Los Angeles Times: SAG-AFTRA Members Clash Over COVID-19 Safety Measures, Vaccine Mandates
It has been two years since Hollywood first implemented rules to help limit the spread of COVID-19 on film sets. By most accounts, the industry’s pandemic measures have worked, limiting the spread of the virus from film productions, according to data from the Motion Picture Assn. (Sakoui, 9/15)

inewsource: Omicron-Adjusted Booster Vaccines Available In San Diego County
Updated COVID-19 booster shots are beginning to become available in San Diego County, following the authorization of their use by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month. The new bivalent booster shot has been in the works since the summer following a nationwide surge in cases caused by Omicron variants, BA.4 and BA.5, that prompted the FDA to advise vaccine manufacturers to reformulate the shot to strengthen protection against these strains. (Dawson, 9/13)

Los Angeles Times: Where To Find COVID-19 Omicron Boosters In California
Updated COVID-19 Omicron boosters are abundant in Los Angeles County, and officials are urging people to get the latest offering ahead of the fall-and-winter holidays. More than half a million doses have already arrived in the region, with tens of thousands more on the way, according to Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. They are available at more than 1,500 sites countywide, including those affiliated with the county Department of Public Health, health clinics and retail pharmacies. (Lin II and Money, 9/14)

AP: WHO: COVID End 'In Sight,' Deaths At Lowest Since March 2020 
The head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that the number of coronavirus deaths worldwide last week was the lowest reported in the pandemic since March 2020, marking what could be a turning point in the years-long global outbreak. At a press briefing in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world has never been in a better position to stop COVID-19. “We are not there yet, but the end is in sight,” he said, comparing the effort to that made by a marathon runner nearing the finish line. “Now is the worst time to stop running,” he said. (9/14)

Roll Call: Pandemic Fatigue Threatens COVID-19, Monkeypox Funding Requests 
As the Biden administration asks Congress for additional federal dollars to fight infectious diseases, it faces a conundrum: pandemic fatigue. (Cohen, 9/14)

Axios: Johns Hopkins To Reduce COVID Data Tracking
Johns Hopkins University is scaling back how much and how frequently it tracks COVID-19 pandemic metrics due to a slowdown in local data reporting, the university confirmed to Axios. (Scribner, 9/14)

Time: This Pharmacist Gives Monkeypox Vaccines At Gay Bars
Clint Hopkins and his husband, Joel Hockman, own Pucci’s Pharmacy in Sacramento, but you might not always find them there. Since the monkeypox outbreak began in the U.S., the pair and their team of health professionals are just as likely to be at a bar, private party, or their local LGBTQ center administering monkeypox vaccines. “We’re in a bit of a unique situation, because we’re LGBT and part of the community that is at highest risk,” says Hockman, COO of Pucci’s. “We’re aware of social events that are going on through our social network, so we reached out and said, ‘Hey, we know you’re going to get together—let us come and vaccinate everybody while they’re there.” (Park, 9/13)

CBS News: FDA Warns Monkeypox Could Mutate If Antiviral Drug Is Overused
The monkeypox virus is only one mutation away from evading a key antiviral drug being used to treat at-risk patients, federal health officials are now warning — and they're urging doctors to be "judicious" in prescribing the sought-after treatment. (Tin, 9/14)

Palm Springs Desert Sun: 4 More Likely Monkeypox Cases Reported In Riverside County; Total At 248
Riverside County Public Health reported an additional four confirmed or probable monkeypox cases on Wednesday. (Sasic, 9/14)

CalMatters: With Monkeypox, California Colleges Face Dual Threat
After a couple years of living with COVID-19, UC Santa Barbara student Alex Niles heard about the monkeypox outbreak. “Here we go again,” he thought. Niles, who is president of the UC Student Association, knew monkeypox was transmitted very differently than COVID-19 and generally posed less risk. But he began to notice concern percolating within UC Santa Barbara’s student body. (Seshadri, 9/15)

Fortune: White Men Initially Suffered The Highest Number Of Monkeypox Cases In The U.S. Not Anymore 
The number of Black men in the U.S. diagnosed with monkeypox is growing—and vaccines aren’t keeping up. At the beginning of the global outbreak, declared in May, the vast majority of U.S. patients—75%—were white. That share has slowly dropped over the course of the outbreak and now sits at around 25%, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Prater, 9/14)

CIDRAP: CDC Head Says Monkeypox Slowing In US
Today the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee met for the first time to address the federal response to the US monkeypox outbreak, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, addressed the rocky federal start of outbreak response but noted that cases are now declining. She also highlighted CDC outreach at a time when the disease was brand new to most frontline clinicians. (Soucheray, 9/14)

PBS NewsHour: WATCH: Senate Committee Hearing On Monkeypox With CDC’s Rochelle Walensky, Anthony Fauci 
The Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions committee held a hearing Wednesday with Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. (9/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: How Soaring Wildfire Plumes Are Making California’s Air Quality Even Worse
Colossal wildfire plumes that can be spotted from space have erupted on several California wildfires in the past months. The Mosquito Fire burning in Placer and El Dorado counties produced torrents of smoke that soared tens of thousands of feet into the air. The cloud of soot and debris could be seen 60 miles away. Smoke from the blaze blanketed large swaths of Northern California and western Nevada, resulting in hazardous-level air quality. (Lee, 9/15)

