San Diego Union-Tribune: Where's COVID-19 Headed Next? 'I Would Never Underestimate A Circulating Virus'
At the three-year mark, coronavirus continues to evolve even as it produces significantly less severe illness. Moderna and Pfizer are currently running trials for a fresh crop of booster vaccines, but it is unclear at the moment whether the nation will fall into an annual inoculation pattern similar to the one used with the flu or some other less-regular schedule. (Sisson, 3/11)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Three Years Of COVID Have Changed Us. We're Still Understanding How. 
Has it already been three years? Has it only been three years? The answers vary from person to person, from day to day, and that speaks to the magnitude of what we’ve gone through with COVID-19, which was officially declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020. (Wilkens, 3/11)

AP: Pandemic 3 Years Later: Has The COVID-19 Virus Won? 
Saturday marked three years since the World Health Organization first called the outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020, and the United Nation’s health organization says it’s not yet ready to say the emergency has ended. ... With information sources drying up, it has become harder to keep tabs on the pandemic. Johns Hopkins University on Friday shut down its trusted tracker, which it started soon after the virus emerged in China and spread worldwide. (Johnson, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Covid Experts Today: Eating Out, Masking Less, Even Booking Cruises
Just like us, they disinfected groceries, left their mail outside for 24 hours, canceled family gatherings, stopped eating out. But today, for the medical experts at the forefront of dealing with the coronavirus that causes covid-19, everyday life has become more normal. All have been vaccinated and boosted, and many have had covid too, a combination that seems to provide more durable protection. While the pandemic isn’t gone, their risk calculations these days look different. ... The Washington Post has interviewed a group of medical experts several times over the past three years to see how the pandemic was affecting their personal lives. Here’s what they have to say today. (Cimons, 3/12)

The Washington Post: America Shut Down In Response To Covid. Would We Ever Do It Again?
The shutdown was profoundly strange and has had lasting effects on our national psyche. But memories fade, circumstances change, opinions shift. Three years later, the decision by local, state and federal government officials to limit spread of the virus continues to spark rancorous battles in the pandemic-fueled arenas of the culture war. So what will the country do the next time a deadly virus comes knocking on the door? (Achenbach, 3/10)

San Diego Union-Tribune: COVID-19 Fears Persist For Those With Weakened Immune Systems 
While vaccines have been one of the most effective tools in preventing illness, the shots don’t work for everyone, said Dr. Christian Ramers, chief of population health at Family Health Centers of San Diego. (Mapp, 3/12)

ABC News: The Winter COVID Wave That Wasn't: Why The US Didn't See A Surge
During the first winter wave, weekly cases peaked at 1,714,256 the week of Jan. 13, 2021, as did weekly deaths at 23,378, according to CDC data. Subsequently, during the second winter wave -- due to the omicron variant -- weekly infections reached their high point of 5,630,736 the week of Jan. 19, 2022, and weekly deaths saw a high of 17,373 the week of Feb. 2, 2022, the data shows. By comparison, according to the CDC, the highest number of weekly cases seen during the most recent winter wave was 472,601 the week of Dec. 7, 2023 -- the first time the peak has not surpassed 1 million. (Kekatos, 3/13)

NBC News: What People With ‘Super Immunity’ Can Teach Us About Covid And Other Viruses
Three years into the pandemic, a select group of people have achieved something some once thought impossible: They have never tested positive for Covid. Scientists around the world are searching for the genetic reasons these people have dodged Covid — despite repeated exposure to the virus. ere they born with a form of super immunity? What's behind their Houdini-like success at escaping infection? (Edwards, 3/11)

NBC News: What's Your Current Risk Of Getting Long Covid? Estimates Hover Around 5%-10%
It's a question few people know how to answer, even after three pandemic years and more than 100 million Covid cases in the U.S.: When someone gets infected today, what is their risk of developing long Covid? "Even the medical community is unclear on all of this. The data is just emerging so rapidly and the estimates are varied," said Dr. Rainu Kaushal, chair of the department of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine. (Bendix, 3/10)

NBC News: For Some Long Covid Patients, Acupuncture And Other Eastern Remedies Bring Relief That Western Medicines Have Not
Frustrated by a lack of results from Western medicine, some long Covid patients have turned to Eastern alternatives. Many say acupuncture, in particular, has provided relief. Lauren Nichols, a Massachusetts resident who got Covid in March 2020, estimated that over two years she had tried around 30 different pharmaceuticals to ease her migraines, brain fog, fatigue, seizures, diarrhea and other lasting symptoms. Eventually her physical limitations — and a lack of answers — became so overwhelming that she developed suicidal thoughts. (Bendix, 3/11)

CIDRAP: Kids' COVID Symptoms—Not Rates Of Severe Disease—Evolved With Variants 
Fever and cough were more common among Canadian children infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron variants than the original, wild-type virus and the Alpha variant, but rates of hospitalization and intensive care unit (ICU) admission stayed the same over time, finds a study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. ... Upper respiratory tract symptoms were most common with Delta. (Van Beusekom, 3/10)

Reuters: U.S. House Unanimously Backs COVID Origins Information Declassification 
The U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously on Friday to require Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify information on the origins of COVID-19, increasing pressure on President Joe Biden's administration to allow its release. The vote was 419 to 0 in favor. Since the Senate on March 1 passed the bill - by unanimous consent - it now goes to the White House for Biden to sign into law or veto. (Zengerle, 3/10)

