Thursday, June 30, 2022 | California Healthline

KQED:
California Latinas For Reproductive Justice Group Fears Local Repercussions Of Abortion Ruling

In the days since the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial decision to strike down the longstanding constitutional right to abortion, huge protests and marches have taken place across the country. The ruling, which gives states the authority to ban abortion procedures, will force scores of pregnant people to consider crossing state lines to seek treatment. Experts say the decision likely will have a disproportionate impact on lower-income communities and people of color, especially in areas like the Central Valley that already have limited access to reproductive health care, making it harder to access health services as people from out of state search for similar appointments. According to Dr. Herminia Palacio, president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion completely, including 13 states that have “trigger” laws in place that automatically enacted bans once the decision was announced. (Navarro and Whitney, 6/29)

Modesto Bee:
Abortion Rights Supporters Protest In Turlock After Ruling

Abortion rights advocates held a lively rally outside Turlock City Hall, then tried to continue in the more sedate City Council chamber. Tuesday’s protest came four days after the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision granting the right. Bans are going into effect in numerous states, though not California. (Holland, 6/29)

Oaklandside:
Roe V Wade: An Oakland Doctor On Abortion Access For At-Risk Youth

Last Friday, when the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, Dr. Aisha Mays felt “caught off guard.” Dr. Mays previously worked as the medical director at Alameda County’s Juvenile Hall and at Native American Health Center and is the founder of the Dream Youth clinic of Roots Community Health Center. She currently serves as the medical director of adolescent and school-based services at Dream Youth Clinics of Roots Community Health Center. (Rasilla, 6/29)

San Francisco Chronicle:
An Oakland Council Member Had Her First Abortion At 19. Now, She’s Defending Her Stance On The Issue

When the Oakland City Council unanimously voted in May to become a pro-choice sanctuary city, Council Member and mayoral candidate Treva Reid candidly mentioned her own experience with abortion — but that opened her to criticism over her own evolving position on the issue. Now, with the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe V. Wade, Reid said she felt compelled to speak out about the trauma of her experiences, and how she came to be a proponent of abortion rights after once supporting an activist who regularly confronted patients outside an Oakland clinic. (Ravani, 6/29)

KVPR:
The Abortion Ruling Has Forced Progressives To Confront Past Missteps In Strategy

With abortion already banned in at least seven states and more than a dozen others expected to either prohibit or severely restrict the practice in the coming weeks, progressives are being forced to confront their missteps in the defense of Roe as they assess how to move forward on abortion rights and other issues in the wake of the court’s landmark decision last week in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. (Neuman, 6/29)

Bloomberg:
Biden Seeks To Boost Abortion Patient Privacy After Roe Tossed

The Biden administration moved to assure women that sensitive information – including medical records related to abortion and data collected by health and period tracking apps – could be shielded from law enforcement after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. The Department of Health and Human Services issued new guidance Wednesday telling health-care providers they are not required to – and often legally prohibited from – disclosing private health-care information related to abortion and other sexual and reproductive health care. (Sink, 6/30)

The Washington Post:
The Planned Parenthood Website Shares Your Data

An investigation by Lockdown Privacy, the maker of an app that blocks online tracking, found that Planned Parenthood’s web scheduler can share information with a variety of third parties, including Google, Facebook, TikTok and Hotjar, a tracking tool that says it helps companies understand how customers behave. These outside companies receive data including IP addresses, approximate Zip codes and service selections, which privacy experts worry could be valuable to state governments looking to prosecute abortions. (Hunter, 6/29)

San Francisco Chronicle:
How Digital Data Leaves Abortion Seekers Vulnerable

As abortion clinics close around the country after the fall of Roe v. Wade, residents in states where abortion is now illegal will have to seek services elsewhere. Their digital footprints, including Google searches and text messages, leave them vulnerable to prosecution. (6/30)

CalMatters:
Patient Data: Health Facilities To Start Sharing It

In March 2020, as Californians hunkered down for what many expected to be a two-week lockdown, high-ranking health officials were scrambling to find out how many COVID-19 patients were hospitalized, how many were in intensive care and how many beds remained available. With no system in place for hospitals to report this information to the state and share it, Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s public health director and other staff had to call 426 hospitals to assess the situation. (Hwang, 6/30)

The Washington Post:
Abortion Is Illegal For Millions. Will Big Tech Help Prosecute It?

