CalMatters: Bankrupt Madera Hospital Has A Reopening Plan. What's Next?
A California hospital that left a county of 160,000 people without critical emergency care when it shut down 13 months ago took a significant step toward reopening last week, and it could begin accepting patients as early as this summer. That’s good news for the residents of Madera County, but the court-approved deal to revive the hospital elicited mixed reactions among some San Joaquin Valley leaders who wanted a different option. (Ibarra, 2/20)

California Healthline: The Powerful Constraints On Medical Care In Catholic Hospitals Across America
Nurse midwife Beverly Maldonado recalls a pregnant woman arriving at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital in Maryland after her water broke. It was weeks before the baby would have any chance of survival, and the patient’s wishes were clear, she recalled: “Why am I staying pregnant then? What’s the point?” the patient pleaded. But the doctors couldn’t intervene, she said. The fetus still had a heartbeat and it was a Catholic hospital, subject to the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services” that prohibit or limit procedures like abortion that the church deems “immoral” or “intrinsically evil,” according to its interpretation of the Bible. (Pradhan and Recht, 2/17)

Stat: Weight Loss Drugs Aren’t Covered By Obamacare. That May Change
Drugmakers are doing everything to tap the bottomless well of demand for new obesity drugs, and they might get some government help. The agency that regulates Obamacare insurance is considering a technical change that would require insurers to cover obesity drugs in a market of more than 20 million Americans. (Wilkerson, 2/20)

The Mercury News: COVID, Flu And RSV On The Decline In California
Notice how less crowded the cold, flu and COVID aisle is at your local pharmacy? In California, respiratory virus season is winding down. Fewer colds, coughs, fevers and sick days are interrupting our day-to-day lives now than in late December and early January, when the big three respiratory viruses were all peaking in the Golden State. (Rowan, 2/19)

KQED: California Schools Must Spend $2 Billion COVID Funds To Help Remote Learning Loss 
The recent legal settlement directs $2 billion to California schools to help students recover from learning loss. The lawsuit claimed remote learning was so ineffective that thousands of students were denied their right to an education. (Jones, 2/19)

The Hill: Largest Multicountry COVID Study Links Vaccines To Potential Adverse Effects
A new study on COVID-19 vaccines that looked at nearly 100 million vaccinated individuals affirmed the vaccines' previously observed links to increased risks for certain adverse effects including myocarditis and Guillain-Barré syndrome. The study was conducted by the Global COVID Vaccine Safety project and took into account 99,068,901 vaccinated individuals across eight countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, New Zealand and Scotland. (Choi, 2/20)

The Washington Post: CDC Easing Covid Isolation Guidance Worries Vulnerable People
Concerns among medically vulnerable people are growing as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prepares to drop its long-standing recommendation that those with covid isolate for five days. People with compromised immune systems worry that co-workers will return to the office while they’re still contagious. At the same time, the few remaining policies guaranteeing paid leave for employees with covid are largely coming to an end. New York, the only state that still requires paid leave for covid isolation, is considering ending that benefit this summer. (Nirappil and Sun, 2/17)

Reveal: The Plague In The Shadows
HIV/AIDS changed the United States and the world. It has killed some 40 million people and continues to kill today. This week, reporters Kai Wright and Lizzy Ratner from the podcast Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows take us back to the early years of the HIV epidemic in New York City and show how the virus tore through some of our most vulnerable communities while the wider world looked away. (Wright and Ratner, 2/17)

NBC News: Measles Infections And Symptoms Pose Far More Longterm Risks Than Most Realize
The massive resurgence of measles around the world — attributed to pandemic-related declines in immunizations and rising rates of vaccine hesitancy among parents — raises the risk of more serious complications and deaths, said Dr. James Cherry, a professor of pediatrics and an infectious disease expert at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. In the past two months, doctors in the U.S. have diagnosed dozens of measles cases related to unvaccinated travelers who arrived at international airports, then exposed others at hospitals and day care centers. (Szabo, 2/18)

Reuters: US Study Uncovers 275 Million Entirely New Genetic Variants
A study that analyzed the genetic code of a quarter of a million U.S. volunteers found more than 275 million entirely new variants that may help explain why some groups are more prone to disease than others, researchers reported on Monday. The whole genome sequencing data from a wide range of Americans aims to address the historical lack of diversity in existing genomic datasets by focusing on previously under-represented groups. The U.S. National Institutes of Health-funded "All of Us" study turned up 1 billion genetic variants in total. (Steenhuysen, 2/19)

