Becker's Hospital Review: California Hospital Back Online After May Cyberattack
Poway, Calif.-based Palomar Health Medical Group has fully restored operations after a May cyber incident forced the organization to take systems offline. "Currently, all systems across the PHMG locations have been successfully restored and patients can schedule an appointment by calling their doctor's office," said an Aug. 15 news release Palomar shared with Becker's. However, Palomar discovered in an investigation that some of its data was accessed without authorization during the incident. (Diaz, 8/15)

San Diego Union-Tribune: UC San Diego Averaged Almost $5 Million A Day In New Research Funding Last Year 
UC San Diego averaged nearly $5 million a day in new research funding during the past fiscal year, hauling in a total of $1.73 billion to study everything from Antarctica’s melting glaciers to better ways to prevent people from suffering heart attacks. (Robbins, 8/15)

Modern Healthcare: Employer Health Plan Costs Expected To Rise 9% In 2025: Aon
Employer-sponsored health plan costs are expected to rise 9% in 2025, totaling more than $16,000 per employee before cost-saving measures, according to professional services and consulting company Aon. Aon predicts that demand for prescription drugs such as glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists and growth in medical claims for high-cost treatments such as gene and cell therapies are among the main drivers of rising costs for employers. (DeSilva, 8/15)

Modern Healthcare: Supply Chain Shortages Forced Providers To Delay Care In 2023
Health systems have been forced to delay care and forgo revenue as they manage device and drug shortages. More than half of 102 hospitals, health systems and suppliers surveyed had to cancel or reschedule procedures multiple times last year due to product shortages, according to a poll conducted this spring by Premier, a consulting and group purchasing organization. Syringes, IV fluids, saline, aortic balloon catheters and surgical tourniquets are in short supply, providers said. (Kacik, 8/15)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Bankruptcies Slow In 2024: Gibbins Advisors
Healthcare company bankruptcy filings are on track to slow in 2024. Twenty-nine healthcare companies, each with liabilities of more than $10 million, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the first half of the year. At that rate, 58 healthcare companies are projected to seek bankruptcy protection this year, which would be a 27% decrease from 2023's 79 cases filed, according to a report published Wednesday by advisory firm Gibbins Advisors. (Hudson, 8/15)

Los Angeles Blade: LGBTQ Los Angeles Prepares For Potential Mpox Outbreak
Though the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health says the new mpox strain has not yet been detected in the U.S, there is grave concern. “Cases of the more virulent clade I mpox cases have not been detected in Los Angeles County or anywhere in the United States,” it said in a statement. “However, if health care providers encounter a patient with mpox-like symptoms who has recently traveled to affected countries in Africa, they should contact Public Health to arrange for clade-specific testing at the public health lab. This will help us identify any clade I cases in Los Angeles County if they arise.” (Masters, 8/15)

USA Today: As Mpox Outbreak Spreads Beyond Africa, How Is The US Preparing?
On Thursday, Swedish officials said they recorded their first case of mpox, which spreads with skin contact. The announcement came a day after the World Health Organization issued its second emergency declaration in two years due to the recent outbreak in and around the Democratic Republic of Congo, in central Africa. The mpox virus circulating in Congo and a dozen other African countries, and now Sweden, is a different strain than the one that has circulated in the U.S. since a global outbreak began in 2022. (Cuevas, 8/15)

The Washington Post: Sweden Detects Mpox Variant For The First Time Outside Of Africa
Swedish officials said Thursday they have detected a version of mpox that only a day earlier prompted global health authorities to declare a health emergency, marking the first time that variant has been discovered outside of Africa. Swedish officials said the patient was infected during a stay in a part of Africa where clade 1 is circulating and was diagnosed with that variant after seeking care in the Stockholm region. That patient has received care, said Magnus Gisslen, state epidemiologist at the Public Health Agency of Sweden. (Nirappil, 8/15)

