Times of San Diego: Lawmakers Pivot On Teen Sex Trafficking Bill After Newsom Rebuff
Last week Democratic lawmaker Maggy Krell, a former sex trafficking prosecutor for the California Attorney General’s Office, was angry when her legislation was torched. This week, it was a far different story. ... The Assembly Public Safety Committee, which had originally cut out a key element of Krell’s sex trafficking bill, Assembly Bill 379, changed its mind and put it back in. AB 379 will now once again increase the punishment for trafficking of 16- and 17-year-olds. (August, 5/7)

Bloomberg: Hims CEO Andrew Dudum Is A Billionaire On Weight-Loss Drug Demand
A post-earnings rally in San Francisco-based Hims & Hers Health Inc. has turned co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Dudum into a weight-loss billionaire. Shares surged 25% since Tuesday after Hims reported better-than-expected sales for the first quarter. That sent Dudum’s net worth to $1.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which is valuing his fortune for the first time. (Carson, 5/7)

Stat: Compounders Lose Battle Over Eli Lilly Weight Loss Drug And FDA Shortage List
A federal judge has sided with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over a decision last year to remove two Eli Lilly drugs — the Zepbound weight loss medicine and the Mounjaro diabetes treatment — from a shortages list kept by the agency. The move means that patients will no longer have access to cheaper versions from compounding pharmacies. (Silverman, 5/7)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Proposes Cut To Federal Rental Assistance. California Would Be Hit Hard
The Trump administration wants to sharply reduce funding for federal rental assistance that helps hundreds of thousands of California households afford a home. The plan, part of the president’s 2026 budget proposal, calls for a 43% reduction in funding available for a variety of programs it labels “dysfunctional,” including public housing and the voucher program commonly known as Section 8. (Khouri, 5/8)

The Bay Area Reporter: SF Sees Slight Uptick In HIV Cases As Advocates Fear Funding Cuts
New HIV diagnoses saw a slight uptick in San Francisco in 2024 and rose by about 1,000 cases nationwide in 2023, according to the latest surveillance reports from the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These data, however, do not yet reflect the effects of the Trump administration’s recent cuts to federal health funding and staffing or proposed reductions in President Donald Trump’s so-called skinny budget released May 2. Advocates fear these cuts will soon lead to rising numbers for all sexually transmitted diseases. (Highleyman, 5/7)

The Oaklandside: Trump Slashed Violence Prevention Funding In Oakland. Groups Want It Restored
Several violence prevention organizations gathered in Oakland Wednesday afternoon to call on the Trump administration to restore $811 million in federal grants for programs nationwide like the ones they run in the East Bay. During a press conference at the California Endowment Regional Office on Franklin Street, leaders of Youth Alive, the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform or NICJR, and the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention denounced the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent decision to rescind funds for programs that supporters say are proven to save lives. (Romero, 5/7)

ProPublica: Trump’s NIH Axed Research Grants Despite Court Order
For more than two months, the Trump administration has been subject to a federal court order stopping it from cutting funding related to gender identity and the provision of gender-affirming care in response to President Donald Trump’s executive orders. Lawyers for the federal government have repeatedly claimed in court filings that the administration has been complying with the order. (Waldman, 5/7)

CNN: Treasure Trove Of Biological Data That Transformed Science May Be Lost To Trump Funding Cuts 
A priceless treasure trove of biodata gathered from generations of Americans by Harvard University researchers may soon be lost due to additional funding cuts by the Trump administration, a leading nutrition researcher told CNN. (LaMotte, 5/8)

Voice of OC: Are Major Healthcare Cuts Coming To Orange County?
Roughly one million Orange County residents could see their medical benefits cut as federal officials weigh cutting Medi-Cal and Medicaid funds, which county supervisors protested this week as they wrestle with a shrinking budget. While it remains unclear just how much funding could be cut, there are ongoing discussions in Congress about cutting Medicaid and similar programs to offset proposed tax cuts and spending on other programs. (Biesiada, 5/7)

Los Angeles Times: Facing Self-Imposed Budget Cuts, Republicans In Congress Mull The Future Of Medicaid
Congress is forging ahead with its budget for next year, but the most controversial program on the chopping block — Medicaid — is causing a rift within the Republican Party. Earlier this year, Congress passed a budget blueprint that contains billions of dollars in cuts to federal spending, which House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) promised did not touch Medicaid. But as lawmakers hammer out the details of the spending plan, changes to the popular government-funded healthcare program are looming. (Pinho, 5/8)

Roll Call: Conservatives Chafe At Taking Medicaid Savings Options Off Table
House Republican leadership’s decision to step back from two pathways to major Medicaid cost savings has fueled contempt among hard line conservatives, raising questions about the future of a reconciliation package that faces a key markup next week. The proposals would’ve cut federal Medicaid spending by billions of dollars, but they could not gain enough support from a key group of more moderate GOP lawmakers. (Raman and Hellmann, 5/7)

