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Taking A Shot At A Big Jackpot: California Offers $116.5M In Prizes: As covid vaccination demand dips in California, officials announced the largest incentive program launched by any state to date. Its target? To get shots in arms of an additional 12 million residents. Ten grand prizes of $1.5 million each will be awarded on June 15 -- the date the state plans to reopen fully. Drawings for 30 awards of $50,000 will be held on June 4 and June 11. All prizes are open to any Californian who have gotten at least one shot. “These are real incentives," Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday. "These are an opportunity to say thank you to those not only seeking to get vaccinated as we move forward, but also those that have been vaccinated since we first availed those opportunities a number of months ago." All the California news outlets are all over the big money news. Get details from Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Sacramento Bee, Bay Area News Group, CapRadio, CalMatters and KQED.
Scripps Largely Back Online After Cyberattack: Scripps Health got key digital records systems back up and running Thursday -- four weeks after it was hit by ransomware. A Scripps nurse -- who spoke to The San Diego Union-Tribune anonymously for fear of discipline -- confirmed that their hospital’s EPIC health records system returned to service overnight. “We still do not know what was taken or what we need to do to ensure our own personal data is secure,” the nurse said. And patients trying to access Scripps' patient portal, MyScripps, no longer encounter an error message. A Scripps spokesperson said in an email that the provider is “incrementally bringing our systems back up.” The San Diego Union-Tribune has the full story.
More News From Across The State
Los Angeles Times:
Have Half The World's COVID-19 Deaths Gone Uncounted? Here's Why Some Experts Think So
If there’s one thing about COVID-19’s death toll that researchers seem to agree on, it’s that the official count is probably way too low.But the extent of the undercount is a source of contention. That may help explain why, when the influential Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle released a new model this month suggesting that the true number of COVID-19 deaths around the world was more than double the figure from the World Health Organization, response from other experts was mixed. (Khan, 5/28)
CNN:
CDC Predicts Covid-19 Cases, Hospitalizations And Deaths Will Fall Over Next Four Weeks
There is good news for the US as people get ready for Memorial Day weekend. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is predicting that Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths will fall over the next four weeks. The CDC ensemble forecasts conclude that there will be a total of 596,000 to 606,000 Covid-19 deaths by June 19. (Kallingal, 5/28)
Los Angeles Daily News:
Black Residents Now Top LA County’s Coronavirus Death Rates
For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Black residents in Los Angeles County have overtaken Latinos and now have the highest rates of virus infections, hospitalizations and deaths, the county public health director said Thursday, May 27. Barbara Ferrer noted that overall COVID rates in the county remain generally low, but she said the “flip” of Black residents overtaking Latinos in critical categories is primarily due to lagging vaccination rates in the Black community. (5/27)
Orange County Register:
Map: California Reported 1,112 New Covid Cases And 32 New Deaths, May 26
In California, 1,112 new cases of the coronavirus were reported Wednesday, May 26, according to end-of-day totals on public health websites, bringing the total number of cases so far to 3,753,765. There were 32 new deaths reported statewide Wednesday for a total of 62,689 people who have died from COVID-19. The state reported 23 fewer hospitalizations from the previous day, decreasing the total hospitalizations of those infected with the coronavirus to 1,424. (Goertzen, 5/28)
The New York Times:
U.S. Is Said To Have Unexamined Intelligence To Pore Over On Virus Origins
President Biden’s call for a 90-day sprint to understand the origins of the coronavirus pandemic came after intelligence officials told the White House they had a raft of still-unexamined evidence that required additional computer analysis that might shed light on the mystery, according to senior administration officials. The officials declined to describe the new evidence. But the revelation that they are hoping to apply an extraordinary amount of computer power to the question of whether the virus accidentally leaked from a Chinese laboratory suggests that the government may not have exhausted its databases of Chinese communications, the movement of lab workers and the pattern of the outbreak of the disease around the city of Wuhan. (Barnes and Sanger, 5/27)
The Wall Street Journal:
Time Is Running Out In Covid-19 Origins Inquiry, Say WHO-Led Team Members
