Newsom Signs Worker-Health Bill Into Law: California on Wednesday became the first state to bar mega-retailers such as Amazon from firing warehouse workers for missing quotas that interfere with bathroom and rest breaks under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Read more from AP, the Los Angeles Times, Modesto Bee and The New York Times.
In other news from Sacramento —
Governor Strengthens Abortion Rights: Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed a pair of laws aimed at protecting reproductive health care in California. The first measure requires that sensitive patient information be sent only to the patient. The second measure makes it a crime to post personal information or images of providers, employees, volunteers or patients at reproductive health facilities. Read more from The Sacramento Bee and AP.
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:
The FDA OKs Pfizer-BioNTech Booster For People 65+ And At High Risk For Severe COVID
The Food and Drug Administration authorized a booster dose Wednesday of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine for people 65 and older and others at high risk of severe COVID disease. The FDA says the vaccine can also be given to people ages 18 to 64 whose jobs or institutional exposure to the coronavirus puts them at high risk of serious complications of COVID-19. (Hensley, 9/22)
Stat:
FDA Authorizes Pfizer's Covid-19 Booster For People Over 65 Or At High Risk
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday granted an emergency use authorization to Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine booster, though for now the FDA said use of the booster should be restricted to people over the age of 65, adults 18 and older at high risk of severe Covid, and those who, like health care workers, are at higher risk of infection because of their jobs. That list includes teachers. (Branswell, 9/22)
The Wall Street Journal:
Pfizer Covid-19 Booster Shouldn’t Be For Moderna, J&J Vaccine Recipients, Health Official Says
A federal health official said Wednesday there isn’t enough data to support giving a Pfizer Inc. booster dose to people who have received other Covid-19 vaccines. Doran Fink, a deputy director in the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccines division, made the remarks at a meeting of a key vaccine advisory panel that would recommend who should get an additional dose of the vaccine from Pfizer and partner BioNTech SE. (Schwartz and Hopkins, 9/22)
KQED:
COVID Vaccine Boosters For All Were Meant To Roll Out This Week. What Happened?
Back in mid-August, U.S. health officials announced plans to offer COVID-19 booster shots to all Americans, starting as early as this week (Sept. 20). That hasn't happened. And while the Food and Drug Administration has now authorized a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for people ages 65 and older and certain other groups, you could be forgiven for wondering: What happened to this previous timeline? When could we actually see booster shots roll out? And who might get them first? (Severn, 9/22)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Thousands Of San Diegans Have Already Gotten A COVID Booster
Thousands of San Diegans have already gotten coronavirus booster shots, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are still debating when and how to recommend extra vaccine doses. As of Sept. 16, about 43,000 booster doses have been doled out across the region, according to local immunization registry data provided by San Diego County. Roughly 40 percent of these shots have been administered through CVS and Rite Aid, with most of the rest coming through a mix of local health systems, pharmacies and county-run vaccine clinics. (Wosen, 9/22)
The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat:
In Sonoma County, 135,000 Could Be Eligible For COVID-19 Booster Shot Next Week
Sonoma County health officials on Wednesday said 135,000 residents would be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot if, as expected, federal health officials this week approve the third dose for residents 65 and older. During a virtual town hall on the pandemic, Dr. Urmila Shende, the county’s vaccine chief, said the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering a third dose for people 65 and older; adults at high risk of severe COVID-19 illness; and adults who are at high risk of contracting the virus, such as health care workers. (Espinoza, 9/22)
Bloomberg:
Vaccinated Pregnant Women Pass Protection To Babies In Study
Pregnant women who get mRNA vaccines pass high levels of antibodies to their babies, according to a study published in American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology – Maternal Fetal Medicine on Wednesday. The study -- one of the first to measure antibody levels in umbilical cord blood to distinguish whether immunity is from infection or vaccines -- found that 36 newborns tested at birth all had antibodies to protect against Covid-19 after their mothers were vaccinated with shots from Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE or Moderna Inc. (Dave, 9/22)
The Wall Street Journal:
Pfizer Study Of Covid-19 Vaccine In Pregnant Women Delayed By Slow Enrollment
A study led by Pfizer Inc. PFE 0.07% and BioNTech SE evaluating their Covid-19 vaccine in expectant mothers has been complicated by slow enrollment, researchers say, delaying results that could help inform physicians about how the shots affect pregnant women and their babies. Pfizer closed enrollment at many U.S. sites this summer, after fewer than expected numbers of subjects entered the study, researchers say. The slow enrollment was driven by revised guidelines from government and physician groups that recommend pregnant women receive the shots based on new real-world research, according to trial-site researchers. (Hopkins and Toy, 9/22)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. County Records Big Drop In COVID-19 Hospitalizations
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Los Angeles County has dropped below 1,000 for the first time in two months — underscoring the region’s slow but steady progress in turning the tide of the latest coronavirus surge. On Tuesday, 991 coronavirus-positive patients were receiving hospital care countywide. That’s down about 40% from the start of September, state data show. (Money and Lin II, 9/22)
