October 22, 2014 | 10:45 AM | By

Ebola Is Not That Contagious, and 10 Other Quick Facts

Two nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas contracted Ebola from a patient they were treating, but 44 of 48 others who came in contact with the patient, including his fiancee, have completed their quarantine period and are cleared of the disease. The remaining four should complete their quarantine soon. (Mike Stone/Getty Images)

Two nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas contracted Ebola from a patient they were treating, but 44 of 48 others who came in contact with the patient, including his fiancee, have completed their quarantine period and are cleared of the disease. The remaining four should complete their quarantine soon. (Mike Stone/Getty Images)

By Alison Bruzek, NPR

Basic information about Ebola isn’t as clear as it probably could be.

A recent poll by the Harvard School of Public Health, for instance, found that 38 percent of Americans are worried that Ebola will infect them or a family member in the next year, despite assurances that the U.S. will stop Ebola in its tracks.

We’ve put together a primer on what you need to know. We’ll update it as new information develops.

1. It’s Not That Contagious. Really.

Each person who contracts the virus spreads it, on average, to one or two other people. It’s not as contagious as HIV, SARS or measles.

2. Ebola Is Not Airborne…

Ebola is transmitted through bodily fluids, such as blood, sweat, saliva, breast milk, feces, urine and semen. However, infectious disease specialists say Ebola is not an airborne disease, like the flu. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Community Health, Tests & Treatments, Ebola, Science
October 21, 2014 | 5:20 PM | By

Gov. Brown Meets with Nurses Over Ebola Preparedness

Gov. Jerry Brown and other state officials meet with California nurses to discuss Ebola preparedness. (Brad Alexander/Office of the Governor)

Gov. Jerry Brown and other state officials meet with California nurses to discuss Ebola preparedness. (Brad Alexander/Office of the Governor)

Gov. Jerry Brown met with top public health officials and nursing union leaders Tuesday to discuss efforts to prepare for Ebola. The meetings came on the heels of new guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Monday night.

There are no known cases of Ebola in California. But after two nurses in Texas became infected after treating an Ebola patient there, the CDC is now recommending that hospitals provide better protective equipment for health workers, and hands-on training for how to put it on and take it off.

But the California Nurses Association (CNA) says the guidelines don’t go far enough. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Community Health, Policy, Tests & Treatments, Ebola, News
October 21, 2014 | 1:16 PM | By

Portrait of Health, Well-Being in California’s Latino Children

(Seema Krishnakumar/Flickr)

(Seema Krishnakumar/Flickr)

Just over half of all children in California are Latino — that’s more than 4.7 million kids under age 18. In a major new analysis, researchers found a diverse picture of their health and well-being, not just when compared against white children, but also within the Latino population itself.

More than 94 percent of California’s Latino children were born in the U.S., and most of them were born in California.

Fewer Latino children overall achieve a minimum standard of basic health care or family and community environment when compared against white children, and children in households where Spanish is spoken at home have even lower rates. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Community Health, Policy, Children's Health, Latino Health
October 20, 2014 | 10:39 AM | By

In Berkeley, Soda Tax Measure Is New Front in Social Activism

Mario Savio stands on top of police car in front of Sproul Hall on Oct 1. 1964. (Courtesy of UC Berkeley, The Bancroft Library).

Mario Savio stands on top of police car in front of UC Berkeley’s Sproul Hall on Oct 1. 1964. The protest is considered the birth of the Free Speech Movement. (Courtesy of UC Berkeley, The Bancroft Library).

By Erika Kelly

Berkeley, the originator of movements ranging from Free Speech to Healthy Eating has a new cause: taking on the soft drink industry. On November 4th, the city’s voters will decide whether to tax sodas and other sugar-sweetened beverages.

‘My entire family has been a part of activism around Berkeley.’
— Dr. Vicki Alexander

No such tax has ever passed anywhere in the nation.

The effort is bringing out progressives in Berkeley who have lobbied for social change for decades. Berkeley city leaders and health advocates have joined a coalition to support the measure, in hopes of igniting a nationwide fight against soda consumption. Meanwhile, the beverage industry is spending big to defeat the measure. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Community Health, Policy, Measure D, News, Soda Tax
October 17, 2014 | 10:52 AM | By

Notices Sent: Covered California Commences 2015 Renewal

Screenshot from CoveredCA.com, the website of Covered California.

Screenshot from CoveredCA.com, the website of Covered California.

David Gorn, California Healthline

Covered California officially began mailing renewal notices for its 1.1 million enrollees who signed up during the first open enrollment period, officials announced Thursday.

People who want to keep their current plan will be automatically renewed. All they need do is pay their premium by Dec. 15 to continue their coverage beginning Jan 1, said Peter Lee, executive director of the exchange. People who want to make changes have until Dec. 15 to do so.

