Becker's Hospital Review: UC Davis Health To Open Region's 1st Trauma Recovery Center
Starting later this summer, UC Davis Health will establish a comprehensive trauma recovery center to ensure patients who are victims of crime have access to appropriate mental health services, marking a first-of-its-kind program in Sacramento. (Carbajal, 5/31)

San Diego Union-Tribune: County Says It Found No Evidence Of Increased Illness At South Bay Urgent Care Tied To Sewage Spills 
County public health officials say that a two-week investigation showed “no conclusive evidence” of increased gastrointestinal illness at a South Bay health clinic that claimed its patients suffered such symptoms since Tropical Storm Hilary inundated the heavily polluted Tijuana River in August 2023. (Sisson and Murga, 6/1)

Bay Area News Group: Nearly Half Of California's Homeless People Are Over 50. Their Numbers And Needs Are Growing.
According to a new UC San Francisco study, nearly half of California’s rapidly aging homeless population is now over the age of 50. And amid a severe affordable housing shortage, that trend is expected to continue. (Varian, 6/2)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Clears Homeless Encampment Near Hollywood Recording Studio
The city of Los Angeles on Friday cleared a homeless encampment near Hollywood’s landmark Sunset Sound recording studio and moved more than 30 people into temporary housing, officials said. The long-standing encampment next to the Sunset Boulevard recording studio had become a tinderbox in the neighborhood. The owner of Sunset Sound previously complained that the encampment, sidewalk fires and a break-in had threatened the business and made high-profile artists uncomfortable. (Nelson, 6/1)

Los Angeles Times: A Homeless Angeleno Broke Into Her Old, Vacant Home And Wants To Stay 
Every few months after she left the narrow white cottage on Poplar Boulevard, Maria Merritt would slink back to the tree-lined street in El Sereno, find a secluded spot and stare at her old house. No one had lived there since 2007 when Merritt gave up trying to pay the monthly rent to her landlord, the California Department of Transportation. The state agency had left the house — one of hundreds that Caltrans had acquired for a contentious, on-again, off-again extension of the 710 Freeway — vacant and deteriorating, covering the windows with plywood and “No Trespassing” signs. (Dillon, 6/3)

Bay Area News Group: MDMA Therapy, Conceived In The Bay Area, Gets First Regulatory Test 
Rick Doblin first dreamed of the therapeutic potential of the psychedelic drug MDMA in a hippie house in downtown Santa Cruz, in an era when fears of bad trips and ruined lives loomed large in the public imagination. On Tuesday, 38 years later, his vision will go before a U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s advisory committee of medical experts who will make a recommendation about whether the drug, when combined with talk therapy, should be a legal part of modern medicine. (Krieger, 6/3)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Local Nonprofit Wants To Shift Belief Systems So People See That 'Autistic Traits Are Human Traits' 
Jenny Palmiotto, 44, lives in San Diego’s Loma Portal neighborhood with her daughter, Grace, her son, Oliver, and their dog, Brucie. She’s also the owner and clinical director of her mental health group practice, The Family Guidance and Therapy Center of Southern California. She took some time to talk about her efforts to help dismantle systemic ableism, particularly as it relates to autistic people, and her organization’s recent hosting of the Los Angeles premiere of “Ezra,” a film about a father co-parenting his autistic son and the road trip they take together. (Deaderick, 6/1)

Los Angeles Times: COVID's FLiRT Subvariants Are Rising. How Bad Will California Wave Get? 
As the new FLiRT family of coronavirus subvariants takes hold, early signs are pointing to a summer jump in cases. So how bad could it get? Experts so far are cautiously optimistic, saying the numbers are within expectations and there currently are no signs of any red flags. (Lin II, 6/1)

CIDRAP: US COVID Markers Show Small Rise In Activity
Most of the rise in wastewater detections was due to a steady rise in the western region, with a very slight increase in the southern region. Test positivity is currently highest in Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Nevada. (Schnirring, 5/31)

