‘I’m So Burned Out’: Fighting to See a Specialist Amplified Pain for Riverside County Woman

Teresa Johnson has been in extreme pain for more than a year after what she believes was a severe allergic reaction to iodine. Her Medi-Cal plan approved her referral to a specialist, but it took her numerous phone calls, multiple complaints, and several months to book an appointment. (Molly Castle Work,

10/10
)

Narcan, Now Available Without a Prescription, Can Still Be Hard to Get

Narcan is available without a prescription. Addiction treatment experts hope this move will increase access to the medication, which can reverse opioid overdoses. But hurdles remain: cost and stigma. (Jackie Fortiér, LAist and Nicole Leonard, WHYY,

10/10
)

Mothers of Color Can’t See if Providers Have a History of Mistreatment. Why Not?

Many women, especially Black women, have reported discrimination in maternity care, but expectant mothers lack tools to see where this happens. Funding and regulations to measure disparities have been slow in arriving, but some innovators are trying to fill the void. (Sarah Kwon,

10/10
)

Los Angeles Times:
New California Law Takes A Step Toward Single-Payer Healthcare

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Saturday that sets the stage for California to work toward universal healthcare, such as a single-payer system that progressive activists have sought for years. The law could help California obtain a waiver that would allocate federal Medicaid and Medicare funds to be used for what could eventually become a single-payer system that would cover every California resident and be financed entirely by state and federal funds. (Sosa, 10/8)

CalMatters:
Gavin Newsom Signs Law To ‘Overhaul’ Mental Health System

Gov. Gavin Newsom today announced he signed the first of a series of bills that aim to transform California’s mental health system. Depending on who you ask, this transformation represents a long overdue humanitarian response— or a worrisome step backward on civil liberties. Today’s signature loosens long-standing rules about who is eligible for involuntary treatment under the half century-old Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, the landmark mental health law that regulates involuntary civil commitment in the state. (Weiner, 10/10)

CNN:
Red Dye No. 3: California Governor Signs Bill Banning It 

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a landmark law aimed at banning red dye No. 3 and other potentially harmful food additives in consumer goods. On Saturday, the Golden State became the first in the country to forbid the use of the ingredients found in many popular candies, drinks and more, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental health organization that cosponsored the law with Consumer Reports. (Boyette, Rogers and Babineau, 10/9)

CalMatters:
California Cosmetics Law Expected To Set National Precedent

Your favorite perfume, nail polish or hair dye may have to undergo a makeover by 2027 if it has one of 26 potentially toxic ingredients now banned by California. A new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom will ban more than two dozen ingredients from cosmetics and other personal care products in California — and most likely the rest of the nation. (Sumagaysay,10/10)

San Francisco Chronicle:
Gavin Newsom Signs Fentanyl-Focused Bills To Help Opioid Crisis

Gov. Gavin Newsom pointed to budget constraints and his administration’s existing opioid work in vetoing several bills to combat California’s fentanyl crisis, even as he signed others that aim to make addiction and overdose drugs more widely available. The state will require stadiums, concert venues and amusement parks to stock doses of opioid overdose reversal drugs under one new law Newsom signed. Another will require community colleges and California State University campuses to provide fentanyl test strips and inform students about how to access them. (Bollag, 10/9)

Los Angeles Times:
Pharmacies Must Report Prescription Errors Under Bill Signed By Governor

For the first time, California pharmacies must report every prescription error under legislation signed by the governor Sunday. The measure — Assembly Bill 1286 — is aimed at reducing the estimated 5 million mistakes pharmacists make each year. … In a survey of California licensed pharmacists in 2021, 91% of those working at chain pharmacies said staffing wasn’t high enough to provide patients adequate care. (Petersen, 10/9)

Los Angeles Times:
Gov. Newsom Signs Bill To Make Rape Kits More Accessible To Students

Seeking to make rape kits more accessible to students, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Monday that will require most California universities and colleges to provide transportation for students to and from a sexual assault treatment center. Assembly member Akilah Weber (D-La Mesa) wrote Assembly Bill 1138, which will require schools to provide free and anonymous transportation to a treatment center that provides Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence (SAFE) exams or to contract with local organizations to provide the transportation. (Lin, 10/9)

