Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Cases Are Spiking Elsewhere. Will L.A. County Be Hit Hard Or Be Spared? 
After dramatic declines in coronavirus cases, Los Angeles County has hit another plateau this week that comes amid the spread of the highly infectious BA.2 Omicron subvariant. BA.2 has led to new increases in cases in other areas, from a significant surge in Britain that has resulted in an increase in hospitalizations and deaths, and the apparent beginning of a wave in New York and Massachusetts. (Money and Lin II, 4/2)

Modesto Bee: Earth Day Festival In Modesto Is Canceled Due To COVID-19 
While there will be opportunities in April to get out and about in the Modesto region, one of the city’s biggest community events won’t be among them. Earth Day in the Park, usually held at Graceada Park in Modesto, was canceled again this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Diana Ruiz-Del Re, the city’s communications and media relations officer. This is the third year the festival won’t happen because of the pandemic. (Clark, 4/3)

Voice of OC: OC Muslims Hope For A More ‘Normal’ Ramadan As They Gear Up For The Third Celebration Since COVID
This will mark the third time Muslims have embarked on the fast since COVID-19 cases were first reported in Orange County and the second one since vaccination efforts first started to roll out in the county. And now with roughly 75% of Orange County’s 3.2 million residents fully vaccinated, according to the OC Health Care Agency, there is hope that Ramadan this year may be celebrated in a way more similar to how it was celebrated before the pandemic – as a community. (Elattar, 4/1)

The New York Times: How Covid And Diabetes Collide In A Public Health Train Wreck
After an insect bite on his back became infected, David Donner, a retired truck driver in rural Alabama, waited six hours in a packed emergency room with his wife, before coronavirus vaccines were widely available. A few days later, they both began experiencing the telltale symptoms of Covid-19.Debra Donner quickly recovered, but Mr. Donner, 66, landed in the I.C.U. “The virus barely slowed her down, but I ended up surrounded by nurses in hazmat suits,” he said. His halting recovery has left him dependent on a wheelchair. “I walk 20 feet and I’m huffing and puffing like I ran 20 miles.” (Jacobs, 4/3)

NBC News: Study: Covid's Racial Disparities Made Some White People Less Vigilant About The Virus
A new study ... published in Social Science & Medicine, found that white people surveyed in the United States in fall 2020 cared less and were even more likely to shun pandemic safety precautions after learning about the disproportionate ways it impacts Black communities and other communities of color. “When white people in the U.S. were more aware of racial disparities in Covid-19, they were less fearful of Covid-19,” said Allison Skinner-Dorkenoo, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Georgia and co-author of the study. “We found evidence of less empathy for people who are vulnerable to Covid-19 and we also found evidence of reduced support for safety precautions to prevent the spread of Covid-19.” (Adams, 4/1)

Bay Area News Group: Is It Possible To Overdo It With COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters?
First, it was one or two COVID-19 vaccine shots. Then it was get a booster shot after eight months, until they changed it to six, then five months. Now, federal health authorities have approved yet another shot four months from your last one if you’re at least 50 or in poor health. But is it possible to overdo it on COVID-19 vaccine boosters? Could it end up like the overuse of antibiotics that medical experts now warn is breeding superbugs resistant to them? (Woolfolk, 4/3)

The Washington Post: Many Say They’re Confused About Whether, When To Get Second Booster
A blizzard of questions from bewildered patients, friends and even other doctors have inundated Maryland primary care doctor Kavita Patel in the last few days, since the Biden administration authorized a fourth dose of coronavirus vaccine for millions of Americans 50 and older. Some sought advice on whether to try to time their fourth shots to the next wave of infections. Others were frantic about getting a dose immediately. A few younger than 50 but with chronic health problem wondered why they had been left out. (Abutaleb and Sun, 4/2)

Southern California News Group: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Calls Out Lakers’ LeBron James Over Covid Vaccine Stance, Again
Abdul-Jabbar has at least twice written about his disappointment with James’ stance on COVID-19 vaccines, including a meme comparing COVID-19 to colds and the flu which Abdul-Jabbar said in December “has encouraged vaccine hesitancy which puts lives and livelihoods at risk.” And on Sunday, the Captain didn’t shy away from continuing to question the Lakers star of the present. “It just comes from some of the things he’s done and said are really beneath him, as far as I can see, some of the great things that he’s done,” he said. “He’s standing on both sides of the fence almost, you know? It makes it hard for me to accept that when he’s committed himself to a different take on everything. It’s hard to figure out where he’s standing.” (Goon, 4/4)

CapRadio: Here’s What We Know So Far About Gov. Newsom’s CARE Court Proposal 
Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced a plan in early March that would compel treatment for as many as 12,000 people with severe mental illness and drug addiction — including many experiencing homelessness. While some are on board with the still developing framework, civil rights groups and homeless advocates say they’re worried the proposal is a step backward for the rights of some of California’s most vulnerable people. (Nichols, 4/4)

