Stay Well

October 2, 2024

Free COVID Tests Are Back. But There Are More Accurate Tests For Sale

Manufacturers of the most accurate home COVID-19 tests on the market say they were left out again from the Biden administration's latest round of free orders through COVIDTests.gov, which for a seventh time will rely on less sensitive "antigen" tests, which are generally the cheaper options available on drugstore shelves. Federal health officials have justified the millions they have spent on device manufacturers for the latest waves as critical to subsidizing U.S. factories capable of producing tests ahead of another potential pandemic, during a time when demand has evaporated. Taxpayer dollars have flowed largely towards manufacturers of inexpensive rapid antigen tests like Access Bio in New Jersey and iHealth in California, instead of more accurate "molecular" alternatives that the Food and Drug Administration has also greenlighted. CBS News Read more

Here’s Why Getting A COVID Shot During Pregnancy Is Important

Nearly 90% of babies who had to be hospitalized with covid-19 had mothers who didn’t get the vaccine while they were pregnant, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings appear in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Babies too young to be vaccinated had the highest covid hospitalization rate of any age group except people over 75. The study looked at infant medical data from October 2022 to April 2024 in 12 states and underscores the critical importance of vaccinating pregnant people. It also echoes what physicians have anecdotally reported for more than three years — that people are still skeptical of covid vaccines due to persistent misinformation. California Healthline

Read more

Bay Area's Long COVID Community Celebrates Moonshot Bill For $10 Billion In Funding

Long COVID patients and advocates in the Bay Area have spent years pushing for a concerted effort toward research, prevention and a cure. They’re now hopeful that the increasingly widespread chronic condition that follows many COVID-19 infections will soon be better understood, thanks to legislation introduced Friday in the House of Representatives that would provide $10 billion in funding for long COVID research and education. The Long COVID Research Moonshot Act, proposed by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and co-sponsored by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), is a companion bill to one that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced in the Senate in August. “It’s huge for us,” said Lisa McCorkell, an Oakland resident who co-founded the Patient-Led Research Collaborative. The PLRC is a group of researchers living with long COVID and other related chronic conditions. KQED Read more

Nursing Aides Plagued By PTSD After ‘Nightmare’ COVID Conditions, With Little Help

One evening in May, nursing assistant Debra Ragoonanan’s vision blurred during her shift at a state-run Massachusetts veterans home. As her head spun, she said, she called her husband. He picked her up and drove her to the emergency room, where she was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. It was the latest in a drumbeat of health issues that she traces to the first months of 2020, when dozens of veterans died at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, in one of the country’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks at a long-term nursing facility. Ragoonanan has worked at the home for nearly 30 years. Now, she said, the sights, sounds, and smells there trigger her trauma. Among her ailments, she lists panic attacks, brain fog, and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition linked to aneurysms and strokes. KFF Health News Read more



Moving Homeless People From Streets To Shelter Isn’t Easy, San Francisco Outreach Workers Say

Outreach worker Edgar Tapia hit a San Francisco neighborhood on a mission to find people to take eight available shelter beds, including a tiny cabin perfect for a couple. He approached a cluster of tents in the Mission District, calling out greetings and offers of snacks and water bottles. He crouched to chat with tent occupants and asked if anyone was interested in moving indoors. He reminded them city street cleaners would be by to clear the sidewalk. “Do you have any more hygiene kits?” asked a woman inside an orange tent with five friends. “Can we get some socks?” The job of Tapia and others on San Francisco’s Homeless Outreach Team is to match eligible people with vacant beds. But it’s not a straightforward process as was clear on this September day, despite more shelter beds than ever before and a mayor who says she will no longer tolerate people living outdoors when they’ve been offered a place to stay. AP

Read more

Late Payments To Nonprofits Hamper California’s Fight Against Homelessness

California’s homeless service providers have a problem: They aren’t getting paid on time, and it’s making it even harder for them to get people off the street. Nonprofits that provide everything from shelter beds, to counseling for homeless residents, to affordable housing, say they regularly are kept waiting weeks, if not months, for the city, county and state funding they rely on. That means they’re struggling to pay their employees, make rent payments for their clients, and, in some cases, even keep the lights on. Some are turning down new projects despite the massive need for services in their communities. Others are borrowing to stay afloat, ending up paying tens of thousands of dollars each month in interest — money they would rather spend on helping homeless Californians. It’s hampering the state’s efforts to solve what is arguably its biggest problem: Nearly 186,000 people have nowhere to call home. CalMatters Read more

Politicians Often Link Crime And Homelessness. The Reality Is More Complex

Melissa Farmer often walks her dog through Gompers Park on Chicago’s northwest side. “This park is gorgeous. People don't know about it,” she said, walking along a lagoon on a recent morning. “I want to keep my fingers crossed that people continue not to.” In the last year, though, a homeless encampment moved in. In that time, Farmer said she has seen people steal bikes, sell drugs and burn fires. Now, she carries pepper spray. She has complained to police, the city’s parks department and her alderman. “They're like, ‘you're basically stuck with them,’ which is infuriating,” Farmer said. “I don't personally understand how we can't say, like, ‘hey, you can't live in the park.’” Many people across the country share Farmer’s concerns. As more people end up living in parks and under viaducts nationwide, residents and politicians in the communities around them have increasingly seen encampments as a threat to public safety. NPR Read more



"Desperate" Families See Potential In S.F.’s New Mental Health Court — But Few Helped So Far

