CNN: Journavx: FDA Approves First New Type Of Pain Medication In 25 Years 
Suzetrigine is the first new painkiller approved in the US since Celebrex, a type of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug called a Cox-2 inhibitor, which was approved in 1998. ... The medication was discovered after researchers learned about a family of fire walkers in Pakistan and discovered that they lacked a gene allowing pain signals to fire in their skin. Members of this family could walk over hot coals without flinching. “They knew that they were on something hot; they knew they could feel the coals. So it’s not impacting the nerves that do heat and touch and stuff like that. It is just these pain-conducting nerves,” said Stuart Arbuckle, chief operating officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals. “They were, in every other way, normal.” Still, it took scientists 25 years to figure out how to exploit that pain-conducting mechanism to develop a medication. (Goodman, 1/30)

Bay Area News Group: To Detect Contagious H5N1 Bird Flu, Can Genomic Surveillance Shift To Sewers?
H5N1 has upended California’s dairy industry, the nation’s largest producer of milk, with a total of 733 dairies reporting infections since August 2024. Of these, 35 were discovered in the past month. Such widespread infections increase the opportunities for the virus to spread to dairy workers, according to infectious disease experts. Genomic surveillance currently is too expensive and technically formidable to be harnessed into a large-scale, nationwide system, scientists agree. (Krieger, 1/31)

San Francisco Chronicle: Telehealth App Helps California Farmworkers Visit Mexican Doctors
For Taylor Farms, a major global purveyor of packaged salads and cut vegetables, that’s made it a logical place to pioneer a novel type of health care for its workforce, one that could have broad utility in the smartphone era: cross-border medical consultations through an app. The company is among the first customers of a startup called MiSalud, which connects Spanish-speaking Taylor Farms employees to physicians and mental health therapists in Mexico. Providers aren’t licensed in the U.S. and can’t prescribe medications but instead serve as health coaches who can dispense advice and work with a U.S.-based doctor if needed. (Clayton, 1/31)

Becker's Hospital Review: How Cedars-Sinai Is Bringing UK Health Tech To Patients
Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai has partnered with Oxford Science Enterprises, an independent investment company affiliated with the University of Oxford. The collaboration, structured as a co-investment initiative, aims to accelerate the growth of health tech startups emerging from Oxford, with a focus on expanding digital health solutions to the U.S. market, according to a Jan. 29 news release. (Diaz, 1/30)

Modern Healthcare: Cigna To Reform Prior Authorization, Provider Services In 2025
The Cigna Group will spend up to $150 million to reform its prior authorization, patient advocacy and provider services this year, CEO David Cordani said Thursday. The commitment comes a month after the assassination of a high-profile industry executive sparked loud, public conversations about the worsening value of health insurance. (Tepper, 1/30)

Becker's Hospital Review: Stanford Wields A 'FURM' Test On AI
At Stanford Health Care, artificial intelligence is a key tool supporting the organization's mission to advance precision health and improve patient outcomes. However, as President and CEO David Entwistle and Chief Data Scientist Nigam Shah, MD, PhD, told Becker's, successfully implementing AI requires a rigorous, thoughtful approach — one that goes beyond chasing the next shiny object. (Gooch, 1/30)

The Hill: Pentagon Scrubs Biden-Era Abortion Travel Policy
The Pentagon has struck a Biden administration policy of covering travel costs for service members and their dependents who must cross state lines to receive abortions and other reproductive care, according to a new memo. The change, which took effect Tuesday, was announced in a memo posted by the Defense Travel Management Office on Wednesday. (Mitchell, 1/30)

Becker's Hospital Review: Hospitals With Adequate Nurse Staffing See Fewer C-Sections: Study
Ensuring sufficient staffing levels in birthing units could help hospitals lower cesarean section rates, according to a study published Jan. 28 in Nursing Outlook. ... “Concern about cesarean section rates in the U.S. has been high for many years, and there has been little progress toward improvement. This study points us toward one important solution: aligning labor and delivery nurse staffing with consensus- and expert-developed guidelines," study author Joanne Spetz, PhD, director of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a new release.  (Bean, 1/30)

The Guardian: Groups Helping Americans Find Abortion Pills Report Instagram ‘Shadow-Banning’ 
Over the last week, the accounts of some major organizations that help Americans find abortion pills had their Instagram posts censored or removed, and at least one group said its account became difficult to find through searching – a practice known as “shadow-banning”. Since last week, an Instagram search for the words “hey jane” will not surface the organization’s account. Instead, users can only find it if they type in the word “hey jane health” – the account’s full name. This, Davis said, constitutes a shadow ban. “For someone who’s not following us but is seeking out care, there’s really no way for them to be able to know that the only way to find us is to type ‘hey jane health’,” Davis said. (Sherman, 1/29)

