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Stay Well
breaking health news & updates
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On The COVID "Off-Ramp": No Tests, Isolation Or Masks | |
Jason Moyer was days away from a family road trip to visit his parents when his 10-year-old son woke up with a fever and cough.
COVID?
The prospect threatened to upend the family’s plans. "Six months ago, we would have tested for COVID,” Mr. Moyer, 41, of Ohio, said. This time they did not.
Instead, they checked to make sure the boy’s cough was improving and his fever was gone — and then set off for New Jersey, not bothering to tell the grandparents about the incident.
In the fifth summer of COVID, cases are surging, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported “high” or “very high” levels of the virus in wastewater in almost every state. The rate of hospitalizations with COVID is nearly twice what it was at this time last summer, and deaths — despite being down almost 75 percent from what they were at the worst of the pandemic — are still double what they were this spring.
As children return to schools and Labor Day weekend travel swells, the potential for further spread abounds. But for many like Mr. Moyer, COVID has become so normalized that they no longer see it as a reason to disrupt social, work or travel routines. Test kit sales have plummeted. Isolation after an exposure is increasingly rare. Masks — once a ubiquitous symbol of a COVID surge — are sparse, even in crowded airports, train stations and subways. NY Times Read more
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Fall COVID Vaccines Could Reach Bay Area Within Weeks After FDA Approves New Formulas
The Food and Drug Administration granted approval on Thursday for updated fall COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna that are designed to combat newer variants of the coronavirus.
“We anticipate the updated vaccines will be better at fighting currently circulating variants,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated in June.
Distribution of these vaccines is expected to commence within days, and doses should reach Bay Area pharmacies in September. Approval for a third vaccine from Novavax using different technology and targeting a slightly different variant is pending.
The timely authorization of these vaccines — coming a bit earlier than last year’s rollout — coincides with an unrelenting summer swell in COVID-19 cases across the Bay Area and the U.S. According to the CDC, positive COVID-19 tests, emergency room visits and hospitalizations have steadily increased since mid-May. SF Chronicle Read more
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“Vaccination continues to be the cornerstone of COVID-19 prevention. Given waning immunity of the population from previous exposure to the virus and from prior vaccination, we strongly encourage those who are eligible to consider receiving an updated COVID-19 vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating variants”
Peter Marks, Director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research
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UCSF Favors Pricey Doctoral Program For Nurse-Midwives Amid Maternal Care Crisis
One of California’s two programs for training nurse-midwives has stopped admitting students while it revamps its curriculum to offer only doctoral degrees, a move that’s drawn howls of protest from alumni, health policy experts, and faculty who accuse the University of California of putting profits above public health needs. UC-San Francisco’s renowned nursing school will graduate its final class of certified nurse-midwives next spring. Then the university will cancel its two-year master’s program in nurse-midwifery, along with other nursing disciplines, in favor of a three-year doctor of nursing practice, or DNP, degree. The change will pause UCSF’s nearly five decades-long training of nurse-midwives until at least 2025 and will more than double the cost to students. California Healthline Read more
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In Surprise Turn, Bay Area County Saves Threatened Private Hospital By Buying It
The Bay Area’s largest county announced plans Wednesday to buy a private hospital that had been slated for major cutbacks — a move that county officials say will preserve critical medical care for the low-income community it serves. Santa Clara County has reached a tentative agreement with the owner of Regional Medical Center, a 250-bed hospital in East San Jose, to acquire the facility for $175 million. The move follows months of uncertainty and discord about the future of the facility, which treats about a quarter of the county’s trauma patients. County and hospital leaders anticipate the transaction will be completed by the first quarter of 2025. Regional Medical Center, which is currently owned by the national for-profit health care provider Hospital Corporation of America, had initially planned to close its trauma center this month. After outcry from hospital staff, elected officials and patient advocates, it later reversed course and said it would keep the trauma center open but downgrade it from Level II to Level III, which would have meant reducing cardiac surgical services. SF Chronicle Read more
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Eden Health District's 2024 Grant Program Applications Due Friday at Noon
Since 1998, the Eden Health District has provided grants to non-profit and government agencies to improve the health and well-being of local residents. This is the first time that significant funds have been available specifically for central Alameda County residents, enabling local agencies to boost services to people of all ages and needs. These grants have proven to be a valuable resource to these agencies and to the public. Applications are due by noon, Aug. 30.
