San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Vaccine Makers Urged To Make New XBB Formulas For Fall Boosters
In preparation for the upcoming fall booster campaign, federal officials recommend that COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers develop new formulas for their shots that target more recent versions of the coronavirus. According to documents released on Monday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency’s staff reviewers underscored the need for updated booster shots to target one of the currently dominant XBB variants. Independent experts will convene on Thursday to recommend which strain the vaccine should address. (Vaziri, 6/12)

Sacramento Bee: COVID, Pink Eye And The Latest Subvariant In California
It’s been almost four years since the coronavirus was discovered, and new developments and questions continue to unravel across the globe. The virus is now on its 16th omicron subvariant, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Subvariants are mutations in the virus’ genetic make-up. As of June 9, XBB.1.5 is the most dominant one circulating in the country at roughly 40%, the CDC’s variant tracker estimation shows. A new variation, however, is on the rise. (Truong, 6/12)

Los Angeles Times: The Coronavirus Has Made Itself At Home In Animals. Why That Ramps Up The Risk For People
The COVID-19 pandemic is receding fast into our collective memory. But the virus that caused it lives on in our sewers, our backyards, and maybe even curled up in a sunny spot on the living room floor. (Healy, 6/12)

The Hill: Walensky To Face House COVID Panel Before Stepping Down As CDC Head 
Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will testify before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on Tuesday to discuss the decisions her agency made during the pandemic. This will be the final appearance she will make in front of the GOP-led panel before she steps down as head of the CDC at the end of this month. She is the sole witness scheduled to speak before the committee on Tuesday. (Choi, 6/12)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: 'Where Do They Want Us To Go?' San Diego's Homeless People Question Proposed Encampment Ban. 
One of the city’s most hotly debated proposals in recent memory goes before the San Diego City Council on Tuesday, but some of the people it targets say they have not heard of it. “That’s messed up,” said Rafael Smith, 61, after being told about the proposed ordinance that would prohibit him from sleeping on a 17th Street sidewalk that he has camped on for two years. (Warth and Murga, 6/12)

Voice Of San Diego: Camping Ban Could Expose Shelter Gaps For Most Vulnerable 
As the San Diego City Council considers an ordinance to ban camping and communicate that saying no to shelter is no longer an option, vulnerable people who struggle with existing shelter options are unsure what’s going to happen.  Take Jamie Slack, 36. She is paraplegic and has frequent epileptic seizures. She lives in a tent on the outskirts of downtown, where she and her boyfriend set up camp because it’s close to public restrooms, Father Joe’s Villages’ health center and other amenities. (Halverstadt, 6/12)

Voice of OC: Federal Judge: Santa Ana Might Be Violating Religious Rights Of Homeless Service Center
A federal judge won’t let Santa Ana officials dismiss a lawsuit against them by Micah’s Way, a Christian homeless nonprofit that’s suing City Hall for burdening its religious exercise when the city tried to bar the group’s activities. It comes after the U.S. Dept. of Justice waded into the case in May, filing a motion in support of the all-volunteer Christian ministry. (Pho, 6/12)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego OKs $2B Budget Focused On Homeless, Street Paving 
San Diego adopted a new $2 billion budget Monday that increases spending on homelessness efforts, lifeguards, litter removal, street paving and improving internet access in low-income areas. (Garrick, 6/12)

The Bakersfield Californian: Grand Jury Calls For Alternative Funding Source For First 5 Kern 
An alternative funding source may need to be found soon to make up for a decline in tobacco sales tax revenue paying for health-care programs serving local children and expectant mothers, according to a report released Monday by a Kern County grand jury. (Cox, 6/12)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Sonoma County Countersues Ambulance Giant AMR In Contract Breach Dispute
Sonoma County is accusing longtime ambulance provider American Medical Response of failing to meet response times and other performance metrics and refusing to pay penalties for poor performance. (Espinoza, 6/12)

Modern Healthcare: HHS, HRSA Establish Student Loan Repayment Program For Pediatric Clinicians 
Efforts to recruit and retain clinicians caring for children and adolescents, particularly in schools and underserved areas, are getting a $15 million boost from the federal government. The need for the services is growing. Over the course of the pandemic, pediatric behavioral health in particular has been a major area of concern with delays in treatment due to a lack of qualified personnel and access to specialized care. (Devereaux, 6/12)

Sacramento Bee: California Republicans Are Hammering Democrats Over Fentanyl. But Is It A Political Win? 
California Republicans push penalties for fentanyl dealers as a political issue, as Democrats want to avoid a new war on drugs. (Holden, 6/12)

The Washington Post: Fentanyl Overdoses Took A Record Toll On The Army In Recent Years 
The parents of Sgt. 1st Class Ronald Conley Jr. want to know how many days their son lay dead on his bathroom floor from fentanyl poisoning without the Army noticing. Kue Vue’s brother questions how the straight-laced sergeant turned to drugs. Spec. Ari McGuire’s parents wonder why he wasn’t immediately sent to treatment when he suffered withdrawal symptoms in a training exercise. None of the families expect they will get all the answers about how the men died from fentanyl, a lethal synthetic opioid that has hit the Army the hardest among military branches and caused a record number of fatal overdoses among soldiers in 2021, the last complete year of data available, according to new figures obtained by The Washington Post. (Kornfield, Rempfer and Rich, 6/12)

