California To End Covid Emergency In February: Barring a massive winter surge or new vaccine-resistant variant, California’s covid-19 state of emergency will end Feb. 28, 2023, nearly three years from its initiation, officials from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Monday. Read more from CalMatters, CapRadio, and AP.
Harris Pushes For Abortion Rights During LA Visit: Vice President Kamala Harris reaffirmed the Biden administration’s commitment to reestablishing federal abortion protections during a discussion with local and state leaders at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles on Monday. Harris is scheduled to speak at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser later Monday. Read more from the L.A. 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
San Francisco Chronicle:
Bay Area COVID Bivalent Booster Shot Uptake Slow, Officials Say
Bay Area health officials are worried that not enough people are rolling up their sleeves to get the updated bivalent COVID-19 booster shots ahead of the upcoming holiday season. “What we’ve seen so far is a very slow and sluggish uptake of these boosters,” Dr. Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County health officer, said at a briefing Monday. “Among those who are eligible, just 11% of people living in our county have gotten their booster shot.” (Vaziri, 10/17)
CNBC:
White House Covid Czar Calls On Seniors To Get Omicron Booster Now
A top White House health official on Monday issued a stark warning to older people about the health risk they face this fall and winter from Covid-19. (Kimball, 10/17)
CNBC:
Dr. Fauci: Covid Omicron Subvariants BQ.1, BQ.1.1 Are 'Troublesome'
As winter inches closer, Dr. Fauci is sounding the alarm about a pair of “pretty troublesome” Covid variants. The two descendants of omicron’s BA.5 subvariant, called BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, both have dangerous “qualities or characteristics that could evade some of the interventions we have,” Fauci told CBS News on Friday. (Constantino, 10/17)
Orange County Register:
L.A. County Reported 1,532 More Cases And 22 More Deaths, Oct. 17
Los Angeles County public health officials reported 1,532 more cases of the coronavirus since Saturday, bringing the total number of cases to 3,472,418 as of Monday, Oct. 17. (Goertzen, 10/17)
SF Gate:
New COVID-19 Variants Are Coming. Will There Be A Winter Surge?
As the weather cools and the San Francisco Bay Area enters its traditional cold and flu season, residents are starting to wonder: Will the fall and winter bring another COVID-19 surge, too? (Graff, 10/17)
Palm Springs Desert Sun:
COVID-19: Cases Remain Low In Riverside County, Coachella Valley
COVID-19 cases and other metrics have plateaued in Riverside County and the Coachella Valley, according to new county data. (Sasic, 10/17)
Stat:
Biden Officials Scramble As Covid Variants Test Evusheld's Effectiveness
Biden health officials are bracing for the prospect that the country’s sole preventive Covid-19 treatment for immunocompromised people could be ineffective this winter. (Owermohle, 10/18)
Covid and the Trump White House
The Hill:
Trump Officials Interfered With CDC Guidance For Political Purposes, House Panel Finds
The Trump administration regularly interfered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) process for developing and issuing guidance about the coronavirus, changed scientific reports and undermined top public health officials, a congressional panel said Monday. The House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis said interviews, emails and other documents obtained by the panel showed how political appointees in the Trump administration took control of CDC’s public communications and overruled scientists in an effort to bend the agency to Trump’s rosy outlook on the pandemic. (Weixel, 10/17)
Bloomberg:
Trump’s CDC Changed Covid Reports Under Political Pressure, Panel Finds
The CDC bowed to the Trump administration’s demands to change the editorial process of its weekly scientific journal after warnings from then health secretary Alex Azar to “get in line,” a House investigation found. The pressure faced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report‘s procedures was one of several instances of political interference by former President Donald Trump’s aides that the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis identified in a report released Monday. The report was provided to Bloomberg Law ahead of the official release. (Baumann, 10/17)
The Washington Post:
CDC Officials Describe Intense Pressure, Job Threats From Trump White House
Former CDC director Robert Redfield, former top deputy Anne Schuchat and others described how the Trump White House and its allies repeatedly “bullied” staff, tried to rewrite their publications and threatened their jobs in an attempt to align the CDC with the more optimistic view of the pandemic espoused by Donald Trump, the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis concluded in a report released Monday. Several public health officials detailed a months-long campaign against Schuchat sparked by Trump appointees’ belief that her grim assessments of the pandemic reflected poorly on the president, leading Schuchat, a 32-year CDC veteran, to openly wonder if she would be fired in the summer of 2020, her colleagues told the panel. (Diamond, 10/17)
