Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
California Allows Outdoor Haircuts And Manicures
San Francisco Chronicle: Californians Can Get Their Hair Done Outdoors — But No Shampoos
Californians will be allowed to get their hair cut and their nails done outdoors, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday, a week after he ordered personal care services shuttered again in most of the state amid a surge in coronavirus cases. New state guidelines issued Monday cover barbershops and hairstyling except for shampooing and chemical treatments such as straightening, coloring and perms, which cannot be done outdoors. Massages and beauty services, including facials, waxing and manicures, can move outside, while tattoos, piercings and electric hair removal are excluded because of hygiene requirements. (Koseff, 7/20)
Nieman Journalism Lab: Journalists Are Suffering Mental Health Consequences From Covering Covid-19, According To A New Survey
Early results from a new study on mental health among journalists covering the pandemic were so worrisome that the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism decided to publish the preliminary data. “This is early data on a vital topic,” wrote Meera Selva, the study’s co-author and the Institute’s director of the Journalist Fellowship Program, on Twitter. Selva and her colleagues surveyed 73 journalists from international news organizations in June. All of them had “worked on stories directly related to the pandemic.” The survey had a 63 percent response rate. Of the group responding, about 70 percent said they were suffering from psychological distress. More than a quarter of respondents demonstrated symptoms like worry, feeling on edge, insomnia, poor concentration and fatigue that were “clinically significant” and compatible with the diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder. (Scire, 7/20)
Kaiser Health News: Behind The Byline: ‘Reporting From A Distance’
Although the coronavirus pandemic shut down many organizations and businesses across the nation, KHN has never been busier — and health coverage has never been more vital. We’ve revamped our Behind The Byline YouTube series and brought it to Instagram TV. Journalists and producers from across KHN’s newsrooms take you behind the scenes in these bite-size videos to show the ways they are following the story, connecting with sources and sorting through facts — all while staying safe. (Almendrala, 7/21)
Sacramento Bee: Nurses, Artist Create Protect With Heart To Help Health Workers
Faced with patients on ventilators and seemingly endless treatments, Selena Srabian, an ICU nurse at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, easily finds herself getting stressed. Knowing healthcare workers nationwide are in need of personal protective equipment, in addition to a morale boost, Srabian and her sister, Anna Ryan, an emergency department nurse at Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento, started Protect with Heart. (Burke, 7/20)
Dallas Morning News: White House Order On Foster Care Could Be A Step Toward Agencies Cooperating To Help Kids
The Associated Press called it a “lower-profile issue,” but to more than 400,000 children in America’s foster care system, the state of child welfare in the U.S. is anything but low profile. An executive ordered issued by the White House June 25 aims to strengthen child welfare programs nationwide. Let’s hope it’s not too late. (Reyes and Macon, 7/21)
ABC News: Post-Pandemic Baby Boom And Fertility Consults Via Zoom: How COVID-19 Is Affecting Pregnancy Plans
Both planning for pregnancy and raising children can create stress for parents and parents-to-be during normal times, but taking on either of these roles during a pandemic can be even more taxing. Many couples looking to have children during the COVID-19 crisis are worried about the risks associated with getting pregnant at this time, but they are also concerned about waiting too long to conceive. (Farber, 7/20)
San Francisco Chronicle: San Quentin Coronavirus Outbreak Apparently Result Of Missed Steps By Prison Overseer
The deadly outbreak of COVID-19 at San Quentin State Prison resulted from a mass transfer of inmates from a virus-plagued prison in Southern California, a transfer approved by J. Clark Kelso, the court-appointed receiver in charge of health care in the state’s penal institutions. A legislator whose district includes San Quentin says Kelso should be fired from the job he has held since 2008. (Egelko, 7/20)
Kaiser Health News: Lost On The Frontline
America’s health care workers are dying. In some states, medical personnel account for as many as 20% of known coronavirus cases. They tend to patients in hospitals, treating them, serving them food and cleaning their rooms. Others at risk work in nursing homes or are employed as home health aides. “Lost on the Frontline,” a collaboration between KHN and The Guardian, has identified 836 such workers who likely died of COVID-19 after helping patients during the pandemic. We have published profiles for 149 workers whose deaths have been confirmed by our reporters. (7/21)
The Washington Post: Blowing Out Candles Is Basically Spitting On Your Friends’ Cake. Will We Ever Do It Again?
Picture the scene in its nostalgic innocence, the way it’s always been captured in photo albums and home movies: family and friends huddled together, voices raised in song; a smiling face illuminated by flickering flames atop a colorful cake; a momentary darkness when the music ends and the room fills with the distinctive whiff of blown-out birthday candles. Now imagine it again, this time having spent a 100-something days in quarantine, barraged by news graphics detailing the spit-plume that erupts from our faces every time we speak, laugh, sing or cough. Visualize that same gathering of loved ones, hovering shoulder-to-shoulder, cheering as someone forcibly exhales a blast of aerosolized germs across the surface of a communal dessert. (Gibson, 7/20)
In other public health news —
AP: California Court Upholds Verdict In Monsanto Cancer Case
A California appeals court on Monday upheld a groundbreaking verdict that Monsanto’s widely used weed killer caused cancer in a school groundskeeper but the panel also slashed the damage award from $78.5 million to $21.5 million. The 1st District Court of Appeal said there was evidence to support a California jury’s 2018 decision that “Monsanto acted with a conscious disregard for public safety,” but it reduced the damages to Dewayne Johnson of Vallejo because state law doesn’t allow damages for reduced life expectancy, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. (7/21)
