Modesto Bee: Deadly Candida Auris Fungus Found In Stanislaus County Patient
Health officials in Stanislaus County and the state are increasingly concerned about a deadly fungus that has spread in health care facilities and has been detected locally. The fungus, called Candida auris, is resistant to drugs used to treat fungal infections. It can spread from person-to-person in hospitals and long-term care facilities and may cause severe infections with a high death rate, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Carlson, 3/27)

Becker's Hospital Review: HHS, Kaiser, CVS, Providence Test Universal Log-In For EHRs
HHS and several health systems have been testing a way for patients to access all their electronic medical records using a single sign-in. The participating health systems include Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente, Renton, Wash.-based Providence, Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai, and Marshfield (Wis.) Clinic Health System. CVS Health and payer Cambia Health Solutions have also taken part in the research. (Bruce, 3/27)

The Desert Sun: Desert Regional To Offer New Test For Early Cancer Detection
Desert Regional Medical Center is offering a new tool that looks for signals in your blood that may indicate the presence of cancer cells. (Sasic, 3/27)

Los Angeles Times: Vaccines And Trust Are Key To Preventing COVID Deaths, Study Finds
The United States has the dubious distinction of suffering the highest COVID-19 mortality rate among the world’s high-income countries. But that national average — 372 deaths per 100,000 people as of last summer — hides the fact that pandemic outcomes differed greatly from state to state. In a comparison that controlled for demographic differences between states, Arizona’s COVID-19 mortality rate of 581 deaths per 100,000 residents was almost four times higher than Hawaii’s, where there were 147 deaths per 100,000 residents. Death rates in the hardest-hit U.S. states resembled those of countries with no healthcare infrastructure whatever. States that fared best had rates on a par with countries such as Australia, New Zealand and South Korea, which worked zealously to keep their pandemic death tolls low. (Healy, 3/27)

The Guardian: ‘Being Truthful Is Essential’: Scientist Who Stumbled Upon Wuhan Covid Data Speaks Out
One of the most compelling clues to the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic was uploaded without announcement to a scientific database, going unnoticed for weeks. And then, just as suddenly, it vanished from public view. The genetic data, from swabs taken at the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, China, in the weeks after Covid-19 first emerged, were available online just long enough for a Parisian scientist to stumble upon them while working from her couch on a Saturday afternoon earlier this month. “I have a bad work-life balance,” says Florence Débarre, an evolutionary biologist whose accidental discovery of the files led to confirmation for the first time that animals susceptible to the coronavirus were present at the Wuhan market. (Safi and Block, 3/27)

Houston Chronicle: UTHealth Study: COVID-19 Virus Can Change The Structure Of Cells
The virus that causes COVID-19 can alter the genomic structure of cells, which may explain the immunological symptoms that someone experiences from an infection, according to a new study from researchers at UTHealth Houston. Researchers also believe the changes to the genomic structure of cells could play a role in long COVID, which remains a mystery three years into the pandemic. (MacDonald, 3/27)

Capitol Weekly: What Will It Take To Get The Mentally Ill Homeless Off The Streets? 
Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom released a proposal for a $3 billion bond measure aimed at the 2024 ballot, to fund housing for people with severe mental illness. At the same time, Newsom asked the legislature to revise 2004’s Proposition 63 – which enacted a 1% tax on individuals with earnings of $1 million or more, used to help people with mental illness. These latest moves follow Newsom’s other recent efforts to engage on the issue of homelessness, something his predecessors in the Horseshoe have largely avoided. (3/27)

Sacramento Bee: A Sacramento Nonprofit Is Closing. Over 560 Sacramentans Could Be Homeless
A Sacramento housing nonprofit is closing, and as a result more than 560 formerly homeless Sacramentans could again return to the streets. Sacramento Self-Help Housing’s board of directors last week voted to close the organization, in part triggered by the county’s decision not to renew over $5 million in contracts to house the homeless, Board Chairman Ethan Evans said. (Clift, 3/27)

WUSF Public Media: Research Shows High-Rent Burden Negatively Impacts Mental Health
Residents who spend more than 30 percent of their paycheck on rent are shown to experience higher rates of anxiety and depression, according to a study published by the National Library of Medicine. Isabelle Schroeder Le Bourlegat has moved four times in four years. She started therapy while living at her last apartment, a roughly 300-square-foot studio with no windows and bare amenities. (Paul, 3/27)

Bay Area News Group: California Flood Victims, Local Officials Plead With Gov. Newsom For Help As FEMA Aid Remains Elusive
Two weeks after a devastating flood ravaged this small Monterey County town, local elected officials and small business owners are banding together to put pressure on Gov. Gavin Newsom to call on President Joe Biden to open up FEMA aid for families and businesses impacted by the disaster. (Toledo, 3/27)

Orange County Register: Camp Pendleton Is Latest Agency To Find PFAS Chemical In Drinking Water 
Camp Pendleton leaders on Monday sent a public notice to thousands of service members and civilians who live and work on the base’s north end alerting them that recent testing revealed their drinking water contained a higher-than-desired level of PFAS, a potentially carcinogenic chemical that has been found in much of Southern California’s groundwater supply. PFAS, or per- and polyfluorinated substances, can be found in cleaning products, water-resistant fabrics, grease-resistant paper and non-stick cookware, as well as in products such as shampoo, dental floss and nail polish. The state only set requirements to test for the chemicals in the last few years and has lowered the threshold for when their detection needs to be reported to the public by water agencies. (Ritchie, 3/27)

