Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
It’s Open Enrollment. Here’s What You Need to Know
For Californians who are buying their own insurance, enrollment in 2021 health plans runs through Jan. 31. (Bernard J. Wolfson, )
Newsom’s Emergency Order Exceeded His Authority, Judge Rules: Gov. Gavin Newsom exceeded his authority by ordering elections officials to mail all California voters ballots, a judge said Monday in a tentative ruling that could shape the limits of gubernatorial powers but does not affect Tuesday's election. Read more from Politico, the Los Angeles Times and AP.
It’s Election Day– Are Your Children Stressed Out, Too? Emeryville resident Sarah Isaacs has worried about what the next four years may look like. But her 10-year-old daughter, Miriam, a student at Sankofa Academy in Oakland, had her own anxieties. “I’m very scared,” Miriam told The Chronicle on Monday. “When I’m thinking about [the election] and I get stressed over my head, I sit down and take little breaks to distract myself with something else.” The tension has prompted many parents to take on tough conversations and tackle not only their own worries, but those of their children. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
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
KPBS:
What's On The Ballot? Here's A Look At California's 2020 Propositions
While much of the attention on the November election is focused on the race for President, Californians are going to have a lot of other decisions to make. One (or 12) of the biggest: the statewide ballot measures. Yes, there will be a dozen different propositions for California voters this year — Prop. 14 through Prop. 25 — on everything from expanding rent control to ending the ban on affirmative action. (Nichols and Nixon, 11/2)
Stat:
10 Health And Science-Focused Races To Watch On Election Night
Many voters will also decide on substantial reforms via statewide initiative or ballot proposal. Numerous states are weighing plans to decriminalize or legalize marijuana and other drugs. Other states are looking to tighten restrictions or raise taxes for e-cigarette and tobacco purchases. Further down the ballot, Democrats are also hoping to capture control of several state legislatures, which have served as local laboratories for health care policymaking on issues including drug pricing, Medicaid expansion, surprise billing, price transparency, and more. (Facher, Florko, Joseph and Sheridan, 11/3)
KQED:
Mental Health Suffered In Blue States After Trump's 2016 Win, New Study Finds
Everyone has bad days, but after the 2016 presidential election, many people living in Democratic states had more of them than usual. That's according to a new study by researchers at UCSF and Duke University, who found that residents in states that supported Hillary Clinton experienced, on average, an additional half a day of poor mental health in the month following the election (December) — a collective uptick of 54.6 million more days — compared to the month preceding it (October). (Brosnahan, 11/2)
Los Angeles Times:
11.2 Million Californians Vote Ahead Of 2020 Election Day
More than half of California’s registered voters have already cast their ballot on the eve of election day, according to an established vote-tracking company. Of the 22 million registered voters this year, 11.2 million — or 51% — had returned their ballots as of 8 a.m. Monday morning, Political Data Inc. reported. The firm, a trusted data source, is a bipartisan voter data company based in California that tracks detailed voter information. “It’s undeniable, absolutely factual, 100% we’re going to set a record in the total number of votes cast in an election in California,” said Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data. (Pinho, 11/2)
Los Angeles Times:
Boarded-Up Stores Across L.A. Reflect An Anxious, Unprecedented Election Day
Michael Williams stepped out of his apartment in downtown Long Beach on Monday to buy a couple of midday Red Bulls for himself and his girlfriend. He was unsettled, thinking of an image he saw on Twitter of a man waiting for election results holding an AK-47. Now he noticed the streets were eerily empty — and the shopkeepers were boarding up for election day. He watched in disbelief and texted photos to his friends in North Carolina. “This is disturbing,” he recalled thinking. (Mozingo, Seidman and Campa, 11/3)
KPBS:
San Diego Hospitals Bracing For Potential Emergency Needs Around The Election
The job of Monique Imroth is to always be ready for worst-case scenarios, but the director of emergency management at UC San Diego Health said she hopes she’s never right. "No one wishes they were wrong more often than me, but that said, the leaders of this organization depend on me and my team to say, 'We think this could be a problem,'" Imroth said. Imroth, also co-chair of the San Diego Healthcare Disaster Coalition, said the region's hospitals plan year-round for events that could bring a mass of patients, like a wildfire or COVID-19 surge, and this year that includes the presidential election. Cities from coast to coast are preparing for protests that could turn violent amid the political divisions. (Mento, 11/2)
Los Angeles Times:
