• California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Friday that hospitals throughout the state that serve low-income families will soon be offering 400 free diapers to new babies. [KPIX]

• Scientists have figured out that the purple waves that appeared along the Point Reyes coast last weekend were most likely doliolids, tiny gelatinous marine animals that typically live further offshore in warmer water. [Chronicle]
• Flights departing and arriving between 8 am and 11 pm at San Francisco International Airport Friday have been experiencing delays averaging around 70 minutes, due to decreased visibility from low cloud coverage. [NBC Bay Area]

National:

• The US is sending a repatriation plane to retrieve the 17 Americans stuck onboard the cruise ship that’s plagued by a hantavirus outbreak. They’ll be taken to a special biocontainment unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center upon their return to the US. [CBS News]
• Predictably, people are now placing bets on prediction markets speculating on how large the hantavirus outbreak will get. Users have wagered about $3 million on Polymarket, with pools accepting bets until the end of the year. [Fast Company]
• South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace, who’s a member of the House Oversight Committee, says she obtained evidence that several former members of Congress settled sexual misconduct and harassment claims over the past decade, totaling more than $338,000 of taxpayer money. [ABC News]

Video of the Day:

As previously mentioned, House candidate Saikat Chakrabarti has been taking interviews with online content creators alongside traditional media outlets in an effort to gain name recognition. Here, he discusses regulating the AI industry with local creator Diana Regan. (Apparently, Tung Tung Tung Sahur, which is referenced in the video, is Italian brain rot.)

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Health officials recently alerted the public to the first case of mpox Clade I in San Francisco, a newer strain of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, which showed up in a resident linked to an international traveler.

The first known case of Clade I mpox was identified in a San Francisco resident earlier this month who recently had close contact with an international traveler, according to the California Department of Public Health. The patient, an unvaccinated adult, was hospitalized and is improving.

Mpox is caused by the monkeypox virus and includes two current strains: Clade I and Clade II. As SFGate reports, while symptoms are similar, Clade I carries a higher mortality rate, estimated between 1% and 10%, compared to less than 1% to 4% for Clade II, which drove the 2022 global outbreak.

The virus typically spreads through close, often intimate skin-to-skin contact. Early symptoms can resemble the flu, followed by a painful, itchy rash that develops into lesions on the body, including the extremities and genital areas, which may take two to four weeks to heal.

State health officials say the overall risk to the public remains low but are strongly encouraging vaccination for those at higher risk, including gay and bisexual men. Vaccination is also recommended ahead of travel to countries where Clade I mpox is spreading through close or intimate contact, including parts of Europe.

The latest Clade I mpox case marks the seventh case in California since November 2024, according to the CDPH.

At the same time, cases of the less severe Clade II strain are rising. So far in 2026, the state is averaging 14.5 weekly cases — more than double the rates seen in prior years, compared to 5.8 in 2024 and 3.4 in 2025.

Image: Colorized transmission electron micrograph of mpox virus particles  (pink) found within an infected cell (green), cultured in the  laboratory. Image captured  at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility  (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Credit: NIAID

A Santa Clara County resident tested positive for measles Wednesday after traveling internationally — despite being previously vaccinated, and they reportedly visited a few places while unknowingly infected, including the Panda Express in Burlingame on February 23 and 24.

Health officials published a release Friday alerting the public about a Santa Clara County resident who visited the Panda Express in Burlingame, in San Mateo County, during lunchtime Monday and Tuesday (2/23 and 2/24) while infected with the measles. The person, who is now reportedly isolating at home, had recently returned from an international trip and was vaccinated previously. Officials are reportedly attempting to contact anyone who might've been exposed, as the person also visited their work and healthcare provider.

While the risk of infection is low, authorities advise anyone who visited the Panda Express on 1453 Burlingame Avenue during the hours of 11:30 am and 1:30 pm on Monday, February 23, or Tuesday, February 24, to stay home and contact their health provider immediately — before seeking care, especially if they’re unvaccinated, pregnant, or immunocompromised, per KRON4.

In the health department’s release, officials emphasized it’s crucial for anyone who might’ve been exposed to call in advance before visiting any medical facilities so they can take precautionary measures against further exposure.

Symptoms of measles include fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes, and a rash, which can appear seven to 21 days after exposure. Per KGO, those who’ve been exposed but don’t show symptoms after 21 days are no longer at risk of developing the infection.

