Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
California’s Smallest County Makes Big Vaccination Gains
In rural Alpine County, where snowbound mountain passes isolate small towns, distributing the covid vaccine is a community effort. Unlike in many urban areas where residents jockey for limited appointments, the pace of vaccinations here is strong and steady. (Hannah Norman, )
In Letter, Health Care Experts Say Schools Must Reopen: About 200 health care professionals throughout Los Angeles County have joined a growing chorus of voices calling for schools to reopen. The pediatricians, internists, neurologists, psychologists and more said the nearly yearlong school closures have led to social isolation that has taken a toll on the mental health of children. Read more from the Southern California News Group.
In related news —
L.A. Councilman Buscaino announces plan to sue L.A. schools to reopen
San Quentin Fined For Covid Outbreak: San Quentin State Prison faces California’s single largest penalty yet over workplace safety violations contributing to the spread of covid, the state announced Thursday. The prison faces a $421,880 fine stemming from a June inspection by regulators from Cal/OSHA. Read more from the Sacramento Bee and AP.
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
Ventura County Star:
Second Dose Efforts In Ventura County Slowed By Vaccine Shortages
More than 33,000 Ventura County residents are set to receive their second of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine in February. County vaccine task force leaders said Thursday they were still about 10,000 second doses short of what they needed even after the state approved an emergency allocation. They cited delivery shortages of Pfizer vaccine. (Kisken, 2/4)
Fresno Bee:
COVID-19: Fresno Asks Biden For More Vaccine As Cases Rise
Fresno leaders are bypassing Gov. Gavin Newsom and taking their case straight to President Joe Biden to lobby for a greater allocation of scarce COVID-19 vaccine doses to Fresno County as new cases continue to add up across the city and the county. The Fresno City Council unanimously passed a non-binding resolution Thursday to ask the nation’s leaders to step in and improve the vaccine outlook for Fresno County. (Sheehan 2/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Napa County Has Halted First-Dose Vaccinations, Fearing It Will Run Out Of Second Doses
Napa County has halted first-dose vaccinations due to limited supply, county officials said on Thursday. “We’re running out of vaccine,” Dr. Karen Relucio, the county’s health director, said during a briefing. “We basically had to stop our first dose clinics because we don’t have enough to get to the people that need the second dose.” She said county residents who got their first doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines may have to delay getting their second doses by at least two weeks, with priority given to health care workers and those who are 75. (Vaziri, 2/4)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
UCSD Vaccinates 100k San Diegans; County’s Rollout Ranks Third In State
The county’s first mass vaccination center, run by UC San Diego, crossed a major milestone this week after inoculating more than 100,000 people against the novel coronavirus. UCSD Health reached the mark on Wednesday, according to Dr. Christopher Longhurst, chief information officer. (Wosen, 2/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
S.F. Opening Mass Vaccination Site At Moscone Center In Anticipation Of More Doses
Once a hub for tech conferences, Moscone Center in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood will open as a mass vaccination site Friday, with an eventual capacity to deliver up to 10,000 doses per day. It’s the latest such venue in the region, reflecting hopes that the coronavirus vaccine will soon be more widely available. But the stark reality for the region, state and nation is that not enough doses are available, even as Johnson & Johnson requested emergency use authorization in the U.S. for its single-shot vaccine Thursday — offering the eventual prospect of a third vaccine option. (Williams, Thadani and Vaziri, 2/4)
LA Daily News:
LA County Coronavirus Stats Keep Dropping; New Vaccine Strategy To Be Unveiled Next Week
Los Angeles County Public Health officials are getting ready to unveil next week a comprehensive plan for vaccinating the next phase of residents, including teachers, public safety officers, emergency services workers and other essential employees. Meanwhile, the county was ready to swing open the gates at another vaccination center on Friday, Feb. 5 — a second mega-site in hard-hit Pomona. (Rosenfeld, 2/4)
Bloomberg:
Medical Drone Startup To Begin Covid Vaccine Delivery In April
