Gov. Gavin Newsom’s prime well being advisor throughout the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic plans to step down.
The governor praised Dr. Mark Ghaly because the nation’s “most transformative leader in the health space” in recent times after asserting that the secretary of the California Well being and Human Companies Company is leaving the cupboard place on the finish of this month.
As CalMatters’ well being reporters Ana B. Ibarra and Kristen Hwang clarify, Ghaly has led the company since 2019. (You would possibly recall Ghaly because the one who administered the COVID vaccine to Newsom throughout a stay broadcast in 2021.)
Although Newsom obtained pushback from some Californians for his dealing with of the pandemic — notably for enterprise lockdowns and college closures, which helped gasoline an unsuccessful 2021 recall marketing campaign — Newsom mentioned Ghaly’s management throughout the time “saved countless lives.”
Throughout Ghaly’s tenure, the state additionally undertook some notable overhauls in its public well being insurance policies, which advocates and neighborhood teams have pushed for many years. That features revamping California’s public insurance coverage program CalAIM; making a framework for the state’s well being care system to higher serve aged Californians; and launching CalRx to allow the state to distribute its personal medicines, resembling insulin and naloxone.
Ghaly’s successor will probably be Kim Johnson, the present director of the California Division of Social Companies, who will start her new position Oct. 1. Not like Ghaly, Johnson has no medical background; she has led the social providers division since 2019.
Be taught extra about Ghaly’s time in workplace in Ana and Kristen’s story.
Reining in hemp: Ghaly additionally spoke alongside Newsom on Friday because the governor issued emergency laws to prohibit the sale of consumable hemp merchandisenotably to youngsters and younger adults.
The brand new guidelines would ban the sale of meals, drinks and different industrial hemp merchandise which have detectable ranges of tetrahydrocannabinol. Informally referred to as THC, the compound is derived from hemp and is linked to well being dangers in growing brains. The laws additionally restrict the serving and package deal measurement of hemp merchandise, and set up the minimal age of 21 to buy these merchandise.
Newsom proposed the foundations after a invoice to prohibit the sale of hemp merchandise stalled within the Legislature. Marijuana and hemp are two styles of the hashish plant, however marijuana has increased ranges of THC and is extremely regulated.
Again on the stump: The governor is again on the presidential marketing campaign path supporting Vice President Kamala Harris. He left the state Sunday to do fundraisers and media appearances in New York, then he’ll make marketing campaign stops in Pennsylvania earlier than returning to California on Wednesday. Newsom was amongst President Joe Biden’s most seen backers earlier this summer time, however he took a step again after Biden withdrew. Newsom endorsed Harris in late July and solely made transient remarks on Harris’s behalf on the Democratic conference final month.
