San Francisco Chronicle: Infants, Toddlers Can Start Getting COVID Vaccines As Early As Tuesday
The moment that millions of parents have been waiting for is finally here. Bay Area health departments and health care providers began receiving their first shipments of COVID-19 vaccine for infants and toddlers — 6 months to 4 years old — on Monday, following federal and state approvals over the weekend, and are poised to start administering shots Tuesday. (Ho, 6/20)

Bay Area News Group: COVID Vaccines Ready For Littlest Arms Starting Tuesday
COVID-19 vaccines for infants, toddlers and preschoolers are ready to go into their tiny arms as soon as Tuesday in Santa Clara County. The county on Monday received shipments of both the Pfizer and Moderna versions of the vaccines for children 6 months through 4 years old, and in the afternoon began offering up appointments online at www.sccfreevax.org to administer the shots starting Tuesday. (Woolfolk, 6/20)

CapRadio: Vaccinations For Children 6 Months To 5 Years Old Can Begin After CDC Clears The Way
Providers across the country can start vaccinating kids ages 6 months to 5 years as early as this coming week after regulators cleared the final authorization steps on Saturday. An independent panel of advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted on Saturday to recommend vaccinating all children in the age group with one of two separate COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech. (6/18, Chatterjee)

KCRA: How California Will Roll Out COVID-19 Vaccine To Kids Under Age 5
KCRA 3 asked CDPH how vaccine rollout will work. According to a spokesperson, California pre-ordered nearly 400,000 doses of the vaccine for infants, toddlers and younger children. This includes more than 221,000 doses of Moderna and more than 176,000 doses of Pfizer. Those doses will be administered at the more than 8,5000 health care provider sites in the state's COVID-19 Vaccination Program. Those sites can administer vaccines to all ages. (Hope, 6/20)

Los Angeles Times: This New California Coronavirus Wave Isn’t Sticking To The Script: Big Spread, Less Illness
In the last two years, COVID-19 has followed a predictable, if painful, pattern: When coronavirus transmission has rebounded, California has been flooded with new cases and hospitals have strained under a deluge of seriously ill patients, a distressing number of whom die. But in a world awash in vaccines and treatments, and with healthcare providers armed with knowledge gleaned over the course of the pandemic, the latest wave isn’t sticking to that script. (Money, 6/21)

Bay Area News Group: VTA Union President Claims Vaccine Mandate Is Linked To Recent Shooting Threat
The union head who represents most Valley Transportation Authority workers asserted on Saturday that a bus driver arrested after making workplace shooting threats was “facing pressures” to receive a vaccine shot mandated by the transit agency. The comments come after the Friday arrest by sheriff’s deputies of VTA worker Douglas Lofstrom, who was allegedly making shooting threats in front of other employees at the Chaboya Division Yard in San Jose on the 2200 block of South 10th Street. The sheriff’s department did not specify any details of the threats or if the man owned any firearms. (Greschler, 6/19)

Times Of San Diego: Neighborhood Healthcare To Open New Center On East Valley Parkway In Escondido 
Neighborhood Healthcare, a regional Federally Qualified Health Center, will open its latest Escondido location Tuesday. The fully-staffed facility at 488 East Valley Parkway includes 11 exam rooms for primary medical, podiatry, chiropractic and behavioral healthcare. (6/20)  

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento To See Mid-Week Heat Wave, Increased Fire Danger
Triple-digit temperatures will return to the Sacramento region this week, prompting a heat advisory and fire concerns, according to the National Weather Service. After a temperate weekend, the Sacramento area can anticipate a heat wave Tuesday into Wednesday. Temperatures in the valley may reach up to 108 degrees, especially in areas northwest of Sacramento County, according to the weather service. (Davidson, 6/20)

