Los Angeles Times: UCLA Gets $20-Million Gift For Center Dedicated To Study Of Microbes
UCLA received a $20-million gift to help establish a center dedicated to the study of microbes, which contribute to autoimmune diseases such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and muscular dystrophy, the school announced Wednesday. (Martinez, 2/15)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Frustrated With Ambulance Response Times, San Diego Plans To Take Over Staffing, Billing From Falck 
San Diego plans to fundamentally change ambulance service in the city by taking authority over billing and staffing away from private ambulance provider Falck, Fire Chief Colin Stowell announced Wednesday. (Garrick, 2/15)

The Desert Sun: Borrego Health Board Selects DAP Health As Winning Auction Bidder
The Borrego Health Board of Trustees has selected DAP Health to acquire the federally qualified health center, Borrego Health announced Wednesday. (Sasic, 2/15)

The Bakersfield Californian: Hospital Authority Mistakenly Denies Public Entry To Meeting 
Local union members are crying foul after employees of Kern Medical were denied entry Wednesday to what was supposed to be a public meeting of the hospital’s governing board. (2/15)

NBC Bay Area: Half Moon Bay Mass Shooting Suspect Due In Court For Plea Hearing 
The Half Moon Bay mass shooting suspect was set to appear in a Redwood City courtroom Thursday for a plea hearing. Chunli Zhao, 66, is charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder after he allegedly shot and killed seven co-workers at two mushroom farms on Jan. 23. One other person was shot but survived. (Suratos, 2/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: What Can Feinstein Get Done On Guns Before She Leaves The Senate? Not Much
Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s career has been defined by gun violence and her efforts to prevent it – from the double assassination that made her mayor of San Francisco, to a recall effort over her gun proposals, to yet another mass shooting at a college campus that took place just 17 hours before she announced her retirement Tuesday. She said that as she closes out her final year in office, she hopes to do more “to fight the epidemic of gun violence”  — but stakeholders and experts believe the prospects for further progress before the end of 2024 are dim. (Stein, 2/15)

The Hill: Americans’ Dissatisfaction With Gun Laws At New High: Gallup Poll 
A majority of Americans surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with current gun laws in the U.S. amid a recent string of mass shootings affecting the country, according to a new Gallup poll. The poll, published Wednesday, found that 63 percent of respondents said they are dissatisfied with the nation’s laws and policies on firearms, while 34 percent of those surveyed said the opposite. (Oshin, 2/15)

The New York Times: Narcan Is Safe To Sell Over The Counter, Advisers To The FDA Conclude 
Two federal panels of addiction experts on Wednesday unanimously recommended that Narcan, the overdose-reversing nasal spray, be made widely available without a prescription, a significant step in the effort to stem skyrocketing drug fatalities. Making Narcan an over-the-counter drug has been urged by doctors, patient advocacy groups and the Biden administration. (Hoffman, 2/15)

Stat: FDA Panel Recommends Approval Of Over-The-Counter Naloxone
A government advisory committee voted unanimously on Wednesday to recommend that naloxone nasal spray, a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, be sold and distributed without a prescription. The vote serves as a recommendation to the Food and Drug Administration as the agency considers whether to make the product, commonly known as Narcan, available over the counter. (Facher, 2/15)

AP: Panel Backs Moving Opioid Antidote Narcan Over The Counter 
The positive vote, which is not binding, came despite concerns from some panel members about the drug’s instructions and packaging, which caused confusion among some people in a company study. The manufacturer, Emergent Biosolutions, said it would revise the packaging and labeling to address those concerns. The FDA will make a final decision on the drug in coming weeks. Panel members urged the FDA to move swiftly rather than waiting for Emergent to conduct a follow-up study with the easier-to-understand label. (Perrone, 2/15)

NBC News: FDA Panel Recommends Making Opioid Overdose Antidote Available Over The Counter
“For the sake of the public and saving lives, I believe this medication should be available over the counter as soon as possible,” Dr. Katalin Roth, a professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, said following the vote. (Lovelace Jr., 2/15)

The Hill: CBO Warns Of Sharp Uptick In Social Security, Medicare Spending 
Federal spending on Social Security and Medicare is projected to rise dramatically over the next decade, far outpacing revenues and the economy on the whole while putting new pressure on Congress to address accelerated threats of insolvency, according to new estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The increase is driven by a variety of factors, including Social Security’s new cost-of-living adjustment, the rising cost of medical services under Medicare and greater participation rates in both programs, as the last of the baby boomers become eligible for retirement benefits. (Lillis, 2/15)

