Voice of San Diego: Another City Could Be Ready To Ditch Housing First
Vista may soon have a new homelessness policy, and like the one approved in Escondido a couple months ago, it calls for a crackdown on criminal activity, shelter priority for Vista residents and a rejection of the Housing First approach. It’s a continuation of a larger trend in San Diego County where more and more cities are changing how they deal with homelessness, even if it goes against past precedent set by state and federal initiatives. (Layne, 5/3)

San Diego Union-Tribune: St. Paul's Senior Services Cuts Ribbon On Apartment Building After $20 Million Renovation 
The Manor, which opened in 1960 and has 135 apartments, is largely home to senior residents who are middle income. Sometimes referred to as the “hidden middle,” those in the demographic often can neither afford expensive retirement homes nor qualify for government subsidies to help cover housing costs. With the rising cost of living in San Diego County, many middle-income seniors struggle to find safe housing they can afford. (Mapp, 5/3)

San Diego Union-Tribune: A Study Praised Efforts Helping People Pay Rent. Researchers Have Questions About Other Homelessness Spending 
A limited study from a local government watchdog has found that money spent preventing homelessness may be more effective than other forms of aid, although researchers cautioned that a full accounting of the millions of dollars spent on the crisis would require access to more data. The San Diego County Taxpayers Association again called on the nonprofit tracking much of the region’s homeless population to release additional records. (Nelson, 5/4)

Stat: Cancer Researcher Catriona Jamieson Is Sending Tumors Into Space
What happens when you catapult cancer into space? Or shoot stem cells toward the stars? Catriona Jamieson, a hematologist and director of the Sanford Stem Cell Institute at the University of California, San Diego, has done both. Through collaborations with organizations like NASA, her lab has sent tumors and stem cells aboard private spaceflights like SpaceX CRS-24 and the recent Axiom-3 mission to be studied in the International Space Station. (StFleur, 5/6)

Axios: A Common Liver Disease With An Unfortunate Name Gets A Rebrand
A common liver condition — non-alcoholic fatty liver disease — is in the midst of a rebrand. The name of the condition, which affects 1 in 4 U.S. adults, was officially changed by several medical societies in the last year, and is part of a broader effort to eliminate stigmatizing language from medicine. (Reed, 5/6)

KVPR: Atomic Vets Are On The Verge Of Losing Federal Benefits. Congress Hasn't Helped
In the Spring of 1947, Navy sailor Lincoln Grahlfs went to an Oakland, Calif., hospital suffering from a 103-degree fever, a strange facial abscess and an abnormal white blood cell count. A doctor there responded with an unorthodox treatment: x-rays to the sailor's face with only a shield to cover his eyes. Soon after, the abscess and other symptoms cleared. (Grisales, 5/6)

San Diego Union-Tribune: New Device Developed By UCSD Could Identify Which Babies Will Struggle With Breastfeeding 
Doctors traditionally use a finger to gauge how well a baby suckles, but researchers at UC San Diego have come up with a new way to more precisely measure just how well each child gets the job done. (Sisson, 5/6)

CalMatters: How A Suicide Crisis Led To Change In A California County Jail
Lt. Buddy Hirayama sagged into his desk chair after a busy morning on his first day leading a county jail system running along the eastern edge of California’s San Joaquin Valley. A call crackled across his radio: “Man down. Unresponsive.” Hirayama and almost two dozen deputies raced to a cell where a man appeared to have overdosed on something. Deputies pounded on his chest, administering CPR. Emergency medical crews arrived. (Duara, 5/6)

Los Angeles Times: Amid School Crime Spike, L.A. Campuses Should Decide On School Police, Task Force Says
Amid steeply escalating school crime, drug use and fighting, individual Los Angeles public school campuses should be allowed to decide whether to station a police officer on campus, a safety task force said, a recommendation that, if adopted, would reverse wins by anti-police student activists but respond to calls by many parents to restore officers. Recent practice in the L.A. Unified School District has been to keep police off campus. Instead, school police — a department paid for and operated by the school system — patrol areas around schools and respond to emergency calls off and on campus. (Blume, 5/6)

NBC News: Dairy Worker With Bird Flu Never Developed Respiratory Symptoms, Only Pinkeye
The Texas dairy worker who caught bird flu from a sick cow in late March had none of the symptoms typically associated with influenza, including fever, coughing or sneezing. The only indication that he had been infected was a striking case of pinkeye. Details of the man’s case — the only documented instance of bird flu spreading from a cow to a human — were published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine, from health officials in Texas and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Edwards, 5/3)

