Monday, January 23, 2023 – California Healthline

The New York Times: A Coder Wrested a Pistol From the Gunman’s Hands, Preventing Greater Tragedy
Saturday night was winding down at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio, with less than a half-hour to go until closing. There were three people left on the spacious dance floor. Brandon Tsay, the third-generation operator of the family-run dance hall in Alhambra, was in the office off the lobby, watching the ballroom, when he heard the front doors swing closed and a strange clang that sounded like metallic objects hitting one another. He turned around to see a semiautomatic assault pistol pointed at him. (Kim, 1/23)

The Washington Post: Safe Haven For Asian Immigrants Now Shares In Tragedy Of Gun Violence
The man who carried out the Saturday night shooting has been identified as Huu Can Tran, a 72-year-old old man of Asian descent. He was found dead on Sunday behind the wheel of a white van, and his motive remains unclear. But in the cool winter light of day, this city of about 60,000 people has turned sharply from a venue for celebration to one of grief, from suburban calm to frightening revelation. Despite its remove from Los Angeles County’s more violent neighborhoods, Monterey Park is just as vulnerable to gun violence in a state that has tried more than most to corral it with laws and regulations, many of its fearful residents said in the aftermath. Investigators are still determining if its ethnic character played any role in the attack, city and regional officials said. (Wilson, Thebault and Guo, 1/22)

Los Angeles Times: Lunar New Year Massacre Raises Fears Of Anti-Asian Hate Even As Detectives Seek Motive
Asked whether the case was being investigated as a hate crime, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said: “Everything is on the table. … Who walks into a dance hall and guns down 20 people?” (Lin II, Truong, Lin, Wick and Mejia, 1/22)

The Washington Post: California’s Strict Gun Laws Don’t Eliminate Violence, But They Have Helped 
California has a reputation as a tough place to buy a gun. It’s home to mandatory waiting periods and background checks for firearms purchases. It bans so-called military-style assault weapons, one of just eight states, plus D.C., with such a law. And in 2016, it became one of the first states to pass a red-flag law, which allows authorities to remove firearms from someone believed to be a danger to themselves or others. … But Saturday night’s horrific mass killing at a Monterey Park dance hall shows how the state’s strict gun laws are incapable of fully preventing gun violence in a country where gun ownership is widely considered a constitutionally protected right, firearms move freely between states with vastly different regulations and gun-control measures are dotted with exceptions. (Wilson and Frankel, 1/22)

The White House: Statement From President Joe Biden On The Shooting In Monterey Park, California 
The White House issues a statement expressing its grief over the mass shooting in Monterey Park, California. (1/22)

LA Daily News: ‘My Heart Is Broken’: Lawmakers Swiftly Respond To Monterey Park Mass Shooting
“This shooting in my hometown of Monterey Park has torn a hole through all of our hearts. My thoughts and condolences go to the victims of this horrific crime, and to their families and loved ones who woke up this morning to the worst news imaginable,” said Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, whose district includes the city. “I can’t even comprehend the pain and suffering they are going through. (Carter and Schallhorn, 1/22)

The Washington Post: Physical Attacks Track Spikes In Hate Speech On Twitter, Researchers Say
Online researchers say that physical attacks in the United States have been tracking with Twitter spikes in some categories of hate speech, notably anti-semitic and anti-gay slurs and rhetoric. New research to be released later this month by the misinformation tracker Network Contagion Research Institute suggests a connection between real-world incidents and variations of the word “groomer,” often aimed at gays and suggesting that they are adults bent on seducing children. Although polls indicate a significant minority of the population believes otherwise, gay people are not more likely to be predators than straight people. (Menn, 1/22)

San Francisco Chronicle: Dueling Rallies On Abortion Highlight Tensions On Roe V. Wade’s 50th Anniversary
The 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade prompted a tense standoff at San Francisco’s Civic Center on Saturday afternoon, as demonstrators on both sides of the abortion debate attempted to shout over one another, separated by a phalanx of police officers. Thousands had gathered for the annual Walk for Life West Coast march in San Francisco, an antiabortion rally set to the date of the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that granted women nationwide the right to terminate a pregnancy. (Swan, 1/21)

Los Angeles Daily News: Southern California Demonstrators Rally For Abortion Rights On Roe Ruling Anniversary 
Hundreds gathered at Victory Park in Long Beach — many clad in pink and carrying signs supporting the right to legal abortions — on Sunday, Jan. 22, 50 years to the day after the original Roe v. Wade ruling and seven months after the Supreme Court’s current iteration reversed course, returning abortion rights to the states. (Merino, 1/22)

