Each February, NHLBI (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) and The Heart Truth® celebrate American Heart Month by motivating Americans to adopt healthy lifestyles to prevent heart disease. Choose heart healthy foods

San Francisco announced Thursday that it will end its public health emergency for COVID-19 on Feb. 28, just over three years after it was put into place, marking a new chapter in the city’s pandemic response. In an interview, San Francisco health officer Dr. Susan Philip said that the move is a positive one, signaling that COVID-19 is no longer the “really severe threat” that it was three years ago, but that it does not mean that COVID is over. Instead, she said, it indicates that the tools — including masks, vaccines and treatments — are now in place for people to respond to the virus on an individual level. SF Chronicle Read more

As the COVID-19 state of emergency is set to expire at the end of the month, the amount of virus is rising around the Bay Area. "Wastewater concentrations now are concerning that they’re starting to rise up again," Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matthew Willis said. The number of reported COVID-19 cases remains low, but that data has become unreliable because most people test at home and often don't report results to the county. That means public health is looking at wastewater to find the true COVID-19 level in various places. "It’s actually a really reliable and effective way of seeing the amount of virus that's flowing in our community across the population as a whole," Willis said. "It’s not like last year, but it’s definitely not going away like people feel it is," UCSF infectious disease specialist Dr. Peter Chin-Hong said. NBC Bay Area Read more

In a span of a month, Sacramento County’s COVID-19 community level rose from “low” to “medium,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the start of February, the county’s mask mandates rolled back at shelters and prisons, as the risk level hit low for the first time since November. The community level is back to medium, as of Feb. 21. California’s COVID dashboard’s Thursday’s update show that the county’s seven-day average confirmed case rate is 6.7 cases per 100,000. Sacramento’s seven-day test positivity rate is 7.3% — a 1.3% increase from the previous week. Sacramento Bee Read more

As the public health emergency ends, the United States government will no longer be providing vaccines at no cost. Moderna remains committed to ensuring that people in the United States will have access to our COVID-19 vaccines regardless of ability to pay. Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines will continue to be available at no cost for insured people whether they receive them at their doctors’ offices or local pharmacies. For uninsured or underinsured people, Moderna’s patient assistance program will provide COVID-19 vaccines at no cost. Everyone in the United States will have access to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine regardless of their ability to pay. Moderna Read more

Merck & Co Inc. said on Tuesday its COVID-19 pill was not effective at cutting the risk of coronavirus infections in people living with someone infected with the virus. The results were similar to data from rival Pfizer Inc., whose COVID pill Paxlovid also failed to prevent infections among household contacts. The two antiviral drugs are approved as treatments for individuals at risk of severe disease, but enthusiasm for the Merck pill has waned since it was shown to be only 30% effective versus 90% for Pfizer's Paxlovid. Reuters Read more

Immunity acquired from a Covid infection provides strong, lasting protection against the most severe outcomes of the illness, according to research published Thursday in The Lancet — protection, experts say, that’s on par with what’s provided through two doses of an mRNA vaccine. Infection-acquired immunity cut the risk of hospitalization and death from a Covid reinfection by 88% for at least 10 months, the study found.

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If you had COVID-19 symptoms in 2020, you probably would have masked up and braved a visit to a laboratory, doctor’s office, or clinic to get a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. A health care worker would have shoved a swab up your nose, and then you would have waited a day or two, if not more, to get your results. Now, you’d likely use an at-home test, which spits out results in just 15 minutes. It’s easier, faster, and reliable, even against the latest variants. Though they’re not perfect, at-home tests will detect infections about 80% of the time, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. So is there any reason to get a PCR test anymore? Time Read more

The White House COVID Response Team will cease publishing its weekly COVID-19 Community Profile report on Thursday. The interagency presentation, which initially was updated daily, provided vital information about pandemic trends, including the rate of new cases, hospital admissions and deaths in the U.S. It also included regional COVID-19metrics, including state-by-state epidemiological reports. Alongside the data tracker from Johns Hopkins University, it was a key, widely relied-upon information resource throughout the pandemic. “After over two years of public reporting, the Community Profile Report will no longer be produced and distributed after February 2023,” with Thursday the final day, the Department of Health & Human Services said in the latest report. SF Chronicle Read more

Some California drivers will be getting a nasty surprise when they open their car insurance bills this year. That’s because California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara approved some big rate hikes in the last six months, ending a long COVID break after insurance companies complained they were losing money and cutting back in the nation’s largest vehicle market. Higher rates for Geico, Mercury and others are just now showing up in insurance renewal letters that customers receive. And more increases are in the pipeline, consumer advocates say, even as some insurers have yet to refund customers for premium overcharges during the early months of the pandemic when people were driving less and getting into fewer accidents. LA Times Read more

