Los Angeles Times: Thousands Of Californians Stuck On Waitlist For Home Care Help
Nine months after giving birth, Caitlin Martin is still waiting to bring her son home from the hospital. Her son Connor uses a feeding tube and relies on a tracheostomy and a ventilator to breathe. He was born with a rare birth defect called an omphalocele, which means some of his organs sit in a sac outside his body. Surgeons will eventually fix it, but only after a few years when he has grown bigger. (Reyes, 11/1)

The Hill: Children’s Hospitals Prepare For Surge In Admissions Amid Shortage Of RSV Drug
A supply shortage means a drug that can prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants won’t have a major immediate impact, children’s hospitals said, and they are preparing for a surge in admissions this respiratory disease season. “Widespread access [to the new antibody drug] will take time across many sectors of the pediatric population and won’t have as great an impact on volumes this immediate respiratory season,” the Children’s Hospital Association said in a statement. (Weixel, 10/31)

Bay Area News Group: Masks Required In Health Care Settings For All Health Care Workers In Bay Area Counties
In Santa Clara County, everyone — patients, caregivers and healthcare providers — will be required to wear face masks in public patient care areas in hospitals, clinics, and long term care facilities for the “winter respiratory virus period,” starting Nov. 1 and lasting five months through the end of March. (Rowan, 10/31)

Axios: New Infertility Definition Could Expand Insurance Coverage For Californians
A new, more expansive definition of "infertility" could bring help to hopeful LGBTQ+ and single parents in California and beyond. Redefining the condition could lead to broader insurance coverage of fertility services like egg freezing and in vitro fertilization for all people who need help starting families — not just heterosexual couples. (Murphy and Mallenbaum, 10/31)

AP: The US Infant Mortality Rate Rose Last Year. The CDC Says It's The Largest Increase In Two Decades
The U.S. infant mortality rate rose 3% last year — the largest increase in two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. White and Native American infants, infant boys and babies born at 37 weeks or earlier had significant death rate increases. The CDC’s report, published Wednesday, also noted larger increases for two of the leading causes of infant deaths — maternal complications and bacterial meningitis. (Stobbe, 11/1)

CNN: Chance Of Getting Long COVID Highest With Original Strain Of The Virus
Tens of thousands of people may still experience lasting symptoms more than a year after being infected with COVID-19, according to a new U.K. study—but the incidence rates of long COVID have also fallen with each new variant. (Jones, 10/31)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Mayor Breed Pushed To Create Hiring Plan For Health Workers
Supervisor Hillary Ronen called on Breed and the Department of Human Resources on Tuesday to plan for recruitment and retention incentives to boost the city’s behavioral health care workforce as the city and its nonprofits see unprecedented vacancies. Some nonprofits that contract with the city to provide behavioral health services are experiencing vacancy rates as high as 30%-40% ... These workforce shortages are “hindering” the city’s ability to provide health care for people dealing with mental health crises and addiction, Ronen said. (Toledo, 10/31)

Axios: CDC Outlines First Plan To Address Widespread Health Worker Burnout
A new first-of-its-kind federal campaign targeting widespread burnout in the health care workforce aims to make it easier for providers to get mental health care without fear it could jeopardize their careers. The new plan from a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention comes amid heightened scrutiny of the routine practice of asking workers in high-stress professions about their mental health. (Reed, 10/31)

CIDRAP: Mpox Vaccine Seekers Say They Cut Back On Sex Behaviors Tied To Viral Spread
From 46% to 61% of adults receiving mpox vaccination at two US public health clinics reported a decrease in sexual behaviors tied to viral transmission, including one-time encounters, sex partners, dating app– or sex venue–based sex, and group sex, according to a study published late last week in Sexually Transmitted Diseases. The study, led by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers, involved 711 adults seeking mpox vaccination at two clinics in Washington, DC, who completed questionnaires from August to October 2022. (Van Beusekom, 10/31)

CIDRAP: Paxlovid Shown Not Effective Against Long COVID In Veterans
A new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine of US veterans prescribed nirmatrelvir–ritonavir (Paxlovid) during COVID-19 infections shows no difference in long-COVID rates among groups who took the antivirals and those who did not. The study was based on 191,057 veterans with a first positive SARS-CoV-2 test result during January through July 2022. Among that group, 9,593 nonhospitalized patients were treated with Paxlovid, and outcomes were compared among their matched untreated cohorts for 31 post-COVID conditions (PCCs). (Soucheray, 10/31)

