Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Your School Assignment For The Day: Spelling And Specs
In California’s rural Central Valley, low-income children have limited access to vision care. School districts are teaming up with nonprofits to fill the gaps. (Heidi de Marco, )
San Francisco Declares State Of Emergency Despite Lack Of Any Coronavirus Cases In City: Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency for San Francisco Tuesday, which will ramp up the city’s efforts to prepare for and confront potential cases. There have been no confirmed coronavirus cases in San Francisco to date, but as infections continue to rise across the world, “we need to allocate more resources to make sure we are prepared,” Breed said at a press conference announcing the emergency declaration. “To be clear, this declaration of emergency is all about preparedness. By declaring a state of emergency we are prioritizing the safety of our communities by being prepared.” Read more from Dominic Fracassa of the San Francisco Chronicle and Colleen Shalby of the Los Angeles Times.
Costa Mesa Battle Portends Brewing War Over Where To House Coronavirus Patients: A proposal to eventually place some patients at a state-owned facility in Costa Mesa has sparked a political battle in which wary residents are speaking in conspiratorial, even apocalyptic terms. It’s likely only the first round in a brewing battle — one pitting higher-level health officials working to stem the spread of the coronavirus known as COVID-19 against the communities expected to play host to those efforts. Officials in Alabama have also been fighting efforts to locate patients in that state, and there even has been rumbling of opposition from people living by quarantine zones near military bases. “You’re dealing with fear, discrimination and stigma, and that can be much harder to contain and control and move against than the actual virus,” said Dr. Timothy Brewer, a professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and of medicine at the university’s David Geffen School of Medicine. Read more from Luke Money of the Los Angeles Times.
In more California and coronavirus news:
KQED: What Californians Need to Know About the Coronavirus
Bay Area News Group: Three Coronavirus Patients Are Being Treated In The East Bay
Fresno Bee: What’s The Health Risk Of Coronavirus In Fresno Valley?
The Desert Sun: Coronavirus: Riverside County Resident Who Was On Cruise Ship Tests Positive, Officials Say
The Ventura County Star: Coronavirus Quarantine Center At Mugu Base Could Operate Until March 15, Area Official Says
Below, check out the full round-up of California Healthline original stories, state coverage and the best of the rest of the national news for the day.
More News From Across The State
CalMatters:
California's Housing Crisis Sickens Families
Tanya Harris and her three daughters struggle to breathe in the converted motel room in Salinas they now rent as a studio. Just large enough for a bunkbed and a desk, the room holds all four of them. Harris sleeps on a silver inflatable mattress on the floor. And doctors say the room is making Harris and her daughters sick. The state’s housing crisis has resulted in more and more families like Harris’ living in substandard and overcrowded conditions, and local health officials say those conditions threaten residents’ health. (Cimini, 2/25)
Los Angeles Times:
Fight Over Homelessness Turns Divisive In L.A. Supervisor Race
With some 19,000 homeless residents living in Los Angeles County’s 2nd Supervisorial District, the candidates running to replace Mark Ridley-Thomas on the Board of Supervisors are united in their pledge to ease housing costs and bring people indoors. At debates, they pitch expanded emergency street services, building prefabricated housing, and policies to stop speculative developers from snatching up homes and driving up housing prices. (Smith, 2/26)
Sacramento Bee:
Northern California State-Owned Spots For Homeless Shelters
During his State of the State address last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would make 286 state-owned properties across California available to local officials to use for homeless shelters or services. “The state is stepping up by making land available to cities and counties willing to meet this moment head-on,” Newsom said in a news release. “I invite local leaders to use this land on what works for their community’s homeless needs so that we can begin to make meaningful progress to help individuals experiencing homelessness.” (Hodenfield, Amezcua and Sterling, 2/26)
Capital Public Radio:
Map: Last Week Gov. Newsom Made 286 Sites Available For Homelessness Solutions. Here's Where They Are.
