San Diego Union-Tribune: New Variants Of Concern Detected In San Diego County 
Ongoing genetic analysis has confirmed that three recent San Diego-area coronavirus infections were caused by the BA.4 variant, one of two rapidly spreading types recently classified as a “variant of concern” by Europe’s main public health authority. Just last week, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control announced the new label based on the demonstrated ability of BA.4 and its cousin, BA.5, to “evade immune protection” whether it was caused by vaccination or prior infection. (Sisson, 5/19)

Modesto Bee: Omicron Subvariant Cases Keep Growing In Stanislaus County
Stanislaus County has a growing coronavirus infection rate because of highly contagious subvariants of the omicron strain. The county has a daily case rate of 13.9 per 100,000 population, up from 8.26 per 100,000 last week, a county public health spokesperson said Wednesday. (Carlson, 5/19)

CalMatters: California Braces For Latest COVID Surge 
t's increasingly likely most of us will have a date with COVID if we haven't yet. "Last week's assessment from Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County's public health officer, took on newfound significance Tuesday, when the California Department of Public Health reported that the state's seven-day COVID test positivity rate had reached 5 percent for the first time since February, at the tail end of the omicron surge that sickened wide swaths of the workforce. (Hoeven, 5/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Almost As Contagious As Measles: Coronavirus Spins Out Worrisome New Mutations
The relentless evolution of the coronavirus, which has spawned new variants to fuel fresh surges of disease every four to six months, could in the not-distant future propel the virus to overtake measles as the most contagious of all known infections. Increasing infectiousness does not necessarily make the virus deadlier, but it could make it harder to control, and leave communities vulnerable to the repeated waves of illness that have defined the pandemic. (Allday, 5/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: This Elite Bay Area Private High School Is Going Remote As COVID Infections Rise
An elite private high school in Oakland will go remote for the last week of classes, a precaution to stave off rising COVID-19 infections among the student body, administrators said Thursday. Beginning Thursday morning, teachers at The College Preparatory School held classes online, hoping that the school’s 372 students would return to campus for finals on May 27, followed by in-person events to celebrate graduation. (Swan, 5/19)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Scripps Research To Lead $67M Effort To Develop Drugs To Fight COVID-19, Other Viruses 
Scripps Research, the La Jolla institute that has played a key role in revealing the evolution and nature of COVID-19, has been awarded $67 million in federal funding to lead a consortium that will develop drugs to battle the constantly mutating virus. The money comes from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which also is funding eight other drug centers across the country just as coronavirus infections are again on the rise, including in San Diego County. (Robbins, 5/19)

KQED: The Workers’ Right To COVID Sick Pay In California
Just because COVID sick pay exists doesn't necessarily mean employees always feel comfortable using it. Between Americans’ unhealthy relationship with work and a sense that the world is opening back up again, employers have a lot to gain from the lack of widespread knowledge of COVID sick pay benefits in California. But if you work in California and get infected with COVID, you may be able to claim up to 80 hours of paid leave. And now that the Bay Area is in another COVID surge because of the omicron BA.2 variant, learning your rights about sick pay is more important than ever. (Guevarra, Severn, Moghadam, Esquinca and Cabrera-Lomeli, 5/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: ‘Rogue’ COVID Testing Sites Popped Up Then Disappeared. These Are The Unlikely Operators Behind Them
Petition circulators who typically make a living gathering signatures to qualify political measures for the ballot found a new, highly profitable cottage industry during the pandemic: operating pop-up coronavirus testing sites. The sites, often tents on sidewalks with banners that advertised “Free COVID testing,” started appearing across California and the nation last spring, as a surge in cases strained access to tests. (Gardiner, 5/20)

The Washington Post: CDC Advisors Recommend Booster Shot For Children Ages 5 To 11 
CDC director Rochelle Walensky greenlit the recommendation Thursday evening, and she also encouraged parents of children in that age group who have not yet been vaccinated to get their first shot soon. “Vaccination with a primary series among this age group has lagged behind other age groups leaving them vulnerable to serious illness,” Walensky said. “With over 18 million doses administered in this age group, we know that these vaccines are safe, and we must continue to increase the number of children who are protected.” (Shepherd, 5/19)

