Los Angeles Times: Covered California Extended Deadline Is Friday At Midnight
The window to sign up for health insurance through California’s state marketplace, Covered California, ends Friday at midnight. The window for new customers was originally slated to close on Jan. 31, but the state exchange said that it decided to extend the deadline to Feb. 9 given the large volume of demand and a cybersecurity incident earlier in the month that affected customer service call centers. (Dean, 2/8)

CalMatters: California Wants To Cap Your Medical Bills. Guess Who’s Pushing Back
A new state office charged with controlling the rising cost of health care in California is moving toward one of the most aggressive goals in the nation, aiming to cap cost increases to 3% a year. (Ibarra, 2/8)

NPR: Senators Ask CEOs Why Their Drugs Cost So Much More In The U.S.
Sparks flew on Capitol Hill Thursday as the CEOs of three drug companies faced questions from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions about why drug prices are so much higher in the United States than they are in the rest of the world. The executives from Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson and Merck spent almost three hours in front of the committee going back and forth about pricing practices and how the companies spend their money. (Lupkin, 2/8)

Stat: Bernie Sanders Gets Little From Pharma CEOs On Drug Prices
Call it Sen. Bernie Sanders’ prescription drug pricing theater. The hearing, featuring Merck CEO Robert Davis, Johnson & Johnson CEO Joaquin Duato, and Bristol Myers Squibb CEO Chris Boerner, was designed to draw public interest, and in that respect, it worked. The wood-paneled hearing room in a Senate office building was standing room only, with an overflow room prepared. Photographers flocked for photos as Sanders shook hands with each executive, standard practice before such hearings begin. (Cohrs, 2/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Nurses Demand Meal And Rest Breaks In New Lawsuit Against City
San Francisco fails to provide nurses at city hospitals with meal and rest breaks or the compensation required by law for missed breaks, three nurses say in a proposed class-action suit seeking damages for their 2,200 colleagues. State law entitles workers to 30-minute meal breaks after every five hours of work and 10-minute rest breaks after four hours, and to an hour of additional pay for each day that a break is not provided. A law that took effect in January 2023 extended the requirement to government health care agencies, which had previously been exempted. (Egelko, 2/8)

The Sacramento Bee: Rite Aid To Close Woodland Distribution Center, Cut Jobs 
The national pharmacy chain Rite Aid announced the planned closure of a Yolo County distribution center, costing more than 200 jobs, after the business filed for bankruptcy and must restructure. There will be 241 job losses at the Woodland location on East Beamer Street. Employees who stay through the end of their “transition period” will get severance packages, outplacement support and health insurance, Alicja Wojczyk, a spokeswoman with Rite Aid, wrote in a statement. (Desai, 2/8)

Times Of San Diego: Gene Sequencer Illumina Forecasts Flat Revenue In 2024 As It Prepares To Divest Grail 
llumina on Thursday forecast core business revenue to be nearly flat in the coming year compared to 2023 amid subdued demand for its genetic testing tools and diagnostics products. The San Diego-based gene-sequencing machine maker has witnessed a year of sluggish demand for its tools and services due to cautious customer spending and a protracted recovery in its key market, China. (Jennewein, 2/9)

CIDRAP: CARB-X Funds Development Of Rapid Test For Gonorrhea
he Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) announced today that it will award biotechnology company Visby Medical of San Jose, California, up to $1.8 million to develop a portable polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that can detect gonorrhea and assess its susceptibility to ciprofloxacin. Although ciprofloxacin is no longer a recommended first-line antibiotic for infections caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae because of resistance, some strains of the bacterium remain susceptible to the oral antibiotic. Knowing which infections are susceptible to ciprofloxacin at the point of care could enable clinicians to reserve ceftriaxone, which is the last remaining antibiotic that remains widely effective against N gonorrhoeae. (Dall, 2/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: Mayor Breed Pushes For S.F. Homeless Housing With Sober Requirement
Sandwiched between a hair salon and a dim sum restaurant just across Kearny Street from San Francisco’s iconic Sentinel Building, the Hotel North Beach doesn’t look like much from the outside. But the unassuming 150-unit hotel is poised to become a new — and contested — front in Mayor London Breed’s efforts to show progress on fighting the worsening drug epidemic that caused record overdose deaths in the city last year and has frustrated the public with persistent open-air drug scenes. (Morris, 2/8)

