San Francisco Chronicle: Just After Texas Shooting, California Senate Passes Texas-Style Bill Targeting Assault Weapons, Ghost Guns
Shortly after the nation’s latest mass shooting, which killed at least 18 children at an elementary school in Texas, the California Senate passed a bill Tuesday to allow private citizens to file suit for at least $10,000 — a bounty-hunter provision modeled on a Texas abortion law — against makers or sellers of untraceable ghost guns or illegal assault weapons. “We do have some of the toughest gun laws in the country,” Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge (Los Angeles County), told his colleagues amid news of the slaughter inside an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. But public enforcement of those laws has not been enough to protect Californians against the “new wave of weapons,” he said, and private lawsuits would create “an incentive to get these dangerous weapons off the street.” (Egelko, 5/24)

Sacramento Bee: ‘Inaction Is A Choice.’ Newsom Lambastes GOP On Gun Laws After Texas School Shooting
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday berated Republicans in the wake of a mass shooting at a Texas school, saying they “won’t do a damn thing” to create nationwide gun safety measures. (Holden, 5/24)

Los Angeles Times: Gov. Newsom Criticizes Republicans After Texas School Shooting
Gov. Gavin Newsom called out Republicans on Tuesday for inaction on the issue of gun control, saying the party “won’t do a damn thing” in a series of tweets hours after a shooting at a Texas elementary school that left at least 19 children and two adults dead.“ Who the hell are we if we cannot keep our kids safe,” Newsom wrote. “This is preventable. Our inaction is a choice. We need nationwide, comprehensive, commonsense gun safety now.” (Luna and Willon, 5/24)

San Francisco Chronicle: ‘We Keep Burying Kids’: Bay Area, California Elected Leaders Want Tougher Gun Control In Wake Of Texas Mass Shooting
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and state Assembly Member Marc Berman, who represents parts of the Peninsula and Silicon Valley, each called the shooting mass murder and criticized the ease with which many Americans can obtain firearms. Berman said the shooting marked the second “double-digit massacre” in 10 days in the United States. On May 14, a mass shooter live-streamed his killing of 10 people at a Buffalo grocery store in what officials said was a racist attack by a white man on Black people. (Hernandez, 5/24)

MarketWatch: The Complicated, Fraught Connection Between Gun Violence And Mental Health 
Once again, lawmakers, mental-health professionals, gun-control advocates, the National Rifle Association and people across the land are searching for answers, and debating gun-control laws — or lack thereof — in the United States. “People with mental-health issues are more likely to be victims than perpetrators,” said Chethan Sathya, a pediatric trauma surgeon and director of Northwell Health’s Center for Gun Violence Prevention, headquartered in New Hyde Park, N.Y. “We have to be very careful how we talk about the link between the two,” he said. “When it comes to folks with mental-health issues these public-health strategies are important because they often involve the victims themselves.” (Fottrell, 5/24)

Los Angeles Times: Texas School Shooting: How To Help Kids Get Through Unspeakable Horror
The shooting in Texas is forcing parents and schools to once again confront how to talk to kids about violence. Experts have told The Times these are complex and sensitive conversations, but also vital — especially for the children of today, who’ve endured a pandemic. “And now, on top of all those already existing pandemic-related chronic stressors, many children and families may be overwhelmed with the added fear of sending their children to school,” said Katherine Williams, a child and adolescent psychologist and professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego. (Newberry, 5/24)

ABC News: How To Talk To Kids After Texas School Shooting 
In the wake of the deadly mass shooting, many parents are left grappling with how to explain the horrific act of gun violence -- at a setting where most kids spend a majority of their days -- to their children and teens. ... When it comes to children preschool age and below, Dr. Robin Gurwitch, a licensed clinical psychologist and professor at Duke University Medical Center, said that parents should limit their media exposure. "Preschoolers may not understand instant replays," she said. "So that loop of children running out of the school, if they don't know that that's a replay, they think that school has thousands and thousands of students." (Team, 5/24)

