Reuters: Exclusive: Musk's Neuralink Brain Implant Company Cited By FDA Over Animal Lab Issues 
U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors found problems with record keeping and quality controls for animal experiments at Elon Musk's Neuralink, less than a month after the startup said it was cleared to test its brain implants in humans, according to an agency report reviewed by Reuters. The inspectors identified quality control lapses at the company's California animal research facility. A similar inspection at Neuralink's Texas facility did not find problems, according to agency records. (Taylor, 3/1)

Los Angeles Times: Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Creates Dedicated Small Baby Unit To Care For Its Tiniest, Most Fragile Babies
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) has launched a dedicated Small Baby Unit to provide the highest level of specialized care to critically ill premature babies. The program is located within the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation Newborn and Infant Critical Care Unit (NICCU) and is supported by a specialized team of clinicians trained in the care of children born before 32 weeks. (2/29)

Becker's Hospital Review: Providence California Taps Chief Community Health Officer
Michael Robinson was named chief community health officer for Providence South Division, effective March 4. In his role, Mr. Robinson will lead community health efforts for the division, work with philanthropy and health equity leaders, and be responsible for the strategic direction of community health initiatives that partner with and support marginalized communities, according to a Feb. 29 news release shared with Becker's. Providence South Division, which includes all California operations, is part of Providence, a 51-hospital system with system offices in Renton, Wash., and Irvine, Calif. (Gooch, 2/29)

Reuters: Healthcare Providers Hit By Frozen Payments In Ransomware Outage
Healthcare providers across the United States are struggling to get paid following the week-long ransomware outage at a key tech unit of UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N), with some smaller providers saying they are already running low on cash. Large hospital chains are also locked out of processing payments with some absorbing the upfront costs of being unable to collect, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA), which represents nearly 5,000 hospitals, healthcare systems, networks and other providers. (Satter, Bing and Wingrove, 2/29)

Stat: Biotech Companies Concerned About China Biosecurity Crackdown
The federal government increasingly is scrutinizing Chinese businesses and their interactions with American companies, including in the biotech sector. Chinese biotechnology companies, the thinking goes, could threaten national security by giving the Chinese government access to the genetic and health information of Americans. (Wilkerson, 2/29)

Bloomberg: American Academy Of Dermatology Pushes To Pull DEI Programs, Citing Antisemitism 
America’s largest association of dermatologists is considering scrapping its diversity and inclusion initiatives, threatening to end programs designed to improve representation in one of the least diverse specialties in medicine. A group of doctors raised a resolution to end the American Academy of Dermatology’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The proposal, to be debated at the organization’s upcoming annual meeting, cited unease around the politicization of DEI and raised antisemitism as a concern. (Butler and Rutherford, 2/29)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Quality Measures Report Sees Performance Drop In 2021
Health systems saw deepened racial disparities and worse care outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic as their performance on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services' quality measures steeply declined, according to a recent report. Hospitals and post-acute care providers were showing improvement—or at least stability—on almost 90% of CMS' quality measures from 2016 through 2019, according to the agency's 2024 national impact assessment, published Wednesday. (Devereaux, 2/29)

Stat: Medical Device Lobby: We're Tired Of Waiting On Medicare Coverage
Medical technology lobby AdvaMed is fed up with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In a letter sent to the agency and shared with STAT, the group urged CMS to act on finalizing a pathway that would make reimbursement for breakthrough devices easier. (Lawrence, 3/1)

KQED: Newsom Sees Prop. 1 As A Chance To Finally Meet The Needs Of Mentally Ill Californians
Days before the Super Tuesday primary, Governor Gavin Newsom joins Marisa Lagos and Scott Shafer to talk about his ballot measure to build mental health treatment facilities and how he thinks the state should be handling retail theft. (Lagos and Shafer, 2/29)

Los Angeles Times: Released After Two Years Of Locked Psychiatric Care: A Battle Few Families Can Fight 
Once again, he was in the psychiatric ward of L.A. County jail, the last stage in a repeated cycle that had led from a promising new start to creeping irrationality or a sudden break from reality, then homelessness, then arrest for trespass or disorderly conduct or public indecency. It was 2021. After 15 years of futility, unable to reach through the cloud that enveloped him and let down by a mental health system that could do no better, his brothers and sisters shared their experiences with The Times, knowing so many others were going through the same recurring nightmare. (Smith, 3/1)

CBS News: Santa Cruz Health Officials Monitor Bacteria Outbreak Among Homeless
An outbreak of infectious bacteria is being monitored by the Santa Cruz County Public Health Division, county officials said Thursday. At least 27 cases of shigellosis have been recorded in the county since late January, mostly among people who have experienced homelessness. Of those, 16 have been lab-confirmed and 11 remain under investigation, according to the public health division. (2/29)

