CapRadio: California’s COVID-19 State Of Emergency To End Feb. 28
California’s COVID State of Emergency will end on February 28. The emergency order was issued on March 5, 2020 and allowed for an influx of almost 600 provisions that enabled more medical providers to give COVID-19 related care and freed up funding for spending on protective equipment and treatment space. (Wolffe, 2/10)

CIDRAP: Omicron XBB.1.5 Variant Expands US Dominance 
In updated variant projections today, the CDC said the more transmissible XBB.15 subvariant makes up an estimated 74.7% of cases, up from 66.4% last week. The only area where the subvariant isn't dominant is in the far northwestern region, which includes Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. (Schnirring, 2/10)

CIDRAP: COVID Deaths 5-Fold Lower After Bivalent Vs Monovalent Booster 
Recipients of the bivalent (two-strain) COVID-19 vaccine booster were 14 times less likely to die of Omicron BA.4/BA.5 infections than their unvaccinated peers and 5 times less likely to die than recipients of the monovalent (single-strain) booster, particularly among older people, finds a study today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (Van Beusekom, 2/10)

The New York Times: For Older Americans, The Pandemic Is Not Over
For older Americans, the pandemic still poses significant dangers. About three-quarters of Covid deaths have occurred in people over 65, with the greatest losses concentrated among those over 75.In January, the number of Covid-related deaths fell after a holiday spike but nevertheless numbered about 2,100 among those ages 65 to 74, more than 3,500 among 75- to 84-year-olds and nearly 5,000 among those over 85. Those three groups accounted for about 90 percent of the nation’s Covid deaths last month. (Span, 2/11)

NPR: Since COVID, Concern Grows Over Race-Based Skin Bias In Pulse Oximeters
"There's no doubt in my mind that this has led to people not getting care, not getting timely care, or even being sent home or staying home to die from COVID-19," says Noha Aboelata, a family practice physician at the Roots Community Health Center. Aboelata is a co-author on one of several studies that have shown inaccuracies in the device have led to patients of color not getting timely care. (Oza, Kwong, Lu and Spitzer, 2/10)

Boston Globe: Fauci's Longtime Deputy, Hugh Auchincloss, Takes His Role
Dr. Anthony Fauci was the face of the fight against Covid-19, an omnipresent figure featured on T-shirts, bobbleheads, and yard signs. He was lionized by his fans as a scientific hero and villainized by his opponents as a denier of their freedoms. But there are no tchotchkes with the likeness of the person who has replaced him at the helm of National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In fact, finding more than one photo of Dr. Hugh Auchincloss on the Internet is a challenge. (Puzzanghera, 2/11)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID In California: Norovirus Cases Spread Amid Relaxed Protocols
A substantial number of norovirus outbreaks are contributing to rapidly increasing cases of stomach flu across the U.S. More than 15% of laboratory tests are coming back positive, the highest figure since March, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some regions, such as the Midwest are even harder hit, with a positivity rate of 19.4%. Between August and January, there were 225 norovirus outbreaks among the 14 states that participate in the agency’s reporting program, compared with 172 outbreaks over the same period in 2021. (Vaziri, 2/10)

CIDRAP: US Flu Activity Remain Low, But Kids' Deaths Pass 100
After an early surge, flu activity remained low nationally, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its weekly update. But the addition of 9 more flu-related pediatric deaths put the country over the 100 mark for the current influenza season. (Schnirring, 2/10)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Begins Allowing Medicaid Money To Be Spent On Food 
The Biden administration has started approving state requests to use Medicaid to pay for groceries and nutritional counseling as policy makers explore whether “food as medicine” programs can lead to broad health benefits and trim costs. A growing body of research suggests that addressing food insecurity can improve health as well as deliver savings by reducing medical visits, the need for medication, or by helping control serious illness. The programs have also appealed to some GOP lawmakers who believe states should have more control over their Medicaid programs. (Armour and Peterson, 2/12)

Axios: Workplace Plans Paid More Than Medicare For Physician-Administered Drugs, Study Finds
Employer-sponsored health plans pay significantly more than Medicare for costly physician-administered drugs, threatening access to lifesaving treatments, according to a newly published analysis of claims data and Medicare files. (Dreher, 2/13)

USA Today: 'That’s Not A Republican Plan': McConnell Distances GOP From Scott On Social Security, Medicare Sunset Plan
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said any idea on sunsetting Social Security and Medicare belongs to Sen. Rick Scott—not the GOP. “Unfortunately, that was the Scott plan, that’s not a Republican plan,” McConnell said on a Kentucky radio program. (Bailey, 2/10)

