- California Healthline Original Stories 3
- Community Clinics Shouldered Much of the Vaccine Rollout. Many Haven’t Been Paid.
- New Law Bans Harassment at Vaccination Sites, but Free Speech Concerns Persist
- ‘Are You Going to Keep Me Safe?’ Hospital Workers Sound Alarm on Rising Violence
- Coronavirus 10
- Medicare 1
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Community Clinics Shouldered Much of the Vaccine Rollout. Many Haven’t Been Paid.
Federally qualified health centers from California to Michigan are mired in a bureaucratic mess over how they should be paid under Medicaid for each dose of covid vaccine given. In California alone, clinics await reimbursement for at least 1 million shots, causing a “massive cash flow problem.” (Rachana Pradhan and Rachel Bluth, )
New Law Bans Harassment at Vaccination Sites, but Free Speech Concerns Persist
Effective immediately, it will be a misdemeanor in California to harass people on their way to get a covid, or any other, vaccine. But First Amendment experts say the new law violates free speech protections and could face a constitutional battle. (Rachel Bluth, )
‘Are You Going to Keep Me Safe?’ Hospital Workers Sound Alarm on Rising Violence
Health care workers already bore the brunt of workplace violence in the U.S. Now, tensions from an exhausting pandemic are spilling over into hospitals. (Bram Sable-Smith and Andy Miller, )
No More Surprise Bills For Covid Tests: Health insurers must cover the cost of coronavirus tests under a bill signed Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom that ensures Californians do not have to pay out-of-pocket fees or contend with prior authorization requirements, which have left some consumers with surprise medical bills and bureaucratic headaches. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
S.F. City Contractors Must Get Vaxxed, Too: San Francisco will require all city contractors who work alongside employees on a regular basis in city-run facilities to get vaccinated under a new order issued by Mayor London Breed on Friday. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
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
CapRadio:
California Will Soon Require Free Tampons In Public Schools
California public schools and colleges must stock their restrooms with free menstrual products under a bill signed Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The move comes as women's rights advocates push nationwide for affordable access to pads, tampons and other items. California's latest effort builds on a 2017 law requiring low-income schools in disadvantaged areas to provide students with free menstrual products. (10/9)
Los Angeles Times:
California Moves Toward Gender Neutral Retail Under New Law
California became the first state in the nation Saturday to adopt a law requiring large retail stores to provide gender-neutral toy sections under a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The new law, which takes effect in 2024, says that retail stores with 500 or more employees must sell some toys and child-care products outside of areas specifically labeled by gender. Retailers can continue to offer other toys and child-care goods in traditional boys and girls sections if they choose to. (Luna, 10/9)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Fauci Says Kids Can 'Go Out There' And Enjoy Halloween
Starting Friday, people in San Francisco may stop wearing masks in select indoor spaces that require proof of vaccination. But in the city and most of the rest of the Bay Area, people must still wear face coverings in public indoor spaces, possibly into next year, under a recently announced framework. Meanwhile, cruise ships are set to return to San Francisco on Monday after an 18-month pandemic pause. (Buchmann, 10/11)
Bay Area News Group:
Is It Finally Safe To Gather For Thanksgiving?
It’s that time of year when people are making plans for the holidays, and much has changed since last November when health officials urged everyone to limit social activities as COVID-19 cases spread like wildfire. So is it safe to gather at grandma’s again for your Thanksgiving feast? (Woolfolk, 10/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Unvaccinated Black, Latino Angelenos Have Highest COVID Rates
Los Angeles County on Saturday reported 28 new deaths from the coronavirus, bringing the death total to 26,308 countywide since the pandemic began, with total reported infections around 1.5 million. Black and Latino residents who remain unvaccinated have Los Angeles County’s highest rate of COVID-19 infections, while unvaccinated white residents have the highest death rates, the public health department said. Between late August and late September, unvaccinated Black and Latino residents in LA County together had a rate of about 590 cases per 100,000 people, the county said in a news release. (Goffard, 10/9)
City News Service:
Coronavirus Hospitalizations Decline Again In LA County; 1,056 New COVID-19 Cases Posted
The number of coronavirus patients in Los Angeles County hospitals continues to fall, declining from 670 on Saturday to 656, according to state figures released Sunday, Oct. 10. The number of those patients in intensive care remained the same at 202.It was the 36th time in the past 41 days that the number of COVID patients in county hospitals declined, down from a summer peak of nearly 1,800 brought on by the more contagious Delta variant. (10/10)
San Francisco Chronicle:
These Charts Show The Incredibly Stark Difference In COVID-19 Death Rates Between Vaccinated And Unvaccinated In California
Unvaccinated Californians were between 15 and 20 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than vaccinated ones when deaths from the disease most recently peaked at the start of September, according to state data. The California Department of Public Health publishes data on the vaccination status of people who test positive for coronavirus as well as people who are hospitalized with, and die from, COVID-19. Their data shows that the death rate among unvaccinated Californians aged 16 and older soared in early September, reaching a peak of 13 average daily deaths per million on Sept. 6. (Neilson, 10/09)
Bay Area News Group:
Has COVID Pushed Bay Area Stressors To The Breaking Point?