CIDRAP: Study: Truthful Yet Misleading Facebook Posts Drove COVID Vaccine Reluctance Much More Than Outright Lies Did 
Today in Science, a study shows that unflagged, factual but misleading Facebook posts reduced the intent to receive the COVID-19 vaccine 46 times more than did false posts flagged by fact-checkers as misinformation, which the authors say points to the need to consider the reach and impact of content rather than just its veracity. (Van Beusekom, 5/31)

SciTechDaily: Scientists Race To Perfect New Oral COVID-19 Treatment Poised To Replace Paxlovid
Researchers at Rutgers believe they are among the lead in developing an oral COVID-19 treatment that could supplement or replace Paxlovid, an antiviral drug that aids in preventing hospitalizations among high-risk patients. Their report, published in the journal Science, shows that an alternative medication, a viral papain-like protease inhibitor, inhibits disease progression in animals, a necessary step before human drug trials. (Rutgers University, 6/2)

PBS NewsHour: As COVID Precautions Vanish, People With Disabilities Struggle With Safety And Isolation
The pace of COVID fatalities in the U.S. has slowed significantly, with the nation’s death toll standing at more than 1 million people. With precautions like mandatory masking no longer in place, it can seem as if worries about the virus are gone as well. But for many people with disabilities, the threat is still very real. We hear from people in the disability community about their concerns. (Corkery, 6/1)

The New York Times: Fauci To Face Grilling By Republican Committee On Covid Origins
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the former government scientist both celebrated and despised for his work on Covid, is set to return to Capitol Hill on Monday for a reunion with some of his fiercest antagonists: members of a Republican-led House panel who accuse him of helping to set off the worst pandemic in a century. Republicans on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic have spent 15 months rooting through emails, Slack messages and research proposals for evidence against Dr. Fauci. In half a million pages of documents and more than 100 hours of closed-door testimony, the panel has so far found nothing linking the 83-year-old immunologist to the beginnings of the Covid outbreak in China. (Mueller and Stolberg, 6/3)

The Hill: What To Know About Anthony Fauci's Fiery Hearing With House GOP
His testimony comes on the heels of two highly contentious hearings before the subcommittee that raised questions over the level of oversight and conduct that went on in his agency. Here’s what to know ahead of what could be a testy hearing. (Choi, 6/2)

The Washington Post: Fauci’s Legacy Divides Two Doctors Leading Covid Investigation 
As chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic — the only panel in Congress solely devoted to probing a health crisis that left more than 1 million Americans dead — Ohio congressman Brad Wenstrup, a former combat surgeon, has led investigations into the origins of the virus as well as hearings on school shutdowns, vaccine mandates and possible side effects from coronavirus vaccines. He recruited another doctor — California congressman Raul Ruiz, an emergency medicine specialist — to serve as the panel’s top Democrat last year, promising they would be two physicians working together to get answers and accountability. (Diamond, 6/2)

The Washington Examiner: Fauci Says No Evidence For Pandemic Guidance On Masking Or Social Distancing
Dr. Anthony Fauci said in congressional testimony that he reviewed no scientific evidence behind the specific recommendations for masking children or maintaining 6-foot social distancing before advocating these policies during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The revelations come from the full transcript, released Friday, of Fauci’s closed-door transcribed interview session in January before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. The publication comes days before the former director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is slated to testify in his first public hearing since his retirement in December 2022. (Etzel, 5/31)

