Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Hospital ‘Trauma Centers’ Charge Enormous Fees to Treat Minor Injuries and Send People Home
Only severely injured patients are supposed to be billed for “trauma team alert” fees that can exceed $50,000. (Jay Hancock, )
Grab Your Mask and Notepad, We’re Headed Back to the Capitol
After being mostly closed to the public and the press for more than a year, California’s state Capitol is open again — masks, temperature checks, covid outbreaks and all. (Rachel Bluth, )
L.A. County Reinstates Indoor Mask Requirement: Starting Saturday night, residents of Los Angeles County will again be required to wear masks in indoor public spaces, regardless of their vaccination status. The order will continue to allow indoor dining, although people will need to keep their masks on when they’re not eating or drinking. Read more from the Los Angeles Times. Comprehensive coverage continues below.
Fed Up And Frustrated: Across L.A. County, vaccinated residents, business owners and medical experts expressed frustration and disappointment over having to sacrifice their own freedoms to protect those who refuse to get a covid shot. Read more from the Orange County Register.
UC System Will Require Covid Shots: The University of California system will require all students and staff to be vaccinated against covid to return to campus for the fall term, the university announced Thursday. Read more from the Orange County Register/City News Service and Los Angeles Times.
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
KQED:
LA County Brings Back Mask Mandate Indoors — Even If You're Vaccinated
A rapid and sustained increase in COVID-19 cases in the nation's largest county requires restoring an indoor mask mandate even when people are vaccinated, Los Angeles County's public health officer said Thursday. Dr. Muntu Davis said at a virtual press conference that a public health order requiring masks indoors will go into effect Saturday. (7/15)
AP:
With Virus Cases Rising, Mask Mandate Back On In Los Angeles
Los Angeles County will again require masks be worn indoors in the nation's largest county, even by those vaccinated against the coronavirus, while the University of California system also said Thursday that students, faculty and staff must be inoculated against the disease to return to campuses. The announcements come amid a sharp increase in virus cases, many of them the highly transmissible delta variant that has proliferated since California fully reopened its economy on June 15 and did away with capacity limits and social distancing. The vast majority of new cases are among unvaccinated people. (Weber and Antczak, 7/16)
Los Angeles Times:
What L.A. County's New Mask Rules Mean For Dining, Shopping
With coronavirus cases rising significantly among the unvaccinated, Los Angeles County has restored a mask mandate for in indoor public spaces. L.A. County becomes the first health agency in California to again require mask wearing inside public settings — a recognition of the sharp jump in cases over the last week. Here are the basic details. (Lin II and Money, 7/15)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Los Angeles Is Mandating Masks For All Again. What About In The Bay Area?
Los Angeles County will reinstate an indoor mask mandate for everyone, regardless of vaccination status, after seeing cases skyrocket over the past month, largely tied to spread of the highly infectious delta variant, public health officials announced Thursday. The mandate will go into effect at 11:59 p.m. Saturday, they said. (Allday, 7/15)
San Francisco Chronicle:
UCSF Reinstates Mask Policy For All, Regardless Of Vaccination Status, Due To Delta Variant
UCSF reinstated its indoor mask mandate Thursday after the medical and biological research center reported rising cases of the contagious delta variant, officials said. The new mandate will take effect immediately and applies to the school’s staff and 6,000 medical students. (Mishanec, 7/15)
CapRadio:
As COVID-19 Cases Rise, Sacramento And Yolo Counties Recommend Wearing Masks Indoors
Sacramento County Public Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye says when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic, “our way out of this is with vaccination.”COVID-19 case rates have nearly tripled in the county in recent weeks, from 3.8 per 100,000 on June 20 to 10.4 per 100,000 now. The current rate would have put Sacramento County in the purple, or widespread, tier under the original color-coded reopening system that the state used for months before ending it on June 15. In response, on Thursday the county began recommending that everyone wear a mask in indoor settings, regardless of immunization status. The move comes a day after Yolo County released similar guidelines. (Caiola, 7/15)