It may never have been an easy place to live, but malaise and uncertainty now have settled heavy over the Bay Area. The maddening, deadly and ever-extending COVID-19 pandemic has laid another smothering layer of stress on an already stressed-out region — fundamentally changing how we feel about home and work, our community and safety, and the long-term prospects of living in the Bay Area, according to an exclusive new poll by the Bay Area News Group and Joint Venture Silicon Valley. The pandemic has darkened our psyches and sense of security even as most residents report better financial stability and little worry about meeting daily needs of food and shelter. (Hansen, 10/10)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Cruise Ships To Return To San Francisco After 18-Month Pandemic Pause
In a first since the pandemic began in 2020, a cruise ship will sail into the Port of San Francisco on Monday. The event may have particular resonance in the Bay Area, where a coronavirus crisis aboard a different cruise ship 18 months ago first helped bring the reality of the pandemic home for millions in the U.S. (Echeverria, 10/8)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Crowds Throng To San Francisco As Fleet Week Recaptures Pre-Pandemic Spirit
A pandemic-weary San Francisco again welcomed thousands upon thousands of visitors and residents alike to its waterfront as jam-packed Fleet Week festivities over the past few days — from the Mission District to the Marina to the skies above — revived a sense of normalcy. “This is beautiful. It’s San Francisco,” Dawn Micheletti, holding her granddaughter Makayla Paul, 2, in her arms, said Sunday as they stood at Webster and Broadway watching the Blue Angels air show roar above the city. After growing up watching the military’s flying escapades — until the pandemic robbed the city of last year’s event — Micheletti, 62, was delighted to have her granddaughter experience her first. (Cano and Flores, 10/9)
Sacramento Bee:
Some Central Valley Farmworkers Lose Paid COVID Sick Leave
A California law that provided employees with extended paid time off during the pandemic has expired. That could leave the Central Valley’s low-income workers, including those who are employed by the region’s agricultural industry, in a vulnerable position in the months ahead, worker advocates said. Now, advocates are calling for an extension of the law and more robust protections for a workforce that has been disproportionately devastated by the physical, emotional and economic toll of the pandemic. But because the program’s federal funding also expired, many employers are opposed to the idea of having to shoulder the costs to keep it running. (Lopez, 10/10)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Here's What Bay Area Doctors Say About How COVID Affects The Brain
A new study from Oxford University offers the worrisome suggestion that the coronavirus not only can shrink the brain, but also reduce “gray matter thickness,” damage tissue in areas associated with the sense of smell, and cause more than 60 other long-term changes to that essential organ. The study, published Aug. 18, has not yet been peer reviewed. But it’s attracting attention because the researchers were able to compare hundreds of brain scans of the same people before and after COVID hit. Of the 785 participants, 401 tested positive for the coronavirus before their second scan, giving researchers a unique opportunity to see how each brain may have changed as a result. (Asimov, 10/10)
Modesto Bee:
Stanislaus County Considers When To Lift COVID Mask Order
Stanislaus County leaders said a coronavirus mask order will come to an end on schedule when COVID-19 cases drop below 20 per 100,000 per day. As some counties in the state consider whether to continue mask orders at lower disease transmission rates, no requests like that have surfaced in this county, said Vito Chiesa, board of supervisors chairman. (Carlson, 10/10)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Get Vaccinated Or Get Lost: Are Employer Mandates Working?
