Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Kaiser Permanente, Big Player in State Vaccine Effort, Has Had Trouble Vaccinating Own Members
Older patients in several states where the California-based managed care giant operates complain they’ve had difficulty scheduling appointments and spotty communication from the health system. Some report it’s getting better, though. (Bernard J. Wolfson, )
School Reopening Plan Gets Final Approval: California lawmakers gave final approval Thursday to a $6.6-billion plan to urge more school districts across the state to reopen classrooms for their youngest students. Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to sign the legislation Friday. Read more from the Los Angeles Times, KQED and AP.
Wear Two Masks, Health Officials Urge: In new guidance released Thursday, the California Department of Public Health urged the public to consider wearing two masks in public settings as extra protection against the coronavirus. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
Below, check out the roundup of California Healthline’s coverage. For today's national health news, read KHN's Morning Briefing.
More News From Across The State
San Diego Union-Tribune:
A Dozen ZIP Codes Will Receive Extra Coronavirus Vaccine Doses Under New State Equity Plan
Those living in areas deemed to have some of the poorest access to healthy living conditions in the state, including hundreds of thousands in San Diego County, will have greater access to new doses of coronavirus vaccine due to a new allocation approach formally announced by the state Thursday. In addition to percentages already set aside for teachers, law enforcement and childcare workers, the state will reserve 40 percent of its incoming vaccine supply for places listed in the bottom 25 percent of California’s Healthy Places Index. (Sisson, 3/4)
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Sonoma County Might Be Excluded From California’s Vaccine Equity Drive
New state guidelines unveiled Thursday that set aside 40% of coronavirus vaccines for the poorest Californians threaten to further inhibit shipments of doses to Sonoma County, where deliveries of the precious vaccine have remained stagnant in recent weeks. (Barber, 3/4)
Fresno Bee:
Fresno Region Will Start Getting One-Shot Vaccine
Some of the first doses of a new vaccine to battle the coronavirus pandemic are expected to begin arriving in the central San Joaquin Valley next week. The Kings County Department of Public Health announced Thursday that it will receive its first shipment of the vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson early next week. Janssen, a division of Johnson & Johnson, received emergency-use authorization for its single-dose vaccine last weekend from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (Sheehan, 3/4)
Bay Area News Group:
Sutter Beginning To Reschedule Canceled Vaccine Appointments
Sutter Health is beginning to reschedule canceled coronavirus vaccination appointments after receiving confirmation that it will get thousands of shots next week. The health care giant is reaching out to people whose appointments had been dropped to reschedule. Days ago, Sutter began canceling appointments and said it might have to scrap up to 95,000 appointments — most of them second doses — because of a shortage of vaccine. Across the Bay Area and beyond, people reported that appointments they’d booked suddenly vanished online. Some went scrambling for shots elsewhere. On Thursday, the health care provider said it expects about 30,000 doses to arrive around March 10, and a similar allotment the following week. (DeRuy, 3/4)
LA Daily News:
USC’S University Park Campus To Host LA City-Run COVID-19 Vaccination Site
A Los Angeles city-run vaccination site will open at the University of Southern California starting Tuesday, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Thursday, March 4. The University Park campus site is expected to be able to administer thousands of vaccinations per day once it’s fully operational, Garcetti said. “This number will be initially limited due to supply constraints but ready to jump into action and grow as those doses are delivered in the coming weeks,” Garcetti said. He thanked USC President Carol Folt for her work to open the campus up to the public for vaccinations. (3/4)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Supervisors To Consider Funding Two Mobile Units To Vaccinate Farm Workers
Kern County could soon launch a $2.9 million endeavor to vaccinate agriculture workers with two mobile clinics. At a meeting Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors will consider allocating millions in federal funds to the outreach effort, which would be operated by Kern Medical. Agriculture workers have recently been made eligible to be vaccinated, along with teachers, emergency service workers and childcare workers. However, agriculture workers are expected to be uniquely challenging to reach. (3/4)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Greenfield Union School District To Host Vaccination Effort At Golden Valley HS
