NBC News: Starting Tuesday, All U.S. Military Veterans In Suicidal Crisis Will Be Eligible For Free Care At Any VA Or Private Facility
Beginning Tuesday, U.S. military veterans who find themselves in suicidal crisis will be eligible for free emergency medical care at any Department of Veterans Affairs facility or any private facility. Unlike for most other medical benefits, veterans do not have to be enrolled in the VA system to be eligible. More than 18 million veterans in the U.S. could be eligible. (Kube, 1/13)

Axios: Veterans Eligible For Free Emergency Suicide Care Starting Jan. 17
Any U.S. military veteran in "acute suicidal crisis" will be able to access emergency health care at any facility for free starting next week, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced Friday. (Chen, 1/13)

The Washington Post: Study Finds Insufficient Mental Health Care Access For Many In Military 
Military members and their families have unique mental health needs. But a study shows that up to 35 percent of military recipients don’t have access to adequate psychiatric care despite government insurance that covers such services. Published in JAMA Network Open, the study looked at 39,487 U.S. Zip codes with at least one beneficiary of Tricare, the Defense Department health-care program that covers uniformed service members, retirees and their families. Researchers combined data from a variety of federal sources with community information. (Blakemore, 1/16)

Military Times: An Army Family Doctor Now Leads The Defense Health Agency
The system that delivers health care for more than 9 million service members, retirees and their family members has a new director: Army Maj. Gen. Telita Crosland. She becomes the Defense Health Agency’s fourth director in its nearly 10 years of existence, and the first African American in that position. (Jowers, 1/11)

Health.Mil: Military Pharmacists Face Unique Challenges While Deployed 
Tasked with having to know about hundreds of types of drugs and their interactions, equipment, and much more, pharmacists are vital in keeping warfighters healthy and ensuring that the U.S. military maintains a medically ready force. For deployed pharmacists, they face unique challenges, as they don’t work in a traditional brick and mortar setting. Rather, deployed pharmacists can be on a ship in the middle of the ocean, or in a makeshift building in the Middle East or Africa. The deployed pharmacy workforce may have to take care of warfighters in abnormal situations or locations. (Hammer, 1/12)

Roll Call: Congress Barely Dents Scourge Of Hunger In Military 
A recently enacted income supplement for low-ranking U.S. troops, put in place primarily to alleviate food insecurity in the ranks, will help less than 1 percent of the estimated scores of thousands of hungry U.S. military families, according to Pentagon figures. That statistic, which has not been previously reported, suggests Congress has a lot more work to do to ensure servicemembers who put their lives on the line for their country don’t also have to sacrifice food for themselves and their families, experts and some lawmakers said. (Donnelly, 1/13)

Los Angeles Times: 'Tripledemic' Has These LAUSD Parents Seeking Mask Mandate
At the first sign of a sniffle or stormy weather ahead Lourdes Lopez keeps her 10-year-old daughter, Alison, home from school. Alison has Down syndrome and is more vulnerable to illness. A cold can be a major hardship, Lopez said, not only for her daughter but her entire family living in an overcrowded apartment in South Los Angeles. (Reyes-Velarde and Blume, 1/16)

ABC News: Several Celebrities Test Positive For COVID After Golden Globes
In the wake of the Golden Globes last week, several celebrities said they have tested positive for COVID-19. At least four stars, including Jamie Lee Curtis and Michelle Pfeiffer, revealed they contracted the virus following the awards show. (Kekatos, 1/16)

Politico: Airplane Lavatories Deliver New Hope For The CDC’s Variant Hunt 
As Covid-19 cases explode in China and new viral threats loom, the Biden administration is ramping up surveillance of biological samples from international passengers arriving at U.S. airports to scan for new virus variants and other hazards to Americans’ health. (Mahr, 1/16)

