San Francisco Wants To Carve Out Sick Leave For Domestic Workers: Cleaners, nannies and others who work in private homes rarely get paid sick leave. San Francisco wants to change that. A "first-of-its-kind" ordinance, being introduced Tuesday, would establish a portable paid sick leave benefit that would allow people who work for multiple households to earn slivers of paid sick leave from each employer and then consolidate them. Read more on the proposal from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Facebook 'Froze' In Face Of Anti-Vax Comment Storm: Facebook ignored or delayed advice from staffers on how to curtail a swarm of anti-vaccine, misinformation-led comments on its platform. This news, reported by the AP, is the latest in a series of revelations from internal documents that detail how the social giant's business practices have hurt public health. For more reporting on the Facebook Papers, scroll down.
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 Press-Enterprise:
Company Hired By Riverside County To Push COVID-19 Vaccines Also Has Campaign Against Shot Mandates
Advocates for increasing coronavirus vaccination rates among Inland minority communities expressed outrage Monday, Oct. 25, that an advertising agency Riverside County hired to urge people to get the shots has launched a separate campaign against vaccine mandates. In July, the county signed a $226,500 contract with Traffik, an Irvine-based advertising agency, and Tzunu Strategies in Riverside, to develop culturally-appropriate messages with the goal of boosting COVID-19 vaccinations among Latino, African American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. Traffik’s CEO Anthony Trimino on Oct. 21 launched a “We Are Still Heroes” campaign opposing California’s mandate that healthcare workers be vaccinated against the virus, according to PRNewswire. A campaign advertisement ran Sunday, Oct. 17, in the Orange County Register, which like this newspaper is a Southern California News Group publication. (Downey, 10/25)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Student Sues San Diego Unified, Objects To Vaccine Mandate For Religious Reasons
A Scripps Ranch High School student has sued San Diego Unified School District in federal court, arguing that the new student vaccine mandate constitutes religious discrimination. The student, a 16-year-old junior at Scripps Ranch High School, said her religious beliefs prohibit her from taking the vaccine. The complaint asserts that, because COVID-19 vaccines were tested on stem cell lines originally derived from aborted fetuses, taking the vaccine runs counter to the student’s Christian beliefs. The lawsuit says the district is violating her First Amendment right to freely exercise her faith. (Brennan, 10/25)
CNBC:
Businesses Ask White House To Delay Biden Covid Vaccine Mandate Until After Holidays
Worried that President Joe Biden’s Covid vaccine mandate for private companies could cause a mass exodus of employees, business groups are pleading with the White House to delay the rule until after the holiday season. White House officials at the Office of Management and Budget held dozens of meetings with labor unions, industry lobbyists and private individuals last week as the administration conducts its final review of the mandate, which will require businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure they are vaccinated against Covid or tested weekly for the virus. It is estimated to cover roughly two-thirds of the private sector workforce. (Kimball, 10/25)
CNN:
Supreme Court Justices May Have Met A Vaccine Mandate Some Of Them Don't Like
A group of unvaccinated Maine health care workers are asking the Supreme Court to block a state rule that mandates certain health care facilities require their employees to be fully vaccinated, arguing that the requirement violates their religious liberty rights. So far, the justices have declined invitations to strike down vaccine mandates at Indiana University and New York City schools, but the Maine dispute could be different. That's because the workers are making religious claims that could attract some of the justices. (de Vogue, 10/26)
Reuters:
Moderna Says Its Covid Vaccine Has Strong Results In Children Ages 6 To 11
Moderna Inc. said on Monday its Covid-19 vaccine generated a strong immune response and was generally well-tolerated in children ages 6 to 11, citing interim data from a study. The company said it planned to submit the data to U.S., European and other regulators soon. (10/25)
Stat:
Tracking The FDA Advisory Panel Meeting On Covid-19 Vaccines For Kids
The moment some parents have been anxiously awaiting for months is almost here: The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 will likely be authorized for use in the next week, after completion of a four-step process that begins today.It is also a moment some portion of parents has been dreading for months. And over the weekend, they made their concerns known to experts on the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccines advisory committee, which meets today to review the evidence on the Pfizer vaccine’s safety and efficacy in kids ages 5 to 11. Members of the the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) were deluged by an organized email campaign urging them not to recommend the vaccine. (Branswell and Herper, 10/26)
The New York Times:
Are Vaccine Boosters Widely Needed? Some Federal Advisers Have Misgivings
Following a series of endorsements over the last month by scientific panels advising federal agencies, tens of millions of Americans are now eligible for booster shots of coronavirus vaccines. But the recommendations — even those approved unanimously — mask significant dissent and disquiet among those advisers about the need for booster shots in the United States. In interviews last week, several advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and to the Food and Drug Administration said data show that, with the exception of adults over age 65, the vast majority of Americans are already well protected against severe illness and do not need booster shots. (Mandavilli, 10/25)
Bay Area News Group:
COVID: Should I Choose Moderna, Pfizer Or J&J For My Vaccine Booster?
