AP: California Will Keep Workplace Pandemic Rules Through 2022
California workplace regulators on Thursday extended mandatory pay for workers affected by the coronavirus through the end of 2022, acting more than two months after state lawmakers restored similar benefits through September. The decision again pitted management against labor as the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board renewed revised workplace safety rules that would otherwise have expired in early May. (Thompson, 4/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Streamlines Workplace Pandemic Rules — Including Masking And Exclusion Pay
California workplaces will see some minor changes to coronavirus prevention procedures under new rules adopted Thursday that will last until year end. Many of the rules are now tied to California Department of Public Health guidelines, giving them more flexibility since that agency can be more nimble in adapting to changing conditions. The Cal/OSHA Standards Board, a seven-member body appointed by the governor to oversee workplace regulations, approved the streamlined regulations Thursday. The board convened in person for the first time in two years at a hybrid meeting where people who wished to give public comments could do so either in person or by video conference. (Said, 4/21)

The Hill: Fauci: Judge’s Decision To Strike Down Travel Mask Mandate Could Set ‘Disturbing’ Precedent 
Top infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday said a judge’s decision this week to strike down a federal mask mandate on public transportation systems could set a “disturbing” precedent for the next public health crisis. The White House’s chief medical adviser told CBS’s Robert Costa that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) should be the arbiter of public health decisions, not the courts. Fauci said the mask mandate was “not a judicial matter.” (Dress, 4/21)

Bay Area News Group: San Mateo: Nearly 90 Students Test Positive For COVID-19 After Attending Prom
Nearly 90 San Mateo High School students have tested positive for COVID-19 after attending prom earlier this month, according to school officials. The school held its prom April 9 at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. As of 11 a.m. Thursday, about 90 of the nearly 600 students who attended the event had tested positive for the coronavirus disease, said San Mateo Union High School District spokesperson Laura Chalkley. (Green, 4/21)

The Press-Enterprise: Coachella 2022: Bishop Briggs Cancels Weekend 2 Performance Due To COVID-19
Bishop Briggs will not be performing at the second weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival the Empire Polo Club in Indio this weekend due to COVID-19. The singer, who is pregnant and performed at the Outdoor Theatre stage on Friday, April 15, posted on her social media Thursday that she had COVID. (Franko, 4/21)

East Bay Times: School Vaccine Exemptions Get A Push From Lawmakers As Anti-Vaccine Movement Gains
Not long ago, Kansas showed strong bipartisan support for vaccines as a tool to support a robust public health system. But bills with language expanding religious exemptions for childhood vaccine requirements were passed by the state Senate in March and now face the House when the legislature reconvenes April 25. They are among the more than 520 vaccine-related bills introduced in statehouses nationwide since Jan. 1, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Of those bills, 66 specifically relate to childhood vaccine requirements in 25 states. (Bertolone, 4/21)

Orange County Register: Orange County Is Reported 71.3% Fully Vaccinated, April 21 
The OC Health Care Agency reported 2,300,191 county residents were fully vaccinated as of Thursday, April 21. This represents about 71.3% of Orange County’s total population. There have been 1,269,169 booster doses administered. (Goertzen, 4/21)

The Hill: Fauci Says Vaccine Approval For Those Under 5 Likely Not Until June
A COVID-19 vaccine for children under five might not be approved for emergency use until June, Anthony Fauci said on Thursday. Fauci, the chief medical adviser for President Biden, told CNN’s Kasie Hunt that health regulators were concerned because vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer were creating slightly different products, which required additional scrutiny. (Dress, 4/21)

The Washington Post: CDC Issues Nationwide Alert About Mysterious Hepatitis Cases In Kids
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a nationwide health alert Thursday about an unusual cluster of serious hepatitis cases in young children for which the cause, or causes, is not known. Federal health officials and the Alabama Department of Public Health are investigating nine cases of hepatitis in children 1-to-6 years old who were hospitalized between October 2021 and February 2022 with significant liver injury. All of the children were previously healthy, officials said, and two required liver transplants. There are no reported deaths. CDC’s alert is to notify physicians and public health authorities nationwide to be on the lookout for symptoms and report suspected cases. (Sun and Cha, 4/21)