CIDRAP: Almost A Fourth Of Air Passengers Screened From China Had COVID-19, Report Reveals 
Italian officials who screened 556 airline passengers from two Chinese provinces in late December found that almost a quarter of them tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, with one flight having 42% of passengers infected, according to a report yesterday in Eurosurveillance. (Wappes, 1/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: Virus Spread Among Animals “Much Wider Than Previously Thought”
The coronavirus has been detected in nearly 400 domestic pets, including cats and dogs, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It has also been detected in captive zoo animals such as tigers, lions, gorillas, snow leopards, and otters. But experts say transmission among wild species is also common, even though federal officials have so far only detected the virus that causes COVID-19 in three so far —mink, mule deer, and white-tailed deer. (Vaziri, 1/13)

The Washington Post: Covid During Pregnancy Increases Risk Of Maternal Death 
Pregnant people infected with the coronavirus have a seven times higher risk of dying compared with pregnant individuals who are not infected, a finding that arrives amid renewed calls for vaccination of those who are expecting a baby. Researchers, whose findings were published Monday in the journal BMJ Global Health, pooled patient data from more than 13,000 pregnant individuals included in 12 studies from 12 countries, including the United States. Along with a higher death rate, infected pregnant people had a greater risk of being admitted to an intensive care unit, needing a ventilator or developing pneumonia if they have a coronavirus infection. (Malhi, 1/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Exercise Helps Blunt The Effects Of Covid-19, Study Suggests 
People who exercise regularly had lower rates of hospitalization and death from Covid-19 in a study published recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. ... This latest study goes a step further and suggests that even people whose age or health conditions make them higher-risk have better outcomes if they are regular exercisers. (Janin, 1/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID In California: Study Finds ‘Lifelong Disabilities’ From Long COVID
A significant proportion of individuals with long COVID may face lifelong disabilities, according to a comprehensive review of studies of the little-understood post-infection condition published Friday by researchers at Scripps and the Patient-Led Research Collaborative. (Vaziri, 1/13)

CNBC: CDC Says It’s ‘Very Unlikely’ Pfizer Booster Carries Stroke Risk For Seniors After Launching Review
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday said it is “very unlikely” the Pfizer omicron booster carries a risk of stroke for seniors after it launched an investigation into a preliminary safety concern detected by one of its monitoring systems. (Kimball, 1/13)

Fox News: CDC Identifies Possible 'Safety Concern' For Certain People Receiving COVID Vaccines
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that a preliminary COVID-19 vaccine "safety signal" has been identified and is investigating whether the Bivalent Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine creates an increased risk of ischemic stroke in people 65 and older. In the Friday statement, the CDC said that the preliminary signal hasn't been identified with the Bivalent Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. (Sabes, 1/13)

Bloomberg: Pfizer Bivalent Vaccine Linked To Strokes On Preliminary Data
The potential risk with Pfizer’s vaccine was not seen in other safety databases, nor was it seen with Moderna Inc.’s Covid vaccine, the officials said in a statement on the Food and Drug Administration’s website. The early finding still needs more investigation, and recommendations for the vaccine have not been changed, the statement said. (Langreth and Rutherford, 1/13)

KVPR: Clinics Officially End Services In Madera County Amid Bankruptcy
On a rain-soaked Monday afternoon, Family Health Services clinic in Madera was in its final operating hours. Some parked cars were the only visible sign of activity in the vast empty space left by the closure of next-door Madera Community Hospital, which operated the clinic. The hospital filed for bankruptcy and closed its doors on Jan. 3 but left its clinics to run until Jan. 10. While the bankruptcy filing is expected to be completed by next week, the closure of three clinics and a hospital in a single month in the county have left many questions. (Hok, 1/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Medical Residents Unionize Over Pay, Working Conditions
Physicians-in-training at top teaching hospitals across the country are joining unions, demanding higher pay and better working conditions. ... The pandemic’s strains spurred residents to organize, said Simranvir Kaur, a fourth-year resident specializing in obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford Medicine, where most of some 1,400 Stanford residents voted to form a union last May. Residents were working longer shifts without extra compensation and treating Covid-19 patients without adequate protective gear, Dr. Kaur said. (Mosbergen, 1/16)

