The Desert Sun: 1 New Mpox Case Reported In Coachella Valley
Riverside County Public Health reported a new case of mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) in the Coachella Valley, spokesperson Jose Arballo Jr. announced Thursday. (Sasic, 7/6)

The Pride LA: Los Angeles County Faces Alarming Rise In Mpox Cases, Urges Vigilance, Vaccination 
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has notified residents and healthcare providers about a troubling increase in Mpox cases. Six new cases have been reported in Los Angeles County in the past week, marking a significant rise from an average of fewer than one case per week in the previous four weeks. For the most up-to-date information and resources, please visit ph.lacounty.gov/mpox or contact the Public Health Call Center at 1-833-540-0473. (7/6)

News-Medical.net: UCLA-Led Team Receives $925,000 CDC Grant For Four Surveillance Projects Tracking Mpox Outbreaks
A UCLA-led team has received $925,000 as part of a new grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct four surveillance projects tracking outbreaks of mpox--formerly known as monkeypox—across the U.S. The effort is led by Dr. David Talan, a professor of emergency medicine and infectious diseases in the UCLA Department of Emergency Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. (7/3)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Countywide Effort Launched To End Homelessness Among Local Veterans 
After years of seeing veteran homelessness decline locally, this year's count saw an increase. The Board of Supervisors endorsed a plan to end veterans homelessness in February. (Warth, 7/6)

Voice Of San Diego: Detractors Fear Tent Crackdown Will Make Things Worse For Black Homeless Residents
A homeless camping ban set to go into effect later this summer is likely to fuel more police interactions with Black San Diegans. Six percent of the city’s overall population is Black per the latest U.S. Census estimates, but Black San Diegans made up 27 percent of the city’s unsheltered population according to the latest annual homelessness count. (Halverstadt, 7/6)

Voice of OC: Judge Blocks Fullerton’s Anti RV Camping Law, For Now
Fullerton residents living in their RVs can continue sleeping in them after an Orange County Superior Court judge blocked city leaders from enforcing a rule that blocks anyone from leaving their vehicle on the street without a permit. (Biesiada, 7/6)

Voice Of San Diego: A Wealthy Family's 100-Year-Old Company Is Blocking A Permanent Housing Project For Homeless People 
San Diego has rewarded family-owned H.G. Fenton Company handsomely over the past 117 years.  ... Now, in the midst of a dire homeless crisis, city leaders came to Fenton looking for a little help. They needed Fenton’s seal of approval to buy a motel to permanently house homeless people. Fenton not only declined. Company leaders threatened to fight the project with the full weight of their company, a lawyer for the San Diego Housing Commission said. (Huntsberry, 7/5)

AP: Biden Launches New Push To Limit Health Care Costs, Hoping To Show He Can Save Money For Families 
President Joe Biden on Friday plans to roll out a new set of initiatives to reduce health care costs: a crackdown on scam insurance plans, new guidance to prevent surprise medical bills and an effort to reduce medical debt tied to credit cards. Biden’s remarks would build on previous initiatives to limit health care costs, with the Department of Health and Human Services releasing new estimates showing 18.7 million older adults and other Medicare beneficiaries will save an estimated $400 per year in prescription drug costs in 2025 because of the president placing a cap on out-of-pocket spending as part of last year’s Inflation Reduction Act. (Boak, 7/7)

CNN: Biden Wants To Roll Back Trump's Expansion Of Short-Term Health Insurance Plans
The Biden administration wants to crack down on short-term health insurance plans, which it says can leave patients saddled with hefty medical bills. The proposed rule, announced Friday as part of a series of actions aimed at lowering health care costs, would limit the duration of these controversial plans to three months with the option of a one-month extension. It would also require that plans provide consumers with clear explanations of their benefits, which are typically less comprehensive than other policies. (Luhby, 7/7)

San Francisco Chronicle: What The Newly Approved Alzheimer’s Drug Leqembi Means For Patients
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday granted full approval for the Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi, also known by its generic name lecanemab. Unlike previously approved Alzheimer’s drugs, which aim to improve brain function, lecanemab is the first that appears to slow the course of the disease. In clinical trials, the medication – given by intravenous injection every two weeks for 18 months – appeared to slow cognitive decline by 27%. That meant patients, on average, extended their ability to perform activities of daily life by five to six months compared to those who took the placebo. (Ho, 7/6)

