San Diego Union-Tribune: Monkeypox Cases Increase In San Diego As State Mulls Emergency Health Declaration 
The number of monkeypox cases detected in San Diego County increased by seven Friday, hitting 27 total confirmed and suspected cases, according to a weekly update from the county health department. (Sisson, 7/29)

ABC7 Los Angeles: Monkeypox In LA: More Cases Reported As Residents Line Up For Scarce Supply Of Vaccine 
In Encino, hundreds of people lined up hoping to get a dose of the very scarce monkeypox vaccine. "You know, we all mingle amongst each other and we all go out together, so we want to make sure we are as safe as possible, for each other and the community," said one person in line. "Nobody wants to die from something like monkeypox, especially something that can be prevented with vaccines. Something that we actually have," said Steve Warky Nunez of Los Angeles. (Dador, 7/30)

NBC Bay Area: Dore Alley Takes Place As SF Community Raises Concerns About Spread Of Monkeypox 
A racy San Francisco street fair took place Sunday as it was one part of a busy weekend in the city. But some San Francisco residents have expressed concern that the weekend events could lead to more monkeypox cases. A few blocks in the South of Market neighborhood turned into a street fair called “Dore Alley” or “Up Your Alley” Sunday. Some people consider it a more racy version of the Folsom Street Fair as many came in from out of town to attend the event. (Smith, 7/31)

CalMatters: California Monkeypox: Is State Of Emergency Coming?
As one of California’s public health emergencies appears to be subsiding, another is emerging. Los Angeles County public health officers, who had been poised to take the controversial step of reinstating a universal indoor mask mandate as soon as today, announced Thursday they would not proceed with that plan due to improving coronavirus infection numbers and stabilizing hospitalization rates. (The BART board of directors, however, voted Thursday to reinstate the Bay Area public transit agency’s mask mandate through Oct. 1.) (Hoeven, 7/29)

AP: California Not Ready To Declare Emergency Over Monkeypox
California officials are pressing for more vaccine and acting with “utmost urgency” to slow the spread of the monkeypox virus, but they have not decided whether to declare a statewide emergency as the city of San Francisco announced on Thursday, the state’s public health officer said Friday. (Thompson and Har, 7/29)

Berkeleyside: Monkeypox In Berkeley: What You Need To Know
Berkeley Health Officer Dr. Lisa Hernandez says the city is better equipped to handle the monkeypox outbreak than the early stages of coronavirus. (Yelimeli, 7/29)

Bay Area News Group: California Public Health Officials Ramp Up Efforts To Address Monkeypox Outbreaks With More Vaccines On The Way 
As monkeypox cases rise across California, state officials in California are ramping up their efforts to acquire vaccine doses and educate the public on the disease. (Angst, 7/29)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Clinic Reserves 30% Of Monkeypox Vaccines For These Men Who Are The Hardest Hit
San Francisco health officials are reserving a portion of monkeypox vaccine appointments at the city’s largest public vaccination clinic for residents who have been hit hardest by virus: gay and bisexual men of color, especially from the Latino community. (Ho, 7/29)

San Francisco Chronicle: Monkeypox Vaccines Are Scarce In San Francisco. Who’s To Blame?
The monkeypox outbreak across the country prompted San Francisco officials to declare a state of emergency, as the city’s LGBTQ residents wait in hours-long lines to get a vaccination, sometimes to be told there isn’t any left. But a vaccine for the disease has existed since 2019. So why is it in such short supply? (Echeverria, 7/30)

AP: In Race For Monkeypox Vaccines, Experts See Repeat Of COVID 
While monkeypox is much harder to spread than COVID-19, experts warn if the disease spills over into general populations — currently in Europe and North America it is circulating almost exclusively among gay and bisexual men — the need for vaccines could intensify, especially if the virus becomes entrenched in new regions. (Cheng, 7/30)

The Hill: Gottlieb Predicts Monkeypox Will Become Public Health Failure 
Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb penned an op-ed in the New York Times published on Saturday arguing that the United States lacks a federal infrastructure capable of dealing with public health emergencies like monkeypox and COVID-19. “Our country’s response to monkeypox ‌‌has been plagued by the same shortcomings we had with Covid-19,” Gottlieb wrote in the op-ed. (Schonfeld, 7/31)

