Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Big Leagues Balk at Endorsing Vaccination
The major sports leagues are struggling to vaccinate enough of their players to protect the clubhouse and locker room, and few stars have stepped forward to pitch vaccination to teammates or fans. WNBA players are an exception, with a 99% vaccination rate and high-profile ads urging the public to get vaccinated. (Mark Kreidler, )
Many California Hospitals Not Complying With Price Transparency Rule: Not a single one of the eight California hospitals, including Stanford Hospital and UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights, analyzed in a new report by the nonprofit Patient Rights Advocate (PRA) comply with a price transparency rule that requires medical centers to post standard charges and other information online so that patients can more easily figure out the cost of their health care upfront. Read more from the Bay Area News Group.
S.F. Bars May Ask For Proof Of Covid Shot: San Francisco bar-goers may soon need to show up with vaccine cards at more bars. The San Francisco Bar Owner Alliance, which represents 500 bars, announced Tuesday that it’s considering a new program that asks patrons to show proof of vaccination before entry. 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
AP:
U.S. Life Expectancy In 2020 Saw Biggest Drop Since WWII
U.S. life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II, according to report released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The decrease for both Black Americans and Latino Americans was even greater: three years. (Stobbe, 7/20)
Southern California News Group:
See How California COVID-19 Hospitalizations Have Doubled In Less Than A Month
More people in California are hospitalized with COVID-19 than on any day since March 31, according to data released by the state Tuesday, July 20. There are 2,164 patients with confirmed cases, including 552 people sick enough to be in intensive-care units. The numbers released Tuesday were contained in the state’s daily hospital survey conducted Monday. Those have both more than doubled from the low points last month: There were 915 confirmed coronavirus patients hospitalized on June 12, and 218 in the state’s ICUs on June 6. (Johnson, 7/21)
Sacramento Bee:
Delta Wave Compares With 2020 Surges
As the Delta variant fuels rapid increases in COVID-19 cases across virtually every corner of California, it remains to be seen whether the state will retake the reins with broad restrictions, or the burden to curb spread will stay on individual counties as it has been since mid-June. Gov. Gavin Newsom dodged that question Monday, instead emphasizing the importance of getting vaccinated. Newsom called more local measures “inevitable” if virus case rates continue to rise, but did not say whether new statewide rules, such as indoor mask requirements or recommendations for the fully vaccinated, were on the table. (McGough, 7/20)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California's Delta Surge Pushes COVID Hospitalizations To Their Highest Since April
With the now-dominant delta variant still on the rise in California, COVID-19 hospitalizations are also increasing, passing thresholds in the Bay Area and state not seen since the spring. On Monday, confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations in California crossed the 2,000 mark — with more than 500 of those patients in intensive care units — for the first time since early April, according to state data. Meanwhile, the Bay Area surpassed 300 hospitalizations for the first time since early April, and on Tuesday exceeded 100 ICU admissions for the first time since late March. (Hwang, 7/20)
Marin Independent Journal:
Marin’s Latest Surge In COVID-19 Cases Different From Precursors
Marin County is experiencing an uptick in COVID-19 cases, but this mini spike in infections is unlike previous surges, the county’s public health officer said Tuesday. “It doesn’t mean the same thing in terms of the threat to our community, especially with regards to severe illness, hospitalization and death,” Dr. Matt Willis told the Board of Supervisors. Willis said the number of hospitalizations has remained fairly stable despite a rise in infections that began in mid-June in large part because between one in four and one in five of the cases have involved people who were fully vaccinated. (Halstead, 7/21)
The Bakersfield Californian:
More Than 99% Of COVID Cases In Kern Since Late January Found In Unvaccinated
Coronavirus has begun to creep back up in Kern County following larger increases in the surrounding area. This time, though, new cases have been almost completely confined to unvaccinated individuals. Since Jan. 21, 99.4 percent of COVID-19 cases have occurred in people who have not received a vaccine, the Kern County Public Health Services Department reported to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. The date is the earliest possible time somebody could be fully vaccinated from a vaccine administered in the county as the vaccines first became available to Kern officials on Dec. 17. (Morgen, 7/20)
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
More Residents At Sonoma County’s Largest Homeless Shelter Test Positive For COVID-19
Officials have confirmed that over half of the 156 residents at Sonoma County’s largest homeless shelter have tested positive for COVID-19. As of Tuesday, at least 90 residents have contracted the coronavirus since the outbreak was first detected at Samuel Jones L. Hall homeless shelter in Santa Rosa on July 2, city officials said. (Varian, 7/20)
