget that lawmakers passed Wednesday night will make it harder for residents from other states to travel here for care. While the budget includes a $20 million "Abortion Practical Support Fund" to cover some transportation, lodging, food and child care costs for lower-income people seeking abortions — those small grants would only apply to in-state travel. That means the state would potentially help a woman from Texas, for instance, pay for a hotel room or transportation once she’s in California, but would not cover her costs to get here. (6/30)
Sacramento Bee:
Window Broken At Yuba City Pregnancy Resource Clinic
A pregnancy resource clinic in Yuba City was vandalized this week, with three rocks used to break a large window overnight between June 27 and 28. Employees at the clinic, A Woman’s Friend, reported the incident to Yuba City police around 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, according to Yuba City police department spokeswoman Lt. Michelle Brazil. (Hodgman, 6/30)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Searching For Abortion Pills? Here’s How Google Could Search History That Against You
A woman looks online for information about abortion pills. Soon, there’s a knock on the door. Local authorities had subpoenaed Google for all such searches performed in their jurisdiction. Another woman visits a friend who is suspected of performing illegal abortions. Police find the woman through a “geofence” warrant that harvests data on smartphone users who were in the friend’s vicinity. Such scenarios might read like dystopian fiction, but they could soon become commonplace, according to abortion activists and privacy advocates. (Said, 6/30)
Los Angeles Times:
Feeling Anxious About The End Of Roe Vs. Wade? Experts Discuss Mental Health Implications
The reversal of the most significant reproductive rights ruling in U.S. history has left Roe vs. Wade supporters to grapple with what’s next. The majority of Americans support legal abortions at least most of the time, repeated polls have shown, with 61% saying that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center. (Garcia and Amato, 6/30)
Orange County Register:
Health Officials Report First Presumed Case Of Monkeypox In OC
Orange County Health officials on Thursday said they’ve detected the first local case of what they believe to be a monkeypox infection, and have begun contact tracing while awaiting an official confirmation of the testing by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The OC Health Care Agency did not provide details on the person infected or where they may have come in contact with the presumed monkeypox virus. (Sheets, 6/30)
CBS News:
Man Recovering From Monkeypox Says Virus Is "Way Worse" Than COVID
A man who has monkeypox is sharing what it's like to recover from the virus. CBS2's Lisa Rozner spoke to Matt Ford, who is still in isolation. "I've had COVID twice. This was way worse," he said. Ford says he's finally feeling better two weeks after noticing pimple-like marks the ended up being monkeypox lesions. (Rozner, 6/30)
Modesto Bee:
CA Wastewater Analysis Shows Record-High COVID-19 Spread
As COVID-19 testing rates have plummeted, one tool is becoming increasingly important for understanding the state of the pandemic: sewage surveillance. Regional wastewater paints a stark picture of a pandemic that is far from over. While the state’s testing program shows coronavirus case rates to be dropping across much of Northern California, wastewater analysis indicates that in many places, viral spread this month rivals or even exceeds the original omicron surge that swept through the country in January, creating record infections. (Davidson, 7/1)
Los Angeles Times:
Coronavirus Cases Jump At L.A. County Workplaces
An upswing in coronavirus infections has spawned a rise in worksite case clusters in Los Angeles County, prompting health officials to recommend additional measures aimed at tamping down transmission, including reducing crowding and, if there’s a suspected outbreak, expanding remote work. “With the continued increase in cases, and now as you’re seeing the corresponding increase in hospitalizations … we’re really worried,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said of the region’s overall trends. (Money and Lin II, 6/30)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
COVID-19 Hospitalizations Continue To Rise In San Diego As The Fourth Approaches
Still coping with COVID-19 admissions from Memorial Day festivities, San Diego medical providers say they are concerned that an even bigger hangover will follow the Fourth of July weekend, just as was the case in 2020 and 2021. (Sisson, 6/30)
The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat:
COVID-19 Stable And Manageable As Sonoma County Shifts To Endemic Phase Of Virus Response
Sonoma County health officials said the volume of new COVID-19 cases remains stable and manageable as the county prepares to demobilize its pandemic response operations at the end of the month. (Espinoza, 6/30)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Courts Announce End Of COVID-19-Related Rules
The state's Judicial Council voted to end the remaining temporary emergency rules approved to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic effective Friday, according to a Kern Superior Court news release. (6/30)
Orange County Register:
Coronavirus: Orange County Is 72.2% Fully Vaccinated With 4.7 Million Doses Administered