Los Angeles Times:
More California Areas Push Masks Indoors Amid COVID Surge
As California grapples with a surge in coronavirus cases amid the highly transmissible Delta variant, Sacramento and Yolo counties are now recommending that all residents, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors. In separate statements, health officials in both counties urged residents to wear masks in certain indoor settings “where vaccination verification is not required and the vaccination status of others is unknown.” (Hernandez, 7/15)
Modesto Bee:
No Change Yet For COVID Mask Advice In Stanislaus County
As the Delta variant drives an increase of COVID-19 infections in different parts of California, some counties again are recommending that everyone wears a mask in indoor settings. Thus far, Stanislaus County health officials have not issued new recommendations. The rise in transmission is occurring only a month after California’s reopening and mask requirements were loosened at businesses, sports stadiums and public events. (Carlson, 7/15)
The Mercury News:
Health Officials Mull Masks For Vaccinated Amid COVID Surge
The steep and steady rise in COVID-19 cases is spurring health officials throughout well-vaccinated California to walk back the mask freedom they granted the inoculated just a month ago and advise or order that they mask up indoors. On Thursday, Los Angeles County became the first county in the state to order that masks be worn indoors regardless of vaccination status, starting Saturday. (Woolfolk, 7/15)
CalMatters:
Small California Schools Will Refuse To Follow Mask Mandate
California’s smallest school districts say they will refuse to send kids home for not wearing a mask despite a new state mandate. Superintendents in these tight-knit and typically more conservative communities want the state to let local districts make their own decisions, considering the success some of them have had with reopening their campuses last year without triggering COVID-19 outbreaks. (Hong, 7/15)
San Francisco Chronicle:
A Maskless Student With A Speech Disability Got Barred From Summer School. The Family Is Suing Palo Alto's School District
When a Palo Alto high school student didn’t wear his mask on the first day of summer school this month, he was sent to the office. But the student has a speech-related disability that makes it hard for him to pronounce certain sounds and letters clearly — and also means he cannot wear a mask safely, according to a lawsuit filed against the Palo Alto Unified School District by the student’s father, A.J. Gokcek. (Echeverria, 7/15)
CalMatters:
California COVID Cases Surging A Month After Reopening
A month after California’s reopening lifted most pandemic restrictions, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are rising, worrying public health officials as they contend with the more infectious Delta variant and the lagging pace of vaccinations in some communities. Los Angeles County has drawn particular concern, with five straight days of more than 1,000 new cases, a five-fold increase from mid-June. (Feder Ostrov, 7/15)
Los Angeles Times:
Could COVID Surge, Delta Variant Halt California Reopening?
Could the recent COVID-19 resurgence force California to walk back its month-old reopening? The answer is no — at least for now. Despite the startling increases in new coronavirus infections and hospitalizations over the last few weeks, officials are quick to point out that, so far, this uptick is different from what the state endured earlier in the pandemic. (Money and Lin II, 7/15)
Los Angeles Times:
Reconsider Travel To Nevada, Florida Amid COVID-19 Surge
The Los Angeles County health officer has suggested that residents reconsider travel to states with the nation’s worst rates of coronavirus transmission, including Nevada and Florida. “I do want to recommend — especially if you’re unvaccinated — reconsider traveling to places where the seven-day COVID-19 case rates are increasingly high, like Nevada, our neighbor, or Missouri, Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana and others,” Dr. Muntu Davis said in his briefing to the county Board of Supervisors this week. (Lin II and Money, 7/15)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Judge Says Lawsuit Demanding Better COVID-19 Practices In San Diego Jails May Proceed
