Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
How LA, Calling the Shots on School Vaccine Mandates, Can Lead the Way on Covid Rules
In the middle of a measles outbreak in 1977, the Los Angeles school system required students to be inoculated or stay out of class. Other school systems followed the practice. Will it work again now that the county is insisting that teens have their shots against covid? (Arthur Allen, )
‘Outraged’ By Abortion Ruling, Newsom Says He’ll Apply Same Tactics To Gun Control: California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Saturday he will push for a new law modeled on Texas’ abortion ban that would let private citizens sue anyone who makes or sells assault weapons or ghost guns. Newsom has excoriated the Texas law for limiting women’s access to abortion. Read more from The Sacramento Bee, Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle.
In related news –
Legal Experts Say Newsom’s Approach Could Work: Berkeley Law School Dean and constitutional law expert Erwin Chemerinsky said that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Friday has “opened a dangerous door” by allowing citizen suits to enforce questionable laws. Read more from Bay Area News Group.
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
Orange County Register:
COVID-19 Cases Tick Up At Senior Homes In California
They’re the most vulnerable to severe disease and death. They’re the most vaccinated slice of the population. Yet COVID-19 cases are ticking up nonetheless among seniors living in many California nursing homes. California Department of Public Health. “We’ve seen a small number of skilled nursing facility outbreaks over the past few weeks,” said Dr. Matthew Zahn, deputy county health officer for Orange County. “It’s not clear at this point whether this represents a larger trend, but our experience so far indicates that these outbreaks are related to lower booster dose rates in facility residents.” (Sforza, 12/12)
City News Service:
LA County’s COVID Hospitalizations Surge Past 700, Intensifying Winter Surge Concerns
The number of coronavirus patients in Los Angeles County hospitals surged past 700 on Saturday, Dec. 11, amid signs of a winter spike in COVID cases. There are 707 COVID patients at county hospitals, up from 684 on Friday, according to the latest state figures. The number of those patients being treated in intensive care is 182, up from 165 a day earlier. (12/11)
Bay Area News Group:
As California's COVID Cases Rise, Antibody Treatments Go Unused
The number of Californians hospitalized for COVID-19 is once again climbing — even as a powerful treatment goes unused. Deployment of the free, life-saving monoclonal antibody therapy, which reduces the risk of hospitalization by 80%, has been slowed due to poor communication and administrative coordination, as well as a shortage of facilities equipped to provide the infusion. In some cases, patients may not be aware of the treatment or may be hesitant to use it. (Krieger, 12/12)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Due To Parish Worries, S.F. Church Delays Archbishop Cordileone’s Visit After He Reveals He’s Unvaccinated
A Catholic church in San Francisco pushed back a visit from Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone scheduled for a Dec. 19 Mass after he recently revealed that he’s unvaccinated. Pastor and Jesuit father George Williams informed the parish of St. Agnes Catholic Church in the Haight of the decision in a church bulletin last weekend. He wrote that he had called the archbishop and asked him to reschedule his visit for a later time “because many people in the parish had expressed concern about this.” Williams did not specify a later date for a visit. (Moench, 12/10)
Axios:
Facebook Exec Blames Society For COVID Misinformation
Longtime Facebook veteran Andrew Bosworth insists that political and COVID-19 misinformation are societal problems rather than issues that have been magnified by social networks. Critics say Facebook and other social networks have played a significant role in vaccine hesitancy and the spread of political misinformation. "Individual humans are the ones who choose to believe or not believe a thing. They are the ones who choose to share or not share a thing," Bosworth said in an interview with "Axios on HBO." "I don't feel comfortable at all saying they don't have a voice because I don't like what they said." (Fried, 12/12)
The Wall Street Journal:
How Sequencing Covid-19’s Viral Genome Helps Hunt For Variants
To keep up with changes to the virus that causes Covid-19, scientists are using a technology called genomic sequencing. The process starts with a Covid-19 test. Some samples that test positive for the coronavirus in a laboratory are pulled aside and sent off for sequencing, a review of the virus’s genetic material that can take as little as a day or more than a week. The SARS-CoV-2 genome has about 30,000 individual building blocks to decode, compared with about three billion in the human genome. (Abbott and Cervantes, 12/12)
CIDRAP:
Face Mask, Other PPE Litter Skyrockets Amid Pandemic