The OC Health Care Agency reported 2,326,588 county residents were fully vaccinated as of Thursday, June 30. This represents about 72.2% of Orange County’s total population. Also, there have been 1,335,414 booster doses administered. (Goertzen, 6/30)
AP:
Tweaked COVID Boosters In US Must Target Newer Omicron Types
U.S. regulators told COVID-19 vaccine makers Thursday that any booster shots tweaked for the fall will have to add protection against the newest omicron relatives. The Food and Drug Administration said the original vaccines would be used for anyone still getting their first series of shots. But with immunity waning and the super-contagious omicron family of variants getting better at dodging protection, the FDA decided boosters intended for fall needed an update. (Neergaard and Perrone, 6/30)
Axios:
Pfizer To Begin Testing Universal Coronavirus Vaccines
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech plan to start clinical trials of pan-coronavirus vaccines in the second half of the year, BioNTech officials said in an investor presentation on Wednesday. The company said it wants to provide "durable variant protection," according to Reuters, which first reported the news. (Reed, 6/30)
CalMatters:
Patient Data: Health Facilities To Start Sharing It
In March 2020, as Californians hunkered down for what many expected to be a two-week lockdown, high-ranking health officials were scrambling to find out how many COVID-19 patients were hospitalized, how many were in intensive care and how many beds remained available. With no system in place for hospitals to report this information to the state and share it, Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s public health director and other staff had to call 426 hospitals to assess the situation. (Hwang, 6/30)
Modesto Bee:
Stanislaus County Identifies Site For Health Services Center
In the last five years or so, it looked like Stanislaus County would be moving its Health Services Agency away from its longtime home at 830 Scenic Drive. But county leaders have concluded the best place for building a 55,000-square-foot health services administrative center is the old county hospital site on Scenic Drive. (Carlson, 7/1)
KVPR:
Nonwhite Americans Are Eating Less Meat. Vegan Activists Of Color Explain Why
Toni Okamoto became overwhelmed with frustration after she watched family members suffer severe health consequences from the food they ate. Her aunt suffered multiple amputations from Type 2 diabetes prior to dying, and her grandfather had multiple heart attacks before dying in a bypass surgery. She also saw how their financial situations limited the choices they could make regarding their food. So, she decided to do something. "That's how I started Plant-Based on a Budget — I was on a limited income with limited resources to eat healthy-ish, and I started compiling those recipes for my family to benefit and saw very quickly how many people wanted to eat healthier but didn't know where to begin," she said. (Miranda, 7/1)
CNN:
What Robin Williams' Widow Wants You To Know About The Future Of Lewy Body Dementia
After Robin Williams died by suicide in August 2014, his widow, Susan Schneider Williams, would soon learn about a disease she had never heard of, but one that had haunted both of their lives. (Rogers, 7/1)
East Bay Times:
Silicon Valley Must Fight For The Rights Of Women
The six Supreme Court justices who overturned of Roe v. Wade after half a century have just told 50% of America that we do not have the right to control our own bodies, and that we are not trusted to make the best decisions for ourselves and our families. Even worse than that, these six justices have told 50% of America that we do not have an equal place in America. (Cindy Chavez, 6/29)
Palm Springs Desert Sun:
Teen Pregnancy Is A Story People Don't Want To Hear, But Need To
I am the founder and former publisher of L.A. Youth, a newspaper by and about teens. For 25 years (1988-2013), our teen reporters learned they could be more than bystanders in the affairs of their peers and the world. (Donna C. Myrow, 6/30)
Los Angeles Times:
How To Move Forward After The Destruction Of Roe Vs. Wade
There are virtually no precedents in American law in which a right — declared fundamental by the Supreme Court — was erased. While the court has overhauled constitutional protections before, the complete retraction of the right to abortion sets the nation on a course it has never seen. From 1910 to 1937, the court recognized a right to freedom of contract, but this rarely functioned as a liberty for workers — often, the court used this “right” to strike down laws protecting workers. And in the 1970s, four years after ruling that the death penalty as applied in the U.S. was unconstitutional, the court reinstated capital punishment after states revised their laws to meet the court’s requirements, leading to the executions of more than 1,500 people in the decades since. (Mary Ziegler, 6/26)
Los Angeles Daily News:
Raw Politics Determine Californians’ Medical Care
Medical care in California is a patchwork of federal, state and local government services, plus those financed by employers and — rarely — individual people. It’s also, by far, the largest single component of California’s $3.4 trillion economy with upwards of 2 million workers and at least $450 billion in spending from all sources, an average of more than $11,000 per Californian. (Dan Walters, 6/27)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
‘CARE Courts’ Are Coming To Address Mental Illness. Is California Ready For Them?
