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"content": "\n\u003cp>Cancer patients who say their lives were saved by innovations in immunotherapy treatments are among the most vocal proponents of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102150/prop-38-borrows-8-4-billion-to-fund-immunology-research\">California’s Proposition 38\u003c/a>, arguing the $8.4 billion bond measure to fund immune-system research would save even more lives. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But those who oppose Proposition 38 are also patients, who say their illnesses are being exploited to shill for an initiative that is overly narrow, opaque and expensive.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Don’t approve this measure because you want to help me or other people with Parkinson’s,” said Marianne O’Malley, a former analyst with the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease about eight years ago. “This is the wrong way to go about things.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Backers of Proposition 38 proposed it as a solution to the Trump administration’s attack on science: where federal research funding has become diminished or uncertain, California would step in, issuing bond money to bring stability to promising projects and turn the state into a hub of excellence for immunology and immunotherapy research. But the patients who stand to benefit from such a move are divided over whether Californians should shoulder that burden instead of taxpayers across the US, and if so, whether Proposition 38 is the right way to do it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I have never thought of biomedical research as something that needs to be centered in a particular location,” said Robert Kaplan, a senior scholar at \u003ca href=\"https://med.stanford.edu/cerc.html\">Stanford\u003c/a> who formerly coordinated research portfolios at the National Institutes of Health and an opponent of Proposition 38. “Proposition 38 money is good for California institutions, but it means that California taxpayers might be taking a disproportionate share of the responsibility for paying for that research.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-02-KQED-4cbd579e.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2002389\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-02-KQED-4cbd579e.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-02-KQED-4cbd579e-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-02-KQED-4cbd579e-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-02-KQED-4cbd579e-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laurie Adami, a supporter of Proposition 38, was diagnosed with blood cancer when she was 46. She holds two cancer scans, one before she received immunotherapy treatment (left) and one after (right). (Courtesy of Trenna Travis)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Blood cancer survivor Laurie Adami is in favor of the measure. She was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma 20 years ago, when she was 46, and her son was in kindergarten. She fought her way through seven different treatments, including grueling rounds of chemotherapy and three experimental trials so she could survive to see him graduate from high school. In 2018, she enrolled in an immunotherapy trial where scientists reengineered Adami’s own immune cells to attack her disease.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Chemotherapy is like napalm — they poison your whole body in the hopes of killing off your cancer,” she said. “This idea of waking up the immune system is a much more elegant way to target cancers.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The therapy she received was called CAR-T. Scientists extracted a sample of Adami’s T-cells and modified them in the lab so they would attach to the specific proteins on her cancer cells. Put another way, T-cells are like the Pac Mans of the immune system, and scientists altered them so they would be hungry specifically for her type of cancer cells, then infused them back into her bloodstream to start eating. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Adami received one CAR-T infusion and has been in complete remission ever since.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Why wouldn’t I want more patients to be able to access the type of treatment that finally saved my life?” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Adami is just one patient from one clinical trial. Though immunotherapy has improved \u003ca href=\"https://www.cancerresearch.org/blog/cancer-statistics-2026\">survival rates\u003c/a> for certain cancers, including lung, liver, and some types of skin and blood cancers, the treatment does not work for most people: only \u003ca href=\"https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/inhealth/about-us/immunotherapy-precision-medicine-action-policy-brief\">15 to 20% of patients\u003c/a> achieve durable results. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Immunotherapy research is still in the early and experimental stages for other cancers and diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS. Across treatments and conditions, only \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29394327/\">14% of drugs in clinical trials\u003c/a> ever reach FDA approval. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Despite the speculative nature of this early-stage research, caregiver Viva Mogi said she will vote for Proposition 38 for the hope it offers. Mogi put her own life and career on hold to care for her mother, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s ten years ago. At the time, doctors told them there was no cure and not enough medications to help.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They wished us luck,” Mogi said. Looking ahead to her own potential diagnosis and decline from the disease, she said, “I don’t ever want to go through this or put my husband through this.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-01-KQED-27ec75c4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2002388\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-01-KQED-27ec75c4.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-01-KQED-27ec75c4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-01-KQED-27ec75c4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-01-KQED-27ec75c4-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Viva Mogi, a supporter of Proposition 38, is a full-time caretaker for her mother who has Alzheimer’s. (Courtesy of Trenna Travis)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But with state taxpayers on the hook for $4 billion in interest payments on top of the $8.4 billion bond, other patients say the debt the state would incur from supporting Proposition 38 is not worth the hope, especially in light of California’s other long-term obligations and deficits.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Cancer survivor, Dan Carson is one of several retired financial analysts from the state Legislative Analyst’s Office who broke a long tradition of nonpartisan silence to speak out against the measure.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Carson ran the health section of the LAO when it was tasked with evaluating the $3 billion \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1970180/proposition-14-with-handful-of-cures-calif-stem-cell-agency-has-mixed-record-will-voters-pony-up-another-5-5-billion\">stem cell bond initiative\u003c/a> in 2004 known as Proposition 71. The measure was pitched to voters as a protest against the George W. Bush administration’s abandonment of stem cell research on religious grounds. Its backers said California would become a new hub for stem cell discoveries and promised the state would receive a windfall of royalty payments to pay back the bond and interest. But the money never materialized, with the state receiving just $16 million of the $6 billion it was promised, Carson said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Similarly, Proposition 38 backers say it will be cost neutral. Provisions in the measure would require 10% of any licensing fees derived from immunotherapy treatment discoveries be paid back to the state, and that such treatments be made available to Californians at a 20% discount.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Once again, we’re being promised in this initiative and by its advocates that it will ‘pay for itself with no net cost to the state or taxpayers,’” Carson said. “I’m here to tell you that after reviewing the fine print of this measure, that won’t happen. Not even close.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG52488-KQED-2813b0e4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2002387\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG52488-KQED-2813b0e4.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG52488-KQED-2813b0e4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG52488-KQED-2813b0e4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG52488-KQED-2813b0e4-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Marianne O’Malley, who has Parkinson’s disease, works out on an elliptical trainer in her home in Sacramento on Oct. 19, 2026. Exercise is the leading therapy to slow the progress of the disease. (Fred Greaves for KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When O’Malley attended her regular boxing and rock climbing classes for people with Parkinson’s — currently, exercise is the top therapy proven to slow the progression of the disease — other students approached her with questions about Proposition 38 because of her experience at the LAO. Should they vote for it? they asked.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We’re all desperate for a cure, or at least a treatment,” O’Malley said. “And the disappointing thing to tell them is, ‘No, this measure doesn’t do what you think it’s going to do.’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The campaign in favor of Proposition 38 is being financed by philanthropist Gary Michelson, who also happens to be a co-founder and chair of the brand new \u003ca href=\"https://www.calimmunology.org/\">California Institute for Immunology & Immunotherapy\u003c/a> at UCLA, which, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/elections/2026/07/proposition-38-california/\">according to the ballot measure’s criteria\u003c/a>, stands to receive half the bond money directly, then help oversee the distribution of the other half in research grants to nonprofits. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The measure would also exempt this institute from complying with a series of state transparency laws, including public records act requests and open meetings, O’Malley said, meaning taxpayers won’t have a way of knowing if their money is being spent wisely.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG32776-KQED-1addb385.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2002386\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG32776-KQED-1addb385.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG32776-KQED-1addb385-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG32776-KQED-1addb385-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG32776-KQED-1addb385-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Marianne O’Malley, who has Parkinson’s disease, rests in her backyard after exercising on an elliptical trainer at her home in Sacramento on Oct. 19, 2026. Exercise is the leading therapy to slow the progress of the disease. (Fred Greaves for KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This measure hijacks the initiative process to steer public funds to a billionaire’s philanthropic project and then hides its tracks by waiving all the usual laws to promote governmental transparency,” she said. “This one is so bad and supposedly being done to help people like me, I felt a moral obligation to speak out.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If the state of California wants to be a center of scientific research, there are better ways to do it, said Judy Heiman, another former LAO analyst. Medical research grants should be subject to an open, competitive bidding process; they should be awarded based on scientific merit and public health need, not what’s popular at the ballot box. And they should undergo independent review before more funds are disbursed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Prop. 38 fails these basic tests,” Heiman said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In fact, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102760/7-5b-california-science-agency-plan-free-from-trumps-influence-will-go-to-voters\">another bond measure\u003c/a> that includes these parameters and safeguards will be on the ballot in March 2028, she pointed out. This research fund, borne from months of democratic debate and negotiation in the state legislature, is intended for a wider variety of research, including biomedical, behavioral health, and climate.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“There’s a legitimate argument about whether California should add billions of dollars in medical research spending to its already substantial debt burden,” Heiman said. “Scientific merit, not institutional favoritism, should drive where the money goes.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-02-KQED-4cbd579e.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2002389\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-02-KQED-4cbd579e.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-02-KQED-4cbd579e-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-02-KQED-4cbd579e-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-02-KQED-4cbd579e-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laurie Adami, a supporter of Proposition 38, was diagnosed with blood cancer when she was 46. She holds two cancer scans, one before she received immunotherapy treatment (left) and one after (right).\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of Trenna Travis)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-02-KQED-4cbd579e.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2002389\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laurie Adami, a supporter of Proposition 38, was diagnosed with blood cancer when she was 46. She holds two cancer scans, one before she received immunotherapy treatment (left) and one after (right).\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of Trenna Travis)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Blood cancer survivor Laurie Adami is in favor of the measure. She was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma 20 years ago, when she was 46, and her son was in kindergarten. She fought her way through seven different treatments, including grueling rounds of chemotherapy and three experimental trials so she could survive to see him graduate from high school. In 2018, she enrolled in an immunotherapy trial where scientists reengineered Adami’s own immune cells to attack her disease.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Blood cancer survivor Laurie Adami is in favor of the measure. She was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma 20 years ago, when she was 46, and her son was in kindergarten. She fought her way through seven different treatments, including grueling rounds of chemotherapy and three experimental trials so she could survive to see him graduate from high school. In 2018, she enrolled in an immunotherapy trial where scientists reengineered Adami’s own immune cells to attack her disease.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Chemotherapy is like napalm — they poison your whole body in the hopes of killing off your cancer,” she said. “This idea of waking up the immune system is a much more elegant way to target cancers.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Chemotherapy is like napalm — they poison your whole body in the hopes of killing off your cancer,” she said. “This idea of waking up the immune system is a much more elegant way to target cancers.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The therapy she received was called CAR-T. Scientists extracted a sample of Adami’s T-cells and modified them in the lab so they would attach to the specific proteins on her cancer cells. Put another way, T-cells are like the Pac Mans of the immune system, and scientists altered them so they would be hungry specifically for her type of cancer cells, then infused them back into her bloodstream to start eating. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The therapy she received was called CAR-T. Scientists extracted a sample of Adami’s T-cells and modified them in the lab so they would attach to the specific proteins on her cancer cells. Put another way, T-cells are like the Pac Mans of the immune system, and scientists altered them so they would be hungry specifically for her type of cancer cells, then infused them back into her bloodstream to start eating. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Adami received one CAR-T infusion and has been in complete remission ever since.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Adami received one CAR-T infusion and has been in complete remission ever since.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Why wouldn’t I want more patients to be able to access the type of treatment that finally saved my life?” she said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Why wouldn’t I want more patients to be able to access the type of treatment that finally saved my life?” she said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Adami is just one patient from one clinical trial. Though immunotherapy has improved \u003ca href=\"https://www.cancerresearch.org/blog/cancer-statistics-2026\">survival rates\u003c/a> for certain cancers, including lung, liver, and some types of skin and blood cancers, the treatment does not work for most people: only \u003ca href=\"https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/inhealth/about-us/immunotherapy-precision-medicine-action-policy-brief\">15 to 20% of patients\u003c/a> achieve durable results. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Adami is just one patient from one clinical trial. Though immunotherapy has improved \u003ca href=\"https://www.cancerresearch.org/blog/cancer-statistics-2026\">survival rates\u003c/a> for certain cancers, including lung, liver, and some types of skin and blood cancers, the treatment does not work for most people: only \u003ca href=\"https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/inhealth/about-us/immunotherapy-precision-medicine-action-policy-brief\">15 to 20% of patients\u003c/a> achieve durable results. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Immunotherapy research is still in the early and experimental stages for other cancers and diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS. Across treatments and conditions, only \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29394327/\">14% of drugs in clinical trials\u003c/a> ever reach FDA approval. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Immunotherapy research is still in the early and experimental stages for other cancers and diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS. Across treatments and conditions, only \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29394327/\">14% of drugs in clinical trials\u003c/a> ever reach FDA approval. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Despite the speculative nature of this early-stage research, caregiver Viva Mogi said she will vote for Proposition 38 for the hope it offers. Mogi put her own life and career on hold to care for her mother, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s ten years ago. At the time, doctors told them there was no cure and not enough medications to help.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Despite the speculative nature of this early-stage research, caregiver Viva Mogi said she will vote for Proposition 38 for the hope it offers. Mogi put her own life and career on hold to care for her mother, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s ten years ago. At the time, doctors told them there was no cure and not enough medications to help.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“They wished us luck,” Mogi said. Looking ahead to her own potential diagnosis and decline from the disease, she said, “I don’t ever want to go through this or put my husband through this.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“They wished us luck,” Mogi said. Looking ahead to her own potential diagnosis and decline from the disease, she said, “I don’t ever want to go through this or put my husband through this.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-01-KQED-27ec75c4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2002388\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-01-KQED-27ec75c4.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-01-KQED-27ec75c4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-01-KQED-27ec75c4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-01-KQED-27ec75c4-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Viva Mogi, a supporter of Proposition 38, is a full-time caretaker for her mother who has Alzheimer’s. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of Trenna Travis)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-01-KQED-27ec75c4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2002388\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Viva Mogi, a supporter of Proposition 38, is a full-time caretaker for her mother who has Alzheimer’s. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of Trenna Travis)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But with state taxpayers on the hook for $4 billion in interest payments on top of the $8.4 billion bond, other patients say the debt the state would incur from supporting Proposition 38 is not worth the hope, especially in light of California’s other long-term obligations and deficits.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But with state taxpayers on the hook for $4 billion in interest payments on top of the $8.4 billion bond, other patients say the debt the state would incur from supporting Proposition 38 is not worth the hope, especially in light of California’s other long-term obligations and deficits.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Cancer survivor, Dan Carson is one of several retired financial analysts from the state Legislative Analyst’s Office who broke a long tradition of nonpartisan silence to speak out against the measure.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Cancer survivor, Dan Carson is one of several retired financial analysts from the state Legislative Analyst’s Office who broke a long tradition of nonpartisan silence to speak out against the measure.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Carson ran the health section of the LAO when it was tasked with evaluating the $3 billion \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1970180/proposition-14-with-handful-of-cures-calif-stem-cell-agency-has-mixed-record-will-voters-pony-up-another-5-5-billion\">stem cell bond initiative\u003c/a> in 2004 known as Proposition 71. The measure was pitched to voters as a protest against the George W. Bush administration’s abandonment of stem cell research on religious grounds. Its backers said California would become a new hub for stem cell discoveries and promised the state would receive a windfall of royalty payments to pay back the bond and interest. But the money never materialized, with the state receiving just $16 million of the $6 billion it was promised, Carson said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Carson ran the health section of the LAO when it was tasked with evaluating the $3 billion \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1970180/proposition-14-with-handful-of-cures-calif-stem-cell-agency-has-mixed-record-will-voters-pony-up-another-5-5-billion\">stem cell bond initiative\u003c/a> in 2004 known as Proposition 71. The measure was pitched to voters as a protest against the George W. Bush administration’s abandonment of stem cell research on religious grounds. Its backers said California would become a new hub for stem cell discoveries and promised the state would receive a windfall of royalty payments to pay back the bond and interest. But the money never materialized, with the state receiving just $16 million of the $6 billion it was promised, Carson said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Similarly, Proposition 38 backers say it will be cost neutral. Provisions in the measure would require 10% of any licensing fees derived from immunotherapy treatment discoveries be paid back to the state, and that such treatments be made available to Californians at a 20% discount.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Similarly, Proposition 38 backers say it will be cost neutral. Provisions in the measure would require 10% of any licensing fees derived from immunotherapy treatment discoveries be paid back to the state, and that such treatments be made available to Californians at a 20% discount.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Once again, we’re being promised in this initiative and by its advocates that it will ‘pay for itself with no net cost to the state or taxpayers,’” Carson said. “I’m here to tell you that after reviewing the fine print of this measure, that won’t happen. Not even close.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Once again, we’re being promised in this initiative and by its advocates that it will ‘pay for itself with no net cost to the state or taxpayers,’” Carson said. “I’m here to tell you that after reviewing the fine print of this measure, that won’t happen. Not even close.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG52488-KQED-2813b0e4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2002387\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG52488-KQED-2813b0e4.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG52488-KQED-2813b0e4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG52488-KQED-2813b0e4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG52488-KQED-2813b0e4-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Marianne O’Malley, who has Parkinson’s disease, works out on an elliptical trainer in her home in Sacramento on Oct. 19, 2026. Exercise is the leading therapy to slow the progress of the disease.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Fred Greaves for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG52488-KQED-2813b0e4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2002387\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Marianne O’Malley, who has Parkinson’s disease, works out on an elliptical trainer in her home in Sacramento on Oct. 19, 2026. Exercise is the leading therapy to slow the progress of the disease.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Fred Greaves for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When O’Malley attended her regular boxing and rock climbing classes for people with Parkinson’s — currently, exercise is the top therapy proven to slow the progression of the disease — other students approached her with questions about Proposition 38 because of her experience at the LAO. Should they vote for it? they asked.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>When O’Malley attended her regular boxing and rock climbing classes for people with Parkinson’s — currently, exercise is the top therapy proven to slow the progression of the disease — other students approached her with questions about Proposition 38 because of her experience at the LAO. Should they vote for it? they asked.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We’re all desperate for a cure, or at least a treatment,” O’Malley said. “And the disappointing thing to tell them is, ‘No, this measure doesn’t do what you think it’s going to do.’”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We’re all desperate for a cure, or at least a treatment,” O’Malley said. “And the disappointing thing to tell them is, ‘No, this measure doesn’t do what you think it’s going to do.’”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The campaign in favor of Proposition 38 is being financed by philanthropist Gary Michelson, who also happens to be a co-founder and chair of the brand new \u003ca href=\"https://www.calimmunology.org/\">California Institute for Immunology & Immunotherapy\u003c/a> at UCLA, which, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/elections/2026/07/proposition-38-california/\">according to the ballot measure’s criteria\u003c/a>, stands to receive half the bond money directly, then help oversee the distribution of the other half in research grants to nonprofits. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The campaign in favor of Proposition 38 is being financed by philanthropist Gary Michelson, who also happens to be a co-founder and chair of the brand new \u003ca href=\"https://www.calimmunology.org/\">California Institute for Immunology & Immunotherapy\u003c/a> at UCLA, which, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/elections/2026/07/proposition-38-california/\">according to the ballot measure’s criteria\u003c/a>, stands to receive half the bond money directly, then help oversee the distribution of the other half in research grants to nonprofits. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The measure would also exempt this institute from complying with a series of state transparency laws, including public records act requests and open meetings, O’Malley said, meaning taxpayers won’t have a way of knowing if their money is being spent wisely.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The measure would also exempt this institute from complying with a series of state transparency laws, including public records act requests and open meetings, O’Malley said, meaning taxpayers won’t have a way of knowing if their money is being spent wisely.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“This measure hijacks the initiative process to steer public funds to a billionaire’s philanthropic project and then hides its tracks by waiving all the usual laws to promote governmental transparency,” she said. “This one is so bad and supposedly being done to help people like me, I felt a moral obligation to speak out.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>If the state of California wants to be a center of scientific research, there are better ways to do it, said Judy Heiman, another former LAO analyst. Medical research grants should be subject to an open, competitive bidding process; they should be awarded based on scientific merit and public health need, not what’s popular at the ballot box. And they should undergo independent review before more funds are disbursed.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>If the state of California wants to be a center of scientific research, there are better ways to do it, said Judy Heiman, another former LAO analyst. Medical research grants should be subject to an open, competitive bidding process; they should be awarded based on scientific merit and public health need, not what’s popular at the ballot box. And they should undergo independent review before more funds are disbursed.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Prop. 38 fails these basic tests,” Heiman said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In fact, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102760/7-5b-california-science-agency-plan-free-from-trumps-influence-will-go-to-voters\">another bond measure\u003c/a> that includes these parameters and safeguards will be on the ballot in March 2028, she pointed out. This research fund, borne from months of democratic debate and negotiation in the state legislature, is intended for a wider variety of research, including biomedical, behavioral health, and climate.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“There’s a legitimate argument about whether California should add billions of dollars in medical research spending to its already substantial debt burden,” Heiman said. “Scientific merit, not institutional favoritism, should drive where the money goes.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Proposition 38 would allow California to borrow $8.4 billion to fund immunotherapy research. But patients are divided over whether it would actually benefit them.",
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"title": "California Cancer Patients Disagree Over Whether Proposition 38 Will Help Them | KQED",
"description": "Proposition 38 would allow California to borrow $8.4 billion to fund immunotherapy research. But patients are divided over whether it would actually benefit them.",
