San Francisco Chronicle: California Children Ages 12 To 15 Can Get COVID-19 Vaccine Starting Thursday
Parents of children ages 12 to 15 in California can begin scheduling them to get their first doses of the Pfizer vaccine beginning Thursday morning, state health officials said Wednesday night. The announcement came after Centers for Disease Control & Prevention director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement Wednesday that she adopted the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ recommendation that “endorsed the safety and effectiveness” of the Pfizer vaccine for the adolescent age group, saying that providers can start vaccinating them “right away.” (Hernandez, 5/13)

Los Angeles Daily News: With CDC Approval, LA County Officials Quickly Expanding Coronavirus Shots To Ages 12-15 
Southland health agencies and other providers will begin vaccinating youth aged 12 to 15 against COVID-19 starting Thursday, May 13, with federal authorities giving final approval for use of the Pfizer vaccine on that age group. Shortly after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization advisory committee voted to approve the use of the vaccine Wednesday, the city of Long Beach announced it will begin offering the Pfizer shot to those aged 12-15 starting Thursday. (5/12)

Bay Area News Group: 49ers And Santa Clara County Offer Teens Stadium Vaccine Clinic
Brisa Oliva closed her eyes and winced as a nurse injected her with what her mom called a birthday present. The Sequoia High School student was among the eligible 16 to 19-year-old Santa Clara County residents who received their COVID-19 vaccines in a three-day clinic at Levi’s Stadium on Tuesday. “I was scared, but it didn’t hurt,” Oliva said as she waited 15 minutes to be monitored following her inoculation. She had seen that the San Francisco 49ers had partnered with the county for the no-appointment clinic and told her mom she wanted to go for her shot as well as the stadium tour being offered between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. through Thursday, May 14. (Boucher, 5/12)

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Why You Should Vaccinate Your 12 To 15-Year-Old Against COVID-19
As California nears approval of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine for children ages 12 to 15, doctors and public health officials are urging parents to get their kids the shot. In a Monday story in the Mercury News, Dr. George Rutherford, a pediatrician and epidemiologist at UC San Francisco, put it bluntly: “Yes - don’t hesitate for a second. “They should be vaccinated. Absolutely.” (5/12)

AP: Nurses, Nonprofits, Others Take Vaccine To Homebound People
For months, Victoria McAllister searched online to make a vaccination appointment. Unlike other people who can hop into a car, though, she has ruptured discs that could slice her spinal cord if she hits a pothole or her wheelchair bumps floor molding. So McAllister, 64, was over the moon when the county health department in Hayward, California, where she lives, called offering to inoculate her against COVID-19 at home. Two paramedics with Hayward Fire came last month, jabbed her arm with the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine and stuck around to make sure she was alright. (Har, 5/13)

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Coddingtown Mall Hosting Pop-Up COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic This Weekend
Santa Rosa’s Coddingtown Mall is holding its first-ever COVID-19 vaccine clinic this weekend, adding one more location to Sonoma County’s inoculation effort. The clinic will provide Pfizer vaccines from noon to 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 15 and Sunday, May 16, according to a Facebook post. The clinic will accept patients 12 and older. California begins allowing Pfizer shots for anyone at least 12 years old on Thursday, May 13. (Yarrow, 5/12)

The Bakersfield Californian: BC Health And Wellness Center, Nursing Students To Hold Pop-Up Vaccine Clinic In Lamont 
Bakersfield College’s Student Health and Wellness Center is teaming up with BC’s nursing students to host a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic on Friday at the 7th Day Adventist Church in Lamont, 10420 Myrtle Ave. The clinic will run from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for both appointments and walk-up patients, according to a news release from Bakersfield College. The one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be administered at the site. (5/12)

Los Angeles Daily News: LAPD Will End Coronavirus Vaccination Program For Employees On Friday 
The Los Angeles Police Department will end its coronavirus vaccination program for officers and civilian employees on Friday as new COVID-19 cases continue to plunge, department officials said. Chief Michel Moore said Tuesday the program is ending because coronavirus vaccines are now widely available. (Cain, 5/12)

Los Angeles Times: Doctors Fear COVID-19 Vaccines Are Messing With Mammograms 
After more than a year of anxious waiting, women newly vaccinated against COVID-19 are flocking back to mammography clinics to catch up on routine tests that were delayed by the pandemic. In some cases, they’re met with one more pandemic surprise: a false red flag for breast cancer. Like a sore arm or slight fever, lymph nodes enlarged by the immune system’s response to a COVID-19 vaccine are virtually always a sign that the shot is doing its job. But to the medical specialists who scour mammograms for signs of malignancy, the unexplained appearance of swollen lymph nodes has typically sparked concern and a recommendation that the patient be called back for further testing. (Healy, 5/12)

