Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
California Sees Dramatic Decline in Child Homicide Victims. What’s Changed?
Bucking the alarming spike in overall homicides in recent years, the homicide rate involving young children is down 70% in California from three decades ago. The nation has seen a parallel, albeit slower, decline. (Phillip Reese, )
In LA, Huge Crowd Rallies Against Vaccine Mandates: More than a thousand people opposed to vaccine mandates gathered in front of Los Angeles City Hall on Sunday, many waving American flags and repeating false claims about the covid vaccines. Read more from the Los Angeles Times, City News Service, and AP.
Feds Accused Of Ignoring Mold, Asbestos At Dublin Prison: A government watchdog has found a “substantial likelihood” the federal Bureau of Prisons committed wrongdoing when it ignored complaints about asbestos and mold contamination at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California. Read more from AP.
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:
For This Family, The COVID-19 Threat Hasn't Gone Away
For Kaia Brooke, little has changed this spring, even as others declare that California and the country are finally getting back to normal. She has not gone out to dine inside a restaurant or sat down in a movie theater. She avoids going out much, save for outdoor walks and drives, and is still wearing her KN95 mask when she ventures out of her Monrovia home. (Alpert Reyes, 4/10)
CapRadio:
What To Do If You Test Positive For COVID At This Point In The Pandemic
COVID-19 has been around long enough that we are not even counting the waves anymore, but the virus and the tools we have to fight it keep evolving. And the guidance seems to change just enough with each surge that it can leave even the most diligent among us feeling lost. Now, more than two years into the pandemic, some parts of the U.S. are seeing an uptick in cases driven by the BA.2 subvariant. (Kelly, 4/9)
Los Angeles Times:
Renewing Faith, Or Losing It, In The Time Of COVID-19
The last two years have transformed the stability of our families, our jobs and our collective understanding of science and sacrifice. But, for many of us, COVID-19’s reach also rewired something more elemental: our faith. A Pew survey conducted early in the pandemic, found that nearly 3 in 10 Americans said their religious faith had become stronger since the coronavirus outbreak. (Gerber, 4/9)
KQED:
Support For Mutual Aid Came And Went, But The Need Is Still There
In 2020 call outs for mutual aid donations flooded social media, and people responded with an abundance of money, food and time. Two years later, interest and support has waned while the needs have not gone away. As government aid like the child tax credit and stimulus checks expire, organizers across the Bay look at filling in the gaps. (Cruz Guevarra, Cabrera-Lomelí and Esquinca, 4/11)
CBS News:
27 States Report Rise In COVID Infections In Past 8 Days
In California, COVID cases are up 78% in the last four days, but there has been no increase in the critical number of hospitalizations. (Vigliotti, 4/10)
NBC News:
Incomplete Data Likely Masks A Rise In U.S. Covid Cases
At first glance, U.S. covid cases appear to have plateaued over the past two weeks, with a consistent average of around 30,000 cases per day, according to NBC News' tally. But disease experts say incomplete data likely masks an upward trend. In Washington, D.C., for example, several high-profile government figures recently tested positive, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, White House press secretary Jen Psaki and Attorney General Merrick Garland. (Bendix and Chow, 4/10)
The Wall Street Journal:
The BA.2 Variant Is Spreading. Do You Need To Worry?
You’re going to the movies and eating indoors. Your kid stopped wearing a mask to school; you no longer wear one to work. After two years of Covid precautions, you finally feel normal again. Well, mostly.BA.2—a subvariant of the Omicron variant that tore through the U.S. this winter—is spreading. It’s now the dominant variant throughout the country and has triggered recent surges in Europe. If you live somewhere where local statistics suggest cases are rising but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention map still shades your county low-risk green, it can be tough to figure out what to do. (Reddy, 4/10)
Bay Area News Group:
Next New COVID-19 Vaccine Will Look Different
After deploying four COVID-19 shots in a little more than two years, the nation is absorbing a troubling realization: That’s a pace that’s impossible to sustain. This past week, experts began charting a path to a future that is less perfect – but more practical. It means building a vaccine that targets more than one strain of the virus. It would reduce severe disease and death, but not prevent every infection. If the design is changed, all vaccines will be updated. Manufacturers will likely offer the same vaccine formulation to everyone, rather than a mélange of different products for different people on different schedules. (Krieger, 4/10)
The Washington Post:
The Next Leap In Coronavirus Vaccine Development Could Be A Nasal Spray
As the omicron variant of the coronavirus moved lightning-fast around the world, it revealed an unsettling truth. The virus had gained a stunning ability to infect people, jumping from one person’s nose to the next. Cases soared this winter, even among vaccinated people. That is leading scientists to rethink their strategy about the best way to fight future variants, by aiming for a higher level of protection: blocking infections altogether. If they succeed, the next vaccine could be a nasal spray. (Johnson, 4/10)
The New York Times:
A Conversation With Gov. Gavin Newsom Of California
"I’m hardly naïve about California’s challenges," Gov. Gavin Newsom said. "Quite the contrary. Our biggest critique has been the homeless and housing and the cost of living. And we’re taking those issues on. But my entire life, not just in my political life, I can’t stand the othering of people. And that’s what they’re doing. We need to stand up to that and let folks know we have their backs even if they’re not in our state, and give them some hope that we can turn this around." (Cowan and Hubler, 4/11)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Other Cities Have Tried Sending Less Serious 911 Calls To Nurses, Not Hospitals. Did It Work?
Several years ago in the nation’s capital, a few hundred people who dialed 911 were not taken to a hospital. That number was only a drop in the bucket for Washington, D.C., even though experts have long said many 911 calls don’t require an ambulance. But the next year, nearly 2,900 calls didn’t lead to an emergency room. The year after, it was more than 7,000, according to data sent by a city spokesman. (Nelson, 4/10)
CalMatters:
Insulin Costs: Can California’s Plans Drive Down Prices?
