Percentage of emergency visits related to fire, smoke inhalation rose eightfold after LA wildfires: Report
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(LOS ANGELES) — The percentage of emergency department (ED) visits related to fire and smoke inhalation rose dramatically in the days immediately after the Los Angeles wildfires last month, new data published Thursday shows.
The wildfires broke out in the Pacific Palisades and in Eaton Canyon on Jan. 7. Although several destructive wildfires emerged, the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire caused the most damage.
Fueled by strong winds and dry weather, the fires burned more than 57,000 acres, destroyed about 16,000 structures, and killed at least 29 people, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
A team from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed data from the county’s Syndromic Surveillance program, which receives and analyzes real-time data from most county EDs.
By collecting this data, the program can detect early warning signals of a potential public health threat that requires a response and alert health care professionals, according to the department of health.
ED visits, referred to in the report as “encounters,” were classified as being wildfire-associated if fire or smoke inhalation–related terms were listed in the chief complaints or the diagnoses sections.
The team looked at three periods: a three-week period before the wildfires began, the first six days of the wildfires and the week after the wildfires began.
Data showed the average percentage of ED visits associated with the wildfires increased eightfold from 0.06% to 0.52% in the six days after the wildfires. The peak was seen on Jan. 8, with 1.01% of all ED visits related to the wildfires. During the week after the wildfires began, ED visits decreased but still remained elevated at 0.2% compared to baseline.
The average percentage of ED visits was found to be linked to an increase in the average daily Air Quality Index (AQI), which is put out by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Average daily AQI rose from 75, which is classified as “moderate level of concern” to an average of 110, classified as “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” in the six days after the wildfires began. In the week following the outbreak of the fires, average daily AQI returned to “moderate” at 58.
The report found a small increase in the average percentage of burn-related injuries and eye-related injuries but there were no increases seen in the percentage of visits related to asthma or cardiovascular reasons.
In contrast, the report found that immediately after the wildfires began, all-cause ED encounters — meaning visits to the department for any reason — decreased by 9%.
The authors stated that the decrease could for multiple reasons, with some including school closures, business closures, displacements, challenges accessing health care, residents seeking care in clinics or urgent care centers, or residents visiting EDs in neighboring counties.
“Near real-time surveillance of health outcomes during and after wildfires can estimate effects on health care use, serve as an early warning for acute health impacts, and identify opportunities for intervention,” the authors wrote. “Further analyses are planned to identify which illnesses have most affected specific populations.”
After more than two years of gender-affirming treatments, LW, the Tennessee teenager behind a landmark case at the U.S. Supreme Court, says, “I feel normal now.” (ABC News)
(NASHVILLE) — The transgender Tennessee teenager behind a historic hearing at the U.S. Supreme Court this week doesn’t want to show her face on television but is eager to speak about a case she says has the potential to make thousands of American kids feel “seen” for who they are.
“The court has definitely ruled in ways that would make me think that they don’t exactly value bodily autonomy, but I have heard that they’ve been a little bit better about trans cases than people would think,” said 16-year-old LW in an exclusive interview with ABC News alongside her parents Samantha and Brian Williams.
The court on Wednesday will hear the Williams family’s challenge to Tennessee’s 2023 ban on gender-affirming medical treatments for minors, including puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapies that have dramatically improved LW’s quality of life.
While the medications have been used safely to treat minors of all genders for years, they are now prohibited in Tennessee when used to treat trans kids struggling with gender dysphoria, the distress experienced when one’s gender assigned at birth is different from one’s sense of identity.
“It’s not very comfortable being trapped in [your body] because it just doesn’t feel like you,” said LW, who reports significant improvement since beginning the treatments in 2022.
Since the state law took effect, LW now has to take time away from school to make a 10-hour round trip out of state to continue receiving care. The travel has also been a costly and time-consuming burden, her parents say.
“It would definitely be horrible for me to have to continue to go out of state to get care,” said LW. “I feel normal now.”
Backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Biden administration, and major American medical associations, the Williamses sued Tennessee last year alleging the ban on certain gender-affirming treatments for minors discriminates on the basis of sex and overrides the rights of parents to make medical decisions for their children.
