Stay Well

March 18, 2024

Fear Of COVID Fades Even As Virus Remains A "Significant Threat," Survey Reveals

As we enter the fifth year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new survey reveals a notable shift in how Americans perceive the coronavirus. According to a Pew Research Center report published last week, only 20% of respondents now consider the coronavirus a significant threat to the health of the U.S. population, marking a substantial decline from the peak of public concern in 2020. A mere 10% expressed deep concern about the prospect of contracting the virus and ending up in the hospital. The changing attitudes reflect recent shifts in public health policy, including the scaling back of COVID-specific guidance by the CDC and the classification of the virus alongside other respiratory bugs, like influenza and RSV, by the California Department of Public Health. SF Chronicle Read more

Up To 5.8 Million Kids Have Long COVID, Study Says. One Mother Discusses The "Heartbreaking" Search For Answers

Up to 5.8 million young people have long COVID, according to a recent study — and parents like Amanda Goodhart are looking for answers. She says her 6-year old son Logan caught COVID multiple times. But even months later, his symptoms didn't get better. "To see him struggle to stay awake, or crying and saying he doesn't feel good, it's heartbreaking, it's demoralizing, because there's not a lot of treatment options," she told CBS News. Study author Dr. Rachel Gross of NYU's Grossman School of Medicine says one major challenge in tracking the illness is that symptoms can vary. "Long COVID can look different in different children, that not everybody has the same symptoms and that it can look different depending on when the symptoms start," she says. CBS News Read more

Four Years After COVID, Misinformation Still Endangers Some Americans' Health. Here's Why

Jesse Ehrenfeld, an anesthesiologist at a Wisconsin hospital, asked a patient about to have heart surgery if she would consent to a blood transfusion should it become necessary. It's a standard question. But the patient refused. It was 2021, and the COVID-19 vaccine had become publicly available only a few months earlier. This patient, though, made it clear she did not want it – or blood from anyone who already had it. "It was at that moment I knew we were in for it," Ehrenfeld said. Though the pandemic no longer dominates headlines as it once did, misinformation about nearly every aspect still spreads online. More than 1.1 million people in the U.S. have died of COVID-19, including hundreds of thousands who, for reasons often rooted in misinformation, chose not to get vaccinated. About 30% of the population hasn't received the initial series of vaccines. USA Today Read more



Bay Area Activists Bring Homelessness Issue To State Capitol With Painted Fence Planks

Voters were asked in this primary to approve billions of dollars in bonds to provide housing for the homeless and the mentally ill. Prop 1 is narrowly passing at the moment with 20,000 more "yes" votes than "no" votes. The unhoused issue was also in the spotlight on Saturday at the State Capitol, thanks to some Bay Area activists. One painted fence plank at time as local groups rally to put an end to homelessness. "Tiny Village Spirit. We build tiny house villages for homeless people. Currently, we're doing it for youth, or we're doing a hundred homes for 100 youth," said Inti Gonzalez, Youth organizer at Tiny Village Spirit. The nonprofit has also built a 25-home village in Oakland where they're cultivating community and providing resources.

ABC7 News Read more

San Jose Mayor Wants More Funds To House The Homeless. It Could Come At The Expense Of Other City Services

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan has made ending street homelessness one of his major priorities — but getting there will be expensive, and it will likely come at the cost of other city services, he said during a press conference Wednesday to announce his budget priorities for the upcoming 2024-25 fiscal year. One of the priciest items? The $25 million the city will need to spend to clear 1,000 homeless people from encampments along creeks and rivers by June 2024, in response to a mandate from the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. If the city doesn’t comply, it could face litigation and $60,000 in daily fines. “Our current financial and environmental realities this season are going to require us to do what is right, and that is to create basic, dignified places for people to go with an urgency and at a scale that we haven’t seen yet,” Mahan said. Mercury News Read more



Star Bay Area Athlete Didn’t Want To Live, Now He’s Healing Through Helping Others

