San Gabriel Valley Tribune: Antelope Valley Medical Center Nurses Rally For Increased Staffing 
Nurses rallied outside Antelope Valley Medical Center early Thursday, Dec. 4, claiming chronic short-staffing has left them overworked and undermined patient care. (Smith, 1/4)

Reuters: New Lawsuits Claim CooperSurgical IVF Solution Killed Embryos 
Two couples have sued fertility technology company CooperSurgical, claiming that a solution made by the company for growing embryos for in vitro fertilization was toxic and killed the embryos they hoped to use to have children. In a pair of lawsuits filed in California Superior Court in Los Angeles on Thursday, the two couples said CooperSurgical belatedly recalled several lots of its so-called embryo culture medium late last year, after the embryos were lost. They said the company has not made any public statement about the recall, leaving fertility patients in the dark. (Pierson, 1/4)

Times Of San Diego: Blakespear Teams Up With Senate Colleague To Introduce New Gun Violence Prevention Bills 
Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, joined a colleague Thursday to announce legislation intended to bolster California’s “Red Flag” law and other attempts at gun violence prevention. Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, and Blakespear’s SB 899 would make it easier for California courts to ensure that people who are deemed a threat to themselves or others no longer have access to firearms. It would establish uniform standards for the state’s gun violence restraining order law, along with laws related to other laws governing such orders. (1/4)

CNN: 300,000 Lives Could Be Saved In The Next Decade If States Followed California’s Example On Gun Laws
Nearly 300,000 lives could be saved from the nation’s wave of gun violence over the next decade if every US state enacted gun control laws like those held by states such as California and New York, according to a new study announced Friday by a gun violence prevention non-profit group. (Tucker and Jimenez, 1/5)

Firstpost: 17-Year-Old Behind Shooting At Iowa School: Why Are More Adolescents Picking Up Guns In The US?
The 17-year-old student at the high school is believed to have acted alone. The motive of the attack was not clear, according to law enforcement officials. Dylan Butler was armed with two firearms – a handgun and shotgun – and a makeshift explosive device when he walked into Perry High School around 7.30 am. He opened fire on the campus minutes before classes resumed. The teenage gunman’s friends told The Associated Press that he was a quiet person who was bullied for years. “He was hurting. He got tired. He got tired of the bullying. He got tired of the harassment. Was it a smart idea to shoot up the school? No. God, no,” said 17-year-old Yesenia Roeder. Her sister Khamya Hall, also 17, echoed similar views alongside their mother Alita. They said that their classmate, who police identified as the shooter, was bullied relentlessly since elementary school. That escalated recently, they said, when his younger sister started getting picked on too. Officials at the school didn’t intervene, they said, and that was “the last straw” for Butler. (1/5)

Advocate: Right-Wing Influencers Focus On Alleged Shooter's Gender Identity
While law enforcement has not commented about the alleged shooter’s gender identity or sexual orientation, social media users focused on the appearance of a Pride flag on an account allegedly linked to the shooter, and it led to a narrative amplified by right-wing influencers online. That account is no longer available, but screen grabs of its content have circulated widely on social media. ... Chaya Raichik, known for running the anti-LGBTQ+ Libs of TikTok social media accounts, began posting hours before the shooter was identified, alleging him to be gender fluid, based upon a hashtag allegedly included in the person’s social media footprint. She later posted a meme inaccurately linking several mass shooters to the LGBTQ+ community. Elon Musk amplified this idea on the platform X, formerly Twitter. (Wiggins, 1/4)

The Hill: Haley Calls For Mental Health Reform After Iowa School Shooting 
Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley called for mental health reform following the deadly school shooting in Perry, Iowa on Thursday. “We have to deal with the cancer that is mental health. We have to,” Haley told voters at a CNN town hall in Iowa. “One in three people have a mental health issue, but if treated they can live a perfectly normal life. What we see is that 80 percent of mass shooters are in some sort of crisis at the time that they do that. We have got to do better. The problem is we don’t have enough mental health therapists.” (Manchester, 1/4)