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The New COVID Vaccine Is Out. Why You Might Not Want To Rush To Get It
The FDA has approved an updated COVID shot for everyone 6 months old and up, which renews a now-annual quandary for Americans: Get the shot now, with the latest COVID outbreak sweeping the country, or hold it in reserve for the winter wave? The new vaccine should provide some protection to everyone. But many healthy people who have already been vaccinated or have immunity because they’ve been exposed to COVID enough times may want to wait a few months. COVID has become commonplace. For some, it’s a minor illness with few symptoms. Others are laid up with fever, cough, and fatigue for days or weeks. A much smaller group — mostly older or chronically ill people — suffer hospitalization or death. California Healthline
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Free At-Home COVID Testing Program Restarting As Officials Prepare For Fall, Winter Season
The federal government will restart its free at-home COVID tests program in September as officials prepare the country for the upcoming respiratory virus season. Dawn O'Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, said Friday that this is the seventh time the Biden-Harris administration has allowed Americans to order over-the-counter tests at no charge. It's not clear when the website, COVID.gov/tests, will come back online. The website stopped accepting orders in early March. ABC News Read more
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The Signature Symptoms Of Long COVID In Kids
Millions of U.S. children have had long COVID, estimates suggest, but less is known about their symptoms than those of adults. A large, national study offers new insights into what the post-viral illness looks like in kids and teens, suggesting that they experience a markedly different set of symptoms from adults. Although COVID itself has historically been milder in kids, the results indicate that many have debilitating, long-term side effects that make it difficult to attend school, participate in extracurriculars or spend time with family or friends. “This is a public health crisis for children,” said Dr. Rachel Gross, the study’s lead author and an associate professor of pediatrics at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine. NBC News Read more
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State/National/International News | | |
Mpox Is Again A Global Health Emergency. How Concerned Should Californians Be?
Two years ago, cases of the infectious viral disease mpox were rapidly increasing in cities across the globe — particularly in the U.S. — causing a scramble for vaccine doses to help contain the outbreak and ease the virus’ uncomfortable symptoms. That strain of mpox was rarely deadly; even still, officials soon declared it a worldwide public health emergency in July 2022. In the months that followed, the spread of the virus steadily fell, though cases have never completely gone away. But last week, a much more concerning variant of mpox, previously called monkeypox, has once again prompted such a global health alert. This outbreak is primarily affecting Central African countries, but officials warn that it appears to spread more easily than the 2022 strain — and is significantly more deadly. LA Times Read more
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Whooping Cough Is Coming Back
After a yearslong lull thanks to COVID-19 precautions like isolation and distancing, whooping cough cases are now climbing back to levels seen before the pandemic, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So far this year, there have been 10,865 cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, nationwide. That’s more than triple the number of cases documented by this time last year, and is also higher than what was seen at this time in 2019. Doctors say these estimates are most likely an undercount, as many people may not realize they have whooping cough and therefore are never tested. The pandemic delayed routine childhood vaccinations, including those that protect against whooping cough, and led to fewer pregnant women getting vaccinated. Those factors have likely contributed to the current uptick in cases.
NY Times Read more
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As National Heat Deaths Rise, California Girds For Worsening Bouts Of Extreme Temperature
Heat-related mortality is on the rise in the United States, where high temperatures have caused or contributed to the deaths of more than 21,500 people since 1999, new research has found. The last seven years in particular have been marked by a surge in heat-related deaths, including 2,325 deaths in 2023 — the planet’s hottest year on record, according to a study published Monday in the medical journal JAMA. While previous research had not portrayed a clear trend in heat-related mortality in the U.S. — and in fact showed a slight downward trend from 1975 to 2018 — the latest paper is the first to demonstrate a clear uptick from 2016 to 2023. Researchers said the current trajectory is likely to continue due to climate change. LA Times Read more
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HPV Vaccine Coverage Has Dropped Among Teens Since 2020, CDC Report Finds
The percentage of teenagers who were up to date on their human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines has fallen dramatically since 2020, according to new federal datareleased Thursday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommendschildren from ages 11 to 12 receive two doses of the HPV vaccine, given six to 12 months apart, although children can get the vaccine starting at age 9. Anybody under age 26 can get the HPV vaccine if they have not been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. People ages 15 to 26 years old who have not received the HPV vaccine typically need three doses to be fully vaccinated. ABC News
