CalMatters: CA Governor's Medi-Cal Budget Could Cripple Women's Health Care, Critics Say
Six months after California voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative that increases the pay of doctors treating Medi-Cal patients, Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to divert that money to cover other health costs. Newsom last week proposed using $1.6 billion generated by Proposition 35 over the next two years to help address California’s $12 billion state deficit. The governor said the spending plan is allowable under the ballot measure, while doctors, hospitals, clinics and others who support the measure are crying foul. (Hwang, 5/19)

San Diego Union-Tribune: More Than 350,000 In San Diego County Could Be Subject To Medi-Cal Work Rule
About 350,000 San Diego County residents would be affected by work requirements proposed in federal budget revisions debated in Washington this week. (Sisson, 5/16)

Bloomberg: Trump Tax Bill Advances After Republican Hardliners Drop Blockade
A key House committee advanced President Donald Trump’s giant tax and spending package after Republican hardliners won agreement from party leaders to speed up cuts to Medicaid health coverage. The House Budget Committee approved the legislation late Sunday night after a weekend of negotiations with four ultraconservatives on the panel who on Friday joined with Democrats to reject the legislation. Those hardliners instead abstained on Sunday and voted present, allowing the bill to advance. (Birnbaum, Dillard, and Dennis, 5/19)

The New York Times: As Congress Debates Cutting Medicaid, A Major Study Shows It Saves Lives
The expansion of Medicaid has saved more than 27,000 lives since 2010, according to the most definitive study yet on the program’s health effects. Poor adults who gained Medicaid coverage after the Affordable Care Act expanded access were 21 percent less likely to die during a given year than those not enrolled, the research shows. By analyzing federal records on 37 million Americans, two economists found that deaths fell not only among older enrollees but also among those in their 20s and 30s — a group often assumed to have few medical needs, and who would have been far less likely to qualify for Medicaid before the expansion. (Kliff and Sanger-Katz, 5/16)

Military.com: Military Families Could Go Hungry Due To Food Assistance Cuts In GOP's 'Big Beautiful Bill' 
Active-duty service members face food insecurity at higher rates than the civilian population. While about 25% of service members were considered food insecure in 2018 and 2020, just about 10% of civilian adults were food insecure in the same time period, according to a 2024 study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Congress has taken steps in recent years to alleviate food insecurity in the military, including approving a massive pay raise for junior enlisted troops that took effect in April and creating a new benefit called the Basic Needs Allowance for service members near the federal poverty line. But many military families rely on SNAP, more colloquially known as food stamps. (Kheel, 5/16)

The Hill: Health Experts Brace For Medical Coverage Losses From 'Big, Beautiful Bill'
Doctors, patients and health experts are bracing for massive coverage losses as House Republicans are poised to impose Medicaid work requirements as part of the “big, beautiful bill” encompassing many of President Trump’s legislative priorities. They are warning that a blizzard of red tape and administrative hurdles will strip people of needed health care. (Weixel, 5/18) 

Los Angeles Times: Biden Is Diagnosed With 'Aggressive' Form Of Prostate Cancer
Former President Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer, his office said Sunday, a devastating development after having dropped his bid for reelection last summer over widespread concerns over his age and health. Biden’s personal office said he was examined last week after the president reported a series of concerning symptoms. (Wilner, 5/18)

The Conversation: Joe Biden Has Advanced Prostate Cancer With A Gleason Score Of 9. What Does This Mean?
Biden’s office said his cancer has a Gleason score of nine out of ten. To calculate the Gleason score, clinicians take multiple samples of the tumour, called biopsies. To obtain each sample, a small needle is inserted into the tumour and a sliver of tissue (usually around 12 millimetres long) is extracted for testing. Because the different regions of the tumour can have different cancer cells present, pathologists then pick two different sections of the tumour biopsy they think best represent the whole tumour. Then, they grade each of the two sections with a score from 1 to 5. Grade 1 means the cancer cells present look a lot like normal, healthy cells. Grade 5 means the cancer cells look very abnormal. To get a patient’s Gleason score, the two grades are added together. (Diepstraten and La Marca, 5/19)

Time: Political Leaders React To Joe Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis
President Donald Trump, who has constantly attacked Biden’s health and cognitive ability from the 2024 campaign trail to the present, sent well-wishes to Biden in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. “Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,” Trump said, referencing the First Lady. “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.” (de Guzman, 5 /19)

