Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Want Ammo? Be Prepared For A Background Check
A new law took effect Monday that requires anyone buying ammunition in California to undergo a background check at the time of each purchase. Public health leaders hope this, and other provisions of Proposition 63, will help reduce the rate of gun violence. (Ana B. Ibarra, )
Good morning! The high-profile criminal trial for former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes has been set to take place next summer with the jury selection beginning the week of July 28, 2020. More on that below, but first here are some of your top California health stories.
Systemic, 'Profoundly Heartbreaking' Abuse Discovered At San Francisco Hospital, Sending Shock Waves Through City: Twenty-three patients at San Francisco's Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center who lived in two wards at the public hospital that primarily serves dementia patients were subjected to alleged physical and verbal abuse between 2016 and January 2019. State health officials said Friday that the six alleged abusers took photos and videos of themselves engaging in the abuse — including having sexualized conversations with patients. The alleged abusers then exchanged those photos and videos over text messages. “What has recently come to light is so profoundly hurtful, offensive, and heartbreaking for so many of us who care deeply about this hospital,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed said. "This behavior does not belong in our City or anywhere and can never be allowed to happen again. San Francisco is better than this, and significant changes will be made at Laguna Honda Hospital so it can fulfill its mission of caring for those most in need." Read more from Matthew Green of KQED and Dominic Fracassa of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Toddler Dies, 3 Other Children Sickened By E. Coli Linked To Livestock, Zoo Animals At San Diego Fair: Four children, ages 2 to 13, visited the fair from June 8 to 15 and exhibited symptoms of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli from June 10 to 16, the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency said in a news release on Friday. The 2-year-old died on June 24 from complications of the bacteria; the other three children who were sickened were not hospitalized. Their conditions were not immediately available on Sunday. The fair on Saturday closed all animal exhibits to the public as a precautionary measure. “We have taken this step to restrict access to animals at the fair in an abundance of caution,” said Dr. Eric McDonald, medical director of the county public health department’s epidemiology and immunization services branch, according to the publication. Read more from Don Sweeney of the Sacramento Bee; Paul Sisson of the Los Angeles Times; and Derrick Bryson Taylor of The New York Times.
Amid Debate Over Strengthening Exemption Laws, California’s Vaccination Rates Drop: In the school year that ended last month, 4,812 kindergartners had obtained medical exemptions from vaccines, a 70% increase from two years ago, when the vaccination law first took effect, according to data from the California Department of Public Health. The data suggest that large concentrations of medical exemptions are being granted to school children in relatively affluent parts of the state, such as Santa Cruz and Sonoma counties. The new data are already sparking debate on whether the medical exemption spike is contributing to the state’s reduced vaccination rate. The data show that 5.2% of kindergartners were not vaccinated in 2018-19, which includes the nearly 1% of kindergarten students statewide who obtained medical exemptions. A new state Senate bill that’s gained national attention amid the country’s measles outbreak would allow the state’s health department would review and potentially reject any child’s medical exemption if they attend a school or daycare with an immunization rate of less than 95%. Read more from Soumya Karlamangla and Melody Gutierrez of the Los Angeles Times.
Below, check out the full round-up of California Healthline original stories, state coverage and the best of the rest of the national news for the day.
