Los Angeles Times: California Single-Payer Healthcare Faces Doubts From Democratic Leader 
California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas cast doubt on the latest proposal to create a state-run single-payer healthcare system, saying he likes the idea but isn’t convinced the state can afford it in the face of a budget shortfall of at least $38 billion. (Sosa, 2/21)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Staffing Not Meeting Demand Despite 2023 Hiring Gains
The healthcare industry has significantly increased its staffing over the past few years, returning overall employment levels to pre-pandemic trend lines and leading other sectors in job growth. It’s a monumental accomplishment, but experts say these gains aren’t nearly enough to offset healthcare’s understaffing woes. With employee turnover, clinician retirement and health systems building more facilities to meet the service demands of an aging patient population, industry job openings still vastly outnumber the staff available to fill them. (Devereaux, 2/21)

The Hill: Health Costs, Medical Bills Are Top Economic Concern Among Voters: Poll
Unexpected health costs and surprise medical bills are among the leading concerns of voters heading into the 2024 election, which contribute to their negative views about the economy, according to a poll released Wednesday by health policy research group KFF. At least 8 in 10 voters said it was “very important” for the 2024 presidential candidates to talk about inflation and the affordability of health care. (Weixel, 2/21)

The Hill: 6 In 10 Hold Favorable View Of Affordable Care Act In New Polling
More than half of U.S. adults have a favorable view of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as the health care measure used by millions of Americans continues to gain popularity, according to a poll released Wednesday. The survey, released by health policy research group KFF, found that 59 percent of U.S. adults had a favorable view of the ACA, though respondents differed along party lines on what they would like to see done with the law. (Nazzaro, 2/21)

Bay Area News Group: Electric School Buses Are Gaining Ground In Bay Area Schools
It was seven years ago that Matthew Belasco started worrying about the health of students riding the bus at Pittsburg Unified. As he watched hundreds of youth pile onto the big yellow vehicles each day, his eyes focused on the black plume of diesel smoke belching from the tailpipe. (Poukish, 2/22)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Reservoir Managers Could Sharply Limit Water This Year
Even after all the rain and snow in California this month, state and federal water managers announced Wednesday that they’re planning to limit deliveries from the state’s biggest reservoirs this year because seasonal precipitation has lagged. Their plans, however, don’t fully account for the recent storms. (Alexander, 2/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: Here’s How Much California’s Snowpack Grew After Recent Storms
After a slow start to the year, the Sierra Nevada snowpack has grown by leaps and bounds in recent weeks, thanks to a series of heavy storms with especially big impacts in the northern Sierra. (Lee, 2/21)

San Diego Union-Tribune: State Of The County: Vargas Discusses Ongoing Efforts To Address Homelessness, Housing And Inequities 
Chair Nora Vargas pledged during her State of the County address Wednesday that the Board of Supervisors would remain focused on homelessness, housing and health care this year. (Alvarenga, 2/1)

Southern California News Group: Sen. Padilla Rekindles Housing For All Act, Tackling Homelessness And Housing Affordability
Declaring housing as a human right, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla on Wednesday, Feb. 21, announced the reintroduction of a bill he said would offer a comprehensive approach to addressing the nation’s homelessness and affordable housing crises, including in California. (Tat, 2/22)

USA Today: More Americans Grieving As Overdose Deaths Mount, RAND Says
A survey by the nonprofit think tank RAND Corporation found that more than 40% of American adults know someone who died from an overdose and close to a third say that death disrupted their lives. The study authors noted that little is known about the impact of these deaths on extended families. ... The consequences of each overdose death are tripled and quadrupled by the impact they have on friends and family, said Justin Phillips, founder and CEO of Overdose Lifeline. (Cuevas 2/21)

