Friday, July 8, 2022 | California Healthline

CalMatters:
California’s Gap In Life Expectancies Widened During Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic reduced life expectancy of Californians by about three years, with the decline being most pronounced among Hispanics, according to a new study based on state public health records. Researchers from UCLA and Northwestern University analyzed 1.9 million deaths from 2015 to 2021 to carry out the study, which was published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Kuang, 7/7)

Sacramento Bee:
COVID-19 Severely Cut Life Expectancy Of Hispanic Californians

The COVID-19 pandemic reduced life expectancy of Californians by about three years, with the decline being most pronounced among Hispanics, according to a new study based on state public health records. Researchers from UCLA and Northwestern University analyzed 1.9 million deaths from 2015 to 2021 to carry out the study, which was published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Miranda, 7/8)

Bloomberg:
California Exodus Accelerated During Covid-19 Pandemic, Study Shows

The long-term migration out of California accelerated during the Covid-19 crisis, with Texas, Washington and Florida as top destinations for people moving out of the state, according to a study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. (Tanzi, 7/7)

Los Angeles Daily News:
2 New Wildly Contagious Variants Keeping Southern California COVID Cases High

Southern California is in the midst of a sustained wave of coronavirus cases that has been building since the spring, and with two new wildly contagious variants bursting onto the scene in recent weeks, the wave is showing no signs of ending. (Johnson, 7/7)

Times Of San Diego:
COVID Numbers Again On Rise – County Reports 1,767 New Cases, 353 In Hospitals 

The number of new COVID-19 cases in San Diego County began to climb again after dipping during the holiday weekend, public health officials said Thursday. Hospitalizations and ICU admissions rose as well. Those admitted to local hospitals totaled 353, with 42 patients in need of intensive care, according to state numbers. (7/7)

Los Angeles Times:
Got COVID-19? Doctors Caution Against Powering Through It — Even From Home

As vaccines and new treatments have eased some of the alarm around a COVID-19 diagnosis, continuing to work — but from home — has become a familiar practice among professionals who can do their jobs remotely. Dr. Anthony Fauci was vaccinated and boosted and said he was experiencing mild symptoms, like other officials who said they would stay on the job from home. (Reyes, 7/7)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
Could Rising COVID-19 Case Rates Prompt Mask Mandate? 

Local coronavirus-related hospitalizations have continued to rise in San Diego County, though not quite quickly enough to push the region into the federal government’s highest tier of COVID-19 activity. (Sisson, 7/7)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat:
Thompson Co-Authors Bill To Protect Right To Contraception

A bill by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and Washington state Rep. Pramila Jayapal would make access to contraception part of federal law. (Coates, 7/7)

Politico:
Biden To Sign Abortion Rights Executive Order Amid Pressure

President Joe Biden will sign an executive order Friday morning directing his health department to expand access to abortion pills, beef up enforcement of Obamacare’s birth control coverage mandate and organize a cadre of pro bono lawyers to help defend people criminally charged for seeking or providing the procedure. The administration will also “consider” several additional actions to shore up privacy rights for patients using digital apps like period trackers and those who are now at risk of being reported to law enforcement by a medical provider. They will also “consider” strengthening protections for doctors performing abortions in medical emergencies by updating the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, and plan to stand up another interagency task force that includes the Attorney General. (Miranda Ollstein, 7/8)

AP:
Facing Pressure, Biden To Sign Order On Abortion Access 

President Joe Biden will take executive action Friday to protect access to abortion, according to three people familiar with the matter, as he faces mounting pressure from Democrats to be more forceful on the subject after the Supreme Court ended a constitutional right to the procedure two weeks ago. Biden will speak Friday morning “on protecting access to reproductive health care services,” the sources said. The actions he was expected to outline are intended to try to mitigate some potential penalties women seeking abortion may face after the ruling, but are limited in their ability to safeguard access to abortion nationwide. (Kim and Miller, 7/8)

Stateline:
Without Obergefell, Most States Would Have Same-Sex Marriage Bans

The U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, but in most states, laws or constitutional amendments would revive the prohibition if the high court decides, as it did with abortion, that such unions are not a constitutionally protected right. Thirty-five states ban same-sex marriage in their constitutions, state law, or both, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and Stateline research. (Povich, 7/7)

AP:
Dems Want To Tax High Earners To Protect Medicare Solvency

Senate Democrats want to boost taxes on some high earners and use the money to extend the solvency of Medicare, the latest step in the party’s election-year attempt to craft a scaled-back version of the economic package that collapsed last year, Democratic aides told The Associated Press. Democrats expect to submit legislative language on their Medicare plan to the Senate’s parliamentarian in the next few days, the aides said. (Fram, 7/7)

The New York Times:
Democrats Propose Raising Taxes On Some High Earners To Bolster Medicare

The proposal is projected to raise $203 billion over a decade by imposing an additional 3.8 percent tax on income earned from owning a piece of what is known as a pass-through business, such as a law firm or medical practice. The money that would be generated by the change is estimated to be enough to extend the solvency of the Medicare trust fund that pays for hospital care — currently set to begin running out of money in 2028 — until 2031. (Cochrane, Sanger-Katz and Tankersley, 7/7)

