San Francisco Chronicle: This Is How Much Longer You’ll Have To Wear Masks At SFO, On BART
The federal mandate requiring face masks in airports, airplanes and public transit has again been extended, this time to April 18. The extension of the mandate by Transportation Security Administration makes public transit systems, such as BART and Muni, as well as airports, among the remaining places in the Bay Area where face masks are required to be worn. (Cano, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Mask Mandate Extended For Air Travel And Public Transit
Travelers will have to continue to wear masks until at least April 18 when flying commercially and in other transportation settings, including on buses, ferries and subways, officials announced Thursday. The mandate, put into place early last year by the Biden administration as a public health measure during the coronavirus pandemic, has been extended multiple times. It had been set to expire March 18 before the one-month extension, announced by the Transportation Security Administration. (Aratani, Duncan and Pager, 3/10)

Bay Area News Group: 'Mushroomed Out Of Control': Federal Judge Urges Santa Clara County To Resolve Case Against Calvary Chapel
In a federal court hearing on Thursday, a judge urged Santa Clara County to resolve its lawsuit against Calvary Chapel, which has refused to pay $2.8 million in fines levied against it for holding large mask-free services during the height of the pandemic. (Greschler, 3/10)

Bay Area News Group: Oakland Schools Keep Mask Mandate As California Lifts It
Although the state is lifting its indoor mask mandate for schools on Monday, Oakland Unified is telling its students, teachers and all campus visitors “Not so fast.” The school district decided this week the masks must stay on at least another month indoors and another two weeks outdoors as an extra precaution against another potential COVID-19 surge. The school board didn’t budge from that position at its meeting Wednesday night despite complaints from some parents who said enough is enough. (Sciacca, 3/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Hybrid ‘Deltacron’ COVID Virus Is A Biological Curiosity. Is It A Cause For Alarm?
A handful of COVID cases caused by an omicron-delta hybrid have been identified in the United States — including at least one in California reported by health officials this week — but scientists say the so-called deltacron variant looks unlikely to supplant either of its parents and fuel another coronavirus surge. The colloquially named deltacron — the World Health Organization has not deemed it a serious enough threat to assign it a letter from the Greek alphabet — seems to have developed from a process called recombination, in which a new variant arises in a person infected with two variants at once. A team of scientists at Helix, a genomic sequencing company based in San Mateo, has confirmed two cases of delta-omicron recombination, according to a non-peer-reviewed study set to be published in coming days. (Allday, 3/10)

Los Angeles Times: How Will L.A. County Find Warning Signs Of The Next Coronavirus Surge?
As the Omicron surge of the coronavirus continues to wane, Los Angeles County has been lifting COVID-19 mandates, including indoor masking and vaccine verification in certain settings. But with those guardrails removed, how will health officials detect signs of potential surges? (Lin II and Money, 3/10)

East Bay Times: Lawsuit: California Mother Of 3 Died After Being Repeatedly Denied COVID Vaccine
A 45-year-old mother from Mission Viejo with multiple sclerosis died from COVID because she was denied the coronavirus vaccine by her health care provider, and after falling ill was not given a monoclonal antibody treatment, attorneys for her family allege in a lawsuit filed this week. A wrongful death and medical negligence lawsuit filed against Kaiser Permanente in Orange County Superior Court says medical workers providing care to Nerissa Regnier made false claims about the coronavirus vaccines and whether Regnier could receive them due to her MS treatment. (Emery, 3/11)

Los Angeles Times: Hollywood Executive To Plead Guilty To COVID-19 Loan Fraud 
A Beverly Hills resident and former chief executive of Aviron Pictures has agreed to plead guilty to federal fraud and money laundering charges after he pocketed nearly $1 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans meant to help businesses pay workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, prosecutors said. William Sadleir, 67, agreed to plead guilty to one count each of bank fraud and money laundering and is scheduled to formally enter the pleas next week, according to an announcement Thursday by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Central District of California. (Yee, 3/10)