CalMatters: FEMA Leaves CA Owing $300 Million In COVID Homeless Spending
When California took the unprecedented step in spring 2020 to move thousands of homeless residents into hotels to protect them from the ravages of COVID-19, it did so believing the federal government would foot a large chunk of the bill. Now, following what California officials say is an abrupt about-face from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, cities and counties suddenly are on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars they expected FEMA to cover. At a time when budgets already are tight, it’s left local governments scrambling. (Kendall, 2/9)

Los Angeles Times: At Risk Of Eviction In L.A.? These Outreach Workers Are Looking For You 
On a cold Thursday afternoon, outreach workers Bianca Lopez and La Bomba Jackson knocked on doors at a South Los Angeles apartment complex, in search of someone at risk of losing their home. Lopez and Jackson, who work with We Are L.A., a program of the nonprofit Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, were looking to help tenants avoid eviction by offering resources like legal assistance and case management. (Esquivel, 2/9)

The Hill: Biden Angrily Defends Memory, Age In Contentious Press Conference 
President Biden fiercely defended his cognitive abilities and memory Thursday, in the wake of a special counsel report that offered a scathing assessment of his recollection of key elements of his life and political career. “I’m well-meaning and I’m an elderly man and I know what the hell I’m doing. I’ve been president, I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation,” Biden told reporters in last minute remarks at the White House. “My memory’s fine. My memory’s– take a look at what I’ve done since I became president… how did that happen? I guess I just forgot what was going on,” he said, striking a sarcastic tone. (Gangitano and Samuels, 2/8)

The Washington Post: Special Counsel Report Paints Scathing Picture Of Biden’s Memory 
President Biden, during interviews with the special counsel investigating his handling of classified documents, had trouble recalling the years he served as vice president. He could not pinpoint, even within several years, when his son Beau had died. His memory about a crucial debate on troop levels in Afghanistan was hazy. The first day of questioning, at the White House in early October, Biden could not recall when his vice-presidential term had ended. “If it was 2013 — when did I stop being vice president?” he asked, apparently not recalling that he left office in January 2017. The next day, as the interviews continued, he could not remember when his term began, saying, “In 2009, am I still vice president?” (Viser and Pager, 2/8)

Modesto Bee: Fentanyl Deaths Reach Record High In Stanislaus County
Stanislaus County continues to see a rising death toll from the fentanyl crisis that grips California and the nation. The county had 135 deaths caused by fentanyl overdose or poisoning in 2023, up from 128 the previous year, according to new data released Thursday by county Behavioral Health and Recovery Services. (Carlson, 2/8)

Los Angeles Times: Chiquita Canyon Landfill Fire May Pose Short-Term Health Risks But No Cancer Threat, Report Says
As a massive underground garbage fire continues to spread sickening odors and noxious fumes over Castaic area neighborhoods, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger has called on Chiquita Canyon Landfill owners to relocate affected residents until the issue is resolved. In a letter to John Perkey, Waste Connections vice president and deputy general counsel, Barger urged the company to take immediate steps to address the odor issues and provide relocation assistance to community members who request it. (Briscoe, 2/9)

California Healthline: Do We Simply Not Care About Old People?
Recently, thousands of older Americans have been dying weekly of covid. But most Americans aren’t wearing masks in public, a move that could prevent infections. Many at-risk seniors aren’t getting antiviral therapies, and older adults in nursing homes aren’t getting vaccines. Why? (Graham, 2/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Costco, Trader Joe’s Pull Products Due To Deadly Listeria Outbreak
Several major nationwide retailers, including Costco and Trader Joe’s, have issued recalls for a variety of dairy and other products due to potential contamination with the dangerous bacteria listeria. ... The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported a total of 26 documented illnesses and 23 hospitalizations in connection with the ongoing nationwide outbreak, which has resulted in two deaths — one in California and one in Texas. (Vaziri, 2/8)

