Thursday, December 8, 2022 | California Healthline


California Awards $480M For Youth Mental Health Projects: Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced $480.5 million in awards for 54 projects to improve California’s behavioral health infrastructure for children and youth. The historic investment provides grant funding to build new facilities and expand existing facilities that help children, youth, transition-age youth, and perinatal individuals with a mental health and/or substance use disorder. Read more from the Los Angeles Blade and KSBY.

Orange County Declares Racism A Public Health Crisis: Orange County’s elected Board of Supervisors formally declared this week that systemic racism and inequality are driving a public health crisis in local communities. Read more from Voice of OC.

Below, check out the roundup of California Healthline’s coverage. For today’s national health news, read KHN’s Morning Briefing.


Los Angeles Times:
Dangerous Weeks Ahead In L.A. County As Coronavirus Suddenly Surges. Here Is Why


A few weeks ago, there was cautious optimism that this winter would not see a significant COVID-19 surge. But in Los Angeles County, that outlook is in jeopardy. Coronavirus case counts are climbing rapidly, sending increasing numbers of Angelenos to the hospital and raising the possibility of a renewed public indoor mask mandate that could arrive shortly after the new year. (Lin II and Money, 12/7)


San Francisco Chronicle:
SF COVID Cases Rising Again, Especially In These Neighborhoods


Once again, San Francisco’s COVID case rates are spiking right before the winter holidays. And once again, the city’s lower-income, heavily Black and brown neighborhoods are bearing the burden. The city’s confirmed case rates are still lower than they were in the summer and midwinter, when omicron subvariants drove national spikes in sickness. But public health experts say the figures from early December indicate we’re at the start of a potentially much larger winter wave. (Neilson, 12/7)


Los Angeles Times:
An Early January Mask Mandate Looms For L.A. If Coronavirus Wave Worsens


With coronavirus cases surging and hospitalizations worsening, Los Angeles County once again faces the possibility of a renewed public indoor mask mandate. The return of such rules, which haven’t been on the books since March, is not a given. But with the startling formation of a third straight fall-and-winter wave, officials have said a new order could be implemented shortly after the calendar turns should current trends continue. (Lin II and Money, 12/8)


San Francisco Chronicle:
Time To Rethink Indoor Dining Again? These Are The Bay Area’s ‘Tripledemic’ Risks


This holiday season, restaurants in the Bay Area are operating closer to pre-pandemic normal than ever before — though a confluence of respiratory illnesses on the rise could mean trouble, already forcing the temporary closure of one popular San Francisco eatery. During the first winter of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020, restaurants were completely shuttered except for takeout. While vaccines and boosters led to the easing of public health measures during the holiday season in 2021, many Bay Area restaurants temporarily closed down as the original omicron variant sent cases soaring to unprecedented heights. (Hwang, 12/8)


KVPR:
Merced County Residents Ask For Review Of COVID Relief Spending Plans


Merced County residents are at odds with a county spending plan that uses federal COVID relief funds. This month, a group of residents submitted a letter to the U.S. Department of Treasury asking the agency to review how the county is using funds it received from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA. (Quintanilla, 12/7)


Los Angeles Times:
Experimental Decoy Drug Tricks Coronavirus, Then Destroys It


The coronavirus has been a shifty foe, with new variants and subvariants rapidly evolving to evade vaccines and treatments. Researchers at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute are working on an experimental drug that takes one of the virus’ most dangerous traits — its talent for mutation — and turns it back on itself. When the coronavirus binds to a specific type of receptor on the surface of a cell, it drives its spike protein in like a switchblade and initiates an infection. (Purtill and Healy, 12/7)


The Hill:
FDA Gives Priority Review To Pfizer RSV Vaccine For Older Adults 


The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted Pfizer’s application for an RSV vaccine for older adults, and is expected to make an approval decision by the spring. Pfizer in a statement on Wednesday said the FDA is going to review its application under the priority review program, which reduces the approval timeline by four months. The end of the review period is expected to be May 2023, Pfizer said. (Weixel, 12/7)


San Francisco Chronicle:
Is Dry Cough COVID, RSV Or Flu? Here Are The Most Common Symptoms


If it feels like everyone you know is getting sick, that’s because they are. The Bay Area is getting pummeled with a triple threat of viruses. COVID-19, flu, and respiratory syncytial virus cases are surging across the region and the nation, making it harder than ever to determine what is causing your dry cough or runny nose. The infections cause similar symptoms, but it’s important to know how to tell them apart to get proper treatment and avoid spreading them to others. (Vaziri, 12/7)


The Hill:
White House Calls It ‘Mistake’ To Repeal Troop Vaccine Mandate, Won’t Say If Biden Would Veto Defense Bill 


The White House on Wednesday called it a “mistake” to repeal the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for military service members through the annual defense policy bill, but officials stopped short of saying President Biden would veto the legislation. “What we think happened here is Republicans in Congress have decided that they’d rather fight against the health and well-being of our troops than protecting them,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “And we believe that it is a mistake, what we saw happen on the NDAA as it relates to the vaccine mandate. Making sure our troops are prepared and ready for service is a priority for President Biden. The vaccination requirement for COVID does just that.” (Samuels, 12/7)


The Washington Post:
Rollback Of Covid Vaccine Mandate Met With Furor At Pentagon 


Privately, some Defense Department personnel were even more pointed. One senior defense official said that when service members “inevitability get sick, and if they should die, it will be on the Republicans who insisted upon this.” The official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the polarizing issue, cited the sprawling coronavirus outbreak aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in spring 2020. The vessel — a major power-projection weapon — was sidelined for weeks through a cumbersome quarantine process with more than 1,200 cases in a crew of about 4,800, and one sailor died. (Lamothe, Horton and Demirjian, 12/7)


