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September 4, 2024

An Even More Contagious COVID Strain Is "Just Getting Started" Amid California Wave

The summer surge of the coronavirus subvariants nicknamed FLiRT has given way to ever more contagious strains, a key reason behind the current high levels of COVID in California and nationwide. And doctors and scientists are keeping an eye on yet another subvariant — XEC — that could surpass the latest hyperinfectious subvariant, KP.3.1.1, now thought to be the most common nationwide. XEC was first detected in Germany and has since seized the attention of doctors and scientists worldwide. XEC “is just getting started now around the world and here,” said Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla. “And that’s going to take many weeks, a couple months, before it really takes hold and starts to cause a wave." LA Times Read more

Updated 2024 COVID-19 Vaccines Arrive At Bay Area Pharmacies Amid Surge

New COVID vaccines have arrived at some pharmacies in the Bay Area, with the updated shots targeting the new variant that fueled a summer surge. Timing was crucial for some patients receiving the new vaccine. Residents in the East Bay were one of the first people to receive the newer COVID-19 vaccine. "So far so good, no reaction," Pascal Kouromenos, who received the vaccine on Wednesday, told CBS News Bay Area. The CVS Pharmacy along the 1400 block of Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley was one of the first few pharmacies nationwide to have received the newest shipment. "All of our patients when they come in, they're asking when's the new vaccine coming in? So, they've been waiting for this," James Lee, CVS Pharmacy District Leader, said. CBS News Read more

Coronavirus Vaccines, Once Free, Are Now Pricey For Uninsured People

As updated coronavirus vaccines hit U.S. pharmacy shelves, adults without health insurance are discovering the shots are no longer free, instead costing up to $200. The federal Bridge Access Program covering the cost of coronavirus vaccines for uninsured and underinsured people ran out of funding. Now, Americans with low incomes are weighing whether they can afford to shore up immunity against an unpredictable virus that is no longer a public health emergency but continues to cause long-term complicationsand hospitalizations and kill tens of thousands of people a year. The program’s elimination marks the latest tear in a safety net that once ensured people could protect themselves against the coronavirusregardless of their financial situation. Health experts worry that the paltry 22 percent rate of adults staying up-to-date on vaccines will erode further. And they fear that the roughly 25 million people without health insurance in the nation will be especially vulnerable to covid because they tend to be in poorer health and avoid medical care when sick. Washington Post Read more



San Mateo County Made Refusing A Shelter Bed A Crime. Is it Helping Solve Homelessness?

San Mateo County, arguably more than any region in the Bay Area, has embraced new — and controversial — approaches to solving homelessness. Earlier this year, the county adopted an ordinance that allows officials to cite and arrest homeless people who repeatedly refuse a shelter bed. It also became one of the first counties to launch a state-mandated mental health court aimed at compelling more unhoused residents into treatment. But six months after the shelter ordinance took effect, officials have yet to enforce it, in large part because the law only applies to a narrow subsection of the local homeless population. And in the two months since the county began phasing in its mental health “CARE Court,” officials have determined just three people have met the program’s qualifications and should go before a judge. East Bay Times

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A Fed-Up Gavin Newsom Pushes California Cities On Homelessness

Gov. Gavin Newsom has recited a consistent message to cities and counties over the years as he tries to leverage billions in state funds to combat homelessness: Get people off the street, or else. He said it in 2022, when he briefly froze hundreds of millions of dollars in aid by rejecting every local plan to address homelessness. He said it in 2023, when he questioned the rationale to “provide them one dollar more” if they “can’t clean up the encampments.” He said it in April, warning they “sure as hell shouldn’t get another penny if they didn’t use the money wisely.” This time he says he means it. But some local officials aren’t buying it and are pushing back, arguing the governor is unproductively threatening needed dollars and shifting blame for a problem he’s been unable to solve. “If we don’t see demonstrable results, I’ll start to redirect money,” Newsom said in mid-August, wearing aviator sunglasses, a T-shirt and a cap as he cleaned up an encampment in Los Angeles with news cameras recording — a recurring feature. Politico

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How Small Shelters For Homeless People In California Became Big Business

On a recent weekday morning in Sacramento, early, before a sweltering Central Valley heat enveloped downtown and before Senate and Assembly sessions got underway, several suited-up elected officials gathered in front of the Capitol to promote a bill. The “Interim Housing Act,” penned by South Bay State Senator Josh Becker, would make it easier for local governments to open temporary shelters. Behind the politicians stood two sleek tiny homes. One was spacious and boxy, staged like a business school student’s dorm room, with a basketball tucked in a corner and books about entrepreneurship strewn on the desk and bed. The other had a sliding glass door and rounded corners made of 3D-printed plastic. Oaklandside Read more



Insurers Can Restrict Mental Health Care. What Laws Protect Patients In Your State?

Accessing mental health care can be a harrowing ordeal. Even if a patient finds a therapist in their network, their insurance company can overrule that therapist and decide the prescribed treatment isn’t medically necessary. This kind of interference is driving mental health professionals to flee networks, which makes treatment hard to find and puts patients in harm’s way. Most Americans — more than 164 million of them — have insurance plans through employers. These are generally regulated by federal law. Although the law requires insurers to offer the same access to mental health care as to physical care, it doesn’t require them to rely on evidence-based guidelines or those endorsed by professional societies in determining medical necessity. Instead, when deciding what to pay for, the government allows insurers to set their own standards. NPR Read more

We Know Mental Health Affects Physical Health. Why Don’t We Act Like It?

