Even as valley fever cases are sharply increasing in Central California, Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed legislation that would have created programs to inform the public about the little-known respiratory disease. AB 1279, authored by Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield, initially promised $ 2 million in funding for valley fever awareness. It also would have addressed deficiencies in disease reporting guidelines uncovered by the Center for Health Journalism Collaborative, a consortium of media outlets across California and Arizona organized by the University of Southern California’s Center for Health Journalism. There wasn’t a single state senator or assemblymember who voted against the bill. It would have mandated the formation of a working group of health officers from endemic areas to identify best practices for reporting cases quickly; established a long-awaited improved monitoring system to track cases; and required local health agencies to alert the public of an epidemic if cases totaled
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