San Francisco Chronicle: Charts Show Current COVID Trajectories Vs. Past Surges In California And The Bay Area
This time last year, the worst COVID surge of the pandemic was in full force in the Bay Area and California, with cases rising sharply each day. This summer, Californians saw another wave of cases as the delta variant tore through the country. Now, coronavirus case rates have risen 37% in the Bay Area and 30% statewide just in the past week, according to data analysis by The Chronicle. Though they are still less than one-third of their levels one year ago, the highly mutated omicron variant is raising concerns worldwide — and while only a handful of omicron cases have surfaced in the state, experts say more are sure to follow soon. (Hwang, 12/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Winter Surge Arrives, Even As Omicron Numbers Stay Low
Cases of the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus have risen to 13 in California more than a week after it was first discovered in San Francisco. But health officials’ immediate concern remains a winter COVID-19 surge as cases rise across the state and Bay Area because of the delta variant. (Vaziri and Galbraith, 12/9)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County May Be At The Start Of A Winter COVID-19 Surge 
Los Angeles County is possibly at the start of a winter COVID-19 surge, its public health director said Thursday. Weekly coronavirus case rates have climbed by 33% over the last two weeks, sending the nation’s most populous county back into the worst coronavirus transmission tier, colored red on maps published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Lin II, Evans and Money, 12/10)

City News Service: COVID-19 Cases Rising In LA County, Spurring Fear Of Another Winter Surge
Exactly two weeks after the Thanksgiving holiday and its associated gatherings of family and friends, Los Angeles County is seeing a resulting increase in COVID-19 cases, the public health director said on Thursday, Dec. 9, calling the trend a possible start of yet another winter surge of infections. In an online briefing, Barbara Ferrer said the increase was visible by Dec. 1, when the county’s seven-day average daily number of new cases topped 1,000 — a 19% increase from the previous week. She also noted a resulting increase in hospitalizations, with the daily number of COVID patients nearing roughly 600. (12/9)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Sees Post-Thanksgiving Increase In COVID Cases 
Coronavirus infections are beginning to increase once again in Sacramento County. Although the omicron variant has been confirmed in nearby Yolo County and small amounts of it have also been detected in Sacramento wastewater, the recent spike in numbers is more likely due to the recent holiday than omicron, Sacramento’s top health official said Thursday. (McGough, 12/9)

Los Angeles Times: Young Latinos Are Dying Of COVID At High Rates In California 
In California, younger Latinos are dying of COVID-19 at much higher rates than their white and Asian counterparts. Younger Black people also are dying at high rates, but the disparity is starkest for Latinos. As more people get vaccinated, pandemic restrictions lift and the economy rebounds, the families of the young Latinos who died will feel the loss for decades to come — not just the grief but the long-term financial hardships. (Reyes-Velarde, 12/9)

Orange County Register: Unvaccinated Residents Five Times More Likely To Catch Coronavirus 
The OC Health Care Agency reported 295 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday, Dec. 9, increasing the cumulative total since tracking began to 316,070. About 67% of Orange County residents (2.27 million people) have received two vaccine shots, and 595,803 of those also have received a booster. Still, coronavirus is rising again in the county, particularly among people who aren’t fully vaccinated. The seven-day case rate for unvaccinated residents is 24.2 per 100,000, while the case rate for vaccinated residents is 4.5 per 100,000. The chart below is from the OC Health Care Agency COVID-19 dashboard. (Snibbe, 12/9)

AP: COVID-19 Reunion: Tearful Patients, Nurses Share Memories
Brian Patnoe never saw the faces of the masked health care workers who nursed him back to health from the coronavirus that nearly killed him. But he knew each by their eyes, which peered out through layers of protective gear as he lay in their hospital’s COVID-19 unit. He was reunited Thursday with some of those who treated him for weeks after he arrived at Providence Mission Hospital in March 2020, just as the virus was descending on California. They still wore masks and he still recognized them. (Taxin, 12/10)

