The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Huffman, Health Secretary Becerra Tout Biden-Era Health Care Investments In Petaluma Visit 
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra visited Sonoma County Monday to publicize President Joe Biden’s efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs, as well as to underscore the administration’s support for the Affordable Care Act and the nation’s vast network of federally-funded health centers. (Espinoza, 8/13)

Politico: Biden Admin To Spend Billions To Blunt Spike In Medicare Drug Premiums 
One of President Joe Biden’s signature domestic achievements is set to cause a significant spike in Medicare premiums for millions of Americans just ahead of the November election. Now, his administration is preparing to dole out billions of dollars to private insurance companies to blunt the impact of the increase. The jump in premiums is a consequence of efforts to reduce what older Americans pay for prescription drugs, part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Insurance companies are on the hook for what patients used to pay and are raising drug plan premiums to make up the difference. (King and Lim, 8/13)

Axios: What To Watch When Medicare Releases First Negotiated Drug Prices
The confidential nature of the Biden administration's drug price negotiations has made the process and outcome of the long-sought Democratic policy goal something of a mystery. The administration is expected to announce the results of those negotiations this week, and there's plenty of speculation about the actual savings that will be realized starting in 2026 — and how aggressive the Biden administration got on pharma in an election year. (Goldman, 8/14)

Stat: Acelyrin Layoffs Announced After Anti-Inflammatory Trial Succeeds
Acelyrin, a California biotech focused on immunology and inflammatory disease, announced Tuesday that its experimental drug for a common skin disorder succeeded in a late-stage clinical trial. That’s the kind of news that’s usually accompanied by plans to apply for regulatory approval to market a new therapy. But the results didn’t show a clear edge over competing products on the market or in development. And Acelyrin said it is halting further investment in the program amid a broader pivot in the company’s priorities that includes sizable layoffs. (Wosen, 8/13)

Los Angeles Times: As Ozempic Demand Climbs, Patients Turn To Compounded Versions
As a game-changing new class of injectable diabetes and obesity drugs surges in popularity, widespread shortages and steep prices for brand-name GLP-1 drugs — which also include Mounjaro and Zepbound — have persisted, pushing droves of weight-loss hopefuls into a booming, less regulated secondary market for copies that are more affordable and readily available online. (Chang, 8/14)

Becker's Hospital Review: The GLP-1 Questions Facing Health Systems
There's no shortage of headlines and hypotheticals about the blockbuster drug class of GLP-1s. Stephen Klasko, MD, argues we're asking the wrong questions about GLP-1s. For health system leaders, the real work comes down to focusing on the right things. This was the premise for an Aug. 1 webinar hosted by Becker's Healthcare, "GLP-1s: The questions health systems should be asking." Dr. Klasko joined Becker's Molly Gamble to discuss the most substantial and meaningful issues facing health systems when it comes to drugs like Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy and Trulicity. (Gamble, 8/14)

Becker's Hospital Review: 4 Ways 4 Health Systems Combat Burnout
Although burnout is down among healthcare professionals, its persistence still garners attention and solutions from systems. Physician burnout fell from 53% in 2022 to 48.2% in 2023, according to a July 2024 report by the American Medical Association. Emergency medicine physicians saw the highest rates of any specialty, at 56.5% in 2023 and 62% in 2022. (Kuchno, 8/13)

KVPR: After Health Care Attacks, Tech Giants Will Help Small Hospitals With Cyber Defenses
More devices than ever inside hospitals require an internet connection, everything from MRI machines and health records to heart rate monitors. The latest and best equipment can speed up and improve patient care, but connection comes with risk. “If you can’t afford to protect it, you can’t afford to connect it,” said Beau Woods, a cybersecurity expert and founder of Stratigos Security. (Bolton, Montana Public Radio, 8/14)

Stat: Grail Will Cut Workforce 30% To Focus On Blood-Based Cancer Detection Test
Cancer detection firm Grail announced sizable workforce cuts on Tuesday in a bid to save cash and concentrate resources on developing a blood-based test to spot early signs of dozens of cancers. The cuts will affect 30% of the Bay Area biotech’s current and planned hires. (Wosen, 8/13)

Fox News: Biden Speaks About New Funding For Cancer Research
President Joe Biden, alongside first lady Jill Biden, delivered remarks Tuesday in New Orleans addressing his revamped "Cancer Moonshot" program, which seeks to cut the cancer death rate in the U.S. by about half over the next 25 years. During the president's remarks, which took place at Tulane University, he focused on the need to break down research "silos" and improve information sharing among the cancer research community. (Schemmel, 8/13)