Chalkbeat: Reflections From School Shootings Past: What To Say, What To Do
Late last year, after four students were killed and others injured in a shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan, Chalkbeat compiled a list of resources for coping with trauma and trying to prevent future tragedies. Among them was a list of common reactions and warning signs to look for in helping a child or student in the aftermath of a school shooting. (5/24)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: COVID-19 Continue To Rise In Latest Surge, But Local Hospitals Not Seeing Severe Illness
The current surge of new COVID-19 cases is showing no signs of letting up as both local transmission rates and hospitalizations continue to increase, hospital officials and infectious disease experts say. However, many of the cases being detected in hospitals are asymptomatic, meaning that patients are testing positive for the coronavirus after seeking hospital care for other conditions. (Espinoza, 5/24)

The New York Times: Another Omicron Subvariant, Known As BA.2.12.1, Has Become The Dominant Form Among New U.S. Virus Cases. 
Another form of the Omicron subvariant BA.2 has become the dominant version among new U.S. coronavirus cases, according to federal estimates on Tuesday, a development that experts had forecast over the last few weeks. There was no indication yet that the new subvariant, known as BA.2.12.1, causes more severe disease than earlier forms did. BA.2.12.1 made up about 58 percent of all new U.S. cases, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the week ending May 21. (Hassan, 5/25)

Vox: Meet The New Subvariants, Your Summer Bummers
The parent of these subvariants, omicron, provides some important lessons about what to expect with BA.2.12.1, BA.4, and BA.5. Omicron stands out from past Covid-19 variants because it has so many changes, close to 50 mutations compared to the original SARS-CoV-2 virus. Many are in the virus’s spike protein, enhancing how it breaks into human cells and making it harder for the immune system to target. So protection conferred by the previous versions of SARS-CoV-2 doesn’t translate as well to omicron and its subvariants. Omicron also appears to replicate much faster in the upper airways, making it easier to breathe out virus particles and spread them to others. Health officials warned in January that omicron would “find just about everybody.” (Irfan, 5/24)

San Francisco Chronicle: Who’s At Risk For Long COVID? Huge Survey Of 100,000 People Contains New Clues
Results from a new survey of more than 100,000 COVID-19 survivors released Tuesday by the personal genetics company 23andMe offer further evidence of a biological cause for the persistent, sometimes debilitating syndrome known as long COVID. Although 23andMe is best known for analyzing customers’ DNA samples, the new study did not look at DNA. Rather, it collected thousands of survey responses from among the company’s genetic testing customers that shine light on who is most at risk for post-COVID problems. The results underscore what earlier, smaller studies have found, researchers said, and even contain new clues about what may be causing the confounding symptoms, which range from body aches to brain fog to chronic fatigue. (Asimov, 5/24)

CapRadio: A Sacramento County Nonprofit Is Offering To Pay $3,000 Worth Of Bills If You Test Positive For COVID-19 At Their Clinic
For Gayshel Caldwell, COVID-19 reversed the roles in her household. A 60-year-old grandmother living with her three grandchildren, she’s normally on the receiving end of their help for daily errands and tasks. But when her daughter came home from school with COVID-19, she said it was “devastating.” (5/24)

KQED: Where To Find A COVID Test Near You In The Bay Area
Over 75% of Californians are now fully vaccinated, and over 58% have received their COVID booster shot. But widespread breakthrough infections in fully vaccinated people and the recent rise in COVID case numbers around the Bay Area are a reminder that COVID testing remains crucial to ending this pandemic. (Severn, 5/24)

NBC News: CDC Warns Of 'Covid-19 Rebound' After Taking Paxlovid Antiviral Pills
The advisory affirmed a trend many patients and doctors have been discussing for at least a month. A case study posted online in late April sequenced virus samples from a 71-year-old man who saw his illness rebound after finishing Paxlovid. The study, which is under review by a medical journal, found no indication that the man had developed resistance to the drug; instead, the authors suggested that symptoms may recur “before natural immunity is sufficient to fully clear” the virus. More recently, three prominent doctors have documented so-called Paxlovid rebounds within their own households on Twitter. (Bendix, 5/24)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: COVID-19 Booster Shots Available For Ages 5 And Up In Sonoma County
Anyone age 5 and older can now get a third COVID-19 vaccine dose in Sonoma County, officials announced Monday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for Pfizer-BioNTech’s booster shots for children between the ages of 5 and 11. (Pera, 5/24)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Unified Postpones Vaccine Mandate Again — At Least To July 2023 
The San Diego Unified School Board voted Tuesday to delay its student COVID-19 vaccine mandate a second time, at least until July 2023. The district also announced a set of COVID conditions it recently adopted that will trigger a temporary resumption of its indoor mask mandate whenever there’s a surge in COVID cases or student sickness levels. (Taketa, 5/24)

