Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
No More ICU Beds at the Main Public Hospital in the Nation’s Largest County as COVID Surges
As some patients linger near death, staffers at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center seek ways to expand capacity for a surge of cases that isn’t letting up. (Bernard J. Wolfson, )
ICUs Are Full In Southern California: The availability of intensive-care unit beds throughout Southern California hit 0% Thursday, and officials warned that conditions in hospitals are expected to erode further if the coronavirus continues to spread unchecked. Read more from the Los Angeles Times, LA Daily News, Bay Area News Group, The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR and AP.
State’s Vaccine Supply Cut By 40%, Newsom Says: California’s second shipment of coronavirus vaccines, set to be delivered next week, will contain far fewer doses than initially expected, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said Thursday. Newsom estimated an additional 393,900 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine but will now receive 233,000 doses — a decrease of 40%. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle and Fresno Bee.
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
Reuters:
Trump, Ahead Of FDA, Says Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine Has Been Approved
U.S. President Donald Trump in a tweet on Friday said Moderna Inc’s vaccine had been approved and would ship immediately, although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has made no public announcement yet regarding its decision. A panel of outside FDA advisers met to discuss Moderna’s vaccine on Thursday and an agency decision was expected as soon as Friday. “Moderna vaccine overwhelmingly approved. Distribution to start immediately,” Trump said in a post on Twitter. Representatives for the FDA could not be immediately reached for comment. (12/18)
NPR:
Moderna's Production Of Coronavirus Vaccine Leans Heavily On Outsourcing
Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine is expected to become the second to get the Food and Drug Administration's green light. A decision could come within days. But compared with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which was granted emergency use authorization last week, upstart Moderna doesn't have a track record when it comes to mass production. Pfizer makes hundreds of medicines and vaccines and operates at least 40 manufacturing facilities registered with the FDA around the world. Despite being founded a decade ago, Moderna has never had a product win FDA approval. And it only has one factory registered with the FDA — and the registration occurred just this week. (Lupkin, 12/17)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Historic Day: First Coronavirus Vaccines Administered At Hospitals Across Bakersfield
One local doctor called the vaccine a dagger to the back of the coronavirus. A hospital president said Thursday was an important date in the history of the community, representing a light of hope at the end of a very long tunnel. Hospitals across Bakersfield administered the first doses of the newly arrived coronavirus vaccine to several executives, physicians and hospital staff as front-line hospital workers applauded and cheered Thursday. (Mayer, 12/17)
Fresno Bee:
Kaiser Permanente Fresno Begins Vaccinating Health Care Workers
Kaiser Permanente Fresno began vaccinating health care workers with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday morning, Dec. 17, 2020, following the criteria set forth by national and state public health officials. (Walker, 12/17)
The Bakersfield Californian:
COVID-19 Vaccines Come To Kern County
Hospitals in Kern County received their first shipments of COVID-19 vaccinations on Thursday. Adventist Health, Kern Medical Dignity Health and Heart Hospital all confirmed Thursday morning that the long-awaited arrival of the vaccines has happened. Earlier this week, the Kern County Public Health Services Department announced that 5,850 doses of Pfizer were expected to arrive in Kern on Thursday or Friday. The county said that more doses of vaccine are expected to arrive “in the coming weeks” and that those shots will continue going to hospitals’ most critical staff. (12/17)
Los Angeles Times:
Next In Line For California’s COVID-19 Vaccine? Teachers And First Responders, Panel Says
California’s first responders, farmworkers and educators would be among those next in line to be vaccinated against COVID-19 under recommendations a state advisory committee discussed this week. Should that guidance eventually be put into effect, those workers — as well as others in the broadly defined fields of education and childcare, emergency services, and food and agriculture — would be prioritized within the second major stage of the state’s wider vaccination push. Roughly 5.9 million Californians work in those sectors. (Money, Lin II and Branson-Potts, 12/17)
Bay Area News Group:
COVID-19 Vaccines: Should We Worry About Side Effects?
