Today, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the fifth round of Homekey awards, the state’s program to assist local governments expand permanent, long-term housing for people experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness. Today’s awards total $30.7 million to three applicants for three projects comprising 210 units. Entities receiving funds today include the Yurok Tribe in Humboldt…
Read More »Recently, tobacco company giants R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and Philip Morris USA sued the State of California in an attempt to block SB 793 from going into effect. SB 793 by Senator Jerry Hill would prohibit the sales of specified flavored tobacco products statewide. The measure was passed by the Legislature and signed into law…
Read More »This week, California Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris announced that nearly 14,000 health care providers in California have completed the ACEs Aware initiative’s training program. The training, Becoming ACEs Aware in California, trains health care providers to screen patients for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and to recognize and respond to the symptoms of toxic stress….
Read More »Today, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) posted employer guidance and frequently asked employer questions about AB 685 by Assembly Member Eloise Gómez Reyes that was signed into law last month. The measure requires employers to notify employees who may have been exposed to COVID-19 and to report workplace outbreaks to local health departments….
Read More »This week, an article was posted in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on the cost of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The article explores the various expenses incurred from the pandemic, including unemployment insurance claims, lost gross domestic product (GDP), premature death, long-term health impairment, and mental health impairment. In total, the article…
Read More »According to a new national poll conducted for the de Beaumont Foundation, awareness and recognition of local health departments (LHDs) has risen significantly since the last election season, suggesting public health is a key issue for voters in the 2020 election. In the poll, conducted in July 2020, 73 percent of voters said public health…
Read More »This week, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) released a request for applications (RFA), “Piloting Self-Specimen Collection Outside of Clinical Settings Using a Telemedicine Model for Testing Gonorrhea and Chlamydia.” The opportunity is a program improvement and evaluation effort to identify replicable models and best practices for patient self-collection of specimens…
Read More »On Wednesday, the Senate Special Committee on Pandemic Emergency Response convened an oversight hearing on workplace health and safety issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. The hearing featured two panels with the first focused on state activities related to prevention, outbreaks, and enforcement activities from representatives of the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR), California Division…
Read More »This week, the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) unveiled The Promise of Good Health for All: Transforming Public Health in America which provides an action plan for the presidential administration and Congress taking office in 2021. The report highlights weaknesses exposed in the nation’s public health system during the COVID-19 pandemic, including ways in which…
Read More »The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) recently issued the Framework for Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccine to provide an overarching framework for vaccine allocation to assist policymakers and stakeholders in the domestic and global health communities. The report recommends four allocation phases for the COVID-19 vaccine and outlines numerous considerations and factors…
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