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention green-lighted mixing booster shot brands last week for the various COVID-19 vaccines, it said people who originally had one kind may choose another. But is it better to mix or to match? And when you make an appointment or drop by your favorite drug store, will you really have your choice like it’s Coke, Pepsi or RC Cola? The CDC left those questions unanswered when it announced “eligible individuals may choose which vaccine they receive as a booster dose” and that the agency’s recommendations “now allow for this type of mix and match dosing.” (Woolfolk, 10/25)
Sacramento Bee:
An Unvaccinated Sacramento Man Spent 45 Days In The Hospital With COVID-19
Patrick Kittle, 55, was diagnosed with COVID-19 in early September after refusing to get the vaccine. He has spent more than 45 days in hospitals and an inpatient rehabilitation center and is now asking others to get the vaccine. (Bessex, 10/25)
Bloomberg:
Vaccine Cash Incentives Don't Work, U.S. Study Shows
Financial incentives and other nudges by local governments and employers have failed to increase Covid-19 vaccinations among Americans who are hesitant about getting the shot, a new study shows. What’s more, financial incentives and “negative messages” actually decreased vaccination rates among some groups, underscoring fears about a public backlash, according to the paper circulated by the National Bureau of Economic Research. (Pickert, 10/25)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Three California Teens Developed Severe Psychiatric Symptoms After COVID. Here's What Scientists Say About The Cases
Three California teenagers who developed psychiatric symptoms seemingly overnight are helping researchers at University of California San Francisco better understand how COVID-19 can affect the brain, even in young people. A study of the three, published Monday in the journal JAMA Neurology, is the first to examine how rogue antibodies can attack the brains of pediatric patients who previously tested positive for COVID. Though too small a study to offer broad conclusions, the profiles of the three teens shed light on COVID as a potential cause of psychiatric symptoms in young people, and suggest directions for treatment and further study. (Asimov, 10/25)
City News Service:
LA County Officials: Compliance With COVID Health Rules Is Strong (With Room To Improve)
Los Angeles County health inspectors continue to find overall good compliance with COVID-19 health requirements at local businesses, but there is still room for improvement at many locations when it comes to enforcing mask-wearing requirements, officials said Monday, Oct. 25. According to the county Department of Public Health, inspectors visited roughly 1,500 businesses between Oct. 16-22. Of the businesses inspected, 73% of garment manufacturers, 73% of office sites, 82% of bars, 80% of nightclubs and 86% of lounges were in compliance with the indoor mask-wearing requirement. (10/25)
AP:
COVID Cases Falling, But Trouble Signs Arise As Winter Looms
Tumbling COVID-19 case counts have some schools around the U.S. considering relaxing their mask rules, but deaths nationally have been ticking up over the past few weeks, some rural hospitals are showing signs of strain, and cold weather is setting in. The number of new cases nationally has been plummeting since the delta surge peaked in mid-September. The U.S. is averaging about 73,000 new cases per day, dramatically lower than the 173,000 recorded on Sept. 13. And the number of Americans in the hospital with COVID-19 has plummeted by about half to around 47,000 since early September. (Whitehurst, 10/25)
San Francisco Chronicle:
S.F.'s Latest Pandemic Battle: Restaurants Playing Music Outside, And The Neighbors Who Hate It
The conflict with neighbors started after the owner of Señor Sisig acquired one of the city’s new Just Add Music (JAM) permits, a pandemic-born program created to spur the recovery of restaurants, bars and entertainment venues by allowing music and events outside. One year in, the program has had an unintended consequence: constant friction between small businesses and neighbors throughout the city. Since its start, the city’s Entertainment Commission, which oversees the program, has issued 356 JAM permits — and has received hundreds of noise complaints. Noise complaints have increased by about 30% every month since the JAM permit program began, according to the commission, but the number of businesses playing music outside has gone up by about the same amount. (Kadvany, 10/25)
USA Today Network:
San Joaquin County Coronavirus Cases Flat After 40 Deaths A Week Ago; California Cases Up 5.4%
New coronavirus cases increased 5.4% in California in the week ending Sunday as the state added 39,907 cases. The previous week had 37,864 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19. With 11.87% of the country's population, California had 7.83% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 11 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before. (Stucka, 10/25)
AP:
Facebook Froze As Anti-Vaccine Comments Swarmed Users
