Friday, October 28, 2022 | California Healthline

Times Of San Diego:
County Reports 1st Flu Death Of Season, Fears An ‘Extremely Disruptive’ Outbreak

San Diego County has recorded its first influenza death of the season, while the number of cases has increased nearly 45% since last week, officials said Thursday. (10/27)

The Desert Sun:
October Marks Highest Level Of RSV, Flu Cases In Coachella Valley In 5 Years

Coachella Valley hospitals saw an early influx of respiratory syncytial virus and influenza cases this October, the highest they’ve been in five years, that have health professionals concerned for the coming fall and winter months. (Sasic, 10/27)

KQED:
Bay Area Children’s Hospitals Strained As RSV Surge Arrives

Patients are flooding Bay Area hospitals as a common respiratory virus sweeps across the region, mirroring a similar surge that has ravaged the East Coast this month. “Last night I admitted a 3-year-old child from the emergency department who spent nine hours in the emergency room waiting for a bed in the hospital,” said Dr. David Cornfield, pediatric pulmonologist at Stanford University. “And that’s not terrifically unusual [right now].” (McClurg, 10/27)

Becker’s Hospital Review:
Amid Early RSV Surge, Treatment Options Remain Limited

Besides one preventive drug that can only be prescribed in some cases, there are no FDA-approved treatments for respiratory syncytial virus — which leaves healthcare workers with limited treatment options. (Twenter, 10/27)

CNN:
What To Do If Your Child Has A Respiratory Infection? Our Medical Analyst Explains

What kinds of respiratory infections can be treated at home — and with what treatments? Which symptoms should prompt a call to the doctor, or for parents and caregivers to bring their children to the hospital? (Hetter, 10/27)

ABC News:
Family Reveals Ordeal Of 2-Year-Old Son In Hospital With 3 Viruses Simultaneously

An Ohio family is speaking out to share their son’s battle with three different viruses as respiratory infections spike in children across the country, filling up hospital beds. It all started when the Jackson family, from Middletown — about 35 miles north of Cincinnati — returned from vacation to Walt Disney World the first week of September. (Pezenik, 10/27)

Sacramento Bee:
COVID-19 Infections Slowing In California, But Variants Loom

Coronavirus infection rates in California are showing signs of declining following a brief plateau earlier this month, though health officials continue to advise caution as newly discovered subvariants spread globally and as winter approaches. The statewide case rate fell to 6.1 per 100,000 residents, the California Department of Public Health said Thursday in a weekly update, down 9% in the past week. (McGough, 10/27)

CapRadio:
CDC Paves Way For California To Require School COVID Vaccines — But Lawmakers Have Given Up For Now

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccination advisors voted last week to recommend all children get the COVID-19 vaccine, a move that does not change California’s list of vaccines required for children to attend school. The addition of the COVID-19 vaccine to the CDC’s recommended vaccines for kids is not a mandate for states’ school attendance requirements. Any additions to California’s list must be made by the state Legislature or the state Department of Public Health. In the last 12 months, the Newsom administration and the Legislature separately tried to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for kids to attend school, and both failed. (Aguilera, 10/27)

CNN:
People Of Color Less Likely To Receive Paxlovid And Other Covid-19 Treatments, According To CDC Study

People of color – especially Black and Hispanic people – were less likely to receive Paxlovid and other Covid-19 treatments, according to a study published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Throughout the pandemic, Black and Hispanic people have been about two times more likely than White people to be hospitalized or die from Covid-19.The new study showed Black Covid-19 patients were 36% less likely than White patients to be treated with Paxlovid, and Hispanic patients were 30% less likely than non-Hispanic patients to receive the antiviral pill. (McPhillips, 10/27)

CIDRAP:
Humans Transmit SARS-CoV-2 To Their Pets, Household Study Finds

Among a sample of 107 households with pets and at least one COVID-19–infected adult in Idaho and Washington state, 21% of dogs and 39% of cats had signs of infection, 40% of dogs and 43% of cats had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, and 5% and 8%, respectively, tested positive on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, finds a new study in Emerging Infectious Diseases. (10/27)

Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento Supervisor Shares COVID Misinformation, Says Children ‘Do Not Die’ From Virus 