Politico: Addiction Apps Are Leaking Sensitive Data, Group Claims
Advocates for people who suffer from substance use disorder say addiction recovery apps are leaking sensitive data to third parties including Facebook and Google. A new report from the Opioid Policy Institute, which supports better addiction care and is lobbying for a government crackdown, names 21 substance use disorder apps that it says have shared information about the people who use them. They include DynamiCare, Workit Health, Bright Heart Health and Eleanor Health. (Reader, 2/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: UCSF Launches Tissue Bank To Help Solve Mysteries Of Long COVID
Hoping to speed up understanding of long COVID — and hasten a cure for millions of sufferers — UCSF researchers on Thursday announced the opening of the world’s first bank of tissue specimens from people who have the mysterious disorder. The decision to collect such samples and make them available for researchers everywhere to study rests on growing evidence that bits of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, can remain active in human tissue for months or years after the body should have cleared it. (Asimov, 2/22)

CIDRAP: COVID Vaccine Mandates May Have Had Unintended Consequences, Researchers Say
US state COVID-19 vaccine mandates didn't significantly change uptake, and states with mandates actually had lower COVID-19 booster and voluntary adult and child flu vaccine coverage than those that banned vaccine requirements, an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data suggests. (Van Beusekom, 2/21)

CIDRAP: Paxlovid Use Tied To 84% Lower Risk Of Hospital Care
University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill investigators report today that COVID-19 hospitalization risk was reduced by 84% among Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir and ritonavir) recipients in a large, diverse healthcare system during January to August 2022, when the Omicron strain was dominant. The study appears in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. Paxlovid is authorized for use in US patients 12 years and older at risk for developing severe outcomes from COVID-19 infections. (Soucheray, 2/21)

CIDRAP: US Study: Disparities In Death Rates Persist After Acute Phase Of Pandemic
A new research letter in JAMA Network Open demonstrates that pre-COVID disparities in all-cause mortality have largely persisted after the acute phase of the pandemic, as patterns have largely returned to baseline. The study examined annualized age-standardized death rates (ASDRs) among major demographic groups in the United States from March 2018 through May 2023. Sex, race and ethnicity, metropolitan status, and region were all considered. (Soucheray, 2/21)

Reuters: US FDA Warns Against Using Smartwatches To Measure Blood Glucose
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration ... said it was working to ensure that manufacturers, distributors and sellers do not illegally market unauthorized gadgets that claim to measure blood glucose levels. The devices are different from smartwatch applications that display data from FDA-authorized blood glucose measuring devices that puncture the skin, the regulator said. (2/21)

AP: Silent Brain Changes Precede Alzheimer's. Researchers Have New Clues About Which Come First
Alzheimer’s quietly ravages the brain long before symptoms appear and now scientists have new clues about the dominolike sequence of those changes — a potential window to one day intervene. A large study in China tracked middle-aged and older adults for 20 years, using regular brain scans, spinal taps and other tests. Compared to those who remained cognitively healthy, people who eventually developed the mind-robbing disease had higher levels of an Alzheimer’s-linked protein in their spinal fluid 18 years prior to diagnosis, researchers reported Wednesday. (Neergaard, 2/21)

Modesto Bee: California’s Short-Staffed OSHA Program Puts Laborers At Risk
Carlos Castro doesn’t remember the day he became paraplegic. He only knows what happened through the accounts of others. Before his life-altering injury, Castro worked as a journeyman pipefitter based in San Jose. He laid miles of piping in some of Silicon Valley’s most recognizable buildings, including the corporate headquarters for Google and Intel. (Miller, 2/22)

Politico: ‘Another Hot Potato’: Alabama’s IVF Ruling Risks Political, Legal Backlash
The Alabama Supreme Court ruling granting legal personhood to frozen embryos could set up a political and legal backlash against conservatives heading into the November election. The decision not only threatens GOP efforts to court suburban women and other constituencies uneasy about abortion bans, but also complicates the party’s standing with millions of people who may oppose abortion but support — and in many cases use — in-vitro fertilization and other forms of fertility care. (Miranda Ollstein, 2/21)

The Hill: Law Enforcement Leaders Urge Biden To Reclassify Marijuana To Lesser Status
A group of law enforcement leaders urged President Biden to reclassify marijuana to a lesser status in a Thursday letter. “We are current and former police chiefs, sheriffs, federal and state prosecutors, and correctional officials from across the country dedicated to protecting public safety and reducing unnecessary arrests, prosecutions, and incarceration,” reads the letter from the Law Enforcement Leaders To Reduce Crime & Incarceration group. (Suter, 2/22)