The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: California Wine Country Weighs Impact Of Surgeon General’s Call For Cancer Warnings: ‘Gut Punch,’ One Vintner Says 
For Alison Smith Story, owner of Smith Story Wine Cellars in Healdsburg, the surgeon general’s new advisory is “a gut punch.” “I think the advisory is very reckless and politically driven,” said Story, a recent breast cancer survivor. “My Sonoma County oncology team and I speak in great lengths about wine and its effects on health, and moderation is key. Excessive consumption of many things in the grocery aisles can wreak havoc on your health.” (Doyle, 1/3)

The Hill: Changing Alcohol Labels Could Take 'Decades': Expert
United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy proposed labelling alcohol as a leading cause of cancer. Dr. Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University who has served on the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, discusses research surrounding the move. (Kutz, 1/4)

KVPR: Merced County Reports Death Of Child From Pediatric Influenza
Merced County Department of Public Health has confirmed the death of a child from pediatric influenza, the first influenza-associated death of a local resident under the age of 18 over the past year. According to a Merced County news release, the child was a resident of Merced County with no known underlying medical conditions. (The Merced FOCUS, 1/3)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Flu Surges In San Diego County: ‘It Went From Pretty Quiet To Busy All Of A Sudden’ 
It is shaping up to be a significant flu season in San Diego County, with the latest weekly respiratory illness report  documenting a local upswing in cases and patient volume that intensified in the final half of December and continues to occupy the health care community into the new year. (Sisson, 1/4)

Los Angeles Times: In The Central Valley Lack Of Wastewater Testing For Bird Flu A Blind Spot
As the H5N1 bird flu virus continues to rip throughout California’s dairy herds and commercial poultry flocks, a Central Valley state official is raising concern about the lack of wastewater surveillance in the region. State Sen. Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) has been frustrated by what she says are gaps in tracking the bird flu’s spread in the Central Valley, where many of the state’s most vulnerable people — dairy and poultry workers — live and work. (Gomez and Rust, 1/6)

Times of San Diego: SD Blood Bank Begins 75th Anniversary Celebration With Opening Of New Donation Location
In January 2025, San Diego Blood Bank will begin its 75th anniversary celebration with the opening of a new blood donation center in the Clairemont Mesa neighborhood of San Diego, which also coincides with National Blood Donor Month. ... Since 1950, San Diego Blood Bank has collected more than 5.5 million pints of blood from volunteer blood donors, and currently impacts as many as 150,000 patient lives each year. What differentiates San Diego Blood Bank from other blood banking organizations is simple – they are a community blood bank serving San Diego and the region specifically. (Sklar, 1/3)

ProPublica: Formaldehyde Poses An “Unreasonable” Public Health Risk, EPA Finds
A long-awaited report from the Environmental Protection Agency has found that formaldehyde presents an unreasonable risk to human health. But the report, released Thursday, downplayed the threat the chemical poses to people living near industrial plants that release large quantities of the carcinogen into the air. The health risk assessment was published weeks after a ProPublica investigation found that formaldehyde, one of the most widely used chemicals in commerce, causes more cases of cancer than any other chemical in the air and triggers asthma, miscarriages and fertility problems. (Lerner, 1/3)

CalMatters: How California’s Homelessness Crisis Compares To Other States
California’s homeless population remains the biggest in the nation, but the crisis is growing more slowly here than in most of the rest of the country, according to new federal data. The number of homeless Californians increased just over 3% last year compared to the year before, with more than 187,000 people sleeping on the street or in shelters in the state as of January 2024. Overall, the country saw an increase of slightly more than 18%, and 22 states saw double-digit increases. Just six states, including Wyoming, Tennessee and Maine, saw their homeless populations decrease. (Kendall, 1/6)

The Oaklandside: Rare Opportunity To Apply For Section 8 Housing Waitlist In Oakland
The Oakland Housing Authority is opening its waitlist for Section 8 housing vouchers, which can be used by low-income households to pay part of their rent. Applications will open Jan. 7 through Jan. 26 for 5,000 new spots on the list. It’s a rare opportunity for Oakland residents seeking affordable housing: the waitlist last opened in 2011. (Orenstein, 1/3)

