Newsom Pins Political Rise on Abortion, Guns, and Health Care
As California Gov. Gavin Newsom claims the role as the national Democratic Party’s political attack dog, he is trolling red-state governors over their positions on guns and abortion. He’s also making a case for himself — with health care front and center. (Angela Hart,
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The New York Times:
U.S. Moves To Stretch Out Monkeypox Vaccine Supply
The Biden administration has decided to stretch out its limited supply of monkeypox vaccine by allowing a different method of injection that uses one-fifth as much per shot, according to people familiar with the discussions. In order for the Food and Drug Administration to authorize so-called intradermal injection, which would involve injecting one-fifth of the current dose into the skin instead of a full dose into underlying fat, the Department of Health and Human Services will need to issue a new emergency declaration allowing regulators to invoke the F.D.A.’s emergency use powers. That declaration is expected as early as Tuesday afternoon. (LaFraniere and Weiland, 8/8)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Sewage Helped Chart Bay Area COVID Spread. Can It Do The Same For Monkeypox And Polio?
With wastewater surveillance already proving to be a vital tool in tracking coronavirus levels in California, scientists are now looking to sewage to help them detect monkeypox and other diseases. Researchers at Stanford University announced Friday that they are using the sewage monitoring lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to lead a nationwide initiative to monitor the spread of infectious diseases including monkeypox, influenza A and respiratory syncytial virus. They hope that effluent from wastewater systems will offer early alerts to help public health officials head off outbreaks. (Vaziri, 8/9)
Palm Springs Desert Sun:
9 Likely Monkeypox Cases Reported In Coachella Valley; Riverside County Total At 59
Riverside County Public Health reported an additional nine confirmed or probable monkeypox cases in the Coachella Valley on Monday. (Sasic, 8/8)
CIDRAP:
Monkeypox Cases Reach 7,500 In US; 99% Of Cases In Males
New data published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows 99% of monkeypox cases in the United States are in males, and 94% of cases report recent male-to-male sexual or intimate contact. (Soucheray, 8/8)
Becker’s Hospital Review:
Not Always Mild: What Physicians Are Seeing Among Monkeypox Patients
Most patients in New York City, an epicenter of the outbreak, are recovering at home with outpatient supportive care, said Jason Zucker, MD, an infectious diseases specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City, during an Aug. 5 call with reporters. They’re experiencing some symptoms that present with many other viral illnesses, such as fever, chills and swollen lymph nodes, in addition to a rash that develops a few days after the other symptoms. He said there’s been a “small number” of patients whose symptoms were severe enough to require hospitalization. (Carbajal, 8/8)
The New York Times:
There’s Just One Drug to Treat Monkeypox. Good Luck Getting It.
The only drug available to treat monkeypox is so difficult to access that just a fraction of the nearly 7,000 patients in the United States have been given it. Health officials have designated tecovirimat, also called Tpoxx, an “investigational drug,” which they say means it cannot be released from the strategic national stockpile without a series of convoluted bureaucratic steps. But most doctors do not have the time or resources to fill out the required 27-page application or to provide the detailed patient information. (Mandavilli, 8/6)
Poynter:
Image Falsely Claims Monkeypox Is ‘Airborne’
The Biden administration declared monkeypox a public health emergency on Aug. 4, but leading national and international health organizations haven’t made sweeping changes to the way they classify the virus and illness, despite alarming claims made by an image circulating online. An image shared in a Facebook post on Aug. 3 suggested that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization made major changes to their available monkeypox guidance and information. (Czopek, 8/8)
Orange County Register:
Mandatory COVID Testing Dropped For Santa Ana Unified Students, Staff
Santa Ana Unified, the only school district in Orange County to mandate COVID-19 testing of all students and staff last year, is dropping the requirement when school doors reopen next week. Instead, district officials are offering voluntary testing for students, their families, and anyone in the community who needs one. Testing will be offered at four school sites that have yet to be determined. (Kopetman and Johnson, 8/8)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Can COVID Rapid Tests Detect Contagiousness Amid New Variants?
The alarming spread of omicron subvariants — particularly BA.5, which has quickly become the dominant coronavirus strain in the U.S. — has again put a spotlight on how well COVID-19 rapid antigen tests work at this stage in the pandemic. While some early research and anecdotes have suggested that at-home test kits may not be as good at spotting omicron’s sneaky subvariants, Bay Area infectious disease experts say the rapid antigen tests are still an effective way to diagnose infection. (Vainshtein, 8/8)
Times Of San Diego:
San Diego County Health Officials Report 679 New COVID-19 Cases, 5 Deaths
San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency reported 679 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths Monday, increasing cumulative totals to 895,372 cases and 5,429 deaths. Another 816 virus cases were confirmed Sunday, along with 1,164 Saturday and 1,289 Friday, health officials reported. (Ireland, 8/9)
NPR:
‘Staggering’ Number Couldn’t Get Care During Pandemic, Poll Finds
Among households that had a serious illness in the past year, one in five respondents said they had trouble accessing care during the pandemic. That’s a “staggering” number of people unable to access care, says Mary Findling, the assistant director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program. “From a health and a good care standpoint, that’s just too high.” (Chatterjee, 8/8)
Bay Area News Group:
Report: California Kids Suffer Sharp Rise In Anxiety
California kids experienced the second-largest increase in depression and anxiety among U.S. states from 2016 to 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in lockdown orders and school closures, a national child welfare advocacy group reported Monday. (Woolfolk, 8/8)
OPB:
Children’s Wellness Report Reveals ‘Mental Health Pandemic’