“Do you think my symptoms could be from stress?” This is a question more and more of my patients have been asking me when seeking care for problems such as stubborn colds and aching backs. For other patients who don’t first raise the idea, when I propose that their mental health could be worsening their physical symptoms, they no longer bristle at that suggestion. An idea that was once dismissed as New Age fluff is now being embraced. Our health care system, however, has yet to catch up to this connection. While it promotes preventive care, the emphasis has largely been on physical health, overlooking the significant influence of mental well-being on our overall health and vulnerability to illness. For people to truly be healthy, modern medicine must prioritize the prevention of mental ailments alongside physical ones. NY Times Read more

People With Greater Mental Resilience May Live Longer, Study Finds

People with high levels of mental resilience may live much longer lives, according to the authors of new research that found the link to be especially prevalent in women. The study, published in BMJ Mental Health, which has been peer reviewed and involved researchers from Sun Yat-sen University in China, found that there was a link between people who had high levels of mental resilience having a lower risk of death from all causes. Women had a stronger association between a high mental resilience score and a lower risk of death than men, the study also found. Resilience scores were also divided into quartiles and linked to 10-year survival probability scores. The study found that the highest quartile were 53% less likely to die in the next 10 years, compared with the lowest. The Guardian Read more

CDC Sees Link Between Overdoses, Other Mental Health Disorders



Treating and screening for non-substance-related mental health disorders could help drive down overdoses, a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. The study, published Thursday, found that of the 63,424 people who died from drug overdoses across 43 states and Washington, D.C. in 2022, 22 percent had a separate mental health disorder. Analyzing data from the CDC’s State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System, the researchers found that the most common disorders were depression, anxiety and bipolar. The authors noted the rates of mental health disorders are likely underestimated. Amanda Dinwiddie, a health scientist in the division of overdose prevention at the CDC and the lead author of the study, said in an interview Thursday she hopes public health professionals will use the information gleaned in the study to better screen for and treat mental health disorders.

Mercury News Read more



Free Naloxone Vending Machines Added In Marin County

Vending machines that dispense free naloxone, a nasal spray that can reverse the effects of opioid overdoses, have been installed throughout Marin County, public health officials announced Tuesday. The installation comes ahead of International Overdose Awareness Day on Saturday, and it’s part of the county’s effort to reduce opioid overdoses, the county’s leading cause of death in residents 55 and under, according to a news release. Marin County now has eight naloxone vending machines and three Naloxboxes, wall-mounted boxes containing naloxone doses, according to an interactive map of naloxone distribution sites available online. SF Chronicle Read more

Rethinking Addiction As A Chronic Brain Disease

The message emblazoned on a walkway window at the airport in Burlington, Vt., is a startling departure from the usual tourism posters and welcome banners: “Addiction is not a choice. It’s a disease that can happen to anyone.” The statement is part of a public service campaign in yet another community assailed by drug use, intended to reduce stigma and encourage treatment.

For decades, medical science has classified addiction as a chronic brain disease, but the concept has always been something of a hard sell to a skeptical public. That is because, unlike diseases such as Alzheimer’s or bone cancer or COVID, personal choice does play a role, both in starting and ending drug use. The idea that those who use drugs are themselves at fault has recently been gaining fresh traction, driving efforts to toughen criminal penalties for drug possession and to cut funding for syringe-exchange programs. But now, even some in the treatment and scientific communities have been rethinking the label of chronic brain disease.

NY Times Read more

NIH Launches $270 Million Anti-Overdose Research Program For, And Led By, Native Americans

Fatal drug overdoses shot up during the peak of COVID-19 in 2020. And as the dust settled on the pandemic, it quickly became clear that one demographic group had fared far worse than any other: Native Americans. Now, to combat the drug crisis and its disproportionate impact on indigenous people, the federal government is launching an initiative specifically meant to bolster research into addiction and overdose within native communities. But the roughly $270 million project goes a step beyond simply studying Native American drug deaths. Instead, the National Institutes of Health is effectively handing over the reins by providing funding and infrastructure for communities to steer the research themselves. “Tribes want to lead research, they want to be directly funded to lead research, and they want the research to reflect the priorities of their communities,” said Kathy Etz, the director of Native American Programs at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “What we’re doing here is supporting tribes and Native American-serving organizations to do what they want.” STAT Read more



Nine Weird Symptoms Cardiologists Say You Should Never Ignore

If a middle-aged man starts clutching his chest, sweating profusely, and gasping for air, everyone knows he's probably having a heart attack. It’s the “Bollywood drama” depiction of heart problems, says Dr. Basel Ramlawi, a cardiothoracic surgeon with Main Line Health in Philadelphia. “It’s the most dramatic way — but not the most common way — in which patients present.” Heart problems can actually be quite subtle, he clarifies, and they tend to show up differently in everyone. While someone having a heart attack might, in fact, grab their chest, others — especially women and people with diabetes, who often have nerve damage that prevents them from feeling pain — won’t necessarily experience any chest discomfort at all. Other heart conditions can appear in equally varied ways. Time Read more