Los Angeles Times: Latino, Black Californians Less Likely To Get COVID Vaccine 
Only about one-third of Latino and Black Californians have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while majorities of white and Asian American Pacific Islander Californians have, according to a Times analysis. The Times analysis found that 33% of Latino residents and 34% of Black residents of the state have received at least one dose of vaccine. By contrast, 50% of white residents, 46% of Native American residents and 60% of Asian American Pacific Islander residents have received a dose. (Green and Lin II, 5/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Reveals Data On Outcomes For Breakthrough Cases After COVID Vaccinations
California has reported 3,620 so-called breakthrough cases of coronavirus infections in people who were fully vaccinated since Jan. 1, state public health officials said Wednesday. Of those cases, at least 150 people were hospitalized and at least 20 died.State officials stressed that they don’t know how many of those patients were hospitalized or died due to COVID-19. Hospitalized people may have tested positive after being admitted for some other condition and may not have been seriously ill from the coronavirus. Those who died may have succumbed to causes unrelated to COVID-19. (Allday, 5/12)

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Sonoma County Health Officials Report Two More COVID-19 Deaths
Sonoma County public health officials reported Wednesday that two more residents died of complications of the coronavirus, bringing the total to 314 deaths related to the pandemic that began here in March 2020. The two fatalities both occurred in April, a month when four people died from the virus. Reporting of the latest deaths was delayed because the people died at their homes and were handled by the county coroner’s office, health officials said. (Espinoza, 5/12)

Modesto Bee: Stanislaus Adds 2 Deaths To COVID-19 And 46 Positive Tests 
Stanislaus County had yet another decline in hospital cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, along with two more deaths. A total of 1,060 residents have died from the virus since April 2020, the Health Services Agency said. The 46 new positive tests raised the total to 55,512. Stanislaus has 594,853 negative test results and 54,031 people who are presumed recovered. (Holland, 5/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: Another Bay Area Amusement Park Plans To Reopen This Month
Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Concord will reopen to the public in late May after being closed for more than a year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The water park will reopen for members and season pass holders beginning May 22. Ticket reservations will be available to the general public for Memorial Day weekend starting May 29. (Arredondo, 5/12)

Orange County Register: Orange County Had Gaps In Planning For Pandemic, OC Grand Jury Says 
Although it has long had emergency plans in case of a pandemic, Orange County was not ready for COVID-19 and was slow to react in a number of ways that hampered its public heath response, the OC grand jury said in a report made public Wednesday, May 12. The report criticized how the county responded to the pandemic on several fronts, including not having enough resources in place to carry out some of its existing plans. (Robinson, 5/12)

Sacramento Bee: COVID-19 Changes The Way Latino Catholics Mourn Loved Ones
California’s Latino families, like others worldwide, had to re-imagine the funerals of their loved ones amid the coronavirus pandemic, experiencing delays due to widespread death, limits on the number of people who could attend and confusion over which burial practices were allowed. Some Catholic families used to choosing burial over cremation experienced yet another change. In 2020, cremations among Latino Californians outpaced burials, according to a Sacramento Bee analysis of data from the California Department of Public Health. (Bojórquez, 5/13)

Fresno Bee: Here’s How Many COVID Cases Were Reported In Fresno Schools
Fresno students have been back to part-time in-person classes for about a month, and for two of the larger school districts in Fresno County, positive COVID-19 cases have dropped, while the largest district in the county saw an uptick. The Fresno Unified School District, the state’s third-largest school district and Fresno County’s largest, reported 67 positive cases since reopening campuses part-time on April 6, spokesperson Amy Idsvoog told The Bee’s Education Lab in an email. (Velez, 5/13)

KQED: SFUSD Draws More Criticism Over Plan To Bring High School Seniors Back
Some San Francisco high school seniors are urging the school district to expand its plan to allow only a fraction of them to return to in-person classes for the last three weeks of the school year. Out of some 4,000 seniors set to graduate in June, the San Francisco Unified School District plans to bring back 565 into actual classrooms beginning Friday. Those students will start a hybrid schedule and "most will participate in at least three days of in-person learning before the school year ends on June 2," the district said in a press release Wednesday. (McEvoy and Brooks, 5/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Hyatt Hotel Heir Donates $60 Million For UCSF Psychiatric Hospital
The Lisa and John Pritzker Family Fund has donated $60 million toward construction of a five-story structure a block from UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. When it opens in the fall, the “Nancy Building,” as Pritzker calls it will be one of the first standalone psychiatric facilities anywhere to put physical and mental health under one roof. The patients will range in age from early childhood to early adulthood. There will be a sleep lab, a gym, a “therapeutic kitchen” for patients with eating disorders and multiple programs and clinics for patients who have serious disorders and may not have responded to standard treatments. (Whiting, 5/12)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Considering $1,000 For 1,000 Residents In Basic Income Program 
Los Angeles County could soon become the largest county in the country to launch a universal basic income pilot program, providing at least $1,000 a month to at least 1,000 residents. Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Sheila Kuehl are proposing that the guaranteed income pilot program provide monthly payments for three years. The criteria for participants has not been determined. (Cosgrove, 5/13)

