AP: California To Protect Health Benefits For Young Immigrants
About 40,000 low-income adults living in the country illegally won’t lose their government-funded health insurance over the next year under a new policy announced Monday by California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration. California already pays for the health care expenses of low-income adults 25 and younger, regardless of their immigration status. A new law scheduled to take effect in January 2024 would extend those benefits to cover all adults who, but for their immigration status, would qualify for the state’s Medicaid program. (Beam, 8/23)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Bill Protects Cannabis Users From Employment Discrimination
When California voters legalized recreational marijuana use in 2016, workplace regulations were left in the hands of employers. A new bill proposed by Assembly Member Bill Quirk, D-Hayward, would change that. AB2188 would prevent employers from penalizing workers who use cannabis outside of work hours. Employees could still be fired for being impaired while on the clock. It would also set new standards for employer-administered drug-screening tests. (Pak, 8/22)

ABC News: Monkeypox Now Reported In All 50 States
Monkeypox has now been detected in all 50 states, health officials revealed. Wyoming became the final state to report a case of the disease on Monday. The Wyoming Department of Health announced the case in an adult male in Laramie County, which includes the capital of Cheyenne. (Kekatos, 8/22)

Modesto Bee: Monkeypox Outbreak: How It Spreads, Myths Debunked
California has reported more than 2,600 cases of monkeypox, or the MPX virus, since May. In early August, President Joe Biden declared the MPX virus a national health emergency in response to the disease that has disproportionately affected gay and bisexual men. (Adatia, 8/23)

The Hill: About Half Of Men Who Have Sex With Men Reduced Sexual Activity Due To Monkeypox: Survey 
Roughly half of men who have sex with men have reported reducing their number of sexual partners and encounters in response to the monkeypox outbreak, according to a survey released on Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Forty-eight percent of the poll’s participants said they reduced their number of sexual partners, 50 percent reduced their number of one-time sexual encounters, and 49 percent reduced how much sex they had with partners they met through dating apps or sexual venues. (Choi, 8/22)

Capital & Main: Why Did The Government Wait So Long To Act Against Monkeypox?
A familiar script is playing out with the latest global virus: a quick moving germ. A sluggish federal government. A vaccine in short supply. The federal government’s failure to take swift and measured action early on against monkeypox means there aren’t enough vaccine doses to stop the virus in its tracks. Not surprisingly, the frustration in the community most impacted by monkeypox is growing, along with the number of cases. Coming rather late is the Aug. 18 news that U.S. officials are working to make the vaccine more widely available by expediting a deal between the Danish vaccine manufacturer Bavarian Nordic and a Michigan-based company, Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing. (Canto, 8/22)

Stat: U.S. Plan To Stretch Monkeypox Vaccine Supply Runs Into Problems
The Biden administration’s plan to stretch supplies of monkeypox vaccine by giving people fractional doses of the product is running into problems, with some local health officials saying they are unable to extract the targeted number of doses from vials. (Branswell and Gaffney, 8/23)

Roll Call: For CDC, Monkeypox Prevention Focus Remains On Vaccines
As the Biden administration scrambles to get a handle on the rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak, its latest focus is getting vaccines to high-risk events, such as pride parades. (Cohen, 8/22)

Reuters: Analysis: Experts Question Reliance On Monkeypox Vaccine With Little Data, Short Supply
Several countries, including the United States, Britain and Spain, are stretching out the available doses, with unknown outcomes. Indeed, the Bavarian Nordic shot has not undergone clinical trials to evaluate the vaccine's ability to prevent monkeypox in humans, though initial studies suggest it will provide some protection. "The whole vaccination strategy for monkeypox is associated with a lot of uncertainties," said Dr. Dimie Ogoina, a professor of medicine at Niger Delta University in Nigeria and member of the WHO's monkeypox emergency committee. (Rigby and Grover, 8/23)

BioProcess International: Bavarian Nordic Deal With GRAM For Monkeypox Vax
“Rapidly increasing the supply and safe delivery of monkeypox vaccine to Americans at the highest risk of contracting the virus is a top priority for President Biden,” said Bob Fenton, coordinator of the White House National Monkeypox Response. “This partnership between Bavarian Nordic and GRAM will significantly increase the capacity to fill and finish government-owned doses – for the first time in the US – and allow us to deliver our current and future supply more quickly to locations nationwide.” (Nelson, 8/22)