Modesto Bee: Kaiser Expert Says People May Need An Annual COVID-19 Shot
An infectious disease expert for Kaiser Permanente said he would not be surprised if a COVID-19 vaccination becomes an annual routine to guard against endemic coronavirus disease. Dr. Stephen Parodi, clinical lead for Kaiser’s coronavirus response, said in a Zoom session with the media Wednesday that the strong immunity conferred by coronavirus vaccines is short-term. Pending the results of additional monitoring, people may be rolling up their sleeves for a booster shot every year for protection against variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, he said. It could be in the form of a combination vaccine for COVID-19 and seasonal flu, he said. (Carlson, 3/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Weaker COVID Vaccine Response Among Kids Poses Medical Challenge For Bay Area
Perhaps no issue has been more fraught throughout the coronavirus pandemic than the safety of children and the steps taken to protect them, from school closures to masking to vaccination mandates. Now, with youngsters back in the classroom and starting to remove masks, news that the only COVID-19 vaccine available to them may not work as well as intended presents parents, educators and doctors an unexpected challenge. (Ho, 3/10)

Roll Call: Senate Clears $1.5 Trillion Fiscal 2022 Omnibus Spending Bill
A massive spending bill for the fiscal year that began over five months ago is headed to President Joe Biden's desk after the Senate cleared it for his signature late Thursday, putting an end to a frenzied stretch of negotiations in both chambers this week. On a 68-31 vote, the Senate passed the 2,700-page, $1.5 trillion omnibus containing all 12 fiscal 2022 spending bills, $13.6 billion in supplemental appropriations to address the crisis in Ukraine and a lengthy list of unrelated measures fortunate enough to ride on the must-pass vehicle.  ... Leaders in both parties spent hours Thursday negotiating with GOP senators, trying to reach an agreement on amendments they were seeking that would allow for a unanimous consent agreement to proceed to the bill quickly. (McPherson, Weiss and Lerman, 3/10)

PBS NewsHour: Millions Of U.S. Children Could Face Hunger As Omnibus Bill Moves Without School Meal Waivers
School nutrition and child development experts say millions of children in the United States could go hungry as soon as this summer, because the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill moving through Congress this week failed to include waivers that gives schools flexibility in preparing and distributing food to students. That’s even as a growing number of students are expected to need remedial help to overcome learning loss driven by remote classes and quarantine. During the COVID pandemic, Congress authorized the federal Department of Agriculture to grant waivers that covered rising food prices caused by supply chain issues. Those waivers reimbursed schools at higher rates for the cost of school meals and allowed schools to prepare food that families could either pick up or have delivered at or near their homes. (Santhanham, 3/10)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento, California Teacher Union, SEIU Approve Strike 
Members of two unions representing teachers, maintenance workers, bus drivers and other staff in the Sacramento City Unified School District voted Thursday to authorize a strike if district officials continue “to negotiate in bad faith on key issues related to staffing, the quality of instruction, and health and safety protocols,” the labor organizations announced. (Lillis, 3/10)

EdSource: Will The Pandemic Leave A Lasting Mark On Baby Brains? 
Donise Keller, a child care provider in Antioch, takes care of a little boy coping with some developmental delays. The 3½-year-old doesn’t talk very much, and he doesn’t enjoy interacting with other children. She fears he may be one of many youngsters whose growth has been stymied by the pandemic, which has dominated his short life.“ These children have been isolated too much,” said Keller, who has worked in the child care sector for 20 years. “Being around other children is what motivates them to grow and develop. If you are home all day with family, especially as an only child, there are no other children to inspire you and model behavior for you.” (D'Souza, 3/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Blue Cross Blue Shield Owner Anthem Seeks To Change Name To Elevance Health
Anthem Inc. plans to change its name to Elevance Health Inc., aiming to recast itself as a company with a broader portfolio and focus than its traditional business of health insurance. Anthem, which owns Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states, will need shareholder approval to make the change. The vote is scheduled to occur May 18. (Mathews, 3/10)