San Francisco Chronicle:
Newsom Vetoes Bill To Decriminalize Psychedelic Mushrooms

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Friday that would have decriminalized psilocybin, aka magic mushrooms — but left the door open for California to reconsider it next year. Newsom, in his veto message, said the measure proposed by San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, would have decriminalized possession before therapeutic protections are in place. (Garofoli, 10/7)

Los Angeles Times:
Newsom Vetoes Bill That Would Allow Condoms To Be Freely Distributed To Public High School Students

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday vetoed legislation that would have provided teenagers attending public high school with access to free condoms and prohibited retailers from refusing to sell them to youths. Newsom said that although he agreed that providing condoms are “important to supporting improved adolescent sexual health,” the bill would have created an unfunded program that was not included in the state’s annual budget. (Sosa, 10/8)

The Sacramento Bee:
Newsom Vetoes Cash Assistance For CA Undocumented Seniors

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed legislation late Sunday night that would have made undocumented seniors eligible for California’s cash assistance program. The bill, authored by Assemblyman Juan Carrillo, D-Palmdale, would have provided $1,100 to $1,900 per month to undocumented individuals who are blind, disabled or older than 65. Currently, California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI) is limited to people with eligible immigration status. (Miranda, 10/9)

Pasadena Star News:
Newsom Vetoes $1 Billion Fund For Troubled LA County Juvenile Halls, Camps 

Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill earmarking up to $1 billion to support infrastructure improvements at Los Angeles County’s embattled juvenile halls and camps. Newsom sent the bill, AB 695, back to the Assembly without his signature on Sunday, Oct. 8, saying he could not support it for financial reasons. (Henry, 10/9)

Modern Healthcare:
Kaiser Strike Ends, Contract Negotiations To Resume

Members of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions and health system leadership will return to the bargaining table Thursday following the coalition’s three-day strike last week. The strike, which involved more than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente employees and affected dozens of facilities nationwide, ended Saturday at 6 a.m. Pacific time with no further agreements made on a contract between the coalition and the health system. (Devereaux, 10/9)

CNN:
Kaiser Permanente Workers Warn Of Potential Second Strike

A coalition of unions representing thousands of Kaiser Permanente health care workers warned they will walk off the job again next month if a deal is not reached with their employer. Facilities across California, Washington, Oregon, Virginia and Washington DC have threatened to strike for a second time if a new labor contract is not agreed before November 1, after a contract for 3,000 more Kaiser employees in Seattle expires on October 31. (Delouya, 10/10)

Bay Area News Group:
Kaiser Chops Jobs In Two East Bay Cities And In Southern California

Kaiser Foundation Hospitals has disclosed plans to trim scores of California jobs, most of them in the Bay Area, according to official filings with state labor officials. The healthcare titan revealed that it plans to eliminate 49 non-union jobs in California, the filings with the state Employment Development Department show. The Bay Area layoffs include a loss of 28 jobs, all in the East Bay, according to the WARN notices. (Avalos, 10/9)

Los Angeles Times:
Healthcare Workers Kick Off 5-Day Strike At Four Hospitals Over Staffing Shortage, Labor Practices

Roughly 1,500 essential workers at four hospitals in Los Angeles County kicked off a five-day strike Monday morning to protest what they claim are dangerous working conditions and unfair labor practices by hospital management. … The strike follows on the heels of what many called a “hot labor summer,” when writers, actors and hotel workers organized labor actions across Southern California. (Solis, 10/9)

Pasadena Star News:
Workers Launch Strike At 4 Prime Healthcare Hospitals In Lynwood, Inglewood, Garden Grove And Encino

Rayleen Gentry is used to making tough choices. As a respiratory therapist in the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, she says those decisions are often dictated by a severe staffing shortage. (Smith, 10/9)

USA Today:
Walgreens Pharmacists Stage Walkout Just Weeks After Similar Action By CVS Staffers

Just two weeks after dozens of CVS pharmacists protested unsafe working conditions by walking off the job in Kansas City, Walgreens pharmacists followed suit with their own walkout Monday that left stores shuttered or short-staffed across the nation’s second-largest retail pharmacy chain. The organizer estimated that several hundred pharmacists and pharmacy technicians participated in the protest, which will last through Wednesday. (Le Coz, 10/9)

