Berkeleyside: How To Protect Yourself From Berkeley’s Summer COVID-19 Surge
Berkeley and Oakland are again experiencing a COVID-19 surge, but the number of cases are far below a previous spike during this same period last summer, according to wastewater data, test positivity rates and emergency department hospitalizations. The surge follows a general trend that’s taken place every summer since 2020. At this time last summer, average weekly case rates in the county were around 20 per 100,000 people. That number is lower this August, at about five cases weekly, but it’s been rising in the last few weeks. (Yelimeli and Rasilla, 8/18)

Fresno Bee: CDC Tips If You Test Positive For COVID-19, Coronavirus 
These days, feeling sick may make you consider whether you have COVID-19 — and how to rule it out. But more than three years after the start of the coronavirus spread, what’s the latest guidance on testing? Here are answers to some common questions, including when to get tested for COVID-19 and what to do if the results are positive. (Jasper, 8/18)

CNN: Covid-19 Linked With Higher Risk Of High Blood Pressure, Study Finds
When it comes to developing high blood pressure, Covid-19 might play an outsized role, a new study says. The report, published Monday in the medical journal Hypertension, found that more than 1 in 5 patients who were hospitalized with Covid-19 – and over 1 in 10 who were not – had been diagnosed with high blood pressure six months later. Compared with people who had influenza, another upper respiratory virus, those hospitalized with Covid-19 were over twice as likely to develop hypertension. (Viswanathan, 8/21)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Tied To Dangerous Blood Clots In Cancer Patients
The risk of developing venous thromboembolisms—potentially serious blood clots in the veins—is elevated among cancer patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and taking anticancer drugs, according to a study yesterday in JAMA Oncology. (Wappes, 8/18)

The Bakersfield Californian: 'Laws On The Books Aren't The Laws In The Field': US Senator Padilla, Advocates Seek National Workplace Heat Protections 
An August 2022 study by the University of California at Merced found that while California has existing OSHA rules in place to protect farmworkers, those rules are not always enforced. Nearly half of the study’s participants said their employers did not provide any heat illness prevention plan, despite it being required by law; 15% said their employers did not provide adequate shade during breaks; and 36% said they would not report their employer for non-compliance, with most saying they feared retaliation. (Donegan, 8/18)

KVPR: Farmworker Dies In Fresno County After Working In Extreme Heat. ‘He Should Not Have Died.’
Elidio Hernandez Gomez was working in the tomatillo fields near Selma on Aug. 8 when he started to feel the effects of heat exhaustion. He told his boss he wasn’t feeling well. According to the United Farm Workers, Hernandez Gomez was told to keep working. He soon collapsed. The union says Hernandez Gomez died in the field, and his fellow workers were instructed to take him to Adventist Health in Selma. (Quintanilla, 8/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: South Bay Airport Sparks Controversy In Fight To Ban Leaded Fuel
Two years ago, children in the heart of Silicon Valley were found to have blood lead levels higher than those found at the peak of the Flint, Mich., water crisis. One likely culprit: an airport where local pilots fill up their planes with fuel containing lead, embedded among schools, homes, parks, a Boys & Girls Club and a mall in a largely Latino community in East San Jose. (Hao, 8/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Drug Overdose Death Rates For Every US County
Drug overdoses have killed more than a million people in the U.S. since 1999, with the majority of the fatalities driven by opioids, including the supremely powerful synthetic painkiller fentanyl. But while the accelerating casualties are vast — so much so that they are driving down the nation’s life expectancy — the suffering is not evenly spread, with some cities and counties recording death tolls three to five times higher than the national average, according to a first-of-its-kind tracker of the epidemic. (Yoohyun Jung, Christian Leonard, Nami Sumida, Janie Haseman, Vivien Ngo, 8/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: From Grief To Burnout: Voices Of The Bay Area Overdose Crisis
San Francisco’s overdose death rate has almost tripled in recent years due in large part to the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl, but numbers don’t tell the whole story. Chronicle reporters sat down with seven Bay Area residents whose lives have been changed by the epidemic, from grieving parents to emergency responders. Host Cecilia Lei presents their perspectives on the crisis and how they think it can be solved. (8/21)

Los Angeles Daily News: It Was A ‘Teddy Bear Clinic’ On Friday For Health Checkup Education 
Preschoolers and kindergarten students were each gifted a surprise teddy bear on Friday, Aug. 18, and then took their stuffed friend in to see a doctor for a checkup and make-believe vaccinations. Along with the excitement of their new huggable toys, resident physicians with Dignity Health – California Hospital Medical Center gently showed the 3-5 year-olds why wellness checkups are important for everyone, even teddy bears. (Andres, 8/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: How Clothing Can Spark Euphoria For Transgender People
For many trans people, clothes are their first step in transitioning. But shopping in traditional stores is often intimidating and disappointing. If they’re just starting to transition, they may not know what clothes they’re looking for. During the biweekly Trans Thrive events — Folk and Swagger for trans men and She Boutique for trans women; both events are also open to gender-nonconforming people — clients browse new clothes donated by manufacturers or stores with extra inventory, plus accessories like shoes, purses, chest binders and bras. Staff stand to the side, ready to offer advice or encouragement. (Allday, 8/20)

CNN: Ban Spanking In All Schools, Pediatrician Group Urges. Do This Instead
Spanking or striking children in school, or corporal punishment, should be “abolished in all states by law,” according to an updated policy statement by the Council on School Health and released Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The use of corporal punishment has dropped over the years, but it is “either expressly allowed or not expressly prohibited in 23 states,” US Education Secretary Miguel A. Cardona said in March before Colorado banned the practice. “Furthermore, researchers have determined that the use of corporal punishment in schools is likely underreported.” (LaMotte, 8/21)

The Hill: SNAP Changes Coming Sept. 1
The changes only affect one group of SNAP recipients: able-bodied adults without dependents (or ABAWDs, as the agency calls them), ages 50 to 54. ABAWDs between the ages of 18 and 49 already need to prove they are working at least 80 hours a month, pursuing an education or in a training program to qualify for SNAP for more than three months. Now, starting on Sept. 1, able-bodied childless workers who are 50 years old will also need to meet those work requirements to receive SNAP benefits. Starting on Oct. 1, the age requirements will be expanded up to 52. Then next year, on Oct. 1, 2024, the age requirement will expand again to 54. (Elmore and Martichoux, 8/20)

NBC News: Using Stem Cells, Doctors Restore Vision To People Blinded In One Eye
In a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances, Dr. Ula Jurkunas and colleagues have demonstrated that the procedure  — known as cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cell, or CALEC, transplantation — is safe. In a Phase 1 or “proof of concept” trial, four patients who all had chemical burns in one eye underwent CALEC transplants. (Tamkins, Klingbaum and Dahlgren, 8/18)

Reuters: AARP Urges Court To Uphold Drug Price Negotiation Program
AARP, the leading lobbying group for older Americans, on Friday urged a federal judge not to block a new law that for the first time gives Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies in response to a lawsuit by business groups. AARP in a filing in federal court in Dayton, Ohio, argued that granting a request by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups to block negotiations would frustrate Congress's intent to bring down drug prices, harming older Americans. (Pierson, 8/18)

Axios: Medical Debt Is Squeezing The Middle Class, Report Says
Middle-class Americans are the most likely to be saddled with medical debt, with nearly 1 in 4 — or roughly 17 million people — having unpaid medical bills, according to a report shared first with Axios from center-left think tank Third Way. Middle-income Americans, who earn $50,000-$100,000 a year, are more likely than those with lower incomes to seek care but don't qualify for Medicaid or charity care to help pay for it. (Reed, 8/21)