San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego County Records Third Teenage Flu Death Of The 2024-25 Season 
While these three deaths represent only about 4 percent of the 73 San Diego County residents who died after picking up the flu this season, Dr. Seema Shah, the county’s interim deputy public health officer, said that so many in such a short period of time is unusual. (Sisson, 2/6)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bird Flu Detected In Half Moon Bay Stray Cat
San Mateo County pet owners were urged to take sick pets to the veterinarian after health officials detected bird flu in a stray cat in Half Moon Bay. A family that had taken in the cat brought it to the veterinarian after the animal came down with flu-like symptoms, according to a county news release. Veterinarians confirmed that the cat had H5N1 and euthanized the animal. (Ellis, 2/6)

KVPR: It's Like 'Dead Birds Flying': How Bird Flu Is Spreading In The Wild
[Marcela] Uhart is a veterinarian and director of the Latin America Program at the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center at University of California, Davis. She arrived at the Punta Delgada beach suited up in a white hazmat suit, gloves and goggles in October 2023 ready to take samples and document the decimation. She's been tracking bird flu as it goes from one bird species to another — from seabirds to waterfowl to birds of prey — and then to marine mammals from sea lions to dolphins and then, sometimes, jumping back to birds. (Emanuel, 2/7)

Bloomberg: Bird Flu Expert Tapped By Trump Administration For Pandemic Response Unit
The Trump administration has chosen Gerald Parker, a veterinarian and former top US health and security official, to lead the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, people familiar with the matter said Thursday. Parker’s career includes more than three decades in the federal government focusing on global health, national security and pandemic preparedness. He will serve as director of the office, which was established by Congress in 2022 as the Covid-19 pandemic began to abate. (Griffin, 2/7)

Los Angeles Times: Protesters Rally Near Children's Hospital L.A. For Care For Trans Youth
Hundreds of protesters rallied Thursday night in the rain outside Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, calling for the hospital to roll back recent restrictions on gender-affirming care for youth. Denying such care “goes against every ethical standard we are taught in medicine and nursing. It ignores decades of research, the guidance of every major medical organization and the lived experiences of trans people,” family nurse practitioner Jordan Davis told the crowd packed onto the sidewalk on Sunset Boulevard. (Alpert Reyes, 2/6)

Los Angeles Blade: Top California Leaders Respond To Gender Affirming Care Pause
Following Trump’s executive order, healthcare facilities like the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and St. John’s Community Health paused gender affirming care and grants that would expand those resources. The Children’s Hospital of LA has been known as a refuge from discrimination in a country that has set forth many restrictions for trans healthcare and other barriers for equitable access to life-saving services. (Palomera, 2/6)

The 19th: NCAA Bans Trans Women From Women's Sports In Reversal Of 15-Year Policy
The largest college sports governing body in the country has completely banned transgender women student-athletes from competing in women’s sports, following President Donald Trump’s executive order threatening federal funding for schools that allow trans girls on girls’ teams. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on Thursday rescinded its former guidance for transgender student-athletes, which had been in place since 2010 and was amended in 2022. (Rummler, 2/6)

The New York Times: Trump Signs Order To Fight ‘Anti-Christian Bias’ 
President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday aimed at eradicating “anti-Christian bias” in the federal government by having agencies review policies and practices that he says have tried to squelch religious activities and activism. Mr. Trump, who announced the order at the National Prayer Breakfast, appointed his new attorney general, Pam Bondi, to lead a task force at the Justice Department to spearhead the effort. Mr. Trump said the task force would “fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society” and “move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.” (Green, 2/7)

Politico: Newsom Bows To 'Hierarchy Of Needs' In Detente With Trump 
A former leader of the anti-Trump resistance, Newsom said he had a productive meeting at the White House with the president on disaster aid for fire-ravaged Los Angeles. (Gardiner and Jones, 2/6)

Politico: Kamala Harris Brushes Off California Governor’s Race Talk At Fire Victims Shelter 
Kamala Harris has a message for the California politicos eagerly awaiting her decision on the state’s governor’s race: Give me some time. The former vice president, who has kept a relatively low-key presence since returning from Washington last month, made the sort of public appearance on Thursday — touring damage from the Palisades Fire and visiting displaced residents in a nearby Red Cross shelter — that stokes speculation of a possible return to political life. (Mason, 2/6)

