Bay Area News Group: San Jose Hospital's Changes Raise Fears Over Effect Of Trauma Center Closures
In February, HCA Healthcare, the corporation that owns Regional Medical Center, announced that it would be closing its trauma center completely. But last month, it changed course and said the hospital would be downgraded from a Level II to a Level III facility with changes taking effect on Aug. 12. Despite the decision to keep some version of the trauma center open, East San Jose residents and some doctors at the hospital remain concerned about the impact. (Hase, 8/12)

Times of San Diego: Family Health Centers' New El Cajon Clinic Served 24,000 Patients In First Year
One year after the El Cajon Urgent and Cardiac Care Center opened its doors, more than 24,000 new patients have sought help for a wide range of illnesses and health conditions. According to Fran Butler-Cohen, CEO of Family Health Centers of San Diego, the El Cajon center has surpassed two year’s worth of goals in its first year – in the number of patients served and reduction in trips to emergency rooms. (8/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Geriatricians In Short Supply In S.F., Elsewhere As Boomers Age
The nation is facing a shortage of geriatricians that’s expected to worsen in the coming years as the Baby Boomer generation ages and there aren’t enough doctors entering the geriatrics specialty to keep up with demand. The American Society of Geriatrics estimates there are about 7,300 board-certified geriatricians working in the United States, which amounts to about one geriatrician for every 10,000 patients 65 and older. Ideally, that ratio would be closer to 1 per 1,000 patients or even 1 per 500, said Dr. Louise Walter, chief of the UCSF Division of Geriatrics. (Ho, 8/12)

Los Angeles Times: Althea Alexander, Who Built Diversity Of Medical Students At USC, Dies
As an assistant dean of diversity and inclusion at USC, Dr. Althea Alexander spent time speaking in high school classrooms across the United States, in search of undeveloped talent among Black and brown students in hopes of guiding them toward the field of medicine. She mentored minority medical students and sought to improve the school’s efforts to recruit diverse students. Her work, spanning five decades, paid off tenfold: She influenced the career paths of hundreds who would go on to become medical school deans, chief executives and even California’s surgeon general. Alexander, 89, died on July 17 after suffering a brain hemorrhage. (Gomez and Dillon, 8/11)

Los Angeles Times: This Is California’s Strongest Summer COVID Wave In Years. Why It Got So Bad
California’s strongest summer COVID wave in years is still surging, and an unusual midsummer mutation may be partly to blame. There are a number of possible culprits behind the worst summer infection spike since 2022, experts say. A series of punishing heat waves and smoke from devastating wildfires have kept many Californians indoors, where the disease can more easily spread. Most adults are also well removed from their last brush with the coronavirus, or their last vaccine dose — meaning they’re more vulnerable to infection. (Lin II, 8/12)

VC Star: Listing Of COVID-19 Policies In Public, Private Schools
Schools and universities have instituted their own rules about how to handle COVID-19 this fall. Below is a partial listing of California State University, the University of California, and other schools' COVID-19 policies this fall. (Woods II, 8/10)

The New York Times: Should You Get A Covid Shot Now? 
Patients keep asking Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, the same question: Is it time to get another Covid shot? ... Experts said the right time for your next Covid shot will depend on your health status and what you’re hoping to get from the vaccines. (Blum, 8/12)

NPR: Is COVID Endemic Yet? Yep, Says The CDC. Here's What That Means
Four years after SARS-CoV2 sparked a devastating global pandemic, U.S. health officials now consider COVID-19 an endemic disease. "At this point, COVID-19 can be described as endemic throughout the world," Aron Hall, the deputy director for science at the CDC's coronavirus and other respiratory viruses division, told NPR in an interview. That means, essentially, that COVID is here to stay in predictable ways. The classification doesn't change any official recommendations or guidelines for how people should respond to the virus. (Stein, 8/9)

Reveal: The COVID Tracking Project Part 2
In March 2020, health care technologist Amy Gleason had a daunting task ahead of her. She was a new member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force’s data team, and it was her job to figure out where people were testing positive for COVID-19 across the country, how many were in hospitals, and how many had died from the disease. Gleason was shocked to find that data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wasn’t reflecting the immediate impact of the coronavirus. At the same time, the country was suffering from another huge shortfall: a lack of COVID-19 tests. (Curiskis and Oehler, 8/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Facebook Was Free Of Feds In Handling Anti-Vax Posts By RFK Jr. Group
Facebook and its parent company, Meta, were not acting as government agents when they added warnings and took other steps against anti-vaccine postings by an organization led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a federal court ruled Friday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected a lawsuit accusing Facebook of conspiring with the government to violate the free-speech rights of Kennedy’s nonprofit organization, Children’s Health Defense. (Egelko, 8/9)

The Washington Post: Why A Growing Mpox Outbreak Has The World Worried Again
Global health authorities are sounding an alarm about surging mpox infections in Africa that have left hundreds dead, thousands sick and inflicted suffering in nations previously spared from the viral disease. Cases in Africa have surpassed 15,000 this year, exceeding the toll in all of 2023. Infections are concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where mpox has been endemic for decades, reaching record highs and infecting and killing mostly children. The virus has spilled into countries that have never recorded outbreaks, including Kenya and the Ivory Coast. (Nirappil, 8/9)

CIDRAP: Poll: Americans' Knowledge, Concern About Mpox Has Dropped 
As a large mpox outbreak in Africa has set off alarm bells in the global health community, Americans' knowledge of the virus and risk factors surrounding transmission has dropped compared to just 2 years ago, according to new survey from researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. (soucheray, 8/9)