Stat: Poxvirus Vaccine Maker Could Boost Doses By 8 Million Next Year
When mpox first began to spread internationally in 2022, affected countries scrambled to buy some of the limited supply of poxvirus vaccines produced in the world. The Danish company Bavarian Nordic, maker of the Jynneos smallpox vaccine, faced the sizable challenge of trying to meet demand with its supply. This week’s declaration of a second public health emergency of international concern to deal with new and concerning outbreaks of mpox in Africa has again thrust the company onto center stage. (Branswell, 8/16)

Bloomberg: Mpox: Vaccine Maker Bavarian Wants Jab Approved For Adolescents
Bavarian Nordic A/S, the only company with a vaccine approved for mpox in the US and Europe, wants permission to use the jab for adolescents as a new variant of the virus spreads. Bavarian will submit clinical data to the European Medicines Agency to support the extension to include people at age 12 to 17 in Europe, the company, which is based north of Copenhagen, said on Friday. (Wienberg and Wass, 8/16)

Stat: Antiviral Medication For Mpox No Better Than Placebo, NIH Says 
The National Institutes of Health said Thursday that an antiviral often used to treat mpox did not resolve patients’ symptoms faster than placebo in a randomized trial. The results are notable because the drug, tecovirimat, has rarely been studied clinically for mpox, despite its wide use during the 2022 and 2023 outbreaks in the U.S. and Europe. (Mast, 8/15)

The Washington Post: Kamala Harris Unveils 2024 Policy Agenda, Including $6,000 Child Tax Credit For Baby’s First Year 
Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday unveiled an aggressively populist economic agenda, providing the most detailed vision yet of her governing priorities since becoming the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. The most striking proposals were for the elimination of medical debt for millions of Americans; the “first-ever” ban on price gouging for groceries and food; a cap on prescription drug costs; a $25,000 subsidy for first-time home buyers; and a child tax credit that would provide $6,000 per child to families for the first year of a baby’s life. (Stein and Diamond, 8/16)

AP: Election 2024: Harris' Shifting Positions On Marijuana, Death Penalty, Fracking
Politicians often recalibrate in the face of shifting public opinion and circumstance. Across two decades in elected offices, Vice President Kamala Harris is no exception. (Slodysko, Blood and Suderman, 8/16)

AP: Beyond 'Childless Cat Ladies,' JD Vance Has Long Been On A Quest To Encourage More Births 
Five summers ago, Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance — then a 34-year-old memoirist and father of a 2-year-old boy — took the stage at a conservative conference and tackled an issue that would become a core part of his political brand: the United States’ declining fertility rate. “Our people aren’t having enough children to replace themselves. That should bother us,” Vance told the gathering in Washington. He outlined the obvious concern that Social Security depends on younger workers’ contributions and then said, “We want babies not just because they are economically useful. We want more babies because children are good. And we believe children are good, because we are not sociopaths.” (Licon, 8/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Exclusive: Medicare’s Drug-Price Talks Are About To Get More Heated
Companies and officials are already preparing for negotiations over more drugs that could take a bigger bite out of high drug costs, and possibly their bottom lines. Next up are prices of 15 more drugs the government will identify by Feb 1. The two sides are also fighting over how the talks should work. Among the drug industry’s demands: clarity on how CMS determines the price of a drug. Drug companies are also fighting the agency’s potential changes for next year, including possibly cutting back the number of in-person meetings to fewer than three. (Hopkins, Loftus and Walker, 8/16)

The Hill: 5 Takeaways From First Medicare Drug Price Negotiations
Drugmakers have said the process was not a legitimate negotiation, but all of them agreed to participate, and none pulled their drugs from the Medicare program. “The negotiations were comprehensive. They were intense. It took both sides to reach a good deal,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said of the talks. Federal officials held three meetings with each participating drug company to discuss the offers and counteroffers and attempt to arrive at what officials said was a “mutually acceptable price” for the drug. (Weixel and Choi, 8/16)

Bloomberg: CVS Court Defeat Shows Ways Drug Middlemen Try To Influence Health Care
A recent court defeat for CVS Health Corp. is shining a light on how health-care corporations wield their financial might over doctors and pharmacies in ways that can put profits over patient care. With more than a dozen similar cases still pending in private arbitration, the pharmacy giant has millions of dollars on the line. (Tozzi, 8/15)

