California Healthline: How America Lost Control Of The Bird Flu, Setting The Stage For Another Pandemic
Exclusive reporting reveals how the United States lost track of a virus that could cause the next pandemic. Problems like the sluggish pace of federal action, a deference to industry, and neglect for the safety of low-wage workers put the country at risk of another health emergency. (Maxmen, 12/20)

LAist: Three More Possible Cases Of Bird Flu In LA County Cats; 4 Cases Confirmed
The nationwide bird flu outbreak is killing more L.A. County cats. There’s now been four confirmed cases, L.A. County public health officials told LAist Thursday, and they’re investigating three possible others in felines from a separate household. (Sievertson, 12/20)

Stat: California Bird Flu Emergency Declaration Highlights A Larger Issue 
In the ongoing outbreak of H5N1 bird flu among the nation’s dairy cattle, federal officials have consistently expressed confidence that they know enough about how the virus is spreading to put a stop to it. But among epidemiologists and other infectious disease experts, there has been skepticism that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s theory of viral transmission is telling the whole story. And perhaps there is no greater cause for scrutiny than what’s currently happening in California. (Molteni, 12/20)

CNN: How Do People Catch Bird Flu? 
As bird flu infections rise in dairy cattle and chickens, human cases are ticking up too, leaving many people to wonder whether they might be at risk from this recently arrived virus. Bird flu infections are rare in people. Sixty-one human cases have been confirmed in the US this year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and all but three have been in people who work on poultry or dairy farms. (Goodman, 12/19)

CBS News: Norovirus Outbreaks Reported On 3 Cruise Ships This Month, Sickening Hundreds
Hundreds of cruise passengers and workers fell ill with norovirus on three different ships this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The CDC has logged outbreaks in 2024 on 14 cruise voyages, but three ships were hit in December. This is the only month this year when the CDC has reported three confirmed norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships and there's still more than a week to go before the month ends. (Chasan, 12/19)

Los Angeles Times: Dozens Of People Get Sick After L.A. Times 101 Best Restaurants Event
Health officials are investigating a possible norovirus outbreak after dozens of people became sick after eating raw oysters at the L.A. Times 101 Best Restaurants event. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed that more than 80 people who attended the annual event — which features some of the area’s most celebrated and popular restaurants — reported getting sick with symptoms that included diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting. (Hernandez, 12/19)

Orange County Register: CSUF’s Mobile Crisis Team Puts Students First 
Emphasizing student safety and welfare, Cal State Fullerton’s Counseling and Psychological Services last spring began partnering with CSUF’s Police Department to form the Mobile Crisis Team, a unit that has been implementing a new holistic safety plan to better serve students in crisis. (Urish, 12/19)

Military.Com: Veteran Suicides Are Down Since 2018 But Remain Persistently Steady, New VA Report Finds
The number of veterans who died by suicide in 2022 -- nearly 18 per day -- remained steady from the previous year but was down from a peak in 2018, with "encouraging" signs of progress among women and younger veterans, Veterans Affairs officials said Thursday. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs' two-part 2024 annual suicide prevention report released Thursday, 6,407 veterans died by suicide in 2022, compared with 6,404 in 2021, a rate of roughly 34.7 per 100,000. (Kime, 12/19)

Bloomberg: What Snapchat Owes Families For The Teen Fentanyl Crisis
“I’m a survivor, and that’s bad for you, CEO of Snapchat, because, uh, uh, uh …” Michael Brewer can’t finish his sentence. The teenager’s speech is slow and slurred, interrupted by an involuntary gag reflex as his tongue slides down his throat—a symptom of a brain injury caused by fentanyl poisoning. ... Rain pelts the windows, but Michael can’t see it, because the fentanyl also left him blind. He swallows, breathes and tries again: “I survived, and that’s bad for you, Snapchat, because I’m talking on the record.” (Carville, 12/19)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Congressional Leaders Secure $250M For South Bay Treatment Plant, But Passage By Congress Uncertain 
San Diego’s congressional delegation announced Tuesday it had secured the remaining funding needed to upgrade the long-neglected federal wastewater treatment plant at the U.S.-Mexico border that has allowed sewage from Tijuana to pollute South County shorelines. (Murga, 12/19)

Modern Healthcare: Trump-Backed Funding Bill Fails With Health Measures In Limbo
Congressional Republican leaders failed to advance a slimmed down year-end funding bill endorsed by President-elect Donald Trump after they scrapped a larger package he opposed that included major bipartisan healthcare legislation. The Trump-favored bill dropped major provisions imposing new restrictions on pharmacy benefit managers, partially reversing Medicare reimbursement cuts for doctors, and extending Medicare telehealth authorities. It failed in a hastily called in the GOP-led House Thursday night. (McAuliff, 12/19)

Politico: A Health Care Earthquake In Congress
After Congress spent years crafting new significant pharmacy benefit manager regulations and had agreed to a substantial health care package, posts on X from Elon Musk, who’s co-leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, helped upend the legislation just days before it was poised to become law. ... The impasse has left a multitude of health care provisions up in the air and the broader package’s fate in question. Eased access to telehealth and hospital-at-home care, funding for community health centers, doctor pay in Medicare, measures intended to incentivize drug development for rare pediatric diseases and more hang in the balance. (Cirruzzo and Leonard, 12/19)

