The Desert Sun: Mpox Case In California Tied To Middle East Travel. Here's What To Know
California health officials have confirmed the first known U.S. case of the more severe clade I strain of mpox in a Riverside County resident who recently traveled to the Middle East. The individual has fully recovered and is no longer contagious, according to Riverside County Public Health. (Sasic and Coulter, 9/20)

Los Angeles Times: Could Wildfire Smoke Become America's Leading Climate Health Threat By 2050?
In one of the most comprehensive pictures yet of the growing health risks associated with wildfire smoke, new research suggests ash and soot from burning wildlands has caused more than 41,000 excess deaths annually from 2011 to 2020. By 2050, as global warming makes large swaths of North America hotter and drier, the annual death toll from smoke could reach between 68,000 and 71,000, without stronger preventive and public health measures. (Briscoe, 9/21)

NBC News: Costco Recalls Poke Sold Under Kirkland Signature Brand Over Possible Listeria Contamination
Over 3,300 pounds of Ahi Tuna Wasabi Poke sold under Costco’s Kirkland Signature brand have been recalled because potential listeria contamination in the green onions used in the product. Western United Fish Co. announced the recall with the knowledge of the Food and Drug Administration on Saturday after its green onion supplier reported a positive listeria monocytogenes test result on Sept. 17. (Lenthang, 9/22)

The Hill: 12 Brands Of Cinnamon Recalled For High Lead Levels
The Food and Drug Administration issued a recall for a dozen brands of cinnamon sold nationwide for elevated lead levels. Consuming the cinnamon “may be unsafe,” and consumers should throw away the products immediately, the FDA warned. (Kutz, 9/19)

Los Angeles Times: CDC Committee Votes On COVID-19 Vaccine, Delays Decision On Hepatitis B Shot
After a contentious discussion that at times referenced discredited theories, low-quality data and desperate pleas from physicians and patients to rely upon sound science, a key CDC committee opted Friday to weaken its existing recommendations on COVID-19 shots, while punting other vaccine decisions to a later date. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted unanimously to pull back its current unequivocal recommendation that all adults get vaccinated against COVID-19 in favor of a process of “shared clinical decision making,” in which patients are encouraged to speak to a doctor, nurse or pharmacist first. (Purtill and Gold, 9/19)

California Healthline: Mercury In Your Hot Dog? Vaccine Skeptics Face Their Limits At Crucial CDC Meeting
Public health officials watched with dread as a panel shaped by the Trump administration took up an agenda to begin dismantling six decades of vaccination development and progress. But while the result seemed foretold, the debate was far from unanimous. (Allen and Rayasam, 9/19)

The Hill: Besser: CDC's Updated Vaccine Guidance Instills Doubt
Richard Besser, the former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says he “can’t look” to the CDC for trustworthy medical information on Sunday. “My biggest takeaway as a doctor is that I can’t look to the CDC anymore for the trusted information,” Besser said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I’m going to need to look to medical societies and other groups to provide that information. (Rego, 9/21)

Times of San Diego: Coronado Bridge Suicide Deterrent Nets Need Funding
The Coronado Bridge, with a history of deaths by suicide, is set to see new safety barriers built under a fast-track state construction process. But the plan remains largely unfunded, and local leaders say they’re worried that without public support, the life-saving effort could still end up stalled. Updates on the bridge safety project emerged last week, as officials from the California Department of Transportation presented their plans to Coronado officials. (Sitton, 9/22)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Prop. 36 Promised Treatment For People With Serious Drug Addiction, But Jails Are Left Holding The Bag
Billed as the “Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act” on the November 2024 ballot, Proposition 36 won easily with the support of more than two-thirds of California voters. (Davis, 9/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: A Bay Area Asylum-Seeker Miscarried In ICE Detention
A few weeks after arriving at the immigrant detention center in Bakersfield, Angie Rodriguez felt sick to her stomach. It ached, her head throbbed, even her teeth hurt. Suspecting an infection, the 26-year-old asylum-seeker — who had been living in San Jose before her July arrest at San Francisco’s immigration court — used one of the tablets in the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center women’s dormitory to request medical attention. The next day, she said, she was seen by a medic who took a urine sample that proved an inconvenient miracle: Rodriguez was pregnant. (Hosseini, 9/21)

Axios: Republicans Consider Changing And Then Extending ACA Tax Credits
Republican senators are having early discussions about modifying enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits to allow for an extension of the subsidies before they expire at year's end. ... GOP leaders insist an ACA extension won't be part of any stopgap legislation to keep the government funded into November. (Sullivan, 9/22)