Los Angeles Times: 'Micro Farms' Come To South L.A. With Fresh Food, Produce
According to the USDA, large swaths of South L.A. suffer from low access to fresh food. It’s a problem even in some socioeconomically better off neighborhoods. In View Park, a majority Black neighborhood where families earn more than $92,000 per year, the nearest grocery store is an Albertsons more than a mile away. Some residents have responded by turning to community gardens and mini markets. Others are building small backyard gardens. The farm at Angeles Vista and Olympiad is a neat hybrid of these approaches. (Ramsay, 5/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: Many San Franciscans In Jail Struggle With Addiction. Would This Polarizing Treatment Option Help Them?
In San Francisco, where drug overdoses killed more than three times as many people as COVID-19 last year, advocates and officials all demand change, but sometimes disagree on the best solution. The city practices harm reduction, investing in reducing overdose risks and increasing housing, mental health and drug treatment. But some frustrated people in recovery are pushing for more options, especially total-abstinence treatment where the goal is ending drug use without medication. It’s a model questioned by some experts and criticized by harm reduction advocates, but one that helped them get clean. (Moench, 5/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Experts Say Now Is The Time To Buy An Air Purifier Ahead Of California Fire Season
Wildfire season is making an early arrival this year in California, with high winds and dry conditions already prompting red flag alerts and several wildland blazes in the Bay Area. That means it’s time to prepare for the widespread smoke and bad air quality that so often accompany the worst of the season in the region — which may include looking into getting an air purifier. (Hwang, 5/12)

The Washington Post: Some Consumer-Friendly Air Purifiers Destroy The Coronavirus, And They Have FDA Certification To Prove It
Scribner’s Catskill Lodge in Hunter, N.Y., was one in a nationwide sea of hotel establishments to temporarily close last year when the pandemic wiped out tourism and travel. Between mid-March and June, the hotel’s managers did what many other closed hospitality establishments did — focused on a reopening strategy involving deep cleanings, temperature checks and other coronavirus-related safety precautions. As shutdown restrictions eased, the hotel reopened in time for summer travelers, but rooms were held vacant for 48 hours between guests. Each room has built-in cooling systems, and staff would turn the fans on full blast, hoping to send stray respiratory droplets out the window before the next vacationer was set to arrive. (Brown, 5/11)

San Francisco Chronicle: In Wake Of Food Safety Concerns, House Of Prime Rib To Close For 24 Hours
With reports of potential foodborne illness hanging over the House of Prime Rib, owner Joe Betz has decided to shut down the longtime restaurant for 24 hours and ask the Department of Public Health to conduct another inspection. Betz will close the Van Ness Avenue institution after Wednesday evening, he told The Chronicle. He hopes a final determination from the health department will put to rest any question about whether it’s safe to eat at the House of Prime Rib. (Kadvany, 5/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: House Of Prime Rib Fans Are Clamoring For Canceled Tables After Food Poisoning Allegations
It turns out not even news of potential foodborne illness will stop some people from wanting a King Henry cut with creamed spinach at the House of Prime Rib. After the iconic San Francisco restaurant admitted Tuesday that its namesake meat may have been linked to reports of people getting sick after eating there, some patrons have canceled their reservations, but just as many are booking new ones, owner Joe Betz said Wednesday. (Warekar and Kadavy, 5/12)

Sacramento Bee: Renters Evicted In Sacramento Despite COVID-19 Moratorium 
The state law only protects renters from being evicted for failing to pay rent, and only if they turn in paperwork that shows their income was impacted by the pandemic. They must also pay at least 25% of their back rent when the moratorium lifts. Renters who don’t know about the required paperwork or are late turning it in can still be evicted. So can those in other situations, including those who commit minor lease violations or are living in units the owner wants to renovate. The “lockouts” touched most corners of the county. Nearly half the evictions — 277 — took place in high poverty communities, which The Bee defined as a census tract with a poverty rate at or above 20%. (Clift, Finch II, Yoon-Hendricks, 5/13)

Modesto Bee: RV Tenants Resist Eviction From Stanislaus County Campground 
Residents of an RV park and campground in Knights Ferry did not comply with a landlord’s order to move out by Saturday. “We are still here,” said Jackie Gregory, one of the tenants who have resisted the move-out order. “No one has moved out.” California Rural Legal Assistance is representing some of the tenants who live in motor homes and trailers at the privately owned River’s Edge campground on Sonora Road near the center of Knights Ferry in eastern Stanislaus County. (Carlson, 5/13)

CalMatters: Can Newsom Use Pandemic Lessons To End Homelessness? 
With a budget surplus bonanza, Gov. Newsom calls for spending $12 billion more to end homelessness in California. One idea: expanding motel conversions, an emergency plan during the pandemic. (Tobias, 5/12)