Covid Cases Dropping In Bay Area: San Francisco has reported its lowest covid case rate since very early in the pandemic — a year ago when the city was in lockdown. However, some counties are still a ways from achieving the lower levels seen last fall. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
LA County Agrees To Team Up With Blue Shield: After weeks of concern over potentially losing the huge network of vaccination sites it had built, Los Angeles County has formally agreed to collaborate with health care giant Blue Shield, which will provide performance metrics to assess the success of the rollout. Read more from the LA Daily 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
The New York Times:
11 Years On, The Affordable Care Act Defies Opponents And Keeps Expanding
More than 200,000 Americans flocked to the Affordable Care Act’s online marketplace to sign up for health insurance during the first two weeks of an open enrollment period created by President Biden — a sign that those who lost insurance during the pandemic remain in desperate need of coverage. At the same time, a provision in the president’s $1.9 trillion stimulus law to make Medicaid expansion more fiscally appealing has prompted deeply conservative Alabama and Wyoming to consider expanding the government health program to residents who are too rich to qualify now but too poor to afford private health plans. (Gay Stolberg, 3/23)
CNN:
Affordable Care Act: Biden's Moves On Obamacare Attract New Signups -- And A Second Look From Red States
President Joe Biden is wasting no time establishing his vision for the Affordable Care Act and reversing many Trump-era measures aimed at weakening it. In his first two months in office, Biden has taken several steps to bolster the landmark health reform law, which marks its 11th anniversary on Tuesday, and to embed it even more firmly in the nation's health care system. (Luhby, 3/22)
The Hill:
Obamacare Draws 200,000 New Signups
Upon the 11-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) being signed into law, more than 200,000 Americans have opted to sign up for health insurance under public health care, according to The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That’s up from 76,000 and 60,000 seen during the first two weeks of open enrollment in 2020 and 2019, respectively. (Kelley, 3/22)
The Atlantic:
Why Trump And Republicans Failed To Repeal Obamacare
The affordable care act, the health-care law also known as Obamacare, turns 11 years old this week. Somehow, the program has not merely survived the GOP’s decade-long assault. It’s actually getting stronger, thanks to some major upgrades tucked in the COVID-19 relief package that President Joe Biden signed into law earlier this month. ... And although the measures are temporary, Biden and his Democratic Party allies have pledged to pass more legislation making the changes permanent. The expansion measures are a remarkable achievement, all the more so because Obamacare’s very survival seemed so improbable just a few years ago, when Donald Trump won the presidency. Wiping the law off the books had become the Republicans’ defining cause, and Trump had pledged to make repeal his first priority. (Cohn, 3/22)
Los Angeles Times:
Getting First COVID Shot Continues To Be A Challenge In L.A.
Appointments to get a COVID-19 vaccination remain a precious commodity in Los Angeles County this week, as many slots are reserved for second doses and officials continue to contend with a supply crunch. At county-run sites — the Pomona Fairplex, the Forum in Inglewood, Cal State Northridge, the county Office of Education, Six Flags Magic Mountain, the Balboa Sports Complex, El Sereno Recreation Center and the Antelope Valley Health Center — “the remainder of appointments this week are dedicated to providing second doses,” the L.A. County Department of Public Health tweeted Sunday. (Money, 3/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Contra Costa Becomes Second Bay Area County To Expand Vaccine Eligibility To People 50 And Over
Contra Costa County on Monday announced it is expanding coronavirus vaccine eligibility to people 50 and older who live or work in the county, becoming the second Bay Area county after Solano to do so. California has not expanded eligibility to people 50 and older, but does plan to open up vaccinations to people 16 and older by the last week of April, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday. The California Department of Public Health on Monday declined to say whether it will first expand eligibility to those 50 and older before opening it up to everyone else. (Ho, 3/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Treasure Island To Get First Vaccination Site This Weekend
San Francisco’s least vaccinated neighborhood, Treasure Island, will get its first vaccination site this weekend, The Chronicle has learned. Eligible residents will be vaccinated at a mobile clinic set up at the ShipShape Community Center the next three Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., officials said Monday. Then the clinic will move to another location as the city continues to expand its mobile outreach, seeking to drive up vaccination rates in communities that are underserved and that thus far have had comparatively low rates of uptake on vaccines, health officials said. (Bobrowsky, 3/22)
The Bakersfield Californian:
CSUB's COVID-19 Vaccination Center With Capacity For 5,400 Daily Doses To Open This Week
A hub that can administer 5,400 doses of the COVID-19 vaccination daily is scheduled to open at Cal State Bakersfield on Friday. It will be open seven days a week. Details of the first mass vaccination center on the west side of Bakersfield were offered in a news release by Kaiser Permanente. Bakersfield was chosen because surrounding communities have high rates of COVID-19 while having some of the lowest rates of vaccination, the news release stated. (Gallegos, 3/22)
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Sonoma County Wine Industry Has Vaccinated Over 95% Of Essential Vineyard And Production Workers
More than 95% of Sonoma County’s 8,000 essential vineyard and winery workers have now been vaccinated, wine industry leaders announced Monday, the result of a coordinated effort with local health clinics that California’s top agriculture official lauded as a model for the state. The campaign, which started in early February, will serve as a blueprint to distribute the coronavirus vaccine to other farmworkers in Sonoma County and could lead to long-term partnerships that improve the delivery of health care to the county’s field laborers long after the pandemic has subsided. (Varian, 3/22)