CNN: With ‘Cancer Moonshot’ Announcement, Biden Turns To Causes Most Important To Him In Final Months In Office 
President Joe Biden’s first public event planned since his exit from the 2024 race last month marked a cause close to home: Announcing a major financial award from the cancer-curing policy arm he created in the wake of his son Beau Biden’s death. (Tausche, 8/13)

Bloomberg: Store-Brand Mucinex Maker Amneal To Move Away From Using Carcinogen Benzene
The maker of store-brand Mucinex sold by CVS, Walmart and others is reformulating its products to move away from an ingredient that is made with a cancer-causing chemical. Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc. plans to submit testing data on its new formulation to the US Food and Drug Administration by the end of the year, the company said in a statement. The company expects to bring the products to market before August 2025. (Edney, 8/13)

Los Angeles Times: Human Rights Watch Slams L.A. And State For Criminalizing Homelessness
Human Rights Watch issued a voluminous report Wednesday castigating local officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom for criminalizing homelessness and failing to observe “an internationally protected human right” to “adequate housing.” The organization, which reports on human rights abuses in some of the most violent places on earth, said the U.S. as a whole, and particularly the City of Los Angeles, have treated “housing primarily as a commodity” while “their primary response on the ground has been criminalization of those without it.” (Smith, 8/14)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Might Expand Its Safe Sleeping Sites. Other Cities Are Taking Note. 
As growing homelessness strains shelter systems around the country, a number of cities are considering their own designated camping areas. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan’s tour of O Lot, San Diego’s second safe sleeping site, followed visits from officials in Los Angeles, Sacramento and Phoenix, according to Mayor Todd Gloria. (Nelson, 8/13)

Sacramento Bee: 3 Homeless People Who Were Evicted By Sacramento Are Paid
Over four years after Sacramento County cleared a large tight-knit south Sacramento encampment, it wrote $18,500 in checks to three of the homeless people it evicted. The county wrote the checks to settle a May 2019 federal lawsuit after the Sheriff’s deputies cleared the camp at a vacant lot owned by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, near the intersection of Stockton Boulevard and Fruitridge Road. (Clift, 8/13)

CBS News: Assembly Committee Discusses Fentanyl Overdose Crisis Among California's Youth
The California State Assembly Select Committee on Fentanyl, Opioid Addiction and Overdose Prevention on Monday during an informational hearing discussed the urgency of combatting the rise in overdose deaths among youth in recent years primarily due to ingesting fentanyl. Between 2019 and 2021, drug overdoses became the third most common cause of death for U.S. children and teens, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (8/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area’s Unrelenting COVID Wave Runs Into The New School Year
As the new school year approaches, the Bay Area remains stuck in an unrelenting wave of COVID-19, with no relief in sight. However, there are practical steps that families can take to ease the transition. California remains among nearly two dozen states where coronavirus levels in wastewater remain “very high,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is mirrored in the state’s test positivity rate, which climbed to 14.3% last Friday from 4.1% at the start of June, based on the latest California Department of Public Health data. (Vaziri, 8/13)

CNN: Common Respiratory Virus That Dwindled During The Pandemic Is On The Rise, CDC Warns, With Higher Risk For Certain Groups
A seasonal respiratory virus named parvovirus B19 – sometimes also called fifth disease – is increasing in activity, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday. Parvovirus B19 is a common virus spread by respiratory droplets. (Dillinger, 8/13)

CIDRAP: Federal Testing On More Retail Dairy Products Finds No Live H5N1 Virus 
A second round of testing of retail dairy products, which includes more products such as cheese and butter and from a broader geographic area, found no live H5N1 avian flu virus in any of the samples, federal officials said today. The testing included 167 samples from 27 states. (Schnirring, 8/13)

Bloomberg: Inactive Bird Flu Virus Found In 17% Of US Dairy Foods In Study
One-in-six dairy products in US retail stores contained signs of inactive bird flu virus this summer, regulators said, slightly lower than the numbers seen in a different survey when the pathogen was first found in the nation’s dairy herds. None of the 167 samples, which included milk, ice cream, hard cheese, butter, cream cheese and aged raw milk cheese, contained viable H5N1 bird flu virus, the US Food and Drug Administration said. The results show pasteurized dairy remains safe to consume. (Vahanvaty, 8/13)

