Assisted Living Facilities Pressed to Address Growing Needs of Older, Sicker Residents
Assisted living was meant to be a home-like setting where older adults could interact with other residents while receiving help with daily tasks such as bathing and dressing. But as the concept has become more popular, residents are now older and sicker than in the past, and a panel of experts is calling for more focus on their medical and mental health needs. (Judith Graham,
)
California Among Worst In Nation For Flu Cases: The flu positivity rate in L.A. County has reached 25%, a level not seen at this time of year in the last four years. “Clearly, we’re … off the charts,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. California has recorded at least 36 flu-related deaths since the start of October; that figure is likely an undercount. Read more from the Los Angeles Times and VC Star.
State To Pay For ‘Bubble Baby’ Therapy: Nearly three years after a British firm abandoned a successful therapy for the life-threatening “bubble baby” disease, children will again be treated in a clinical trial backed with millions of dollars from the state of California. Read more from Capitol Weekly.
Below, check out the roundup of California Healthline’s coverage. For today’s national health news, read KHN’s Morning Briefing.
Los Angeles Times:
Senior Citizens Are Hit Hard As COVID Surges Across State
There has been a troubling spike in coronavirus-positive hospital admissions among seniors in California, rising to levels not seen since the summer Omicron surge. Hospitalizations have roughly tripled for Californians of most age groups since the autumn low. But the jump in seniors in need of hospital care has been particularly dramatic. (Lin II, 12/5)
The Mercury News:
Bay Area COVID Cases Surging After Thanksgiving Holiday
COVID-19 cases are surging in the Bay Area and California since Thanksgiving, as holiday gatherings appear to have fueled the virus’ spread among a pandemic-weary public no longer masking or lining up for the latest vaccine booster. Cases in the nine-county Bay Area have jumped from an average of 8 daily cases per 100,000 residents in late October to over 13 at the end of November, an 80% increase. Every Bay Area county is in at least the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s second-highest substantial transmission level, and Santa Clara and Solano counties already are at the high level. Santa Clara and Marin counties have risen from the CDC’s low to medium community level, reflecting the virus’ impact on local hospitals. (Woolfolk, 12/3)
San Francisco Chronicle:
COVID In California: Bay Area Wastewater Samples Show Big Surge Is Under Way
Surveys of coronavirus levels in Bay Area wastewater suggest another COVID-19 surge is not only under way but may top last summer’s omicron BA.5 wave in the number of people infected. (Vaziri and Kawahara, 12/2)
Los Angeles Times:
As COVID-19 Spikes In California, Booster Shots Could Make All The Difference
With coronavirus cases and hospitalizations rising in Los Angeles County, officials are voicing new confidence in the effectiveness of the updated COVID-19 booster shot. New data has found that the updated COVID-19 vaccines offer “significant additional protection” against symptomatic infection in people who were previously vaccinated or boosted with the older formula. (Lin II and Money, 12/3)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Virus Can Live On Certain Groceries “For Several Days,” Report Finds
The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 can live on some groceries for days, according to new laboratory tests by the U.K.’s Food Standards Agency. The research, conducted at the University of Southampton, was commissioned by the FSA as a follow-up to a 2020 study measuring the risk of surface transmission. (Vaziri and Kawahara, 12/2)
CIDRAP:
42% Of US Adults Likely Have Had COVID, But Almost Half Of Them Say They Didn’t
Serologic testing of US adults finds that nearly 42% have SARS-CoV-2 antibodies indicating previous infection, but about 44% of them said they never had COVID-19, according to a study published today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (Van Beusekom, 12/2)
CIDRAP:
11% Of COVID-19 Survivors Have Residual Lung Damage, Study Finds
A new study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine reveals about an 11% incidence of residual lung damage—known as interstitial lung disease—after COVID-19 hospitalization. Interstitial lung disease is a broad category of lung damage and disease defined by fibrotic scarring. The damage is often irreversible. (12/2)
Reuters:
Drop In COVID Alertness Could Create Deadly New Variant, WHO Says
Lapses in strategies to tackle COVID-19 this year continue to create the perfect conditions for a deadly new variant to emerge, as parts of China witness a rise in infections, the head of the World Health Organization said on Friday. The comments by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus mark a change in tone just months after he said that the world has never been in a better position to end the pandemic. (Satija, 12/2)
The Mercury News:
COVID Changed The Way The Bay Area Worships Leaving Empty Pews
Empty pews. Taking communion at home. Zooming into Shabbat services in pajamas. It’s been nearly three years since COVID-19 shut down the world, but the Bay Area’s places of worship have yet to return to their pre-pandemic normal — and experts wonder if they ever will. More than one in three local residents say they still aren’t going to their spiritual centers as often as they did before COVID struck, according to an exclusive poll by the Bay Area News Group and Joint Venture Silicon Valley. That’s despite the fact that nearly everything has opened back up, vaccines are widespread, and hospitalizations and deaths from the virus have plummeted. (Kendall, 12/4)
Politico:
Defense Bill Could Roll Back Covid Vaccine Policy, Top Dem Says
Final defense legislation set to be unveiled next week could undo the Pentagon’s policy of kicking out troops for not taking the Covid vaccine, the Democratic chair of the House Armed Services Committee said Saturday. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said a rollback of the policy is on the table for a compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act, but hasn’t been decided yet. (O’Brien and Bender, 12/3)
AP:
Keep COVID Military Vaccine Mandate, Defense Chief Says
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he wants to keep the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate in place to protect the health of the troops, as Republican governors and lawmakers press to rescind it. This past week more than 20 Republican governors sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking that the administration remove the mandate, saying it has hurt the U.S. National Guard’s ability to recruit troops. Those troops are activated by governors to respond to natural disasters or unrest. (Copp, 12/4)
CapRadio and NPR:
Mpox Will Not Be Renewed As A Public Health Emergency Next Year
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it would not renew mpox, the virus formerly known as monkeypox, as a public health emergency after January 31, 2023, following a drop in cases. Mpox cases, which peaked in August with a seven-day average of 459 new cases, fell steadily over the past months to an average of seven cases by the end of November. (Ahn, 12/3)
USA Today:
Is Monkeypox Still In The US? Cases Drop Amid Vaccine. What’s Next?
