Latest California Healthline Stories
Children’s Hospitals Grapple With Wave of Mental Illness
The disruption to daily life caused by the pandemic has increased the number of children seeking mental health care, further straining a system that already struggled to meet the need.
Children’s Hospitals Are Partly to Blame as Superbugs Increasingly Attack Kids
A growing body of research shows that overuse and misuse of antibiotics in children’s hospitals is helping fuel superbugs, which typically strike frail seniors but are increasingly infecting kids. And the pandemic is making things worse.
Health Officials Fear Pandemic-Related Suicide Spike Among Native Youth
Recent deaths on a small Native American reservation in Montana have underlined the heightened risks for Indigenous youths and how suicide prevention programs are struggling to operate during the pandemic.
Pediatricians Want Kids to Be Part of COVID Vaccine Trials
Some years from now, infants and school-aged children will probably be the mainstay of a universal vaccination program against COVID-19 in the United States. But first, doctors want to be sure that newfangled vaccines won’t harm them.
Feds Look to Pharmacists to Boost Childhood Immunization Rates
Fears over COVID-19 have contributed to a slump in inoculations among children. Now the federal government is looking to pharmacists for help, but many of them do not participate in a program that offers free shots to half the kids in the U.S.
Parents Complain That Pediatricians, Wary of COVID, Shift Sick Kids to Urgent Care
Referrals of children to urgent care clinics or emergency rooms have become so prevalent that the American Academy of Pediatrics came out with interim guidance on how practices can safely continue to see patients. The academy recommended that pediatricians strive “to provide care for the same variety of visits that they provided prior to the public health emergency.”
Poor and Minority Children With Food Allergies Overlooked and in Danger
Having a child with a food allergy is terrifying for any parent, but for low-income families such allergies can be especially deadly. Food assistance programs and food pantries rarely take allergies into account. And access to specialists, support groups and lifesaving epinephrine can be hard to attain. This especially hurts low-income Black children, who have higher incidences of allergies to corn, wheat and soy than white kids.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: A Little Good News and Some Bad on COVID-19
Glimmers of hope are beginning to appear in the fight against the coronavirus, such as a decreasing death rate. But there’s not-so-good news, too, including a push for “herd immunity,” which could result in millions more deaths. Meanwhile, the Trump administration doubles down on work requirements for Medicaid. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
New Moms Behind Bars Get Help From Someone Who’s Been There
Nina Porter of Indiana spent most of her adulthood behind bars, even raising an infant daughter in prison. Now out of prison, she’s drawing on her struggles to create a program that helps other moms get by in a sometimes unwelcoming post-prison world.
One School, Two Choices: Families Brave COVID’s Tough Test
Most students at one Marin County school attend in person, while a dozen study from home. Those on campus are constantly nagged to use hand sanitizer and submit to the thermometer. Home-schoolers yell to their parents for help, while the parents pray that Zoom doesn’t freeze.