Experts who track vaccination mandates say it’s too soon to know definitively whether employer vaccine mandates, which are becoming more widespread in the public and private sector, are working. The most far-reaching mandate — the federal requirement announced by President Biden last month for 80 million Americans at private sector jobs — doesn’t take effect until November. And more people are getting immunized for many reasons, not just work: they’re worried about infection, they feel more confident about the vaccine, or because proof of vaccination is now increasingly required to get into restaurants, concerts and other activities. But the fact that vaccination rates are inching up in many groups who fall under workplace vaccine mandates suggests the requirements are at least partly responsible for some people getting their shots. (Ho and Licari-Kozak, 10/11)
The Washington Post:
Hundreds Of Thousands Of U.S. Troops Have Not Yet Complied With Vaccine Mandate As Deadlines Near
Hundreds of thousands of U.S. service members remain unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated against the coronavirus as the Pentagon’s first compliance deadlines near, with lopsided rates across the individual services and a spike in deaths among military reservists illustrating how political division over the shots has seeped into a nonpartisan force with unambiguous orders. Overall, the military’s vaccination rate has climbed since August, when Defense Department leaders, acting on a directive from President Biden, informed the nation’s 2.1 million troops that immunization would become mandatory, exemptions would be rare and those who refuse would be punished. Yet troops’ response has been scattershot, according to data assessed by The Washington Post. (Horton, 10/10)
Modesto Bee:
Stanislaus Court Employees Given $500 To Get Covid Vaccine
In August the Stanislaus Superior Court notified its employees they would be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine and offered them $500 in retention pay as an incentive to comply. On Thursday — the deadline by which the court’s 234 employees had to get the jab — 85% had complied, said Court Executive Officer Hugh Swift. That is up from 60% when the court announced the requirement. (Tracy and Lam, 10/10)
Sacramento Bee:
How These Latino Californians Overcame COVID Vaccine Fears
Vaccination rates among Latino Californians still lag other ethnic groups. About 40.2% of Latinos are unvaccinated, much higher than the unvaccinated rates among Asian (4.9%) and white Californians (29.6%). The delta variant, however, motivated many Latino Californians to get the shots. Data from the California Department of Public Health show 59.9% of vaccine-eligible Latinos in the state are fully or partially vaccinated against the virus. (Bojórquez, 10/11)
The Wall Street Journal:
Fully Vaccinated And Had Covid-19? No Rush For A Booster Shot, Experts Say
People who both had Covid-19 and are vaccinated don’t need to rush to get the boosters now rolling out across the U.S., health experts say. Millions of Americans who have received Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE’s Covid-19 vaccine now qualify for an additional dose, under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation of shots for seniors and certain at-risk adults. Some of those who qualify are people who have been infected with the disease, either before they were vaccinated or after. (Schwartz, 10/10)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Testing COVID Vaccine? Fighting Cancer? 6-Year-Old Does Both
Imagine surviving two brain cancer surgeries and more than 30 radiation treatments only to end up getting COVID-19. It was a very real worry for Shawn and Mariel Mahoney, whose 6-year-old daughter, Layla, received a very difficult diagnosis this summer at a time when no coronavirus vaccines have yet been approved for anyone younger than age 12. (Sisson, 10/9)
Sacramento Bee:
Folsom Care Home Fined After Video Records Worker Hitting Resident
California regulators have substantiated a complaint about a Folsom senior living center where a worker was secretly recorded on video striking a 90-year-old resident with dementia, and have determined that another worker at the home had not been cleared to work there. The finding by regulators from the California Department of Social Services stemmed from a Sept. 30 visit to the Brookdale Senior Living Facility that substantiated allegations that the video showed a staff member hit the resident “on the side of the face and pull their hair.” (Stanton, 10/11)
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin:
New To Medicare? Make Decisions On Plan Merits, Not Advertising
Signing up for Medicare is one of those personal benchmarks every senior American eventually passes — not unlike the first day of school, getting a driver’s license, going to the polls for the first time or other milestones when they were younger. But this step in life requires some serious decisions about Medicare, all designed to keep you as healthy as possible for the rest of your life. It’s especially an adventure during enrollment time. Television, social media and the mail are loaded with an avalanche of advertisements trying to nudge new and current members toward making the “right” choices with private companies. (Blackstock, 10/9)
Politico:
Facebook Exec Offers A Plan, Klobuchar Wants 'Action'