San Francisco Chronicle: Berkeley Program Could Add Thousands Of Housing Units To The Market
For years, recently retired Berkeley City Councilmember Susan Wengraf has been hearing the stories of Berkeley homeowners who opt to leave unpermitted secondary housing units vacant. Some have been burned by previous tenants who stopped paying rent upon learning the unit was illegal. Others are worried about liability risk or getting slapped with a notice of violation if a neighbor were to file a complaint. Many are afraid of taking chances on renting out an unpermitted apartment in a city with some of the strongest pro-tenant laws in the country. (Dineen, 1/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: SF Supervisor’s Plea On Drugs: More Arrests, Forced Treatment
The open-air drug scene on San Francisco’s Sixth Street has become so prevalent lately that Supervisor Matt Dorsey is asking city officials to consider arresting more drug users and compelling them into detox and treatment. Dorsey — who represents the South of Market, Mission Bay and Treasure Island — asked city officials responsible for public safety and health functions to report to the new Board of Supervisors early this year on what it would take to expand arrests and compulsory drug treatment to deal with the chaotic drug scene in his district. (Toledo, 1/4)

Becker's Hospital Review: Dignity Hospital To Open $215M+ Tower In Los Angeles
Dignity Health-California Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles is set to open its new patient tower on Jan. 7, according to a news release shared with Becker's. The tower, representing an investment of more than $215 million, aims to expand emergency and trauma capacity. (Gooch, 1/3)

The New York Times: Telemedicine For Seniors Gets A Last-Minute Reprieve 
Telemedicine lives, at least until March 31. Kyle Zebley, senior vice president for public policy at the American Telemedicine Association, who estimates that 20 to 30 percent of medical encounters could occur virtually, expects further renewal. Telemedicine is “so popular and so bipartisan in nature I can’t imagine the Trump administration and Congress allowing it to lapse,” he said. (Span, 1/5)

Modern Healthcare: Why Digital Mental Health May Flourish In 2025
Health tech companies focused on behavioral health are confident that reimbursement trends favor them in 2025. Payment flexibilities for telehealth, hospital-at-home care and remote prescribing have been temporarily extended until March 31. The changes will prolong COVID-19-era payment for remote care across all specialties. For many in mental health tech, new reimbursement codes from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ November physician payment rule are an even bigger deal. The codes reimburse providers for using digital mental health treatment applications or devices that have been cleared or granted De Novo authorization by the Food and Drug Administration. (Perna, 1/3)

Bay Area News Group: New California Law Prohibits Using AI As Basis To Deny Insurance Claims
According to 2024 data from the California Nurses Association, approximately 26% of insurance claims are denied, one of many factors that inspired the law’s primary author, state Sen. Josh Becker, a Menlo Park Democrat. (Macasero, 1/6)

Los Angeles Times: In Labor-Friendly California, 2025 Ushers In More Worker Protections. Here’s What To Know
California lawmakers, by and large, are a labor-friendly bunch and, as in past years, they passed a host of new workplace protections that took effect when the new year struck. Instead of breaking new ground, many of the changes represent expansions of existing protections, such as family leave and enforcement of workplace anti-discrimination laws. (Hussain, 1/5)

Los Angeles Times: Federal Court Decision Won't Change California Net Neutrality Law
Despite the dismantling of the Federal Communications Commission’s efforts to regulate broadband internet service, state laws in California, New York and elsewhere remain intact. This week’s decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, striking down the FCC’s open internet rules, has little bearing on state laws enacted during the years-long tug-of-war over the government’s power to regulate internet service providers, telecommunications experts said. California has one of the nation’s strongest laws on net neutrality, the principle that internet traffic must be treated equally to ensure a free and open network. (James, 1/3)

Reuters: Winter Storm Will Not Delay Trump Election Certification In Congress, House Leader Says 
A massive winter storm moving across the United States will not keep the U.S. Congress from meeting on Monday to formally certify Republican Donald Trump's election as president, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday. "The Electoral Count Act requires this on January 6 at 1 p.m. - so, whether we’re in a blizzard or not we’re going to be in that chamber making sure this is done," Johnson told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" in an interview. (Chiacu, 1/5)

Modern Healthcare: Meet The House, Senate Committee Chairs In Charge Of Healthcare 
As happens every two years, 2025 brings a fresh start. All the legislation drafted and debated in 2023 and 2024 has ceased to exist. Lawmakers will have to start negotiations again on issues affecting Medicare, Medicaid, providers, health insurers, pharmacy benefit managers and more. The shift from a divided Congress to a legislature entirely in the GOP's hands is the biggest and most obvious change. (McAuliff, 1/3)

The 19th: The 119th Congress: Some History Makers, But Fewer Women Overall
For the first time since 2011, the number of women serving in the Senate and House of Representatives will decline. Kelly Dittmar, director of research at Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics, said that while the drop in the number of women in Congress is small, “any decline when we’re talking about women’s representation is effectively slowed or stalled progress because women are already so underrepresented in Congress.” ... Jessica Mackler, the president of EMILYs List, a group that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, said the organization backed all 19 of the new Democratic women joining Congress. (Becker, 1/3)