Politico: How The Lull In Covid Cases Could Deflate California's Legislative Vaccination Agenda 
California’s legislative agenda to bolster Covid-19 vaccinations faces a new, albeit welcomed, challenge: waning pandemic conditions throughout the state and the country. The ambitious package of Covid-19 vaccine legislation, including measures to add Covid to the required list of vaccinations for school children, was already considered a heavy lift. But case rates falling to a historic low could take some of the steam out of the effort. (Colliver and Korte, 3/31)

AP: Californians Warned About Risk From British Columbia Oysters 
At least 34 people statewide have contracted norovirus in the past few weeks in California after eating raw oysters harvested in British Columbia, Canada, state health officials said Saturday. The state Department of Health issued a warning not to eat raw oysters imported from British Columbia where officials have closed multiple growing regions for sanitary contamination. (4/2)

NBC News: GI Symptoms? It's Probably Not Covid, But It Could Be Norovirus.
As Covid-19 cases continue to fall in the United States, cases of another virus are rebounding to pre-pandemic levels. Outbreaks of norovirus, the bug responsible for the dreaded stomach flu, have been on the rise since January, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From August 2021 through the beginning of last month, the CDC reported 448 norovirus outbreaks. During the same time period the previous year, just 78 were reported. (Edwards, 4/1)

Bay Area News Group: Looking For Flu And Other Nasty Germs In Our Poop
The COVID-19 virus is not the only troubling microbe that lurks in our poop. Buoyed by the success of wastewater surveillance to monitor for the coronavirus, some Bay Area communities are now applying the same strategy to seek out the flu virus and other germs, ushering in a new era of epidemiology. (Krieger, 4/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: A Heat Wave Is Coming. Here’s How High Temperatures Will Get
On Wednesday and Thursday westerly winds “will bump up daytime temperatures to well above normal,” he said, “possibly nearing or exceeding the record high” for Livermore on Thursday, which was 89 degrees in 1989, when the Bay Area saw another early April heat wave. Overall, however, “forecast high temps will likely stay under old record highs,” he added. “We’re confident that daytime highs will be well above normal, but it’s still a week out & there’s uncertainty in how hot it’ll get,” the agency wrote on Twitter. (Echeverria, 4/2)

Sacramento Bee: Northern California Could Face Dire Wildfire Danger In 2022. How High Is The Risk?
Most of California is bone dry. Climate change is growing demonstrably more extreme by the year. And even though some significant rain fell earlier this week, it’s well short of a “March miracle.” This year figures to be a bad one – another bad one – for California wildfires. (McGough, 4/3)

Los Angeles Times: How Climate Change Is Making Valley Fever Worse 
Officially known as coccidioidomycosis — or “cocci” for short — valley fever is a fungal infection that is transmitted in dust. In the United States, it has mostly plagued humans and animals in Arizona and California’s San Joaquin Valley, where the illness was first described as “San Joaquin Valley fever” more than a century ago. But a disease that was confined to the arid Southwest for decades appears now to be spreading, with new cases being reported in Washington, Oregon and Utah. At the same time, infection rates are increasing, particularly in California, where rates have risen 800% since 2000. (Smith, 4/4)

AP: With Students In Turmoil, US Teachers Train In Mental Health
Since the pandemic started, experts have warned of a mental health crisis facing American children that is now visibly playing out at schools across the country. Benito Luna-Herrera, a 7th grade social studies teacher in Southern California, tells of middle school students whose post-pandemic depression led them to thoughts of suicide. Other educators say they have never seen so much school violence, anxiety, depression, substance abuse and suicide ideation. The silver lining in Luna-Herrera’s case is that special training helped him know what to look for and how to respond to signs of a mental emergency. (Gecker, 4/4)

San Diego Union-Tribune: A Small Court With A Big Mission: A Second Chance For Criminals With Mental Illness 
Behavioral Health Court is a small program in San Diego Superior Court, offered to a fraction of criminal defendants who suffer from serious mental illness — often schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or bipolar disorder. The 13-year-old program gets participants out of jails and into group homes. There, people get access to treatment and medication, group therapy and individual counseling. (Cook and Figueroa, 4/3)

Voice Of San Diego: San Diego Is Still Trying To Add More Public Restrooms. But It's Not Easy 
Late last year, Mayor Todd Gloria’s team made public their goal to have a restroom within a five-minute walk of any location downtown. Jakob McWhinney and Lisa Halverstadt checked in on the city’s progress and found it’s still working to address downtown restroom gaps. It’s also grappling with ongoing access challenges at two existing East Village restrooms that developers committed to provide. The latter underscores the challenges the city faces in meeting its target. Achieving it requires ensuring restrooms new and old are actually accessible. (4/4)

Modesto Bee: Modesto Focuses On Housing In One Of Its Poorest Communities
The city is focusing its attention on west Modesto — one of its most diverse, poorest and oldest communities — with an effort it expects will improve housing and living conditions for residents. Modesto wants to hire a consultant that would identify the barriers developers face in building affordable housing and ways to overcome them and evaluate the development of vacant or underused sites for housing and/or mixed-used development. (Valine, 4/3)