Thousands of people with mental illness live on the streets of California, and virtually everyone wants to find a way to help them. Proposals giving government more leverage to put some of them into court-ordered treatment are moving through the Legislature quickly with bipartisan support. (Michael Smolens, 7/1)
CalMatters:
In California Prisons, You Can't Shower Daily Unless You Work.
For five years, I got up at 2 every morning and labored in the San Quentin State Prison kitchen, stirring kettles, scraping grills and scrubbing countertops and floors — covering myself in kitchen slime — just to get a five-minute shower. I learned to keep a job if I wanted a daily shower. But hundreds of prisoners who live near me are unable to shower daily, despite the fact that outbreaks of diseases such as COVID-19 and norovirus and infestations of bedbugs and scabies are common. (Steve Brooks, 6/28)
Orange County Register:
Who Is The FDA’s Juul Ban Supposed To Help?
There’s something terrifying about a government so powerful that it can shut down your business overnight without even bothering to offer substantive arguments. Yet that’s what Food and Drug Administration bureaucrats just did to the e-cigarette company Juul. While Juul got a stay of execution from a court, the company is one of the many victims of the FDA’s counterproductive war on nicotine. Most of the other victims will be cigarette smokers. (Veronique De Rugy, 6/30)
Capitol Weekly:
Out-Of-State Pharmacies, Hospitals Exploit Federal '340B' Program
When the COVID-19 pandemic again reinforced that California’s communities of color disproportionately bear the burden of public health threats, some California lawmakers made promises about closing gaps in health equity and access. (Robert Bitonte, 6/24)
Los Angeles Times:
On Gun Control, Young People Might Be Our Last Hope
Anna Pham is not your typical activist. At just 11 years old, she became passionate about gun control after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. Joining other teens in March for Our Lives, a national student-led movement against gun violence, Anna turned to activism because she was “tired of seeing my representatives not doing anything and just tweeting.” Now a rising junior at Murrieta Valley High School, Anna has led crowds of up to 8,000 protesters demanding gun safety reform — and she’s part of a generation that may be our last hope for meaningful change. (Isaac Lozano, 6/30)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Does S.F. Actually Have A Plan To Deal With Drug Overdoses?
In the late 1990s, Portugal was in crisis, with one of the highest drug overdose rates in Europe. More than half of its new HIV cases were drug-related. Drug use was visible in the streets, its impact felt by everyone. Much like in San Francisco today, residents pressured the government to respond. It did. (6/26)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Emergency Declaration Targeting Fentanyl Will Save Lives
With other pain-relief medicines being used far more often, fentanyl was mostly a footnote in the medical world in most of the decades since its 1960 invention by Belgian physician Paul Janssen — a revered figure in pharmacological circles who developed pioneering drug treatments for schizophrenia, muscle spasms and other ailments. But over the past 15 years, legally prescribed fentanyl and illegal knockoffs of fentanyl and similar synthetic opiates — all extraordinarily addictive and far stronger than morphine — have emerged as one of the worst public health scourges in U.S. history. (6/29)
Sacramento Bee:
Failed Leadership To Blame For Sacramento Homelessness Surge
Tuesday’s release of Sacramento’s newest point-in-time census of homeless residents confirmed a disheartening and outrageous reality that is self-evident from the hardship we see in our public spaces. Sacramento County’s homeless population has exploded over the past three years, surpassing that of San Francisco, which was one of the few places in California to buck a seven-year trend of spreading homelessness across the state. (6/28)