Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
San Francisco Hopes To Improve Care For People With Mental Illness Living On Streets
Dr. Anton Nigusse Bland, a veteran of public health psychiatry, was appointed by San Francisco’s mayor earlier this year to a newly created job: director of mental health reform. His main task is to improve mental health and addiction treatment for people experiencing homelessness. (Brian Krans, )
Good morning! Here are some of your top California health stories of the day.
Following Arrests, Doctors End Protest In San Diego Over Border Patrol's Refusal To Give Detained Migrants Flu Shots: Six people, including at least two doctors, were detained by federal authorities Tuesday afternoon while blocking an entrance to the Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector headquarters in Chula Vista. A larger group, which includes Doctors for Camp Closure, Families Belong Together and Never Again Action, has been asking U.S. Customs and Border Protection to allow licensed medical doctors to vaccinate detained migrant children for the flu after three children died from it in custody last year. Trying to provide flu shots to everyone during the few days they spend in Border Patrol custody does not make sense, officials said, because those who go on to be held in longer-term detention facilities routinely receive vaccinations. Read more from Wendy Fry and Alex Riggins of the San Diego Union-Tribune and Miriam Jordan of The New York Times.
Advocates Pushing For Suicide Net On Golden Gate Bridge Puzzled, Frustrated By Delay In Project: Anticipated for 2021, the safety barrier will now be completed in 2023. Backers of the suicide barrier say a two-year delay equals 60 lives lost. At least 26 people died by plummeting from the bridge this year. Security patrols made 156 successful interventions. “We’ve been averaging 30 deaths a year,” said Paul Muller, president of the nonprofit Bridge Rail Foundation, which formed to end suicides at the Golden Gate. A barrier would likely do that: Studies from Harvard University and UC Berkeley suggest that a person who landed on the net is unlikely to jump again. Nine out of 10 people who are stopped from committing suicide do not kill themselves at a later date. Officials cited problems with the contractors on the job as the reason for the delay. Read more from Rachel Swan of the San Francisco Chronicle.
In Ambitious Pilot Program, Planned Parenthood Will Open 50 Clinics At Los Angeles High Schools: Planned Parenthood is pioneering a new model of reproductive health services for Los Angeles County teens by opening 50 clinics at area high schools. The program — announced Wednesday and launched in partnership with the school district and county health department — is believed to be the most ambitious effort in the country to bring these types of services to at-risk students in public schools. The program, funded by an initial investment of $10 million from Los Angeles County and $6 million from Planned Parenthood over three years, will offer a full range of birth control options, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, and pregnancy counseling, but not abortion, for an estimated 75,000 teens. Read more from Sonali Kohli of the Los Angeles Times and Ariana Eunjung Cha of The Washington Post.
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
San Francisco Chronicle:
New Online Tracking System Shows How Many SF Addiction Treatment Beds Sit Empty
San Francisco is hoping to better match the swelling population of those struggling with addiction to its vacant drug treatment beds. The Department of Public Health launched a new tool this month, findtreatmentsf.org, to track empty treatment beds in San Francisco after officials realized that desperately needed spots were sitting unused despite a tsunami of need on the streets. (Thadani, 12/11)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Fentanyl That Killed Santa Rosa Toddler, Father Traced To SF’s Tenderloin; 3 Charged
Federal authorities charged three people Wednesday with supplying the fentanyl that killed a father and his 13-month-old son in Santa Rosa in September, while also revealing the drugs came from Honduran nationals working as dealers in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. (Sernoffsky, 12/11)
Capital Public Radio/KXJZ:
Californians Need Health Insurance By Jan. 1 Or Risk Paying A New Penalty
Californians must carry health insurance in 2020, or face a state-imposed penalty starting at $695 in 2021. Covered California and the California Franchise Tax Board are encouraging the state’s uninsured to enroll in a plan by Dec. 15. That’s the deadline for coverage that kicks in Jan. 1. The Covered California enrollment season lasts until Jan. 31. (Caiola, 12/11)
Modesto Bee:
Michael Bloomberg Talks Housing As 2020 Campaign Heads To CA
Michael Bloomberg is making housing affordability a focal point of his presidential campaign, and will roll out some general principles on housing policy during his first visit to California as a presidential candidate Wednesday, McClatchy has learned. The billionaire executive and former New York City mayor is holding a round table discussion on housing and economic opportunity in Stockton Wednesday with Mayor Michael Tubbs, who is then going to endorse Bloomberg, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. (Cadei, 12/11)
Modesto Bee:
Anti-Vaccine Activist Must Stay Away From CA Sen. Richard Pan
A Sacramento judge has granted state Sen. Richard Pan’s restraining order against the anti-vaccine activist who shoved the lawmaker in August and filmed the attack. Kenneth Austin Bennett must not come within 100 yards of Pan, his home, vehicle and his senate and committee offices, according to the order granted Dec. 6 in Sacramento Superior Court. (Smith, 12/11)
Los Angeles Times:
This Is What A Devastating Earthquake In California Would Look Like
Eight years ago, a huge earthquake ruptured directly under Christchurch, killing 185 people. Full recovery remains elusive. The city offers an urgent lesson to California, whose major cities — situated along seismic faults — face similar threats. (Lin II, 12/12)
The Wall Street Journal:
E. Coli Outbreaks In Lettuce Point To Gaps In Food Safety