A day after injection with the new COVID-19 vaccine, Tricia Potocki feels one major side effect: relief. A respiratory therapist at John Muir Health at high risk of viral exposure, she decorated her Danville house for the holidays after returning home Wednesday from receiving her shot. On Thursday, she worked out on her elliptical trainer. (Krieger and Savidge, 12/18)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Poll: 56% Of San Diego County Adults Would Get COVID Vaccine If They Could
As a COVID-19 vaccine rolls out across the country, a new poll of 500 adults in San Diego County found more than half — 56 percent — are willing to get vaccinated. About 23 percent said they would not get the vaccine because it was rushed to the market; 4 percent would not get it because they are opposed to vaccines, and 2 percent said they wouldn’t because the coronavirus “isn’t that serious.” (Cook, 12/17)
Los Angeles Times:
Wealthy Patients Scramble For COVID-19 Vaccine
They’re offering tens of thousands of dollars in cash, making their personal assistants pester doctors every day, and asking whether a five-figure donation to a hospital would help them jump the line. The COVID-19 vaccine is here — and so are the wealthy people who want it first. “We get hundreds of calls every single day,” said Dr. Ehsan Ali, who runs Beverly Hills Concierge Doctor. His clients, who include Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, pay between $2,000 and $10,000 a year for personalized care. “This is the first time where I have not been able to get something for my patients.” (Nelson and Lau, 12/18)
Capital Public Radio/KXJZ:
History Of Medical Testing Has Left Many African Americans Hesitant About The New COVID-19 Vaccine
A recent survey by the Public Policy Institute of California suggests that only 29% of African Americans in the state said they would “definitely” or “probably” get a COVID-19 vaccine. The low confidence among this racial group is a stark contrast to the 54% of Latinos, 60% of whites and 70% of Asian Californians who said the same. Experts say the hesitance among Black Americans can be directly traced to medical testing and that community’s negative experiences with the medical system. “We really need to be thinking about the historical context of medical mistrust, and the Tuskegee experiment is one of the most well known,” said Denise Herd, a public health professor at UC Berkeley. (Mizes-Tan, 12/17)
Bay Area News Group:
Coronavirus: San Francisco Enacts Quarantine Order In Hopes Of Avoiding ‘Catastrophic Situation’
As hospitals around the Bay Area fill with COVID-19 patients, San Francisco is feeling increasingly like an island. It has more intensive-care capacity than its neighbors and still one of the lowest infection rates in the country. Now, city leaders are taking the next step to further isolate themselves. (Webeck, 12/17)
San Francisco Chronicle:
With Cases Surging, S.F. Orders A Travel Quarantine For People Arriving From Outside The Bay Area
San Francisco ordered a mandatory travel quarantine Thursday that requires people arriving in the city from outside the Bay Area to stay home and away from others for 10 days. The order applies to anyone “traveling, moving or returning to San Francisco” from outside the Bay Area, which includes Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano and Sonoma counties. It takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday and will remain in place until Jan. 4. (Allday, 12/17)
Orange County Register:
More Vaccines On The Way, In Meantime Orange County Likely Under Stay-Home Orders For Another Month
One vaccine against COVID-19 has already been rolled out and others are on the way in the coming weeks and months, but the virus’s unchecked spread and nearly full hospitals mean restrictions and closures aren’t likely to go away soon. Southern California is under a three-week stay home order, and “we’re in week two, but I’m not foreseeing that we’ll be able to get out of the lockdown for (another) month at least,” Orange County Health Officer Dr. Clayton Chau said Thursday, Dec. 17. (Robinson, 12/17)
Fresno Bee:
Coronavirus Update: Fresno County Shatters Records With Huge Spike Of Infections
Fresno County on Wednesday reported 2,590 new coronavirus cases, a massive spike that some are blaming on the state’s new tracking tool. The implementation of a new “auto processing feature” resulted in an intense surge across the state, where a backlog of 12,630 previously unprocessed cases was factored into California’s total case count that state officials described to The Bee as coming from “previous days.” (Lopez, 12/17)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California Sued Over New Coronavirus Workplace Rules
A group of small California businesses and national business groups sued California state agencies Wednesday, seeking to rollback broad workplace protections against the coronavirus implemented last month. The National Retail Federation and the National Federation of Independent Businesses say rules adopted by the California Department of Industrial Relations to prevent virus infections in the workplace violate the state’s Administrative Procedures Act and weigh too heavily on businesses that have been pushed to the breaking point by the pandemic. (DiFeliciantonio, 12/16)
Sacramento Bee:
Businesses Sue Over CA COVID-19 Workplace Safety Rules
Groups representing small businesses sued California’s workplace regulator Wednesday, saying the agency exceeded its authority and overburdened companies when it passed new COVID-19 rules a month ago. California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, commonly called Cal-OSHA, approved strict emergency regulations on Nov. 19. The regulations require companies to test employees at no cost during COVID-19 outbreaks, provide protective equipment and preserve workers’ pay and benefits when they miss work because of the virus. (Park, 12/17)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Court Ruling Reignites Debate Around Whether San Diego's Restaurants Are COVID-19 Hotspots