Addressing a whistleblower's warning that users should not trust Facebook, the company is working on several changes in the way Instagram affects its younger users, one of Facebook's top executives said Sunday. In addition to current tools like hiding specific words, blocking specific people and automatically prompting users away from harmful material — like content related to eating disorders — Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice president for global affairs and communications, said Instagram plans to introduce controls for parents to supervise what their teens view, “nudge” teens away from content that “may not be conducive to their well-being” and encourage users to “take a break” periodically while using the app. (Farrow, 10/10)
Modesto Bee:
Stench In Carson Identified, Mayor Says
A pungent stench tormenting residents of a Southern California city for days has been identified, Carson officials say. An investigation found the smell comes from a leaking hydrogen sulfide pipeline near the Dominguez Channel, Carson Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes reported on Facebook. The smell has been variously described as resembling burning tires, rotten eggs or the zombies of “The Walking Dead” television show. KABC reported. (Sweeney, 10/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Amid Foul Odor, Carson Residents Warned To Close Windows, Doors
Public health officials are recommending Carson residents keep their doors and windows closed as authorities work to address a foul odor that has plagued the city for nearly a week. The aroma, which has been likened online to the smell of vomit, “a fart bomb” and unwashed body parts, is emanating from the Dominguez Channel, a drain channel that crosses through industrial areas on its way to the Port of Los Angeles. (Ryan, 10/10)
Press Telegram:
All-Female Demolition Derby A Hit In Third ‘Relay For Life’ Cancer Fundraiser At Irwindale Speedway
Team Shelby on Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway was joined by Southern California’s Black Flag Cancer Derby Divas for its third Relay for Life fundraiser in association with the American Cancer Society. Club members drove cancer survivors on track in parade laps ahead of an all-female demolition derby. Tracey Smith, director of Team Shelby International, competed in the demolition derby. She spoke ahead of the event about the importance of the event. (Morales, 10/10)
The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat:
Sonoma-Marin Walk To End Alzheimer’s Returns, This Time To Sonoma State University
For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, North Bay residents gathered Saturday at the Sonoma-Marin Walk to End Alzheimer’s to raise money for local programs and services that assist those with the disease. After an entirely online event last year, participants this year either met at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park for an opening ceremony and 3-mile walk or took part virtually and walked through their own neighborhoods. “Everybody does what they’re comfortable doing,” walk manager Shari Woogen said. (Chudwin, 10/9)
Orange County Register:
‘One Pill Can Kill:’ DEA, Snapchat, Parents Confront Deadly Fentanyl
Fancy an Oxycontin pill to take the edge off? A little cocaine to celebrate? For even the youngest kids, finding recreational drugs has been as easy as a quick search of online platforms like Snapchat, where dealers have brazenly showcased their wares. But the drugs that were delivered, sometimes right to a young teen’s front door, were not the real thing. They actually contained fentanyl, a cheap synthetic opioid some 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. (Sforza, 10/10)
KQED:
In The Wake Of The VTA Mass Shooting, A Cultural Shift To Mental Health For Bus And Train Workers
That need to heal the hearts and minds of VTA employees may lead to a culture shift in the agency, its management and union told KQED, one that prioritizes mental health not just for traumatic incidents like May's mass shooting, but the constant emotional challenges faced every day by workers who sit behind a wheel. "Through this experience, this horrible experience, we're starting to identify all the many traumas in our lives as bus operators and as train operators, as mechanics and maintenance folks who work in the public," said John Courtney, head of ATU Local 265. "Every time that door opens we don't know if we're going to get assaulted, spat on, cursed at. These are little traumas, mini traumas, that happen every single day." (Fitzgerald Rodriguez, 10/10)
Reveal:
When Abusers Keep Their Guns
Reveal’s Jennifer Gollan leads an investigation that exposes the consequences of passing gun laws with no teeth. For the first time, Reveal tallies the number of intimate partners, children and bystanders whose lives are shattered by abusers who fail to give up their firearms. Our analysis of 21 states finds that from 2017 through 2020, at least 110 intimate partners, children and bystanders were killed by suspects using guns they weren’t allowed to have under federal law and, in some cases, state law aas well. This is likely a massive undercount because the federal government does not track the number of people killed by intimate partners who are prohibited from possessing guns. (10/9)
Bay Area News Group:
Bay Area Housing Cost, Homeless, COVID Stress Out Residents: Poll
The maddening, deadly and ever-extending COVID-19 pandemic has laid another smothering layer of stress on an already stressed-out region — fundamentally changing how we feel about home and work, our community and safety, and the long-term prospects of living in the Bay Area, according to an exclusive new poll by the Bay Area News Group and Joint Venture Silicon Valley. The pandemic has darkened our psyches and sense of security even as most residents report better financial stability and little worry about meeting daily needs of food and shelter. (Hansen, 10/10)