The Desert Sun: Betty Ford Center CMO Lauds Biden's Call To Action On Fentanyl Crisis
Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Chief Medical Officer Dr. Alta DeRoo said she was "excited" and "grateful" to see President Joe Biden discuss and lay out plans to tackle the fentanyl crisis and nation's mental health needs in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night. (Sasic, 2/8)

AP: Biden's Fentanyl Position Sparks Criticism From 2 Sides 
President Joe Biden’s calls in his State of the Union speech for strong criminal penalties in response to soaring deaths linked to the potent opioid fentanyl are being rebuked by harm reduction advocates who say that approach could make the problem worse, even as some in Congress jeered the comments and blamed the Democrat’s border policies for deepening the crisis. The reactions laid bare how preventing drug deaths touches on deep political, practical and philosophical differences even in addressing an unrelenting U.S. overdose crisis connected to more than 100,000 deaths a year. (Mulvihill, 2/9)

NBC News: The Biden Administration Quietly Eliminated A Barrier To Medication For Opioid Addiction
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Biden highlighted a recent policy change aimed at increasing access to a medication for opioid use disorder. "Together, we passed a law making it easier for doctors to prescribe effective treatments for opioid addiction," he said. (Bendix, 2/9)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: ‘Catastrophic Results’: Nationwide Plague Of Fentanyl Persists Across Sonoma County 
Fentanyl is definitely showing up more frequently, and with “catastrophic results,” according to Deputy Rob Dillion, spokesman for the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. (Murphy, 2/8)

Stateline: States, Cities Scramble To Combat Animal 'Tranq' In Street Drugs
“They’re using any data they can get their hands on to track xylazine and its complicated set of symptoms and effects on users,” said Richa Ranade, senior director of overdose prevention at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. (Vestal, 2/8)

Politico: Biden On Republicans: ‘Their Dream Is To Cut Social Security And Medicare’
A jubilant President Joe Biden kicked off his post-State of the Union blitz on Wednesday, buoyed after a night of touting his wins from the past two years and challenging Republicans. “Folks, I hate to disappoint them, but the Biden economic plan is working,” the president told a crowd gathered inside a union training center. “It’s working.” (Lemire and Ward, 2/8)

ABC News: Biden To Warn That Republicans In Congress Will 'Undermine' Medicare, Social Security
Biden will travel to Tampa, Florida, on Thursday morning and deliver remarks at the University of Tampa in the afternoon. He will discuss his plan to fortify Social Security and Medicare as well as lower healthcare costs. The president will also "contrast his commitment to protecting and strengthening Medicare and Social Security and lowering prescription drug prices, with Congressional Republicans’ plans to cut these programs," the White House said. (Gomez and Winsor, 2/9)

The Hill: Here Are The Spending Cuts Republicans Have Pitched In Debt Limit Talks 
President Biden ripped Republicans during his State of the Union address for efforts to use the nation’s debt ceiling as leverage to extract spending cuts from Democrats. “Some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage, I get it, unless I agree to their economic plans,” Biden said Tuesday night as the White House gears up for a budget battle with House Republicans. (Folley, 2/8)

The Hill: Medicare Social Security Sunset: What Republicans Have Said
Biden and Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly accused Republicans of attempting to target Medicare and Social Security in potential spending cuts that they hope to tie to a debt ceiling increase. However, Republicans have denied that the entitlement programs are at risk. But some prominent Republicans have previously suggested cuts to the programs. Here’s what they actually said about cuts and changes to Social Security and Medicare. (Shapero, 2/8)

The Washington Post: Biden Names Republicans Seeking Changes To Medicare, Social Security
In his State of the Union address, Biden said some — but not all — Republicans want to target programs such as Social Security and Medicare, drawing jeers and catcalls from certain members of the GOP caucus. On Wednesday, the president used his speech at a labor training center in Wisconsin to identify the Republicans he was talking about Tuesday night, reading direct comments the lawmakers have made when proposing changes. (Alfaro and Bella, 2/8)

Dallas Morning News: HHS Secretary Pushes For Expanded Drug Affordability During Dallas Visit
“Here’s the most important part of this new prescription drug pricing: You have to be a Medicare recipient for you to benefit. You have to be 65 years or older or you have to be an American who’s disabled and qualifies for Medicare,” Becerra said. “All those other Americans still are strapped with the unfair negotiation, the unfair pricing that occurs.” (Wolf, 2/8)