E. coli illnesses linked to romaine lettuce show how U.S. regulators continue to struggle with identifying which farms spark an outbreak and stopping it from spreading. An outbreak involving a romaine-based salad kit has sickened at least eight people in three states, health officials said this week. Those cases could be connected to an outbreak in romaine last month that sickened more than 100 people in 23 states even though the strains of E. coli are different, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Gasparro, 12/11)
Los Angeles Times:
Costa Mesa Planners Approve Contamination Cleanup Equipment At Oil-Change Location
A potential environmental hazard in Costa Mesa is getting another chance at a cleanup following a vote by the city Planning Commission, which approved permits for a second time. The commission voted 6-0 on Monday, with member Jenna Tourje absent, to approve installation of a multiphase extraction system 18 inches from the sidewalk and surrounded by 6-foot-tall decorative walls at the Valvoline Instant Oil Change location at 3599 Harbor Blvd. (Castaneda, 12/11)
LAist:
Your Urban Drool (Aka Polluted Runoff) Isn't Being Cleaned Up Quickly Enough, Says Heal The Bay
Angelenos are used to looking up Heal the Bay's annual beach water quality report card each May as we search out the cleanest places to swim and surf.Now, the environmental advocacy group is focusing on a new target — the often polluted water that flows into the ocean from the mountains and across the L.A. Basin. In a first-ever report, it concludes the managers of 12 watersheds from Malibu to Long Beach are making too little progress toward cleaning up this major source of pollution in the Pacific. (McNary, 12/11)
Sacramento Bee:
CA Flu Activity Ramps Up Early This Season, Officials Say
California’s 2019-20 flu season started off early – and with a bang. According to the state Department of Public Health, clinical and commercial laboratories have not reported influenza activity this high this early in the flu season since the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009. State epidemiologist Erin Murray said lab results are just one way that CDPH gauges the severity of flu in the state. Her team also tracks how many people were diagnosed with flu, but not admitted to a hospital. In looking at that statistic for this season, Murray said she had to go back to the 2014-15 season to find as much flu activity. (Anderson, 12/11)
LAist:
B/Victoria Is The Virus Mostly To Blame This Flu Season — And It's Showing Up Early
Flu season is getting an early start in California this year, and health officials say there's one particular strain of influenza that's mostly to blame. "Right now we're seeing a predominance of influenza B/Victoria viruses, which is a bit unusual for this time of year," said Dr. Erin Murray, an epidemiologist with the California Department of Public Health. B/Victoria is the main culprit nationally, too, according to the CDC. (Garrova, 12/11)
East Bay Times:
Washington Hospital, UCSF Eyeing Warm Springs Expansion
Washington Hospital and the UC San Francisco Medical Center are jointly eyeing a nearly 90,000 square-foot building in Fremont’s Warm Springs area as a future outpatient care center, and the concept received early support from the Fremont City Council Tuesday. Without any discussion, the council approved rezoning the 5.2-acre industrial plot of land at 45388 Warm Springs Blvd. — which includes an 88,000 square-foot, two-story building previously used by Unigen Corporation for electronics manufacturing — to allow for outpatient care in the area. Councilman Raj Salwan recused himself from the vote to avoid an appearance of bias, as he owns property nearby the building. (Geha, 12/11)
KPBS:
More Priest Abuse Victims Plan To Sue Catholic Diocese Of San Diego
The men say the late Father Anthony Edward Rodrigue molested them when they were children attending parishes in the San Diego Diocese in the 1960s and 1970s. They are now able to bring the case against the Diocese because of a new California law that expands the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sexual assault. (Sridhar, 12/11)
The Washington Post:
Infighting Between Alex Azar, Seema Verma Stymies Trump Health Agenda
Bitter infighting among President Trump’s top health officials — as well as his own shifting demands on signature policies — have undermined key planks of the president’s health-care agenda as he girds for a tough reelection campaign, according to current and former administration officials. Though polls show the issue is critically important to voters, Trump has failed to deliver on his most important health-care promises. His plan to dramatically lower the prices consumers pay for prescription drugs has been stalled by internal disputes, as well as by technical and regulatory issues, said six people with knowledge of the process. And an administration plan to replace the Affordable Care Act has not materialized even as the administration seeks to strike down the law in federal court. (Abutaleb, Dawsey, Winfield Cunningham and Goldstein, 12/11)
Politico:
How Trump And The Democrats Parted Ways On Lowering Drug Prices
It was supposed to be one place President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could strike a deal. But Pelosi and House Democrats are going it alone on drug pricing, pushing through sweeping legislation this week to bring down the cost of medicines. The White House, infuriated by impeachment, won’t be joining the victory parade, although drug prices — a major voter concern — were one of Trump’s top domestic priorities. The administration instead threw its weight behind a bipartisan Senate drug plan that — like Pelosi’s bill, after leaving the House — is probably going nowhere. (Karlin-Smith, 12/11)
The Associated Press:
More Americans Are Dying At Home Rather Than In Hospitals
For the first time since the early 1900s, more Americans are dying at home rather than in hospitals, a trend that reflects more hospice care and progress toward the kind of end that most people say they want. Deaths in nursing homes also have declined, according to Wednesday's report in the New England Journal of Medicine. (12/11)