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"headline": "California Cancer Patients Disagree Over Whether Proposition 38 Will Help Them",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Cancer patients who say their lives were saved by innovations in immunotherapy treatments are among the most vocal proponents of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102150/prop-38-borrows-8-4-billion-to-fund-immunology-research\">California’s Proposition 38\u003c/a>, arguing the $8.4 billion bond measure to fund immune-system research would save even more lives. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But those who oppose Proposition 38 are also patients, who say their illnesses are being exploited to shill for an initiative that is overly narrow, opaque and expensive.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Don’t approve this measure because you want to help me or other people with Parkinson’s,” said Marianne O’Malley, a former analyst with the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease about eight years ago. “This is the wrong way to go about things.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Backers of Proposition 38 proposed it as a solution to the Trump administration’s attack on science: where federal research funding has become diminished or uncertain, California would step in, issuing bond money to bring stability to promising projects and turn the state into a hub of excellence for immunology and immunotherapy research. But the patients who stand to benefit from such a move are divided over whether Californians should shoulder that burden instead of taxpayers across the US, and if so, whether Proposition 38 is the right way to do it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I have never thought of biomedical research as something that needs to be centered in a particular location,” said Robert Kaplan, a senior scholar at \u003ca href=\"https://med.stanford.edu/cerc.html\">Stanford\u003c/a> who formerly coordinated research portfolios at the National Institutes of Health and an opponent of Proposition 38. “Proposition 38 money is good for California institutions, but it means that California taxpayers might be taking a disproportionate share of the responsibility for paying for that research.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-02-KQED-4cbd579e.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2002389\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-02-KQED-4cbd579e.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-02-KQED-4cbd579e-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-02-KQED-4cbd579e-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-02-KQED-4cbd579e-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laurie Adami, a supporter of Proposition 38, was diagnosed with blood cancer when she was 46. She holds two cancer scans, one before she received immunotherapy treatment (left) and one after (right). (Courtesy of Trenna Travis)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Blood cancer survivor Laurie Adami is in favor of the measure. She was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma 20 years ago, when she was 46, and her son was in kindergarten. She fought her way through seven different treatments, including grueling rounds of chemotherapy and three experimental trials so she could survive to see him graduate from high school. In 2018, she enrolled in an immunotherapy trial where scientists reengineered Adami’s own immune cells to attack her disease.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Chemotherapy is like napalm — they poison your whole body in the hopes of killing off your cancer,” she said. “This idea of waking up the immune system is a much more elegant way to target cancers.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The therapy she received was called CAR-T. Scientists extracted a sample of Adami’s T-cells and modified them in the lab so they would attach to the specific proteins on her cancer cells. Put another way, T-cells are like the Pac Mans of the immune system, and scientists altered them so they would be hungry specifically for her type of cancer cells, then infused them back into her bloodstream to start eating. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Adami received one CAR-T infusion and has been in complete remission ever since.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Why wouldn’t I want more patients to be able to access the type of treatment that finally saved my life?” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Adami is just one patient from one clinical trial. Though immunotherapy has improved \u003ca href=\"https://www.cancerresearch.org/blog/cancer-statistics-2026\">survival rates\u003c/a> for certain cancers, including lung, liver, and some types of skin and blood cancers, the treatment does not work for most people: only \u003ca href=\"https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/inhealth/about-us/immunotherapy-precision-medicine-action-policy-brief\">15 to 20% of patients\u003c/a> achieve durable results. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Immunotherapy research is still in the early and experimental stages for other cancers and diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS. Across treatments and conditions, only \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29394327/\">14% of drugs in clinical trials\u003c/a> ever reach FDA approval. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Despite the speculative nature of this early-stage research, caregiver Viva Mogi said she will vote for Proposition 38 for the hope it offers. Mogi put her own life and career on hold to care for her mother, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s ten years ago. At the time, doctors told them there was no cure and not enough medications to help.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They wished us luck,” Mogi said. Looking ahead to her own potential diagnosis and decline from the disease, she said, “I don’t ever want to go through this or put my husband through this.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-01-KQED-27ec75c4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2002388\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-01-KQED-27ec75c4.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-01-KQED-27ec75c4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-01-KQED-27ec75c4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/261020-PROP-38-01-KQED-27ec75c4-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Viva Mogi, a supporter of Proposition 38, is a full-time caretaker for her mother who has Alzheimer’s. (Courtesy of Trenna Travis)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But with state taxpayers on the hook for $4 billion in interest payments on top of the $8.4 billion bond, other patients say the debt the state would incur from supporting Proposition 38 is not worth the hope, especially in light of California’s other long-term obligations and deficits.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Cancer survivor, Dan Carson is one of several retired financial analysts from the state Legislative Analyst’s Office who broke a long tradition of nonpartisan silence to speak out against the measure.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Carson ran the health section of the LAO when it was tasked with evaluating the $3 billion \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1970180/proposition-14-with-handful-of-cures-calif-stem-cell-agency-has-mixed-record-will-voters-pony-up-another-5-5-billion\">stem cell bond initiative\u003c/a> in 2004 known as Proposition 71. The measure was pitched to voters as a protest against the George W. Bush administration’s abandonment of stem cell research on religious grounds. Its backers said California would become a new hub for stem cell discoveries and promised the state would receive a windfall of royalty payments to pay back the bond and interest. But the money never materialized, with the state receiving just $16 million of the $6 billion it was promised, Carson said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Similarly, Proposition 38 backers say it will be cost neutral. Provisions in the measure would require 10% of any licensing fees derived from immunotherapy treatment discoveries be paid back to the state, and that such treatments be made available to Californians at a 20% discount.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Once again, we’re being promised in this initiative and by its advocates that it will ‘pay for itself with no net cost to the state or taxpayers,’” Carson said. “I’m here to tell you that after reviewing the fine print of this measure, that won’t happen. Not even close.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG52488-KQED-2813b0e4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2002387\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG52488-KQED-2813b0e4.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG52488-KQED-2813b0e4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG52488-KQED-2813b0e4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG52488-KQED-2813b0e4-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Marianne O’Malley, who has Parkinson’s disease, works out on an elliptical trainer in her home in Sacramento on Oct. 19, 2026. Exercise is the leading therapy to slow the progress of the disease. (Fred Greaves for KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When O’Malley attended her regular boxing and rock climbing classes for people with Parkinson’s — currently, exercise is the top therapy proven to slow the progression of the disease — other students approached her with questions about Proposition 38 because of her experience at the LAO. Should they vote for it? they asked.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We’re all desperate for a cure, or at least a treatment,” O’Malley said. “And the disappointing thing to tell them is, ‘No, this measure doesn’t do what you think it’s going to do.’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The campaign in favor of Proposition 38 is being financed by philanthropist Gary Michelson, who also happens to be a co-founder and chair of the brand new \u003ca href=\"https://www.calimmunology.org/\">California Institute for Immunology & Immunotherapy\u003c/a> at UCLA, which, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/elections/2026/07/proposition-38-california/\">according to the ballot measure’s criteria\u003c/a>, stands to receive half the bond money directly, then help oversee the distribution of the other half in research grants to nonprofits. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The measure would also exempt this institute from complying with a series of state transparency laws, including public records act requests and open meetings, O’Malley said, meaning taxpayers won’t have a way of knowing if their money is being spent wisely.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG32776-KQED-1addb385.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2002386\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG32776-KQED-1addb385.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG32776-KQED-1addb385-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG32776-KQED-1addb385-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2026/10/FG_OMALLEY_PARKINSONS_2026_10_19__FG32776-KQED-1addb385-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Marianne O’Malley, who has Parkinson’s disease, rests in her backyard after exercising on an elliptical trainer at her home in Sacramento on Oct. 19, 2026. Exercise is the leading therapy to slow the progress of the disease. (Fred Greaves for KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This measure hijacks the initiative process to steer public funds to a billionaire’s philanthropic project and then hides its tracks by waiving all the usual laws to promote governmental transparency,” she said. “This one is so bad and supposedly being done to help people like me, I felt a moral obligation to speak out.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If the state of California wants to be a center of scientific research, there are better ways to do it, said Judy Heiman, another former LAO analyst. Medical research grants should be subject to an open, competitive bidding process; they should be awarded based on scientific merit and public health need, not what’s popular at the ballot box. And they should undergo independent review before more funds are disbursed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Prop. 38 fails these basic tests,” Heiman said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In fact, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102760/7-5b-california-science-agency-plan-free-from-trumps-influence-will-go-to-voters\">another bond measure\u003c/a> that includes these parameters and safeguards will be on the ballot in March 2028, she pointed out. This research fund, borne from months of democratic debate and negotiation in the state legislature, is intended for a wider variety of research, including biomedical, behavioral health, and climate.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“There’s a legitimate argument about whether California should add billions of dollars in medical research spending to its already substantial debt burden,” Heiman said. “Scientific merit, not institutional favoritism, should drive where the money goes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "will-ai-replace-your-therapist-kaiser-wont-say-no",
"title": "Will AI Replace Your Therapist? Kaiser Won’t Say No",
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"headTitle": "Will AI Replace Your Therapist? Kaiser Won’t Say No | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Every day, clinical social worker Ilana Marcucci-Morris talks to her patients about the most private, most vulnerable details of their lives, and she’s not interested in having AI software listen in or sharing any of her responsibilities with\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1999388/california-warns-families-to-watch-out-for-teens-as-character-ai-shuts-off-chatbot-access\"> a chatbot\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A self-attested millennial and lover of gadgets, Marcucci-Morris knows artificial intelligence is here to stay in health care, but when it comes to therapy, she wants it to be optional and assistive, a tool that will augment human connection, not diminish it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She figured that would be a simple assurance her union could win when they sat down\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/kaiser-permanente-mental-health\"> at the bargaining table\u003c/a> last summer to hash out their next contract with Kaiser Permanente. The therapists with the \u003ca href=\"https://home.nuhw.org/\">National Union of Healthcare Workers\u003c/a> submitted their proposed contract language — that AI would be used to “assist” mental health clinicians, but not “replace” them — never expecting it to be controversial. After all, Kaiser signed a contract with their sister union in Southern California just months earlier that contained the same language.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this time, Kaiser refused, sending back a counterproposal in the fall with that paragraph deleted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>We have asked them point-blank about language to prevent replacing therapists with artificial intelligence, and they have been very clear that they want the ‘flexibility’ to increase AI and reduce their need for us,” Marcucci-Morris said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The local contract debate taps into an existential question plaguing American workers across professions: When is AI coming for my job? As health systems embrace the technology to save money and time, and consumers increasingly consult AI chatbots for mental health support, the theoretical question has suddenly turned concrete for Kaiser therapists and they are testing their union power to see if and how they can influence the inevitable transformation of their vocation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999559\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999559\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/HealthCareWorkerKQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/HealthCareWorkerKQED.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/HealthCareWorkerKQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/HealthCareWorkerKQED-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/HealthCareWorkerKQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Kaiser clinician during the previous December 2018 strike. \u003ccite>(April Dembosky/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“AI is not inherently good or bad. It holds promise, but it isn’t without serious risks,” said Maya Sandalow, associate director for health programs at the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://bipartisanpolicy.org/\">Bipartisan Policy Center\u003c/a>. “When we talk about this, we need to be asking, ‘how might this solution improve upon the status quo?’ The status quo is that we are in a mental health crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Worldwide prevalence of depression and anxiety\u003ca href=\"https://www.who.int/news/item/02-03-2022-covid-19-pandemic-triggers-25-increase-in-prevalence-of-anxiety-and-depression-worldwide\"> spiked 25%\u003c/a> in 2022, and today\u003ca href=\"https://bipartisanpolicy.org/article/youth-experience-survey/\"> nearly two-thirds of American youth\u003c/a> regularly experience mental health distress, though fewer than half of them seek professional help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finding a therapist, especially one who accepts insurance,\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/stateofhealth/series/state-of-mind\"> has become notoriously difficult\u003c/a> as the field contends with workforce shortages and low reimbursement rates.[aside postID=news_12063401 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/OpenAiLawsuitsGetty.jpg']Kaiser has been battling these industry dynamics for\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/stateofhealth/21358/kaiser-agrees-to-pay-4-million-fine-over-mental-health-care-drops-lawsuit\"> more than a decade\u003c/a>. California regulators have\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11791527/kaiser-therapists-strike-again-over-long-wait-times\"> cited the company multiple times\u003c/a> and\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2023/10/kaiser-permanente-california-behavioral-health-settlement/\"> fined it twice\u003c/a> for making patients wait\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11891049/california-bill-would-reduce-wait-times-for-mental-health-appointments\"> too long\u003c/a> for mental health appointments, ordering Kaiser to address understaffing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Administrators are actively exploring how AI tools could help expand access to therapists, for example, by helping them spend less time on paperwork and more time with patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser declined several requests for an interview, but said in a statement that AI tools don’t make medical decisions or replace human care. Rather, they hold “significant potential to benefit health care by supporting better diagnostics, enhancing patient-clinician relationships, optimizing clinicians’ time, and ensuring fairness in care experiences and health outcomes by addressing individual needs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser contracts with mental health workers typically span two to four years. The company did not respond to specific questions about how AI could lead to job losses during that timeframe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Managers told the union during negotiations that they do not “intend” to lay off therapists because of the technology, but when pressed to put that in writing in the contract, several union representatives, including Marcucci-Morris, said Kaiser told them, “We can’t predict the future. We need to maintain flexibility,” and “We want to leave our options open.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How Kaiser uses AI now in mental health care\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kaiser is already deploying AI note-taking technology in mental health care. Piloted first in medical exam rooms, these digital scribes record interactions between doctors and patients, then generate summaries for the patient’s medical record. Many mental health clinicians are optimistic about this innovation, as they typically spend two and a half hours a day, often in the evenings, writing clinical notes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s called pajama time,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1999280/ai-safety-expert-warns-parents-to-watch-kids-in-wake-of-chatbot-ban\">Jodi Halpern\u003c/a>, a psychiatrist and professor of bioethics at UC Berkeley. Her research shows that paperwork is the biggest cause of burnout among clinicians. “So the idea that we could replace that so that human care could grow, I love that idea.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999568\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999568\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/029_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/029_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/029_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/029_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/029_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaiser mental health care workers and supporters march from Oakland Kaiser Medical Center to Kaiser’s corporate headquarters on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, the fifth day of an open-ended strike. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The technology is controversial among Kaiser clinicians, though. Some appreciate digital scribe software as a time saver that also allows them to be more present with their clients, making eye contact rather than typing. But many are wary of potential privacy breaches, the ethical implications of using therapy transcripts to train AI models, and whether patients might censor themselves when they’re being recorded. Marcucci-Morris has declined to use it for these reasons, anticipating that only one out of 10 of her patients would consent to it if she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not the same as talking to your physician about a rash or your vitamin D deficiency,” she said. “I wouldn’t want a recording of my disagreements with a family member or details of the terrible things that have happened to me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In light of the unknowns, therapists have asked Kaiser management for a contract clause that stipulates the use of digital scribes will remain optional, or at least “not mandatory,” but Kaiser declined the proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union is also concerned about Kaiser’s recent introduction of electronic mental health triaging, an optional tool where patients are routed into care based on how they answer questions about anxiety and depression in an online questionnaire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999406\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999406\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251124_AIKAISER_GC-4-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251124_AIKAISER_GC-4-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251124_AIKAISER_GC-4-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251124_AIKAISER_GC-4-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251124_AIKAISER_GC-4-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brittany Beard, a licensed clinical therapist at Kaiser Permanente, poses for a portrait at her home in Vallejo on Nov. 24, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some patients won’t like this, but some will prefer it, said Merage Ghane, a clinical psychologist and director of responsible AI at the\u003ca href=\"https://www.chai.org/\"> Coalition for Health AI\u003c/a>. “There are people who really don’t like talking to a real person,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vallejo-based therapist Brittany Beard used to do this triage work herself, talking to clients for 15 to 20 minutes on the phone, but after Kaiser outsourced many of those calls to an outside company and developed the e-visit, she was reassigned to a new department. Though still employed at Kaiser, she already feels replaced by an app.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They sell it as accessing care faster, but I’ve seen the opposite,” Beard said. Now, when some of her patients meet her for their first appointment, “They’re frustrated. It was like they were battling just to get to me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Is AI coming for your therapist?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>How much AI infiltrates mental health care will be determined, in part, by the consumer. Experts have identified a “\u003ca href=\"https://bipartisanpolicy.org/article/ai-in-health-care-administration-a-conversation-with-experts/\">trust gap\u003c/a>” between health administrators’ eagerness to roll out AI tools and patient concerns; to bridge the divide, they recommend transparency and involving patients in implementation. Qualitative studies show that patients are optimistic about the technology’s potential to improve diagnosis and treatment, but they remain skeptical of “robots” or “machines” taking over from humans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The prevailing sentiment really was that AI is at its best when it’s a tool that doctors can use to do their jobs better. Once that moved into the realm of replacing human interaction and experience, that was not a good thing,” said Michele Cordoba, a researcher at \u003ca href=\"https://cultureiq.group/\">Culture IQ\u003c/a>, which produced a \u003ca href=\"https://www.chcf.org/resource/patients-say-yes-artificial-intelligence-doctors-stay-charge/\">report\u003c/a> for the California Health Care Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999565\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999565\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/038_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/038_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/038_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/038_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/038_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaiser mental health care workers and supporters march from Oakland Kaiser Medical Center to Kaiser’s corporate headquarters on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, the fifth day of an open-ended strike. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the same time, the use of commercial AI chatbots for mental health has soared.\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fpri0000292\"> One study\u003c/a> surveyed AI users who have mental health conditions and found nearly half turn to their chatbot for psychological support, and of those, 63% said the advice was helpful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But mental health professionals have questioned the efficacy of such advice, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12063401/openai-faces-legal-storm-over-claims-its-ai-drove-users-to-suicide-delusions\">several families have sued\u003c/a> AI companies, alleging their chatbots encouraged suicidal and self-harming behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, clinical psychologists are developing evidence-based chatbots, like\u003ca href=\"https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2025/03/first-therapy-chatbot-trial-yields-mental-health-benefits\"> TheraBot\u003c/a>, to deliver tested therapeutic guidance. The Food and Drug Administration acknowledged the broad demand for such apps at a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/advisory-committees/advisory-committee-calendar/november-6-2025-digital-health-advisory-committee-meeting-announcement-11062025#event-information\">November meeting\u003c/a> and is exploring what kind of authority it might have to regulate them, including requiring human mental health professionals to oversee them.[aside postID=news_12066395 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/San-Francisco-General-Hospital-Getty.jpg']Kaiser therapists want to know what all these trends mean for their own job security in the immediate and long term. When one of them asked a panel of AI experts to expound on this during a statewide training webinar in October, the 200 therapists in attendance heard a wide range of answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would encourage you all not to fear for your profession,” said Nicholas Jacobson, a psychologist at Dartmouth and co-creator of TheraBot. “I think there is no possibility in your lifetime that you all will feel replaced by AI.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But UC Berkeley’s Halpern was much more circumspect, especially in light of chatbots’ popularity among youth. \u003ca href=\"https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/talk-trust-and-trade-offs-how-and-why-teens-use-ai-companions\">A third of teen AI users\u003c/a> said they preferred to have serious conversations with their chatbot rather than a human. “I am not sure we won’t see a tremendous loss of human interactions,” Halpern said. “I’m very worried about that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, patients should have choices, psychologist Ghane told KQED. If they live in rural areas and can’t access a therapist, or they have a neurodevelopmental condition where human communication is more aversive than facilitative, she said it’s important they have AI options. In that version of the future, therapists are right to ask if they will be replaced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The answer is they can be,” Ghane said. “We can all be replaced at some point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Every day, clinical social worker Ilana Marcucci-Morris talks to her patients about the most private, most vulnerable details of their lives, and she’s not interested in having AI software listen in or sharing any of her responsibilities with\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1999388/california-warns-families-to-watch-out-for-teens-as-character-ai-shuts-off-chatbot-access\"> a chatbot\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A self-attested millennial and lover of gadgets, Marcucci-Morris knows artificial intelligence is here to stay in health care, but when it comes to therapy, she wants it to be optional and assistive, a tool that will augment human connection, not diminish it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She figured that would be a simple assurance her union could win when they sat down\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/kaiser-permanente-mental-health\"> at the bargaining table\u003c/a> last summer to hash out their next contract with Kaiser Permanente. The therapists with the \u003ca href=\"https://home.nuhw.org/\">National Union of Healthcare Workers\u003c/a> submitted their proposed contract language — that AI would be used to “assist” mental health clinicians, but not “replace” them — never expecting it to be controversial. After all, Kaiser signed a contract with their sister union in Southern California just months earlier that contained the same language.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this time, Kaiser refused, sending back a counterproposal in the fall with that paragraph deleted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>We have asked them point-blank about language to prevent replacing therapists with artificial intelligence, and they have been very clear that they want the ‘flexibility’ to increase AI and reduce their need for us,” Marcucci-Morris said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The local contract debate taps into an existential question plaguing American workers across professions: When is AI coming for my job? As health systems embrace the technology to save money and time, and consumers increasingly consult AI chatbots for mental health support, the theoretical question has suddenly turned concrete for Kaiser therapists and they are testing their union power to see if and how they can influence the inevitable transformation of their vocation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999559\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999559\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/HealthCareWorkerKQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/HealthCareWorkerKQED.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/HealthCareWorkerKQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/HealthCareWorkerKQED-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/HealthCareWorkerKQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Kaiser clinician during the previous December 2018 strike. \u003ccite>(April Dembosky/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“AI is not inherently good or bad. It holds promise, but it isn’t without serious risks,” said Maya Sandalow, associate director for health programs at the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://bipartisanpolicy.org/\">Bipartisan Policy Center\u003c/a>. “When we talk about this, we need to be asking, ‘how might this solution improve upon the status quo?’ The status quo is that we are in a mental health crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Worldwide prevalence of depression and anxiety\u003ca href=\"https://www.who.int/news/item/02-03-2022-covid-19-pandemic-triggers-25-increase-in-prevalence-of-anxiety-and-depression-worldwide\"> spiked 25%\u003c/a> in 2022, and today\u003ca href=\"https://bipartisanpolicy.org/article/youth-experience-survey/\"> nearly two-thirds of American youth\u003c/a> regularly experience mental health distress, though fewer than half of them seek professional help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finding a therapist, especially one who accepts insurance,\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/stateofhealth/series/state-of-mind\"> has become notoriously difficult\u003c/a> as the field contends with workforce shortages and low reimbursement rates.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kaiser has been battling these industry dynamics for\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/stateofhealth/21358/kaiser-agrees-to-pay-4-million-fine-over-mental-health-care-drops-lawsuit\"> more than a decade\u003c/a>. California regulators have\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11791527/kaiser-therapists-strike-again-over-long-wait-times\"> cited the company multiple times\u003c/a> and\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2023/10/kaiser-permanente-california-behavioral-health-settlement/\"> fined it twice\u003c/a> for making patients wait\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11891049/california-bill-would-reduce-wait-times-for-mental-health-appointments\"> too long\u003c/a> for mental health appointments, ordering Kaiser to address understaffing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Administrators are actively exploring how AI tools could help expand access to therapists, for example, by helping them spend less time on paperwork and more time with patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser declined several requests for an interview, but said in a statement that AI tools don’t make medical decisions or replace human care. Rather, they hold “significant potential to benefit health care by supporting better diagnostics, enhancing patient-clinician relationships, optimizing clinicians’ time, and ensuring fairness in care experiences and health outcomes by addressing individual needs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser contracts with mental health workers typically span two to four years. The company did not respond to specific questions about how AI could lead to job losses during that timeframe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Managers told the union during negotiations that they do not “intend” to lay off therapists because of the technology, but when pressed to put that in writing in the contract, several union representatives, including Marcucci-Morris, said Kaiser told them, “We can’t predict the future. We need to maintain flexibility,” and “We want to leave our options open.