The Mercury News: Prosecutors Say California Hospice Fraud Scheme Cost Government $30 Million, 3 Indicted
Felony federal charges were filed against three people, including two Southern California residents, accused in a scheme that defrauded the government of more than $30 million for hospice services provided to patients who were not terminally ill at two Pasadena-based hospice companies, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Dr. Victor Contreras, 66, of Santa Paula, and Callie Jean Black, 63, of Lancaster, were arrested Tuesday, March 8 and named in a 14-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the DOJ said in a news release. Juanita Antenor, 59, a former Pasadena resident and owner of the hospice companies, was also named in the indictment. (Lee, 3/10)

Los Angeles Daily News: Dignity Health Northridge Hospital Medical Center Sending Supplies To Ukraine
With the Russian invasion moves into its third week, the need for supplies in Ukraine has intensified. On Thursday, March 10, 10 pallets filled with medical supplies headed for the war lined a parking area at Dignity Health Northridge Hospital Medical Center, ready to be shipped to Ukraine. (Gutknecht, 3/10)

Los Angeles Times: Woman To Sue San Francisco Over Arrest Based On Rape Kit DNA
A woman whose DNA from a sexual assault examination was later used by police to arrest her in connection with an unrelated property crime plans to sue the city and county of San Francisco, her attorney announced Thursday. Adante Pointer and his client intend to file the lawsuit after a 45-day waiting period mandated by law for officials to respond to the notice of intent to file suit, Pointer told The Times. (Yee, 3/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Woman Linked To S.F. Crime Through Rape-Exam DNA Speaks Out: ‘If I Can’t Even Trust The Police, Who Can I Trust?’
The woman at the center of a San Francisco police scandal after investigators used evidence from her sexual assault exam to link her to an unrelated property crime is planning to sue the Police Department, saying the incident made her feel like she was “reliving” her trauma all over again. “If I can’t even trust the police,” she said, “who can I trust?” (Cassidy, 3/10)

Los Angeles Times: Four Days, 170 Miles In Bone-Dry Death Valley: Could You Survive This Walk? He Did
It was only a matter of hours before the hallucinations took hold. “I am starting to crack,” Cameron Hummels texted on a February morning after hiking more than 113 miles on foot in one of the most desolate, extreme environments on the face of the planet — Death Valley. (Seidman, 3/10)

NBC News: This Season's Flu Vaccine Was A Poor Match For The Virus, CDC Reports
This season's flu vaccine offers meager protection against mild cases of influenza, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. Against the most common flu strain circulating this season, the flu shot reduced a person's chance of getting a mild case by 16 percent, which is "considered not statistically significant," the CDC authors wrote, though the shots should offer some protection against more severe illness. (Lovelace Jr., 3/10)

NPR: The 2020 Census Undercounted Black People, Latinos And Native Americans 
Disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic and interference by former President Donald Trump's administration raised alarms about the increased risk of the once-a-decade tally missing swaths of the country's population. COVID-19 also caused multiple delays to the bureau's Post-Enumeration Survey that's used to determine how accurate the census results are and inform planning for the next national count in 2030. (Wang, 3/11)

NPR: Therapy Dogs Can Help Relieve Pain In The ER
Therapy dogs have long visited nursing homes and schools — even disaster sites — offering comfort to humans. A new study shows that a 10-minute visit from a therapy dog can help relieve patients' pain in the emergency room. The research from the University of Saskatchewan, published in the journal PLOS on Wednesday, found that ER patients who were visited by a therapy dog reported less pain than those who weren't. (Torchinsky, 3/10)

AP: 'Scum Of The Earth': Drug Victims Face Purdue Pharma Owners
Angry, defiant and sometimes tearful, more than two dozen Americans whose lives were upended by the opioid crisis finally had their long-awaited chance Thursday to confront in court some members of the family they blame for fueling it. They were unsparing as they unleashed decades of frustration and sorrow on members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma over the course of a three-hour virtual hearing. One woman played a recording from when she called 911 to get help for her overdosing son, then called one of the Sacklers the “scum of the earth.” Several displayed pictures of loved ones who died too soon because of their addictions. Many spoke about forgiveness, with some trying to find it — and others definitely not. (Mulvihill and Peltz, 3/11)