Health officials wrote in the press release that San Mateo County has had two confirmed cases of measles in  2026, with one case reported in 2025. The last case of measles in Santa Clara County was reported in May 2025.

As SFist reported previously, Napa County reported its first measles case in 14 years in January, and a case was reported in Contra Costa County in December. According to the CDC, there have been over 1,100 cases nationally in 2026 so far, per KGO.

“Fortunately, our region has strong community immunity, because of our very high rates of vaccination or from childhood exposure decades ago,” said Dr. Sarah Rudman, Health Officer and Public Health Director for the County of Santa Clara in the press release. “Two shots of MMR or MMRV vaccine are the best protection against measles and can stop a measles outbreak in its tracks.”

Image: Google Maps

Related: Friday Morning Constitutional: First Measles Case In Napa In 14 Years

The quickly spreading coronavirus outbreak in China is set to begin impacting air travel to Asia as United Airlines just announced it is suspending 48 flights between the U.S. and China.

Beginning on February 1, 16 flights between SFO and China are temporarily going off the books, and for now they are set to resume on February 9, though that may change. These include four flights between SFO and Hong Kong — two westbound and two eastbound — and 12 flights between SFO and Shanghai. United said in a statement that the suspensions are due to "load factors," i.e. not enough bookings on the flights, and not due to virus fears. The airline will continue to operate thrice-weekly flights to Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu from SFO.

Other flights to China are being halted out of Newark, Chicago O'Hare, and Washington Dulles airports. As the SF Business Times notes, United is offering to provide full refunds to passengers who had tickets booked on any of the canceled flights.

United is the first airline to cancel any flights to or from China amid the virus crisis, but more may be yet to come. Also, large American companies are beginning to institute travel bans for their employees, with Facebook and Ford among the big companies telling workers they can't go to China for now.

Meanwhile, as has been making the rounds on local social media, a China Southern Airlines flight from Wuhan landed at SFO at 10:08 a.m. this morning. (Not sure if that's a frequent flight, or what.)

The company said that the decision was made "due to a significant decline in demand for travel to China," and they added, "We will continue to monitor the situation as it develops and will adjust our schedule as needed."

The Wuhan coronavirus has reportedly infected 4,515 people, with around 2,700 of those confirmed cases in the central Chinese province of Hubei, where Wuhan is located and where the outbreak first began. The death toll reached 106 as of Tuesday, exceeding the 100 mark for the first time. No deaths have yet to occur outside of China, and five cases have been confirmed thus far in the U.S.

As the New York Times reports, the United States is now screening passengers arriving from central China at 20 different airports. And today, a charter flight carrying State Department personnel and other U.S. citizens was arriving here from Wuhan, routing through Anchorage and landing in Ontario, California. Officials said that everyone on board would be screened for symptoms three times between takeoff and their arrival in Alaska.

Related: Patients Tested For Deadly Coronavirus In East Bay

The World Health Organization today declared the spread of the Zika virus to be an international public health emergency, less than a week after officials confirmed the first case of the virus in the United States, in Los Angeles County, in a young girl who had recently traveled to El Salvador who has since recovered. While no person-to-person transmissions have been reported in the U.S., according to the CDC, there have now been a few coming from travelers who recently came from affected countries — we know of one in Arkansas, one in Virginia, and five in New York state.

The New York Times reports that the virus has spread to 20 countries throughout the Americas, and warns of a feared link between the virus and birth defects in babies.

According to a W.H.O. fact sheet, Zika "symptoms are similar to other arbovirus infections such as dengue, and include fever, skin rashes, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise, and headache. These symptoms are usually mild and last for 2-7 days."

Unfortunately, at present there is "no specific treatment or vaccine currently available," notes the fact sheet.

If you're healthy and not pregnant, you should just get better on your own. Officials worry, however, about the impacts of the virus on developing fetuses. It is yet to be proven that a Zika infection increases the liklihood of having a child born with microcephaly, a condition which leads to smaller heads and brain damage in babies, but a spike in the birth defect has correlated to the increase in infections.

The concern is real enough that officials in El Salvador are warning women not to get pregnant until 2018, notes the Times.

Which, if that's not insane enough to get your attention, the seriousness of this entire situation becomes immediately clear with the knowledge that the W.H.O. has only declared three public health emergencies in its history — this is the fourth. The other three were the result of the Ebola virus, polio, and the swine flu, notes Quartz. (It should be noted, however, that the W.H.O. has only started issuing these warnings in the last ten years.)