The Hill: Mike Johnson Says He Expects To Pass Most Of Trump's Agenda With 'One Big, Beautiful Bill' By Memorial Day
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Sunday he expects to pass President-elect Trump’s agenda through one big reconciliation package before Memorial Day. In an interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Johnson reiterated that Republicans will try to pack in as many policy items as possible into a large reconciliation bill, which would avoid the 60-vote threshold necessary to pass most legislation in the Senate. Reconciliation legislation requires a simple majority, or 50 votes, in the upper chamber. Johnson said there are some “low-hanging fruit” bills, including those that would address the border, that he will put on the floor right away for a vote. But immigration and deportation policies will also be included in the reconciliation package, Johnson said, as will tax cuts and energy permitting reform. Johnson said Trump also asked that the debt ceiling be dealt with before June. (Fortinsky, 1/5)

Stat: Trump FDA Transition Team Takes Shape: Zeta, Traficant 
The Trump administration’s Food and Drug Administration transition team is taking shape, with a former adviser to ex-Commissioner Stephen Hahn and a top executive of a communications firm that has worked with Trump’s FDA commissioner pick Marty Makary. The team is in conversations with a top Capitol Hill aide about a key role at the agency. (Zhang, 1/3)

Reuters: Exclusive: New US Ethics Czar Starts Vetting Incoming Trump Officials 
The top U.S. ethics official charged with preventing government workers' conflicts of interest is about to take the hot seat in Washington, as President-elect Donald Trump's new Cabinet and other appointees declare their financial assets and prepare for their new jobs. "We are in touch with the transition team and working with them," said David Huitema recently when he sat down with Reuters for his first official interview since being sworn in for the job on Dec. 16. Ethics experts say the director of the Office of Government Ethics, or OGE, is in the spotlight during any presidential transition, but Huitema faces special challenges ahead of Trump's second term, evaluating a myriad of business ties for Trump, his family and advisers. Experts pointed to the short, rocky tenure of Walter Shaub, the last person to hold the job when Trump entered the White House. (Timmons and Borter, 1/5)

Marijuana Moment: Former Texas Governor Who Served In Trump's Cabinet Says President-Elect's Health Picks Are A 'Great Gift' For Psychedelics Reform 
Rick Perry, a former governor of Texas who also served in the first Trump administration, says the president-elect’s new choices for key health policy positions are a “great gift” for the psychedelics reform movement, particularly as it concerns access to ibogaine as a treatment option for serious mental health conditions. ... The former Department of Energy (DOE) secretary also sharply criticized the Schedule I status of ibogaine under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), saying the designation means “it can’t even be used for clinical trials” and “can’t be medically used to see, is there some good that can come out of this?” (Jaeger, 1/3)

Forbes: Trump May Revisit Most Favored Nation Model For Drug Prices
Buried in the news from last month was an interesting nugget posted by Fierce Pharma: “Following a dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate last week, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks pointed to raising drug prices in other developed nations as a key strategy to reduce costs in the U.S., a potential focus of President-Elect Donald Trump’s administration.” It seems to hint that international price referencing for certain prescription drugs may be on the table during the second Trump administration. Broadly, this is a system of price controls in which an average or minimum price across a group of countries with similar gross domestic output per capita can serve as an anchor towards which differing prices may converge over time. (Cohen, 1/3)

AP: Higher Social Security Payments Coming For Millions 
President Joe Biden on Sunday signed into law a measure that boosts Social Security payments for current and former public employees, affecting nearly 3 million people who receive pensions from their time as teachers, firefighters, police officers and in other public service jobs. Advocates say the Social Security Fairness Act rights a decades-old disparity, though it will also put strain on Social Security Trust Funds, which face a looming insolvency crisis. (Hussein, 1/5)

NPR: Dr. Rachel Levine Reflects On Her Service And Trans Politics As She Leaves HHS 
In 2021, the country had one state with a ban on gender-affirming care for youth on the books — Arkansas. In March of the same year, Dr. Rachel Levine won confirmation by the Senate to lead the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps as the assistant secretary for health. She holds the rank of admiral. Levine is the highest ranking, out transgender person ever to serve in the federal government. In the nearly four years that she's been at the Department of Health and Human Services, there has been an explosion in anti-trans legislation. (Simmons-Duffin, 1/6)