Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
‘These Women’s Lives Mattered’: Nurse Builds Database Of Women Murdered By Men
For dozens of hours each week, Dawn Wilcox scours the internet for news stories of women killed by men for a public list called Women Count USA. (Natalie Schreyer, )
Good morning! Amid several growing measles outbreaks, Amazon reportedly yanked anti-vaccination documentaries from its streaming service. Meanwhile, health officials are warning about the growing foothold of misinformation about vaccinations on social media. More on that below, but first, here are your top California health stories of the day.
Nearly 9,400 Residents With Criminal Charges, Domestic Violence Records Or Mental Health Problems Still Possess Firearms In California: Despite the fact that California has invested in a first-of-its kind investigative database that helps with the confiscation of guns from people who should not have them, the state’s backlog of cases is still burgeoning. Part of the problem is that the state only has one agent in each county to investigate reports and seize weapons. The numbers, which were announced on Friday by Attorney General Xavier Becerra, reflect the shortcomings of the database program, which cross-references criminal history, mental health records and restraining orders with people who had previously purchased guns legally. Becerra has asked the state for a funding increase so he can hire additional special agents and pay them more. Read more from the Sacramento Bee and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Analysis Shows Laura’s Law Is Off To Promising Start, But Only About A Third Of Calif.’s Counties Have Adopted It: Laura's Law is a California state law that allows courts to order treatment for severely mentally ill people. To qualify for the program, the person must have a recent history of psychiatric hospitalizations, jailings or acts, threats or attempts of serious violent behavior towards themselves or others. The Legislature approved Laura’s Law in 2003, but, rather than requiring it statewide, let each individual county decide to embrace it or not. Reluctance to adopt the law was largely due to its cost — estimated to be some $40,000 a year per client, but now counties can use the “millionaire’s tax” to fund the program. Although, it’s hard to track the data because of uneven reporting from the counties, at least 3,400 have received services via Laura’s Law through 2017. Read more from the East Bay Times.
State Of California And Nonprofit That Distributes Title X Funds To Sue Administration Over New Rule: The administration’s new family planning program rule would make it illegal for health care providers who receive federal Title X funding to give referrals for abortions. Essential Access Health, the nonprofit that distributes Title X funds, as well as the state of California, are already planning to sue over the changes. Julie Rabinowitz, Essential Access Health’s president, says most of the 366 clinics that currently receive Title X funds will exit the federal program rather than attempt to comply. An estimated 1 million Californians benefit from Title X services — a quarter of the four million people who use the program nationally. Read more from Capital Public Radio.
Small Bay Area Measles Outbreak From Last Year Highlights How Gaps Can Persist Even With Strict Vaccination Rules: A look at contained outbreak in the Bay Area last year highlights the struggles public health officials still face while dealing with the antivaccination movement. Experts were particularly disturbed by the fact that one of the mothers lied to the investigators about her sons’ immunizations status. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
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
Sacramento Bee:
California State Nurses Could Reject Overtime Under New Bill
The proposal, Assembly Bill 529, aims to address well-documented fatigue among the 3,600 or so psychiatric technicians who care for inmates and patients in state hospitals and prisons. It would eliminate the common practice of forcing psychiatric technicians and technician assistants to work back-to-back eight-hour shifts. (Venteicher, 3/4)
CNN:
Insurer Skips Doctors And Sends Massive Checks To Patients, Prompting Million-Dollar Lawsuit
