San Francisco Chronicle: Trump’s New Tough-Love Homelessness Czar Might Surprise Skeptics 
President Trump’s newly appointed national homelessness czar, Robert Marbut, slipped into his boss’ enemy territory, otherwise known as the Bay Area, last week for a quiet visit. And in an exclusive interview with The Chronicle, he laid out a surprising agenda — because in some ways, it sounded like what local program leaders are promoting. (Fagan, 2/24)

Capital Public Radio/KXJZ: Following Newsom Announcement, Trailers To House Homeless Residents Arrive In Stockton 
Nine trailers arrived in Stockton Monday after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that trailers would be sent to cities across California to house homeless families. As many as 50 people now may have a place to stay. Caltrans crews parked the trailers at the site of the Stockton Homeless Shelter. The trailers range in length from 24 to 27 feet with beds, bathrooms, and other amenities and can house a family of eight. (Ibarra, 2/24)

KPBS: Health Care Providers Developing Plan To Better Treat Homeless Patients With Hep C  
A smartphone application and ultrasound machine are all it takes for Josie Ruíz to evaluate a hepatitis C patient's liver. The health care worker at La Maestra Community Health Centers in San Diego's City Heights neighborhood uses a FibroScan to measure the internal organ and then punches the figures into her mobile phone to determine if the infection has caused tissue damage or fibrosis. The scan is one of the easier steps treating hepatitis C patients — La Maestra officials say the weeks-long medication for the disease has a high success rate — while the bigger challenge is getting the most vulnerable patients into care. (Mento, 2/25)

Ventura County Star: Housing Advocacy Group Sues Simi Valley Over Denial Of Senior Housing
Husband-and-wife team Josh Manevich and Bonnie Bercu thought their proposed senior assisted-living facility was a shoo-in by the time it reached the Simi Valley Planning Commission last September. The Simi Valley Planning Commission’s staff report recommended approval. The project was consistent with the city’s general plan and met all zoning and development code requirements. The Ventura County Fire District reviewed and accepted the project, and the city traffic engineer determined it wouldn’t impact the level of traffic at the closest major intersection. (Rode, 2/25)

CalMatters: California's Housing Crisis Sickens Families 
Tanya Harris and her three daughters struggle to breathe in the converted motel room in Salinas they now rent as a studio. Just large enough for a bunkbed and a desk, the room holds all four of them. Harris sleeps on a silver inflatable mattress on the floor. And doctors say the room is making Harris and her daughters sick. The state’s housing crisis has resulted in more and more families like Harris’ living in substandard and overcrowded conditions, and local health officials say those conditions threaten residents’ health. (Cimini, 2/25)

Modesto Bee: Childhood Trauma Is Detrimental, Mental Health Care Helps
There aren’t enough mental health care providers across the state to meet the current need, according to the California Health Care Foundation. The demand for mental health providers is expected to increase with the January 2020 state law funding payment to Medi-Cal providers for screening their patients for adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs. (Mink, 2/25)

Los Angeles Times: Physicians Group Releases Report On Psychological Effects Of Family Separation 
Nearly two years have passed since the separation of thousands of migrant children and their parents under the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy. Months after some reunions, experts found that severe psychological trauma remained. On Tuesday, Physicians for Human Rights published a report based on in-depth psychological evaluations of 26 asylum seekers — nine children and 17 adults — who were separated under the policy. Medical experts documented psychological trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety. (Mejia, 2/25)

KQED: How New Diseases Find Their Way Into Humans
The idea that human, animal and ecosystem health are interconnected is relatively new, but in the last decade or so it has taken hold. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention even has a "One Health" office, "with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes" recognizing those links. (Venton, 2/24)

Sacramento Bee: Why Registered Nurses At A California Hospital Plan To Hit The Picket Line In March
A hospital less than an hour south of Sacramento could be without registered nurses for a short time. The RNs at French Camp’s San Joaquin General Hospital announced Monday that they are planning a two-day strike March 5-7 because they could not reach agreements on safe staffing for patients or on hiring and retention of experienced RNs. (Anderson, 2/25)