CBS News: A Government Shutdown Could Occur On Dec. 21. Here's What Services And Payments Could Be Impacted
The nation's 67 million Social Security recipients would continue to receive their checks even if the government closes for business. Medicare will also continue to operate, which means seniors covered by the health care plan won't have their medications or treatments impacted. That's because both Social Security and Medicare benefits are authorized by laws that don't require annual approval. (Picchi, 12/19)

Becker's Hospital Review: Why Supply Chain Resilience Remains Elusive — And What Leaders Can Do About It
In the healthcare supply chain, "resilience" has become a ubiquitous term. It emerged as a critical focus during the COVID-19 pandemic, when hospitals and health systems struggled to procure personal protective equipment, ventilators and medications. The disruptions brought renewed attention to deep-rooted vulnerabilities in the healthcare supply chain, sparking industrywide calls for greater transparency and supplier diversification for essential products. (Murphy, 12/19)

California Healthline: Employers Press Congress For Health Price Transparency Before Trump’s Return
Donald Trump’s first administration advanced rules forcing hospitals and insurers to reveal prices for medical services. Employers don’t want to risk backtracking during Trump’s second administration. (Appleby, 12/20)

Modesto Bee: Modesto CA Sees Increase In Charges Related To Homelessness
There were over 600 charges for camping or remaining in a park after hours in the fiscal year of 2024 which ended in June — an increase of 57% from the prior fiscal year. Charges for remaining in a park after hours were four and a half times greater than in the 2020-21 fiscal year. The same went for obstructing a sidewalk or business, which went from zero charges to 122 this past fiscal year. (Morgan and Quinn, 12/19)

San Diego Union-Tribune: County Homelessness Programs Sometimes Don’t Track Key Information, Report Finds 
“Not Tracked.” “Not Readily Available.” “TBD.” Those phrases appear repeatedly in a new assessment of dozens of homelessness programs overseen by the county of San Diego that found officials aren’t tracking key information about crucial services. (Nelson, 12/19)

CIDRAP: Review Of US Vaccine Injury Reimbursement Program Shows Less Than 3% Of Claims Eligible For Compensation
A report yesterday from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) on federal response to medical countermeasure injury compensation claims—primarily about COVID and flu vaccines—reveals that, during the first few years of the COVID-19 pandemic, claims spiked to 27 times the typical number received, and less than 3% of the claims were eligible for compensation. About half of the claims were related to COVID vaccination. The vast majority of money paid for claims, however—more than $6 million—was for harms tied to the H1N1 flu vaccine. (Wappes, 12/19)

NBC News: FDA Says Lilly Weight Loss Drug Shortage Is Over After Taking A Second Look
The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it’s standing by its earlier decision that the shortage of tirzepatide — the active ingredient in Eli Lilly’s diabetes and weight loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound — is over. The decision means most compounding pharmacies will need to stop making compounded versions of the drug within 90 days. (Lovelace Jr., 12/19)

Stat: Gilead Plans To Halt Free Access To An HIV Drug, Worrying Patient Advocates
Gilead Sciences will no longer provide four HIV medicines for free as part of a patient assistance program starting at the end of January, alarming community activists who worry the move will limit access and, consequently, impede nationwide efforts to combat the infectious disease. (Silverman, 12/19)

NPR: Is Anyone Actually Happy With The Business Of Health?
Health care companies are ending 2024 in the hot seat. Yet some of the pressures they're facing have been mounting all year — or longer. This month's killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson thrust his company, and his industry, into the spotlight. It also sparked widespread consumer reckoning over denied claims and the high costs of care in the United States, where health care is the most expensive in the world. Now lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle are stepping up their scrutiny of the industry. (Aspan, 12/20)

California Healthline: ‘Bill Of The Month’: The Series That Dissects And Slashes Medical Bills
Since 2018, readers and listeners sent KFF Health News-NPR’s “Bill of the Month” thousands of questionable bills. Our crowdsourced investigation paved the way for landmark legislation and highlighted cost-saving strategies for all patients. (Rosenthal, 12/20)

Becker's Hospital Review: Lean Methodology Reduces Surgical Residency Hours: Study
A new study from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine found that applying Lean methodology to surgical residency programs reduces work hours and improves program efficiency. (Murphy, 12/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Asian Health Expert Dr. Bryant Lin Has Lung Cancer Common Among Asians
It was a routine prescription by Dr. Bryant Lin for an otherwise typical case of gout. What was unexpected was how the patient’s skin started peeling after using the drug. The condition was life-threatening and required hospitalization. Lin and his patient wanted to know the reasons for what happened. It turns out the patient is part of a demographic group more prone to adverse reactions to allopurinol: Asians. (Mok, 12/20)

