Capitol Weekly: Newsom Takes Another Swing At Getting Mentally Ill Homeless Off The Streets 
In California, the state that led all others in the failed social experiment of emptying psychiatric hospitals, the pendulum clearly is swinging. Not that California Gov. Gavin Newsom aims to return to the days when forgotten souls were locked away in large asylums. But in a proposal to be detailed on Sunday, Newsom will call on legislators to place a $3 billion bond measure before voters in 2024 to pay to house thousands of people with severe mental illness. (Morain, 3/19)

Times Of San Diego: 'Nobody Better Than San Diego' In Supporting Vets, Newsom Says During Reveal Of 'Big Idea' Mental Health Plan
Gov. Gavin Newsom visited a College East hospital Sunday to announce “a big idea” ballot measure to address homelessness, mental health and substance addiction in California. Newsom made the proposal during one of his final “state of the state” tour stops at Alvarado Hospital Medical Center, with several state and local officials. (3/19)

AP: California To Seek Beds For Mental Health, Drug Treatment 
The governor called the plan the next step in how California expands services for unhoused people, especially those with psychological and substance use disorders. “We have to address and come to grips with the reality of mental health in this state and our nation. The question is, what can we do more and do better?” Newsom said at a news conference. (3/20)

Los Angeles Times: Karen Bass' Homelessness Plan: L.A. Remains Skeptical, Poll Shows
On the eve of her 100th day in office, Mayor Karen Bass enjoys strong approval ratings among Angelenos — a reservoir of goodwill that will be crucial for the new mayor during uphill battles ahead. Half of Angelenos approve of the job Bass is doing so far, while just 14% say they disapprove, according to a Suffolk University/Los Angeles Times poll conducted March 9-12. A little more than a third remain undecided. (Wick, 3/19)

Los Angeles Times: Bass Faces Pushback As Unhoused People Are Abruptly Moved From One Hotel To The Next
Four weeks ago, Mayor Karen Bass’ homelessness team found a warm place indoors for Princeton Parker, a 38-year-old living in a tent on L.A.’s Westside. Parker was delighted by his move to the Hotel Silver Lake at the edge of Silver Lake and Historic Filipinotown. The rooms were large, and his friends from the encampment were close by. “It felt like I had a home,” he said. (Zahniser, 3/19)

inewsource: County Admissions Freeze Lifted At Veterans Village Of San Diego
After a seven-month pause, San Diego County officials have decided to resume admissions at a drug and alcohol treatment center that has struggled to comply with safety and staffing requirements. The county’s Behavioral Health Services department informed the nonprofit organization, Veterans Village of San Diego, that new referrals would begin on Mar. 1 and clients could be admitted starting Mar. 6. (Castellano, 3/17)

Oaklandside: On The Frontlines Of Oakland’s Methamphetamine Crisis
In the early 2000s, Katie O’Bryant was a homeless teenager living on the streets of Berkeley and San Francisco. Like many people who use drugs, she found that different substances played very specific roles in her life. As someone who was opiate dependent, O’Bryant needed to use heroin to function on a day-to-day basis. But she also took other drugs recreationally to get high and relied on stimulants to balance out heroin’s sedative effects—something that dealers took into account by selling heroin and cocaine as a packaged deal. (Buller, 3/17)

AP: Lack Of Hugs Caused US Fentanyl Crisis, Mexico's Leader Says 
Mexico’s president said Friday that U.S. families were to blame for the fentanyl overdose crisis because they don’t hug their kids enough. The comment by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador caps a week of provocative statements from him about the crisis caused by the fentanyl, a synthetic opioid trafficked by Mexican cartels that has been blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths per year in the United States. ... “There is a lot of disintegration of families, there is a lot of individualism, there is a lack of love, of brotherhood, of hugs and embraces,” López Obrador said of the U.S. crisis. “That is why they (U.S. officials) should be dedicating funds to address the causes.” (3/17)

AP: US Warns About Fake, Dangerous Pills Being Sold In Mexico 
The U.S. State Department has issued a travel warning about dangerous counterfeit pills being sold at pharmacies in Mexico that often contain fentanyl. The travel alert posted Friday says Americans should “exercise caution when purchasing medication in Mexico.” ... A study led by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles found that 68% of the 40 Mexican pharmacies visited in four northern Mexico cities sold Oxycodone, Xanax or Adderall, and that 27% of those pharmacies were selling fake pills. (3/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID-19 Deaths Hit 3-Year Low As U.S. Cases And Hospitalizations Fall
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly coronavirus report released on Friday — the fourth-to-last before the report is discontinued — the number of reported cases in the U.S. decreased by 19.7% to 21,422 a day, compared with 26,685 in the previous week. The seven-day average for new hospital admissions was down 9.5% — 2,757 a day versus 3,046 last week. That compares with a peak of 22,000 per day during the omicron surge in early 2022. (Vaziri, 3/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: If You Still Haven’t Had COVID, Are You Immune — Or Just Lucky?
Three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, most people have contracted the coronavirus at least once. Case numbers spiked especially high when the ultra-infectious omicron variant surged in late 2021 and early 2022, and it continues to spawn more and more transmissible strains. And yet, some still have managed to dodge the virus, or at least haven’t tested positive yet. (Hwang, 3/19)

The Bakersfield Californian: The Pandemic May Be Over But Symptoms Linger 
Three years ago today, COVID-19 was detected for the first time in Kern County residents, ushering in a grueling pandemic that disrupted almost every aspect of daily life. Though the deaths continue — nine locals died from the virus in the weeklong period that ended Wednesday — society has mostly moved on. (Cox, 3/19)

