Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Delays New Criteria For Gravely Disabled 
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to delay the implementation of Senate Bill 43, the landmark legislation that expands the criteria by which people can be detained against their wills by police, crisis teams and mental health providers. (Curwen, 12/19)

The Bakersfield Californian: Kern Supervisors Delay Local Work Under State Law On Involuntary Holds Of Mental Health, Substance Abuse Patients 
Convinced local hospitals and government agencies are unprepared to start caring full-time for people with mental health and substance-abuse problems, Kern's Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to defer implementation of a state law requiring the county to take on such responsibilities as soon as Jan. 1. (Cox, 12/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: SF Judge Upholds State Privacy Law Used Against Antiabortion Activists
A San Francisco judge has upheld California’s law against recording private conversations without the speakers’ consent, rejecting a challenge by two antiabortion activists who posed as fetal researchers to enter national meetings of abortion providers and secretly record their discussions. (Egelko, 12/19)

NPR: The Annual Abortion Onscreen Report Finds Most Depictions Are Unrealistic
Scripted television continues to be unrealistic when it comes to depictions of abortion, though there's some improvement, according to the annual Abortion Onscreen report released Tuesday by a research program on reproductive health based at the University of California San Francisco. There was a slight decline in the number of abortion plotlines on TV in 2023, which researchers attribute not to "a lack of interest" but rather the lengthy writers' and actors' strikes. (Blair, 12/19)

Reuters: WHO Says JN.1 COVID Strain A 'Variant Of Interest', Poses Low Risk
While there might be more cases with the variant, JN.1 doesn't pose a greater risk, said Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. JN.1 was previously classified a variant of interest as part of its parent lineage BA.2.86, but WHO has now classified it as a separate variant of interest. (Roy, 12/19)

CNN: XBB.1.5, BA.2.86, JN.1: How To Understand The Coronavirus Alphabet Soup
The virus that causes Covid-19 has more letters to describe its many derivatives than a bowl of alphabet soup. Omicron and Delta were names for the coronavirus that people quickly learned and used in the height of the pandemic. But at this point, most non-scientists probably could not name the version of the virus that’s set to become the next dominant one around the world. (It’s JN.1, by the way.) (Christensen, 12/20)

CIDRAP: Early Paxlovid For COVID-19 Halved Death, Hospitalization In New Study 
Starting the antiviral drug nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) 0 or 1 day after COVID-19 symptom onset halved 28-day all-cause death and hospitalization rates compared with waiting 2 or more days, University of Hong Kong researchers report in Nature Communications. (Van Beusekom, 12/19)

CIDRAP: COVAX Winds Down With COVID Vaccine Shift To Regular Programs 
The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced that COVAX, a program formed in 2020 to increase equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, will close on December 31 as distribution shifts to regular immunization programs. COVAX was jointly led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF, and the WHO. So far, it has distributed nearly 2 billion doses to 146 economies, the WHO said in a statement. The groups estimate that the vaccines distrusted through COVAX averted 2.7 million deaths and helped lower-income countries achieve 57% two-dose coverage, compared to the 67% global average. (Schnirring, 12/19)

The Sacramento Bee: Covered California Health Insurance Deadline, How To Apply
The clock is ticking if you still haven’t signed up for the state-run health marketplace, Covered California. If you want coverage for all of 2024, you have even less time. Open enrollment for the state’s service that helps you find affordable health care ends in January. (Stark and Sum, 12/20)

Los Angeles Daily News: LA County Chooses Developer To Turn Iconic General Hospital Into Housing, Retail
The vision of transforming the vacant yet iconic L.A. County General Hospital building in Boyle Heights into housing and healthcare facilities for working-class and homeless residents took a giant step toward reality Tuesday, with the county’s selection of a developer. (Scauzillo, 12/19)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente Layoffs Hit 79 Administrative Employees
One week after confirming IT layoffs, Kaiser Permanente said it will cut 79 additional employees in California early next year.A spokesperson for the Oakland, California-based health system said Tuesday the change will affect administrative roles. The layoffs are effective Jan. 4, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification documents filed this month. (Hudson, 12/19)

CapRadio: Music Is Medicine At Some Sacramento County Hospitals
In the sun-lit chapel of Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael, four Certified Music Practitioners performed Christmas carols. The holiday concert was a way for the musicians to introduce themselves to the patients at the hospital — the concert was being broadcast on the facility’s closed-circuit system. The performers were also getting acquainted with the space — it was the first time many of them had been to San Juan. The music practitioner program is expanding, after almost 16 years of success at Mercy General Hospital in East Sacramento. (Wolffe, 12/20)