Stat: Maternal Mortality Data Is Murky — But The Crisis Faced By New Moms Is Clear
Too many new moms are dying in the U.S. Exactly how many, however,  is harder to establish. After years of neglect, the issue of maternal mortality is finally getting attention in policy and politics, as well as in the media, with headlines drawing attention to figures that show the maternal mortality rate has, at least according to some measurements, doubled in the past two decades. (Merelli, 12/20)

ProPublica: The CDC Isn’t Asking States To Track Deaths Linked To Abortion Bans
After the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, President Joe Biden issued an executive order tasking the federal government with assessing the “devastating implications for women’s health“ of new state abortion bans. Experts were warning that these bans would interfere with critical medical care and lead to preventable deaths. And the states that passed the laws had little incentive to track their consequences. (Surana, Fields and Branstetter, 12/20)

The Hill: Reproductive Health Advocates Brace For Return Of Title X Challenges Under Trump 
Reproductive health advocates expect President-elect Trump to reinstate a rule that weakened the country’s sole federally funded family planning program during his first term once he returns to office next year. The Title X Family Planning Program, which makes it easier for millions of low-income Americans to access reproductive services like birth control, emergency contraception and abortion referrals, is still grappling with the impact of restrictions imposed by the first Trump administration five years ago. (O’Connell-Domenech, 12/19)

Los Angeles Times: California Board Backs Rules Meant To Protect Workers From Silicosis 
California regulators voted Thursday to impose a permanent set of workplace rules aimed at protecting countertop cutters from silicosis, an incurable disease that has been killing young workers. (Alpert-Reyes, 12/20)

NPR: The FDA Has Redefined What Counts As 'Healthy' On Food Labels
At a time when more than half of the American diet comes from processed, packaged foods, the Food and Drug Administration has new rules aimed at helping people make healthy choices in the grocery store. The agency has updated the definition of what counts as healthy. Food companies can voluntarily use a "healthy" claim on their packages if their products meet the new definition. (Aubrey, 12/19)

Newsweek: Common Painkiller Might Not Be As Safe As We Think
Acetaminophen, also known as paracetamol or the brand name Tylenol, may come with added health risks, according to a new study. The drug, which is commonly used as a painkiller or an ingredient in other medications, was associated with an increased risk of ulcers, heart failure, high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease. (Willmoth, 12/19)

Newsweek: Baby Car Seats: More Than 600,000 Recalled Over Debris Dangers
A brand of child's car seat has been recalled after potentially dangerous issues were identified with the harness that could injure kids. 608,786 of the "Rava" child seats have been voluntarily recalled by the brand Nuna Baby Essentials, due to issues with the plastic harness adjuster buttons. (Thomson, 12/20)

The Hill: Frito-Lay Recalls Select Potato Chips
Frito-Lay said in a Monday announcement it is recalling potato chips over an undeclared allergen. In the announcement on the Food and Drug Administration’s website, Frito-Lay said its recall centers on “undeclared milk” in Lay’s Classic Potato Chips bags that are labeled 13 ounces. “Those with an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk run the risk of a serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume the recalled product,” the announcement reads. (Suter, 12/19)

Sacramento Bee: California Leaders Say They Care About Kids. Yet We Have Nation's Highest Child Poverty Rate
Throughout the past year, while the political climate seemed to change by the minute, one thing unfortunately remained consistent: California’s poor national standing in supporting our kids. (Ted Lempert, 12/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: CDC Teen Mental Health Report Was A Politically Inconvenient Bombshell
The Centers for Disease Control’s latest biannual survey of 20,000 teenagers just dropped politically inconvenient bombshells into the furor over social media. Maybe that’s why we’re hearing so little about its findings, especially from California officials obsessed with slapping popular but pointless age limits and warning labels on social media. The CDC report reveals that teens’ use of social media is much more complicated and intertwined with outside life than recognized by simplistic campaigns to restrict access or impose warning labels. (Mike Males, 12/18)

East Bay Times: Santa Clara County Must Address Racial Inequities In Health
For decades, the varying health outcomes of different racial and ethnic populations in Santa Clara County flew under most people’s radar. The absence of useful and specific data conspired to conceal this fact. (Christine Tomcala, Yvonne Maxwell, and Dolores Alvarado, 12/9)

Los Angeles Times: As States Fight Over Abortion Laws, California Could Get Dragged In
Hello and happy Tuesday. There are 34 days until the inauguration, and today we’re talking about the coming legal war over states’ rights. Of course, this involves Texas — which might not like being messed with, but apparently doesn’t mind messing with others. You may have a vague memory that access to abortion in recent years has been eroding faster than an oceanfront cliff, ever since the Supreme Court in 2022 gave states the right to set their own rules about reproductive healthcare. (Anita Chabria, 12/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: His Career Is Devoted To Closing The Asian American Health Care Gap. Now, He Has The Cancer That's Afflicting Asians
Lin’s search for answers led to him co-founding the Center for Asian Health Research and Education at the Stanford School of Medicine in 2018 — to address disparities in treatment and to jumpstart research for ailments that disproportionately impact Asians and Asian Americans, such as nonsmoker lung cancer. (Harry Mok, 12/20)