The proliferation of face coverings to protect against COVID-19 has had a devastating, lasting effect on the environment, with a 9,000% increase in mask litter over 14 months in 11 countries, finds an observational study led by UK researchers yesterday in Nature Sustainability. Discarded gloves and used disinfectant wipes have also added to the refuse, the increase of which was likely driven by national COVID-19 policy responses—particularly face mask mandates—and World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, the researchers said. (Van Beusekom, 12/10)
Bay Area News Group:
While Most Bay Area Economies Floundered In The First Year Of The Pandemic, Santa Clara County Posted Record Numbers
When the pandemic shut down wide swaths of the country in March 2020, the economies of all Bay Area counties tanked — except for Santa Clara County’s. Unlike counties such as San Francisco and Napa whose financial health suffered in large part because they lean heavily on tourism and service industries still feeling the lingering effects of shutdowns, Santa Clara County thrived, according to newly released federal data. (Greschler, 12/11)
The Wall Street Journal:
Pfizer Booster Shots Are Effective Against Omicron Variant, Israeli Study Says
A booster shot of Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s Covid-19 vaccine provides good protection against severe illness from the Omicron variant, while those without a third shot are highly vulnerable, according to a new Israeli study. The findings, similar to those announced last week by Pfizer, suggest countries worried about Omicron’s rapid spread will be able to defend their populations with continued inoculation. ... The study’s bad news, said Dr. Regev-Yochay, director of the infectious-disease epidemiology unit at Sheba Medical Center, is that people who got a “second dose of the vaccine five to six months ago don’t have any neutralizing ability.” (Lieber, 12/12)
San Francisco Chronicle:
How Effective Are Today’s Vaccines Against Omicron? Here’s What We Know So Far
Less than three weeks after omicron was identified and given a name, scientists already have the first evidence that the highly mutated coronavirus variant may be better than any of its predecessors at evading immunity from vaccines or previous infection. Early laboratory studies from around the world show a potentially dramatic drop in the body’s frontline antibody response to the variant among people who are fully vaccinated or previously infected. That finding, translated to real-world experience, could mean people will be more likely to get breakthrough infections with omicron than with delta or other variants. (Allday, 12/11)
CBS News:
One Year After FDA Authorized Pfizer's COVID Vaccine, Cases Are On The Rise
Saturday marks one year since the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine — the first of three COVID-19 vaccines now in use in the United States. During that time, more than 480 million shots have been administered, and just over 60% of eligible Americans are fully vaccinated. But even with those protections, case numbers have gone up 22% in the past two weeks. Confirmed COVID cases showed up this week at an average rate of 120,000 per day, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ninety-nine percent of those new cases are from Delta variant, not Omicron. (12/11)
The Hill:
Fauci: 'If It Becomes Necessary To Get Yet Another Boost, Then We'll Just Have To Deal With It'
White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci on Sunday said health officials will "have to deal with it” if it is determined that another COVID-19 booster shot is necessary to protect against the virus, but said he is hoping that additional jabs will not be needed due to protection from initial booster shots. “If it becomes necessary to get yet another boost, then we'll just have to deal with it when that occurs, but I'm hoping from an immunological standpoint that that third shot of an mRNA and the second shot of a J&J will give a much greater durability of protection than just the six months or so that we're seeing right now,” Fauci told host George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.” (Schnell, 12/12)
Politico:
Fauci: Booster Shots For Americans Won’t Deprive Unvaccinated People Around The Globe
Anthony Fauci said Sunday that pushing Americans to get booster shots won’t deprive others around the globe of the opportunity to get vaccinated. “We can do both,” Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week." “We are, right now, vaccinating our own country,” President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser said. “We're going to be boosting as many people as we possibly can. But you can also simultaneously make doses available to the developing world. And the United States, quite frankly, has done more than all of the other countries combined. We've given over 300 million doses to over 100 countries, and we will either have given or pledging 1.1 billion doses and an expansion of even more.“ (Cohen, 12/12)
Los Angeles Times:
Should The Definition Of 'Fully Vaccinated' Include A Booster Shot?
