Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Wildfire Smoke Is Here to Stay. Here’s How to Clean the Air Inside Your Home.
There are many ways to cleanse indoor air of dangerous smoke particles, which are particularly harmful to people with chronic respiratory and cardiac conditions. Some are expensive, but cheap alternatives exist. (Bernard J. Wolfson, )
California’s Air Pollution Linked To Higher Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes: A team of University of California scientists said they have found a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes in older Californians who live — and exercise outdoors — in communities with poor air quality. Read more from The Sacramento Bee.
Latino Vaccine Outreach Appears To Be Working In San Diego: After months of dispatching neighborhood representatives door-to-door to educate residents about wearing masks, testing and vaccines, there are signs their efforts are working. About 68% of eligible Latinos in San Diego County were fully vaccinated as of last week, county statistics show, compared to about 66% of Asians, 59% of Whites and 42% of Blacks. Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune.
In related news about health and race —
Hospitalizations Among Blacks Soar In LA County: Black residents have the highest rate of covid-19 hospitalizations among all racial and ethnic groups in Los Angeles County, new data show. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
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
Sacramento Bee:
AB 654 Passes CA Legislature, Removes Worksite COVID Reporting
Supporters of a push to require companies to report workplace coronavirus outbreaks publicly say they plan to keep fighting despite recent setbacks that they say allow big businesses to keep outbreaks secret. In February, Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-San Bernardino, proposed the law requiring the California Department of Public Health to report COVID-19 outbreaks by workplace location, meaning outbreaks at specific businesses would be disclosed to the public. But that requirement was dropped from the bill’s final version, allowing companies — and public health officials — to withhold coronavirus outbreak information from the public. Instead, health officials will report infections by industry. (Montalvo, 9/27)
Los Angeles Times:
COVID Outbreaks Plague LAPD And Fire Agencies, Data Show
Los Angeles County health officials have identified hundreds of coronavirus outbreaks at police and fire agencies since the start of the pandemic, according to data obtained by The Times through a public records request. The outbreaks, accounting for more than 2,500 coronavirus cases, have occurred in public safety agencies large and small across the county. More than half, however, were in just two agencies: the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Fire Department — where members are actively fighting public health measures to control such spread. (Rector, 9/26)
AP:
LA Police, Fire Agencies Had Over 200 COVID-19 Outbreaks
Public health officials have identified more than 200 coronavirus outbreaks at police or fire agencies throughout Los Angeles County since the start of the pandemic, according to data obtained by the Los Angeles Times. The 211 outbreaks, accounting for more than 2,500 cases between March 2020 and last month, represent 9% of total workplace outbreaks across the county, the newspaper reported Sunday. However, they have continued to occur regularly even as vaccination rates increased among police and fire personnel and the number of individual coronavirus cases per outbreak has fallen since last winter. (9/26)
San Francisco Chronicle:
State's Largest Ongoing Prison COVID Outbreak Linked To Staff Member; Early Quarantine Release Questioned
State officials have linked a quickly spreading coronavirus outbreak at a Central Valley prison to an infected staff member, but would not say whether the employee was vaccinated. The spike at North Kern State Prison, which jumped to 137 active cases as of Friday from 15 two weeks ago, coincided with the premature release of 51 prisoners from mandatory 14-day quarantine into the facility’s general population earlier this month. A California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesperson said the mistaken release of those inmates on Sept. 7, two days before their quarantine ended, had nothing to do with the outbreak, saying they all tested negative the day they were sent into general population. (Gafni, 9/24)
San Francisco Chronicle:
The Delta Coronavirus Surge Was The Most Infectious Period Of The Pandemic In These S.F. Neighborhoods
In most San Francisco neighborhoods, there were fewer coronavirus cases during summer’s delta-driven surge than over the winter, when cases peaked in the city. But a few neighborhoods — primarily young and affluent ones — actually had worse case rates over the summer, according to a Chronicle analysis of data from the San Francisco Department of Public Health. We examined cases across every San Francisco neighborhood across two time periods: The period between Dec. 15, 2020 and Feb. 15, 2021, during the city’s winter surge, and then the period from July 1 to Sept. 18 — soon after the city lifted most coronavirus restrictions and the delta variant caused a citywide surge in case rates. (Neilson, 9/25)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Stricken Grand Princess Docked Off Bay Area As COVID Was Just Hitting. Now It's Back At Sea
