Bay Area News Group: California's Program To Clear Homeless Encampments Show Signs Of Success, But Housing Remains Elusive
For years, the Guadalupe River Trail — a winding path that snakes through the heart of downtown San Jose — had been home to hundreds of people living in tents and make-shift shacks. In recent months, many have vanished as part of a $750 million-push by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration — dubbed the Encampment Resolution Fund — to clear homeless encampments from cities throughout California. (Kendall, 1/18)

Voice Of San Diego: What We Know About San Diego's New Homelessness Fundraising Effort 
During his State of the City address last week, Mayor Todd Gloria announced that a new campaign called “San Diegans Together Tackling Homelessness." (Halverstadt, 1/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Oakland House For Homeless Moms Offers Safe Haven And Full Services
An Alameda resident has raised more than a half-million dollars to create a home in East Oakland for unhoused mothers and children in memory of a childhood best friend who struggled with homelessness. Jackie Downing, who has worked in Bay Area nonprofits for 20 years, said she was compelled to tackle the local homelessness crisis after her friend Anna Flynn committed suicide. Flynn had struggled for years with mental illness and spent time living on the street. (Ravani, 1/19)

CalMatters: Steve Garvey Highlights Homelessness Crisis
GOP U.S. Senate candidate Steve Garvey made his first campaign appearance in Sacramento Wednesday afternoon, visiting a homeless encampment north of downtown to highlight the state’s homelessness crisis. Squatting by a bag of abandoned brioche buns, Garvey — along with former Sacramento County Sheriff John McGuinness — asked a handful of homeless people how they stay warm at night and what politicians can do to help. At one point, someone yelled from a car driving by: “You guys are taking pictures. Do something about the problem!” (La, 1/18)

Sacramento Bee: Once Homeless, David Drelinger Now Challenging Eric Guerra For Sacramento Council Seat
David Drelinger, an activist and paralegal, is hoping to unseat longtime Sacramento City Councilman Eric Guerra in this year’s election. Drelinger said he cares about the unhoused partly because he used to be unhoused in Sacramento himself — first as a 17-year-old after aging out of the foster care system and again in his early 30s. (Clift, 1/18)

CBS News: Stanislaus County Detects First 3 Deaths Caused By Tranq, Fentanyl Mix
Health officials in Stanislaus County have detected the first overdose deaths blamed on a potent mixture of the animal tranquilizer known as xylazine and street fentanyl. ... Said Dr. Bernardo Mora, the Medical Director of Stanislaus County Behavioral Health. "As if Fentanyl wasn't deadly enough, it just increases the chance that you know, someone is going to die from taking that."  Tranq is not an opioid. This means if someone accidentally takes the drug, normal overdose medications like Narcan will not save them. (1/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Breed Touts Measure To Compel Drug Screening For Welfare Recipients
Mayor London Breed sat in the community room of a Tenderloin residential hotel on Thursday and issued a forceful defense of her ballot measure to mandate drug screening for San Francisco welfare recipients. Flanked by several people in recovery who support the measure, Proposition F, Breed told reporters gathered at the Winton Hotel on O’Farrell Street that she put the proposal on the March 5 ballot partly because of input she has received from people struggling with addiction who have benefited from drug treatment. (Morris, 1/18)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Sonoma County DA’s Anti-Fentanyl Ad Campaign Faulted For Fake Scenario And Misleading Information 
Last fall, Sonoma County District Attorney Carla Rodriguez pushed a public service campaign about the dangers of fentanyl, the potent opioid responsible for tens of thousands of overdose deaths statewide. But while the drug can indeed be deadly, the DA’s office paid for public service announcements that described fake overdose scenarios experts say are unlikely and further misinformation about the drug. (Graham, 1/18)

Los Angeles Times: California Studies On Psychedelics, Addiction Treatment Held Up
At the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, scientists are eager to explore whether a psychedelic chemical found in a toad could help people whose depression has not eased with typical treatments. Patients regularly call or send emails about joining clinical trials to test that and other compounds, but the research center is turning them away. ... Across the state, dozens of such studies are in limbo thanks to a little-known government panel that monitors research on federally restricted drugs and addiction treatment. (Alpert Reyes, 1/18)