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How Kaiser uses AI now in mental health care\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kaiser is already deploying AI note-taking technology in mental health care. Piloted first in medical exam rooms, these digital scribes record interactions between doctors and patients, then generate summaries for the patient’s medical record. Many mental health clinicians are optimistic about this innovation, as they typically spend two and a half hours a day, often in the evenings, writing clinical notes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s called pajama time,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1999280/ai-safety-expert-warns-parents-to-watch-kids-in-wake-of-chatbot-ban\">Jodi Halpern\u003c/a>, a psychiatrist and professor of bioethics at UC Berkeley. Her research shows that paperwork is the biggest cause of burnout among clinicians. “So the idea that we could replace that so that human care could grow, I love that idea.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999568\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999568\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/029_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/029_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/029_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/029_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/029_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaiser mental health care workers and supporters march from Oakland Kaiser Medical Center to Kaiser’s corporate headquarters on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, the fifth day of an open-ended strike. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The technology is controversial among Kaiser clinicians, though. Some appreciate digital scribe software as a time saver that also allows them to be more present with their clients, making eye contact rather than typing. But many are wary of potential privacy breaches, the ethical implications of using therapy transcripts to train AI models, and whether patients might censor themselves when they’re being recorded. Marcucci-Morris has declined to use it for these reasons, anticipating that only one out of 10 of her patients would consent to it if she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not the same as talking to your physician about a rash or your vitamin D deficiency,” she said. “I wouldn’t want a recording of my disagreements with a family member or details of the terrible things that have happened to me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In light of the unknowns, therapists have asked Kaiser management for a contract clause that stipulates the use of digital scribes will remain optional, or at least “not mandatory,” but Kaiser declined the proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union is also concerned about Kaiser’s recent introduction of electronic mental health triaging, an optional tool where patients are routed into care based on how they answer questions about anxiety and depression in an online questionnaire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999406\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999406\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251124_AIKAISER_GC-4-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251124_AIKAISER_GC-4-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251124_AIKAISER_GC-4-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251124_AIKAISER_GC-4-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/20251124_AIKAISER_GC-4-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brittany Beard, a licensed clinical therapist at Kaiser Permanente, poses for a portrait at her home in Vallejo on Nov. 24, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some patients won’t like this, but some will prefer it, said Merage Ghane, a clinical psychologist and director of responsible AI at the\u003ca href=\"https://www.chai.org/\"> Coalition for Health AI\u003c/a>. “There are people who really don’t like talking to a real person,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vallejo-based therapist Brittany Beard used to do this triage work herself, talking to clients for 15 to 20 minutes on the phone, but after Kaiser outsourced many of those calls to an outside company and developed the e-visit, she was reassigned to a new department. Though still employed at Kaiser, she already feels replaced by an app.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They sell it as accessing care faster, but I’ve seen the opposite,” Beard said. Now, when some of her patients meet her for their first appointment, “They’re frustrated. It was like they were battling just to get to me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Is AI coming for your therapist?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>How much AI infiltrates mental health care will be determined, in part, by the consumer. Experts have identified a “\u003ca href=\"https://bipartisanpolicy.org/article/ai-in-health-care-administration-a-conversation-with-experts/\">trust gap\u003c/a>” between health administrators’ eagerness to roll out AI tools and patient concerns; to bridge the divide, they recommend transparency and involving patients in implementation. Qualitative studies show that patients are optimistic about the technology’s potential to improve diagnosis and treatment, but they remain skeptical of “robots” or “machines” taking over from humans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The prevailing sentiment really was that AI is at its best when it’s a tool that doctors can use to do their jobs better. Once that moved into the realm of replacing human interaction and experience, that was not a good thing,” said Michele Cordoba, a researcher at \u003ca href=\"https://cultureiq.group/\">Culture IQ\u003c/a>, which produced a \u003ca href=\"https://www.chcf.org/resource/patients-say-yes-artificial-intelligence-doctors-stay-charge/\">report\u003c/a> for the California Health Care Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999565\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999565\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/038_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/038_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/038_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/038_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/12/038_KQED_KaiserStrikeOakland_08192022_qed-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kaiser mental health care workers and supporters march from Oakland Kaiser Medical Center to Kaiser’s corporate headquarters on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, the fifth day of an open-ended strike. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the same time, the use of commercial AI chatbots for mental health has soared.\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fpri0000292\"> One study\u003c/a> surveyed AI users who have mental health conditions and found nearly half turn to their chatbot for psychological support, and of those, 63% said the advice was helpful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But mental health professionals have questioned the efficacy of such advice, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12063401/openai-faces-legal-storm-over-claims-its-ai-drove-users-to-suicide-delusions\">several families have sued\u003c/a> AI companies, alleging their chatbots encouraged suicidal and self-harming behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, clinical psychologists are developing evidence-based chatbots, like\u003ca href=\"https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2025/03/first-therapy-chatbot-trial-yields-mental-health-benefits\"> TheraBot\u003c/a>, to deliver tested therapeutic guidance. The Food and Drug Administration acknowledged the broad demand for such apps at a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/advisory-committees/advisory-committee-calendar/november-6-2025-digital-health-advisory-committee-meeting-announcement-11062025#event-information\">November meeting\u003c/a> and is exploring what kind of authority it might have to regulate them, including requiring human mental health professionals to oversee them.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kaiser therapists want to know what all these trends mean for their own job security in the immediate and long term. When one of them asked a panel of AI experts to expound on this during a statewide training webinar in October, the 200 therapists in attendance heard a wide range of answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would encourage you all not to fear for your profession,” said Nicholas Jacobson, a psychologist at Dartmouth and co-creator of TheraBot. “I think there is no possibility in your lifetime that you all will feel replaced by AI.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But UC Berkeley’s Halpern was much more circumspect, especially in light of chatbots’ popularity among youth. \u003ca href=\"https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/talk-trust-and-trade-offs-how-and-why-teens-use-ai-companions\">A third of teen AI users\u003c/a> said they preferred to have serious conversations with their chatbot rather than a human. “I am not sure we won’t see a tremendous loss of human interactions,” Halpern said. “I’m very worried about that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, patients should have choices, psychologist Ghane told KQED. If they live in rural areas and can’t access a therapist, or they have a neurodevelopmental condition where human communication is more aversive than facilitative, she said it’s important they have AI options. In that version of the future, therapists are right to ask if they will be replaced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The answer is they can be,” Ghane said. “We can all be replaced at some point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford\u003c/a> scientists may be closing in on an explanation for a rare cardiac side effect experienced by a small number of people a few days after they received a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/covid-19\">COVID-19\u003c/a> shot. Fewer than 30 people in every million who are vaccinated experience brief chest pain and shortness of breath. The myocarditis primarily affects teenage boys and young men and has puzzled clinicians since the rollout of vaccines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To investigate what might be happening inside the body after the shot, the researchers used human plasma, lab-grown heart tissue, modeling, and mice. In every lab model, the same thing happened: right after a shot — especially the second one — immune cells sent out a burst of two signaling proteins. Normally, they help the body fight viruses, but at unusually high levels, these cytokines, CXCL10 and interferon-gamma, seemed to put stress on heart cells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The results of the study outlining this possible mechanism were published on Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we block these two with the antibodies, the cardiac damage goes down,” said Dr. Joseph Wu, senior author of the study and director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. “So we’re pretty confident that these two cytokines are probably two key players in terms of causing COVID myocarditis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors stress that these findings are lab results. The next step will be to run human clinical trials. They also said the results should not lead individuals to avoid Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 shots. Myocarditis after an mRNA shot is extremely uncommon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cardiac risks are much more common and far more severe after a COVID-19 infection, which can inflame not only the heart but also the lungs and other organs.[aside postID=news_12060358 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GettyImages-1414098149-1020x643.jpg']The vaccine schedule may also be a factor. Some data suggest the risk of myocarditis is higher when the second dose follows within weeks of the first. That raises the possibility that spacing out doses — as Canada did early in the pandemic — may blunt the immune spikes that stress the heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One possible reason the condition affects young men more often is that estrogen may provide some protection. In mice, the researchers found that estrogen eased the inflammatory damage triggered by the cytokine surge. That led them to test genistein, a plant-based phytoestrogen found in soy, which similarly reduced inflammation in lab models.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we see here [in the Stanford study] is when we give this drug [genistein], we decrease the cardiac inflammation or the myocarditis,” said Dr. Amir Munir, a UCSF cardiologist not involved in the research. “However, we still keep the protective properties of the vaccine to protect against COVID.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Understanding why myocarditis occurs is a first step toward designing safer mRNA vaccines. It may also lead to medication for myocarditis that arises outside of vaccination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have no FDA-approved treatments for myocarditis,” Munir said. “Having models like this, where we can understand the mechanisms that drive myocarditis, allow us to think how we can specifically target inflammation to treat patients with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor’s note: KQED’s review determined that generative AI was used in the writing of this story in violation of our editorial policies. The story has been reviewed by KQED editors and remains published with this disclosure. KQED takes responsibility for its accuracy and content.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford\u003c/a> scientists may be closing in on an explanation for a rare cardiac side effect experienced by a small number of people a few days after they received a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/covid-19\">COVID-19\u003c/a> shot. Fewer than 30 people in every million who are vaccinated experience brief chest pain and shortness of breath. The myocarditis primarily affects teenage boys and young men and has puzzled clinicians since the rollout of vaccines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To investigate what might be happening inside the body after the shot, the researchers used human plasma, lab-grown heart tissue, modeling, and mice. In every lab model, the same thing happened: right after a shot — especially the second one — immune cells sent out a burst of two signaling proteins. Normally, they help the body fight viruses, but at unusually high levels, these cytokines, CXCL10 and interferon-gamma, seemed to put stress on heart cells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The results of the study outlining this possible mechanism were published on Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we block these two with the antibodies, the cardiac damage goes down,” said Dr. Joseph Wu, senior author of the study and director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. “So we’re pretty confident that these two cytokines are probably two key players in terms of causing COVID myocarditis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors stress that these findings are lab results. The next step will be to run human clinical trials. They also said the results should not lead individuals to avoid Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 shots. Myocarditis after an mRNA shot is extremely uncommon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cardiac risks are much more common and far more severe after a COVID-19 infection, which can inflame not only the heart but also the lungs and other organs.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The vaccine schedule may also be a factor. Some data suggest the risk of myocarditis is higher when the second dose follows within weeks of the first. That raises the possibility that spacing out doses — as Canada did early in the pandemic — may blunt the immune spikes that stress the heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One possible reason the condition affects young men more often is that estrogen may provide some protection. In mice, the researchers found that estrogen eased the inflammatory damage triggered by the cytokine surge. That led them to test genistein, a plant-based phytoestrogen found in soy, which similarly reduced inflammation in lab models.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we see here [in the Stanford study] is when we give this drug [genistein], we decrease the cardiac inflammation or the myocarditis,” said Dr. Amir Munir, a UCSF cardiologist not involved in the research. “However, we still keep the protective properties of the vaccine to protect against COVID.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Understanding why myocarditis occurs is a first step toward designing safer mRNA vaccines. It may also lead to medication for myocarditis that arises outside of vaccination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have no FDA-approved treatments for myocarditis,” Munir said. “Having models like this, where we can understand the mechanisms that drive myocarditis, allow us to think how we can specifically target inflammation to treat patients with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor’s note: KQED’s review determined that generative AI was used in the writing of this story in violation of our editorial policies. The story has been reviewed by KQED editors and remains published with this disclosure. KQED takes responsibility for its accuracy and content.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>On July 4, 2022, Rayaan Kolte hoisted a lemonade pitcher onto a wobbly green folding table in front of his house in Pleasanton. He taped up a handwritten sign that read in rainbow paint, “Drink to support childhood cancer — $1 a cup.” The tang of citrus hung in the air, mingling with the sweetness of peaches piled in a metal basket from the family’s tree — free for anyone willing to stop and learn about the rare brain cancer that stole his little brother the year before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I miss him every day,” Rayaan told strolling neighbors. “He was my best friend.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time dusk fell and fireworks cracked in the distance, the jar on the table brimmed with crumpled bills and coins, and more poured in through Venmo. Rayaan counted out about $400, money he used to purchase gifts for siblings of kids with cancer. He was determined that no other brothers and sisters felt overlooked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My life was difficult after the diagnosis,” the 13-year-old said softly at his home earlier this month. “My parents were focusing all their attention on my brother, so I felt like I wasn’t heard or seen, and I didn’t get much attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not long after, he met Sahil Mehta, a South Bay teen who had also lost his brother to the same brain cancer. Their parents began talking about launching a \u003ca href=\"https://www.neevronil.org/\">foundation\u003c/a>, and the boys’ paths kept crossing — at each other’s homes, on ski trips, at fundraising events. Over time, their friendship deepened, rooted in the kind of loss few others their age could understand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998503\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1998503 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01086_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01086_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01086_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01086_TV-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01086_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sahil Mehta poses for a portrait in front of a photo of his older brother, Ronil Mehta, who died from brain cancer, in their Fremont home on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A sidewalk lemonade stand was just the beginning. Before long, the friends teamed up on toy drives. Then, last winter, they persuaded Assemblymember Alex Lee of Fremont to sponsor \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB703/id/3217349\">AB 703\u003c/a> to create a new checkbox on California tax forms that allows residents to send money directly to childhood cancer research. The measure sailed through the Legislature this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The stories of Sahil and Rayaan highlight the power of our young leaders in driving real and meaningful change,” Lee told KQED in a statement. “AB 703 is a testament to their commitment of bringing hope to all those impacted by childhood cancer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Standing in for Santa\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Rayaan was just starting third grade when doctors told his family that his little brother, Neev, had a rare brain cancer called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG. While their parents agonized over treatments, the boys built Minecraft worlds side by side, chased each other through the yard, and curled up to binge Pokémon cartoons. Even when the tumor in the 4-year-old’s brainstem buckled his legs and slurred his speech, Neev still insisted on playing with his big brother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Neev loved his brother,” their mom, Misha Mehta, said. “We would always joke that they only had one brain. Neev would just follow Rayaan everywhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the winter holidays, Neev was tethered to an IV pole in the hospital, where pandemic-era rules prevented more than one visitor at a time. On Christmas Eve, Rayaan waved to his little brother from the cold parking lot. Inside, Neev whispered through tears to his mom that he was afraid Santa wouldn’t be able to find him in the maze of hallways and machines. His mom could hardly get the words out as she cried, but she managed to explain that she had directed Santa to the hospital with a letter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998505\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1998505 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01378_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01378_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01378_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01378_TV-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01378_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An old photo of Neev Kolte (left), who died from brain cancer, and his brother Rayaan Kolte (right) hangs on the wall of their Pleasanton home on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the course of his treatment, Neev endured three brain surgeries, 15 MRIs, and countless needle pokes — his tiny arms covered in needle marks. He died on Nov. 30, 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was hard and scary,” Rayaan said. “I couldn’t imagine living without him for some time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the summer of fifth grade, Rayaan resolved to do something. That summer, he launched the lemonade stand, and that fall, he lobbied his teacher to run a toy drive for kids stuck in the hospital over Christmas. His father expected a handful of donations. Instead, hundreds of toys flooded the classroom, spilling into the hall. The family had to call for extra cars to haul the boxes to the oncology floor at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, where Neev had been treated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What began as the tender empathy of a big brother has become an annual community tradition,” Mehta said. “A reminder that even in the face of devastating loss, compassion can ripple outward. Each toy delivered to a child in the hospital carries with it a message that they are seen, remembered and loved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past four years, with help from classmates and friends, Rayaan has donated more than a thousand toys.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Carrying Ronil’s spirit\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Sahil Mehta was in second grade when his big brother Ronil suddenly collapsed at their Fremont home in early January 2016 and slipped into a coma. Until then, Ronil was seemingly a healthy 12-year-old. But in the hospital, doctors delivered a shocking prognosis: He had DIPG. He had less than a week to live and urged the family to take him off life support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My brain refused to listen,” said their mom, Manisha Mehta (no relation to Rayaan’s mom Misha Mehta). “The night before, he had gone to a Boy Scout meeting, and we had played ‘Game of Life.’ What an irony. Life certainly turned upside down for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998508\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1998508 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01557_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01557_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01557_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01557_TV-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01557_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A family photo of Neev Kolte’s family, including Neev, who died from brain cancer, sits on a table in their Pleasanton home on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Miraculously, four days later, Ronil opened his eyes. He fought to hold onto life for 31 months — through strokes, radiation, surgeries, even experimental treatments in Mexico. When the doctors exhausted all options, Ronil’s family stopped treatment and brought him home. He died on Sept. 1, 2018, in the same room where the brothers once built Lego castles and laughed under blanket forts. His last wish was to donate his tumor to Stanford for research, so that other children might have the chance he never did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years afterward, the family ached in silence. Sahil was just 10 years old, unsure what to do with his grief. But by the time he entered Irvington High School in Fremont, he had begun putting his emotions to work. He started a club at school called the “Childhood Cancer Crusaders,” and before long, 50 members were showing up to raise awareness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ronil’s spirit of giving is really what inspired me to take action,” Sahil said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Teaming up for change\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This past Christmas, Sahil organized a holiday toy drive, taking a cue from Rayaan’s earlier effort. Together, they collected boxes of dolls, puzzles, and board games for kids in the hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the spring, Sahil’s school club hosted a Relay for Life — a walkathon where students lit candles, played music, and circled the track, raising thousands of dollars for cancer research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998502\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1998502 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS00997_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS00997_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS00997_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS00997_TV-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS00997_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Old decorations from past birthdays, photos, and artwork honor the memory of Ronil Mehta, who died of brain cancer, in his room in Fremont on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He didn’t stop there — for an Eagle Scout project, he assembled care kits stuffed with books and games, small comforts to ease the endless hours families spend at Stanford Hospital. His dedication drew national recognition when he was named a Gold Ambassador, one of just a handful of teens selected by the American Cancer Society to press lawmakers for more pediatric research funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the boys wanted to expand their efforts. After attending Curefest, an advocacy event in Washington, D.C., Sahil came home restless. Why wasn’t California doing more? Digging around online, he discovered a voluntary contribution fund — a simple checkbox on tax forms that lets residents direct money to specific causes. Breast cancer had one.[aside postID=news_12024582 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/UCSFHealth-1020x680.jpg']Alzheimer’s had one. In states like Maine, Missouri, and New Jersey, pediatric cancer even had one. But in California? Nowhere on the list.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He built a presentation, scheduled a meeting with Assemblymember Lee and pitched the idea. Within a couple of months, Lee’s office drafted AB 703.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it came time to testify, Sahil invited Rayaan to join him. Side by side, the two boys told lawmakers about the death of their brothers. Sahil explained in a measured voice that less than 8% of federal cancer research dollars go to children, and California earmarked none.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These children are not numbers,” he told the lawmakers. “They are sons. They are daughters. They are brothers and sisters whose lives are being left behind without a chance to grow up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 703 in July. Beginning next year, a checkbox will appear on California tax forms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never thought I could influence policy,” Sahil said. “But it shows that even if you’re a kid or a teenager, there are ways to make an impact.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On July 4, 2022, Rayaan Kolte hoisted a lemonade pitcher onto a wobbly green folding table in front of his house in Pleasanton. He taped up a handwritten sign that read in rainbow paint, “Drink to support childhood cancer — $1 a cup.” The tang of citrus hung in the air, mingling with the sweetness of peaches piled in a metal basket from the family’s tree — free for anyone willing to stop and learn about the rare brain cancer that stole his little brother the year before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I miss him every day,” Rayaan told strolling neighbors. “He was my best friend.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time dusk fell and fireworks cracked in the distance, the jar on the table brimmed with crumpled bills and coins, and more poured in through Venmo. Rayaan counted out about $400, money he used to purchase gifts for siblings of kids with cancer. He was determined that no other brothers and sisters felt overlooked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My life was difficult after the diagnosis,” the 13-year-old said softly at his home earlier this month. “My parents were focusing all their attention on my brother, so I felt like I wasn’t heard or seen, and I didn’t get much attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not long after, he met Sahil Mehta, a South Bay teen who had also lost his brother to the same brain cancer. Their parents began talking about launching a \u003ca href=\"https://www.neevronil.org/\">foundation\u003c/a>, and the boys’ paths kept crossing — at each other’s homes, on ski trips, at fundraising events. Over time, their friendship deepened, rooted in the kind of loss few others their age could understand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998503\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1998503 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01086_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01086_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01086_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01086_TV-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01086_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sahil Mehta poses for a portrait in front of a photo of his older brother, Ronil Mehta, who died from brain cancer, in their Fremont home on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A sidewalk lemonade stand was just the beginning. Before long, the friends teamed up on toy drives. Then, last winter, they persuaded Assemblymember Alex Lee of Fremont to sponsor \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB703/id/3217349\">AB 703\u003c/a> to create a new checkbox on California tax forms that allows residents to send money directly to childhood cancer research. The measure sailed through the Legislature this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The stories of Sahil and Rayaan highlight the power of our young leaders in driving real and meaningful change,” Lee told KQED in a statement. “AB 703 is a testament to their commitment of bringing hope to all those impacted by childhood cancer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Standing in for Santa\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Rayaan was just starting third grade when doctors told his family that his little brother, Neev, had a rare brain cancer called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG. While their parents agonized over treatments, the boys built Minecraft worlds side by side, chased each other through the yard, and curled up to binge Pokémon cartoons. Even when the tumor in the 4-year-old’s brainstem buckled his legs and slurred his speech, Neev still insisted on playing with his big brother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Neev loved his brother,” their mom, Misha Mehta, said. “We would always joke that they only had one brain. Neev would just follow Rayaan everywhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the winter holidays, Neev was tethered to an IV pole in the hospital, where pandemic-era rules prevented more than one visitor at a time. On Christmas Eve, Rayaan waved to his little brother from the cold parking lot. Inside, Neev whispered through tears to his mom that he was afraid Santa wouldn’t be able to find him in the maze of hallways and machines. His mom could hardly get the words out as she cried, but she managed to explain that she had directed Santa to the hospital with a letter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998505\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1998505 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01378_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01378_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01378_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01378_TV-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01378_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An old photo of Neev Kolte (left), who died from brain cancer, and his brother Rayaan Kolte (right) hangs on the wall of their Pleasanton home on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the course of his treatment, Neev endured three brain surgeries, 15 MRIs, and countless needle pokes — his tiny arms covered in needle marks. He died on Nov. 30, 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was hard and scary,” Rayaan said. “I couldn’t imagine living without him for some time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the summer of fifth grade, Rayaan resolved to do something. That summer, he launched the lemonade stand, and that fall, he lobbied his teacher to run a toy drive for kids stuck in the hospital over Christmas. His father expected a handful of donations. Instead, hundreds of toys flooded the classroom, spilling into the hall. The family had to call for extra cars to haul the boxes to the oncology floor at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, where Neev had been treated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What began as the tender empathy of a big brother has become an annual community tradition,” Mehta said. “A reminder that even in the face of devastating loss, compassion can ripple outward. Each toy delivered to a child in the hospital carries with it a message that they are seen, remembered and loved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past four years, with help from classmates and friends, Rayaan has donated more than a thousand toys.