Los Angeles Times: Routine-Care Needs Pack MLK Emergency Department
In the emergency department at MLK Community Hospital, masked patients lay in wheeled stretchers lining the hallways. Others slumped in chairs where nurses attended to them. Amid the crush of people on a recent day in December, only the sickest or most severely injured got one of the 29 rooms. (Alpert Reyes, 1/15)

The Bakersfield Californian: Cardiac Surgery Continues At Adventist Despite Complaint, False Rumors 
Recent changes to the cardiothoracic surgery program at Adventist Health Kern County got a bumpy reception this week after an anonymous complaint prompted what may have been the division's first surprise visit from a state inspector. (Cox, 1/13)

Becker's Hospital Review: Pipeline Health Assumes Master Lease Of LA Hospitals To Help It Emerge From Bankruptcy
Pipeline Health is to assume the master lease of four Los Angeles area hospitals as well as two medical office buildings as part of its emergence from bankruptcy, real estate investment trust Medical Properties Trust said Jan. 13. The El Segundo, Calif.-based healthcare system, which completed the sale of two of its Chicago-area hospitals as part of its bankruptcy proceedings earlier this month, is focusing most of its efforts on Los Angeles healthcare facilities to help it emerge from bankruptcy, MPT said. (Thomas, 1/13)

USA Today: 2022 'Shkreli Awards' Rank Worst Health Care 'Profiteering' Cases
The Lown Institute, a health care policy think tank, each year ranks the 10 worst instances of “profiteering and dysfunction” in the health-care industry. It calls its rankings the “Shkreli Awards,” named after the former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli, who rose to notoriety in 2015 when he raised the price of a life-saving medication by roughly 4,000%. Shkreli was nicknamed “Pharma Bro” by the public. He was convicted of securities fraud in 2017, and was released last year. (Mayorquin, 1/14)

Modern Healthcare: NEJM Study: 22.7% Of Hospital Patients Experience Adverse Event
Almost one quarter of hospital patients in the U.S. experience an adverse event such as medication-related harm, a pressure injury or infection during their care, according to a new study. The research, which looked at a random sample of 2,809 admissions from 11 Massachusetts hospitals in 2018, found that out of the adverse events, 22.7% were deemed preventable, and 32.3% were classified as serious, life-threatening, or fatal. The study was published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Devereaux, 1/13)

Bay Area Reporter: In Error, CA Double Funded Transgender Health Account 
Buried within the bills California legislators filed this month after Governor Gavin Newsom released his budget proposal for the 2023-2024 fiscal year is a line seeking to claw back $13 million from the state's Transgender Wellness and Equity Fund. Created in 2020, it was only until last year that state leaders had allocated money toward it. (Bajko, 1/13)

Los Angeles Times: On A Poverty Tour Of California, An Adviser To The Governor Chronicles Agony, Anger And Hope
Michael Tubbs writes in his notebook and stars a word in black pen for importance: “agony.” It’s impossible to wholly describe what he has learned about Californians living in poverty during his tour across the state, but that word seems to wrap it up. The former mayor of Stockton, now the “economic mobility and opportunity” advisor to Gov. Gavin Newsom, has carried a gray notebook to 10 counties — and plans to visit the remaining 48 — as part of his work for his new nonprofit, End Poverty in California. (Mays, 1/16)

NPR: More People Than Ever Buy Insurance On Healthcare.Gov
The Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplaces just hit a record: Nearly 16 million people signed up for the insurance also known as Obamacare. That is about a million more people than signed up for ACA health insurance last year, and enrollment is still open on Healthcare.gov and in most state marketplaces until Sunday, January 15. (Simmons-Duffin, 1/13)

CNN: Affordable Care Act Open Enrollment Ended Sunday Amid Record Sign-Ups
A few states that run their own exchanges, including California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island, as well as the District of Columbia, are allowing residents to enroll as late as January 31. (Luhby, 1/13)