Politico: Trump To Pitch Sweeping Medicare Drug Price Plan
President Donald Trump plans to revive an effort to dramatically slash drug costs by tying the amount the government pays for some medicines to lower prices abroad, three people familiar with the matter told POLITICO. Trump early next week is expected to sign an executive order directing aides to pursue the initiative, called “most favored nation,” for a selection of drugs within the Medicare program. The idea would use the administration’s authorities to force prices down. (Traylor and Cancryn, 5/7)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego County Approves A Narrow Homeless Camping Ban Tied To Fire Risk
San Diego County has given initial approval to a narrow ban on homeless encampments in unincorporated parts of the region, becoming the latest local government to boost penalties for sleeping outside since the nation’s top court gave leaders more leeway to clear streets and sidewalks. (Nelson, 5/7)

San Francisco Chronicle: Oakland Is Moving Aggressively To Clear Homeless Encampments
Oakland officials are clearing some of the city’s most challenging homeless encampments, flush with an infusion of state funds and new homeless housing to offer displaced residents. The city has long struggled to address its sprawling, chaotic camps, including what was once the state’s largest, because of a shortage of homeless shelters and affordable housing. Oakland also faced uncertainty, as other cities did, over how to legally clear encampments before a key court ruling last year. (Ravani and Angst, 5/6)

Reuters: US FDA Advisers To Discuss COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations On May 22 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday it will hold a meeting of experts on May 22 to discuss COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for the upcoming immunization campaign. The meeting comes after the appointment of Martin Makary as FDA commissioner. Makary had earlier raised concerns about a number of public health efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, touted the protection received from natural immunity and opposed vaccine mandates for the general public. (5/7)

NBC News: Moderna's Combo Covid And Flu MRNA Shot Outperforms Current Vaccines In Large Trial
Moderna’s combined Covid and flu shot outperformed the existing standalone vaccines for both viruses, according to the results of a phase 3 clinical trial published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The vaccine uses the same messenger RNA technology as Moderna’s approved Covid vaccine. (There are no approved mRNA-based flu shots.) (Lovelace Jr., 5/7)

The New York Times: Efforts Grow To Thwart MRNA Therapies As RFK Jr. Pushes Vaccine Wariness 
Therapies involving mRNA, a key to Covid vaccines, hold great potential in treating several diseases, but some lawmakers want to ban them and the government is cutting funding. (Zernike, 5/8)

CIDRAP: Long-COVID Patients Show Signs Of Inflammation On PET/ MRI Scans
Patients with long COVID may exhibit persistent inflammation in the heart and lungs for up to 1 year following acute COVID-19 infection, even when standard medical tests return normal results, according to a new study in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. The study authors, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, suggest the inflammation may increase the risk for future cardiac and pulmonary conditions. (Soucheray, 5/7)

The New York Times: Genetic Study Retraces Covid’s Origins In Bats
In the early 2000s, a coronavirus infecting bats jumped into raccoon dogs and other wild mammals in southwestern China. Some of those animals were sold in markets, where the coronavirus jumped again, into humans. The result was the SARS pandemic, which spread to 33 countries and claimed 774 lives. A few months into it, scientists discovered the coronavirus in mammals known as palm civets sold in a market at the center of the outbreak. In a study published on Wednesday, a team of researchers compared the evolutionary story of SARS with that of Covid 17 years later. (Zimmer, 5/7)

Berkeleyside: Berkeley Free Clinic Is Moving From Its Church Basement Home
Berkeley Free Clinic, the volunteer-run health center founded by street medics caring for people injured during the 1969 battles over People’s Park, is moving from the basement of Trinity United Methodist Church — its home for nearly its entire history. ... It will be joined in the space by a new clinic operated by LifeLong Medical Care providing medical and mental health care to people experiencing homelessness. (Dalton, 5/7)

CalMatters: Delays In CA Youth Mental Health Program Threaten Gains In Schools
California made a huge one-time investment in youth mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic as rates of depression, anxiety and eating disorders surged among children and teens. One piece of the state’s plan included a way to keep money flowing for schools that wanted to expand mental health services for students. It involved allowing K-12 schools and colleges to charge Medi-Cal and private health insurance for behavioral health care provided on campus, a change that would allow them to provide more services and hire additional mental health staff. (Ibarra, 5/8)

Los Angeles Times: 'Another Broken Promise': California Environmental Nonprofits Suffer From EPA Grant Cancellations
California projects terminated by the Trump administration would have provided clean drinking water in rural communities, air purifiers for children with asthma and a community park, among other benefits. (Smith, 5/8)

AP: Smoke From Climate-Fueled Wildfires Contributed To Thousands Of US Deaths Over 15 Years, Study Says
Wildfires driven by climate change contribute to as many as thousands of annual deaths and billions of dollars in economic costs from wildfire smoke in the United States, according to a new study. The paper, published Friday in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment, found that from 2006 to 2020, climate change contributed to about 15,000 deaths from exposure to small particulate matter from wildfires and cost about $160 billion. The annual range of deaths was 130 to 5,100, the study showed, with the highest in states such as Oregon and California. (Pineda, 5/7)