The Wall Street Journal: CDC Recommends Covid-19 Boosters For 5- To 11-Year-Olds 
Also Thursday, the CDC said it was strengthening its recommendation that people 12 years and older who are immunocompromised, or who are 50 and older, should receive a second booster dose at least four months after their first. Pfizer expects there will be plenty of doses available for boosting the children. Many families may choose not to get the shots, however. Less than a third of children in the age group have been fully vaccinated. (Whyte and Hopkins, 5/19)

Orange County Register: Coronavirus: Orange County Is 71.8% Fully Vaccinated With 4.6 Million Doses Administered As Of May 19
The OC Health Care Agency reported 2,313,029 county residents were fully vaccinated as of Thursday, May 19. This represents about 71.8% of Orange County’s total population. There have been 1,279,272 booster doses administered. (Goertzen, 5/19)

Los Angeles Times: With Formula Scarce, California Moms Are Sharing Breast Milk
For Diana Granados, 29, the quest began with a callout on a popular Instagram page for new parents. “Do you have any formula to spare?” Granados didn’t. But as she thought of the ongoing national formula shortage, and of babies like her 6-month-old son, Raul, going hungry, she wanted to offer what she could. “Hello, I have breast milk to donate,” the Baldwin Park mom wrote in the comments. Within minutes, requests were flooding in. (Sharp, 5/19)

CNBC: 'A Dereliction Of Duty:' U.S. Lawmakers Grill FDA Commissioner Over Baby Formula Shortage 
U.S. lawmakers on Thursday grilled Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf about a nationwide baby formula shortage that’s left parents across America scrambling to feed their children, calling the agency’s response a “dereliction of duty.” “The shortage was caused in large part by the lack of action by the FDA and by corporate greed and consolidation,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing.  (Constantino, 5/19)

Politico: FDA Refuses To Tell Congress Why Infant Formula Response Took Months 
FDA Commissioner Robert Califf refused to answer questions from lawmakers Thursday about why it took the agency months to respond to reports of infant illnesses and a whistleblower complaint regarding the infant formula plant at the heart of the current formula shortage. “We have an ongoing investigation about the details of exactly what happened, from point A to point B along the way, and since it is ongoing, I can’t give extensively more details on that part of it,” Califf said during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing. (Evich and Lee, 5/19)

Axios: 'Operation Fly Formula' To Import First Batch Of Baby Formula Amid Shortage
The Department of Defense will be using its contracts with commercial air cargo to transport Nestlé S.A. formula from Switzerland to Indiana and to help speed up the import of infant formula amid a nationwide shortage, the White House said Thursday. The effort, dubbed Operation Fly Formula, is the latest in a series of steps taken by the Biden administration to address a shortage that is causing panic among millions of parents and caregivers in the U.S. (Martinez, 5/19)

AP: Senate OKs Overhaul Of Baby Formula Rules In Aid Program 
The Senate approved a bill Thursday aimed at easing the baby formula shortage for families participating in a government assistance program that accounts for about half of all formula purchased in the United States. The House passed the bill the day before, so it now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. Participants in a program known as WIC get vouchers that are redeemed for specific foods to supplement their diets. The vouchers usually can only be used to purchase one brand of infant formula, which encourages the manufacturer to offer big discounts to secure a state’s business. (Freking, 5/19)

NBC News: Chart: Baby Formula Supply Has Been Dwindling For Months
The nationwide baby formula shortage that has sent parents scrambling for supplies has been building in earnest for more than two months, new data shows. Retailers that sell baby formula have been losing out on sales due to supply constraints since the first week of March, according to NielsenIQ’s on-shelf availability barometer, a metric that shows how a product’s revenue compared to retailer expectations. (Chiwaya and Wu, 5/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Antiabortion Activists ‘Barged’ Into UCSF Women’s Clinic, Recorded Patients And Stalked A Doctor, D.A. Says
A group of antiabortion activists “barged” into a San Francisco women’s clinic, recording hospital staff and patients and stalking a doctor, according to San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin. The incidents occurred in March, when a crew of four people, including a young woman as a decoy, entered the Women’s Options Center at San Francisco General Hospital, Boudin’s office said. The woman allegedly told hospital workers she needed counseling services at the clinic, which is operated by UCSF. (Cassidy, 5/19)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Antiabortion Activist Charged With Harassing Doctor 
According to prosecutors, Hurley is a member of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, “an anti-choice group that targeted an abortion and health care provider” at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. On March 13, he and others defaced and damaged a bronze statue of the Madonna and Child at the hospital by covering it with fake blood and with stickers that bore the doctor’s name, prosecutors said. (Yee, 5/19)