Bloomberg: ‘I Do Not Forgive You:’ Opioid Victims Address Sacklers Directly
“When you created OxyContin you caused so much loss to so many people,” said Kay Scarpone, a New Hampshire resident whose son died of an overdose in 2015. Her son was a military veteran who became addicted to opioids after a deployment in Afghanistan. “We will grieve every day for the rest of our lives.” (Hill, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Opioid Victims Confront Purdue Pharma’s Sackler Family: ‘It Will Never End For Me’
For 4,804 days, Kristy Nelson’s mind replays the 911 call she made when she discovered her only son’s lifeless body in his bed, recalling the excruciating detail of the aftermath of his overdose. On Thursday, she played audio of the chilling call for members of a family she holds responsible for her son’s death. Nelson said: “4,804. That is how many days have gone by since I made that horrifying phone call — a call that I never ever dreamed of making,” adding, “A call that I would not have had to make if it weren’t for your unlawful behavior and obsessive greed.” (Kornfield, 3/10)

AP: Facing Purdue Owners Brings Pain, Closure For Opioid Victims 
Kara Trainor composed herself, looked into a camera and began to speak to the drugmakers she holds responsible for two decades of suffering that has extended from her to a son born dependent on opioids. Three members of the family that owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma watched silently or listened to the virtual court hearing as Trainor described giving birth to a baby who rapidly plunged into withdrawal — “the screaming will haunt you for the rest of your life” — and what it’s been like to raise him. At 11, he still uses a sippy cup and diapers. (Peltz and Mulvihill, 3/11)

The Washington Post: Federal Government Approves Experiment To Pay Drug, Alcohol Users To Stay Clean 
A new legal opinion from the Biden administration appears to clear the way for wider use of an underutilized harm reduction technique: paying people addicted to drugs for staying clean. Known as “contingency management,” the idea is supported by decades of research that shows providing repeated small payments for meeting goals in the recovery process has an outsize impact in helping people remain sober. The technique also has been used to help people quit smoking, lose weight and change other unwanted behaviors. (Bernstein, 3/10)

Stat: Veterinary Tranquilizer Xylazine Spreading Through The U.S. Drug Supply
It was in the mid-2010s, the researchers heard, when “tranq dope” took off in Philadelphia. They knew that “tranq dope” — opioids that contained the veterinary tranquilizer xylazine — was already a fixture in the drug supply in Puerto Rico and had sporadically turned up in overdose reports in Philadelphia as far back as 2006. But now, people who used drugs and sold drugs told the researchers that xylazine had become a sought-after substance, and it had become a much more prevalent element of the local drug supply. (Joseph, 3/11)

Bay Area News Group: East Bay City Wins $12 Million For Homeless Housing Project
A $12.3 million grant awarded Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office will allow the city of Alameda to build dozens of new units of temporary homeless housing. The project will include 47 modular apartments for unhoused individuals and couples, including people with disabilities and young adults transitioning out of foster care. The grant comes from Newsom’s Homekey initiative, which helps cities, counties and nonprofits create homeless housing, either by buying and converting hotels, apartments and other existing buildings, or by constructing new units from the ground up. (Kendall, 3/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco Opened A Bayview Parking Site For Homeless People Living In RVs. This Is How It’s Going
James Keys hasn’t moved far from the spot on the street where, several months ago, he was living inside his 40-foot RV. In fact, that vehicle is still his home, and the south end of Bayview-Hunters Point is still his neighborhood. But Keys’s circumstances have changed dramatically. He and dozens of other vehicle dwellers have now moved off Hunters Point Expressway and into a city-sanctioned parking lot at Candlestick Point State Recreation Area, a stone’s throw away from where the 49ers once played. (Morris, 3/10)