Zipline Inc., a drone delivery service that specializes in medical supplies, announced Thursday that it plans to begin transporting COVID-19 vaccines in April. The South San Francisco-based startup said in a release that it is partnering with “a leading manufacturer of COVID-19 vaccines” in all of the markets where its drones currently operate. Zipline has been delivering medicine and supplies to rural clinics in Rwanda and Ghana since 2016 and, last year, began delivering personal protective equipment to hospitals and clinics in North Carolina. It plans to add operations in Nigeria later this year. Zipline declined to specify its vaccine partner but said it has built a system that can deliver ultra-low temperature medical supplies, including “all leading COVID-19 vaccines.” (Boudway, 2/4)
Los Angeles Times:
California Debates COVID-19 Vaccine Priorities
With COVID-19 vaccines still in short supply in California, there is growing debate about who should be given the next priority for the shots and how soon the state can ramp up efforts to better meet surging demand. The state has launched a high-level task force to sort out logistics for how residents with disabilities and underlying health conditions will be prioritized next, state officials announced at Wednesday’s vaccine advisory committee meeting. The group spent significant time discussing how those residents will be factored into the state’s priority guidance — a recommendation that could come as early as Friday. (Lin II, Shalby, Money and Sharp, 2/4)
Modesto Bee:
Sutter Expands COVID Vaccine Access For Stanislaus Patients
Sutter Health on Thursday expanded its COVID-19 vaccinations to patients who are age 65 or older. A media advisory said the Sacramento-based health system was quickly expanding its vaccination rollout by scaling up clinics across Northern California. Sutter had previously limited coronavirus vaccine appointments to health workers and older seniors 75 and older. Its vaccination appointments are for Sutter patients who can schedule through an online portal or a hotline. Patients using a Sutter call center were advised to expect longer than normal wait times. (Carlson, 2/4)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Airport Workers In San Diego Demand Gov. Newsom Put Them On Vaccine Priority List
When California Gov. Gavin Newsom recalibrated the vaccine distribution hierarchy last week to an age-based approach, certain essential workers suddenly found themselves further back in the line than before. That’s a problem for custodians at California’s airports, said Christian Ramirez, a policy director for SEIU United Service Workers union. On Thursday, Ramirez and about 40 other members of the union rallied in shifts at San Diego International Airport and held a memorial for uncounted airport workers who have died during the pandemic. (Dyer, 2/4)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Binational Crossers Can Decide On Which Side Of The Border To Ask For The COVID-19 Vaccine
A segment of the binational population in the San Diego-Tijuana region must decide on which side of the border to request the COVID-19 vaccine. Some transfronterizos, or cross-borderers, are U.S. citizens living in Tijuana or Playas de Rosarito. Some have dual citizenship, and others have a U.S. residency permit or green card but prefer to live in Mexico. (Navarro, 2/4)
Bay Area News Group:
Racial Disparities Haunt Bay Area COVID Vaccine Programs
As Bay Area health care providers work to vaccinate people against COVID-19, early data suggests that the shots aren’t reaching the people who need them most — communities of color that have been hit hardest by the virus. As of Thursday, just three counties — Alameda, Contra Costa and San Mateo — had released numbers on the racial and ethnic breakdown of vaccine recipients. But in each, the data shows that Latinx residents are receiving only a small percentage of the shots delivered so far — much smaller than their share of infections and deaths. (Kendall and Kelliher, 2/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
More Bay Area Women Are Getting Vaccinated Than Men. Here's Why
The data about who gets a coronavirus vaccination is notoriously incomplete — race and ethnicity categories are often missing, for example. But some information exists, and it reveals an intriguing pattern: More women appear to be getting vaccinated than men. Alameda County has given 65% of its shots to women. The figure is about 62% for Contra Costa County and San Mateo County and at least 60% for Marin County. In Solano County, a majority of vaccines also went to women, although the county didn’t have an exact number. (Moench, 2/4)
Orange County Register:
UC Irvine Researcher Hopes To Create ‘Universal’ Vaccine For Many Coronaviruses
People have marveled at the scientific achievement of developing multiple highly effective vaccines for COVID-19 in less than a year, the fastest such development in history. But what if there was a “universal” vaccine that worked against many types of coronaviruses, including those we haven’t researched or even discovered yet? UC Irvine immunology professor Lbachir BenMohamed believes he can create one, and he’s testing more than a dozen possible candidates now. (Robinson, 2/4)
Los Angeles Times:
What’s The Difference Between A Variant And A Strain?