The Wall Street Journal: Joe Biden’s Prostate Cancer Diagnosis: The Outlook For Advanced Disease 
Biden is likely to fight prostate cancer for the remainder of his life, specialists said. But men in advanced stages can live years or a decade longer, prostate cancer specialists said. Some 37% of patients diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer are alive after five years, based on data from patients diagnosed between 2014 and 2020, according to the American Cancer Society. Biden’s physicians didn’t publicly address his diagnosis. “Once it spreads to the bone, it’s usually not curable, but it is very treatable,” said Dr. Jason Efstathiou, a prostate-cancer radiation oncologist at Mass General Brigham. (Abbott and Whyte, 5/18)

Axios: What To Know About Biden's Cancer Moonshot
"Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe," former President Obama said. (Falconer, 5/19)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Sharp's New Neuroscience Hospital Runs Nearly Full Two Weeks After Opening
In its first two weeks of operation, the new neuroscience center at Sharp Grossmont Hospital has averaged an 80% occupancy rate. That number is not terribly surprising, given that the La Mesa medical facility treated the 10th-most acute strokes in the state and handled the largest volume in San Diego County in 2023, according to state data. (Sisson, 5/19)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego’s New Ambulance Model Is Raking In Millions. But The City Still Wants To Change Gears.
San Diego leaders say they plan to bring ambulance service in-house, despite the notable success of a new partnership where private ambulances transport patients while the city handles deployment, staffing and billing. (Garrick, 5/19)

ABC News: FDA Clears 1st Blood Test To Help Diagnose Alzheimer's Disease
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared the first blood test on Friday to help diagnose Alzheimer's disease. The test, manufactured by Fujirebio Diagnostics, is for those aged 55 and older who are already exhibiting signs and symptoms of the disease, the agency said. (Benadjaoud, 5/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Ozempic Knockoffs Survive Crackdown Thanks To Loophole
A government crackdown on cheaper copies of Ozempic and similar diabetes and weight-loss drugs was intended to shut the door on that booming market. It hasn’t exactly worked out that way. Instead, some compounding pharmacies and telehealth companies that make the copies have found new ways in. They are making and selling dosages slightly different from the standard, FDA-approved amounts or including additives such as vitamins B3 and B12. Others have changed how the drug is taken, switching from injectables to under the tongue drops or pills. (Janin, 5/18)

Bay Area News Group: The Trump Administration Has Cancelled $85.6 Million In Federal Grants To Santa Clara County — All Of It Related To Public Health
Amid a deluge of cuts to federal spending, the Trump administration has canceled three grants totaling $85.6 million to Santa Clara County that helped fund public health initiatives related to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines. (Hase, 5/19)

The Hill: Federal Judge Extends Block On HHS Termination Of Billions In Public Health Funds
A federal judge on Friday indefinitely blocked the Trump administration from pulling back more than $11 billion in public health funding from state and local health departments. The ruling from Judge Mary McElroy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island extends a temporary restraining order she issued in April that stopped the administration from wiping out the pandemic-era funding to a group of 23 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia. (Weixel, 5/16)

Politico: Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court To Allow Mass Layoffs Of Federal Workers
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to allow it to immediately proceed with its plan to lay off tens of thousands of workers across federal agencies. In an emergency appeal, the administration urged the justices to quickly lift a lower-court order that has temporarily blocked the layoffs. (Ali Kanu, 5/16)

The Hill: Federal Workers Union Says HHS Layoffs ‘Targeting Science’
Labor unions say layoffs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) are threatening science even as some employees get their jobs back. In a statement released Friday, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) said the layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “gut frontline science and shut down life-saving public health programs.” (Choi, 5/16)

Stat: Scientists Push Back On Research Cuts — And Some Are Winning 
The grant termination letters sting. Study after study gets spiked because it “no longer effectuates agency priorities.” If the research hints at diversity, equity, or inclusion, the wording gets a little nasty, in the view of neurologist Charles DeCarli, chair in Alzheimer’s research at the University of California, Davis. His $53 million inquiry into how vascular factors contribute to dementia among white, Black, and Hispanic people was terminated in March. But a month later, his grant was back. (Cooney, 5/19)