The Hill: Ramaswamy Slams ‘Knee-Jerk Policy Reactions’ After Iowa Shooting 
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy criticized the “knee-jerk policy reactions” he expects to see from politicians calling for gun control legislation after a school shooter killed one student and injured five others on Thursday. In a sit-down with voters Thursday, Ramaswamy said the legislative focus shouldn’t be on guns, but on mental health. (Robertson, 1/4)

CBS News: As Gun Violence Increases, Active Shooter Defense Industry Booms 
American schools are expected to spend $3.5 billion on security this year, according to the research firm Omdia, part of a growing trend in spending on defense against active shooters. Greg Vecchi, director of research and training at SafeDefend, says the company's technology can help people survive a shooting at schools and workplaces. (Saberi, 1/4)

Politico: Hydroxychloroquine Could Have Caused 17,000 Deaths During COVID, Study Finds
Nearly 17,000 people may have died after taking hydroxycholoroquine during the first wave of COVID, according to a study by French researchers. The anti-malaria drug was prescribed to some patients hospitalized with COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic, "despite the absence of evidence documenting its clinical benefits," the researchers point out in their paper, published in the February issue of Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy. Now, researchers have estimated that some 16,990 people in six countries — France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the U.S. — may have died as a result. (Eccles, 1/24)

San Francisco Chronicle: Paxlovid Doesn’t Reduce Risk Of Long COVID, UCSF Study Finds
The COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid does not reduce the risk of long COVID for vaccinated people who’ve tested positive for the virus for the first time, according to a new study by UCSF researchers. The study, published Thursday in the Journal of Medical Virology, also found that a higher share than previously reported experienced rebound symptoms and tested positive for COVID after taking the antiviral medication. (Flores, 1/4)

The New York Times: Paxlovid Cuts Covid Death Risk. But Those Who Need It Are Not Taking It
As Covid rises again, killing about 1,500 Americans each week, medical researchers are trying to understand why so few people are taking Paxlovid, a medicine that is stunningly effective in preventing severe illness and death from the disease. A study of a million high-risk people with Covid found that only about 15 percent who were eligible for the drug took it. If instead half of the eligible patients in the United States had gotten Paxlovid during the time period of the research, 48,000 deaths could have been prevented, the authors of the study, conducted by the National Institutes of Health, concluded. (Jewett, 1/4)

CIDRAP: Study Describes Clinical Features That May Lead To Long COVID
Today a study published in Nature Communications describes features of the acute phase of COVID-19 infection seen in patients who later developed long COVID, and a second study in the same journal suggests that long-COVID fatigue is linked to changes to the mitochondria in muscle cells. (Soucheray, 1/4)

Reuters: COVID-19 Treatment Developer Humanigen Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Drug developer Humanigen has filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to a court filing, after struggling to get regulatory approval for its COVID-19 treatment. The Burlingame, California-based company, once controlled by convicted pharma executive Martin Shkreli, listed assets worth $521,000 and total debt of $44.1 million, as per the Jan.3 filing. (1/4)

NPR: COVID And Flu Cases Are Rising Across The U.S. 
In most U.S. states, respiratory illness levels are currently considered "high" or "very high," according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A few respiratory viruses have been driving the upward trend. (Huang, 1/5)

The New York Times: F.D.A. To Issue First Approval For Mass Drug Imports To States From Canada 
The Food and Drug Administration has decided to allow Florida to import millions of dollars worth of medications from Canada at far lower prices than in the United States, overriding fierce decades-long objections from the pharmaceutical industry, according to a senior administration official. The approval is a major policy shift for the United States, and supporters hope it will be a significant step forward in the long and largely unsuccessful effort to reign in drug prices. Individuals in the United States are allowed to buy directly from Canadian pharmacies, but states have long wanted to be able to purchase medicines in bulk for their Medicaid programs, government clinics and prisons from Canadian wholesalers. (Jewett and Stolberg, 1/5)

Axios: Dizzying Reason Behind America's Drug Shortage: Low Prices
A rash of generic drug shortages across the United States can be partly explained by a somewhat counterintuitive and politically inconvenient factor: The prices are way too low. (Owens, 1/5)

