Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Gov. Newsom Wanted California to Cut Ties With Walgreens. Then Federal Law Got in the Way.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared that California would cut ties with Walgreens after the company said it would not distribute abortion pills in some states. But federal rules make it difficult for the state to unwind its Medicaid prescription drug agreement, which paid Walgreens $1.5 billion last year. (Samantha Young, )
Norovirus Outbreak Hits California: The highly contagious norovirus is on the rise in California, prompting state health officials to urge health care providers to step up disinfection efforts in a bid to check the spread. There have been at least 25 outbreaks of norovirus since Feb. 1, likely adding up to hundreds of cases statewide. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
California Gets Federal Funds To Ensure Safe Drinking Water: On Tuesday, the EPA said it would send California more than $391 million to improve its drinking water infrastructure this year. On Wednesday, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it would allocate $300 million to 24 projects for water delivery, storage, and electricity in California. Read more from the Fresno Bee. Keep scrolling for more environmental health news.
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
Bay Area News Group:
Valero Agrees To Pay $1.2 Million To EPA Over Violations At Benicia Refinery
The Valero refinery in Benicia will pay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency $1.2 million for violating the Clean Air Act, the EPA announced Wednesday. After what the EPA called “significant chemical incidents” at the refinery in 2017 and 2019, a 2019 inspection found that Valero had failed to report the release of hazardous substances, among other noncompliance issues. (Hase, 4/5)
San Francisco Chronicle:
U.S. EPA Hits Valero Refinery In Benicia With $1.2 Million Penalty
Oil refining giant Valero must pay a $1.2 million penalty for major flaring incidents at its Benicia facility that spewed dark plumes of pollutants into neighborhoods, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday. The “significant chemical incidents” occurred in 2017 and 2019 and forced people, including schoolchildren, to shelter in place because of the risk of exposure to harmful chemicals, according to the agency. (Johnson, 4/5)
Bloomberg:
Air Pollution Linked To Increased Dementia Risk In Harvard Analysis
Breathing polluted air was linked to an increased risk for dementia, underscoring the potential for stricter air quality measures to prevent conditions like Alzheimer’s disease that afflict millions of Americans. (Peng, 4/5)
AP:
EPA Tightens Mercury Emissions Limits At Coal Power Plants
The Environmental Protection Agency is tightening rules that limit emissions of mercury and other harmful pollutants from coal-fired power plants, updating standards imposed more than a decade ago. The rules proposed Wednesday would lower emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants that can harm brain development of young children and contribute to heart attacks and other health problems in adults. (Daly, 4/5)
VC Star:
Efforts Ramp Up To Keep People From Losing Medi-Cal Benefits
Up to 50,000 low-income Ventura County residents could lose Medi-Cal benefits that pay for prescriptions, doctors and hospital care over the next 14 months, but many can take steps to keep their coverage. (Kisken, 4/5)
The San Diego Union-Tribune:
San Diego Used Red-Flag Law To Seize Guns From At Least 50 People This Year
The San Diego City Attorney’s Office has used red-flag laws to temporarily confiscate guns so far this year from at least 50 people, including a man accused of opening fire on a police helicopter after the department towed his boat. The office announced Wednesday that in March it had obtained 13 gun violence restraining orders, which are used to remove firearms from people considered to pose a credible threat of violence. The office had previously announced obtaining 19 orders in February and 18 in January. (Figueroa, 4/5)
The San Diego Union-Tribune:
San Diego Judge Blocks Key Parts Of California’s Strict Handgun Law
A San Diego federal judge has issued a ruling that blocks four provisions of California’s strict handgun law, becoming the second U.S. district judge within two weeks to rule that parts of the state’s Unsafe Handgun Act likely violate the Second Amendment. (Riggins, 4/5)
Voice of San Diego:
LGBTQ+ Homeless People Say Shelters Don’t Work for Them. The City Is Trying to Fix That.
As a transgender woman living in San Diego, Lisa Pederson has heard her share of insults. During her first few months in a shelter, as she later recalled, a group of women knocked her against a bathroom door and told her she wasn’t welcome there. Though Pederson, 53, decided to stay put, she considered taking her chances on the outside. “At least when people attack me [there],” she said, she can defend herself. (Huang, 4/5)
CapRadio:
Did The Homeless Population Decline In Downtown Sacramento? A Survey Indicates ‘Yes,’ But Many Are Skeptical.