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Carrying Ronil’s spirit\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Sahil Mehta was in second grade when his big brother Ronil suddenly collapsed at their Fremont home in early January 2016 and slipped into a coma. Until then, Ronil was seemingly a healthy 12-year-old. But in the hospital, doctors delivered a shocking prognosis: He had DIPG. He had less than a week to live and urged the family to take him off life support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My brain refused to listen,” said their mom, Manisha Mehta (no relation to Rayaan’s mom Misha Mehta). “The night before, he had gone to a Boy Scout meeting, and we had played ‘Game of Life.’ What an irony. Life certainly turned upside down for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998508\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1998508 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01557_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01557_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01557_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01557_TV-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS01557_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A family photo of Neev Kolte’s family, including Neev, who died from brain cancer, sits on a table in their Pleasanton home on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Miraculously, four days later, Ronil opened his eyes. He fought to hold onto life for 31 months — through strokes, radiation, surgeries, even experimental treatments in Mexico. When the doctors exhausted all options, Ronil’s family stopped treatment and brought him home. He died on Sept. 1, 2018, in the same room where the brothers once built Lego castles and laughed under blanket forts. His last wish was to donate his tumor to Stanford for research, so that other children might have the chance he never did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years afterward, the family ached in silence. Sahil was just 10 years old, unsure what to do with his grief. But by the time he entered Irvington High School in Fremont, he had begun putting his emotions to work. He started a club at school called the “Childhood Cancer Crusaders,” and before long, 50 members were showing up to raise awareness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ronil’s spirit of giving is really what inspired me to take action,” Sahil said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Teaming up for change\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This past Christmas, Sahil organized a holiday toy drive, taking a cue from Rayaan’s earlier effort. Together, they collected boxes of dolls, puzzles, and board games for kids in the hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the spring, Sahil’s school club hosted a Relay for Life — a walkathon where students lit candles, played music, and circled the track, raising thousands of dollars for cancer research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998502\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1998502 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS00997_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS00997_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS00997_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS00997_TV-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250910-CANCERTEENS00997_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Old decorations from past birthdays, photos, and artwork honor the memory of Ronil Mehta, who died of brain cancer, in his room in Fremont on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He didn’t stop there — for an Eagle Scout project, he assembled care kits stuffed with books and games, small comforts to ease the endless hours families spend at Stanford Hospital. His dedication drew national recognition when he was named a Gold Ambassador, one of just a handful of teens selected by the American Cancer Society to press lawmakers for more pediatric research funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the boys wanted to expand their efforts. After attending Curefest, an advocacy event in Washington, D.C., Sahil came home restless. Why wasn’t California doing more? Digging around online, he discovered a voluntary contribution fund — a simple checkbox on tax forms that lets residents direct money to specific causes. Breast cancer had one.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Alzheimer’s had one. In states like Maine, Missouri, and New Jersey, pediatric cancer even had one. But in California? Nowhere on the list.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He built a presentation, scheduled a meeting with Assemblymember Lee and pitched the idea. Within a couple of months, Lee’s office drafted AB 703.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it came time to testify, Sahil invited Rayaan to join him. Side by side, the two boys told lawmakers about the death of their brothers. Sahil explained in a measured voice that less than 8% of federal cancer research dollars go to children, and California earmarked none.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These children are not numbers,” he told the lawmakers. “They are sons. They are daughters. They are brothers and sisters whose lives are being left behind without a chance to grow up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 703 in July. Beginning next year, a checkbox will appear on California tax forms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never thought I could influence policy,” Sahil said. “But it shows that even if you’re a kid or a teenager, there are ways to make an impact.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A few hundred preschoolers and elementary school kids donned miniature white coats this week at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> to treat their teddy bears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pint-sized doctors performed pretend surgeries, scraped teeth, took X-rays and even wrapped their stuffed patients in colorful fiberglass casts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This can make the bone go back into place,” said 6-year-old Malcolm Turnbull, pointing at the orange cast on his teddy bear’s arm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The children guided their bears through wooden MRI machines and placed superhero bandages after administering make-believe vaccines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998097\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250813-TEDDY-BEAR-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250813-TEDDY-BEAR-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250813-TEDDY-BEAR-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250813-TEDDY-BEAR-MD-02-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250813-TEDDY-BEAR-MD-02-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diborah Wubshet (right) helps June (2) give a teddy bear a pretend vaccine at the Teddy Bear Clinic at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco on Aug. 13, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The event aimed to reduce any fear of needles, at a time when \u003ca href=\"https://www.naccho.org/blog/articles/new-data-shows-an-increase-in-vaccine-hesitancy-heres-how-lhds-are-addressing-it\">vaccine hesitancy is on the rise\u003c/a>, and demystify common medical procedures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most healthy kids see a doctor when they have an ear infection or they need a vaccination, both not very pleasant things,” said Stefan Friedrichsdorf, professor of pediatrics and the chief of the Division of Pediatric Pain, Palliative and Integrative Medicine at UCSF. “The teddy clinic allows them to interact with clinicians and see that they are normal people, which reduces their anxiety and fear.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friedrichsdorf, who has treated children with measles, five of whom died, because they weren’t vaccinated, said the stakes are high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not vaccinating your child is a choice, but it has very dangerous consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A few hundred preschoolers and elementary school kids donned miniature white coats this week at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> to treat their teddy bears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pint-sized doctors performed pretend surgeries, scraped teeth, took X-rays and even wrapped their stuffed patients in colorful fiberglass casts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This can make the bone go back into place,” said 6-year-old Malcolm Turnbull, pointing at the orange cast on his teddy bear’s arm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The children guided their bears through wooden MRI machines and placed superhero bandages after administering make-believe vaccines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998097\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250813-TEDDY-BEAR-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250813-TEDDY-BEAR-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250813-TEDDY-BEAR-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250813-TEDDY-BEAR-MD-02-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/08/250813-TEDDY-BEAR-MD-02-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diborah Wubshet (right) helps June (2) give a teddy bear a pretend vaccine at the Teddy Bear Clinic at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco on Aug. 13, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The event aimed to reduce any fear of needles, at a time when \u003ca href=\"https://www.naccho.org/blog/articles/new-data-shows-an-increase-in-vaccine-hesitancy-heres-how-lhds-are-addressing-it\">vaccine hesitancy is on the rise\u003c/a>, and demystify common medical procedures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most healthy kids see a doctor when they have an ear infection or they need a vaccination, both not very pleasant things,” said Stefan Friedrichsdorf, professor of pediatrics and the chief of the Division of Pediatric Pain, Palliative and Integrative Medicine at UCSF. “The teddy clinic allows them to interact with clinicians and see that they are normal people, which reduces their anxiety and fear.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friedrichsdorf, who has treated children with measles, five of whom died, because they weren’t vaccinated, said the stakes are high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not vaccinating your child is a choice, but it has very dangerous consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "the-marin-town-where-rfk-jr-s-message-took-root",
"title": "The Marin Town Where RFK Jr.’s Message Took Root",
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"content": "\u003cp>Every Wednesday, Fairfax’s farmers market unfolds beneath a canopy of redwoods in West \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/marin-county\">Marin County\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kids run barefoot through the grass while parents line up for heirloom tomatoes and jars of honey. Local bands often strum bluegrass music near the picnic tables. But last year, the presidential election interrupted the bucolic rhythm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of then-candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. set up shop at the entrance for months. They waved flags, gathered signatures and spread out rows of campaign merchandise — hats, shirts, flyers — stamped with Kennedy’s health reform slogan: “Make America Healthy Again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was all in this spirit of green libertarian politics,” said former Mayor Chance Cutrano, referring to the town’s mix of environmental values and anti-establishment sensibilities. “It’s not uncommon to see ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ stickers in town.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He and other local leaders once dismissed Kennedy’s followers as fringe — a cluster of anti-vaccine activists on the margins — but in recent years, those voices began dominating Town Council meetings. Many locals still vote Democratic, but the tone of civic life has changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I did not realize the community’s degree of love and connection to RFK as this kind of cult figure,” he said. “There’s just an aggressive, adversarial, conspiratorial energy that has come, likely as an outcropping of the pandemic. It’s unrelenting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996847\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996847\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-01-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-01-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-01-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-01-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A storefront displays a window filled with anti-Trump signs in downtown Fairfax, Marin County, on May 15, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That energy — rooted in a long-standing distrust of mainstream medicine — boiled over during the pandemic, expanding into a broader skepticism of science and a push for “medical freedom,” the belief that individuals should make their own health decisions without government interference. The movement was fueled by Kennedy and the organization he founded, Children’s Health Defense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As mayor, Cutrano pushed for renter protections and environmental reforms — priorities that once defined Fairfax politics. “It used to be about stewardship, equity, protecting our ridgelines and the charm of our downtown,” Cutrano said. “Now it’s about opposition. Anti-vax, anti-DEI, anti-climate policy and anti-tenant protections.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the summer of 2023, a group of politically active locals published a death threat calling for Cutrano’s public lynching and an end to ‘\u003ca href=\"https://marinlocalnews.com/the-fairfax-revolt-against-woke-authoritarianism/\">woke authoritarianism\u003c/a>.’ He was not reelected in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fairfax is the kind of town where residents in yoga pants sip golden milk and debate detox protocols on the patio at Good Earth, the beloved organic grocery store that doubles as its unofficial town square. Residents pride themselves on living just outside San Francisco’s gravitational pull.[aside postID=news_12039390 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/IMG_1018-1020x765.jpg']Many longtime locals still carry the ethos of the ’60s counterculture — Deadheads and old-school activists who never stopped questioning authority. They fought smart meters over concerns about electromagnetic radiation and continue to resist the rollout of 5G cellular networks, citing fears over constant exposure to higher frequency signals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here, being “natural” isn’t just a health choice — it’s a worldview. The ground, presumably pesticide-free, was tilled and ready for Kennedy’s platform to take root.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Regulars at public meetings accused us of knowingly harming people with vaccines,” said Matthew Willis, who served as Marin County’s public health officer throughout the pandemic. “They hung banners over Highway 101 calling for me to be locked up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last summer, when supporters led a Kennedy float through the Fairfax Festival parade, Willis felt the need to hide his family as it passed by. “I wasn’t sure what would happen if they saw us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Willis retired at the end of the summer and is still grappling with how quickly the movement gained ground. “I didn’t see all the ways this group was tied to a much stronger national thread, or that the leader of that movement would be put in charge of our entire national health and science system,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996852\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996852\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-15-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-15-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-15-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-15-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-15-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-15-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-15-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-15-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Matt Willis, former Marin County Public Health Officer, poses for a portrait in San Anselmo on May 15, 2025. After serving as the county’s health official from 2013 to 2024, Willis retired in September 2024 and now focuses on climate health and public health communication initiatives. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As head of Health and Human Services, Kennedy has instilled his own ideology into federal policy. In his first months in office, he launched a controversial autism inquiry focused on environmental causes, cast doubt on bird flu vaccines, condemned the sale of ultra-processed food on Native American reservations as a form of genocide, proposed deep budget cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health and terminated thousands of federal health workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And on Tuesday, Kennedy announced that the CDC would no longer recommend the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics say his approach could weaken the institutions that prevent disease and respond to health emergencies. However, for supporters like Nathanial Lepp, a family physician and addiction specialist in Fairfax, Kennedy’s early actions are a long-overdue reckoning with the public health system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think he’s directionally correct,” Lepp, 40, said. “Even if he doesn’t always get the details right, he’s asking the question nobody else is asking: Why are we so sick?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lepp’s work experience shaped his worldview. During his residency at a safety-net hospital in Salinas, he had a front-row seat to the opioid crisis. He saw patients harmed not by a lack of care, but by the care itself — from overprescribed painkillers to long-term dependence on psychiatric medications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One patient in his 60s arrived in the ER disoriented and unable to hold a conversation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996848\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996848\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-03-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-03-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-03-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-03-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Small businesses, cafes, and independent shops line the streets of downtown Fairfax in Marin County on May 15, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Everyone thought he had dementia,” Lepp said. When tests came back normal, doctors gradually weaned him off a benzodiazepine, a nervous system depressant commonly used to treat insomnia, anxiety and seizures. Over the next three months, the fog lifted. “His symptoms were gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lepp now works with patients to taper off medications that may be doing more harm than good. He said Kennedy is one of the few public figures willing to confront the uncomfortable possibility that medicine itself is part of the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Politically, Lepp long considered himself far-left — protesting the Iraq War and supporting progressive presidential candidates like Ralph Nader and Howard Dean. But over time, he grew disillusioned with a system he saw as more focused on preserving the status quo than delivering real reform.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Democrats consolidated around Joe Biden in 2020, sidelining Sen. Bernie Sanders, he felt his views confirmed. “They were terrible at governing and consistently blocked more populist voices,” Lepp said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kennedy, he claimed, is the first national figure in years who seems willing to question the system itself — not just “tinker around the edges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996849\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996849\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-08-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-08-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-08-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-08-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Martin Kaufman sits at a parklet in downtown Fairfax, Marin County, on May 15, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Martin Kaufman, a 41-year-old cannabis entrepreneur in Fairfax, doesn’t trust much anymore — not public health agencies, not politicians, not the media. He once leaned left, drawn to causes like cannabis legalization and environmental protection. He said his faith in the government gave way to deep cynicism. “I just look at what politicians actually accomplish,” he said. “Most of them? Nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After his second COVID-19 shot, Kaufman said he developed symptoms consistent with cerebral encephalitis — severe headaches, brain fog and cognitive issues that lingered for months. During his recovery, a friend gave him a copy of Kennedy’s 2021 book, \u003cem>The Real Anthony Fauci\u003c/em>, which public health officials have widely criticized for promoting conspiracy theories, including claims that vaccines are tools of population control and that the pandemic was engineered to benefit pharmaceutical companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He wants to study vaccines in a way that hasn’t been allowed for decades,” Kaufman said. “Maybe we find out they’re totally safe. Maybe not. Either way, at least we’ll know. That alone is a public service.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists argue that Kennedy’s push to “study vaccines” misrepresents the state of existing research. Dozens of large-scale studies found vaccines to be overwhelmingly safe and effective. Still, for some voters, Kennedy’s outsider stance makes him compelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“None of this stuff even mattered to me until RFK started talking about it,” said Zadie Dressler, a 56-year-old nurse in Petaluma, one of several North Bay cities where Kennedy’s message has caught on. “He’s asking why so many kids have asthma, autism and obesity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996851\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1996851 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-12-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-12-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-12-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-12-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-12-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-12-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-12-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-12-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A local artist sells jewelry in front of Good Earth Natural Foods in Fairfax, Marin County, on May 15, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dressler said she received the first two COVID shots despite feeling hesitant. Months later, she experienced chest pain, tachycardia and fatigue, symptoms she now attributes to the vaccine. Around that time, Kennedy’s videos showed up in her social media feeds. “Everything he said — it felt like the truth,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of Kennedy’s supporters said the same thing — that they didn’t hear his ideas from doctors or the news, but through posts shared online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s not just talking — he’s living it,” Dressler said. “He wants to get to the root of the problem, not just throw more drugs at everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dressler’s sentiment has rippled out across the north bay. For a while, it was just a folding table, a stack of flyers and a few diehard volunteers at the Fairfax farmers market. But the message — medical freedom, skepticism of government, distrust in public health — caught on. A town once positioned outside the mainstream now feels oddly in step with a national zeitgeist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think Fairfax thinks it’s unique,” Cutrano said. “The same story is playing out all across the U.S.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Every Wednesday, Fairfax’s farmers market unfolds beneath a canopy of redwoods in West \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/marin-county\">Marin County\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kids run barefoot through the grass while parents line up for heirloom tomatoes and jars of honey. Local bands often strum bluegrass music near the picnic tables. But last year, the presidential election interrupted the bucolic rhythm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of then-candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. set up shop at the entrance for months. They waved flags, gathered signatures and spread out rows of campaign merchandise — hats, shirts, flyers — stamped with Kennedy’s health reform slogan: “Make America Healthy Again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was all in this spirit of green libertarian politics,” said former Mayor Chance Cutrano, referring to the town’s mix of environmental values and anti-establishment sensibilities. “It’s not uncommon to see ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ stickers in town.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He and other local leaders once dismissed Kennedy’s followers as fringe — a cluster of anti-vaccine activists on the margins — but in recent years, those voices began dominating Town Council meetings. Many locals still vote Democratic, but the tone of civic life has changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I did not realize the community’s degree of love and connection to RFK as this kind of cult figure,” he said. “There’s just an aggressive, adversarial, conspiratorial energy that has come, likely as an outcropping of the pandemic. It’s unrelenting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996847\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996847\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-01-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-01-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-01-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-01-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A storefront displays a window filled with anti-Trump signs in downtown Fairfax, Marin County, on May 15, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That energy — rooted in a long-standing distrust of mainstream medicine — boiled over during the pandemic, expanding into a broader skepticism of science and a push for “medical freedom,” the belief that individuals should make their own health decisions without government interference. The movement was fueled by Kennedy and the organization he founded, Children’s Health Defense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As mayor, Cutrano pushed for renter protections and environmental reforms — priorities that once defined Fairfax politics. “It used to be about stewardship, equity, protecting our ridgelines and the charm of our downtown,” Cutrano said. “Now it’s about opposition. Anti-vax, anti-DEI, anti-climate policy and anti-tenant protections.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the summer of 2023, a group of politically active locals published a death threat calling for Cutrano’s public lynching and an end to ‘\u003ca href=\"https://marinlocalnews.com/the-fairfax-revolt-against-woke-authoritarianism/\">woke authoritarianism\u003c/a>.’ He was not reelected in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fairfax is the kind of town where residents in yoga pants sip golden milk and debate detox protocols on the patio at Good Earth, the beloved organic grocery store that doubles as its unofficial town square. Residents pride themselves on living just outside San Francisco’s gravitational pull.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Many longtime locals still carry the ethos of the ’60s counterculture — Deadheads and old-school activists who never stopped questioning authority. They fought smart meters over concerns about electromagnetic radiation and continue to resist the rollout of 5G cellular networks, citing fears over constant exposure to higher frequency signals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here, being “natural” isn’t just a health choice — it’s a worldview. The ground, presumably pesticide-free, was tilled and ready for Kennedy’s platform to take root.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Regulars at public meetings accused us of knowingly harming people with vaccines,” said Matthew Willis, who served as Marin County’s public health officer throughout the pandemic. “They hung banners over Highway 101 calling for me to be locked up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last summer, when supporters led a Kennedy float through the Fairfax Festival parade, Willis felt the need to hide his family as it passed by. “I wasn’t sure what would happen if they saw us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Willis retired at the end of the summer and is still grappling with how quickly the movement gained ground. “I didn’t see all the ways this group was tied to a much stronger national thread, or that the leader of that movement would be put in charge of our entire national health and science system,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996852\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996852\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-15-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-15-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-15-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-15-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-15-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-15-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-15-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-15-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Matt Willis, former Marin County Public Health Officer, poses for a portrait in San Anselmo on May 15, 2025. After serving as the county’s health official from 2013 to 2024, Willis retired in September 2024 and now focuses on climate health and public health communication initiatives. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As head of Health and Human Services, Kennedy has instilled his own ideology into federal policy. In his first months in office, he launched a controversial autism inquiry focused on environmental causes, cast doubt on bird flu vaccines, condemned the sale of ultra-processed food on Native American reservations as a form of genocide, proposed deep budget cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health and terminated thousands of federal health workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And on Tuesday, Kennedy announced that the CDC would no longer recommend the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics say his approach could weaken the institutions that prevent disease and respond to health emergencies. However, for supporters like Nathanial Lepp, a family physician and addiction specialist in Fairfax, Kennedy’s early actions are a long-overdue reckoning with the public health system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think he’s directionally correct,” Lepp, 40, said. “Even if he doesn’t always get the details right, he’s asking the question nobody else is asking: Why are we so sick?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lepp’s work experience shaped his worldview. During his residency at a safety-net hospital in Salinas, he had a front-row seat to the opioid crisis. He saw patients harmed not by a lack of care, but by the care itself — from overprescribed painkillers to long-term dependence on psychiatric medications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One patient in his 60s arrived in the ER disoriented and unable to hold a conversation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996848\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996848\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-03-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-03-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-03-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-03-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Small businesses, cafes, and independent shops line the streets of downtown Fairfax in Marin County on May 15, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Everyone thought he had dementia,” Lepp said. When tests came back normal, doctors gradually weaned him off a benzodiazepine, a nervous system depressant commonly used to treat insomnia, anxiety and seizures. Over the next three months, the fog lifted. “His symptoms were gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lepp now works with patients to taper off medications that may be doing more harm than good. He said Kennedy is one of the few public figures willing to confront the uncomfortable possibility that medicine itself is part of the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Politically, Lepp long considered himself far-left — protesting the Iraq War and supporting progressive presidential candidates like Ralph Nader and Howard Dean. But over time, he grew disillusioned with a system he saw as more focused on preserving the status quo than delivering real reform.