Los Angeles Times:
How COVID-19 Vaccines Are Reaching High-Need L.A. County Areas
As workers set up a COVID-19 vaccine clinic under tents in a vast park, volunteers in South Gate hit the streets, knocking on doors and chatting up street vendors to spread the word. In Chinatown, outreach workers are ducking into restaurants, urging line cooks and servers to walk down the block and get the shot. And in South Los Angeles, a young volunteer is papering telephone poles with fliers containing appointment information. (Lau and Nelson, 3/22)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Automated Twitter Accounts Aid San Diegans’ Search For Vaccine Appointments
With vaccine demand outpacing supply, securing an appointment can be migraine-inducing. But a few software experts have developed automated Twitter accounts to help. These accounts, known as bots, regularly scan to see if appointments are available —and, if so, how many, where and when — before tweeting out that information. (Wosen, 3/22)
San Jose Mercury News and Santa Cruz Sentinel:
UK Coronavirus Variant Detected In Two Santa Cruz County Cases
The County of Santa Cruz Health Services Agency announced Monday that the B.1.17 variant, more popularly called the “UK variant,” has made its way onto county soil. The county is monitoring two confirmed reports, it said in a prepared statement late in the afternoon. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been monitoring multiple mutations of the coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2. “Our case numbers look very good right now,” said Santa Cruz County Health Official Dr. Gail Newel in the statement. “However, we must not let down our guard and need to continue wearing masks and practicing social distancing while in public. A virus cannot mutate if it cannot replicate.” (Hartman, 3/23)
San Francisco Chronicle:
DoorDash To Start Delivering Coronavirus Test Kits - But Not To S.F.
DoorDash is now delivering same-day coronavirus test kits, the company said Monday. But they will not be accessible for Bay Area residents. The San Francisco delivery company said it would offer customers — in a select number of U.S. cities — same-day coronavirus PCR test-collection kits through a partnership with Everywell and Vault Health, two digital health companies. (Vainshtein, 3/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Rapid Tests And 5-Day Quarantines Could Help Bring Back Air Travel
Standardized coronavirus tests and shorter quarantine times could make air travel safer and easier as the pandemic continues, according to a new study by researchers at UCSF. Airports that regularly use so-called PCR — polymerase chain reaction — or on-site rapid tests could detect nearly 90% of travelers who don’t show symptoms before they board aircraft, according to a large-scale computer simulation designed by the research team. (Vaziri, 3/22)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Scripps Doctor Becomes Patient No. 1 In First Trial As Part Of MD Anderson Partnership
Before she was diagnosed with breast cancer in December, Scripps Health physician Noemi Doohan had a habit of working up to 80 hours a week treating patients, training family medicine residents and doing public health work during the pandemic. At a time when she most needed, the 58-year-old Solana Beach resident had to figure out how to step back from her hospital work to get the treatment she needed. But thanks to her medical situation and its timing, she became very important to Scripps Health is very different way. (Kragen, 3/23)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Bay Area Doctor Faces Charges Of Writing Excess Opioid Prescriptions Following Sting Operation
A San Jose physician charged with illegally distributing opioids and committing health care fraud in 2018 issued 8,201 prescriptions in a year for large quantities of narcotics, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. Donald Siao, 55, of San Jose, faces three counts of illegal distribution of hydrocodone and one count of illegal distribution of oxycodone pills, officials said in a release. Siao was also charged with two counts of health care fraud. (Arredondo, 3/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Politically Connected Appointees Win Confirmation To California Medical Watchdog Board
California legislators approved three politically connected appointees Monday to the state board that licenses and regulates doctors, seven months after Gov. Gavin Newsom used his emergency powers during the coronavirus pandemic to extend their confirmation deadlines. The appointees are Asif Mahmood, a Los Angeles County doctor who shared campaign consultants with Newsom when they both ran for statewide office in 2018, and Richard Thorp and Dev GnanaDev, past presidents of the California Medical Association. The organization represents physicians and has longstanding ties to the governor, who dined with its chief executive and top lobbyist at the French Laundry in November. (Koseff, 3/22)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Local Family Seeks Reform Of State Medical Board
A Bakersfield family is turning its grief into action by advocating for reform of the state board that oversees medical doctors to make it more responsive to families like theirs who have lost loved ones to what they believe was severe neglect by a doctor. The mother and fiance of Demi Dominguez made comments Friday during a hearing held by a California Legislature panel as part of a routine four-year review of the California Medical Board. "The medical board is failing families," said Xavier de Leon, Dominguez's fiance. "Change needs to happen now so no other father is faced with losing his family." (Shepard, 3/22)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
San Diego Arts, Health, Science And Youth Groups To Share $71M From Prebys Foundation
In one of the broadest acts of local philanthropy in years, the Conrad Prebys Foundation is giving more than $71 million to 112 organizations across San Diego County to bolster the arts, health care, medical research, animal conservation, education, and the welfare of young people. The money will benefit such diverse major projects as The Shell, a new outdoor concert venue on San Diego Bay, a major expansion of Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, the modernization of the Denny Sanford Children’s Zoo in Balboa Park and improvements to the nearby Fleet Science Center. (Robbins, 3/23)