Politico: CDC: Kindergarten Vaccination Rates Drop Across The U.S. 
Childhood immunization dropped dramatically at the start of the pandemic as families stayed at home, and have been slow to catch up. Over the last two years, the CDC saw a more than 10 percent drop from pre-pandemic levels in states’ orders for Vaccines for Children, the federal program through which about half the children in the country are immunized. The drop in the 2020-2021 school year “means that there’s 35,000 more children in the United States during this time period without documentation of complete vaccination against common diseases,” said Georgina Peacock, acting director of the Immunization Services Division, during a briefing on Thursday. (Mahr, 4/21)

NBC News: In A First, Firearms Were Leading Cause Of Death For U.S. Children And Teens In 2020
Guns became the leading cause of death among children and teens in 2020, killing more people ages 1 to 19 in the U.S. than vehicle crashes, drugs overdoses or cancer. More than 4,300 died of firearm-related injuries that year — a 29 percent increase from 2019 — according to a research letter published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The letter analyzed decades of mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Bendix, 4/22)

Los Angeles Times: A Mother Battles Gun Violence In South L.A. After Losing Her Son 
Tashon Logan, her eldest son, was shot to death at age 19 on March 31, 2019 — less than four hours before rapper Nipsey Hussle was gunned down in front of his South Los Angeles store. She is not the first mother to bear the weight of raising children in a tough neighborhood with more gangs and guns than opportunity. But hers is an uncommon common story, one of atonement and second chances. Bracks is a 47-year-old single mother and recovering addict who lived for two years in a rescue mission and a string of flophouses before finding a stable home to raise her family. She lost one son and almost lost another. And as she works through the grief and pain of Logan’s slaying, she is newly focused. (Sheets, 4/19)

AP: Biden Drug Control Plan Stresses Harm Reduction, Treatment
President Joe Biden is sending his administration’s first national drug control strategy to Congress as the U.S. overdose death toll hit a new record of nearly 107,000 during the past 12 months. The strategy, released Thursday, is the first national plan to prioritize what’s known as harm reduction, said White House drug czar Dr. Rahul Gupta. That means it focuses on preventing death and illness in drug users while trying to engage them in care and treatment. (Johnson, 4/21)

NPR: Drug Overdose Deaths Are At A Record High. Here's What The White House Plans To Do
In its first detailed plan to slow the rise in drug overdose deaths, the Biden administration is emphasizing harm reduction. That means increasing access to clean needles, fentanyl test strips and naloxone. Clean needles help reduce the spread of disease. Fentanyl test strips enable drug users to check if they are about to consume this powerful opioid that can shut down breathing in seconds. Naloxone is a drug that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose. (Bebinger, 4/21)

The Hill: White House Unveils National Drug Control Strategy Amid Rising Overdoses
Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said on a call with reporters that many of the deaths are due to synthetic opioids like fentanyl, but also pointed to meth and cocaine. “This is the most dynamic drug environment we have ever seen in this nation,” he said.  “For far too many years, the overdose crisis has been unraveling the very social fabric of our nation and destroying American lives and livelihoods,” Gupta added.  (Sullivan, 4/21)

KGET 17: Overdose Rescue At Walmart: Former Fentanyl Users Just Happened To Have Life-Saving Narcan In Their Car 
You may know about Narcan, the opioid overdose antidote that is saving lives. The question we might ask is, should all Americans keep it handy? What if no one we know is really in danger of opioid overdose, as far as we know? Here is one good reason. Because an overdose emergency can present itself anywhere, without warning. Anywhere, even the grocery store, while you’re perusing magazines in the checkout line. It happened that way at about 7:30 p.m. Monday evening for Cheyenne Nunley and Isaiah Ramirez, boyfriend and girlfriend, former admitted fentanyl users themselves, both 20. They were at the East Hills Walmart buying the fixings for homemade enchiladas. In line, ready to check out – when someone burst out of the men’s restroom. A man was inside, frothing at the mouth, overdosing. (Price, 4/20)

ABC News: Army Revises Policies On Pregnancy, Parental Leave For Soldiers
The United States Army has announced new policies to expand soldiers' and their family's health. The 12-part directive expands previous policies such as allowing paid medical leave for pregnancies and pregnancy losses for soldiers and/or their spouses. It also creates new policies such as ones addressing soldiers and spouses going through fertilization treatment. (Dunn, 4/21)

Task & Purpose: The Army Just Became The Only Service To Give Non-Birthing Parents Leave After A Miscarriage
The Army will now give both parents convalescent leave in the case of a miscarriage, stillbirth, or loss after birth. “The Army will be the only service so far to apply this convalescent leave to male soldiers, acknowledging emotional loss after this very significant life event,” Amy Kramer, the policy lead action officer, told reporters on Thursday. “So in addition to the convalescent leave provided to the female soldier that undergoes the actual miscarriage for physical healing and emotional healing, male soldiers, their spouses, will also be eligible.” (Britzky, 4/21)