Reuters:
Trump Administration Blocked CDC Transit Mask Mandate, Report Shows
Former President Donald Trump's administration at a crucial time in the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 blocked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from adopting a federal mandate requiring face masks on airline flights and other forms of transit, a congressional report released on Monday said. Marty Cetron, a senior CDC official, is cited in the report as saying the federal public health agency began working on the proposed order in July 2020 after its experts determined that there was scientific evidence to support requiring masks in public and commercial transportation. (Shepardson, 10/17)
Newsweek:
Trump Admin Tried To Shelve Findings That Discredited COVID Drug: Report
The administration of former President Donald Trump allegedly attempted to bury findings that discredited drugs unproven to cure COVID, according to a congressional report released Monday. The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis headed by Democratic Representative Jim Clyburn reported that scientific integrity was compromised by Trump and his White House "to serve the former president's political goals." (Mordowanec, 10/17)
Insider:
Fauci Had 'Bad Feeling' Before Trump Floated Using Disinfectants For COVID-19
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top expert on infectious diseases, said in a recent interview that he developed a "bad feeling" ahead of an April 2020 White House briefing where then-President Donald Trump floated the idea of potentially treating COVID-19 with disinfectants. ... "I didn't want to go up on there with this because I had a bad feeling about when Homeland Security brought this guy in, he briefed the people in the Situation Room beforehand. And as soon as I heard it, I said, holy [expletive], this is going to go bad. Why don't I bow out of this one?" Fauci said. (Dorman, 10/16)
CBS News:
Top CDC Scientist Said COVID-Era Health Policy Used To Expel Migrants Unfairly Stigmatized Them
The U.S. government's top public health expert on migration told Congress he refused to approve a policy allowing mass expulsions at the U.S.-Mexico border because he believed the measure, enacted by President Donald Trump and retained by President Joe Biden, unfairly stigmatized migrants as spreaders of COVID-19. (Montoya-Galvez, 10/17)
CapRadio:
California’s Pro-Abortion Ballot Measure Is Poised To Pass. So Why Are Democrats Spending So Much Time And Money On It?
Californians overwhelmingly support the right to legal abortion. So why are state and national Democrats spending time — and millions of dollars — campaigning for a reproductive rights ballot measure? Proposition 1 would add the “fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” including the right to abortion and to contraception — to the state constitution. After the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned the national right to an abortion earlier this year, advocates say it would provide stronger protections against potential national abortion restrictions, such as the one introduced by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. (Nixon, 10/17)
The Hill:
House Democrats Move To Reaffirm FDA Authority On Abortion Pill Access
House Democrats on Monday introduced a resolution to reaffirm the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authority to preempt state law and ensure patients continue to have access to reproductive health care products. The resolution from Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) reaffirms the FDA’s authority to prevent states from enacting regulations that limit or prohibit patients from accessing reproductive health products approved by the agency, including abortion pills delivered directly to patients. (Weixel, 10/17)
Axios:
Social Media Loses Ground On Abortion Misinformation
Big Tech platforms are blocking abortion-pill distribution information and permitting false narratives about abortion to spread, more than 100 days after the Supreme Court's ruling overturning a constitutional right to abortion. (Gold and Gonzalez, 10/18)
Stat:
After Dobbs, U.S. Medical Students Head Abroad For Abortion Training
A fourth-year medical student, Tema, faced an abrupt interruption to her education earlier this year. A state law banning abortion after six weeks went into effect hours after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and two days later, the clinic where her school provided first-hand abortion experience shut down. (Goldhill, 10/18)
The 19th:
Bill Aims To Improve Care Of Pregnant Women, Babies In Federal Prisons
Legislation introduced by Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Republican Sen. Susan Collins aims to improve care in federal prisons for pregnant and postpartum women and their babies. (Gilyard, 10/17)
The Mercury News:
Pregnancy And Marijuana, Do They Mix?
