San Francisco Chronicle: BA.2.75 COVID Variant Is Spreading In The Bay Area. Can It Evade Immunity?
The omicron coronavirus strain continues to spawn highly infectious subvariants, and the latest one gaining ground, known as BA.2.75, has already shown up in the Bay Area. While BA.5 is currently the dominant subvariant worldwide, BA.2.75 has turned up in at least a dozen countries since it was first detected in May in India, where it is driving a new surge. (Hwang, 7/12)

Sacramento Bee: California COVID-19 Deaths And Hospitalizations Rise With Highly Contagious Variant
Coronavirus activity remains on a steep rise in California, with COVID-19 infection and hospital numbers surging as the highly contagious BA.5 subvariant of omicron spreads across the country. (McGough, 7/12)

East Bay Times: Stunning Spread Of BA.5 Subvariant Shows Why This California COVID Wave Is Different 
With California suffering through another intense coronavirus wave, the stunning proliferation of the BA.5 subvariant is becoming a growing focus of scientific scrutiny, with experts saying it may replicate itself far more effectively than earlier versions of omicron. (7/12)

Sacramento Bee: What New BA.5 Subvariant Means For COVID Vaccinations In CA 
The new BA.5 is one of the “worst” subvariants circulating the country, infecting even those who have immunity from previous infections and vaccines. Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of Scripps Research Translational Institute, called the new subvariant “the worst version of the virus that we’ve seen” in an online post in June. He cited its advanced ability to escape immunity and high transmission, in contrast to the original omicron and its family variants, including BA.2 and BA.4. (Truong, 7/13)

Stat: Citing Omicron BA.5 Risks, White House Recommends Covid-19 Boosters
The Biden administration on Tuesday urged the public to strengthen their protections against Covid-19, noting that the BA.5 subvariant of Omicron has become the dominant strain in the country. (Joseph, 7/12)

Reuters: U.S. Deaths From Antibiotic Resistant 'Superbugs' Rose 15% In 2020
U.S. deaths from bacteria resistant to antibiotics, also known as 'superbugs', jumped 15% in 2020 as the drugs were widely dispensed to treat COVID-19 and fight off bacterial infections during long hospitalizations, enabling the bugs to evolve, a U.S. government report said on Tuesday. Hospital-acquired bacterial infections also rose more than 15% in 2020 from 2019, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. (Mishra, 7/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: What Are The Chances Of Catching COVID By Touch? The Latest On Surface Transmission
Let’s start from the beginning. Early in the pandemic, the public health message was that the coronavirus spread primarily through large respiratory droplets — the larger, heavier spray we emit when breathing, talking, coughing, singing, etc., and that can travel up to 6 feet before falling to the ground or surfaces. The Centers for Disease Control initially said people contracted viral particles either through “deposition” — getting their mucous membranes “splashed or sprayed” with the virus in close contact — or through touching infected surfaces, known as fomites. (Wu, 7/13)

Los Angeles Times: Will Americans Have The Right COVID-19 Vaccine This Fall? Maybe 
In a few short months, the weather will turn crisp, the holiday season will draw near, and the coronavirus may embark on its third consecutive winter of death and devastation. That prospect has federal regulators and their scientific advisors engaged in a high-stakes guessing game. The question: How should the COVID-19 vaccine change? (Healy, 7/12)

Politico: FDA To Authorize Novavax's Covid-19 Vaccine
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize Novavax’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency use as early as Wednesday, two people with knowledge of the matter told POLITICO. The regulatory clearance would likely permit the two-dose vaccine to be given to adults as a primary immunization series, limiting its use in the U.S. since roughly two-thirds of people have already received their initial shots. (Cancryn and Foley, 7/12)

Palm Springs Desert Sun: Riverside County Receives Post-Exposure Monkeypox Vaccines
Riverside County Public Health has received slightly more than 1,000 post-exposure vaccines for monkeypox, which would help protect 500-plus people most at risk of infection, said county spokesperson Jose Arballo Jr. (Sasic, 7/12)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Limited Supply Of Monkeypox Vaccine Offered To San Diego's Gay And Bisexual Communities 
About 600 doses of monkeypox vaccine will be made available to those at increased risk of infection Wednesday and Thursday in an effort to prevent spread of the disease during the San Diego Pride Festival this weekend. (Sisson, 7/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Newsom Signs New California Law To Hold Gunmakers Accountable For Violence
California residents, the state attorney general and local governments will be able to sue gun companies for harm their products cause under a new state law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Tuesday. “The gun industry can no longer hide from the devastating harm their products cause,” Newsom said in a news release. “Nearly every industry is held liable when people are hurt or killed by their products — guns should be no different.” (Bollag, 7/12)

Los Angeles Times: California Enacts New Gun Laws After Supreme Court Ruling 
Less than a month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against restrictions on carrying firearms in public in a substantial victory for 2nd Amendment advocates, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed at least three major gun control measures into law to restrict access to the weapons and create an avenue for private citizens to sue the industry. (Wiley, 7/12)

The Wall Street Journal: California Gun Measures Let Citizens Sue To Enforce Regulations 
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that he has signed a bill allowing private citizens to sue companies including gun manufacturers for violating the state’s firearms regulations. It is one of a pair of bills passed by the state’s Democratic-controlled legislature that use civil liability to target the gun industry. Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, has said he would sign the other proposal, which allows individuals to sue to enforce bans on certain types of weapons. (Elinson and Mai-Duc, 7/12)