Black and Latino children in Los Angeles County younger than 5 have COVID-19 vaccination rates in the single digits, reflecting a broad trend nationwide that has public health experts concerned and seeking ways to boost those figures. Only 12% of children between 6 months and 4 years old have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and only 7% are fully vaccinated, according to L.A. County data. Black and Latino children younger than 5 have the lowest rates, according to the county’s vaccine dashboard: Just 6% of Black children and 5% of Latino children have had at least one dose, compared with 22% of Asian children and nearly 19% of white children and nearly 15% of American Indian and Alaska Native children. LA Times Read more

Many people with long COVID are legally entitled to accommodations at work to help them do their jobs. Still, some are finding it hard to ask for help. Disability can encompass any number of physical or mental impairments. Often, managers can more easily comprehend the limitations imposed by static conditions, such as the loss of a limb or hearing. Symptoms can ebb and flow over time with chronic illness, such as long COVID, Crohn’s disease or lupus, making the experience more difficult to grasp, say disabled people and employers. Because of that ambiguity, the onus is usually on workers to make the case for support. But coming clean on the limitations posed by long COVID is difficult for many. Wall Street Journal Read more

Before I got long COVID, I tuned out virtually all stories about it. They were tedious because I was tired of the pandemic, because we are all tired of the pandemic, because it is as familiar as rain and honestly just as dreary; I can hardly believe we once called the coronavirus novel. Today, I still tune out most long-COVID stories, though for different reasons. (Busman’s holiday. I outsource the job to my family.) But millions of us suffer from long COVID (“the pandemic after the pandemic,” as a Washington Post editorial put it last week), so today I’d like to discuss … etiquette. That’s right: manners. I’d like to offer a civilian’s guide to navigating the sensitivities of those furious, frustrated, irritable millions — and to better understanding them. The Atlantic Read more

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Racism has negatively impacted generations of people, leading to discrimination, lost economic opportunities, racist policing and incarceration, and in many cases, death. But even when the impact of racism is not so apparent or in the headlines, the pernicious effects of racial discrimination and structural racism take a toll on the brain and mental health, emerging research shows. The data are already concerning. Experiences of racial discrimination are consistently linked with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, substance use and PTSD, as well as physical ailments such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity. Black Americans, for instance, are about twice as likely as White Americans to develop dementia. Washington Post Read more

For over 25 years, psychologist Lisa Damour has been helping teens and their families navigate adolescence in her clinical practice, in her research and in best-selling books like “Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions Into Adulthood.” This moment in time, she says, is like no other. According to a report released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 42 percent of U.S. high schoolers experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in 2021, while 22 percent seriously considered attempting suicide. NY Times Read more

Vicki Dowell remembers hearing a loud noise on the steps outside her condo, where son Jake, 26, had gone downstairs to help a friend change a tire. It was Dec. 3, and he had just finished putting up holiday lights. Jake had grown up in San Jose, was getting certified to be a mechanic and making plans to marry his girlfriend. “He fell and he hit the back of his head on a railing,” Dowell says. “He wasn’t responsive at all. I dragged him in the house and started performing CPR." He later tested positive for fentanyl. "The ER doctor told me. He had done what he thought was cocaine, but it was laced. He spent two weeks on life support. He eventually gave out. It was two weeks exactly. “He was so strong and healthy. My son did a one-off decision. He made a bad decision, and it cost him his life.” Metro Silicon Valley Read more

In an older wing of Oakland’s historic Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus, a patient waits on an examination table. He is there to receive a monthly dose of Sublocade, the brand name for the injectable form of buprenorphine, a medicine that helps people suffering from opioid addiction curb cravings and avoid withdrawal symptoms while trying to get clean. He twitches only slightly when Dr. Monish Ullal, a physician at the Alameda Health System’s innovative Bridge Clinic for substance use disorder, inserts the needle into his abdomen. He prefers to come to the clinic on Wednesdays, when Ullal is on the floor, because of his gentle touch. Oaklandside Read more

Every day that she can, Bella walks through the glassy door on a spartan stretch of Los Angeles that is emblazoned with the motto, “Save a life! Narcan Here.” Narcan is indeed here — the white boxes of naloxone spray that can pull someone out of an opioid overdose. So are clean syringes. Coffee. Condoms. Couches to sprawl on. Free clothing, blankets and shoes for the taking. COVID-19 tests. Cookies. Bandages. A homemade soup of black-eyed peas and potatoes, warmed in an Instant Pot. The 42-year-old had recently rescued someone with the naloxone she picked up here, after a friend overdosed on San Julian Street. But it isn’t just Narcan, or free shirts, or hot soup that bring her back day after day. Here, “they’re really saving my life,” said Bella, as she is known on the street. “They care. A lot of people say they care and they don’t. These guys actually care.” LA Times Read more

Sources: Johns Hopkins University, SF Chronicle, and dashboards for California and Alameda and Contra Costa counties.