San Francisco Chronicle: Sen. Dianne Feinstein Is Hospitalized In S.F. With Shingles
Sen. Dianne Feinstein is receiving treatment for shingles in a San Francisco hospital, her spokesperson told The Chronicle Thursday. Feinstein was diagnosed with the virus in late February and is expected to make a full recovery. (Stein, 3/2)

Bay Area News Group: Will California Make It Easier To Force People Into Mental Health Care?
A state senator is attempting to make it easier to force people into treatment when they are incapable of caring for themselves, the latest in a series of reforms intended to move Californians with severe mental illnesses off the streets. (Kendall, 3/3)

Fresno Bee: The Madera Hospital Closed In January. Why Does It Still Have More Than 30 Employees? 
Two months after Madera Community Hospital closed its doors and laid off most of its staff, it continues to employ certain workers including its chief executive officer who this week held out the possibility for a reopening. (Amaro, 3/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Lilly Aims To Cap Insulin At $35 Per Month. How Does That Affect You?
Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, one of three drug companies that dominate the U.S. insulin market, announced Wednesday an expansion of a program that caps out-of-pocket spending on its insulin products to $35 a month for people on commercial insurance plans. The move follows a similar cap set by a new federal law, the Inflation Reduction Act, which took effect in January and imposed a $35 monthly out-of-pocket spending cap on insulin for people on Medicare, the federal government’s insurance plan for seniors. (Ho, 3/3)

Modern Healthcare: BetterHelp Shared Consumer Health Info With Facebook, Snapchat 
The Federal Trade Commission has fined digital mental healthcare provider BetterHelp $7.8 million for sharing the personal health information of millions of consumers with advertisers like Facebook, Snapchat, Criteo and Pinterest during a seven-year period. (Turner, 3/2)

Sacramento Business Journal: Sacramento Area Sees Health Care Construction Boom 
In addition, UC Davis Health is planning a new medical outpost in Folsom Ranch, a new tower at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, and just south of that, is part of the Aggie Square research/education project coming out of the ground. (van der Meer, 3/2)

Los Angeles Times: Lonely? Social Wellness Startups Offer Support Circles
A new generation of for-profit group gatherings hopes to remedy what’s been dubbed the “loneliness epidemic” — or “the friendship recession” — by serving people’s need for real and meaningful social networks. (Raphael, 3/2)

Sacramento Bee: California’s COVID-19 Emergency Is Over, Questions Remain
California’s COVID-19 state of emergency came to its ceremonial end Tuesday without much ceremony at all, Sacramentans likely thinking more about low snow on a chill, damp February day than mask mandates. Three years after Gov. Gavin Newsom put pen to paper in March 2020 enacting the emergency order, what have we Californians learned about the virus, do we know what we thought we knew and how well do we know it? The pandemic feels over, even though, of course, cases persist. What also persists is the examination of what we experienced, what was right, what was true, what we knew and what we thought we knew. (Smith, 3/3)

KQED: Mark Ghaly On The End Of California's COVID-19 Emergency
Dr. Mark Ghaly, Secretary of the California Health & Human Services Agency, joins to share his thoughts on the end of the COVID emergency, what drew him to medicine, reflections on the state's response to the pandemic and the implementation of CARE Court reforms to mental health care. (Shafer and Lagos, 3/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Long COVID Linked To Lower Brain Oxygen Levels
Long COVID is associated with reduced brain oxygen levels, worse performance on cognitive tests and increased psychiatric symptoms, according to a new study. In an analysis of two parallel studies — a laboratory study involving cognitive testing and imaging and a population survey — researchers from the University of Waterloo found that individuals who experienced symptomatic COVID-19 illness showed impaired brain function compared to those who had not been infected. (Vaziri, 3/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Vaccines Will Hit Commercial Market With Next Virus Strain
In an update to the potential timeline for commercialization of COVID-19 medical countermeasures, including vaccines, the federal Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) said it expects that to happen once the doses are reformulated for the next coronavirus lineage. (Vaziri, 3/2)

CBS News: Flu And COVID Combo Shots Won't Come In Time For This Year, FDA Official Says 
Vaccines that offer protection against both COVID-19 and influenza with a single shot will likely not be ready in time for this year, a top federal official said Wednesday. However, tweaks to update the current COVID vaccines and drugs are expected soon. The Food and Drug Administration's top vaccines official, Dr. Peter Marks, had previously said in September that vaccines to cover both viruses could be deployed this year. (Tin, 3/2)