Bay Area News Group: Stanford Nurses Prepare For A Historic Strike
Stanford nurse Mark O’Neill could have quit his job caring for desperately ill COVID and cardiac patients, joining the exodus of other healthcare workers seeking a reprieve from the stress of the past two years. Instead, on Monday he’ll walk a picket line. “I’m exhausted, but we need to push really hard to get help for the issues we’re facing,” said O’Neill, one of 5,000 nurses slated to strike next week at prestigious Stanford Hospital and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital after the collapse of three months of labor negotiations, with no future bargaining sessions scheduled. “We’re asking Stanford for a change.” (Krieger and Lin, 4/22)

Orange County Register: Former Orange County Chiropractor Gets 5 Years For $2.2 Million Health Insurance Fraud
A 57-year-old former Orange County chiropractor was sentenced Thursday to more than 5 years in federal prison for defrauding health insurers out of around $2.2 million as part of a scheme that lasted more than three years. Nearly a year after she was convicted of health care fraud and aggravated identity theft, among other charges, Susan Poon was sentenced to five years and 10 months behind bars. (Emery, 4/21)

Capital & Main: Fixing The Crisis In California’s Nursing Homes
Normally, Robert Oronia works overnights, from 11 p.m. to 7 the next morning. But lately the certified nursing assistant (CNA) has been logging a lot of 12-hour shifts at Stoney Point Healthcare Center in Chatsworth. He says he could work back-to-back shifts, 16 straight hours, if he wanted, because the need for staffing is there. Some of his colleagues do that. “But I don’t,” Oronia says, “because that’s when accidents happen. ”Short staffing situations are becoming common, Oronia says — and the patient mix is changing, too. Normally a center specializing in caring for older patients with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, Stoney Point is “now handling a lot of straight mental health cases, and we’ve got patients who are hitting workers,” Oronia says. One of them swung a metal chair at him, and he put his arms up to deflect the blow. The resulting injuries put him on disability for a month. (Kreidler, 4/21)

Fresno Bee: New Report Says Fresno Region Has Dirtiest Air In US. 
Fresno County is the dirtiest place in America for short-term particle pollution, according to a report published Thursday by the American Lung Association. The Fresno metro area saw a greater than 40% annual increase in the Lung Association’s statistic for annual short-term exposure to PM2.5 particles. (Weaver, 4/21)

Napa Valley Register: Free Food ‘Pantries’ Pop Up Around Napa 
Bobby and Arlanna Freeland are nourishing their neighborhood in more ways than one. These Napans, who live at 2830 Laurel St., have created a mini community hub in their west Napa neighborhood. About 18 months ago, the Freelands installed their own Little Free Library. Located on the sidewalk median in front of their house, the box offers free books for all readers. Next, the Freelands added a “bark box” with free doggie treats for those on four legs. About three months ago, the family installed one more amenity: a little free pantry. (Huffman, 4/21)

CalMatters: Abortion In California: Creating The Easiest Access In The US
By this summer, the U.S. Supreme Court will issue a decision on the most consequential challenge to Roe v. Wade since the landmark ruling in 1973 guaranteed the constitutional right to obtain an abortion. If federal abortion protections are eliminated or severely weakened— as legal experts expect — a cascade of absolute bans will follow in more than a dozen states. Already, six more states are considering so-called “trigger bans” in the lead-up to this summer’s decision, while dozens of other state legislatures are considering 15-week bans, abortion pill bans and bans modeled after Texas’ controversial law that allows private citizens to sue anyone who helps someone obtain an abortion after six weeks. (Hwang, 4/21)

Sacramento Bee: California Is Swimming In Tax Revenue. Sacramento Mayor Wants To Use More For Homelessness 
Two years ago, Owen Newman Jr. was sleeping outdoors and bouncing around North Highlands, Del Paso Heights and south Sacramento. Today he attends American River College, is receiving mental health services, and lives in a new studio apartment in south Sacramento. The apartment is located in a converted motel where formerly unhoused individuals are living under the state’s Project Homekey program. “I’m very grateful to be in this program,” said Newman Jr., 39, who grew up in Rancho Cordova. “I got blessed.” (Clift, 4/22)

