Health Care System At Sacramento County Jail Is ‘Broken,’ Report Says: A damning new 101-page report on the state of health care inside Sacramento County’s jail system described it as having a chronic shortage of nurses and doctors, medical treatment areas that are “cluttered, dirty, and in many cases filthy,” and an overcrowding problem so severe that the Main Jail has twice as many inmates as it was originally designed to hold. Read more from The Sacramento Bee.
Oakland To End Mask Rule For Large Indoor Gatherings: Masking requirements for indoor gatherings of 2,500 or more people will be lifted on Nov. 1, Oakland has announced. Masking will continue to be enforced for people entering city libraries, public senior centers, senior adult care facilities, recreation centers or civic center buildings. Read more from Bay Area News Group.
Below, check out the roundup of California Healthline’s coverage. For today’s national health news, read KHN’s Morning Briefing.
CalMatters:
California Vaccination Requirements Could Add COVID
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, 10/26)
The Los Angeles Times:
Got COVID? Your Symptoms May Depend On Your Vaccination Status
The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is really beginning to fit in. Now that it is settling in for a long stay among humankind, researchers are finding that the symptoms it causes have begun to look more and more like those of the flu, colds and even allergies. (Healy, 10/26)
San Francisco Chronicle:
These COVID Symptoms Are Now The Most Common As Variants Evolve
Don’t shrug off that sneeze or scratch at the back of your throat. As coronavirus variants continue to evolve and become more difficult to detect, so do COVID symptoms, allowing more people to spread the virus without realizing it. Signs of infection are increasingly hard to tell apart from symptoms of a common cold or flu, according to the latest update from the ongoing Zoe Health Study, a joint project by researchers at Harvard, Stanford, and King’s College in London. (Vaziri, 10/26)
Fortune:
High Hopes Were Riding On The New Omicron Boosters This Autumn. But They May Not Work Any Better Than The Original
Both papers cite “immune imprinting” as a potential reason for the new booster’s inability to outperform the original vaccine. It’s a phenomenon in which an initial exposure to a virus—say, the original strain of COVID, by infection or vaccination—limits a person’s future immune response against new variants. … Immune imprinting “may pose a greater challenge than currently appreciated for inducing robust immunity” to COVID variants, the Harvard-affiliated authors wrote in their new paper. The authors of the other paper expressed the same concern, but cautioned that a second dose of the new booster may lead to a better antibody response. (Prater, 10/26)
Wired:
Where Did Omicron Come From? Maybe Its First Host Was Mice
It’s one of the perplexing mysteries of the Covid pandemic: Where did Omicron emerge from, almost one year ago? The fast-moving, extremely contagious variant arrived just after Thanksgiving 2021, bristling with weird mutations. When scientists untangled the array, they found that Omicron wasn’t related to Delta or Alpha, the two waves that preceded it. Instead, its divergence from its closest common ancestor dated back more than a year, to the first few months of the pandemic—practically a geologic era in viral-replication time. (McKenna, 10/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
What Surging RSV Cases Means For Bay Area, Symptoms To Look For
Bay Area pediatric hospitals are seeing a rise in cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, a common viral illness that can cause trouble breathing for infants and young children — part of a nationwide surge that has grown particularly severe in some parts of the country, doctors said. Surveillance shows RSV detections, emergency-room visits and hospitalizations are increasing “in multiple U.S. regions, with some regions nearing seasonal peak levels,” according to an alert on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. (Echeverria, 10/26)
ABC News:
Some US Hospitals Report Beds Are Full Among Increase In Respiratory Infections In Children
Some hospitals across the United States say their beds are full as cases of respiratory viruses continue to increase among children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infections due to respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, have spiked by 69% over the last four weeks from 4,667 to 7,917 and are appearing earlier than usual. (Kekatos, 10/27)
CNN:
The RSV Surge Didn’t Come Out Of Nowhere, But Gaps In Data Made It Tougher To Predict
