44 students from 22 local East County high schools were awarded scholarships at the March 18 board meeting 

East County News Service

March 27, 2022 (La Mesa) – The Grossmont Healthcare District (GHD) awarded $111,100 in scholarships to 44 local high school students who have expressed interest in a career as a healthcare professional.

By David R. Shorey, East County Program Manager, Institute for Public Strategies

Photo courtesy Marijuana Prevention Initiative

March 14, 2022 (San Diego) -- When Proposition 215 was passed in 1996 legalizing “Medical Use of Marijuana” and Proposition 64 was passed in 2016 legalizing recreational use, medical professionals provided arguments in support. The California Medical Association endorsed Proposition 215 “…because it incorporates best practices.” Such endorsements presented the image that the positive medical impacts of cannabis outweighed any negative ones. Unfortunately, seven years after full legalization, we are seeing an impact that wasn’t discussed either in the ballot arguments in favor of legalization nor in the anecdotal stories used to advance each measure.

By José A. Álvarez, County of San Diego Communications Office

Photo:  a County employee conducts contact tracing.

March 10, 2022 (San Diego) - The County is following the national recommendation to reprioritize COVID-19 case investigations to focus on cases reported in people who are at higher risk of developing serious complications from the disease.

By Elizabeth Aguilera, CalMatters

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters

Photo:  an Oakland resident receives a COVID-19 vaccination at the La Clinica de la Raza community vaccination site in Oakland on Jan. 4, 2022. Photo by Martin do Nascimento/CalMatters

March 2, 2022 (Sacramento) - Gov. Gavin Newsom is easing mask restrictions and declaring that the pandemic is moving into a less critical phase. Yet an aggressive slate of COVID-19-related bills — to mandate vaccines for children and workers, to allow 12 to 17 year-olds to get the vaccine without parental consent and more — remain in play under the Capitol dome.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: CC by SA via Bing

Update: The County has also lifted its mask mandate for schools, though individual districts may make their own decisions.

February 28, 2002 (San Diego) -- Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday announced that California will lift requirements for students and staffers to wear masks indoors at schools started March 12^th.

By Kristen Hwang, CalMatters

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters

Photo:  George Dowell, 40, receives the COVID-19 vaccine at Umoja Health pop-up clinic in Oakland last week. He waited a year to watch for any side-effects or problems in his vaccinated friends. Photo by Marissa Leshnov for CalMatters

February 25, 2022 (San Diego) - Deondray Moore sat in a plastic folding chair, rolled up his sleeve and got his first COVID-19 shot in the parking lot of Center of Hope Community Church in Oakland a week ago. He was the last in his family to get vaccinated after putting it off for more than a year, and only acquiesced because he wants to be in the delivery room when his son is born this summer. 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: CC by SA via Bing

February 19, 2022 (Washington D.C.0 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers not to use recalled powdered infant formulas sold under the brand names Similac, Alimentum and EleCare in the U.S. and other countries.

By Miriam Raftery

Image: CC via Bing

February 18, 2022 (San Diego) – After revelations that San Francisco police used DNA collected from rape kits to charge a rape victim with a property crime, San Francisco’s District Attorney Chesa Boudin dismissed the charges and called the police actions a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

So East County Magazine asked the San Diego Sheriff department whether it has submitted rape victims’ DNA collected at hospitals to a database that could be used to link rape victims to other crimes.

Within hours of our request, Lieutenant Amber Baggs, the Sheriff’s Media Relations Director, sent this response:  “No we do NOT do this.  I read the article as well and checked with our Crime Lab Director. We do not match victim's DNA to other crimes. Thank you for asking so this can be clarified.”

By José A. Álvarez, County of San Diego Communications Office

Photo:  a treatment room at the Monoclonal Antibody Regional Center in San Ysidro.

February 17, 2022 (San Diego) - The County Health and Human Services Agency is reminding San Diegans that monoclonal antibody treatment is available for people at high risk of serious illness from COVID-19.

Source: County News Service

Only 53% of those eligible locally have received boosters, but 88% of hospitalizations are patients who have not had booster shots

February 17, 2022 (San Diego) -- With masks coming off indoors in many public places for fully vaccinated people, County health officials are urging all eligible San Diegans to get all the recommended COVID-19 doses, including the additional dose and booster shot.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo credit:  County News Service

February 10, 2022 (San Diego) – Starting February 15, fully vaccinated people will no longer have to wear masks indoors in most places in San Diego County.  But the action runs counter to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control advice, which continues to recommend face masks, particularly N95 masks, as the best way to prevent spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

East County News Service

February 4, 2022 (San Diego)—California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office has issued an alert warning consumers of dried plum fruit and candies containing “dangerous” levels of lead far above legal limits. His office also sent letters ordering retailers to immediately remove the products, including some marketed to children and several sold in the San Diego region.

Lead-tainted products sold in San Diego County include:

• El Chavito Saladitos Enchilados Salted Plums W/Chili

• El Leoncito Ponchin Saladitos con Chile/Dry Salted Plums with Chili

• El Super Leon Saladitos/Dry Salted Plums with Chili & Chamoy

• Hola Lobito Fresco Ciruela Salada Sabor Limon/Lemon Flavored Salted Plum

• La Fiesta Saladitos Con Chile/Salted Plums with Chili.

Funds will be used to assist in the distribution of free COVID-19 at-home test kits 

Source:  Grossmont Healthcare district

Photo: District employees prepare boxes of at-home COVID-19 test kits for distribution to the community through partners and its Library (Courtesy of Grossmont Healthcare District) 

February 2, 2022 (La Mesa) – The Grossmont Healthcare District announced it has received $47,117 in State funding for COVID-19 relief, which it plans to reinvest into the community by supplementing the nationwide effort to provide the public with free COVID-19 at-home test kits.

By Kori Hudson, MedStar Health

Shot down before, this time advocates have momentum as bill heads to a vote

By J.W. August

Photo:  Isolation of patients in nursing homes during COVID era increases need for state oversight; image CC-by-NC via Bing

Update August 11, 2022:  AB 1502 has passed the State Senate Judiciary and Appropriations Committees, and now heads to the Senate floor.

Update 5 p.m. --AB 1502  passed the Assembly this afternoon by a 47-12 vote and now heads to the State Senate.

January 31, 2022 (San Diego) -- If you want to drive a car in California you need a driver's license. In San Diego County all dogs must be licensed.  But if you own a nursing home, you can buy another home or chain of facilities, and no license is required. 

Unlike a driver who is in multiple accidents or an animal that's attacked someone, there are no rules when it comes to the takeover or sale of nursing homes, no matter how ugly the track record of the firm buying or selling a nursing home.

Even if a chain operator has a history of poorly managed homes, it can add to its portfolio and can do so without first obtaining a license, as long as it submits a license application. The trouble is, such applications can take years to process.

The California Department of Public Health, which is charged with providing oversight of the nursing home industry, says it has no authority to disqualify owners and operators who are already in operation in the state. The agency says this is allowed to happen under what they call a Management Operations Transfer Agreement.

This is what Tony Chicotel, attorney for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), calls “zombie licenses.”. He explains it’s  “the essence of license-evasion.”