Greenfield Union School District will partner with Golden Valley High School to provide COVID-19 vaccines to more than 500 employees on Friday. According to a news release from Greenfield Union, the vaccination effort is scheduled to get underway at 10:30 a.m. in the Golden Valley gymnasium. This vaccine opportunity is available to all Greenfield Union School District and Golden Valley employees, the news release stated. Priority Urgent Care secured the vaccines and will provide the administration. (3/4)
LA Daily News:
With 99% Vaccinated, The Jewish Home In Reseda Is Accepting New Residents For The First Time In A Year
Following a year-long pause in admissions caused by the global coronavirus pandemic, the Jewish Home in Reseda announced Thursday it is accepting new residents once again, in addition to participants in community-based programs. “During COVID, we took every measure possible to ensure the continued health and safety of the seniors in our care, and that meant refraining from bringing people in — even visitors,” said Dale Surowitz, CEO and president of the senior care home. “But expanding our capacity to accommodate new residents is a vital part of our mission. Now that vaccines are here, and 99% of our residents have received both doses — as well as the large majority of our staff — we’re reopening the admissions process so we can serve even more members of the community.” (3/4)
LA Daily News:
With Variants Looming, LA County Officials Caution Against Long-Distance Travel Over Spring Break
After a long spell of encouraging statistical news, Los Angeles County climbed above 2,200 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, March 4, the highest single-day total in nearly two weeks. The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19, however, continued to fall. According to state figures, there were 1,341 people hospitalized in the county as of Thursday, with 429 people in intensive care, the lowest numbers the county has reported since Nov. 19.But the county reported 2,253 new infections, the highest single-day number since Feb. 20, when 2,393 cases were announced. Health officials said they will be closely monitoring new case numbers, and other indicators, in hopes the bump doesn’t become a trend. (3/4)
CIDRAP:
California Farmworkers Show Higher COVID-19 Incidence Than Community
From June to November 2020, farmworkers in Salinas Valley, California, had 22.1% COVID-19 positivity compared with 17.2% of adults living in the same communities with a 7.2% rate in higher-risk farmworkers who had no symptoms, according to a study yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases. From Jun 15 to Nov 30, 2020, researchers gathered COVID-19 diagnoses from 6,864 farmworkers and 7,305 non-farmworkers who were tested through the Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas (CSVS). Farmworkers, 75% of whom were Latino, had a 28.5% higher probability of positive tests (95% confidence interval [CI], 20.1% to 37.4%). (3/4)
The New York Times:
Los Angeles County Finds Fewer Cases Among Health Care Workers As More Get Vaccinated.
What was once a flood of health care workers catching the coronavirus in Los Angeles County has now slowed to a trickle, in large part because the vast majority of them have been vaccinated, local public health officials said. Reports of new virus cases among health care workers in the county have fallen by 94 percent since late November, just before vaccination began. The statistics are encouraging, both in Los Angeles County and across the country. Some health care workers initially expressed reluctance to get a Covid-19 vaccine shot, often out of fear about the safety of the vaccines, which were hurried into use under emergency authorizations from the Food and Drug Administration. (Sullivan, 3/3)
Capital Public Radio/KXJZ:
Parents Of Color Still Have Reservations About Returning Kids To Classrooms
Toni Tinker isn’t sure if she’ll send her second grader back to class when Sacramento City Unified School District reopens for younger students on April 8.Tinker, like many parents of color across California, is concerned about students returning while counties are still in the most-restrictive purple tier. And even if Sacramento County were in the red tier, Tinker said she’s not satisfied with the safety plans the school district has put out far. (Nixon, 3/4)
Bay Area News Group:
Wildfire Smoke Up Is To 10 Times More Harmful To Breathe Than Other Air Pollution, New Study Finds
Choking smoke from record wildfires blanketed Northern California last summer and fall. It turned Bay Area skies an otherworldly orange, raising health concerns over a hazard that is increasing as temperatures continue to climb and poorly managed forests burn out of control each year across the West. With this winter being extraordinarily dry, the chances of another big wildfire year are high. But the flames may not pose the biggest danger to the most people: A new study published Friday found that tiny particles of soot from wildfires, which millions of Californians are breathing in, are up to 10 times as harmful to human respiratory health as particulate pollution from other sources such as car exhaust, factories or power plants. (Rogers, 3/5)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
San Diego Zoo Vaccinates Apes Against COVID-19