Los Angeles Times: A New Skid Row Facility Where Homeless Women Can Try 'To Get Whole And Heal' 
Before she ended up in the hospital, “I felt like I was invincible,” said Jillian, 58, who suffered liver failure. “But I was not.” Alcohol had derailed her life. She had trouble holding down a job and had strained ties with her family and friends. When she was discharged from the hospital to a program in skid row, it was not the life that any little girl dreams of, said Jillian, who asked to be identified only by her first name to protect the privacy of her family. (Reyes, 4/21)

Voice Of San Diego: Without More Housing, Homeless Outreach Is Game Of Moving People Around 
Rising homelessness throughout the San Diego region has been met by some with new strategies to address it. La Mesa’s outreach worker-led program is one of them.  The city’s Homeless Outreach and Mobile Engagement program, or HOME, is by all accounts, a welcome change to the way La Mesa interacts with its homeless population by sending outreach workers rather than cops to respond to calls involving low-level criminal conduct. Those outreach workers spend their days providing direct aid and assistance to individuals on the street and guiding them through the complex processes required to attain much-needed resources.  (McWhinney, 4/21)

Los Angeles Daily News: As COVID-19 Recedes, Californians Have New Worries 
Californians are undergoing a great reawakening. After two years of having their lives dominated, and perhaps permanently altered, by COVID-19, they are putting the pandemic behind them and shifting their attention to other concerns old and new. Predictably, the state’s political atmosphere is making the same transition. (Dan Walters, 4/20)

Los Angeles Daily News: Even If The CDC’s Mask Mandate Made Sense, That Would Not Make It Legal 
Did you know that the federal judge who vacated the federal mask mandate for airline and public transit passengers on Monday is only 35? The New York Times thought that detail was important, and so did Slate legal writer Mark Joseph Stern. The fact that critics of U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle’s 59-page decision focused on her age rather than her reasoning reflects the confusion of people who tend to assume that any COVID-19 control measure they view as sensible must also be legal. These are two distinct questions, and conflating them amounts to rejecting the rule of law. (Jacob Sullum, 4/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: Four COVID Experts Say It’s Time To Accept Reality: Vaccines Work, Mask Mandates Don't
This week, Philadelphia students were required to mask up again after the city saw an increase in COVID-19 cases over the previous two weeks. A similar justification was used in New York City earlier this month to maintain its school mask mandate for children under 5. But before other cities like San Francisco follow suit, it’s time to reassess our prevention strategies in and outside of schools and accept reality: Vaccines work, masks do not. (Daniel Halperin, Jeanne Noble, Norman Hearst and Monica Gandhi, 4/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: I Have Asthma. Can Someone Fill Me In On What Post-COVID Normal Looks Like For Me?
I’ve had asthma for the more than three decades I’ve been alive. This and other chronic health issues have forced me to become a proactive patient. More than one doctor has praised me for my understanding and management of my health. My current allergist told me that she trusted me to ramp up or taper off my inhaled corticosteroid, which I take to manage my asthma. Weird brag, I know — but I bring it up to make it clear that I’m used to parsing scientific uncertainty, medical guidance and weighing it against my personal comfort with risk. And yet this current phase of the pandemic, with its relaxed policies amid news of ever more contagious variants, has me overwhelmed. (Katie Okamoto, 4/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Just Because It’s Safer To Go Back To The Office Doesn’t Mean Workers Want To
Two years into the pandemic, states, counties and cities have largely eased or eliminated their mask mandates. With the recent decision by a federal judge to strike down the federal transportation mask mandate, it’s increasingly feeling as though life is inching closer to a pre-pandemic state. Last month, President Biden urged Americans in his State of the Union address “to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again,” adding that, “people working from home can feel safe to begin to return to the office.” But just because people can go back to the office, doesn’t mean they want to. (Gleb Tsipursky, 4/22)

Los Angeles Times: The List Of Foods Banned During Pregnancy Is Absurd 
My daughter Zoey is pregnant. I had her over for brunch. I served fresh-squeezed OJ. And her favorite, lox and bagels with cream cheese. Stop me, if you’ve heard this one, but she politely told me that the lox was verboten, as was the fresh-squeezed OJ — risk of listeria. Cream cheese was OK as long as it was pasteurized. “Your grandmother had lox and bagels every Sunday while she was pregnant with me. Of course, she also smoked, as did her doctor,” I said, just to be annoying. (Jim Sollisch, 4/22)