Reuters: Explainer: Who Is Eligible For The New FDA-Approved Alzheimer's Drug? 
The FDA recommends on Leqembi's label that doctors conduct testing for a gene called APOE4 that is associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer's as well as brain swelling associated with amyloid-lowering drugs. The FDA included a "boxed warning" that flags the risk of brain swelling on the label. The agency does not require APOE4 genetic testing and doctors and patients will need to weigh the risk of brain swelling against the drug's potential benefits. (Beasley, 7/6)

The New York Times: What to Know if You’re Considering the Alzheimer’s Drug Leqembi
Leqembi is not a cure for Alzheimer’s, and the drug doesn’t improve patients’ memories or cognitive abilities. It also does not stop the disease from getting worse. What Leqembi can do is modestly slow down cognitive decline in patients who are in the early stages of the disease. Data from a large clinical trial suggested that the drug may slow decline by about five months over a period of 18 months for those patients. How the drug might affect a patient’s daily life is likely to vary widely. (Belluck, 7/6)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Falck Meets Goal For 1st Time As San Diego Ambulance Provider
Major changes San Diego is making to city ambulance service began paying off last month, when significantly more ambulances were on the road for more hours — exceeding a city goal that had never before been met. (Garrick, 7/6)

Axios: Home Health Group Sues CMS Over Payment Cuts
The home health industry is suing the Biden administration over hundreds of millions of dollars in planned Medicare cuts that it says were improperly calculated and could imperil in-home services nationwide. The National Association of Home Care and Hospice suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, escalates tensions between home health agencies and the administration over the way providers are paid. (Dreher and Goldman, 7/7)

Military.com: 5 New Genetic Diagnostic Tests To Be Covered By Tricare
The Defense Health Agency has extended a pilot program that covers many now-common laboratory genetic tests and added five more to improve diagnostics and care for patients with breast, blood and prostate cancer and suspicious-looking moles or skin lesions. The Pentagon's health arm announced Thursday that it has extended its pilot program that covers more than 45 laboratory-developed tests, or LDTs, through July 18, 2028. (Kime, 7/6)

Capitol Weekly: California Governments Spend Millions Lobbying Sacramento 
Most California taxpayers would tell you they hate that special interests spend so much money lobbying government officials in Sacramento. But what about when the special interest is their own local government? Nearly one out of five of the special interests currently registered to lobby in the state of California (at least 16 percent) are themselves California government entities. That includes at least 170 cities, 42 counties, 24 community college districts, 63 school districts and 204 local agencies, like joint-powers authorities or special districts. (7/5)

Voice of OC: Orange County’s City Of Seniors May Allow Cannabis Businesses
Laguna Woods residents are arguing cannabis isn’t just for the younger generation. Orange County’s city with the highest percentage of senior citizens is the latest in the county to discuss bringing local cannabis shops for residents to access medicinal and recreational marijuana. The council is holding a public hearing at their upcoming July 19 meeting to get more input from residents and city staff about certain regulations for these businesses. (HIcks, 7/5)

Los Angeles Blade: A California Mayor Calls LGBTQ+ Identities A “Choice Of Lifestyle”
George Chen’s remarks have kicked off a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ controversies in the South Bay city. (7/6)

The Oaklandside: Oakland Baker’s Friends Seek Restorative Justice For Man Charged With Her Murder
After learning that a 19-year-old man, Ishmael Jenkins Burch, has been arrested and charged with the murder of Oakland baker Jen Angel during a robbery earlier this year, Angel’s close friends have renewed their calls for a process of accountability and healing that doesn’t involve incarceration. ... “I don’t know what it’s like to be Black, but I know what it’s like to be young and poor and desperate and thinking I needed to commit crimes in order to survive,” said Ocean Mottley, Angel’s fiancé.

Bay Area News Group: The Case Of The Missing Bacteria In Bay Area Poop
New Stanford research has discovered that the gut of the average Bay Area resident has only half as many species of bacteria as hunter-gatherers in remote northern Tanzania, a decline attributed to the industrialized world’s changing diets and lifestyles. (Krieger, 7/6)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Hospital Markers Up In A Few Reporting Countries 
In its variant proportion update, the WHO said Omicron XBB.1.5 levels continue to decline steadily, falling from 30.1% to 16.3% of sequences over the past month. Meanwhile, XBB.1.16 levels continue to rise, up from 18.1% to 21.2% over the reporting period. The WHO said proportions vary by region, with XBB.1.5 dominant in the Americas and XBB.1.16 most common in Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Western Pacific. Of the other subvariants that the WHO monitors, only three increased: XBB, XBB.1.9.2, and XBB.2.3. (Schnirring, 7/6)