The Grand Princess cruise ship, which drew international attention when it docked in the Bay Area at the beginning of the pandemic with a harrowing COVID outbreak, is back at sea after a year and half hiatus. The ship set sail from the Port of Los Angeles on Saturday for a five-day trip to Cabo San Lucas. (Hwang, 9/26)
inewsource:
San Diego County Gave Pay Raise To Troubled COVID-19 Hotel Contractor
San Diego County officials gave an $83 million pay raise to a contractor that has been under scrutiny for its mismanagement of a COVID-19 quarantine hotel program. The increase came without any change to the contract’s scope of work and at the same time researchers from San Diego State University were evaluating what went wrong with the sheltering program. (Dulaney, 9/24)
Sacramento Bee:
How COVID-19 Impacts Families In A Rural Fresno County Town
Administrators at the Raisin City Elementary School District, which has about 526 students from kindergarten to 12th grade, say a total of seven students in the eighth grade have been infected since last month’s outbreak. But that tally doesn’t include the family members at home who were also exposed to the virus by their children or the socio-economic, mental health and academic challenges they continue to endure as a result. In Raisin City, an unincorporated community of 414 people located about 13 miles southwest of Fresno, most residents are low-income Latino immigrants who lack access to critical health and educational resources. Though the families have recovered from the virus, their experiences demonstrate how even a small outbreak can have long-lasting adverse effects across rural communities. (Lopez, 9/26)
Bay Area News Group:
What Killed Bay Area Teen? Suicide Follows Bout With COVID
Two months earlier, Riley had tested positive for COVID-19 during an outbreak that swept campus just a few days into the fall semester. At first, Riley’s case seemed mild — he briefly lost his sense of taste and smell and developed a cough. But afterward, Kevin and Lisa Christiansen said their son exhibited symptoms of “brain fog” — problems with memory, concentration and sleep, hallmarks of “long-haul” COVID. Beset by short-term memory issues, Riley quit his new job busing tables because he didn’t remember working the night before. In hindsight, his comments to friends and family in the weeks leading up to his death show his increasing distress over changes in his mood and personality. A year later, that COVID diagnosis has become the focus of questions about Riley’s Nov. 9 suicide. His family’s and friends’ concerns are informed by ongoing research into serious mental health struggles for even those with mild COVID cases. (Ross, 9/26)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Nearly 200 On S.F. Police Staff Want Religious Exemptions From City's COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
Nearly 200 members of the San Francisco Police Department have applied for a religious exemption from the city’s employee vaccine mandate, the highest number of waiver requests from any city department, by far. About 91% of the city’s 35,140-person workforce is fully or partially vaccinated, but 2,706 employees, or 7.7%, still have not been vaccinated. Meanwhile, 1.4% of workers — 489— haven’t reported their status. (Thadani and Cassidy, 9/24)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Religious Exemptions Complicate Vaccine Mandates
Thorny workplace issues are arising as employees around Kern County pursue religious-based exemptions to vaccine mandates. Push is increasingly becoming shove as the California Department of Public Health prepares to require that all health-care workers in the state be fully vaccinated by Thursday. Meanwhile, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is developing a rule insisting businesses with 100 or more employees make sure that all are vaccinated or undergoing weekly testing. (Desai, 9/26)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Mysterious Wiggins' Anti-Vax Stance Could Cause Real Harm To Warriors' Season
Until Andrew Wiggins is fully vaccinated and cleared to play home games for the Warriors, he will remain the team’s biggest story line. At Monday’s Media Day, he figures to field numerous questions, Golden State officials permitting, about why someone so reserved would take such a strong stance on a topic as polarizing as the COVID-19 vaccine. Six months ago, Wiggins conceded during a Zoom news conference that he wouldn’t get the vaccine unless he was “forced.” Now, after the NBA denied his request for a religious exemption from San Francisco’s soon-to-be-enacted policy requiring full COVID-19 vaccination for anyone 12 and older who attends large indoor events, he will have that spring declaration tested. (Letourneau, 9/26)
Modesto Bee:
Millions Of People Have Read The Story Of Kristen Lowery, The Escalon Mother And Vocal Opponent Of Vaccines Who Died Of COVID-19 This Month. Who Was Kristen Lowery?
