The New York Times: Instagram, Facing Pressure Over Child Safety Online, Unveils Sweeping Changes
Instagram unveiled a sweeping overhaul on Tuesday to beef up privacy and limit social media’s intrusive effects for users who are younger than 18, as the app faces intensifying pressure over children’s safety online. Instagram said the accounts of users younger than 18 will be made private by default in the coming weeks, which means that only followers approved by an account-holder may see their posts. The app, owned by Meta, also plans to stop notifications to minors from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. to promote sleep. In addition, Instagram will introduce more supervision tools for adults, including a feature that allows parents to see the accounts that their teenager recently messaged. (Isaac and Singer, 9/17)

The New York Times: Instagram Teen Accounts: What To Know About New Privacy Settings 
Besides making all new and existing accounts private by default, Instagram said it would now stop teenagers from receiving Instagram notifications between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. The app will also limit sensitive content for minors, such as nudity or discussions about self-harm, and prevent direct messages from people they don’t follow — existing restrictions that the company had previously announced. (Singer, 9/17)

Los Angeles Times: California’s Dental Care System Is Still Failing Kids With Medi-Cal
Eight years after an independent state watchdog agency harshly criticized the state for failing to provide dental care to low-income children, California has failed to remedy the problem or fully implement the commission’s recommendations, according to a follow-up review published last week. The Little Hoover Commission found that less than half of the children in Medi-Cal received an annual dental visit in 2022 — 3% higher than when the initial report was released in 2016, which implored the state to do more to ensure that children have access to needed care. (Gold, 9/17)

Axios: Hill GOP Sets Sights On Scrapping Drug Price Talks
The Trump campaign's populist rhetoric on drug pricing is colliding with more traditional GOP concerns in Congress about heavy-handed government squelching pharmaceutical innovation. The tension surfaced this week when multiple high-ranking Republicans told Axios they want to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act's Medicare drug price negotiations next year if they prevail in the elections. (Sullivan, 9/17)

Capitol Weekly: CA120: Lawmakers Skeptical, But Voters Support Newsom's Aggressive Action On Homelessness
During our recent polling on the presidential contest we also included some questions regarding the state’s homelessness crisis, who voters blame for where we are, what policy approaches they support, and how they gauge the recent more aggressive actions by the U.S. Supreme Court and Governor Gavin Newsom. (Mitchell 9/16)

Bay Area News Group: Berkeley Shifts Approach To Persistent Homeless Encampments
Long perceived as a haven for the Bay Area’s downtrodden, Berkeley is now caught in a battle over its identity as officials attempt to balance the needs of its unhoused residents with those of a struggling business community. Tents, tarps, wood pallets, RVs and other materials form makeshift shelters along blocks of West Berkeley, most notably its Harrison Street corridor and the area of Second and Cedar streets. (Lopez, 9/16)

Los Angeles Times: Pioneering Homeless Nonprofit Leaves String Of Failed Projects
One year ago, the Santa Monica-based homeless housing and services nonprofit Step Up On Second Street seemed like it was about to become a national player. The politically connected organization had helped come up with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “Homekey” homeless housing grant program and then, along with its for-profit real estate partner, had become a major recipient of Homekey funds. (Scott, 9/17)

Solving Sacramento: Sacramento’s Annual Solidarity Summit On Homelessness Highlights Needs, Resources For The Unhoused
Rev. Mahsea Evans opened Sacramento’s third annual Solidarity Summit on Homelessness with a welcoming speech and a secular prayer on Sept. 7 at the First United Methodist Church in Midtown. The summit highlighted the ties between affordable health care and rental housing, harm reduction versus punishment and the needs of the Black unhoused community. Niki Jones, executive director of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness, led the land acknowledgments honoring the Miwok peoples who are indigenous to the capital region. (Sandronsky, 9/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: Overdose Deaths In SF Tick Up In August But Remain Below 2023 Levels
Forty-five people in San Francisco died from accidental drug overdoses in August, according to preliminary figures released Monday by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner — a small uptick after a promising but brief decline earlier in the summer. The city had previously reported two consecutive months of declines in overdose deaths, in June and again in July, when they fell to their lowest point in nearly two years. Health officials at the time expressed cautious optimism about the trend. (Ho, 9/16)