CBS News: Deep Winter Freeze Creates Issues For Life-Saving Drug Narcan
This deep winter freeze we are experiencing is not good for the life-saving drug naloxone, or Narcan, used to reverse the affects of an opioid overdose. But Narcan can freeze, making it impossible to administer. Opioid overdose is a growing problem across the Twin Cities. Especially in poor neighborhoods and homeless encampments, there is a huge need for Narcan. (Chapman, 1/18)

The Desert Sun: Eisenhower Health Holds Grounbreakings For Child And Memory Care Centers, Cardio Clinic
Eisenhower Health celebrated three groundbreakings over the course of two days this week to welcome the future homes of child care and memory care centers, a cardiology institute and specialty clinics. (Sasic, 1/18)

Modern Healthcare: Hospital Financial Pressures Push More M&A
Nearly a third of announced hospital and health system mergers and acquisitions last year involved a financially distressed partner, a new report shows. Waning COVID-19 relief funds and high labor costs pinched hospital margins in 2023, causing many health systems to seek financial stability with M&A partners. About 28% of announced merger and acquisition proposals included a hospital or health system in financial distress, up from 15% in 2022, according to a report published Thursday by Kaufman Hall. (Kacik, 1/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Drugmakers Raise Prices Of Ozempic, Mounjaro And Hundreds Of Other Drugs
Companies including Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic, and Eli Lilly, which sells Mounjaro, raised list prices on 775 brand-name drugs during the first half of January, according to an analysis for The Wall Street Journal by 46brooklyn Research, a nonprofit drug-pricing analytics group. The drugmakers raised prices of their medicines by a median 4.5%, though the prices of some drugs rose by around 10% or higher, according to the research group. The median increase is higher than the rate of inflation, which ticked up to 3.4% in December. (Calfas, 1/18)

Modern Healthcare: Congress Passes Stopgap Funding Bill That Delays DSH Cuts
Congress delayed looming cuts to hospitals, extended community health center funding and addressed a slew of other healthcare priorities in a temporary spending bill that passed Thursday. The measure prevents a partial government shutdown that would have started Friday. Once President Joe Biden signs the legislation, Congress will face a pair of deadlines to fund the government and reauthorize various programs with action on some issues needed by March 1 and others by March 8. (McAuliff, 1/18)

The Mercury News: Long Covid Creates Changes In The Blood, Aiding Detection: New Study
An international team of scientists has found distinct changes in the blood of people with long COVID, suggesting a potential strategy to diagnose and perhaps treat a mysterious condition that takes many forms. The study, published on Thursday in the journal Science, adds to our understanding of long COVID, the lingering and often debilitating symptoms experienced by some people. One significant finding revealed shifts in proteins the body produces in response to inflammation that may persist months after infection. Another detected blood clots and tissue injury. (Krieger, 1/18)

Roll Call: Long COVID Advocates Ask Congress To Improve Federal Response  
Long COVID patients and experts called on lawmakers Thursday to expand clinical trials and better educate doctors on what researchers currently know about the potentially debilitating chronic condition. Protesters were carted out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee room after interrupting the hearing with calls to declare another federal “moonshot” initiative — referencing President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot program. The committee heard testimony from two panels, one of researchers and the second of patients and their families. (Clason, 1/18)

The Atlantic: Long COVID Is Now The Biggest Pandemic Risk For Most People
Although tens of thousands of Americans are still being hospitalized with COVID each week, emergency rooms and intensive-care units are no longer routinely being forced into crisis mode. Long COVID, too, appears to be a less common outcome of new infections than it once was. But where the drop in severe-COVID incidence is clear and prominent, the drop in long-COVID cases is neither as certain nor as significant. (Wu, 1/18)

PBS NewsHour: As COVID Cases Rise, Doctors Worry About The Consequences Of Misinformation
This week, speaking before a crowd of Republicans in New Hampshire, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis laid out another falsehood about COVID vaccines. “Every booster you take, you’re more likely to get COVID as a result of it,” said DeSantis, one of several political leaders who have consistently and without evidence challenged the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. Public health experts and doctors are worried that this kind of misinformation is still shaping how people perceive the virus and tools designed to protect individuals and communities against COVID’s worst outcomes. (Santhanam, 1/18)

