Monday, January 30, 2023 | California Healthline

The Washington Post:
$100 Repair Bill Put Half Moon Bay Gunman Over The Edge, Prosecutor Says

More details have emerged in regards to the workplace dispute that led Zhao Chunli, 66, to allegedly kill seven people and try to kill one other at two mushroom farms in Northern California per week ago. Zhao told investigators that his Half Moon Bay shooting was sparked after his boss asked him to pay a $100 repair bill for damage that had been done to heavy construction equipment, in keeping with local news reports confirmed by San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. (Bonos and Lau, 1/30)

San Francisco Chronicle:
Half Moon Bay Massacre: Leaders Call For Mental Health Access For Chinese Farmworkers, Gun Control

4 days after a farmworker fatally shot seven people at two Half Moon Bay mushroom farms, local lawmakers and Asian American community leaders called for stricter gun laws and higher working conditions for farmworkers, and urged Asian Americans to reject the longheld cultural stigma of in search of mental health services. (Ho, 1/27)

KQED:
‘Deplorable, Heartbreaking’: Officials Pledge To Investigate Labor Conditions At Mushroom Farms Targeted In Half Moon Bay Shootings

California and native officials say they plan to research potential wage theft and safety violations on the two Half Moon Bay farms where a gunman murdered seven of his co-workers on Monday. “The employees were living in very, very poor conditions. Some were in very old trailers and others were living in shacks without running water or electricity,” San Mateo District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told KQED, after his staff this week toured staff’ living quarters at California Terra Garden, the location of the primary shooting, and where the suspect lived. (Johnson and Romero, 1/28)

San Francisco Chronicle:
Half Moon Bay Needs More Homes For Farmworkers. Experts Blame An ‘Anti-Housing Constituency’

The deadly shooting of seven agricultural staff in Half Moon Bay last week brought national attention to a difficulty that San Mateo County planners have been grappling with for many years: the scarcity of housing for the employees who farm the crops — mushrooms and Brussels sprouts, artichokes and pumpkins — that pump about $150 million into the local economy. At a news conference on the day after the shooting, Gov. Gavin Newsom and other public officials talked about among the deplorable housing environments for lots of the farmworkers, saying that they were “living in shipping containers, making $9 an hour.” (Dineen, 1/29)

USA Today:
Hero Who Wrestled Gun From Monterey Park Shooter Honored At Festival

The person who disarmed the Monterey Park gunman one week ago was honored Sunday by town at its Lunar Latest Yr Festival because the community begins to heal. Alhambra has hosted its annual celebration since 1993, but concerns were raised if the event would go forward after the Jan. 21 shooting on the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, lower than three miles away. The Monterey Park rampage left 11 people dead and nine injured after that city’s Lunar Latest Yr festival. (Mendoza, 1/29)

Los Angeles Times:
Dancing Resumes At Studio Targeted By Monterey Park Gunman 

Lucy Wong was undecided at first whether it was secure to return to Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra. It was here where 72-year-old gunman Huu Can Tran went after fatally shooting 11 at one other dance studio in nearby Monterey Park. Authorities consider he planned one other attack in Alhambra, but a person on the studio wrestled the gun away from him and Tran fled. But as more details emerged in the times since Saturday’s shooting, Wong and other Lai Lai patrons decided it was essential to come back back. (De Loera, 1/27)

KQED:
In Defiance Of Fear And Tragedy, Oakland’s Chinatown Celebrates Its First Lunar Latest Yr Parade In A long time

Bay Area residents gathered in Oakland’s Chinatown today for town’s first Lunar Latest Yr Parade in many years. January 22 marks the beginning of the Yr of the Rabbit (and the Vietnamese Yr of the Cat). Hosted by the Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council, the parade comes at a time when community members are hoping to augur a fresh and positive start after the COVID pandemic, an increase in anti-Asian hate for the reason that start of the pandemic, and two recent mass shootings in January that claimed the lives of 18 people in Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park. (1/29)

Los Angeles Times:
Los Angeles Youth Activists Hold Vigil Following Monterey Park Shooting 

Following the string of mass shootings in recent days, youth activists gathered Saturday evening near the steps of Los Angeles City Hall to specific their frustration and anger at the dearth of motion to finish gun violence. (Gomez, 1/28)

The Latest York Times:
California Has More Than 100 Gun Laws. Why Don’t They Stop More Mass Shootings?

