San Francisco Chronicle: Growing Signs Of New Bay Area COVID Wave As Wastewater Counts Soar
If it feels like more people you know are getting COVID-19 lately, that may be true. Though the rise is relatively small, it marks a reversal of the downward trend the Bay Area had experienced since early December. California’s public health leaders are keeping their fingers crossed that the state will be ready to move past the pandemic as the state of emergency comes to an end later this month, despite the recent uptick in coronavirus cases attributed to the fast-moving omicron subvariant XBB.1.5. (Vaziri, 2/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco Sets End Date For COVID State Of Emergency
San Francisco announced Thursday that it will end its public health emergency for COVID-19 on Feb. 28, just over three years after it was put into place, marking a new chapter in the city’s pandemic response. In an interview Thursday, San Francisco health officer Dr. Susan Philip said that the move is a positive one, signaling that COVID-19 is no longer the “really severe threat” that it was three years ago, but that it does not mean that COVID is over. (Echeverria, 2/16)

KQED: California's COVID Emergency Ends Feb. 28. What Does That Actually Mean For You?
But it’s not entirely accurate to say that this move will have zero implications for California and the way COVID is handled — and perceived. Added to the mix is the fact that even if people are aware that the state of emergency is ending, they might not really know exactly what that entails — or how it could affect them personally. So what does California ending its state of emergency at the end of February mean for you? (Severn, 2/15)

The Hill: US Navy Will No Longer Require COVID Vaccines For Deployment
The U.S. Navy is rolling back requirements for COVID-19 vaccines, axing the consideration of vaccination status when making decisions about the deployment of sailors. The decision by the Navy reverses a policy that was in place for more than a year, mandating that vaccination status be considered when determining deployment. (Neukam, 2/16)

Los Angeles Times: Black Californians Hit Hardest By Health Inequities 
More than half of Black Californians said there was a time in the last few years when they thought they would have received better healthcare if they had belonged to a different racial or ethnic group, according to a report released Thursday. (Evans, 2/16)

The Washington Post: How Racism Affects The Brain And Mental Health, According To Science
Racism has negatively impacted generations of people, leading to discrimination, lost economic opportunities, racist policing and incarceration, and in many cases, death. But even when the impact of racism is not so apparent or in the headlines, the pernicious effects of racial discrimination and structural racism take a toll on the brain and mental health, emerging research shows. The data are already concerning. (Sima, 2/16)

KQED: In Deep Blue California, Anti-Abortion Centers Outnumber Abortion Clinics
Crisis pregnancy centers, or anti-abortion centers, are designed to look like community health clinics. But the vast majority of them don’t have a medical license, and all of them have an explicit goal: to persuade people to not have an abortion. There are thousands of these centers all over the country. They advertise aggressively — especially in lower-income communities of color — and are in many cases located directly next to abortion clinics. And despite California’s reputation as a sanctuary state for abortion rights, there are more crisis pregnancy centers than abortion centers in our state. (Guevarra, Silvers, Montecillo and Esquinca, 2/17)

The Hill: Democratic AGs Urge CVS, Walgreens To Continue With Plans To Dispense Abortion Pills
Democratic attorneys general on Thursday urged CVS and Walgreens not to back down from their respective plans to offer mifepristone and misoprostol in retail pharmacies in the wake of threats from GOP-led states. In a letter, a coalition of 23 state attorneys general said the company’s executives should ignore the threats of legal retaliation from Republican states. ... The letter was spearheaded by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson. (Weixel, 2/16)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Health District Blasts Plans To Close Petaluma Valley Hospital’s Birth Center After Contentious Meeting
Members of the Petaluma Health Care District on Wednesday rejected a proposal that would permanently close the popular maternity ward at Petaluma Valley Hospital. (Espinoza, 2/16)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Bankrupt FQHC Borrego Health To Sell Clinics To DAP Health
Directors of the Borrego Community Health Foundation, who have been struggling to reorganize in the wake of a criminal investigation and declaration of bankruptcy, have voted to sell the organization’s remaining clinics to a nonprofit healthcare provider in Riverside County. (McDonald, 2/16)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Jury Rejects Claim That Patient Awakened During Surgery 
After five weeks of testimony it took a San Diego Superior Court jury just a day to clear UCSD Medical Center and a former anesthesiologist of accusations by a patient who said he awakened during surgery. (Moran, 2/16)

California Healthline: Mark Cuban Has Been Taking On The Drug Industry. But Which One?
The billionaire entrepreneur and NBA team owner is making waves with his new drug company. But his generics aren’t always the lowest-priced deal. (Tahir, 2/17)

California Healthline: After Staying Away During Pandemic, Doctors Return To Lobby Congress
Hundreds of physicians came to Washington this week to lobby Congress about their “recovery plan” for physicians, which includes a Medicare pay boost and an end to some frustrating insurance company requirements. (Galewitz, 2/17)

The New York Times: Burn Pit Program For Veterans Could Cost At Least $400 Billion, Agency Finds
A sweeping new entitlement program to provide medical care to millions of veterans who may have been exposed to trash burn pits on U.S. military bases around the world may increase federal spending on veterans by at least $400 billion and as much as $789 billion over a decade, according to the official budgetary scorekeepers in Congress. (Lai and Tankersley, 2/16)

NPR: Biden Gets A Clean Bill Of Health As He Mulls A 2024 Run — Where His Age Is A Concern
The president's personal physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor has issued Biden a clean bill of health Thursday and cleared him fit to continue fulfilling his duties as commander in chief. "The president remains fit for duty, and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations," O'Connor wrote in his report. (Jones, 2/16)