Napa Valley Register: Abortion Rights Supporters Organizing Bigger Than Roe Rally Sunday In Napa
Various groups supporting abortion rights are staging a rally Sunday afternoon in downtown Napa as part of Bigger than Roe, a series of demonstrations and marches this weekend marking the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. (1/22)

The New York Times: Women’s March Holds Nationwide Rallies On 50th Anniversary Of Roe
With signs declaring “Abortion Is Health Care” and chants about fighting back, activists in dozens of cities nationwide rallied in support of abortion rights on Sunday, the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that was overturned by the Supreme Court, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion. (Russell and Sasani, 1/23)

Reuters: Abortion Opponents Call For Stricter Bans At First Post-Roe Washington March
Rally-goers said they wanted to see abortion banned in every state, at every stage of pregnancy. Some held signs that read, “I demand protection at conception” and “abortion is genocide.” “I believe that, just like we wouldn’t want to murder anybody out here, we wouldn’t want to see any of these lives hurt or lost,” said Rob McNutt, a pastor affiliated with a crisis pregnancy center in Maryland. “Life begins at conception,” said Kathleen Stahl, a 60-year-old nurse from Washington, D.C., who works in maternal and child health. (Borter, 1/20)

Axios: Roe’s 50th Anniversary: Where The Abortion Fight Goes Now
Both sides in the abortion fight are trying to claim symbolic high ground on Sunday’s 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade while looking ahead to a new phase that will be largely fought in state capitals and the courts. (Gonzalez, 1/22)

The 19th: Post-Roe March For Life Showed Anti-Abortion Activists Are Far From Done
The March for Life, an annual mega-gathering of anti-abortion activists in Washington, D.C., started out as a protest of the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. On Friday — ahead of the 50th anniversary of Roe, which was overturned last year — the March for Life carried on as a celebration and put on display that the goals of the nation’s anti-abortion movement go far beyond the end of a federal right to abortion. (Barclay, 1/20)

The 19th: Roe V. Wade Anniversary: How Abortion Access Has Changed
Few people could predict precisely what would happen if and when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the seminal 1973 decision that guaranteed the right to an abortion. But what was clear — even months before the court did so this past summer — was that gutting the 49-and-a-half-year-old precedent would unleash legal chaos and uncertainty. (Luthra, 1/20)

Fox News: Biden Issues Memorandum To Protect Access To Abortion Pills 
President Biden issued a presidential memorandum Sunday on what would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade in an effort to protect access to abortion pills across the country. Vice President Kamala Harris made the announcement during her remarks in Florida as she spoke on the administration’s efforts to expand abortion rights. “Members of our Cabinet and our administration are now directed as of the president’s order to identify barriers to access to prescription medication and to recommend actions to make sure that doctors can legally prescribe, that pharmacies can dispense and that women can secure safe and effective medication,” Harris said during her remarks in Tallahassee, Florida. (Chi-Sing, 1/22)

Bloomberg: White House Will Protect Abortion Pill Access, Harris Says
Harris spoke in Florida, a likely battleground state in the 2024 presidential race, and more specifically in Tallahassee, the capital, where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a measure banning abortion after 15 weeks. DeSantis is considered a leading candidate for the Republican nomination — and Biden has said he intends to seek a second term. (Jacobs, 1/22)

CNN: Supreme Court: Lead Investigator On Dobbs Leak Makes Clear She Spoke To All Nine Justices
The Supreme Court marshal who investigated last year’s leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade has revealed that she spoke to all nine justices and found nothing to implicate them or their spouses. Friday’s remarks by Marshal Gail Curley come after the court’s investigative report on the leak, which was released Thursday, did not specify whether justices had been interviewed, leading to questions as to whether investigators had considered their potential role. (de Vogue, 1/21)

Los Angeles Times: Fewer Medi-Cal Patients Got Hepatitis C Treatment Amid COVID
Fewer people have gotten crucial medication for hepatitis C under Medi-Cal in recent years, troubling advocates who have pushed to expand the lifesaving treatment. Hepatitis C, a slow-moving virus that can lead to liver cancer, cirrhosis and death, can now be cured in most cases with a few months of direct-acting antiviral medication. California has taken steps to dismantle barriers to obtaining the pills under Medi-Cal, the California Medicaid program, including eliminating requirements for prior authorization. (Alpert Reyes, 1/22)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Is Your Medi-Cal Coverage Up For Renewal This Year? 
Nearly 15 million Californians — 1 million of them living in San Diego County — receive Medi-Cal benefits, but they have not had to prove they qualify for the safety net health insurance program since 2020. (Sisson, 1/23)