In his State of the State speech last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom discussed an executive order that opened up 286 state properties across California to be used as sites for temporary housing for the homeless. But the sites aren’t evenly distributed throughout the state, and questions still remain about how these sites will be used and how they’ll be coordinated with various city organizations. (Mizes-Tan, 2/25)
Stat:
Contract Offers Unprecedented Look At Google Deal To Obtain Patient Data
It was the fall of 2015 when researchers from Google and the University of California, San Francisco, first sat down together to hash out a research collaboration in an area that has since exploded with activity: using artificial intelligence to make predictions in the hospital. Those initial discussions resulted in a contract, signed by both parties a few months later, mapping out an agreement under which UCSF would freely share deidentified patient data with Google — and stipulating what the tech giant would be allowed to do with the information, which covered at least 1.4 million patients. The goal was to see whether Google’s algorithms could predict whether patients had died in the hospital or whether they’d been quickly readmitted after discharge. (Robbins, 2/26)
The Associated Press:
'A World Of Hurt': 39 States To Investigate Juul's Marketing
A coalition of 39 states will look into the marketing and sales of vaping products by Juul Labs, including whether the company targeted youths and made misleading claims about nicotine content in its devices, officials announced Tuesday. Attorneys general from Connecticut, Florida, Nevada, Oregon and Texas said they will lead the multi-state investigation into San Francisco-based Juul, which also is facing lawsuits by teenagers and others who say they became addicted to the company's vaping products. (2/25)
The California Health Report:
Californians Want Better Mental Health Care. Can The State Deliver?
California’s top health priority should be making sure that people who need mental health treatment can get it, over 90 percent of respondents said in a recent poll. More than half of those surveyed by the California Health Care Foundation said their communities do not have enough mental health providers to meet the need. People of color often feel the lack of access more acutely, researchers found, with 75 percent of black and 57 percent of Latino respondents noting that their communities don’t have enough mental health providers, compared to 49 percent of white participants. Women were also more likely than men to say that access to treatment was limited (57 percent vs. 47 percent). (Boyd-Barrett, 2/25)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Dozens Of High-Risk Bay Area Dams Lack Required Emergency Plans
The Bay Area is dotted with at least 145 dams where failure or misoperation could result in death or property destruction, yet many lack required emergency plans, according to an analysis of state data. Most of these “high-hazard” dams were built before 1960. While not at a higher risk of failure, they could endanger countless homes and businesses that rest below the aging facilities, making emergency planning and maintenance increasingly important, experts said. (Palomino, 2/25)
Capital Public Radio:
Annual Flu Activity Is Still High
The world’s attention is trained on COVID-19, which causes coronavirus. Every day, there’s news the virus has entered yet another country. But, compared to the annual flu season, the numbers of cases aren’t anywhere near comparable. At the end of last week, there were some 80,000 cases of coronavirus, and roughly 2,700 deaths. By comparison, according to the Centers for Disease Control, there have been 280 million cases of the flu, 16,000 deaths and 280,000 hospitalizations worldwide this year. (Ruyak, 2/25)
Sacramento Bee:
Human Composting? CA Bill Would Allow Green Body Disposal
In California, death could soon get a little greener. California lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow for human remains to be composted into soil, a process called “natural organic reduction,” with the end result being a nutrient-dense soil “that can be returned to families or donated to conservation land,” according to a statement from bill sponsor Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens. (Sheeler, 2/25)
KPCC:
Should Patients Diagnosed With Alzheimer’s Or Dementia Be Able To Choose Assisted Suicide?
Today on AirTalk, guest host John Rabe discusses the debate over California's assisted-suicide law and whether it should extend to dementia patients. (Mantle, 2/25)
The Associated Press:
California Wildfire Victims Fear They'll Be Last In Payout
A $13.5 billion settlement between victims of California's catastrophic wildfires and the utility blamed for causing them was supposed to bring some peace and hope to people still reeling from the devastation. Instead, the deal has sparked confusion, resentment, suspicion and despair as the victims, government agencies, and lawyers grapple for their piece of the pie. (2/26)
Reuters:
At Rowdy Debate, Democratic Rivals Warn Sanders Nomination Would Be 'Catastrophe' - The New York Times
Democratic presidential candidates unleashed withering attacks on Bernie Sanders in a boisterous debate in South Carolina on Tuesday, assailing his ambitious economic agenda and warning his nomination would be a "catastrophe" that would cost Democrats the White House and control of Congress. In a debate that featured candidates repeatedly shouting over one another and ignoring their time limits, Sanders' opponents united in attacking the self-avowed democratic socialist as a risky choice to face Republican President Donald Trump in November. ... Pete Buttigieg, the moderate former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, criticized Sanders for the shifting estimates on the costs of his proposals such as government-run healthcare and warned that the front-runner would bring about chaos. (2/26)