KQED: Can Kids Get Monkeypox? What We Know Right Now, For Parents And Caregivers
Monkeypox has existed for decades, but we're now seeing multiple outbreaks across the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 4,600 cases have been detected nationwide. Monkeypox is related to the smallpox virus, but it’s generally less severe and “much less contagious” than smallpox, according to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). While the symptoms — including a rash that causes lesions — can be very painful, the CDC says monkeypox is “rarely fatal,” and that “over 99% of people who get this form of the disease are likely to survive.” Being sick with monkeypox typically lasts 2-4 weeks. (Severn and Navarro, 7/29)

Stat: The Campaign To Rename Monkeypox Gets Complicated
Since the earliest days of the current global monkeypox outbreak, scientists and public health authorities have been calling for the disease to be renamed, arguing that it has racist overtones and carries a stigma that will hinder efforts to stop its spread. (Branswell, 8/1)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Cuts Back On COVID-19 Contact Tracing
As the pandemic has dragged on, L.A. County contact tracers have struggled to reach and interview people with COVID. In January, amid a crush of cases driven by the Omicron variant, there were weeks when contact tracers were reaching and interviewing less than 10% of their assigned cases, county data show. (Reyes, 7/30)

Becker's Hospital Review: 12 States With BA.2.75 Cases
A dozen states have reported cases of the newest omicron subvariant BA.2.75 as of July 29, early disease surveillance data shows. The subvariant has numerous mutations that may make it more adept than BA. 5, the nation's dominant strain, at spreading quickly and evading immune protection. (Bean, 7/29)

Axios: 1 In 5 Americans OK With Threatening Health Officials
One in five Americans thought it was acceptable to threaten or harass public health officials over pandemic business closures as of last summer, research in JAMA Open Network shows. (Bettelheim, 8/1)

Axios: Biden Administration To Buy 66 Million Doses Of Moderna's Omicron Booster
The Biden administration announced Friday that it has reached a deal with Moderna to purchase 66 million doses of its Omicron variant-specific vaccine booster. (Gonzalez, 7/29)

San Diego Union-Tribune: One Of The Most Challenging Jobs In Medicine? Asking Families For A Dying Loved One's Organ Donation.
Jeff Trageser runs a Mission Valley nonprofit that procures organs for transplants from deceased donors in San Diego and Imperial counties. As the only agency in the region authorized by the federal government to do this work, his 85-person team tries to turn death into life. (Wilkens, 7/31)

The Bakersfield Californian: Local Hospice Provider Struggling With Ongoing Shortage Of Volunteers 
The COVID-19 pandemic and the shutdowns and restrictions that came with it were responsible for disruptions across a wide array of business and industry. For Bristol Hospice in Bakersfield, the crisis has been especially severe in its volunteer program, made up of selfless individuals who are committed to spending quality time with hospice patients in their homes and care centers. (Mayer, 7/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: How Abortion Clinics Are Managing Rise In Out-Of-State Patients
For Planned Parenthood Pacific Southwest, which serves San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties, seeing out-of-state patients is the new norm. In the month since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and stripped Americans of the constitutional right to obtain an abortion, out-of-state patients have made up 21% of abortion visits, a 513% increase, a spokesperson said. Planned Parenthood Northern California hasn’t seen as dramatic a surge, but is also serving more out-of-state patients. It used to see a couple of out-of-state patients per month. Now, its clinics see three to four patients traveling across state lines every week. (Pak, 7/31)

The Hill: McDonough Says VA Looking At Abortion Care Options In States With New Restrictions 
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough on Sunday said his department is examining how to best protect abortion access to veterans after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, but he declined to provide a specific path forward. CNN “State of the Union” co-anchor Jake Tapper asked McDonough to respond to a letter from 24 Senate Democrats calling on the department to allow abortion services at veteran hospitals. (Schonfeld, 7/31)

Los Angeles Times: UCLA Football's Thomas Cole Shares Why He Attempted Suicide
(A warning: This story discusses self-harm and suicide.) The smile that split Thomas Cole’s face on video chats with his parents couldn’t hide the darkness that had overtaken his life. His mother noticed that he was always lying in bed. The blinds were invariably drawn. (Bolch, 7/31)

San Diego Union-Tribune: New Vocational Center And Café In San Marcos Are Brewing Up Coffee And Hope For Disabled People
It’s been nearly two decades since the Oceanside nonprofit TERI purchased 20 acres in San Marcos for its Campus of Life — a community hub that would one day provide extensive recreation, education and career-training services to people on the autism spectrum and with other disabilities. (Kragen, 7/31)