Modesto Bee:
Delta COVID Surge May Be Declining In Stanislaus County
Spurred by the dominant delta variant, the COVID-19 surge in Stanislaus County is lasting longer than the wave of cases a year ago. But county health officials said it appears to be slowing down. Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, county health officer, told county supervisors Tuesday evening the high point was in mid-August when the daily case rate for the coronavirus was five times the “purple tier” threshold that formerly signaled widespread transmission in California. (Carlson, 9/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Why California Probably Isn't Done With COVID Surges, Even As Delta Wave Subsides
The worst of California’s summer COVID-19 surge is likely over — but with the highly contagious delta variant, that might mean leveling off at higher case rates than after previous surges, according to experts and Bay Area health officials. Unlike the January surge when coronavirus rates hit their all-time pandemic highs, experts say, vaccinations are now widespread enough to keep severe disease low. But they add that future surges are still likely — and the “magic number” for vaccination rates needed to halt that cycle is unclear. (Echeverria, 9/23)
Los Angeles Times:
California COVID Hospitalizations Zone In On Inland Empire
Doctors, nurses, technicians and other hospital support staff have endured daily pressure to take on more shifts amid burnout and understaffing. Although the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations is gradually dropping, medical staff fear another surge if more people don’t get vaccinated before the autumn and winter cold and flu season. The Inland Empire hit its peak of hospitalizations on Sept. 1, when 1,246 coronavirus-infected people were hospitalized, the equivalent of 28 hospitalizations for every 100,000 residents. (Evans and Lin II, 9/23)
Bay Area News Group:
California Wife Sues To Get Ivermectin For COVID Patient
A California woman has become the latest person to request that a judge order the use of ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment. The Bakersfield woman on Friday filed a complaint in Kern County Superior Court asking that San Joaquin Community Hospital be forced to administer the antiparasitic medication to her 66-year-old husband, who has been in the intensive care unit since Aug. 23. He tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 20. (9/22)
Bay Area News Group:
COVID: Fremont Festival Of The Arts Canceled For Second Year
For a second year in a row, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the cancellation of the Fremont Festival of the Arts, an annual event that draws hundreds of thousands to the city over one summer weekend to soak up sun, sample beer and wine, shop at hundreds of vendor booths, and listen to live music. Though organizers had hoped to be able to bring the festival back in what would have been its 38th year, concerns over the spread of the delta variant of COVID-19 and how to keep people safe pushed the Fremont Chamber of Commerce to call it off. (Geha, 9/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Chez Panisse Delays Reopening Its Dining Room Until Next Year, Citing COVID Concerns
z Panisse won’t reopen its dining room to customers until early next year, the restaurant announced in a post on Instagram Wednesday. The restaurant, which turned 50 this year, was initially set to open in October. It cited the continued effects of the pandemic and the concerns for the safety of its staff for delaying the opening. (Warerkar, 9/22)
Bay Area News Group:
Oakland Schools Will Require Students To Be Vaccinated Against COVID, Board Rules
The Oakland Unified School District Board approved a resolution Wednesday that will require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The vote made Oakland the first school district in northern California to mandate COVID vaccination a requirement for attending school. Los Angeles Unified approved a similar mandate for students earlier this month. (Sciacca, 9/23)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Oakland School Board 1st In Northern California To Require Vaccination For Students
The Oakland Unified School District will require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the school board decided Wednesday night, making it the first in Northern California to impose a student mandate. The measure, passed 5-1, with one abstention, mandates all students 12 and older be fully vaccinated, with exemptions for medical and “personal belief” reasons. It does not set a timeline for enforcement. The district superintendent told the board a requirement likely wouldn’t be implemented before January as the district works through the specifics in the interim. (Cano, 6/22)
Southern California News Group:
LAUSD Strikes Deal With Teachers Union To Provide Quarantine Instruction
The Los Angeles Unified School District has reached a tentative agreement with its teachers union to provide live online instruction to students quarantining at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, following weeks of negotiations over that issue and other COVID-19-related health-and-safety measures, the parties announced Wednesday, Sept. 22. The deal, which still needs to be ratified by the school board and United Teachers Los Angeles, would also require all students and staff to continue undergoing COVID-19 tests weekly, regardless of vaccination status, through the remainder of this semester. After that, only unvaccinated individuals would be tested weekly. (Tat, 9/22)
Bay Area News Group:
Contra Costa County Businesses Check For COVID Vaccine Proof
Meant to curb the spread of COVID-19 fueled by the delta variant since early summer, the health order requires anyone who enters restaurants, bars and gyms to prove they have been vaccinated. The order broadly applies to any indoor businesses where people breathe heavily from exercise or remove their masks to drink or eat. Contra Costa is the first county in the Bay Area outside San Francisco to enact the “vaccine passports” policy, which also went into effect last month in Berkeley. (Mukherjee, 9/22)
Los Angeles Times:
What Is A Religious Exemption From The COVID Vaccine?
