Stay Well

June 19, 2024

Celebrating Juneteenth

Juneteenth (June 19th) is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States There are many celebratory events taking place throughout Alameda County, including All East Bay Regional Parks

Park District fees being waived today including park entrance, parking, dogs, horses, boat launching, and fishing. Get details

It's Easy For Your Family, Friends and Colleagues to Subscribe to the Stay Well Bulletin

Are your family, friends and colleagues subscribed to the Stay Well bulletin? If not, encourage them to join the distribution list! This weekly communication highlights the most important health issues of the day, including mental health concerns, the fentanyl/opioid crisis, housing and homelessness struggles in our region, as well as tracks the recent COVID variant strains detected and their potential impact on our health. Stay Well also features the latest research and information on healthy lifestyles and public health practices to help us all prepare for future community-wide challenges. Forward this bulletin to others and they can simply scan the QR code at right to subscribe!

We Finally Know Why Some People Seem Immune To Catching COVID-19

Deliberately exposing people to the coronavirus behind COVID-19 has helped scientists understand why some people seem to be immune to catching the infection. As part of the first human COVID-19 challenge study carried out in 2021, a group of international researchers looked at 36 people with no known health conditions who had neither tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 nor been vaccinated against it. The ancestral SARS-CoV-2 strain was sprayed up their noses. For 16 of the participants, nasal and blood samples were taken before this exposure, and six to seven times later over the next 28 days. They also all had SARS-CoV-2 tests twice a day. New Scientist Read more

Long COVID Might Presage A Wave Of Disability Claims. Get Ready

Long COVID, the symptoms that can linger for months or even years after infection with the pandemic virus, is still a subject of considerable uncertainty. The virus can damage the body in a multitude of ways, leading researchers to list more than 200 symptoms, and there is no single diagnostic test or cure. But even with the unknowns, evidence suggests that long COVID could burden millions of people. Its effects — on individuals, but also on society at large — could be protracted and expensive. This is the implication of two just-published studies from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Washington Post Read more



How A Repurposed Oakland Hotel Is Saving Lives And Easing Hospital ER Overcrowding

Vera Salido nearly died on the streets in the Tenderloin at 46 years old. To hear her tell it, she developed bed sores from the pressure of sitting in a wheelchair day and night. The injury progressed to sepsis, a life-threatening complication that led to poor organ function. She spent nearly a month recovering at Highland Hospital in Oakland. When she was ready for discharge, staff at Highland connected her to OakDays, a former motel near the Oakland Coliseum that offers permanent housing to homeless individuals with disabilities or health conditions like terminal cancer. The facility provides much more than a roof over one’s head, medical care is interwoven into daily life. That was a lifeline for Salido because she had stopped caring for herself. “I often thought, ‘Maybe I’d be better off not being here.’ Without this place, I wouldn’t have made it,” Salido said as she stroked her straw yellow-colored pet bunny, Provolone.

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Are Tiny Homes A Cost-Effective Solution For Homelessness? This Bay Area Nonprofit Thinks So

DignityMoves CEO Elizabeth Funk thinks that for the most part, the public agencies and nonprofits tasked with solving homelessness are going about it all wrong. From the federal government on down, the focus — and the funding — has long centered on moving homeless people directly into permanent housing. The problem with that strategy, as Funk sees it, is there simply aren’t enough affordable homes available, and building new units takes years and can cost $1 million per door. DignityMoves’ solution: temporary tiny home shelters, which can be erected in months for as little as $50,000 a unit. So far, the San Francisco-based nonprofit has developed five tiny home sites totaling 450 beds across California cities including San Jose and San Francisco. It has 11 more sites in the pipeline. East Bay Times Read more

San Francisco Lawmakers Want Sober Housing To Be Part Of Homelessness Plan

A pair of San Francisco lawmakers on Monday outlined their plans to require the city to create more drug-free recovery housing in its push to house the unhoused population, building on a growing movement toward establishing sober housing for people trying to exit homelessness while struggling with addiction. The legislation that San Francisco Supervisors Matt Dorsey and Rafael Mandelman plan to introduce Tuesday acknowledges that some permanent supportive housing projects are legally restricted to “drug-permissive,” harm-reduction approaches, which means they are required to accept applicants regardless of their sobriety and cannot evict residents solely for the use of illicit drugs. Any unrestricted funding, however, would be required to go toward drug-free or “recovery-oriented” housing until at least 25% of units in the city’s broader initiative to provide permanent housing for the homeless population are drug-free. KQED Read more



