The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Thousands Of Undocumented Immigrants In Sonoma County Likely Left Out Of Medi-Cal Expansion
Thousands of people in Sonoma County — and more than half a million statewide — who would qualify for the coverage are expected to be left out because they earn too much to be eligible but not enough to buy health insurance on their own. (Espinoza, 1/2)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Illumina Shells Out $54 Million To Wiggle Out Of San Diego Office Deal 
In June, the biotech’s leadership announced plans to cut costs through layoffs and reducing its office footprint in San Diego and the Bay Area. Illumina reported in an SEC filing in November that it incurred charges of approximately $54 million related to the exit of its i3 campus. (Rocha, 1/2)

Sacramento Business Journal: CVS Pharmacy Closing In Arden Watt Marketplace  
The upcoming closure comes as major pharmacy chains are shuttering locations in the Sacramento area and nationwide. (Sorich, 1/1)

The Bakersfield Californian: Houchin Community Blood Bank Introduces Gold Club To Reward Platelet, Plasma Donors 
Houchin Community Blood Bank is revitalizing an initiative from the past, encouraging the donation of platelets and plasma. The Gold Club Program is a tier-based incentive rewards program that is exclusive to platelet and plasma donors. (1/2)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Behavioral Health Worker Training Program Among Proposals For Share Of $80 Million 'Evergreen' Fund
Another recuperative care center for unhoused residents and a new training initiative for local behavioral health workers are initiatives under consideration for quick action by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors next week. (Sisson, 1/2)

Voice Of San Diego: County Under Pressure To Deliver More Behavioral Health Beds 
It’s long been a foregone conclusion among those trying to help San Diegans with behavioral health challenges: San Diego County doesn’t have enough beds for all who desperately need them. Now with the backdrop of new state mandates expected to increase demand, an addiction epidemic and a March state bond measure aiming to fund more beds, the pressure is on the county to deliver.  (Halverstadt, 1/3)

Axios: ChatGPT Had High Error Rate For Pediatric Cases
Researchers found ChatGPT incorrectly diagnosed over 8 in 10 selected pediatric case studies, raising questions about some bots' suitability for helping doctors size up complex conditions. (Bettelheim, 1/3)

Times Of San Diego: Supervisors Approve Program To Offer $500 In Rental Assistance To Seniors In Need 
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has approved a rental program to help low-income adults ages 55 and older to pay rent. The Shallow Rental Subsidy Program will provide $500 a month in rental assistance to 220 senior households chosen by lottery, in hopes improving housing stability. (12/30)

inewsource: 4 Things To Watch In 2024: San Diego Housing, Homelessness
A ban on camping in public, a rush to expand shelters, a shortfall in housing construction and a program that disproportionately hurts poor and unhoused San Diegans. It’s been quite a year on the housing and homelessness beat in San Diego. Last year’s census of San Diegans experiencing unsheltered homelessness revealed a 32% increase — from 2,494 in 2022 to 3,285, the highest count in at least the past decade. Experts and advocates say the increase is driven by a housing shortage and skyrocketing rents across the region. (Dulaney, 1/2)

CBS News: Doctors Have New Warnings As Post-Holiday Spike Of Respiratory Infections Are Expected To Rise
Hospitals are packed with sick patients, as the surge of respiratory infections continues to grow. It's the post-holiday spike of COVID, flu and RSV and it's expected to increase. Doctors have said now that people are back to work and school after the holidays, the infections are expected to become even more widespread. (Stahl and Nau, 1/2)

Medscape: Long COVID Has Caused Thousands Of US Deaths: New CDC Data
While COVID has now claimed more than one million lives in the United States alone, these aren't the only fatalities caused at least in part by the virus. A small but growing number of Americans are surviving acute infections only to succumb months later to the lingering health problems caused by long COVID. Much of the attention on long COVID has centered on the sometimes debilitating symptoms that strike people with the condition, with no formal diagnostic tests or standard treatments available, and the impact it has on quality of life. But new figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that long COVID can also be deadly. At least 4600 Americans have died from long COVID since the start of the pandemic, according to new estimates from the CDC. (Rapaport, 1/3)

WAVY: Feel Sick But Testing Negative? Check Your COVID Tests
Tests you may have in your bathroom cabinet, like the iHealth COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test or the BinaxNOW, are among those with extended expiration dates. For iHealth kits with printed expiration dates ranging from February 2023 to September 2023, the extended dates have since passed. BinaxNOW kits with printed dates prior to June 2023 have also passed their extended expiration dates. You can find the full list of COVID tests with extended expiration dates on the FDA’s website. (Bink and Martichoux, 1/3)

Fox News: New COVID Variant JN.1 Now Comprises Up To 30% Of US Cases: CDC
The latest variant of the COVID-19 virus, JN.1, is now responsible for an estimated 15% to 29% of cases in the U.S. as of Dec. 8, according to a posted update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Rudy, 1/2)

CIDRAP: COVID, Flu Severity Similar, But Omicron BA.5 Patients More Likely To Die, 2021-22 Study Suggests 
In 2021 and 2022, the proportion of hospitalized COVID-19 and influenza patients admitted to a US intensive care unit (ICU) were similar, but COVID-19 patients admitted during the Omicron BA.5 variant period were more likely to die in the hospital, according to a study published late last week in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. (Van Beusekom, 1/2)

Stat: How 'Safe Bathrooms' Against Opioid Overdose Deaths Came To Be
First, a light starts to flash. Then a high-pitched siren starts to blare. Then come the sounds of nearby doors being flung open, and the frantic footsteps of doctors and nurses rushing toward a restroom at the end of a hallway. They’re in a hurry for good reason. These distress signals have a specific meaning: Somebody in the bathroom is overdosing. (Facher, 1/3)