San Diego Union-Tribune: 3/11/2020: The Day Americans Grasped Our Lives Would Change 
Two years ago Friday, Dr. Anthony Fauci told unmasked members of Congress that the coronavirus, which to that point had killed at least 31 people and infected more than 1,000 others in the U.S., was “going to get worse.” He didn’t mean that day. But it did. March 11, 2020, was the day everything changed. (3/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Politics Wrecked America’s Response To COVID. Don’t Let It Put Transgender Kids In Danger, Too
When it comes to health, if the past two years of pandemic life have taught us anything, it’s that following politics over science is dangerous, if not downright deadly. Unfortunately, when it comes to transgender kids, many states are repeating the same mistake. (Stephen M. Rosenthal and Diane Ehrensaft, 3/10)

Capital & Main: Medi-Cal Expansion Wasn't Newsom's Plan, But It's Progress
Because COVID-19 plunged the U.S. into a national emergency that has only rarely relented, introspection has been hard to come by. Two years in, exhausted health workers have endured five surges of the virus that overloaded hospital capacity and strained systems to the breaking point. Policymakers and government leaders, meanwhile, have mostly flailed in the face of changing data and guidance, some of it their own doing. Given all that, it’s startling to note how clearly and predictably certain aspects of the pandemic have played out, including its effects on the most vulnerable. That experts could see it coming in no way lessened the impact — but it could spur the kind of action that results in real change. (Mark Kreidler, 3/8)

East Bay Times: Push Newsom's Mental Health Plan Forward
California’s approach to people with severe mental illnesses isn’t working. This we know. Putting them in jails and prisons isn’t the answer. Nor is leaving them to fend for themselves on the streets. You see them every day. The homeless men and women with nowhere to go and no one to care for them. The people with the gaunt, haggard faces, the ones whose mutterings are actually cries for help. (3/9)

CalMatters: Newsom Mental Health Plan Needs Full Airing 
Beginning in the 19th century and continuing well into the 20th, California maintained an extensive network of state mental hospitals to which people deemed to be dangers to themselves or others were committed, often for decades. In the mid-20th century, however, the concept of involuntary commitments came under fire with critics saying that the hospitals were more like prisons than treatment centers, with their patients denied basic civil rights. (Dan Walters, 3/8)

East Bay Times: California Has Work To Do To Provide Clean Water For All
On the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, we should celebrate its successes. San Francisco has stopped the dumping of raw sewage into the Bay. Rivers no longer catch on fire due to flammable contaminants. Wildlife has returned to once abandoned estuaries and wetlands. California has made great strides in protecting our waters for swimming, fishing, and other human activities — in affluent areas. (Robert Rivas and Cristina Garcia, 3/11)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Should Turn Unused Government Properties Into Homeless Shelters 
San Diego’s unsheltered homelessness crisis is at a critical stage. It is prevalent throughout our region as evidenced by the data and other factors. However, from 2017 to 2019, while homelessness increased significantly throughout California, unsheltered homelessness decreased in San Diego County by 29 percent, according to the annual survey by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness. This was due in large part to the addition of 674 shelter beds throughout the city of San Diego funded primarily by the Lucky Duck Foundation, which is focused on alleviating homelessness in San Diego County. (Peter Seidler and Dan Shea, 3/8)

Los Angeles Times: Missouri Might Criminalize Out-Of-State Abortions. That’s Ridiculous
The assault on women’s reproductive rights in state legislatures across the country has ramped up since the Supreme Court signaled in December that it might uphold a Mississippi ban on abortion at 15 weeks of gestation and dismantle the landmark ruling in Roe vs. Wade that protects a woman’s right to an abortion. (3/11)

Los Angeles Times: The Processed Food Industry Makes Us Desperate To Lose Weight — And Then Profits From It
In 2020 the diet app Noom surged in popularity, one example of a new — arguably more mindful — era in diet trends. It generated approximately $400 million in revenue that year and has expectations of a $10-billion stock offering. Today, millions of Americans have paid Noom an average of $24 a month for help in losing weight and managing diabetes and stress. Despite its holistic messaging, Noom is a new entrant into an old diet industry — one built on consumer desperation, much of which was created by the processed food makers. (Michael Moss, 3/9)