Even before Roe v. Wade was overturned, tech workers and privacy advocates had a big question: Will Big Tech help in abortion prosecutions by sharing user data with police? (De Vynck, O’Donovan, Tiku and Dwoskin, 6/29)

The Boston Globe:
A Chilling Post-Roe Reality In An Age Of Digital Tracking

Delete your period app. Get your daughter a burner phone. These are a couple of the chilling recommendations tech security experts have for women in the new post-Roe United States, where anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. And now, in states with early-abortion bans, that includes your digital data. “The privacy issues are going to be a really big thing,” says Carmel Shachar, who directs the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. Going forward, in antiabortion states a pregnant person who Googles the abortion pill or ventures to a reproductive health clinic with her phone in her pocket will be putting herself at risk. (Holmes and Dreyfuss, 6/30)

The Atlantic:
The Abortion Pill Can Be Used Later Than The FDA Says

When the U.S. finally approved medication abortion in 2000—much delayed because of political controversy—the FDA allowed only self-managed abortions up to seven weeks and did not extend to 10 weeks until 2016. Since then, though, international consensus has shifted with new data. The World Health Organization now recommends 12 weeks, or the end of the first trimester, as the cutoff for self-managing a medication abortion. … In countries where abortion is or until recently had been illegal, such as Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, and Chile, activists have for years helped women self-manage medication abortions in the second trimester up to 24 weeks. Different stages in pregnancy just require different doses of the drugs. (Zhang, 6/29)

AP:
Amazon, Rite Aid Cap Purchase Of Emergency Contraceptives 

Amazon is limiting how many emergency contraceptives consumers can buy, joining other retailers who put in place similar caps following the Supreme Court decision overruling Roe v. Wade. Amazon’s limit, which temporarily caps purchase of the contraceptives at three units per week, went into effect on Monday, a spokesperson for the e-commerce giant confirmed to The Associated Press. (Hadero, 6/30)

NBC News:
Black Women Are Underserved When It Comes To Birth Control Access. The Roe Decision Could Make That Worse.

The Supreme Court’s ruling to gut nationwide rights to abortion last week has highlighted the importance of access to birth control, which already proves difficult for many women of color due to discrimination, stigma and systemic barriers in the health care system. (Bellamy, 6/30)

San Francisco Chronicle:
The Surge Isn’t Over. New COVID Variants May Lift Case Numbers Again

Two new highly infectious and immune-evasive coronavirus variants are now dominant in the United States, according to estimates released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and together they likely will drive the Bay Area’s long spring surge well into summer, health experts say. It’s not yet clear exactly what impact BA.4 and BA.5 — both subvariants of omicron — will have in the Bay Area, where cases may be climbing again after several weeks of sluggish decline. It’s become apparent, though, that the pandemic pattern that people have become accustomed to over the past 2½ years — a rise in cases over several weeks, followed by a relatively short plateau and then a rapid drop — isn’t playing out this time. (Allday, 6/29)

Los Angeles Times:
Will Everyone In California Eventually Get Coronavirus? What We Know

With tens of thousands of new coronavirus cases being reported in California each week, it might seem inevitable that everyone will get infected at some point. But that’s not necessarily the case, officials and experts say. Even with the near-constant drumbeat of transmission this spring and summer, millions of Californians have still been able to avoid catching the virus. (Money, 6/29)

Modesto Bee:
Stanislaus, Merced Residents Can Check COVID Wastewater Data

Residents of Stanislaus and other counties in the Central Valley have a new way of checking surveillance data for COVID-19. A project called Healthy Central Valley Together began displaying data this week from wastewater tests to show if COVID-19 is spreading more rapidly or fading away in local communities. (Carlson, 6/29)

Voice of OC:
End Of Pandemic Outreach Leaves Some OC Residents In A Difficult Spot

The COVID-19 pandemic is now entering its trickiest spot in places like Orange County, becoming more challenging for some residents to navigate because public health messaging has largely disappeared. And while Orange County now finds itself in the midst of a current Covid surge, the current wave isn’t as severe as previous ones, some public health experts say. (Custodio, 6/29)

inewsource:
San Diego Unified Students — And COVID-19 — Are Going To Summer School. Here’s Why That Matters.

Tens of thousands of students returned to campuses across San Diego Unified School District last week for summer school and enrichment programs, and more could join activities in coming weeks. Yet despite COVID-19 cases being on the rise across San Diego County, and having steadily increased in schools through the end of the school year, students in the district’s summer program will not be required to wear masks – that is, unless there’s been at least three outbreaks within 14 days and more than 5% of the school population is infected, SDUSD guidelines show. (Briseño, 6/30)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
After Rapid Growth, San Diego COVID-19 Test-Maker Cue Health Lays Off 170 Workers 

San Diego’s Cue Health, which went public last year in an IPO valued at nearly $3 billion, is laying off 170 manufacturing employees, due to “economic challenges” and cuts to government funding for COVID-19 testing, a company spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. The cut is approximately 11 percent of Cue’s overall workforce and comes on the heels of massive growth and demand for Cue’s 20-minute COVID-19 test that delivers results directly to the user’s phone. (Rocha, 6/29)

The Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Agrees To Pay $3.2 Billion For More Pfizer Covid Vaccines 

The Biden administration has agreed to pay $3.2 billion for 105 million doses of Pfizer Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine. The deal would provide supplies for the federal government’s planned fall booster campaign. … Under the deal, the federal government would have the option to buy 195 million additional doses, the Health and Human Services Department said Wednesday. (Restuccia and Hopkins, 6/29)

