Los Angeles Times: New Poll Finds Newsom Has Healthy Lead Over Cox In California Governor's Race — And Fewer Voters Are Undecided
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom has a dominant lead over the wealthy Rancho Santa Fe businessman John Cox in the race for California governor, according to a new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California. Opportunities for Cox to pick up support before the November election also appear to be limited, with just 9% of likely voters saying they were undecided. (Willon, 7/25)

Sacramento Bee: Newsom Leads Cox By 24 Points In PPIC California Governor Poll
Despite holding a 24-point lead, Newsom’s team played down the poll. “Our campaign isn’t taking anything for granted, and we will continue to work hard to get our message out between now and Election Day,” spokesman Nathan Click said in a statement. (Koseff, 7/25)

The Associated Press: Trump's Top Medicare Official Slams 'Medicare For All'
The Trump administration's Medicare chief on Wednesday slammed Sen. Bernie Sanders' call for a national health plan, saying "Medicare for All" would undermine care for seniors and become "Medicare for None." The broadside from Medicare and Medicaid administrator Seema Verma came in a San Francisco speech that coincides with a focus on health care in contentious midterm congressional elections. (7/25)

The Hill: Top Trump Health Official Slams 'Medicare For All' 
"Ideas like 'Medicare for all' would only serve to hurt and divert focus from seniors,” Verma said. Verma said the focus of Medicare should be on seniors and disabled individuals and that expanding the program to cover younger, healthier people will drain the program of funding and deprive seniors of the coverage they need. “By choosing a socialized system, you are giving the government complete control over the decisions pertaining to your care or whether you receive care at all. It would be the furthest thing from patient-centric care,” Verma said. (Weixel, 7/25)

Modern Healthcare: Verma Will Reject Any Single-Payer State Waivers
Thirty-three of the 57 Democrats who won primaries in swing districts this year expressed support some form of Medicare for all, according to data from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. Nearly two-thirds of that group use the term in their campaign materials and just over a quarter are running in districts that President Donald Trump won. Verma said the focus of Medicare should be on seniors and disabled individuals, and she is concerned that moving millions more people into the program will cause the program to unravel as its finite funds would dry up. Earlier this year, the White House estimated that the Medicare trust fund will be insolvent by 2026, three years earlier than prior estimates. (Dickson, 7/25)

California Healthline: Top Trump Health Official Takes Swipes At ACA, Single-Payer In Enemy Territory
Stepping into the land of the Trump resistance, Seema Verma flatly rejected California’s pursuit of single-payer health care as unworkable and dismissed the Affordable Care Act as too flawed to ever succeed. Speaking Wednesday at the Commonwealth Club here, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said she supports granting states flexibility on health care but indicated she would not give California the leeway it would need to spend federal money on a single-payer system. (Terhune, 7/26)

Orange County Register: In A Santa Ana Neighborhood, People Living With Schizophrenia Find An Oasis
For nearly 30 years, The John Henry Foundation has housed several dozen adults in a cluster of cottages on a quiet street in Santa Ana. The residents at the neatly landscaped campus are all mentally ill, diagnosed with schizophrenia. But a passerby wouldn’t know mental health patients lived there without entering the gate and paying a visit. The residential campus with its creamy yellow stucco buildings blends right in with the single family homes on the block. (Walker, 7/25)

In other public health news —

KPBS: Why Losing 30 Psychiatric Beds In Oceanside Means A Crisis For San Diego County 
The state of California has been losing psychiatric beds in locked units at a steady rate over the last 25 years. In 1995, there were 29.5 beds per 1,000 persons available in the state. By 2015, there were just 16.9, according to the California Department of Health Care Services. The goal is 50 beds. (Finn, 7/25)

The Mercury News: Mosquito Spraying Scheduled Thursday In Sunnyvale And Santa Clara
Parts of Sunnyvale and Santa Clara will be sprayed late Thursday night as part of a mosquito eradication effort to protect against the spread of West Nile virus. The Santa Clara County Vector Control District scheduled the 11 p.m. truck-mounted mosquito control treatment after determining that a sampling of adult mosquitoes near Sunnyvale and Santa Clara had tested positive for the virus. (Sarwari, 7/25)

East Bay Times: Former Doctor’s Assistant In San Leandro Convicted Of Illegally Prescribing Opioids
A federal jury on Tuesday convicted a former doctor’s assistant in San Leandro of 39 counts of distributing opioids and other drugs to people for non-medical purposes, authorities said. David Lague, 61, of San Mateo, distributed such drugs as oxycodone, oxymorphone, methadone, fentanyl and morphine outside the course of his practice and without legitimate medical reason, U.S. Attorney Alex Tse of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California announced. The trial lasted 11 days in front of U.S. District Court Judge Haywood S. Gilliam. The jury acquitted Lague of health care fraud charges. A federal grand jury indicted him on Dec. 5, 2017. (Hurd, 7/25)