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Democrats consolidated around Joe Biden in 2020, sidelining Sen. Bernie Sanders, he felt his views confirmed. “They were terrible at governing and consistently blocked more populist voices,” Lepp said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kennedy, he claimed, is the first national figure in years who seems willing to question the system itself — not just “tinker around the edges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996849\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996849\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-08-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-08-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-08-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-08-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Martin Kaufman sits at a parklet in downtown Fairfax, Marin County, on May 15, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Martin Kaufman, a 41-year-old cannabis entrepreneur in Fairfax, doesn’t trust much anymore — not public health agencies, not politicians, not the media. He once leaned left, drawn to causes like cannabis legalization and environmental protection. He said his faith in the government gave way to deep cynicism. “I just look at what politicians actually accomplish,” he said. “Most of them? Nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After his second COVID-19 shot, Kaufman said he developed symptoms consistent with cerebral encephalitis — severe headaches, brain fog and cognitive issues that lingered for months. During his recovery, a friend gave him a copy of Kennedy’s 2021 book, \u003cem>The Real Anthony Fauci\u003c/em>, which public health officials have widely criticized for promoting conspiracy theories, including claims that vaccines are tools of population control and that the pandemic was engineered to benefit pharmaceutical companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He wants to study vaccines in a way that hasn’t been allowed for decades,” Kaufman said. “Maybe we find out they’re totally safe. Maybe not. Either way, at least we’ll know. That alone is a public service.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists argue that Kennedy’s push to “study vaccines” misrepresents the state of existing research. Dozens of large-scale studies found vaccines to be overwhelmingly safe and effective. Still, for some voters, Kennedy’s outsider stance makes him compelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“None of this stuff even mattered to me until RFK started talking about it,” said Zadie Dressler, a 56-year-old nurse in Petaluma, one of several North Bay cities where Kennedy’s message has caught on. “He’s asking why so many kids have asthma, autism and obesity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996851\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1996851 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-12-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-12-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-12-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-12-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-12-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-12-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-12-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/05/250515-CRUNCHYTOALTRIGHT-12-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A local artist sells jewelry in front of Good Earth Natural Foods in Fairfax, Marin County, on May 15, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dressler said she received the first two COVID shots despite feeling hesitant. Months later, she experienced chest pain, tachycardia and fatigue, symptoms she now attributes to the vaccine. Around that time, Kennedy’s videos showed up in her social media feeds. “Everything he said — it felt like the truth,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of Kennedy’s supporters said the same thing — that they didn’t hear his ideas from doctors or the news, but through posts shared online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s not just talking — he’s living it,” Dressler said. “He wants to get to the root of the problem, not just throw more drugs at everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dressler’s sentiment has rippled out across the north bay. For a while, it was just a folding table, a stack of flyers and a few diehard volunteers at the Fairfax farmers market. But the message — medical freedom, skepticism of government, distrust in public health — caught on. A town once positioned outside the mainstream now feels oddly in step with a national zeitgeist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think Fairfax thinks it’s unique,” Cutrano said. “The same story is playing out all across the U.S.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Do I Need a Measles Booster? And How Can I Check I'm Actually Vaccinated?",
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"content": "\u003cp>On Friday, health officials in Alameda and Santa Clara counties alerted the public to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12042174/bay-area-measles-case-spurs-warnings-of-possible-exposures-at-3-locations\">a confirmed case of measles\u003c/a>, saying the resident tested positive after returning from international travel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a very highly vaccinated population, which is why we expect to contain the spread of this disease if everyone pays attention to their own vaccination status, stays up to date with their vaccinations and seeks the care we recommend today,” Dr. Sarah Rudman, the acting public health officer and director at Santa Clara County’s Department of Public Health, said Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This makes at least \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Immunization/measles.aspx\">12 confirmed cases\u003c/a> in California in 2025. The United States has now seen\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html\"> more measles cases in the first five months\u003c/a> of this year than in all of 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#do-i-need-measles-booster\">Jump straight to: Who needs a measles booster?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Measles is a highly contagious virus spread through direct contact with infectious droplets and through the air when a person with measles breathes, coughs or sneezes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the most recent available data\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Friday, 67% of the 1,088 cases in the U.S. are in children and young people age 19 and younger; 96% of total cases involved individuals who were either unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There were 285 total measles cases nationwide in 2024 and only 59 in 2023. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Yearly measles cases in the United States since 2000\n\" aria-label=\"Column Chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-E25vZ\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/E25vZ/1/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The spike comes after measles was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html#cdc_data_surveillance_section_6-history-of-measles-cases\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">officially eliminated\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from the U.S. in 2000, which the CDC defines as new cases stemming only from international travel when someone is infected abroad and then reenters the U.S. In the 1990s, cases were as \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">high as 27,808\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But what if you were vaccinated against measles as a child — or think you were? Do you need a booster dose? Keep reading for what to know about the measles vaccine and which groups should speak to their health care provider about finding another shot.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>What is the state of measles in California right now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On March 20, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-03-20/tuolumne-county-confirms-two-measles-cases-warns-of-exposure-at-high-school-and-emergency-room\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">two cases were reported\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Tuolumne County, where the public health department has warned of\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/updates/measles-exposure-possible-at-tuolumne-county-high-school#:~:text=Two%20measles%20cases%20have%20been,School%20on%20March%2010%2D11\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> potential exposures at locations including a high school\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The California Department of Public Health said the cases involved an adult and a child under 18 who lived together and who had traveled internationally. CDPH defines an “outbreak” as three or more related cases.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Measles is one of the most contagious viruses in the world, but it is preventable with the MMR vaccine, San Francisco Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip said in a statement. “If children in your family are not fully vaccinated, or if you did not have measles as a child, please get the vaccine for the best protection.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The last major measles surge in California was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Immunization/measles.aspx\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in 2019\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, when 41 cases were associated with six separate outbreaks, bringing the state’s yearly total to 73. The largest outbreak that year resulted in 21 individual measles cases. Before that, an outbreak associated with Disneyland visits resulted in at least 131 Californians being infected with measles between Dec. 2014 and April 2015.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>What is the measles vaccine, and when would I have gotten it?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Measles is preventable with the combined Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine, and vaccination against measles has been part of \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/history.html\">routine childhood immunization\u003c/a> for decades. There’s also a combined Measles, Mumps, Rubella and Varicella, or MMRV, vaccine, but it’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/public/index.html\">only licensed\u003c/a> for use in children under 12 years of age.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC recommends that everyone over 12 months of age be vaccinated against measles, with children receiving \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/public/index.html\">two doses of the MMR vaccine \u003c/a>starting at 12-15 months of age. The second dose is recommended at 4-6 years of age. This vaccine provides lifetime protection against measles, so if you got your MMR vaccine as a child, you’re considered up-to-date on your vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"do-i-need-measles-booster\">\u003c/a>If I’m up-to-date on my measles vaccines, do I need a measles booster?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>No, the CDC said. If you got two doses of measles vaccine as a child according to the U.S. \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/questions.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/faqs.html\">vaccination schedule\u003c/a>, the CDC considers you “protected for life” and that you “do not ever need a booster dose.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are, however, two groups of older adults who received childhood measles vaccinations but who should still talk to their health care provider about possibly getting another vaccination:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>People born between 1957 and 1969\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you are in this age group, which would make you between 56 and 68 years old today, the Bay Area health officers say it’s likely you only received one dose of the MMR vaccine and “should consider getting a second dose.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What if you were born before 1957? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the CDC, everyone born before this year is presumed to have\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/hcp/recommendations.html#immunity\"> immunity from measles \u003c/a>from a previous infection, given how widespread the virus was during that period — although \u003ca href=\"https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/should-you-get-a-measles-vaccine-booster\">people \u003c/a>in this age group who work in health care and who don’t have any written evidence of this immunity should get the MMR vaccine anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>People who received the ‘killed’ measles vaccine between 1963 and 1967\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “killed,” or inactivated, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/questions.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/faqs.html#cdc_generic_section_1-protection-against-measles\">measles vaccine \u003c/a>was an earlier formulation of the measles vaccine that was only used for this brief period in the 1960s, for fewer than one million people, the CDC said. Because it was found \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lBIT7pOtFXC7RGnsk-l8cp_Wdk4O8Olc_a8u6X3WpQ4/edit?tab=t.0\">to be ineffective\u003c/a> and replaced with the current live vaccine, people who know they received this particular version of the vaccine “should talk to their health care provider about\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/questions.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/faqs.html#cdc_generic_section_1-protection-against-measles\"> getting revaccinated\u003c/a>” with the MMR vaccine, according to the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is no harm in \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/questions.html\">getting another dose \u003c/a>of MMR vaccine if you may already be immune to measles (or mumps or rubella),” the CDC said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996383\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1949px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996383\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/491404051_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1949\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/491404051_qed.jpg 1949w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/491404051_qed-800x547.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/491404051_qed-1020x698.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/491404051_qed-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/491404051_qed-768x525.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/491404051_qed-1536x1051.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/491404051_qed-1920x1313.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1949px) 100vw, 1949px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The CDC recommends that everyone over 12 months of age be vaccinated against measles, with children receiving two doses of the MMR vaccine starting at 12-15 months of age. The second dose is recommended at 4-6 years of age. \u003ccite>(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>I don’t know if I’m vaccinated against measles. How can I check?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There’s no national organization that maintains Americans’\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines-adults/recommended-vaccines/keeping-vaccine-records-up-to-date.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/adults/vaccination-records.html\"> vaccination records\u003c/a>. Ways that the CDC suggests to track down your own records include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Ask your parents or caregivers for \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines-children/records/?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/records/keeping-track.html\">records \u003c/a>of your childhood immunizations (or look in saved documents from your childhood, like baby books).\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Consult a state immunization registry like the California Department of Public Health’s \u003ca href=\"https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/\">Digital Vaccine Record \u003c/a>portal.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Ask your doctor or public health clinic, but remember that these records may only be stored for a limited time.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The CDC\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines-adults/recommended-vaccines/keeping-vaccine-records-up-to-date.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/adults/vaccination-records.html\"> has a guide \u003c/a>to tracking down your vaccination records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the Bay Area coalition of public health officers, “your medical provider can order a simple blood test to check whether or not you are immune” to measles, either from vaccination or from a childhood infection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another reason to check your vaccination status if you’re unsure: Possessing documentation of your vaccination status “can help you avoid being quarantined if you are exposed,” the health officers said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if you can’t find any sign that you or your family have received a measles vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Teenagers and adults with no evidence of immunity should be vaccinated right away,” they added — something the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines-adults/recommended-vaccines/keeping-vaccine-records-up-to-date.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/adults/vaccination-records.html\">CDC echoed\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>If I’m vaccinated, am I still at risk of getting measles?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Five years of living with COVID-19 have taught us that being vaccinated against a virus doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t get infected with that virus. The COVID-19 vaccine, for example, does somewhat reduce your chances of being infected — although the\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/ncird/whats-new/5-things-you-should-know.html\"> CDC said \u003c/a>that “protection against infection tends to be modest and sometimes short-lived” — but it also means you’re much less likely to get severely ill if you do get infected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the measles vaccine is incredibly effective at protecting against infections, the\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/questions.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/faqs.html\"> CDC said\u003c/a>, and two doses of measles vaccine are “about 97% effective” at preventing measles if you’re exposed. (One dose is “about 93% effective.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for why “about three out of 100” people vaccinated against measles will still get measles after exposure — also known as breakthrough cases — \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/questions.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/faqs.html\">the CDC said \u003c/a>that experts “aren’t sure why” and that this could be due to the responsiveness of an individual’s immune system to the vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But the good news is, fully vaccinated people who get measles seem more likely to have a milder illness,” the CDC said — and fully vaccinated people “seem also less likely to spread the disease to other people.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>What are the symptoms of measles?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996385\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2121px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996385\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2121\" height=\"1414\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024.jpg 2121w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2121px) 100vw, 2121px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Measles symptoms can occur between 1 and 3 weeks after exposure and could include fever, cough, runny nose and pink eye, followed a few days later by a rash. \u003ccite>(Natalya Maisheva/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose, and pink eye, followed a few days later by a rash. These symptoms can emerge between\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/signs-symptoms/?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/measles/symptoms/signs-symptoms.html\"> seven and 21 days \u003c/a>after exposure. About 1 in 5 unvaccinated people who become infected with measles — a highly contagious virus that spreads through direct contact with infectious droplets — will \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/signs-symptoms/?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/measles/symptoms/signs-symptoms.html\">require hospitalization\u003c/a>, according to the CDC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some people, the disease can be fatal. In others, the impacts of an infection can linger — or appear —\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/03/17/nx-s1-5328765/measles-outbreak-health-risk\"> years afterward.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the U.S. measles vaccination program started in 1963, an estimated \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/questions.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/faqs.html#cdc_generic_section_4-u-s-measles-cases-statistics\">3 to 4 million people \u003c/a>nationwide were infected with measles annually, the CDC said — with only 500,000 being reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Among reported cases, 400 to 500 died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and 1,000 developed encephalitis (brain swelling) from measles,” the agency said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Where can I find a measles vaccine in the Bay Area?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If you have health insurance, the\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/vaccines/index.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fvaccines%2Fvpd%2Fmmr%2Fpublic%2Findex.html\"> CDC’s recommendation of\u003c/a> these shots means that your insurer should cover the costs. You can find appointments for an MMR vaccine at:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Your regular health care provider.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A local pharmacy like \u003ca href=\"https://www.cvs.com/minuteclinic/services/mmr-measles-mumps-rubella\">CVS \u003c/a>or \u003ca href=\"https://www.walgreens.com/topic/pharmacy/scheduler/measles-mumps-rubella-mmr-vaccine_38.jsp\">Walgreens.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.vaccines.gov/en/\">vaccines.gov\u003c/a>, the federal government’s vaccine locator.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://myturn.ca.gov/vaccinelocator.html\">myturn.ca.gov\u003c/a>, the state’s vaccine locator.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>For those without insurance: Uninsured children ages 18 and under can get free DTaP vaccines — and other no-cost immunizations — as part of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/vfc/index.html\">Vaccines for Children Program\u003c/a>. People without insurance can get the MMR vaccine at a lower cost — or even free\u003ca href=\"https://eziz.org/assets/docs/IMM-1247.pdf\"> if they qualify \u003c/a>for the Vaccines for Adults Program — from several providers and community clinics around the Bay Area, including:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>San Francisco Department of Public Health’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/information/aitc-services-and-prices\">AITC clinic.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Contra Costa Public Health \u003ca href=\"https://cchealth.org/immunization/clinics.php#Uninsured\">Immunization Clinics.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Alameda County \u003ca href=\"https://acphd.org/clinics/\">Immunization Clinics.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">KQED’s Samantha Kennedy and Nisa Khan contributed to this report. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "With growing measles outbreaks in Texas and New Mexico, who might need an MMR booster? And if you're unsure, how can you find your measles vaccination records?",
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"title": "Do I Need a Measles Booster? And How Can I Check I'm Actually Vaccinated? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On Friday, health officials in Alameda and Santa Clara counties alerted the public to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12042174/bay-area-measles-case-spurs-warnings-of-possible-exposures-at-3-locations\">a confirmed case of measles\u003c/a>, saying the resident tested positive after returning from international travel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a very highly vaccinated population, which is why we expect to contain the spread of this disease if everyone pays attention to their own vaccination status, stays up to date with their vaccinations and seeks the care we recommend today,” Dr. Sarah Rudman, the acting public health officer and director at Santa Clara County’s Department of Public Health, said Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This makes at least \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Immunization/measles.aspx\">12 confirmed cases\u003c/a> in California in 2025. The United States has now seen\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html\"> more measles cases in the first five months\u003c/a> of this year than in all of 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#do-i-need-measles-booster\">Jump straight to: Who needs a measles booster?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Measles is a highly contagious virus spread through direct contact with infectious droplets and through the air when a person with measles breathes, coughs or sneezes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the most recent available data\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Friday, 67% of the 1,088 cases in the U.S. are in children and young people age 19 and younger; 96% of total cases involved individuals who were either unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There were 285 total measles cases nationwide in 2024 and only 59 in 2023. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Yearly measles cases in the United States since 2000\n\" aria-label=\"Column Chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-E25vZ\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/E25vZ/1/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The spike comes after measles was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html#cdc_data_surveillance_section_6-history-of-measles-cases\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">officially eliminated\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from the U.S. in 2000, which the CDC defines as new cases stemming only from international travel when someone is infected abroad and then reenters the U.S. In the 1990s, cases were as \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">high as 27,808\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But what if you were vaccinated against measles as a child — or think you were? Do you need a booster dose? Keep reading for what to know about the measles vaccine and which groups should speak to their health care provider about finding another shot.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>What is the state of measles in California right now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On March 20, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-03-20/tuolumne-county-confirms-two-measles-cases-warns-of-exposure-at-high-school-and-emergency-room\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">two cases were reported\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Tuolumne County, where the public health department has warned of\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/updates/measles-exposure-possible-at-tuolumne-county-high-school#:~:text=Two%20measles%20cases%20have%20been,School%20on%20March%2010%2D11\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> potential exposures at locations including a high school\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The California Department of Public Health said the cases involved an adult and a child under 18 who lived together and who had traveled internationally. CDPH defines an “outbreak” as three or more related cases.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Measles is one of the most contagious viruses in the world, but it is preventable with the MMR vaccine, San Francisco Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip said in a statement. “If children in your family are not fully vaccinated, or if you did not have measles as a child, please get the vaccine for the best protection.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The last major measles surge in California was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Immunization/measles.aspx\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in 2019\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, when 41 cases were associated with six separate outbreaks, bringing the state’s yearly total to 73. The largest outbreak that year resulted in 21 individual measles cases. Before that, an outbreak associated with Disneyland visits resulted in at least 131 Californians being infected with measles between Dec. 2014 and April 2015.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>What is the measles vaccine, and when would I have gotten it?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Measles is preventable with the combined Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine, and vaccination against measles has been part of \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/history.html\">routine childhood immunization\u003c/a> for decades. There’s also a combined Measles, Mumps, Rubella and Varicella, or MMRV, vaccine, but it’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/public/index.html\">only licensed\u003c/a> for use in children under 12 years of age.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC recommends that everyone over 12 months of age be vaccinated against measles, with children receiving \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/public/index.html\">two doses of the MMR vaccine \u003c/a>starting at 12-15 months of age. The second dose is recommended at 4-6 years of age. This vaccine provides lifetime protection against measles, so if you got your MMR vaccine as a child, you’re considered up-to-date on your vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"do-i-need-measles-booster\">\u003c/a>If I’m up-to-date on my measles vaccines, do I need a measles booster?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>No, the CDC said. If you got two doses of measles vaccine as a child according to the U.S. \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/questions.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/faqs.html\">vaccination schedule\u003c/a>, the CDC considers you “protected for life” and that you “do not ever need a booster dose.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are, however, two groups of older adults who received childhood measles vaccinations but who should still talk to their health care provider about possibly getting another vaccination:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>People born between 1957 and 1969\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you are in this age group, which would make you between 56 and 68 years old today, the Bay Area health officers say it’s likely you only received one dose of the MMR vaccine and “should consider getting a second dose.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What if you were born before 1957? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the CDC, everyone born before this year is presumed to have\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/hcp/recommendations.html#immunity\"> immunity from measles \u003c/a>from a previous infection, given how widespread the virus was during that period — although \u003ca href=\"https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/should-you-get-a-measles-vaccine-booster\">people \u003c/a>in this age group who work in health care and who don’t have any written evidence of this immunity should get the MMR vaccine anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>People who received the ‘killed’ measles vaccine between 1963 and 1967\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “killed,” or inactivated, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/questions.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/faqs.html#cdc_generic_section_1-protection-against-measles\">measles vaccine \u003c/a>was an earlier formulation of the measles vaccine that was only used for this brief period in the 1960s, for fewer than one million people, the CDC said. Because it was found \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lBIT7pOtFXC7RGnsk-l8cp_Wdk4O8Olc_a8u6X3WpQ4/edit?tab=t.0\">to be ineffective\u003c/a> and replaced with the current live vaccine, people who know they received this particular version of the vaccine “should talk to their health care provider about\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/questions.