Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Vapers Accuse Officials Of Overreach As Investigation Into Deadly Lung Illness Lags
With federal authorities offering few details about what is causing the deadly outbreak of vaping-related lung illnesses, vaping advocates are crafting an alternative narrative reverberating through online communities. (Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Jenny Gold, )
Good morning! The Supreme Court kicks off its new term today amid a politically charged landscape with cases on hot-button issues like gun control and abortion. More on that below, but first here are your top California health stories of the day.
Mental Illness, Substance Abuse And Physical Disabilities Even More Pervasive Than Previously Reported: The Los Angeles Times examined more than 4,000 questionnaires taken as part of this year’s point-in-time count and found that about 76% of individuals living outside on the streets reported being, or were observed to be, affected by mental illness, substance abuse, poor health or a physical disability. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which conducts the annual count, narrowly interpreted the data to produce much lower numbers. The homeless services authority did not dispute what The Times found. Rather, Heidi Marston, the agency’s acting executive director, explained that its report was in a format required by federal guidelines, leading to a different interpretation of the statistics. “We’re acknowledging that there are more layers to the story,” Marston said. Read more from Doug Smith and Benjamin Oreskes of the Los Angeles Times.
In related news:
CalMatters: Black People Disproportionately Homeless In California
Medi-Cal’s Outdated Computer Enrollment Systems Can Leave Patients Without Coverage When They Need It Most, Experts Say: In many instances, a statewide enrollment system will show cases as discontinued or puts them on hold, “but in reality cases are still open and approved,” according to Chester Prince, program manager at the Fresno County Department of Social Services, which oversees Medi-Cal in the county. People who believe their coverage has been wrongly dropped or denied should contact a county caseworker to review their eligibility, Prince said. “Historically, there have been issues with enrollment that have been caused by the state and county IT systems not talking to each other well,” said Laurel Lucia, health care program director at the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. Counties use three systems to determine eligibility and manage cases, Lucia said. Two of those systems feed into a third statewide system, which consolidates all information and tracks who’s enrolled. But the integration has been uneven, creating problems. Read more from Yesenia Amaro of the Center for Health Journalism News Collaborative.
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
Los Angeles Times:
Vape Shops In Los Angeles Fear Sales Declines Amid Health Crisis
The Ace Smoke Shop on a gentrifying strip of Lake Avenue in Altadena is a small business in every sense of the word — a tiny shack crammed with a variety of tobacco products that attracts a steady stream of customers in need of their nicotine fix .Local residents and workers stop in and grab a pack of Marlboros or a cigarillo, but what largely draws them these days is the bewildering array of e-liquids in flavors such as butterscotch, kiwi-strawberry, vanilla bean and variety of tropical fruits, as well as no-muss, no-fuss disposable e-cigarettes in mango and other varieties. (Darmiento, 10/6)
San Diego Union-Times:
'Vaping In The Boys' Room'; Schools Grapple With Surge In Teen's Use Of E-Cigarettes
More than a quarter of high school juniors in San Diego County have tried vaping, and experts warn that teen vaping is erasing the gains from decades of smoking prevention. “We’ve come so far in reducing the use of traditional cigarettes, this is a battle we feel we’re re-fighting after all the years of getting cigarettes to declie so much,” said Jim Crittenden, a program specialist with the County Office of Education, who works on tobacco prevention. (Brennan, 10/6)
The Wall Street Journal:
Vaping’s Black Market Complicates Efforts To Combat Crises
U.S. health officials are confronting a sprawling black market for vaping products as they seek to combat two health crises, a mysterious lung illness and a surge in teen vaping. While the market-leading startup Juul Labs Inc. has become synonymous with vaping, it sells only nicotine liquids. There are hundreds of other vaping brands—containing nicotine, compounds derived from cannabis or other substances—sold online, in vape shops, convenience stores and marijuana dispensaries. Many of them are compatible with Juul vaporizers, though they haven’t been authorized by Juul. (Maloney and Hernandez, 10/6)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Vaping Crackdown Leaves Deadlier Cigarettes Untouched
As states and cities race to impose new sales restrictions on e-cigarettes — now linked to more than 1,000 lung-related illnesses and close to two dozen deaths nationwide — almost none is taking action against traditional tobacco cigarettes, which have killed far more people. Why? (Ho, 10/6)
The Washington Post:
The Climate Is Changing, But Our Disaster-Response System Isn’t Keeping Up, Experts Say
After a fire killed 34 people in a dive boat off the coast of California last month, the National Transportation Safety Board began an immediate investigation. Within 10 days, the NTSB published a key finding — that all six crew members were asleep with nobody on watch when the fire broke out — and promised an in-depth inquiry and safety recommendations. Eleven months after fire obliterated Paradise, Calif., and left 85 people dead, there has been no such independent investigation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, tasked with managing the government’s response, has not completed its after-action report. FEMA’s reports, designed to assess its own performance rather than make safety recommendations, are rarely made public. (Sellers, 10/5)
Modesto Bee:
Early Flu Season Claims Lives Of 2 Kids In California
Infectious-disease experts are predicting an early and more severe flu season this year in Stanislaus County and other areas of the state. Kaiser Permanente said Friday it opened flu clinics in late September because of earlier-than-normal flu activity. (Carlson, 10/6)