A woman received nearly $375,000 from her insurance company over several months for treatment she received at a California rehabilitation facility. A man received more than $130,000 after he sent his fiancée's daughter for substance abuse treatment. Those allegations are part of a lawsuit winding its way through federal court that accuses Anthem and its Blue Cross entities of paying patients directly in an effort to put pressure on health care providers to join their network and to accept lower payments. (Drash, 3/1)
East Bay Times:
Big Gaps In Transgender Research: A Team At UCSF Is Working To Change That
Researchers at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital clinic are working to change this. Since 2015, they have been conducting a study that will involve nearly 300 young patients ages 8 to 18 to understand the long-term effects of transgender treatments. These include puberty-blocking hormones, which give patients more time to explore their gender identity, and testosterone and estrogen. With the help of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Boston Children’s Hospital and Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, patients across the country are being monitored extensively during the first two years of their treatments. (Santoro, 3/3)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno CA Residents Among Most Stressed In US, Study Says
Fresno residents are more stressed on average than people from Los Angeles, Chicago, Manhattan, Phoenix and more than 60 other cities, one recent social media-based study says. Survey results analyzing the language in more than 5 million tweets from the 100 most populous cities in the U.S. ranked Fresno at No. 25 in the nation and No. 9 in California, according to London-based Babylon Health. (Sheeler and McGough, 3/1)
San Francisco Chronicle:
SF Mayor Breed Wants Embarcadero To Have SF’s Largest Navigation Center
Unlike traditional homeless shelters, Navigation Centers provide more intensive health and housing services, allow round-the-clock stays, and permit people to bring their pets and partners with them. The parcel, which is now a parking lot, is port property, which means the Port Commission will have to sign off on the idea. (Fracassa, 3/4)
Capital Public Radio:
‘Suicide By Cop’? Family Of Stephon Clark Criticizes District Attorney For Revealing Information That Suggests He Was Suicidal
Stephon Clark’s behavior in the days and hours leading up to his death played a prominent role in the Sacramento district attorney’s announcement about the case Saturday, and his family is outraged. DA Anne-Marie Schubert said records from Clark’s cell phone showed he was searching the web for information about suicide, and that he texted the mother of his children about killing himself. (Caiola, 3/2)
Capital Public Radio:
No Criminal Charges For Sacramento Police Officers Who Fatally Shot Stephon Clark
Nearly a year after Sacramento police fatally shot Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old unarmed black man who died in his grandmother’s backyard, District Attorney Anne-Marie Schubert announced on Saturday that the two officers who killed him will not face criminal charges. In a news conference that lasted more than an hour, the district attorney walked the public through evidence gathered by investigators and discussed the law that governs when police officers are justified in using deadly force. (Romero, Caiola, Adler, et. al., 3/2)
Ventura County Star:
AIDS Walk Raises Awareness, Generates Dialogue In Ventura
Raising awareness and generating more dialogue about HIV and AIDS were the goals of Saturday’s AIDS Walk at Plaza Park in Ventura, presented by Diversity Collective of Ventura County. Despite the pouring rain, at least 200 people were in attendance out of 400 who initially signed up. In addition to the 5K walk, the event featured a health fair with several vendors, including the Coalition for Family Harmony, Ventura County Public Health and the Rainbow Umbrella, a support program for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and questioning youths ages 13 to 23. (Doyle, 3/2)
The Washington Post:
Ethan Lindenberger Got Vaccinated Against His Parents Wishes. Now, He’ll Testify To Congress.