Members of a World Health Organization-led team investigating the origins of Covid-19 urged the United Nations agency’s member states to mandate a second phase of research, warning that time was running out to examine blood samples and other important clues in China regarding when, how and where the pandemic started. The researchers also called for the U.S. to share with the WHO any intelligence supporting the hypothesis that the Covid-19 virus might have spilled from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan, saying they had already unsuccessfully asked Washington for that information. (Page and Hinshaw, 5/27)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento Struggling To Boost COVID-19 Vaccination Rates
More than five months into the global effort to vaccinate against COVID-19, Sacramento County has consistently lagged behind neighbors in the region and California as a whole. It’s a trend that remains disconcerting as the state plans to fully reopen its economy and drop most of its capacity and social distancing restrictions, as well as the mask mandate for the fully vaccinated, in less than three weeks. (McGough and Yoon-Hendricks, 5/27)
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Nearly 30% Of Sonoma County’s 12-15-Year-Olds Partly Vaccinated
After two weeks of eligibility, nearly 30% of Sonoma County’s 12-15-year-olds have received their first coronavirus vaccinations, a rate that has county health officials and local medical professionals highly encouraged. “It’s an unbelievable rush,” said Sutter Health pediatrician Brian Prystowski. But it isn’t enough to satisfy the California Department of Public Health, which has set a goal of a 70% vaccination rate in order to fully reopen schools this fall, according to Sonoma County Superintendent of Schools Steve Herrington. And it may not be enough to chase away a frustratingly persistent virus. (Barber, 5/27)
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Unique Vaccine Clinic In Windsor Includes Snacks, Car Show
A circle of decades-old vehicles and a snack stand completed a paradoxically fun vaccine clinic Wednesday in Windsor. The clinic and car show was presented by Corazón Healdsburg, a local nonprofit dedicated to amplifying Latino voices and creating community cultural events in the Sonoma County area. The nonprofit teamed up with Alliance Health to create the interactive vaccine clinic. Some came for a Pfizer dose and some just showed up for a dose of community. (Yarrow, 5/27)
NPR:
Vaccine Patches Use Microneedles To Eliminate Pain
It's the rare individual who actually looks forward to getting jabbed with a needle, even if what's in the needle can protect them from a serious disease such as COVID-19. But several teams around the world are working on a way to inject a vaccine without the ouch. The trick is to make the needles small. Really small. So small they don't interact with the nerve endings that signal pain. (Palca, 5/27)
AP:
Social Spending, Business Tax Hike Drive $6T Biden Budget
President Joe Biden’s $6 trillion budget proposal for next year would run a $1.8 trillion federal government deficit despite a raft of new tax increases on corporations and high-income people designed to pay for his ambitious spending plans. Biden had already announced his major budget initiatives, but during a rollout Friday he will release them as a single proposal to incorporate them into the government’s existing budget framework, including Social Security and Medicare. That provides a fuller view of the administration’s fiscal posture. (Taylor, 5/28)
Politico:
Biden Budget Won't Clear Up Congress' Infrastructure Limbo
The release of President Joe Biden’s budget on Friday was supposed to be the green light for Democrats to go it alone on his $4 trillion infrastructure plan. Instead his party is stalled at the intersection. Biden will release that long-awaited fiscal year 2022 budget plan on Friday, a crucial first step for congressional Democrats to unlock the legislative powers to pass an infrastructure package without GOP votes. (Emma, Ferris and Levine, 5/28)
AP:
Biden To GOP: 'Don't Get In The Way' Of Infrastructure Plan
President Joe Biden on Thursday warned naysayers in Congress not to “get in the way” of his big infrastructure plans as the White House panned a counteroffer from Republican senators to tap unused COVID-19 relief for a more modest investment in roads, highways and other traditional public works projects. After touring a manufacturing technology center at a community college in Cleveland, Biden held up a card with the names of Republicans lawmakers who had rejected his coronavirus aid bill in Washington but later promoted its assistance when they were back home in front of voters. He warned them not to play similar games as he pushes this next legislative priority in Congress. (Mascaro and Lemire, 5/27)
Fierce Healthcare:
Blue Shield Of California, Gemini Health See $20M In Savings Through Drug Cost Reduction Partnership