California bans guns for domestic violence offenders. It bans them for people deemed a danger to others or themselves. There may be a ban on large-capacity magazines, and a ban on noise-muffling silencers. Semiautomatic guns of the kind colloquially often called “assault weapons” are, famously, banned. Greater than 100 gun laws — probably the most of any state — are on the books in California. They’ve saved lives, policymakers say: Californians have among the many lowest rates of gun death in the USA. (Hubler and Harmon, 1/29)

Fierce Healthcare:
Kaiser Permanente Earmarks $25M For Gun Violence Prevention

Kaiser Permanente has unveiled a five-year, $25 million commitment and latest partnership that can scale up its research and community-based work into gun violence prevention. The investment—announced during a gathering of healthcare leaders, gun safety advocates and researchers—will support the Center for Gun Violence Research and Education that was established by the organization last summer. It was initially funded with $1.3 million to explore and collaborate on possible gun violence prevention strategies in collaboration with other nonprofit partners. (Muoio, 1/27)

KQED:
Anti Police-Terror Project Held Vigil And Rally For Tyre Nichols In Oakland

Because the nation — and the world — reels following the general public release of the Memphis Police Department’s shockingly brutal body camera footage showing five officers savagely beating Tyre Nichols, who later died from his injuries, rallies and vigils have been held across the country. Politicians, law enforcement officials, police unions and protesters are condemning not only the Memphis law enforcement officials who were involved, but in addition drawing attention to what many consider to be systemic violence in law enforcement across the USA. In Oakland, a city with a protracted history of deadly confrontations involving law enforcement, a rally and vigil was held by the Anti Police-Terror Project with lots of of individuals in attendance on Sunday at 5 p.m. at Oscar Grant Plaza — named in honor of one more unarmed Black man who was killed because of this of police violence. (1/29)

San Francisco Chronicle:
Over 96% Of American Children Estimated To Have Virus Antibodies

The newest figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that an estimated 96.3% of the U.S. pediatric population — ages 6 months to 17 years — have detectable antibodies from vaccination or infection against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, of their blood. Based on the info published Friday, the agency estimates that almost 65.7 million American children have been infected. (Vaziri, 1/27)

Reuters:
WHO Maintains Highest Alert Over COVID, But Sees Hope Ahead

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that COVID-19 continues to constitute a public health emergency of international concern, its highest type of alert. The pandemic was likely in a “transition point” that continues to want careful management to “mitigate the potential negative consequences”, the agency added in an announcement. (1/30)

USA Today:
CDC Offers Advice To Those With Weakened Immune Systems Avoid COVID

Now, though, greater than 90% of circulating variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 are proof against the drug. On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration officially announced that Evusheld isn’t any longer authorized to stop SARS-CoV-2 infection within the U.S. People who find themselves immunocompromised, perhaps due to blood cancer treatment or an organ transplant, are unlikely to mount a powerful response to a COVID-19 vaccine. (Weintraub, 1/28)

CIDRAP:
Rate Of Americans Reporting Long-COVID Symptoms Declining 

The share of Americans reporting symptoms of long COVID appears to be declining, in keeping with a latest report from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), and a second study reports that vaccination may contribute to lower levels of long COVID. The KFF evaluation of the Household Pulse Survey, on online survey administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found that the proportion of respondents who’ve had COVID-19 and currently report long COVID symptoms declined from 19% in June 2022 to 11% in January, and the share of people that have ever reported long COVID fell from 35% to twenty-eight% over the identical period. (Dall, 1/27)

Stat:
U.S. Panel Approves Plans To Safeguard Lab-Made Virus Research

A panel of federal advisers voted unanimously Friday to advance a set of proposals to bolster government oversight of pathogen research that might make viruses more transmissible. (Owermohle, 1/27)

Fierce Healthcare:
How COVID-19 May Have Enhanced The Status Of Preprint Studies

COVID-19 modified the best way public policy experts, the healthcare industry and journalists covering the pandemic weighed the worth of clinical studies that had not yet been peer-reviewed, a latest evaluation found. The peer-review process utilized by major publications just like the Latest England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association takes “a median time of 186 days from preprint to publication,” in keeping with a study published today in JAMA Network that examines the reliability of preprint studies. (Diamond, 1/27)

CIDRAP:
Flu Continues Hasty Retreat In US; COVID, RSV Markers Fall 

After an early and brisk surge, US flu activity last week declined to near-baseline levels, with trends for other respiratory viruses also dropping, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its latest updates. The autumn in COVID-19 cases is happening despite regular increases within the proportions of the more transmissible Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant, the agency said. (Schnirring, 1/27)

