Los Angeles Times: California Democratic Party Endorses Ballot Measures On Same-Sex Marriage, Taxes, Rent Control 
California Democratic Party leaders at their annual executive board convention this weekend took positions on a host of statewide measures that will — or may — appear on the November ballot. (Wick, 5/19)

Los Angeles Times: Newsom Leaves Vatican With Pope's Praise For Refusing Death Penalty
In an opulent hall in the Apostolic Palace framed in marble and adorned with Renaissance murals, Gov. Gavin Newsom waited in a line of governors, mayors and scientists for an opportunity to greet Pope Francis. The queue wasn’t the ideal setup envisioned by the governor’s advisors. Newsom traveled more than 6,000 miles from California to the Vatican to give a speech before — and hopefully talk with — the pope about climate change. Pope Francis, however, had other topics on his mind besides the warming planet. (Luna, 5/19)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego's Biggest Medical Provider Is All In On Robot-Assisted Surgery 
Sharp HealthCare is among 11 medical providers worldwide to gain early access to the next generation of robot-assisted surgery. While this accomplishment may seem like a one-off upgrade, it actually signals a yearslong shift in how the region’s largest health system operates. (Sisson, 5/18)

Los Angeles Times: This UCLA Doctor Wants To Beat An 'Anatomical Atlas' Made By Nazis
As Dr. Kalyanam Shivkumar pondered how to fix the human heart, he was given a gift laced with horror. Shivkumar, a cardiac electrophysiologist known as “Shiv” to friends and co-workers at UCLA, was trying to better understand the intricate details of nerves in the chest. He hoped doing so might help him improve treatments for cardiac arrhythmias — aberrant rhythms of the heart — that can prove dangerous and even deadly. (Reyes, 5/20)

The Mercury News: Bay Area Nurse Recalls Horror, Heartbreak Of Mission In Gaza
Weeks after returning from a humanitarian mission in Gaza, Ross Valley nurse Sandy Adler is still aggrieved for the innocent, the injured, the maimed — the Palestinians who face starvation and death in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas terrorists. “My heart breaks almost every day for the people there, what the innocent are going through,” said Adler, whose team attended to hundreds of patients in Khan Yunis, which is just north of the beleaguered Gaza city of Rafah. (Ricapito, 5/20)

Modern Healthcare: Uber Expands Healthcare Reach With New Patient Transport Platform
Uber has announced a new platform to help caregivers facilitate transportation for those they care for. The move also further expands the company’s footprint in the healthcare space. The new offering, unveiled on Wednesday at the company’s annual product event, allows caregivers to request and monitor rides and deliveries of prescriptions, groceries and over-the-counter items for those they care for. (Glodowski, 5/17)

Axios: Prescription Drug Ads Should Soon Start Looking Noticeably Different
A new chapter in drug advertising begins Monday when a federal transparency rule takes effect requiring commercials to clearly spell out potential side effects and when a person should avoid the medicine. (Bettelheim, 5/20)

CNN: Gene Test May Predict Success On Injectable Weight Loss Drugs, A Step Toward Precision Medicine For Obesity
One of the big mysteries with popular GLP-1 medications for weight loss is why some people will lose 20% or more of their starting body weight on the drugs while for others, the scale will barely budge. (Goodman, 5/20)

CNN: People Using Popular Drugs For Weight Loss, Diabetes Are More Likely To Be Diagnosed With Stomach Paralysis, Studies Confirm
Injected medications that treat diabetes and obesity increase the risk of a rare but serious side effect: stomach paralysis, according to new data on the real-world use of the drugs. (Goodman, 5/20)

NBC News: ADHD Medication Shortages Easing, FDA Says, But Still Affecting Patients
Many of the ADHD medication shortages that have plagued the U.S. for the last two years have now been resolved, the Food and Drug Administration says. Yet some doctors and patients report they are still struggling to get prescriptions filled. Dr. Royce Lee, a psychiatrist at the University of Chicago Medicine, said supply has gotten better but it’s still an issue for about a third of the patients he writes prescriptions for. (Lovelace Jr., 5/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: ‘Devastating’: OBGYNs From California, Texas Talk Abortion Ban Impact
Texas doctor Anitra Beasley boiled down the state of abortion rights in Texas after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade to one word: “devastating.” It has been nearly two years since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case in which justices ruled there was no constitutional right to abortion. Since then, abortion has been banned in Texas in nearly all circumstances. California, meanwhile, passed Proposition 1, enshrining the right to an abortion in the state’s Constitution. (Fan Munce, 5/18)