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Lilly Sells Zepbound Vials At 50% Discount To Meet Weight Loss Drug Demand
Eli Lilly & Co. is now selling vials of its blockbuster weight-loss drug Zepbound to patients for as little as $399 a month as it works to overcome supply shortages of wildly popular shots. Patients with a prescription for Zepbound can now purchase a month’s supply of single-use vials through Lilly’s direct-to-consumer site, the company said in a statement. The vials are priced at about half of what shots cost, with a higher dose going for $549 a month. Zepbound is typically sold
in an auto-injector pen. With vials, patients need to fill syringes on their own but it saves Lilly production time, allowing more patients to get the drug. The move is part of Lilly’s “all hands on deck” effort to ramp up supply of Zepbound and a similar drug for diabetes called Mounjaro amid widespread shortages. East Bay Times Read more
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Feeling Old? Your Molecules Change Rapidly Around Ages 44 And 60
For many, middle age is associated with midlife crises and internal tumult. According to new research, it is also when the human body undergoes two dramatic bouts of rapid physical transformation on a molecular level. In a new study, scientists at Stanford University tracked age-related changes in over 135,000 types of molecules and microbes, sampled from over 100 adults. They discovered that shifts in their abundance — either increasing or decreasing in number — did not occur gradually over time, but clustered around two ages. The peer-reviewed study, which published last week in the journal Nature Aging, offers further evidence that the markers of age do not increase at a steady pace, but more sporadically. Washington Post Read more
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Diabetes Took Over Her Life, Until A Stem Cell Therapy Freed Her
For years, Amanda Smith and her husband were jolted awake at night by a buzz-buzz-beep — an alarm warning that her blood sugar was too high or too low. She would reach for juice boxes stored in her nightstand or fiddle with her pump to release a bolus of insulin. Smith, a 35-year-old nurse from London, Ontario, has Type 1 diabetes, which wipes out critical islet cells within the pancreas that produce insulin. Without them, Smith relied on vials of insulin from a pharmacy and constant vigilance to stay alive. “You have to pay attention to your diabetes, or you die.” On Valentine’s Day 2023, doctors transplanted replacement islet cells, grown in a lab from embryonic stem cells, into a blood vessel that feeds Smith’s liver. By August, she no longer needed insulin. Her new cells were churning it out. Washington Post
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Alameda County Awarded $14 Million To Address Intersection Of Mental Health And Homelessness
Alameda County Health (AC Health) was recently awarded $14 million to fund temporary housing services to alleviate homelessness among people struggling with behavioral health conditions. The $14,040,909 grant comes from the state’s Behavioral Health Bridge Housing (BHBH) program, which previously provided AC Health with an award of $46,782,359. Alameda County must utilize the $60,823,268 of combined funding by June 30, 2027. The county’s Behavioral Health Department (ACBHD) and Housing and Homelessness Services Program (AC Health H&H) hope to apply new state funds to the expansion of temporary housing capabilities that quickly place individuals with severe mental health needs into supportive housing, according to a press release from AC Health. Mercury News Read more
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At Just 7 Years Old, He Lives In A Tent In A San Jose Homeless Encampment And Wishes He Had A Microwave And A Shower
Each morning before school, Dimmi wakes up in a green tent by the railroad tracks that bisect South San Jose. The 7-year-old wriggles out of a lime green sleeping bag, and often reaches for a handful of Goldfish crackers or Utz cheese balls stashed beneath his cot. His mother, Sammi, helps him pack his gray backpack, and they set out on the half-mile walk to catch a transit bus to school, passing busy commuters lined up at a nearby McDonald’s drive-thru for their morning coffee. After class lets out, Dimmi and the man he calls Dad, Dameon Wright, often kick around a soccer ball before the family uses food stamps to buy dinner at Taco Bell or a discount supermarket. Then it’s time to go over that evening’s homework and prepare for bed. But since finding himself living in an encampment almost three weeks ago, Dimmi rarely sleeps through the night. Freight trains rumble past at all hours, while strangers sometimes peer into the tent he shares with his mother. He misses the simple comforts of having a home: sleeping on a mattress, eating hot food from a microwave, the privacy of a bathroom. East Bay Times
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Four Strategies For Resilience Amid A College Mental Health Crisis
College students are reporting mental health challenges at a higher rate than ever before, according to Inside Higher Ed’s 2024 Student Voice survey of 5,025 undergraduates across the country. The study found that two in five students say their mental health is impacting their ability to focus, learn and perform academically “a great deal.” The consequences of such mental health challenges are greater than just academic performance. Left unaddressed, these conditions can lead to higher drop-out rates, poor physical health and suicidality. Experts have coalesced around a few key factors that might account for these high reports of mental health concerns, and what makes this moment distinct from the past. The first explanation is that young people — like the rest of the population — are responding to real world conditions in a time of great tumult. Forbes Read more
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Growing Need. Glaring Gaps. Why Mental Health Care Can Be A Struggle For Autistic Youth