Fresno Bee: Hospital-Less Madera Especially Hard For Undocumented
Maria Rios sat in the shadows inside her Madera home last week, a contrast to the sunny day outside and a metaphor for what’s happening to so many people in her community. (Diaz, 1/22)

CalMatters: After Madera’s Hospital Closure, Could Others Follow?
In Madera County, one-fifth of residents live in poverty and many don’t have health insurance. The last thing this largely rural, Latino-majority part of the San Joaquin Valley needed was for its only general hospital to close its doors. But years of financial struggles forced 106-bed Madera Community Hospital and its three clinics to shut down completely in early January. And state lawmakers and industry officials warn it could be only the first community hospital to close in California. (Ibarra and Foy, 1/20)

Fresno Bee: Fresno Hospital Reaches Agreement With Insurance Provider 
Community Health System, which operates four local hospitals including Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno and Clovis Community Medical Center in Clovis, has reached an agreement with United Healthcare, one of three insurance providers whose contracts for in-network coverage expired at the end of 2022. (Kuwada, 1/22)

The Bakersfield Californian: Facing The Challenge Of The Doctor (And Nurse) Shortage In Kern County
When leaders in Bakersfield’s medical community discuss the issues they face in 2023 and beyond, it’s clear that a continuing shortage of doctors and other medical professionals is at or near the top of the list. (Mayer, 1/21)

Reuters: Omicron Subvariant XBB.1.5 Makes Up Nearly Half Of U.S. COVID Cases- CDC 
The fast-spreading Omicron XBB.1.5 is estimated to make up nearly half of U.S. COVID-19 cases, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed on Friday, putting it on track to become the dominant subvariant in the country. It is estimated to account for 49.1% of COVID cases in the country in the week ended Jan. 21, a jump from 37.2% last week. (1/20)

CIDRAP: US Sees Little Sign Of Post-Christmas COVID Bump; XBB.1.5 Continues Rise 
Most US COVID-19 markers declined last week, but health officials are closely watching the continued steady rise of the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant, which is already dominant in much of the East and rising in all regions of the country. In its pandemic updates today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also unveiled two new dashboards for tracking hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits for three respiratory diseases: COVID-19, flu, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). (Schnirring, 1/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID In California: Wachter Says He Will Mask ‘Likely Forever’ In Some Situations
In his most recent COVID-19 risk analysis for his social media followers, UCSF’s Chair of Medicine Dr. Bob Wachter said he is once again ready to let down his guard. “I’m changing my behavior. In the Bay Area, I’m now OK with indoor dining & removing my mask for small group gatherings,” he said in a long Twitter thread posted on Thursday. (Vaziri, 1/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: Feds Tell Pharmacies To Give Unused N95s To Health Care Providers
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services is asking pharmacies across the nation that received N95 masks meant to be distributed for free to local communities now to give their unused inventory to health care providers in their region. (Vaziri, 1/20)

Knowable Magazine: Viral Interference: Why Did Flu, RSV Disappear During Early Pandemic?
Even more surprising, one particular version of the flu may have gone extinct during the early COVID pandemic. The World Health Organization’s surveillance program has not definitively detected the B/Yamagata flu strain since March 2020. “I don’t think anyone is going to stick their neck out and say it’s gone just yet,” said Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. But, he added, “we hope it got squeezed out.” Such an extinction would be a super rare event, Webby said. (Dance, 1/21)

The Washington Post: NIH Biosecurity Report Urges Tighter Oversight Of Pathogen Research 
Scientists advising the National Institutes of Health on Friday released a draft report urging intensified government oversight of experiments on dangerous pathogens, including broadening the definition of the kinds of pathogens that could trigger a pandemic. The new report from two biosecurity working groups echoes their preliminary recommendations released last fall, which said the definition of “enhanced potential pandemic pathogens” should cover not just the most lethal viruses and bacteria, but also less deadly pathogens that are extremely transmissible — a description that fits the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. (Achenbach, 1/20)