Vacaville Reporter: Feds Issue Public Health Alert For A Trader Joe’s Frozen Chicken Meal Product
A federal inspection service on Wednesday issued a public health alert about a frozen ready-to-eat chicken pilaf product that may be contaminated with “foreign material,” namely rocks. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service issued the alert to ensure that consumers are aware that this product should not be eaten. A recall was not requested because the product is no longer available for purchase, a spokesman for the FSIS confirmed in a press statement. (Bammer, 2/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: Critics Bash Breed’s Measure To Mandate Welfare Drug Screening
A group of San Francisco addiction treatment providers and medical professionals are fighting Mayor London Breed’s ballot measure to mandate drug screenings for welfare recipients, calling it a “cynical ploy to shift blame onto the poorest San Franciscans.” The group launched an opposition campaign Thursday. “Prop F’s potential for harm is undeniable,” said Gary McCoy, a spokesperson for HealthRight 360, the city’s largest addiction treatment provider. “... It blurs the line between care and punishment. It hurts people for their illness and dangerously undermines overdose prevention and recovery.” (Angst, 2/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: DNA Solves Brutal Rapes, Killings Of 2 Bay Area Women In ’70s
With the children of the victims tearfully looking on, police announced Thursday that they had used DNA to solve the long-frustrating 1970s rapes and killings of two women from Hayward and Newark. The killer was Fred Bernard Farnham, officers said, and he died in 2007 at age 73 in a hospital in Oregon. Using DNA from his personal effects, they were able to link him to the killings of Theresa Pica in Hayward in 1979 and Nellie Hicks in Newark in 1972 — cold cases that had frustrated investigators for decades and agonized the loved ones left behind. (Fagan, 2/8)

The Bakersfield Californian: Kern Kicks Off 7-Week Health And Fitness Program For Residents In Bakersfield, McFarland 
Kern health officials kick-started the “Know Your Numbers” program in Bakersfield Thursday, setting off the first of a seven-week health guidance program that starts with gathering a baseline. This includes body mass index, blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol levels. (Donegan, 2/9)

San Diego Union-Tribune: As A Health Worker, I See We Need Free Health Care 
As a health care worker, I enjoy taking care of my patients. They come in for their needs, some serious, others mild. I’ve worked with a variety of patients from pediatrics all the way to geriatrics. I take care of them and they are for the most part pretty grateful, until it’s time to talk about insurance or payment for services rendered. (Victoria Valeriano, 2/5)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Congress Must Not Accept Cuts In Crucial Nutrition Program 
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, has safeguarded families for 50 years. Nearly 1 million young children and postpartum adults in California rely on WIC for access to nutritious food, breastfeeding support and nutrition education. (Michelle Lee and Angeles Nelson, 2/6)

San Francisco Chronicle: SF Record Drug Overdoses Aren’t Accidental, They’re A Policy Choice
San Francisco suffered a record 806 “accidental” drug overdose deaths in 2023. But the misery we see on San Francisco’s streets is anything but happenstance. It’s a policy choice. (2/3)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Rare Diseases Affect 30 Million Americans. These Are The Challenges To Find Their Cure. 
By official definition, a rare disease is a condition afflicting less than 200,000 people in the United States, or roughly the combined populations of El Cajon and Vista. Scientists have documented more than 10,000 rare diseases, with unfamiliar names ranging from abetalipoproteinemia to Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. Some diseases account for fewer than a dozen known cases worldwide. (Brenner, 2/7)

San Francisco Chronicle: Most Unhoused Youth Are Invisible. That Needs To Change
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s December 2023 Annual Homelessness Report to Congress, about 34,700 people under the age of 25 experienced homelessness on their own, without family that year with about 3,200 of those youth being under the age of 18. Given California has the largest homeless population in the country, it’s no surprise that the state also has the largest number of unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness as well. (Marguerita Lightfoot, 2/4)