Officials Want EPA To Monitor Air Quality After LA Wildfires: At a news conference Monday, Pasadena Public Health Director Manuel Carmona, Pasadena Vice Mayor Jess Rivas, and U.S. Reps. Judy Chu, Laura Friedman, and Brad Sherman asked for the creation of a federal EPA task force to regularly monitor air quality in the Los Angeles area. Read more from CBS News Los Angeles.
Prostate Cancer Rates Jump In California: A new study from UCSF reveals an “alarming” rise in advanced prostate cancer rates across California. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the rate of advanced prostate cancer doubled, from 7.84 cases per 100,000 men in 2004 to 15.72 per 100,000 in 2021. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Below, check out the roundup of California Healthline’s coverage. For today's national health news, read KFF Health News’ Morning Briefing.
More News From Across The State
Times of San Diego:
California Representatives Move To Once Again Block Trump's Transgender Military Ban
Amidst uncertainty for transgender members of the armed forces, elected officials are fighting to protect their basic rights. Last week, Rep. Scott Peters doubled down on his commitment to the military community, supporting fellow Democratic Rep. Sara Jacobs’ Ensuring Military Readiness Not Discrimination Act, which proposes to amend the United States Code to prohibit discrimination in the U.S. military. (Balc, 2/3)
CalMatters:
CA Clinics Lose Transgender Health Grants After Trump Orders
A Los Angeles health clinic says it’s losing federal funding as a result of President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting transgender people. St. John’s Community Health, one of the largest free and reduced-cost providers in Los Angeles, reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday terminated a $1.6 million grant that was supposed to support its transgender health and social services program. (Hwang, 2/4)
The New York Times:
C.D.C. Site Restores Some Purged Files After ‘Gender Ideology’ Ban Outcry
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention purged from its website thousands of pages that included terms such as “transgender,” “L.G.B.T.” and “pregnant person,” to comply with an executive order barring any material that promoted “gender ideology.” By Monday, some of the pages had reappeared, in part in response to intense media coverage, backlash from the scientific community and concern for the public’s health, according to a senior official with knowledge of the matter. (Mandavilli and Caryn Rabin, 2/3)
Stat:
Microbiology Society Removes DEI Content, Following Trump Order
The professional society for microbiologists began stripping content about Black, female, and LGBTQ+ scientists from its website in the last few days, angering its members and highlighting the reach of President Trump’s directives to federal agencies to halt activities that promote diversity and inclusion. (McFarling, 2/3)
Los Angeles Times:
Trump Delays Tariffs On Mexico By One Month, Easing Markets
With President Trump’s last-minute decision to delay hefty tariffs on imports from Mexico for at least a month, the U.S. averted, or at least deferred, a potentially disastrous trade war with its biggest — and fastest growing — partner.The delay is good news for California. (Lee, 2/3)
CNN:
Rubio Says He’s Acting Director Of USAID As Humanitarian Agency Is Taken Over By The State Department
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday that he is acting administrator of the US Agency for International Development, confirming the de-facto takeover of the humanitarian agency by the State Department. Rubio said in a letter to lawmakers Monday he had delegated the authority of acting administrator to Pete Marocco, a Trump appointee who served at USAID in the president’s first term and has been accused by aid groups and officials of intentionally dismantling the organization. (Hansler, Kent, Marquardt and Liptak, 2/3)
The New York Times:
E.P.A. Demotes Career Employees Overseeing Science, Enforcement And More
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to demote career employees who oversee scientific research, the enforcement of pollution laws, hazardous waste cleanup and the agency’s human resources department and replace them with political appointees, according to two people familiar with the approach. The move would give Trump administration loyalists more influence over aspects of the agency that were traditionally led by nonpartisan experts who have served across Republican and Democratic administrations. (Friedman, 2/4)
The New York Times:
RFK Jr.’s Nomination Faces Critical Vote By Senate Finance Committee
President Trump’s choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the nation’s next health secretary will face a critical test in the Senate on Tuesday, when members of the Finance Committee — including a Republican doctor uneasy about Mr. Kennedy’s views on vaccines — will vote on whether to reject the nomination or forward it to the Senate floor. The Finance Committee has 14 Republicans and 13 Democrats. If every Democrat votes against Mr. Kennedy, a no vote by Mr. Cassidy would deprive Mr. Kennedy of a favorable recommendation to the full Senate. But it would not necessarily doom his nomination; it is possible that Republicans could use procedural tactics to force the full Senate to vote. (Stolberg and Jewett, 2/4)
CalMatters:
California City Wants To Make It Illegal To Aid, Abet A Homeless Camp
As communities up and down California ban homeless encampments, one Bay Area city is trying to go a step further. The East Bay city of Fremont is set to vote on a new ordinance that would make it illegal to camp on any street or sidewalk, in any park or on any other public property. But, in an apparent California first, it also would make anyone “causing, permitting, aiding, abetting or concealing” an illegal encampment guilty of a misdemeanor – and possibly subject to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail. (Kendall, 2/4)
Politico:
A New California Bill Takes On Chatbot Addiction
A new California bill aims to tackle chatbot addiction. A Democratic California lawmaker wants to protect kids from developing addictions to artificial intelligence chatbots amid growing nationwide concern that the technology may be detrimental to youth mental health, POLITICO’s Tyler Katzenberger reports. The bill, introduced late last week by California state Sen. Steve Padilla, would mandate that AI platforms limit kids’ exposure to algorithms that reward users at random intervals to keep them engaged in conversation with chatbots. (Paun, Reader and Schumaker,2/3)