Sacramento County Supervisor Sue Frost shared misinformation about COVID-19 at a public meeting, this week saying “COVID is gone,” “children do not get or die from the virus,” and describing vaccines for the virus as “experimental.” Statistics from California’s COVID-19 database show that Frost’s statements are not correct. (Miranda and Anderson, 10/27)

Modern Healthcare:
YouTube Health’s Validation Process For Health Information Expands

As it attempts to combat health disinformation, YouTube is allowing certain healthcare professionals to apply for verification. Starting Thursday, licensed healthcare providers such as doctors, nurses and mental health professionals can apply to make their channels eligible for YouTube’s health product features, which labels them as an authoritative source on a medical topic. It also will promote their videos at the top of someone’s search. (Perna, 10/27)

NPR:
False Information Is Everywhere. ‘Pre-Bunking’ Tries To Head It Off Early

Twitter will soon roll out prompts in users’ timelines reminding them final results may not come on Election Day. They’re all examples of a strategy known as “prebunking” that’s become an important pillar of how tech companies, nonprofits, and government agencies respond to misleading and false claims about elections, public health, and other hot-button issues. (Bond, 10/28)

CIDRAP:
Those Who Buy Into COVID-19 Hoaxes May Be Prone To Other Conspiracies

A new study in PLoS One conducted by Ohio State and University of Kent researchers suggests that people who believe in COVID-19 conspiracy theories are at a greater risk of believing in other conspiracies. The authors of the study said believing COVID-19 was a “hoax” was a gateway to other conspiracies, including the belief that Donald Trump won the 2020 US presidential election. (10/27)

CIDRAP:
CDC Emphasizes Testing, Treating Monkeypox In Pregnancy

Today during a Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity call, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that pregnant women, breastfeeding women, and children who have been exposed to monkeypox be tested promptly if they show symptoms. The officials also said pregnant or breastfeeding women should be offered the Jynneos vaccine as post-exposure prophylaxis (prevention) if they have a known close exposure to the virus. (10/27)

AP:
WHO: Tuberculosis Cases Rise For The First Time In Years 

The number of people infected with tuberculosis, including the kind resistant to drugs, rose globally for the first time in years, according to a report Thursday by the World Health Organization. The U.N. health agency said more than 10 million people worldwide were sickened by tuberculosis in 2021, a 4.5% rise from the year before. About 1.6 million people died, it said. WHO said about 450,000 cases involved people infected with drug-resistant TB, 3% more than in 2020. Dr. Mel Spigelman, president of the non-profit TB Alliance, said more than a decade of progress was lost when COVID-19 emerged in 2020. (10/27)

ScienceAlert and AFP:
The World’s Biggest Infectious Killer Regains Its Deadly Lead 

Mel Spigelman, president of the non-profit TB Alliance, hailed the swift and dramatic progress to rein in the COVID-19 pandemic, with a vast array of safe and effective vaccines, tests, and treatments developed in the space of two years.​ “But the juxtaposition with TB is pretty stark,” he said in a recent interview.​Tuberculosis, once called consumption, was the world’s biggest infectious killer before the arrival of COVID-19, with 1.5 million people dying from the disease each year. (Larson, 10/24)

The Bakersfield Californian:
Dignity Health Announces More Than $119M In Financial Assistance Awarded Last Year 

Dignity Health Bakersfield hospitals, which include Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, Mercy Hospital Downtown and Mercy Hospital Southwest, announced that it’s provided more than $119 million during the previous fiscal year in patient financial assistance for those unable to afford medical necessary care, unreimbursed costs of Medi-Cal, community health improvement services and other community benefits. (10/27)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
Maybe It Won’t Be Illumina Sequencing Your DNA But One Of Its Rivals 

It’s been nearly 15 years since San Diego’s Illumina gained supremacy in DNA sequencing — with just a few rivals competing to deliver the equipment and chemistry to map the genome. But that’s started to change. (Freeman, 10/27)

NBC News:
Walgreens Will Stop Judging Its Pharmacy Staff By How Fast They Work

Walgreens, the country’s second-largest pharmacy chain, announced Wednesday that it is eliminating “task-based metrics” from performance evaluations to allow its pharmacy staffers to “place even greater focus on patient care.” They will now be evaluated “solely on the behaviors that best support patient care and enhance the patient experience,” Walgreens said in a news release. (Kaplan, 10/27)