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/faqs.html#cdc_generic_section_1-protection-against-measles\"> getting revaccinated\u003c/a>” with the MMR vaccine, according to the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is no harm in \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/questions.html\">getting another dose \u003c/a>of MMR vaccine if you may already be immune to measles (or mumps or rubella),” the CDC said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996383\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1949px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996383\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/491404051_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1949\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/491404051_qed.jpg 1949w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/491404051_qed-800x547.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/491404051_qed-1020x698.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/491404051_qed-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/491404051_qed-768x525.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/491404051_qed-1536x1051.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/491404051_qed-1920x1313.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1949px) 100vw, 1949px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The CDC recommends that everyone over 12 months of age be vaccinated against measles, with children receiving two doses of the MMR vaccine starting at 12-15 months of age. The second dose is recommended at 4-6 years of age. \u003ccite>(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>I don’t know if I’m vaccinated against measles. How can I check?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There’s no national organization that maintains Americans’\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines-adults/recommended-vaccines/keeping-vaccine-records-up-to-date.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/adults/vaccination-records.html\"> vaccination records\u003c/a>. Ways that the CDC suggests to track down your own records include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Ask your parents or caregivers for \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines-children/records/?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/records/keeping-track.html\">records \u003c/a>of your childhood immunizations (or look in saved documents from your childhood, like baby books).\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Consult a state immunization registry like the California Department of Public Health’s \u003ca href=\"https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/\">Digital Vaccine Record \u003c/a>portal.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Ask your doctor or public health clinic, but remember that these records may only be stored for a limited time.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The CDC\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines-adults/recommended-vaccines/keeping-vaccine-records-up-to-date.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/adults/vaccination-records.html\"> has a guide \u003c/a>to tracking down your vaccination records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the Bay Area coalition of public health officers, “your medical provider can order a simple blood test to check whether or not you are immune” to measles, either from vaccination or from a childhood infection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another reason to check your vaccination status if you’re unsure: Possessing documentation of your vaccination status “can help you avoid being quarantined if you are exposed,” the health officers said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if you can’t find any sign that you or your family have received a measles vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Teenagers and adults with no evidence of immunity should be vaccinated right away,” they added — something the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines-adults/recommended-vaccines/keeping-vaccine-records-up-to-date.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/adults/vaccination-records.html\">CDC echoed\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>If I’m vaccinated, am I still at risk of getting measles?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Five years of living with COVID-19 have taught us that being vaccinated against a virus doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t get infected with that virus. The COVID-19 vaccine, for example, does somewhat reduce your chances of being infected — although the\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/ncird/whats-new/5-things-you-should-know.html\"> CDC said \u003c/a>that “protection against infection tends to be modest and sometimes short-lived” — but it also means you’re much less likely to get severely ill if you do get infected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the measles vaccine is incredibly effective at protecting against infections, the\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/questions.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/faqs.html\"> CDC said\u003c/a>, and two doses of measles vaccine are “about 97% effective” at preventing measles if you’re exposed. (One dose is “about 93% effective.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for why “about three out of 100” people vaccinated against measles will still get measles after exposure — also known as breakthrough cases — \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/questions.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/faqs.html\">the CDC said \u003c/a>that experts “aren’t sure why” and that this could be due to the responsiveness of an individual’s immune system to the vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But the good news is, fully vaccinated people who get measles seem more likely to have a milder illness,” the CDC said — and fully vaccinated people “seem also less likely to spread the disease to other people.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>What are the symptoms of measles?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1996385\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2121px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1996385\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2121\" height=\"1414\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024.jpg 2121w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/03/GettyImages-2152300024-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2121px) 100vw, 2121px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Measles symptoms can occur between 1 and 3 weeks after exposure and could include fever, cough, runny nose and pink eye, followed a few days later by a rash. \u003ccite>(Natalya Maisheva/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose, and pink eye, followed a few days later by a rash. These symptoms can emerge between\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/signs-symptoms/?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/measles/symptoms/signs-symptoms.html\"> seven and 21 days \u003c/a>after exposure. About 1 in 5 unvaccinated people who become infected with measles — a highly contagious virus that spreads through direct contact with infectious droplets — will \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/signs-symptoms/?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/measles/symptoms/signs-symptoms.html\">require hospitalization\u003c/a>, according to the CDC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some people, the disease can be fatal. In others, the impacts of an infection can linger — or appear —\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/03/17/nx-s1-5328765/measles-outbreak-health-risk\"> years afterward.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the U.S. measles vaccination program started in 1963, an estimated \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/questions.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/faqs.html#cdc_generic_section_4-u-s-measles-cases-statistics\">3 to 4 million people \u003c/a>nationwide were infected with measles annually, the CDC said — with only 500,000 being reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Among reported cases, 400 to 500 died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and 1,000 developed encephalitis (brain swelling) from measles,” the agency said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Where can I find a measles vaccine in the Bay Area?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If you have health insurance, the\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/measles/vaccines/index.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fvaccines%2Fvpd%2Fmmr%2Fpublic%2Findex.html\"> CDC’s recommendation of\u003c/a> these shots means that your insurer should cover the costs. You can find appointments for an MMR vaccine at:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Your regular health care provider.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A local pharmacy like \u003ca href=\"https://www.cvs.com/minuteclinic/services/mmr-measles-mumps-rubella\">CVS \u003c/a>or \u003ca href=\"https://www.walgreens.com/topic/pharmacy/scheduler/measles-mumps-rubella-mmr-vaccine_38.jsp\">Walgreens.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.vaccines.gov/en/\">vaccines.gov\u003c/a>, the federal government’s vaccine locator.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://myturn.ca.gov/vaccinelocator.html\">myturn.ca.gov\u003c/a>, the state’s vaccine locator.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>For those without insurance: Uninsured children ages 18 and under can get free DTaP vaccines — and other no-cost immunizations — as part of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/vfc/index.html\">Vaccines for Children Program\u003c/a>. People without insurance can get the MMR vaccine at a lower cost — or even free\u003ca href=\"https://eziz.org/assets/docs/IMM-1247.pdf\"> if they qualify \u003c/a>for the Vaccines for Adults Program — from several providers and community clinics around the Bay Area, including:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>San Francisco Department of Public Health’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/information/aitc-services-and-prices\">AITC clinic.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Contra Costa Public Health \u003ca href=\"https://cchealth.org/immunization/clinics.php#Uninsured\">Immunization Clinics.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Alameda County \u003ca href=\"https://acphd.org/clinics/\">Immunization Clinics.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">KQED’s Samantha Kennedy and Nisa Khan contributed to this report. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>When Hannah Detlefsen was born in 2017, her parents celebrated a healthy 8-pound baby. But in the ensuing months, they began to grapple with a very different truth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hannah’s father, Jeffrey Detlefsen, saw something unusual while cradling his newborn. “It was just a few days before her two-month checkup, and I noticed there was no pupil in her right eye,” he said. “It was just this blue, cloudy iris.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was the beginning of the family’s medical odyssey. First, an eye specialist suggested Hannah had retinoblastoma, a rare type of eye cancer that can be life-threatening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was pretty traumatic,” Detlefsen said. It was the first time he and his wife had to bring a child to an emergency room. “We left that night thinking she had cancer of the eye.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But three weeks later, a different specialist offered a potentially worse prognosis: Gould syndrome, a rare genetic disease that causes brain abnormalities and affects other organs, including the eyes, the brain and the kidneys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It took two-and-a-half to three weeks to get in for an MRI — the longest two weeks of our lives,” Detlefsen said. The MRI showed that Hannah missed a big portion of her brain matter important for mental function. They also suspected that Hannah had had a stroke in utero that left lasting brain damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desperate for answers, Detlefsen frantically searched the internet. He found a mother in South Africa whose son had a similar condition to Hannah. Through their back-and-forth exchanges, Detlefsen learned about Gould syndrome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992965\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992965\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240522-GouldSyndrome-14-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"A smiling woman and man lean over a broadly smiling child who lays in a hospital bed\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240522-GouldSyndrome-14-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240522-GouldSyndrome-14-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240522-GouldSyndrome-14-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240522-GouldSyndrome-14-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240522-GouldSyndrome-14-BL_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240522-GouldSyndrome-14-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mary and Jeff Detlefsen pose for a photo with their daughter Hannah on May 22, 2024, during a visit to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hannah was 6 months old when she was finally diagnosed by Douglas Gould, a UCSF geneticist who discovered the disease 20 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the reasons why this syndrome hadn’t been identified earlier is because it’s highly variable,” Gould said in an interview with KQED. The disease presentation includes seizures, cataracts, and kidney issues. Today, Gould estimates approximately 500 Americans suffer from the disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He especially feels for young parents who had to figure out the disease on their own. “Usually, they are just starting to grow their families,” he said. “And in addition to having these new challenges, they’re going to the literature to learn about the disease and educating their doctors — who may or may not be that receptive to learning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, Gould and other experts at UCSF created the first center in the world focused on studying and treating patients with Gould syndrome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now you’ve got teams of doctors who see 100 patients instead of just one, and they become experts,” Gould said. “It improves patient care and helps us on the research side to better understand the disease.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having a center like this will also raise public awareness of the disease, said Scott Earley, the director of the Center for Molecular and Cellular Signaling in the Cardiovascular System at the University of Nevada, Reno, who studies Gould syndrome. “It may turn out that there are many more people affected by this disease than we currently know,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992960\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992960\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240521-GouldSyndrome-20-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"A standing woman smiles down at a smiling child who sits in what appears to be a stroller outdoors in a park\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240521-GouldSyndrome-20-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240521-GouldSyndrome-20-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240521-GouldSyndrome-20-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240521-GouldSyndrome-20-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240521-GouldSyndrome-20-BL_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240521-GouldSyndrome-20-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mary Detlefsen spends time with her daughter Hannah, 7, at Magical Bridge Playground, an accessible playground, in Redwood City on May 21, 2024, during a Bay Area visit to care providers for Hannah at Stanford and UCSF hospitals. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As a pediatric neurologist at UCSF, Rachel Vassar, who co-founded the new center, has treated 10 patients with the rare disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the many questions that parents always ask me is ‘What will the future look like?’ and we can’t yet say with certainty,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By having a centralized facility, experts can now work together to collect and pool clinical data, Vassar said. “That’s really the only way that we can move the field forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, genetic sequencing can help doctors confirm a diagnosis when they suspect Gould syndrome. But there is still no cure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With all rare diseases, we don’t have a large randomized control trial to tell us exactly which medications will help them get better,” Vassar said. For now, doctors rely on patient feedback. But Vassar is hopeful that future gene therapies developed by scientists at the new center may allow physicians to treat the condition even as early as gestation.[aside label='Related Articles' tag='health']Hannah is now seven years old. She cannot talk or walk. Every day, she takes more than 30 medications on top of her routine therapies, such as breathing and stretching exercises. She wakes every two hours at night and is at risk for strokes at all times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s not a thing in her life that’s not affected by this syndrome. It affects every part and every minute of every day of her life and our life, and there’s really no getting around it,” Detlefsen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of her condition, Hannah needs care around the clock. Her mother has given up a full-time job to look after her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would be lying to say that it gets easier,” Detlefsen said. “As a parent, to know you’re probably going to outlive your child is not something that you ever want to even come to terms with. And I realize how precious our time is with her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Detlefsen is excited about what the center can do for future kids and for Hannah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s not going to magically heal, and I’m realistic about that. But the hope is that we can find ways to keep her more comfortable and to enjoy her life as best as she can, given the struggles,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But three weeks later, a different specialist offered a potentially worse prognosis: Gould syndrome, a rare genetic disease that causes brain abnormalities and affects other organs, including the eyes, the brain and the kidneys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It took two-and-a-half to three weeks to get in for an MRI — the longest two weeks of our lives,” Detlefsen said. The MRI showed that Hannah missed a big portion of her brain matter important for mental function. They also suspected that Hannah had had a stroke in utero that left lasting brain damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desperate for answers, Detlefsen frantically searched the internet. He found a mother in South Africa whose son had a similar condition to Hannah. Through their back-and-forth exchanges, Detlefsen learned about Gould syndrome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992965\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992965\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240522-GouldSyndrome-14-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"A smiling woman and man lean over a broadly smiling child who lays in a hospital bed\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240522-GouldSyndrome-14-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240522-GouldSyndrome-14-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240522-GouldSyndrome-14-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240522-GouldSyndrome-14-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240522-GouldSyndrome-14-BL_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240522-GouldSyndrome-14-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mary and Jeff Detlefsen pose for a photo with their daughter Hannah on May 22, 2024, during a visit to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hannah was 6 months old when she was finally diagnosed by Douglas Gould, a UCSF geneticist who discovered the disease 20 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the reasons why this syndrome hadn’t been identified earlier is because it’s highly variable,” Gould said in an interview with KQED. The disease presentation includes seizures, cataracts, and kidney issues. Today, Gould estimates approximately 500 Americans suffer from the disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He especially feels for young parents who had to figure out the disease on their own. “Usually, they are just starting to grow their families,” he said. “And in addition to having these new challenges, they’re going to the literature to learn about the disease and educating their doctors — who may or may not be that receptive to learning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, Gould and other experts at UCSF created the first center in the world focused on studying and treating patients with Gould syndrome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now you’ve got teams of doctors who see 100 patients instead of just one, and they become experts,” Gould said. “It improves patient care and helps us on the research side to better understand the disease.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having a center like this will also raise public awareness of the disease, said Scott Earley, the director of the Center for Molecular and Cellular Signaling in the Cardiovascular System at the University of Nevada, Reno, who studies Gould syndrome. “It may turn out that there are many more people affected by this disease than we currently know,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992960\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992960\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240521-GouldSyndrome-20-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"A standing woman smiles down at a smiling child who sits in what appears to be a stroller outdoors in a park\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240521-GouldSyndrome-20-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240521-GouldSyndrome-20-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240521-GouldSyndrome-20-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240521-GouldSyndrome-20-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240521-GouldSyndrome-20-BL_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240521-GouldSyndrome-20-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mary Detlefsen spends time with her daughter Hannah, 7, at Magical Bridge Playground, an accessible playground, in Redwood City on May 21, 2024, during a Bay Area visit to care providers for Hannah at Stanford and UCSF hospitals. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As a pediatric neurologist at UCSF, Rachel Vassar, who co-founded the new center, has treated 10 patients with the rare disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the many questions that parents always ask me is ‘What will the future look like?’ and we can’t yet say with certainty,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By having a centralized facility, experts can now work together to collect and pool clinical data, Vassar said. “That’s really the only way that we can move the field forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, genetic sequencing can help doctors confirm a diagnosis when they suspect Gould syndrome. But there is still no cure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With all rare diseases, we don’t have a large randomized control trial to tell us exactly which medications will help them get better,” Vassar said. For now, doctors rely on patient feedback. But Vassar is hopeful that future gene therapies developed by scientists at the new center may allow physicians to treat the condition even as early as gestation.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Hannah is now seven years old. She cannot talk or walk. Every day, she takes more than 30 medications on top of her routine therapies, such as breathing and stretching exercises. She wakes every two hours at night and is at risk for strokes at all times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s not a thing in her life that’s not affected by this syndrome. It affects every part and every minute of every day of her life and our life, and there’s really no getting around it,” Detlefsen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of her condition, Hannah needs care around the clock. Her mother has given up a full-time job to look after her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would be lying to say that it gets easier,” Detlefsen said. “As a parent, to know you’re probably going to outlive your child is not something that you ever want to even come to terms with. And I realize how precious our time is with her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Detlefsen is excited about what the center can do for future kids and for Hannah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s not going to magically heal, and I’m realistic about that. But the hope is that we can find ways to keep her more comfortable and to enjoy her life as best as she can, given the struggles,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "As California Seeks to Legalize Psychedelics for Therapy, Oregon Provides Key Lessons",
"headTitle": "As California Seeks to Legalize Psychedelics for Therapy, Oregon Provides Key Lessons | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>California has an opportunity to massively expand places where people can use psychedelic drugs under supervision, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1012\">new bill proposing to legalize substances\u003c/a> in approved service centers, including psilocybin, MDMA and mescaline for therapeutic use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a model similar to Oregon’s Psilocybin Services Act — the first law in the United States to establish a regulatory framework for receiving psilocybin, or psychedelic mushrooms — which went into effect in 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, as California lawmakers look to legalize the therapeutic use of psychedelics, uneven outcomes of that legal experiment in Oregon are surfacing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was billed by a lot of people as a solution to Oregon’s mental health problems, as a new option for mental health treatment,” said Mason Marks, a visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School who served on the advisory board for Oregon’s new psychedelics law. “Now, some years later, you have evidence to suggest the system is largely serving a psychedelic tourism of people flying in from out of state to pay very high prices.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If passed in California, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1012\">SB 1012\u003c/a> would create a professional licensing board to train facilitators, develop guidelines and regulate the therapeutic use of psychedelics. People could then use regulated psychedelic substances like magic mushrooms under the supervision of a facilitator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill passed a critical and tense state committee hearing Monday afternoon. But only after lawmakers added an amendment that said facilitators must also hold at least one medical license, such as psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, social workers and nurse practitioners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, the program would be overseen by a new department called the Division of Regulated Psychedelic Substances Control that would adopt rules over the coming years for the approved substances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know psychedelic therapy saves lives, and safe and controlled access to these innovative treatments will be transformative for so many Californians seeking relief from mental health and addiction challenges,” San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener said upon announcing the bill. “When paired with therapeutic support, psychedelics show amazing promise for treating conditions that resist other forms of treatment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Wiener pursued a different bill that would have broadly decriminalized personal use and possession of psychedelic substances. But Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed it and asked for a bill that focused on psychedelic therapy instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11974814,science_1982857,arts_13898354\"]“Both peer-reviewed science and powerful personal anecdotes lead me to support new opportunities to address mental health through psychedelic medicines like those addressed in this bill,” Newsom said in his veto message last year. “I urge the legislature to send me legislation next year that includes therapeutic guidelines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01336-3\">Studies\u003c/a> have shown that MDMA-assisted therapy can help mitigate symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Other \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8901083/\">studies\u003c/a> have also linked psilocybin as a tool for treating depression and LSD as an option for generalized anxiety disorder. However, a small portion of people have negative experiences using psychedelics, including anxiety, aggression and suicidal thoughts, particularly with recreational use outside of controlled studies where dosage is tightly controlled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research literature points out the importance of a person’s mindset heading into a psychedelic experience, as well as their immediate environment, to preventing these negative outcomes, what Timothy Leary and his colleagues in the 1960s coined the “set and setting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, clinical trials are underway at the Food and Drug Administration to approve several treatment courses with psychedelics, and an MDMA treatment course could be approved as early as August.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A trip to the mushroom doctor\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For ages, psychedelic substances have been used across cultures and societies for healing and medicinal purposes, as well as for recreational use. And unlike daily medications or weekly counseling, treatment with psychedelics usually takes a day or two, typically followed by counseling, according to Jennifer Mitchell, the chief of staff for research at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs and professor of psychiatry at UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That different approach to treatment attracted Tobias Shea, a veteran who participated in one of Oregon’s programs in 2023 who was struggling with post-traumatic stress symptoms after two tours in Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco)\"]‘We know psychedelic therapy saves lives, and safe and controlled access to these innovative treatments will be transformative for so many Californians seeking relief from mental health and addiction challenges.’[/pullquote]“I went through a big bout of depression in 2012 that I just couldn’t navigate,” he said. “I just suffered through it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before he went through with the therapy session in Oregon last fall, he had phone calls with a facilitator who asked him about his background and mental health to see if he would be a good candidate for the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the day of his appointment, he arrived at the service center, which he described as a relaxed environment, similar to a massage parlor or spa. In a small, enclosed room, someone was assigned to give him the appropriate dosage. A different facilitator then entered the room, and the two went over his intentions for the session, which lasted seven hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For his first session, Shea said he sought to reflect on some of his experiences in the military and the grief he had struggled with following his father’s death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to sound cliche here when I say this, but it opened my mind again to the bigger picture of, like, not just being a soldier anymore and not being involved with the military,” he said. “It brought me back into what it means to be a human.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Setbacks in Oregon, teachings for California\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Shea’s success story comes alongside mixed perceptions about issues with Oregon’s program. It’s still in its infancy, so advocates say there’s still time for things to sort out. But already, the state had to bail out the program using tax dollars because it hadn’t made enough money from service fees and revenues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Educating and training new facilitators — who work directly with individuals with mental challenges and who could need emergency help — has also been a hurdle. Organizations like the Synthesis Institute, which trained people to deliver psilocybin therapy, promised to revolutionize psychedelic-assisted therapy in Oregon. However, the school abruptly closed down in 2023 after going bankrupt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“An issue there with Oregon that I think has come up is how well-trained the guides are and what they’re being used for,” said Mitchell of UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marks, who served on the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board for a year, is also critical of how centers brand their services as “therapy” when, in fact, they are not yet FDA-approved. Instead of psychedelic-assisted therapy as it’s often branded, he said Oregon legalized “supported adult use of psilocybin” and points out that providers can’t diagnose medication conditions or make medical claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also proven to be unaffordable for many people who can’t pay out of pocket, reserving the new treatment approach for people who can pay for and travel to it. Several service centers have reported that the majority of their clients are \u003ca href=\"https://www.opb.org/article/2023/11/29/psilocybin-mushrooms-oregon-service-centers-price/\">visitors from out of state\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My estimation of the average cost of a psilocybin treatment course in Oregon is from about $1,500 to $3,500, and that’s for a single dose,” Marks said. “That obviously could get pretty expensive pretty quickly and is not affordable for a lot of people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Wiener’s bill incorporates some of the critiques from Oregon’s model. It also creates a new public-private fund that will promote education and safety around psychedelic substances, as well as guardrails against conflicts of interest among officials crafting psychedelic laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the legislation, board members cannot have any immediate family with ownership or economic interest in any institution that’s engaged in psychedelic-assisted therapy education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As states roll out psilocybin decriminalization policies unevenly around the country, there’s increasingly room for inequitable opportunities and treatment outcomes, as well as drug enforcement challenges. But, believers say the inevitable kinks of the new policy will be worked out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hindsight’s 2020, so we can use Oregon as the beta tester and say, ‘Oh, that didn’t work. Oh, that works really well,’” Mitchell said. “I want to laud them for trying it first.