CNN:
Walgreens Walkout: 5 Things You Need To Know 

Some stores are remaining open with a skeleton emergency crew – an organizer told CNN that Walgreens had asked regional leaders to mobilize and staff the pharmacies on Monday. Many pharmacies that are open are severely understaffed as the majority of their employees called out today. Some stores said they were able to operate only their drive-thru pharmacy Monday and others said they would be closing early due to a lack of staff. (Goodkind, 10/9)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
UCSD Buys Alvarado Hospital, Bids To Partner With Tri-City 

Beset by crowded conditions at its two existing hospitals in La Jolla and Hillcrest, UC San Diego Health on Monday said it plans to add a third medical campus, signing a preliminary purchase agreement to buy Alvarado Hospital Medical Center from Prime Healthcare for $200 million. (Sisson, 10/9)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
Small Fire Briefly Halts Surgeries At Kaiser’s San Diego Medical Center 

Kasier Permanente’s San Diego Medical Center in Kearny Mesa temporarily halted surgeries Monday morning after a small electrical fire in the facility’s telecommunications equipment room took communications equipment offline. (Sisson, 10/9)

The Desert Sun:
Eisenhower’s Latest Expansion Plan Approved. Here’s What’s Coming To The Campus

Eisenhower Health’s main campus in Rancho Mirage — already set to add a new cardiovascular center within the next few years — is poised to grow even larger, as the city council approved the hospital’s plans Thursday to build new memory care and childcare centers just across Country Club Drive. The memory care and childcare centers, along with a new administrative building for the hospital, are planned for a 4.31-acre site located southeast of the main hospital campus on the opposite side of Country Club Drive. The facility plans include 136 on-site parking spaces, along with supplemental parking across the street at the main hospital. (Coulter, 10/9)

Marin Independent Journal:
San Quentin Prisoner’s Widow Wins Key Ruling In COVID Lawsuit

A federal appeals court has ruled that a lawsuit filed by the widow of a San Quentin inmate who died of COVID-19 can move forward. The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Tuesday reversed a lower court’s decision that would have prevented the suit from proceeding. (Halstead, 10/10)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
George Bailey Jail Complaint Cites Sickness, Feces, Racism 

Numerous men locked inside the George Bailey Detention Facility have become sickened after being forced to clean up human waste that regularly overflows from the jail’s aging plumbing, a new complaint to the civilian oversight board alleges. At least two people have contracted staph infections, the complaint adds. (McDonald, 10/8)

Bay Area News Group:
When San Jose Police Confront People In Mental Health Crisis, Why Do They End Up Hurting Them So Often? 

Twice in a two-month span, a fragile, self-destructive Thompson “Tommy” Nguyen encountered San Jose police officers trained to deal with people in a mental health crisis. The first time, Nguyen’s family worried the officers might hurt Nguyen, and sent them away. The second time, police killed him. (Salonga, Rowan and Pickoff-White, 10/8)

The Hill:
Long COVID Rare Among Children: CDC

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has shed light on the rate at which long COVID affects children, indicating the condition occurs among only a small minority of them. In a new survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the CDC found that 1.3 percent of children had long COVID in 2022 and 0.5 percent now have it. (Choi, 10/9)

Reuters:
Updated Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine Shipped To Distributors, To Be Available This Week 

Vaccine maker Novavax Inc on Monday said it has shipped millions of doses its updated COVID-19 shots to distributors after receiving the go-ahead from U.S. regulators. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the updated vaccine last week for emergency use in individuals aged 12 years and older, but batches of the shots needed additional clearance from the FDA before they could be released. (Erman, 10/9)

Voice of OC:
Orange County’s 911 Dispatchers Are Chronically Overworked; Can They Handle The Next Disaster?

