San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Cases Among Kids Are Up Nearly 50% In 8 Weeks
COVID-19 infections among American children are up sharply, with 41,000 child cases reported last week, an increase of nearly 50% over the previous 8 weeks, after reported cases had plateaued at a weekly average of 27,000 cases. (Vaziri and Beamish, 12/12)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Bay Area Health Officials Discuss Masking Amid Confluence Of COVID-19, Flu, RSV Cases
Bay Area health officials, including Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase, met late Monday to discuss masking as the region contends with a growing confluence of coronavirus, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases. (Murphy, 12/12)

Voice Of San Diego: Covid Year Two: Deaths More Than Doubled In Lakeside, And Went Down Virtually Everywhere Else
Michael Arthur Jackson and his aunt Teri were living in a mobile home park that overlooks Lakeside when the highly contagious Omicron variant of Covid-19 hit San Diego County in late 2021. Both Michael and Teri came down with the virus and required hospitalization. Teri walked free a few days later. Michael spent the remaining two months of his life in isolation, hooked up to a ventilator as his respiratory system began to fail. (Marx and Huntsberry, 12/12)

CNN: Covid-19 Vaccines Have Saved 3 Million Lives In US, Study Says, But The Fight Isn't Over
The Covid-19 vaccines have kept more than 18.5 million people in the US out of the hospital and saved more than 3.2 million lives, a new study says – and that estimate is most likely a conservative one, the researchers say. (Christensen, 12/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: California COVID Sick Pay Deadline Is Near. Here's What To Know
With the onset of winter, increasingly immune-evasive coronavirus subvariants are driving a new COVID-19 surge in California, and rising cases and hospitalizations bring the potential for more disruptions to work and other responsibilities. However, it’s not too late for Californians to claim COVID sick pay, which state lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom have extended through the end of the year — and it’s important to start your claim before it expires. (Vainshtein, 12/12)

Axios: Musk's Fauci Tweet Angers Medical Twitter
Members of the medical community lashed out at Elon Musk on Sunday after Musk tweeted, without apparent context, "My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci" in reference to the outgoing NIAID director. Some medical experts have already left the social media platform since Musk took over and stopped enforcing COVID disinformation policies. However, many health care users have largely continued using Twitter. (Reed, 12/12)

Fierce Healthcare: As Twitter Rolls Back Its Ban On COVID Misinformation, Some Health Experts Worry About Threat To Public Health
The volume of COVID-19 misinformation has jumped alarmingly on Twitter, according to research from Timothy Graham, senior lecturer in digital media at Queensland University of Queensland (QUT). He ran an analysis measuring the marked increased in seven words commonly used in COVID misinformation circles, revealing the steady decrease in content moderation since Musk purchased the company in late October. Terms searched were the combinations of "Bioweapon and Wuhan", "COVID and deep state", "COVID and hoax", "COVID and wake up" and "Fauci and lied." (Burky, 12/12)

Fox News: Vaccine Researcher Dr. Robert Malone Reinstated On Twitter After Being Banned Over COVID Misinformation Policy 
Twitter on Monday unsuspended the account of Dr. Robert Malone, who was previously kicked off the platform for his posts on coronavirus vaccines. Malone, an mRNA vaccine researcher, was removed from Twitter nearly a year ago for apparently violating the social media site's policy on COVID-19 misinformation. He had repeatedly made claims regarding the effectiveness of the vaccines. (Mion, 12/13)

The Desert Sun: Blood Donations Sought As LifeStream Blood Bank Down To ‘Hours’ Of Supply
LifeStream Blood Bank, which provides blood products and services to more than 80 Southern California hospitals, is seeking donors as it's facing a severe blood shortage as the holiday season approaches. (Sasic, 12/12)

Los Angeles Times: Long Waits After California Prenatal Testing Program Changed
On Nov. 1, Kate Manriquez, whose first child is due in May, did what many women do a couple months into their pregnancies: She gave a blood sample at her doctor’s office for a genetic test meant to help detect birth defects. More than a month later, 26-year-old Manriquez is still anxiously awaiting her results from California’s state-run prenatal screening program. (Petersen, 12/12)

Oaklandside: How One Health Center Is Serving Oakland's Growing Mam Community
Mayra Matias Pablo cradles a baby doll in her arm while holding a stuffed breast in her other hand. Dressed in traditional Guatemalan clothing and speaking Mam, a Mayan language from Guatemala, she uses the props to demonstrate a proper latch. Matias Pablo works for the Women, Infant and Children program at Oakland’s Native American Health Center in Fruitvale, and created this social media video to help Mam-speakers learn how to reduce nipple pain during breastfeeding. The WIC program supports pregnant women, new moms, infants, and children up to age 5 with access to healthy food, nutrition education, and breastfeeding support. (Middleton, 12/12)