Confusion over the terms “variant” and “strain” predate this coronavirus. It seems virologists never got around to defining their terms. ... The distinction between a variant and a strain hinges on whether the virus in question behaves in a distinct way, according to Dr. Adam Lauring, who studies the evolution of RNA viruses at the University of Michigan, and Emma Hodcroft, an expert on viral phylogenetics at the University of Bern in Switzerland. (Kaplan, 2/4)
Bay Area News Group:
Coronavirus: Two UC Berkeley Students Test Positive For More Contagious Variant
A pair of UC Berkeley students has tested positive for a more contagious strain of the coronavirus first found in the United Kingdom, the university announced Thursday. The cases were among half a dozen new or suspected cases of the variant, called B.1.1.7., reported by Alameda County earlier this week, the university said in a news release. (Green, 2/4)
Monterey Herald:
COVID-19 Case Rate Drops By More Than 50% In Santa Cruz County
In the last two weeks, Santa Cruz County’s COVID-19 case rate has dropped by 55% in Santa Cruz County, according to health officials. In a press conference Thursday, County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel also announced she and the County Public Health Division are supporting select schools that want to apply for state waivers — specifically kindergarten through sixth grade classroom settings — that could allow them to reopen in-person classes, with modifications. That shift is a result of Santa Cruz County’s case rate dropping. (Hagemann, 2/5)
Los Angeles Times:
COVID-19 In L.A. County Finally On A Sustained Decline
The numbers of new coronavirus infections and hospitalizations are nosediving in Los Angeles County, welcome news following a catastrophic winter wave that pummeled the region. Officials stress, however, that the county is far from out of the woods. Though those figures have tumbled in recent weeks, they remain well above their pre-surge levels — and are still too high for the county to unlock additional sectors of its battered economy or to provide the long-term relief hospitals desperately need. And the final, most devastating consequence of the pandemic — the number of people losing their battle with the disease — remains high. (Money and Lin II, 2/4)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento School District Removes Classroom Air Cleaners
The Sacramento City Unified School District removed controversial air purifiers from classrooms this week and will begin testing the devices for how effectively they clean the air and whether they potentially released harmful chemicals, district officials confirmed. As part of its reopening effort, the school district bought thousands of air cleaners, replacement filters and bulbs last year through a more than $6 million contract with Johnson Controls. But several experts identified potential concerns about the V-PAC SC air cleaners, saying the devices the district purchased are overpriced, inefficient and have unnecessary and unproven technology. (Yoon-Hendricks, 2/5)
Fresno Bee:
Antibody COVID-19 Therapy Going Largely Unused In Fresno CA
Fresno County health officials are encouraging local doctors to use a pair of drugs with emergency approval from federal regulators as a treatment to keep high-risk coronavirus patients from having to be hospitalized for more serious care. The drugs, called multiclonal antibodies, received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November, but have yet to gain real traction as a therapy for COVID-19 patients in Fresno County. (Sheehan, 2/5)
Orange County Register:
COVID-19 Test Kit Maker Innova Expands Pasadena Operation
Innova Medical Group, a maker and distributor of COVID-19 rapid test kits, has leased 25,000 square feet of additional office space in Pasadena in a deal valued at $13.2 million. The space, owned by CBRE Global Investors, is adjacent to Innova’s existing headquarters at 800 E. Colorado Blvd. in the Pasadena Towers I building. The company is looking to fill more than 1,600 positions there, at its COVID-19 antigen test manufacturing facilities in Orange County and at additional facilities in Brea, Pomona and Rancho Santa Margarita. Innova plans to produce 5 million test kits per day by the end of February, eventually boosting that to 50 million a day. (Smith, 2/4)
Stat:
Google Expands Health Goals With New Wellness Features For Pixel Phones
Google is taking a bite out of another piece of the health care pie. On Thursday, the tech giant announced plans to debut two wellness features that allow users of its Pixel smartphone to measure their heart and respiration rate using the device’s camera. (Brodwin, 2/4)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Dignity Health To Conduct Drive-Thru Flu Vaccine Clinic At Mercado Latino
