San Francisco Chronicle: Vaccines Could Get More Expensive After CDC Panel Purge
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shook up a key federal vaccine advisory committee this week, ousting its sitting 17 members Monday and naming eight new individuals Wednesday, including ones known for anti-vaccine views and for spreading misinformation. The changes could potentially impact vaccine cost and availability in California and the uncertainty is making families anxious, experts say. (Lee, 6/12)

Bloomberg: Will Insurance Cover Vaccines? RFK Jr. Moves Leave Free Shots In Doubt
Public health experts are taking it upon themselves to counter recent moves by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that could dramatically change US vaccine policy. They have formed a shadow group of specialists who can give recommendations on who should receive which vaccines, and are urging insurers to continue paying for shots. (Cohrs Zhang, Nix, and Smith, 6/12)

CIDRAP: Groups Call For Continued Insurance Coverage For COVID Vaccines In Pregnancy
Dozens of medical and public health organizations have signed a letter urging insurers to continue covering COVID-19 vaccination in pregnant patients. The letter from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is in response to the recent move by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to no longer recommend COVID-19 shots for healthy pregnant women. (Dall, 6/12)

MedPage Today: Docs Should Turn Away From ACIP's Vaccine Recommendations, Ex-Member Says
A recently ousted member of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) said Thursday that she is recommending that physicians go to sources other than ACIP for vaccine scheduling recommendations. "It puts us in a very dangerous place if we can't trust the national recommendations made by ACIP," said Helen Chu, MD, professor of allergy and infectious diseases at the University of Washington, in Seattle. (Frieden, 6/12)

Stat: FDA Approves Moderna RSV Vaccine Use For People Aged 18 To 59
The Food and Drug Administration expanded the approval of Moderna’s RSV vaccine on Thursday, extending the license to include adults aged 18 to 59 who are at high risk of severe illness if they contract respiratory syncytial virus. (Branswell, 6/12)

KQED: Santa Clara County Opens New Mental Health Housing In San José
Santa Clara County officials celebrated the opening of a new residential treatment facility in San José on Thursday that will provide shared living space for people in jail diversion programs with mental health treatment needs. The opening of what’s known as the Vermont House, just off The Alameda, will add 15 beds to the county’s growing inventory of places for people who need transitional housing and different levels of treatment or services. (Geha, 6/12)

Modesto Bee: Golden Valley Opens Pharmacy Serving West Modesto Patients
A group of health centers serving low-income patients in Stanislaus and nearby counties said it’s expanding pharmacy services, while national drugstore chains are struggling. Golden Valley Health Centers is now offering pharmacy service at its Sixth Street clinic serving west Modesto. (Carlson, 6/13)

Becker's Hospital Review: Union Nurses Approve 1st Deal With Anaheim Regional
Members of SEIU 121RN have ratified their first labor contract with Anaheim Regional Medical Center, according to a union news release shared with Becker’s. ... According to SEIU 121RN, the deal includes a commitment to address nurses’ concerns over staffing through a new committee that includes bedside nurses among its members and will explore ways to improve care quality. (Gooch, 6/12)

Politico: American Medical Association Wants Explainable AI
The American Medical Association has adopted a new policy that calls for clinical AI tools that can explain their answers. It also wants the AI purveyors to provide safety and efficacy data. To make AI explainable means that the AI should be able to cite sources or back up its decisions with data clinicians can review. The AMA adopted the policy at its annual house of delegates meeting in Chicago this week, and it calls for an independent third party — like a regulatory agency or other certifying body — to verify that AI tools are actually explainable. (Reader, 6/12)

Times of San Diego: Proposed Bill Would Ban Machine-Gun Convertible Pistols
A California bill that would ban the sale of machine-gun convertible pistols has passed the Assembly and continues to move forward in the state legislature. ... Current state law prohibits the manufacturing, sale, possession or transportation of a machine gun unless authorized. The proposed bill would expand the definition of machine gun to include pistols equipped with the converter. (Wallace, 6/12)

Los Angeles Times: As Pressure Mounts For Post-Fire Soil Testing, Newsom Administration Downplays Concerns
Elected officials in California are calling on the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Newsom administration to pay for soil testing on properties destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades wildfires, underscoring the public health risk and financial burdens that could be faced by survivors seeking to rebuild in Altadena and Pacific Palisades. FEMA, the agency leading the wildfire recovery efforts, has come under heavy criticism for its decision not to test properties for contaminants after removing wreckage and up to 6 inches of top soil. That policy differs from how California has handled virtually all wildfire recoveries in the recent past. (Briscoe, 6/12)

Politico: Los Angeles Is About To Get A Lot Smoggier
President Donald Trump on Thursday killed California’s vehicle emissions rules, designed to reduce emissions and pollution in smoggy regions like SoCal, delivering on his Day 1 executive order to quickly roll back electric vehicle mandates around the country. ... Meanwhile, there’s another threat coming. The Trump administration could attempt to sanction California for failing to meet federal air quality standards under the Clean Air Act — standards they’ve assured the state won’t reach. (Nieves, 6/12)

Stat: Trump Administration Demands Pharma Companies Begin Drug Price Negotiations, A Day After Key Deadline
The Trump administration is pushing pharmaceutical companies to begin negotiations to bring their drug prices in line with what other countries pay — usually far less than Americans. (Payne, 6/12)