The Texas Tribune: Emergency Rooms Not Required To Perform Life-Saving Abortions, Federal Appeals Court Rules
Federal regulations do not require emergency rooms to perform life-saving abortions if it would run afoul of state law, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. After the overturn of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent hospitals guidance, reminding them of their obligation to offer stabilizing care, including medically necessary abortions, under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). (Klibanoff, 1/2)

USA Today: More Abortions Pills Ordered Ahead Of Possible Pregnancy And Bans
The number of Americans who weren't pregnant and wanted abortion pills increased nearly 10 times in the days after the Supreme Court's 2022 decision leaked, according to new research published this week in a medical journal. A research letter published Tuesday in the JAMA internal medicine reported more than 48,000 requests for abortion pills were made between September 2021 and April 2023, based on data provided through a telemedicine provider. (Robledo, 1/2)

The New York Times: More Women Who Are Not Pregnant Are Ordering Abortion Pills Just In Case 
Advance provision requesters were more likely than those already pregnant to be 30 or older, white and childless, and to live in urban neighborhoods with lower poverty rates than the national average. That might be partly because Aid Access offers free or reduced-price services to pregnant patients who need financial assistance, while advance provision requesters were expected to pay the full $110 cost, said Dr. Abigail Aiken, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a co-author of the study. (Belluck, 1/2)

Daily Beast: The GOP Hopes Contraception Can Solve Its Abortion Problem
The Supreme Court’s abortion rollback last year was a long-awaited, much-celebrated victory for the Republican Party. But that win in the courts has not translated to wins at the polls, and Republicans are starting to recognize that abortion isn’t an issue that voters are just going to get over. Cue former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway. The GOP pollster and strategist-turned-Trump adviser has a plan for Republicans to address the problem: embracing contraception. (Rogerson, 1/2)

Politico: Abortion Wins At The Ballot Box. But It Doesn’t Provide An Automatic Win For Democrats
Democrats are scrambling to put state abortion-rights initiatives on the ballot this year in the hope that the measures will drive turnout and boost their candidates in national and local elections. But those initiatives may not give Democrats the lift they are aiming for, according to a POLITICO analysis of five abortion-related measures that have appeared on the ballot since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. (Ollstein, Piper and Fernandez, 1/3)

Berkeleyside: Beware: Deadly Mushrooms Are Blooming Across The East Bay
December pours spread fungal spores. The rainy season means a blooming of a colorful array of mushrooms — some of which are deadly — in wooded areas in and around Berkeley. As it does every year around this time, the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) is warning of the danger posed by toxic mushrooms — reminding park visitors that two of the world’s deadliest types of shrooms thrive in the East Bay: the Amanita phalloides (death cap) and the Amanita ocreata (Western destroying angel). (Kowk, 1/2)

CIDRAP: Study: Food Insecurity In US Dropped During Pandemic 
Through government programs that included the expansion of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), food insecurity among low-income US adults dropped by nearly 5% during the pandemic but rose by 2022, according to a study today in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The findings were based on results from the 2019, 2021, and 2022 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), a nationally representative survey from the National Center for Health Statistics; 2020 was excluded due to pandemic-related restrictions on conducting the survey. Adults aged 18 and older were included in the survey, and low-income adults were those with household incomes at or below 200% of the federal poverty limit. (Soucheray, 1/2)

Axios: Requiring Defibrillators At More Public Places Might Not Be Enough
A number of states require places like gyms and sports arenas to keep automated external defibrillators (AEDs) on hand, but those laws have made little difference in how often the life-saving devices are deployed in emergencies, a new JAMA Internal Medicine study finds. (Reed, 1/3)

Reuters: US FDA Approvals Bounce Back In 2023, Sparking Hopes Of A Biotech Recovery 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved nearly 50% more novel drugs in 2023 than in 2022, putting it back on pace with historical levels, an improvement analysts and investors said could lead to increased investment in biotech firms. FDA nods for innovative therapies containing an active ingredient or molecule not previously approved, rose to 55 in 2023, up from 37 in 2022 and 51 in 2021. Historical data shows the FDA typically green lights about 45-50 new drugs a year and hit a peak of 59 in 2018. (Mishra and Jain, 1/2)

The Wall Street Journal: How To Put A Lid On Your Drug Costs In 2024 
The start of a new year means a fresh round of out-of-pocket costs for people taking prescription drugs. Health-insurance deductibles reset on Jan. 1. That means, if your deductible applies to your prescription-drug costs, you could be on the hook for thousands of dollars while you’re spending down the deductible and more favorable insurance coverage kicks in. (Of course, you might still be on the hook for any copays and coinsurance.)If you’re uninsured, you’ll face the challenge of paying the full cost of a medicine throughout the year. Here are steps you can take—some of which are new this year—to help control your prescription-drug costs. (Loftus, 1/3)

The Washington Post: Seniors Using Marijuana Face Drug Interactions, Other Side Effects 
The 82-year-old dementia patient’s condition stumped his psychiatrist. His anxiety was overwhelming, she recalled him saying. He had repeatedly gone to the emergency room after intense abdominal pain and vomiting. He insisted he never drank or smoked tobacco. Then he told her medical assistant how he fell asleep: “Two hits of Burmese Kush, and I’m good to go. ”That’s when it clicked: His nightly marijuana habit could be causing problems. “I said, ‘I thought you said you don’t use drugs,’ and he said, ‘I don’t. That’s my medicine,’” said Libby Stuyt, the Colorado psychiatrist who treated the patient three years ago. (Nirappil, 1/2)