Stat: Pfizer Seeks Authorization For New Covid Booster, Without Fresh Clinical Data
Pfizer and BioNTech said Monday that they have asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize a new booster shot targeted at the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 strain of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, the first step in a process that could lead to more effective booster shots. (Herper, 8/22)

CIDRAP: Pfizer Files For Emergency Use Of Its BA.4/BA.5 Omicron Booster 
In a statement, Pfizer said its EUA would clear the booster for use in people ages 12 and older. The company said the clinical trial is expected to begin later this month, but it has already scaled up production and will be ready to ship the vaccine in September, as soon as the FDA approves the emergency use authorization (EUA) application. To speed the consideration of the EUA, the FDA told Pfizer it could submit clinical data for its bivalent BA.1 vaccine alongside preclinical and manufacturing data on its BA.4/BA.5 vaccine. Preclinical data in animals suggest that the BA.4/BA.5 bivalent booster prompts a strong neutralization antibody response against Omicron BA.1, BA.2, and BA.4/BA.5 variants, as well as to the original SARS-CoV-2 virus. (Schnirring, 8/22)

NPR: Pfizer Asks FDA To Greenlight New Omicron Booster Shots, Which Could Arrive This Fall
Following the FDA's guidance, the data the drugmakers are submitting represents a departure from what's been used in earlier vaccine authorizations. Instead of waiting for results from human trials, the FDA asked the drug companies to initially submit only the results of tests on mice, as NPR reported last week. Regulators will rely on those results — along with the human neutralizing antibody data from earlier BA.1 bivalent booster studies — to decide whether to authorize the boosters. (Huang and Stone, 8/22)

AP: Pfizer Seeks OK Of Updated COVID Vaccine Booster For Fall 
Moderna is expected to file a similar application soon for updated boosters for adults. The U.S. has a contract to buy 105 million of the Pfizer doses and 66 million Moderna ones, assuming FDA gives the green light. (Neergaard, 8/22)

The Mercury News: Lawsuit: Kaiser Charged Patients For Free COVID Tests
Testing for COVID-19 is supposed to be provided free under federal legislation aimed at slowing the virus’ spread, but a class-action lawsuit this month accuses Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente, California’s largest health insurer, of billing patients more than $300 for the procedure. The lawsuit was filed Aug. 8 in Alameda County Superior Court on behalf of a Sacramento woman, Faye Getubig, a Kaiser Foundation Health Plan member who went to the HMO in June for a test after feeling COVID-19 symptoms. She got the nasal swab, and after she received her results, she got a bill. (Woolfolk, 8/22)

SF Gate: Apple Workers In Bay Area Push Back On Return-To-Office Plan
Some Apple workers in the Bay Area are now petitioning against the upcoming return-to-office plan announced last week. As first reported by Bloomberg and the Verge last week, Apple corporate employees based in the Silicon Valley are now required to work in the office three times a week starting Sept. 5 — after a yearlong, protracted launch that kept getting put off due to case spikes during the pandemic. It is among the more stringent return-to-office policies in Big Tech, with other large companies like Meta embracing (or not explicitly opposing) remote work. (Bote, 8/22)

Capital & Main: Kaiser Therapists: Strike Is About Complying With The Law
California’s SB 221, a law meant to ensure mental health patients receive therapy on a timely schedule, went into effect in July. The law was sponsored by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, whose Kaiser Permanente members in Northern California have been on strike since Monday, Aug. 15. Kaiser says it is “bargaining in good faith” to reach an agreement, but Jane Kostka, a Sacramento psychiatric social worker participating in the strike, says the HMO will have to hire many more therapists if it is to comply with the law. Cutting patient wait times and keeping therapists’ caseloads at manageable levels are the fundamental issues in the strike, Kostka says. (8/22)

Capital & Main: Kaiser Therapists Say Patient Neglect Compels Them To Strike
“We need to see our patients at a frequency that helps our patients actually get better,” says Jane Kostka, a Sacramento psychiatric social worker who is one of more than 2,000 Kaiser Permanente mental health care workers in Northern California who began an open-ended strike on Monday, Aug. 15. The workers, members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, say that understaffing at Kaiser is so severe that it makes it impossible to properly care for patients. Among their claims: Short-staffing means patients must wait four to eight weeks to see a therapist. Therapists are leaving Kaiser in great numbers due to the overload of cases, compounding the shortage. Their main demand is that Kaiser increase staffing to shorten patient wait times. (8/19)