Politico: Nancy Pelosi Faces Primary Challenge From Former AOC Aide 
Another chapter in a generational battle over the future of the Democratic Party appears to be taking shape in San Francisco in a fight for the seat now held by former House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Saikat Chakrabarti, a former chief of staff for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, announced Wednesday that he would challenge Pelosi in the primary, citing the former speaker’s efforts to prevent the progressive New York congressmember from becoming the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. (Bianco, 2/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump White House Preparing Executive Order To Cut Thousands Of Federal Health Workers
The White House is working on an executive order to fire thousands of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services workers, according to people familiar with the matter. Under the order, the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies would have to cut a certain percentage of employees. (Whyte and McKay, 2/6)

The Washington Post: Health Agencies Told To Rank Some Workers As Fear Of Layoffs Grows 
Leaders across the Department of Health and Human Services have been told urgently to rank thousands of their employees who are in probationary periods, with some managers bracing for layoffs of staff members who have been identified as less essential, according to eight people with knowledge of the matter and emails obtained by The Washington Post. The anxieties have been heightened at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where officials were told to rank 10 percent of their probationary staff as mission-critical, 50 percent as important and 40 percent as not mission-critical, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisal. (Diamond, Sun and Davies, 2/6)

The New York Times: Trump Administration To Lay Off Nearly All Of USAID Staff
The Trump administration plans to reduce the number of workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development from more than 10,000 to about 290 positions, three people with knowledge of the plans said on Thursday. he small remaining staff includes employees who specialize in health and humanitarian assistance, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to publicly discuss the cuts. (Demirjian and Kavi, 2/6)

Politico: EPA Puts 168 Staffers On Administrative Leave
The Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday it placed on leave 168 employees who worked on addressing pollution facing communities of color and low-income and rural areas. The move is the latest and most sweeping action by EPA to implement President Donald Trump’s agenda targeting diversity, equity and inclusion activities across the federal government. (Guillén and Snider, 2/6)

AP: Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Plan Offering Incentives For Federal Workers To Resign
A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s plan to push out federal workers by offering them financial incentives, the latest tumult for government employees already wrestling with upheaval from the new administration. The ruling came hours before the midnight deadline to apply for the deferred resignation program, which was orchestrated by Trump adviser Elon Musk. (Megerian, Binkley and Tau, 2/6)

The New York Times: Senate Confirms Russell Vought As Office Of Management And Budget Director 
The Senate voted along party lines on Thursday to confirm Russell T. Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget, putting in place one of the most powerful architects of President Trump’s agenda to upend the federal bureaucracy and slash spending that the administration thinks is wasteful. In speeches, Mr. Vought made clear that he relished the opportunity to overhaul the ranks of career federal workers that Mr. Trump views as part of the “deep state.” (Rappeport, 2/6)

Forbes: Is Trump Following Project 2025? How His Executive Orders Compare To Controversial Policy Proposals
Trump has long distanced himself from the controversial policy blueprint Project 2025, but is still taking steps that reflect its policy proposals. (Durkee, 2/6)

The Hill: Searches For 'Abortion' On CDC Website Prompt Suggestion To Try 'Adoption'
Users who search for abortion information on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website are now directed to try searching for the word “adoption.” The change comes less than a week after more than a dozen federal agency websites — including the CDC’s — went offline. Some of the CDC’s webpages have since been restored, but scientists and public health researchers are concerned that the information that has come back has been altered in some way. (O’Connell-Domenech, 2/6)

Bloomberg: HHS Asked To Go After ‘Anything Related To Covid,’ Wasteful Spending
The Trump administration is pushing the Department of Health and Human Services to go after “anything related to Covid” and contracts that would “be deemed wasteful by an average citizen if made public,” according to an email sent to Food and Drug Administration staff on Thursday seen by Bloomberg. That includes General Services Administration contracts for services to support diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility offices, telework, swag or advertising spending, the memo said. Staff were asked to report data back on such wasteful spending by Thursday morning. (Griffin, 2/6)

The New York Times: Dozens Of Clinical Trials Have Been Frozen In Response To Trump’s USAID Order
Asanda Zondi received a startling phone call last Thursday, with orders to make her way to a health clinic in Vulindlela, South Africa, where she was participating in a research study that was testing a new device to prevent pregnancy and H.IV. infection. The trial was shutting down, a nurse told her. The device, a silicone ring inserted into her vagina, needed to be removed right away. (Nolen, 2/6)

NPR: Senate Democrats Demand Answers On Health Communications Freeze 
Two letters from different groups of senators call for answers from the Trump administration about pauses in scientific communications and funding. (Wroth, 2/6)