The Mercury News: Two Monterey County Midwives Accused Of Incompetence/Negligence In Death Of Baby
Two midwives from the Monterey Birth & Wellness Center in Monterey have been named in a complaint before the Medical Board of California Department of Consumer Affairs. Caroline Cusenza and Jacqueline Little, both licensed midwives, are two of three principals at the Birth & Wellness Center which opened in late 2017, and are named in the complaint. (Herrera, 7/25)

The New York Times: 50 More Women Sue U.S.C. As Accusations Of Gynecologist’s Abuse Pile Up
The scandal surrounding the three-decade tenure of Dr. George Tyndall, a former gynecologist at the University of Southern California, continued to grow this week as more than 50 additional women sued the university, saying it had failed to protect them from sexual abuse and harassment by Dr. Tyndall. The lawsuits, filed on Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court against both Dr. Tyndall and U.S.C., claim that the university concealed years of complaints against Dr. Tyndall’s “sexually charged and deviant comments and behavior” and “allowed him many years of unfettered sexual access to young female students.” (Zaveri, 7/25)

The Modesto Bee: Jury Convicts Sonora Physician In Accident That Killed Three Near Don Pedro 
A jury Wednesday convicted Sonora physician Danny Mundall Anderson on three counts of vehicular manslaughter resulting from an October 2016 crash on La Grange Road. The jurors in Tuolumne County Superior Court held Anderson, 71, responsible for the deaths of Trista Hoffman, then 16, of La Grange; her mother, Tina Hoffman, 51; and Rheinholt Eisemann, 72, of Copperopolis. (Holland, 7/25)

The Washington Post: A Year After GOP Measure’s Demise, Democrats See Health Care As A Winning Issue
One year ago, with the flick of his thumb, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) foiled the Republican Party’s quest to undo the Affordable Care Act and fulfill a seven-year promise to remake the health-care system. Now, three months from the midterm elections, health care remains a gaping political vulnerability for the GOP. Although Republicans have been unable to produce an alternative to the law, they have succeed in undoing key provisions that critics say are leading to rising premiums for individual buyers of health insurance. (DeBonis and Goldstein, 7/25)

The Hill: Poll: Majority Says They Will Hold Trump Accountable For ObamaCare Failings
A majority of the public says they hold the Trump administration and Congress accountable for any problems with ObamaCare because they have made changes to the law, according to a poll released Wednesday. The Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll found that a majority of those surveyed — 58 percent — said they hold the administration and Republican members of Congress responsible for any problems with the ACA moving forward, since they have made a number of changes to the law. (Hellmann, 7/25)

The Hill: House Votes To Delay ObamaCare Health Insurance Tax 
The House on Wednesday passed a measure to delay ObamaCare’s health insurance tax for two years and expand Health Savings Accounts, part of a GOP effort to try to lower premiums. The bill, which passed 242-176, is part of a Republican effort to blunt Democratic attacks on the GOP for rising premiums – a key argument in the midterm elections this year. (Sullivan, 7/25)

The New York Times: New Alzheimer’s Drug Shows Big Promise In Early Trial Results
The long, discouraging quest for a medication that works to treat Alzheimer’s reached a potentially promising milestone on Wednesday. For the first time in a large clinical trial, a drug was able to both reduce the plaques in the brains of patients and slow the progression of dementia. More extensive trials will be needed to know if the new drug is truly effective, but if the results, presented Wednesday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Chicago, are borne out, the drug may be the first to successfully attack both the brain changes and the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. (Belluck, 7/25)

The Associated Press: Hopes Rise Again For A Drug To Slow Alzheimer's Disease
The drug from Eisai and Biogen did not meet its main goal in a study of 856 participants, so overall, it was considered a flop. But company officials said that 161 people who got the highest dose every two weeks for 18 months did significantly better than 245 people who were given a dummy treatment. There are lots of caveats about the work, which was led by company scientists rather than academic researchers and not reviewed by outside experts. The study also was too small to be definitive and the results need to be confirmed with more work, dementia experts said. But they welcomed any glimmer of success after multiple failures. (7/25)

Stat: Experimental Alzheimer’s Drug Significantly Slowed Patients’ Cognitive Decline
“I’ll remain cautiously optimistic,” said Dr. Ronald Petersen, director of Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. “I think the data are intriguing. The effect sizes sound reasonable, the drug seems safe, and on the biological side of it, the drug seems to be working.” But, he added, “you’d really want to see a Phase 3 to replicate those results.” Whether he’ll get one remains an open question. (Garde, 7/25)

Bloomberg: Biogen’s Alzheimer’s Drug Data Encouraging, Not ‘Shock And Awe’
Eisai stock fell 10 percent Thursday in Tokyo, after plunging as much as 21 percent earlier in the day. Biogen sank 11 percent in late trading Wednesday in New York after closing at the highest in three years in anticipation of the results. BioArctic AB, the Swedish company that originally developed the medicine, tumbled in Stockholm trading. (Cortez, 7/25)

