FiercePharma: Astellas Gene Therapies To Turn Out The Lights At South San Francisco Production Plant
Several months after its parent company unveiled new labs and office space to unite cell and gene therapy research on the West Coast, Astellas Gene Therapies is turning out the lights at a California production plant. In a move expected to impact around 100 employees, Astellas Gene Therapies is closing its Eccles biomanufacturing facility in South San Francisco, BioSpace first reported. (Kansteiner, 9/4)

Becker's Hospital Review: California System Names Hospital CEO
Corona (Calif.) Regional Medical Center has named Alistair Machoka its CEO.Mr. Machoka has more than 20 years of healthcare experience, according to a Sept. 3 news release from the hospital. (Kuchno, 9/4)

Military.com: VA Hospitals Earn High Marks In New Federal Ratings 
A new quality assessment of U.S. hospitals by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services gave nearly 58% of Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers the highest four- or five-star ratings -- down 9% from 2023. The VA scores were still significantly higher than private medical centers, only 40% of which earned four or five stars. The department announced Tuesday that its hospitals also outperformed non-VA facilities on patient satisfaction surveys, which gave 79% of VA hospitals four or five stars, compared with 40% of non-VA hospitals. (Kime, 9/4)

Reuters: US Pharmacy Chain Rite Aid To Operate As A Private Company As It Emerges From Bankruptcy 
Rite Aid will operate as a private company after it successfully completed its financial restructuring and emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the U.S. drugstore chain said on Tuesday. The pharmacy has used its bankruptcy to close hundreds of stores, sell its pharmacy benefit company Elixir, and negotiate settlements with its lenders, drug distribution partner McKesson and other creditors. (9/4)

Los Angeles Times: 'Shameful': Newsom Decries Elk Grove's Opposition To Homeless Housing
A Northern California city has agreed to plan for more low-income housing and pay the state’s legal fees to settle a fair housing lawsuit, Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials announced Wednesday. The state sued the city of Elk Grove last year alleging that the city unlawfully denied a 67-unit homeless housing development in a historic neighborhood despite having recently approved a similar market-rate development in the same area. Wednesday’s settlement calls for the city to identify another site in a high-resource community for low-income housing, accept state reporting and monitoring requirements for compliance with housing laws and pay $150,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs. (Dillon, 9/4)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Leaders Think These Sites Could Potentially Be Homeless Shelters 
Soon after a marathon public hearing in July, when members of the San Diego City Council expressed deep reservations about turning an empty warehouse into one of the nation’s largest shelters, the head of the homelessness strategies and solutions department sent them all a letter. If they had other ideas, Sarah Jarman wrote, please share. (Nelson, 9/4)

KQED: Berkeley Could Sweep Homeless Encampments Without Offering Shelter Under New Proposal
Berkeley may soon become the latest Bay Area city to crack down on homeless encampments under expanded authority granted to local governments by a recent Supreme Court ruling. Legislation proposed by Councilmember Rashi Kesarwani, who represents northwest Berkeley, would allow the city, under certain conditions, to clear encampments without providing alternative shelter. Unhoused residents could also face citation or arrest if the resolution passes. (Cooke, 9/5)

Reuters: Hunger In US Continued Multi-Year Rise In 2023, Government Report Says 
Hunger reached its highest point in the United States in nearly a decade last year, with 18 million households, or 13.5%, struggling at some point to secure enough food, a Department of Agriculture report released on Wednesday said. Hunger has been on the rise in the country since 2021, after years of decline. U.S. Census Bureau data last year showed a rise in food insecurity after the end of programs that expanded food aid during the Covid-19 pandemic. The report did not provide an explanation for the increase. (Douglas, 9/4)

Newsweek: Map Shows States With Highest Food Insecurity As 47 Million Go Hungry
Millions of Americans are increasingly experiencing hunger because they live in households that can't afford to sustain proper diets, and a Newsweek map shows where food insecurity is hitting hardest. (Higham, 9/5)

Kiowa County Press: Deadline To Replace Stolen SNAP Benefits Looms 
The deadline to replace Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for recipients whose benefits were electronically stolen or skimmed is fast approaching. A September 30, 2024, deadline looms for those who had their benefits stolen between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2024, to replace their lost benefits. This comes after Congress passed a law in December 2022, hoping to reduce SNAP benefit theft. (Joyce, 9/4)

The Center Square: SNAP Benefits A Sticking Point That Is Holding Up The New Farm Bill 
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP program, has been a major talking point when it comes to negotiating the new Farm Bill. Republicans on the House Committee on Agriculture passed a version of the farm bill that would effectively cut nearly $30 billion in benefits over the next decade. (Bessler, 9/3)

