The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Sonoma County Issues Public Health Advisory In Response To Storm Hazards
Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase has issued a public health advisory in anticipation of potential high-water hazards resulting from days of stormy weather. (Smalstig, 1/9)

The Sonoma Index-Tribune: Hospital, Health Center Remain Vigilant With More Rain Coming
Sonoma Valley Hospital and Sonoma Valley Community Health Center have not experienced any major problems due to the recent heavy rains, but remain vigilant with more storms forecast for the next several days. (Johnson, 1/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Sewage Overflows Into San Francisco Bay And City Streets During Storms
Millions of gallons of storm water mixed with raw sewage made its way into creeks, the bay and city streets during recent heavy rainstorms that overwhelmed dozens of Bay Area sewers and some treatment plants. (Duggan and Hao, 1/10)

Axios: Drought, Extreme Rains Linked To Infectious Diseases In Kids
A new study finds that drought and flood-causing rains are linked to increases in deadly diarrhea-related illnesses for young children in the Global South. This further demonstrates the role of climate-related impacts on the inequitable burden of disease. (Horn-Muller, 1/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Earth’s Ozone Layer Recovers As Airborne Chemicals Decline
In a report released Monday by the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization, researchers found a significant thickening of the ozone layer, a region of the atmosphere from 9 to 18 miles high that absorbs ultraviolet rays and prevents them from reaching the Earth’s surface. (Niiler, 1/9)

The Washington Post: The Ozone Layer’s Recovery Is Good News For Climate Change, Too
As a result, the ozone layer — which blocks ultraviolet sunlight from reaching Earth’s surface — continues to slowly thicken. Restoring it is key for human health, food security and the planet. UV-B radiation causes cancer and eye damage in humans. It also damages plants, inhibiting their growth and curbing their ability to store planet-warming carbon dioxide. (Dance, 1/9)

San Gabriel Valley Tribune: Workers To Rally For Increased Staffing At HCA-Owned Hospitals
Monique Hernandez is used to being shortstaffed. As a registered nurse at Riverside Community Hospital, she’s often saddled with more patients than she can safely handle. The nurse-to-patient ratio in her telemetry unit is supposed to be 1-4 at the maximum, yet some days she handles as many as five. (Smith, 1/9)

California Healthline: Hospitals’ Use Of Volunteer Staff Runs Risk Of Skirting Labor Laws, Experts Say
Hospitals using volunteers is commonplace. But some labor experts argue that deploying unpaid workers to do work that benefits the organization’s bottom line lets for-profit hospitals skirt federal labor laws, deprives employees of work, and potentially exploits the volunteers. (Sausser, 1/10)

The Bakersfield Californian: County Health Agencies Launch Initiative To Boost Holistic Health Care Outcomes In Aftermath Of COVID-19 
The heads of the county public health and behavioral health departments encouraged residents Monday to prioritize their mental and physical health after the COVID-19 pandemic grounded exercise to a halt and isolated many from gathering with others. (Desai, 1/9)

Los Angeles Times: First Real-World Data Show Omicron Booster Kept Seniors Out Of Hospitals
In the first real-world test of vaccine boosters specially designed to protect against the Omicron variant, Israeli researchers have found that people 65 and over who got an updated jab were 81% less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than those who did not. (Healy, 1/10)

CBS News: COVID-19 Vaccines: From Nasal Drops To A Redesign, What 2023 Could Have In Store 
Several vaccine companies say they are expecting breakthroughs as early as this year as they pursue new ways to protect people against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. (Tin, 1/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID In California: No Link Found Between Vaccine, Newborn Anomalies
In the latest evidence that COVID vaccination is safe for pregnant women and their babies, a new study found no link between the vaccine and newborn anomalies.  Other newly published research finds that in COVID-vaccinated children and adolescents who had multisystem inflammatory syndrome an NIH-funded study found no serious complications. (Vaziri, 1/10)

Politico: Biden Team Preps For End To Covid's Public Health Emergency — After One More Extension
When the Biden administration renews the Covid public health emergency this week, it will mark the 11th time since the coronavirus arrived that the government declared its presence a national crisis. It may also be the last. (Cancryn, 1/10)

CNBC: Applying For Social Security Disability With Long Covid Is Complicated
To date, the Social Security Administration has flagged about 44,000 disability claims that include some mention of Covid-19, though that is not necessarily the primary reason for those applications. That represents just about 1% of disability applications received since the agency started tracking those claims. Yet it is possible that future disability benefit applications due to long Covid may increase. (Konish, 1/9)

InsuranceNewsNet: California Task Force Debating Five Options For New State LTC Benefit
Whether California becomes the second state to pass a long-term care benefit likely rests on the same issue that threatens to kill the first state to pass a LTC benefit: taxes. (Hilton, 1/10)

PBS NewsHour: CDC Warns Of Rising Strep Throat Infections Among Children 
The CDC is investigating a rise in severe cases of strep throat among kids in the U.S. Several children’s hospitals across the country have reported an increase in strep cases since November, including in Colorado where two children died. (1/9)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Increasingly Halting Human Trials As Companies Pursue Risky, Cutting-Edge Drugs
The Food and Drug Administration is pressing pause on drug-company testing of experimental medicines more often, a side effect of the industry’s move into promising but less-proven technologies. (Essley Whyte, 1/10)