Politico: GOP Senator: ‘Vast Majority’ Want ‘A Different Direction’ Than Rick Scott On Social Security 
Most Republicans don’t agree with Sen. Rick Scott‘s plan to sunset programs including Medicare and Social Security, Sen. Mike Rounds said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” even as he left the door open to other changes. “The vast majority of us would say that we prefer to look at it in a different direction, one of managing it, as opposed to a discussion about having everything start over again,” Rounds said. (Olander, 2/12)

The Hill: Can These Lawmaker Proposals Save Social Security?
Capitol Hill is talking more about Social Security, which estimates show is on track to becoming insolvent in little more than a decade, as both sides feud over how to address the rising national debt. A recent report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that spending for Social Security benefits increased by 10 percent, or $37 billion, in the four-month stretch ending in January, compared to the same period the year before. (Folley, 2/12)

Times Of San Diego: Genentech Begins $450 Million Expansion In Oceanside To Make New Drugs For Rare Diseases
Genentech has begun a $450 million expansion of its biotech campus in Oceanside with a new facility that will produce complex drugs for rare diseases and personalized medicine. The South San Francisco-based company plans “one of the most modern commercial-scale biotech manufacturing facilities in the world” able to simultaneously produce multiple medicines. (Jennewein, 2/12)

Los Angeles Daily News: What You Should Know About Hospice And End-Of-Life Care 
Many think of hospice as a place that can be confusing. Typically, here in Southern California, hospice is not a place but a visiting service. It’s for those who are terminally ill, focusing on symptom management and comfort for the patient. (Dennis, 2/12)

The Californian: Emily Duran Breaking Down Barriers To Health Care 
Meet health care's new storyteller. As chief executive officer of an organization that administers Medi-Cal coverage to 350,000 Kern County residents — more than a third of the county's population — Duran is determined to change the conversation about health care. But she she's not stopping there. (Self, 2/12)

San Diego Union-Tribune: County Crisis Response Teams Surprised By Calls From People 'We Didn’t Even Quite Know Existed' 
A mother struggling with postpartum depression. A registered sex offender unable to access substance abuse treatment. A family overwhelmed by a combative loved one with dementia. These were not the calls the county expected when it launched the Mobile Crisis Response Teams two years ago to handle non-violent mental health emergencies from people suffering from bipolar disorder or schizophrenia or feeling suicidal. (Murga and Mapp, 2/11)

Berkeleyside: Berkeley Mental Health Crisis Team To Launch This Summer
A 24/7, three-member Specialized Care Unit will begin operating this summer to offer a non-police response for anyone experiencing a mental health crisis in Berkeley, city officials said at a community meeting Thursday. The SCU was born out of conversations following the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the nationwide protests against police racism and brutality that followed. (Yelimeli, 2/10)

CNN: Almost Half Of Children Who Go To ER With Mental Health Crisis Don't Get The Follow-Up Care They Need, Study Finds
Every night that Dr. Jennifer Hoffmann works as an attending physician in the pediatric ER, she says, at least one child comes in with a mental or behavioral health emergency. Over the span of her career, she’s seen the number of young people needing help grow enormously. “The most common problems that I see are children with suicidal thoughts or children with severe behavior problems, where they may be a risk of harm to themselves or others,” said Hoffmann, who works at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. (Christensen, 2/13)

The Washington Post: Can Family Medicine Improve America’s Mental Health? 
Primary care providers are at the forefront of the nation’s deepening behavioral health crisis because when patients walk into a doctor’s office, they bring all their needs with them. Asthma. Anxiety. Diabetes. Depression. Sniffles. Stress. “We artificially separate ‘this is a mental health issue’ and ‘this is a physical health issue,’” said Lisa Barkley, a doctor and director of the family medicine residency program at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, where James is training. “But really, people are just coming in for their issues.” (Johnson, 2/10)

NBC News: Texas Lawsuit Seeking To Reverse FDA Approval Of Abortion Pills
On Friday, New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of 22 attorneys general in filing a brief that argued that if the FDA were ordered to rescind its approval of mifepristone, that would have “devastating consequences” for women across the U.S., regardless of their state’s abortion policy. Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, meanwhile, led a group of 22 Republican attorneys general who filed a brief calling the FDA’s approval of abortion pills “deeply flawed.” (Atkins, 2/11)

Bloomberg: Abortion Providers Gear Up For Judge’s Ruling Over Pill Approval 
Health providers are bracing for massive disruptions as they await a federal judge’s decision on whether to halt national access to an abortion pill approved decades ago by the Food and Drug Administration. Trump-appointed Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk is expected to rule soon on the Alliance Defending Freedom’s request for a preliminary injunction stopping the sale and distribution of mifepristone, a drug used as part of a regimen to end a pregnancy within the first 10 weeks. (Castronuovo and Lopez, 2/10)

