Los Angeles Times: First Step In The Revival Of The County's Mothballed General Hospital Building Set To Start
The assignment was to reimagine the mothballed and dilapidated General Hospital building that towers over the Eastside as the centerpiece of a vibrant new health-oriented community. Eighteen months after securing an exclusive negotiating agreement, the team selected for the job has completed a conceptual plan and is set to take the first concrete steps in a redevelopment program that could take a decade. (Smith, 7/28)

LAist: Trump Delays Limits On Gas Used To Clean Medical Equipment. What It Means For LA Families Worried About Cancer
President Donald Trump issued a proclamation this month that delays a rule meant to tighten ethylene oxide emissions at companies that use the gas to sterilize medical equipment. The decision grants two-year exemptions to several facilities, including two in Vernon, a city in southeast L.A. County. These facilities are currently embroiled in a lawsuit with local residents. (Barajas, 7/28)

Los Angeles Times: ICE Releases Deaf Mongolian Immigrant After Holding Him For Months
A deaf Mongolian man who uses sign language to communicate has been released from immigration custody in Southern California after spending months in detention without access to an interpreter, a family member confirmed Saturday. ... Avirmed’s attorneys with the Disability Rights Legal Center and Disability Law United argued that holding immigration court proceedings without allowing him access to an interpreter violated Avirmed’s legal civil rights. They drew on federal disability laws prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities by any federal program, including the immigration court system. (Fry, 7/26)

Los Angeles Times: ICE Holding Tunisian Man Without Proper Medical Help, Family Says
A Tunisian man is enduring “inhumane conditions” inside the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles after U.S. immigration authorities arrested him this month, his family says. Rami Othmane was held July 13 while driving to the grocery store. His wife, Dr. Wafaa Alrashid, ... chief of medical staff at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, ... said Othmane ... was in the country legally, adding that he suffers from chronic pain and an untreated tumor. (Mendez, 7/26)

The Intersection: Benefit Cuts Add To ICE Concerns For The Valley’s Undocumented Immigrants, Including Farm Workers
Undocumented, low-income immigrants in California who are covered by Medi-Cal health insurance are likely to face challenges moving forward – a combination of budget cuts coming down from the state and federal levels. And the ongoing immigration enforcement and mass deportations under the Trump administration are stoking worries among migrants that are keeping some from accessing health care. (Sheehan, 7/25)

Voice of OC: Struggling To Fund Aid For OC Families Impacted By ICE Sweeps
Orange County elected officials looking to support families impacted by sweeps are wrestling with where exactly to pull the money from, how much to spend and whether they should dip in their rainy day funds. It comes as many cities across the county grapple with tight budgets – often using a mix of one-time funding and reserves to patch budget holes. (Elattar, 7/28)

KQED: SF Families Win Shelter Extension Rights, Still Face Long Waits For Housing
Space is limited in the South of Market kitchen Maritza Salinas shares, so she gets up around 5:30 a.m. to make breakfast for her three kids. It’s just one way living in a homeless shelter shapes her daily routine. On top of parenting duties, she frequently checks in with a case worker and looks for updates on the availability of a permanent home. (Johnson, 7/27)

Times of San Diego: SD Foundation, SANDAG Direct $14M To Equitable, Affordable Housing Projects
The San Diego Foundation and SANDAG have announced the distribution of $14 million in state funding to 10 affordable and climate-conscious housing projects, totaling 966 units. The housing is scheduled to open between December 2026 and June 2030. The capital comes from California’s Regional Early Access Program, or REAP 2.0, according to a July 16 press release. (Miller, 7/27)

Bay Area News Group: Redwood City Joins Bay Area Jurisdictions In Banning Homeless Encampments 
Redwood City this month became the latest Bay Area city to take action against homeless encampments, joining a growing number of local governments responding more aggressively to the issue amid increased pressure from the state. (Macasero, 7/28)

Los Angeles Times: California Dairy Farmers Get $230 Million To Help Cover Costs Of Bird Flu Losses
The federal government has paid California dairy farms more than $230 million to subsidize losses in milk production resulting from bird flu, records show, an amount that the dairy industry expects to climb higher as more claims for damages are processed. The H5N1 bird flu has swept through more than 75% of California’s 1,000 dairy farms since August 2024, sickening cattle and leading to steep dropoffs in milk production. (Rust, 7/28)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Judge Hears Arguments On Merits Of Sweeping Lawsuit Over Medical Care, Safety And Mental Health Care In San Diego County Jails
“People are dying because they’re not getting their insulin. They’re dying because they’re not getting their dialysis,” Van Swearingen, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, told Battaglia. “There are not enough staff to attend to them.” (Davis, 7/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: Influential San Francisco Nonprofit Faces Uncertain Financial Future
LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired has served people in San Francisco for over 122 years. Now, community members fear for the nonprofit institution’s future. The organization received a $125 million bequest a decade ago, but today, its story is of financial distress. It lost over $17 million when the bank foreclosed its Market Street property last year. The organization has laid off 40 employees, or 23% of its staff, since January, interim CEO Brandon Cox told the Chronicle in an interview, and more layoffs may be necessary. (Duggan, 7/27)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Dozens Face Layoffs As San Diego LGBT Community Center Braces For Funding Cuts 
The San Diego LGBT Community Center — the decades-old nonprofit that provides year-round support for tens of thousands of San Diegans in the form of health care, community programs and much more — is preparing to lay off perhaps dozens of staff as it braces for federal funding cuts. (Fox and Rodriguez, 7/27)