Los Angeles Times: One Mom's Struggle Navigating A Failing Mental Health System
Deborah Smith begins her days online, searching for her son’s name on the Los Angeles County sheriff’s inmate locator, a ritual she shares with many moms she’s bonded with over the years. “This is something that mental health mothers get used to when you don’t know where your kid is,” she said. “You can call hospitals, but they won’t tell you. The only thing you have left is, ‘Did he get arrested?’” (Smith, 12/12)

Capital & Main: Falling Through The Cracks: An Historic Expansion Of Medi-Cal For Undocumented Workers Will Miss Many Farmworkers
Luis Lopez, 50, who has worked the strawberry fields in Santa Maria, California, for the last couple of decades, recently received good news: He was now eligible for full Medi-Cal coverage and had been automatically enrolled in the program by the state. For the first time since he arrived in this country as an undocumented worker, he could breathe easier knowing he had health care coverage. “I feel lucky,” he said recently. (Marrero, 12/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: How Does Being Laid Off Affect Bay Area Tech Workers' Health?
As technology companies across the Bay Area continue to lay off thousands of workers, researchers are pointing to the human costs of downsizing. For the employees being laid off, research shows, the health effects could be disastrous. (Echeverria, 12/12)

USA Today: Diabetes Care Gets Major Update: More Aggressive Approach To Weight Loss, Cholesterol, Disparities Recommended
The American Diabetes Association on Monday released new standards of care to reflect changes in technology, improved medications and a deeper understanding of the social factors that contribute to disease and diabetes control. The standards are updated annually, but this year includes almost 100 new or revised recommendations affecting all types of diabetes. (Weintraub, 12/12)

Healthline: Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet May Help People With Type 2 Diabetes
People with type 2 diabetes can lose more weight if they eat a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet. That’s the conclusion of a new study published today in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. The study, led by researchers at the University of Southern Denmark, randomly assigned low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diets and high-carb, low-fat (HCLF) diets to 165 people with type 2 diabetes for 6 months. (Pugle, 12/12)

Healio: Adult Supporters May Help People With Type 2 Diabetes Improve Self-Management
Adults with type 2 diabetes experienced more confidence and involvement in self-managing their disease when they had an adult friend or family supporter present, researchers reported. (Welsh, 12/12)

Bloomberg: Fentanyl Hidden In Fake Adderall, Cocaine Drive Surge In US Drug Overdoses
Covid-19 helped pave the way for fentanyl’s ascent. Driven into boredom and isolation by the pandemic, many Americans turned to illegal drugs – and in 2020 and 2021, more people than ever were killed by fentanyl. (Court, Campbell and Lin, 12/13)

Fox News: Fentanyl And A Stronger Form Of Meth Now Driving American Homeless Crisis
A stronger and more dangerous version of methamphetamine and fentanyl are helping drive America's homeless crisis, with users quickly slipping into debilitating addiction and mental illness that makes it impossible for them to function in society. (Lee, 12/13)

The Washington Post: Washington Faltered As Fentanyl Gripped America 
During the past seven years, as soaring quantities of fentanyl flooded into the United States, strategic blunders and cascading mistakes by successive U.S. administrations allowed the most lethal drug crisis in American history to become significantly worse, a Washington Post investigation has found. (Miroff, Higham, Rich, Georges and O'Connor, 12/12)

The Washington Post: What To Know About Fentanyl, The Leading Cause Of U.S. Overdose Deaths 
Fentanyl, a powerful painkiller developed nearly 60 years ago, is at the center of the deadliest drug epidemic in American history. More people have died of synthetic-opioid overdoses than the number of U.S. military personnel killed during the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined. Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49. (Vitkovskaya and Kan, 12/12)

The Washington Post: From Mexican Cartel Labs To U.S. Streets, A Deadly Fentanyl Pipeline
Fentanyl’s catastrophic surge came after the Drug Enforcement Administration cracked down on the excesses of the U.S. opioid industry. Millions of Americans who had become addicted to prescription pain pills suddenly found them difficult or impossible to get. (Kan, Miroff, Higham, Rich and Remmel, 12/12)

The Washington Post: How A Crucial U.S.-Mexico Alliance Fell Apart As Fentanyl Took Off 
The small American surveillance plane took off from a Mexican navy base in Baja California and flew high across the Sea of Cortez. Charting a course for the Sierra Madre mountains — cartel territory — the aircraft did not appear on any flight trackers or public logs. An orb-shaped device about the size of a beach ball was mounted on the fuselage, bristling with sensors and antennas. U.S. agents called it “the sniffer.” (Sheridan and Miroff, 12/12)

The Washington Post: How A DEA Agent Tracked A Town’s Fentanyl Crisis To The Sinaloa Cartel 
The meth was expensive. The federal agents were running out of money. They had been buying loads of drugs in undercover operations, trying to trace the pipeline of methamphetamine and fentanyl into this sleepy city of retirees, out-of-town hikers and Mormon churches. (Sieff, 12/13)