Reuters: Wegovy, Ozempic Not Linked To Increase In Suicidal Thoughts, US Study Finds 
A large U.S. study found no evidence that taking Novo Nordisk's Ozempic or Wegovy is tied to an increase in suicidal thoughts, researchers reported on Friday. Both Ozempic for type 2 diabetes and the obesity treatment Wegovy have the same active ingredient, semaglutide.Instead, the analysis of electronic medical record data from more than 1.8 million patients found a lower risk of new and recurrent suicidal thoughts in those taking semaglutide compared to those using other medications for weight loss or diabetes. (Lapid, 1/5)

Bloomberg: Weight Loss Drugs Can Now Be Delivered To Your Home By Eli Lilly
Eli Lilly & Co. launched a service to sell its weight-loss drugs directly to the public. That pits the company against startups such as Ro and Noom that have fed the frenzy over GLP-1 medications by making them easy to access online. ... It will also offer direct home delivery of certain drugs through third-party pharmacies, Lilly has partnered with closely-held Form Health Inc., a virtual weight loss program, on obesity and will work with 9amHealth Inc on its diabetes offerings. (Muller, 1/4)

Modern Healthcare: Ozempic Demand Drives Insurers To Ease Bariatric Surgery Coverage
Health insurance companies are expanding their coverage of bariatric surgery amid rising demand for pricey new weight loss drugs. Geisinger Health Plan and Blue Cross and Blue Shield carriers in Massachusetts, Michigan and Vermont are among those easing access to bariatric surgery over the past year as patients seek medicines such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic and Eli Lilly's Trulicity that can cost about $1,000 a month in perpetuity. (Tepper, 1/4)

Stat: Baby Monitor Videos Yield Evidence For Long-Suspected Link Between Seizures And Unexplained Toddler Deaths
The baby monitor didn’t go off. Any sound or motion in the twins’ room was supposed to set off an alarm — but in the wee hours of Nov. 27, 2022, Katie Czajkowski-Fell and Justin Fell weren’t woken up. They’d gotten it because of Hayden’s febrile seizures. These are common, generally nothing to worry about, the doctors said. Toddlers’ immune responses can be more assertive than adults’, burning into action against a world they’re still getting used to, routinely sparking high fevers, potentially irritating the brain. Hayden would likely grow out of them. (Boodman, 1/4)

Reuters: Consumer Reports Finds 'Widespread' Presence Of Plastics In Food 
Consumer Reports has found that plastics retain a "widespread" presence in food despite the health risks, and called on regulators to reassess the safety of plastics that come into contact with food during production. The non-profit consumer group said on Thursday that 84 out of 85 supermarket foods and fast foods it recently tested contained "plasticizers" known as phthalates, a chemical used to make plastic more durable. (Stempel, 1/4)

WBUR: Glitter's Microplastic Problem: The Environmental Case For Breaking Up With Glitter In Makeup 
Glitter — a microplastic — washes off into landfills and waterways where it lives for a thousand or more years, impacting water and wildlife. Beauty journalist Jessica DeFino is calling for people to give up glitter in makeup. ... “Over hundreds of years, [glitter] breaks up into smaller and smaller microplastic particles, which go on to infiltrate the water supply, the air, soil, animals, and even human bodies, causing negative health effects to people, on the planet,” DeFino says. (Young, Healy, and Hagan, 1/4)

Stat: A Non-Hormonal Male Birth Control Gel Shows Early Promise
Between condoms and vasectomies lies a vast, undeveloped chasm of male birth control. Contraline, a device startup that released early, positive clinical data in a press release on Thursday, hopes to fill it. (Lawrence, 1/4)

CBS News: Study: Disrupted Sleep In Early Middle Age Linked To Cognitive Decline
People who have more interrupted sleep in their 30s and 40s are more than twice as likely to have memory and thinking problems a decade later, according to a new study. ... The research was published Wednesday in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. ... People with the most disrupted sleep were found to be more than twice as likely to score worse than average on the set of cognitive tests compared with those who had the least disrupted sleep. (McPhilips, 1/4)

