Stay Well

July 10, 2024

COVID Hospital Visits Are Jumping In California. But Are Symptoms Changing?

California’s COVID-19 emergency room visits and test positivity rate are rising sharply as the summer coronavirus wave gains momentum with some people reporting more severe symptoms than in previous encounters with the illness. However, there are signs of hope. Current figures remain far lower than in previous years, and health officials have now recommended an updated fall vaccine to protect against the latest coronavirus variants during the anticipated winter surge. Emergency room visits in California rose by nearly 20% last week compared to the previous week, and the test positivity rate climbed to 10.6% — the highest since January’s winter surge and more than double the 4.1% rate recorded a month earlier. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, California is among 39 states where infections are rising, with no states or territories reporting a decline. SF Chronicle Read more

San Jose Just Recorded COVID In The Wastewater At 99.99% Of Its Peak

If you thought COVID was a thing of the past, this summer’s surge should make you think twice. The whole Bay Area seems to be coming down with the virus these days. Local data indicates the virus is spreading at high levels in San Jose and most communities around the Bay Area and California. But despite near record-high COVID levels in wastewater and spiking positivity rates, other metrics show a lot has changed and confirm the virus is not nearly as deadly as it once was before vaccines and treatments became widely available. Wastewater data for San Jose shows the virus nearly reached record high levels in the city’s sewer shed this week. It was short by less than one tenth of a percent. The previous record high was set during the first Omicron surge in January of 2022. Santa Clara County’s three other sewer sheds — Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and Gilroy — all have high levels of COVID, too, as of the first few days of July. In the East Bay, COVID levels are also rising as more people contract the virus. Alameda County public health officials said this week that wastewater showed an uptick in the virus and urged people to take precautions. Mercury News Read more

If You Test Positive For COVID, Can You Still Travel?

As new coronavirus variants gain traction across the United States, summer travelers are facing a familiar and tiresome question: How will the ever-mutating virus affect travel plans? In light of updated guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the answers may be slightly different from those in previous years. What do you need to know about traveling this summer if you’re worried about — or think you might have — COVID-19? In short: You should probably delay or cancel your trip. If you tested positive or are experiencing COVID symptoms, which include fever, chills, fatigue, a cough, a runny nose, body aches and a headache, the C.D.C. recommends that you stay home and keep away from others. NY Times Read more

Nursing Homes Falling Further Behind On Vaccinating Patients For COVID

It seems that no one is taking COVID-19 seriously anymore, said Mollee Loveland, a nursing home aide who lives outside of Pittsburgh. Loveland has seen patients and coworkers at the nursing home die from the virus. Now she has a new worry: bringing COVID home and unwittingly infecting her infant daughter, Maya, born in May. “She’s still so tiny,” said Loveland, whose maternity leave ended in late June. Six months is the earliest an infant can get vaccinated for COVID. Loveland is also troubled by the possibility that the nursing home could experience a summer COVID surge, just like last year. NPR Read more



Court Lifts Restrictions On SF Encampment Sweeps

A federal appeals court on Monday granted San Francisco greater freedom to sweep homeless encampments. The decision comes after last month’s Supreme Court ruling expanded cities’ power to police homelessness. In December 2022, U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu ordered an injunction barring San Francisco from enforcing laws against public camping without first offering a shelter bed — part of the ongoing lawsuit against the city over its homelessness policies. The injunction relied on Ninth Circuit rulings that found punishing unhoused people for sleeping on public property when shelter beds aren’t available violates the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. KQED Read more

6 Myths About Homelessness In California

Homelessness is one of the most prominent, hardest to solve — and most polarizing — problems California faces today. It’s an intensely emotional issue, as images of squalid encampments are enough to bring many to tears. But it’s also an intensely political one, with state and local leaders squabbling over how best to address the crisis, all while facing acute pressure from their constituents to act. So it’s no wonder that when it comes to the homelessness crisis, there’s a lot of talk out there — and not everything you hear is true. Here are some of the most common myths surrounding homelessness. CalMatters Read more



