Sacramento Bee: Will California Pass Tougher Fentanyl Drug Crime Penalties? 
As fentanyl overdoses continue to kill Californians, Democrats in the state Capitol searching for solutions are caught between grieving families and communities still recovering from the state’s failed “war on drugs.” Emotional Capitol committee hearings have forced lawmakers to confront the pain of both groups. The relatives in attendance hold large photos of loved ones who died from overdoses. They tell lawmakers of rushing to emergency rooms and opening college acceptance letters their children will never celebrate. (Holden, 5/1)

Fresno Bee: Federal Lawmakers Aim To Block Horse Tranquilizer 'Xylazine' Found In California Fentanyl
The White House recently declared xylazine combined with fentanyl an emerging drug threat in the United States, and here in California. (Brassil, 5/2)

USA Today: DEA Tightens Rules For Buprenorphine, Opioid Epidemic's Lifeline Drug
Doctors and advocates are concerned a federal proposal to roll back a pandemic policy allowing remote prescribing of a common opioid substitute medicine could jeopardize those recovering from addiction. With the public health emergency set to end May 11, the Drug Enforcement Administration proposal would require people to visit a doctor or clinic within 30 days of getting a telehealth prescription for buprenorphine. (Alltucker, 5/2)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: New Program Connects Black Sonoma County Residents With Culturally Competent, Free Mental Health Services
It’s a first in Sonoma County, a program created to provide members of the Black community — the region’s smallest demographic — specialized support services to address mental health needs. (Sawhney, 5/1)

AP: Loneliness Poses Risks As Deadly As Smoking: Surgeon General
Widespread loneliness in the U.S. poses health risks as deadly as smoking a dozen cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said Tuesday in declaring the latest public health epidemic. About half of U.S. adults say they’ve experienced loneliness, Dr. Vivek Murthy said in an 81-page report from his office. “We now know that loneliness is a common feeling that many people experience. It’s like hunger or thirst. It’s a feeling the body sends us when something we need for survival is missing,” Murthy told The Associated Press in an interview. “Millions of people in America are struggling in the shadows, and that’s not right. That’s why I issued this advisory to pull back the curtain on a struggle that too many people are experiencing.” (Seitz, 5/2)

The New York Times: Emergency Room Visits Have Risen Sharply For Young People In Mental Distress, Study Finds
Mental health-related visits to emergency rooms by children, teenagers and young adults soared from 2011 to 2020, according to a report published on Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The sharpest increase was for suicide-related visits, which rose fivefold. The findings indicated an “urgent” need for expanded crisis services, according to the team of researchers and physicians who published the report. (Richtel, 5/1)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente’s Dr. Richard Isaacs To Exit 
Dr. Richard Isaacs, CEO and executive director of Kaiser’s The Permanente Medical Group and president and CEO of the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group, is exiting his role for a job in academia. Isaacs, who joined Oakland, California-based Kaiser in 1995, will join California Northstate University June 1 as dean of the College of Medicine and vice president of medical affairs. He began his current role in 2017. (Hudson, 5/1)

Fresno Bee: Here's Who's On Community Health System's Board - And Their Backgrounds And Connections
Here’s a list of Community Health System’s board members and their professional backgrounds, including connections to past chair Farid Assemi or how they do business with the hospital. (Amaro, 5/1)

Times Of San Diego: Illumina Urges Shareholders To Reject Carl Icahn's 'Harmful' Director Slate 
Illumina on Monday urged its shareholders to reject corporate raider Carl Icahn‘s three board nominees, calling them “unqualified” in the genetic sequencing field and “potentially harmful” to the company’s business. The San Diego-based genetics pioneer urged shareholders to to vote the “white proxy card for all nine of Illumina’s director nominees” at the May 25 annual meeting. (Jennewein, 5/1)

Military.com: Military Expanding The Use Of Fitness Trackers To Detect Disease Outbreaks Such As COVID-19 
The Pentagon is expanding the use of wearable fitness trackers to help predict outbreaks of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 as use of the technology, such as watches and rings, spreads in the military despite early security concerns. (Lawrence, 5/1)

Military Times: Are ‘Walking Blood Banks’ Coming To A Field Hospital Near You?
When the so-called “Golden Hour” is ticking away for a wounded soldier on the battlefield, every second counts. As does each drop of blood. Massive blood loss is a leading battlefield killer, staunched only by quick first aid and rapid replenishment. (Winkie, 5/1)

KCRA: Black Health Equity Advocacy Week Now Established In California
The California Black Health Network is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The organization is dedicated to advancing health equity for Black and brown communities. (Cummings, 5/1)

USA Today: Breast Cancer Screening At 42? Study Says Black Women Should
More and more, Dr. Ryland Gore has been diagnosing Black women with breast cancer at younger ages. Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with aggressive, fast-growing breast cancer subtypes. The Atlanta-based breast surgical oncologist said that by the time many of her patients reach her, the cancer is advanced. (Hassanein, 5/1)

Stat: One-Third Of Black Americans Live In 'Cardiology Deserts'
Many Black Americans would have to travel across county lines just to find an open spot with a cardiologist, a new analysis found. About 16.8 million Black Americans — roughly 1 in 3 — live in counties with little or no access to heart specialists, according to a report from GoodRx, a telehealth company that provides drug discounts and also researches health trends. (Chen, 5/2)

