Los Angeles Times: Why L.A.’s Battle Against A Deadly Disease Relies On Unpaid Volunteers 
A partnership between USC and the county public health department, Project Connect trains volunteers to call people who have tested positive for hepatitis C to make sure they know their results and encourage them to get the medication they need. (Reyes, 2/4)

USA Today: Experts Offer Advice After CDC Reports 57 Pediatric Deaths This Flu Season
Pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Kris Bryant told USA TODAY that this flu season has been more or less normal as far as pediatric cases. ... According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 10 influenza-related pediatric deaths in the week ending Jan. 20, bringing the total to 57 thus far for the 2023-2024 flu season. The "season" as categorized by the CDC, runs from late fall to early spring, and 106 total pediatric deaths were reported to the CDC by February of the 2022-2023 season, the highest number since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Walrath-Holdridge, 2/3)

CIDRAP: US Flu Markers Show Hint Of A Second Wind 
Though flu indicators declined following the winter holidays, the CDC has said that it is watching for a second peak that sometimes occurs after the winter holidays. In its respiratory virus snapshot, the CDC said some regions are seeing rising flu indicators, especially in the Midwest and South-Central regions. (Schnirring, 2/2)

Reuters: US Judge Won't Shield Yelp From Texas Lawsuit Over Crisis Pregnancy Center Notices
A California federal judge has refused to shield Yelp from a lawsuit by the state of Texas accusing it of posting misleading notices about crisis pregnancy centers on its online review site. U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson in Oakland, California, ruled Thursday that federal courts cannot interfere with state actions enforcing their laws unless they are brought in bad faith. She said that required her to dismiss a preemptive lawsuit Yelp had filed against Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last September in an effort to stop him from suing the San Francisco-based company for posting notices warning users that the centers provided limited medical services. (Pierson, 2/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Prop. 1: What To Know About Newsom's Mental Health Bond
Proposition 1 would enact a key part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to get people with severe mental illness off the streets and into treatment. (Bollag, 2/5)

AP: As Investors Pile Into Psychedelics, Idealism Gives Way To Pharma Economics 
Money is pouring into the fledgling psychedelic medicine industry, with dozens of startup companies vying to be among the first to sell mind-expanding drugs for depression, addiction and other mental health conditions. While psychedelics are still illegal under federal law, companies are jostling to try and patent key ingredients found in magic mushrooms, ayahuasca and other substances that have been used underground for decades or — in some cases — for millennia by indigenous cultures. (Perrone, 2/3)

Axios: Health Care Jobs Grew At Fastest Rate In Over 30 Years
Health care employment grew at its fastest clip since 1991 last year as the industry's pandemic recovery continued and demand for care picked up. Health care is playing a big role in fueling a strong labor market, even as the industry grapples with high levels of burnout. Health care jobs expanded by 3.9% in 2023, much higher than the 1.5% growth rate across all other industries, according to new Altarum data. (Millman, 2/2)

Modesto Bee: How Do Stanislaus County Restaurant Inspections Work?
Are there roaches in the kitchen of your favorite Stanislaus County restaurant? Clogged sinks? Slime? Improperly stored food? The Stanislaus County Department of Environmental Resources has a website where community members can view health inspection reports “from March 2006 to the present,” according to the site. (Williams, 2/5)

Reuters: Promising Early Data Details On Amgen Weight-Loss Drug Published
Animal and early-stage human trial data for Amgen's experimental obesity drug published in a medical journal showed that it promoted significant weight loss with an acceptable safety profile, the company said on Monday. The dataset published in Nature Metabolism details outcomes and adverse events for the 49 patients in the Phase 1 trial of the drug, maridebart cafraglutide. Trial participants received different doses of the drug ranging from 21 milligrams to 840 mg. Patients in the study were obese, but did not have other underlying health conditions such as diabetes. (Beasley, 2/5)

Stat: Amgen Wants Wegovy-Like Drug That Can Be Tapered Down
Amgen is trying a unique strategy with its obesity drug candidate: testing whether it can wean patients toward lower or less frequent doses over time. Very early data hints that Amgen’s candidate, called MariTide, may provide longer-lasting weight loss than highly popular obesity drugs on the market like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound. Amgen is already seeing if that means its drug could also be dosed differently from Novo and Lilly’s products, which are costly and expected to be taken consistently for life. (Chen, 2/5)

CNN: Tirzepatide: Weight Loss Drug Helps Significantly Lower Blood Pressure In Adults Who Are Overweight Or Obese, Study Finds
The drug tirzepatide — sold under the brand names Zepbound for obesity and Mounjaro for diabetes — significantly lowered the blood pressure of adults with overweight or obesity who took it for nine months, according to a new study. (Cheng, 2/5)

The New York Times: 6 Reasons That It’s Hard To Get Your Wegovy And Other Weight-Loss Prescriptions 
Talk to people who have tried to get one of the wildly popular weight-loss drugs, like Wegovy, and they’ll probably have a story about the hoops they had to jump through to get their medication — if they could get it at all. Emily Weaver, a nurse practitioner in Cary, N.C., said she told her patients that finding Wegovy was “like winning the lottery.” Here are six reasons why. (Abelson and Robbins, 2/2)

The Atlantic: Ozempic Makes You Lose More Than Fat
When you eat fewer calories than you burn, the body starts scavenging itself, breaking down fat, of course, but also muscle. About a quarter to a third of the weight shed is lean body mass, and most of that is muscle. Muscle loss is not inherently bad. As people lose fat, they need less muscle to support the weight of their body. And the muscle that goes first tends to be low quality and streaked with fat. Doctors grow concerned when people start to feel weak in everyday life. (Zhang, 2/2)

The Mercury News: Neuralink Brain Implant: Elon Musk's Deep Dive Into Human Experimentation
The secrecy worries the research community, which has long advocated for accountability. “This is not like a product launch, We’re talking about human experiments here,” said McGill University’s  Jonathan Kimmelman, who studies the introduction of novel medical technologies. “Once you’ve entered the realm of doing human research, you now have a set of expectations and obligations. One of them is transparency,” he said. “You have to be able to establish that the benefits of doing research are sufficient to outweigh the risks and burdens.” (Krieger, 2/3)

NBC News: Behind Elon Musk’s Brain Chip: Decades Of Research And Lofty Ambitions To Meld Minds With Computers
It wasn’t the first tiny device to be implanted in a human brain. Still, Elon Musk’s announcement on Monday turned heads in the small community of scientists who have spent decades working to treat certain disabilities and conditions by tapping directly into the body’s nervous system. “Getting a device into a person is no small feat,” said Robert Gaunt, an associate professor in the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh. “But I don’t think even Elon Musk would have taken on a project like this if it were not for the research and demonstrated capability over decades in neuroscience.” (Chow, 2/4)