“The outbreak has been contained, but it’s not ‘mission accomplished’ because the virus is still here,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. (Weintraub, 12/3)
News-Medical.net:
Researchers Develop A Polyvalent Lipid Nanoparticle MRNA Vaccine Against Monkeypox Virus
In a recent study posted to the bioRxiv* server, researchers developed a messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology-based vaccine candidate against the monkeypox virus (MPXV) and evaluated its immunogenicity in animal models. (Mathur, 12/5)
American Homefront Project:
For Disabled Kids Of Military Parents, Frequent Moves Can Lead To Schooling, Health Care Gaps
On weekdays, Lawanda Jenkins wakes up well before dawn. The wife of an Army soldier, Jenkins spends hours helping her 8-year-old daughter Victoria Thomas get ready for school. It’s an exacting morning routine that’s often interrupted by health scares. (Frame, 12/2)
Voice of OC:
Disabled Students At Cal State Fullerton Petition For A Place On Campus
Cal State Fullerton’s disability advocacy student club is taking on university administrators, challenging their decision to close a popular computer lab located on the first floor of the Polka Library, once called their “safe space.” While the university provides meeting spaces for other clubs, it doesn’t for students with disabilities. That’s something that Abled Advocators, a coalition of students who have organized the campus’ award-winning disability advocacy club, say must change. (Duran, 12/3)
Los Angeles Times:
Landon Sachs Overcomes Family Tragedy To Find Joy In Adaptive Tennis
The boy didn’t want to talk at first. It was flu season in early 2014, no visitors allowed in the rehab center at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego. Manny Gomez, a 15-year-old with an incomplete spinal cord injury, grew lonely. Most patients would stay for a week, faces cycling in and out, nobody going through Gomez’s same months-long process of physical therapy. (Evans, 12/5)
The Mercury News:
Hopeful Glimmers In Long War On Alzheimer’s Disease
After decades of failure in Alzheimer’s disease research, scientists are buoyed by new findings that could mark a turning point in the field, offering hope that treatment may someday slow the grim deterioration of the brain. The data, published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine and presented to applause at a sold-out conference in San Francisco last week, showed a substantial reduction in damaging brain plaques and some modest slowing of cognitive decline in patients with early disease. (Krieger, 12/4)
Sacramento Bee:
Newsom Paused $1 Billion In Homeless Funds For Cities, Then Restarted It. Did Anything Change?
Gov. Gavin Newsom stunned local officials across California last month when he revealed he would withhold $1 billion in state funds they were relying on to maintain critically needed shelters and services for the homeless. The announcement, made less than a week before Election Day, came with a stiff message about what he regarded as a lack of aggressive planning by cities and counties to confront one of the state’s most pressing issues. Newsom said that Californians demanded “accountability and results” for the state’s homeless crisis. (Angst, 12/5)
Public Health Watch:
Ancient Lung Disease Strikes Countertop Cutters In LA
The men are haggard, starved of breath and tethered to oxygen tanks. Neither will live to an old age; without lung transplants, both may die within a year. Juan Gonzalez Morin, 36, and Gustavo Reyes Gonzalez, 32, made a living cutting and grinding engineered-stone countertops, the synthetic slabs that have become popular with consumers. Cheaper and more durable than natural stone, they are composed of crushed quartz bound by a plastic resin. But the cutting of the slabs releases tiny crystalline silica particles that can kill workers who inhale them. (Morris and Rojas, 12/3)
Sacramento Bee:
She Pioneered Cold Case Tech And Put Rapists In Prison. What’s Next For Anne Marie Schubert?
David Allen Funston was a former Amador County restaurant owner when Anne Marie Schubert first set her sights on him. The 34-year-old North Highlands resident trolled the streets of Sacramento, luring young children into his car with candy and toys, then molesting them and dumping them out of his vehicle until he was arrested in January 1996. (Stanton, 12/4)
Sacramento Bee:
Book Of Dreams: Sacramento Center Provides Physical, Emotional Support For People With MS
Every day, a group of tough-minded people of all ages meets in a medical building in Citrus Heights. You might call it the Fight Club. There, at the Multiple Sclerosis Achievement Center, people dealing with chronic and incurable disease work on their bodies, their minds and their psyches with a simple objective: To fight back against a powerful neurological disorder. (Bizjak, 12/4)