The Hill: Social Security Set To Run Short Of Funds One Year Earlier Than Expected 
Social Security funds are set to start running a shortfall in 2032, one year earlier than previously expected, the director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said on Tuesday. “The Social Security solvency date — the exhaustion date for the trust fund — is now within the budget window,” CBO Director Phillip Swagel said, referring to the 10-year period covered by the agency’s annual report. (Shapero, 2/15)

Axios: Medicare Politics Are On A Crash Course With Reality
There's an inconvenient truth underneath the politics of Medicare — its finances are simply unsustainable. Medicare is one of the largest line items in the U.S. budget, and as the population ages, it's expected to only get more expensive. (Owens, 2/16)

Axios: Insurers Balk At Proposed Changes To MA Marketing Rules
Medicare Advantage and Medicare drug plans told the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services that too much regulation at once could drive up costs and result in increased premiums or fewer benefits. Public comment closed this week on on a proposal to crack down on Medicare Advantage marketing practices, impose other standards on Medicare drug plans and create requirements to increase access to behavioral health and culturally competent care. (Dreher and Goldman, 2/16)

Axios: Health Industry Could Be Playing Defense On Medicare
After years of trying to squash the expansion of government-funded health care and preserve business from private payers, the health care industry is suddenly facing new threats to the revenue it receives from the Medicare. (Owens, 2/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID In California: WHO Still Pushing For Answers On Pandemic Origins
Despite a report earlier this week in the scientific journal Nature that the World Health Organization has “quietly shelved” the second phase of its investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic due to a lack of cooperation from the Chinese government, officials from the U.N. health agency on Wednesday said their work was not done. (Vaziri, 2/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: Kids’ Screen Usage Stayed Elevated Even After They Were Back At School, Study Finds
The time that American children spent in front of screens went up during the COVID-19 pandemic and stayed high even after many restrictions that kept people at home and limited their social interactions were lifted, according to a new study published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open. (Vaziri, 2/15)

CIDRAP: COVID's Aftermath: Persistent Organ Damage At 1 Year, Lung Abnormalities At 2 
Two studies published yesterday further reveal the extent of COVID-19's potential aftermath, with one showing residual organ damage 1 year after diagnosis—even in those who were mildly ill—and the other finding persistent lung abnormalities on chest imaging at 2 years. (Van Beusekom, 2/15)

Stat: Moderna Says Covid Vaccines Will Remain Available At No Cost
In an unexpected shift, Moderna has decided not to ask Americans to pay for its Covid-19 vaccine, a move that follows intense criticism over initial plans to charge $110 to $130 per dose after the company pivots from government contracts to commercial distribution. (Silverman and Owermohle, 2/15)

Reuters: Moderna CEO To Testify In Senate On Proposed Vaccine Price Hike
Senator Bernie Sanders said on Wednesday Moderna Inc's chief executive officer Stéphane Bancel will testify next month in front of the senate on the drugmaker's plans to raise the price of its coronavirus vaccine. In January, Sanders had written to Bancel to refrain from quadrupling the price of COVID-19 vaccine, after Moderna said it was considering pricing its vaccine at $110 to $130 per dose in the United States, when it shifts from government contracting to commercial distribution. (2/15)

Reuters: U.S. NIH Starts Trial For Shionogi's COVID-19 Pill 
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) said on Wednesday that it had started a clinical trial to evaluate Japan's Shionogi & Co Ltd's experimental oral antiviral drug to treat COVID-19.The drug, S-217622 or ensitrelvir, will be tested in adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19. It is already approved for emergency use in Japan. (2/16)

CalMatters: California Homelessness: Where’s The Money Going?
In Sacramento, there’s a word that keeps popping up during discussions about the state’s homelessness crisis: “accountability.” Gov. Gavin Newsom has scolded cities and counties for failing to get more people off the street, hundreds of millions in state spending notwithstanding. “Californians demand accountability and results, not settling for the status quo,” the governor said last November.