As more employers require their workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19, more workers are finding religion. Or rather, “sincerely held religious beliefs” that, they say, prevent them from getting the shots. Hundreds of Los Angeles firefighters have sought exemptions from the city’s vaccine mandate for religious or medical reasons, and thousands of Los Angeles Police Department employees are expected to do the same. And they may be the leading edge of the wave of workers seeking exemptions, as the federal government is preparing to require employers with 100 or more workers to order vaccinations or weekly coronavirus testing for all employees. Federal employees are already required to be vaccinated even if they work from home, with no testing alternative, and a similar requirement is being developed for federal contractors and subcontractors. (Healy, 9/23)
Modesto Bee:
Are Your Masks Still Effective As COVID Lingers? It Depends
Although being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 dramatically reduces your chances of becoming hospitalized and dying from the disease, the shots don’t entirely eliminate risks of infection. That’s why health experts have continued to urge people to practice other preventive measures — including wearing masks to benefit from an additional layer of protection during the pandemic. But more than a year and a half later, what more have scientists learned about masks’ ability to curb coronavirus spread? And are the mask types health officials first recommended still effective as more dangerous variants emerge? (Camero, 9/22)
Sacramento Bee:
UC Davis, Nurses Clash Over Staffing As Contract Talks Loom
Registered nurses at UC Davis Health demanded Wednesday that the Sacramento-based system address staffing shortages in a video conference call that hospital leaders described as “part of their usual bargaining playbook.” The nurses union, the California Nurses Association, will begin contract negotiations with University of California leaders starting in 2022. (Anderson, 9/23)
Orange County Register:
Crews Break Ground On Women’s Health Center At Providence St. Joseph Campus
Crews on Tuesday began work on the new facility, which will occupy a space on the corner of Main Street and Stewart Drive. The Helen Caloggero Women’s and Family Center – named after the mother of a large donor to the project – will streamline services for women and families, hospital officials said, bringing “mother-baby services that currently are at nine different locations around the hospital to one central location.” (Sheets, 9/22)
The Wall Street Journal:
Elizabeth Holmes Trial: Jim Mattis Tells Jury He Came To Doubt Theranos Technology
Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis testified Wednesday in the criminal trial of Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes that he and other board members were blindsided to learn in 2015 that the company hadn’t been conducting all of its blood tests using its proprietary technology. “There just came a point where I didn’t know what to believe about Theranos anymore,” the retired four-star general said. (Randazzo and Somerville, 9/22)
CNBC:
Elizabeth Holmes’ Private Texts Reveal She Described Herself As The ‘Best Business Person Of The Year’
Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes believed in herself so much that she wrote in a text message to Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani proclaiming that she had “total confidence in myself best business person of the year.” The message to her then-boyfriend and Theranos President Balwani are among thousands of private texts and Skype messages obtained by CNBC that show Holmes had no lack of confidence in herself and Theranos, the blood-testing company she founded. They also reveal that Holmes told Balwani about courting high-profile investors who ended up giving Theranos hundreds of millions of dollars. (Khorram, 9/23)
Modesto Bee:
State Orders 4th Recall Of Raw Milk From Modesto-Area Farm
The state Wednesday ordered another recall of raw milk sold from a dairy farm west of Modesto. It was the fourth such order since 2019 for Valley Milk Simply Bottled from the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Routine testing found excessive levels of campylobacter jejuni bacteria each time, but no illnesses have been reported, the agency said. (Holland, 9/22)
NPR:
U.S. Surge In Methamphetamines Hits Black And Native Americans Hard
When Winnie White Tail convened a new session of inpatient substance use treatment last month for members of the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes, she found that roughly half her clients were struggling with methamphetamine addiction. "It's readily available, it's easy to get," White Tail says. She's a Cheyenne tribal member herself and runs the George Hawkins Memorial Treatment Center in Clinton, Okla. "I believe it's deeply entrenched across the community — not just in Native communities," she tells NPR. (Mann, 9/22)
Sacramento Bee:
Patient At Sacramento Hospital Cannot Remember Identity
California Highway Patrol and hospital officials are seeking the identity of an injured man who has been at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento for nearly a month and cannot recall his identity. The man was picked up at the corner of Fulton and Marconi avenues in Sacramento County’s Arden Arcade neighborhood and transported to the hospital, the CHP North Sacramento office and UC Davis Medical Center said in a joint statement this week. (McGough, 9/22)
CapRadio:
As Sacramento Opens New Navigation Center For Unhoused People, A New Lawsuit Threatens To Block Other Shelters From Moving Forward
Pets, possessions and partners can come with homeless people who are referred to the city’s newest navigation center on X Street, a shelter for unhoused people that opened Tuesday. It’s part of the city’s continued effort to address homelessness, which includes the city’s Comprehensive Siting Plan, passed in August. But that plan could stall, after a group filed a lawsuit last week citing environmental and health concerns around five tiny home sites planned under the W-X freeway. (Salanga, 9/22)