WebMD: WHO Leader Expects End Of COVID Pandemic In 2023
The leader of the World Health Organization said Friday that he expects the organization to declare an end to the COVID-19 pandemic later this year because statistics on the virus keep declining. “I am confident that this year we will be able to say that COVID-19 is over as a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a Geneva briefing. For the first time, the weekly number of reported COVID deaths over a four-week period was lower than when WHO declared COVID a global pandemic three years ago. (Ellis, 3/18)

Reuters: WHO, Advisors Urge China To Release All COVID-Related Data After New Research
Advisors to the World Health Organization have urged China to release all information related to the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic after new findings were briefly shared on an international database used to track pathogens. New sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as well as additional genomic data based on samples taken from a live animal market in Wuhan, China in 2020 were briefly uploaded to the open access GISAID database by Chinese scientists earlier this year, allowing them to be viewed by researchers in other countries, according to a Saturday statement from the WHO's Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO). (3/18)

Reuters: Vaccine Makers Prep Bird Flu Shot For Humans 'Just In Case'; Rich Nations Lock In Supplies 
Some of the world's leading makers of flu vaccines say they could make hundreds of millions of bird flu shots for humans within months if a new strain of avian influenza ever jumps across the species divide. One current outbreak of avian flu known as H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b has killed record numbers of birds and infected mammals. Human cases, however, remain very rare, and global health officials have said the risk of transmission between humans is still low. (Rigby, 3/20)

Reuters: Two New Vaccines Against Bird Flu Effective In Dutch Lab -Govt 
Two vaccines tested by a Dutch veterinary research center have proved effective against highly infectious bird flu in a first experiment conducted under a controlled environment, the Dutch government said on Friday. "Not only did the vaccines give poultry used in the lab protection against disease symptoms but they also countered the spreading of the bird flu," the government said in a statement. (3/17)

NBC News: Black Veterans Were More Often Denied VA Benefits For PTSD Than White Counterparts, Newly Surfaced Study Shows
A newly surfaced 2017 internal Veterans Affairs report shows Black veterans were more often denied benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder than their white counterparts. (Strickler, 3/17)

AP: Higher Cancer Rates Found In Military Pilots, Ground Crews 
A Pentagon study has found high rates of cancer among military pilots and for the first time has shown that ground crews who fuel, maintain and launch those aircraft are also getting sick. The data had long been sought by retired military aviators who have raised alarms for years about the number of air and ground crew members they knew who had cancer. They were told that earlier military studies had found they were not at greater risk than the general U.S. population. (Copp, 3/19)

Modesto Bee: Not Many Apply For Nursing Scholarships In Stanislaus Area
Golden Valley Health Centers usually see plenty of interest in their annual scholarships awarded to nursing students living in Stanislaus, Merced and San Joaquin counties. As of Wednesday, only one person had applied for the $5,000 scholarships, with the April 1 deadline less than two weeks away. (Carlson, 3/19)

Axios: Future Doctors Match Into Residencies
More medical school graduates are steering away from emergency medicine and opting for specialties like orthopedics and plastic surgery, raising concern about a field that bore the brunt of COVID-19 and remains beset by the overdose epidemic and other health crises. (Dreher and Reed, 3/20)

American Medical Association: Over 40,000 Land Spots On Match Day. What Are This Year’s Trends? 
Following a trend observed for half a decade, the 2023 Main Residency Match again broke a record for offering the largest number of total positions in the program’s 70-year history: 40,375 certified spots. (Henry, 3/17)

The Washington Post: Working In The ER Used To Be A Cool Job. Now Medical Students Shun It.
Daryl Traylor dreamed of becoming an emergency room doctor ever since working as an ER technician in the mid-90s helping physicians care for children who broke their arms or nearly drowned. But now he’s a first-year medical student, and those same doctors are urging Traylor not to follow in their footsteps. They warn of burnout after covid and patients’ increasing suspicion of doctors. The pay is not as good, they say, especially as hospitals rely more on nurse practitioners and physician assistants to staff emergency departments. And job prospects may be grim, they caution, as emergency medicine residency programs aggressively expanded in recent years. (Nirappil, 3/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Hospital ‘Black Boxes’ Put Surgical Practices Under The Microscope
Black boxes on airplanes record detailed information about flights. Now, a technology that goes by the same name and captures just about everything that goes on in an operating room during a surgery is making its way into hospitals. The OR Black Box, a system of sensors and software, is being used in operating rooms in 24 hospitals in the U.S., Canada and Western Europe. Video, audio, patient vital signs and data from surgical devices are among the information being captured. (Sadick, 3/19)

AP: Elizabeth Holmes Returns To Court In Bid To Avoid Prison 
Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes on Friday made what might be her final court appearance before beginning a 11-year prison sentence, unless a judge grants her request to remain free while her lawyers appeal her conviction for masterminding a blood-testing hoax. ... The proceedings ended without a determination whether Holmes, 39, will be able to stay out of prison while her appeal unfolds or have surrender to authorities on April 27, as currently scheduled. Davila said he hopes to issue his ruling in early April. (Liedtke, 3/17)

Axios: Company Recalls Frozen Fruit Sold Nationwide Due To Hepatitis A Risk
A company in Oregon is recalling frozen fruit distributed to major food retailers such as Costco and Trader Joe's following an outbreak of Hepatitis A illnesses. The recalled products are frozen organic strawberries sold at grocery stores in certain states and a frozen organic tropical fruit blend sold at Trader Joe’s nationwide. (Habeshian, 3/17)