For many Americans who scrambled to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as their turn came up, the relief of gaining immunity was just one reward. Achieving “fully vaccinated” status conferred a faint halo of virtue as well. Now, both the shots’ biological protection and the satisfaction of contributing to the herd’s immunity are proving short-lived. And with a worrisome new coronavirus variant threatening to erode vaccine-induced immunity further, health officials are debating whether the definition of “fully vaccinated” should be amended to include a booster shot. (Healy, 12/11)
Los Angeles Times:
Beverly Hills Firefighters Sue Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
Two Beverly Hills firefighters are suing over Los Angeles County’s mandate that healthcare workers be vaccinated against COVID-19. It’s the latest salvo in the heated battle between some public sector employees and governments over public health requirements, which have seen workers stage protests and mount legal actions. (Wigglesworth, 12/11)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Blood Shortage Prompts Hospitals To Plan For Surgery Cancellations
An ongoing blood shortage has some San Diego County hospitals nervous that they may soon need to start delaying surgeries due to lack of available units. Increased demand for blood, combined with pandemic-driven difficulties running blood drives and also getting the public to come out and participate, have left shelves empty of the red gold needed for everything from saving the lives of car accident victims to treating those with stomach ulcers. (Sisson, 12/13)
The Bakersfield Californian:
For Thousands Of Uninsured Central Valley Residents, Covered California Seeks To Be The Answer
Late-stage cancer, stroke and the amputation of limbs are all maladies that frequently threaten the lives of California residents, in addition to costing thousands of dollars for treatment. These conditions can be caught early if patients are screened, but thousands of Californians without medical insurance frequently wait until it is too late for a relatively easy medical intervention. That’s why Covered California, the state’s public health insurance marketplace, is urging all residents to seek insurance during this year’s open enrollment period. In a virtual tour stop highlighting the Central Valley, doctors and insurance agents from Merced to Bakersfield urged residents to sign up for insurance, claiming that federal support has made the program cheaper. (Morgen, 12/10)
San Francisco Chronicle:
‘It’s So Hard’: California’s Homeless Face Misery In Rain, Cold
This weekend, as another winter storm arrived, unsheltered people around the state scrambled to brace themselves in an already trying moment. Many living outside near encampments that have swelled during the pandemic are going to extremes to stay warm, cutting deep into limited funds to buy tarps, building DIY heat systems or turning to community groups for help — as local governments struggle to balance a coming wave of new long-term homeless funding with immediate survival needs. Normal winter necessities like waterproof tents and propane aren’t cheap, and have in some cases slipped out of reach as consumer prices surge. (Hepler, 12/12)
Pasadena Star-News:
Organ Donors And Recipients Discover Life And Community En Route To New Year’s Day Rose Parade
Donate Life Rose Parade floats have proceeded down Colorado Boulevard for nearly 20 years, wowing crowds with 50-foot petal-and-seed sculptures and dazzling ornaments. But the floral finery pales in comparison to the courage, strength and compassion exhibited by those who ride on or march alongside the float on New Year’s Day. Heart transplants, weeks-long comas and the heartbreaking death of loved ones are only a part of the lifelong battles faced by the dozens of families who united in Irwindale on Friday, Dec. 10, to share their personal stories and preview this year’s “Courage to Hope” float. (Dixson, 12/10)
CapRadio:
'The Race Epidemic' Documentary Looks At The Rise Of Hate Crimes During The COVID-19 Pandemic
A recent nationwide survey showed one in five Asian Americans has experienced a hate crime since the start of the pandemic. California has, by far, the largest Asian American population in the U.S. with more than 6.5 million people identifying themselves in this way. That’s more than the next top five states combined. Now, a new documentary focused on hate crimes against Asian Americans is selling out screenings and winning the award for best documentary at the 17th Annual Chinese American Film Festival. It’s called "The Race Epidemic" and writer/producer Ronald Wong is the main person behind it. (White, 12/10)