San Francisco Chronicle: SF Castro District Homeless Encampments Helped By New Program
For the past decade, you could find Victoria Solomon on the streets of San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood, pacing and screaming to no one in particular, or camping on the sidewalk, spurning the offers of would-be helping hands. Not anymore. After being on the streets since her early 20s, Solomon has become an embodiment of hope for a beleaguered part of town. (Fagan, 2/16)

Politico: Twitter Becomes First Major Social Platform To Allow Weed Ads 
Elon Musk is backing up all his 420 tweets. The owner of Twitter, who sparked a media firestorm after he puffed on a spliff during an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, is making good on speculation that his acquisition of the platform might make it more cannabis-friendly. The company changed its policy to allow U.S. cannabis companies to advertise on its platform Tuesday — although with numerous restrictions. (Zhang, 2/15)

Fresno Bee: Free After 14 Years In Prison For Selling Medical Weed, Modesto Man Aims To Change U.S. Law
Luke Scarmazzo recently was released from federal prison after almost 15 years for operating a medical marijuana dispensary in Modesto — something that is, and was, legal in California but remains a violation of federal law. (Brassil, 2/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: Drug War Destabilized S.F.’s Filipino Community. Can Cannabis Heal It?
Rudy Corpuz says marijuana used to help him mediate conflicts between rival San Francisco gangs in the 1990s, at a time when Black and brown men like him were going to prison for it. On Jan. 28, Corpuz opened the first Filipino-owned dispensary in the South of Market neighborhood where he grew up. The dispensary, created through the city’s cannabis equity program and residing in the Pilipinas Filipino Heritage District, carries both personal and communal significance for Corpuz, who also runs a mentoring program dedicated to preventing violence. (Mayeda, 2/16)

Bay Area Reporter: New SF Medical Examiner ED Seeks To Restore Faith In Office 
The new executive director of the city's medical examiner's office said the department has cracked down on the loose handling of drug evidence. "That's something that can't be tolerated in any office," David Serrano Sewell, a straight ally, told the Bay Area Reporter during a recent interview. KQED-TV reported in 2020 that former employees who'd worked in the toxicology lab said supervisors allowed illegal drugs to "pile up in the evidence room" and did not follow proper procedures regarding evidence mishandling. (Ferrannini, 2/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: Oakland Baker Who Died After Violent Robbery Donates Organs
Nearly one week after an Oakland baker and activist was dragged to her death in a violent daylight robbery, a group of medical professionals were joined by her loved ones for a special ceremony marking what would be her final contribution to the world: her heart. The owner of Angel Cakes, Jen Angel, spent three days on life support last week after a tragic encounter with robbers who smashed her car window in the parking lot of an Oakland Wells Fargo. As she ran after the speeding car, she was caught in the vehicle’s door and dragged. (Vainshtein, 2/14)

inewsource: More Mexicans Are Dying In Their Attempts To Reach San Diego From Tijuana
More Mexican nationals are dying along the U.S.-Mexico border between the San Diego and Tijuana regions in their attempt to enter the U.S. than in previous years, according to new data from the Mexican Consulate in San Diego. ... Dehydration, drownings and border wall-related fatalities all account for the increases in deaths. The majority of injuries documented were related to falls from the U.S.-Mexico border wall and ranged from brain damage to broken shoulders, backs and legs. (Mejias-Pascoe, 2/15)

KVPR: Nearly 30 Women Are Suing Olaplex, Alleging Products Caused Hair Loss
Nearly 30 women are suing hair care brand Olaplex for negligence and false advertising, claiming their products contain allergens and irritants that caused them hair loss and dry, brittle hair. According to the lawsuit, Olaplex states in its marketing materials that their products, which include shampoos, conditioners and oils and are numbered 0 through 9, "restore damaged and compromised hair," while creating "healthy, beautiful, shiny, touchable hair," and that results are "proven by science." Those claims are false, states the lawsuit, which was filed last week in the U.S. District Court Central District of California. (Archie, 2/16)

The Wall Street Journal: More Women With Breast Cancer Could Skip Harsh Radiation, Study Says 
More older women with low-risk breast cancer could forgo radiation after surgery to avoid further side effects and costs, research showed, as some doctors work to limit tough treatments without hurting survival. Women in the study published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine were 65 and older with early stage breast cancers that could respond to hormone therapy. The women all had surgery and hormone therapy and were divided into a group that underwent radiation and a group that went without it. Ten years after surgery, survival rates in the two groups were almost equal, suggesting more women could skip radiation without affecting their survival. (Abbott, 2/15)

CIDRAP: WHO Says It Will Maintain Global Health Emergency For Mpox
The World Health Organization (WHO) said today that the mpox outbreak will remain a global health emergency. ... As of Feb 14, there have been 85,860 confirmed mpox cases globally, with 93 deaths. Outside of countries in West and Central Africa, the outbreak has primarily affected men who have sex with men. (Dall, 2/15)