San Diego’s public health experts warn that a Wednesday court ruling greenlighting restaurant dining will further fuel the spread of the coronavirus — with grim results. “It’s been hard to be in public health over the last nine months. You’re not the fun person in the room,” said San Diego State University epidemiologist Corinne McDaniels-Davidson. “If there is indoor — or even outdoor — dining, it is going to facilitate transmission, and we’re going to lose people.” (Wosen, 12/17)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. County Appeals Court's Order Barring Renewal Of Outdoor Dining Ban
Los Angeles County on Thursday appealed a judge’s decision that barred an extension of its temporary ban on outdoor dining, calling the ruling “plainly erroneous and directly contrary to governing law.” L.A. County Superior Court Judge James Chalfant ruled last week that the county should not be allowed to continue the ban indefinitely and would need to provide a risk-benefit analysis to justify the restriction if it wanted to extend the ban beyond its initial three weeks, which ended Wednesday. (Seidman, 12/17)
Orange County Register:
California’s Pandemic Mandates Cost 500,000 Jobs But Saved 6,600 Lives, Chapman Study Says
A Chapman University study says California would have had roughly one-third fewer job losses this year if its pandemic restrictions had been more accommodating to the business community. The same study also says the state’s strict business limitation saved 6,600 lives. Chapman’s researchers found the state mandates designed to curb the coronavirus cost 500,000 more workers their jobs. In total, California is down 1.4 million jobs in the year ended in October. The findings were released Thursday along with the school’s annual economic forecast. (Lansner, 12/17)
LA Daily News:
Coronavirus: California’s Jobless Claims Top 200,000, Worst Level In Three Months
Unemployment claims in California jumped by nearly 24,000 last week and topped 200,000 for the first time since September, the government reported Thursday. Initial jobless claims filed by California workers totaled 202,600 during the week that ended Dec. 12, an increase of 23,900 from totals the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department reported. During the week that ended Dec. 5, California workers filed 178,700 initial unemployment claims. (Avalos, 12/17)
Bay Area News Group:
Coronavirus: Reopened Schools Avoid Outbreaks Amid Surge
There are no comprehensive national or state figures on coronavirus in schools. But local health and school officials have reported few cases and fewer outbreaks linked to the relatively small number of schools — which in California are mostly private campuses — that reopened classrooms. “We aren’t aware of any confirmed clusters associated with any school site at this time,” said Neetu Balram, spokeswoman for the Alameda County Public Health Department.In Santa Clara County, health officials said they continue to see low numbers of COVID-19 cases in open K-12 campuses. Since October 1, 2020, there have been 54 student and 31 staff cases of COVID-19 involving in-person class settings and just two incidents of suspected school-based transmission. (Woolfolk, 12/17)
Capital Public Radio/KXJZ:
California’s Capitol Struggling With COVID-19 Cases Less Than 2 Weeks Into Session
Since the start of the legislative session last Monday, the Senate and Assembly have sent more than half-a-dozen memos to employees, notifying them of Capitol workers who tested positive for COVID-19. The most recent from the Senate carried an all-caps, bolded message at the top: “PLEASE DO NOT LET THE FREQUENCY OF THESE NOTIFICATIONS LEAD YOU TO STOP READING THEM.” In a memo sent Wednesday, officials notified staff that two more Capitol employees — one in the Assembly and another with the Department of General Services — tested positive for the virus. (Rodd, 12/17)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento Supervisors Try To Calm Nerves Over ‘Diversion’ Of COVID-19 Health Funds
Staring down a deadline to spend federal coronavirus relief funds, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed this week to route $49.6 million intended for public health through other departments to avert losing the money at the end of the year. County officials said the transfer was only an accounting maneuver that would allow them to spend the one-time funding well past the Dec. 30 deadline. Still, the decision to temporarily direct funds to law enforcement prompted a verbal assault from activists and residents at the board’s Wednesday meeting, echoing a number of tense meetings on the subject earlier this year. (Finch II, 12/17)
Los Angeles Times:
ICUs Are Overflowing With COVID, But, Sure, Open Strip Clubs
In less than 24 hours, California hit two regrettable milestones, tallying the most COVID-19 deaths in a single day and a record number of new cases. The available space in intensive care units in Southern California dipped to 0% of capacity, forcing hospitals to scramble to find the additional beds and staff needed to care for the surge in seriously ill patients. Meanwhile, in an apparent bubble in San Diego, a Superior Court judge said it was A-OK for strip clubs to open for business, despite California’s stay-at-home order. He cleared the way for restaurants throughout the county to resume serving at least some diners as well. (12/18)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Prioritizing Seniors For The COVID-19 Vaccine Is Simply Not Enough