In March, as claims about the dangers and ineffectiveness of coronavirus vaccines spun across social media and undermined attempts to stop the spread of the virus, some Facebook employees thought they had found a way to help. By subtly altering how posts about vaccines are ranked in people’s newsfeeds, researchers at the company realized they could curtail the misleading information individuals saw about COVID-19 vaccines and offer users posts from legitimate sources like the World Health Organization. “Given these results, I’m assuming we’re hoping to launch ASAP,” one Facebook employee wrote in March, responding to the internal memo about the study. Instead, Facebook shelved some suggestions from the study. Other changes weren’t made until April. (Klepper and Seitz, 10/26)
HuffPost:
Mark Zuckerberg Let False Anti-Abortion Video Back On Facebook To Mollify GOP: Report
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg intervened to reinstate a false anti-abortion video to assuage conservative Republican politicians, according to internal company documents Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen provided to Congress that The Financial Times examined. ... In one such instance, Zuckerberg was “personally involved” in a 2019 decision to reinstate an anti-abortion video that a moderator had removed from Facebook because of notable — and potentially dangerous — misinformation, according to the documents. (Papenfuss, 10/25)
USA Today:
Facebook Says It’s Stopping Hate And Violence Against Black Americans. Its Own Research Shows Otherwise
Even as civil rights leaders and the Black community registered complaint after complaint about Facebook, internal documents reviewed by USA TODAY show that the company continued to combat a relentless wave of racially motivated hate speech with automated moderation tools that are not sophisticated enough to catch most harmful content and are prone to making mistakes. One Facebook employee estimated that 1 out of every 1,000 pieces of content on the platform are hate speech. With all of the company's enforcement efforts combined, less than 5% of all the hate speech posted to Facebook is deleted, the person said. (Guynn, 10/25)
AP:
People Or Profit? Facebook Papers Show Deep Conflict Within
Facebook the company is losing control of Facebook the product — not to mention the last shreds of its carefully crafted, decade-old image as a benevolent company just wanting to connect the world. Thousands of pages of internal documents provided to Congress by a former employee depict an internally conflicted company where data on the harms it causes is abundant, but solutions, much less the will to act on them, are halting at best. The crisis exposed by the documents shows how Facebook, despite its regularly avowed good intentions, appears to have slow-walked or sidelined efforts to address real harms the social network has magnified and sometimes created. They reveal numerous instances where researchers and rank-and-file workers uncovered deep-seated problems that the company then overlooked or ignored. (Ortutay, 10/25)
NBC News:
Biden Administration Unveils New Covid Vaccine, Testing Requirements For Travel Into U.S.
The Biden administration on Monday released updated guidelines for traveling into the United States, including stricter requirements on U.S. citizens who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 as well as some exceptions for foreign travelers. Beginning Nov. 8, unvaccinated U.S. citizens and long-term residents will have to present a negative Covid test taken a day before re-entering the country, and unvaccinated foreign nationals will be able to enter only in limited circumstances, an administration official said Monday. Fully vaccinated Americans will have to be tested three days before travel. (Pettypiece, 10/25)
The New York Times:
Unvaccinated Children And Some People From Countries With Low Rates Will Be Exempted From New U.S. Travel Rules
Children under the age of 18 who are unvaccinated against the coronavirus, and a limited category of foreigners arriving from countries with low vaccination rates, are among the travelers exempted from forthcoming requirements that will determine who can enter the United States, Biden administration officials said on Monday. The Biden administration has announced that it would lift travel restrictions on Nov. 8 and reopen the United States to fully vaccinated international travelers who had been barred for nearly a year and a half from entering the country by air or crossing the land borders. (Kanno-Youngs, 10/26)
The Washington Post:
Cruises Will No Longer Be Required To Follow CDC Rules Starting In January
Authorities replaced an earlier ban on cruise travel with a “conditional sailing order” in October 2020, which laid out steps cruise companies had to take to sail with passengers from U.S. ports. That order — which required ships to sail with at least 95 percent of people vaccinated or perform a test cruise to demonstrate safety procedures — was set to expire on Nov. 1.Instead, the CDC will extend the order, with some tweaks, through Jan. 15. Those changes include new procedures for ships that come to U.S. waters after operating in other jurisdictions, new instructions for ships that want to switch from 95 percent of passengers vaccinated to a lower number and the end of required CDC travel advisories or warnings about cruising in marketing material. (Sampson, 10/26)
The Washington Post:
Biden Administration Looks To Speed Authorization Of Rapid Coronavirus Tests