Oaklandside: Elevated Lead Levels Found In Water At A ‘Significant Number’ Of OUSD Schools
Elevated lead levels were found in drinking water at multiple schools across Oakland Unified School District, according to notices sent to families this week. Tests conducted by the district’s risk management team over the last few months showed levels in water fixtures above 5 parts per billion, the threshold set by OUSD’s clean drinking water policy. Affected schools included Hillcrest K-8, Edna Brewer Middle School and Frick United Academy of Language–more than a dozen schools in all, according to one parent who addressed Wednesday’s school board meeting. Lead poisoning in children can lead to learning disabilities, impaired hearing, blood disorders, and behavioral problems, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. (McBride, 8/15)

Voice of San Diego: While Tijuana Sends Sewage Over Border, US Avoids Source Of Stink
For decades, San Diegans have been trying to hold the federal government responsible for sewage spilling into the United States from Tijuana via the International Boundary and Water Commission or IBWC, the binational federal agency that cleans some of the sewage as it crosses the border. They’ve sued the IBWC. They’ve written it up hundreds of times for breaking environmental laws. Some of the most radical citizens of the California town that’s most impacted, Imperial Beach, called on the United States to take Mexico to the Hague, the international court that handles disputes between nations. And every step of the way the federal government has said: It’s not our fault. (Elmer, 8/15)

USA Today: Rocket Fuel Chemical Found In Food And Water, Consumer Reports Says
Perchlorate, a chemical found in rocket fuel, has contaminated water and food and is more likely to be found in food given to babies and children, a study from Consumer Reports found. The chemical is naturally occurring and man-made, but it is being found more often in groundwater, according to the Department of Toxic Substances Control. This is an issue, according to James Rogers, Ph.D., the Director of Food Safety Research and Testing at Consumer Reports. (Gomez, 8/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F.'s Overdose Death Rate Spiked, But It's Not The Highest In The U.S
San Francisco is on track to reduce its number of fatal overdoses this year, a promising shift in the city’s drug epidemic. But it’s unlikely that progress alone will be enough to shake its status as an epicenter of the United States’ overdose crisis, which was cemented by a major jump last year. San Francisco’s overdose rate rose to 88 deaths per 100,000 people in 2023, up from 73 the previous year. That made the city’s overdose rate the fifth highest of any large county in the U.S. last year, according to newly available full-year data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Leonard, 8/16)

Santa Cruz Sentinel: Animal Tranquilizer Mixed With Illicit Drugs Has Bay Area County Health Officials Concerned
Santa Cruz County public health officials are warning that a dangerous sedative is being detected in illegal opioids with alarming frequency. (Hattis, 8/16)

The War Horse: Homeless Veteran Progress Threatened By Supreme Court Ruling
[California Gov. Gavin] Newsom’s July 25 executive order is the most extensive action in the country taken since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it is constitutional for homeless people to be fined and arrested for sleeping in public places, even if there is nowhere else for them to go. What happens next could be dire, advocates warn. Unsheltered veterans ... are uniquely vulnerable to losing not only their possessions but also their benefits. And with the number of homeless veterans growing last year, the ruling and its ripple effects threaten a decade of gains in securing housing for men and women who served the country. (McCarthy, 8/15)

Los Angeles Times: Homeless People Face Fines, Arrest In Long Beach Crackdown
Long Beach will begin citing and possibly arresting homeless people as part of the city’s effort to crack down on its most problematic encampments. Those actions will be used as a last resort to remove encampments known to be “difficult spots,” Long Beach Deputy City Manager Teresa Chandler announced in a memo this week. (Vives, 8/16)

