Lesley McClurg

Some public health officials are using lessons from the pandemic to try to track illicit drugs in the wastewater. The data could help officials craft local treatment strategies and prevent overdoses.

Transgender and non-binary people are up to six times more likely to also have autism. This intersection has researchers trying to understand the connection and how society views these identities.

The massive storms in California have overwhelmed the San Francisco Bay area's sewage systems. Millions of gallons of untreated wastewater are pouring through streets and into the bay.

California is now a sanctuary for transgender youth who come for medical care. A new law protects families traveling from places where there are efforts to criminalize gender-affirming care.

Thousands of dead fish are washing up on the shores of the San Francisco Bay area. Scientists say the red tide causing the fish kill is likely driven by climate change and human wastewater runoff.

Clinicians say their employer, Kaiser Permanente, is breaking state law by taking too long to connect patients with therapists. They say patients have to wait up to eight weeks to get an appointment.

With abortion rights in jeopardy, some women are telling their stories of terminating pregnancies before the procedure was legal. They want people to know how difficult that time was for them.

Advocates of the proposal say it would prevent overdoses, slow the spread of HIV and inspire drug users to seek help, while proponents say safe injection sites would create an "open drug scene."

The San Francisco Bay Area is in its fifth surge of the pandemic, surpassing last summer's Delta variant peak. But public health officials says this wave is different.

California lawmakers are debating whether safe injection centers will help combat the overdose crisis. A new bill would establish facilities for drug use under the supervision of a health care worker.

Children's mental health experts have advice for how to help kids deal with masking uncertainty – and deal with peer pressure if their mask choice isn't popular at school.

Starting Monday most schools in California will no longer require kids to wear masks. The change is sparking a variety of emotions in students, who'll be mask-free for the first time in two years.

California has dropped its statewide mask mandate but a few counties are keeping restrictions, complicating things for those whose lives straddle places that require masks and those that don't.

The remedy is a new type of transcranial magnetic stimulation that's showing good results in just five days of treatment. For some patients, it's life-changing.

The roughly 7 million Americans who are immunocompromised — including many disabled people — live with much higher risk of COVID, and near-constant vigilance.

The second time Vanessa Quintero's family caught the virus, probably from her 8-year-old daughter, fewer people got sick. They and their doctors credit the protection of vaccination.

COVID-19 has twice struck a Latino family living in a multi-generational setting in the San Francisco Bay Area, underscoring the importance of vaccination for the sake of all household members.

Some kids are getting sick or passing the coronavirus to vaccinated family and friends. It's all unnerving to many parents. "It felt like a terrible head cold," one dad says. "My brain was foggy."

A resurgence in COVID-19 cases in California is giving healthcare workers flashbacks. Some say what they're experiencing now is similar to what they saw in January, at the height of the pandemic.

Now that California has crossed its thresholds for dropping most COVID-19 restrictions, people are doing things they've been unable to for months. And, dude, they're stoked.