Politico: ‘Using The Devil's Own Tools Against Them': Abortion Opponents Turn To Environmental Laws
A cadre of red and purple states is introducing bills this week to impose restrictions on abortion pills over claims that the drugs could be contaminating drinking water. The new legislation in Arizona, Idaho, Maine, West Virginia and Wyoming — which would require doctors who prescribe abortion pills to make their patients collect and return their expelled fetuses in medical waste bags for disposal — is the latest development in anti-abortion groups’ yearslong campaign to wield environmental laws to cut off access to the drugs. (Wittenberg and Ollstein, 1/30)

CalMatters: Abortion Activist David Daleiden Pleads In Planned Parenthood Case
Two anti-abortion activists who made sensational videos of Planned Parenthood officials nearly a decade ago pleaded no contest this week to a felony count of illegally recording someone without consent. David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt secretly filmed Planned Parenthood executives in California and edited the clips in a way that purported to show them selling fetal remains. Monday’s plea deal and felony conviction ends a criminal case that has dragged through the court system since 2017. (Hwang, 1/29)

Modern Healthcare: After Hearings, RFK Jr. Hasn't Swayed 3 Key Republicans
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s chances of confirmation as Health and Human Services secretary appeared to hinge Thursday on convincing a handful of Senate Republicans that he would adhere to accepted science when it comes to vaccines. During a hearing before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Kennedy faced tough questioning from Democrats and a few Republicans about his long history advocating against vaccinations and disseminating misinformation about the disproved link between vaccines and autism. In contrast, several Republicans expressed support for Kennedy's stance on vaccines. (McAuliff, 1/30)

Los Angeles Times: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Refuses To Reject Falsehood On Vaccines, Autism
 Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s long record of questioning the safety of childhood vaccinations persisted as a flash point for him Thursday during a confirmation hearing in which senators, including a key Republican, shared intensely personal details about the impact vaccine skepticism had on their lives. In one response, Kennedy refused to flatly reject a long-discredited claim that vaccines cause autism, despite years of studies and research that have found they do not. (Seitz and Groves, 1/30)

AP: When RFK Jr. Was Presented With The Science On Vaccines He Said Needed To See, He Dismissed It
The man who hopes to be President Donald Trump’s health secretary repeatedly asked to see “data” or “science” showing vaccines are safe – but when an influential Republican senator did so, he dismissed it. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent two days this week insisting to senators that he’s not anti-vaccine. He said that he instead supports vaccinations and will follow the science in overseeing the $1.7 trillion Department of Health and Human Services, which, among other duties, oversees vaccine research, approval and recommendations. (Neergaard and Stobbe, 1/31)

Stat: Biden Administration Stacked Vaccine Advisory Committee With New Members
Before leaving office, President Biden’s health secretary approved the appointments of eight new candidates to a critical committee that helps set U.S. vaccination policy — a burst of activity within a matter of a few months that could, in theory, make it more difficult for the Trump administration to shape the panel with its own appointees, several sources have told STAT. (Branswell and Owermohle, 1/31)

Stat: Scientists Struggle To Pay Bills After NSF Suspends Salary Payments
One scientist texted his landlord to say February rent would be late. Another wasn’t able to pay her credit card bill. Yet another wondered how much longer he could afford his mortgage. These were some of the effects of President Trump’s federal funding freeze on the postdoctoral researchers who rely on grants from the National Science Foundation. (Boodman, 1/30)

Modern Healthcare: Cardinal Health CEO Jason Hollar Issues Warning On Tariffs
Cardinal Health warned Thursday that if President Donald Trump follows through with threatened tariffs next month, higher prices for some of the company's products will follow. Trump is set to impose a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff on goods from China starting Saturday. (Dubinsky, 1/30)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: New System Promises More Accurate, Real-Time Count Of Sonoma County's Unhoused
As more than 150 outreach workers and volunteers prepare to fan out across Sonoma County on Friday for the annual count of those who are experiencing homelessness, county staffers are working on a new system to provide a more accurate account. (Callahan, 1/30)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Hundreds Of Volunteers Went Looking For Thousands Of Homeless People. Here’s What They Found. 
There are signs that homelessness in San Diego County may be starting to contract. The riverbed, however, has been a different story. (Nelson, Warth, Diehl, and Murga, 1/30)