TechCrunch: Telehealth Startup Cerebral Shared Millions Of Patients’ Data With Advertisers 
Cerebral has revealed it shared the private health information, including mental health assessments, of more than 3.1 million patients in the United States with advertisers and social media giants like Facebook, Google and TikTok. The telehealth startup, which exploded in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic after rolling lockdowns and a surge in online-only virtual health services, disclosed the security lapse in a filing with the federal government that it shared patients’ personal and health information who used the app to search for therapy or other mental health care services. (Whittaker, 3/10)

Reuters: Economists Warn Of Costs If Medicare Covers New Obesity Drugs 
The cost of expanding U.S. Medicare prescription drug coverage to pay for expensive, new obesity medications could be catastrophic, health economists warned in a report published on Saturday. (Lapid, 3/11)

Los Angeles Times: California Prison Program Trains Addiction Counselors 
For more than a year and a half, these 20 men had been working for this: their graduation from training as alcohol and drug counselors. It was an accomplishment that could help them secure jobs both inside and outside the California prisons. It had also become a brotherhood they dubbed the Storming Cohort: Scarred Team of Recovering Men Inspiring New Generations. (Reyes, 3/12)

KQED: The Success Of S.F’s Mobile Opioid Treatment Clinics
San Francisco’s mobile opioid treatment clinics were set up as a way to address overcrowding at San Francisco General Hospital during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. These vans distribute methadone, a medication used to reduce withdrawal symptoms — while offering program patients snacks, water and canisters of naloxone, an overdose-reversal nasal spray. In San Francisco alone, nearly 2,000 people have died of drug overdoses since 2020. (Guevarra, Johnson, Esquinca and Montecillo, 3/13)

Bay Area News Group: Housing As Human Right? Advocates Seek State Amendment In California
Should the state guarantee a right to housing for all Californians? A coalition of anti-poverty advocates led by Matt Haney, a Democratic state assemblymember from San Francisco, is proposing an amendment to the state constitution that seeks to do just that. (Varian, 3/12)

Capitol Weekly: Life, Death And Dignity On The Streets
According to a mid-year report in 2022 by the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness (SRCEH), one homeless person dies every two days in Sacramento. The SRCEH says approximately 1700 homeless people have died on the streets in Sacramento County since it started documenting deaths in 2000. Most can be attributed to the sheer increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness, according to SRCEH director Bob Erlenbusch. (Chung, 3/13)

Sacramento Bee: Protesters, Counter-Protesters Square Off In Sacramento Over Gender-Confirming Healthcare
About 40 people who oppose gender-confirming healthcare gathered on Friday at the Capitol, while a larger group of counter-protesters marched toward the event. The marchers, who held pride flags and signs supporting trans youth, gathered in Southside Park and stopped short of the Capitol where the permitted Detransition Awareness Day rally took place. (Hatch, 3/11)

Voice of OC: Food Assistance Programs In OC, Across California Are On The Chopping Block
Hunger pains loom over regions like Orange County and all over the Golden State amid high inflation costs and as pandemic public food assistance money dries up. California’s food safety net — food assistance sources that in 2021 provided about 9.2 billion meals to residents statewide – is about to face a 30% cut with the disappearance of two public programs that started in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Elattar, 3/13)

Capital & Main: In The Middle Of A Mental Health Crisis Among Youth, Words Matter
“We envision a society in which all the unique dimensions of our identity are equally valued, and all people are able to achieve the life they desire and can do so with dignity, respect, and collective support. We must acknowledge that some groups of people have historically benefitted and currently benefit from various systems that exploit, harm, oppress and marginalize others.” This passage comes from the Working Definition of Equity created in January by the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, or CYBHI. The CYBHI is a five year, $4.7 billion effort to reenvision California’s mental health system in response to the staggering needs of young people. The initiative is the core of California’s Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health, unveiled by Gov. Gavin Newsom last summer. (Sanchez-Tello, 3/10)

Los Angeles Times: How A Deaf, Autistic Athlete's Big Moment Turned Into A Nightmare
“Put him in, coach!” With barely a minute remaining in a blowout of Porterville College in mid-December, Cerritos College basketball coach Russ May was faced with a heart-tugging dilemma. “C’mon coach, let him play!” Sitting at the end of his bench was Kade West, a 20-year-old who is deaf and autistic. His hands were folded in prayer. He was silently pleading to play in his first game. (Plaschke, 3/12)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Santa Rosa Woman Transforms Yards To Help Support Cancer Patients
The North Bay Cancer Alliance, which offers support services including help with transportation to medical treatments and financial assistance, got behind Deep Breath Healing Gardens because the impacts feel meaningful and immediate. (Benefield, 3/12)

AP: Prostate Cancer Treatment Can Wait For Most Men, Study Finds
Researchers have found long-term evidence that actively monitoring localized prostate cancer is a safe alternative to immediate surgery or radiation. The results, released Saturday, are encouraging for men who want to avoid treatment-related sexual and incontinence problems, said Dr. Stacy Loeb, a prostate cancer specialist at NYU Langone Health who was not involved in the research. The study directly compared the three approaches — surgery to remove tumors, radiation treatment and monitoring. Most prostate cancer grows slowly, so it takes many years to look at the disease’s outcomes. (Johnson, 3/11)

NBC News: SIDS Rose For Black Infants During Early Pandemic And The Cause Is Unknown, CDC Finds
Despite a record low infant mortality rate in 2020, a new study finds an unexpected jump in unexplained deaths in Black infants during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. The rate of SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome, increased by 15% in a single year, from 33.3 deaths per 100,000 babies born in 2019 to 38.2 such deaths in 2020, according to the research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Monday in the medical journal Pediatrics. (Edwards, 3/13)