AP: Abortion Rights Opponents And Supporters Seize On Report That Trump Privately Pushes 16-Week Ban 
A major anti-abortion group is praising a published report that Donald Trump has privately told people he supports a national ban on abortion after 16 weeks of pregnancy, though his campaign denied the report and said the former president plans to “negotiate a deal” on abortion if elected to the White House again. Trump, the frontrunner to be the 2024 Republican nominee, has repeatedly refused to back any specific limits on abortion as he campaigns, though he has called himself “the most pro-life president in American history.” (Price and Fernando, 2/16)

Roll Call: Trump’s Interest In National Abortion Ban Fires Up Both Sides
Reports that Donald Trump plans to endorse a 16-week national abortion ban quickly exacerbated the pending political battle on abortion policy to come during the 2024 presidential campaign, with advocates on both sides seeing the report as advantageous to their side. (Cohen, 2/16)

AP: State Governments To Protect Health-Related Data As It's Used In Abortion Battle
California and Maryland took another approach, enacting laws that prevent computerized health networks from sharing information about sensitive health care with other providers without consent. “We’re really pushing forward with the free-flowing and seamless exchange of health care data with the intend of having information accessible so that providers can treat the whole person,” said Andrea Frey, a lawyer who represents health care providers and digital health systems across. “Conversely, these privacy concerns come into play.” (Mulvihill, 2/17)

The Washington Post: Alabama Supreme Court Rules Frozen Embryos Are Children, Imperiling IVF
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday that frozen embryos are people and someone can be held liable for destroying them, a decision that reproductive rights advocates say could imperil in vitro fertilization (IVF) and affect the hundreds of thousands of patients who depend on treatments like it each year. The first-of-its-kind ruling comes as at least 11 states have broadly defined personhood as beginning at fertilization in their state laws, according to reproductive rights group Pregnancy Justice, and states nationwide mull additional abortion and reproductive restrictions, elevating the issue ahead of the 2024 elections. Federally, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide this term whether to limit access to an abortion drug, the first time the high court will rule on the subject since it overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. (Rosenzweig-Ziff, 2/19)

The Hill: Maternal Syphilis Rates Tripled Between 2016 And 2022: CDC
The number of expecting mothers with syphilis in the United States more than tripled between 2016 and 2022, according to a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study. Between those years, the overall rate of syphilis among pregnant women in the country increased from 87.2 per 100,000 births to 280.4 per 100,000 births. Syphilis cases have risen to levels not seen since the 1950s among the U.S. general population, according to the CDC. Cases of the bacterial infection have gone up by 17 percent in the last year and by 80 percent over the past five years. (O'Connell-Domenech, 2/16)

Good News Network: California Launches Free Behavioral Health Apps For Children, Young Adults, And Families
California’s Department of Health Care Services launched two free behavioral health digital services for all families with kids, teens, and young adults up to age 25. The partnerships have been years in the making, as the state announced in 2021 the opportunity to collaborate on a new initiative to combat the youth mental health crisis. (2/18)

Bloomberg News: Climate Change Is Fueling A New Type Of Anxiety, Therapists Say
When psychotherapist Caroline Hickman was asked to help a child overcome a fear of dogs, she introduced them to her Labradoodle, Murphy. “You get the child to feel confident in relation to the dog and teach the child skills to manage a dog,” she says. “You build the skills, build the competence, build the confidence, and then they’re less scared of dogs generally.” Climate anxiety is a different beast, Hickman says. “We don’t 100% know how to deal with it. And it would be a huge mistake to try and treat it like other anxieties that we are very familiar with that have been around for decades. This one is much, much worse.” (Rudgard and Wittels, 2/19)

The New York Times: TikTok Is Subject Of E.U. Inquiry Over ‘Addictive Design’
European Union regulators on Monday opened an investigation into TikTok over potential breaches of online content rules aimed at protecting children, saying the popular social media platform’s “addictive design” risked exposing young people to harmful content. ... Policymakers in the United States have also been wrestling with how to regulate the platform for harmful content and data privacy — concerns amplified by TikTok’s links to China. (Alderman, 2/19)

AP: 'Soaring' Over Hills Or 'Playing' With Puppies, Study Finds Seniors Enjoy Virtual Reality
John Knox Village, a suburban Fort Lauderdale, Florida, retirement community ... was one of 17 senior communities around the country that participated in a recently published Stanford University study that found that large majorities of 245 participants between 65 and 103 years old enjoyed virtual reality, improving both their emotions and their interactions with staff. The study is part of a larger effort to adapt VR so it can be beneficial to seniors’ health and emotional well-being and help lessen the impact dementia has on some of them. (Spencer, 2/19)