CIDRAP: Oral Antiviral Simnotrelvir Shows Promise For Treating Mild COVID-19 
Today in the New England Journal of Medicine Chinese researchers have published positive trial results of simnotrelvir, an oral antiviral that can shorten the duration of mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms. Unlike with Paxlovid or other antivirals tested against the virus, the simnotrelvir trial was conducted on mostly healthy young adults, none of whom had severe symptoms. The study included 1,208 patients enrolled at 35 sites in China; 603 were assigned to receive simnotrelvir, and 605 to receive placebo. The study ran from August to December 2022. (Soucheray, 1/18)

Stat: Head Of FDA's Diagnostics Center, Who Led Through Covid, Retires
Timothy Stenzel, the federal regulator who led the Food and Drug Administration’s diagnostics division during the chaotic time of Covid-19 pandemic, has left the agency. The FDA confirmed Thursday that Stenzel, who led the FDA’s office of in vitro diagnostics, retired at the end of 2023. (Lawrence, 1/18)

Associated Press: Wastewater Tests Can Find Mpox, Study Finds. Expect More Bugs To Be Tracked That Way
Wastewater testing does a good job at detecting mpox infections, U.S. health officials said in a report Thursday that bolsters a push to use sewage to track more diseases. (Stobbe, 1/18)

CBS News: Biden-Harris Campaign To Unveil New Effort To Push Abortion Rights Advocacy Ahead Of Roe Anniversary
President Biden's reelection campaign is preparing to highlight abortion rights in the lead-up to the anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision, CBS News has learned, seeking to tie the upcoming election to a "woman's right to make her own health care decisions — including the very possible reality of a MAGA Republican-led national abortion ban." The extensive plans include ad buys, campaign rallies and events across the U.S. organized in lockstep with the Democratic National Committee, which will launch opinion pieces in local newspapers focusing on statewide abortion bans. (Cordes, Mizelle, and Gómez, 1/18)

The New York Times: What To Know About The Federal Law At The Heart Of The Latest Supreme Court Abortion Case 
One of the newest battlefields in the abortion debate is a decades-old federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, known by doctors and health policymakers as EMTALA. The issue involves whether the law requires hospital emergency rooms to provide abortions in urgent circumstances, including when a woman’s health is threatened by continuing her pregnancy. But, as with many abortion-related arguments, this one could have broader implications. Some legal experts say it could potentially determine how restrictive state abortion laws are allowed to be and whether states can prevent emergency rooms from providing other types of medical care, such as gender-affirming treatments. (Belluck, 1/18)

Military.com: Navy Redesigns Its Pregnancy Policy To Give Sailors More Choice, Career Stability 
The Navy revamped its pregnancy policy this week into an opportunity for sailors to negotiate a new assignment that's far more like a regular rotation instead of a cursory transfer to a nearby, available shore-duty opening. The new policy, unveiled in an administrative message Tuesday, says that sailors who become pregnant while on sea duty will now be able to choose two-year orders to a shore command that lines up with their needs and careers. (Toropin, 1/18)

Times Of San Diego: Avoid All Oysters Imported From Mexico, Health Officials Warn, As Norovirus Cases Spread 
San Diego County public health officials Thursday announced they are expanding an investigation into oyster-linked illnesses to include all oysters harvested from Mexico. Health officials are recommending consumers and restaurants throw away any oysters imported from locations in Mexico until further notice. (1/18)

Los Angeles Times: More Concerning Than Nanoplastics In Water Bottles Are The Chemicals On Them 
They are used to give plastic products their distinctive durability, bendability and sleek, nonstick surface. Yet some of these chemical additives have been tied to maladies such as breast and prostate cancer, heart disease and diabetes, as well as problems with children’s brain development and adult fertility. Of particular concern are a class of additives known as endocrine disruptors — chemicals that mimic and confuse hormone signaling in humans. (Rust, 1/18)