Politico: Biden Health Team Ruled Out Free Covid Tests For All Over Cost, Logistics 
The Biden administration opted for a controversial plan to pay for at-home Covid-19 testing through private insurance after officials concluded it would be too costly and inefficient to simply send the tests to all Americans for free, three administration officials told POLITICO. The decision to forgo a European-style approach to testing — which hinges on the government buying and widely distributing rapid tests — has sparked days of backlash, putting the White House on the defensive over its newest plan for containing the virus. (Cancryn and Lim, 12/9)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego County Detects Its First Omicron Case 
Researchers identified the region’s first case of COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant on Thursday, the county public health department announced. Said to be found in a San Diego County resident who “recently traveled abroad,” the discovery came after genetic sequencing performed by the San Diego Epidemiology and Research for COVID Health Alliance, one day after a positive test result was returned. (Sisson, 12/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Omicron In Oakland: How A Wisconsin Wedding With ‘Super Responsible’ Vaccinated People Led To Outbreak
Most if not all of the guests wore masks when the Nov. 27 wedding ceremony started at a Wisconsin celebration that is now the suspected origin of an outbreak of COVID-19 and the omicron variant among Kaiser Permanente’s Oakland Medical Center staff, according to an attendee. But as the celebration wore on, the cocktails came out and people took to the dance floor, many leaving their masks behind, said Debra Furr-Holden, an epidemiologist and associate dean of public health at Michigan State University, who was in attendance and believes she contracted the coronavirus there. (Johnson, 12/9)

AP: Companies Rethink Return-To-Office Plans Amid Omicron Cases 
Companies of all sizes are rethinking their plans to send workers back to the office as the new omicron variant adds another layer of uncertainty. Alphabet’s Google and the nation’s second largest automaker Ford Co. are among those once again delaying their return-to-office plans, while other businesses whose employees have already returned are considering adding extra precautions like requiring masks. (D'Innocenzio, 12/10)

The Washington Post: FDA Authorizes Pfizer-BioNTech Coronavirus Vaccine Booster Shots For 16- And 17-Year-Olds Amid Omicron Threat 
The Food and Drug Administration’s decision came the day after new data from the companies suggested that boosters may play a critical role in helping to control the omicron variant by raising virus-fighting antibodies to block the pathogen, which echoed a finding by leading scientists in South Africa released earlier this week. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, endorsed the FDA move, citing the early data indicating that boosters strengthen the body’s defenses against the virus. She strongly encouraged all 16- and 17-year-olds who have been vaccinated to get a booster as soon as they are six months past their second shot. (McGinley, Shepherd and Sun, 12/9)

Los Angeles Times: Research Shows Huge Benefit Of COVID-19 Booster Shots 
In research likely to galvanize U.S. support for booster shots, scientists found that Israel’s aggressive campaign to shore up waning coronavirus immunity with a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine has saved lives and reduced new infections across the age spectrum. Booster shots drove down cases of severe COVID-19 and death in older Israelis and reduced infections in senior citizens and middle-aged adults, the research shows. But boosters prevented new infections most dramatically in 16- to 29-year-olds — a finding with potentially far-reaching implications. (Healy, 12/9)

Sacramento Bee: Kid Vaccines, COVID Safety During Holidays And CA Numbers 
Cases are on the rise again in California as we are full-swing in holiday season, a new variant has hit the West Coast and kids have no exception to the disease. But many parents are still hesitant of approved vaccines. As family gathers for the holidays, what should you know about your child’s safety and vaccines? You can use the menu below to navigate the story. (Taylor, 12/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Vaccine Makers Are Unsure If Fine-Tuning Shots For Omicron Is Worthwhile 
A big hurdle for developing variant vaccines is what immunologists call “original antigenic sin,” a phenomenon documented in flu and other infectious diseases, where the body returns to the immune response mounted against its first encounter with a pathogen—or vaccine—when faced with a slightly different variant. Evidence is building that this phenomenon, also known as immune imprinting, is at work in Covid-19. The implication: Boosting with an Omicron-specific vaccine might only reawaken earlier immune responses, whether they were spurred by vaccination or infection. In other words, an Omicron-specific vaccine may have no advantage over simply boosting with the original vaccines. (Roland, 12/9)

Los Angeles Times: How One Woman's Work Expanded Black Vaccinations In South L.A. 
Tsega Habte was so determined to recruit people to her first COVID-19 vaccination clinic that she put her personal cellphone number on the event flier. When the day finally arrived, she seemed in constant motion, bouncing from station to station, attending to volunteers, answering phone calls from strangers about the clinic targeting the East African community, switching effortlessly between English, Amharic and Tigrinya. (Ramsey, 12/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: All AC Transit Employees Required To Be Vaccinated Under New Mandate
All AC Transit employees will be required to be vaccinated by a still to-be-determined deadline under a proposal approved by the agency’s board of directors Wednesday night. The mandate, which will not include a testing option for its 2,150 employees, comes after months of efforts by AC Transit officials to encourage its workforce to get inoculated. The East Bay transit agency joins the region’s two largest transit operators, Muni and BART, in requiring its workers to get vaccinated or risk being fired. (Cano, 12/9)

