Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Florida Bill Protects Students With Disabilities From Dangerous Restraints
Health News Florida: DeSantis Signs Bipartisan Legislation Affecting Children With Disabilities
Schools across Florida must soon follow stricter guidelines when it comes to restraining students with cognitive, developmental and behavioral disabilities. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a bipartisan bill that will prohibit staff from forcing K-12 students with disabilities to isolate in a room, a practice known as seclusion. (Crowder, 6/23)
Health News Florida: AHCA Gives Tentative Approval To Additional Hospice Expansion
Florida health care regulators announced this year that the state needed an additional four hospice programs by July 2022 to care for people who are dying. This week, though, the state Agency for Health Care Administration gave tentative approval to twice that many. The decisions, announced Monday, could bring additional hospice programs to seven counties, including Broward, Lee and Manatee, which were not included in a Feb. 5 published list of areas that needed new programs. (Sexton, 6/23)
CNN: Here's How Coronavirus Spread Inside A Government Office In Florida -- And How One Official Says It Stopped
Officials in Manatee County, Florida, were able to identify the patient zero in a recent outbreak of the coronavirus that swept through a government building and left two employees dead and several hospitalized, all of whom were unvaccinated. Officials learned through contact tracing that the patient, an employee in the IT department, was infected by an unknown contact, Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes said during a virtual news conference on Wednesday. (Lynch and Maxouris, 6/24)
In news from Illinois and Pennsylvania —
ABC News: Company Defends Use Of Toxic Chemicals To Fight Plant Fire
A company whose northern Illinois chemical plant was heavily damaged in a fire last week defended its use of firefighting foam containing toxic chemicals Wednesday, saying crews had taken steps to contain the material. An industrial team hired by Lubrizol Inc., parent company of Chemtool, used foam containing PFAS compounds June 15 before switching to another foam without them on orders of the fire chief in Rockton, a town near the Wisconsin border. (Flesher, 6/23)
Philadelphia Inquirer: Pa. Dentists Struggle To See More Patients For Cleanings, X-Rays And More As Pandemic Wanes
Add to the toll of COVID-19 oral health. “Tooth pain and periodontal abscesses and face swelling,” said Kari Hexem, chief dental officer at Philadelphia FIGHT Family Dentistry, in Center City, listing some of the conditions that have worsened in people who avoided the dentist for more than a year due to fear of COVID-19. “Some people lost teeth they wouldn’t have lost if they had come in,” said Bernadette Logan, a suburban dentist at Paoli Smiles. “Definitely harder cleans, more tartar, broken teeth.” (Laughlin, 6/23)
In news from South Dakota, Utah, Arizona and Nevada —
AP: South Dakota Board Of Regents: No Medical Pot On Campus
Medical marijuana won’t be allowed on the campuses of South Dakota’s public universities, the Board of Regents announced Wednesday. The board, which oversees the state’s six public universities, changed its policy on medical marijuana as the state prepares for the drug to be legalized on July 1. It reasoned that it had to stay in compliance with federal law, which still outlaws the drug. (6/23)
Salt Lake Tribune: Utah AIDS Foundation Will Provide Mental Health Counseling To Its Clients
In addition to helping people living with HIV with their physical health, the Utah AIDS Foundation (UAF) is about to begin helping them with their mental health. Beginning July 1, UAF will expand its services to include long-term mental health counseling. It is the first new program the organization has added in more than a decade. It comes in response to “the persistent need and the long-term trauma experienced by clients living with HIV,” said UAF executive director Ahmer Afroz. Although UAF is based in Salt Lake City, its staff works with people living with HIV across the state of Utah. The new program will offer this “extremely marginalized population” individualized, long-term mental health therapy — the first program of its kind in Utah. (Pierce, 6/23)
AP: 8 Marijuana Products Being Recalled By Arizona Dispensaries
Arizona Department of Health Services officials announced Wednesday that dispensaries are voluntarily recalling eight marijuana products because of possible contamination. They said no illnesses have been reported so far, and the move is just a precaution after Salmonella bacteria and Aspergillus fungus were detected in some samples. (6/24)
Las Vegas Review-Journal: Sisolak Praises Private Sector COVID Task Force As It Disbands
Gov. Steve Sisolak on Wednesday marked the disbanding of a Nevada COVID-19 private sector task force by praising the lengths to which it went to find personal protective equipment for medical workers and to increase coronavirus testing early in the pandemic. “In March of 2020, none of us knew what toll this pandemic would take on the world, especially on the state of Nevada,” Sisolak said at an afternoon news conference. “We were deeply affected, but for all that we suffered, we had a distinct advantage in tackling our needs and shoring up our resources,” he said. “The private sector is an advantage Nevada had that no one else did. (Hynes, 6/23)