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto last year, lawmakers hope SB 1012 can finally regulate supervised use of psychedelics in California. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California has an opportunity to massively expand places where people can use psychedelic drugs under supervision, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1012\">new bill proposing to legalize substances\u003c/a> in approved service centers, including psilocybin, MDMA and mescaline for therapeutic use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a model similar to Oregon’s Psilocybin Services Act — the first law in the United States to establish a regulatory framework for receiving psilocybin, or psychedelic mushrooms — which went into effect in 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, as California lawmakers look to legalize the therapeutic use of psychedelics, uneven outcomes of that legal experiment in Oregon are surfacing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was billed by a lot of people as a solution to Oregon’s mental health problems, as a new option for mental health treatment,” said Mason Marks, a visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School who served on the advisory board for Oregon’s new psychedelics law. “Now, some years later, you have evidence to suggest the system is largely serving a psychedelic tourism of people flying in from out of state to pay very high prices.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If passed in California, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1012\">SB 1012\u003c/a> would create a professional licensing board to train facilitators, develop guidelines and regulate the therapeutic use of psychedelics. People could then use regulated psychedelic substances like magic mushrooms under the supervision of a facilitator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill passed a critical and tense state committee hearing Monday afternoon. But only after lawmakers added an amendment that said facilitators must also hold at least one medical license, such as psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, social workers and nurse practitioners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, the program would be overseen by a new department called the Division of Regulated Psychedelic Substances Control that would adopt rules over the coming years for the approved substances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know psychedelic therapy saves lives, and safe and controlled access to these innovative treatments will be transformative for so many Californians seeking relief from mental health and addiction challenges,” San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener said upon announcing the bill. “When paired with therapeutic support, psychedelics show amazing promise for treating conditions that resist other forms of treatment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Wiener pursued a different bill that would have broadly decriminalized personal use and possession of psychedelic substances. But Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed it and asked for a bill that focused on psychedelic therapy instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Both peer-reviewed science and powerful personal anecdotes lead me to support new opportunities to address mental health through psychedelic medicines like those addressed in this bill,” Newsom said in his veto message last year. “I urge the legislature to send me legislation next year that includes therapeutic guidelines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01336-3\">Studies\u003c/a> have shown that MDMA-assisted therapy can help mitigate symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Other \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8901083/\">studies\u003c/a> have also linked psilocybin as a tool for treating depression and LSD as an option for generalized anxiety disorder. However, a small portion of people have negative experiences using psychedelics, including anxiety, aggression and suicidal thoughts, particularly with recreational use outside of controlled studies where dosage is tightly controlled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research literature points out the importance of a person’s mindset heading into a psychedelic experience, as well as their immediate environment, to preventing these negative outcomes, what Timothy Leary and his colleagues in the 1960s coined the “set and setting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, clinical trials are underway at the Food and Drug Administration to approve several treatment courses with psychedelics, and an MDMA treatment course could be approved as early as August.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A trip to the mushroom doctor\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For ages, psychedelic substances have been used across cultures and societies for healing and medicinal purposes, as well as for recreational use. And unlike daily medications or weekly counseling, treatment with psychedelics usually takes a day or two, typically followed by counseling, according to Jennifer Mitchell, the chief of staff for research at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs and professor of psychiatry at UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That different approach to treatment attracted Tobias Shea, a veteran who participated in one of Oregon’s programs in 2023 who was struggling with post-traumatic stress symptoms after two tours in Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I went through a big bout of depression in 2012 that I just couldn’t navigate,” he said. “I just suffered through it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before he went through with the therapy session in Oregon last fall, he had phone calls with a facilitator who asked him about his background and mental health to see if he would be a good candidate for the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the day of his appointment, he arrived at the service center, which he described as a relaxed environment, similar to a massage parlor or spa. In a small, enclosed room, someone was assigned to give him the appropriate dosage. A different facilitator then entered the room, and the two went over his intentions for the session, which lasted seven hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For his first session, Shea said he sought to reflect on some of his experiences in the military and the grief he had struggled with following his father’s death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to sound cliche here when I say this, but it opened my mind again to the bigger picture of, like, not just being a soldier anymore and not being involved with the military,” he said. “It brought me back into what it means to be a human.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Setbacks in Oregon, teachings for California\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Shea’s success story comes alongside mixed perceptions about issues with Oregon’s program. It’s still in its infancy, so advocates say there’s still time for things to sort out. But already, the state had to bail out the program using tax dollars because it hadn’t made enough money from service fees and revenues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Educating and training new facilitators — who work directly with individuals with mental challenges and who could need emergency help — has also been a hurdle. Organizations like the Synthesis Institute, which trained people to deliver psilocybin therapy, promised to revolutionize psychedelic-assisted therapy in Oregon. However, the school abruptly closed down in 2023 after going bankrupt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“An issue there with Oregon that I think has come up is how well-trained the guides are and what they’re being used for,” said Mitchell of UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marks, who served on the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board for a year, is also critical of how centers brand their services as “therapy” when, in fact, they are not yet FDA-approved. Instead of psychedelic-assisted therapy as it’s often branded, he said Oregon legalized “supported adult use of psilocybin” and points out that providers can’t diagnose medication conditions or make medical claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also proven to be unaffordable for many people who can’t pay out of pocket, reserving the new treatment approach for people who can pay for and travel to it. Several service centers have reported that the majority of their clients are \u003ca href=\"https://www.opb.org/article/2023/11/29/psilocybin-mushrooms-oregon-service-centers-price/\">visitors from out of state\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My estimation of the average cost of a psilocybin treatment course in Oregon is from about $1,500 to $3,500, and that’s for a single dose,” Marks said. “That obviously could get pretty expensive pretty quickly and is not affordable for a lot of people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Wiener’s bill incorporates some of the critiques from Oregon’s model. It also creates a new public-private fund that will promote education and safety around psychedelic substances, as well as guardrails against conflicts of interest among officials crafting psychedelic laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the legislation, board members cannot have any immediate family with ownership or economic interest in any institution that’s engaged in psychedelic-assisted therapy education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As states roll out psilocybin decriminalization policies unevenly around the country, there’s increasingly room for inequitable opportunities and treatment outcomes, as well as drug enforcement challenges. But, believers say the inevitable kinks of the new policy will be worked out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hindsight’s 2020, so we can use Oregon as the beta tester and say, ‘Oh, that didn’t work. Oh, that works really well,’” Mitchell said. “I want to laud them for trying it first.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In a landmark decision, the Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first gene-editing treatment to alleviate human illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FDA approved two gene therapies for anyone 12 and older suffering from the most severe form of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sickle-cell-disease\">sickle cell disease\u003c/a>. This brutal blood disorder has long been neglected by medical research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decisions are being hailed as milestones for treating sickle cell and for the rapidly advancing field of gene therapy, which is stirring excitement for the treatment of many diseases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sickle cell disease is a rare, debilitating and life-threatening blood disorder with significant unmet need, and we are excited to advance the field, especially for individuals whose lives have been severely disrupted by the disease by approving two cell-based gene therapies today,” says Dr. Nicole Verdun, director of the Office of Therapeutic Products within the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, in a statement. “Gene therapy holds the promise of delivering more targeted and effective treatments, especially for individuals with rare diseases where the current treatment options are limited.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m elated, excited, in awe,” \u003ca href=\"https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/jennifer-doudna\">Jennifer Doudna\u003c/a> of the University of California, Berkeley, who helped discover the gene-editing technique called \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/series/773368439/the-crispr-revolution\">CRISPR\u003c/a> used in one of the sickle cell treatments, told NPR in an interview. “It’s an exciting day and the beginning of a new day in medicine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Jennifer Doudna, biochemistry professor, UC Berkeley,\"]‘I’m elated, excited, in awe. It’s an exciting day and the beginning of a new day in medicine.’[/pullquote]For the CRISPR treatment, which was developed by \u003ca href=\"https://www.vrtx.com/\">Vertex Pharmaceuticals\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://crisprtx.com/\">CRISPR Therapeutics\u003c/a>, both in Boston, doctors remove cells from each patient’s bone marrow, edit a gene with CRISPR and then infuse billions of the modified cells back into patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The edited cells produce a form of hemoglobin known as fetal hemoglobin, restoring the normal function of red blood cells. While not a cure for the disease, the hope is the therapy, brand name Casgevy, is designed to be a one-time treatment that will alleviate symptoms for a lifetime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In\u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/media/173472/download\"> data presented to the FDA\u003c/a>, the treatment resolved the severe pain crises for at least 18 months for 29 of the subjects — 96.7%. The treatment has produced similar results for patients with a related condition known as \u003ca href=\"https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/condition/beta-thalassemia/\">beta thalassemia.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FDA approved another gene therapy called Lyfgenia, developed by \u003ca href=\"https://www.bluebirdbio.com/\">bluebird bio Inc\u003c/a>. of Somerville, Massachusetts, that doesn’t use CRISPR to treat sickle cell disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Treatment comes with a high price\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>However, the elation over the approvals was tempered by concerns the breakthrough treatments may not be accessible to many sickle cell patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They are both very expensive. Vertex says the wholesale price for Casgevy will be $2.2 million. Bluebird set the wholesale price of Lyfgenia at $3.1 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The treatments also require a complicated, arduous procedure many hospitals cannot provide. Many patients may find the treatment too physically and logistically daunting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a lot more work to do” to make gene-editing treatments widely available, Berkeley’s Doudna says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gene-editing, which allows scientists to manipulate the basic building blocks of life more easily than ever before, is being studied as a treatment for illnesses ranging from rare genetic disorders like muscular dystrophy to common ailments like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, AIDS and Alzheimer’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985712\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985712\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-528038920.jpg\" alt=\"A blond white woman in a lab coat stands looking to the camera with a smile and arms crossed in a laboratory as people work behind her.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-528038920.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-528038920-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-528038920-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-528038920-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-528038920-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jennifer Doudna, who helped discover the revolutionary gene-editing tool CRISPR, photographed in the Li Ka Shing Center on the Campus of UC Berkeley on Feb. 19, 2016. \u003ccite>(Nick Otto For The Washington Post via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sickle cell disease is caused by a genetic defect that produces an abnormal form of the protein hemoglobin, which red blood cells need to carry oxygen through the body. As a result, the red blood cells of sickle cell patients become misshapen sickle-shaped cells that get jammed inside blood vessels. That causes excruciating, unpredictable attacks of pain and damages vital organs, cutting patients’ lives short.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sickle cell disproportionately occurs among people of African, Middle Eastern and Indian descent, affecting millions around the world and about 100,000 in the U.S. Although a rare disease, sickle cell is one of the most common genetic disorders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bone marrow transplants can cure some patients, but most can’t find a suitable donor. About 20,000 patients in the U.S. have the severe form of the disease the CRISPR treatment would initially be used to treat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m really excited,” Dr. \u003ca href=\"https://hospital.uillinois.edu/find-a-doctor/lewis-hsu\">Lewis Hsu\u003c/a>, a pediatric hematologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago who serves as the chief medical officer at the Sickle Cell Association of America, told NPR in an interview. “This is something that we’ve been waiting for in the sickle cell community for basically 70 years. This is a very big deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A life transformed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The approval of the CRISPR gene-editing treatment was also welcomed by\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/12/25/784395525/a-young-mississippi-womans-journey-through-a-pioneering-gene-editing-experiment\"> Victoria Gray\u003c/a>, a Forest, Mississippi, sickle cell patient who was the first person to receive it in the U.S. NPR has had exclusive access to chronicle her experience since she was treated in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Victoria Gray, sickle cell patient\"]‘Since I received the CRISPR treatment, I’ve had a new beginning. Most of all, I no longer have to fear dying and leaving my kids behind without a mother. My life is limitless now. I’m full of energy. I don’t have pain. It’s a real transformation.’[/pullquote]“I’m ecstatic. It’s a blessing that they approved this therapy. It’s a new beginning for people with sickle cell disease,” Gray told NPR in her latest interview with NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many sickle cell patients, Gray was forced throughout her life to repeatedly rush to the hospital for powerful pain drugs and blood transfusions. She could not finish school, hold jobs or often even care for herself or her children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has turned my life around. It gave me a new lease on life. It’s transformed my life more than I could have ever imagined,” Gray says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the treatment, Gray has been much more energetic and able to start working full-time selling cosmetics at Walmart and spend more time with her four children, who are now teenagers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since I received the CRISPR treatment, I’ve had a new beginning. Most of all, I no longer have to fear dying and leaving my kids behind without a mother,” Gray says. “My life is limitless now. I’m full of energy. I don’t have pain. It’s a real transformation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Technical complexity and lengthy hospitalization\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Aside from the price of the treatments, another concern is the procedures are long, difficult and complex, requiring multiple trips to a hospital for testing, a grueling and potentially dangerous bone marrow transplant, and lengthy hospitalization. Those factors may put the treatment out of reach for those who need it most in the U.S., as well as in less affluent countries where the disease is most common.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Melissa Creary, assistant professor, University of Michigan School of Public Health\"]‘I have a mixed reaction. … as this technology comes to market, it’s going to be really interesting to see the ways in which profit overtakes social justice.’[/pullquote]“I have a mixed reaction,” says \u003ca href=\"https://sph.umich.edu/faculty-profiles/creary-melissa.html\">Melissa Creary\u003c/a>, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan who studies sickle cell at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and has the disease herself. “I am excited about the promise that this technology has for those living with sickle cell disease. But as this technology comes to market, it’s going to be really interesting to see the ways in which profit overtakes social justice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the countries where most sickle cell patients live don’t have enough sophisticated medical centers to provide complicated treatment. Even in the U.S., the treatment may not be widely available, making it difficult to access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rural patients will likely to be at a disadvantage. And there might be whole states or regions with no gene-therapy options,” Hsu says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More gene-editing treatments are in the works\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Doudna heads a center at Berkeley to try to make gene-editing treatments simpler and, therefore, more accessible. The National Institutes of Health is also trying to address the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biotech companies say they are working with private and public insurers to cover the procedure. Advocates note that the high price could easily be offset by the savings of avoiding a lifetime of sickle cell complications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another concern is whether sufficient research had been done to spot “off-target” effects of the treatment — unintended editing errors that missed their mark in the DNA and that could potentially cause long-term health problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The companies plan to follow all the patients treated in the study for 15 years to see how long the benefits last, if the treatment actually helps patients live longer, and watch for any signs of long-term complications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CRISPR-based treatments have also shown promise for treating a rare liver condition known as amyloidosis, as well as an inherited form of high cholesterol known as familial hypercholesterolemia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s only the beginning,” CRISPR researcher Doudna says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In a landmark decision, the Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first gene-editing treatment to alleviate human illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FDA approved two gene therapies for anyone 12 and older suffering from the most severe form of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sickle-cell-disease\">sickle cell disease\u003c/a>. This brutal blood disorder has long been neglected by medical research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decisions are being hailed as milestones for treating sickle cell and for the rapidly advancing field of gene therapy, which is stirring excitement for the treatment of many diseases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sickle cell disease is a rare, debilitating and life-threatening blood disorder with significant unmet need, and we are excited to advance the field, especially for individuals whose lives have been severely disrupted by the disease by approving two cell-based gene therapies today,” says Dr. Nicole Verdun, director of the Office of Therapeutic Products within the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, in a statement. “Gene therapy holds the promise of delivering more targeted and effective treatments, especially for individuals with rare diseases where the current treatment options are limited.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m elated, excited, in awe,” \u003ca href=\"https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/jennifer-doudna\">Jennifer Doudna\u003c/a> of the University of California, Berkeley, who helped discover the gene-editing technique called \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/series/773368439/the-crispr-revolution\">CRISPR\u003c/a> used in one of the sickle cell treatments, told NPR in an interview. “It’s an exciting day and the beginning of a new day in medicine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For the CRISPR treatment, which was developed by \u003ca href=\"https://www.vrtx.com/\">Vertex Pharmaceuticals\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://crisprtx.com/\">CRISPR Therapeutics\u003c/a>, both in Boston, doctors remove cells from each patient’s bone marrow, edit a gene with CRISPR and then infuse billions of the modified cells back into patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The edited cells produce a form of hemoglobin known as fetal hemoglobin, restoring the normal function of red blood cells. While not a cure for the disease, the hope is the therapy, brand name Casgevy, is designed to be a one-time treatment that will alleviate symptoms for a lifetime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In\u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/media/173472/download\"> data presented to the FDA\u003c/a>, the treatment resolved the severe pain crises for at least 18 months for 29 of the subjects — 96.7%. The treatment has produced similar results for patients with a related condition known as \u003ca href=\"https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/condition/beta-thalassemia/\">beta thalassemia.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FDA approved another gene therapy called Lyfgenia, developed by \u003ca href=\"https://www.bluebirdbio.com/\">bluebird bio Inc\u003c/a>. of Somerville, Massachusetts, that doesn’t use CRISPR to treat sickle cell disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Treatment comes with a high price\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>However, the elation over the approvals was tempered by concerns the breakthrough treatments may not be accessible to many sickle cell patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They are both very expensive. Vertex says the wholesale price for Casgevy will be $2.2 million. Bluebird set the wholesale price of Lyfgenia at $3.1 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The treatments also require a complicated, arduous procedure many hospitals cannot provide. Many patients may find the treatment too physically and logistically daunting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a lot more work to do” to make gene-editing treatments widely available, Berkeley’s Doudna says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gene-editing, which allows scientists to manipulate the basic building blocks of life more easily than ever before, is being studied as a treatment for illnesses ranging from rare genetic disorders like muscular dystrophy to common ailments like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, AIDS and Alzheimer’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985712\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985712\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-528038920.jpg\" alt=\"A blond white woman in a lab coat stands looking to the camera with a smile and arms crossed in a laboratory as people work behind her.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-528038920.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-528038920-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-528038920-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-528038920-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-528038920-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jennifer Doudna, who helped discover the revolutionary gene-editing tool CRISPR, photographed in the Li Ka Shing Center on the Campus of UC Berkeley on Feb. 19, 2016. \u003ccite>(Nick Otto For The Washington Post via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sickle cell disease is caused by a genetic defect that produces an abnormal form of the protein hemoglobin, which red blood cells need to carry oxygen through the body. As a result, the red blood cells of sickle cell patients become misshapen sickle-shaped cells that get jammed inside blood vessels. That causes excruciating, unpredictable attacks of pain and damages vital organs, cutting patients’ lives short.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sickle cell disproportionately occurs among people of African, Middle Eastern and Indian descent, affecting millions around the world and about 100,000 in the U.S. Although a rare disease, sickle cell is one of the most common genetic disorders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bone marrow transplants can cure some patients, but most can’t find a suitable donor. About 20,000 patients in the U.S. have the severe form of the disease the CRISPR treatment would initially be used to treat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m really excited,” Dr. \u003ca href=\"https://hospital.uillinois.edu/find-a-doctor/lewis-hsu\">Lewis Hsu\u003c/a>, a pediatric hematologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago who serves as the chief medical officer at the Sickle Cell Association of America, told NPR in an interview. “This is something that we’ve been waiting for in the sickle cell community for basically 70 years. This is a very big deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A life transformed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The approval of the CRISPR gene-editing treatment was also welcomed by\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/12/25/784395525/a-young-mississippi-womans-journey-through-a-pioneering-gene-editing-experiment\"> Victoria Gray\u003c/a>, a Forest, Mississippi, sickle cell patient who was the first person to receive it in the U.S. NPR has had exclusive access to chronicle her experience since she was treated in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I’m ecstatic. It’s a blessing that they approved this therapy. It’s a new beginning for people with sickle cell disease,” Gray told NPR in her latest interview with NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many sickle cell patients, Gray was forced throughout her life to repeatedly rush to the hospital for powerful pain drugs and blood transfusions. She could not finish school, hold jobs or often even care for herself or her children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has turned my life around. It gave me a new lease on life. It’s transformed my life more than I could have ever imagined,” Gray says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the treatment, Gray has been much more energetic and able to start working full-time selling cosmetics at Walmart and spend more time with her four children, who are now teenagers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since I received the CRISPR treatment, I’ve had a new beginning. Most of all, I no longer have to fear dying and leaving my kids behind without a mother,” Gray says. “My life is limitless now. I’m full of energy. I don’t have pain. It’s a real transformation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Technical complexity and lengthy hospitalization\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Aside from the price of the treatments, another concern is the procedures are long, difficult and complex, requiring multiple trips to a hospital for testing, a grueling and potentially dangerous bone marrow transplant, and lengthy hospitalization. Those factors may put the treatment out of reach for those who need it most in the U.S., as well as in less affluent countries where the disease is most common.