Southern California News Group:
LA County Reports Uptick In Nursing Home Cases, As Coronavirus Numbers Continue To Rise
Cases of coronavirus in Los Angeles County continued to go in the wrong direction on Tuesday, July 20, with public health officials confirming a slight uptick in skilled nursing facilities partly because of “breakthrough” cases among people already vaccinated. (Carter, 7/20)
Orange County Register:
Coronavirus: Orange County Reported 315 New Cases And One New Death, July 20
The OC Health Care Agency reported 315 new cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday, July 20, increasing the cumulative total in the county to 259,695 cases since tracking began. There have been 2,708 new infections reported in the last 14 days. (Goertzen, 7/20)
Southern California News Group:
Taylor Crabb Tests Positive For COVID-19, Likely Out Of Tokyo Olympics In Beach Volleyball
U.S. beach volleyball player Taylor Crabb has tested positive for COVID-19 and will likely miss the Olympic Games, the Southern California News Group has learned. Crabb tested positive shortly after arriving in Japan over the weekend, according to a person familiar with the situation. While a replacement has not been officially named, Tri Bourne, a former USC standout, was flying en route to Tokyo on Tuesday afternoon U.S. time/Wednesday in Japan. (Reid, 7/20)
Los Angeles Times:
Six More California Counties Urging People To Wear Masks Indoors As Delta Variant Rages
Six more California counties, including Napa in the North Bay, are urging residents to wear masks in indoor public settings amid concerning upticks in coronavirus cases and continued circulation of the highly contagious Delta variant. The latest recommendations from Santa Barbara, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, Santa Cruz and Ventura raise to 17 the number of counties now asking even fully vaccinated individuals to wear face coverings as a precaution while inside places like grocery stores, movie theaters and retail outlets. (Money, 7/20)
CapRadio:
Southern Nevada Officials Advise Mask-Wearing As COVID-19 Cases Rise
Masks are back in Las Vegas, where a rising number of coronavirus cases has health officials advising everyone — vaccinated or not — to wear facial coverings in crowds and indoor places. The recommendation Friday from the Southern Nevada Health District affects casinos, concerts, clubs and supermarkets. However, the masks are not a requirement. (7/20)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Small Study Indicates J&J Shot May Be Less Protective Against Delta Variant Than Other Vaccines
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine may be less effective against the delta variant of the coronavirus than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and health officials should at least consider urging that people who received J&J’s single dose get a booster shot, authors of a small study said Tuesday. The study, published this week and not yet peer-reviewed, analyzed the levels of neutralizing antibodies, or titers, produced by 36 people — 12 who got the J&J vaccine, 12 who got Moderna and 12 who got Pfizer. It found that people who received the J&J shot produced titers at levels that were about fivefold lower compared to people who received the Pfizer or Moderna shots. (Ho, 7/20)
Los Angeles Times:
How To Get The COVID Vaccine In Southern California, The U.S.
You were preparing to have your roaring 2021 hot vaxx summer, carefree and maskless, but news of the contagious Delta variant remained on the horizon. In May, the Delta variant comprised less than 3% of the coronavirus samples sequenced in the United States. By June, it was more than 20%. Los Angeles County is recording more than 10,000 coronavirus cases a week — a pace not seen since March — and officials are now requiring masks in public indoor settings again. (Tseng, Roy and Amato, 7/20)
Alameda Unified School District:
Alameda Schools' Shot Clinics, Encinal Ribbon-Cutting On Tap
While most of our students and many of our staff are on well-deserved summer breaks this month, we have a number of announcements to share with our broader community. Vaccine clinics: As we prepare for students and staff to return to schools in-person, full-time in mid-August, we urge parents and guardians of students ages 12 and older to get their students vaccinated against COVID-19. The vaccine is safe and effective, and getting students vaccinated will help protect all of our students, families and staff — as well as the wider community — from this virus. It will also help us keep our classes and schools open this fall. (Davis, 7/21)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Not As Concerning As It Sounds: More Vaccinated People Getting Infected In California
As COVID-19 cases climb across California, so-called breakthrough infections among people who are fully vaccinated also are increasing, raising concerns that the highly contagious delta variant — now the dominant strain — may be better able than other strains to evade vaccines. Many infectious disease experts say, however, that the data so far does not support the notion that delta is breaking through more often. The vaccines, they say, are holding up as well as ever. And even if delta proves better able to infect vaccinated people, all evidence shows the vaccines remain powerfully effective at preventing serious illness and death. (Allday, 7/20)
Modesto Bee:
What Are COVID Symptoms After Getting Vaccine?