Blue Shield of California has seen more than $20 million in drug cost savings through its partnership with Gemini Health in the first two years, the insurer announced this week. Through the partnership, prescribers are provided with patient-specific formulary, benefit and cost information at multiple points in the care journey, including during physician visits. By arming them with additional data, Blue Shield of California and Gemini are hoping providers will work with patients to reduce costs. (Minemyer, 5/27)
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Kaiser Sponsors Program To Assist Disadvantaged Small Businesses Hurt During Pandemic
Recognizing the link between economic prosperity and good health, Kaiser Permanente is sponsoring a small business training program to assist local residents in underserved communities overcome the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program, which includes a tuition-free, 40 hour, “mini-MBA” program that offers executive training, webinars, coaching and connection to business capital, is part of a larger effort by Kaiser to invest in what the health care giant calls the “social determinants of health. ”It’s also an effort to address the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on disadvantaged communities, not only in terms of coronavirus infections, hospitalizations and deaths but also job losses and business closures, said Tommy Smith, Kaiser’s head of economic impact strategy. (Espinoza, 5/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
San Francisco's Seizures Of Deadly Fentanyl Are Skyrocketing. Is It Impacting Supply?
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 25 to 50 times more powerful than heroin, is a relative newcomer to the recreational drug market, but in recent years has been responsible for more overdose deaths in San Francisco than any other drug. Its cheap production cost, widespread availability and lethality pose new and unique challenges to authorities and service providers trying to combat the opioid epidemic. In response, local and federal law enforcement agencies have cracked down on fentanyl dealers and operations, seizing an increasing amount of it from the streets and border crossings each year. But that hasn’t necessarily cut off supply. Instead, researchers say the amount of seizures merely serve as a proxy to indicate the rising level of supply and demand. (Jung, 5/28)
Sacramento Bee:
Long Waits Plague Sacramento County Mental Health Services
A Sacramento County call center that connects residents to mental health treatment regularly falls short when serving the most pressing cases, a Sacramento Bee review of service records shows. Although the county’s mental health access team is designed to link people with treatment within seven days of their request, county data shows it often takes three times longer. Less than one-third of the 307 adult requests in the last three months of 2019 — the most recent data available — made it to their first appointment on time. (Finch II, 5/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Supervisors Slam S.F. For Failing To Provide Drug Treatment On Demand Amid Overdose Crisis
As San Francisco struggles to stem an unprecedented overdose epidemic, elected officials, advocates and people in recovery are arguing the city is failing to provide voter-mandated drug treatment on demand - and are pleading with public health leaders to make it easier to get help. Drug overdoses killed more than three times as many people in San Francisco than COVID-19 in 2020 - and the numbers this year are on the path to surpass the 713 lives lost last year. The city already spends $400 million annually on behavioral health and plans to pump $100 more into it under a sweeping reform initiative. (Moench, 5/27)
CapRadio:
California Has Backlog In Paying Out COVID-19 Affected Renter Relief Money
California has paid out less than 5% of federal relief money requested by renters affected by COVID-19 hardships, according to a new report. When Jaylynn Bailey lost work during the pandemic, she waded through the state's bureaucracy to secure her unemployment insurance, but the freelance writer from Pasadena hasn't been so successful with California's rent relief program. (5/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
S.F. Is About To See A Wave Of Affordable Housing Projects Bring 900 Homes To The City
A decade-long push by city officials to pressure office and market-rate developers to carve out land for affordable housing is starting to pay off. The Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development is set to announce on Thursday that it has picked affordable builders to construct nearly 900 units on nine sites scattered around the city, with the majority concentrated in the South of Market where the tech boom of the 2010s was most prominent. (Dineen, 5/27)
AP:
California Lawmakers Push 10 Bills To Fight Wildfire Risks
