Wednesday, December 21, 2022 | California Healthline

San Francisco Chronicle:
Oakland Reinstates Mask Mandate In Government Buildings Amid Surging COVID

Oakland will require all employees and visitors to wear a face mask when entering city facilities beginning immediately — an attempt to get a handle on the “tripledemic” hitting the Bay Area of COVID, flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. (Ravani, 12/20)

CIDRAP:
Study: Wearing Surgical Masks Over N95s Can Cause Dangerous Leaks 

For optimal protection against respiratory pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, procedure masks shouldn’t be worn over N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs), according to a study published today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. (Van Beusekom, 12/20)

Fresno Bee:
Little Room Left In Fresno’s Hospitals Amid Covid Surge – And It Could Get Worse

Fresno County began 2022 with the highest volume of new COVID-19 cases – and some of the largest numbers of hospitalized patients from the virus – since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. (Sheehan, 12/20)

Orange County Register:
Coronavirus: L.A. County Reported 6,807 More Cases And 61 More Deaths Over The Weekend 

Los Angeles County public health officials reported 6,807 more cases of the coronavirus since Friday, bringing the total number of cases to 6,807 as of Monday, Dec. 19. (Goertzen, 12/19)

CBS News:
BF.7: What To Know About The Omicron COVID Variant

Since the COVID variant Omicron emerged in late 2021, it has rapidly evolved into multiple subvariants. One subvariant, BF.7, has recently been identified as the main variant spreading in Beijing, and is contributing to a wider surge of COVID infections in China. (Mohammed, 12/20)

The Atlantic:
Maybe Consider Not Kissing That Baby

Barack Obama did it. Donald Trump did it. Joe Biden, of course, has done it too. But each of them was wrong: Kissing another person’s baby is just not a good idea. That rule of lip, experts told me, should be a top priority during the brisk fall and winter months, when flu, RSV, and other respiratory viruses tend to go hog wild (as they are doing right this very moment). “But actually, this is year-round advice,” says Tina Tan, a pediatrician at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. (Wu, 12/20)

The Washington Post:
Why Is There A Children’s Tylenol Shortage? Here’s What Parents Can Do. 

The Washington Post spoke with experts about the shortage and to answer common questions about what parents can do to help their children if they can’t find these drugs. Here’s what they said. (Cimons and Amenabar, 12/20)

Sacramento Bee:
COVID School Shutdowns Made Teens Lonelier, More Depressed 

Teens stuck in virtual classes felt more isolated and more depressed than their peers in hybrid and in-person classrooms, a new study says. A researcher behind the study, UC Davis communications professor Drew Cingel, said the results were predictable: Of course staring at a computer screen all day makes you lonelier than being in a room with your classmates; of course those kids saw their grades drop more. (Lange, 12/20)

CNBC:
Long Covid Patients Face Battle Claiming Disability Insurance Benefits

Mike Yada remembers the day in August 2020 when it became clear that his unusual symptoms — which emerged after a mild case of Covid-19 earlier in the year — were worsening. “I went for an easy hike, but by the end I was so winded that I couldn’t walk back to my car,” said Yada, who, pre-Covid, would have easily traversed the flat terrain near the beach. He had to call an Uber for the one-mile ride back to his parked car. (O’Brien, 12/20)

Politico:
Biden Administration Wants Supreme Court To End Title 42 — Just Not Yet

The Biden administration said it could no longer wind down the so-called Title 42 policy by Wednesday, even if the Supreme Court allowed it to follow through on a lower court’s ruling to effectively terminate the border directive that has prevented the entry of millions of migrants. The response on Tuesday from the Department of Justice comes a day after Chief Justice John Roberts issued a temporary stay of a federal district court judge’s order that required the Biden administration to lift the implementation of Title 42 by Wednesday morning. (Ward and Gerstein, 12/20)

ABC News:
DEA Seized Enough Fentanyl To Kill Every American In 2022

The Drug Enforcement Administration on Tuesday said it has seized more than 379 million deadly doses of fentanyl this year, as the country continues to struggle with an epidemic of drug overdose deaths. The seizures include 50.6 million pills laced with the ultra-deadly synthetic opioid and 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder, the DEA said. (Owen, 12/21)

Bay Area News Group:
Fentanyl On Campus: One Bay Area School Saved A Student’s Life. Another Missed The Signs Of An Overdose. Is Your School Ready?