Orange County Register: Hoag Hospital Accepts $106 Million Donation, Largest Ever
A $106 million donation to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian is the largest in the Newport Beach-based health provider’s history and will support its advanced research and “comprehensive, compassionate” patient care, officials said Wednesday, Sept. 14. The gift from the estate of Audrey Steele Burnand brings the total amount given by the family to Hoag Hospital to $134 million. The family’s support of the hospital dates back to the 1960s when it gave about $8 million to help with cancer and cardiology research and treatments. (Ritchie, 9/14)

Becker's Hospital Review: Joint Commission To Conduct Review Of Requirements
The Joint Commission plans to review all of its accreditation requirements that go "above-and-beyond" CMS requirements. In a Sept. 13 statement, the organization said it will "address the necessity" of its requirements, similar to how CMS has been reviewing requirements that were waived during the nation's COVID-19 public health emergency. (Carbajal, 9/15)

The 19th: LGBTQ+ Americans Report More Discrimination At The Doctor, Poll Finds
When LGBTQ+ people go to the doctor, they are more likely to be refused medical services, blamed for their health problems and discriminated against than cisgender and heterosexual people, a new 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll has found. (Rummler and Mithani, 9/15)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Prior Authorization Bill Passes House
Medicare Advantage carriers would be subject to new requirements governing the prior authorization process under legislation that passed the House Wednesday. The measure would compel Medicare Advantage insurers to use electronic prior authorization programs, annually submit lists of items and services subject to prior authorization, and adopt beneficiary protection standards. The Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act now moves the Senate, where supporters hope it will advance after the November congressional elections. (Goldman, 9/14)

Stat: Medicare Is Found To Give Insufficient Access To Opioid Addiction Treatment
Medicare is vastly underserving older Americans with opioid use disorder, with only 18% of enrollees with the diagnosis receiving recommended medication treatment, according to a new federal oversight report. (Joseph, 9/15)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Chula Vista Bans Flavored Tobacco Products 
Chula Vista council members on Tuesday unanimously approved an ordinance banning the sale of flavored tobacco products. (Murga, 9/14)

Los Angeles Times: L.A., O.C. Health Departments Warn Of EV-D68 Respiratory Virus 
Health officials are warning doctors about another contagious virus that, in rare cases, can send children to the hospital or lead to permanent paralysis. In an advisory, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted an increase last month in the number of children hospitalized for severe respiratory illness — including enterovirus D68, or EV-D68. (Lin II and Money, 9/14)

Los Angeles Times: Teen Girl Dead From Fentanyl-Laced Pills At Hollywood School Is Latest In Rash Of Student Overdoses
A teenage girl who died Tuesday night from an apparent fentanyl overdose at Bernstein High School in Hollywood and three other students who were hospitalized were the latest in a rash of student overdoses stemming from drugs being sold at a nearby park, according to officials. Six students, not including the four from Tuesday night, have overdosed in the last three weeks from drugs obtained at Lexington Park, located just a few blocks from Bernstein, according to Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Alberto Carvalho. (Lin and Blume, 9/14)

Filter: Santa Monica Lawmakers Bid To Stop Syringe Distribution In Parks
Lawmakers in Santa Monica, California are trying to stop sterile syringe distribution in public parks,  restricting it largely to brick-and-mortar locations instead. Harm reduction experts say this would particularly hurt unhoused people who use drugs, who may lack transportation to get to other locations or information about where to find these services. (Lekhtman, 9/13)

Bay Area Reporter: Local LGBTQ, AIDS Groups Plan Fall Benefits 
Local LGBTQ nonprofits, political groups, and HIV/AIDS organizations are busy prepping for the fall gala season as in-person events make a return during the COVID era. (Laird, 9/14)

Bloomberg: HIV Vaccine Still Years Away, Former AIDS Society Head Warns
The use of messenger RNA to make vaccines for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic has reinvigorated a decades-long hunt for a shot to safeguard against HIV, but the development process will still be a protracted one, according to a leading South African scientist. (Cohen, 9/14)

Fast Company: Removing HIV Prevention Drugs From Insurance Plans Will End Up Costing
For Kenyon Farrow and Jeremiah Johnson of PrEP4All—and the hundreds of thousands of Americans who rely on the HIV prevention pill—last week’s ruling by a federal judge in Texas that employers are not required to provide health insurance plans that cover preventive services like PrEP was dismaying—although not entirely surprising. Since the nonprofit was founded in 2018, PrEP4All has been advocating for increased access to pre-exposure prophylaxis medications that can reduce the risk of HIV infection by 99%. Johnson, the organization’s PrEP program manager, and Kenyon, its managing director for advocacy and organizing, say they had been anticipating Judge Reed O’Conner’s decision with what Johnson described as “depressed resignation.” (Russell, 9/15)