Dignity Health will be hosting a free drive-thru flu vaccine clinic in east Bakersfield on Saturday, Feb. 13. The clinic is scheduled from 1-3 p.m. at the Mercado Latino parking lot, 2105 Edison Highway, according to a flier from Dignity Health. (2/4)
Sacramento Bee:
McKinsey & Co. To Pay CA $59.6 Million In Opioid Settlement
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced Thursday that worldwide management consultant McKinsey & Co. will pay out $573 million to 47 states, including a little more than $59.6 million to California, to settle an investigation into its role in the opioid epidemic. “The abuse of opioids, not just by those who consumed these drugs but by those who produced, marketed, distributed and dispensed them, has left much of America in mourning. We can’t bring back lost lives, but we can hold ringleaders accountable,” Becerra said. “McKinsey & Company was a player in this unfolding opioids tragedy. Today’s settlement holds McKinsey to account.” (Anderson, 2/4)
LA Daily News:
San Fernando Valley Residents File Class-Action Lawsuit Against LADWP Over Sun Valley Gas Leak
Neighbors of four San Fernando Valley communities filed a class-action lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles and the Department of Water and Power, alleging that information was withheld regarding the Valley Generating Station in Sun Valley and a series of gas leaks, putting nearby communities at risk. The class-action complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, Feb. 2, alleges the DWP “deliberately neglected the facility and admits this came at a sacrifice of the health and well-being of its neighbors, members of the predominantly Latino and African-American communities” in Sun Valley, Pacoima, Shadow Hills and Arleta. (Grigoryants, 2/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Maker Of Roundup Herbicide Offers $2 Billion To Settle Lymphoma Cancer Cases
After a series of Bay Area jury verdicts that linked Monsanto’s widely used Roundup herbicide to cancer, parent company Bayer is making its second attempt to resolve future lawsuits with a proposed $2 billion settlement. The settlement requires approval from a federal judge in San Francisco, whose criticisms of a proposed $1.25 billion agreement last summer sent Bayer and a group of plaintiffs’ lawyers back to the negotiating table. The new version is both financially larger and less restrictive, leaving nonparticipants freer to pursue their cases in court, with some limitations on damages. (Egelko, 2/4)
Los Angeles Times:
Federal Judge Brings L.A. Officials To Skid Row, Demands Action
“This is not what I call a sound bite day,” U.S. District Judge David O. Carter observed Thursday as elected officials shuffled in and out of a tent better equipped for a wedding than a federal court hearing. And yet here they were, at the heart of L.A.'s skid row, nearly a year into a court case seeking relief for homeless people in Los Angeles. Some offered specific remedies they’d like to see to help solve an ever-worsening homelessness crisis, while others spoke of the need for more collaboration and coordination. Carter had called the plaintiffs, intervenors and defendants in the case here after spending much of Friday and Saturday —drenched — trying to get homeless women into tents that would shield them from the rain. (Oreskes, 2/4)
Modesto Bee:
Newsom Must Keep Strong COVID Rules In Place During Surge
Gov. Gavin Newsom recently lifted California’s regional stay-at-home orders — yet now is the time to double down on safety precautions. Yes, we have made some progress in reducing case counts, but the number of new daily cases and the rate of positive tests remains far above the level public health experts say is safe for reopening our economy. In all of Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, no ICU beds are available — a troubling reality for the tens of thousands of Californians likely to need hospitalization in the coming weeks and months. We learned the hard way last summer that reopening too quickly, before the virus is fully suppressed, will inevitably lead to a surge of infections. A study from the National Center for Disaster Preparedness suggests that as many as 210,000 American lives lost to COVID-19 could have been saved if our national response had been as fast and as effective as other countries. Now, nearly 11 months later, after repeatedly compromising our ability to rein in this virus by rescinding stay-at-home orders at the first signs of improvement, more than 38,000 Californians have died. (Anna Valdez and Claudia Deeg, 2/3)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
We Knew Vaccines Were Coming Four Months Ago. Why Wasn't America Ready To Quickly Give Them Out?