“If you’re happy with your plan, you don’t need to do a thing, you just pay the bill, you’re good,” Lee said. “If you want to shop around, we have the tools available online or with assisters to do that. Stability and consistency are good things, but we encourage you to shop for a better policy.” Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Obamacare, Covered California, News
October 16, 2014 | 11:37 AM | By

Poll: More Than Half of Americans Worry About Ebola Outbreak in U.S.

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas where two health care workers. Two nurses there have tested positive for Ebola. (Stewart F. House/Getty Images)

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas where two health nurses have tested positive for Ebola. (Stewart F. House/Getty Images)

By Scott Hensley, NPR

A Harvard School of Public Health poll finds that more than a third of Americans (38 percent) are worried that Ebola will infect them or a family member over the next year.

“I think the public has received Ebola 101, but not Ebola 102.”

Most (81 percent) believe Ebola can spread from someone who is sick and has symptoms. And that’s correct.

Body fluids, such as blood, urine and feces, can carry the virus from one person to another. And almost all the poll respondents (95 percent) agreed that direct contact with body fluids from a person with Ebola symptoms was likely to cause infection.

A large proportion (85 percent) of people believes the virus can be transmitted by a sneeze or cough. That’s highly unlikely. “Common sense and observation tell us that spread of the virus via coughing or sneezing is rare, if it happens at all,” the World Health Organization says. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Community Health, Ebola, Science
October 15, 2014 | 7:47 AM | By

Election 2014: San Francisco, Berkeley Consider Soda Taxes

(Scott Olson/Getty Images)

(Scott Olson/Getty Images)

When it comes to the 2014 election, the Bay Area is ground zero on a fight being watched across the country. Both Berkeley and San Francisco voters are considering soda taxes.

They’re not the first cities to try to slap a tax on sugary beverages. In California alone Richmond and El Monte tried similar measures in 2012 — and failed. New York City tried to ban large servings — and failed.

If either one of the current measures passes it will be first in the country. The two proposals are similar, yet key differences might make one or the other more likely to be passed. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, Measure D, News, Prop. E, Soda Tax
October 15, 2014 | 12:31 AM | By

Spike in ER, Hospitalization Use Short-Lived After Medicaid Expansion

(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

While the Medicaid expansion may lead to a dramatic rise in emergency room use and hospitalizations for many of the previously uninsured, that increase is largely temporary and should not lead to a dramatic impact on state budgets, according to a new analysis from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research released Wednesday.

Researchers reviewed two years of claims data from nearly 200,000 Californians who had enrolled in public programs in advance of the expansion of Medi-Cal, the state’s version of Medicaid, in January. These programs were designed to ease the expansion of Medicaid by providing insurance to low-income adults who were not eligible for Medi-Cal at that point but would be when the health law’s expansion went into effect earlier this year.

Researchers then divided the group into four categories, based on the researchers’ assessment of each group’s pent-up demand for health care.

In July, 2011, after being enrolled in California’s Low Income Health Program, the so-called “bridge to reform,” the group with the highest pent-up demand had a rate of costly emergency room visits triple — or more — that of the other groups. But from 2011 to 2013, that high rate dropped by more than two-thirds and has remained “relatively constant,” according to the analysis. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, Medi-Cal, Medicaid, News
October 14, 2014 | 9:40 PM | By

Ebola Now an Issue in Nurses’ Contract Bargaining

(Centers for Disease Control via Getty Images)

(Centers for Disease Control via Getty Images)

Nurses’ calls for better hospital preparation around Ebola have landed on the bargaining table. California’s powerful nurses’ union has been bargaining with Kaiser Permanente for months over a new contract, and is now adding to its list of demands better training, protection, and insurance coverage for nurses who may treat patients infected with Ebola.

Diane McClure, a nurse at Kaiser’s South Sacramento facility, says nurses still had no meaningful training more than a month after a patient was admitted to the hospital for a potential Ebola infection, though he later tested negative for the virus.

“Kaiser felt all they had to do was pull up some CDC flyers and put them on the lunchroom tables or up in the bathrooms,” she says. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, California Nurses Association, Ebola, Kaiser, News
October 13, 2014 | 12:10 AM | By

Prop. 45 Fight Worthy of Television Drama

Kevin Spacey stars as Frank Underwood in the Netflix series "House of Cards." (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Kevin Spacey stars as Frank Underwood in the Netflix series “House of Cards.” (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

The power play behind Proposition 45 could be fodder for an episode of House of Cards:

Dave Jones might not like this comparison, but he’s the Frank Underwood in this fight.

“Power is a lot like real estate. It’s all about location, location, location. The closer you are to the source, the higher your property value,” so goes protagonist Frank Underwood, who plays the menacing House majority whip scheming to get closer to the president.

You’d never think there’d be such positioning over who gets to regulate health insurance.

But this is California. And no less than three state agencies want to have a say in this one. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Obamacare, Policy, Dave Jones, health insurance, News, Prop. 45, Proposition 45