Politico: Senate Confirms Biden's Pick To Lead Gun Regulation Agency 
The Senate approved Steven Dettelbach’s nomination Tuesday to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, making him only the second Senate-confirmed director in the gun regulatory agency’s history. In a 48-46 vote, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman of Ohio joined Democrats in supporting the former U.S. attorney. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said before the vote that confirming a permanent director is “another important step in protecting Americans from violent gun crimes.” (Levine, 7/12)

Bay Area News Group: San Jose: “Put The Gun Down!” Deputy Pleads With Distraught Doctor
For more than an hour Tuesday morning, Santa Clara County Sheriff’s deputies pleaded with a distraught doctor in the front yard of a Rose Garden home to drop her pistol and knife and ‘let us help you.” “Your patients need you. Your residents need you. And your mom, she loves you,” the sheriff’s deputy who works as a crisis intervention counselor said over a loud speaker as neighbors and members of the media gathered nearby. “Don’t do this to them.” (Sulek and Salonga, 7/12)

AP: California's Newsom Goes To Washington; 2024 Chatter Follows
As California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom heads to Washington this week, speculation about his national political ambitions won’t be far behind. The four-day swing, anchored to an award Newsom will receive on behalf of his home state Wednesday from an education group, will provide the Democratic governor with a national stage to continue his outspoken defense of abortion rights and gun restrictions. (Blood, 7/12)

The Washington Post: Justice Dept. Announces Task Force To Fight Overreach On Abortion Bans 
The Justice Department is launching a “reproductive rights task force” to marshal federal legal resources aimed at preventing overreach from state and local governments seeking to impose new bans on abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, officials said Tuesday. Justice officials said the move should consolidate work that was underway in the months leading up to the high court’s June decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which struck down federal safeguards for abortion that had stood for five decades. (Nakamura and Roubein, 7/12)

Politico: Congress Tees Up Bills To Protect Travel For Abortion
Bills aimed at protecting a person’s ability to cross state lines to seek reproductive care could see action in the House and Senate later this week — though neither bill has a clear path to becoming law, especially in the Senate. The House plans to bring its bill to the floor on Friday; Senate Democratic leadership could attempt to call the bill up for a voice vote on the Senate floor later this week, though Republicans are expected to block it. (Snyder and Ollstein, 7/12)

AP: Ann Shulgin, Bay Area Pioneer Of Psychedelics In Therapy, Dies At 91
Ann Shulgin, who together with her late husband Alexander Shulgin pioneered the use of psychedelic drugs in psychotherapy and co-wrote two seminal books on the subject, has died at the age of 91. (Rodriguez, 7/12)

USA Today: Patient Safety: Federal Reports Show Progress, Areas Of Improvement
Over the nine-year span, researchers found the rate of adverse events related to major medical procedures decreased from 204 to 130 occurrences per 1,000 discharges, acute myocardial infarction from 218 to 139, heart failure from 168 to 116, and pneumonia from 195 to 119. (Rodriguez, 7/12)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Biotech Working On ‘Functional Cure’ For Type 1 Diabetes Sold To Rival For $320M 
San Diego biotech ViaCyte, which is developing cell replacement therapies that could eventually let people with type 1 diabetes reduce or eliminate insulin injections, has inked a deal to be acquired by rival Vertex Pharmaceuticals for $320 million in cash. (Freeman, 7/12)

Sacramento Bee: Supervisors Reject Possibility Of Cannabis Dispensaries In Unincorporated Parts Of Sacramento County 
A plan that could have led to the opening of marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated parts of Sacramento County is dead. While three of the five Sacramento County Board of Supervisors voted in favor of the plan that could have seen dispensaries opening, four affirmative votes were needed during the Tuesday board session. (Diamond, 7/12)

Orange County Register: How Do Heat Waves Impact Health In Your Southern California Neighborhood? 
When the mercury spikes, as it’s expected to across Southern California this weekend, a growing body of data shows that so do hospitalizations and deaths. (Staggs, 7/12)

Los Angeles Times: Reporting An L.A. Pregnant Homeless Woman's Life Since 2018
Los Angeles Times videographer Claire Hannah Collins had proposed a story about something our organization had seldom touched on in decades of covering L.A. homelessness: pregnant women living on the streets. She and another videographer spent months reporting and connecting with different agencies, and interviewed several women who had experienced homelessness while pregnant. (Holland, 7/13)

Los Angeles Times: Pregnant And Homeless In Los Angeles: Meet McKenzie 
Mckenzie was 22, and 6½ months pregnant. Her boyfriend, Eddie, 26, was HIV-positive, although his viral load was undetectable and he could not transmit the virus through sex. ... She made an appointment for an abortion but couldn’t go through with it. Still, she remained “terrified” of having the baby. The odds were heavily stacked against her raising her child to adulthood. Mckenzie’s family came out of poverty in Louisiana‘s Cajun Country, and for three generations had been buffeted by domestic violence, mental illness and homelessness, and caught up in child welfare cases. Her mother, Cynthia “Mama Cat” Trahan, was taken from her mom at age 5 and placed in foster care. Mckenzie and Cat were homeless on and off during her childhood, and Mckenzie was also put in foster care. (Holland, 7/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: How Alameda County's Mental Health System Fuels Homelessness
An Alameda County grand jury report has found that the local mental health system is making the area's homeless crisis worse. Among the findings is a lack of basic consensus on solutions, which cause mentally ill residents to cycle in and out of ERs and jails. (7/12)