The Biden administration announced additional steps on Monday to increase the availability of rapid at-home coronavirus tests and bring down their cost. The biggest change is a $70 million investment by the National Institutes of Health — using funds from the American Rescue Plan, which was passed earlier this year — to help manufacturers navigate the Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory process. The NIH program aims to speed up the authorization process for new tests by helping manufacturers produce the data regulators need. It will also identify rapid tests that have the potential to be produced and distributed on a large scale. (Abutaleb, 10/25)
The Washington Post:
Additional Medicare, Medicaid Benefits May Be Whittled Or Cut As Democrats Woo Moderates
Democrats’ sweeping plans to bolster Medicare and Medicaid benefits have been scaled back amid an assault from industry groups and opposition from centrists like Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), with popular coverage expansions likely to be narrowed in hopes of reaching a deal this week. A proposal to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision benefits is in danger of falling from the tax-and-spending package rapidly taking shape in Congress. A framework to expand Medicaid to cover Americans in a dozen mostly Southern states has also been reworked. (Diamond, Roubein, Goldstein and Romm, 10/26)
The Hill:
5 Sticking Points Holding Back Democrats' Spending Package
Democrats say they’re in striking distance of reaching a long-sought deal on expanding social safety net programs, but still need to resolve a handful of key sticking points. Progressives and key centrist holdouts remain at odds over some top liberal priorities, such as ending America’s status as the only wealthy nation without a national paid parental leave policy and expanding Medicare coverage. (Marcos and Wong, 10/26)
CNN:
Lower Premiums, More Choices On Obamacare Exchanges For 2022 As Democrats Battle To Extend Generous Subsidies
Consumers shopping for health coverage on the federal Affordable Care Act exchanges can likely find lower premiums and more choices for 2022 -- as well as generous government assistance, according to a Biden administration report released Monday. The upcoming open enrollment period, which begins November 1 and runs through January 15, is the first for President Joe Biden, who is seeking to restore the landmark health reform law after the Trump administration spent four years trying to undermine it. (Luhby, 10/25)
inewsource:
San Diego Hospitals Delay Price Transparency Compliance
More than 10 months after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services required hospitals to provide the public with consumer-friendly information about prices for their medical services, the majority of hospitals in San Diego have failed to fully comply. As of January 2021, hospitals and health care facilities operating in the United States are required to provide readable and comprehensive pricing information on their websites for at least 300 shoppable services. If a hospital offers fewer than 300 services, it must list as many shoppable services as it provides. (Wynne, 10/25)
NPR:
ERs Are Now Swamped With Seriously Ill Patients — But Most Don't Even Have COVID
Inside the Emergency Department at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Michigan, staff are struggling to care for patients who are showing up much sicker than they've ever seen. Tiffani Dusang, the ER's nursing director, practically vibrates with pent-up anxiety, looking at all the patients lying on a long line of stretchers pushed up against the beige walls of the hospital hallways. "It's hard to watch," she says in her warm Texan twang. But there's nothing she can do. The ER's 72 rooms are already filled. (Wells, 10/26)
Sacramento Bee:
Newsom Visits UC Merced, Pledges Medical School Support
Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the campus of UC Merced on Monday, throwing his support behind an effort to build a $210 million medical education building on the campus. According to UC Merced, its proposed Health, Behavioral Sciences and Medical Education Building will house the Departments of Psychological Sciences and Public Health, a medical education program, and Health Sciences Research Institute. (Shannon, 10/25)
Orange County Register:
Housing For Mentally Ill Homeless Women Draws Heated Anaheim Response
Grandma’s House of Hope, a nonprofit started by a woman who was once homeless to serve those currently homeless, wants to turn a large home in the historic Anaheim Colony district into a transitional living facility for more than a dozen mentally ill homeless women. It seems ideal to Grandma’s House of Hope founder Je’Net Kreitner for a program her organization operates under a contract with the Orange County Health Care Agency to help women with what is described as severe and persistent mental illness. The home in the 600 block of North West Street would serve as bridge housing where they could live safely, gain stability and transition into other more permanent housing. Except, homeowners who live near the two-story house oppose Kreitner’s plan. (Walker, 10/25)
CapRadio:
Homeless Sacramentans Describe How They Survived The Weekend’s Historic Storm
In a series of three storms last week, Sacramento was hit with a historic amount of rain, which culminated with a record 5.44 inches of downpour on Sunday. But some unhoused residents say they didn’t get sufficient notice of the storm’s seriousness or that Sacramento had opened emergency shelter options. Others say it’s not easy to travel to the shelters, or that they couldn’t leave behind their belongings. (Hooks and Salanga, 10/26)