Civil Eats: Project 2025 Calls For Major Cuts To SNAP And WIC 
Criticizing the USDA as “a major welfare agency,” the agenda takes issue with the agency’s long-standing nutrition programs that help feed millions of low-income Americans every year, including pregnant women, infants, and K-12 school children. It outlines policies that would substantially cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, and the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). It would also shrink federal support for universal school meal programs. (Moran, 8/28)

The Dallas Morning News: Fentanyl Vaccine Heads For Clinical Trials, With Goal Of Saving Lives
A fentanyl vaccine developed by researchers at the University of Houston is expected to head to clinical trials sometime in the middle of next year, with the hope of being a groundbreaking solution to a deadly crisis. The vaccine, which has shown success in animal studies, is designed to stop the highly addictive opioid from entering the brain and causing an overdose. Biopharmaceutical startup Ovax acquired the license to produce and test the vaccine in November 2023 and raised over $10 million toward that effort by June. (Fauzia, 9/4)

Politico: Democrats And Republicans Say Methadone Can End The Fentanyl Epidemic. Methadone Clinics Say That’s Naive
A plan to expand access to the drug treatment is hung up on fears of a black market, despite bipartisan support. (Paun, 9/5)

Voice of OC: Huntington Beach Moves To Adopt Transgender & Sexuality Notification Law
Huntington Beach officials are moving forward with a new law that would require teachers and adults working at city facilities, parks and libraries to inform parents if their children are transgender or gay. The law gears the city up to challenge Assembly Bill 1955 that was signed into law by Gov Gavin Newsom, which prohibits school districts from adopting transgender and sexuality notification policies. (Elattar, 9/4)

Los Angeles Blade: 164 Members Of Congress Urge Supreme Court To Protect Trans Rights
A group of 164 members of Congress filed an amicus brief on Tuesday urging the U.S. Supreme Court to defend transgender Americans’ access to medically necessary healthcare as the justices prepare to hear oral arguments this fall in U.S. v. Skrmetti.Lawmakers who issued the 27-page brief include House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) [and] House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (Calif.) ... The case, among the most closely watched this term, will determine whether Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, along with a similar law passed in Kentucky, violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. (Kane, 9/4)

Stat: Immune System Sex Differences Revealed In Study Of Trans Men 
Researchers have long known that, in general, women are more susceptible to autoimmune disorders than men, who are more vulnerable to infectious disease. But why? New research drawing on people who’ve undergone gender-affirming care suggests that hormones are a key part of the answer. (Wosen, 9/4)

San Diego Union-Tribune: A Troubling Milestone For Border Region: 1,000 Days Without Clean Ocean Water
Children can’t swim in the ocean. Businesses can’t retain customers. Lifeguards have to wear special protective gear. And the Navy often relocates training for its elite SEALs force. These are just some of the consequences of 1,000 consecutive days that the shoreline in California’s southernmost region has been closed because of sewage spilling over the U.S.-Mexico border from Tijuana. (Murga, 9/4)

Berkeleyside: Berkeley Cited For Water Quality Violations At Tuolumne Camp
State regulators have cited Berkeley after tests this summer found water quality violations at the city-owned Tuolumne Family Camp. City officials say they have taken steps to address the problem and don’t believe the violations were connected to a string of illnesses among campers and staff at the retreat outside Yosemite National Park last month. (Savidge, 9/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Sues To Halt Online Sales Of Flavored Nicotine Pouches
San Francisco is accusing sellers of flavored nicotine pouches — known as “nics” or “zyns” — of violating state and local laws and endangering young people’s lives. A 2016 San Francisco ordinance prohibits the sale of flavored tobacco products to anyone in the city. The companies are violating that law by selling the pouches online to San Francisco customers, City Attorney David Chiu’s office said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Superior Court. The suit said the companies also fail to comply with California laws on the sales of flavored tobacco, including a statute requiring all such packages to be signed and accepted by a purchaser 21 or older. (Egelko, 9/4)

Los Angeles Times: Feds Probe Rampant Sexual Abuse Of Women In Two California Prisons
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday announced a civil rights investigation into sexual abuse of women behind bars in two California prisons, citing numerous reports of groping, inappropriate touching and rape by correctional workers. The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation violated the rights of women at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino by failing to protect them from sexual abuse by prison staff. (Winton, 9/4)

Los Angeles Times: How Parents Can Evaluate The Available Research On MERT
As diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder have increased in the last two decades, so have the number of experimental and off-label therapies seeking to address the condition. For parents navigating the complex and often contradictory landscape of autism interventions — while also balancing medical appointments, educational specialists and countless other family needs — evaluating these treatments can be daunting. (Purtill, 9/5)