Bloomberg: Hospital Prices: Medicare Warns Companies On Price Transparency 
Some of the largest US hospital chains and most prestigious academic medical centers have violated federal rules by not posting the prices they charge for care, according to records obtained by Bloomberg News. For-profit HCA Healthcare Inc., the nation’s largest hospital system, and big nonprofit operators including Ascension and Trinity Health have been cited for failing to make prices fully available to the public, enforcement letters Bloomberg obtained through a public records request show. So have marquee facilities such as New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center, Emory University Hospital and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. (Tozzi and Meghjani, 12/20)

Axios: Medicare Is About To Add Hundreds Of Thousands More Mental Health Providers
The largest expansion of Medicare's mental health services in a generation can provide a critical lifeline to America's seniors — if enough providers sign up. Starting Jan. 1, some 400,000 marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors for the first time can accept Medicare payment, following years of advocacy and amid a mental health crisis that has weighed heavily on seniors. (Goldman, 12/20)

The Mercury News: Santa Clara County Holds Special Hearing On Infant's Fentanyl Overdose Death
In a packed and passion-fueled special hearing Tuesday over the fentanyl death of a 3-month-old, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Susan Ellenberg made one thing clear from the start: There is “no doubt that our system failed baby Phoenix.” Over the next four hours, the county’s child welfare leaders and social workers, public health nurses and doctors, nonprofit leaders and parents, the district attorney and a juvenile dependency judge clashed over what’s best for vulnerable children: Keeping families together despite reports of child abuse or neglect or removing them, even temporarily, from their homes. (Sulek and Nickerson, 12/20)

Axios: Rite Aid Faces 5-Year Facial Recognition Ban Over "Reckless" Use Of AI Tech
Rite Aid will be banned from using AI-powered facial recognition technology for five years under a proposed settlement of Federal Trade Commission charges, the FTC announced Tuesday. The FTC alleged in a complaint Tuesday that the pharmacy retail chain failed to implement reasonable procedures in hundreds of stores and prevent harm to consumers with what the agency called Rite Aid's "reckless" use of facial recognition technology that it said "disproportionately impacted people of color." (Falconer, 12/19)

Bloomberg: Bankrupt Rite Aid Agrees To Mediation With Opioid Victims, Creditor Panel
Bankrupt pharmacy chain Rite Aid Corp. agreed to begin court-supervised mediation with lower ranking creditors, including groups that blame the company for contributing to America’s opioid addiction crisis. The company, backed by senior lenders, will negotiate with unsecured creditors about how to end the retailer’s insolvency case and on a potential loan package to fund the company’s exit from bankruptcy, Rite Aid attorney Aparna Yenamandra said in court Tuesday. The company will try reach a deal before the end of January, Yenamandra said. (Church and Pollard, 12/19)

California Healthline: A New Test Could Save Arthritis Patients Time, Money, And Pain. But Will It Be Used? 
Stories of chronic pain, drug-hopping, and insurance meddling are all too common among patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Precision medicine offers new hope. (Allen, 12/20)

Los Angeles Times: Thousands Overdosed On Ozempic, Wegovy In 2023
Some of those taking Ozempic or Wegovy are learning that too much of a good thing is never good. Semaglutide, the medication prescribed under the brand names Ozempic, for treating Type 2 diabetes, and Wegovy, for weight management, works by mimicking the hormone GLP-1, which is released by the gut after eating. The hormone has several effects in the body, such as stimulating insulin production, slowing gastric emptying and lowering blood sugar. (Childs, 12/20)

NPR: Why Oprah And WeightWatchers Are Backing Drugs Like Ozempic And Wegovy
The internet lit up earlier this week when Oprah Winfrey told People magazine that she's been using a weight loss drug to lose and maintain her weight. The media powerhouse said the drug has been a relief, a redemption and a gift."I'm absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself," Winfrey told the magazine. (Summers, Janse and Ermyas, 12/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Court Rejects Claims Linking Tylenol To Autism, ADHD 
A federal judge dealt a likely fatal blow to hundreds of lawsuits against manufacturers of Tylenol and generic acetaminophen, ruling the plaintiffs don’t have admissible evidence to support claims that using the pain reliever during pregnancy raises a child’s risks of autism or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. In a ruling late Monday, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan said the more than 400 consolidated lawsuits were centered on scientific claims that were fundamentally unreliable. (Mulvaney, 12/19)