San Diego Union-Tribune: To Aid Dementia Care, Nonprofit Conjures Baseball History 
To assist in the process of immersive reminiscence therapy for people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, the adult day care center is designed to look like small town San Diego of yesteryear. In one corner stands a diner serving as the facility’s cafeteria; in another, participants can go out to the movie theater. (Mapp, 3/28)

Bay Area Reporter: LGBTQ Agenda: Half Of Trans Youth May Lose Access To Affirming Care, HRC Says 
Just over half of trans American youth ages 13-17 have lost or could soon face barriers to gender-affirming care, according to a report from the national Human Rights Campaign. The reason is an "unprecedented legislative assault on the trans community," according to an HRC news release, which has led to seven states banning gender-affirming care for young people. An additional three states have passed legislation that is currently awaiting action by governors. (Ferrannini, 3/28)

The Hill: Senate GOP: Gun Reform Legislation Unlikely After Nashville School Shooting
Senate Republicans on Monday cast doubt on the possibility of legislative action on firearms in response to the shooting at a school in Nashville, Tenn., earlier in the day. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters that he does not believe the Senate can go any further on firearm-related bills or on expanding background checks than the chamber did last year when it passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act following the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The legislation was the most consequential gun safety package signed into law in three decades and became law with bipartisan support, with Cornyn as the lead GOP negotiator for the legislation. (Weaver, 3/27)

The New York Times: Biden Calls On Congress To Pass An Assault Weapons Ban. That Is Unlikely
President Biden has repeatedly called for such a ban in recent public speeches and visits, including during a recent visit to Monterey Park, Calif., where a gunman killed 11 people at a dance studio in January. His remarks on Monday once again highlighted not only the scourge of mass shootings in America, but also the limits of his power to address them. Even with majorities in both houses of Congress during Mr. Biden’s first two years in office, Democrats were unable to pass a ban, and any effort now would be all but certain to die in the Republican-controlled House. That has left Mr. Biden with few options but the bully pulpit. (Rogers, 3/27)

The New York Times: Shooter Who Killed 6 At Nashville School Was A Former Student, Police Say
In the latest episode of gun violence that has devastated American families and communities, the assailant opened fire just after 10 a.m. inside the Covenant School, in the affluent Green Hills neighborhood, where children in preschool through sixth grade had just begun their final full week of classes before Easter break. The shooter, who the police identified as Audrey E. Hale, had entered the building by firing through a side door, armed with two assault-style weapons and a handgun, according to John Drake, the chief of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, and went to the second floor, firing shots before being killed by the police. Chief Drake said that the assailant was “at one point a student” at the school. (Cochrane, Shpigel, Levenson and Jimenez, 3/27)

NBC News: Police Chief Tells NBC News A Sense Of ‘Resentment’ May Have Fueled Nashville Shooter’s Attack At Former School
A sense of “resentment” might have played a role in a 28-year-old’s deadly attack on the private Christian school they once attended, Nashville police said Monday. The shooter, Nashville resident Audrey Hale, had no previous criminal record before opening fire at The Covenant School, killing three children and three adults, authorities said. “There’s some belief that there was some resentment for having to go to that school,” Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake told Lester Holt of NBC News. ... Officials “feel that she identifies as trans, but we’re still in the initial investigation into all of that and if it actually played a role into this incident,” Drake said. (Li, Ortiz and Lenthang, 3/27)

The Washington Post: What Does An AR-15 Do To A Human Body? A Visual Examination Of The Deadly Damage. 
The Washington Post examined autopsy and postmortem reports from nearly a hundred victims of past mass shootings that involved an AR-15 style rifle. (Kirkpatrick, Mirza and Canales, 3/27)

The Washington Post: How The AR-15 Became A Powerful Political, Cultural Symbol In America
The AR-15 wasn’t supposed to be a bestseller. The rugged, powerful weapon was originally designed as a soldiers’ rifle in the late 1950s. “An outstanding weapon with phenomenal lethality,” an internal Pentagon report raved. It soon became standard issue for U.S. troops in the Vietnam War, where the weapon earned a new name: the M16. (Frankel, Boburg, Dawsey, Parker and Horton, 3/27)

The Washington Post: High-Capacity-Magazine Bans Could Save Lives. Will They Hold Up In Court?
In the aftermath of the Dayton massacre and another hours earlier in El Paso, all the familiar debates ignited over guns, assault weapons bans, mental health interventions and red-flag laws. Yet much of the public discussion overlooked a key factor in Dayton, something that connected the massacre to the carnage unleashed by mass shooters in Orlando, Las Vegas, Buffalo and other communities: the ammunition magazines that can enable gunmen to fire a hail of bullets without needing to stop and reload. (Berman and Frankel, 3/27)

NBC News: Losing Weight Is Good For The Heart, Even If You Regain Some Of It
Losing weight — even if some pounds are gained back — may help your heart over the long term, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. The findings may be welcome news to those who have found it difficult to keep weight off and feared the risks thought to be associated with gaining weight back. (Carroll, 3/28)

The Washington Post: Early Birds With Sleep Apnea Use CPAP Machines Longer, Study Shows 
Many people with sleep apnea struggle to keep wearing their CPAP machines all night because they find the treatment so uncomfortable. Now new research shows that your chronotype — whether you are a morning lark, night owl or somewhere in between — can influence your reaction to the breathing devices. (Bever, 3/27)