Modesto Bee:
Organizers Advocate For Right To Counsel During Evictions
After Leon Callen joined Christian Love Baptist Church in Modesto as a minister during the COVID-19 pandemic, he began reaching out to his community, wanting to see the needs of the congregation, as well as the broader neighborhood. One of the issues that struck him immediately was homelessness, which was being exacerbated by the pandemic. He became interested in the root causes of why people in Modesto and Stanislaus County ended up unhoused. Many people, Callen noted, were facing homelessness after being evicted from their homes or apartments, and they hadn’t been able to afford legal representation to assist them in court. (Karisch, 10/25)
NPR:
Cannabis Vaping Among Teens Has Grown Sharply In Recent Years
Teen vaping of marijuana doubled between 2013 and 2020, indicating that young people may be swapping out joints, pipes or bongs for vape pens, according to a new study. Researchers also found that adolescents who say they vaped cannabis within the last 30 days increased 7-fold — from 1.6% to 8.4% — during the same period. The report was published in JAMA Pediatrics on Monday by researchers who analyzed 17 studies involving nearly 200,000 adolescents in the U.S. and Canada. Overall, they say, the cumulative data points to what may be a shift in preference from dried herb to cannabis oil products, which is how marijuana is ingested via vaping. (Romo, 10/25)
City News Service:
Breastfeeding May Help Mothers’ Brains, Says UCLA Study
Women over age 50 who breastfed their babies performed better on cognitive tests than women who never breastfed, according to a study led by researchers at UCLA Health. “While many studies have found that breastfeeding improves a child’s long-term health and well-being, our study is one of very few that has looked at the long-term health effects for women who had breastfed their babies,” Molly Fox, lead author of the study and an assistant professor in the UCLA Department of Anthropology and the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, said in a statement. “Our findings, which show superior cognitive performance among women over 50 who had breastfed, suggest that breastfeeding may be ‘neuroprotective’ later in life.” (10/25)
CIDRAP:
New Multistate Salmonella Outbreak Linked To Salami Sticks
The CDC announced over the weekend a new Salmonella outbreak linked to salami sticks sold at Trader Joe's grocery stores. So far 20 people have been sickened in 8 states, including 3 who needed hospitalization. No deaths have been reported. Patients range in age from 2 to 75 years, with a median age of 11. Eight of nine people interviewed by the CDC as part of the outbreak investigation said they ate Citterio brand Premium Italian-Style Salame Sticks, which are sold at Trader Joe's and other grocery stores. (10/25)
AP:
Jill Biden: Cancer 'Touches Every American Family'
First lady Jill Biden on Monday toured a cancer center in the state that played a pivotal role in her husband’s victory in the 2020 Democratic nominating process, telling South Carolinians that cancer “touches every American family. ”In the closing days of October — a month dedicated to breast cancer awareness — the first lady said she was making the trip as part of a continued commitment to pushing for research efforts toward a cure. (Kinnard, 10/25)
Stat:
Congress’s Efforts To Prepare For The Next Pandemic Are Falling Behind
Addressing the federal government’s failures during the Covid-19 pandemic has fallen off the priority list in Congress this year, according to three lobbyists and a congressional aide following the talks. Though Congress looked poised for progress this spring — with rare, bipartisan interest in shoring up the nation’s pandemic infrastructure — that action has been delayed as Democrats tussle over massive bills containing President Biden’s domestic agenda and averting a government shutdown and financial crisis. If this Congress does eventually take action to improve public health response, it isn’t likely to happen until next year. (Cohrs, 10/26)
The New York Times:
What You Should Know About The Flu
We’ve had two light years in a row, which some experts worry could mean we’ll be in for a rough few months. (Wenner Moyer, 10/25)
Los Angeles Times:
Carson Smell Persists As Fed-Up Residents Confront Elected Officials
As Carson Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes briefed reporters inside City Hall on Monday, she was nearly drowned out by protesters sick of a noxious smell that has permeated the area for more than three weeks. That morning, the City Council had declared a local emergency, which Davis-Holmes said “would help cut through the red tape,” secure help from the governor’s office and provide more money for hotel rooms and air filters. But for many city residents, who have complained of headaches, nausea and other ailments, that was too little, too late. (Campa, 10/25)
Modesto Bee:
Turlock Christmas Parade To Use Viewing Areas Due To COVID
Turlock plans to resume its Downtown Christmas Parade tradition on Dec. 3, the city announced Thursday, with more COVID-19 safety recommendations than requirements. The city will not verify COVID-19 vaccination status or negative test results for attendees, which California public health recommends but does not require for such events, said Allison Van Guilder, director of the Parks, Recreation and Public Facilities Department. (Lam, 10/25)