The Washington Post: In The Pandemic, We Were Told To Keep 6 Feet Apart. There’s No Science To Support That. 
“It sort of just appeared, that six feet is going to be the distance,” Fauci testified to Congress in a January closed-door hearing, according to a transcribed interview released Friday. Dr. Anthony Fauci characterized the recommendation as “an empiric decision that wasn’t based on data.” Francis S. Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health, also privately testified to Congress in January that he was not aware of evidence behind the social distancing recommendation, according to a transcript released in May. (Diamond, 6/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Berkeley, Albany To Test Parks For Evidence Of Radioactive Waste
Officials in Berkeley and Albany are moving forward with plans to test two popular bayside parks — César Chávez and the Albany Bulb — for evidence of radioactive material possibly dumped decades ago by the former Stauffer Chemical Co. plant in Richmond. (Johnson, 6/1)

Los Angeles Times: For Some Incarcerated Women, Getting Menstrual Products Is A Nightmare 
One of the things Alissa Moore remembers clearly from her time in prison is how the guards taunted her when she asked for a tampon. Sometimes they’d outright refuse. Other times they’d ask her to come to a closet or a back room, where she said, on several occasions, she was sexually assaulted. If she wanted to avoid that humiliation, Moore could buy extra tampons from the commissary. But a box cost $7, and prisoners earned as little as 8 cents an hour in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Sometimes, that meant Moore had to trade food for tampons. Less fortunate inmates resorted to using towels or tissues to absorb the blood. (Sosa and Blakinger, 6/2)

Los Angeles Daily News: City Of Hope’s New Blood Test For Lung Cancer Will Mean More Early Detections 
To test for lung cancer, a person needs to get low-dose computed tomography screening, more commonly known as a CT scan. But that can be costly and time-consuming, just two reasons why less than 2% of those eligible in California ever get scanned. The City of Hope and DELFI Diagnostics Inc. are trying out a new kind of screening for lung cancer that uses a simple blood test. They believe that this much more convenient and less costly testing will draw in more people for screening, and save lives through early detection and treatment. (Scauzillo, 5/31)

FiercePharma: LGBTQ+ Populations May Face Elevated Cancer Risk: ACS Report
Ahead of Pride Month, the American Cancer Society published a report examining cancer risk in the LGBTQ+ community—concluding with a call to action. (Park, 5/31)

NBC News: Cancer-Fighting Antibodies Inject Chemo Directly Into Tumor Cells, Upping Effectiveness
By attaching a chemotherapy drug to an antibody, doctors are able to deliver more potent cancer-fighting medicines directly into tumor cells, all while causing fewer side effects. The chemotherapy-antibody combinations, known as antibody drug conjugates, have been described as both heat-seeking missiles and Trojan horses for cancer cells, designed to specifically home in on a patient’s tumor cells and trick them into engulfing the antibodies, along with their deadly payload. (Lovelace Jr., 6/2)

Reuters: Pre-Surgery Treatment With Bristol Myers Combination Therapy Leads To Better Skin Cancer Outcomes 
Treatment with Bristol Myers Squibb's immunotherapies Opdivo and Yervoy prior to surgery for patients whose skin cancer had spread to lymph nodes had better outcomes than those who did not get the drugs before node removal procedures, according to data from a late-stage trial released on Sunday. The study of 423 patients with stage 3 melanoma found that 83.7% of patients who received the immunotherapies before their surgery were alive without the disease worsening after 12-months. (6/2)

NBC News: Lung Cancer Treatment: Pfizer's Lorbrena Extends Life In Some Non-Small Cell Lung Cancers
Pfizer’s lung cancer drug Lorbrena can extend life for patients with a rare form of the disease for years longer than other drugs, according to new research published Friday. The drug treats a type of non-small cell lung cancer with a genetic mutation called ALK. Non-small cell lung cancers account for about 85% of lung cancer diagnoses, and ALK-positive cancers account for about 4% of those diagnoses — more than 70,000 people every year. (Sullivan and Lovelace Jr., 5/31)

Stat: Palliative Care For Cancer Patients Is Found To Be As Effective Given Virtually As In Person
Comfort can be delivered to patients with advanced cancer virtually just as well as in person, according to a new study presented on Sunday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago. That’s welcome news to palliative care experts who have, in many cases, preferred the convenience and efficacy of telehealth sessions for both themselves and their patients since the Covid-19 pandemic forced virtual visits. (Chen, 6/2)