A class-action lawsuit accusing Sheriff Bill Gore of not doing enough to protect San Diego County jail inmates from the deadly coronavirus may proceed to trial, under an order issued by a Superior Court judge. The initial ruling by Judge Joel R. Wohlfeil came as the COVID-19 infection rate has begun to tick upward across San Diego County and the nation after notable declines this spring. (McDonald and Davis, 7/15)
The New York Times:
Covid Is Especially Risky For People With H.I.V., Large Study Finds
People living with H.I.V. are more likely to become severely ill with Covid-19 and more likely to die if hospitalized than others infected with the coronavirus, according to a large new study. Nearly half of H.I.V.-infected men older than 65 who are hospitalized for Covid-19 may die, the study found. The results, released ahead of an AIDS conference in Berlin, suggest that people with H.I.V. should be first in line for vaccines, along with older adults and others with weak immune systems, scientists said. (Mandavilli, 7/15)
Bloomberg:
Half Of Covid Hospital Patients Develop Complication, Study Says
One in two people hospitalized with Covid-19 develop another health complication, a U.K. study showed, in the broadest look yet at what happens to those sick enough to need inpatient treatment. Though complications were most common in those over the age of 50, the study found a significant risk for younger people as well. Among 19- to 29-year-olds hospitalized with Covid, 27% experienced a further injury or attack in an organ system in the body, while 37% of 30- to 39-year-olds experienced a similar complication, the researchers said in The Lancet on Thursday. (Kresge, 7/15)
CIDRAP:
Learning Disabilities Tied To Higher Risk Of COVID-19 Hospitalization, Death
Adults with learning disabilities who were diagnosed as having COVID-19 were five times more likely to be hospitalized and eight times more likely to die during England's first COVID wave, according to a study in BMJ. The researchers noted that data from the second wave (September 2020 to early February 2021) showed similar results. (7/15)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Dixie Fire, Raging Near The Site Of The Devastating 2018 Camp Fire, Prompts Evacuations
Firefighters on Thursday struggled to gain containment of a nearly 5,000-acre wildfire burning near the footprint of the devastating 2018 Camp Fire in Plumas and Butte counties. The Dixie Fire was not threatening any homes Thursday in the Feather River Canyon along Highway 70. The fire was 7% contained by Thursday night and moving through tracts of timber toward the popular High Lakes recreation region, causing the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office to order campers and others to evacuate. (Johnson and Vainshtein, 7/15)
Los Angeles Times:
Dixie Fire Expands As Sugar Fire Nears 100,000 Acres Burned
While the Sugar fire in Plumas neared the 100,000-acre milestone, firefighters on Thursday were continuing their efforts to contain the Dixie fire in Butte County. Officials estimated the size of the Dixie fire at 2,250 acres, according to fire Capt. Jacob Gilliam of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in Butte County. The blaze has had no containment. (Smith, 7/15)
NBC News:
Western Wildfires Rage Across 12 States, U.S. At Highest Alert Level
Emblematic of the difficulties firefighters are facing across the American West, crews scrambled Thursday to quell a rapidly growing blaze in Northern California, just 10 miles from the town of Paradise, where the collective trauma of the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in the state's history remains palpable nearly three years later. Since it began Wednesday morning, the Dixie Fire in Butte County has scorched more than 2,250 acres of brush and timber near the steep terrain of the Feather River Canyon, and was zero percent contained 24 hours later, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. (Ortiz and Murray, 7/15)
San Francisco Chronicle:
San Bruno Police Say They Arrested Woman Who Had Enough Fentanyl To Kill 65,000 People
San Bruno police arrested a Northern California woman on suspicion of possessing narcotics for sale and seized roughly 65,000 potentially fatal doses of fentanyl, a deadly opioid, police said. Police said they contacted the Anderson (Shasta County) woman — whose name was not released — shortly after 9:30 p.m. Monday in the area of El Camino Real and Kains Avenue in San Bruno. Police said they found her with more than 4.5 ounces of fentanyl, which authorities said equates to roughly 65,000 potentially lethal doses of the drug. Two milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal. (Hernandez, 7/15)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Austin Was 'The Biggest Winner' Of COVID Tech Migration. What Happens To Silicon Valley?
