KQED: White House Declares Monkeypox A Public Health Emergency
The White House today declared monkeypox a public health emergency. "We are prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this virus and we urge every American to take monkeypox seriously," Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said to reporters during a briefing on Thursday. A public health emergency can trigger grant funding and open up more resources for various aspects of a federal response. It also allows the Secretary to enter into contracts for treatments and other necessary medical supplies and equipment, as well as support emergency hospital services, among other things. Public health emergencies last for 90 days but can be extended by the Secretary. (Greenhalgh, 8/4)

USA Today: Monkeypox Outbreak In US Now World's Biggest After COVID-Like Mistakes
Monkeypox was supposed to be different ... Yet the United States now has the world's biggest outbreak of monkeypox: More than 6,600 Americans have been diagnosed since mid-May. Rarely seen outside Africa before the spring, the virus, a less deadly cousin of smallpox, has now triggered a 26,000-person global emergency, reaching 83 countries, 76 of which had not historically seen the disease. (Weintraub, 8/4)

The Orange County Register: OC Monkeypox Cases Rising Fast, Though Still Fewer Than Neighboring LA
While Orange County health officials aren’t yet declaring an emergency due to monkeypox, they expect the county’s relatively small number of cases to grow. ... Orange County so far has seen 26 cases of monkeypox, all in men ages 18 to 40, OC Deputy Health Officer Dr. Matthew Zahn said Thursday. (Robinson, 8/5)

The Washington Post: As Monkeypox Strikes Gay Men, Officials Debate Warnings To Limit Partners
As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention weighs whether to recommend limiting sex partners, health officials in San Francisco, Chicago, New York and other U.S. cities battling surges disproportionately sickening gay men are avoiding calls for sexual restraint, wary of further stigmatizing same-sex intimacy. (Nirappil and Jayakumar, 8/4)

Los Angeles Times: A Guide To Separating Monkeypox Facts From Fiction
With local, state and national officials declaring emergencies over the monkeypox outbreak and a scramble for vaccines spurring long lines — and waits — in many U.S. cities, the latest updates about the rare virus can seem overwhelming and, well, confusing. But experts say it’s important to remember that monkeypox is a known disease that is rarely deadly (unlike the coronavirus) and already has an approved vaccine and treatment. (Toohey, 8/5)

The Hill: FDA Considering Dividing Jynneos Doses Into Fifths To Increase Vaccine Supply
The Biden administration is considering splitting doses of the smallpox vaccine, which are being used to prevent monkeypox amid the current outbreak, into five smaller doses, the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Thursday. (Choi, 8/4)

Bay Area News Group: A Normal-Ish Return To School Amid COVID Case Surge
COVID is still everywhere it seems, but the back-to-school routine will be as close to “normal” as most students have seen since the start of the pandemic. As K12 schools re-open this month, face masks will be optional for most California students, as they were last spring. Testing and quarantining are being dialed back. Schools are giving out rapid tests for students to take before returning to class from the summer break but aren’t demanding proof of a negative result. (Woolfolk, 8/5)

Times Of San Diego: 10% Of Patients In Local Hospitals For COVID Need ICUs, But New Cases Down Over Past Week
San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency reported 1,446 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, while the number of deaths rose by seven.In the three days since the county last released numbers, 3,728 virus cases were confirmed by public health officials. (8/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: How Long Does COVID Stay In Air After An Infected Person Leaves The Room?
Dear Advice Team: How long does COVID stay in the air after someone with COVID (who is not wearing a mask) leaves the room? Assuming the windows are closed and there’s no filtration system, how long do you have to be concerned that you can get COVID from being in the room without a mask? (8/4)

Los Angeles Times: Official Proposes Law To Bolster Reproductive Rights In L.A.
Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer is proposing a new law to strengthen reproductive rights and to position the city as a haven for those seeking abortion services. Feuer said the draft legislation would prohibit any pregnancy center from misrepresenting the services it performs. The proposed law would also provide women and others legal recourse if they are misled. (Petri, 8/4)

Los Angeles Times: Abortions Are Widely Available In California, But Not For These Women
Their ability to obtain an abortion in California would hinge on whether doctors believed their fetus met the legal definition of “viable” — able to live outside the womb without intensive medical intervention. If a fetus was deemed viable, they would have to leave California to get the abortion. But in a demonstration of how access can change depending on geography, individual doctors and interpretation of the law, this is where their stories diverged. One woman would be able to get the procedure in California; the other would find herself on a plane to Colorado for an abortion that would cost $17,000, plus travel expenses. (Haberkorn, 8/5)

Los Angeles Times: Sinema, Democratic Leaders Reach Deal On Changes To Health And Climate Bill
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema said late Thursday she will support moving forward with Democrats’ health, tax and climate bill, a strong sign that the party will be able to advance some of its major policy priorities before the midterm election. The Arizona Democrat’s vote is needed to pass the agreement hammered out between Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). The bill would allow the federal government to begin to negotiate drug prices in Medicare and would help combat the climate crisis, two major political priorities that Democrats are hoping to run on this fall. (Haberkorn, 8/4)