Los Angeles Times:
Families In Big Legal Fights Over Special Education Services
Every year school districts across California settle thousands of these disputes by paying parents and lawyers millions of dollars in what are called due process cases. The number of due process cases has climbed in recent years, tapping into school districts’ already tight budgets. Last school year, San Diego Unified paid $2 million to settle 128 due process cases, according to district records. (Taketa, 10/6)
The New York Times:
As The Supreme Court Gets Back To Work, Five Big Cases To Watch
The Supreme Court returns to the bench on Monday to start a term that will be studded with major cases on gay and transgender rights, immigration, abortion, guns and religion. The rulings will arrive by June, in the midst of an already divisive presidential campaign. That will thrust a court that has tried to keep a low profile back into the center of public attention. “It’s a very exciting term,” Lisa S. Blatt, a lawyer with Williams & Connolly, said. “Although the court will carry on with a sense of normalcy, it will be hard for them to ignore the polarization in the country on the issues of abortion, L.G.B.T. rights, guns and ‘Dreamers.’” (Liptak, 10/6)
The Washington Post:
One Of The Most Politically Volatile Terms In Years Tests John Roberts And The Supreme Court
Two unknowns — the health of the court’s oldest member, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and whether the court will be drawn into legal controversies arising from the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into President Trump — add to the uncertainty. Resolution of the most contentious cases could happen in June, in the heat of a presidential campaign in which the future of the court has emerged as a galvanizing issue for conservatives and liberals. (Barnes, 10/6)
Reuters:
U.S. Supreme Court Takes Major Case That Could Curb Abortion Access
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to take up a major abortion case that could lead to new curbs on access to the procedure as it considers the legality of a Republican-backed Louisiana law that imposes restrictions on abortion doctors. The justices will hear an appeal by abortion provider Hope Medical Group for Women, which sued to try to block the law, of a lower court ruling upholding the measure. (10/5)
The Washington Post:
Elizabeth Warren And Bernie Sanders Struggle To Explain Medicare-For-All Impact On The Middle Class.
The two presidential candidates who have most strenuously backed Medicare-for-all are scrambling to ease concerns that it would create higher costs for many middle-class Americans. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are running on a multitrillion-dollar plan Sanders wrote to provide health insurance coverage to all Americans through the federal government, rather than from private insurers. Although they have frequently stressed that the middle class would see overall costs go down, a wide range of experts — including one whom Sanders has relied upon — say it is impossible to make those guarantees based on the plans that the candidates have outlined so far. (Viser and Sullivan, 10/5)
The Wall Street Journal:
Doctors, Once GOP Stalwarts, Now More Likely To Be Democrats
Doctors used to be America’s quintessential Republicans. During the 20th century, most were high-earning men who owned their own practices. They liked Republicans’ support for curbing medical malpractice lawsuits and limiting government’s role in health care. When Democrats proposed creating Medicare in the 1960s, the American Medical Association, the largest physician group then and now, opposed the idea with a campaign starring then-actor Ronald Reagan. In the decades that followed, medical schools started accepting greater numbers of women, who are more likely to be Democrats (women today account for nearly half of U.S. medical students). (Adamy and Overberg, 10/6)
The New York Times:
Nobel Prize In Medicine Awarded To 3 For Work On Cells
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to three scientists — William G. Kaelin Jr., Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza — for their work on how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability. The Nobel Assembly announced the prize at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on Monday. (Specia and Wolgelenter, 10/7)
The Associated Press:
Trump Signs Proclamation Restricting Visas For Uninsured
Immigrants applying for U.S. visas will be denied entry into the country unless they can prove they can afford health care, according to a proclamation signed Friday by President Donald Trump. The new rule applies to people seeking immigrant visas from abroad — not those in the U.S. already. It does not affect lawful permanent residents. It does not apply to asylum seekers, refugees or children. (10/4)
The Associated Press:
Victims Gain A Voice To Help Guide Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy
Victims of opioid addiction weren't in the room when OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma persuaded half the state attorneys general to settle claims over the company's role in the nationwide overdose epidemic. Now that Purdue is in federal bankruptcy court, four people whose lives were touched by addiction have important seats at the table — and could force fundamental changes to the tentative deal. They are part of a bankruptcy committee that will play a major role in deciding how much Purdue will pay and potentially how that money is to be spent. (10/6)
ProPublica:
Pharmaceutical Companies Are Luring Mexicans Across The U.S. Border To Donate Blood Plasma
Every week, thousands of Mexicans cross the border into the U.S. on temporary visas to sell their blood plasma to profit-making pharmaceutical companies that lure them with Facebook ads and colorful flyers promising hefty cash rewards. The donors, including some who say the payments are their only income, may take home up to $400 a month if they donate twice a week and earn various incentives, including “buddy bonuses” for recruiting friends or family. Unlike other nations that limit or forbid paid plasma donations at a high frequency out of concern for donor health and quality control, the U.S. allows companies to pay donors and has comparatively loose standards for monitoring their health. (Dodt, Strozyk and Lind, 10/4)