Texas’s capital has long been a tech pioneer, starting in the 1960s with IBM and Texas Instruments. In 1984, a University of Texas at Austin student named Michael Dell launched his PC company, which would become one of the largest computer manufacturers. But the rise of social media and mobile phones was concentrated in Silicon Valley, cementing the West Coast as the world’s biggest tech hub. Now, Austin is striving to win the next era of tech. A year after the pandemic canceled its signature tech and arts conference, SXSW, the city has gone from a harbinger of the crisis to one of its biggest winners, according to local businesses and economic data. (Li, 7/15)
Mercury News and East Bay Times:
California Students Should Wear Masks When They Return
When California students finally return to the classroom next month, they should wear masks. It’s unfortunate that Gov. Gavin Newsom and his health officials have, once again, stumbled in their rolling out of rules for guarding against the transmission of COVID-19. On Monday, they first said that unmasked K-12 students should be barred from campuses and then, hours later, said they would leave it up to school districts to set the enforcement mechanism. (7/14)
Orange County Register:
Mandatory Masking Of School Children Is A Bad Idea
California health officials have mandated masks for all students when schools reopen on the grounds that “treating all kids the same will support a calm and supportive school environment.” There is a much better way to achieve the same goal: discontinue mask wearing for all students, vaccinated or not. (Neeraj Sood and Jay Bhattacharya, 7/13)
Modesto Bee:
California Leaders Must Clarify School Masking Guidelines
Angry parents and educators venting before Stanislaus County leaders Tuesday morning seemed unaware that their primary demand — that the state not require children to wear masks in elementary school classrooms — may already have been granted. Who can blame them? State public health officials once again fumbled its message to the public, leaving everyone scratching their heads, if not fuming in frustration. (7/13)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Newsom's School Mask About-Face Is More Policy Giving Way To Politics
The Newsom administration’s two-faced position on masks in schools springs from the same feckless impulses as the governor’s grand reopening a month ago. Such failures of consistent leadership have repeatedly helped the coronavirus “roar back,” to use a Newsom-ism, the current resurgence of infections being no exception.Having gotten around to largely requiring schools to resume regular in-person instruction as of this fall, months later than they could have safely done so, state officials this week issued a sensible directive on masks: Students should wear them indoors or settle for “alternative educational opportunities” off campus. The Department of Public Health requirement was appropriate given that many children can’t be vaccinated yet, immunization rates remain relatively low among those who can, and masks constitute a minor inconvenience with major safety benefits. (7/14)
San Francisco Chronicle:
The Bay Area Has Become A COVID Hot Spot. Here's What To Make Of That
The coronavirus has reliably disregarded all hopes that it would observe human holidays, deadlines or elections. Across California, evidence is once again accumulating that it responds only to caution and consistency. Despite high vaccination rates and low case numbers, the Bay Area saw infections rise quickly enough in recent weeks to rank on a federal list of viral hot spots. Alameda County has seen new cases more than double to over 70 a day during the past month. Los Angeles County’s cases grew at a rate of more than 1,000 a day over the weekend. (7/12)
Los Angeles Daily News:
Wildfires, Like The 2018 Woolsey Fire, Fuel Mental Health Fears And Stress Alongside Paths Of Devastation
“Wildfires are occurring with increasing frequency and severity each year, and each year their impacts on people become clearer. However very little is understood about how wildfires affect mental health.” – from a UCLA-led research report released this week. They moved into Charley’s old place on my cul- de-sac a few months before the Woolsey fire in 2018 – a nice, middle-aged couple with a young daughter who played with all the kids in the neighborhood. They moved out this past March. They didn’t want to leave, they loved the neighborhood, but mentally, they just couldn’t take another wildfire season in California, they said. (Dennis McCarthy, 7/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Oil And Gas Lobbyists Keep Stoking The West's Wildfires
The Western United States is burning. Last month Oregon and Washington lived through an unbearable 117 degrees — an all-time high for the region, which averages around 62 degrees this time of year. California is seeing the worst fires on record. This isn’t a fluke. This is a data point in our new normal: Hot days and short rainy seasons turn our lush greenery and vibrant woods into kindling. (Tom Steyer, 7/16)
Los Angeles Times:
We Need To Worry About Microplastics In Our Bodies
Nobody wants to snack on plastic bags or soda rings, but according to a 2019 study from the University of Newcastle, we could be consuming roughly a credit card’s worth of plastic every week. Microplastics, which are less than a quarter-inch in size and come in various shapes and textures, have contaminated the natural world and infiltrated our bodies. These particles are just about everywhere on Earth, including in drinking water and the air we breathe, but until recently we didn’t know how ubiquitous they really were. (Caroline Petrow-Cohen, 7/13)
Orange County Register:
Single-Payer Health Care’s Deadly Waitlists
Millions of people have canceled doctor’s appointments and postponed elective surgeries over the past 18 months. But now that the pandemic has largely subsided, many patients feel it’s once again safe to seek care. A Gallup poll conducted in May found that nearly 17% of Americans had gone to a hospital, doctor’s office, or treatment center in the previous 24 hours, up from just 6% the year before. Whether patients actually receive the care they’re seeking, though, depends entirely on where they live. (Sally Pipes, 7/15)