More News From Across The State
The Associated Press:
Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes To Go On Trial Next July
Elizabeth Holmes will go on trial next summer to face criminal fraud charges for allegedly defrauding investors, doctors and the public as the head of the once-heralded blood-testing startup Theranos. U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila ruled Friday that the trial against Holmes and the company's former Chief Operating Officer Ramesh Balwani will start July 28, 2020. (6/29)
The Wall Street Journal:
Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes To Face Trial Next Year On Fraud Charges
Jury selection will start the week of July 28, 2020. The trial is scheduled to start Aug. 4 and will last about three months, he said. “Restrain your enthusiasm, please,” Judge Davila said to the defense lawyers, who had lobbied for a later start date, citing the amount of documents they had to review and the challenges of gathering witnesses. (Summerville, 6/28)
ABC News:
Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Set To Go To Trial Next Summer
Holmes and Balwani, who prosecutors say were romantically involved while running Theranos, were each charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud in a federal indictment handed up last July. Holmes claimed the Theranos technology required a few drops of blood to test for numerous diseases and at a fraction of the cost of existing lab tests. The charges are a result of allegations that Holmes engaged in a multi-million-dollar scheme to defraud investors, and a separate scheme to defraud doctors and patients, according to the indictment. (Youn, Pong, Dunn and Thompson, 6/29)
Stat:
Ex-Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes Gets A Trial Date: Summer 2020
The court date next year marks something of a compromise between the two sides. Prosecutors had indicated a preference for a trial in the first half of next year, while attorneys for Holmes and Balwani had said they needed more time to prepare for a complex case involving countless pages of documentation. Speculation has abounded over what kind of defense Holmes and Balwani might mount. They could blame each other — and the intrigue would be heightened by the fact that they were previously in a romantic relationship, at a time when they ran the now defunct company together and made the decisions for which they’re now facing criminal charges. (Robbins, 6/28)
Sacramento Bee:
School Health Centers A Lifeline For Uninsured Kids
For the past two years, improvised clinics like this one have served students of Northwood Elementary and other schools in the Twin Rivers School District of Sacramento, part of the steady growth in school-based health centers that provide access to routine and preventive care for underserved populations. ...School-based health programs have been around for decades, and although California has extended Medi-Cal to financially stressed children — regardless of their legal status — the role of such programs is more pivotal than ever. (Finch II and Amaro, 7/1)
San Jose Mercury News:
LA Councilman’s Wife Asked For $22,000 From Inglewood For Medical Bills Predating Her Marriage
The wife of Los Angeles Councilman Curren Price Jr. demanded the city of Inglewood pay her $22,000 for medical costs she incurred during years when Price was legally married to another woman, according to court documents and a rejected claim. Price served as an Inglewood councilman for two terms, leaving office in 2006, and received lifetime benefits as a result. He and his wife are now covered by both cities. (Henry, 6/30)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Can Psychedelics Heal? A Growing Movement Says Yes
Mushrooms remained a trendy party drug on college campuses through the ’80s and ’90s and beyond. More recently, micro-dosing, which involves taking small, precise amounts of psychedelics, has taken off among Silicon Valley techies who swear it increases their creativity. But even as niche groups have come and gone, the community of wellness users — people committed to psychedelics for physical, emotional or spiritual well-being — has remained. (Allday, 6/28)
Los Angeles Times:
Santa Monica Street Vendors Struggle Amid New Licensing Rules
Omar Avila is lucky — unlike most of the vendors who sell their wares along the bustling Santa Monica Pier, his pushcart is licensed, plastered with permits, and has an A grade from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Yet, more than six months after a state law decriminalizing sidewalk vending went into effect, Avila still keeps a sharp eye out. Ever since the city passed an emergency ordinance establishing its Comprehensive Sidewalk Vending Program in April, law enforcement is never far away. (Sharp, 6/30)
KQED:
Officials Launch Probes Into Potential Pesticide Drifts That Sickened Dozens Of Central Valley Farmworkers
Agricultural commissioners in two Central Valley counties have launched investigations into two apparent chemical releases that sickened dozens of fieldworkers over the last nine days. The latest incident took place in Fresno County on Thursday morning when a group of farmworkers picking nectarines began feeling sick after several pesticides had been sprayed on a nearby field. That came nine days after several other farmworkers in Tulare County reported feeling ill at the end of their shift, possibly because of a chemical drift. (Goldberg, 6/28)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. Expands Cleanup Teams For Homeless Encampments, Vowing To Be ‘Less Reactive’
The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Friday to revamp the way the city cleans up trash and filth around homeless encampments, approving a recently unveiled plan to reorganize and expand its cleanup teams. Mayor Eric Garcetti has heralded the new system as a move away from a “reactive, case-by-case, complaint-driven model” that would bring more consistent attention to neighborhoods and more sensitive outreach to Angelenos living on the streets. (Reyes and Oreskes, 6/28)
The Washington Post:
Driven From Paradise By Fire, Evacuees Worry That Gentrification Will Prevent Them From Coming Home
As heavy equipment hauls out mangled bedsprings, tree trunks and charred fireplace bricks, evidence of rebirth is emerging in this town scorched seven months ago by the most destructive fire in state history. Signs offering “Cash for your lot” are tacked up on telephone poles; real estate agents and developers in shiny SUVs are riding across the torched earth; and the frames of houses are taking shape, more modern and fire resistant than the ones that preceded them. (Sellers, 6/20)
CALmatters:
Are California Utilities Doing Enough To Fireproof Their Equipment?