“Our state legislature had made such a big deal out of parents’ rights during COVID, about masks and vaccines that that’s for parents to decide these medical decisions for their children,” Samantha Williams said. “And then they made this medical decision for our child.”
State lawmakers who support the law, SB1, say it is meant to protect kids from potentially irreversible effects from treatment and that contradictory scientific evidence and uncertainty about long-term adverse consequences warrant caution.
“We made the policy decision on behalf of our constituents that in Tennessee we think this is a risky procedure,” said state Sen. Jack Johnson, the Senate GOP leader who sponsored the bill. “It is our role as policymakers here in the state of Tennessee to set those guardrails.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics says the effects of puberty blockers are not permanent if treatment is discontinued and that many effects of hormone therapy can also be reversed. Long-term risks may include fertility challenges and possible harm to bone density, but the Academy says those risks require further study.
Worldwide, several countries which had previously embraced the treatments for transgender children have subsequently reversed course, citing unclear data about their purported benefits and alleged harms. In many of those places, the treatments remain available, but on a much more limited basis.
In Tennessee, there are an estimated 3,000 transgender teenagers between ages 13 and 17, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School, which has analyzed Census data. It is not known how many were receiving treatments that are now outlawed or how many suffered alleged harm.
A study published in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics in October 2024 found the overwhelming majority of participants in a long-term survey of 220 transgender youths reported high levels of satisfaction and low levels of regret in the three to five years after receiving puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
Major American medical associations have for more than a decade endorsed the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy as part of “individually tailored interventions” to support trans kids and affirm their sense of self.
“It all begins and ends with science. This is not about any sort of agenda,” said Dr. Ben Hoffman, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in an interview with ABC.
Clinical practice guidelines from the American Endocrine Society — based on more than 260 research studies — recommend consideration of medications to treat gender dysphoria in young people but waiting until a child reaches adulthood to consider gender-affirming surgery.
“It’s crucial that there be a deep understanding of both the risks and benefits, and truly informed consent,” Hoffman said. “And for that reason, it is, by definition, going to take months or years.”
The Williams family said the decision to use medication to delay LW’s puberty followed months of careful consultation with medical experts and mental health providers. They said they grew worried that masculine changes to LW’s body would compound her gender dysphoria.
“There is this time clock sitting here,” said Brian Williams. “The kids can go through puberty and it can have permanent effects on them. So these two things you’re trying to balance at the same time.”
“She’s not suicidal, but she shouldn’t have to be suicidal, right?, to get the care that she needs,” added Samantha Williams. “When that really hit me, I was like, ‘OK, let’s do blockers. Let’s get moving.'”
More than a year later, LW began receiving hormone therapy to better align her body with her gender identity. The course of treatment led to a reduction in discomfort.
“That was incredibly helpful,” LW said. “I feel amazing after that. You know, maybe it’s just because the gender dysphoria was so bad.”
The outcome of the case U.S. v. Skrmetti could have a sweeping impact on health care for the more than 300,000 American teens who identify as transgender, as well as the broader LGBTQ community.
“This is one of the most significant LGBTQ cases to ever reach the Supreme Court. I think this is an inflection point,” said Chase Strangio, the ACLU attorney representing the Williams family. He will be the first openly transgender person to argue a case before the nation’s highest court.
“Is this going to be a Bowers v. Hardwick type moment that sets off years of government legitimized discrimination against LGBTQ people? Or, is this going to be a Bostock moment that clarifies what we all have been assuming all this time, which is that LGBTQ people are protected under the Constitution and civil rights laws,” Strangio said.
In its 1968 decision in Bowers, the court upheld state laws criminalizing private same-sex conduct; it was overturned in 2003. The Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County found that employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal.
Twenty-six states have laws banning gender-affirming treatments for minors, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group.
“What concerns me as a physician is that legislators are going to be able to make decisions about a diagnosis, which is very unusual. I mean, that really hasn’t happened,” said Dr. Susan Lacy, a physician who specializes in hormone management and transgender care for teens and adults at her private practice in Memphis.
Lacy, who is also a party to the Supreme Court case, agrees with Tennessee lawmakers that more research is needed on gender-affirming treatments for minors, but that a debate over the data shouldn’t deny patients the chance to make an informed decision of their own.