East Bay Times: Suit Settled Over Piedmont Schools' COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
With graduation looming and about 98% of Piedmont students vaccinated, the settlement of a lawsuit by two groups against the Piedmont Unified School District over its COVID-19 vaccination mandate is in the rear-view mirror. (Davis, 5/24)

CIDRAP: Study Shows Fourth Dose Of Pfizer COVID Vaccine Wanes Faster Than Third
A study from Israel published today in BMJ shows that the effectiveness of a fourth dose of Pfizer-BioNTech's mRNA COVID vaccine waned faster than a third dose in adults ages 60 and older. ... To gauge breakthrough infections, the authors performed a matched analysis that compared positive cases to controls by week since vaccination. The added relative vaccine effectiveness of a fourth dose against infection quickly decreased over time, peaking during the third week at 65.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 63.0% to 67.1%) and falling to 22.0% (95% CI, 4.9% to 36.1%) by the end of the 10 week follow-up period, the authors said. (5/24)

Reuters: U.S. FDA Allows Importing Of 2 Mln Baby Formula Cans From UK
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is easing regulations to allow infant formula imports from Britain, a move it said on Tuesday would bring around 2 million cans onto empty shelves by June to ease a nationwide shortage. The FDA said it was "exercising enforcement discretion" to allow Britain-based Kendal Nutricare to import certain infant formula products under the Kendamil brand that it has no safety or nutrition concerns over following an evaluation. (Aboulenein and Rajesh, 5/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Abbott To Release 300,000 Specialty Baby Formula Cans 
Abbott Laboratories will release about 300,000 cans of a specialty infant formula for children in urgent medical need, while U.S. health regulators cleared the import of about 2 million cans of formula from the U.K. to try to mitigate a shortage. Abbott, of Abbott Park, Ill., said Tuesday it is releasing limited quantities of EleCare, an amino acid-based powder for infants with severe food allergies or gastrointestinal disorders. (Loftus, 5/24)

Reuters: Danone Doubles Supply Of Some Baby Formula To U.S. Amid Shortage 
Danone SA [of France] has been doubling shipments to the United States of Neocate formula for infants allergic to cow's milk while Enfamil maker Reckitt is also working to boost supplies amid a nationwide shortage, company executives said on Wednesday. ... Danone - the world's second-biggest baby formula maker after Nestle but a relatively small player in the United States with less than 5% of market share - is stepping up supply of Neocate. ... The French company declined to say how many cans or tonnes of product it is exporting. (Naidu, 5/25)

Chicago Tribune: Abbott To Restart Formula Production June 4 At Its Michigan Facility, And Release EleCare Now 
Abbott Laboratories plans to restart production of infant formula at its Michigan facility June 4, and it will begin releasing specialty formula EleCare in the next several days, the company said Tuesday. The announcement comes amid a nationwide shortage of infant formula caused by supply chain issues and exacerbated by a recall of formulas made at Abbott’s Sturgis, Mich., facility. Abbott recalled a number of infant formulas produced at that facility in February as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it was investigating complaints of Cronobacter sakazakii infections among four babies who reportedly consumed formula made there. All four were hospitalized, and Cronobacter may have contributed to two babies’ deaths, according to the FDA. (Schencker, 5/24)

The Hill: FTC Opens Inquiry Into Baby Formula Shortage 
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced an inquiry Tuesday into the infant formula shortage and said it will assess the impact of mergers and acquisitions in the market. The agency said it will investigate bots reselling formula at “exorbitant prices” and seek public comment on the factors that “contributed to the shortage or hampered our ability to respond to it.” (Schonfeld, 5/24)