San Francisco Chronicle: SF Opens Bayview Housing To Serve Pregnant Homeless Women 
A new shelter opening this week will serve some of San Francisco’s most vulnerable residents: pregnant homeless women. City officials announced Monday the opening of Jelani House, a transitional housing program for both pregnant women and new mothers experiencing homelessness. Full-time staff will offer health, parenting and financial classes along with housing assistance with the aim of boosting the women and their children into permanent housing and a better future. (Bauman, 2/24)

The Delano Record: Adventist Health Bakersfield Celebrates New Designation For Its AIS Cancer Center 
When Dale Lamason was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2019, he suddenly was faced with decisions he never expected to have to make. One of them was where to seek treatment — out of town at some big-name university hospital or at a cancer center near where he lives. Lamason, 62, chose Adventist Health's AIS Cancer Center in downtown Bakersfield, a cancer treatment facility that on Friday announced it has been designated a Comprehensive Community Cancer Program by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer. (Mayer, 2/24)

San Francisco Chronicle: McClymonds High Students Assigned New Sites With School Closed Due To Chemical
Students at McClymonds High School in Oakland will head back to class Tuesday, but at other district sites while county officials continue to test the air quality for evidence of a cancer-causing vapor on their campus. District officials shut down the West Oakland school with 350 students on Thursday after they discovered the chemical trichloroethylene, or TCE, in the groundwater under the campus. (Tucker, 2/24)

The Associated Press: US Appeals Court Upholds Trump Rules Involving Abortions
In a victory for the Trump administration, a U.S. appeals court on Monday upheld rules that bar taxpayer-funded family-planning clinics from referring women for abortions. The 7-4 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned decisions issued by judges in Washington, Oregon and California. The court had already allowed the administration's changes to start taking effect while the government appealed those rulings. (2/24)

The Washington Post: Appeals Court Upholds Trump Ban On Abortion Referrals By Family Planning Clinics
Monday’s ruling is the first substantive court decision on a move by the Department of Health and Human Services that heightened a long-brewing antagonism between social conservatives on one side and Planned Parenthood Federation of America and other family planning groups on the other. Under federal law, health-care groups were already barred from using federal funds for abortion services. The rule issued by HHS a year ago went further, forbidding health centers that provide abortions or refer patients for abortions elsewhere from receiving any money through the half-century-old family planning program — a change critics lambasted as a “gag rule.” The rule also requires health centers to erect “clear physical and financial separation” between services funded by the program and other activities. (Goldstein, 2/24)

The New York Times: Bernie Sanders Outlines Funding For His Plans, But It May Not All Add Up
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, under growing pressure to explain how he would pay for his very expensive policy agenda, released a checklist on Monday evening that he described as a full explanation of how he would finance all of his proposals. The actual document is somewhat limited, and in some cases the revenue Mr. Sanders identifies doesn’t match the costs of his plans. For example, he estimated Sunday night on “60 Minutes” that the price tag for his “Medicare for all” plan would be about $30 trillion over 10 years, but the revenue he identifies for it in the new outline totals about $17.5 trillion. It is possible that the gap could be filled by existing appropriations for Medicare and Medicaid, but Mr. Sanders did not mention those in his outline or in the Sunday interview. (Astor, 2/24)

The Washington Post: Candidates Refuse To Release Detailed Health Records Amid An Aging Presidential Field
In the run-up to the 1976 presidential campaign, Sen. Frank Church of Idaho revealed that cancer had claimed his left testicle. Jimmy Carter disclosed that he had trouble swallowing due to an allergy to beans and Swiss cheese. And when he ran for president in 2000 and 2008, John McCain released more than 1,000 pages of medical records, including a psychiatric report that divulged his "histrionic personality." “At that moment in time, the idea of telling the national media to pound sand on the matter of his medical records was not reality,” said former McCain adviser Steve Schmidt. “There was a sense of obligation and responsibility still attached to the pursuit of the presidency.” (Viser and Bernstein, 2/24)