Nine great apes at the San Diego Zoo are the first non-human primates to receive an experimental COVID-19 vaccine, zoo officials said Thursday. Four orangutans and five bonobos have been vaccinated so far, with the zoo planning to immunize another three bonobos and a gorilla soon. These species, along with chimpanzees, are the closest cousins to humans, placing them at risk of contracting a virus that has spread rapidly from person to person. (Wosen, 3/4)
National Geographic:
First Great Apes At U.S. Zoo Receive COVID-19 Vaccine Made For Animals
An orangutan named Karen, the first in the world to have open-heart surgery in 1994, has made medical history again: She’s among the first great apes to get a COVID-19 vaccine. In February, Karen, three other orangutans, and five bonobos at the San Diego Zoo have received two doses each of an experimental vaccine for animals developed by a veterinary pharmaceutical company, says Nadine Lamberski, chief conservation and wildlife health officer at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. (Daly, 3/3)
CBS News:
Great Apes At San Diego Zoo Become First Non-Humans To Receive COVID-19 Vaccine
All species of gorillas are listed as endangered or critically-endangered on the IUCN Red List, with "susceptibility to disease" as one of the main threats. Infections spread rapidly among the animals, which live in close familial groups. COVID-19 has the potential to wipe out populations of gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and bonobos if humans don't take steps to prevent its spread, experts have warned. (Lewis, 3/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Feeling Whiplash, California? The Ever-Revolving COVID Rules
Californians’ difficult sacrifices have turned around the latest surge of coronavirus infections, so it’s time for a cautious return to strictly necessary activities like — baseball? Gov. Gavin Newsom recently expressed “all the confidence in the world” that fans will be watching Major League Baseball in person next month, typifying the whiplash reversals and re-reversals that have haunted the state’s response to the pandemic. In scarcely over a month, we’ve gone from closing everything to Opening Day. (3/4)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
San Diego County Officials And Their Vaccine Rollout Are Failing People Of Color
The numbers speak for themselves. Latinos in San Diego County make up 32.6 percent of the population but are 55.6 percent of the COVID-19 cases, 43.9 percent of the deaths and just 16.8 percent of the vaccinations. Black San Diegans are 5 percent of the population, 3.6 percent of the cases and 4 percent of the deaths but only 2.2 percent of the vaccinations. The disease is disproportionately hurting communities of color. But the help is disproportionate, too. Two medical students and a professor from UC San Diego make painfully clear in a new commentary in The San Diego Union-Tribune that the limited information made available by the county shows that ZIP codes in South County with the highest mortality rates have had significantly less access to vaccines than affluent, mostly White communities like La Jolla, Coronado and Del Mar. The authors note that this is happening even though Latinos, Blacks, Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders and American Indian/Alaskan natives under 65 are more likely to die of COVID-19 than Whites under 65. (3/3)
San Diego Union-Times:
If San Diego Wants An Equitable Vaccine Distribution, Racism Should Be Addressed Head-On
On Feb. 18, the county of San Diego published geographic data on vaccine distribution — namely, the ZIP code of residence for vaccine recipients. This allowed, for the first time, insight into the curious question — where are these vaccines going? Unfortunately, the new data tell a sobering yet familiar story. When vaccination rates and COVID-19 case rates by ZIP code are viewed side-by-side, there is an obvious vaccine gap: Communities with more COVID-19 are getting fewer vaccines. (Leonardino A. Digma, Betial A. Asmerom, Maria Rosario G. Araneta, 3/3)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Gov. Newsom Finally Addresses Vaccine Inequity
Gov. Gavin Newsom earned deserved applause early in the COVID-19 pandemic for his edicts on shutdowns and mask-wearing. But his administration’s failure to properly prepare for the rollout of vaccines and to prioritize school reopening has been alarming. Despite having months to prepare, California ranked at the very bottom some days in January among all 50 states in percentage of vaccinations administered. In recent weeks, another gigantic problem has emerged. As Thursday’s editorial in The San Diego Union-Tribune laid out, in San Diego County and across the state, communities of color have been vaccinated at much lower rates than affluent, mostly White communities. According to an Associated Press report, even when vaccinations are offered in poor communities, their residents don’t always benefit. AP noted that “a South Los Angeles clinic found its appointment slots had been booked by residents of Beverly Hills.” That’s appalling. (3/4)
The Washington Post:
