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The nursing schools at UCLA, UCSF and UC-Davis have joined hands in a new one-year online training program for mental health care as a surge of patients is expected due to the social isolation and economic impact of COVID-19.
Increasing evidence suggests people who smoke are more likely to become severely ill and die from COVID-19 than nonsmokers. Some people are using that as inspiration to quit.
Even while playing the role of quarantine enforcer for your teens and 20-somethings, recognize that they are as anxious and worried as you are 鈥 and with good reason.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked lawmakers to pare down their legislative wish lists and focus on the state鈥檚 coronavirus response. But state Sen. Jim Beall plans to forge ahead with his mental health care proposals, including a measure to create a state mental health parity requirement.
With most nonemergency procedures shelved for now, many health insurers are expected to see profits in the near term, but the longer view of how the coronavirus will affect them is far more complicated and could well impact what people pay for coverage next year.
Public officials are putting high hopes on new blood tests as a means of determining who has developed antibodies to COVID-19, and with those antibodies, presumed immunity. But experts caution the tests are largely unreliable and the science is still catching up.
This week on 鈥淎n Arm and a Leg,鈥 a front-line physician wonders if the health care industry鈥檚 drive for 鈥渆fficiency鈥 has robbed the system of surge capacity, leaving the nation underprepared to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Older bodies respond to infection in different ways. Seniors may sleep more or stop eating. They may be confused or dizzy. They might simply collapse.
Activists failed to convince state legislators that diseases like measles aren鈥檛 serious enough to require vaccination. Now they鈥檙e joining with conservatives and other anti-lockdown demonstrators who contend the coronavirus isn鈥檛 dangerous enough to justify staying home.
Poorly rated long-term care facilities stand out in the COVID-19 crisis 鈥 but even the best are affected.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed won nationwide praise for taking drastic early measures against COVID-19. But her hesitation over how to care for the homeless came back to bite her.
Many states are dramatically loosening regulations on nurse practitioners as the coronavirus pandemic increases demand for health care workers. But not California.
As wardens across the country grapple with COVID-19 outbreaks, inmates are being released to prevent widespread contagion in overcrowded prisons.
As efforts ramp up to collect blood plasma from the first survivors of COVID-19, families of critically ill patients are jockeying to obtain the still-unproven antibody treatment.
Jeff Baumbach, 57, was a seasoned nurse of 28 years when the novel coronavirus began to circulate in California. He鈥檇 worked in the ER, the ICU and on a cardiac floor. Hepatitis and tuberculosis had been around over the years but never posed a major concern.
Across the U.S., pediatric practices that provide front-line care for the nation鈥檚 children are struggling to adjust to crashing revenues, terrified parents and a shortage of protective equipment 鈥 and all while being asked to care for young patients who could well be vectors for transmission without showing symptoms.
The pandemic has exposed massive cracks in the foundations of the U.S. public health system. Getting the country back to normal, experts say, will require a major investment in Public Health 101: training a corps of workers who can track people with the virus and prevent them from passing it to others.
Los Angeles County鈥檚 health leader describes the struggle for data and resources in the coronavirus fight.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom charged into 2020 with ambitious 鈥 and expensive 鈥 proposals to increase health insurance coverage, reduce homelessness and tackle drug prices. Then came COVID-19.
Foot traffic in L.A. has fallen off a cliff amid the COVID-19 crisis, driving many street vendors away. But some are still on the streets, peddling their wares out of economic necessity. Many are undocumented immigrants who won鈥檛 get any help from the recently approved $2 trillion federal assistance package.
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