The Guardian: Biden Criticized For Just One Mention Of Abortion In State Of The Union Speech 
Joe Biden is facing criticism for making only a late, brief mention of abortion rights in his first State of the Union address since the reversal of Roe v Wade by a conservative-led supreme court last year removed the federal right to the procedure in the US. During Tuesday’s State of the Union speech, Biden used the word abortion exactly once, making remarks about statewide abortions bans almost an hour into the speech. (Oladipo, 2/8)

The New York Times: Abortion Rights Supporters See Biden Address As Missed Opportunity 
During the midterm campaigns, Democrats spent months focused on the demise of federal abortion rights and the danger they said it posed to all Americans. In his State of the Union speech, President Biden spent roughly 42 seconds. (Lerer, 2/9)

The 19th: State Of The Union: How Many Words Biden Spoke On Abortion, LGBTQ+ Rights
Biden called on Congress to restore “every woman’s constitutional right to choose” by codifying Roe v. Wade and protect LGBTQ+ Americans by passing the Equality Act. In 2022’s State of the Union, he used 37 words when addressing abortion access and spent 58 words talking about LGBTQ+ Americans. In his 2021 address to Congress, Biden did not mention abortion and spent 40 words talking about LGBTQ+ Americans. ... Abortion is an uncommon topic in State of the Union addresses, and most presidents who mention abortion do so to condemn it. President Ronald Reagan was the first to explicitly address abortion, making an impassioned plea to “find positive solutions to the tragedy of abortion” in 1984 during a reelection campaign. President Barack Obama became the first president to express support for abortion, doing so in his penultimate address in 2015; Biden became the second last year. (Padilla and Mithani, 2/8)

Los Angeles Blade: LGBTQ Groups React To President’s State Of The Union Speech
LGBTQ rights groups have largely praised President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech that he delivered on Tuesday. ... “In re-upping his call for Congress to pass the Equality Act and protect transgender youth, the president is leading by example to expand freedom so no one is left behind,” GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis commented on Twitter. (Rodriguez, 2/8)

Berkeleyside: Berkeley Closing All COVID-19 Testing Sites
Berkeley is closing its COVID-19 testing sites in February as California’s State of Emergency is set to expire by the end of the month. The testing site at Harold Way closed Feb. 1 and the city’s second site at San Pablo Park will close Feb. 23. The closures in Berkeley come as testing centers across the state shut their doors, with additional funds drying up and demand for in-person testing declining. Other testing sites in the region closed months ago, such as the Test the People sites in Oakland. (Markovich, 2/8)

USA Today: An Experimental COVID Treatment Could Be A Promising Alternative To Paxlovid, Study Finds
An experimental COVID-19 antiviral appears to be effective at preventing hospitalizations without some of the downsides of other treatments. A study appearing Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine found that a shot of interferon lambda prevented 51% of hospitalizations among people who have been vaccinated — an already low-risk group and one that hasn't been proven to benefit from other treatments. (Weintraub, 2/8)

The New York Times: Why The Odds Are Stacked Against A Promising New Covid Drug 
Over the past year, America’s arsenal of Covid treatments has shrunk as new variants of the coronavirus have eroded the potency of drug after drug. Many patients are now left with a single option, Paxlovid. While highly effective, it poses problems for many people who need it because of dangerous interactions with other medications. But a new class of variant-proof treatments could help restock the country’s armory. Scientists on Wednesday reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that a single injection of a so-called interferon drug slashed by half a Covid patient’s odds of being hospitalized. (Mueller, 2/8)

Reuters: U.S. House Votes To End Foreign Air Traveler COVID Vaccine Requirement
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to end a requirement that most foreign air travelers be vaccinated against COVID-19, one of the few remaining pandemic travel restrictions still in place. The vote was 227 to 201 with seven Democrats joining Republicans. No Republicans voted against the bill. (Shepardson, 2/8)

CIDRAP: Study: 60% Of COVID-Infected Cancer Patients Report Viral Symptoms 6 Months Later 
A study published yesterday in eLife shows that 60% of cancer patients still have COVID-19 symptoms for 7 months after infection, similar to the general population. University of Texas researchers identified 312 patients at MD Anderson Cancer Center who tested positive for COVID-19 from Mar 1 to Sep 1, 2020, and followed up with them until May 2021. Participants completed daily questionnaires on viral symptoms for 14 days after infection, then weekly for 3 months, and then monthly thereafter. (Van Beusekom, 2/8)