As consumers, advocates and others prioritize their fight to lower prescription drug costs, insulin is usually first in line. Now, momentum to curb rising insulin costs seems to be building, with policymakers at the state and federal levels rolling out proposals seeking to provide diabetics some long-awaited financial relief. The questions now: What will materialize and how soon? (Ibarra, 4/8)
Sacramento Bee:
Health Care Benefits At Heart Of Sacramento Teacher Strike
Retirement is comfortable for Richard Creel. Creel, 62, taught in the Sacramento City Unified School District for 26 years, owns his Rancho Cordova home outright and receives a pension through the California State Teachers’ Retirement System. And he doesn’t have to worry about health insurance. That’s paid for in full thanks to the benefits he earned in his teaching career. ... The security he and other Sacramento educators feel was at the center of the eight-day strike that shut down city schools. (Morrar, 4/10)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno Unified Considers Investing $38 Million In Mental Health
Fresno Unified is considering investing approximately $38 million in mental health staffing and resources for students next year, pending the school board’s approval of the 2022/23 budget. That would represent a budgetary increase of around $33 million over the past 10 years, district leaders said. The money would go toward hiring 10 additional clinical social workers for the district’s foster and unhoused youth, a new high school counselor, and other full-time employees, increasing mental health staffing from around 50 to over 200 in the same 10-year span, according to FUSD Superintendent Bob Nelson. (Morano, 4/11)
Oaklandside:
Privacy Commission Wants Stronger Sexual Assault Survivor DNA Policy
At Thursday night’s Oakland’s Privacy Advisory Commission meeting, Oakland Police Department officials assured that they have never run sexual assault victim’s DNA to identify them as criminal suspects in unrelated cases. “What I can tell you is it doesn’t happen in the OPD crime laboratory,” Sandra Sachs, the Oakland Police Department’s laboratory manager told the commission. (BondGraham, 4/8)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
'Everybody Treats Everyone Here As Normal People.' Clubhouses For Mentally Ill Provide Friendship, Purpose
Tre Jackson said he was amazed at what he found at the Oasis Clubhouse on his first visit. “There were so may things you could do,” he said, taking a break from working on a rap song in the small recording studio at the clubhouse. “I can go in the art room and draw, paint and sculpt. Go into the fitness room and work on my daily health.” (Warth, 4/11)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
County's New Crisis Care Center For Mentally Ill People Sees Heavy Use In Vista
On a recent Friday morning, every one of the 12 recliners in Vista’s new crisis stabilization center was filled with a client experiencing a mental health crisis. Many were brought in by law enforcement officers or social workers from coastal North County communities, and most would have been transported to a similar facility much further away just a few months ago. (Sisson, 4/10)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California Is Trying To Curb Gun Violence. What About Other States?
Three days after one of the deadliest mass shootings in Sacramento history left six people dead and 12 wounded, the downtown corridor where it occurred — 10th and K streets — was covered in makeshift memorials. Red roses were scattered among candles, and photos of individuals who died last Sunday were taped to storefront windows. As The Chronicle reported last week, authorities say at least five people fired guns during the shootout and the evidence collected by police included more than 100 shell casings and “a stolen handgun and a gun modified to make it capable of firing as an automatic weapon.” (Phillips, 4/10)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Police Officers Say They’re Overdosing From Fentanyl Exposure. What’s Really Going On?
It’s become a regularly occurring story line: Law enforcement agencies issue dire warnings, saying that officers have overdosed from an exposure to fentanyl, through the air, skin contact or even through administering CPR to someone experiencing an overdose, underscoring the dangers of the powerful synthetic opioid. Last month, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office tweeted that three deputies became dizzy and were hospitalized after searching a vehicle they suspected contained fentanyl, punctuated by photographs of first responders in hazardous materials suits. The deputies suffered no serious injuries, the Sheriff’s Office said. (Echeverria, 4/9)
KQED:
New Tenderloin Site Highlights Challenge Of Connecting People To Drug Treatment And Housing Services
San Francisco launched the linkage center in January as part of Mayor London Breed’s state of emergency declaration for the beleaguered Tenderloin neighborhood — “an effort to more quickly and directly connect people to services,” she said in a statement at the time. “We've made a commitment to this neighborhood and its residents and businesses, and we will follow through.” The new site opened amid mounting pressure on city leaders to reduce open-air drug use and skyrocketing overdose deaths in the neighborhood. But how well the site is working is still unclear. The latest data from the city shows that only a tiny percentage of visits have thus far actually resulted in drug treatment. (McDede, 4/8)
Southern California News Group:
42 Million Gallons Of Sewage Entered L.A. Waterways In Past 15 Years
Roughly two-thirds of the 70 million gallons of sewage spilled in Los Angeles County since 2007 ended up in a storm drain or a river connected to the Pacific Ocean, according to analysis of 15 years of data maintained by the county Public Health Department. Of that total, the vast majority of the sewage that entered a waterway was inadvertently released in a single year: 2021. (Henry, 4/10)
The Washington Post:
Pregnancy Becomes A More Vulnerable Time With Climate Change
In the western United States, where massive wildfires have fouled the air with smoke and hazardous levels of pollutants, Santosh Pandipati, an obstetrician in California, counsels pregnant patients to always check air quality before they venture outside to exercise. “You need to plan your outdoor activities when the air quality is better,” he tells them. ... As scientists study how climate change is affecting human health, pregnant people and their unborn babies are emerging as a vulnerable group. (Kam, 4/11)