The Guardian: Fentanyl Was Killing Their Friends – And No One Was Talking About It. So These Teens Stepped Up 
Eli Myers was only 15 when his close friend and classmate Chloe Kreutzer died from taking a counterfeit Percocet pill filled with fentanyl. Initially, he said, the response from officials at his Los Angeles high school was stony silence. Even years later, the information he and his classmates got about the risks of fentanyl poisoning amounted to little more than a droning lecture in health class, he said. The same thing happened at Kyle Santoro’s northern California high school, when a student was found overdosing in a bathroom and was revived by the principal with Narcan. (McCormick, 9/16)

Becker's Hospital Review: FDA To Shutter Fentanyl Access Program For Cancer Patients
The FDA is shutting down a pain management program that has helped supply fentanyl to cancer patients suffering from severe pain, according to a notice from the agency. In the notice under its Transmucosal Immediate-Release Fentanyl Medicines program, the agency stated that all TIRF medications would be discontinued starting Sept. 30. (Murphy, 9/16)

The Washington Post: Opioid-Maker Purdue Is Bankrupt, But Its Global Counterparts Make Millions
At home in the United States, Purdue Pharma, the drugmaker accused of fueling the opioid crisis through its aggressive marketing of highly addictive pain pills, is bankrupt and facing thousands of lawsuits. Abroad, its global counterparts are selling opioids — and still profiting. Among the beneficiaries: some members of the Sackler family, who own Purdue and also sit atop a group of international companies known as Mundipharma, records show. The family faces a wave of litigation over Purdue’s alleged role in an opioid crisis that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and ruined countless more across the United States. (Davies, Boytchev and Ovalle, 9/17)

Vallejo Times Herald: Kaiser Permanente Northern California Recognized For Health Plans
Kaiser Permanente Northern California’s health plans have been recognized as the highest rated in California — and among the highest in the nation — for providing expert, coordinated care, and exceptional service. (Gase, 9/17)

Los Angeles Times: City Of Hope Receives Historic $150 Million Gift To Fuel Pancreatic Cancer Research
For entrepreneur and philanthropist Emmet Stephenson Jr., seeing his wife and friends die from pancreatic cancer served as a wake-up call. His wife, Toni, a patient at Duarte, Calif.-based cancer center City of Hope, died at 74 after a four-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Now Emmet and his daughter Tessa are donating a historic $150 million to the City of Hope to help advance research into finding a cure for what’s known as the “silent killer.” (Wong, 9/17)

CNN: Nearly 40 Million People Could Die From Antibiotic-Resistant Superbug Infections By 2050, New Study Estimates
The number of lives lost around the world due to infections that are resistant to the medications intended to treat them could increase nearly 70% by 2050, a new study projects, further showing the burden of the ongoing superbug crisis. (Howard, 9/16)

Becker's Hospital Review: UC San Diego Health Tests Apple Vision Pro In The OR
UC San Diego Health is looking at using Apple's new Vision Pro headset in operating rooms. The health system is conducting a study looking at how apps within the Apple Vision Pro, which utilizes spatial computing, can enhance the surgical experience, according to a Sept. 16 news release. In the study, surgeons will utilize the Apple Vision Pro to display information, such as medical imaging, vital signs and live surgical feeds, in real-time. (Diaz, 9/16)

CBS News: FDA Approves Apple Watch Sleep Apnea Detection Tool
A week after Apple held an event revealing its new iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPod models, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved an Apple Watch function that can detect sleep apnea in device-wearers. The sleep apnea detection tool comes four days before the launch date of Apple's new Series 10 watch, which will be released on September 20. Those with existing Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 models can use the sleep apnea feature starting today, however, with download of Apple's newly released watchOS 11 software. (Cerullo, 9/16)