CalMatters:
California Voters Erased A Plan To Keep Kids Insured By Medi-Cal
Each year nearly 400,000 children with Medi-Cal health insurance lose coverage for a period of time and then must re-enroll. Often they still qualify for publicly subsidized health care but get kicked off because of administrative errors or lost paperwork. Sometimes their families miss the income cutoff by a couple hundred dollars for a few months. That’s a problem, advocates say, because early childhood comes with a host of vital health checks, vaccinations and developmental screenings. Without them, kids are at risk of falling behind on language development and social behaviors or missing early disease detection. (Hwang, 2/3)
Los Angeles Times:
Investigation Probes L.A. County's Faulty Emergency Alerts
Local members of Congress launched an investigation Monday into Los Angeles County’s emergency alert system after delayed electronic warnings were blamed for the loss of life during the Eaton fire and faulty wireless alerts sent to millions of residents who faced no fire risk stoked widespread panic and confusion days later. (Jarvie, 2/3)
Marin Independent Journal:
Bay Area Housing Complex For Elders Reports Large COVID Outbreak
Santora said the county has not had the rise in COVID-19 cases it typically does this time of year. That might be about to change. She said levels of the virus in local wastewater have recently increased. (Halstead, 2/4)
The New York Times:
The U.S. Is Having Its Mildest Covid Winter Yet
This winter’s Covid wave in the United States has been the gentlest to date, in a welcome reprieve. According to wastewater data aggregated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not only was there less Covid circulating over the holidays than in previous years, but there was also less virus in the wastewater than in all the summer waves the program has tracked. (Paris, 2/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Gerber Recalls Teething Sticks In California Over Choking Risk
Due to a potential choking hazard, Gerber issued a recall for all batches of its Soothe N Chew Teething Sticks. The recall affects both the Strawberry Apple and Banana flavors. It follows reports of choking incidents, including one emergency room visit. The recalled products, sold in 3.2-ounce and 1.59-ounce packages, were distributed nationwide, including in California, New York, Florida and other states. (Vaziri, 2/3)
The Washington Post:
FDA Approves Pig Organ Transplant Trials For Patients With Kidney Failure
The Food and Drug Administration has given two biotechnology companies approval for clinical trials that will transplant organs from genetically modified pigs into patients with kidney failure, an experimental but potentially groundbreaking innovation for thousands of Americans on the waiting list for organ transplants. (Pannett, 2/4)
The Guardian:
Lung Cancer Diagnoses On The Rise Among Never-Smokers Worldwide
The proportion of people being diagnosed with lung cancer who have never smoked is increasing, with air pollution an “important factor”, the World Health Organization’s cancer agency has said. Lung cancer in people who have never smoked cigarettes or tobacco is now estimated to be the fifth highest cause of cancer deaths worldwide, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). (Gregory, 2/3)
Vacaville Reporter:
Bay Area Woman’s Death, Family Efforts Lead To New Law On Suicide Investigations
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 989 on Sept. 27, 2024, putting “Joanna’s Law” on the books. It was was sponsored by Alliance for HOPE International, a nonprofit that helps victims of domestic violence, and is regarded as the first statute in the country to set standards for addressing and investigating suspicious death cases where the victim dies after a prior history of domestic violence. (Bammer, 2/2)
Newsweek:
Severe Headaches Linked To Increased Suicide Risk
People diagnosed with severe headaches may be at an increased risk of suicide. This is the warning from a team of researchers from the U.S. and Denmark who studied the suicide risk of nearly 120,000 people with a headache disorder, in comparison with their counterparts with no such diagnosis. (Randall, 2/3)
CNN:
Human Brain Samples Contain An Entire Spoon’s Worth Of Nanoplastics, Study Says
Cognitively normal human brain samples collected at autopsy in early 2024 contained more tiny shards of plastic than samples collected eight years prior, according to a new study. Overall, cadaver brain samples contained seven to 30 times more tiny shards of plastic than their kidneys and liver, said co-lead study author Matthew Campen, Regents’ Professor and professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. (LaMotte, 2/3)
Bay Area News Group:
Water Company Extracts Millions From San Jose Deal Near Kaiser Mega-Project
Kaiser has bought a small bit of land next to the site where the healthcare titan has begun construction of a project that will bring an ultra-modern hospital to south San Jose. (Avalos, 2/4)
Becker's Hospital Review:
4 Ways Heart Centers Are Improving Patient Outcomes
From reducing heart risk factors to cutting mortality, heart centers across the country are homing in on ways to improve patient outcomes. ... The advances in therapies are also opening the door to better outcomes. The advent of focused RNA therapies is remarkable," Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, executive director of the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, told Becker's. (Taylor, 2/3)
Bloomberg:
US Investigates Four Medical Schools For Alleged Antisemitism
The US Department of Health and Human Services is investigating four unnamed medical schools over alleged antisemitism that took place during graduation ceremonies last year. “The review will specifically examine whether the institutions acted with deliberate indifference regarding events that may have impacted Jewish students’ rights to access educational opportunities and benefits,” HHS’ Office for Civil Rights said in a statement Monday. (Muller, 2/4)
Bloomberg:
Cigna To Tie Executives’ Pay To Customer Satisfaction
Cigna Group said it will tie its executives’ pay to customer satisfaction in a move that follows an outcry against the insurance industry over denials of care. The change is the start of what Cigna called a yearslong effort to improve customers’ experience and “ensure accountability,” the company said in a statement Monday. (Tozzi, 2/3)