Orange County’s biggest emergency dispatch center is struggling to staff itself, raising questions over whether there are enough 911 dispatchers. Call center operators are ringing alarm bells saying they’re already brutally overworked – they also warn that the impacts of so much forced overtime is triggering troubling questions about their own ability to handle the county’s next big emergency. (Biesiada, 10/10)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
Mortgage Or Memory Care? An Alzheimer’s Diagnosis In San Diego Can Bring Cruel Financial Dilemmas

Alzheimer’s is a double-edged disease. People lose the capacity to make financial and legal decisions exactly when important decisions pop up. People spend more or make expensive mistakes exactly when financial discipline is key. (Popescu, 10/5)

The Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento Closes Large Cannabis Complex For Code Violations 

The city of Sacramento has temporarily shut down a large cannabis manufacturing facility, swiftly prompting an explosive council meeting and a lawsuit. Officials on Oct. 2 ordered the closure of Natura, located on Elder Creek Road near Power Inn Road, citing fire code violations that make the Morrison Creek district buildings unsafe for its 450 employees. (Clift and Diamond, 10/9)

Bay Area News Group:
‘A Disturbing New Normal’: Why Have Chemical Releases At Martinez Refinery Continued?

The day before the local high school’s homecoming parade last week, the Martinez Refining Company posted on Facebook wishing students a happy homecoming. But just 24 hours later, the refinery quite literally cast a black cloud over the event. At 11 a.m. on Friday, October 6, an ominous plume of black dust bellowed up from the Martinez Refining Company and floated into the city’s downtown. (McCarthy, 10/9)

The post Tuesday, October 10, 2023 – California Healthline appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Becker’s Hospital Review:
California Hospital To Lay Off 15; Interim CEO Proposes Eliminating Own Job

Northern Inyo Healthcare District, which operates a 25-bed critical access hospital in Bishop, Calif., anticipates eliminating about 15 positions, or less than 4 percent of its 460-member workforce, by April 21, a spokesperson confirmed to Becker’s. (Gooch, 4/14)

Becker’s Hospital Review:
CFO Brian Dean To Leave Sutter Health

Brian Dean, CFO of Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health, is to leave the health system and take up a similar role at a Houston-based aviation company, Sutter Health said in an April 14 filing. Mr. Dean, who has been with the 23-hospital system in his role since July 2020, will remain with Sutter Health until July to assist with the transition. (Thomas, 4/14)

MassDevice:
Medtronic Has A Layoff In California 

Medtronic is letting go of 59 workers at a facility in Sunnyvale, California, according to a notice filed with the state. The California Employment Development Department says it received the WARN notice on April 7. (Newmarker, 4/12)

The New York Times:
California And New York Could Ban 5 Food Additives Linked To Health Concerns 

Newly proposed bills in California and New York are putting food additives — the chemicals manufacturers add to food to act as preservatives or to enhance color, texture or taste — under the microscope. The state legislators are seeking to prohibit the manufacturing and sale of products containing additives that have been linked to cancer, neurodevelopmental issues and hormone dysfunction. The five additives named in the bills are most commonly found in baked goods, candy and soda and are almost totally banned in food products in Europe. Several health associations, including the Endocrine Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have raised concerns about the potential health harms of food additives as a whole. (Smith, 4/13)

NBC News:
Millions Expected To Lose Dental Care Coverage After Medicaid Review

More than 14 million adults across the United States who receive Medicaid are at risk of losing dental health coverage now that the Covid public health emergency is over, according to data exclusively obtained by NBC News. The public health emergency ended April 1, allowing states to review Medicaid recipients’ eligibility and disenroll them from the program for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. Around 15.7 million people are expected to lose health coverage as a result. The emergency declaration did not allow states to remove enrollees from the program during the pandemic, which caused programs to expand precipitously over the past three years. (McCausland, 4/14)

CNN:
Medicaid: Here’s What You Can Do If You Lose Coverage 

Though millions of Americans are expected to be kicked off of Medicaid in coming months, they don’t all have to be left uninsured. But it could take some work to regain health coverage. “For a lot of people, this can be a very disruptive period of time,” said Sabrina Corlette, co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University. “There is a significant time and paperwork burden being placed on families – a lot of them very low income, a lot of them medically vulnerable.” (Luhby, 4/15)

NPR:
Supreme Court Looks At Whether Medicare And Medicaid Were Overbilled Under Fraud Law

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Tuesday in a case that could undermine one of the government’s most powerful tools for fighting fraud in government contracts and programs. The False Claims Act dates back to the Civil War, when it was enacted to combat rampant fraud by private contractors who were overbilling or simply not delivering goods to the troops. But the law over time was weakened by congressional amendments. Then, in 1986, Congress toughened the law, and then toughened it again. The primary Senate sponsor was — and still is — Iowa Republican Charles Grassley. … He is alarmed by the case before the Supreme Court this week. At issue is whether hundreds of major retail pharmacies across the country knowingly overcharged Medicaid and Medicare by overstating what their usual and customary prices were. If they did, they would be liable for triple damages. (Totenberg, 4/17)