MedPage Today: RFK Jr. Plans To Pull Medical Schools' Funding If They Don't Teach Nutrition
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in April that he plans to tell medical schools to teach nutrition or risk losing federal funding, ABC News reported last week. "Under Secretary Kennedy's leadership, HHS is committed to ensuring that nutrition is treated as core clinical knowledge -- not a wellness extra -- in building a healthcare system equipped to prevent and manage chronic disease," an HHS spokesperson told MedPage Today in an email. (Nielsen, 6/12)

Stat: States Snag $9 Billion In Medicaid Funds As GOP Weighs New Limits 
Hospitals, physician groups, and nursing homes across 15 states will receive billions of dollars in extra Medicaid funding this year thanks to federal health care officials signing off on new agreements. (Herman, 6/13)

Times of San Diego: San Diego Cannabis Dispensaries May Open Later: Here's When
For years, San Diego’s crop of cannabis dispensaries have had to turn away customers and close their doors at exactly 9 p.m., pushing residents in search of a late-night fix to illicit dealers or open dispensaries in neighboring Chula Vista, La Mesa, Oceanside and beyond. But the city moved a step closer Wednesday afternoon toward allowing San Diego’s cannabis dispensaries to stay open earlier in the morning and later into the night. (Nguyen, 6/12)

CBS News: Average Age Of Moms Giving Birth In U.S. Has Climbed To Nearly 30 Years Old, CDC Data Show
The average age of moms giving birth in the U.S. continues to rise, hitting nearly 30 years old in 2023, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the report, published Friday by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, researchers found the average age of all mothers giving birth in the United States increased from 28.7 years old in 2016 to 29.6 in 2023. For new first-time moms, average age also increased, from 26.6 in 2016 to 27.5 in 2023. The data was taken from the National Vital Statistics System, which includes all birth records in the country. (Moniuszko, 6/13)

AP: The Legal Fight Over Telehealth Clinics Helping Women Defy Abortion Bans
As more states consider enacting shield laws or expanding existing ones, whether one state can shield providers from liability for breaking another state’s laws around abortion is still an unsettled area of law. (Hill and Haigh, 6/12)

Newsweek: Unexpected Solution Could Help Reduce Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
A common household chemical might hold a surprising secret—one that could help prevent sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). In a new paper published in the Journal of Perinatology, researchers at Rutgers Health propose that caffeine—long used as a respiratory stimulant in premature infants—could help protect babies from the low-oxygen episodes that may trigger SIDS and other forms of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID). (Gray, 6/12)

CNN: PFAS Exposure Before Birth Could Put Your Teen At Risk For High Blood Pressure, Study Finds 
Prenatal exposure to a class of dangerous, widely used chemicals could be linked to your child having high blood pressure as a teen, according to a new study. (Holcombe, 6/12)

Capital & Main: ‘Patients Will Suffer. Patients Will Die.’ Why California’s Rural Hospitals Are Flatlining.
Once a week, Rena Salamacha meets with her executive team inside the Mee Memorial Healthcare System’s medical center in King City, California, to figure out how to stretch a dollar. Never in the nearly six years that Salamacha has been CEO of the health care system has this been an uncomplicated task, but lately it’s gotten worse. They’re having trouble even finding the dollar. (Kreidler, 6/12)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Make Polluters Pay For Climate Change Impacts — Close To Home 
As California’s fire season becomes longer and more deadly, state leaders are scrambling to figure out how to cover the rising price tag for rebuilding after disaster strikes. (Barry Vesser, 6/9)

East Bay Times: When The Unhoused Are Offered Private Space, They Accept Shelter
Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a “model ordinance” for sweeping homeless people off California streets. Essentially, it was a blueprint providing cities and counties with the suggested policies and legalese to implement encampment closures. (Jamie Chang and Jillian De La Torre, 6/12)

Capitol Weekly: Don’t Blame AI For Sacramento’s Housing Crisis
It’s no secret that Sacramento has a rental affordability crisis. Roughly 30% of Sacramento residents spend half their wages on rent, and the California Housing Partnership found that renters in Sacramento County need to earn 2.1 times the state minimum wage to afford the county’s average monthly asking rent.Some lawmakers are responding — but not in the right direction. Instead of addressing the root causes, they are targeting so-called “artificial intelligence” algorithms used in rental pricing software. Senator Sasha Renée Pérez (District 25), who represents Sacramento, recently introduced SB 52, the “End AI Rent Hikes Act,” aimed at banning AI-based pricing software some landlords use to help price their rents. (Hemant K. Bhargava, 6/10)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Should Illegal Immigrants Be Eligible For Medi-Cal? 
Last year, California became the first state to offer Medicaid services to all illegal immigrants. Now facing a $12 billion budget deficit and higher than expected costs for the expansion, Gov. Gavin Newsom began to backtrack on this commitment, proposing an enrollment freeze for illegal immigrants and a $100 monthly premium, among other changes. (Rafael Perez, 6/6) 

The Bay Area Reporter: How California Can Age With Pride
Recently, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Pride in Santa Cruz, a moment to honor how far we’ve come and recognize the work that still lies ahead. I was proud to join in that celebration as one of the early organizers, now among the senior ranks of our movement. Back in those early days, we often talked about the future and what infrastructure would be in place to support LGBTQIA+ people as we aged. We have made incredible progress: marriage equality, broader societal acceptance, and LGBTQIA+ representation at all levels of government. But even with these strides, aging as an LGBTQIA+ person still brings challenges that are too often overlooked. (Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, 6/10)