It’s been 13 months since China shut down a region of 18 million people because of the rapid human-to-human transfer of a new strain of coronavirus. It’s been a year since the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency because of the spread of the coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes. It’s been 11 months since Gavin Newsom became the first governor to order a statewide lockdown. It’s been eight months since the U.S. recorded its first 100,000 deaths from the pandemic. And it’s been four months since Dr. Anthony Fauci — the federal government’s leading infectious disease expect — expressed optimism that effective vaccines would soon be available. (2/3)
Bay Area News Group:
Spend Billions On COVID Vaccines, Not Faux School Reopenings
Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed spending $2 billion to reopen schools in California, while President Biden wants $170 billion to reopen schools and universities nationwide. To get kids back into the classroom, that money would be far better spent putting vaccines into people’s arms, starting with school personnel and adding students as soon as inoculations are approved for them. (Brian Foster, 2/5)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
In War On COVID-19, A New Enemy Emerges: Post-Traumatic Stress
So what do traumatized combat veterans and healthcare workers on the COVID-19 front lines have in common? A lot, it would appear: exhaustion, fear, sleeplessness, worry about the impact of their jobs on their families and the mental anguish of coping with the constant death and grief around them. (Diane Bell, 1/29)
Bay Area News Group:
Borenstein: Kaiser Keeps COVID And Non-COVID Patients In Same Units
Unbeknownst to family and patients, Kaiser has been keeping COVID and non-COVID patients on the same hospital nursing units when bed space runs short. Kaiser refuses to say how widespread the practice has been or how many patients consequently contracted the deadly virus. I learned of the practice when an elderly, immunocompromised relative hospitalized in Kaiser’s Oakland facility for an unrelated reason tested positive for the virus on the ninth day of her stay. She had tested negative on the first, third and sixth days in the hospital and had been permitted no outside visitors. The positive test was reconfirmed on the 10th day. (Borenstein, 2/5)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Women Leaders And Antibody Infusion Are Keys To COVID-19 Response In Any Hard-Hit Community
A deadly surge of COVID-19 cases has inundated health care systems in communities across the country, even as long-awaited vaccines are becoming more available. To combat this surge, hard-hit local communities should adopt a strategy born from experience piloting a U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) program in nearby El Centro that pairs vaccination stations with monoclonal antibody (MAB) infusion centers. (Adolphe Edward and Ingrid Vanderveldt, 2/3)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento County Leaders Must Address Homeless Crisis
Recently, by unanimous vote, the Sacramento City Council approved a new citywide strategy to address the city’s rapidly escalating homelessness crisis. Their decision came less than two months after receiving a letter from 60 members of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, a business and property owner group, stating that the homeless crisis was putting downtown’s economic future in jeopardy. This letter called on local officials, including the city, the sheriff’s office and the district attorney, to step in to create “a safe, clean and welcoming physical environment” for downtown office workers when they return post-pandemic. “The growth of homelessness without aggressive action is immoral,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said at a January council meeting. (Michele Steeb and David Flanagan, 2/5)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Rev. Al Sharpton: Why The City Of San Diego Should Not Switch To Falck For Its Ambulance Services
2020 will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the most consequential years of our time. Our country confronted a devastating pandemic, experienced a national reckoning with racism and endured one of the most bitter presidential elections in American history. Now, with Inauguration Day behind us and a new administration in place, Americans are yearning for a year of healing and real progress around race and inequity. For many of us, the political shift in 2021 represents an opportunity to reassess what’s important to us as individuals and as a broader more unified community. (Al Sharpton, 2/4)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Why The City Of San Diego Should Switch To Falck For Its Ambulance Services
The contract to provide emergency ambulance care for the city of San Diego will soon be reviewed by the San Diego City Council. After the initial request for proposal in 2019 was scrapped when the incumbent provider filed an appeal against the winning contractor in January 2020, the city is on track to confirm a five-year contract that is meant to provide a direct and life-saving service to our communities. (Nancy Maldonado, Francine Maxwell and Jason Paguio, 2/4)