The Washington Post: Amtrak Likely To Cut Service Over Coronavirus Vaccine Rules 
An Amtrak executive told Congress on Thursday the railroad doesn’t expect to have enough people to operate all of its trains next month, when a federal coronavirus vaccination mandate takes effect. Amtrak President Stephen Gardner said about 5 percent of its workforce has yet to get vaccinated less than four weeks before the Jan. 4 deadline. (Lazo, 12/9)

Bay Area News Group: Contra Costa County Closes Lumpy's Diner Over COVID Rules
After getting chastised for failing to crack down on restaurants that break COVID-19 safety rules, Contra Costa County health inspectors this week visited 14 eateries, temporarily suspending one defiant diner’s permit, fining a repeat offender and issuing new warnings to others. The restaurants were all suspected of violating COVID-19 health mandates enacted during the pandemic, such as requiring indoor diners to show proof that they’ve been vaccinated or had a recent negative COVID-19 test and requiring employees to wear masks inside. (Mukherjee, 12/9)

The Bakersfield Californian: Adventist Health Rolls Out New Device Aimed At Quickly Detecting Brain Injuries 
Head injuries land more people in the emergency room than strokes and heart attacks. When someone has taken a blow to the head through a fall, car crash or sports, the go-to tool to detect the seriousness of the injury is the CT scan, but on Thursday, Adventist Health demonstrated a new medical device in its arsenal: the BrainScope. (Gallegos, 12/9)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Biotech's Test Spots Cancer In Dogs Early 
San Diego biotech PetDx announced Thursday that it has raised $62 million to deploy a test that can spot early signs of cancer in dogs from a blood sample. The company’s test, which detects 30 cancer types from a tablespoon’s worth of blood, is already available at certain Petco hospitals and 20 veterinary clinics across Southern California. But this is just the beginning of a larger rollout, according to Kalle Marsal, the firm’s chief strategy and operating officer. (Wosen, 12/9)

The New York Times: How Nursing Homes’ Worst Offenses Are Hidden From The Public 
In Arizona, a nursing home resident was sexually assaulted in the dining room. In Minnesota, a woman caught Covid-19 after workers moved a coughing resident into her room. And in Texas, a woman with dementia was found in her nursing home’s parking lot, lying in a pool of blood. State inspectors determined that all three homes had endangered residents and violated federal regulations. Yet the federal government didn’t report the incidents to the public or factor them into its influential ratings system. The homes kept their glowing grades. (Gebeloff, Thomas and Silver-Greenberg, 12/9)

The New York Times: Senate Clears Last Major Hurdle To Raising Debt Ceiling 
The Senate on Thursday cleared away the last major hurdle to raising the debt ceiling, approving legislation that would all but guarantee that Congress will be able to move quickly in the coming days to steer the government away from a first-ever federal default. ... The measure was packaged with legislation that would postpone scheduled cuts to Medicare, farm aid and other mandatory spending programs, a sweetener for reluctant Republicans who have held firm against giving Democrats the ability to raise the debt ceiling. (Cochrane, 12/9)

Politico: Congress Clears Schumer-McConnell Debt Pact
The Senate passed a one-time loophole Thursday night to empower Democrats to raise the debt limit on their own, a major step toward warding off mid-December economic fallout. The chamber cleared the bill in a 59-35 vote, sending it on to President Joe Biden. Once signed into law, the measure would give Senate Democrats a free pass to raise the U.S. borrowing limit in a simple-majority vote, rather than facing the usual 60-vote hurdle to move legislation forward. ... The bill the Senate passed Thursday would also avert another fiscal cliff, staving off billions of dollars in cuts to Medicare payments and agriculture subsidies that come as a side effect of using the budget reconciliation process Democrats employed to enact a $1.9 trillion pandemic aid package in March. (Scholtes, 12/9)

Fresno Bee: ACLU: Tulare County Jail Is Denying Prenatal Care To Inmates 
Alexandra Meza knew something was wrong. She was pregnant, serving a one-year sentence for felony DUI in a Tulare County jail and, she says, she couldn’t stop bleeding. It was her second pregnancy, so Meza said she knew bleeding wasn’t “normal.” She said there wasn’t a doctor available at the jail to examine her when she bled, because a physician only went to the facility at certain times. To make matters worse, Meza said, sometimes jail staff wouldn’t believe her. (Amaro, 12/10)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Cloverdale Nonprofit Uses Disaster Relief Funds To Ease Mental Health Needs In Latino Community
A year into the coronavirus pandemic, with the threat of another catastrophic wildfire season looming, Jade Weymouth, the executive director of the nonprofit social service agency La Familia Sana, began seeing signs that mental health concerns were growing among the Cloverdale-area families her organization serves. One of those signs came in April when a La Familia Sana board member called Weymouth and told her about a nonprofit committee meeting that was attended by various local leaders, farmworkers and other community members — many of whom were Latino and spoke Spanish, Weymouth said. (Chavez, 12/9)