The student gasped for breath. Her eyes widened. Her pupils shrunk. Slumping in a chair in a conference room at W.C. Overfelt High School in late October, she was showing all the signs of overdosing on the powerful opioid fentanyl. Principal Vito Chiala’s safety team had rushed her in when they encountered her walking to class and knew something was off. But now, she was slipping in and out of consciousness. They had all been trained to administer the nasal spray Narcan, which can reverse opioid overdoses. But that was last summer. Did they remember everything? Were they supposed to squirt it into one nostril or two? Was there a safety latch? (Nickerson and Sulek, 12/19)

KTLA:
California Toddler Overdoses On Fentanyl-Laced Marijuana, Police Say

A central California man faces felony charges after his 2-year-old son overdosed on fentanyl, authorities said. Marvin Thomas, 34, was arrested Sunday after Merced police responded to Mercy Medical Center. “The parents transported the child to the emergency room after he experienced life-threatening symptoms consistent with a fentanyl exposure,” police said in a news release. (Sternfield, 12/20)

Los Angeles Blade:
Congress Approves $100m Boost To HIV/AIDS Initiatives

The appropriations bill for the fiscal year 2023 released by Congress on Tuesday morning contains an additional $100 million for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States initiative. Among other programs, the funding will strengthen efforts to increase the adoption of preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to reduce the risk of new HIV infections. (Kane, 12/20)

AP:
Millions To Lose Medicaid Coverage Under Congress’ Plan 

Millions of people who enrolled in Medicaid during the COVID-19 pandemic could start to lose their coverage on April 1 if Congress passes the $1.7 trillion spending package leaders unveiled Tuesday. The legislation will sunset a requirement of the COVID-19 public health emergency that prohibited states from booting people off Medicaid. The Biden administration has been under mounting pressure to declare the public health emergency over, with 25 Republican governors asking the president to end it in a letter on Monday, which cited growing concerns about bloated Medicaid enrollment. (Seitz, 12/20)

Axios:
Medicaid Enrollment To Top 100 Million

The number of Americans on Medicaid is expected to surpass 100 million as early as next month, according to a new projection from the Foundation for Government Accountability. The record uninsured rate — achieved through both ACA subsidies and Medicaid expansion — has been a point of pride for the Biden administration, particularly in light of stark health disparities exacerbated by the pandemic. (Reed, 12/20)

Stat:
Biden Admin Shares Ownership Data For Thousands Of Hospitals

Citing its commitment to transparency and promoting competition, the Biden administration on Tuesday released a massive spreadsheet with ownership data on all Medicare-certified hospitals in the country. The new data span more than 7,000 hospitals and include details like whether the owner is an individual or an organization. (Bannow, 12/20)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
San Diego Biotech That Studied Tinnitus, Ear Diseases Is Closing After Failing To Find A Buyer 

San Diego-based Otonomy, which was working on treatments for middle and inner ear diseases, is shutting down after failing to find a buyer over the past few months. (Freeman, 12/20)

Los Angeles Times:
Burned Out L.A. County Mental Health Workers Weigh Options

When Yessica Castaneda thinks about launching her career as a social worker, she knows who she doesn’t want to work for: Los Angeles County. None of her friends has any desire to look for jobs in the county’s beleaguered public mental health network either. They’ve heard about burnout and high caseloads, relentless hours, the emotional toll of taking on patients who are among the region’s worst off — including large numbers of homeless people — and cumbersome bureaucratic rules that require hours of painstaking documentation. (Parvini, 12/20)

The Wall Street Journal:
Many Hospitals Get Big Drug Discounts. That Doesn’t Mean Markdowns For Patients.