Clarissa Mercado couldn’t get out of bed. A few weeks into her fourth pregnancy, the 33-year-old from Pittsburg felt sicker than she’d ever felt in her life. She spent her days vomiting. Smoothies with fresh ginger, crackers in the morning, even water made her throw up. And no morning sickness remedies – natural or prescription – helped. (Barrett, 10/18)
Bay Area Reporter:
Impact Of Dobbs Decision Has Already Affected LGBTQ Health Care, Study Finds
While the fallout of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization is still being felt around the country after it overturned Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion, its impacts on the country's LGBTQ population are still being studied. In the case of health care, however, some of its effects are already being identified. (10/18)
The 19th:
Black Queer Men Still Lag In Access To Monkeypox Vaccine
Monkeypox virus (MPV) cases are continuing to trend down overall across the United States, but queer Black Americans are still being disproportionately affected, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show. (Rummler, 10/17)
Los Angeles Blade:
GLAAD Examines Impact Of HIV, COVID, & MPV In New Report
On October 6, in a TIME Magazine exclusive, GLAAD released “Invisible People,” a first-of-its-kind report detailing the disruption caused by COVID-19 in the lives of people living with HIV. The 23-page report combines a comprehensive analysis of peer-reviewed scientific literature, qualitative interviews of people living with HIV, affected communities, and community-based organizations (CBOs) serving these populations. (10/17)
Los Angeles Times:
California Is A 'sanctuary State' For Trans Kids, But Moving Isn't Easy
Rachel Gonzales, 39, has thought a lot about what she would do if child welfare agents came to her home in Dallas to investigate whether her 12-year-old daughter is receiving gender-affirming care. She’s hired an attorney, given all three of her children the phone number, and told them to call the lawyer if anyone shows up when she and her husband are away from home. But Gonzales is not making plans to move west from Texas, even after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law recently making California a “sanctuary” for families with transgender children. (Bierman, 10/18)
Health Care Costs and Accessibility
USA Today:
Inflation Rises Faster Than Medical Costs For First Time In 40 Years
As consumers choose a 2023 health insurance plan from employers in coming weeks, many will find rate hikes are modest when compared to everyday living expenses. It’s the first time in over three decades that overall inflation accelerated at a faster rate than medical costs. (Alltucker, 10/17)
USA Today:
High Cost Of Insulin Prompts 1.3 Million Americans To Ration The Drug
A study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine estimated 16.5% of adults with diabetes who are dependent on insulin did not take full doses as prescribed due to the affordability of the drug. (Alltucker, 10/17)
The Wall Street Journal:
Families Still Struggle To Find Baby Formula Nearly One Year After Shortages Began
Many U.S. households are still struggling to find baby formula, almost a year since supplies thinned on store shelves and eight months after a nationwide recall. Adults in roughly one-third of households with infant children who typically use formula had trouble obtaining it last month, according to a recent survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. Nearly one in five of affected households has less than a week of formula on hand, the survey showed. (Newman and Peterson, 10/17)
Sacramento Bee:
DA: Candy-Like Rainbow Fentanyl In Pills In Sacramento Area
A street drug known as “rainbow” fentanyl has been found in the Sacramento area, prosecutors said Monday, as they warned residents to be on the lookout for the candy-like pills. (McGough, 10/17)
The Mercury News:
Elizabeth Holmes: Key Witness Tells Judge He Stands By Testimony
A key prosecution witness against Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes told her judge Monday that although he visited her home months after her fraud conviction — an incident Holmes is seeking to use as grounds for a new trial — he stands by the testimony he gave in her trial. Holmes is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 18 on four counts of felony fraud, after a jury in January convicted her of defrauding investors in her now-defunct Palo Alto blood-testing startup out of more than $144 million. Legal experts say Judge Edward Davila will likely hand her a multi-year prison sentence. (Baron, 10/17)
Reuters:
Hair-Straightening Products Linked With Uterine Cancer Risk: Study
Hair-straightening products may significantly increase the risk of developing uterine cancer among those who use them frequently, a large study published on Monday suggests. "We estimated that 1.64% of women who never used hair straighteners would go on to develop uterine cancer by the age of 70, but for frequent users, that risk goes up to 4.05%," study leader Alexandra White of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Safety (NIEHS) said in a statement. (Lapid, 10/17)
The New York Times:
Hair Straighteners May Pose A Small Risk For Uterine Cancer, Study Finds
While the increased risk was found among women from all racial and ethnic backgrounds, Black women might be disproportionately affected: Sixty percent of participants who reported using hair straighteners self-identified as Black women, according to the study. (Rabin, 10/17)