USA Today: Feds Prep Millions Of Bird Flu Vaccines To Avoid Next Pandemic
Already, 4.8 million doses of a potential vaccine are sitting in an undisclosed Seqirus distribution center, ready for delivery if needed. “An exercise like this gives our partners a chance to exercise that muscle, to make sure that the manufacturing’s there,” Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told USA TODAY during an exclusive tour of the vaccine factory in late July. (Cuevas and Weintraub, 8/12)

CalMatters: Homeless Californians React To Crackdown On Encampments
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s message on homelessness in recent weeks has been clear: The state will no longer tolerate encampments, and cities shouldn’t either. Californians who live on the streets, as well as the outreach workers who support them, say they’re already feeling the difference. Places where someone used to be able to pitch a tent and sleep in peace have suddenly become inhospitable. Police seem to be clearing camps more often and more aggressively, and are less likely to give advance notice before they come in with bulldozers and trash compactors, according to anecdotal reports in some cities. (Kendall, 8/12)

San Diego Union-Tribune: State Agencies Were Told To Clear Encampments. It’s Not Clear That Much Will Quickly Change In San Diego. 
The growing number of people on local streets know they’re lying on unstable ground, an awareness heightened late last month when Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order telling California agencies to clear encampments on state property and asking municipal governments to do the same. On Thursday, Newsom increased the pressure, vowing to take away funding from cities and counties not clearing encampments. The initial directive followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that officials may push people off public land regardless of whether shelter is available. (Nelson, 8/11)

Sacramento Bee: Court Sides With City Of Sacramento In Camp Resolution Lease 
A judge Friday gave the city of Sacramento the OK to close a tight-knit North Sacramento homeless camp, but its future remains unclear. About 50 homeless people have been living at Camp Resolution in city-issued trailers at a vacant lot at the corner of Colfax Street and Arden Way since 2022. (Clift, 8/10)

KQED: Unhoused San Francisco RV Families Forced To Move Yet Again, With 'Nowhere To Go' 
Residents of an RV community in San Francisco say they have nowhere to go after city officials gave them three days to clear out. For many, it’s the second move in less than two weeks. The group of some two dozen vehicles was previously stationed on Winston Drive near the Stonestown Galleria, but city officials cleared them from the street a week ago. Most then moved to a low-traffic street behind the San Francisco Zoo. (Lara and Cooke, 8/9)

Military.com: Housing Agency Scraps Catch-22-Type Rule That Kept Disabled Homeless Vets From Receiving Rent Vouchers 
Homeless veterans who were wounded, injured or became sick during their time in uniform will no longer have their disability benefits counted against them in the struggle to find affordable housing. In the face of an ongoing class-action suit brought by veterans in Los Angeles, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, announced Thursday that the rule, which counted service-connected disability benefits as income in deciding whether veterans qualified for housing vouchers, is being scrapped. (Sisk, 8/9)

American Homefront Project: Facing A Deadline, More Than 300,000 Claims Are Filed In The Camp Lejeune Case
Facing a Saturday deadline, hundreds of thousands of Marine Corps veterans, family members and others have filed claims in one of the biggest toxic exposure cases in the nation’s history. From 1953 to 1987, tainted water on Camp Lejeune in North Carolina was laced with chemicals that have been linked to a host of illnesses, including several forms of cancer and Parkinson’s disease. (Price, 8/9)

Los Angeles Times: What Is Prop. 47? And How Would It Change If Prop. 36 Passes This Year?
California voters face a decision about how the state should punish people who are repeatedly convicted of stealing, or of crimes involving the deadly drug fentanyl. Proposition 36 on the November ballot asks voters to change certain parts of Proposition 47, an initiative passed in 2014 that turned some nonviolent felonies into misdemeanors. Here’s what you need to know about how this year’s measure, if passed, would change the law Californians approved a decade ago. (Sosa, 8/12)

The Washington Post: FDA Approves First Nasal Spray For Allergic Reactions
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a nasal spray for serious allergic reactions to food, medications and insect stings, marking the first needle-free treatment for such conditions. The epinephrine nasal spray is administered as a single dose in one nostril and will serve as a critical alternative to treating emergency allergic reactions without an injection, the agency said. (Roubein and Gilbert, 8/9)

Times of San Diego: San Diego's First Guaranteed Income Programs Successfully Aided 2,800 People
Jewish Family Service of San Diego reported this week that through their first-of-its-kind guaranteed income program and two similar initiatives, they have helped 2,800 of the most vulnerable households in the county. As of August 2024, the pilot income program along with the Family Income for Empowerment and Recovery Action Fund for Tomorrow programs, have been able to provide $11.7 million overall to families in need. (Ramirez, 8/11)

San Diego Union-Tribune: New Approach To Cardiac Arrest Buys Survival For Ramona Man 
Sterling Sinema is alive today because of quick actions taken by his wife and a diverse group of medical personnel — and a pioneering program to get rapid aid to victims of cardiac arrest. Headed for urgent care in Escondido to manage a severe bout of heartburn, Sinema suddenly collapsed sitting in the passenger seat of his wife Renee’s vehicle. “She’s told me I started decompensating or convulsing, whatever it’s called,” Sinema said. “I went into cardiac arrest, and she turned the car around.” (Sisson, 8/11)

The Washington Post: How Death Valley Residents Survive As Area Records Hottest Summer Ever
For the sightseers and second-home dwellers, the infernal heat is a novelty. But full-time residents have to live in Death Valley’s extreme temperatures day in, day out. And lately, it’s getting harder. “You have this sensation that you can’t get cool,” said Brian Brown, who owns and operates the China Ranch Date Farm in Tecopa, a small rural community near the southern end of Death Valley National Park. “It makes me doubt my sanity.” (Thebault, 8/11)