Los Angeles Times: Sludge Compost Is An Increasing Source Of Microplastics, Researchers Say
A team of UCLA researchers has put a new spin on the 1970s rock classic “Dust in the Wind” — only this one is grimmer and grimier than the original hit by Kansas. They found that wind picks up microplastics from human-sewage-based fertilizers at higher concentrations than previously known, and may be an “underappreciated” source of airborne plastic bits, flakes and threads. (Rust, 1/19)

Orange County Register: Can Trash Flushed Down San Gabriel River Be Stopped Before It Hits The Beach?
Take a stroll along the sand in Seal Beach and Long Beach near the San Gabriel River after it rains and you might wonder if you’re in a landfill. Trash often covers the usually pristine beach after a downpour, a scene that is not just unsightly and detrimental to the ocean’s health, but a visual that puts a spotlight on the challenges trying to control trash washed to the coast. (Connelly, 1/18)

Los Angeles Daily News: LA Metro Says Thousands Find Relief Using Portable Toilets — A First For Transit Agency 
Midway into LA Metro’s rollout of portable, self-contained bathrooms at four of its stations, the toilet units were used more than 17,000 times without any reports of illegal activity, the transit agency said on Tuesday, Jan. 16. LA Metro has reached 100 days of service, or a little more than three months into a small-scale, six-month pilot program, providing restrooms at a few designated stations for the first time in the county transit agency’s 30-year history. (Scauzillo, 1/18)

Los Angeles Times: ‘Every Woman’s Worst Nightmare’: Lawsuit Alleges Widespread Sexual Abuse At California Prisons For Women
More than 130 women who were formerly inmates at prisons for women in California have filed suit, saying guards sexually abused them. (Winton, 1/18)

The Desert Sun: Desert Healthcare District Officials Must Make An Immediate Decision On Hospital's Future
The future of one of our valley’s three hospitals hangs in the balance – which is terrifying when we consider how important Palm Springs’ Desert Regional Medical Center is as the only Level 1 designated trauma center in the Coachella Valley. (1/14)

Los Angeles Times: California's Great Strides In Medi-Cal Expansion Are Threatened By System Inefficiencies 
California is striving for a healthier 2024 by vastly expanding its Medicaid program, but the state is at risk of rescinding coverage at the same time. Some of the sharpest impacts, both positive and negative, are affecting Latino health. (Seciah Aquino and Rita Medina, 1/17)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: To Combat The Fentanyl Crisis, Target The Supply Chain
Fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid, has created a major public health crisis in the United States. One of the most pressing questions our leaders face is: How can government at the federal and state level deter the flow of illicit fentanyl? By developing a multipronged supply chain strategy that controls the demand and stamps out the supply. (Christopher Tang and Thomas Choi, 1/19)

East Bay Times: In California, Homelessness Isn't A Crime. That Could Change
Is homelessness a crime? The answer should obviously be no. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court agreed last week to review a case that poses that question, and there is every reason to fear that the conservative justices will allow governments to criminalize sleeping in public spaces even if people have nowhere else to go. (Erwin Chemerinsky, 1/19)

CalMatters: Whatever The Supreme Court Decides, California Can't Keep Criminalizing Homelessness
The U.S. Supreme Court has accepted a case with potentially catastrophic consequences for homeless people in California – and for the Constitution. (Jeffery Selbin, 1/17)

Fresno Bee: Fresno Police Kill Man Having A Breakdown. Where Were The Mental Health Experts?
The Fresno Police Department has more officers (860, aiming for 900) and receives more funding ($261.6 million in the current budget) than during any time in its history. Including $1.2 million for a mental health triage program designed so that behavioral health experts — rather than armed police — would respond to mental-health related incidents. (Marek Warszawski, 1/18)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Rady Children’s Is On A Mission To Be A Place Where Diversity Is Celebrated 
Children in San Diego County have one hospital dedicated exclusively to pediatric health care: Rady Children’s. That reality demands that we deliver the highest quality care attuned to diversity, equity, and inclusion for our patients, their families, our staff and physicians, and other members of the community we both serve and are a part of. (Nancy Maldonado, 1/18)