Military.Com: Troops In Navy, Marine Corps Barracks Guaranteed Right To Healthy, Safe Housing
The sea services have rolled out new policies for barracks and unaccompanied officer housing that allow incoming residents to refuse rooms considered uninhabitable based on standards set by the Navy and Marine Corps. Lt. Gen. Edward Banta, deputy commandant for Marine Corps installations and logistics, issued a service-wide message June 6 guaranteeing safe, functional, environmentally healthy barracks in good working order and giving Marines the right not only to refuse the housing but encouraging them to report issues without fear of retaliation or retribution. (Kime, 6/12)

California Healthline: Biden Admin Implores States To Slow Medicaid Cuts After More Than 1M Enrollees Dropped
Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra is asking states to make more of an effort to keep eligible Medicaid recipients enrolled. He particularly fears children losing health insurance coverage. (Recht, 6/13)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Offers States New Medicaid Redetermination Flexibilities
The Health and Human Services Department announced new flexibilities for states to use during the Medicaid redeterminations process, as Secretary Xavier Becerra expressed concern at the number of enrollees removed from the program. (Turner, 6/12)

AP: Biden Administration Urges States To Slow Down On Dropping People From Medicaid 
In some states, about half of those whose Medicaid renewal cases were decided in April or May have lost their coverage, according to data submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and obtained by The Associated Press. The primary cause is what CMS describes as “procedural reasons,” such as the failure to return forms. (Lieb, 6/12)

Politico: Compromise Struck To Preserve Obamacare’s Preventive Care Mandate 
The Texas conservatives challenging Obamacare’s preventive care mandate have reached a tentative compromise with the Justice Department that preserves free coverage for a range of services — from syphilis tests to depression screenings. The agreement, which still needs approval from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, keeps coverage intact nationwide while the case proceeds. The Biden administration, in exchange, pledged not to enforce the mandate to cover HIV prevention drugs and other preventive care services against the employers and individual workers who sued claiming that doing so violated their religious beliefs. This means that even if the Affordable Care Act rules are upheld on appeal, the government can’t penalize the challengers for refusing to cover required services. (Ollstein, 6/12)

The New York Times: Obamacare Mandate For Preventive Care Is Restored, For Now
The deal they reached leaves the provision almost fully in tact, requiring a vast majority of health plans to continue providing preventive care at no charge. The agreement includes an exemption for the small businesses and individuals challenging the provision; these entities will be allowed to use a plan that does not cover all preventive services if they can find a health insurer who offers it. (Kliff, 6/12)

CIDRAP: Study Shows Detectable Mpox DNA In Skin Lesions For More Than 3 Weeks
In a study involving 16 men who have sex with men (MSM) infected with mpox, viral DNA remained detectable in skin lesions for 17 to 31 days after symptom onset. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. All MSM included in the study had contracted mpox through sexual transmission, and their median age was 36. None were treated with antivirals throughout the course of the study. (Soucheray, 6/12)

CIDRAP: AI Can Accurately Diagnose Mpox Using Photos Of Rash, Researchers Say
Researchers in India say they used artificial intelligence (AI) to diagnose mpox using photos of skin lesions with an accuracy up to 99.5%. Their study, published last week in Medicine in Novel Technology and Devices, tested the ability of the trained deep-learning networks GoogLeNet, Places365-GoogLeNet, SqueezeNet, AlexNet, and ResNet-18 to diagnose mpox using photos of patients' skin lesions (mpox, chickenpox, and other viruses) and computer models designed to mimic human vision. Currently, mpox is diagnosed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, but the study authors noted that the results are not always accurate because the virus remains in the blood only a short time. (Van Beusekom, 6/12)

CNN: About 15% Of US Children Recently Received Mental Health Treatment, CDC Data Shows
Nearly 15% of children in the United States were recently treated for mental health disorders in 2021, according to new research from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The finding, released Tuesday by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, suggests that mental health disorders – such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or anxiety – are common among school-age children. (Howard, 6/13)

CNN: Obesity Changes The Brain, With ‘No Sign Of Reversibility,’ Expert Says
Obesity may damage the brain’s ability to recognize the sensation of fullness and be satisfied after eating fats and sugars, a new study found. Further, those brain changes may last even after people considered medically obese lose a significant amount of weight — possibly explaining why many people often regain the pounds they lose. (LaMotte, 6/12)

CNN: Small Amounts Of Alcohol May Turn Down Stress In The Brain, Benefiting The Heart, New Study Finds
Researchers say they may be able to explain how light drinking benefits the heart, and its main effect doesn’t stem from changes in the blood – as scientists once thought – but from its actions in the brain. But because alcohol also raises the risk of cancer at any amount, however, researchers say they aren’t advising people to imbibe. Instead, understanding this mechanism may point to healthier ways to tap into the same benefit, such as through exercise or meditation. (McPhillips and Goodman, 6/12)

The Hill: Americans Are Drinking As Much Alcohol Now As In Civil War Days
The average American drinks 60 percent more hard liquor now than in the mid-1990s, an unheralded surge in spirit consumption that signals changing tastes in alcohol. Americans are drinking more wine, too: 50 percent more per person since 1995. Overall, the average American consumed 2.51 gallons of ethanol, the alcohol in wine, beer and spirits, in 2021, compared to 2.15 gallons in 1995, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. If 2.5 gallons in a year sounds low, consider that the figure covers only alcohol, not water and other ingredients in an alcoholic drink. (De Vise, 6/12)