The virus is spread by mosquitoes, and public health officials encourage those in areas with the virus to use mosquito repellent, and to wear clothing that covers skin.

Related: Burning Man Attendees May Have Been Exposed To West Nile Virus

Nine mosquito traps were set in the vicinity of Gerlach, Nevada for the purposes of checking for West Nile Virus the week before Burning Man, and results are now in from a state lab showing a positive test for West Nile. This means that mosquitos very close to the annual influx of 66,000 or so people at Burning Man were carrying the disease, for which there have been 181 confirmed human cases in California this year — though none so far locally.

Despite our damper-than-usual San Francisco summer, no West Nile has been detected yet this year, though some non-human cases (possibly dead birds) have appeared in San Mateo County.

As the Reno Gazette-Journal reports, "The traps [near Gerlach] were checked Aug. 22 and were sent to the state lab on Aug. 25 and they got the state results on Tuesday." Nevada officials gave a press conference about the results on Wednesday.

This means that anyone who was at Burning Man and may have been bitten needs to be on the lookout for symptoms. As Mic notes, those include fever, headache, vomiting or a rash, however 70 to 80 percent of those infected are asymptomatic. Only about 1% of people develop serious symptoms, like meningitis or encephalitis, and those most at risk are people with cancer, diabetes, hypertension, or kidney disease.

[Reno Gazette-Journal]
[News.Mic]

A computer lab at San Francisco City College was recently shut down after it was discovered that one of its computers contained a virus that had been transmitting user data to Russia and China for the past ten years. Authorities aren't quite sure yet what information was stolen, but they suspect it was primarily personal information and credit card numbers from students and staff. The virus logged students' keystrokes, recorded images of the screens and might have spread to other labs and home computers via flash drives.

As Help Net Security reports, the virus was detected by David Hotchkiss, the City College's chief technology officer, over Thanksgiving on a lab computer at Cloud Hall on the Phelan Avenue Campus. Hotchkiss soon "discovered an infestation of viruses that compromised a great number of servers and desktop computers across the college district's administrative, instructional and wireless networks."

It's likely that the virus went unnoticed for so long due to lack of adequate funds and "general computer security awareness." Upon beginning his work at the school, Hotchkiss found "porous computer systems and appalling security practices: passwords that weren't changed for over 10 years, poor network design, outdated technology, and technophobic staff and college leaders." Additionally, the lab is primarily used by international students learning English, and legitimate data was regularly going to foreign sites, masking the presence of the infection.

City College is currently examining all of its systems and servers to make sure its official records haven't been affected. The students' and staff's medical information appears to have not been compromised, but the school's payroll, admissions, and accounting systems have not yet been analyzed. The investigation will reportedly take two to three weeks to complete.

City College has called the FBI, and they've hired private security consultants to investigate the matter. The school is currently evaluating setting up two computer firewalls and upgrading antivirus software, and they've begun changing those pesky passwords that haven’t been reset in years.

At the risk of sounding like an alarmist, SFist received word today about a possible virus outbreak in San Francisco. It's the Norovirus, a common cause of the stomach flu, which is "transmitted by faecally contaminated food or water [Ew! -- SFist] and by person-to-person contact."

Thankfully, the JavaOne conference team at Moscone Center was notified before any citizens. Check it:

The JavaOne conference team has been notified by the San Francisco Department of Public Health about an identified outbreak of a virus in the San Francisco area. Testing is still underway to identify the specific virus in question, but they believe it to be the Norovirus, a common cause of the "stomach flu", which can cause temporary flu-like symptoms for up to 48 hours. Part of the San Francisco area impacted includes the Moscone Center, the site of the JavaOne conference which is being held this week. We are working with the appropriate San Francisco Department of Public Health and Moscone representatives to mitigate the impact this will have on the conference and steps are being taken overnight to disinfect the facility. We have not received any indication that the show should end early, so will have the full schedule of events on Friday as planned. We hope to see you then.

For further information, as well as Frequently Asked Questions related to the Norovirus, please visit the San Francisco Department of Public Health website at http://sfcdcp.org/norovirus.cfm

Update: The Gate has more on the Moscone Center bug, which has led to violent diarrhea and vomiting. [insert your own joke here]

Micrograph of the noroviruses: Wikicommons