NPR: Sinema Will Move Forward With Senate Democrats' Climate, Health And Tax Bill
Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced late Thursday she will "move forward" with Democrats' massive climate, prescription drug and spending bill, after Democrats appeared to reach an agreement about Sinema's concerns with the legislation. Sinema's announcement all but locks in the bill for Democrats, who need all 50 Democratic votes on board in order for the bill to pass, with a tie-breaker vote from Vice President Kamala Harris. The legislation solidifies key portions of President Biden's domestic agenda. (Shivaram, 8/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: Penalties For Violating Rights Of The Disabled Don’t Apply To Public Schools, State Supreme Court Rules
California businesses that discriminate against a customer can be sued for penalties of at least $4,000 and damages of as much as three times the harm they inflicted. But the same penalties do not apply to public schools that violate their students’ rights, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday in the case of a disabled student from Contra Costa County. The 1959 California law, the Unruh Act, applies to civil rights violations by “business establishments.” And “public schools, as governmental entities engaged in the provision of a free and public education, are not ‘business establishments’ within the meaning of the act,” Justice Joshua Groban wrote in the 7-0 decision. (Egelko, 8/4)

Becker's Hospital Review: California Hospital Plans For 673 Layoffs If Sale Falls Through
Community Hospital is preparing to lay off 673 workers in August, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice filed in July. The hospital, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, expects the layoffs to occur between Aug. 17 and Aug. 31, according to the July 11 notice. Watsonville Community Hospital has postponed the layoffs several times since Pajaro Valley Health Care District, a nonprofit, agreed to buy the hospital out of bankruptcy. In July, the state of California agreed to provide $25 million to help fund the purchase. (Ellison, 8/4)

Bloomberg: Stanford Health Care Threatened Staff’s Jobs, Teamsters Allege
Stanford Health Care illegally threatened security guards’ jobs and punished an activist for organizing, the Teamsters alleged in US labor board complaints. In a filing this week with the National Labor Relations Board, the union alleged that the hospital system affiliated with Stanford University “threatened, coerced, and retaliated against” an employee for exercising legally-protected rights. In a prior filing last month, it accused Stanford Health Care of making threats “that forming a union will cause a staff reduction” and that it would mean “losing benefits.” In an emailed statement, the health-care non-profit said, “Stanford Health Care respects the rights of all our employees and believes it is every employee’s own choice to join or not to join a union.” (Eidelson, 8/4)

Berkeleyside: Remembering Dr. Bayard Allmond, Pediatrician, Gardener, Gorilla Vaccinator
Bayard W. Allmond Jr., a behavioral pediatrician and family therapist, died of cancer on July 18, in the Berkeley home where he and his family began living in 1969. He was 87. At UCSF, mentored many dozens of pediatricians-in-training and was the director of the groundbreaking Child Study Unit for several years before creating a private practice in family therapy at his home. His patients were the focus of his life, and his practice was his life’s work. (Allen, Allmond and Oken, 8/5)

LAist: CA Bill Aims To Release Severely Ill Patients From Prisons Vs. Parole In Nursing Homes
A state lawmaker has dropped an effort to expand a program that releases people who are “permanently medically incapacitated” from prison and places them in nursing homes after discovering the program is not aligning with federal guidelines for patient rights. Instead, the bill, AB 960, has been amended to focus on another program called compassionate release, which allows for someone to have their sentence recalled and be released from the system entirely. (Yu, 8/4)

Oaklandside: Oakland Could Establish Safe Injection Sites To Prevent Overdoses
A bill on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk would allow Oakland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles to operate facilities where drug users could consume controlled substances in a supervised environment. These kinds of “safe injection sites,” which have been used in other cities for decades, have been shown in multiple studies to reduce the number of people who overdose on substances like fentanyl, heroin, and metham (BondGraham, 8/4)

San Diego Union-Times: Tijuana Sewage Spill Shutters Imperial Beach And Coronado Shorelines, Yet Again
Shorelines from the border up through Coronado were closed to swimming Thursday as the result of a pipeline that ruptured in Tijuana near Smuggler’s Gulch over the weekend. Sewage has been spilling over the border into the river’s estuary for days, but it’s just now making its way to the ocean and floating up the coast on surging northward currents. The situation will likely persist into next week, when public utility workers in Baja California are expected to complete repairs, according to federal officials in San Diego. (Emerson Smith, 8/4)

Sierra Sun Times: State Health And Human Services Leaders Recommend Californians Catch-Up With Routine Screenings, Vaccinations, And Check-Ups
The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted many facets of daily life, including routine health screenings, vaccinations, and medical check-ups. As the new school year approaches, more than one in eight children in California need to catch up on routine vaccines that were missed or delayed during the pandemic. The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is also urging older Californians to get caught up with their cancer screenings. "Schools are taking important steps to keep students safe and limit the spread of disease. Do your part to keep students healthy, in school, and ready to learn; make sure they are up to date with needed vaccines," said Dr. Tomás J. Aragón, CDPH Director and State Public Health Officer. "Many children missed routine checkups and immunizations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. If you haven't done so already, check with your child's doctor to find out what immunizations they need, including COVID-19 vaccines and boosters."  (8/5)