AP: FDA Chief To Detail Delays Inspecting Baby Formula Plant 
Federal plans to inspect a baby formula factory linked to the nationwide shortage were slowed by COVID-19, scheduling conflicts and other logistical problems, according to prepared testimony from the head of the Food and Drug Administration. FDA Commissioner Robert Califf is set to answer questions Wednesday from House lawmakers probing the events leading to the formula shortage, which has forced the U.S. to begin airlifting products from Europe while many parents still hunt for scarce supplies. (Perrone, 5/25)

Al Jazeera: UN Denounces ‘Racist’ And ‘Homophobic’ Coverage Of Monkeypox 
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has warned that stigmatizing language used in the coverage on the monkeypox virus could jeopardize public health, citing some portrayals of Africans and LGBTI people that “reinforce homophobic and racist stereotypes and exacerbate stigma." UNAIDS said “a significant proportion” of recent monkeypox cases have been identified among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. But transmission is most likely via close physical contact with a monkeypox sufferer and could affect anyone, it added, saying some portrayals of Africans and LGBTI people “reinforce homophobic and racist stereotypes and exacerbate stigma." (5/23)

Newsweek: The Dangerous Parallel Between Monkeypox And AIDS
David Heymann, a leading advisor to WHO, said the recent cases appear to have gotten into the population through sexual contact. He told the Associated Press earlier this week that the leading theory to explain the recent spread was sexual transmission at raves held in Spain and Belgium. That has led to some reporting that monkeypox can only be passed through sexual contact. On Fox News, Jesse Waters called monkeypox a "sexually transmitted disease" that is "primarily passed through homosexual sex." But an expert on sexually transmitted diseases at WHO has emphasized that monkeypox is "not a gay disease" and that anyone can contract it through close contact. (Rahman, 5/24)

Stat: How Google Is Trying To Keep Monkeypox Myths From Flourishing
Karen DeSalvo’s latest challenge came in the nanometer-sized envelope of a virus: monkeypox. Since becoming Google’s first chief health officer in 2019, DeSalvo has overseen many disparate programs, ranging from AI-enabled diagnostics to patient records. But increasingly, as the tech giant has rethought some of its biggest aims in health, losing a longtime executive and dissolving its dedicated health-focused division, her focus has shifted to consumers. (Mast, 5/24)

CNBC: CDC Says Monkeypox Doesn't Spread Easily By Air: ‘This Is Not Covid’
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants to calm public anxiety over how the monkeypox virus is transmitted, emphasizing that it doesn’t spread that easily through the air because it requires close contact with an infected person. Monkeypox is primarily spread through sustained physical contact such as skin-to-skin touch with someone who has an active rash, CDC officials said this week. The virus can also spread through contact with materials that have the virus on it like shared bedding and clothing. But it can spread through respiratory droplets as well, although not nearly as easily as Covid-19, they said. (Kimball, 5/24)

San Diego Union-Tribune: County Supervisors Vote To Assess And Possibly Expand Access To Abortion 
San Diego County health officials will study the availability of abortion and other reproductive health care in the county and explore ways to expand those services, following a split vote by the Board of Supervisors Tuesday. In a separate item, the board also signaled support for a state constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion in California. (Brennan, 5/24)

Insider: 42 Democrats Call On Google To Stop Collecting Data Location To Protect Abortion Rights
Dozens of Democrat lawmakers are demanding that Google stop unnecessarily collecting and retaining users' location data out of concern that "far-right extremists" could use the data to go after those who've had abortions. "Google's current practice of collecting and retaining extensive records of cell phone location data will allow it to become a tool for far-right extremists looking to crack down on people seeking reproductive health care," the lawmakers said in a letter addressed to Google's CEO Sundar Pichai. (Soon, 5/25)

San Francisco Chronicle: As Abortion Wars Escalate, Nancy Pelosi And Gavin Newsom Push Back On What It Means To Be ‘Pro-Life’
Here’s how House Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned the tables Tuesday on San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s directive to local priests to deny her Communion because of her support for abortion rights: She redefined what it means to be pro-life. It is not just about abortion. (Garofoli, 5/24)