CalMatters: It’s Getting More Deadly To Be Homeless In California And Nationwide
For many people, living on the streets of California is a death sentence. That’s according to a recent study that took the first deep look into mortality rates in homeless communities throughout the country. It found the death rate more than tripled between 2011 and 2020. The findings make it clear that at the same time the number of homeless Californians is soaring, it’s also becoming more dangerous to be homeless. And it means the stakes are sky-high when it comes to state and local efforts to combat the crisis: People’s lives are on the line. (Kendall, 2/29)

San Francisco Chronicle: Man Died In A S.F.-Run Hotel. It Took Days For His Body To Be Found
One of the largest supportive housing operators in San Francisco is investigating how a man’s body wound up decaying in a shared bathroom of a residential hotel for more than a week before the stench and the sight of bodily fluids seeping under the locked door spurred staff to call the authorities. (Fagan, 2/29)

KQED: To Fight Rising Rents, These Fresno County Residents Bought Their Mobile Home Park
After years of fighting rising rents, a group of mostly Oaxacan farmworkers in Fresno County have done the seemingly impossible: purchased their mobile home park from its corporate landlord. The group officially closed escrow on the park Thursday. (Bolaños, 3/1)

The New York Times: R.S.V. Vaccines May Slightly Increase Risk Of Rare Neurological Condition 
Vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus may have caused a few cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological condition, federal health officials said on Thursday. The numbers were small, on the order of two cases per 100,000 vaccinated people or fewer, and much more data is needed to pin down the risk, the officials said. In May 2023, the Food and Drug Administration approved two vaccines against R.S.V.: Abrysvo, by Pfizer, and Arexvy, by GSK. (Mandavilli, 2/29)

Reuters: Pfizer Says Its RSV Shot Is Protective Through A Second Year 
Pfizer on Thursday said a single dose of its new respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine Abrysvo maintained its ability to protect against the illness through a second year of respiratory disease season. The company said in a press release that the vaccine's efficacy against RSV-associated lower respiratory tract disease with three or more symptoms was 77.8% through season two, compared with efficacy of 88.9% after the first RSV season, which led to the shot's U.S. approval. (2/29)

CIDRAP: Monovalent XBB.1.5 Vaccine Shows 51% Protection Against COVID Hospitalization 
A new interim estimate of vaccine effectiveness (VE) of the monovalent (single-strain) XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccine shows the shot was 51% effective in preventing emergency department and urgent care visits among adults without compromised immune systems. The study was published today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (Soucheray, 2/29)

Roll Call: Post-Pandemic Vaccine Hesitancy Fueling Latest Measles Outbreak 
Cases of measles are rising across the country and seem to be striking counties at random, but experts say there is one thing the public health system can do to turn the tide, and that’s to stem the post-pandemic vaccine lag and get parents to vaccinate their kids. (Cohen, 2/29)

Orange County Register: Irvine Man Admits To Firebombing Planned Parenthood Clinic
An Irvine man admitted Thursday to firebombing a Planned Parenthood clinic in Costa Mesa and plotting to attack an electrical substation in Orange. He also acknowledged discussing a planned attack at Dodger Stadium during an LGBTQ pride event. Tibet Ergul, 22, pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to damage an energy facility and one misdemeanor count of intentional damage to a reproductive health services facility. (Emery, 2/29)

KCRA: Lincoln Woman's Last Embryo Stuck In Alabama After IVF Ruling
Heather Maurer moved to Lincoln, California, from Columbus, Mississippi, two years ago while she was pregnant with her now 19-month-old son. Her husband is in the Air Force and got short-notice orders to report to the Golden State. They had two months to move. Before the move, they had been referred to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) for fertility treatments. After years of struggling to conceive, the couple began IVF. "We retrieved 11 eggs and seven fertilized and three developed into embryos," Maurer told KCRA 3. "After genetic testing, only two very viable." One of those two is her son Maximus. The other is still frozen at UAB. (Hope, 2/26)

The 19th: Could The Alabama Supreme Court Ruling On IVF Impact Access In Other States?
An Alabama Supreme Court has effectively ended access in the state to IVF, leaving families navigating infertility in limbo. Outside of Alabama, IVF patients have begun to question the security of their own treatment. Amanda Zurawski, the lead plaintiff in a case challenging Texas’ abortion bans, said this week she is moving her frozen embryos in case her state is next to curb access to IVF. (Luthra, 2/29)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Coalition Trying To Open Downtown Women’s Shelter
On Monday afternoon, Eva Hoerler found herself sitting in the same narrow room in which the San Francisco native lived for four months last year, a time she described as the darkest of her life. The room is a reception area inside of A Women’s Place drop-in center that was temporarily converted into her makeshift bedroom. While not technically a shelter, it’s the only drop-in center operating 24 hours per day serving women, and people who identify as women, experiencing homelessness, violence and other crises. It’s the only place that immediately and unconditionally opened its doors to Hoerler when she first arrived in July after being separated from her son following her arrest. (Waxmann, 3/1)