Politico:
Dems’ Climate And Tax Agenda To Consume Congress In July 

Negotiators are still ironing out key details, but Democrats are signaling that as soon as next week they will begin arguing their case to the Senate rules chief on why the package should pass with a simple majority in the chamber. No one is getting their hopes too high in a party still reeling from Manchin’s rejection of Build Back Better, Democrats’ previous version of the legislation. (Everett and Levine, 7/7)

The Wall Street Journal:
Theranos’s Ramesh ‘Sunny’ Balwani Found Guilty On All 12 Fraud Counts

A federal jury convicted Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, the former top lieutenant to Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes, on all 12 charges that he helped perpetuate a yearslong fraud scheme at the blood-testing startup. The verdict is the second conviction against Theranos leadership and comes six months after a jury found Ms. Holmes guilty of fraud; it secures another major victory for the U.S. government, which brought the case against the pair in 2018. (Somerville and Bobrowsky, 7/7)

CNN:
The Rise And Fall Of Elizabeth Holmes: A Timeline

Four years after the top two Theranos executives, Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, were first indicted together on a dozen federal fraud charges stemming from their time heading up the failed blood testing startup, both have been convicted by juries. (O’Brien, 7/7)

San Francisco Chronicle:
Roe Treated Abortion As Something That Should Be ‘Between A Woman And Her Doctor.’ That Was A Mistake

In the shock and outrage of response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a lot of outdated, incomplete and false ideas about abortion have come to dominate public discourse. Some are afraid that the end of Roe means a return to the days of the coat hanger. Some are stocking up on the abortion pill, which, while far from ideal, is at least not lethal. (Jennifer Block and Elisa Albert, 7/7)

East Bay Times:
A Rabbi’s Wife’s Abortion Demonstrates The Need For Choice

With Roe v. Wade overturned, states are banning abortion based on a particular religion’s belief about when personhood begins. How does this not violate the First Amendment’s establishment clause? (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion …”) (Josh Berkenwald, 7/6)

East Bay Times:
Even In California, Abortion Access Depends On Your ZIP Code

Months before the U.S. Supreme Court’s catastrophic decision overturning Roe v. Wade, our Planned Parenthood Mar Monte health centers in Silicon Valley and the East Bay were seeing patients from states that already had made access to abortion virtually impossible. (Stacy Cross, 7/2)

Modesto Bee:
Unintended Consequences Of Roe Reversal For Women, Children

Marie was a 35-year-old woman in her first pregnancy. Though it was unexpected, she was thrilled to find out about the pregnancy. Due to her age, she was given early genetic testing and had several early scans, which showed a normally progressing pregnancy. (Maya Nambisan, 7/3)

East Bay Times:
The End Of Roe Will Lead To Baseless Attacks On Gay Rights

Within hours of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, abortion was banned in 13 states when so-called trigger laws went into effect. The grim impact of criminalizing women’s choices about their bodies will be stark and immediate, but predictable. (Robin Maril, 7/5)

Los Angeles Times:
How IVF Could Be Derailed By Abortion Restrictions

A few days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, Boston IVF, a fertility company with centers in six states, posted a statement that speaks to the havoc this decision will wreak not just for abortions, but for other forms of reproductive care. The statement says: “Firstly and thankfully, our New England and New York IVF centers are NOT located in ‘trigger’ states.” It also recognizes that “the definition of ‘personhood’ and the rights of embryos may be affected” in states with trigger laws to outlaw abortion once Roe fell. Kindbody, another multistate fertility company, has begun moving cryopreserved in vitro embryos out of abortion-hostile states such as Missouri. Shady Grove Fertility, located in eight states and Washington, D.C., is developing “workarounds” to address legal risks that abortion bans pose, the Wall Street Journal reported. (Lisa C. Ikemoto, 7/7)

East Bay Times:
Young Doctors Struggle With Navigating Human Suffering

I am a resident physician, a brand-new doctor. I am just beginning my residency training. The process of becoming a doctor is long and tedious and involves a tremendous amount of work and dogged commitment. We complete undergraduate education, four years of medical school, and three to five years of residency. The hardest part, though, is not academics or occupational stamina — but rather developing a personal and professional identity as you bear witness to the suffering of your fellow man. (Kathryn Tabor, 7/6)

East Bay Times:
Current State Of COVID-19 Should Invite Hope — Not Complacency

The COVID-19 virus has shown it is nimble in mutating, spreading and circumventing vaccine and acquired immunity. This makes the cost of attempting to suppress infections by once again closing schools and instituting lockdowns unacceptably high. Children have already suffered immeasurably, and lockdowns would further cripple the business sector. Nor would this likely work; even the draconian zero-COVID-19 measures of Communist China and North Korea have proved futile in the face of the current, extremely contagious variants. (Dr. Cory Franklin and Dr. Robert A. Weinstein, 7/8)

Sacramento Bee:
California’s Ballot Initiatives Serve Rich Special Interests

The relatively thin crop of ballot questions going before California voters in November should encourage those who have tried to restrain the state’s overused initiative process, which typically forces the electorate to make policy on a wide range of often arcane issues. (7/6)

Los Angeles Daily News:
Beware Of Cynical Threats To Dialysis Care 

California voters keep beating back unfair, unequal health-care pay measures that arbitrarily attempt to rip off the public and make dialysis harder to find, time and time again at the ballot box. What makes the small, greedy union that keeps putting these measures up for a vote think that we are stupid and will be fooled the next time when we weren’t the last time? (7/5)