NPR: COVID Vaccine Strategy To Get An Overhaul By FDA
The Food and Drug Administration is considering a major shift in the nation’s COVID-19 vaccine strategy, NPR has learned. The goal is to simplify vaccination against COVID and perhaps adopt an approach similar that used for the flu vaccine, with annual updates to match whatever strain of the virus is circulating. This is according to a federal official who spoke under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. (Stein, 1/23)

Orange County Register: Southern California Life Expectancy Shows Huge Gaps Based On Race, Gender, County 
Consider the projected lifespans for two babies born in Southern California during the first year of the pandemic: One, a Black boy in San Bernardino County, had a life expectancy of 70.2 years, according to 2020 data collected by the California Department of Public Health. The other, an Asian girl born in Los Angeles County, could expect to live exactly 89 years. Demographers who track birth and death rates in different populations are accustomed to variances in projected lifespans. But a difference of 19 years? Involving otherwise healthy humans in counties that share a common border? (Mouchard, 1/22)

Voice of OC: These Community College Retirees Say Bad District Leadership Put Their Healthcare In Peril
When Pam Hernandez retired in 2019 after working for nearly forty years, she and her husband Mike planned to stay on the same healthcare plan they’d had through her job until they died.  That changed when officials with the Rancho Santiago Community College District decided to push all retirees age 65 and older off their current private healthcare plans and into the Medicare system last year. Soon after, they got a firsthand look at what happens when insurance plans change unexpectedly.  (Biesiada and Graham, 1/22)

San Francisco Chronicle: LA Has Aggressive Approach To Homelessness. How Does SF Compare?
Los Angeles’ new mayor, Karen Bass, declared an emergency over homelessness the day she entered office a month ago, putting the issue at the top of her agenda. Residents of Los Angeles — much like those in San Francisco — had vented their frustration with the situation, a focus during the mayoral election. Last year, the city of 3.9 million counted more than 41,000 people unhoused on one night. (Moench, 1/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Toiletgate: City Is Being Gifted A Free Bathroom, But It’s Still Going To Cost $1 Million
Nothing in San Francisco comes cheap — not even a free toilet. In the ongoing saga of the $1.7 million toilet once planned for Noe Valley Town Square, there’s some good news and some news that will turn your stomach. The square will, at long last, receive a free prefabricated bathroom with one toilet, probably in August or September, according to the man who’s donating it. But the free gift won’t save the city $1.7 million. Not even close. (Knight, 1/21)

CBS News: Easing Prescription Rules For Opioid Treatment Meds Did Not Increase Overdose Deaths, Study Finds
A new study shows that reducing restrictions on buprenorphine, a medication that can treat opioid use disorder, did not lead to an increase in overdose deaths involving the treatment. The findings may help allay concerns that making buprenorphine more widely available could lead to more overdose deaths. (Breen, 1/20)

Axios: Doctors Prescribe Opioids At Discharge Less Often, CDC Data Shows
Doctors sent patients home with opioids after emergency department visits about 8% of the time in 2019–2020, down from about 12% in 2017–2018, according to figures released today by the CDC. It continues a downward trend line from about 21.5% of emergency department discharges in 2010–2011 that resulted in an opioid prescription and a signal that efforts to educate doctors and reduce the use of opioids have gained traction. (Reed, 1/20)

The Washington Post: Elizabeth Holmes Attempted ‘To Flee The Country,’ Prosecutors Allege 
Elizabeth Holmes, the former Theranos CEO, booked a one-way plane ticket to Mexico that was scheduled to depart just weeks after she was convicted of fraud in January 2022, a recent court filing says. In the document, filed Thursday, prosecutors describe the booking as an “attempt to flee the country.” Government attorneys learned of the flight three days before its Jan. 26, 2022 departure, and alerted Holmes’s legal team by email. They replied that she had booked the flight before the verdict hoping to attend a wedding in Mexico. Holmes canceled the ticket, “but it is difficult to know with certainty what Defendant would have done had the government not intervened,” the prosecutors wrote. (Ables, 1/21)

AP: Prosecutors: Convicted CEO Elizabeth Holmes Is A Flight Risk 
Elizabeth Holmes is a flight risk and shouldn’t be allowed to stay out of prison while she appeals her 11-year prison sentence for defrauding investors, federal prosecutors said in court documents. Holmes had a one-way plane ticket to Mexico booked for Jan. 26, 2022, three weeks after being convicted by a jury on four counts of fraud and conspiracy, federal prosecutors said in a motion filed Thursday in federal court in Northern California. (1/21)