Los Angeles Daily News: Latest COVID Worry, FLiRT Variants, Sparks Concern About Vaccination Rates
A new family of COVID variants nicknamed “FLiRT” is spreading across the country, as vaccination rates remain concerningly low for some public health experts. (5/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Budget Cuts For Public Health May Hurt Tracking Of Bird Flu
Last month and early this month, health officials in Santa Clara County noticed an unusual pattern unfolding in their sewage shed in Gilroy, one of four wastewater sites throughout the county they monitor for viral activity — and the one closest to many farms. They saw several spikes of influenza A, the family of viruses that includes the flu that sickens people during flu season, and of the H5N1 avian flu that has killed millions of birds worldwide and infected dozens of dairy cow herds in nine states. While the bird virus currently poses low risk to humans, it has the potential to disrupt the food supply and trigger a human pandemic if it continues to spread among livestock and mutates in a way that would make it transmissible among humans. (Ho, 5/17)

Reuters: How Annual Bird Migration Could Spread Avian Flu
Poultry and cows risk exposure to sick wild birds migrating across the Americas. Here is how annual bird migration could spread avian flu. (Levine and Hartman, 5/20)

CIDRAP: Drug-Resistant Trichophyton Fungus Represents Emerging Threat In US 
In a new JAMA Dermatology report, researchers describe 11 Trichophyton indotinea infections in New York City from May 2022 to May 2023. The fungus represents a new emerging public health threat that causes extensive tinea infections often unresponsive to terbinafine, a first-line oral antifungal. (Soucheray, 5/17)

CIDRAP: ECDC Warns Of Invasive Meningococcal Infections In Travelers From Saudi Arabia
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said today that it is monitoring reports from three countries of invasive meningococcal disease linked to Saudi Arabia travel. Nearly all cases are in patients who performed the Umrah pilgrimage while in Saudi Arabia, and most cases belong to serogroup W and involve no history of meningococcus vaccination, the ECDC said in a statement. (Schnirring, 5/17)

CalMatters: Measure To Roll Back Prop 47 Promises Less Homelessness
Homelessness gets top billing in a measure likely to make it onto your November ballot. Whether the measure has anything to do with homelessness is debatable. The initiative proponents are calling the “Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act” would increase penalties for some drug and theft crimes, by rolling back Proposition 47 — the criminal justice changes California voters passed a decade ago. It also would force some people arrested three or more times for drug crimes into treatment. (Kendall and Yu, 5/20)

Voice of San Diego: Sacramento Report: Newsom’s Big Cuts To Homeless Funding
As California faces a yawning budget deficit, Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing big cuts to homeless spending, which advocates warn could set back efforts to get people into housing. Newsom is crunching budget numbers and they don’t look good. In his updated proposal, called the May revision, Newsom estimates next year’s budget gap to be about $27.6 billion, with another projected shortfall of $28.4 billion in 2025-26, for a two-year total deficit of $56 billion. To help close the gap, he proposed trimming one-time spending by $19.1 billion and ongoing spending by $13.7 billion, slashing state operations and eliminating 10,000 unfilled jobs. (Sullivan Brennan, 5/17)

Los Angeles Times: California’s Effort To Plug Abandoned, Chemical-Spewing Oil Wells Gets $35-Million Boost 
California will receive more than $35 million in federal funding to help address the scourge of abandoned oil wells that are leaking dangerous chemicals and planet-warming methane in areas across the state, including many in Los Angeles. (Smith, 5/18)

San Diego Union-Tribune: They're Getting Sick Because Of The Cross-Border Sewage Crisis. This Committee Aims To Prove It. 
“The smell makes your eyes water and your throat close up,” said Cassandra Sutcliffe, one of many residents who have reported having similar symptoms and who say they find relief when they leave town. “I was told by (my doctor) that the environment could be the contributing factor (to) my failing health.” (Murga, 5/18)