COVID-19 vaccines are the best way to protect people from getting seriously ill with the virus, as well as stave off extended hospital stays and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, no vaccine is 100% effective and, though rare, fully vaccinated people can contract coronavirus. These cases, known as breakthrough infections, can cause COVID-like symptoms — or no symptoms at all. (Kenney, 7/20)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Scripps Health Buys Carmel Valley Corner For $23M
San Diego-based health care provider Scripps Health recently purchased the 3.8-acre lot at the corner of El Camino Real and Townsgate Drive in Carmel Valley from Alexandria Real Estate Equities for $22.9 million, public records show. The transaction, which was recorded with the county assessor’s office in March, means that the property previously slated to become a life science center is now envisioned as an outpatient facility for the nonprofit health care organization. (Van Grove, 7/20)
NBC News:
PrEP, The HIV Prevention Pill, Must Now Be Totally Free Under Almost All Insurance Plans
In a move that is expected to prove transformative to the national HIV-prevention effort, the federal government has announced that almost all health insurers must cover the HIV prevention pill, known as PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, with no cost sharing — including for the drug itself and, crucially, for clinic visits and lab tests. This means the entire experience of maintaining a prescription to Truvada or Descovy, the two approved forms of PrEP, should now be totally free for almost all insured individuals. A prescribing physician, however, must persuade an insurer that Descovy in particular is medically necessary for any specific patient to qualify for zero cost sharing for that drug’s use as HIV prevention. (Ryan, 7/20)
San Francisco Chronicle:
S.F. Sees Slight Dip In Fatal Overdoses, But Deaths Are Still Staggeringly High
After a calamitous, record-breaking year for fatal overdoses in San Francisco, the city has seen a slight decline in monthly deaths since the beginning of 2021. But the numbers are still staggeringly high. Seventy three people died of an overdose in January, compared to 45 in June. In all, about 344 people have fallen victim to the city’s drug crisis in just the first six months of the year, according to preliminary data released by the Medical Examiner’s office Tuesday. (Thadani, 7/20)
San Francisco Chronicle:
S.F. Expands Authority To Impose Mental Health Holds. Paramedics Can Now Place People In Confinement
San Francisco paramedics - not just police officers and doctors - can now order people to be held in confinement for up to 72 hours if they believe those people are experiencing a mental health crisis and are a danger to themselves or others. A new law will give about three dozen paramedics the authority to impose mental health holds on disturbed people as the city turns to non-police responses to deal with crises often visible on the streets. The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the legislation sponsored by Supervisor Ahsha Safaí on Tuesday. (Moench, 7/20)
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Earle Baum Center In Santa Rosa Reopens Campus Services For Blind Residents
Sitting in a classroom at the Earle Baum Center serving the blind and vision-impaired, Liz Stafford of Santa Rosa happily strummed on her ukulele as a volunteer called out the changing chords to the song, “Jambalaya (On the Bayou). ”Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Stafford, 85, has participated in the center’s ukulele class over a Zoom video call. Only the sound of the instructor’s voice and ukulele could be heard. She and the other participants were muted. (Espinoza, 7/20)
CapRadio:
For Decades, California Forcibly Sterilized Women Under Eugenics Law. Now, The State Will Pay Survivors
Dillon is one of an estimated tens of thousands of women who advocates say have undergone forced sterilizations at the hands of state institutions. Under California eugenics laws that were in place between 1909 and 1979, about 20,000 women — mostly Black, Latinx and Indigenous women who were incarcerated or in state institutions for disabilities — were forcibly sterilized or coerced into sterilization. Additionally, between 2006 and 2010, a state audit revealed that another 144 women were sterilized during their time at state-run prisons. Now, the state is acknowledging the harm it has caused to these women and their families — and it’s paying up. (Mizes-Tan, 7/20)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Why One Of San Francisco's Busiest Restaurants Is Closed For A 'Mental Health Break'