Politico: The Coming Legal Battles Over Abortion Pills
There are questions about whether the FDA’s regulation of medication abortion trumps state abortions laws, potentially expanding medication abortion access even in states that attempt to ban all abortion. The U.S. Constitution provides that federal law preempts state law. The United States, the drug’s manufacturer, or a provider could bring a lawsuit arguing that a state cannot regulate medication abortion more harshly than the FDA, a federal entity. It’s clear that states cannot regulate drugs less harshly than the FDA. But whether the FDA’s regulation is just the nationwide floor or is also the nationwide ceiling is a complex question that might be different for different products. If it’s both, then states would not be able to ban an FDA-approved drug, especially one as closely regulated as mifepristone. (Rebouche, Cohen and Donley, 5/24)

The Hill: Pandemic Disrupted HIV Prevention Efforts, CDC Report Says 
The COVID-19 pandemic severely hampered HIV testing in the U.S., leading to a significant drop-off in the number of diagnosed infections from 2019 to 2020, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report. The agency’s annual HIV Surveillance Report found infections decreased 17 percent in 2020, from 36,940 to 30,635. But rather than good news, the numbers likely show an underdiagnosis because of a decrease in testing. It’s possible the number of infections is actually increasing. (Weixel, 5/24)

NBC News: Because Of Covid, 2020 Was A 'Lost Year' In The Fight Against HIV, Report Suggests
CDC officials have expressed concern that the extraordinary disruptions the country’s Covid response have caused to HIV-related services have inflicted collateral damage that could take years to undo. It even remains possible that, after decades of hard-fought declines, the national HIV transmission rate has crept up again. “We definitely had a hit from Covid-19,” said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the director of the CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. He called 2020 “a lost year” for the HIV fight, even amid the launch of a federal plan called Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S., or EHE. “We don’t really know where HIV transmission is going to land, but it’s something that we obviously are concerned about,” he added. (Ryan, 5/24)

Scientific American: HIV Care Has Improved Dramatically--But Not For Everyone 
Despite the amazing scientific advances in HIV care that have taken place since the epidemic began 40 years ago, many people in racially and sexually minoritized communities still fall through the cracks. Some can’t afford care, and others can’t access it because of job or family demands, lack of transportation or documentation, or other barriers. Many face stigma and discrimination from medical providers themselves. I was determined to do everything I could to change the narrative of Nicole’s health-care experiences that day. (Malebranche, 6/1)

Los Angeles Times: Report Shows L.A. Homeless Services Workers Throwing Out Food
A day after a news report captured Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority workers throwing away food meant for unhoused people, L.A. City Atty. Mike Feuer sent a letter to the agency demanding answers. The report, aired by KCBS-TV Channel 2 on Monday, showed LAHSA workers throwing cases of food into a dumpster. The news station said it had followed homeless services workers for months and used hidden cameras. (Yee, 5/24)

KQED: Newsom's 'CARE Court' Faces Foe: Shortage Of Treatment Beds, Housing
On a cold day in March, Shahada Hull admitted herself to the hospital. She had been sleeping outside in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood for months, ever since she was evicted in December from the affordable studio apartment she'd rented near the Presidio. Her feet felt numb, her back sore from the concrete sidewalk. (Baldassari, 5/24)

AP: Gas Wells Leak Explosive Levels Of Methane In Bakersfield 
Some Bakersfield residents are concerned about potential explosions after a state agency found that six idle oil wells near homes were leaking methane in the past several days. ... But Uduak-Joe Ntuk, head of the California Geologic Energy Management division of the California Department of Conservation, the agency that oversees wells and confirmed they were leaking, said in a statement that the leaks were “minor in nature and do not pose an immediate threat to public health or safety.” (Costley, 5/25)

The Bakersfield Californian: City Staff And Kern Medical Propose Inpatient Detox Center For Low-Income Residents, Homeless 
The city of Bakersfield’s ad-hoc homelessness committee on Tuesday discussed the potential for creating an inpatient substance-abuse detox center at Kern Medical to help low-income residents. “It's just something that is definitely lacking and we don't have anywhere in our community now,” said Natalee Garrett, vice president of strategic development at Kern Medical. (Desai, 5/24)