AP: Court Says Banning Gun Sales To Young Adults Under 21 Is Unconstitutional 
A U.S. appeals court on Thursday ruled against a federal law requiring young adults to be 21 to buy handguns, finding it violated the Second Amendment. The ruling, handed down by a panel of three judges on the conservative U.S. 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, comes amid major shifts in the national firearm legal landscape following a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded gun rights in 2022.The court found that people aged 18-to-20 should not be prohibited from buying guns. (Cline and Whitehurst, 1/30)

The Trace: Gun Violence Researchers Warn Of ‘Direct Attack On Science’
For decades, researchers, physicians, and epidemiologists were stymied in their efforts to study gun violence as a public health issue, a link that was first made in the late 1970s. The CDC began funding gun violence research in the 1990s, as the rates of firearm homicide and suicide spiked, but lobbying by the National Rifle Association led to the 1996 Dickey Amendment, which effectively halted federal dollars for the research. It wasn’t until 2019 that Congress struck a bipartisan deal jointly awarding the NIH and CDC an annual $25 million to study gun violence. (Magee, 1/30)

Los Angeles Times: Schools Near Fire Zones Are Safe, Districts Say. Parents Aren't So Sure
At public meetings, on social media and in interviews with The Times, parents at schools near the Palisades and Eaton fire zones have expressed deep health and safety concerns, and questioned whether their children should return to class. But officials have assured parents that schools have been cleaned and are safe. Some campuses close to the devastation have already welcomed students back, including Canyon Charter Elementary School and Paul Revere Charter Middle School in Pacific Palisades, which together enroll more than 2,000 students. (Miller and Blume, 1/31)

Times of San Diego: Don't Let RFK Jr.'s Conspiracy Theories About Vaccines Undermine Our Children's Health
[Health and Human Services secretary nominee Robert F.] Kennedy’s well-documented vaccine skepticism, rooted in conspiracy-driven theories about vaccines, COVID-19, HIV, and even fluoridation, poses an existential threat to the progress we’ve made in public health. His suggestion that the U.S. can “take a break” from infectious disease research, even amidst emerging threats like H5N1 and Monkey Pox, is not only reckless but potentially catastrophic. (William H. Eger and Madison T. Germuska, 1/28)

Los Angeles Times: No One Polices Men's Bodies The Way We Police Women's Bodies
While we’ve been distracted by wildfire tragedies, and the dizzying stream of Project 2025-inspired directives flowing from the Oval Office, we cannot forget that the Republican-led war on women’s reproductive rights shows no signs of waning. In fact, it’s heating up again. (Robin Abcarian, 1/29)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Initiated Intersex Rights. Now It Needs To Step Up Protections For Intersex Kids At Birth
In the face of anti-trans legislation sweeping the country over the past four years, California stepped up to protect trans people and in particular trans youth. In 2022, the state became the first in the nation to create a sanctuary for transgender youth seeking gender-affirming medical care. (Kyle Knight, 1/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: Daniel Lurie’s Fentanyl Emergency Bill Will Test S.F. Government
San Francisco voters made it clear in November — when they elected political novice Daniel Lurie as mayor over four candidates with decades of government experience — that they wanted to radically disrupt the status quo. Lurie is moving swiftly to do so. Within a week of being sworn into office, he introduced sweeping legislation to overhaul how City Hall addresses the fentanyl, homelessness and behavioral health crises on our streets. (1/25)

East Bay Times: AI Is Harming Our Children. California Must Step Up
Parents beware. The money-lusting billionaires in Silicon Valley who, through social media, have already caused unprecedented child suffering — including depression, eating disorders, suicide, drug-related deaths, invasions of privacy and sex trafficking — they have unleashed a new horror. (Robert C. Fellmeth, 1/31)

Times of San Diego: SDSU’s Career Skills Institute Is Helping San Diego Professionals Combat Skill Obsolescence
San Diego is riding a tidal wave of innovation. Yet beneath the triumph of burgeoning biotech breakthroughs and major defense contracts, a troubling undercurrent demands attention: a growing skills gap in our workforce.In today’s job market, staying competitive means continuously updating your skills. The rapid pace of technological change is especially apparent in fields embracing artificial intelligence, or which depend on cybersecurity or data analytics — topics which already extend beyond tech. Those in fields that include healthcare, finance, communications, manufacturing, law and education — and many others — are especially impacted by rapid technological changes. (Ian Gibson, 1/27)