San Jose State guard Myron Amey Jr. pulled up his jersey and stared at his stomach, searching for a scar that had long been a reminder of one of his life’s bleakest periods. But now, sitting courtside after a recent practice, Amey only saw unblemished skin. “I guess it’s faded,” he said. “I used to have a lot of scars, and people would ask me what happened. I’d just kind of shy away from the question.” Amey, 21, no longer avoids difficult conversations. A mental health advocate and aspiring motivational speaker, he posts to social media about his struggles. He shares his story at bible studies and Black student-athlete conventions. He seeks out anyone who might wrestle with the same dark thoughts and self-destructive impulses that once plagued him. SF Chronicle Read more

Playing With Dogs Helps People Concentrate And Relax, Brain Recordings Show

Plenty of research has investigated the bond between humans and dogs, demonstrating that canine companions can improve people’s moods, reduce blood pressure and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Just looking dogs in the eye may even boost levels of oxytocin, a hormone associated with feelings of love and trust. But few past studies have pinpointed what happens in people’s brains when they interact with a furry friend. A study published Wednesday did exactly that: Researchers in South Korea attached headsets of electrodes to 30 adults, then measured changes in their brainwaves as they interacted with a poodle named Aro. The results indicated that walking the dog made the participants feel more relaxed, brushing her improved concentration, and playing with her yielded both of these effects. NBC News Read more



Helping Bay Area Drug Users Survive, Not Abstain: Free Test Kits Find Deadly Fentanyl

Fentanyl can hide. But cheap paper tests, increasingly available at the Bay Area’s social hotspots and universities, are finding it. In a desperate race to reduce poisonings caused by pills or powders that are unknowingly tainted by fentanyl, advocates are distributing free tests that can quickly detect even tiny traces of the deadly synthetic opioid. “It’s important for people to check their drugs,” said Dean Shold, who co-founded the Oakland-based test distribution nonprofit FentCheck with Alison Heller amid a surge of fentanyl-related deaths in the Bay Area. Cocaine, MDMA and other recreational drugs, as well as counterfeit Adderall, Xanax, Ativan, Percocet and Valium pills, can be tainted. “Two milligrams that can kill you,” he said, “and you’ll never know.” East Bay Times Read more

California Prosecutors Filing Murder Charges In More Fentanyl Deaths

Just about every state in America has cracked down on fentanyl distribution, by stepping up arrests and increasing prison sentences. But few places are as aggressive as Riverside County, Calif., in prosecuting people who supply fatal doses of fentanyl. Since late 2021, the Riverside County district attorney, Mike Hestrin, has charged 34 suspected fentanyl suppliers with murder and is said to be the first prosecutor in California to achieve a guilty verdict from a jury in a fentanyl-related homicide trial. “People are being devastated by this drug,” said Mr. Hestrin, who has been the district attorney in Riverside County, a sprawling area east of Los Angeles, for nine years. NY Times Read more

San Francisco Promotes Treatment For Stimulant Use Disorder Amid Overdose Epidemic

The rate of overdose deaths in San Francisco remained steady in the first two months of 2024, according to data released Monday from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The new data shows there were 131 overdose deaths in San Francisco between January and February of this year. That’s compared to 136 overdose deaths over the same period a year ago. There were 811 overdose deaths in San Francisco in all of 2023. Most of these overdoses involved fentanyl, an opioid about 50 times stronger than heroin. But many people who die from an overdose in the city are combining substances with fentanyl, like methamphetamine or cocaine. In response, city health officials say they are expanding opportunities for contingency management, a positive-reinforcement-based model that’s primarily used for adjusting methamphetamine and cocaine use. Unlike opioid addiction or alcoholism, there are no government-approved medications for stimulant-use disorder. Contingency management offers another option. KQED Read more



Pickleball Injuries Are Spiking — But Is The Sport More Likely To Cause Harm?

Ron Friedman remembers the exact moment he hurt his right knee. “It was in the middle of a pickleball rally, and I aggressively moved toward the ball and made a sort of twisting movement and I felt it right then,” Friedman said of the match in February at Palo Alto’s Mitchell Park. “It happened in an instant.” Worried he might have re-injured his meniscus, which he’d previously torn while playing pickleball a few years prior, Friedman, 74, made an appointment to see his doctor. Luckily, the pain mostly subsided by then and he was able to resume playing after taking a few days off to rest and stretch. Pickleball injuries like those sustained by Friedman — who has also experienced muscle strains and tennis elbow during the five years he has played the sport recreationally — are becoming more common, according to sports medicine doctors and emerging research. SF Chronicle Read more