In other news on Alzheimer's —

The Associated Press: Study: Lowering Blood Pressure Helps Prevent Mental Decline
Lowering blood pressure more than usually recommended not only helps prevent heart problems, it also cuts the risk of mental decline that often leads to Alzheimer's disease, a major study finds. It's the first time a single step has been clearly shown to help prevent a dreaded condition that has had people trying crossword puzzles, diet supplements and a host of other things in hope of keeping their mind sharp. (7/25)

Los Angeles Times: Another Reason To Keep Your Blood Pressure Down: It Can Lower Your Risk Of Dementia
Systolic blood pressure is the amount of pressure in a person’s arteries during the contraction of her heart muscle. Because it is the highest pressure to which the blood vessels are subjected, systolic blood pressure is thought to have the most detrimental impact on the delicate capillaries that nourish the brain as well as the kidneys, heart and liver. In large populations, lowering that reading to 120 already has been found to reduce rates of cardiovascular disease and kidney failure. (Healy, 7/25)

The Associated Press: Ultrasound Jiggles Open Brain Barrier, A Step To Better Care
A handful of Alzheimer’s patients signed up for a bold experiment: They let scientists beam sound waves into the brain to temporarily jiggle an opening in its protective shield. The so-called blood-brain barrier prevents germs and other damaging substances from leaching in through the bloodstream — but it can block drugs for Alzheimer’s, brain tumors and other neurologic diseases, too. Canadian researchers on Wednesday reported early hints that technology called focused ultrasound can safely poke holes in that barrier — holes that quickly sealed back up — a step toward one day using the non-invasive device to push brain treatments through. (Neergaard, 7/25)

Stat: Democrats Introduce A Bill To Allow Medicare Negotiations And Sidestep Patents If Talks Fail 
As the Trump administration labors to execute its blueprint for tackling high drug costs, a group of Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill on Wednesday that would allow the federal government to negotiate on behalf of Medicare — and authorize licenses for lower-cost generics when talks fail. Unlike other bills that would permit negotiations over Part D drugs, the legislation would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to pursue a generic alternative by issuing a competitive license when a company refuses to offer a reasonable price. In effect, the bill would create a new mechanism for the U.S. government to sidestep patents when it would be in the public interest to do so. (Silverman, 7/25)

In other national health care news —

Stat: Trump Administration Proposes More Cuts To Drug Discounts That Aid Hospitals 
The Trump administration wants to expand its cuts to a controversial drug discount program that benefits hospitals. Its latest proposal, out Wednesday, centers on the so-called 340B program, which forces drugmakers to give some safety net and not-for-profit hospitals discounts on nearly all their drugs. Federal programs reimburse them for the same medicines at a higher rate, and hospitals say they use the spread to pay for charity care and other services. (Mershon, 7/25)

Politico: Most Deported Migrants Were Not Asked About Leaving Children Behind, Trump Official Says
Homeland Security officials may have neglected to give a choice to as many as three-quarters of all migrant parents removed from the United States about leaving their children behind, contradicting repeated public assurances from Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. The Trump administration failed to document consent in most such cases, an administration official told POLITICO. That lapse increased the number of departed parents whom officials must now find and contact about whether they wish to be reunited with their children, and, if so, figure out the logistics of how to bring them together. The revelation threatens to delay reunifications one day ahead of a court-ordered deadline to return most migrant children to their parents. (Hesson, Rayasam and Diamond, 7/25)

Stat: Zika's Destructive Power Might Be Turned Against Tumors, Scientists Say
As the world discovered in 2016, the seemingly benign Zika virus is capable of inflicting life-altering damage when it finds its way into the developing brains of fetuses. Now scientists hope to harness that horrible potential as a weapon to fight cancer. Several research groups are exploring whether Zika viruses could be unleashed on cancers, effectively wiping out the dangerous cells of a brain or central nervous system cancer. One group, at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando, published findings of early-stage work Wednesday in the journal PLOS One. (Branswell, 7/25)

The New York Times: Men Are Panicking About Their Sperm Count
Dr. Paul Turek was on his way to speak to employees at a cryptocurrency investment firm one recent afternoon about a growing anxiety for the men in the office: what’s going on with their sperm? Is there enough? Is the existing supply satisfactory? Are we men enough? “They’re worried, right?” Dr. Turek said. “And we’re O.K. with the worry.” (Bowles, 7/25)

The Washington Post: Physician-Assisted-Suicide Opponent J.J. Hanson Chose To Live Out His Last Days
There was a time — several months after J.J. Hanson was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, but several years before he died from it — when, he once said, he might have considered ending it all. The husband and father said in 2015 that the previous year, he learned that he had a Grade 4 brain tumor called glioblastoma multiforme and was given four months to live. He had been fighting the cancer, but now, sick in bed and worried about becoming a burden to his family, he was lost in his thoughts. (Bever, 7/25)