Sacramento Bee: You Should Probably Check To See If Your Yard Is A Paradise For Mosquito Larvae 
A. aegypti is a snazzy-looking striped mosquito. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it’s also one of the deadliest creatures in the world. In addition to yellow fever, the species can spread dengue fever and Zika, among many other diseases. First detected in Sacramento County in 2019, the mosquito species has gained a spindly foothold in the capital region, with current infestation hotspots in Arden Arcade and Elk Grove. (Lange, 8/5)

Times Of San Diego: California Ranked As Healthiest And Fittest State In America
A new study finds that California is the healthiest state in America with the fittest residents and second only to Oregon in healthy eating. The report by Innerbody Research, a Palo Alto-based firm that studies home health products and services, ranked California at the top primarily because of its low smoking rate and high number of fitness and health locations. “Due to a combination of a dozen health-related factors, California is the number one healthiest state in 2022,” according to the study. (Jennewein, 8/4)

Los Angeles Times: What Is Monkeypox? The Latest Global Outbreak Caused By Indifference
The recent discovery by Stanford scientists that wastewater in Palo Alto, Sacramento and other cities in the Bay Area contains monkeypox DNA means that the outbreak has gained traction in California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a monkeypox emergency on Monday. But the wastewater discovery does not mean that monkeypox virus is spreading in water, in the air or widely enough that we are looking at a second pandemic at a time when we’re still struggling, as a nation and species, with SARS-CoV-2. (Wendy Orent, 8/2)

Sacramento Bee: Monkeypox Response Proves LGBTQ+ Still Overlooked
As monkeypox begins to dominate headlines, I am reminded of a quote from novelist Chris Crutcher, in his 2003 autobiography, King of the Mild Frontier: “Viruses have no morality, no sense of good and evil, the deserving or the undeserving.... (it) is not the swift sword with which the Lord punishes the evil practitioners of male homosexuality and intravenous drug use. It is simply an opportunistic virus that does what it has to do to stay alive.” (Robin Epley, 7/31)

San Francisco Chronicle: Millions Of Americans Need Insulin To Survive. Congress Doesn’t Seem To Care
Over 100 years ago, the scientists who discovered insulin, Frederick Banting and Charles Best, famously “sold” the patent to the University of Toronto for just $1. When Frederick Banting described his reasons for giving away the patent for his momentous discovery, he said: “Insulin does not belong to me, it belongs to the world.” Banting and Best would hate the fact that, today, insulin belongs to almost no one. The people who need it can’t get it, and the people trying to get them the medication are committed to making a “generic” facsimile of the original product called biosimilar insulin. (Jen Manne-Goehler, 8/1)

The Mercury News: A Cornerstone Of Modern Medicine Is On The Brink Of Collapse
Roughly a century after the first antibiotics revolutionized medicine, the development pipeline for these critical drugs is on the brink of collapse. Without policies to reinvigorate research into newer, more potent antibiotics, the world may soon face another global public health crisis as devastating as COVID-19. (Michelle McMurry-Heath, 8/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Post-Roe Era Fight Isn’t Just About Abortion. It’s About Stopping Selective History From Determining Our Rights
I am no longer able to think of Carmel without thinking of abortion and Nora May French. For this new habit of mind, I blame two things: the U.S. Supreme Court and the literary scholar Catherine Prendergast’s searing 2021 masterpiece, “The Gilded Edge: Two Audacious Women and the Cyanide Love Triangle That Shook America.” From visiting Carmel, I knew about the city’s early 20th century history as a colony of artists and bohemians. But I had never heard of the poet French until picking up Prendergast’s book. (Joe Matthews, 8/4)

The Mercury News: At Last, A Simple Strategy For COVID Booster Shots
The Food and Drug Administration reportedly has a new strategy for rolling out new booster shots that should bring needed clarity to COVID vaccination in the United States. Going forward, most Americans will get the same advice about when to get their next shots. Currently, second boosters are available only to people who are either over the age of 50 or have compromised immunity. The agency had been considering offering boosters to people of all ages this summer. (Lisa Jarvis, 8/3)

Los Angeles Times: These Families Are Flaming The ACLU As California Debates Mental Health Care
The ACLU is a leading opponent of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to establish civil courts to help treat people with severe mental illnesses. The group says it will lead to “forced treatment” of unhoused people, with police and others given far too much leeway to trample on the autonomy of those who refuse aid. But as the uncle of someone with severe mental illness — schizophrenia — Britton says that people like his nephew sometimes can’t grasp that they need help, and ignoring that medical reality isn’t a protection of their civil rights. In fact, it shuts families like his out from the ability to care for their loved ones. (Anita Chabria, 8/4)

The Fresno Bee: CA Auditor Was Right To Blast State Water Board For Failures
California officials love to proclaim how the state would be the world’s fifth-largest economy if it was its own nation.But there is one particular problem dulling that sheen. Far too many people in this rich, tech-savvy state don’t have clean, safe drinking water coming out of their home taps. In fact, it is not a stretch to say the situation in certain locales is worse than what is found in some developing nations. (8/4)