Palm Springs Desert Sun:
Eisenhower Health Confirms Probable Monkeypox Case In Coachella Valley

Riverside County’s public health department is working to secure vaccines to protect those most at risk of monkeypox infection, the director of disease control said Tuesday. Barbara Cole said the county has asked the California Department of Public Health for vaccines and Cole is hopeful they will arrive in the next few weeks. In addition to possibly preventing monkeypox, the vaccine may also lessen symptoms in people who have been exposed. (Sasic, 6/28)

The Mercury News:
First Probable Case Of Monkeypox Diagnosed In Santa Cruz County

Santa Cruz County has reported its first probable case of monkeypox, a little more than a month after the virus was detected in California. The Santa Cruz County Public Health Division announced on Tuesday that a county resident was likely positive for the virus after receiving testing through a California Reference Laboratory Network facility. According to the release, the individual is under the care of a medical provider, in isolation and in good condition. County health officials are awaiting confirmatory test results from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Hattis, 6/30)

Sacramento Bee:
California Law Requires Bartenders To Receive Alcohol Training

A new California law starting in July will require bartenders and their managers to pay for training to help reduce drunk driving and other alcohol-related risks. Many businesses and some communities in California currently require training but most do not, said California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control information officer John Carr. The training could be paid for by the bartender or their employer. The alcohol licensee is responsible for making sure their servers comply. (Williams, 6/29)

AP:
California Late Start Law Aims To Make School Less Of A Yawn 

Beginning this fall high schools in the nation’s most populous state can’t start before 8:30 a.m. and middle schools can’t start before 8 a.m. under a 2019 first-in-the-nation law forbidding earlier start times. Similar proposals are before lawmakers in New Jersey and Massachusetts. Advocates say teens do better on school work when they’re more alert, and predict even broader effects: a reduction in suicides and teen car accidents and improved physical and mental health. (Thompson, 6/30)

Bay Area News Group:
Wealth Tax To Fund Clean Air And Wildfire Programs Qualifies For California’s November Ballot

Tax the rich. Clean the air. It’s not a bumper stick yet. But it might soon be. A plan to raise income taxes on some of California’s wealthiest residents — individuals and couples making more than $2 million a year — and use the money to pay for increased electric vehicle rebates, more electric charging stations, expanded wildfire fighting resources and other clean air programs has qualified for the November statewide ballot. (Rogers, 6/29)

The Washington Post:
Senators Kill Sweeping Plan To Reshape Sprawling VA Health Care System 

A long-sought realignment of the country’s largest health care system was killed this week by bipartisan political resistance through a short news release from 12 senators who said they would not approve the nine nominees up for confirmation to establish the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission. And a costly four-year effort to reposition VA in an increasingly competitive health care market fell victim to the principle that, just as all politics is local, so, apparently, is any decision to shift services for a constituency as crucial as veterans. (Rein, 6/29)

NBC News:
U.S. Military Hasn’t Implemented Measure To Help Service Members Seek Mental Health Care

The U.S. military has not yet put a six-month-old federal law designed to improve how service members get mental health care into effect, despite a recent rash of suicides in the Navy. The Brandon Act, which allows members of the military to confidentially seek mental health help, was signed into law by President Joe Biden in December under the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. (Chan, 6/29)

Military Times:
Marine Corps, Army Report Disproportionate Substance Abuse, Mental Health Issues

Substance abuse and mental health challenges are disproportionately common in the Marine Corps and Army when compared to the other military services, according to a Rand study published Tuesday. And the reason may have more to do with culture than the individual troops themselves. (Myers, 6/24)

Capitol Weekly:
California-Backed Cure For ‘Bubble Baby’ Disease Stalls – Again 

The “bubble babies” saga and a California-financed cure for their life-threatening affliction have hit another snag, more than two years after a British company abandoned the effort. It is a story that involves more than $40 million from California’s stem cell agency, federal regulators, the University of California, the agonizingly slow pace of science and 20 children who have been denied care — not to mention a company called Orchard Therapeutics PLC. (Jensen, 6/29)

San Francisco Chronicle:
SF Ranks Worst In California For Police-Caused Hospitalization Rates For Black Residents

A new UCSF study is drawing a sharp link between lingering racial segregation and the increased threat of police violence against Black residents. The study, published Wednesday in the JAMA Network, an online medical journal, also reveals something else: Out of 52 California counties included in the study, San Francisco had the highest injury rate for Black residents. (Narayan, 6/29)

Bay Area News Group:
Bay Area Wins Millions To Address Family Homelessness

The Bay Area won more than $5 million in grants to help house homeless families — the latest funds allotted from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $12 billion package to address the statewide crisis. The California Interagency Council on Homelessness recently doled out a total of $17 million to 10 cities and counties around the state. Oakland, Livermore and Santa Clara County were among the recipients. (Kendall, 6/29)