A decades-old federal program that offered big drug discounts to a small number of hospitals to help low-income patients now benefits some of the most successful nonprofit health systems in the U.S. Under the program, hospitals buy drugs at reduced prices and sell them to patients and their insurers for much more, often at facilities in affluent communities. (Mathews, Overberg, Walker and McGinty, 12/20)

Modern Healthcare:
Joint Commission Healthcare Quality Standards Overhauled

The Joint Commission is retiring 14% of its quality standards during the first round of a review process that seeks to refocus hospital safety and quality goals and decrease administrative burden, the healthcare accrediting organization will announce Tuesday. (Devereaux and Hartnett, 12/20)

USA Today:
Deadly Deliveries: Childbirth Complication Rates At Maternity Hospitals

How often do women giving birth at individual hospitals experience heart attacks, seizures, kidney failure, blood transfusions or other potentially deadly problems? USA TODAY calculated the rates of severe childbirth complications for hospitals in 13 states where it could obtain data from state health agencies. The rates are often used by hospitals, insurance companies and researchers – but are kept secret from patients. (12/20)

Los Angeles Times:
L.A. County Supervisors Back Bass’ Emergency Declaration

Leaders from both the county and city of Los Angeles — two bureaucracies with massive roles to play in fixing the region’s worsening homelessness crisis — promised Tuesday to press reset on their fractured relationship. The olive branch came during a Board of Supervisors meeting in which county leaders voted unanimously to support Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ declaration of a state of emergency over homelessness. Bass, who appeared at Tuesday’s meeting, said she wanted to work hand-in-hand with the county as she tries to cut through the city’s cumbersome bureaucracy to rapidly get people off the street. (Ellis, 12/20)

Los Angeles Daily News:
LA County Supervisors Vote To Join LA, Mayor Karen Bass, In Homeless Emergency

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday, Dec. 20 to become partners with the city of Los Angeles and its new mayor, Karen Bass, by creating a joint effort to tackle the thus far intractable problem of homelessness. (Scauzillo, 12/20)

Axios:
Republicans Block Dem Request To Pass Bill To Protect IVF Access

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) on Tuesday blocked a unanimous consent request to pass a bill that would have set federal protections for IVF and other fertility treatments whose future remains uncertain in the post-Roe era. (Gonzalez, 12/20)

AP:
EXPLAINER: Undoing Of Roe Quickly Shifts Abortion In States

Anti-abortion groups hoped and strategized for decades for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that was delivered in June, ending a court-protected right to abortion after nearly 50 years. The fallout was immediate and far-reaching — and it’s not over yet. The midyear ruling overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which established the right to abortion, shaped the national political agenda for the rest of the year and put abortion access in flux. The shifts are expected to keep coming as lawmakers, voters and judges weigh in. (Mulvihill, 12/20)

Politico:
Abortion Roiled The Midterms. Now It Will Define The Presidential Race. 

Donald Trump delivered the Supreme Court majority that voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, signed a laundry list of executive actions that chipped away at abortion access and openly embraced the anti-abortion movement, becoming the first sitting president to appear in person at the annual March for Life in 2020.Yet the response from anti-abortion groups when he announced his 2024 presidential campaign was, in more careful and polite terms: Take a number. (Ollstein and McGraw, 12/20)

CNBC:
Gen Z Is Re-Thinking College And Career Plans In Post-Roe America: ‘I Want To Leave The Country’

There is an endless list of factors students consider while choosing a college: size, cost, campus life, proximity to home. But since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June — removing nearly 50 years of federal protections for abortions and giving states the right to make the procedure illegal within their jurisdictions — abortion access has become an increasingly influential consideration in students’ college decisions. (Smith, 12/19)

Stat:
McDonald’s Sets Targets For Limiting Antibiotic Use In Beef

After being accused of backtracking on a commitment to reduce its use of medically important antibiotics, McDonald’s has set specific targets to ensure “responsible use” of these medicines in 10 countries that are its most important sources for beef. (Silverman, 12/20)

The Wall Street Journal:
3M To Stop Making, Discontinue Use Of ‘Forever Chemicals’ 

3M Co. said it would stop making so-called forever chemicals and cease using them by the end of 2025, as criticism and litigation grow over the chemicals’ alleged health and environmental impact.3M Chief Executive Mike Roman said that the decision was influenced by increasing regulation of the chemicals known as PFAS, and a growing market for substitute options. (Maher and Tita, 12/20)

Stat:
Why EPA’s Proposal For Two ‘Forever Chemicals’ Will Be Controversial

By the end of this year, the Environmental Protection Agency has promised to propose new national drinking water standards for PFOA and PFOS, two of the most studied pollutants among the thousands of compounds known as PFAS, or, more colloquially, “forever chemicals.” (Trang, 12/21)