With much fanfare and no less hand-wringing, state regulators approved plans that for the first time set out how California’s electric utilities intend to prevent their equipment from sparking wildfires. But the plans provide scant details, and little evidence to support the companies’ claims that indiscriminately clear-cutting millions of trees and replacing hundreds of thousands of wooden utility poles with steel ones will actually reduce the risk of wildfires. (Cart, 6/27)
Reuters:
Democrat Harris Clarifies: She Won't Ban Private Health Insurance
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris was forced to clarify her position on private health insurance again on Friday, an unwelcome distraction from a standout debate performance that her campaign said drew a surge of financial contributions. Harris and U.S. Senate colleague Bernie Sanders were the only two candidates to raise their hands during Thursday night's second Democratic debate when asked, "Who here would abolish their private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan?" (6/28)
The New York Times:
Where Is Kamala Harris On Medicare For All Vs. Private Insurance?
On the debate stage Thursday, Senator Kamala Harris raised her hand, seemingly in support of a government insurance proposal that would eliminate employer insurance. On Friday, she said she had misunderstood the question. The wording of the question left room for confusion, but Ms. Harris also has a history of making conflicting statements on the issue. In a CNN town hall in January, she said she’d favor eliminating all private health insurance. The next day, her campaign walked it back. (Sanger-Katz, 6/28)
The New York Times:
Democrat Vs. Democrat: How Health Care Is Dividing The Party
It was a command as much as a question, intended to put an end to months of equivocating and obfuscating on the issue: Which of the Democratic presidential candidates on the debate stage supported abolishing private health insurance in favor of a single government-run plan? Show of hands, please. Just four arms went up over the two nights — Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York on Wednesday, and Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Kamala Harris of California on Thursday — even though five candidates who kept their hands at their sides have signed onto bills in Congress that would do exactly that. (Goodnough and Kaplan, 6/28)
Stat:
What The Democrats Said About 'Big Pharma' — And Why It Matters
Practically the first words spoken at the first Democratic primary debate on Wednesday zeroed in on drug companies, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) fingered biopharma as a prime example of corporate excess and a culprit for an economic system skewed in favor of the wealthy. Democrats rushed to echo Warren’s remarks, sharply criticizing “Big Pharma” for its lobbying presence in Washington, for high drug prices, and for furthering the opioid crisis. All told, nine of the 20 candidates worked drug industry jabs into their remarks. (Facher, 6/28)
Los Angeles Times:
Migrants Contemplate Dangerous Crossings Despite Border Deaths And Detention Conditions
Some migrant families this weekend contemplated crossing the swirling Rio Grande from Mexico to seek asylum in the U.S. despite several recent drowning deaths. Cuban migrant Viviana Martinez was considering the dangerous crossing with her husband and 1-year-old son. She’s five months pregnant and has been in the northeast border city of Matamoros waiting to cross the border legally into Texas for more than two weeks. (Hennessy-Fiske, 6/30)
The Wall Street Journal:
In The Arizona Desert, An Elite Border Patrol Unit Responds To Desperate Cases
Shortly after starting their midafternoon shift, Border Patrol agents Timothy McNeil and Jason Pope got their first 911 call: a 27-year-old Mexican man had been walking in the desert for 10 days and needed help. The agents, both part of the elite Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue unit, found Manuel Gutierrez Lopez in a tangle of mesquite trees about 30 miles west of Tucson and some 70 miles north of the border. Mr. Gutierrez, who had called 911 on his cellphone, told them he got separated from a group of eight or nine others a few days before and had been without water for at least two days. The temperature showed 104 degrees in Mr. McNeil’s truck when the call came in last week just after 3:30 p.m. (Caldwell, 6/30)
The Washington Post:
Amid Immigration Crackdown, Undocumented Abuse Victims Hesitate To Come Forward
As threats of deportation continue to rattle immigrant communities, advocates and attorneys in the Washington area say they have seen a marked increase in undocumented victims of domestic violence choosing not to pursue legal recourse against their abusers. Many victims are reluctant to even start the legal process, experts say, concerned that police will turn them over to federal immigration authorities or that their partners will retaliate by revealing their immigration status. Others, afraid of being ambushed by federal agents at a courthouse, drop their cases once they realize they have to appear before a judge. (Tan, 6/30)
The New York Times:
Judge Orders Swift Action To Improve Conditions For Migrant Children In Texas
A federal judge has ordered a mediator to move swiftly to improve health and sanitation at Border Patrol facilities in Texas, where observers reported migrant children were subject to filthy conditions that imperiled their health. Judge Dolly M. Gee of the Central District of California asked late on Friday that an independent monitor, whom she appointed last year, ensure that conditions in detention centers are promptly addressed. She set a deadline of July 12 for the government to report on what it has accomplished “post haste” to remedy them. (Jordan, 6/29)