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The Bay Area is in the midst of a summer COVID wave that has seen test positivity rates climb to a 30-month high and hospitalizations at their highest rate since the winter coronavirus surge waned in March. But some people trying to get a protective shot are having trouble finding them, as supplies of the existing version dwindle ahead of the fall update. Walgreens is one of at least two major health care providers in the Bay Area that no longer offers the 2023-24 COVID-19 vaccine at all its locations. (Wilson and Ho, 7/31)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Bird Flu Cases Are Going Undetected, New Study Suggests. It's A Problem For All Of Us

A new study lends weight to fears that more livestock workers have gotten the bird flu than has been reported. “I am very confident there are more people being infected than we know about,” said Gregory Gray, the infectious disease researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch who led the study, posted online Wednesday and under review to be published in a leading infectious disease journal. “Largely, that’s because our surveillance has been so poor.” (Maxmen, 7/31)

At the end of the workday, a line of farm workers here make their way down a well-trodden road to a bus that serves as a mobile health clinic. Inside, they get their blood pressure taken, talk about whatever ailments they may have, and in some cases, get prescribed medications. It is a typical doctor’s visit. Except the Wellness on Wheels bus is surrounded by tobacco fields, the tall green leaves stark against the open blue sky. (Jimenez, 7/31)

It’s been nearly two weeks since Twin Cities-based Rainbow Health suddenly announced it was shutting down due to financial problems. The closure of the LGBTQ+ and HIV health clinic opens a huge gap in services like housing programs, benefits counseling, legal services and case management. Many of those services operated with funding from state and local governments, which are now looking for different organizations to run them. The Aliveness Project, another HIV services organization in the Twin Cities, is taking on state contracts to offer financial assistance. (Wurzer, Timar-Wilcox, Haecherl and Elder, 7/31)

The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that death by firing squad and other forms of execution commonly held to be cruel and unusual are legal in the state if the inmate requests the method of execution. The ruling comes after the state passed a law in 2021 allowing executions by firing squad and electrocution in addition to lethal injection, in response to a shortage of lethal injection drugs and a rise in mishaps during executions. (Robertson, 7/31)