Los Angeles Daily News: Private Sector Steps Up To Provide Nursing Needs 
While doctors get the headlines and the glory, nurses are the glue that keeps our medical system healing. And California has a shortage of them. (1/3)

San Francisco Chronicle: Will CARE Courts And Conservatorship Actually Help California In 2024?
Homelessness in California hit a record high in 2023. Meanwhile, San Francisco logged more fatal drug overdoses than it did in 2020, formerly its deadliest year. One might think numbers like these would inspire state and local leaders to get on the same page in addressing the crises. (12/30)

Los Angeles Daily News: California Should Reform Child Neglect Laws 
We’ve all read enough news coverage about government agencies to understand that they rarely handle basic responsibilities (filling potholes, etc.) in an efficient and competent manner. Given that track record, it’s not hard to imagine the problems that occur when government officials insert themselves into the most private and emotionally complex aspects of people’s lives. (1/4)

Los Angeles Daily News: The AIDS Healthcare Foundation Vs. Sensible Housing Policy 
A long-running war over rent control laws in California is heating up again this year as the California Apartment Association seeks to turn the tables on its longtime nemesis, Michael Weinstein of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. (1/3)

CalMatters: How A San Diego Group Uses Wildfire Reduction Work To Treat Homelessness
A potential solution to reduce homelessness and ease the effects of climate change came from a man living in a San Diego canyon. (Keith Wilson, 1/2)

San Diego Union-Tribune: More Newborns Are Suffering From Fentanyl Effects 
A new syndrome of fentanyl-exposed newborns has been recently described, with physical features such as small head size, droopy eyelids, cleft palate and brain abnormalities. As a neonatologist in Downtown San Diego, this is not surprising. Health care providers in San Diego know that fentanyl use during pregnancy is increasing. Today, however, we are experiencing a new wave of fentanyl, more potent than before, impacting pregnant mothers and their newborns. (Nana Matoba, 1/2)

Orange County Register: ‘I Was Afraid He’d Yell At Me For Going In His Room. What I Heard Was Him Dying.’
Eden Neville was only 12 that night — the night her brother took the pill he thought was Oxycodone. Her room was right next to his. She got up in the wee hours to use the bathroom and heard strange sounds coming from behind his door. “I wanted to go check on him to see if he was all right,” the Aliso Viejo teen says in a devastating new short film. (Teri Sforza, 1/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Can AI Solve SF’s Fentanyl Crisis? I Asked Chatbots What To Do
With fentanyl deaths reaching grim highs here, it’s clear the current strategy has failed. Since Mayor London Breed and the Silicon Valley zillionaires backing her re-election both tout AI as the future and bemoan the city’s open-air drug scenes, I decided to conduct an experiment. I asked the most popular AI chatbots a simple question: “What is the best way to solve San Francisco’s fentanyl overdose epidemic?” (Gil Duran, 1/2)

EdSource: Public Universities Should Embrace Students With Intellectual Disabilities — Now
On Oct. 10, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 447, which authorizes public higher education in California to provide educationally equitable environments that give each Californian, regardless of age, economic circumstance or certain specified characteristics, including mental disability, a reasonable opportunity to develop fully their potential, thereby opening the gates to inclusive higher education settings. (Sudha Krishnan, 1/1)

Bay Area Reporter: Navigating Gender Transition In The Workplace
As the CEO of a business, you are responsible for the company's performance as well as its image in the eyes of employees, clients, and the public. When I decided to come out as a trans woman in the office, I had to consider how my identity would affect my career. Unfortunately, I had let this worry over how I would be affected prevent me from living as my authentic self for far too long. Especially as the CEO of my company, navigating my gender transition in the workplace was one of the biggest challenges I faced. (Wynne Nowland, 1/3)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Why It's Time To Stop Drug Testing On Animals 
In 1937, there was great demand for a new way to treat streptococcal infections, which range from mild tonsillitis to scarlet fever to toxic shock syndrome. A drug called sulfanilamide, when taken in tablet and powder form, had proven effective. Now a pharmaceutical company wanted to market a liquid form, which it tested for flavor, appearance and fragrance. (David A. Brenner, 1/3)