Democrats who control the state Senate said Thursday they intend to advance a 10-bill package to the Assembly in the next week as California rushes to prepare for an intensifying drought and what officials fear could be a repeat of last year’s record wildfire season. The package seeks, in part, to boost state firefighter ranks long-term while beefing up standards for new housing developments. It also seeks to promote more prescribed burns and increased efforts to protect individual homes from wildfires. (Thompson, 5/27)
Los Angeles Times:
O.C. Health Officials Impose A New Quarantine Through Oct. 31 — But It's Not What You're Thinking
Officials with the Orange County Health Care Agency, the body tasked with oversight of public health programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, on Thursday announced a different kind of quarantine would be imposed through October — on the consumption of mussels. Now through Oct. 31, residents across California are being warned not to eat mussels and other potentially toxic shellfish collected by sports harvesters from coastal waters. (Cardine, 5/27)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Activists Pushing For Pesticide Notifications Rally Outside Kern Ag Commissioner's Office
Local environmental justice advocates put pressure on Kern Ag Commissioner Glenn Fankhauser with a rally outside his office Thursday calling for public disclosure of farmers' plans for applying certain cancer-causing fumigants. "We're here today to stop secrecy on pesticides," said Gustavo Aguirre Jr., one of several speakers at the lightly attended noontime event at the southeast corner of South Mount Vernon Avenue and East Belle Terrace. (Cox, 5/27)
Bay Area News Group:
Marin Judge Probes San Quentin’s COVID-19 Debacle
More than 300 inmates are trying to hold San Quentin State Prison to account for a coronavirus outbreak that infected 2,169 prisoners and killed 28 last year. An unusual evidentiary hearing in Marin County Superior Court this month has brought the prison’s top administrator and other figures to the witness stand. The hearing is in response to stacks of habeas corpus petitions — emergency filings alleging unlawful incarceration under the Eighth Amendment — filed by the inmates. (Halstead, 5/28)
Los Angeles Times:
Judge Rails At L.A. Officials For Causing Homelessness Through Structural Racism. They Don't Disagree
At a hearing Thursday devoted to structural racism in a federal lawsuit about homelessness in Los Angeles, the defendants offered no evidence to suggest it doesn’t exist. Neither did the plaintiffs. Judge David O. Carter said a long, winding road of racism led him to the belief that he had to act and order the city and county of Los Angeles to offer shelter to everyone on skid row by October. (Oreskes, 5/27)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Vista Shuts Down Neighborhood Pantry That Helped Feed Community
A pantry that provided food, toys, books and a sense of hope for people struggling over the past 14 months during the COVID-19 pandemic has been shut down in Vista because it was operating in a residential neighborhood in apparent violation of a city zoning ordinance. Angel’s Pantry and Community Cupboard is not going quietly, however. (Warth, 5/27)
San Francisco Chronicle:
With The Pandemic Waning, Californians Are Ready To Travel This Summer
Californians won’t lose a second summer to COVID. After 15 months of being housebound, with vaccines flowing and the state’s official reopening date of June 15 shining like a beacon in the near distance, eager travelers are locking in summer vacation plans that will help fuel a recovery for the state’s beleaguered travel industry. (Thomas, 5/28)
Los Angeles Times:
A Lottery Ticket As A Reward For Vaccination? That's Nuts
I’ve been trying to figure out the odds of my winning a cool $1.5 million and bidding my boss farewell. As a vaccinated Californian, I qualify for the vax lottery announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday, in which the state is handing out 10 prizes of $1.5 million each to people vaccinated against COVID-19 whose numbers come up lucky in a drawing. There are a bunch of smaller prizes as well. (Karin Klein, 5/28)
Sacramento Bee:
California Must Train Its Health Leaders In Public Health
You wake up late and have to speed off to work when you see that dreadful amber warning light. Your brakes need a tune-up. When you take it to the shop, the only mechanic available has only trained on airplane brakes. Car brakes are new to her. Would you have her take a look? Does your car need the same brakes as a jumbo jet? A similar situation has been occurring with the COVID-19 pandemic response. Medical doctors, trained in anatomy to diagnose and treat individuals, have been leading efforts to resolve public health problems for entire populations. (Cindy Delgado and Eric Coles, 5/26)
CalMatters:
California Needs To Recognize Racism As A Public Health Crisis