The Washington Post: Falls Are The Leading Cause Of Injury Among Older Americans
About 1 in 4 U.S. adults 65 and older — more than 14 million people — suffer a fall each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Falls are the leading cause of injury among those 65 and older, even though not all falls result in an injury, the CDC says. About 37 percent of older people who have fallen have sustained an injury that required medical treatment or activity restrictions. (Searing, 2/19)

Axios: Carter's Year In Hospice Sheds Light On End-Of-Life Care Option
A year after former President Carter entered hospice care at home, his experience has shined a spotlight on lengthy stays in the end-of-life treatment option. Hospice care is linked to increased patient and family satisfaction, and there's even evidence it can extend life expectancy. But long stays have also been associated with fraud. (Goldman, 2/20)

LAist: Unhoused People Who Call 211 For Emergency Winter Shelter Should Expect Long Wait Times, If They Can Get Through At All 
People without shelter could face another round of long wait times to find beds through the 211 hotline as yet another strong storm barrels toward Southern California this weekend. At the peak of the most recent atmospheric river, people were waiting an average of three hours to reach a 211 operator and get connected to a bed, if they got through at all. (Sieverston, 2/19)

Modesto Bee: Stanislaus County Has A Shortage Of Quality Housing
During the pandemic, Desiree Ransom and her then-4-year-old son woke up each morning with sore throats, stuffy noses and a persistent cough. The reason: black mold in their Modesto duplex. After a year of unanswered complaints, her landlord finally addressed the mold issue. Her rent was then raised by $250, forcing her to move out. (Bisharyan, 2/19)

The Washington Post: Teens Say They Use Drugs To Feel Calmer In Federal Study
Most teens who use drugs are searching for calm and hoping to relieve stress, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis suggests. The study points toward mental health challenges among teens as a driver of drug misuse — and says educating teens on harm reduction while expanding mental health treatment could reduce overdose deaths. ... Most of the adolescents in the study — 73 percent — reported using drugs and alcohol to “feel mellow, calm, or relaxed.” (Blakemore, 2/17)

Stat: Opioid Cravings Were Reduced By Anti-Obesity Drug In Small Study
The GLP-1 medication liraglutide significantly reduced opioid cravings in a small analysis presented on Saturday. It is the first randomized controlled trial to test anti-obesity drugs against opioid addiction, which kills around 80,000 people in the U.S. each year. (Bajaj, 2/17)

Reuters: Neuralink's First Human Patient Able To Control Mouse Through Thinking, Musk Says
The first human patient implanted with a brain-chip from Neuralink appears to have fully recovered and is able to control a computer mouse using their thoughts, the startup's founder Elon Musk said late on Monday. "Progress is good, and the patient seems to have made a full recovery, with neural effects that we are aware of. Patient is able to move a mouse around the screen by just thinking," Musk said in a Spaces event on social media platform X. Musk said Neuralink was now trying to get as many mouse button clicks as possible from the patient. (2/20)

Stat: New Study Raises Questions About Niacin And Heart Health
Niacin, or vitamin B3, has long been a U.S. public health darling to the point that it is added, by law, to cereal products. But a new study published Monday in Nature Medicine points to a potentially concerning effect of an excess of the vitamin: It may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. (Merelli, 2/19)

CIDRAP: CDC Announces E Coli Outbreak Tied To Raw Milk Cheese, More Charcuterie Salmonella Cases
At least 10 people in four states have been infected with pathogenic Escherichia coli in an outbreak tied to cheese made from raw milk by Raw Farm LLC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed late last week, and a day earlier the agency reported 40 more Salmonella illnesses in a 30-state outbreak linked to charcuterie meats. (Wappes, 2/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Zyn Nicotine Pouches Take Off—And Land In The Culture Wars
A newly popular alternative to cigarettes is changing the way many Americans consume nicotine—and becoming a political flashpoint. The product, a nicotine pouch, looks like a tiny tea bag and comes in flavors such as mint, coffee, berry and mango. It tucks discreetly into the cheek and doesn’t require the user to spit. And if you follow former Fox News host and nicotine-pouch booster Tucker Carlson, you will already have heard a lot about the largest U.S. brand, Zyn. (Maloney, 2/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Do I Really Need An Annual Physical?
Is your annual physical a waste of time?A growing number of physicians say the value of a yearly physical depends in part on your age and health history, and that some young, healthy patients can afford to skip it. Some studies have suggested that the annual visits aren’t doing much to improve our long-term health, and a growing shortage of primary-care doctors can drag out appointment wait times. (Janin, 2/19)