Capital & Main: Video: ‘What They Need Is Someone At Their Side’
Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California mental health workers have been on strike since Monday, Aug. 15. Their primary issue, they say, is patient overload. A shortage of therapists means patients must wait up to two months for appointments, making it impossible to provide proper care. Kaiser says it is “bargaining in good faith to reach a fair and equitable agreement” with its workers. Meanwhile, Sacramento psychiatric social worker Jane Kostka says in this Capital & Main interview that she and her 2,000 colleagues are striking because their patients are at risk. (8/20)

FiercePharma: Teva Charts 300-Plus Layoffs At Troubled California Injectables Plant
As the fate of a mothballed Teva plant in California hangs in limbo, a new layoff alert from the Golden State suggests things could be going better for the Israeli-American generics giant. Teva Parenteral Medicines is letting go of 305 staffers at its site at 19 Hughes, Irvine, California, according to a local Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice in California. Teva first telegraphed the staff cuts March 22, according to the listing, and the cuts went into effect in June. (Kansteiner, 8/22)

Sacramento Bee: CA Union Contract Gives Paid Family Leave To State Workers
A new California public employee union contract for the first time gives rank-and-file workers paid family leave without requiring them to accept a paycheck deduction to fund the benefit. The tentative agreement for the state attorneys union, reached Friday, provides up to six weeks of paid leave time that may be used by workers with new children or those with sick family members, according to a summary that was emailed to union members Monday morning. (Venteicher, 8/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Where Are People Living The Longest? See Where Your State Ranks In Life Expectancy
Where should you live to have the longest life expectancy? New data suggests heading out West is a good bet. Hawaii has the highest life expectancy of any U.S. state, according to new federal figures released on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The combined average life expectancy for men and women in the state was 80.7 years old, the only U.S. state with an average expectancy rate above 80 years.  Washington state has the second-highest life expectancy, at 79.2 years. California was also high on the list, at 79.0 years. (Ansari, 8/23)

Politico: 'Bittersweet': Fauci Will Leave Government, Excited For What Comes Next
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert who in his effort to lead the response to Covid-19 became one of the most divisive public health figures in recent memory, announced he will step down later this year. Fauci, who has led the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 38 years, told POLITICO on Monday that leaving his government post was “bittersweet” but he was also excited for what comes next. (Lim, Cancryn, Gardner and Ward, 8/22)

The New York Times: Fauci Says He Will Step Down In December To Pursue His ‘Next Chapter’ 
The announcement by Dr. Fauci, 81, was not entirely unexpected. He has hinted for some time that he was thinking of retiring, saying last month that he would “almost certainly” do so by 2025. In an interview Sunday evening, he said he was “not retiring in the classic sense” but would devote himself to traveling, writing and encouraging young people to enter government service. “So long as I’m healthy, which I am, and I’m energetic, which I am, and I’m passionate, which I am, I want to do some things outside of the realm of the federal government,” Dr. Fauci said in the interview, adding that he wanted to use his experience and insight into public health and public service to “hopefully inspire the younger generation.” (Stolberg, 8/22)

National Institutes Of Health: Statement By Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. 
It has been the honor of a lifetime to have led the NIAID, an extraordinary institution, for so many years and through so many scientific and public health challenges. I am very proud of our many accomplishments. I have worked with — and learned from — countless talented and dedicated people in my own laboratory, at NIAID, at NIH and beyond. To them I express my abiding respect and gratitude. (Anthony S. Fauci, 8/22)

Fox News: Pandemic Politics: Fauci Praised, Pummeled As He Announces His Exit 
Soon after Anthony Fauci announced he will be stepping down in December, White House chief of staff Ron Klain hailed the doctor: "I cannot think of a public servant who has done as much to save as many lives for as long a period as Dr. Tony Fauci. And he is a gem of a person." Just as quickly, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted that Fauci was giving up his post as President Biden’s chief medical adviser "likely to avoid being questioned by a GOP controlled house on how he got everything so wrong for so long!" The dueling narratives were under way. (Kurtz, 8/23)