Popular San Francisco restaurant the Morris is busier than ever. Tables are booked every night. It has even limited the number of reservations due to the demand. But this week, owner Paul Einbund did something he never thought he’d do: He closed his restaurant for four days to give his staff what he called a desperately needed “mental health break.” Restaurant owners across the country have been struggling to hire workers amid a labor shortage, and the Morris is no different. The Portrero Flats restaurant, known for its wine list, high-quality service and whole smoked duck, is understaffed, and the employees who are there are overworked. Despite slimming down the menu to be less labor intensive, stopping to-go service, cutting the Morris’ hours from six to five days a week and keeping the bar closed, Einbund knows service is suffering. And so is his staff. (Kadvany, 7/20)
Los Angeles Times:
Two Fast-Moving California Fires Are Creating Their Own Dangerous Weather Systems
A pair of fast-moving wildfires in California have chewed through nearly 100,000 acres while spewing noxious smoke, generating pyrocumulus clouds, lightning and other dangerous weather conditions and adding to the state's growing wildfire misery. The five-day-old Dixie fire spanning Butte and Plumas counties has stymied fire crews as it continues to swell — doubling in size to 60,000 acres Tuesday with only 15% containment, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. (Smith, 7/20)
Sacramento Bee:
Dixie Fire Generates Its Own Weather
Multiple wildfires burning in Northern California grew in size Monday amid red flag weather conditions, but activity was most dramatic on the Dixie Fire, which began generating its own weather. Camera feeds near Butte and Plumas counties captured a gigantic pyrocumulus cloud, or “fire cloud,” developing over the Dixie Fire.Those are the same types of clouds associated with volcanic eruptions. (McGough, 7/20)
Bay Area News Group:
Marin Firefighters Battle Blazes As Fires Trigger ‘Extreme’ Conditions
Marin firefighters are battling wildfires raging to the north, including the Dixie fire that ballooned to nearly 60,000 acres Tuesday. Central Marin fire Battalion Chief Ezra Colman, a strike team leader trainee, is part of a multi-agency strike team from Marin reassigned to the Bucks Lake wilderness area, about 10 miles north of Paradise, where the fire started last week. Working alongside Southern Marin fire Battalion Chief Matt Barnes, the strike team leader, they arrived in Chico on Tuesday after a five-day assignment supporting fire operations in Ashland, Oregon. (Kelliher and Rodriguez, 7/21)
CapRadio:
High Winds And Steep Terrain Make The Dixie Fire Hard To Contain
As of 8 a.m. Tuesday, the Dixie Fire was nearly 60,000 acres and 15% contained. Nearly 2,500 personnel are working to fight the fire — battling steep terrain and unpredictable winds. NSPR’s Alec Stutson spoke with Dixie Fire Public Information Officer Edwin Zuniga on Tuesday about the weather conditions on the fire front. Here are the highlights from their conversation. (7/20)
KQED:
More Heat Waves Coming, Scientists Say. But The Health Impacts Are Largely Preventable
Climate scientists have long warned that severe heat waves will be one result of humans belching tons of planet warming gases into the atmosphere. And they say the heat is here to stay, and with time, these events will only increase due to a changing climate. “Of all the extreme weather events that are tied to climate change, heat waves are the ones that are most telling,” says Sean Sublette, meteorologist at the science and news organization Climate Central. “That's the kind of event that ties most directly to a warming climate. Just statistically, if the overall temperature of the planet is going up, you're going to have hotter spells than you had in the past.” (Klivans, 7/20)
The Hill:
Smoke From Western Wildfires Smothers East Coast
Smoke from the wildfires ravaging the West Coast is reaching as far east as New York City, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The wildfires, 80 of which were reported as of Monday in 13 different states, are causing harmful air quality conditions across the country. (Polus, 7/20)