Axios: 40 Million Would Lose Abortion Access If Court Blocks Pill, Study Shows
40 million more women would lose access to abortion care if a federal court revokes the use of a key drug in medication abortions, data from the abortion rights group NARAL shows. (Gonzalez, 2/10)

Axios: Dissatisfaction With Abortion Policy Highest Since 2001
People in America are more dissatisfied with the U.S.'s abortion policy than they have ever been in the 23 years, according to a new Gallup poll released Friday. Democrats' dissatisfaction with laws have jumped after the fall of Roe last June and nationwide GOP-led efforts to enforce abortion restrictions. For over 20 years, Republicans were more likely than Democrats to express dissatisfaction, per Gallup. (Chen, 2/10)

The New York Times: Childbirth Is Deadlier For Black Families Even When They’re Rich, Expansive Study Finds 
In the United States, the richest mothers and their newborns are the most likely to survive the year after childbirth — except when the family is Black, according to a groundbreaking new study of two million California births. The richest Black mothers and their babies are twice as likely to die as the richest white mothers and their babies. Research has repeatedly shown that Black mothers and babies have the worst childbirth outcomes in the United States. But this study is novel because it’s the first of its size to show how the risks of childbirth vary by both race and parental income, and how Black families, regardless of their socioeconomic status, are disproportionately affected. (Miller, Kliff and Buchanan, 2/12)

Bay Area News Group: Half Moon Bay Massacre: Immigrants' 'Humble Dreams' Collide With 'America's Gun Violence'
In Half Moon Bay, the road to the American dream for newly arrived immigrant farmworkers often begins at the Hilltop Grocery. Maria Melgar is usually there to greet them at the counter of the red brick market along Highway 92, where vegetables are piled in bins outside. She welcomes them inside with check cashing, wire transfers and all kinds of advice. Job openings? She knows about them. Places to live? She has connections for that. (Toledo and Sulek, 2/12)

San Diego Union-Tribune: County Looks To Keep Jail Population Numbers Low By Exploring Alternatives To Incarceration 
If Dion Caporrimo had not looked over at the right time, he might have missed the flier posted on the wall of a San Diego County lock-up mentioning housing services for people getting out of jail. (Lunetta and Davis, 2/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: He Spent 14 Years In Prison For Medical Marijuana. Is Change In Federal Law Overdue?
Luke Scarmazzo is back home in California after serving more than 14 years in federal prison for helping to run a nonprofit medical marijuana collective – an everyday business under state law but forbidden, then and now, by the U.S. government, which classifies the weed as one of the most dangerous drugs on the planet. Even so, a federal judge ordered Scarmazzo’s release last week, citing his fine behavior in prison, including volunteer work and legal aid to other inmates, and the “changes in the legal climate” in the last two decades. The federal government now rarely charges marijuana users and sellers whose actions would be legal under state laws. (Egelko, 2/12)

Times Of San Diego: County Lifts Water Contact Closure For Coronado Shoreline 
County officials lifted the Coronado shoreline closure Sunday because recent water quality samples met state health standards. The San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality also announced that the Tijuana Slough, Imperial Beach and Silver Strand shorelines would remain closed. (2/12)

Bloomberg: Eye Drop Recall: Artificial Tears Linked To Infection Clusters In Four States
Clusters of infections linked to the use of eye drops have been found in four states, according to US health officials tracking the outbreak that’s already led to the death of one person. At least 35 of 56 cases related to the recalled eye drops have been reported from California, Connecticut, Florida and Utah, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson. Eight other states have also tallied infections, the CDC said, with some leading to permanent vision loss. (Muller, 2/10)

The Bakersfield Californian: Farmworker Study Renews Concerns About Medical Access, Work Conditions 
New survey data suggests the labor force behind California agriculture faces significant medical problems largely without access to health care, often endures unfair treatment at work and struggles with mental health while existing mostly outside the social safety net. (Cox, 2/12)

inewsource: San Diego-Tijuana Border Region Increasingly Deadly For Mexicans
More Mexican nationals are dying along the U.S.-Mexico border between the San Diego and Tijuana regions in their attempt to enter the U.S. than in previous years, according to new data from the Mexican Consulate in San Diego. From October 2021 through September 2022, at least 46 Mexican nationals died in their attempt to cross the border between the two regions. That’s up from 34 in the previous twelve months and 11 in the year before that. The data from the consulate runs from October to September, aligning with the federal fiscal year. (Mejías-Pascoe, 2/13)