Category: Health

By Sofie Fransen / Lomabeat.com / Nov. 16, 2022

It is November, the time of year when cold weather and cold symptoms prey on students.

Some students, like third-year organizational communications major Bree Brandon, may not be so quick to peg the long-lasting cough as a cold.

Last October, Brandon got a cold that quickly turned into a two-month-long cough, stopping only when she went home to Colorado for Thanksgiving. Her roommate in Finch experienced the same thing. As soon as they returned to Point Loma Nazarene University’s campus, they got sick again. She then realized that her cold symptoms must be attributed to her living conditions.

The San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality issued an ocean water advisory Thursday, Oct. 27, for Ocean Beach, from the OB Pier north 600 yards.

They are advising people to avoid water contact as bacterial levels may exceed health  standards.

From the County Department:

According to the County’s Department of Environmental Health and Quality, Dog Beach is closed and a “no water contact” advisory has been issued for both humans and dogs. The closure is due to bacterial levels possibly exceeding health standards.

The closure is from the San Diego River outlet to 300 yards south. It has been in affect since Monday, Oct. 24.

The water at Ocean Beach’s Dog Beach reopened to the public after being closed since Thursday due to a sewage spill, according to the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality.

The spill occurred upstream in the San Diego River and raised bacteria levels to an amount that exceeded state health standards.

Swimmers, surfers and other beachgoers at Dog Beach in OB are advised to stay out of the ocean and nearby San Diego River due to a sewage spill upriver.

A precautionary advisory has been issued for Dog Beach at the San Diego River Outlet in Ocean Beach, due to a sewage spill that happened earlier Tuesday, Aug. 30, upstream.

The advisory is expected to be in place for 72 hours until tests confirm the water is safe to swim in.

From Beach & Bay Water Quality Program:

By Terrie Best

With both the county and the city making moves to ease restrictions on where cannabis retail outlets can exist through a cannabis social equity plan, we should look at high density areas.

Many urban neighborhoods have been left out of retail access mostly due to arbitrary “drug prevention” notions. These drug prevention tactics are not rooted in evidence, have the effect of personalizing the drug war to you in your home and to arbitrate how you make your medical choices.

Part 1 in an intermittent series on the Growing Problem with Physician Burnout

By Joni Halpern

Drive along any major freeway in San Diego County, and you will come upon towering structures of glass and steel advertised as being among the nation’s best medical facilities, each one part of a different health care system whose doctors, nurses and other health care workers are portrayed as happily delivering optimum medical care to all of us.

But what if the public could peer through the reflective glass of these health care temples and see what has really happened over the past several years to doctors and other health care workers who toil on our behalf?  What if we discovered that our doctors were exhausted by growing workloads, inadequate support, and a losing battle with work-life balance? 

By Michael Hiltzik / Los Angeles Times / Aug. 16, 2022

The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant lies on the coast near San Luis Obispo within 20 miles of four active earthquake faults.

The faults were apparently unknown to the plant’s owner, Pacific Gas & Electric, which certified during the construction period that no such faults existed within that distance. Unit 2 was built in accordance with flawed blueprints.

There have been efforts to close the plant for years, gaining intensity as PG&E’s atrocious safety record came to light.

California residents and visitors spraying on sunscreen to protect themselves from the sun’s rays should check which product they’re using because of a recent recall.

The parent company of Banana Boat sunscreen products has issued a voluntary recall of several batches of the brand’s hair and scalp sunscreen spray because it may contain a cancer-causing chemical known as benzene. The recall impacts the following products:

COVID-19 has hit the staff of the OB Rag.

Patty is recovering from falling ill last week, and editordude spent most of Monday in bed.

Rag readers need to prepare themselves for slim-downed issues the entire week.

Comments will be open, as usual, but the moderation process may take longer.

From County News Center, County of San Diego Communications Office, July 14, 2022 | 3:59 PM

The continued increase in local coronavirus cases has prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to move San Diego County to its high-risk level for COVID-19.

The CDC tracks community levels of the virus based on geographic regions to determine the impact of COVID-19 in communities, and to allow individual jurisdictions to implement preventive strategies based on the latest local data.

San Diego had been in the medium-risk category since the end of May, but recent spikes in hospitalizations and new cases have led the CDC to increase the risk level for the region.

Actions You Can Take

Coronavirus activity appears to be on the rise again post Fourth of July

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By Paul Sisson / San Diego Union-Tribune / July 14, 2022 7:48 PM

Ten days after the Fourth of July, coronavirus activity appears to be on the upswing, according to San Diego County’s latest case and hospitalization numbers, pushing the region into the most severe level of the nationwide COVID-19 activity map maintained by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Communities with 10 or more recent coronavirus-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents are listed in the highest tier, which is color coded orange. San Diego County, said to have 384 total new COVID hospitalizations in a seven-day span ending July 12, reached 11.5 per 100,000.