Each month, a Sacramento business group sends its workers to count the number of people living homeless on downtown's streets, from the waterfront to Midtown. In February, they finished the survey and were quite surprised: The number of unhoused people had dropped dramatically, by 40%. (Nichols, 4/5)
Voice of OC:
Surf City Greenlights 90-Day Plan To Curb Homelessness After Axing Housing Plan
Huntington Beach City Council are moving forward with what they’re calling a “90-day plan to address homelessness.” And they’re doing so while abandoning a housing plan with a goal of bringing thousands of affordable homes to Surf City – even though for years advocates have said the only real long term solution to homelessness is more housing because it keeps rents affordable. (Elattar, 4/6)
Becker's Hospital Review:
Judge Denies Challenge To Measure That Would Cap LA Hospital Exec Pay
A Los Angeles judge has denied a challenge from the California Hospital Association to a ballot measure that would cap pay of hospital executives. The Los Angeles measure backed by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West would cap hospital executive pay at the compensation of the U.S. president, or $450,000 per year. The California Hospital Association filed suit challenging the measure, arguing that the U.S. president earns more when factoring in travel expenses, discretionary funds and residence in the White House. (Gooch, 4/5)
Los Angeles Times:
California Doctor Slipped Cleaner Into Spouse's Tea, Faces Charges, D.A. Says
An Irvine dermatologist is facing multiple felony charges, including three counts of trying to poison her husband with a liquid drain cleaner, in an alleged plot uncovered after her husband secretly installed cameras around their home. A grand jury indicted Yue “Emily” Yu, 45, on three felony counts of poisoning and one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury, the Orange County district attorney announced Wednesday. (Hernandez, 4/5)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento Bans Megaphones Outside Planned Parenthood Clinics
In 30 days, it will be illegal to use a loud speaker in front of Planned Parenthood clinics in the city of Sacramento. The Sacramento City Council Tuesday unanimously adopted an ordinance aimed at deterring harassment of patients and staff outside the clinics — harassment that has been on the rise since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade last year. (Clift, 4/5)
Military Times:
Military Still Mismanaging Troops’ Traumatic Brain Injury Care
Nearly half a million service members suffered traumatic brain injuries in the past two decades, but the Defense Department isn’t sure exactly how many, how they are being treated or how they are doing now, according to the Pentagon’s inspector general. A DoD inspector general report released Monday found inconsistencies with how the military health system handles screening, tracking and treating brain injury, often because the existing process is cumbersome. It concluded that DoD is “unable to accurate identify, treat and track” incidents of brain injury across the forces. (Myers, 4/5)
Military.com:
Guardsmen, Reservists Would Get Expanded Parental Leave Under Senate Bill
On the heels of Congress securing a win for active-duty military parents by expanding their parental leave, a bipartisan pair of senators wants National Guardsmen and reservists to have comparable benefits. (Kheel, 4/5)
Military.com:
Coast Guard's Lack Of Health Care Workers Is Hurting Services For Personnel, Families, Watchdog Says
The Coast Guard is struggling to recruit and retain physicians, flight surgeons, pharmacists, dentists and physician assistants after their five-year details to the service, the Government Accountability Office found in a new report. (Kime, 4/5)
Los Angeles Times:
California COVID-19 Health Rules Ease As State Of Emergency Ends
The steady unwinding of COVID-19 emergency declarations has ushered in a slate of changes to Los Angeles County’s pandemic guidance, including when to mask, quarantine or isolate, as well as the reporting of new infections and outbreaks. The most significant — the easing of government-issued masking orders for patients and visitors in healthcare settings — took effect Monday in L.A. County. In other California counties, masking orders for doctors and nurses also have expired. (Lin II and Money, 4/5)
The New York Times:
China Publishes Data Showing Raccoon Dog DNA At Wuhan Market
Chinese government scientists on Wednesday published a long-awaited study about a market in the city of Wuhan, acknowledging that animals susceptible to the coronavirus were there around the time the virus emerged. But the scientists also said that it remained unclear how the pandemic began. The study, published in the journal Nature, focused on swabs taken from surfaces in early 2020 at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, a large market where many of the earliest known Covid patients had worked or shopped. The Chinese scientists had posted an early version of their genetic analysis of those samples in February 2022, but at the time downplayed the possibility of animal infections at the market. (Mueller, 4/5)
Stat:
Where Is The White House’s New Pandemic Response Office?
In the wake of a pandemic that claimed more than 1 million American lives, Congress in December instructed the White House to create a new, permanent office to coordinate the government’s readiness for the next pandemic threat. The White House hasn’t gotten around to actually getting it up and running. The office was intended to be a permanent solution for the ongoing need for the White House to hire “czars” to handle public health threats like Ebola, AIDS, and Covid-19. But Biden hasn’t nominated anyone to lead it, just a month before a crucial turning point in the administration’s pandemic response. (Cohrs, 4/6)
Becker's Hospital Review:
Solidifying Long COVID-19's Definition Is Key, Researchers Say
While some aspects of long COVID-19 — sometimes referred to as post-COVID-19 condition, or PCC — are much better understood than before, researchers have yet to land on a unified definition for the condition. ... he major complications around research on the condition relate both to its various names and broad references to a collection of different symptoms after a coronavirus infection, which "makes assimilating and comparing findings from current studies difficult," U.K. researchers Daniel Pan, MD, and Manish Pareek, PhD, wrote in an April 5 report published in JAMA. (Hollowell, 4/5)
The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat:
Santa Rosa Makes WalletHub’s List Of ‘Healthiest Cities In America’
Santa Rosa was listed among the healthiest cities in the United States, according to a report out this week by financial website WalletHub. (Swanson, 4/5)
The Bakersfield Californian:
CSUB To Offer Health Equity Course In The Fall
When Cal State Bakersfield started its public health degree program in the fall of 2021, it was considered a need, as Kern County health organizations could eventually recruit and hire more people in the area. Now, as part of the public health curriculum to attain a bachelor of science degree, CSUB will offer a new course this fall — health equity — that is considered on the cutting edge of the public health industry. (Virgen, 4/5)
The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat:
‘Treated Like Animals In There’: Sonoma County Jail Inmates End 10-Day Hunger Strike Despite Lack Of Concessions
About 90 inmates in the Sonoma County Main Adult Detention Facility recently participated in a 10-day hunger strike to advocate for more time out of their cells, better visitation hours and cheaper commissary costs, authorities and family members said. (Minkler and Endicott, 4/5)