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California’s health care services director announced her resignation Tuesday, a move that came after she mocked opponents of mandatory childhood vaccinations as “flat-earthers” on social media. Jennifer Kent is director of the state Department of Health Care Services, which oversees the state’s massive Medi-Cal system. (Gardiner, 9/10)

“The Capitol is filled with a bunch of flat-earthers today,” Kent’s post said before referencing the large bear statute outside the governor’s office that is often jokingly referred to as “Bacteria Bear” because so many statehouse visitors touch it. “My poor sweet Bacteria Bear is dripping with unvaccinated booger-eater germs,” Kent wrote before using two hashtags: "#believeinscience” and "#vaccinateyourgoddamnkids.” (Gutierrez, 9/10)

A federal judge in North Dakota on Tuesday blocked a state law enacted earlier this year that required physicians to tell women they may reverse a so-called medication abortion if they have second thoughts. North Dakota is among eight states to pass or amend laws requiring doctors to tell women undergoing medication abortions they can still have a live birth after the procedure. (9/10)

The fate of nine financially troubled Connecticut nursing homes could hinge on the answer to one question: Did legislators know their approval of a new budget last fall would trigger immediate cutbacks in state aid to homes with high vacancy rates? Gov. Ned Lamont and the top Republican in the Senate said the Democrat-controlled insist legislature knew the risks, but the Senate co-chair of the budget committee and the state’s largest nursing home association disagree. (Phaneuf, 9/10)

The number of new HIV diagnoses in San Francisco has dropped to a record low, but the news was more sober for four groups with a rising number of new cases: black and Latino residents, as well as homeless people and intravenous drug users, the city reported Tuesday. The overall improvement comes five years after a consortium of city health officials, UCSF and local nonprofits launched an aggressive “Getting to Zero” campaign aimed at eliminating new HIV cases altogether by expanding testing, treatment and care. (Bauman, 9/10)

For nearly a year, city and county officials across the West have lamented a federal appeals court’s ruling last September barring municipalities from prosecuting homeless people for sleeping on the streets if there are no available shelter beds. Now, Sacramento County and the city of Sacramento have joined the fight to overturn the ruling. They will share the impacts of the ruling on homelessness efforts in an amicus curiae, or “friend of the court,” brief to the U.S. Supreme Court later this month. (Yoon-Hendricks, 9/10)

Maryland health officials confirmed Tuesday the first case of West Nile virus in the state this year. A statement from Maryland Department of Health identified the infected person only as “an adult living in the National Capital Region in Maryland.” West Nile is a mosquito-borne virus that does not cause symptoms in four out of five infected people, the statement said. Those who do get sick may develop fever, headache, body aches, skin rash vomiting or diarrhea two to 14 days after being bitten, officials said. (Moyer, 9/10)

Kaiser Health News: California Hospitals And Nursing Homes Brace For Wildfire Blackouts

California has seen a relatively slow start to this year’s wildfire season, but Wanda Chaney still frets every time it’s hot and windy in Chico, a college town about two hours north of Sacramento. She’s far less worried about an actual wildfire than the power company shutting off her electricity to prevent one. Chaney, 70, uses an oxygen machine at her apartment to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung disorder that makes it difficult to breathe. (Ostrov, 9/11)