Stat: How Spanish-Speaking Latinas Face Discrimination During Labor
The research question that pursued Jessica Valdez, an OB-GYN resident physician at the University of California, San Francisco, stemmed from her mother’s womb: How important is it to a birthing woman’s experience to be seen by health care providers who share her primary language? (Castillo, 5/2)

Stat: A Battle Between Gilead And The U.S. Government Over Patents On HIV Prevention Pills Goes To Trial
After years of sparring, the federal government and Gilead Sciences will square off in a Delaware courtroom this week in a bid to settle dueling claims over the rights to a pair of groundbreaking and lucrative HIV prevention pills. (Silverman, 5/2)

Los Angeles Times: Decades Of Failures Leave L.A. County Facing Up To $3 Billion In Sex Abuse Claims
As California legislators prepared to pass a law providing victims of childhood sexual abuse a new window to file lawsuits, the bill’s chief backer recalls most of the resistance coming from entities with famously troubled histories: school districts, colleges and youth athletic groups, along with some of their insurance companies. Los Angeles County “just didn’t come up,” said former Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego), who sponsored the Child Victims Act. (Ellis, 5/1)

EdSource: Chico State Cuts Ties With Therapist Who Counseled Both Faculty And Professor Who Made Alleged Gun Threats
Chico State has ended a contract with a mental health counselor hired to help faculty and staff cope with allegations that a biology professor threatened to shoot campus colleagues after university officials learned from court filings that she was also treating that very professor, David Stachura. The counselor, Christina W.H. Wong, didn’t disclose the apparent conflict of interest to university officials, according to documents and interviews.  Wong’s “no longer active in our system and will not receive new referrals,” campus spokesperson Andrew Staples told EdSource. (Peele, 5/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bob Lee Autopsy Reveals Efforts To Save Him After Knife Pierced Heart
Doctors at San Francisco General Hospital worked for nearly four hours to try to save Cash App founder Bob Lee from stab wounds, one of which pierced his heart, before he died on the operating table, according to the San Francisco medical examiner’s autopsy report released Monday. The 18-page report paints a grim last few hours for the 43-year-old tech mogul as police, paramedics and doctors scrambled to save Lee, as he lost blood, his heart stopped and he gasped for breath. Lee’s cause of death was multiple stab wounds, according to pathologist Ellen Moffatt, San Francisco’s assistant medical examiner. (Gafni, 5/1)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Lead Cleanup Experiment Unites Science, Art And Social Justice
Under the watchful eyes of neighbors, scientists in white lab coats knelt to spread a flour-like mineral over a lawn in Huntington Park. The dusting of zeolite doesn’t take long, but it could be key to mitigating a disaster that has festered for decades across southeast Los Angeles County: lead contamination in the soil around thousands of homes. (Solis, 5/2)

Los Angeles Times: Copenhagen mayor to California’s ‘Danish Capital’: Stop acting homophobic
This little tourist town in the Santa Ynez Valley is best known for its Danish windmills, aebleskivers and Viking-themed tchotchkes. ... But lately — if you’re queer — something smells rotten in this wannabe outpost of Denmark. For the last several months, the townsfolk of rural Solvang, population 6,000, have been waging an ugly battle over just how visible its LGBTQ+ community should be. The City Council shot down a proposal to hang pride-themed banners downtown — and both critics and supporters now say they’ve received death threats. The husbands who proposed the banners were harassed online, called groomers and pedophiles. People posted the names and photos of their four young children. (Branson-Potts, 5/1)

The Washington Post: Most Federal Covid Vaccine Mandates To End May 11
The Biden administration will end its requirements that most international travelers, federal workers and contractors, health-care workers and Head Start educators be vaccinated against the coronavirus effective on May 11 — the same day it terminates the pandemic-related public health emergency. (Diamond, 5/1)

NPR: Long COVID Clues Point To Viral Reservoirs As Key Target
Brent Palmer's first inkling about long COVID started in the early days of the pandemic, before the term "long COVID" even existed. Some of his friends had caught the virus while on a ski trip and returned home to Colorado with the mysterious, new illness. It was a frightening time — and an irresistible opportunity for Palmer, who studies the immune response to infectious diseases like HIV. (Stone, 5/2)

Reveal: The COVID Tracking Project Part 3
This is the third episode in our three-part series taking listeners inside the failed federal response to COVID-19. Series host Jessica Malaty Rivera and reporters Artis Curiskis and Kara Oehler bring us the conclusion of The COVID Tracking Project story and an interview with the current CDC director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky. We look at the myth that COVID-19 was “the great equalizer,” an idea touted by celebrities and politicians from Madonna to then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Ibram X. Kendi and Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research worked with The COVID Tracking Project to compile national numbers on how COVID-19 affected people of color in the U.S. Their effort, The COVID Racial Data Tracker, showed that people of color died from the disease at around twice the rate of White people. (Curiskis and Oehler, 4/29)

CIDRAP: Study Of Novavax COVID Vaccine Estimates 100% Efficacy Against Hospitalizations
A post hoc analysis of a phase 3 randomized, controlled trial estimates that two doses of the Novavax (NVX-CoV2373) COVID-19 vaccine were 100% effective against hospitalization by 95 days during a period dominated by the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant. (Van Beusekom, 5/1)