Public health experts expected a break from typical seasonal trends amid a pandemic that has disrupted “normal” in so many ways. Some outcomes were bound to be unpredictable. But one thing that could help public health officials better prepare for and respond to these unusual surges is more complete and real-time disease surveillance that more acutely tracks trends in transmission and other key data points. It’s especially critical now, as the country faces what’s expected to be an especially rough winter when virus trends have shifted. (McPhillips and Howard, 10/27)
The Hill:
What To Know About RSV Symptoms And Transmission
Adults with RSV typically have symptoms of the common cold, but babies, young children and older adults who are infected with the virus can develop more serious illnesses like pneumonia. … RSV is primarily transmitted through contact with bodily fluids, and less commonly through the air or skin to skin contact. (Hou, 10/26)
Los Angeles Blade:
Center For Black Equity Awarded Grant To Combat Monkeypox
The Center for Black Equity (CBE) has received a $50,000 grant supporting the center’s mission to raise awareness about monkeypox in Black and Latinx LGBTQ communities. The grant will also fund the center’s continuing fight against monkeypox misinformation and lack of access to vaccines and resources within these communities. (Bland, 10/26)
The New York Times:
Most Hospitalized Monkeypox Patients In The U.S. Were H.I.V.-Positive
Nearly all Americans hospitalized for monkeypox infection had weakened immune systems, most often because of H.I.V. infection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Wednesday. Of 57 hospitalized patients described in the report, 82 percent had H.I.V. More than two-thirds of the patients were Black and nearly one-quarter were homeless, reflecting racial and economic inequities seen in the outbreak overall. (Mandavilli, 10/26)
The Washington Post:
Monkeypox Deaths In U.S. Hit 10; Danger Highest With Untreated HIV
Monkeypox is causing devastating outcomes for people with severely weakened immune systems, even as new cases continue to decline in the United States, according to a federal report released Wednesday. At least 10 people hospitalized with monkeypox have died. More than 28,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported since the U.S. outbreak began in May. While the vast majority recover within weeks, some patients with untreated HIV experienced especially dire consequences, such as losing function of their brain or spinal cord, eyes and lungs despite being given antiviral medication. (Sun and Nirappil, 10/26)
FiercePharma:
OTC Birth Control Pill Delayed As FDA Postpones Expert Meeting For Perrigo Drug
The FDA has pushed back a decision date on a proposed over-the-counter switch of Perrigo’s prescription birth control drug Opill by 90 days, Perrigo said Wednesday. Perrigo had previously expected an approval in the first half of 2023, but the exact original FDA action date was never disclosed. Perrigo’s HRA Pharma applied for the Rx-to-OTC switch on July 11, and such reviews typically take 10 months. In addition to its decision delay, the FDA also postponed a planned joint meeting by its Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee and the Obstetrics, Reproductive and Urologic Drugs Advisory Committee to discuss Perrigo’s application. The conference was previously scheduled for Nov. 18. No new date has been set, Perrigo said. (Liu, 10/26)
Scientific American:
These Drugs Could Restore A Period Before Pregnancy Is Confirmed
Imagine this situation: A woman misses her period and worries she might be pregnant. She doesn’t want to be, so she schedules an appointment with a health care provider and tells them she wishes to get her period back. The provider prescribes her a course of “period pills.” She gets her period again, and that’s the end of it. Such a scenario is not purely hypothetical. Period pills are the same ones used in medication abortion—misoprostol alone or in combination with mifepristone—which could imply that menstrual regulation is just another name for early abortion. But the drugs might not be considered abortion medication because the patient never learns whether they were pregnant in the first place. (Lenharo, 10/26)
The Hill:
Americans Die Younger In States With Conservative Policies: Study
Americans die younger in states with more conservative policies, while states with more liberal policies are associated with lower mortality rates, according to a new study published Wednesday in the scientific journal PLOS One. Researchers analyzed mortality rates for all causes of death in all 50 states from 1999 to 2019 among adults aged 25 to 64. They compared that to state data on policy measures such as gun safety, labor, marijuana policy, economic taxes and tobacco taxes. (Dress, 10/26)