The North Bay Business Journal: 3 North Bay Pharmacies To Close After Walgreens Acquires Pharmaca Parent Company
In a deal that will lead to the closure of Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacies, including three in the North Bay, pharmacy health giant Walgreens confirmed Wednesday it has acquired Medly Health, a digital pharmacy business. (Sarfaty, 2/8)

CIDRAP: Downed Spy Balloon May Muddy US-China Medical Supply Chains
As the US Navy examines the balloon and searches for its cargo, experts fear the incident's effects on the US-China medical supply chain, according to an article yesterday in Scrip. The United States relies on overseas manufacturing for 18 of 21 critical antibiotics and 72% of its active pharmaceutical ingredients. ... One urgent issue is the resumption of FDA inspections of Chinese drug manufacturing plants. For example, BeiGene, Ltd., which has interests in both China and the United States, is still awaiting approval of its cancer antibody tislelizumab, which was postponed in July 2022 because the United States couldn't conduct inspections in China amid its now-scrapped zero-COVID policy. (Van Beusekom, 2/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Asians More Fearful Of Becoming Gun Violence Victims
Even before last month’s mass shootings in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay — where most of the people shot were Asian or Asian American — Asian residents in California were much more worried about becoming victims of gun violence compared to other racial and ethnic groups, according to a report released Tuesday by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and AAPI Data, a research organization focused on Asian American and Pacific Islanders. (Ho, 2/8)

The Bakersfield Californian: Residents Offer Thoughts To Improve Police Interactions With People In Mental Health Crises 
Energy abounded and thoughts flowed at a meeting Wednesday in downtown Bakersfield designed to capture residents’ concerns about law enforcement’s interactions with people undergoing mental health crises. (Desai, 2/8)

Capitol Weekly: Big Tech Battles Impending CA Web Design Law 
In 1986, when California voters approved Proposition 65, they effectively enacted a nationwide law, whether they intended to or not. The ballot measure, known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, requires all businesses, including product manufacturers, to warn Californians about any significant exposures to chemicals that could cause cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm. (Joseph, 2/9)

KQED: Long Before Feinstein, Another California Senator Faced Questions About Mental Fitness
An incumbent California senator whose mental fitness and ability to do the job have come into question. A parade of strong candidates from the same party throwing their hats into the ring for the seat, even before any decision to step down has been announced. Sound familiar? But Dianne Feinstein, the 89-year-old San Francisco Democrat who has held onto her U.S. Senate seat for three decades and is now the oldest serving member of Congress, is not actually the first older California senator to face this kind of scrutiny. (Shafer, 2/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: Proposal In California Would Give $5k To Homeless High School Seniors
Nearly 15,000 homeless high school seniors would get $1,000 per month just before and after graduation under proposed state legislation aimed at giving the students some momentum to head to college or into the job market. The students, all identified as lacking “a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence,” would get five monthly installments from April through August. The measure would apply only to the class of 2024, but could be extended. (Tucker, 2/8)

CapRadio: Paul’s Place Provides ‘Path Forward’ For Unhoused Residents In Davis
Eulalio Canella of Davis has spent the past two decades without a permanent place to call home. After losing his job, he said he slept on sidewalks, in front of businesses or “wherever I could lay my head down. I was in a tent, a sleeping bag. I had to move from place to place all the time,” the 50-year-old Sacramento native said this week. “That runs a person down after a while.” (Nichols, 2/8)

Voice Of San Diego: North County Report: What The Point-In-Time Count Revealed About North County Homelessness 
Last month, 1,600 volunteers took to the streets to count and survey homeless people in each city across San Diego County.  In North County, that count comes with its own set of challenges. The homeless population is much more spread out, compared to downtown San Diego, but it is increasingly growing.  (Layne, 2/8)

NBC News: Eye Infections From Tainted Eyedrops May Be More Widespread, Doctors Worry
It was late last summer when Dr. Guillermo Amescua started noticing "something weird" about the eye infections he was seeing in his clinic. Amescua, a cornea specialist at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, had been well-versed in using antibiotics to treat bacterial eye infections. (Edwards, 2/9)

USA Today: Autism Signs Detected By Algorithm In Month-Old Infants
Signs of autism can be picked up as early as the first month of life, according to a new study from Duke University that used children's health records to create an algorithm. Infants later diagnosed with autism were much more likely than neurotypical children to have seen an ophthalmologist or neurologist, have stomach or gastrointestinal problems, or to receive physical therapy, said study author Geraldine Dawson, who directs the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development. (Weintraub, 2/8)