The Hill: White House Brushes Off Haley’s Call For Mental Competency Test
White House aides are confident they can combat GOP attacks on President Biden’s age and mental acuity, saying he has proven time and again that he’s up to the job. The criticisms resurfaced this week as Republican Nikki Haley labeled herself a “next generation” candidate in making her opening pitch for her 2024 presidential bid. Haley also insisted that anyone over 75 years old should be subjected to a mental competency test. (Parnes and Gangitano, 2/16)

Stat: Senate Panel Takes Step Toward Tackling Health Workforce Shortages
The new leaders of the Senate’s powerful health committee kicked off the year with a hearing aimed at one of the very few topics they broadly agree is worth their time — reducing doctor and nursing shortages across the nation. (Owermohle, 2/16)

AP: Fetterman Draws Praise For Getting Help For Depression
When Patrick Kennedy was in Congress, he would sneak in his treatments for substance abuse over the holidays, in between congressional work periods. And he refused mental health treatment recommended by his doctors, worried he would be recognized in that wing of the hospital. (Clare Jalonick, 2/17)

Los Angeles Times: What Is Frontotemporal Dementia? The Disease Afflicting Actor Bruce Willis Is Incurable
On Wednesday, the family of actor Bruce Willis disclosed that he has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, a degenerative brain disease that currently has no cure. Calling the diagnosis a “cruel disease,” Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, ex-wife Demi Moore and daughters Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and Evelyn posted their statement on the website of the Assn. for Frontotemporal Degeneration, an advocacy group for patients and their families. (Purtill, 2/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: Deadly Avian Flu Strain Found In Wild Mammal In California
For the first time, the deadly new strain of avian influenza virus that has caused an unprecedented outbreak among birds in the Bay Area and statewide has been detected in a wild mammal in California, state wildlife officials announced. Federal veterinary officials in January detected the highly pathogenic avian influenza strain, H5N1, in a bobcat after its remains were collected in Butte County in December and submitted for testing, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a news release Wednesday. (Flores, 2/16)

Reuters: Bird Flu Alarm Drives World Towards Once-Shunned Vaccines
Reuters spoke to senior officials in the world's largest poultry and egg producers, along with vaccine makers and poultry companies. They all said there had been a marked shift in the approach to vaccines globally due to the severity of this year's bird flu outbreak, though the biggest exporter of poultry meat, the United States, told Reuters it remains reluctant. (De La Hamaide, 2/17)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Tuberculosis Case Confirmed On San Diego Trolley 
An unspecified number of San Diego Trolley riders may have been exposed to tuberculosis bacteria during a six-month period in 2022, the county health department reported Thursday. (Sisson, 2/16)

Modesto Bee: Virulent Stomach Virus Is Detected In Stanislaus County
Move over, COVID-19. The norovirus stomach illness is re-emerging as a public threat that people should try to avoid. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has charted a rise in norovirus outbreaks in the United States in February, eclipsing the level recorded in March 2022. (Carlson, 2/16)

Axios: Half Of American Kids Don't Eat A Daily Vegetable, CDC Finds
Nearly half of young kids aren't eating a daily vegetable and one in three kids aren't getting at least one daily fruit in their diets, the CDC reported Thursday. While this data is only a snapshot in time, it offers a glimpse at the quality of kids' diets — which impacts their growth and development — at a time of increased interest in addressing childhood nutrition, as well as concerns about the pending loss of pandemic-era food benefits. (Reed, 2/16)

Stat: Researchers Link Certain Genes To Obesity Complications In Women
With hundreds of genes thought to be linked to obesity, the challenge is sifting through them all to determine which ones increase the risk of downstream complications like heart disease and diabetes. In a study published Thursday in Nature Genetics, researchers took the first steps in finding a potential candidate specifically in women. (Chen, 2/16)

Los Angeles Times: What It’s Like To Experience Digital Psychedelics 
The use of psilocybin mushrooms was legalized in Oregon in 2020 and decriminalized in Colorado as of January, but recent efforts to give similar access to Californians have so far been unsuccessful (though a handful of cities — including San Francisco, Oakland and Santa Cruz — have passed resolutions effectively decriminalizing magic mushrooms). (Tschorn, 2/17)

CalMatters: California Farmworkers Have Endured Poor Living Conditions Long Enough
The shootings at Half Moon Bay, claiming the lives of seven farmworkers across two farm sites, is a tragedy that reveals the persistently deplorable conditions farmworkers of any citizenship status face in California. (Jose Vadi, 2/16)

CalMatters: The Lasting Effects Of COVID-19 On California 
Gov. Gavin Newsom says California’s COVID-19 state of emergency will end on Feb. 28, just four days shy of three years since he issued the first of countless orders he said were necessary to cope with the pandemic. (Dan Walters, 2/14)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Hepatitis A Death Shows Dire Need To Add Bathrooms Downtown 
Three years before San Diego County public health officials’ smart, transparent and comprehensive response to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, their handling of a deadly hepatitis A outbreak based in Downtown San Diego was something else entirely: disastrous. (2/16)

Los Angeles Daily News: Los Angeles County’s Hellish Jails Draw Needed Scrutiny 
Four United States senators condemned the state of Los Angeles County jails in an October 2022 letter to the U.S. Department of Justice, reports the Los Angeles Times. (2/16)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: California’s Graying Prison Population
California’s prisons are packed with advanced-age prisoners. People 55 and older make up about 16% of California’s incarcerated population. During the 2000s, California added more than 11,000 people 55 and older to its prisons. (Robert Outman, 2/13)

Fresno Bee: Moms Say Lobby Should Reconsider Opposition To CARE Court 
Every one of the mothers and others — and there were lots of mothers — marching through downtown Sacramento this week carrying a sign that said, “Hospitals not jails,” or “Untreated psychosis kills,” has lived a health care horror story. (Melinda Henneberger, 2/16)