Climbing COVID-19 Cases Hurt Hope For Faster L.A. Reopening
Hopes that a wider reopening of Los Angeles County’s economy could come in time for the holidays appear to be fading, as the region continues to see a steady uptick in the average number of daily coronavirus infections. While the spike is nowhere near as severe as those in other parts of the country, L.A. County’s seven-day average has increased from about 940 new cases a day in early October to more than 1,275 each day as of last week, health officials said. (Money, 11/2)
LA Daily News:
Gatherings Singled Out As Driving L.A. County Coronavirus Infections
With Los Angeles County gripping for a holiday season that could potentially see an increase in coronavirus infections, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer continued her clarion call on Monday for people to refrain from gathering together in even small numbers. The county on Monday, Nov. 2, reported an additional 1,406 cases and two associated deaths bringing to 310,595 the number of people who have tested positive and 7,076 total deaths. The high case count on a Monday was not due to a backlog and came on a day when the county typically has lower case numbers reported because of less tests and reporting delays over the weekend. Considering that Sunday, too, had a high case total with 1,590 reported new cases, the trend was not looking good for the remainder of the week, Ferrer said. (Rosenfeld, 11/2)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
At Least 96 Inmates, Staff At One San Diego Federal Jail Have COVID-19
At least 86 inmates and 10 staff members from the Western Region Detention Facility, a privately-run downtown San Diego federal jail, have active cases of COVID-19, according to the company that operates the facility and defense attorneys briefed on the matter. (Riggins, 11/2)
Modesto Bee:
Modesto Retirement Center Struck By Coronavirus Deaths
As Stanislaus County’s coronavirus numbers were tapering off in September, an outbreak was sweeping through a Modesto retirement center that had mostly avoided infections for months. The nonprofit Casa de Modesto said in a COVID-19 update Saturday it had no current cases of the serious respiratory illness. An outbreak, however, infected 17 patients and led to 13 deaths among patients in a skilled nursing wing from late August to Oct. 1, according to information posted on Casa de Modesto’s website. One skilled nursing patient died in October. (Carlson, 11/3)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Rising Infection Rate Again Puts County At Risk Of Lockdown
San Diego County will need the biggest testing adjustment it has ever received to avoid falling into the state’s most-restrictive tier this week. According to coronavirus testing data available Monday, the day the state usually pulls information to make its weekly tier calculations, the region’s unadjusted case rate for the seven-day period from Oct. 18 through Oct. 24 is 8.7 cases per 100,000 residents, significantly above the limit of seven that marks the boundary between the region’s current reopening tier, color-coded red, and its most-severe purple tier. (Sisson, 11/2)
Marin Independent Journal:
Marin County Might Order Quarantine For Some Travelers
Marin residents who travel over the holidays to other states where coronavirus transmission is higher than the Bay Area could be subject to a 14-day quarantine when they return, officials said. The potential restrictions come as Marin and Bay Area authorities seek to reopen all schools for in-person instruction — while maintaining the county’s orange tier 3, or moderate, virus prevalence status — even as the holiday travel season approaches. (Brenner, 11/3)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Stanford To Enroll 1,000 Volunteers For Johnson & Johnson Coronavirus Vaccine Trial
Stanford Medicine has begun enrolling volunteers to participate in a clinical trial for a coronavirus vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson — one of a handful of vaccines considered front-runners in the global race for a vaccine. Enrollment for Phase 3 of the trial began Friday, marking the final stage before potential authorization in which tens of thousands of people receive the vaccine to see if it is effective. Stanford plans to enroll 1,000 volunteers as part of the global trial that will include 60,000 people at 180 sites around the world. (Ho, 11/2)
San Francisco Chronicle:
S.F. Contact Tracing Reached More Than 80% Of Patients In The Spring
San Francisco’s coronavirus contact tracing team reached more than 80% of patients and their close contacts in the spring as the program was just getting started, but fewer than half of those contacts were tested at the time, according to a study published Monday. The paper is among the first detailed analyses of a contact tracing program in the United States. It identifies both the relative success of the San Francisco model in the early months of the pandemic and critical shortcomings, including access to testing and time lags in reaching individuals at risk of infection. (Allday, 11/2)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Bakersfield Extends CARES Act Eligibility To Businesses That Have Already Received Funds