Washington Monthly:
Expanding Medicaid Coverage To The Incarcerated And Those Recently Released

Last week, a group of House members introduced a bill to provide Medicaid coverage to people in the last 30 days of their sentence in prison or jail. The Medicaid Reentry Act would give states a powerful tool to reduce the drug overdose deaths ravaging the country.  (Humphreys, 4/17)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat:
Sonoma County Revamps Its Website For COVID-19 Statistics, Moving Away From Unreliable Case Counts

Sonoma County health officials have revamped the county website that reports local COVID-19 statistics, moving past infection rates and case counts that are no longer reliable due to dramatic decreases in laboratory testing. (Espinoza, 4/15)

The Washington Post:
Covid Is Still A Leading Cause Of Death As The Virus Recedes

Federal health officials say that covid remains one of the leading causes of death in the United States, tied to about 250 deaths daily, on average, mostly among the old and immunocompromised. Few Americans are treating it as a leading killer, however — in part because they are not hearing about those numbers, don’t trust them or don’t see them as relevant to their own lives. (Diamond, 4/16)

CIDRAP:
XBB.1.16 Picks Up Speed In US As WHO Experts Weigh COVID Vaccine Composition 

The Omicron XBB.1.16 SARS-CoV-2 subvariant fueling India’s surge is gaining traction in the United States, but so far the nation isn’t seeing increases in cases, deaths, or hospitalizations, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its latest updates. (Schnirring, 4/14)

Reveal:
The COVID Tracking Project Part 1

The United States has 4% of the world’s population but 16% of COVID-19 deaths. This series investigates the failures by federal agencies that led to over 1 million Americans dying from COVID-19 and what that tells us about the nation’s ability to fight the next pandemic. Epidemiologist Jessica Malaty Rivera is the host for this three-part series. The first episode takes us back to February 2020, when reporters Rob Meyer and Alexis Madrigal from The Atlantic were trying to find solid data about the rising pandemic. (Curiskis and Oehler, 4/15)

The San Diego Union-Tribune:
72 Hours: Inside San Diego County’s Mental Health Crisis

San Diego County has a mental health crisis. It’s on the streets and in jails, in classrooms and suburban homes. The problem isn’t new, but only in the past few years has it burst into the public consciousness in a way that’s forced elected leaders to pledge more and more time and money toward a fix. Yet, by any metric, the situation is worsening. (4/16)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
Monday: ‘I Thought She Was Going To Kill Me.’ 

San Diego County, like many places nationwide, faces a mental health crisis. But what that crisis looks like minute by minute is rarely seen. (Nelson, Figueroa and Winkley, 4/16)

The San Diego Union-Tribune:
Tuesday: ‘People Who Have Mental Illness Are Shunned A Lot, And I’m One Of Them.’

There are three scenarios in which you can lose your freedom without breaking the law. The first is if you’re suicidal. The second occurs if you’re deemed a danger to others. The third is when you’re so disabled you can’t care for yourself. If police or mental health professionals find one to be true, you could be involuntarily held for three days. (Nelson, Figueroa and Winkley, 4/16)

The San Diego Union-Tribune:
Wednesday: ‘You Might Feel Hopeless, But There Are No Hopeless Cases.’

One of the most intractable problems in the mental health crisis is how to reduce confrontations with law enforcement. About 30 percent of people shot by police in the county had documented mental health issues or showed “unstable behavior,” according to a District Attorney’s Office analysis that covered 1993 through 2017. (Nelson, Figueroa and Winkley, 4/16)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
County Jails Are The Largest Mental Health Facility In The Region 

In San Diego County, about one in every three people in Sheriff’s Department custody is on prescribed medication to treat a mental illness, making the county jail the largest mental health provider in the region. (McDonald, 4/16)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
Behavioral Health Court Explained: Who Gets In And What Happens When They Do?