AP:
EXPLAINER: What End Of Vaccine Mandate Means For US Troops 


Congress’ move to eliminate the Pentagon mandate that all U.S. service members get the COVID-19 vaccine delivers a victory for lawmakers and troops who oppose getting the shot, but it raises questions and potential risks, especially for forces deploying overseas. … The bill doesn’t include any order to allow a return to service by the more than 8,000 troops who were discharged for refusing to obey a lawful order when they refused to get the shot. And there appears to be no guarantee that those who don’t get the vaccine won’t see some potential deployment restrictions, which could affect their military careers. (Baldor, 12/7)


CNN:
More Than 180,000 People Overdosed On Opioids And Survived In The Past Year, New White House Dashboard Shows


There were about 181,806 nonfatal opioid overdoses recorded in the United States in the past year, and it’s taken about 9.8 minutes on average for emergency medical services to reach someone who’s overdosing, according to a data dashboard that the White House debuted Thursday. This first-of-its-kind dashboard was developed to track nonfatal opioid overdoses, which have become a growing public health concern as the US struggles with a decades-long opioid epidemic. (Howard, 12/8)


NPR:
The White House Unveils A New System To Track And Better Prevent Opioid Overdoses


For decades, the U.S. struggled to create a national system for tracking opioid overdoses. Critics including Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) say the lack of accurate, real-time data has made it harder for health officials to respond as black market pain pills, heroin and illicit fentanyl flooded communities. “It is absolutely a monstrous failure of government,” Trone said in an interview with NPR. “The excuses are unending. “Thursday morning, the Biden administration moved to close the data gap, unveiling a new website that will track non-fatal opioid overdoses. (Mann, 12/8)


MedicalXpress:
People With Disabilities Who Misuse Opioid Drugs 73% More Likely To Attempt Suicide, National Study Finds


People who take medical opioid drugs without a doctor’s prescription are 37% more likely than non-users to plan suicide—and the risk is even greater for those with disabilities, who have 73% higher odds of attempting to take their own life. The findings are from a study of over 38,000 adults who took part in the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2019, published in the journal Substance Use and Misuse. (12/8)


Los Angeles Times:
Meadowbrook And L.A.’s Conflicted Relationship With Mental Illness


To stand on East Boulevard in West Los Angeles is to get a short history lesson in the city’s conflicted relationship with mental illness. East Boulevard and its companion street, Marcasel Avenue (formerly West Boulevard) form the Mar Vista Oval, one of the region’s first subdivisions. Laid out with broad sidewalks and parkways planted with Canary Island palms, the development was advertised in The Times on New Year’s Day 1912. (Curwen, 12/8)


Los Angeles Times:
Schizophrenia And California’s Failed Mental Health System


Standing in the dappled sunlight of a Westside city park, Anthony Mazzucca was trying to make a point. The words flew out of him, like birds, a flock of words. He laughed at the thought. Yet he wondered whether he was being clear. No one — not God, Obama, the devil, his counselor from high school — seemed to understand him. (Curwen, 12/8)


AP:
Middle Schoolers OD From Taking Pot-Laced Products On Campus


Four students at a Southern California school apparently overdosed Wednesday after eating marijuana-laced products and three of them were taken to the hospital, authorities said. Firefighters were sent to Sunnymead Middle School in Moreno Valley at about noon, Riverside County fire officials said. (12/8)


Fierce Healthcare:
Sign-Ups On ACA Exchanges Up 18% Year Over Year To 5.5M So Far


Sign-ups for plans on the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges reached 5.5 million during the first five weeks of open enrollment, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The CMS said Wednesday that figure includes 1.2 million people who have newly signed up for coverage through the exchanges as well as 4.3 million people who have returned to the exchanges to renew or select a new plan for 2023.That represents an 18% increase year over year; in 2021, 4.6 million people had signed up for plans through the first five weeks of the enrollment period. (Minemyer, 12/7)


Reuters:
Around 5.5 Mln People Have Signed Up For 2023 Obamacare Plans 


Nearly 5.5 million Americans so far have signed up for health insurance for next year through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace, an 18% increase over the same period last year, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday. People who want to choose a healthcare plan for 2023 under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, can enroll between Nov. 1 and Jan. 15. However, if they want to be covered as of Jan. 1 they generally need to choose a plan by Dec. 15. (12/7)


Reuters:
U.S. Senate Panel Deadlocks On Abortion Rights Lawyer’s Judicial Nomination 


A U.S. Senate panel on Thursday was deadlocked on whether to support President Joe Biden’s nomination to the federal bench of an abortion rights lawyer who argued the losing side of the U.S. Supreme Court case that led to Roe v. Wade being overturned. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-11 along party lines on Julie Rikelman’s nomination to the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals even as the panel agreed to advance 11 of Biden’s other judicial nominees. (Raymond, 12/7)


USA Today:
Independent Abortion Clinics Are ‘Disappearing From Communities’ After The End Of Roe V. Wade


Twice as many independent abortion clinics have closed so far in 2022 compared to the year before as facilities shuttered in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision this year to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to an association for independent abortion care providers. As of November, 42 independent abortion clinics closed or were forced to stop providing abortion care in 2022 — more than double the 20 closures in 2021, according to a Tuesday report by the Abortion Care Network. (Fernando, 12/8)


MSN:
Lasik Eye Surgery More Dangerous Than Previously Thought?


Lasik eye surgery has been known in the common vernacular as a surgery that is both beneficial and low-risk for quite some time now. And while that is generally true, there are reportedly risks that some doctors neglect to tell their patients about. According to an investigation done by the Food And Drug Administration (FDA), these risks include a list of complications ranging from prolonged and severe eye pain to still needing prescription lenses. (Eckert, 12/7)



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