Los Angeles Times: Bass Vows Not To Bus Homeless People Out Of L.A. For 2028 Olympics
In Paris, the French government packed homeless people and migrants onto buses and sent them out of the city as the Summer Olympics approached. In 2016, more than 70,000 were displaced from Rio de Janeiro’s favelas to make way for the event. And ahead of the Games in 1984, the Los Angeles Police Department saddled nearly three dozen mounted horse patrols to scatter homeless people into less visible areas downtown. Now, in advance of the 2028 Olympics, Mayor Karen Bass is pledging that the city will not resort to such severe tactics to remove the tens of thousands living here without shelter. (Dillon, Zahniser and Smith, 8/16)

Fresno Bee: Owner Behind Secret Chinese-Run Lab Found In Reedley Charged With Federal Crimes By DOJ
A federal grand jury handed down new charges on Thursday for the man accused of being behind the Reedley lab that regulators said was illegally distributing misbranded COVID-19 test kits as the owners lied to investors. (Miller, 8/15)

Fresno Bee: Flu Virus That Killed Millions Of Poultry Found In Dairy Cows. Is It In California?
A highly pathogenic flu virus that has jumped from poultry to dairy cows is spreading its way across the United States and raising concerns among California dairy operators, the nation’s top milk producers. (Rodriguez, 8/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: Weakening Patent Laws Puts Drug And Medical Innovation At Risk
In late June, generic drug maker Teva Pharmaceuticals launched a generic version of Victoza, a blockbuster diabetes drug, in the United States. Just days prior, the Food and Drug Administration tentatively approved another generic version of Victoza made by Hikma Pharmaceuticals. Victoza is one of the first GLP-1 drugs — the class of wildly popular diabetes and obesity treatments that includes Ozempic and Wegovy — to go off-patent. (David Kappos, 8/16)

Los Angeles Times: Matthew Perry Death: Arrests Expose How Addicts Are Preyed On
Last fall, the death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry was met with a collective howl of grief. Now, with the arrest of five people charged with involvement in the ketamine overdose that killed him, that howl should turn to one of anger. (Mary McNamara, 8/16)

Sacramento Bee: Gov. Newsom Must Invest In Disability Services Now Or The Consequences Will Be Dire
Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed to delay the long-anticipated rate increase for disability service providers until January of 2025. This delay will further exacerbate the growing wage gap for service providers. (Olivia Vain, 8/14)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Childhood Immunizations Are Declining. We Need To Change That. 
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a global health crisis unrivaled to anything we have experienced in this lifetime. The repercussions have been felt far beyond the virus itself. One of the consequences that you may not have realized is the decline in childhood vaccination rates. This setback has effectively erased 15 years of progress in immunization efforts worldwide. In California alone, the percentage of children receiving all seven core vaccines dropped from 72 percent in 2020 to 65 percent in 2021. (Alethea Arguilez and Kelly Motadel, 8/13)

Los Angeles Times: The Real Dangers Of The Controversy Over COVID's Origin
Here’s an indisputable fact about the theory that COVID originated in a laboratory: Most Americans believe it to be true. That’s important for several reasons. One is that evidence to support the theory is nonexistent. Another is that the claim itself has fomented a surge of attacks on science and scientists that threatens to drive promising researchers out of the crucial field of pandemic epidemiology. (Michael Hiltzik, 8/15)

San Diego Union-Tribune: When Food Is Medicine, Standards And Community Matter  
We’ve all had sick days where a bowl of chicken noodle soup made everything better. Food provides comfort — but it can do so much more. The medical community is rapidly recognizing the idea that food is medicine, and the medically tailored meal intervention can support improved health outcomes for people with severe, complex, or chronic illnesses. (Eva Matthews and Alissa Wassung, 8/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: Gen Z Doesn't Think Sunscreen Is Important. I Didn't Either At Their Age. Now I'm Paying The Price
I grew up in the late ’70s and ’80s in California tanning by the pool, positioning my chaise lounge to catch maximum rays and intent on caramelizing my fair skin into a dark hue that made me feel hip and sexy. Four decades later, I’m paying the price: In January, I was diagnosed with Stage 3 metastatic malignant melanoma — advanced skin cancer that spread to one of my lymph nodes. (Kim Ratcliff, 8/10)