Newsom’s Plan To Reopen Schools Is Too Weak To Work. He Owes California Something Bolder.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Monday announced a $2 billion plan to entice the state’s schools to reopen this spring. The plan was hailed by many as a breakthrough after nearly a year of children being barred from in-person learning at the behest of the state’s formidable teachers unions. But Newsom’s proposal, if approved by California’s legislators, won’t come close to achieving what he suggests. Dangling money to schools to reopen — and counting even a few hours per week as “open” — won’t restore children’s access to real education. (Jeanne Noble, 3/4)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Breakthroughs As Big As COVID-19 Vaccines Possible In 2021
2020 saw a staggering achievement: the use of a new technology to develop not one but two extremely effective vaccinations for COVID-19 in less than a year’s time, potentially saving millions of lives. Instead of vaccines which release a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies to spur an immune response, messenger RNA vaccines get cells to make a protein that causes an immune response in bodies. For months, researchers have said messenger RNA vaccines have enormous potential to treat other diseases — and last week, the Academic Times reported a breakthrough on malaria, which kills more than 400,000 people a year, mostly children in Africa. Human tests have not begun yet, but co-inventor Richard Bucala, a Yale physician, and other experts say lab results suggest the vaccine would be vastly more effective over the short and long haul than existing malaria vaccines, which often don’t work and don’t convey long-term immunity. (Chris Reed, 3/3)
Times of San Diego:
California Restaurants Need Protection From COVID Lawsuits To Safely Reopen
California restaurant owners and employees have celebrated the end of strict lockdowns and begun the process of reopening. While California remains the only state in the nation to continue to ban indoor dining, most of us are back cooking, serving and — especially — cleaning for our valued customers. Unfortunately though, our issues are not over. (Andrew Gruel, 3/4)
LA Daily News:
Confessions Of An Accidental Vaccine Thief
It seemed too good to be true. And it was. On Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 11:40 a.m., I got an email from a friend telling me about a new federal COVID-19 vaccine program, along with a special password. This was a “test run” of a new vaccination site, with no age restrictions, but I had to act immediately to get an appointment. Could this be real? Every newscast was reporting supply shortages. Dodger Stadium was shut down. But then again, this was a federal program, so maybe they had their own stockpile? It was worth a shot, right? Pun intended. (Doug McIntyre, 2/28)
Stanford Medical:
It Takes A Team: Caring For Kids With COVID-19
In children, respiratory symptoms of COVID-19 are rare. Since the pandemic began, most of the children hospitalized at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford with the SARS-CoV-2 virus are asymptomatic and being treated for other medical problems. But a few kids and teens have had COVID-19-related illness. Critical care physician Alan Schroeder, MD, has been on the frontlines, going above and beyond to ensure these kids return home safely. I spoke with him recently as part of our Voices of COVID series to learn more. (Digitale, 3/3)
San Francisco Chronicle:
The Little-Known Danger Of Aerosol Disinfectants Being Used To Prevent COVID
COVID-19 is deadly, and the Environmental Protection Agency registered antimicrobial pesticides being used to kill the virus have the potential to be worse long term than the virus itself. I have been unsuccessful in my attempt to bring awareness to the public, to employees, to employers about the risk of using pesticides on shopping carts, cash registers, conveyor belts, etc., trying to kill this virus. The most common practice used to kill the virus since COVID broke out over a year ago has been to take an EPA-registered liquid pesticide and turn it into an aerosol using a spray bottle. (Bill Seldon, 3/5)
CalMatters:
COVID-19 Reveals Need To Increase Diversity Among California Physicians
COVID-19 has revealed serious flaws in our health system, but none is more distressing than the deep racial and ethnic inequality exposed by the pandemic. With Latinx and Black people dying at higher rates than the rest of the population, communities of color are much more likely than other groups to say they’re having trouble accessing telehealth services and paying medical bills. (Janet Coffman and Alicia Fernandez, 3/4)
Sacramento Bee/San Luis Obispo Tribune:
COVID Outbreaks Have Been Traced To Out-Of-State Gyms. What Does That Mean For California?
Turns out indoor exercise in a group setting isn’t so safe after all. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released information on two large COVID-19 outbreaks, one in Chicago, where 55 of 81 participants in high-intensity workout classes caught the virus, and another in Hawaii, where 21 cases were linked to a single fitness instructor. In a weird way, this is good news for California gyms and fitness centers that have been insisting indoor workouts are safe — as long as masking, social distancing and sanitation rules are followed. (3/2)