The New York Times: Panel Tells F.D.A. That CRISPR Sickle Cell Cure Is Safe Enough For Patients
A panel of experts said on Tuesday that a groundbreaking treatment for sickle cell disease was safe enough for clinical use, setting the stage for likely federal approval by Dec. 8 of a powerful potential cure for an illness that afflicts more than 100,000 Americans. The Food and Drug Administration had previously found that the treatment, known as exa-cel and jointly developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals of Boston and CRISPR Therapeutics of Switzerland, was effective. The panel’s conclusion on Tuesday about exa-cel’s safety sends it to the F.D.A. for a decision on greenlighting it for broad patient use. (Kolata, 10/31)

San Francisco Chronicle: Panera Warns Bay Area Customers About Charged Lemonade After Death
Panera Bread, the popular fast-casual restaurant chain, has posted a new warning in its Bay Area restaurants about its Charged Lemonade products following the death of a 21-year-old woman. Sarah Katz’s family filed a lawsuit in Philadelphia last week, claiming that the Ivy League student suffered cardiac arrest and died after consuming the beverage, which reportedly contains more caffeine than a 12-ounce Red Bull and a 16-ounce Monster Energy Drink combined. (Vaziri, 10/31)

USA Today: After Pig-To-Human Heart Transplant, Patient Lived Just Six Weeks
Dr. Bartley Griffith, the surgeon who performed the transplant said in a statement that he was extremely saddened by Faucette's death. “Mr. Faucette's last wish was for us to make the most of what we have learned from our experience, so others may be guaranteed a chance for a new heart when a human organ is unavailable. He then told the team of doctors and nurses who gathered around him that he loved us. We will miss him tremendously.” (Weintraub, 10/31)

EdSource: Tuition-Free Access Expanding Across California Community College Campuses 
As enrollment rates across California’s community college system took heavy losses following the Covid-19 pandemic, colleges have focused on advertising their tuition-free access in recent months. (Picazo, 11/1)

Los Angeles Times: Supreme Court Mulls California Officials' Facebook Activity
The Supreme Court justices sounded divided Tuesday over whether the 1st Amendment forbids public officials who refer to government business on their personal Facebook pages from blocking members of the public who criticize them. (Savage, 10/31)

Axios: Psychedelics Can Help Treat PTSD In Veterans
The push to use psychedelics as treatment for veterans with PTSD is gaining momentum across the country — and the Bay Area is taking the lead. Studies show that MDMAs reduce PTSD symptoms and functional impairment. Advocates are working to secure FDA approval of its use in a bid to more effectively tackle the suicide epidemic among veterans. (Chen, 10/31)

CNN: Millions Have Used The 988 Mental Health Crisis Line, But Most Say They Wouldn’t Turn To It Again
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline has received millions of calls, texts and online messages since its launch in the summer of 2022, but a new study suggests that the mental health resource is far from reaching its full potential. People with severe psychological distress were more likely than others to have heard of 988 and to have used the lifeline, according to research published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open. But overall, only a quarter of people said they would be very likely turn to 988 in the future if they or a loved one were experiencing a mental health crisis or suicidality – and less than a third of people with severe psychological distress who had already tried the lifeline were very likely to use it again. (McPhillips, 10/31)

Bay Area News Group: "We Are Afraid:" Earth's Vital Signs Entering "Uncharted Territory," Climate Scientists Warn
This year has presented stark evidence that Earth is already in “uncharted territory” with climate change, scientists say, to the point that unless major progress is made to reduce greenhouse emissions, parts of the world that are home to one-third to one-half of the global population could face extreme heat, food shortages and water shortages by the end of this century. (Rogers, 10/31)

The Washington Post: Scientists Have Found A 'Sleeping Giant' Of Environmental Problems: Earth Is Getting Saltier
Human activities are making the globe saltier, specifically in our soils, freshwater and air, according to a study released Tuesday in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. (Patel, 10/31)

KQED: Survivors From California’s Period Of Forced Sterilization Denied Reparations
In March 2006, Sharon Fennix, then incarcerated at Valley State Prison in California’s Central Valley, was transported to Madera Community Hospital for surgery. A prison doctor had recommended that she have non-cancerous growths removed from her uterus and, according to Fennix, she was told that the procedure wouldn’t have lasting impacts and recovery would be quick. She was given a dose of anesthesia, and the last thing she remembers was counting backward while two correctional officers wheeled her gurney down a hallway. (Mihalovich, 11/1)

NPR: U.S. Gun Violence Death Rate Is Higher Than Much Of The World
The U.S. has the 28th-highest rate of deaths from gun violence in the world: 4.31 deaths per 100,000 people in 2021. That was more than seven times as high as the rate in Canada, which had 0.57 deaths per 100,000 people — and about 340 times higher than in the United Kingdom, which had 0.013 deaths per 100,000. The numbers come from a massive database maintained by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which tracks lives lost in every country, in every year, by every possible cause of death. (Aizenman, 10/31)