Los Angeles Times: Heat Expected To Linger Across Southern California 
A heat wave scorching Southern California saw temperatures climb into the 90s and 100s on Monday as a small community in Imperial County recorded the nation’s highest temperature for the day. No daily temperature records were set, but Monday saw highs in the upper 90s to around 100 degrees in inland portions of the Los Angeles area, said Robbie Munroe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. (Toohey and Yee, 6/20)

Axios: The Health Impacts Of Rising Temperatures
Extreme heat is increasingly taking a toll on children, pregnant people and other vulnerable populations, forcing authorities to roll out new strategies against an environmental threat that dwarfs floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters. Summers are becoming deadlier as climate change blankets millions in heat waves whose public health consequences were until recently not fully understood. “The problem with heat and drought is that until they get extreme, we don't really see the impact on the landscape that would typically trigger our risk response,” said Ashley Ward, senior policy associate at Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. (Dreher, 6/21)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Needs 90,000 Trees To Battle Extreme Heat. Will Residents Step Up To Plant Them?
In 2019, Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled an ambitious plan to plant 90,000 trees in Los Angeles by 2021 as part of L.A.’s Green New Deal. To accomplish this, he appointed the city’s first forest officer, Rachel Malarich, to head the Urban Forestry Division. The city also authorized a network of non-profits and “community ambassadors” to aid and encourage residents in planting much-needed trees. But more than a year after Garcetti’s deadline, it turns out that planting trees in Los Angeles is a lot more difficult than it sounds — particularly when it comes to targeting those neighborhoods most in need of the temperature-reducing and air- cleaning benefits trees provide. To date, just over 65,000 trees have been planted. (Ding, 6/20)

AP: California Trout To Be Euthanized After Bacteria Outbreak 
Nearly 350,000 rainbow trout must be euthanized as California wildlife officials battle bacteria outbreaks at two fish hatcheries in the eastern Sierra. The naturally occurring bacteria, Lactococcus petuari, was first detected in April at Black Rock and Fish Springs hatcheries in Inyo County, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement Monday. (6/21)

AP: Court Rejects Trump-Era EPA Finding That Weed Killer Safe 
A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a Trump administration finding that the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup does not pose a serious health risk and is “not likely” to cause cancer in humans. The California-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reexamine its 2020 finding that glyphosate did not pose a health risk for people exposed to it by any means — on farms, yards or roadsides or as residue left on food crops. (Daly, 6/17)

Times Of San Diego: County Lifts Water Contamination Closure In Imperial Beach, Along Silver Strand 
The San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality (DEHQ) has lifted the water contact closure and advisory for the Imperial Beach and Silver Strand shorelines. Recent water quality testing confirms that cross-boundary sewage flows are no longer impacting these beaches, which remain open. Recent closures also have extended into Coronado, at beaches near the Hotel del Coronado. (6/20)

San Diego Union-Tribune: It's Been 3 Years Since Deadly E.Coli Hit San Diego County Fair. What's Being Done To Control Infection Risk? 
As her family approached the exit of the livestock barn at the San Diego County Fair, Raeven Cox used her voice as she does working with local Marine Corps recruits. “Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands,” she yelled, her voice penetrating through the background noise that filled the cavernous space. “You’ve got to wash your hands, all of you. ”That perspective was not universal Wednesday afternoon at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, which experienced a deadly E. coli bacterial outbreak among nearly a dozen who visited animal exhibits in 2019, the last time the fair ran full bore. (Sisson, 6/18)

Voice of San Diego: East Vs West Wastewater Wars Move Closer To Resolution 
Sewage is now a commodity, a drinking water resource in the world of California drought, and the city of San Diego and a bloc of eastern San Diego County water agencies have been fighting over it. Both parties will be recycling wastewater into drinking water but they need to cut a deal with each other to make that happen and it’s gotten fairly complicated, as Voice of San Diego’s MacKenzie Elmer previously reported. (Elmer, 6/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: At Least 50 People Call For Medical Aid During Warriors Parade In San Francisco
San Francisco firefighters received at least 50 calls for first aid during the Warriors parade that drew tens of thousands of people to Market Street on Monday, mostly stemming from the sticky June heat and heavy alcohol consumption. Many people arrived “wearing San Francisco layers,” Lt. Jonathan Baxter, a Fire Department spokesperson, told The Chronicle, describing how revelers stuff themselves into jackets despite the warm weather, and failed to bring water bottles. (Swan, 6/20)