NBC News: Male Birth Control Gel Is Safe And Effective, New Trial Findings Show
Every morning for a year and a half, Logan Whitehead, 24, rubbed a clear gel on his shoulders, waited for it to dry, then went about his day as usual. “It was basically like a hand sanitizer solution,” said Whitehead, who lives in Torrance, California. “Smelled like hand sanitizer, looked like hand sanitizer.” The gel wasn’t hand sanitizer, though. It was a hormonal solution meant to block Whitehead’s sperm production. The gel was male birth control. (Hopkins, 6/2)

USA Today: Senate To Vote On Bill That Would Protect Access To Contraception
The Senate will vote on Wednesday on legislation that would protect access to contraception at the national level, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced in a letter to colleagues Sunday. A vote on the bill, which is led by Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, is an effort to force Republicans to stake out a position on a hot-button issue during an election year. (Beggin, 6/2)

Los Angeles Times: The More Women Followed This Diet, The Longer They Lived
One of the best diets for health keeps getting better. A new study that tracked more than 25,000 women for a quarter century found that the more their eating patterns were in sync with the Mediterranean diet, the less likely they were to die during that period. The relationship held up even when researchers accounted for other factors that influence longevity, including age, exercise habits and smoking history. The findings were published Friday in the journal JAMA Network Open. (Kaplan, 5/31)

Gizmodo: Weight Loss Drugs Like Ozempic, Wegovy Might Improve Taste Buds
Semaglutide, the active ingredient in popular diabetes and obesity drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, can also tweak people’s taste buds for the better, preliminary research suggests. Scientists found that women taking semaglutide improved their taste sensitivity, particularly to sweetness. The findings may illuminate another reason why it and similar drugs can so effectively help people lose weight, the authors say. (Cara, 6/2)

Capital & Main: No Papers, No Food
The math is conclusive, proved by study after study: Food assistance reduces poverty. When cash-strapped workers and families get help with the cost of food, they’re able to move resources to cover other basic needs like rent and medicine. So it’s no surprise that a coalition dedicated to ending hunger in California was disappointed when Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2024-25 budget revision delayed expanding such assistance to include undocumented immigrants over age 55. That expansion, originally set for 2025, is now tentatively pushed back to 2027. (Kreidler, 5/31)

NPR: Forget BMI. Body Composition Scans Are A Better Measure Of Your Health
The scale has never been a friend to Mana Mostatabi. Even back in high school, when she ran a quick 100m on the varsity track team, her BMI – a ratio of weight to height – put her in the overweight category. “My dad always joked that I should be a wrestler,” Mostatabi says due to her build. Many professional athletes flunk BMI tests. Some are considered obese despite their fitness, and many doctors say it isn’t a helpful metric to focus on. (Aubrey, 6/3)

Stat: BMI, Flaws Aside, Is Found To Be Useful Estimate Of Body Fat In Youth
The body mass index has long been slammed as a blunt instrument for evaluating health, even more so with new obesity drugs changing the conversation about weight and well-being. Now a study reasserts BMI’s value as a screening tool in children to detect high levels of body fat, a measure tied to greater risk of cardiovascular disease, early atherosclerosis, and a high BMI in adulthood. BMI is an equation that divides a person’s weight in kilograms by their height in meters squared. (Cooney, 6/3)

USA Today: People Face Higher Risk Of Kidney Stones During Summer Months
Warm weather brings days at the beach, sunscreen and ... kidney stones? Researchers say people who don't stay properly hydrated face a higher risk of these painful mineral deposits as temperatures and humidity rise in the summer. On top of that, they noted that in general people whose diet is packed with too much sodium, fat and sugar, could find themselves among the 1 in 10 Americans who will get a kidney stone in their lifetimes. (Alltucker, 6/3)