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I have a mixed reaction,” says \u003ca href=\"https://sph.umich.edu/faculty-profiles/creary-melissa.html\">Melissa Creary\u003c/a>, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan who studies sickle cell at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and has the disease herself. “I am excited about the promise that this technology has for those living with sickle cell disease. But as this technology comes to market, it’s going to be really interesting to see the ways in which profit overtakes social justice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the countries where most sickle cell patients live don’t have enough sophisticated medical centers to provide complicated treatment. Even in the U.S., the treatment may not be widely available, making it difficult to access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rural patients will likely to be at a disadvantage. And there might be whole states or regions with no gene-therapy options,” Hsu says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More gene-editing treatments are in the works\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Doudna heads a center at Berkeley to try to make gene-editing treatments simpler and, therefore, more accessible. The National Institutes of Health is also trying to address the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biotech companies say they are working with private and public insurers to cover the procedure. Advocates note that the high price could easily be offset by the savings of avoiding a lifetime of sickle cell complications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another concern is whether sufficient research had been done to spot “off-target” effects of the treatment — unintended editing errors that missed their mark in the DNA and that could potentially cause long-term health problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The companies plan to follow all the patients treated in the study for 15 years to see how long the benefits last, if the treatment actually helps patients live longer, and watch for any signs of long-term complications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CRISPR-based treatments have also shown promise for treating a rare liver condition known as amyloidosis, as well as an inherited form of high cholesterol known as familial hypercholesterolemia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s only the beginning,” CRISPR researcher Doudna says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Dr. Naomi Marks races between patients inside the emergency department at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa County. She explains a diagnosis to a woman grimacing in pain, complaining of nauseousness and a belly on fire with pain. An MRI suggests pancreatitis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From the moment we spoke, I’ve been trying to reach a GI doctor at another hospital,” Marks said, explaining that the medical center doesn’t have a gastroenterologist, a practitioner specializing in the digestive system, on staff or on call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marks dials every number she has at UCSF, Stanford, UC Davis and other big hospitals up and down the state, scrambling for a hospital with a specialist and an open bed.[pullquote align='right' citation='Dr. Donaldo Hernandez, president, California Medical Association']‘The system was broken before the pandemic. It’s in shards now.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no formal or even modern process here, she explains as she prepares to send a request by fax machine. She can only hope for a response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So, I’ll keep you updated,” Marks says to the patient as she prepares to move on to the next. “And we have more pain medications if you need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not uncommon for really sick patients to wait three, four or even five days for a transfer, Marks said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Davis Medical Center \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-28/patients-agonizing-waits-hospital-transfers\">turned down more than 9,900 transfer requests in a little over a year\u003c/a> due to limited capacity, \u003cem>The Los Angeles Times\u003c/em> reported. And, a spokesperson for UCSF told KQED that their hospital is nearly always at or over capacity. UCSF declined 41% of the transfer requests it received in the last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Andrew Fenton, Queen of the Valley’s chief of staff, said the ER is not a good place for people to wait. “If you’re a sick patient, you’re trying to convalesce and you’re in the emergency department, the lights are on and there’s alarms beeping. It’s not the correct place,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patients get stuck and get worse because there aren’t enough specialists available to offer the right care, he said, especially doctors willing to work on-call shifts inside hospitals. His hospital used to have an on-call specialist focused on ears, nose and throat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re gone now,” he said. “We don’t have ophthalmology, we don’t have plastic surgery or oral maxillofacial surgery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile the emergency department is completely full. The hallway is lined with patients waiting on gurneys. One bleeds from a head injury. Another has lacerations on his face. Doctors have even transformed a small office near the waiting room into an exam room to evaluate more patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looks a little bit like a MASH unit right now,” said Fenton, referring to mobile army surgical hospitals. “When you come into the ER, it’s not pretty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Long wait times inside emergency departments are not new. And neither are staff shortages, but both have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Hospitals are flooded by patients who have delayed care in recent years, and there aren’t enough nurses to meet the demand. Burnout hit an all-time high during COVID, which inspired many health care workers to retire early.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The system was broken before the pandemic,” Fenton said. “It’s in shards now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even Hernandez can’t get into a clinic to see a specialist for himself — he needs to see a gastroenterologist for some preventive care. He called his health plan recently; the next available appointment is four months out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California will have the largest physician shortages of any state in coming years, according to a 2020 study that found \u003ca href=\"https://human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12960-020-0448-3#Tab2\">the state’s doctor shortage is expected to top 32,000 physician jobs over the next decade\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard,” said Hernandez, of the California Medical Association. “It will get nothing but worse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem starts with medical school. The number of students in training is not rising fast enough to fill empty slots. Hernandez said that California has to train more doctors fast, and the state has to create more residency slots and “really start to think about this in very new and innovative ways to try to find these solutions to try to backfill those roles.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Butte County, there is a shortage of mental health specialists. So the city of Chico is\u003ca href=\"https://www.chicoer.com/2023/02/17/psychiatry-residency-program-aims-to-fill-local-gap-in-north-state-workforce/\"> partnering with a nonprofit to launch a new psychiatric residency program\u003c/a> to fill the need, “to be able to just home-grow their own psychiatrists for that part of the state,” Hernandez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There also have to be incentives for doctors to stay in California after they finish medical training. Hernandez is pushing the state to increase loan-forgiveness programs for individuals who will serve underserved regions of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If doctors with cultural competency are inspired to work with the communities that need their expertise, it makes for a much, much better health care delivery system,” said Hernandez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back inside the emergency department in Napa County, the woman with pancreatitis calls for a nurse because her pain is increasing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It could take her days to go someplace,” said ER doctor Marks — maybe another day to find an ambulance to make the transfer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marks wishes there were more she could do. But she has to move on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her next patient waits on a gurney in the hallway.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not uncommon for really sick patients to wait three, four or even five days for a transfer, Marks said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Davis Medical Center \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-28/patients-agonizing-waits-hospital-transfers\">turned down more than 9,900 transfer requests in a little over a year\u003c/a> due to limited capacity, \u003cem>The Los Angeles Times\u003c/em> reported. And, a spokesperson for UCSF told KQED that their hospital is nearly always at or over capacity. UCSF declined 41% of the transfer requests it received in the last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Andrew Fenton, Queen of the Valley’s chief of staff, said the ER is not a good place for people to wait. “If you’re a sick patient, you’re trying to convalesce and you’re in the emergency department, the lights are on and there’s alarms beeping. It’s not the correct place,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patients get stuck and get worse because there aren’t enough specialists available to offer the right care, he said, especially doctors willing to work on-call shifts inside hospitals. His hospital used to have an on-call specialist focused on ears, nose and throat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re gone now,” he said. “We don’t have ophthalmology, we don’t have plastic surgery or oral maxillofacial surgery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile the emergency department is completely full. The hallway is lined with patients waiting on gurneys. One bleeds from a head injury. Another has lacerations on his face. Doctors have even transformed a small office near the waiting room into an exam room to evaluate more patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looks a little bit like a MASH unit right now,” said Fenton, referring to mobile army surgical hospitals. “When you come into the ER, it’s not pretty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Long wait times inside emergency departments are not new. And neither are staff shortages, but both have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Hospitals are flooded by patients who have delayed care in recent years, and there aren’t enough nurses to meet the demand. Burnout hit an all-time high during COVID, which inspired many health care workers to retire early.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The system was broken before the pandemic,” Fenton said. “It’s in shards now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even Hernandez can’t get into a clinic to see a specialist for himself — he needs to see a gastroenterologist for some preventive care. He called his health plan recently; the next available appointment is four months out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California will have the largest physician shortages of any state in coming years, according to a 2020 study that found \u003ca href=\"https://human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12960-020-0448-3#Tab2\">the state’s doctor shortage is expected to top 32,000 physician jobs over the next decade\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard,” said Hernandez, of the California Medical Association. “It will get nothing but worse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem starts with medical school. The number of students in training is not rising fast enough to fill empty slots. Hernandez said that California has to train more doctors fast, and the state has to create more residency slots and “really start to think about this in very new and innovative ways to try to find these solutions to try to backfill those roles.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Butte County, there is a shortage of mental health specialists. So the city of Chico is\u003ca href=\"https://www.chicoer.com/2023/02/17/psychiatry-residency-program-aims-to-fill-local-gap-in-north-state-workforce/\"> partnering with a nonprofit to launch a new psychiatric residency program\u003c/a> to fill the need, “to be able to just home-grow their own psychiatrists for that part of the state,” Hernandez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There also have to be incentives for doctors to stay in California after they finish medical training. Hernandez is pushing the state to increase loan-forgiveness programs for individuals who will serve underserved regions of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If doctors with cultural competency are inspired to work with the communities that need their expertise, it makes for a much, much better health care delivery system,” said Hernandez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back inside the emergency department in Napa County, the woman with pancreatitis calls for a nurse because her pain is increasing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It could take her days to go someplace,” said ER doctor Marks — maybe another day to find an ambulance to make the transfer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marks wishes there were more she could do. But she has to move on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her next patient waits on a gurney in the hallway.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Magic Mushrooms May Treat Depression. But Hurdles to Psilocybin Access Abound",
"headTitle": "Magic Mushrooms May Treat Depression. But Hurdles to Psilocybin Access Abound | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Diamond was tripping on an August morning in Baltimore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mom and entrepreneur sat cozily under a weighted blanket at Sheppard Pratt Hospital. Little mushroom people jumped across imaginary flower petals behind her eye mask. A therapist monitored Diamond from close by, ready to serve her food and measure her \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/search?q=depression&site=all\">depression\u003c/a> symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the weeks leading up to today, clinicians had asked Diamond, “Can you remember a time when you were happy for more than a month?” No, she thought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diamond told them she’d been having what psychologists call “passive” suicidal thoughts, like, “If this car ran into me and I died, things would be OK.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such thoughts weren’t new for Diamond; growing up, she had been hospitalized for wanting to kill herself. Over the years, she tried many medications for her depression, including Seroquel, Prozac, Trazodone and Risperidone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of ‘dones,’ a lot of ‘ols,’” she said. Some of them helped her sleep, but left her feeling numb. She recalled thinking, “I still feel sad, so what are we doing here, antidepressants?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diamond was curious whether a clinically guided mushroom trip would help, and she enrolled in this clinical trial testing the safety and efficacy of psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in “magic mushrooms,” for her type of bipolar depression. KQED is only using Diamond’s first name because she uses psilocybin, which is illegal federally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982859\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1982859\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/005_KQEDScience_Edits_DSC_0033-1-1020x678.jpg\" alt=\"A woman stands with her back to the camera and a shirt that says "Don't Trip Drip" and has psychedelic colored mushrooms. \" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/005_KQEDScience_Edits_DSC_0033-1-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/005_KQEDScience_Edits_DSC_0033-1-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/005_KQEDScience_Edits_DSC_0033-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/005_KQEDScience_Edits_DSC_0033-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/005_KQEDScience_Edits_DSC_0033-1-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/005_KQEDScience_Edits_DSC_0033-1.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diamond wants to be an advocate for psilocybin treatments for depression. \u003ccite>(Anna Marie Yanny/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Diamond met with a therapist before and after a daylong psilocybin session, as part of the months-long trial. On her “dosing day” she grounded herself with an intention she set with her therapist earlier: self-grace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While she was hallucinating, Diamond remembers feeling like someone buried her. She felt like she was losing air, light, everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was panicking,” Diamond said. “I was fearful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then she remembered that “they tell you to, if anything comes up, just go with it. I settled in and I was like, OK, so this is death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “go-with-the-flow” mantra Diamond adopted during the trial has stuck with her to this day.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Psilocybin faces numerous barriers moving from trial to treatment\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Like Diamond, about \u003ca href=\"https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression\">280 million people worldwide have depression\u003c/a>. For some, traditional medications don’t work. Researchers are studying whether psilocybin could help, and many of the \u003ca href=\"https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?cond=Depression&term=&type=Intr&rslt=&age_v=&gndr=&intr=Psilocybin&titles=&outc=&spons=&lead=&id=&cntry=&state=&city=&dist=&locn=&rsub=&strd_s=&strd_e=&prcd_s=&prcd_e=&sfpd_s=&sfpd_e=&rfpd_s=&rfpd_e=&lupd_s=&lupd_e=&sort=\">dozens of trials have had promising results\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neuroscientist Dennis Parker Kelley helps run \u003ca href=\"https://psychedelics.ucsf.edu/#Studies\">psilocybin trials at UCSF\u003c/a>, and thinks the drug has incredible potential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“More potential than we have really seen with any other pharmacological treatments in the past several decades,” Kelley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s so promising that psilocybin treatment could get Food and Drug Administration approval for stubborn forms of depression within the year. Meanwhile, San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener’s \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB58\">bill decriminalizing drugs like these is pressing ahead in the state Legislature\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it could be tricky for clinicians to move psilocybin into mainstream treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, psychedelic-assisted therapy can be prohibitively expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People who don’t have health insurance, this could prevent them from being able to meaningfully experience these therapies” Kelley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Psilocybin sessions typically last six to eight hours and are accompanied by a handful of therapy meetings before and after. Many people might not have time for these treatments. Plus, most studies require participants to wean off their current antidepressants before trying the treatment. This might not be necessary for all medications, and researchers like Kelley are trying to understand whether some drugs may be safe to mix with psilocybin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All told, “I don’t think people will be able to go home with psilocybin from their doctor anytime soon,” Kelley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indigenous groups in Mexico were using psilocybin long before these trials, and advocates have raised concerns about appropriation with the mushrooms. Critics have also raised concerns about power dynamics in the treatment room with psychedelics like psilocybin, and point to a documented history of sexual violation within psychedelic therapy.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘With great hype needs to come great responsibility’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Clinicians discourage people from taking psilocybin without a therapist or trained guide. Diamond heard author Michael Pollan, who has written extensively about psychedelic research, talk about the treatments. She went looking for a trial after learning there was a lack of Black guides and clinical trial participants in psilocybin research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t see a lot of people who look like us talking about what [psilocybin has] done for us,” said Diamond, who is Black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the trial, she tried to control her life by planning every minute of her day. She felt weak if she couldn’t accomplish everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, she gives herself grace if she doesn’t complete her to-do lists. Diamond wants to be an advocate for psilocybin, especially for Black people, through \u003ca href=\"https://www.diamonddripconsulting.com/about-faq\">her consulting and wellness business\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research psychologist Philip Corlett of Yale University says psychiatrists are desperate for new treatments, but the psilocybin data isn’t as miraculous as it sounds. After all, the trials have been small, and participants could be feeling a placebo effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think these are extremely promising new treatments. But I think with great hype needs to come great responsibility,” Corlett said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Psilocybin may not help everyone whom antidepressants have failed. Trials generally don’t include patients who are actively suicidal or experiencing psychosis, for fear of making it worse. In a large, phase 2 clinical trial for treatment-resistant depression conducted by the company Compass Pathways and published in \u003cem>The New England Journal of Medicine\u003c/em>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2206443\">some participants had worsening suicidal states — marked by suicidal ideation and self-injury — after taking psilocybin\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American Psychiatric Association states that there is not enough evidence to support the use of psychedelics outside of clinical trials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clinical psychologist Rosalind Watts was a lead for such trials at Imperial College London. After guiding patients through psilocybin treatment for years, she thinks of the drug as a catalyst for healing. But, she said, the treatment needs a “therapeutic container,” such as integration therapy or an Indigenous ceremony, to be effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it was just the drug, every time somebody went to Burning Man, they’d have their depression fixed. And that doesn’t happen,” Watts said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People need community care to move through sometimes harrowing drug experiences, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My real feeling is that psilocybin is calling us to change our models of care,” Watts said. “Because if we fit it into the existing profit-making, private health care models of clinics, it’s going to be really, really ineffective.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Diamond, psilocybin was effective. After the trial, she woke up one morning, energized. She knocked out her to-do list, worked out and left early to pick up her daughter from school. Music drifted through her car speakers as she sat in the sunny school parking lot, waiting for the “school’s out” announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought to myself for the first time in forever that it would really suck to die today,” Diamond recalled, tearing up. “And that was so profound because I had never felt that way in my whole entire life.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Diamond was tripping on an August morning in Baltimore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mom and entrepreneur sat cozily under a weighted blanket at Sheppard Pratt Hospital. Little mushroom people jumped across imaginary flower petals behind her eye mask. A therapist monitored Diamond from close by, ready to serve her food and measure her \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/search?q=depression&site=all\">depression\u003c/a> symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the weeks leading up to today, clinicians had asked Diamond, “Can you remember a time when you were happy for more than a month?” No, she thought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diamond told them she’d been having what psychologists call “passive” suicidal thoughts, like, “If this car ran into me and I died, things would be OK.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such thoughts weren’t new for Diamond; growing up, she had been hospitalized for wanting to kill herself. Over the years, she tried many medications for her depression, including Seroquel, Prozac, Trazodone and Risperidone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of ‘dones,’ a lot of ‘ols,’” she said. Some of them helped her sleep, but left her feeling numb. She recalled thinking, “I still feel sad, so what are we doing here, antidepressants?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diamond was curious whether a clinically guided mushroom trip would help, and she enrolled in this clinical trial testing the safety and efficacy of psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in “magic mushrooms,” for her type of bipolar depression. KQED is only using Diamond’s first name because she uses psilocybin, which is illegal federally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982859\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1982859\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/005_KQEDScience_Edits_DSC_0033-1-1020x678.jpg\" alt=\"A woman stands with her back to the camera and a shirt that says "Don't Trip Drip" and has psychedelic colored mushrooms. \" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/005_KQEDScience_Edits_DSC_0033-1-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/005_KQEDScience_Edits_DSC_0033-1-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/005_KQEDScience_Edits_DSC_0033-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/005_KQEDScience_Edits_DSC_0033-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/005_KQEDScience_Edits_DSC_0033-1-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/005_KQEDScience_Edits_DSC_0033-1.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diamond wants to be an advocate for psilocybin treatments for depression. \u003ccite>(Anna Marie Yanny/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Diamond met with a therapist before and after a daylong psilocybin session, as part of the months-long trial. On her “dosing day” she grounded herself with an intention she set with her therapist earlier: self-grace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While she was hallucinating, Diamond remembers feeling like someone buried her. She felt like she was losing air, light, everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was panicking,” Diamond said. “I was fearful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then she remembered that “they tell you to, if anything comes up, just go with it. I settled in and I was like, OK, so this is death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “go-with-the-flow” mantra Diamond adopted during the trial has stuck with her to this day.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Psilocybin faces numerous barriers moving from trial to treatment\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Like Diamond, about \u003ca href=\"https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression\">280 million people worldwide have depression\u003c/a>. For some, traditional medications don’t work. Researchers are studying whether psilocybin could help, and many of the \u003ca href=\"https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?cond=Depression&term=&type=Intr&rslt=&age_v=&gndr=&intr=Psilocybin&titles=&outc=&spons=&lead=&id=&cntry=&state=&city=&dist=&locn=&rsub=&strd_s=&strd_e=&prcd_s=&prcd_e=&sfpd_s=&sfpd_e=&rfpd_s=&rfpd_e=&lupd_s=&lupd_e=&sort=\">dozens of trials have had promising results\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neuroscientist Dennis Parker Kelley helps run \u003ca href=\"https://psychedelics.ucsf.edu/#Studies\">psilocybin trials at UCSF\u003c/a>, and thinks the drug has incredible potential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“More potential than we have really seen with any other pharmacological treatments in the past several decades,” Kelley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s so promising that psilocybin treatment could get Food and Drug Administration approval for stubborn forms of depression within the year. Meanwhile, San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener’s \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB58\">bill decriminalizing drugs like these is pressing ahead in the state Legislature\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it could be tricky for clinicians to move psilocybin into mainstream treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, psychedelic-assisted therapy can be prohibitively expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People who don’t have health insurance, this could prevent them from being able to meaningfully experience these therapies” Kelley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Psilocybin sessions typically last six to eight hours and are accompanied by a handful of therapy meetings before and after. Many people might not have time for these treatments. Plus, most studies require participants to wean off their current antidepressants before trying the treatment. This might not be necessary for all medications, and researchers like Kelley are trying to understand whether some drugs may be safe to mix with psilocybin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All told, “I don’t think people will be able to go home with psilocybin from their doctor anytime soon,” Kelley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indigenous groups in Mexico were using psilocybin long before these trials, and advocates have raised concerns about appropriation with the mushrooms. Critics have also raised concerns about power dynamics in the treatment room with psychedelics like psilocybin, and point to a documented history of sexual violation within psychedelic therapy.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘With great hype needs to come great responsibility’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Clinicians discourage people from taking psilocybin without a therapist or trained guide. Diamond heard author Michael Pollan, who has written extensively about psychedelic research, talk about the treatments. She went looking for a trial after learning there was a lack of Black guides and clinical trial participants in psilocybin research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t see a lot of people who look like us talking about what [psilocybin has] done for us,” said Diamond, who is Black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the trial, she tried to control her life by planning every minute of her day. She felt weak if she couldn’t accomplish everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, she gives herself grace if she doesn’t complete her to-do lists. Diamond wants to be an advocate for psilocybin, especially for Black people, through \u003ca href=\"https://www.diamonddripconsulting.com/about-faq\">her consulting and wellness business\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research psychologist Philip Corlett of Yale University says psychiatrists are desperate for new treatments, but the psilocybin data isn’t as miraculous as it sounds. After all, the trials have been small, and participants could be feeling a placebo effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think these are extremely promising new treatments. But I think with great hype needs to come great responsibility,” Corlett said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Psilocybin may not help everyone whom antidepressants have failed. Trials generally don’t include patients who are actively suicidal or experiencing psychosis, for fear of making it worse. In a large, phase 2 clinical trial for treatment-resistant depression conducted by the company Compass Pathways and published in \u003cem>The New England Journal of Medicine\u003c/em>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2206443\">some participants had worsening suicidal states — marked by suicidal ideation and self-injury — after taking psilocybin\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American Psychiatric Association states that there is not enough evidence to support the use of psychedelics outside of clinical trials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clinical psychologist Rosalind Watts was a lead for such trials at Imperial College London. After guiding patients through psilocybin treatment for years, she thinks of the drug as a catalyst for healing. But, she said, the treatment needs a “therapeutic container,” such as integration therapy or an Indigenous ceremony, to be effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it was just the drug, every time somebody went to Burning Man, they’d have their depression fixed. And that doesn’t happen,” Watts said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People need community care to move through sometimes harrowing drug experiences, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My real feeling is that psilocybin is calling us to change our models of care,” Watts said. “Because if we fit it into the existing profit-making, private health care models of clinics, it’s going to be really, really ineffective.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Diamond, psilocybin was effective. After the trial, she woke up one morning, energized. She knocked out her to-do list, worked out and left early to pick up her daughter from school. Music drifted through her car speakers as she sat in the sunny school parking lot, waiting for the “school’s out” announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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},
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"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
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"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
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"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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},
"hidden-brain": {
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
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"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
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