USA Today:
More Americans Die Younger In States With Conservative Policies, Study Finds
The analysis revealed changing state policies to fully liberal could have saved more than 171,000 lives in 2019, while changing them to fully conservative may have cost over 217,000 lives. (Rodriguez, 10/26)
KRCR:
Former Humboldt Health Officer Receives California Medical Association Award
Former Humboldt County Public Health Officer, Doctor Donald Baird, has received the California Medical Association’s most prestigious award after serving the Humboldt and Del Norte communities for 46 years. The Frederick K.M. Plessner Memorial Award honors a California physician who “best exemplifies the ethics and practice of a rural country practitioner,” according to the Humboldt-Del Norte County Medical Society. (Wipf, 10/26)
Becker’s Hospital Review:
California Hospital Fires CEO After Nearly 2 Years In Role
Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital, a 25-bed nonprofit hospital in Hollister, Calif., has fired Steven Hannah as CEO after about two years on the job, BenitoLink reported Oct. 26. Mr. Hannah was let go Oct. 14 because the San Benito Healthcare District Board chose “to go in a different direction,” said Jeri Hernandez, the board chair, according to the report. He received $360,563 in severance pay, per his contract. (Gooch, 10/26)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Doctor Charged In Woman’s 2019 Jail Death, Accused Of Neglecting Her When Critically Ill
A doctor accused of neglecting a critically ill young woman incarcerated in the Las Colinas jail was charged Wednesday with involuntary manslaughter. (Davis, 10/26)
Los Angeles Times:
San Diego Doctor Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter In Jail Death
A doctor accused of neglecting a critically ill woman incarcerated in a San Diego County jail was charged Wednesday with involuntary manslaughter. (Davis, 10/26)
Becker’s Hospital Review:
Man Gets 18 Years In Prison For Stalking Female Physicians At California Hospitals
A 51-year-old man who was found guilty of stalking female physicians at California VA hospitals was sentenced Oct. 25 to 18 years in federal prison. United States District Judge John F. Walter sentenced Gueorgui Hristov Pantchev of West Los Angeles, calling him “a menace to society – a description that I don’t think I have ever used in describing a criminal defendant,” according to a news release from the Justice Department. Mr. Pantchev began a harassment campaign in 2011 of two physicians — Victims C and D. He sent numerous threatening communications to the physicians, who were affiliated with West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. In 2014, he was convicted of seven counts of stalking and witness intimidation. He served a state prison sentence and was paroled in 2017. (Gamble, 10/26)
The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat:
Sonoma County Law Enforcement Agencies Gearing Up For National Prescription Drug Take Back Day
Five Sonoma County law enforcement agencies will be accepting unwanted medications, vape pens and electronic cigarettes Saturday as part of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s 23rd National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. (Barber, 10/26)
CNN:
A California Marijuana Company Is Being Sued Over The Potency Of Its Joints
Two disgruntled customers are suing a California marijuana company, alleging that their prerolled joints were not as strong as claimed. The lawsuit was filed on October 20 against DreamFields Brands, Inc. for allegedly falsely claiming that their products have a high THC component, according to the suit. THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the compound in marijuana that makes users feel high. (Sottile and Dominguez, 10/26)
Bay Area News Group:
Deadly Mosquitoes Have Landed In The Bay Area. Here’s How To Defend Yourself
Two dangerously invasive mosquitoes — male and female — have been trapped in Santa Clara County, the latest evidence that the disease-carrying species could colonize the San Francisco Bay Area. (Krieger, 10/27)
Los Angeles Times:
‘Media Literacy’ Advocates Push To Create Savvier Consumers Of News And Information
The Instagram headline was pithy and alarming: “Head of Pfizer Research: Covid Vaccine is Female Sterilization.” And the report, from a murky source, could have had real-world consequences, coming in 2020, just as the U.S. rolled out the first vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic. That made the story a perfect tool for an educator trying to teach high school students how to separate fact from fiction — a survival skill in a culture drowning in a tsunami of information. (Rainey, 10/26)