Latest California Healthline Stories
Hollowed-Out Public Health System Faces More Cuts Amid Virus
The U.S. public health system has been starved for decades and lacks the resources necessary to confront the worst health crisis in a century. An investigation by The Associated Press and KHN has found that since 2010, spending for state public health departments has dropped by 16% per capita and for local health departments by 18%. At least 38,000 public health jobs have disappeared, leaving a skeletal workforce for what was once viewed as one of the world’s top public health systems. That has left the nation unprepared to deal with a virus that has sickened at least 2.6 million people and killed more than 126,000.
As Cases Spike, California Pauses Multimillion-Dollar Testing Expansion
California is cutting off funding for COVID-19 testing just when counties say they need more resources in rural and disadvantaged areas.
NIH Spearheads Study To Test At-Home Screening For HPV And Cervical Cancer
The National Cancer Institute plans to launch a multisite study next year involving roughly 5,000 women to assess whether self-sampling at home for the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer is comparable to screening in a doctor’s office.
Essential Worker Shoulders $1,840 Pandemic Debt Due To COVID Cost Loophole
Carmen Quintero had symptoms of COVID-19, couldn’t get tested and ended up with a huge bill. She also was told to self-isolate and assume she had the coronavirus — which is hard when you live with elders.
Workers Filed More Than 4,100 Complaints About Protective Gear. Some Still Died.
As health workers in California and other states were dying of COVID-19, federal work-safety officials filed just one citation against an employer and rapidly closed complaints about protective gear.
Supreme Court, Rejecting Restrictive La. Law, Refuses To Roll Back Abortion Rights
Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s liberals in the 5-4 decision that strikes down a state law requiring doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.
How Mis- And Disinformation Campaigns Online Kneecap Coronavirus Response
The pandemic has been marked by a significant amount of misinformation — some spread on purpose — that could prove deadly.
In Arizona Race, McSally Makes Health Care Pledge At Odds With Track Record
The use of the word “always” makes this claim a stretch.
California Prisons Are COVID Hotbeds Despite Billions Spent On Inmate Health
At $3.6 billion a year, California spends more on prison health care than other states spend to run their entire prison systems. But despite the spending, and federal court oversight, prisons across California are struggling to contain deadly outbreaks of COVID-19.
Seniors In Low-Income Housing Live In Fear Of COVID Infection
On their own in dirty buildings with little guidance or support, vulnerable older residents worry about unchecked transmission of the potentially deadly virus. “We felt abandoned.”