The price of a dozen eggs has nearly doubled since last year and hit a record high in January. An outbreak of avian influenza in primarily to blame, experts said.

The avian flu has impacted herds of dairy cows all over the country, but the largest number of cases have been found in California. “Why this is happening? The

The price of a dozen eggs has nearly doubled since last year and hit a record high in January. An outbreak of avian influenza in primarily to blame, experts said.

USDA confirms H5N1 bird flu in four black rats in Riverside County, California amid growing mammal infections.

Workers At Bird Flu-Testing Lab Might Go On Strike: Employees at the California Animal Health and Food Safety Lab at the University of California, Davis, a key lab for testing animal disease, are threatening to go on strike. The lab is the only one in the state able to handle the most dangerous cases of avian flu. Read more from Politico. Keep scrolling for more bird flu updates.  How A Shutdown Of The US Education Department Could Affect California: Federal dollars support K-12 education in California, particularly aiding disadvantaged students and students with disabilities. Read more from the Desert Sun. Note to readers: The Daily Edition will not be published Monday, Feb. 17, in celebration of Presidents Day. Look for it again in your inbox Tuesday. Below, check out the roundup of California Healthline’s coverage. For today's national health news, read KFF Health News’ Morning Briefing. In an interview just hours after his confirmation as Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. outlined his priorities in response to specific prompts by Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “It’s MAHA time” read a chyron as Kennedy joined the program, later changing to “MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN!”—a variation on Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan. Kennedy asserted that the U.S. is “the sickest country in the world,” a talking point he has repeated many times in reference to its low ranking on various metrics among developed nations. He said that Americans face not only a health crisis but also a “spiritual crisis.” (De Guzman, 2/14) San Francisco Chronicle: How California’s Senators Voted On Trump’s Nominees Among the dozens of nominees President Donald Trump has tapped for jobs in the federal government, California Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff appear to be most concerned about Kash Patel’s nomination to lead the FBI. The Senate has confirmed 16 of Trump’s 22 Cabinet-level nominees, with six still yet to receive a vote. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins were confirmed Thursday morning. Democratic senators have, on average, voted against 11 of Trump’s nominees. Padilla and Schiff have each voted against 12 of the Cabinet officials. (Stein, 2/13) A federal judge in Boston on Thursday blocked an executive order from President Donald Trump that would end birthright citizenship for the children of parents who are in the U.S. illegally, becoming the fourth judge to do so. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin came three days after U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante in New Hampshire blocked the executive order and follows similar rulings in Seattle and Maryland. (Casey and Catalini) The New York Times: How Trump’s Medical Research Cuts Would Hit Colleges And Hospitals In Every State A proposal by the Trump administration to reduce the size of grants for institutions conducting medical research would have far-reaching effects, and not just for elite universities and the coastal states where many are located. Also at risk could be grants from the National Institutes of Health to numerous hospitals that conduct clinical research on major diseases, and to state universities across the country. North Carolina, Missouri and Pennsylvania could face disproportionate losses, because of the concentration of medical research in those states. (Badger, Bhatia, Cabreros, Murray, Paris, Sanger-Katz and Singer, 2/13) A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Trump’s recent executive order aimed at restricting gender-affirming healthcare for transgender people under age 19. The judge’s ruling came after a lawsuit was filed this month on behalf of families with transgender or nonbinary children who allege their healthcare has already been compromised by the president’s order. A national group for family of LGBTQ+ people and a doctors organization are also plaintiffs in the court challenge, one of many lawsuits opposing a slew of executive orders Trump has issued as he seeks to reverse the policies of former President Biden. (Skene, 2/13) Bloomberg: LGBTQ Web Pages Deleted From Federal Government Web Sites, Report Says If a teacher wanted to find guidance in early January on how to support LGBTQ students, they could have accessed a government website for resources. That web page no longer exists. It’s one of more than 350 government web pages related to the LGBTQ community that have been deleted from federal government websites, according to a report published Thursday by the Center for American Progress, a liberal research and advocacy group. (Butler, 2/13) A new CDC report shows an outbreak of bird flu among U.S. dairy and poultry workers, renewing concerns among dogwalkers and hikers in Massachusetts about how safe it is to be outdoors. The H5N1 virus isn't new but the resurgence of the bird flu has many people rethinking their daily routines. (Chan, 2/13) San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego County Records Fourth Teen Flu Death  San Diego County teenagers continue to pay a high price during the current flu season, with a fourth influenza-related death appearing in county records this week. That’s one more death among those ages 12 to 19 than died during the entire COVID-19 pandemic, underlining the risks that flu season can bring, even to young people. (Sisson, 2/13) Infant mortality increased along with births in most states with abortion bans in the first 18 months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to new research. The findings, in two studies published Thursday in the journal JAMA, also suggest that abortion bans can have the most significant effects on people who are struggling economically or who are in other types of challenging circumstances, health policy experts said. (Belluck, 2/13) The 19th: Sen. Warren, Rep. Bonamici Introduce SAD Act To Regulate Anti-Abortion Centers Democratic lawmakers are pushing for the federal government to better regulate anti-abortion centers, facilities that seek to dissuade people from terminating their pregnancies, The 19th is first to report. (Luthra, 2/13) Politico: Knives Are Out For Planned Parenthood. In All 3 Branches Of Government Anti-abortion activists and their allies in government are hoping this is the year they finally take down Planned Parenthood by going after the federal funding that makes up more than a third of the organization’s budget — with efforts moving simultaneously through Congress, the courts and the executive branch. ... The Supreme Court announced this week that it will hear arguments in April on South Carolina’s ability to strip Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood — a landmark case that could prompt dozens of GOP-controlled states to take a significant bite out of the organization’s finances. (Ollstein, 2/13) Nearly five years after the global COVID-19 shutdowns began, health care leaders continue to grapple with all manner of emergent situations and challenges—both large scale and small, the anticipated and the unforeseen. Newsweek brought five health care industry experts together for a virtual panel event on Thursday, to discuss best practices for managing future crises. The hourlong event, programmed and led by Newsweek's health care editor, Alexis Kayser, featured insights from a former CEO of The Permanente Medical Group, the current chief physician executive at Press Ganey and the field chief information security officer with Lumifi Cybersecurity, among others. (Taheri, 2/13) Modern Healthcare: Cigna's Customer Service Improvements May Inspire Other Insurers Cigna’s new plan to bet big on customer service could be a blueprint for other health insurers to follow as the sector grapples with public discontent. The sweeping changes — at least on paper — to how Cigna interacts with its insurance members and Express Scripts pharmacy benefit manager customers could augur a new era for health insurance. (Berryman, 2/13)

For the first time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed the presence of H5N1 avian influenza in rats, raising fresh concerns about the virus’s ability to spread among mammals. The infected black rats were found in Riverside County, California, near recent poultry outbreaks.

Three years into a nationwide avian influenza outbreak that has forced millions of egg-laying birds to be killed after becoming infected, Hilliker’s Ranch in Lakeside has been able to keep producing day in and day out with a little luck and a lot of effort around sanitation.

A panel of animal disease experts, including experts from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, will host a free webinar to discuss the current status and trends regarding the outbreak of avian influenza in California.

With threats of avian flu and lead poisoning, biologists are working overtime to care for a species that nearly went extinct.

The CSIC-UNESPA scientific expedition has been underway since last January with the aim of monitoring the presence of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI H5N1) in Antarctica. The first results of the campaign,