Bloomberg: Dairy Workers Urged To Use Protection To Prevent Bird Flu
Dairy workers remain at risk for the H5N1 bird flu that’s spreading in cows and should wear protection to ward off the virus, US health officials said as they released details on one worker who experienced an eye infection. The dairy worker underwent genetic testing of samples from both eyes and his nose, according to a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Tim Uyeki and Texas health officials, which confirmed the presence of the virus. (Nix, 5/3)

Axios: Bird Flu's Big Question: What's Driving Its Spread
The bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle that's swept across nine U.S. states is posing perplexing questions about how the virus is spreading between animals and the risk posed to humans. Detecting viral spread early and limiting how long the flu circulates in a population of animals cuts the odds it will mutate and adapt to other species. (Snyder, 5/3)

USA Today: Bird Flu Outbreak: Don't Drink Raw Milk, No Matter What Social Media Says
Don't drink raw milk, no matter what social media tells you. Seriously. In an update on the outbreak of bird flu in the U.S. on Wednesday, federal agencies revealed that recent testing on commercial dairy products detected remnants of the virus in one in five samples. However, none contained the live virus that could sicken people .Officials also said that testing on contaminated dairy reaffirmed that pasteurization kills the bird flu virus, making it safe to consume. (Walrath-Holdridge, 5/3)

CIDRAP: US Respiratory Virus Levels Tail Off To Low Levels 
US indicators for flu, COVID, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) declined further last week, with no states reporting moderate, high, or very high activity, down from one the week before, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its weekly updates. (Schnirring, 5/3)

CIDRAP: Common Diabetes Drug Lowers SARS-CoV-2 Levels, Clinical Trial Finds 
Today, researchers from the University of Minnesota published evidence that the common diabetes drug metformin decreases the amount of SARS-CoV-2 in the body and helps reduce the risk of rebound symptoms if given early in the course of non-severe illness. The study, published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, suggests metformin may also help prevent long COVID. Early treatment was key: Participants were enrolled within 3 days of a positive test, and if symptomatic, reported having symptoms for 7 or fewer days. (Soucheray, 5/3)

CNN: Nearly 100,000 Children In The US Lost A Parent To A Drug Overdose Or Gun Violence In 2020, Study Finds 
Deaths from drug overdoses and firearm-related injuries have reached record levels in the United States in recent years, and it’s created a “double burden” for children who face an increased risk of losing their parents and of dying themselves, according to the authors of a new study. (McPhillips, 5/4)

The New York Times: Widening Racial Disparities Underlie Rise In Child Deaths In The U.S. 
Thanks to advancements in medicine and insurance, mortality rates for children in the United States had been shrinking for decades. But last year, researchers uncovered a worrisome reversal: The child death rate was rising. Now, they have taken their analysis a step further. A new study, published Saturday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, revealed growing disparities in child death rates across racial and ethnic groups. Black and Native American youths ages 1 to 19 died at significantly higher rates than white youths — predominantly from injuries such as car accidents, homicides and suicides. (Baumgaertner, 5/4)

NBC News: Gas Stoves Linked To Childhood Asthma Cases, Study Finds
Gas stoves, found in more than 40 million U.S. homes, are likely giving some children asthma, new research suggests. A study published Friday suggests that around 50,000 current cases of pediatric asthma in the U.S. are linked to long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide from gas and propane stoves. ... It is known to irritate airways and worsen existing respiratory problems. Previous studies have also linked long-term exposure to new cases of asthma and chronic lung disease. (Bendix, 5/3)

The Hill: Biden Races Clock On Health Regulations With Eye On Potential Trump Return 
President Biden’s administration is working overtime to ensure his health care priorities are protected from a potential second Trump White House. In recent weeks, regulatory agencies have been racing against the clock to finalize some of their most consequential policies, such as abortion data privacy, antidiscrimination protections for transgender patients and nursing home minimum staffing. (Weixel, 5/5)

AP: As The US Reclassifies Marijuana, Could More States Legalize It? 
As the U.S. government moves toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug, there may be little immediate impact in the dozen states that have not already legalized cannabis for widespread medical or recreational use by adults. But advocates for marijuana legalization hope a federal regulatory shift could eventually change the minds — and votes — of some state policymakers who have been reluctant to embrace weed. (Lieb, 5/4)

NPR: Marijuana Reclassification Will Make It Somewhat Easier To Study, Scientists Say 
As the Biden administration moves to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, scientists say the change will lift some of the restrictions on studying the drug. But the change won't lift all restrictions, they say, neither will it decrease potential risks of the drug or help users better understand what those risks are. (Chatterjee, 5/3)