The Imprint: California May Limit Childhood Sex Abuse Survivors’ Ability To Sue
California lawmakers will vote on a bill this week making it harder to file child sexual abuse lawsuits against schools, juvenile facilities and foster care agencies that are already buckling under the weight of current and threatened legal action. Among other new restrictions, Senate Bill 577 raises the burden of proof for older plaintiffs, requires costly pre-filing consultation with legal experts, and scales back higher damages awarded in particularly egregious cases. (Tiano, 8/28)

CalMatters: California Lawmakers Fight To Save A Rural Hospital. But Can It Survive?
Last spring, Palo Verde Hospital in Blythe was on the brink of closure, after a series of financial mishaps left it bleeding cash. In May, the hospital announced that it would not accept new patients, “for the foreseeable future,” although its emergency room and clinic remained open, the Riverside Record reported. (Brennan, 9/3)

Becker's Hospital Review: Inside Sutter Health's NASA-Inspired Initiative To Tackle Supply Disruptions
In the face of ongoing supply disruptions and increasing pressures, Sutter Health has turned to a NASA-inspired approach called Tiger Teams. Tiger Teams were first implemented by the California-based health system in 2020 during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic; the small, cross-functional groups are designed for rapid response and execution. Meena Medler, chief supply chain officer at Sutter Health, spoke to Becker’s about how this initiative has helped the health system grow its supply resiliency. (Murphy, 9/2)

Becker's Hospital Review: Real-Time Drug Pricing Access Rule To Take Effect
HHS announced prescription drug reforms are set to take effect Oct. 1, designed to give patients and physicians real-time access to prescription drug costs, insurance coverage details and prior authorization requirements. The rule was issued in July as part of CMS Inpatient Prospective Payment System and Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System final rule. It will require healthcare providers to use certified health IT systems to electronically submit prior authorization requests, check on drug prices during appointments and share prescription information with pharmacies and insurers, according to a Sept. 2 news release from the agency. (Murphy, 9/2)

Los Angeles Blade: House GOP Seeks To Cut All U.S. HIV Prevention Programs In 2026
The Republican-controlled Appropriations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has released its Fiscal Year 2026 funding bill that calls for cutting funds for domestic HIV prevention, treatment, and care programs by at least $1.7 billion, which is an amount significantly greater than the AIDS budget cuts proposed by President Donald Trump. Among other things, the bill, if passed by the full Congress, would eliminate federal funding for all HIV prevention programs in the U.S. as well as eliminate the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative program that Trump persuaded Congress to pass during his first term as president. (Chibbaro Jr., 9/2)

Stat: Gilead Wants State AIDS Drug Programs To Pay Big Price Hikes For HIV Meds
Gilead Sciences, the largest maker of HIV medicines, is seeking to boost prices significantly for several treatments that are widely distributed by state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs. And the move is adding to financial uncertainty for the programs on top of concerns prompted by Trump administration funding cuts. (Silverman, 9/2)

Los Angeles Times: COVID Wave Washes Over California, Some Health Officials Urge Masking
A COVID wave is washing over California, with the state seeing continued increases in the number of newly confirmed cases and hospitalizations as some officials urged the public to take greater precautions. The extent of the recent increases has prompted some county-level health officials to recommend that residents once again consider wearing masks in indoor public settings, at least until transmission has declined. (Lin II, 9/3)