“I think the most compelling thing is to listen to the patients,” Lacy said. “I have about 700 transgender patients out of about 3,000 total patients, and I have not seen anybody have a serious complication — not one.”
“I think we’re just at a point where we’re still in the process of treating people and having studies that will give us more and more data to support this treatment,” she said.
Johnson said he hopes the Supreme Court will uphold an appeals court ruling that affirmed Tennessee’s right to impose restrictions on treatments for transgender minors.
“States should be the laboratories of democracy,” he said. “We should be making the vast majority of decisions about what’s best for our people, our constituents here in the statehouse.”
The Williams family says care that has improved the life of their daughter should not be up for political debate.
“I want to listen to the doctors. I want to listen to my kid. I want to take care of her, you know?” Brian Williams said.
(NEW YORK) — A growing number of people under 50 are being diagnosed with more advanced stages of colon cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.
The 2020 death of 43-year-old actor Chadwick Boseman due to colon cancer drew attention to the shift, and “Dawson’s Creek” star James Van Der Beek, 47, announced his Stage 3 colorectal cancer diagnosis in November.
A diagnosis at a younger age was also the case for Brooks Bell, a Raleigh, North Carolina, entrepreneur who ran a data analytics company. At 38, she was alarmed to discover blood after using the rest room.
She said she called a telehealth doctor, who told her it may be hemorrhoids. She decided to get second and third opinions, which led to a colonoscopy referral and diagnosis.
“I found out that it was Stage 3 colon cancer,” Bell told “GMA3.”
In a different case, Los Angeles stylist Sarah Beran’s doctors suspected a parasite could be causing her symptoms. Ultimately, she said a colonoscopy revealed the truth.
“They found over 100 polyps on my colon, a mass on my rectum,” the 34-year-old said. “And that’s when my world changed.”
She had to undergo a colon transplant and 12 rounds of chemotherapy.
Even though the pair lived on opposite sides of the U.S., their experiences brought them together after Bell shared her story online.
“I reached out and asked her how I could get involved and help, so that more people don’t have to go through what we went through,” Beran said. “And we teamed up.”
The duo dreamed up a fashion brand with a cause, Worldclass. The streetwear and athleisure line includes hoodies, crewneck sweatshirts, tees, hats and totes — all designed to break the stigma about colon cancer.
“All proceeds go towards a colonoscopy fund that helps underinsured communities get screened,” Beran said. “So literally saving lives through fashion.”
Convincing people to get screenings has a specific goal, Bell noted.
“With colon cancer, we should be talking about prevention, being able to avoid the entire cancer experience, period, rather than just talking about early detection,” she said.
A proactive approach to health can make a huge difference, according to Beran.
“A colonoscopy is way easier than going through chemo and the surgeries and all the icky stuff that we went through,” she said. “So we’re lucky that we did catch ours in time and that we did advocate for ourselves. And we got in there and got our colonoscopies. And now we’re here now telling our story.”
(NEW YORK) — Meta — the company that operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp –announced on Tuesday it was ending third-party fact-checking.
Some social media policy experts and public health experts are worried that the end of fact-checking could lead to the spread of medical and science misinformation and disinformation. This is especially worrisome as the U.S. is in the throes of respiratory virus season and is fighting the spread of bird flu.
“There’s going to be a rise in all kinds of disinformation, misinformation, from health to hate speech and everything in between,” Megan Squire, deputy director for data analytics and open-source intelligence at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told ABC News. “[Health] is supposed to be a nonpartisan issue, and … we do see people trying to leverage health [misinformation], in particular, toward a political end, and that’s a real shame.”
“I’m hopeful, but I’m also concerned that this new structure that all the Meta properties are embarking on, it’s just not going to end well,” she added.
The social network giant said it was following the footsteps of X, replacing the program with user-added community notes.
In a press release of the announcement, Joel Kaplan, chief global affairs officer for Meta, said that the choices about what was being fact-checked showed “biases and perspectives.”
How fact-checking, community notes work
Meta started fact-checking in December 2016. Meta’s fact-checking works by Meta staff identifying hoaxes or by using technology that detects posts likely to contain misinformation. The fact-checkers then conduct their own reporting to review and rate the accuracy of posts.