CIDRAP: Researchers Create Test To Detect SARS-CoV-2 In Any Animal Species 
A team led by University of Illinois researchers has developed a test they say can detect SARS-CoV-2 in any species of wild or domesticated animal. Their research, published today in mSphere, details the development and validation of their monoclonal antibody (mAb)-based blocking enzyme-linked immunoassay (bELISA) test, which the study authors say is a useful tool for identifying potential new animal reservoirs to prevent future coronavirus outbreaks. (Van Beusekom, 7/6)

CIDRAP: Report: No Evidence Bleach Consumed To Cure COVID-19 During Pandemic 
A new report dispels accounts that Americans drank bleach to cure or prevent COVID-19, a practice even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned against during the early months of the pandemic. The report was published yesterday in PLOS One. (Soucheray, 7/6)

Los Angeles Times: US To Launch Global Coalition To Fight Fentanyl Trafficking
Citing a “grave and growing” danger, the Biden administration plans to unite dozens of countries in a coalition to battle the production and trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs responsible for the deaths of thousands of people here and abroad. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is scheduled Friday to host a virtual meeting of his counterparts from 84 countries to propose law enforcement and public health strategies to confront the massive worldwide opioid trade, the State Department said. (Wilkinson, 7/7)

The New York Times: Heat Records Are Broken Around the Globe as Earth Warms, Fast
The past three days were quite likely the hottest in Earth’s modern history, scientists said on Thursday, as an astonishing surge of heat across the globe continued to shatter temperature records from North America to Antarctica. The spike comes as forecasters warn that the Earth could be entering a multiyear period of exceptional warmth driven by two main factors: continued emissions of heat-trapping gases, mainly caused by humans burning oil, gas and coal; and the return of El Niño, a cyclical weather pattern. (Plumer and Shao, 7/6)

The Washington Post: How Our Brain Tries To Beat The Heat — And Why Heatstroke Is Dangerous
Our brain works hard to coordinate and regulate our body’s temperature. But rising temperatures and humidity make us increasingly susceptible to heatstroke, especially during exercise. “When you overheat your body, you can basically cook your cells, essentially, and that will cause cell death and cell dysfunction,” said Rebecca Stearns, the chief operating officer of the Korey Stringer Institute, a nonprofit housed at the University of Connecticut dedicated to studying and preventing heatstroke in athletes. (Sima, 7/6)

The Washington Post: More Than 100 Migrants Died Of Heat Near U.S.-Mexico Border This Year
More than 100 migrants have died from heat this year along the U.S.-Mexico border as the Southwest continues to swelter through record-breaking heat. There were 13 deaths and 226 rescues for dehydration and other heat-related causes last week alone, U.S. Border Patrol chief Jason Owens said Wednesday on Twitter. (Vinall, 7/7)

San Francisco Chronicle: Doctors Leaving Medicine Isn’t From Burnout. It’s A System-Wide Crisis
Some of the best people I know in health care are jumping ship, and precious little is being done to stem the tide of what is a clinician exodus. And while I empathize with those health care professionals who are safeguarding their physical and mental health by leaving, I am terrified for those who need care. (Dipti, Barot, 7/5)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Broke Public Health. Remembering The Lessons Of HIV Can Fix It
For more than 20 years, I have had the privilege of treating people with HIV. Learning about the disease is what drove me to become an infectious disease doctor back when reports of its emergence were first described in 1981. (Monica Gandhi, 7/1)

Capitol Weekly: Youth Are The Key To Reimagining California's Approach To Mental Health
Amid a nationwide mental health crisis, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create lasting change. This opportunity affects everyone’s future, and our young people can’t afford for us to miss it – in California or across the nation. (Kassy Poles and Dr. Mark Ghaly, 7/6)

The Mercury News: California Must Find Middle Lane On Legalizing Psychedelics
Can we find a middle lane as we consider legalizing psychedelics? A bill to decriminalize five psychedelics is progressing through the California Legislature. The substances are considered a lifeline by some. But what about the risks? A Bay Area 21-year-old died recently after taking psilocybin. It was purchased in Oakland where psychedelics are decriminalized. No instructions given. They had an adverse reaction and fell to their death. A Marin County mom lost her 16-year-old when he took psilocybin after reading he could talk to God. Shayne became ecstatic then “flew” off their deck. (Kristin Nash, 7/6)

Los Angeles Times: Homeless Stats Are Grim. Keep Expanding Housing And Services 
Once again, the news from the annual tally of the Los Angeles County homeless population is grim. Based on the three-night point-in-time count conducted in January, the number of homeless people in Los Angeles rose by 10% to 46,260 this year from 41,980 in 2022. (7/7)