The New York Times: Trump Wants Proof That Covid Vaccines Work. It’s Easy To Find. 
In a message on social media that baffled many scientists, President Trump questioned the effectiveness of the Covid vaccines and demanded that the makers prove that they work. It is unclear what data Mr. Trump was referring to. Hundreds of reports have tracked the efficacy of the vaccines since they first debuted in 2021. The shots have saved millions of lives in the United States and elsewhere, dozens of studies have estimated. Still, in some ways, Mr. Trump’s demand for data is a welcome change from what administration officials have been saying recently about vaccines, said John Wherry, director of the Institute for Immunology and Immune Health at the University of Pennsylvania. (Mandavilli and Zimmer, 9/2)

inewsource: UCLA Study: Nonprofits Filled Economic, Health Gaps In San Ysidro
Nonprofit organizations in San Ysidro played a critical role in filling health and economic gaps during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the border community faced some of the region’s highest case and death rates, a new UC Los Angeles study found. The report from researchers at the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute said San Ysidro offers a model for crisis response and equitable development: Local nonprofits stepped in when formal systems fell short, mobilizing quickly to deliver food, vaccination awareness, cash assistance and shelter for migrant children. (Niebla, 9/2)

CIDRAP: New Antiviral Application For COVID-19 Preventive Drug Submitted To FDA
Shionogi has submitted its new drug application (NDA) to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the approval of its oral pill for COVID (ensitrelvir), the first antiviral drug for the prevention of COVID-19 following exposure to an infected person, according to a company news release today. Ensitrelvir, known as Xocova, is already approved for use in Japan. The drug is also available in Singapore and under review in Taiwan. (Soucheray, 9/2)

NBC News: Covid Infection May Be Prevented With A Common Nasal Antihistamine Spray, Trial Shows
An over-the-counter nasal spray which has been used for years as a safe and effective treatment for seasonal allergies could potentially prevent Covid infections, according to clinical trial results released Tuesday. The antihistamine azelastine works as an antiviral against a range of respiratory infections, including influenza, RSV and the virus that causes Covid, a growing number of studies have shown. (Cox, 9/2)

MedPage Today: High-Dose Flu Shot May Better Protect Against Heart Inflammation
The high-dose inactivated influenza vaccine may deliver better protection against myocarditis and pericarditis compared with the standard-dose shot in older adults, according to a secondary analysis of the randomized DANFLU-2 trial. (Rudd, 9/2)

Bay Area News Group: Fremont Man Sentenced For Running An Underground Drug 'Store'
A Fremont man was sentenced to two years behind bars for transforming his residence into a secret store with a variety of illegal stimulants, sedatives, painkillers, and hallucinogens on display, court records show. (Gartrell, 9/3)

San Diego Union-Tribune: A Safe Parking Lot For Homeless Schoolchildren Appears To Be Back On Track 
A plan to create a safe parking lot where homeless schoolchildren can sleep in their vehicles appears to be back on the table as the number of families lacking stable housing continues to rise. (Nelson, 9/2)

Los Angeles Times: Domestic Abuse Victim Uses Hand Signal For Help At California 7-Eleven
A simple yet powerful hand signal popularized on TikTok helped a woman escape a domestic violence incident at a 7-Eleven in Alhambra, police said. A bystander called 911 after witnessing a woman in the store give the “signal for help” behind her back, a gesture that involves tucking your thumb into your palm and trapping it with four fingers on top. ... The signal for help was created in April 2020 by the Canadian Women’s Foundation to help combat the spike in domestic violence during the isolation of the pandemic. (Harter, 9/2)

Military.com: Pentagon To Begin Screening For 'Magic Mushroom' Use
U.S. service members may be drug-tested for suspected use of “magic mushrooms” under a new policy announced by the Pentagon last week. A memo issued Aug. 18 by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness said that, starting Oct. 1, troops may be screened for psilocin, the hallucinogen in psilocybin mushrooms. (Kime, 9/2)

CNN: Pentagon Facing Its Own Covid Vaccine Controversy 
Frustration is boiling over among some members of the military community who are unhappy with the Pentagon’s process for reinstating service members discharged under the Biden administration for failing to be vaccinated for Covid-19, saying the process is too slow and the criteria for who can rejoin too narrow. Exasperation over the process has been on full display in heated public exchanges on social media with Trump administration officials in the Pentagon. (Britzky, 9/2)