Surgeon General Calls For Warning Labels On Social Media Platforms

The U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, announced on Monday that he would push for a warning label on social media platforms advising parents that using the platforms might damage DignityMoves CEO Elizabeth Funk thinks that for the most part, thadolescents’ mental health. Warning labels — like those that appear on tobacco and alcohol products — are one of the most powerful tools available to the nation’s top health official, but Dr. Murthy cannot unilaterally require them; the action requires approval by Congress. The proposal builds on several years of escalating warnings from the surgeon general. In a May 2023 advisory, he recommended that parents immediately set limits on phone use, and urged Congress to swiftly develop health and safety standards for technology platforms. NY Times Read more

What Research Actually Says About Social Media And Kids’ Health

There is no clear scientific evidence that social media is causing mental health issues among young people. Public health officials are pushing for regulation anyway. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy on Monday called for social media platforms to add warnings reminding parents and kids that the apps might not be safe, citing rising rates of mental health problems among children and teens. It follows an advisory Murthy issued last year about the health threat of loneliness for Americans, in which he named social media as a potential driver of social isolation. But experts — from leading psychologists to free speech advocates — have repeatedly called into question the idea that time on social media like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat leads directly to poor mental health. The debate is nuanced, they say, and it’s too early to make sweeping statements about kids and social media. There is evidence that adverse mental health symptoms among kids and teens have risen sharply, beginning during the global financial crisis in 2007 and skyrocketing at the beginning of the pandemic. But research into social media’s role has produced conflicting takeaways. Washington Post Read more

LAUSD, Fed Up With Kids Distracted By Social Media And Concerned About Abuses, To Consider Cellphone Ban

Los Angeles school officials on Tuesday — fed up with kids distracted by social media and concerned about abuses such as cyberbullying — were poised to join a growing number of school systems across the country that are banning the use of cellphones during the school day. The hope is that a ban would lead to improved learning, less bullying, distraction and anxiety — and more meaningful communication with peers and adults. Some parents, however, want their children to have cellphones for safety and communication and school administrators say the ban could be difficult to enforce. The resolution would not immediately put a ban into effect. It directs staff to “develop and present to the public” policies that would prohibit student use of cellphones and social media “during the entire school day,” including lunch and breaks. LA Times

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Few Medicare Patients Get Opioid Treatment After Overdose

Very few Medicare enrollees who survive drug overdoses receive the gold standard for addiction treatment afterward, a new federal study shows. The health care system can do much more to connect high-risk seniors with opioid use disorder treatments and prevention measures, the findings suggest. Just 4.1% of nearly 137,000 traditional Medicare enrollees who had a nonfatal drug overdose in 2020 received highly effective medications for opioid use disorder like methadone and buprenorphine within 12 months, according to the new study in JAMA Internal Medicine. "There's a lot more people who could benefit from treatment that don't appear to be receiving it," Wilson Compton, deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Axios Read more

Inside Snapchat’s Teen Opioid Crisis

Alex Neville was one of those boys who was always in costume, wearing his obsessions on his sleeve. At three, he went around dressed as a mummy, earnestly explaining the embalming process to children in Aliso Viejo, a town in Orange County, California. At seven, he was SoCal’s shortest Civil War junkie, dragging his father to local reenactments of the Battle of Gettysburg. It was at one of those events that he met his great hero: a tall, bearded schnook playing Abe Lincoln. “Alex was speechless when he shook ‘Abe’s’ hand,” says his father, Aaron Neville. “For him, it was like meeting Beyoncé!” But for all his little-professor chi, Alex was a boy’s boy through and through. He ran with his wolf pack of free-range kids from kindergarten on. They boogie-boarded riptides and stunt-jumped skate bowls, anything for a G-pass from gravity. It was hard being one of the brightest kids in class, though, when his brain kept overheating. “We knew two things about him early on,” says his mom, Amy Neville, a heart-faced woman with the watchful zen of a longtime yoga instructor. “One, he was borderline genius — at least. Two, he had ADD. Or something.” Alex couldn’t sit still or manage his moods; the smallest things triggered eruptions. Rolling Stone Read more



Expert Hydration Tips To Stay Cool Amid Sweltering Heat This Summer

Summer is here which means long strolls and rolling strides outside to enjoy the warm weather months. And with heat waves already setting in across parts of the country, "Good Morning America" tapped Dr. Liz Weinandy, lead dietitian at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, to explain what to watch out for if dehydration hits, as well as the best things to drink and eat to keep your body nourished. "There are several signs a person might be dehydrated," she said. "Headache or confusion, extreme thirst, very dark urine, infrequent urination, fatigue, muscle cramping and lightheadedness. In extreme cases of dehydration, it can lead to heatstroke or hyperthermia (abnormally high body heat)." When it comes to preventative measures and staying hydrated, Weinandy said, "the best way to avoid dehydration is to drink before you get thirsty." ABC7 News Read more