The New York Times: As Fears Of A Pandemic Mount, W.H.O. Says World Is Not Ready
As new cases of the coronavirus spiked on two continents, the World Health Organization warned on Monday that the world was not ready for a major outbreak, even as it praised China’s aggressive efforts to wrest the epidemic under control. After two weeks on the ground in China, a team sent by the W.H.O. concluded that the draconian measures China imposed a month ago may have saved hundreds of thousands of people from infection. Such measures — sealing off cities, shutting down businesses and schools, ordering people to remain indoors — have provoked anger in China and could be difficult to replicate in democratic countries with a greater emphasis on protecting civil liberties. (Myers and Wee, 2/24)

The New York Times: White House Asks Congress For Billions To Fight Coronavirus
The Trump administration, after weeks of pleading from lawmakers, asked Congress on Monday to allocate $1.25 billion in new emergency funds to bolster its coronavirus response. The request from the White House, which also called for $1.25 billion in money diverted from other federal programs, is a significant escalation in the administration’s response to the outbreak of the virus and a sign of how long the fight to stop it may be. The White House budget office also said it intended to move $535 million allocated for the prevention and treatment of the Ebola virus during the current fiscal year. (Weiland, Cochrane and Habberman, 2/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Fear Of Coronavirus, Rather Than Virus Itself, Hits Economies
The body’s immune response to infection is often more painful than the infection itself. The same is true of epidemics and the economy. As with terrorist attacks and financial crises, epidemics generate widespread uncertainty and sometimes panic. Government authorities and private individuals often respond by drastically reducing exposure to the shock, amplifying its global economic impact. (Ip, 2/24)

Politico: Trump Faces ‘Black Swan’ Threat To The Economy And Reelection
With the possibility of a U.S. outbreak growing by the day, Trump allies and advisers have grown increasingly worried that a botched coronavirus response will hit the U.S. economy. Even Donald Trump Jr. has mused to associates he hopes the White House does not screw up the response and put the president’s best reelection message at risk, said two individuals with knowledge of his comments. “Trump’s reelection effort is so closely tied to the strength of the stock market and the economy,” said Moore, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and 2016 Trump campaign adviser. “Anything that shakes us off of that pro-growth track is a concern, but I think the view of officials in the White House is that this will be contained.” (Diamond and Cook, 2/24)

The New York Times: ‘Recipe For A Massive Viral Outbreak’: Iran Emerges As A Worldwide Threat
Religious pilgrims, migrant workers, businessmen, soldiers and clerics all flow constantly across Iran’s frontiers, often crossing into countries with few border controls, weak and ineffective governments and fragile health systems. Now, as it struggles to contain the spread of the coronavirus, Iran is also emerging as the second focal point after China for the spread of the disease. Cases in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates — even one in Canada — have all been traced to Iran, sending tremors of fear rippling out from Kabul to Beirut. (Kirkpatrick, Fassihi and Mashal, 2/24)

Reuters: China Bans Trade, Consumption Of Wild Animals Due To Coronavirus
China's top legislature said it will immediately ban the trade and consumption of wild animals, in a fast-track decision it says will allow the country to win the battle against the coronavirus outbreak. The announcement, made late on Monday according to the official Xinhua News Agency, comes after an initial suspension of the trade and consumption of wildlife in January. (2/24)

Stat: Health Worker Infections Underscore The Chaos Of Coronavirus Response
Thousands of health care workers, largely in China, have been infected amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, a sign of the immensely difficult working conditions for medical staffers, who should be among those best protected against infection. The infections, along with the deaths of several doctors in China, underscore the deeply challenging, chaotic environment that health care workers confront when toiling on the front lines of a major outbreak. (Thielking, 2/25)