Reuters: US FDA Approves First Test To Identify Opioid Use Addiction Risk 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Tuesday it has approved the first test to assess if there is a risk of opioid use addiction in certain individuals. The test, AvertD, is developed by privately held SOLVD Health. The FDA granted the approval to AutoGenomics, a unit that SOLVD acquired in 2019. ... It is a prescription-use only genetic laboratory test for patients 18 years and older for those who have not previously used oral opioid painkillers. (12/20)

Los Angeles Times: One Of California's Largest ICE Detention Centers Could Close. Staff Urge Biden To Keep It Open
Workers at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, one of California’s largest immigrant detention facilities, are urging the federal government not to shut it down next year following discussions over its potential closure, according to the union that represents many of them. (Castillo, 12/19)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Graduation Requirements May Be Affecting Santa Rosa Students’ Mental Health, School Safety, Educators Say
Campus stabbings. Fights in schools across the district. Kids arrested with knives. Lockdown after lockdown. As educators, parents and activists across Santa Rosa City Schools have been trying to get to the root cause, many are asking themselves why students are acting out in such violent ways. And if it’s a mental health crisis, what is the cause? (Gurierrez and Minkler, 12/19)

The Bakersfield Californian: 11 Students Graduate From Hall EMT Academy 
The 45th class of the Hall EMS Academy graduated Thursday afternoon during a ceremony at The Collective in downtown Bakersfield. After extensive preparation and training, 11 students who started at the academy on Sept. 12 passed the rigorous National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians Exam on their first try. (Friend, 12/19)

NPR: Study: Known Carcinogen Hexavalent Chromium Found In California Wildfire Ash
According to a study released in Nature Communications last week, researchers discovered dangerous levels of hexavalent chromium in samples of ash left behind by the Kincade and Hennessey fires in 2019 and 2020. Workers in the manufacturing industry who've been exposed to elevated levels of hexavalent chromium, or chromium 6, have higher rates of lung cancer, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. (Hernandez, 12/19)

CIDRAP: Court Strikes Down EPA Approval Of Streptomycin As Citrus Pesticide
A coalition of public interest, environmental health, and farmworker advocacy groups are hailing a decision by a federal appeals court that struck down the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) approval of the medically important antibiotic streptomycin for use on citrus crops. The ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated the EPA's amended registration of streptomycin for use as a pesticide against citrus diseases, saying that it did not satisfy the requirements of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA). It also sent the amended registration back to the agency so that it could address the defects. (Dall, 12/19)

Axios: AI Guardrails Can Fall Short In Health Care: Study
When physicians use artificial intelligence tools with baked-in systemic bias to help figure out what's wrong with patients, it's perhaps little surprise they're apt to make less accurate diagnoses. But a common safeguard against potential bias — transparency about how the AI came to form its predictions — doesn't help mitigate that problem, a new JAMA study finds. (Reed, 12/20)

Military.com: Millions Of Vets Got Health Care And Benefits Under The PACT Act. Thousands Left Out Want The Same Chance. 
Legislation passed in 2022 expanded benefits for former troops sickened by burn pits, Agent Orange and contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, but others still wait. (Kime, 12/19)

Reuters: US Senate Looks To End Last Of Abortion-Related Military Promotion Blockade 
The U.S. Senate will confirm this month the last of hundreds of military promotions held up for much of the year over a senator's protest of the Pentagon's payment of abortion-related travel costs, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday. "Before we leave for the Christmas holiday, the Senate will also finish confirming the last of the military nominees held up by Senator (Tommy) Tuberville," Schumer said in remarks opening the Senate. (Zengerle, 12/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Hemp Gummies Are Sending Hundreds Of Kids To Hospitals
Jessica Harris’s 15-year-old daughter was walking to her school bus in London, Ky., last month when a classmate offered her a piece of red candy. The square-shaped sweet seemed harmless at the time to Harris’s daughter. But it turned out it contained a form of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the intoxicating ingredient in cannabis plants, and it sent her to the hospital. An explosion of products containing THC and similar chemicals—some of them in kid-enticing forms such as candy or gummy bears—is sending children to emergency rooms across the country and has federal and state regulators grappling with how to contain it. (Whyte, 12/19)

California Healthline: ‘I Am Just Waiting To Die’: Social Security Clawbacks Drive Some Into Homelessness
The Social Security Administration is reclaiming billions of dollars in alleged overpayments from some of the nation's poorest and most vulnerable, leaving some people homeless or struggling to stay in housing, beneficiaries and advocates say. (Clasen-Kelly, 12/20)