Behavioral Health Court is a program in San Diego Superior Court offered to a small number of defendants in criminal cases who suffer from serious mental illness. It’s an intense program designed for the most serious cases. (Figueroa, 4/16)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
Veterans Experience Mental Health Issues In Higher Numbers Than Civilian Population 

With more than 100,000 active-duty service members and 240,000 veterans, San Diego County has one of the largest concentrations of military personnel in the nation. Along with that population comes a high number of enlisted personnel and veterans struggling with mental health issues. (Warth and Dyer, 4/16)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
Shifting From Crisis Care To Chronic Care For Patients Dealing With Mental Health Issues

Treatment of mental illness takes time. Experts say many people struggling with their mental health need repeated help to stay on the path to success. Existing research supports that assertion. (Sisson, 4/16)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
CARE Court Could Expand Mental Health Treatment For Those Reluctant To Receive It 

In 2022, California launched an effort to address one of the state’s most frustrating issues: How to get mental health care to people who may not want it. (Warth, 4/16)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
New County, City Programs Focus On Providing Mental Health Help To Homeless Population

On any given day, it isn’t hard to find evidence of a mental health crisis among San Diego County’s homeless population. (Warth, 4/16)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
Schools Ramping Up Mental Health Support For Youth 

“You don’t always know the source of why a person is acting or behaving a certain way,” particularly since the pandemic, said Sandra Ceja, director of student support services for the Vista Unified School District. (Brennan, 4/16)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
County Working To Disentangle Law Enforcement From Mental Health Encounters 

Out of nearly three dozen police shootings in the county from 2018 through June 2022, 40 percent involved someone with mental health issues, a review by The San Diego Union-Tribune found. (Winkley, 4/16)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
A Hospital Closed Its Psychiatric Ward And Exposed The Region’s Fragile System

San Diego County reached an inflection point around mental health care in 2018, when Tri-City Medical Center shuttered its 18-bed psychiatric unit. Directors of the Oceanside hospital said the closure was necessary because of expensive federal upgrade requirements and staffing difficulties. (Sisson, 4/16)

AP:
US Supreme Court’s Abortion Pill Order Spares Safe Havens 

Before the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in Friday, access to an abortion pill was in line to become more cumbersome in California, New York and some other states that have positioned themselves as safe havens for those seeking to end their pregnancies. The order keeps in place federal rules for use of mifepristone, one of the two drugs usually used in combination in medication abortions. The legal saga isn’t over: The Supreme Court suggested it will decide the issue by Wednesday. (Mulvihill, 4/14)

Stat:
Supreme Court Temporarily Pauses New Limits On Abortion Pill

Access to the abortion pill mifepristone will remain unchanged until next Wednesday, after a U.S. Supreme Court justice on Friday issued a stay on last week’s ruling from a conservative Texas judge banning the medicine. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued an administrative stay preserving access to mifepristone, which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration since 2000, until 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday. It is likely the country’s highest court will rule more substantively on access to the medication before then, a decision that will have major ramifications for the FDA’s authority and access to the commonly used drug. (Owermohle, 4/14)

The Washington Post:
Unpacking The Flawed Science Cited In The Texas Abortion Pill Ruling

A Texas judge’s decision to invalidate federal approval of a key abortion drug cites research based on anonymous blog posts, cherry-picks statistics that exaggerate the negative physical and psychological effects of mifepristone, and ignores hundreds of scientific studies attesting to the medication’s safety. The unprecedented ruling last week by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk contradicted the recommendations of numerous medical groups when it assailed the safety of mifepristone, a two-decade-old medication used in more than half of all abortions in the United States. Another federal judge determined on the same day that the drug should remain available in a swath of states. (Weber, McGinley, Ovalle and Sellers, 4/13)

The Washington Post:
The Controversial Article Matthew Kacsmaryk Did Not Disclose To The Senate

As a lawyer for a conservative legal group, Matthew Kacsmaryk in early 2017 submitted an article to a Texas law review criticizing Obama-era protections for transgender people and those seeking abortions. The Obama administration, the draft article argued, had discounted religious physicians who “cannot use their scalpels to make female what God created male” and “cannot use their pens to prescribe or dispense abortifacient drugs designed to kill unborn children.” (Kitchener, Barnes and Marimow, 4/15)

Orange County Register:
California Is Changing How It Goes After Illegal Cannabis Farms 

