April Dembosky
April Dembosky is the health reporter for The California Report and KQED News. She covers health policy and public health, and has reported extensively on the economics of health care, the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act in California, mental health and end-of-life issues. Her work is regularly rebroadcast on NPR and has been recognized with awards from the Society for Professional Journalists (for sports reporting), and the Association of Health Care Journalists (for a story about pediatric hospice). Her hour-long radio documentary about home funeralswon the Best New Artist award from the Third Coast International Audio Festival in 2009. April occasionally moonlights on the arts beat, covering music and dance. Her story about the first symphony orchestra at Burning Man won the award for Best Use of Sound from the Public Radio News Directors Inc. Before joining KQED in 2013, April covered technology and Silicon Valley for The Financial Times, and freelanced for Marketplace and The New York Times. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Smith College.
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Having schizophrenia has emerged as the second biggest risk factor for dying from COVID-19, after advanced age. This finding could help drive new research about mental illness and the immune system.
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Many Americans with mental illness report waiting weeks for care, even for serious depression or suicidality. Now California has a new law for insurers, limiting those wait times to two weeks or less. -
Many Americans with mental illness report waiting weeks for care, even for serious depression or suicidality. California has a new law for insurers, limiting those wait times to two weeks or less.
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Fatal drug overdoses, including from meth, have soared. California is preparing to roll out a controversial but proven treatment that involves paying stimulant users small sums of money not to use. -
Fatal drug overdoses, including from meth, have soared. California is preparing to roll out a controversial but proven treatment for meth addiction that involves paying users small sums not to use.
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To get a new drug for postpartum depression, some insurers want women to try other drugs first and even electroconvulsive therapy. It could be a test for California's new mental health parity law. -
Syphilis cases in California have contributed to soaring national caseloads of sexually transmitted diseases. Experts point to the advent of dating apps, decreased condom use and an increase in meth. -
2019 was the worst year on record for syphilis. Reasons range from drug use to dating apps to underinvestment in contact tracing, as well as the surprising role of pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom says he wants the state to fully reopen for business on June 15. But it will have to meet vaccination goals and keep hospitalizations low for that to work.
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The Tuskegee syphilis study is often cited as a reason why Black Americans might hesitate on the COVID-19 vaccine. But many say it's current racism in health care and Tuskegee is used as an excuse.