If a piece of content is identified as false, it receives a warning label and the content’s distribution is reduced so fewer people see it.
Fact-checkers put in place following Donald Trump’s 2016 election win were found to be “too politically biased” and have destroyed “more trust than they’ve created,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video posted by the company.
By comparison, community notes work by a user adding context to a post that may be misleading. It is then upvoted or downvoted by other users.
Zeve Sanderson, executive director of NYU Center for Social Media Politics, said after the 2016 election, there was immense pressure for social medial platforms, including Meta, to commit resources to combatting misinformation.
Following the election, most posts being fact-checked were to combat political misinformation, according to Sanderson. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this was expanded to combat medical misinformation, he said.
Sanderson said there were a lot of claims going unchecked online because Meta has not had enough fact-checkers to check every post. Additionally, he said some people didn’t trust fact-checkers.
“There were groups of people online who didn’t trust fact checkers, who saw them as biased, often in a liberal direction,” he told ABC News. “This crowd-sourced content moderation program … it’s going to do different things well and different things poorly. We just don’t know how this is actually going to work in practice.”
Meta referred ABC News back to its Tuesday announcement in response to a request for comment on plans for its community notes or potential spread of misinformation.
Spread of misinformation during COVID-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions were exposed to a deluge of information including news, research, public health guidance and fact sheets, which the World Health Organization referred to as an “infodemic.”
People were also exposed to misinformation and disinformation about what treatments work against COVID-19, how much of a risk the virus poses to children and whether COVID-19 vaccines are effective.
A 2023 KFF survey found that most Americans were not sure if health information they had encountered was true or false.
A report from the U.S. Surgeon General in 2021 found that misinformation led to people rejecting masking and social distancing, using unproven treatment and rejecting COVID-19 vaccines.
Experts told ABC News that members of the general public often do not have enough health literacy to determine if they should trust or not trust information they encounter online or on social media.
Squire said sometimes government agencies do not put out information in an “interesting” format, which may lead people to click on “entertaining” content from misinformation and disinformation peddlers.
“Some of these YouTube videos about health misinformation are a lot more entertaining. Their message just travels faster,” she said. “When you’re presenting scientific information — I know this firsthand as a former college professor — that’s a struggle. You have to be pretty talented at it and, a lot of times, where the expertise lies is not necessarily where the most expedient, fun videos are and stuff.”
How to combat health misinformation
Meta’s change comes as the U.S. faces an increase in bird flu cases and continues treating patients falling ill with respiratory illnesses.
As of Jan. 8, there have been 66 human cases of bird flu reported in the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It’s also flu season. As of the week ending Dec. 28, 2024, there have been at least 5.3 million illnesses, 63,000 hospitalizations and 2,700 deaths from flu so far this season, according to CDC estimates.
Meanwhile, health care professionals have been encouraging Americans to get their flu shot and other vaccines — including COVID and RSV — to protect themselves against serious disease.
Experts are worried that with the change from fact-checking to community notes that misinformation could spread about the effectiveness of vaccines or how serious an illness is.
“I am concerned about the sheer amount of inaccurate information that’s out there,” Dr. Brian Southwell, a distinguished Fellow at nonprofit research institute RTI International and an adjunct faculty member at Duke University, told ABC News. “That’s something that you know ought to bother all of us as we’re trying to make good decisions. But there’s a lot that could be done, even beyond, you know, the realm of social media to try to improve the information environments that are available for people.”
Southwell said one thing that public health experts and federal health agencies can do is to get an idea of the questions that users are going to have about medical topics — such as bird flu and seasonal flu — and be ready with information to answer those questions online.
To combat being exposed to information, the experts recommended paying attention to where the information is coming from, whether it’s a respected source or someone you are unfamiliar with.
“There are various skills that are important, things like lateral reading, where rather than just evaluating the claim, you do research about the source of that claim and what you can find out about them to understand what some of their incentives or track record might be,” Sanderson said.
“This is obviously something that, sadly, social media platforms are not designed in order to incentivize this sort of behavior, so the responsibility is thrust on users to sort of look out for themselves,” he added.