KQED: One Family's Quest To Make Sure California Creates More Rules For Children's Day Camps
As summer kicks off, more than a million California children are gearing up for horseback riding, swimming, archery, computer coding and hip hop day camps. As parents scout out fun activities for their kids, most are likely unaware of the risks. Unlike child care facilities and schools, children’s day camps are not required to conduct employee background checks, be licensed by the state, require CPR certification or report injuries or deaths to the state. No state agency conducts inspections for child safety, audits lifeguard certifications or reviews safety plans for activities that include zip-lining, swimming and shooting guns. (Aguilera, 6/20)

Sacramento Bee: Plastics And Tobacco, Betting And The Arts: Four Questions On California’s November Ballot 
California Democrats passed SB 793, a ban on flavored tobacco products, two years ago. The industry has mobilized, however, collecting enough signatures to place a referendum on the November ballot. Driving the campaign is the innocuously-named California Coalition for Fairness, backed by tobacco giants like R.J. Reynolds. Because the measure is a referendum, SB 793 was suspended immediately after it qualified for the ballot in late January, leaving voters to decide in November whether or not the ban will continue. (Tucker-Smith, 6/20)

Los Angeles Times: TV Medical Correspondent, Accused Of Asking Child For Naked Photos, Hired Ex-D.A. As Consultant 
The text messages between the 9-year-old girl and the man old enough to be her grandfather were, at minimum, unnerving. “I have always been good special friends and you feel safe with me so I will protect you and get you something. They could maybe make you a star if you are willing to take some risks,” Dr. Bruce Hensel, then 72, wrote to a young child he had promised to cast in a movie. Hensel — who had long served as NBC’s chief on-air medical correspondent in New York and Los Angeles — repeatedly texted the child from March to August of 2019, at some points asking her for photos that were “sexy and private,” according to records submitted to the California Medical Board earlier this year. (Queally, 6/21)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento County Ordinance Could Clear Homeless Encampments
Sacramento County is developing a broad ordinance that would allow officers to clear homeless encampments from a wide variety of the county’s public spaces, such as parks, libraries and schools. It expands on an earlier proposal that would have allowed law enforcement to clear encampments off of “critical infrastructure” such as flood levies and the areas directly surrounding county homeless shelters. (Davidson, 6/21)

Voice of San Diego: Vista Scraps Homeless Shelter Idea After Failing To Get Bids To Run It   
Vista has canceled its attempts to open a shelter, after no homeless-serving nonprofits responded to its request for bids. Organizations that looked into Vista’s February call said the project wasn’t viable because the city did not include a stable, ongoing funding source or a location for the shelter, instead expecting organizations to solve those issues as part of their pitches. (Layne, 6/20)

CIDRAP: WHO Focuses Less On Endemicity As Global Monkeypox Cases Top 2,500
As global monkeypox cases top 2,500, the World Health Organization (WHO) posted a monkeypox update and removed the distinction between endemic and non-endemic nations to reflect a "unified response." (Wappes, 6/20)

Science: Why The Monkeypox Outbreak Is Mostly Affecting Men Who Have Sex With Men 
Ever since monkeypox started sickening thousands of people worldwide this spring, two big questions have loomed: Why is a virus that has never managed to spread beyond a few cases outside Africa suddenly causing such a big, global outbreak? And why are the overwhelming majority of those affected men who have sex with men (MSM)? A long history of work on sexually transmitted infections and early studies of the current outbreak suggest the answers may be linked: The virus may have made its way into highly interconnected sexual networks within the MSM community, where it can spread in ways that it cannot in the general population. (Kupferschmidt, 6/20)