It’s been five years since recreational cannabis sales began in California. Many have played by the rules, but the illegal growth and sale of the plant continue to undermine those obeying the laws. Since its establishment in 1983, the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) has had more than 110 law enforcement agencies involved, making it one of the largest law enforcement task forces in the U.S. But things are changing. (Snibbe, 4/16)

San Francisco Chronicle:
These Scuba Divers Have A Macabre Mission: Find Dead Bodies Underwater

Plumbing the mucky bottoms of lakes, rivers and San Francisco Bay for dead bodies is highly technical, sometimes gruesome work. But a small cohort of East Bay forensic scuba divers has created a new nonprofit to do just that. The organization, called California Recovery Divers, formed earlier this year and launched its website this month. It offers a lifeline to distressed families whose loved ones have drowned and can’t be found. (Thomas, 4/16)

Stat:
In Areas With More Black Doctors, Black People Live Longer

Black people in counties with more Black primary care physicians live longer, according to a new national analysis that provides the strongest evidence yet that increasing the diversity of the medical workforce may be key to ending deeply entrenched racial health disparities. (McFarling, 4/14)

The New York Times:
Black Pregnant Women Are Tested More Frequently For Drug Use, Study Suggests 

Hospitals are more likely to give drug tests to Black women delivering babies than white women, regardless of the mother’s history of substance use, suggests a new study of a health system in Pennsylvania. And such excessive testing was unwarranted, the study found: Black women were less likely than white women to test positive for drugs. (Rabin, 4/14)

The Washington Post:
Why Black Men Face So Many Health Hurdles 

Social epidemiologist Roland Thorpe Jr. is on a double mission: to improve the health and extend the life expectancy of Black men, and to do the same for himself since both of his grandfathers died prematurely from heart disease. An expert in minority aging and men’s health, Thorpe is the principal investigator of the Black Men’s Health Project — a partnership of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and Michigan State University — created to call attention to the health crisis of Black men. (Petrow, 4/15)

The Washington Post:
Genetic Prostate Cancer Risks Identified For Men Of African Descent

When it comes to prostate cancer, Black men face a grimmer picture than their White counterparts. They’re more likely to get and die of the disease. They also face longer delays between diagnosis and treatment. What’s behind the disparities? A recent study covering tens of thousands of men of African descent offers one answer — increased genetic risk, including some risk factors found only in men of African ancestry. (Blakemore, 4/16)

Reuters:
Moderna/Merck Cancer Vaccine Plus Keytruda Delays Skin Cancer Return

An experimental mRNA cancer vaccine developed by Moderna Inc and Merck & Co cut the risk of death or recurrence of the most deadly skin cancer by 44% compared with Merck’s immunotherapy Keytruda alone, U.S. researchers reported at a medical meeting on Sunday. The findings suggest that adding a personalized cancer vaccine based on mRNA technology to Keytruda, which revs up the immune response, could prolong the time patients have without recurrence or death, said Dr. Jeffrey Weber of the NYU Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center, who presented the findings. (Steenhuysen and Erman, 4/16)

USA Today:
In What Could Be A ‘Big Shift’ For Cancer Treatment, MRNA Vaccine Shows Promise Against Melanoma

Messenger RNA vaccines aren’t just for COVID anymore. The vaccine technology America learned about during the pandemic was originally aimed at cancer, but its use against infectious diseases took off in the pandemic. Now a new study suggests specially designed mRNA shots can help prevent recurrences of melanoma, a dreaded skin cancer. The study, presented Sunday at a research conference, showed that after nearly two years, patients who received a personalized mRNA vaccine made by Moderna and Merck were 44% more likely to be alive and avoid new tumors than those who received only the standard of care. (Weintraub, 4/16)

The Washington Post:
Why Melanoma Is So Deadly For Men, And Why It Doesn’t Have To Be

As his patient sat on the examining table, dermatologist Jeremy Brauer explained the pathology report, letting him know that the lesion on his chest was skin cancer and that minor surgery would be required to remove it. “I’d like to try to get this done before the weather gets nice,” the patient, himself a physician, told Brauer, “so I can get back out into the sun.” Brauer, a clinical associate professor of dermatology at NYU Langone Health, says he was stunned. (Atkins, 4/16)

The post Monday, April 17, 2023 | California Healthline appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.