Stat: FDA Head Califf: Aduhelm Approval Investigation Held "No Surprises"
U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner Robert Califf doesn’t disagree with the basic findings of a congressional investigation into the agency’s role in the controversial approval of Aduhelm, Biogen’s first Alzheimer’s drug. He just wishes the report’s tone had been different. (Wosen, 1/9)

Bloomberg: US Safety Agency To Consider Ban On Gas Stoves Amid Health Fears
A federal agency says a ban on gas stoves is on the table amid rising concern about harmful indoor air pollutants emitted by the appliances. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission plans to take action to address the pollution, which can cause health and respiratory problems. (Natter, 1/9)

Roll Call: For New GOP House Majority, A Focus On Abortion Messaging
The House GOP majority plans to vote this week on three measures aimed at emphasizing its opposition to abortion, including a rules package that will fast-track consideration of legislation permanently banning federal funding of abortion. (Raman, 1/9)

Stat: GOP Redirects Covid Committee To Focus On Virus Origins, Spending
The House’s coronavirus committee will continue in a Republican-controlled chamber — but with a vastly different mandate, reflecting GOP frustration with the federal pandemic response. (Owermohle, 1/9)

The Washington Post: House GOP To Launch Probe On Coronavirus Origin And Federal Response
House Republicans on Monday commissioned a special investigative panel focused on the coronavirus pandemic, hoping to leverage their new, powerful majority to press scientists and federal officials about the origin of the public health crisis and the government’s response to it. (Romm, 1/9)

Stat: The Republicans Leading Health Policy In The House
Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri will helm the powerful House Ways and Means Committee this Congress, as Republicans embark on a promised era of slashed spending and scrutiny of the pandemic response. (Owermohle, 1/9)

AP: Callers Keep Flooding 988 Mental Health, Suicide Helpline
When Jamieson Brill answers a crisis call from a Spanish speaker on the newly launched national 988 mental health helpline, he rarely mentions the word suicide, or “suicidio.” Brill, whose family hails from Puerto Rico, knows that just discussing the term in some Spanish-speaking cultures is so frowned upon that many callers are too scared to even admit that they’re calling for themselves. (Seitz, 1710)

California Healthline: Behavioral Telehealth Loses Momentum Without A Regulatory Boost
As flexible treatment options spurred by the covid pandemic wane, patients relying on medications classified as controlled substances worry that without action to extend the loosened rules, it’ll be harder to get their meds. (Tahir, 1/10)

CIDRAP: Mental Telehealth Use Surged As In-Person Care Dropped Amid COVID
The expansion of mental health telemedicine more than offset the drop in in-person mental health services among more than 5.1 million US adults for some diagnoses during the first year of the pandemic, finds a study published late last week in JAMA Health Forum. (Van Beusekom, 1/9)

The Epoch Times: A Day In The Life: Southern California’s Fentanyl Crisis
“I don’t even know if I will be alive tomorrow. I might OD tonight,” Pete—a pseudonym—told The Epoch Times. “You are talking to a drug user right now and that’s the name of the game.” The 34-year-old comedian has been using the opiate fentanyl since the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic and commonly checks in and out of rehabilitation centers. With his addiction, he wakes up some mornings homeless on the streets of Southern California. (Fredericks, 1/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Advocates Say SF Is Still Sweeping Homeless Camps Against Court Order
Advocates for the homeless in San Francisco say the city has continued to remove unhoused people from encampments without providing shelter for them, in defiance of a federal magistrate’s order. U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu issued an injunction Dec. 23 — barring San Francisco police and other officers from sweeping homeless encampments, citing their occupants for sleeping in public and seizing their belongings — while she considers a lawsuit against the city. Federal appeals courts have ruled that the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits local governments from making it a crime to sleep on a street or sidewalk when no homeless shelters are available. (Egelko, 1/9)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County To Declare Homelessness State Of Emergency
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was the first to act, last month declaring the homelessness crisis a citywide state of emergency, one as calamitous as any earthquake or hurricane. Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson asked his staff to draft a similar declaration hours after he was sworn in. It’s now the county’s turn. (Ellis, 1/10)

Stat: Officials Fear Mpox Cases Will Go Undetected And Unreported 
In the transmission heyday of the international mpox outbreak early last summer, it appeared that containment might not be possible. In recent months, though, the rate of growth of new cases has slowed considerably in a number of countries. In the United States, daily case reports have been in the single digits since mid-December; the U.K. hasn’t reported a new case since before Christmas. (Branswell, 1/10)

The Wall Street Journal: How Long Do Flu Symptoms Last And How Long Are You Contagious?
This flu season hit earlier and harder than those of the past couple of years, doctors say. The reason is likely because of the cyclical nature of the flu and the lifting of Covid precautions such as working from home, wearing masks and having smaller social gatherings, says Robert Frenck, a pediatrician in the division of infectious diseases at Cincinnati Children’s hospital in Ohio. (Petersen, 1/9)

Politico: Brain-Computer Interface Company Releases First Safety Trial Data
Synchron, a New York City company that hopes to enable paralyzed patients to use computers without the use of their hands, has just published results of its first in-human safety trial in JAMA Neurology. The study sought to answer two questions: Is inserting a brain-computer interface into a vein in the brain safe and will it allow paralyzed patients to use a computer. The company said the answer to both is yes. (Reader, 1/9)