The Hill: GOP Seeks To Corner Democrats With Fentanyl Bill
House Republicans are moving quickly to pass legislation that would result in harsher sentences for people convicted of fentanyl-related offenses, putting pressure on Democrats who were divided on the bill during the previous Congress. Leadership on Wednesday teed up the GOP-sponsored HALT Fentanyl Act for a floor vote this week. The bill would permanently classify fentanyl-like substances into Schedule 1, a category reserved for the most dangerous drugs. (Weixel, 2/6)

The New York Times: Why It Is So Difficult To Stop The Flow Of Fentanyl Into The U.S. 
Stopping fentanyl from entering the United States presents major challenges, raising the question of what Mexico can actually do to meet President Trump’s demands in order to avoid tariffs. (Villegas, 2/6)

The New York Times: Marijuana Dependence Linked To Higher Risk Of Death
Hospital and emergency room patients diagnosed with cannabis use disorder — defined as an inability to stop using cannabis even when the drug is causing harm — died at almost three times the rate of individuals without the disorder over the next five years, according to a study published on Thursday, the largest on the subject. Patients with cannabis use disorder were 10 times as likely to die by suicide as those in the general population. (Caryn Rabin, 2/6)

Times of San Diego: Officials Clear East County Homeless Encampment, Make Several Arrests
Authorities have arrested multiple individuals in connection with criminal activity at a homeless encampment in East County. ... The Sheriff’s Homeless Assistance Resource Team has conducted several outreach operations at this site over the past month, offering services and support. However, reports of unspecified ongoing criminal activity prompted further action, officials said. (Sklar, 2/6)

Newsweek: Scientists Discover Way To Reverse Cancer
Scientists have discovered a molecular switch that can reverse cancer—turning cancer cells back into their healthy counterparts. The revelation by researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon, South Korea, could lead to new cancer treatments. (Randall, 2/6)

Los Angeles Blade: US Under Trump No Longer Stands For Human Rights, Decency
Then-President Donald Trump on July 16, 2018, defended Russian President Vladimir Putin during a press conference that took place in Helsinki after they met. I watched it happen on live television while I was on assignment in Mexico City. This disgusting spectacle prompted me to write an op-ed about how the U.S. no longer stood for human rights around the world. I am once again on assignment in Mexico City, 15 days after Trump returned to the White House. He is doing everything possible to ensure the U.S. will no longer stand for human rights — around the world and in our own country — and basic decency. (Michael K. Lavers, 2/4)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Knows Transgender People Have No Power
It was easy to think that the diatribe about school transgender policies Donald Trump voiced during his presidential campaign was his most “deranged and despicable,” as I described it at the time. Do you remember? At an event with Moms for Liberty, the far-right gang of book-banners, Trump said the following: “Think of it. Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s gonna happen with your child. And you know, many of these childs [sic] 15 years later say, ‘What the hell happened? Who did this to me?’ They say, ‘Who did this to me?’” (Michael Hiltzik, 2/7)

Los Angeles Times: To Protect Transgender Rights In The Future, We Must Look To The Past 
“We don’t have a history of de jure discrimination against transgender people, right?” Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked during the Dec. 4 oral arguments in U.S. vs. Skrmetti, a case involving access to gender-affirming care for minors. Then-Solicitor Gen. Elizabeth Prelogar, arguing for such care and against a Tennessee law denying it, responded, “So I think you may be right that … historical discrimination against transgender people may not have been reflected in the laws.” She later tried to recover, but the damage was done. (Brianne Felsher, Shay Ryan Olmstead and Kate Redburn, 2/7)

Los Angeles Times: Corporate America Isn't Abandoning DEI. It's Rebranding It
The “DEI in the dustbin” narrative is utterly unsupported by the data. The companies that have formally backed away from their diversity programs represent a tiny minority of corporate America. The conservative Heritage Foundation recently conceded that 486 out of the Fortune 500 still have inclusion statements or commitments on their websites. Multiple independent surveys published in 2024 have also found widespread support for, and ongoing commitment to, equity initiatives among corporate leaders. (Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow, 2/3)

Voice of OC: CADPR - Stop Protecting Pesticide Profiteers, Start Protecting Californians
July 2024, multiple truckloads of glyphosate—a known carcinogen—were sprayed into San Juan Creek, which empties into Doheny State Beach, popular for families and surfing. In response, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CADPR) launched an investigation into this egregious violation. But the real question remains: Will CADPR prioritize public health and environmental safety, or will they once again cave to industry influence and protect polluters? (Kim Konte, 2/5)