Ethan Lindenberger began by questioning his parents’ anti-vaccine stances and eventually got himself inoculated, a rebellion that caught the attention of the national media and Congress. The 18-year-old from Ohio announced Saturday on YouTube that he had been invited to speak before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions at a hearing Tuesday devoted to examining outbreaks of preventable diseases. He will appear alongside experts such as John Wiesman, Washington state’s secretary of health, and Saad B. Omer, a professor at Emory University in Georgia, according to the committee’s website. (Epstein, 3/3)
The Associated Press:
Measles Outbreak In Pacific Northwest About Half Of US Cases
The focus on measles in the Pacific Northwest intensified Friday as public health officials in Oregon announced a new case of the highly contagious disease unrelated to an ongoing outbreak in Washington state that's sickened 68 people so far. An unvaccinated Illinois resident who spent time overseas visited Portland International Airport and various locations in Salem, Oregon last week while contagious with measles, the Oregon Health Authority said. Potential exposure locations include a Red Robin restaurant and a trampoline fun park in Salem, officials said. (3/1)
The Hill:
Amazon Reportedly Pulls Anti-Vaccine Documentaries
Amazon has reportedly pulled documentaries about the anti-vaccination movement from its streaming service shortly after Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) pressed the tech company to stop allowing the “harmful” content. Anti-vaccine movies entitled "We Don't Vaccinate!" "Shoot 'Em Up: The Truth About Vaccines," and "Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe," were previously available for Amazon Prime subscribers, CNN Business reported. Those titles were listed as "currently unavailable" on Saturday morning. (Gstalter, 3/2)
CNN:
Vaccination Deniers Gaining 'Traction' On Social Media, Health Chief Warns
Anti-vaccination "fake news" being spread on social media is fueling a rise in measles cases and a decline in vaccination uptake, the head of England's National Health Service (NHS) has warned. Simon Stevens said "vaccination deniers" are gaining traction through their use of social media platforms including Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube. (Picheta, 3/2)
The New York Times:
Nursing Homes Are Closing Across Rural America, Scattering Residents
Harold Labrensz spent much of his 89-year life farming and ranching the rolling Dakota plains along the Missouri River. His family figured he would die there, too. But late last year, the nursing home in Mobridge, S.D., that cared for Mr. Labrensz announced that it was shutting down after a rocky history of corporate buyouts, unpaid bills and financial ruin. It had become one of the many nursing homes across the country that have gone out of business in recent years as beds go empty, money troubles mount and more Americans seek to age in their own homes. (Healy, 3/4)
The New York Times:
The Opioid Dilemma: Saving Lives In The Long Run Can Take Lives In The Short Run
The unavoidable tension in attacking the opioid crisis is which time frame you’re talking about. In the short term, many policies that would limit opioid prescriptions for the purpose of saving lives would cause people to turn to heroin or fentanyl. In fact, over a 5-to-10-year period, that would increase deaths, not decrease them, according to a simulation study published in the American Journal of Public Health. The study was conducted by three Stanford University researchers, Allison Pitt, Keith Humphreys and Margaret Brandeau. (Frakt, 3/4)
The New York Times:
Drug Companies And Doctors Battle Over The Future Of Fecal Transplants
There’s a new war raging in health care, with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake and thousands of lives in the balance. The battle, pitting drug companies against doctors and patient advocates, is being fought over the unlikeliest of substances: human excrement. The clash is over the future of fecal microbiota transplants, or F.M.T., a revolutionary treatment that has proved remarkably effective in treating Clostridioides difficile, a debilitating bacterial infection that strikes 500,000 Americans a year and kills 30,000. (Jacobs, 3/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
As More Military Women Seek Health Care, VA Pursues Improvements
The number of women using the U.S. veterans health system has tripled since the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, creating pressure to improve services for a population that has often been overlooked, officials said Thursday. Top VA women’s health officials said at a House Appropriations Committee hearing Thursday that the Department of Veterans Affairs has worked to improve women’s health services in areas ranging from basic gynecological care to advanced care like mental-health treatment associated with military sexual trauma. (Kesling, 3/1)
The Wall Street Journal:
Doctors’ PACs Favored Candidates Opposing Gun Background Checks
Political-action committees affiliated with doctors’ organizations donated more money to congressional candidates who opposed tighter gun laws than to those supporting them, according to a new study that has revived a debate over what role physicians should play in the issue. The study, released in late February on the JAMA Network Open, which is published by the American Medical Association, highlighted the political contributions during the 2016 election cycle to House and Senate lawmakers who opposed an expansion of background checks for gun sales, despite some physicians’ groups’ endorsement of the policy. (Peterson, 3/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
Medicare For All Loses Momentum Among Democrats
Democratic support for Medicare for All is slipping from the high levels seen around the November midterm elections as voters worry about its price tag and the toll it would take on both private and employer health coverage. The proposal seeks to provide everyone in the U.S. with access to health coverage under a federal system that would replace Medicaid, Medicare, most private insurance and employer coverage. Progressive candidates issued full-throated endorsements during campaigns for congressional and state-level elections last November. As the message resonated among voters, even some centrist candidates joined as well. (Armour and Peterson, 3/1)