As the coronavirus pandemic enters its ninth month, some businesses continue to struggle with making their rent and paying full-time employees. With the first announcements of federal relief long in the rearview mirror, businesses have had to stretch their forgivable loans and paycheck grants thin in order to survive. But now, some local businesses may be in for a little relief as the city of Bakersfield expands eligibility requirements for its own small-business grant program. (Morgen, 11/2)
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Sonoma County Grapples With Changes To Enforcement Approach As Coronavirus Continues To Ravage Community
Three months after calling for stronger enforcement of public health orders to slow the spread of coronavirus, Sonoma County supervisors said Sunday they must recalibrate their approach as the county remains mired in lockdown. (Silvy and Espinoza, 11/2)
Bay Area News Group:
Pac-12 Announces In-Season COVID-19 Testing Protocols To Solve The False-Positive Problem On Game Day
The Pac-12 unveiled an in-season testing plan Monday designed to reduce the on-field spread of coronavirus and eliminate the potential for players to be held out of competition due to false-positive results. The protocols include the use of rapid PCR tests, which would be available on game day as a safety net in case the antigen tests produce a positive result. (Wilner, 11/2)
San Jose Mercury News:
San Jose Unified Plans To Reopen Classrooms In January
San Jose Unified School District announced plans Monday to reopen classrooms in January to students who have been studying at home through online remote learning since the coronavirus pandemic erupted in March. The announcement from the district with more than 28,000 students in 41 elementary, middle and high schools comes amid growing impatience among many parents with continued school closures even as coronavirus cases subside and many private, charter and small district schools already have reopened. (Woolfolk, 11/2)
LA Daily News:
Anthem Blue Cross Donates $100,000 To LAUSD Relief Program
A $100,000 donation from the Anthem Blue Cross Foundation will help provide meals and other necessities to families in need while Los Angeles Unified schools remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, district officials announced Monday. The donation to Los Angeles Students Most in Need, a charity established by LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner, will support the district’s ongoing food-relief efforts that have already provided more than 73 million meals to students and families — the largest food relief effort of its kind in the nation’s history. (11/2)
Sacramento Bee:
Can Sacramento Fix Downtown, Help Homeless Amid COVID-19?
Downtown Sacramento, abandoned in March by thousands of office workers when the the coronavirus pandemic struck, is like a world turned inside out. Work from home orders that emptied office buildings have helped lay bare just how bad Sacramento’s homeless problem is and how little the city, state and social service organizations have succeeded – despite a decade of attempts to address one of Sacramento’s most vexing social issues. Alarmed by what they say are more encampments and some “aggressive behavior,” 60 members of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership business and property owner group sent Mayor Darrell Steinberg a letter last month saying they believe the homeless issue is putting downtown’s economic future in jeopardy. (Bizjak, Clift and Reese, 11/3)
Los Angeles Times:
O.C. Health Care Agency Looks To Kids To Promote 'Mask Message' As COVID-19 Cases Hold Steady
Halloween may be over, but with mask-wearing continuing for the foreseeable future, Orange County Health Care Agency officials are inviting students countywide to submit designs by Nov. 19 for the first “Mask Message Contest.” The idea is to help normalize facial coverings while the coronavirus pandemic continues its upward climb in Orange County. On Monday, agency officials reported another 183 cases for a cumulative total of 60,298 and a seven-day average of 5.1 new cases per 100,000 residents. (Cardine, 11/2)
Southern California News Group:
Recreational Users Need To Know That Killer Chemical Lurks Everywhere, Say California Parents Whose Kids Died From Fentanyl
California was over-represented at this somber gathering of parents on a mission — parents whose children were killed by fentanyl, a cheap synthetic opioid some 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine. These kids were not hard-core addicts, their parents say: Many had just started to experiment, or were celebrating birthdays, or were seeking a thrill or trying to self-medicate a diagnosed mental illness. It only took one pill, one line of “cocaine,” one single incident, to kill them. (Sforza, 11/3)
Fresno Bee:
The Fight That Jeopardized Top Care At Fresno Hospital Appears To End. What We Know
Community Medical Centers and a medical group on Saturday signed a new long-term agreement following months of negotiations that in September led to the interruption of neurosurgical trauma services for more than a week. The suspension of those critical services forced at least 21 patients to be flown to hospitals outside of the area. (Amaro, 11/3)