Young People's Mental Health Suffered Amid COVID Pandemic, 3 New Studies Suggest

The COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns harmed the mental health of Canadian and U.S. youth, exacerbating depression, anxiety, and eating disorders among certain groups, according to a trio of new studies published in JAMA journals. One of two studies from the Pediatric Outcome Improvement through Coordination of Research Networks (POPCORN) published recently found that the rate of hospitalizations for mood disorders and substance use declined among male and females aged 6 to 20 years from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic. But admissions for eating disorders rose for both sexes, and admissions for anxiety, personality disorders, suicide, and self-harm increased significantly among females. CIDRAP Read more

A Bench And A Grandmother’s Ear: Zimbabwe’s Novel Mental Health Therapy Spreads Overseas

After her son, the family’s shining light and only breadwinner, was arrested last year, Tambudzai Tembo went into meltdown. In Zimbabwe, where clinical mental health services are scarce, her chances of getting professional help were next to zero. She contemplated suicide. “I didn’t want to live anymore. People who saw me would think everything was okay. But inside, my head was spinning,” the 57-year-old said. “I was on my own.” A wooden bench and an empathetic grandmother saved her. Older people are at the center of a homegrown form of mental health therapy in Zimbabwe that is now being adopted in places like the United States. The approach involves setting up benches in quiet, discreet corners of community clinics and in some churches, poor neighborhoods and at a university. An older woman with basic training in problem-solving therapy patiently sits there, ready to listen and engage in a one-on-one conversation. AP Read more



New Graduation Requirements Coming For California Seniors, Including A Health Class Discussing The Dangers Of Fentanyl Use

California high school seniors will have additional graduation requirements beginning as soon as the 2026-27 school year. In addition to existing requirements like English, math and science, the class of 2031 will have to pass a personal finance class, an ethnic studies course and, in many cases, a health class discussing the dangers of fentanyl use. While health education is required in California schools, districts can determine whether the course is a graduation requirement. If a school does require high schoolers to take a health class to graduate, AB 2429 will mandate students learn about the risks of fentanyl. The bill aims to ensure students learn the differences between opioids and other drugs, variations of fentanyl, the lethal dose of fentanyl and how often fentanyl is put into illegal drugs without a user’s knowledge. The curriculum mandate will also require students to learn how to detect fentanyl in drugs and how to potentially save a person from an overdose. East Bay Times Read more

In The Fentanyl Crisis, Infants And Toddlers Become Unsuspecting Victims

Ezekiel Xavier Rivera idolized his father. The 2-year-old loved to follow Raul Rivera around the house and ride in the car with him, said Soluna Lora, Ezekiel’s mother. On June 3, 2023, Lora left the little boy with his father in Bakersfield while she took his older brother for a haircut. She and Rivera, who have three children together, are separated. When she returned to drop Ermias off too, Lora said, she spotted a bulge in Rivera’s sock. It was a roll of cash and what she said she later learned was a baggie of drugs. She demanded that Rivera let her take the children home with her, but he refused. She never saw Ezekiel alive again. Two days later, the toddler was dead from acute fentanyl toxicity; Ermias — who was 3 — had tested positive for the drug. Rivera now faces a first-degree murder charge in connection with one son’s death and a felony count of child cruelty, accused of exposing his other son. LA Times Read more

Study: Acupuncture Can Ease Methadone Treatment

Eight weeks of acupuncture was found to reduce the dose of methadone needed to control opioid cravings, which could make patients likelier to stick with their treatment.  Methadone is one of the most effective medications for curbing opioid addiction, but uncomfortable side effects can cause people to stop treatment. A new study from researchers at the Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine adds to the body of evidence showing acupuncture related-therapies may effectively be used for treating patients receiving methadone maintenance treatment. Researchers suspect that stimulating certain acupoints makes the brain release endorphins and other neurochemicals that can relieve the pain from opiate withdrawal. Axios Read more

How Can I Keep My Energy Up As I Age?

Feeling constantly exhausted is not normal, regardless of your age. It’s a myth that as we age, fatigue becomes par for the course, though it is a common symptom: One study found that 29 percent of 70-year-olds and 68 percent of 85-year-olds experienced fatigue. In one study, among older adults, low energy was more often cited as the reason it’s hard to get out of bed than even chronic joint or back pain. Fatigue may not bode well. A study of almost 1,000 adults, age 75, living in Norway and Finland, found that those who reported feeling tired in their daily activities had more than twice the odds of becoming disabled within the next five years than those who did not. People who experience fatigue are also more likely to experience loneliness and have higher mortality rates. Washington Post Read more