LAist: Cal State LA Has An Asbestos Problem. Students And Faculty Want It Fixed
On Thursday, over a hundred California State University, Los Angeles students and employees protested in front of the Martin Luther King Jr. building with signs that said “King Kills.” People shouted “Shut it down!” “I think it has to be something that wakes people up, that gets them talking,” said Anthony Ratcliff, a professor in the university’s Pan African Studies Department and the chair of the faculty union. (Guzman-Lopez, 2/29)

Modern Healthcare: Spending Bill Leaves Out CHC Funding, Medicaid DSH Cut Delays
Doctors, hospitals and community health centers will have to wait a little longer to learn their fates in full-year funding bills Congress is trying to hash out. That's because the short-term funding agreement Congress passed Thursday, which keeps parts of the government open until March 8 and the rest until March 22, is silent on key issues such as Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments, Medicare physician reimbursements and community health center funding. (McAuliff, 2/29)

The Hill: Senate Passes Spending Bill, Punting Shutdown Threat To Next Week
The Senate on Thursday passed a short-term spending bill that punts this weekend’s shutdown threat to later in the month, but leaves questions about how Congress will fund the government through the rest of the year. Senators voted 77-13 to send the funding measure to President Biden’s desk for his signature, just hours after the House voted overwhelmingly to pass the bill 320-99 and just a day before a tranche of government funding was set to expire. (Folley and Weaver, 2/29)

CNN: Excessive Alcohol Drinking Drove About 488 Deaths Per Day During The Pandemic, CDC Says
While dry January and damp lifestyles have taken off on TikTok, the United States has already experienced a spike in deaths related to excessive alcohol. In 2020-21, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, there were an average of about 488 deaths per day from excessive alcohol drinking, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Alcohol is a leading cause of preventable death. (Christensen, 2/29)

Bloomberg: Obesity Drugs Won’t Solve Problem That Affects 1 Billion People, WHO Warns
Effective, popular obesity medications won’t be enough to solve a worldwide problem that now affects more than 1 billion people, World Health Organization officials warned. Obesity has quadrupled among children and teens and more than doubled among adults since 1990, with about one in every eight people in the world living with the condition, the health agency said Thursday in the first global public analysis of the condition since 2017. (Kresge and Feliciano, 2/29)

NPR: The Human Cost Of Climate-Related Disasters Is Undercounted, A New Study Finds
A new study published in Nature Medicine looks directly at the human health impacts from severe weather like hurricanes, floods, and intense storms. The study examined Medicare records before and after weather disasters that incurred more than $1 billion of damages from 2011 to 2016. ... "Based off experience that we've seen unfold in the U.S. and elsewhere, we see that there's destruction and disruption to our ability to deliver the high-quality care we want to give patients in the weeks following the weather disasters," says Renee Salas, an emergency department physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. (Borunda, 2/29)

Bloomberg: Rising Sea Levels Increase Threat Of Arsenic In Drinking Water
Rising seas due to climate change could exacerbate the threat of arsenic in drinking water, according to a study published in PLOS ONE in January. Researchers focused on arsenic in well water in Bangladesh, where up to 97% of the population relies on such water for drinking. Arsenic occurs naturally in the earth’s crust, but how much arsenic is present in groundwater depends on geology, fertilizer habits and land use patterns, among other factors. (Pierre-Louis, 2/29)

CalMatters: State Spends Billions On Homelessness Yet Crisis Keeps Getting Worse
California not only has the nation’s largest number of homeless people, but one of its highest rates of homelessness vis-à-vis its overall population. (Dan Walters, 2/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: Why Habitat For Humanity Can’t Put California Families In Housing
As the executive director of Habitat for Humanity California, I’ve watched my colleagues learn through experience how to manage the many challenges of building affordable housing in California — from fighting red tape to securing permits to accessing limited government and charitable funds. Using the expertise, our 33 Habitat affiliates across the state build and repair about 800 homes each year. But we have recently found ourselves confronted with a new obstacle in our quest to provide housing for lower-income families. And this obstacle is preventing us from putting families in the homes we have built. (Debbie Arakel, 3/1)

Los Angeles Daily News: America Should Follow California’s Lead On Sex Education And HIV Prevention Education 
Staying true to its progressive form, California stands nearly alone in its enactment of mandated curriculum around sex ed and HIV prevention education to middle and high school students. But these policies are relatively new. The California Healthy Youth Act (CHYA) was enacted on January 1, 2016, by the California Department of Education, and it “requires school districts to ensure that all pupils in grades seven to twelve, inclusive, receive comprehensive sexual health education and HIV prevention education.” (Bernadette Boden Albala, 2/28)