Axios:
SNAP Advantages Returning To Pre-COVID Amounts In February

The additional food assistance advantages put into place in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic will end nationwide in February, per the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service. The emergency allotments allowed SNAP households to receive a further $95 or more in monthly advantages. (Habeshian, 1/28)

The Latest Republic:
A Nationwide Fight Over Food Insecurity Is Just Starting 

A latest bill introduced by Republican state lawmakers in Iowa would significantly restrict food purchases for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, previously often called food stamps. Among the many excluded products are American cheese, white rice, baked or refried beans and fresh meat—limits to which recipients of one other nutrition assistance program are already subjected. The laws just isn’t a fringe proposal; it’s co-sponsored by dozens of Republicans, including the state House speaker. However the bill, which garnered national headlines, represents in microcosm a bigger conversation about welfare policies: questions on who must have access to such advantages and the conditions for receiving them. (Segers, 1/27)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
Health Care Staff At East County’s Only Hospital May Unionize Amid Concerns Over Staffing, Pay 

A whole lot of health care staff at East County’s only hospital will find a way to vote early next month on whether to form a union, a part of a wave of organizing across the country amid a never-ending pandemic, inflation and the specter of a recession. (Nelson, 1/29)

CBS News:
Pharmacies CVS, Walmart And Walgreens To Reduce Hours As Staffing Challenges Persist 

CVS and Walmart are reducing their pharmacy operating hours across the U.S. to enhance employees’ work-life balance because the chains proceed to struggle with staffing shortages within the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. CVS said it’ll be “adjusting hours in select stores” come spring, as a part of a periodic review of “operating hours to be certain that we’re open during peak customer demand.” The move will affect roughly two-thirds of the corporate’s roughly 9,000 retail pharmacies starting in March, an organization spokesperson said in an announcement to CBS MoneyWatch. … Walmart also said it’s cutting hours at its pharmacy locations nationwide to enhance “work-life balance” for its associates. Walmart pharmacies will probably be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Previously they were open until 9 p.m. on weekdays. (Cerullo, 1/27)

Reveal:
A Miracle Cure For AIDS Or Snake Oil?

Dr. Gary Davis, an Ivy League-trained Black physician from Tulsa, Oklahoma, had a dream one night that the cure for AIDS would come from a goat. In the brand new podcast Serum, a reporting team at WHYY’s The Pulse and Local Trance Media delve into the weird story of a Davis’ quest to develop the cure. At the peak of the AIDS epidemic within the early ’90s, Davis created a serum from goat blood that he believed could help cure HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. He brought his research to the FDA, nevertheless it didn’t win approval. (1/28)

The Hill:
White House Blasts McCarthy For Comments On Strengthening Social Security, Medicare

The White House hit back after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he desires to “strengthen” Medicare and Social Security, arguing on Sunday that the House GOP leader and his conference actually wish to slash spending on the entitlement programs. McCarthy said in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” earlier Sunday that he desires to take cuts to Medicare and Social Security off the table in talks with Democrats over the debt ceiling, despite the fact that Republicans do want commitments on spending cuts generally. As an alternative, McCarthy said Republicans were committed to strengthening the programs. (Neukam, 1/29)

The Hill:
McCarthy: Social Security, Medicare Cuts ‘Off The Table’

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said ahead of a gathering with President Biden this week that cuts to Medicare and Social Security are off the table in talks around raising the debt limit. McCarthy has said that Republicans want commitments to spending reductions in exchange for raising the debt limit but has been unclear about what precisely the GOP could be willing to chop. While he said Medicare and Social Security slashes are off the table in his interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, he essentially said all the things else, including defense spending, is under the microscope. (Neukam, 1/29)

NBC News:
Medicare Negotiating Drug Prices Will Likely Save The U.S. Billions, Study Says

Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School estimated how much money the brand new policy would have saved the U.S. had it been in effect from 2018 to 2020 — probably the most recent years for which data is on the market on Medicare spending. They identified 40 drugs that might have been chosen by Medicare for drug pricing negotiation under the Inflation Reduction Act’s provision. (Lovelace Jr., 1/27)

Stat:
Lengthy Battle Over Medicare Advantage Audits Comes To A Head

The federal government and medical health insurance corporations have been clashing for greater than a decade over how Medicare Advantage plans must be audited and the way the well-documented overpayments to those plans must be clawed back. That fight is about to hit an inflection point this week, when Medicare makes a final determination about how aggressively it’ll probe the industry. (Herman, 1/30)