The Washington Post: What Black And Latina Women Need To Know About Dementia 
“Can you look at that clock and tell me what time it is?” the neurologist asked. Aisha Adkins sat beside her mother as she peered at the clock hanging above the sink of the doctor’s office. As her mother stared, unable to determine the time, Adkins’s stomach tightened. Her mother looked shaken as she realized that she couldn’t complete this task she’d done all her life, Adkins said. The neurologist, a White man, continued to administer a brief series of tests known as a “mini-cog,” according to Adkins. Fifteen minutes later, he diagnosed Adkins’s mother — a Black woman who was 56 — with menopause-related stress and prescribed antidepressants. He did not order further testing. (Stern, 12/9)

Sacramento Bee: After Homeless Sweep, Sacramento Orders Vehicles Moved
The day after Mayor Darrell Steinberg and City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela raised concerns about a massive homeless sweep in a North Sacramento business park, city crews returned to the same street to issue more notices. Code compliance crews Wednesday issued seven notices ordering vehicles to move or be towed in the Commerce Circle/Lathrop Way area, said Kelli Trapani, a city spokeswoman. Among them was Alice’a Stanley’s white Honda Accord. After her other car was towed Monday, losing the second car Saturday would mean losing the main mode of transportation for herself and her two young daughters, she said. (Clift, 12/9)

CapRadio: With No Exit Strategy, Sacramento Will Keep Roomkey Motels For Homeless Residents Open Through March 
Sacramento County officials have extended Roomkey through at least March — largely because they don’t have an exit plan for the expensive program, county officials told CapRadio this week. They’ll keep it open for the nearly 300 homeless residents still living at three hotel and motel sites across the region. In August, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors used $5.3 million in state funds to extend the program through Nov. 31. At that time, the board gave county officials the authority to seek more money to continue the program further. (Nichols, 12/10)

CapRadio: California Reparations Task Force Discusses Infrastructure's Discriminatory History 
At this week’s state reparations task force meeting, committee members discussed how the unequal building of infrastructure has displaced and economically disadvantaged African Americans living in California. “The benefits and burdens of our transportation system — from highways to roads, bridges, sidewalks — have been planned, developed, sustained, to pull resources from Black communities,” Deborah Archer, president of the American Civil Liberties Union said. “Resources that were subsequently redeployed and invested to the benefit of predominantly white communities and their residents.” (Mizes-Tan, 12/9)

CapRadio: Sacramento To Open Warming Centers Thursday And Friday Nights 
The city of Sacramento will open two temporary warming centers starting Thursday night to provide shelter for homeless residents and those without heat as a cold front arrives. The warming centers will be located at: City Hall Lobby, 915 I St., will be open Thursday and Friday night (Dec. 9 and 10) from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. The Hagginwood Community Center, at 3271 Marysville Blvd., will be open Friday night (Dec. 10) from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. (Nichols, 12/9)

Los Angeles Times: Omicron Is Already In The US, So Why Do We Have A South Africa Travel Ban? 
While the world’s scientists are scrambling to unravel the inner workings of the Omicron variant, not enough people are talking about the elephant in the room: the southern Africa travel ban that remains in place. When South African scientists identified a new coronavirus variant in their country, the Biden administration’s immediate response was to ban travel from eight African countries: South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. At that time, only two of the countries — South Africa and Botswana — had confirmed cases. And a week after South Africa’s report, news broke that Europe had confirmed cases before South Africa identified the variant. (April Raphiou, 12/7)

Los Angeles Times: How To Get Our Sad And Anxious Kids From Traumatized To OK 
It was easy to see that COVID-19 represented a crisis of huge proportions prompting extraordinary measures to protect public health. Less easily perceived is how the pandemic rocked the mental health of children who endured more than a year of remote schooling and social isolation, while grappling with fears of this deadly and unprecedented virus. But they are suffering, and many teachers and parents could tell you that without conducting a study. Some California school districts have reported that absenteeism has surged. Visits to emergency rooms for suicide attempts or suicidal thoughts are way up. Schools are reporting a rise in student behavioral problems, such as getting into fights, not handing in assignments and seeming withdrawn or on edge. (12/9)