The Washington Post: Government Shutdown Looms As Senate Rejects Funding Extensions
Congress headed out of Washington on Friday after spending legislation stalled in the Senate, leaving only two workdays to resolve a stalemate before a potential government shutdown would begin on Oct. 1. The House passed a Republican-backed measure earlier in the day, largely along party lines, that would push the shutdown deadline to Nov. 21. But then the Senate rejected a Democrat-led proposal that would keep the government open through Oct. 31, as well as implement several Democratic priorities on health care and government spending, and also failed to pass the House bill. (Beggin and Meyer, 9/19)

California Healthline: States Are Cutting Medicaid Provider Payments Long Before Trump Cuts Hit 
Every day for nearly 18 years, Alessandra Fabrello has been a medical caregiver for her son, on top of being his mom. “It is almost impossible to explain what it takes to keep a child alive who should be dead,” said Fabrello, whose son, Ysadore Maklakoff, experienced a rare brain condition called acute necrotizing encephalopathy at 9 months old. ... Now, broad cuts to North Carolina Medicaid will make finding and paying for care even more difficult. (Sable-Smith and Tribble, 9/22)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Set To Tie Tylenol To Autism Risk, Officials Say
The Trump administration is expected to unveil new efforts Monday exploring how one medication may be linked to autism and another one can treat it, according to four people with knowledge of the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement was not yet public. Federal health officials are expected to raise concerns about pregnant women’s use of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol and one of the most widely used medications globally. (Diamond and Eunjung Cha, 9/21)

CNN: Trump Administration Cancels Annual Hunger Report After Enacting Historic Cuts To Nation’s Safety Net
The Trump administration is terminating the federal government’s annual report on food insecurity in America, saying it had become “redundant, costly and politicized” and noting that “extraneous studies do nothing more than fear monger.” “For 30 years, this study — initially created by the Clinton administration as a means to support the increase of SNAP eligibility and benefit allotment —failed to present anything more than subjective, liberal fodder,” the US Department of Agriculture said in a statement Saturday, referring to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the formal name for food stamps. (Luhby, 9/21)

Bloomberg: US Weighs Trump-Branded Website To Help Shop For Cheaper Drugs
Administration officials are discussing creating a website — potentially branded with President Donald Trump’s own name — that would make it easier for patients to buy prescription medicines at a discount directly from pharmaceutical companies, people familiar with the talks said. The initiative is part of Trump’s demands that drugmakers reduce their prices to align them with what other developed countries pay, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans that are not yet public. (Cohrs Zhang and Woodhouse, 9/19)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Posh Healdsburg B&B Wants To Convert To Ultra-Luxury Detox Center
At its meeting Tuesday, the Healdsburg Planning Commission will consider The Ruse’s application for a conditional use permit “to a allow a 13-bed substance abuse treatment facility” at the same site, 891 Grove St. Staff have recommended approval of that permit. (Murphy, 9/21)

Becker's Hospital Review: Cedars-Sinai Sued By Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Surgeons
Two physicians of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic have filed a lawsuit Sept. 12 against Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, its nonprofit foundation and affiliated outpatient surgical facilities. Orthopedic surgeons Daniel Kharrazi, MD, and Ronald Kvitne, MD, allege that Cedar-Sinai prioritized profits over patient safety at the Kerlan-Jobe Surgery Center and Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic, according to a Sept. 15 news release from the Kerlan Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic. (Cortigiano, 9/19)

VC Star: CEO Of St. John's Hospitals In Oxnard, Camarillo To Leave
Patrick Caster, leader of St. John’s hospitals in Oxnard and Camarillo, will leave his position on Oct. 31, little more than a year after being named permanent CEO and president of the Dignity Health facilities. (Kisken, 9/20)

ProPublica: Psychiatric Hospitals Are Violating EMTALA By Turning Patients Away
Discharging patients who are at risk of harming themselves or others is illegal. But dozens of psychiatric hospitals aren’t honoring the law — and the government isn’t following up. (Cahan, 9/22)

Modern Healthcare: How New Medicaid Work Requirements May Impact Hospital Margins
Hospitals in Medicaid expansion states could see double-digit declines in 2027 operating margins as a result of new Medicaid work requirements, according to a study released Thursday. The analysis by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit foundation focused on healthcare policy, found that hospitals in expansion states could see their operating margins decrease by 0.4 to 0.5 percentage point, or a drop of -11.7% to -13.3%. (Broderick, 9/19)