Los Angeles Each day News:
LA Is Losing The Battle Against Mental Illness Amongst Its Homeless 

Dr. Brian Benjamin, a psychiatrist specializing in serving the homeless, was excited to inform certainly one of his regular clients that a shelter spot had opened up, but unfortunately there have been 20 murders in that constructing daily and the Mafia lived there – or so the client told him. (Harter and Scauzillo, 1/28)

Los Angeles Each day News:
With LA’s Homeless Count Done, Volunteers Ponder Meeting Homeless Neighbors 

Two days after volunteering to assist count the homeless in Los Angeles County, Anthony Manousos, 73, couldn’t put out of his mind the face of a girl living on the road who was exactly his age. “She had a great job and grew up in San Marino. You may say ‘This could possibly be me,’” he said just before sitting down for lunch at his Pasadena home on Friday afternoon. (Scauzillo, 1/30)

Each day Breeze:
Wait-And-See Period Dawns As Latest LA County Leaders Redouble Homeless Housing Efforts

When Los Angeles rolled out its ambitious and highly publicized technique to fight homelessness under former Mayor Eric Garcetti, plans centered on quickly putting up temporary shelters, and constructing each interim and everlasting housing. Not unpredictably, none of it happened fast — and the reception amongst some in town fell wanting a warm embrace. (Littlejohn and Love, 1/29)

Berkeleyside:
Berkeley Students Aiming To Prevent Fentanyl Overdoses Say ‘Don’t Do Drugs’ Won’t Cut It

A student group is spearheading an effort to coach their Berkeley High peers about drug use, specializing in overdose prevention and fentanyl. Called the Harm Education and Reduction Organization, or HERO, the club gives presentations in ninth-grade classrooms with the mission of constructing sure that if students are doing drugs, they’ve the resources to accomplish that safely. “The ‘don’t do drugs’ talk doesn’t work,” said eleventh grader Madeleine Regan during a Friday club lunch meeting. (Markovich, 1/27)

Fresno Bee:
California State Prisoners Amongst The Influx Of Madera Patients In Fresno-Area Hospitals

Fresno County officials are warning people to avoid local hospital emergency rooms as much as possible as hospitals absorb a surge of patients from Madera — including state prison inmates. (Montalvo, 1/29)

Los Angeles Times:
Lawmakers Want Investigation, Hearings Into ‘Wild West’ Of California Cannabis And Farm Work

California lawmakers are calling for a sweeping investigation into corruption within the state’s cannabis industry, legislative hearings on the exploitation of farmworkers and latest laws to thwart labor trafficking in response to revelations of rampant abuses and employee deaths in a multibillion-dollar market that has develop into increasingly unmanageable. The proposals follow a series of Times investigations last yr showing that California’s 2016 legalization of recreational cannabis spurred political corruption, explosive growth in illegal cultivation and widespread exploitation of staff. The Times found that wage theft was rampant and that many staff were subjected to squalid, sometimes lethal conditions. (St. John and Elmahrek, 1/29)

Axios:
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy: 13 Is Too Young For Social Media

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said on “CNN Newsroom” on Saturday he believes 13-year-olds are too young to hitch social media and that being on those platforms does a “disservice” to children. Scientists have warned of a connection between heavy social media use and mental health issues in children, saying that the negatives outweigh the positives.(Ravipati, 1/29)

USA Today:
Diabetes In American Children, Teens To Surge By 2060: CDC Study

The statistics are concerning and will stir urgency in addressing the health of American young people, equivalent to prioritizing efforts to bring down rates of obesity, a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes, experts say. Despite a known link between obesity and Type 2 diabetes, “it’s very unsettling that we now have not made any progress to actually decrease this risk of Type 2 diabetes in children,” said Dr. Colleen Buggs-Saxton, a pediatric endocrinologist at Wayne State University. (Hassanein, 1/30)

CNN:
Sleep Disorders Are Associated With More Parental Stress

In accordance with a latest study, disrupted sleep in parents and disrupted sleep of their children are each correlated with increased stress within the parents. Actually, it didn’t matter whether the parent had a sleep problem or the kid did. Each equally affected the parent’s stress levels. (Chaudhary, 1/28)

CNN:
Weight Loss Surgery Extends Lives, Study Finds

Weight reduction surgery reduces the danger of premature death, especially from such obesity-related conditions as cancer, diabetes and heart disease, in keeping with a latest 40-year study of nearly 22,000 individuals who had bariatric surgery in Utah. (LaMotte, 1/28)