Bay Area News Group: Cal's Justin Wilcox Should Admit Team's COVID Failure
When you’re making about $4 million a year to coach a football team at a public university, you should be able to rise above the fray, recognize we’re in a pandemic and put the health of students and the community ahead of winning games. You should set an example for your young players, own up to mistakes and strive to correct them. Sadly, that wasn’t the tack taken by Justin Wilcox, the Cal coach whose team a month ago was confronting a serious coronavirus outbreak. Rather, he was apparently upset that the university hadn’t defended him and the team against health officials, who had raised legitimate criticisms of the football program’s COVID safety practices. (Borenstein, 12/9)

Los Angeles Times: FDA May Be About To Make Abortion Pill More Accessible 
In the course of just a few weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court heard two cases on abortion access. The first, SB 8, is a Texas law banning abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy. The second, Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, is a Mississippi law banning abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy. Both cases could bring an end to the ability to access abortion as a federal right. While the constitutional fight continues in court, there is another opportunity in the coming days for the federal government to help maintain abortion access: by allowing people to get abortion pills as soon as they need them. (Ushma Upadhyay, 12/10)

Modesto Bee: If SCOTUS Overturns Roe V. Wade, Pregnant People Will Die 
If the United States Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, pregnant people will die. We will die in our bathrooms with knitting needles and wire coat hangers in our hands. We will die in back-alley clinics from septic shock. We will die in friends’ beds and on their couches because we couldn’t go home. We will lose mothers and teens and those in between, equally. Because making abortion illegal does not stop pregnant people from seeking abortions — it simply makes it more deadly. Across the world, unsafe abortions are the third leading cause of maternal deaths., according to the World Health Organization and the Guttmacher Institute. (Robin Epley, 12/2)

Los Angeles Times: The Supreme Court Can't Pretend That Overturning Roe Vs. Wade Would Be Anything But Political
The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in the most important case on abortion rights in three decades. And by the direction of the comments and questions, the court could be headed toward a major, if misguided and dangerous, scaling back of constitutional protections under Roe vs. Wade. The state of Mississippi is asking the Supreme Court to either overturn the landmark 1973 ruling on abortion or allow states to pass pre-viability abortion bans. On Wednesday, conservative justices seemed to be looking for ways to scale back those rights without making it seem political. (12/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Your Socks Are Made With Plastic And Could Be Loaded With Dangerous BPA
Through months of testing, we at the Center for Environmental Health have learned that even small clothing items like socks made for babies, children and adults can be loaded with BPA — up to 31 times the safe limit under California environmental law. Studies have shown that BPA can be absorbed through your skin. Socks are worn for hours at a time, so it is concerning to find such high levels of BPA, particularly in those made for babies and children. BPA mimics human hormones, the chemical messengers that tell our bodies what to do. Hormones tell a child when to go into puberty. They can tell a woman to go into menopause at age 25. They can tell cancer cells to grow. Hormone-mimicking chemicals can cause nearly every negative health outcome you can think of. (Michael Green, 12/7)

Sacramento Bee: How Liberal Politicians Made The Homeless Crisis Worse In CA
One in four homeless people in the nation lives on California’s streets, and most of California’s homelessness problem is the result of policy failures in Sacramento — that’s why no other state has anywhere near the problem that we do. Next year will mark 10 years since the elimination of the most powerful tool cities had to house low-income residents. ‘Redevelopment’, as it is commonly known, allowed cities to designate areas in their communities for future development opportunities and keep a portion of sales tax revenue that would be generated by future projects. (Mike Madrid, 12/8)

Sacramento Bee: After Little Progress, Sacramento Revives Homeless Crackdown 
While much of the community was outraged by what happened at Commerce Circle, many in Sacramento were glad to finally see something — anything — resembling a cleanup after all this time. Even if officials simply moved the unhoused residents from one spot where they were unwelcome to another, this was a victory for some. We have to contend with that truth if we want public policies built around consensus. (Yousef Baig, 12/10)

Orange County Register: Old Motels Offer Savvy Homeless Fix 
Two decades ago, some Orange County officials viewed the cheap motels that lined Beach Boulevard and other old commercial strips as a growing problem, as poor people took up residence in these low-cost abodes. Anaheim officials targeted motel owners for code enforcement – and cities passed laws requiring residents to vacate their rooms every 30 days. Residents often were one-step away from homelessness, and these rules only exacerbated the homeless problem given that they had nowhere else to go. It’s taken a while, but local officials now see old motels – vestiges of a bygone tourist era – as a potential solution to the county’s dispiriting homeless crisis. (12/9)