The COVID pandemic underscores ongoing disparities in health, education and wealth afforded to different Americans depending on their race. The coronavirus doesn’t discriminate based on race, but the virus’ spread and severity depends on the circumstances of its victims. Black and Latino Americans are twice as likely to test positive for COVID-19 and are almost three times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID, while Native Americans are three and a half times more likely to be hospitalized. Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders are three times more likely to contract COVID as white people and have the highest death rate of all racial and ethnic groups. Asians with COVID are 57% more likely to be hospitalized and 49% more likely to die compared to whites with similar socioeconomic characteristics and underlying health conditions. (State Sen. Richard Pan, 5/25)
The Mercury News:
Newsom Drops The Ball On COVID Vaccine Verification
If Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to “fully reopen the economy” in California by June 15, he needs to provide employers, business owners and residents with a vaccine verification method so they can feel safe resuming their normal lives.California’s economic reopening will still require masks for those who are not vaccinated. The problem is ensuring that they follow the rules. Whether it’s at work, sporting events, movies or grocery stores, Californians deserve the assurance that those around them without masks have been fully vaccinated. (5/22)
San Francisco Chronicle:
No, You Probably Won't Need A COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Shot
Pharmaceutical company executives have been hinting for months that booster shots will be necessary to maintain the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. A study of such boosters is already underway. But the companies that stand to profit from these shots shouldn’t get to unilaterally determine the need for a repeat mass vaccination campaign without scientific questioning. Moreover, focus groups among the vaccine-hesitant have shown that talk of boosters can decrease the likelihood of people getting a vaccine now.Bodies of scientific research indicate that your immune system should offer you long-lived protection from reinfection if you’ve been vaccinated, even with the emergence of more infectious variants. (Monica Gandhi, 5/25)
Los Angeles Times:
There's A Model For Healthcare Reform. It's Amazon.Com
We can all probably agree that Amazon, more so than any other company, has trained us to be savvy online shoppers. It allows for effective comparison shopping and a clear sense of costs prior to making a purchase. So why don’t we make similar tools available to medical consumers? (David Lazarus, 5/28)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Why Massacres Like The San Jose Shooting Aren't As Inevitable As They Have Come To Seem
Shootings such as the one that killed nine transit workers in San Jose on Wednesday can engender a sense of futility about gun violence. California has the strictest gun laws in the country, according to one analysis, and yet the Bay Area just suffered its deadliest gun massacre to date. What’s the point?Such fatalism is understandable in the shadow of an atrocity. It’s also wrong. (May 27)
Los Angeles Times:
Reversing Roe Vs. Wade Is Wrong But Not 'Anti-Democratic'
Wednesday marked the first meeting of a commission appointed by President Biden to study possible changes to the Supreme Court including an increase in its size — aka “court-packing.” But Demand Justice, a group that advocates adding four justices to the nine-member court, thinks that Democrats can’t wait for the commission to conclude its work before moving to expand the court. One reason for urgency, it suggests, is the possibility that the court might overrule Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. (Michael McGough, 5/24)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Of Course California Should Decriminalize Magic Mushrooms
It has to be acknowledged that after more than half a century of drug demonization and criminalization, the idea of legalizing substances as powerful and fabled as LSD and psilocybin mushrooms can come off as hallucinatory. That is partly because Americans have become so inured to the prohibition and punishment of drug use, a skewed reality that — despite the growing exception for marijuana — we continue to inhabit in the face of all the evidence that its benefits are imagined and its harms all too actual. (May 23)
Sacramento Bee:
Surviving COVID Pandemic At California San Quentin Prison
A year ago, not long after the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation transferred over 100 incarcerated people from a COVID-19 stricken prison, medical alarms began blaring day and night throughout San Quentin as people became deathly ill. San Quentin was and still is so overcrowded that it’s impossible to stop the spread of any disease. For over a year, we were forced to engage in practices that went against recommendations from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. We waited in long lines to receive meals and shared a communal shower with 40 to 50 people at a time. No matter what precautions I took, I knew it was impossible to socially distance inside an overcrowded prison, and it wouldn’t be long before I got sick too. (Thanh Tran, 5/28)