KVPR: This Preventive Drug Could Be A 'Game Changer' In Ending The HIV Epidemic
Can we eliminate the HIV epidemic? It’s a question that dates back to the start of the epidemic in the 1980s. With 1.3 million new infections a year, the epidemic continues … and the world is not on track to meet the ambitious U.N. goal of ending HIV/AIDS by 2030. But now there’s rising optimism among leading infectious disease experts after the latest groundbreaking clinical trial results for a drug called lenacapavir which have shown it to be capable of virtually eliminating new HIV infections through sex. (Cox and Barros Guinle, 9/17)

LAist: AIDS Healthcare Foundation Settles With Tenants Over Conditions In Skid Row Apartment Building
A major player in California politics has reached a settlement with tenants who sued over conditions in a Skid Row apartment building. That agreement was announced just as opening statements were set to begin Monday. Renters at the Madison Hotel first filed suit against the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) in March 2020, alleging the landlord had systematically failed to provide them with safe and habitable housing. They said the building had routine pest infestations, severe safety hazards, water and power outages, a lack of on-site security and non-operational elevators. (Wagner, 9/16)

CalMatters: California’s Maternity Care Crisis Is Worsening As Gov. Newsom Decides On Bills To Slow Closures 
Since CalMatters reported a year ago on the spread of maternity care deserts, Californians have continued to lose access to labor and delivery services. This year, four hospitals have shut down their maternity wards, with another four slated to close by November. (Hwang, Yee, and Ibarra, 9/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: Senate Democrats Tee Up Second IVF Showdown After Trump Comments
As Donald Trump and Kamala Harris both campaign on protecting access to in vitro fertilization, the Senate will once again vote on legislation that would enshrine the right to fertility care. The Senate will vote Tuesday to end debate about the Right to IVF Act, a bill to codify protections for IVF and other fertility treatments. Republicans blocked a similar motion in June. (Stein, 9/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID XEC Variant May Dominate US Winter Surge, Experts Say
A new coronavirus variant is rapidly gaining in Europe and could soon spread across the United States. Following a sustained summer swell of COVID-19, driven by the omicron KP family, health officials anticipate that a more contagious offshoot, named XEC, may become the predominant strain stateside during the expected winter surge. (Vaziri, 9/16)

Reuters: Sanofi, AstraZeneca Win US Approval For RSV Therapy Manufacturing Line 
Sanofi and partner AstraZeneca have received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a manufacturing line for their preventive respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) therapy, the French drugmaker said on Monday. The expanded capacity will help the drugmakers meet the demand for Beyfortus ahead of the RSV season. The therapy was in tight supply last year. (9/16)

CNN: Pregnancy Changes The Brain More Than Previously Known, Study Finds
Researchers have created one of the first comprehensive maps of how the brain changes throughout pregnancy, substantially improving upon understanding of an understudied field. Certain brain regions may shrink in size during pregnancy yet improve in connectivity, “with only a few regions of the brain remaining untouched by the transition to motherhood,” according to the study published Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience. (Rogers, 9/16)

The Washington Post: Scientists Just Figured Out How Many Chemicals Enter Our Bodies From Food Packaging 
Shrink-wrap sealed around a piece of raw meat. Takeout containers filled with restaurant leftovers. Plastic bottles filled with soft drinks. These are just a few types of food packaging that surround humans every day. And a new study released Monday shows the chemical toll of all that wrapping — and how it might affect the human body. (Osaka, 9/16)

CNN: Microplastics Found In Nose Tissue At Base Of Brain, Study Says
Tiny plastic shards and fibers were found in the nose tissue of human cadavers, according to a small new study. The threads and microplastic pieces were discovered in the olfactory bulb, the part of the nose responsible for detecting odors that sits at the base of the brain. (LaMotte, 9/16)

Axios: HHS Updates Rules For Probing Research Misconduct
The Biden administration has finished the first update in 20 years of rules for investigating fraud in federally funded research but backed away from some aggressive changes after getting blowback from universities. Research misconduct hit an all-time high last year, with the number of journal article retractions hitting more than 10,000, Nature reported. (Goldman, 9/16)