Voice of OC: Does Orange County Need Another Homeless Survey? Report Shows Increase In Deaths
As a new report shows a sharp increase in homeless people dying in Orange County in the last decade, officials are moving forward with another survey of the county’s homeless population. Some advocates for the homeless like attorney Brooke Weitzman question why this survey is necessary. (Elattar, 3/2)

CapRadio: Tiny Home Village Sits Empty As Delays, Costs Mount For Sacramento Homelessness Project
Nearly one year after Sacramento County announced plans to build a village of tiny homes for unhoused residents in South Sacramento, the site remains closed and the project faces mounting delays and cost overruns. Those include an additional $500,000 the county is paying for a private security firm to guard the rows of 100 empty and locked sleeping cabins at Florin and Power Inn roads, according to a county spokesperson. (Nichols, 3/2)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Imperial Beach Residents Are Breathing Tijuana Sewage 
Sewage pollution spilling over the border from Tijuana into the San Diego region not only threatens the health of surfers and swimmers but potentially those simply breathing the air. (Smith, 3/2)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Inmate Died Of Pneumonia, Malnutrition And Dehydration; Death Ruled A Homicide 
A 46-year-old man found in a downtown San Diego jail cell last year died of pneumonia, malnutrition, dehydration, accompanied by “neglected schizophrenia,” according to county authorities. (Hernandez, 3/2)

AP: How Officials Cracked Case Of Eyedrops That Blinded People 
The investigation started in May in Los Angeles County, California. A patient who’d recently been to an ophthalmologist came in with a bad eye infection. A month later, local health officials got a second report. Another bad eye infection, same eye doctor. Two more cases were reported in the county before the summer was over. The patients’ eyes were inflamed with heavy yellow pus that obscured most of the pupil. Among the four, two had complete vision loss in the affected eye. (Stobbe, 2/28)

Los Angeles Times: Why California Was Right To Abandon A School COVID Vaccine Mandate
A California Supreme Court decision last week reaffirmed that individual school districts lack the authority to require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19. A few weeks before that, officials in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration confirmed that they had abandoned plans to require COVID vaccination of schoolchildren, and legislation to similar effect was dropped last year. That means that, at least for the foreseeable future, COVID vaccines are unlikely to be added to the list of 10 inoculations California requires to attend school. (Tracy Beth Høeg, 3/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: People Aren’t Getting The COVID Booster. Employers Can Change That
We may be done with COVID, but COVID isn’t done with us. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest report, the XBB.1.5 omicron variant now accounts for 80% of all coronavirus cases in the United States and it is just as contagious as its predecessors. Hospitalizations are at least as high as with the omicron wave in March 2022. In the Bay Area, there are growing concerns about a new COVID wave as viral levels in wastewater soar. (Gleb Tsipursky, 2/27)

San Francisco Chronicle: My Son Is Transgender. Please Stop Trying To Kill Him
An astounding 86% of transgender youth consider suicide and 56% attempt it, according to a 2020 study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Results from this study showed that intrapersonal microaggressions, such as those from peers, family and society, statistically increased lifetime suicide attempts in study participants. A lack of belonging in school, emotional neglect by family and internalized self-stigma all statistically increased suicide attempts in the previous six months. In contrast, participants who reported family and peer support, as well as school belonging, had decreased suicidality rates. (Lindsey Laughlin, 3/2)

CalMatters: California Lawmakers Have The Budget And Solutions To End Homelessness
Fourteen years ago, Vikki Vickers was diagnosed with schizophrenia and eventually became homeless. She lived for years outside the Santa Monica Library until an outreach worker connected her with medical care at the Venice Family Clinic. That led to voluntary mental health treatment and a bed in an emergency shelter.  (Sharon Rapport, 3/1)

Capitol Weekly: To Protect Our Health, Tell The Truth About The Fossil Fuel Industry 
Climate change and fossil fuel pollution are two sides of the same health emergency. Air pollution from burning fossil fuels caused about 8 million deaths in 2018, nearly 1 in 5 deaths worldwide. And fossil fuel pollution is a primary driver of climate change, which threatens health in numerous ways – from chronic and infectious disease to deaths from extreme heat. The fossil fuel industry wants you to forget all that. (Linda Rudolph, 3/2)

CalMatters: Why Did Newsom Put Public Health Back On The Chopping Block?
The state’s public health emergency, in place for nearly three years, expired Tuesday. Californians know from experience that it won’t be time to let down our guard. (Kim Saruwatari and Nancy Williams, 3/3)