As the initial distribution of the first COVID-19 vaccine begins, older adults who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic must receive priority. We must advocate for those in our most vulnerable population to be a top priority; their health and well-being depend on it. Some argue that seniors should have a lower priority to receive the vaccine and be replaced with younger adults who are more active and spend money to stimulate the economy, favoring the approach of a lower rate of transmission over a lower rate of death. However, this approach is shortsighted and marginalizes seniors who have been homebound for months, unable to leave their homes for essential needs. (Paul Downey, 12/16)
Los Angeles Times:
What Biden Can Do On Day One For Healthcare Workers Like Me
President Trump’s inauguration speech began in light rain.But the next day he insisted that sunshine held off the rain until he finished, then it poured on a crowd of “a million and a half people,” which his press secretary called “the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period.” That was a lie, and Trump and his crew have been lying ever since. But this year we have a chance for a redo. (Mark Morocco, 12/17)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Americans' Selfish Behavior During COVID-19 Is Rooted In Colonialism
Recently, I tested positive for COVID-19. Despite following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines. Contrary to what some pandemic-deniers may think, this is not an indication that mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing are not effective. Rather, the plight of my diagnosis, as is the case for many who contract COVID-19, is a result of the inability of folks to follow even the most basic public health guidance. (Jacob Sutherland, 12/15)
Bay Area News Group:
California Faces COVID-Care Rationing; Stay Home For Christmas
As California faces a rapidly mounting crisis with soaring coronavirus cases and shortages of health care workers, the best Christmas present you can give your extended family, your neighbors and your friends is to stay home. Gov. Gavin Newsom and his health secretary, Dr. Mark Ghaly, made it clear Tuesday that the situation could get much worse before it gets better. Ghaly urged people to abide by the stay-at-home orders to avoid health care providers’ having to make “those hard decisions on who might receive care.” (12/15)
LA Daily News:
Bureaucrats Shouldn’t Drag Their Feet On School Reopening
There’s no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted childhood education. In many countries, kids have physically returned to school. In others, schools were never closed. Yet in the United States, many public schools have been closed since March, yielding disastrous results for millions of kids. While scientific data say it’s safe to bring them back, incentives in the school systems are such that many kids continue to be locked up at home rather than receiving a proper education. (Veronique De Rugy, 12/17)
Los Angeles Times:
Teachers Say Remote Learning Is Even Less Than It's Cracked Up To Be
Distance learning in Los Angeles schools is definitely working better than it did last spring, but that’s hardly a ringing endorsement. Generally speaking, remote classes are still an abysmal operation in which most students lose out, and the ones with the greatest need lose most. That assessment comes not from school administrators or researchers but from the best source of all: L.A. teachers themselves, the people who are trying to transmit skills and knowledge while giving students some sense of normality in a world gone haywire. Their sentiments are especially noteworthy considering that their labor union, United Teachers Los Angeles, has been the organization most concerned about the dangers of returning to physical classrooms. (12/18)
Los Angeles Times:
Helping Chronically Homeless People Requires New Laws
We see them every day. They are people like C, a woman in her mid-50s who has for years lived mostly in the parking lot of a Hollywood mall. She suffers from untreated, severe psychotic illness as well as from diabetes and hypertension. She spends much of her time talking to herself angrily and screaming profanities at passersby. Unfortunately, trapped by her profound sickness, she has resisted repeated attempts by L.A. County’s mental health workers to connect her with care and housing. (Jonathan Sherin and Henry Stern, 12/18)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Homeless Californians Must Be Counted
The pandemic and consequent unemployment could worsen California’s already dire homelessness despite efforts to control the damage with eviction moratoriums and emergency housing in hotels. How many more end up on the streets, however, we may never know. That’s because a host of California governments and nonprofits plan to skip the biannual census of the unsheltered population scheduled for next month, which could mean information last gathered nearly two years ago won’t be updated until 2023. While officials have raised sensible concerns about the safety of the federally required tally, the rush to cancel it has a troubling see-no-evil undercurrent. (12/16)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Prison Food Is About More Than Ramen — In Fact, It's Much Worse, A New Oakland Report Shows
We don’t talk about prison food much in the media. What food stories we tend to find are lighthearted fare about rehabilitative culinary programs or the ingenious, ad hoc recipes that incarcerated people figured out while serving time. Prison recipes have generated several cookbooks. Those stories of resilience are fascinating from a human perspective, but they often fail to mention what eating is actually like for the more than 1.3 million people incarcerated in state prisons nationwide. So when Oakland nonprofit Impact Justice sent me their report on the prison food experience, I was eager to read it. (Soleil Ho, 12/14)