Los Angeles Times: Nearly Half Of Pasadena Unified Schools Have Contaminated Soil, District Finds
Eleven of the 23 Pasadena Unified School District schools, where students have been back on campus since January, have contaminated soil after the Eaton fire, the district found. More than 40% of the schools had lead at levels exceeding the state’s health-based limits for residential soil, and more than 20% had arsenic levels beyond what L.A. County considers acceptable, according to the results released Wednesday. (Haggerty and Briscoe, 5/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: New Data Reveals How Many Serious Drug Users At Risk Of Overdose In SF
Kevin Monroe first tried methamphetamine 25 years ago and he’s been battling addiction ever since. Over that time, the 47-year-old has been to treatment programs a half dozen times, secured stable housing at a city-subsidized hotel and achieved several longer stints of sobriety, including ten years, five years and most recently, a year and a half. But each time, the pull of meth and crack — both highly addictive stimulants — has proved too strong to shake. (Angst, 5/16)

San Diego Union-Tribune: ‘Thought I Was Going To Die’: Youth, Whistleblower Describe Officer Violence In Juvenile Halls
Last week Uremovic learned that California Attorney General Rob Bonta had opened an investigation into San Diego juvenile detention facilities. She was sure it was because of the complaint she’d sent to Bonta’s office. Last September, she’d received a letter saying her complaint had been forwarded to the Bureau of Children’s Justice. (Davis, 5/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: UCSF Study Shows Monoclonal Antibodies Fail To Treat Long COVID
In 2023, 36 people with long COVID allowed UCSF researchers to inject them with monoclonal antibodies — lab-made proteins designed to attack the specific version of the coronavirus that had sickened them in the first place. Although 12 of those volunteers got a placebo, no one, not even the scientists, knew who received the real drug and who did not. Then everyone crossed their fingers. The hope was that the drug would kill any remaining bits of the virus that might be causing their symptoms — and that they would go away. (Asimov, 5/16)

AP: FDA Approves Novavax COVID-19 Shot But With Unusual Restrictions
The Food and Drug Administration has issued a long-awaited approval of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine but with unusual restrictions. Novavax makes the nation’s only traditional protein-based coronavirus vaccine – and until now it had emergency authorization from FDA for use in anyone 12 and older. But late Friday, the FDA granted the company full approval for its vaccine for use only in adults 65 and older – or those 12 to 64 who have at least one health problem that puts them at increased risk from COVID-19. (Neergaard, 5/18)

AP: The US Hasn't Seen A Human Bird Flu Case In 3 Months. Experts Are Wondering Why
Health officials are making a renewed call for vigilance against bird flu, but some experts are puzzling over why reports of new human cases have stopped. Has the search for cases been weakened by government cuts? Are immigrant farm workers, who have accounted for many of the U.S. cases, more afraid to come forward for testing amid the Trump administration’s deportation push? Is it just a natural ebb in infections? “We just don’t know why there haven’t been cases,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University. (Stobbe and Aleccia, 5/19)

CIDRAP: Flu Activity In The US Has Reached Low Levels
US flu activity is low and declining further, according to the latest FluView update today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The percentage of outpatient visits for influenza-like illness (ILI), or respiratory illness, dropped slightly from 2.1% the previous week to 1.9% last week (see CDC graph at left). The number of patients hospitalized for flu dropped from 2,336 to 2,008. As with the previous week, no state reported moderate, high, or very high ILI activity. (Wappes, 5/16)

CIDRAP: US Measles Outbreak Grows To 1,024 Cases
The US measles picture grew by 23 cases this week, according to today's update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).A total of 1,024 confirmed measle cases have been reported from 31 jurisdictions, with 14 outbreaks (defined as 3 or more related cases). Ninety-two percent of confirmed cases are outbreak-associated. (Dall, 5/16)

CIDRAP: Researchers Report Mpox DNA, Live Virus On Surfaces And In Air From Patients' Rooms
A study conducted in UK hospitals found mpox virus (MPXV) clade 1b DNA in 73% of surface samples and 7% of air samples from infected patients' rooms, as well as live virus in 19% of surface samples that underwent viral isolation. Scientists at the UK Health Security Agency sampled the rooms and anterooms of seven of the first eight mpox clade 1b patients admitted for clinical observation at centers dedicated to airborne high-consequence infectious diseases from October 2024 through January 2025. (Van Beusekom, 5/16)