A year ago, Tracey Phinney and Albert Lazo were certain their 35-year-old son, who has schizophrenia and uses methamphetamine, would be evicted from his San Francisco apartment. He rarely took his medications and at times disturbed neighbors and damaged his apartment due to his loud and violent outbursts, according to his parents. But their concerns have eased since their son became one of the first participants of San Francisco’s CARE Court, a voluntary program conceived by Gov. Gavin Newsom to get people struggling with severe mental illness — most notably homeless people languishing in the streets — into treatment. Phinney and Lazo’s son has been able to keep his apartment and is receiving monthly stabilizing medications. The family’s experience illustrates the potential of CARE Court to help people with severe mental illness get the care they need. But so far, the program’s impact has been limited. SF Chronicle Read more

How New Wellness Coaches Expand Mental Health Support In California Schools

Early this year, the California Department of Health Care Access and Information introduced the new Certified Wellness Coach program, aimed at improving the state’s inadequate capacity to support growing behavioral and mental health needs in California’s youth. The program is part of the historic five-year, $4.6 billion state-funded Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, of which the Department received $278 million to recruit, train and certify a diverse slate of mental health support personnel, or certified wellness coaches, in schools and community-based organizations across the state. All told, the goal is to place about 1,500 coaches within the state’s 58 counties. According to Sharmil Shah, assistant deputy director of behavioral health for the California Department of Health Care Access and Information, certified wellness coaches work under a care team of licensed clinicians and professionals in pre-K, K-12 and post-secondary school settings. Most coaches have relevant associate or bachelor’s degrees in social work and human services and are trained in nonclinical behavioral health support. EdSource Read more

Use These 9 Expert-Recommended Mental Health Tips To Beat Your Election Anxiety

Uncertainty is all over the news, with the upcoming presidential election less than 40 days away. That uncertainty can leave you feeling powerless and anxious. It's understandable; the election is a big event with significant outcomes that will impact policy going forward. If you've been feeling stressed or burned out from the coverage, you're not alone. According to a poll from the American Psychiatric Association, 73% of Americans said they were anxious about the 2024 U.S. election. "It's a big contributor to the overall increase in anxiety we've been seeing -- 43% of people say they're more anxious this year than last. The election, along with worries about the economy and gun violence, is really weighing on people," said Colleen Marshall, MA, LMFT, chief clinical officer at Two Chairs. CNET Read more



The Pipeline Of Deadly Fentanyl Into The U.S. May Be Drying Up, Experts Say

This summer, Dan Ciccarone, a physician and street drug researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, sent a team to gather data on the city's streets in areas where illicit fentanyl has been a killer for years. They found something unexpected. "The fentanyl supply is drying up for some reason," Ciccarone said. "Hang out on the streets, talk to people — the drugs are hard to find and more expensive." When street fentanyl began spreading in the American street drug supply beginning in 2012, most experts believed the deadly synthetic opioid was unstoppable. Fentanyl is cheap, easy to make and hugely profitable. The black market supply chain that feeds U.S. demand for the drug is operated by some of the most sophisticated and ruthless criminal gangs in the world.  But Ciccarone said that over the past six months, he began hearing from street drug experts around the U.S. who also were seeing significantly less fentanyl and fewer overdoses. NPR Read more

U.S. "Losing A Generation" To Fentanyl As Agents Fight Mexican Cartels Supplying The Drug, DEA Head Says

Authorities say we are in the midst of the worst drug crisis in U.S. history. The drug is fentanyl, and unlike cocaine and heroin, it's a purely chemical, man-made drug. It's cheap to produce, easily smuggled, and packs an incredibly addictive punch – 50 times more powerful than heroin. Nearly all the fentanyl flooding into the U.S. is made in Mexico by two powerful drug cartels, with chemicals primarily purchased from China. It is frequently hidden in counterfeit pills made to look just like prescription drugs. Last year more than 70,000 Americans died from fentanyl; that's a higher death toll than U.S. military casualties in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

CBS News Read more

Newsom Signs Bill Pushing For Narcan In Workplace First Aid Kits

Workplaces in California could eventually be required to stock their first aid kits with naloxone or another medication that can stop an opioid overdose under a bill signed this week by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Naloxone, commonly sold under the brand name Narcan, can prevent someone from dying of an opioid overdose if administered promptly by a bystander. The medicine binds to the same receptors in the brain as opioids such as fentanyl, which allows the medicine to displace the opioids and reverse their effects. Assembly Bill 1976 requires California regulators to craft rules requiring first aid kits in workplaces to contain naloxone or any similar medication approved by the Food & Drug Administration. Such a proposal would have to go before a state board for possible adoption by Dec. 1, 2028. LA Times Read more



Exhausted? Irritable? It Could Be Undiagnosed Iron Deficiency

About three years ago, Soumya Rangarajan struggled day after day with exhaustion, headaches, and heart palpitations. As a front-line hospital doctor during the COVID-19 pandemic, she first attributed her symptoms to the demands of an unprecedented health care crisis. But a social media post got Rangarajan thinking about the possibility that she might actually be the victim of something more mundane: an iron deficiency. She requested a blood test from her doctor, and the results determined she had anemia, a condition caused by lower-than-normal levels of iron in the blood. It was the first step toward relief, recalled Rangarajan, who is a geriatrician at the University of Michigan. Her symptoms, she added, had made it so she “had difficulty getting through a full week at work.” NPR Read more