Millions of people in the world have read the story of Kristin Lowery, the Escalon mother who posted anti-vaccine messages and opposed mask mandates on Facebook and then died of COVID-19 on Sept. 15. From all appearances, the 40-year-old Escalon mother of four trusted in vaccines like most parents until three or four years ago, before she changed her mind and took to wearing a shirt that read: “I trusted them. Never again.” (Carlson, 9/25)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
San Diego-Area District Warns Of Students Coming To School After Receiving Positive COVID Results
Some students have been “attending school with symptoms present or, in a few limited cases, students attending school with known COVID-19 positive test results. ”That alarming sentence is from an update that Andy Johnsen, superintendent of the San Marcos Unified School District, sent to all parents on Sept. 10. He stressed that less than 1 percent of the district’s roughly 20,000 students have so far tested positive for coronavirus infection, and aggressive on-site testing, contact tracing and quarantine protocols aim to keep those numbers low. (Sisson, 9/27)
EdSource:
Absenteeism Surging Since Schools Reopened
A month into in-person learning for most California schools, some districts are reporting soaring rates of absenteeism due to stay-at-home quarantines, fear of Covid and general disengagement from school. Even districts like Elk Grove and Long Beach that had relatively high attendance before Covid have seen big increases in chronic absenteeism — students who have missed more than 10% of school days. (Jones, 9/27)
Modesto Bee:
How Quarantine Learning Varies In Stanislaus School Districts
Turlock Unified School District has since modified its arrangement for educating students who miss school days for reasons related to COVID-19. As of Monday, students in seventh grade and above can watch classes live via Zoom. Such a change is not unique to Turlock. For the third school year in a row, educators are adapting learning structures in response to the spread of the coronavirus. (Isaacman, 9/27)
Los Angeles Times:
Surge In Remote Learning Overwhelms L.A. Public Schools
A surge of parents seeking remote learning for their children has overwhelmed public school programs in Los Angeles, causing teacher shortages, administrative snafus and enrollment delays that in some cases have kept students out of school for weeks. The L.A. Unified School District program, called City of Angels, was an already existing independent study program that was adapted this school year to serve parents unable or unwilling to return their children to in-person classes due to ongoing pandemic-related safety concerns. The program has been sought out by many parents who have children with special needs as well as health issues. (Blume and Gomez, 9/27)
Sacramento Bee:
California Bans State-Funded Travel To Ohio Over Religion Law
California is banning state-funded travel to Ohio over the state’s new law allowing doctors to decline medical services to people on moral or religious grounds. The Ohio measure triggered a 2016 California law that requires the attorney general to prohibit state-funded travel to states that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, according to a Friday press release from California Attorney General Rob Bonta. (Venteicher, 9/24)
Marin Independent Journal:
Marin Hospital Backs Bill To Allow Cannabis Use Inside Health Care Facilities
MarinHealth Medical Center is calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would require hospitals and other health care facilities to permit terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in their institutions. The legislation, Senate Bill 311, has become known as Ryan’s Law – named after Ryan Bartell, who was forced to move from California to Washington state in order to use cannabis instead of coma-inducing morphine for his pain while in end-of-life hospice care. Jim Bartell, Ryan’s father, has campaigned tirelessly for a change in the law. (Halstead, 9/26)
Reveal:
A Racial Reckoning At Doctors Without Borders