The Wall Street Journal:
Democratic Debate In South Carolina: The Moments That Mattered
Sanders stood in the center of the stage for the first time this election, underscoring his front-runner status. He certainly earned front-runner scrutiny. “No, the math does not add up,” Ms. Klobuchar said to Mr. Sanders, saying that his Medicare for All proposal was too expensive. She also said that Democratic Party elders, including former President Obama, had opposed his idea for expansive government proposals. “They are not with you,” she said. He also took heat for his votes against the 1993 Brady Bill, which established mandatory background checks, while Mr. Sanders was a member of the House. Mr. Sanders called it a bad vote. (Jamerson, 2/25)
The Washington Post:
Democrats Gang Up On Sen. Bernie Sanders In South Carolina Presidential Debate
“Bernie is winning right now because the Democratic Party is a progressive party and progressive ideas are popular ideas even if there are a lot of people in this stage we don’t want to say so,” Warren said. “Bernie and I agree on a lot of things, but I think I would make a better president than Bernie,” Warren added, saying that she focuses on details. Using health care as an example, she pointed out that she tried to fill in gaps in Sanders’s Medicare-for-all plan. “I dug in, I did the work, and then Bernie’s team trashed me for it,” Warren said. (Viser, Linskey, Sullivan and Wootson, 2/26)
The New York Times:
Fact-Checking The Democratic Debate In South Carolina
WHAT MR. SANDERS: “What every study out there, conservative or progressive says: ‘Medicare for all’ will save money.” False. There have been several analyses of Mr. Sanders’s Medicare for all health care proposal, which would provide every American with generous government-funded health insurance benefits. Those studies have shown a range of potential costs, including several that estimate that the plan would cost substantially more than what the country would otherwise spend on health care.Mr. Sanders is correct that a recent study published in the medical journal The Lancet showed that his plan would cost $450 billion less in a year than the current health care system. But that study made several assumptions that other economists who have examined the plan have considered unrealistic. Other studies have shown that spending would increase as the plan expands coverage to more Americans, and provides them with expensive new benefits, like long-term care, which few health insurance plans currently cover. This article provides an overview of a few of these studies. (2/25)
The Washington Post:
Fact-Checking The 10th Democratic Primary Debate
In any case, one study — or even many — can not easily estimate the impact of overhauling one-sixth of the U.S. economy. Sanders has put out a menu of possible options for how to fund Medicare-for-all, though many experts says that he still falls short. One option would require a 7.5 percent payroll tax that employers would pay to help fund the program. Virtually every economist will tell you that a payroll tax paid by an employer largely comes out of the pay earned by the employee, but Sanders argues that the savings on the premiums currently paid by the employer should result in an overall reduction in costs for the employer. He estimates that a company would save more than $9,000 in health-care costs per average employee, but those claims must be viewed with skepticism. (Kessler, Rizzo and Kelly, 2/25)
The New York Times:
Amid Insults And Interruptions, Sanders Absorbs Burst Of Attacks In Debate
Mr. Biden, fighting for survival in the state on which he has staked his candidacy, delivered perhaps the most searing critique of Mr. Sanders, invoking the 2015 church massacre here in Charleston to confront Mr. Sanders for his mixed record on guns. “Nine people shot dead by a white supremacist,” Mr. Biden said, then rebuked Mr. Sanders for his past opposition to waiting periods for gun purchases: “I’m not saying he’s responsible for the nine deaths, but that man would not have been able to get that weapon if the waiting period had been what I suggest.” (Martin and Burns, 2/25)
The Associated Press Fact Check:
Dems Implore Fact Checkers To Back Them Up
JOE BIDEN: “A hundred and fifty million people have been killed since 2007, when Bernie voted to exempt the gun manufacturers from liability.” THE FACTS: Biden vastly overstated gun deaths. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports about 413,000 gun deaths from 2007 to 2018, a far cry from 150 million, which equates to close to half the U.S. population. More than half of the gun deaths in 2018 were from suicide, says the CDC. His campaign acknowledged he misspoke. (2/25)
The New York Times:
The Basics Of ‘Medicare For All’
It’s possible you’ve tuned out when the Democrats running for president have tussled over “Medicare for all.” But now that Bernie Sanders, who introduced the Medicare for All Act in the Senate, is ascending in the nominating contest, it’s a good time to take a closer look at what it would mean for the health system, your health insurance and finances, and the federal budget. Here’s our quick primer, with some suggestions for further reading. (Sanger-Katz, 2/25)
Reuters:
U.S. Health Officials Urge Americans To Prepare For Spread Of Coronavirus
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday alerted Americans to begin preparing for the spread of coronavirus in the United States after infections surfaced in several more countries. The announcement signaled a change in tone for the Atlanta-based U.S. health agency, which had largely been focused on efforts to stop the virus from entering the country and quarantining individuals traveling from China. (2/26)
The New York Times:
C.D.C. Officials Warn Of Coronavirus Outbreaks In The U.S.