CIDRAP: Study Puts Understanding Of Long COVID And Vaccination Into Question 
A new study from researchers at the Mayo Clinic suggests that being vaccinated against COVID-19 does little to prevent long COVID. The findings contradict what has become conventional wisdom in the last 3 years—that vaccines offer a chance to significantly reduce the risk of long COVID, or new or persistent symptoms 3 months or more after infection, most likely by reducing the severity of infection. (Soucheray, 9/4)

CIDRAP: Wearable Activity Trackers Could Offer Early Clues On COVID-19 
A new study from researchers at the University of South Australia reveals that wearable activity trackers, such as Apple Watches and Fitbits, show promise in detecting early signals of disease—particularly atrial fibrillation associated with stroke and COVID-19. The study is published in the journal JMIR mHealth and uHealth. ... For COVID-19 diagnosis, wearables were accurate 87.5% of the time. The authors said the wearables were as accurate as rapid antigen tests, or lateral flow devices. (Soucheray, 9/4)

The Guardian: ‘A Ton Of Covid Out There’: US Summer Wave Not Taken Seriously Enough – Experts 
Infectious disease experts say many people are not taking the latest Covid-19 wave in the US seriously enough and are not getting vaccinated or using antiviral drugs when sick, despite a summer wave that was larger and came earlier than anticipated. Epidemiologists are saying that while symptoms of this wave are more mild than earlier strains, the virus remains a threat – particularly for older adults and people with underlying health conditions. (Berger, 9/4)

NBC News: Flu Shots Are Here. When's The Ideal Time To Get One, And Should You Get It With The Covid Vaccine?
Flu shot season is upon us. Pharmacies began giving out the vaccines — which are recommended for everyone ages 6 months and older — last month. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends getting a flu shot either this month or next, since flu activity typically picks up in the fall, with cases reaching their peak sometime from December to February. It takes around two weeks for the vaccine to become fully effective. (Bendix, 9/4)

Stat: Moderna Reports Encouraging Results On Its MRNA-Based Mpox Vaccine
The emergence of a second mpox outbreak in which the virus is spreading from person-to-person, as well as a sharp increase in overall cases of the disease in several African countries, is straining the world’s capacity to make and distribute vaccine to battle the threat. New options are needed, and a study published Wednesday suggests another may be on the horizon. (Branswell, 9/4)

CBS News: Neither Trump Nor Harris Has Released Comprehensive Recent Medical Records As Election Day Nears
With two months to go until Election Day, neither former President Donald Trump nor Vice President Kamala Harris has released comprehensive recent medical records, leaving voters in the dark about the current state of their health. Trump, 78, would be the oldest person to ever assume the Oval Office. And the 59-year-old Harris, who became the Democratic nominee last month and ran for president in 2020, hasn't publicly released the results of a comprehensive physical in either of her bids for the White House. (Watson, 9/4)

Politico: Trump Pivoted On Florida’s Abortion Ban. Here’s What Anti-Abortion Leaders Want Next
The anti-abortion activists celebrating Donald Trump’s vow to vote no on Florida’s upcoming abortion-rights amendment have their sights on a bigger target: extracting a promise from the former president to staff his administration with staunch abortion opponents if he wins in November. (Ollstein and McGraw, 9/5)

Roll Call: Once A Liability For Democrats, Abortion Gets New Life With Harris As Nominee 
Reproductive rights groups say they are more confident that Vice President Kamala Harris will be able to appeal to voters, with some citing frustration with President Joe Biden’s abortion messaging. Abortion access and reproductive rights have been a central theme in Harris’ campaign since she ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket, with reproductive rights groups hopeful that the Harris campaign can use her message on the issue to further fuel voters’ enthusiasm for her. (Heller, 9/4)

Vox: How To Stop Mass Shootings Before They Start: What Experts Say Can Help
“One of the big stereotypes, or myths we have about mass shootings in general, is that perpetrators who do this go crazy and just snap,” says Mark Follman, author of the book Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America, and an editor at Mother Jones. “That’s not the reality at all of how this works.” Mass shootings are almost never random, according to Follman. The vast majority of mass shooters don’t spontaneously decide to pull out a gun in public and start shooting. Learning to identify who’s most at risk for committing mass violence, identifying warning signs and finding ways to intervene, can save lives. (Cogan, 9/4)

AP: A List Of Mass Killings In The United States This Year
It was the country’s 30th mass killing this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 131 people have died this year in those killings, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI. Last year ended with 217 deaths from 42 mass killings in the U.S., making 2023 one of the deadliest years on record. (9/4)

Statista: U.S. Mass Shootings, By Prior Signs Of Shooter's Mental Health Issues 
In 72 cases out of a total of 150 reported mass shootings in the United States since 1982, the shooter(s) displayed prior signs of mental health problems. In 17 cases out of 150, there were no signs of mental health issues in the shooters. (9/5)