For decades, Doctors Without Borders has been admired for bringing desperately needed medical care to crises around the globe and pioneering modern-day humanitarian aid. It’s an organization with radical roots, promising to do whatever it takes to deliver life-saving care to people in need. But now, it’s struggling to address institutional racism. The organization, also known by its French acronym MSF, has about 63,000 people working in 88 countries. While foreign doctors parachuting into crisis zones get most of the attention, 90 percent of the work is being done by local health workers. In the summer of 2020, more than 1,000 current and former staffers wrote a letter calling out institutional racism at MSF. They say that MSF operates a two-tiered tiered system that favors foreign doctors, or expat doctors, over local health workers. (Kardas-Nelson, 9/25)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Hazardous Air Quality Leads To Uptick In Patients With Respiratory Issues
The noxious smoke that descended upon the Bakersfield area Friday brought a noticeable increase in the already elevated rate of people showing up at Clinica Sierra Vista locations lately with respiratory problems. The organization's medical director of special populations, Dr. Matthew Beare, reported seeing multiple patients with respiratory flares by noon Friday amid extraordinarily hazy vistas and reports of ash falling from the sky. “The chronic effects of the poor quality are seen in every primary care clinic throughout Kern County,” Beare said. “Even in the past several weeks, we've seen a big pickup in those acute flares.” (Desai, 9/24)
Southern California News Group:
New Air Quality Advisory Issued For Southern California Mountain Areas Due To Wildfire Smoke
An air quality advisory for parts of Southern California was announced for Monday, Sept. 27, due to continued wildfire smoke drifting from the central parts of the state, the South Coast Air Quality Management District said Sunday. (Wilson, 9/26)
San Francisco Chronicle:
New Cases Of West Nile Virus Found In Bay Area Bird, Mosquitoes
A bird and a group of mosquitoes have tested positive for West Nile virus in Contra Costa County, officials said Friday. The discovery brings the total to two dead birds — one in San Pablo and one in Brentwood — and eight groups of mosquitoes that have tested positive for the virus so far this year in Contra Costa County, according to the Contra Costa Mosquito and Vector Control District. (Echeverria, 9/25)
Modesto Bee:
Modesto-Area Dairyman Talks About Raw Milk, Product Recalls
Joe Bento hopes to get back soon to his tiny niche in the dairy industry: selling raw milk directly to consumers. Four times since 2019, the state has ordered recalls at Valley Milk Simply Bottled, about six miles west of Modesto. Routine testing found excessive levels of bacteria each time, but no illnesses were reported. (Holland, 9/27)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
5K Celebrates The Party Potential Of Sobriety
For those struggling with addiction, sobriety might sound boring. But it would have been hard to make that case Saturday morning at NTC Park, where hundreds got dancing, hugging and just generally festive at the ninth-annual 5K Walk for Sobriety sponsored by the McAlister Institute, a local addiction treatment powerhouse. (Sisson, 9/25)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Folsom Street Fair Returns To San Francisco With Latex, Leather And Vaccinations
Crowds of people adjusted their leather harnesses and thongs on Sunday, and pulled out their proof of COVID-19 vaccination, to enter the Folsom Street Fair, a San Francisco tradition they were thrilled to revive after last year’s in-the-streets absence. Attending in person this year felt like a reunion for some, particularly after the past year and a half of pandemic rules and precautions that forced the annual gathering to move its celebration virtual in 2020. (Ravani, 9/26)
Modesto Bee:
Stanislaus County Doesn’t Track Homeless Deaths, Causes
Unlike other California counties such as Sacramento, Stanislaus cannot provide data from its records systems on when and how homeless people die. The coroner most frequently listed natural causes in a sample of about 30 homeless deaths The Bee compiled by hand-searching records, but stakeholders shared different perspectives on whether comprehensive data can help reduce homelessness. (Lam, 9/27)