Reuters: US To Expand Bird-Flu Testing Of Beef In Slaughterhouses
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday it will expand bird-flu testing of beef entering the food supply as part of its response to the ongoing outbreak among dairy cattle, adding that U.S. beef and dairy products remain safe to consume. USDA officials, in a call with reporters along with staff from other U.S. health agencies, said the tests will begin in mid-September and urged livestock workers to remain vigilant. (Douglas, 8/13)

BBC: Mpox In Africa: New Strain Declared A Continental Public Health Emergency
Mpox, the high infectious disease that used to be called monkeypox, has been declared a public health emergency in Africa by the continent’s top health body. Scientists from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) say they are alarmed by the speed at which a new strain of mpox has been spreading. Since the beginning of the year, more than 13,700 cases and 450 deaths have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The virus, which can cause lesions across the whole body, has spread to other African countries, including Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR), Kenya and Rwanda. (Jolaoso, 8/13)

KQED: California Farmworkers Call For More Employers To Comply With Heat-Illness Prevention
California farmworkers who say they’ve faced dangerously hot worksites spoke Monday in support of a bill that seeks to protect them from extreme heat. The proposed legislation, SB 1299, would make it easier for agricultural laborers to win workers’ compensation claims for heat-related illnesses or deaths. Opponents of the bill, which faces a legislative deadline this week, said it could lead to unfair costs for employers even if they comply with existing worker protections. But supporters hope it will save lives by boosting compliance. (Romero, 8/14)

The New York Times: Hot Summer Threatens Efficacy Of Mail-Order Medications 
Melted capsules. Cloudy insulin. Pills that may no longer work. Doctors and pharmacists say the scorching temperatures enveloping the country could be endangering people’s health in an unexpected way: by overheating their medications. Millions of Americans now receive their prescription medications through mail-order shipments, either for convenience or because their health plans require it. But the temperatures inside the cargo areas of delivery trucks can reach 150 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, according to drivers — far exceeding the range of 68 to 77 degrees recommended by the national organization that sets standards for drug handling. (Baumgaertner, 8/13)

New Hampshire Bulletin: Study Examines Link Between PFAS Levels And Breastfeeding
A recent study of New Hampshire mothers led by a Dartmouth researcher found that mothers with higher PFAS levels were at greater risk of stopping exclusive breastfeeding early. Experts recommend infants be exclusively breastfed for the first six months because of a number of health benefits. (Sullivan, 8/13)

Capital & Main: 'I’m Not Going To Live With Dementia; Dementia Is Going To Live With Me'
In September, the Rev. Carolyn Habersham began to notice things misplaced or missing around her home. Her debit and credit cards ended up in her make up box. Then her make up kit disappeared. One day she was cooking and went to get her phone. She forgot why she needed her phone. And she forgot about the food on the stove. “It traumatized me when I walked into the kitchen and there’s a pot I completely forgot about,” said Habersham. “It shook me to my core.” (Sánchez-Tello, 8/13)

Courthouse News Service: Ninth Circuit Takes Up Decadeslong Case Over Mental Health Care In California Prisons 
The Ninth Circuit held two hearings Monday in a decades-old case focused on mental health care for California inmates, digging through both legal procedures and a baseline of psychiatric care patients need. The state appealed two separate issues in the class action of Coleman v. Newsom. It pushed back against offering patients a minimum of 20 hours of treatment per week. The state also wants the issue of telepsychiatry, and restrictions placed on it, remanded to a lower court. (Riquelmy, 8/12)

The New York Times: Are We Thinking About the Youth Mental Health Crisis All Wrong?
The mental health of adolescents and young adults has been on the decline and it’s partly because of “harmful megatrends” like financial inequality, according to a new report published on Tuesday in the scientific journal The Lancet Psychiatry. The global trends affecting younger generations also include wage theft, unregulated social media, job insecurity and climate change, all of which are creating “a bleak present and future for young people in many countries,” according to the authors. The authors argue that mental health is not merely an individual issue to be tackled after someone becomes unwell; it is also necessary to focus collectively on the environmental, social, economic, political and technological changes that contribute to mental distress. (Caron, 8/13)

KVPR: City Of Merced Brings Clinic To Help Sexual Assault Survivors
If someone has been the victim of sexual assault and is able to report the incident, they often are taken to a nearby hospital or clinic for a sexual assault forensic exam, often referred to as a rape kit. In most cities, the spot for an exam is not too far from home. But that is not the case for sexual assault survivors who live in, or around, the city of Merced. At the very least, they have to be taken 45 minutes away to Los Banos for an exam. (Arakelian and Linden, 8/13)