CNBC: U.S. Uninsured Rate Fell During Covid Pandemic, Medicaid, Obamacare Coverage Grew
The number of people in the U.S. without health insurance declined during the Covid-19 pandemic even as millions of people lost coverage through their employers due to layoffs. The uninsured rate in the U.S. for people under age 65 dropped from 11% in 2019 to 10.5% in 2021, according to a report released Friday by the Health and Human Services Department. (Kimball, 1/13)

Fierce Healthcare: HHS: Uninsured Rates Decline For Younger Americans
More Americans in key demographics that have been historically uninsured saw coverage gains from 2019 through 2021, a new federal report finds. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report Friday detailing gains in coverage from 2019 through 2021. Officials attributed a decline in the uninsured rate from 11.1% in 2019 to 10.5% in 2021 due to expansions in Medicaid and other gains via the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA's) marketplace. (King, 1/13)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Dangerous Mix Of Fentanyl And Animal Tranquilizer Detected In Few Seizures In San Diego
The medication xylazine is used to sedate horses and cattle. But when mixed with opioids and injected by humans, it can cause people to black out for hours and leave festering wounds that can result in amputations. The withdrawal symptoms are said to be worse than those from heroin or methadone. When the animal sedative is cut into fentanyl and heroin and sold on the street, it’s commonly referred to as “tranq” or “tranq dope.” (Riggins, 1/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: She Failed To Save Daughter From Fentanyl. Year Later, She Remains Stuck In SF
Dealers clustered at Seventh and Mission streets, openly selling drugs. At their feet, people smoked fentanyl off tinfoil while others nodded off. Tents dotted the sidewalks. Piles of food scraps, trash and feces filled the gutter. Pedestrians, including a woman pushing a baby in a stroller, nearly swerved into traffic on Seventh Street to get past. Laurie Steves, 57, stood amid the commerce and the chaos, waiting. (Knight, 1/14)

Stat: The Addiction Crisis Is Causing A Spike In Endocarditis Cases. Hospitals Are Struggling To Respond
Increased injection drug use has led to a spike in cases of the life-threatening heart condition endocarditis, with cases rapidly accelerating since the onset of Covid-19. The increased case count is one of the lesser-known side effects of the deadly addiction epidemic. (Facher, 1/17)

Voice of OC: How Is Orange County Combating Hate After Declaring Racism A Public Health Crisis?
Two years after county officials deemed COVID-19 a public health emergency, a pandemic-amplified hate spike brought them face to face with another one entirely. A resolution approved unanimously by county supervisors last month declares racism “a public health crisis” and calls for the county to be a “justice-oriented governmental organization” through “robust trainings and continuing education.” (Pho and Elattar, 1/16)

Fresnoland: EPA Proposes New Air Quality Standard For San Joaquin Valley 
Valley residents suffer the country’s highest exposures to this hazardous type of pollution, which attacks every organ in the human body and kills more people locally than car accidents every year. (Weaver, 1/17)

The Bakersfield Californian: Activists Will Attend State Hearing On Pesticide 
Activists from farming communities across the state are inbound for Sacramento on Wednesday to make public comments and protest new pesticide regulations they believe don’t properly address the risks to public health. (Donegan, 1/16)

The Hill: Study Suggests US Freshwater Fish Highly Contaminated With ‘Forever Chemicals’
Eating just one serving of freshwater fish each year could have the same effect as drinking water heavily polluted with “forever chemicals” for an entire month, a new study finds. The equivalent month-long amount of water would be contaminated at levels 2,400 times greater than what’s recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) drinking water health advisories, according to the study, published Tuesday in Environmental Research. (Udasin, 1/17)

The Washington Post: ‘The Last Of Us’ Zombie Fungus Is Real, And It’s Found In Health Supplements
The zombie apocalypse depicted in the popular video game series and newly adapted HBO series “The Last of Us” derives from a mutation to a type of fungus called cordyceps. Surprise! Cordyceps is real, and some 600 variations of it can be found around the world, primarily in Southeast Asia. (Hume, 1/15)