The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened awareness about the connection between race and health equity, raising the question – how might this experience change public health policy moving forward? Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock explored the topic, and the calls to declare that racism is a public health crisis, with Dr. …
Read More »Medical Care At Corcoran State Prison Receives Poor Rating From State Watchdog
Medical care at California State Prison, Corcoran received a poor rating in a recently published state watchdog review. Now, prison advocates worry that doesn’t bode well for the quality of care during the pandemic. Corcoran’s medical care received a rating of “Inadequate,” the lowest rating possible, in a report published …
Read More »Fresno State Poetry Slam Celebrates Spoken Word In The African American Community
The Henry Madden Library at Fresno State is celebrating the tradition of spoken word poetry in the African American community with the “ Lift Every Voice ” virtual poetry slam Thursday, January 28 at 7 p.m. The event will be hosted by former Fresno Poet Laureate Bryan Medina. Valley Edition …
Read More »COVID-19 Is Wreaking Havoc In State Hospitals, Too – Virus Update For Jan. 15
In the months since the pandemic began, COVID-19 has taken a tremendous toll on hospitals, where bedspace is at a minimum and staff are overworked , and prisons, where tight living quarters and mixed enforcement of safety precautions have left incarcerated people vulnerable to soaring infections . But the virus …
Read More »Family of Coalinga State Hospital Resident Says They Weren’t Told He Died—Or That He Had COVID-19
In late December, Clementine Sanders called her son at Coalinga State Hospital to make sure he had received her Christmas card. That’s when his bunkmates informed her that her son, 58-year-old Shannon Starr, had died three weeks earlier. “I was just totally shocked,” she says. “Nobody called me.” Since then, …
Read More »Valley Air District’s Emissions Bank Likely To Change Following Damaging State Review
Later this month, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District is set to release a report detailing how well its clean air programs are meeting federal requirements for reducing emissions. It’s called an equivalency demonstration, and it’s released annually every November. This year’s equivalency demonstration, however, will be a …
Read More »Valley’s New Cases Drop, But Not Within Avenal State Prison – COVID-19 Update For Sept. 25
As the COVID-19 caseload continues to fall in San Joaquin Valley communities, the opposite trend has been happening inside Avenal State Prison: With more than 2,500 cumulative cases, the facility now has the dubious honor of being the state prison with the highest cumulative case count. More than 250 men …
Read More »Valley’s New Cases Drop, But Not Within Avenal State Prison – COVID-19 Update For Sept. 25
As the COVID-19 caseload continues to fall in San Joaquin Valley communities, the opposite trend has been happening inside Avenal State Prison: With more than 2,500 cumulative cases, the facility now has the dubious honor of being the state prison with the highest cumulative case count. More than 250 men …
Read More »Case Counts Improve, Yet State Guidelines ‘Penalize’ Kern County – COVID-19 Update For Sept. 18
Over the last few weeks, the local COVID-19 landscape has changed dramatically. In the San Joaquin Valley, average daily cases have dropped to a fraction of what they were in late July and early August, and hospitals are regaining the beds necessary for their normal, non-COVID volume of patients. Dozens …
Read More »State Senator Questions Medical Board About Its Handling Of Bakersfield Doctor After Patient Deaths
A San Joaquin Valley legislator is seeking answers from the Medical Board of California as to why the oversight agency allowed a Bakersfield doctor to remain in practice even though it determined he had been negligent with patients. Obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Arthur Park has been associated with the deaths of at …
Read More »State Data Gets Buggy; What Happens When Hospitals Reach Capacity? COVID-19 Update For Aug. 3-7
During a livestreamed address earlier this week, California Health & Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly dropped a bombshell: that the state infectious disease database known as CalREDIE, where labs report testing data and county public health departments extract local numbers, has been undercounting new cases . At the same …
Read More »As Pandemic Rages On, Some Fresno State Nursing Grads Forced To Return To School
As coronavirus cases are surging, so are reports of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. But even as mental health professionals are needed more than ever, those who graduated from one Fresno State nursing program are being told to return to school. The Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner certificate program allows …
Read More »Rising Valley Cases, Outbreak At Avenal State Prison: COVID-19 Update For June 15-19
Although businesses are reopening, reports of new cases of COVID-19 are still on the rise throughout the San Joaquin Valley. You can find up-to-date information for your county here . Below is an update for the week of June 15-19, 2020. T he outlook As of June 18: 250 deaths …
Read More »