Anxiety and depression among children across the country increased significantly during the pandemic, and even more so among children in Oregon, according to a study out Monday from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The foundation is a national charitable organization that releases new information about child welfare through an annual report called Kids Count Data Book. Its newest edition, released Monday, outlines and ranks children’s wellness across 16 factors by state. (Diep, 8/8)
The New York Times:
Snapchat Introduces Its First Parental Controls
Snapchat, the ephemeral messaging app, introduced its first parental controls on Tuesday, as social media platforms face increasing scrutiny for exposing young users to potentially harmful content. Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, said in a blog post that its new tools would let parents see whom their teenagers were friends with on the app and whom they had communicated with in the previous seven days. (Huang, 8/9)
The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat:
As Youth Vaccination Rates Decline, Sonoma County Education Officials Urge Parents To Get Kids Inoculated
Amid a global decline in student vaccination rates, Sonoma County education officials are urging parents to get their kids inoculated before school starts later this week for some districts. (Espinoza, 8/8)
The Washington Post:
Study: Kids Who Vape Tobacco Are More Likely To Go On To Use Cannabis
Vaping is growing more prevalent among young people — in 2021, 1 in 9 high school students said they had vaped in the past month, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Increasingly, those kids are vaping cannabis. But is vaping a gateway to marijuana use? A new study suggests that is the case, finding that adolescents who use e-cigarettes are over three times more likely to use cannabis than those who don’t — and that more than 1 in 10 youths who say they have never used cannabis go on to do so within a year. (Blakemore, 8/8)
NBC News:
Teens Are Turning To ‘Tobacco-Free’ Nicotine Gummies And Lozenges
A survey of more than 3,500 high school students in Southern California found that flavored chewing gum, lozenges, gummies and other oral products that contain nicotine but not tobacco were the second most popular nicotine items among adolescents, after e-cigarettes. More than 3% of the students surveyed said they had tried these oral products before, and nearly 2% said they had done so in the last six months. Meanwhile, nearly 10% said they had tried e-cigarettes, and more than 5% reported doing so in the last six months. (Bendix, 8/9)
Stateline:
Lawsuit Could End Free Preventive Health Checkups
A federal lawsuit heard in Texas last month could upend or even eliminate the preventive care requirement in the law, known as Obamacare or the ACA. A group of patients and employers are arguing that the requirement is unconstitutional. They also contend that some preventive health measures violate protections under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 that prohibit federal and state rules from unduly burdening one’s exercise of religion. (Ollove, 8/9)
NPR:
Texas Lawsuit Targets Coverage For Preventive Care
“The lawsuit could cause millions of Americans, probably more than 150 million, to lose guaranteed access to preventive services,” Dr. Jack Resneck, president of the American Medical Association, told NPR. “There’s really a great deal at stake,” he said. (Aubrey, 8/9)
Sacramento Bee:
Safe Storage Law Reminder Could Be Required For All CA Schools
According to California lawmakers, preventing school-based gun violence starts in the home. While it is a crime for families with youth to improperly store firearms, parents and guardians aren’t always aware of that fact. In an effort to curb gun violence in schools, the state Legislature on Monday passed a bill that would require schools to inform families of the state’s firearm storage laws. SB 452, introduced by Assemblymember Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, would charge the state with developing templates for these communications. (Tucker-Smith, 8/9)
Oaklandside:
Why Does Lake Merritt Look Red? It Could Be Toxic Algae
There are lots of reasons not to go swimming in Lake Merritt, but officials say a toxic algae bloom may be making the water more hazardous. The city of Oakland has advised the public to avoid touching, swimming in, or drinking and fishing from the lake, and to keep young children and pets away. (Orenstein, 8/8)
Voice Of San Diego:
Already A Mess, Chula Vista’s ‘Capricious’ Cannabis Permit Process Scrambled Even More By Court Ruling
An appellate court is forcing the city of Chula Vista to keep a cannabis company in the running for a license to operate in the city. One problem, though, is the city has no licenses left to hand out. (Bryant, 8/8)
Los Angeles Times:
For Their Developmentally Disabled Son, An ADU Offers Hope
Walking into the sunlit accessory dwelling unit just steps from his family’s home in Culver City, Adrian Perez places his hands on the wall of his bedroom and smiles broadly. “Adrian likes to touch everything,” explains his mother, Andrea Villicana. “When the ADU was completed, he knocked on all the walls and tested the acoustics. He likes to help. He’s a big helper.” (Boone, 8/8)
NBC News:
Climate Hazards Are Turning 218 Diseases Into Bigger Threats
Professor Camilo Mora feels the impacts of climate change in his knees. During a 2014 visit to his native Colombia, heavy rains caused the worst flooding his hometown had seen in decades and boosted the mosquito population. A mosquito bit Mora, transferring the chikungunya virus and making him a patient during an unprecedented outbreak in the region. (Bendix and Bush, 8/8)
USA Today:
Pfizer Launches Lyme Disease Vaccine Trial With French Partner Valneva
If proven safe and effective, the vaccine, currently called VLA15, could be an important tool to stop the tick-borne disease that affects nearly half a million Americans a year. Although many people clear the infection with a course of antibiotics, others suffer for years from lingering symptoms. (Weintraub, 8/8)
KPCC:
Should Hotels Be Forced To Rent Out Vacant Rooms To Unhoused People? Voters Will Decide
Voters will decide whether Los Angeles hotels should be required to rent out their vacant rooms to unhoused people. The Los Angeles City Council decided this at the end of last week, shooting down an option that would have skipped over a public vote altogether. The measure will go before voters in 2024. The measure comes on the heels of Project Roomkey, a voluntary program turning hotels into makeshift shelters during the COVID-19 pandemic. A number of hotel and hospitality organizations say they’re concerned about the burden the requirements will put on hotels, but housing advocates say this plan is a way to get people who are living without housing into shelter immediately. Laura Lee Blake, president and CEO of The Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), and Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11, join guest host Sharon McNary to discuss the proposal. (8/8)