Sacramento Business Journal: UC Davis Health Approved For Ambulatory Surgical Center 
UC Davis Health is on track to break ground on a $579 million ambulatory surgery center at its Sacramento hospital campus this fall. (Hamann, 5/19)

Los Angeles Times: For More Than Two Years, L.A. County And USC Clashed Over Hospital Management 
For years, a contentious dispute between Los Angeles County’s healthcare leaders and the University of Southern California has seethed behind closed doors, injecting tension and acrimony in the operations at one of the nation’s busiest public hospitals that climaxed during the COVID-19 pandemic. As early as 2019, officials at L.A. County-USC Medical Center in Boyle Heights began accusing USC of failing to live up to its contract obligations, where the county pays up to $170 million each year in return for USC’s faculty doctors and nearly 1,000 medical residents treating some of the region’s poorest patients. (Hamilton, 5/19)

Sacramento Bee: What To Do If Your Dog Gets Bit By A Rattlesnake On CA Hike
While hiking in Northern California this season, be on the lookout for rattlesnakes especially if you are with your dog. In rattlesnake country, dogs are frequently bit, according to UC Davis Emergency Veterinarian Karl Jandrey. (Adatia, 5/20)

Orange County Register: Cannabis Licensing Efforts Tied To Anaheim Corruption Investigation
The lure of potential profits, and the fertile ground for corruption, that surround the legal cannabis industry helped unravel a series of scandals playing out this week in Anaheim. Longtime Democratic leader and cannabis consultant Melahat Rafiei on Thursday confirmed she is the FBI’s prime cooperating witness in a corruption investigation that has focused on Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu, among others, and led to federal charges against Anaheim Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Ament. (Staggs, 5/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Congress Might Have Inadvertently Legalized A Form Of Cannabis Under Trump
Although marijuana remains strictly forbidden by federal law, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Congress quietly amended the statute in 2018 to legalize cannabis cigarettes and vaping products that have similar intoxicants but are made from hemp. The 2018 Farm Bill, signed by President Donald Trump, included provisions removing most legal restrictions on hemp, a cannabis plant with a wide range of uses in industrial products, food, personal care and medicine. The law specified that it did not allow products containing more than a minimal amount of Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. Although marijuana has been legalized for personal use by adults in California and several other states, and for medical use by many states, it has been banned by federal law since 1937. (Egelko, 5/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: There’s A Monkeypox Outbreak. What Is It And Should You Be Worried?
A new global virus outbreak is making headlines, and it’s not related to COVID. Cases of the viral infection known as monkeypox, which is related to smallpox, have been reported worldwide. One case has been identified in the U.S. so far, and a handful of other cases have been reported in Canada, the U.K. and several European countries. (Hwang, 5/19)

The New York Times: Fentanyl Tainted Pills Cause Drug Fatalities Among Youth To Soar 
Shortly after Kade Webb, 20, collapsed and died in a bathroom at a Safeway Market in Roseville, Calif., in December, the police opened his phone and went straight to his social media apps. There, they found exactly what they feared. Mr. Webb, a laid-back snowboarder and skateboarder who, with the imminent birth of his first child, had become despondent over his pandemic-dimmed finances, bought Percocet, a prescription opioid, through a dealer on Snapchat. It turned out to be spiked with a lethal amount of fentanyl. (Hoffman, 5/19)