The Wall Street Journal: RFK Jr. To Oust Advisory Panel On Cancer Screenings, HIV Prevention Drugs 
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to remove all the members of an advisory panel that determines what cancer screenings and other preventive health measures insurers must cover, people familiar with the matter said. Kennedy plans to dismiss all 16 panel members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force because he views them as too “woke,” the people said. The task force has advised the federal government on preventive health matters since 1984. The Affordable Care Act in 2010 gave it the power to determine which screenings, counseling and preventive medications most insurers are required to cover at no cost to patients. The group, made up of volunteers with medical expertise who are vetted for conflicts of interest, combs through scientific evidence to determine which interventions are proven to work. (Whyte, 7/25)

The Guardian: Top Medical Body Concerned Over RFK Jr’s Reported Plans To Cut Preventive Health Panel
A top US medical body has expressed “deep concern” to Robert F Kennedy Jr over news reports that the health secretary plans to overhaul a panel that determines which preventive health measures including cancer screenings should be covered by insurance companies. The letter from the the American Medical Association comes after the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Kennedy plans to overhaul the 40-year old US Preventive Services Task Force because he regards them as too “woke”, according to sources familiar with the matter. (Yang, 7/27)

Stat: NIH Cuts Will Wind Up Costing More Than They Saved, Study Suggests 
Initial analyses of the Trump administration’s proposed National Institutes of Health budget cuts have overlooked key aspects of their long-term economic and health impact, according to a newly released paper, which suggests the effects will be sprawling and ultimately cost the country more than is being saved through the cuts. (Oza, 7/28)

The Hill: Trump's Medicaid Cuts Pose Threat To Caregivers, Experts Say
Medicaid cuts under President Trump’s sweeping tax and spending package will harm family caregivers, experts warn, by reducing access to health care for themselves and the people they care for, which could then lead to more caregiving responsibilities.  The Congressional Budget Office estimates the package will reduce Medicaid spending by roughly $911 billion over the next 10 years and increase the number of uninsured Americans by up to 10 million. (O’Connell-Domenech, 7/27) 

Stat: Trump Tax Law Threatens Medicare Savings Programs For Poor Seniors 
Millions of older Americans living in poverty are entitled to free or heavily subsidized Medicare coverage. But the new Republican tax law will keep that benefit out of reach for many by reintroducing confusing and onerous paperwork requirements. (Herman, 7/28)

The Washington Times: Stanford-Led Study Finds COVID Vaccines Saved Far Fewer Lives Than Previously Reported 
A Stanford University-led study estimates that COVID-19 vaccinations saved 2.5 million lives from 2020 to 2024, about 17 million fewer than earlier reports suggested, primarily among older adults. That’s the equivalent of one death averted for every 5,400 vaccine doses administered worldwide during the period, according to the findings published Friday in JAMA Health Forum. Official estimates say 7 million people died from the virus worldwide in those years. (Salai, 7/25)

Bay Area News Group: After Hopeful Decline, Drug Deaths Are Rising In These Bay Area Counties
A steady drop in drug deaths that had given public health officials hope in fighting the overdose crisis now appears to be reversing course in parts of the Bay Area. (Varian, 7/28)

The Bay Area Reporter: SF Public Press Offers Hep B Series
The San Francisco Public Press examined recent efforts to step up diagnosis, vaccination, and treatment for hepatitis B. Chronic hepatitis B affects an estimated 305,000 people in California, with the vast majority of cases affecting people in Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, the paper noted. Deep racial and cultural disparities in illness caused by the hepatitis B virus have persisted for decades. A cure is in trials, but those inequities, along with federal funding cuts, could hamper its rollout, the series found. (Laird, 7/25)

CIDRAP: Report Describes Large Salmonella Outbreak Tied To Raw Milk
A new report by California health officials highlights the risks posed by consuming raw dairy products. The report, published yesterday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, describes an outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium linked to raw milk from a California dairy farm. The outbreak, which stretched from October 2023 to March 2024, sickened 171 people in California and four other states, including 120 children and adolescents. Children were the most likely to be hospitalized among all age-groups. (Dall, 7/25)

Politico: Researchers Quietly Planned A Test To Dim Sunlight. They Wanted To ‘Avoid Scaring’ The Public.
A team of researchers in California drew notoriety last year with an aborted experiment on a retired aircraft carrier that sought to test a machine for creating clouds.  But behind the scenes, they were planning a much larger and potentially riskier study of salt water-spraying equipment that could eventually be used to dim the sun’s rays — a multimillion-dollar project aimed at producing clouds over a stretch of ocean larger than Puerto Rico. (Hiar, 7/27)

Los Angeles Times: More Liver Disease Among Heavy Drinkers — Without More Drinking
Serious liver disease is becoming more common among Americans who drink heavily, according to a new study from Keck Medicine of USC. It’s not that more people are partying with alcohol. And it’s not that the drinkers are having more drinks. It’s that more of the people who drink regularly are becoming sick. (Ordner, 7/26)

MedPage Today: Memory Problems Today Tied To Leaded Gas Levels Half A Century Earlier
People who grew up in U.S. areas with high atmospheric lead levels were about 20% more likely to report memory problems 50 years later, a study of more than 600,000 older adults showed. Compared with people from areas with the lowest atmospheric lead levels, the odds of reported memory impairment were higher in people from areas with moderate levels, high levels, and extremely high levels, said Eric Brown, MD, MSc, of the University of Toronto, at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC). (George, 7/27)