“It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more of a question of exactly when this will happen,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a news briefing. She said that cities and towns should plan for “social distancing measures,” like dividing school classes into smaller groups of students or closing schools altogether. Meetings and conferences may have to be canceled, she said. Businesses should arrange for employees to work from home. “We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare, in the expectation that this could be bad,” Dr. Messonnier said. (Belluck and Weiland, 2/25)
The Associated Press:
How Deadly Is New Coronavirus? It's Still Too Early To Tell
Scientists can’t tell yet how deadly the new virus that’s spreading around the globe really is — and deepening the mystery, the fatality rate differs even within China. As infections of the virus that causes COVID-19 surge in other countries, even a low fatality rate can add up to lots of victims, and understanding why one place fares better than another becomes critical to unravel. “You could have bad outcomes with this initially until you really get the hang of how to manage" it, Dr. Bruce Aylward, the World Health Organization envoy who led a team of scientists just back from China, warned Tuesday. (2/26)
The Associated Press:
Study Begins In US To Test Possible Coronavirus Treatment
The first clinical trial in the U.S. of a possible coronavirus treatment is underway in Nebraska and is eventually expected to include 400 patients at 50 locations around the world, officials said Tuesday. Half of the patients in the international study will receive the antiviral medicine remdesivir while the other half will receive a placebo. Several other studies, including one looking at the same drug, are already underway internationally. (2/25)
The New York Times:
How To Prepare For Coronavirus
American health officials warned on Tuesday that the coronavirus is likely to spread in communities in the United States. They urged individuals to get themselves and their families ready. But what can you do? Infectious disease experts stressed that people should not panic and offered practical advice. “The mantra is, ‘Keep calm and carry on,’” said Dr. Marguerite Neill, an infectious disease expert at Brown University. (Kolata, 2/25)
The Washington Post:
Shortages, Confusion And Poor Communication Complicate Coronavirus Preparations
Major U.S. hospital systems are burning through their supplies of specialized masks needed for a widespread epidemic of coronavirus, in part because federal protocols call for them to be thrown out after a single use in practice sessions, federal officials have told health-care leaders. Some hospitals have just a week’s inventory of the N95 face masks, which filter out 95 percent of all airborne particles, even as a top official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday that spread of the virus in the United States now appears inevitable. (Sun, Rowland and Bernstein, 2/25)
The Associated Press:
'Time Is Everything': World Braces For Spread Of New Virus
China's massive travel restrictions, house-to-house checks, huge isolation wards and lockdowns of entire cities bought the world valuable time to prepare for the global spread of the new virus. But with troubling outbreaks now emerging in Italy, South Korea and Iran, and U.S. health officials warning Tuesday it's inevitable it will spread more widely in America, the question is: Did the world use that time wisely and is it ready for a potential pandemic? (2/25)
The New York Times:
Coronavirus Weakens China’s Powerful Propaganda Machine
Exhausted medical workers with faces lined from hours of wearing goggles and surgical masks. Women with shaved heads, a gesture of devotion. Retirees who donate their life savings anonymously in government offices. Beijing is tapping its old propaganda playbook as it battles the relentless coronavirus outbreak, the biggest challenge to its legitimacy in decades. State media is filling smartphones and airwaves with images and tales of unity and sacrifice aimed at uniting the people behind Beijing’s rule. It even briefly offered up cartoon mascots named Jiangshan Jiao and Hongqi Man, characters meant to stir patriotic feelings among the young during the crisis. (Yuan, 2/26)
Reuters:
Fears Of Coronavirus Pandemic Spreading Olympic Unease
Fears that the new coronavirus outbreak is on the verge of becoming a global pandemic have stoked concerns about the Tokyo Games and while the International Olympic Committee says there is no "Plan B" doubts remain the event will go ahead as planned. Five months before the opening ceremony in Tokyo, health authorities around the world are scrambling to contain outbreaks of the flu-like virus which has infected about 80,000 and killed more than 2,700 people, the vast majority in China. (2/26)
Los Angeles Times:
Flight Attendant Diagnosed With Coronavirus Might Have Serviced Trips Between Seoul And Los Angeles
A South Korean flight attendant who has been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus may have serviced trips between Seoul and Los Angeles last week, according to several South Korean media outlets. South Korea’s Center for Disease Control said Wednesday local time that a female flight attendant who serviced a flight Feb. 15 from Tel Aviv to Seoul had tested positive for the virus. On board the flight was a church group returning from a pilgrimage to Israel; 30 other infections have been connected to the group so far, according to local authorities. (Kim 2/25)