CalMatters:
California Cancer Care: Making It Fairer

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in California, behind only heart disease. This year alone, the state will tally an estimated 189,000 new cancer cases and close to 61,000 deaths. Yet while patients often need specialists, treatments and the chance to participate in clinical trials, that access is not equitable throughout the state. It typically depends on where they live, and sometimes on their health insurance. (Ibarra, 10/28)

Times Of San Diego:
Zahau Attorney Vows To Ask County M.E. To Drop Suicide As Her Cause Of Death

The family of Rebecca Zahau, whose bound body was found on the grounds of a historic Coronado mansion more than a decade ago, will petition authorities to reclassify her cause of death. (10/27)

Los Angeles Times:
Pandemic And Housing Shortage Leave More Latinos Homeless

Miguel Meneses and his wife were struggling to get by when the pandemic hit. They lost their rent-controlled apartment in Boyle Heights and moved with their three children to a rental house in Pomona that cost four times as much. In summer 2020, Meneses, an Uber driver, fell ill with long COVID symptoms and couldn’t work for months. As the pandemic lurched on, his wife, Sandra Torres, lost the last of the eight cleaning service clients she had left. (Mejia and Vives, 10/28)

San Francisco Chronicle:
The $2 Million Encampment: How A California Yacht Town Became A Homeless Battleground

All the homes looked the same at the gated community that opened during the pandemic. Two dozen square foundations plotted in an orderly grid, each with easy access to the waterfront. Neighbors mingled at a tennis court, caught up over beers and gossiped about who was feuding with whom. Some had workshops to tinker with reclaimed wood or North Bay essentials like generators. At least one person had a meticulously trimmed cannabis plant. (Hepler and Vainshtein, 10/28)

San Francisco Chronicle:
I Was Young And Healthy. A Mild COVID Infection Changed Everything

In March 2020 I contracted a mild COVID infection. I had just turned 30, was in perfect health and living “my best life.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told me it would take two weeks to bounce back. (Charlie McCone, 10/24)

San Francisco Chronicle:
California COVID Misinformation Law Goes Too Far

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB2098, making California the first state to take legal action against medical professionals who spread COVID misinformation. (Robert M. Kaplan, Patrick Whelan and Peter Doshi, 10/25)

San Francisco Chronicle:
As A Mom And Abortion Provider, I Know What’s At Stake In November

“Mommy, when are they cutting out your baby-grower?” my 6-year-old son asked one morning after climbing into my bed, groggy and rubbing his eyes. It had been exactly three months since Roe v. Wade was overturned and my son was referring to the hysterectomy and bilateral-salpingo-oopherectomy operations I was planning to undergo a few months later to remove my uterus and ovaries. He was simply looking forward to Mommy being on sick leave and therefore available some days to pick him up from school. (Maryl Sackeim, 10/27)

East Bay Times:
A Surgeon Explains Why He Is Backing Tobacco Ban

As a surgeon, I have witnessed repeatedly the enormous toll smoking takes on our health care system, the hidden costs to society from failed operations, reintubations, respiratory failure, wound infections and hospital readmissions. (Dr. John Maa, 10/28)

Los Angeles Daily News:
A Doctor’s Perspective On The 7th Anniversary Of California’s Medical Aid-In-Dying Law 

Oct. 5 marked the 7th anniversary of the signing of California’s compassionate law allowing terminally ill adults to get prescription medication they can decide to take to peacefully end unbearable suffering: the End of Life Option Act. (Chandana Banerjee, 10/25)

East Bay Times:
Fixing County’s Mental Health System Would Save Lives And Money

Californians know that in decades past, the state largely dismantled the hospital system that cared for those suffering from mental illnesses, like the Agnews facility here in San Jose. The closing of these institutions correlates with increased rates of homelessness and incarceration. (Matt Mahan, 10/25)

Capital & Main:
Linda Villarosa Lays Bare An Uncomfortable Truth In U.S. Health Care

Racism, not just poverty and access to care, makes Americans sicker. (Peter Hong, 10/27)