The Hill: FDA Sparks Anger With Decision On ‘Phthalates’ — A Chemical In Fast-Food Packaging
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Thursday that it will not impose a total ban on a set of dangerous chemicals commonly found in fast-food packaging, angering scientists and environmental groups who have long pressed for their removal. The decision came in response to three separate petitions requesting that the FDA limit the use of compounds called phthalates, which are known to disrupt hormone function and have been linked to birth defects, infertility, learning disabilities and neurological disorders. (Udasin, 5/19)

AP: Cancer Deaths In Black People Drop; Still Higher Than Others 
Cancer death rates have steadily declined among Black people but remain higher than in other racial and ethnic groups, a U.S. government study released Thursday shows. Cancer deaths have been dropping for all Americans for the past two decades because of lower smoking rates and advances in early detection and treatment. The rates among Black people fell 2% each year from 1999 to 2019, from 359 cancer deaths per 100,000 to 239 deaths per 100,000, according to the report published online in JAMA Oncology. (Tanner, 5/19)

Napa Valley Register: Napa County's Homeless Count Shows Slight Increase
Napa County's one-day homeless count held in February tallied 494 people, a slight increase from the 464 identified during the previous 2020 count. That increase is well below the 44% jump seen from 2019 to 2020, though county officials at the time attributed that to the use of a more widespread counting system, according to past Register reporting. The 2019 tally was 323 people, comparable to the 2018 tally of 322, the 2017 tally of 315 and the 2016 tally of 317. A 2021 count didn't happen because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2022 count was delayed by about a month during the Omicron variant surge. (Booth, 5/19)

Bay Area News Group: Oakland Wins $11M To Turn Coliseum Hotel Into Homeless Housing
Oakland won $11 million in state funding to turn a hotel near the Coliseum into housing for homeless residents, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced this week. The project, dubbed The Inn at Coliseum, will allow the city to buy a 37-room hotel, rehabilitate it and convert it into long-term housing. It’s the latest award under Newsom’s Homekey initiative, which doles out funding to help cities and counties turn hotels, dormitories and other buildings into homes for unhoused people. (Kendall, 5/19)

Los Angeles Times: The Shame Of America's Baby-Formula Shortage 
When the sudden COVID-19 shutdown caused people to hoard toilet paper, the nation was half amused by the inability to find a roll on any retail shelf. There’s nothing funny, though, about the baby-formula shortage that has reached a peak in recent weeks. Many babies need formula to survive and thrive. It contains all the nutrients, in the right quantities, to meet an infant’s health and developmental needs. Some parents have reportedly taken to watering down commercial formula, a dangerous step that threatens to leave their babies malnourished. And pediatricians are warning parents against making homemade formula. (5/20)

Los Angeles Times: Leave Abortion Law To The States? Just Look At The Fugitive Slave Act To See How That Will Go 
Why not leave abortion to the states? One of the most common arguments made by those who want to downplay the significance of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s leaked draft opinion in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health is that it would not make abortion illegal. Rather, it would merely return the abortion debate to the legislative sphere, where it belongs. Individual states would pass their own abortion laws, as restrictive or nonrestrictive as their electorate wants them to be. (Ronald J. Granieri, 5/19)

Capital & Main: Women Of Color Will Pay The Steepest Price If Abortion Is Banned
For many people of color, Roe v. Wade was always in jeopardy. Fresno resident Amalia Moreno wasn’t surprised when she heard last week that the Supreme Court had prepared a ruling that would overturn the landmark court case guaranteeing abortion rights. She obtained an abortion when she was 18, but worried that others wouldn’t have that choice whenever she saw anti-abortion protestors show up outside a women’s clinic in Fresno. (Minerva Canto, 5/13)

East Bay Times: The Challenge Of Hiding My Pregnancy From The Internet
More than 2.5 million unintended pregnancies were reported in the U.S. between 2014 and 2019. Many of those women probably read pregnancy articles online, browsed Planned Parenthood’s website, triple-checked their period tracker or confided in their best friend over Facebook Messenger. If Roe v. Wade is struck down this summer, as the leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court indicates is likely, these common online practices could become evidence of criminal intent by women who choose to get an abortion. (Janet Vertesi, 5/19)