The Washington Examiner: Trump Says 'Distinguished' Ex-Military Teachers Could Carry Guns
President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that teachers who previously served as “distinguished” military service members should be able to carry weapons at schools in the event of a shooting. The president’s statement comes less than a week after the deadly mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and its affiliated school in Minneapolis. "We have great teachers that love our children," Trump said in the Oval Office during a Space Force-related announcement. "If you took a small percentage of those teachers that were in the military, that were distinguished in the military, that were in the National Guard ... and you let them carry, that's something that a lot of people like. I sort of liked it." (Zimmermann, 9/2)

Axios: Trump Admin Agrees To Restore Public Health Webpages
The Trump administration agreed to restore scores of health agency webpages and datasets that went dark to comply with executive orders on diversity, equity and inclusion and gender identity, under a court settlement announced on Tuesday. (Reed, 9/2)

The Hill: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Defends CDC Changes, Cites Measles Success
The largest single measles outbreak the country has endured in more than 30 years is being hailed as a success story by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In a Wall Street Journal opinion article published Tuesday defending his overhaul of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Kennedy said the administration’s response to the outbreak that began in West Texas is a testament to what a “focused CDC can achieve.” (Weixel, 9/2)

The Washington Post: Paul Offit, Prominent RFK Jr. Critic, Blocked From FDA Vaccine Committee
Paul Offit, a pediatrician who has sparred with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over childhood vaccination, has been blocked from participating in a vaccine advisory committee for the Food and Drug Administration. An HHS spokesman said Offit was among a dozen members of eight FDA advisory panels who were notified they can no longer participate because their terms as special government employees expired. (Roubein, 9/2)

The Hill: Rand Paul: Gay CDC Director’s ‘Lifestyle’ Disqualified Him From Government
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday said a gay leader at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who resigned last week in protest of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had “no business being in government” due to the “lifestyle” he led. Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC’s Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, was among the four CDC leaders who resigned last week, saying in their resignations that the changes under Kennedy were preventing them from carrying out the agency’s public health mission. (Choi, 9/2)

The Hill: More Than 1,000 HHS Staff Call On RFK Jr. To Resign
More than 1,000 current and former employees of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are demanding that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. resign, following his ousting of the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other actions they say are “compromising the health of the nation.” (Weixel, 9/3)

Stat: NIH Grant Cuts: Federal Judge Offers Time For Settlement Talks
A widely watched case against the National Institutes of Health over the termination of hundreds of grants was poised to enter a new phase of arguments Tuesday, centered on what to do with removed notices of funding opportunities. Instead, the plaintiffs indicated that they may be able to settle the case by the end of this week. (Oza, 9/2)

Stat: House Bill On HHS Budget: NIH Funding Maintained, Deep CDC Cuts 
House appropriators advanced legislation on Tuesday that is a mixed bag for researchers. While the Republican bill rejects President Trump’s proposal to slash the National Institutes of Health budget, it proposes deep cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies. (Wilkerson and Wosen, 9/2)

Politico: Evangelical Christians Are Lobbying Congress To Restore Foreign Aid Trump Cut 
Evangelical Christians who made an alliance with President Donald Trump to end abortion rights are now seeing how much it’s cost one of their other priorities: caring for the poor. Four in five evangelicals voted for Trump in November. But Trump’s decision to pull back hundreds of millions in foreign aid and shutter the agency that dispensed it have proven costly to evangelicals who run some of the many nonprofits that have long partnered with the U.S. government to provide help to countries that don’t have enough food. (Paun, 9/2)

The New York Times: President Trump Is Alive. The Internet Was Convinced Otherwise.
President Trump had nothing on his public schedule for three days last week. He is often sporting a large, purple bruise on his right hand, which he sometimes slathers with makeup. His ankles are swollen. He is the oldest person to be elected president. For a swath of hyper-online Americans over the long Labor Day weekend, all of this was explanation enough: The president was either dead or about to be. (Rogers, 9/2)