In April, a group of Orange County parents flew to Sacramento to attend a conference hosted by Disability Voices United, an advocacy group for people with disabilities and their families. They wanted to emphasize three issues to state officials at the event: the paucity of mental health care for children with developmental disabilities, the confusing mess of government systems meant to help them, and the gaps in availability of day-to-day caregiving. Among them was Christine LyBurtus, a single mom living in Fullerton. Last fall, after repeated rounds of 911 calls and emergency hospitalizations, she had made the agonizing decision to move her son, Noah, who is autistic, into a state-operated facility for at least a year. LyBurtus had struggled to find the support she needed to keep him at home. “Families are being forced to give up their children to group homes and treatment centers over 12 hours from their homes ... or out of the state of California entirely,” she told the crowd at the conference. LA Times Read more
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Food Choices Have A Major Impact On Your Mental Health
Remember the age-old saying, “You are what you eat”? Well, it turns out it’s not just your body that resonates with this mantra, but your mind too. A recent study reveals the fascinating link between your food choices and your mental health. Our brain is an amazing organ that needs the right fuel to work well. Just like the rest of our body, it requires important vitamins, minerals, and nutrients to stay healthy and perform at its best. When we don’t provide our brain with the necessary fuel, it can lead to imbalances that affect our mood, cognition, and overall mental health. Every time you’ve experienced a “sugar rush” or “food coma,” you’ve had a glimpse into the fascinating world of food and mood interplay. And then there’s that ugly creature “hangry” – arising when hunger leaks into your emotional state, turning you into a snarling beast. Earth.com Read more
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Fentanyl Crisis/Drug Trends | | |
S.F. Is giving "Chill Packs" To Homeless Meth Users. Why It May Be A Promising Intervention
San Francisco is handing out antipsychotic drugs to homeless methamphetamine users who frequent psychiatric emergency services to help them cope with symptoms such as paranoia, delusions and hallucinations. The city’s top addiction researchers believe it may be the next promising intervention for a portion of people languishing in San Francisco’s streets. Under a pilot program discreetly launched by the city more than two years ago, medical professionals at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital’s Psychiatric Emergency Services are giving certain patients with methamphetamine use disorders “chill packs.” The “chill packs” consist of four doses of the antipsychotic medication Olanzapine, which is commonly used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A study from 2021 found the drug helped to reduce the frequency and severity of methamphetamine-induced psychosis. Patients are instructed to take the tablets when they’re experiencing psychiatric side effects that can also include excitability and irritability. SF Chronicle Read more
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Public Voices Often Ignored In States’ Opioid Settlement Money Decisions
The conversation wasn’t sounding good for Kensington residents on June 20. The Philadelphia neighborhood is a critical centerof the nation’s opioid crisis, and the city had decided to spend $7.5 million in opioid settlement money to improve the quality of life there. But on that day, a Pennsylvania oversight board was about to vote on whether to reject the city’s decision. It was a thorny issue with major implications — both for Kensington residents and people across the state, as the decision could set a precedent for what kind of spending the board would allow for years to come. But a lot of people were shut out of the discussion. Pennsylvania’s board doesn’t allow members of the public to speak at its meetings, a rule that sets it apart from about two dozen similar opioid councils nationwide. It’s one example of how the public, including people who have lost loved ones to the opioid crisis or are dealing with it daily, are routinely shut out of having a meaningful say in how this windfall can be best used to address the damage.
California Healthline Read more
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What Is A Nonverbal Learning Disorder? Tim Walz’s Son Gus’ Condition, Explained
Gus Walz stole the show Wednesday when his father, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, officially accepted the vice presidential nomination on the third night of the Democratic National Convention. The 17-year-old stood up during his father’s speech and said, “That’s my dad,” later adding, “I love you, Dad.” The governor and his wife, Gwen Walz, revealed in a People interview that their son was diagnosed with nonverbal learning disability as a teenager. A 2020 study estimated that as many as 2.9 million children and adolescents in North America have nonverbal learning disability, or NVLD, which affects a person’s spatial-visual skills. NBC News Read more
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About Eden Health District | | |
The Eden Health District Board of Directors are Chair Pam Russo, Vice Chair Ed Hernandez, Secretary/Treasurer Roxann Lewis, Mariellen Faria and Surlene Grant. The Chief Executive Officer is Mark Friedman.
The Eden Health District is committed to ensuring that policy makers and community members receive accurate and timely information to help make the best policy and personal choices to meet and overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other health issues.
We welcome your feedback on our bulletin. Please contact editor Lisa Mahoney.
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