The Washington Post: Overturning ‘Roe’ Would Be Disastrous For The U.S. Military 
Overturning Roe v. Wade could have disastrous consequences for the U.S. armed forces, and here’s how I know: When I was 21, I was drugged and raped violently while serving in the military, a crime that resulted in pregnancy. Had I not had access to abortion, the assault would have ended my career and derailed my life. Should Roe be overturned and access to abortion restricted for female service members across the United States, military readiness would be directly affected. (Allison Gill, 5/18)

Berkeleyside: Yes, It’s A Surge: Wastewater Tests Reveal High Level Of COVID-19 In East Bay
Earlier this month, I posted a message on social media that drew a lot of responses. The post was simple enough, encouraging people to get tested for COVID-19 frequently, especially as social gatherings increase during the spring and summer months. Afterward, messages came flooding in from friends and strangers alike, letting me know they had recently gotten COVID-19. Many of these were people who, like myself, are vaccinated and boosted, and have taken great care to avoid contracting the virus. In the ensuing days and weeks, it seems like more people than ever in my orbit are getting COVID-19, and many others I’ve spoken with are saying the same. Not surprisingly, the Alameda County health department’s COVID-19 dashboard shows that there’s been an increase in reported cases, comparable to the surges of January and August of 2021. (Azucena Rasilla, 5/19)

Sacramento Bee: Spring Allergies In Sacramento Are Worse Than People Think 
Out of a deep sleep, I suddenly awoke at 2 a.m. as a snotty, sneezing, eye-itching, coughing mess. I stumbled out of bed, blindly reached for a tissue — or 10 — and spent the next hour attempting to fall back asleep while miserably wiping my nose every few minutes. Ahh, Sacramento in the springtime. (Robin Epley, 5/20)

Los Angeles Times: Time For California To Mimic Vancouver's Safe Drug-Use Sites
In the coastal cold of a Vancouver morning, nine people crowded at the door of the Insite safe injection center, itching for it to open so they could shoot heroin and fentanyl inside. Around their huddle on this two-block stretch of East Hastings Street, hundreds of people, the majority habitual drug users, were crushed together in tents and chairs, on discarded rugs and under wet tarps. Some were sprawled on the sidewalk, motionless and unconscious. One man repeatedly hurled a hatchet at the pavement. Open-use drug havens such as San Francisco’s Tenderloin and L.A.'s skid row have become notorious and contentious, but those places have nothing on East Hastings, part of a neighborhood called Downtown Eastside. (Anita Chabria, 5/18)

Los Angeles Times: The Mentally Ill Defendants In My Courtroom Need Treatment, Not Jail
This month, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and chief executive are putting together the county budget and deciding how to spend around $36 billion of our taxpayer dollars. They have committed to a “care first, jails last” vision of public safety that centers community-based health solutions and services — particularly for people with mental illnesses. I strongly support this commitment because easily one-third of all criminal defendants who come through my courtroom and other courtrooms across the county — thousands of people a year — are identified by defense counsel and assessed by Department of Mental Health personnel as having a mental illness. Prolonged incarceration for people with mental illnesses worsens outcomes and, yes, is more costly and less effective than community treatment. (Terry Lee Smerling, 5/20)

Los Angeles Times: What’s Happening To Veterinarians? Burnout, Suicide And Crisis Within The Profession 
Veterinarian Karen Halligan says an epidemic of burnout in the profession is affecting care for animals. She warns tight profit margins, massive student debt and high rates of pet euthanasia during the pandemic are driving veterinarians out of the industry. (5/13)

Capitol Weekly: Local Health Care Delivery Key To Kaiser Medi-Cal Contract 
Currently, Kaiser Permanente subcontracts across parts of the state to provide Medi-Cal coverage. We are required to pay upwards of $200 million in administrative fees. This state contract allows us to put that money instead into more and better care for Medi-Cal members and the into communities that we serve. Critics claim this will allow Kaiser Permanente to compete unfairly, cutting local plans’ membership. They also claim we will cherry pick only the healthiest members. Neither claim is true.We don’t cherry pick: The health conditions and demographic mix of our Medi-Cal membership are comparable to other Medi-Cal managed care plans, as measured by DHCS. That won’t change under this agreement. (Arif Shaikh, 5/18)