Los Angeles Times: How California Is Fighting COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy 
Like swing voters in an election, those who have yet to be vaccinated will determine the outcome of the United States’ vaccination campaign, including how quickly the spread of the virus will stall and to what extent the disease will calcify into a long-term threat. President Biden is pushing to get a first dose to 70% of Americans by July 4. That ambitious goal may be out of reach in many parts of the country but could still be attainable in California, where nearly 50% of the population has received at least one dose, vaccine skepticism is lower and the effects of the pandemic have reached further into everyday life. (Nelson and Lau, 5/10)

Fresno Bee: COVID Vaccine Demand Slows In Fresno, Valley Counties
Throughout the first nine months of coronavirus’ rampage in California and the United States, public health officials – and many in the public – pinned their hopes on the development of vaccines to bring a swift end to the global pandemic and pave the way for a return to a pre-COVID-19 way of life. Indeed, when the first vaccines were granted emergency-use authorization by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, supplies of vaccine needed to be rationed and prioritized for front-line health care workers, and other industries clamored for the protection afforded by the shots. (Sheehan, 5/9)

Modesto Bee: A Third Of Stanislaus County Adults Fully Vaccinated 
A third of all adults in Stanislaus County are fully vaccinated, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The county stood at 33.4% through Saturday with 24.9% of the total population fully vaccinated. (Clark, 5/9)

Los Angeles Times: Analyzing COVID Vaccine Inequity Through An Obesity Lens 
For more than a year, the COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated yawning inequities in American life, disparities in race and ethnicity, poverty and privilege. Black and Latino communities have been among the hardest-hit, with death rates alarmingly higher than among white people. The virus has underscored yet another serious inequity. Studies link higher body mass index, or BMI, with increased risk for severe COVID-19, including higher rates of hospitalization. Other research shows weight bias can keep larger-bodied people from seeking and receiving appropriate care. (La Ganga, 5/8)

Sacramento Bee: How Will Children React To A Pfizer COVID Vaccine Shot? 
When will my kids get a vaccine? It’s the question that is top of mind for millions of parents waiting for the Food and Drug Administration to authorize the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds. In the Sacramento region, some children have likely already received their two doses. They are part of a pivotal trial that will help bring the COVID-19 vaccine to millions of children across the world. (Morrar, 5/10)

Bay Area News Group: Rotary Club Of Cupertino Aids COVID-19 Relief Efforts In India
Rotary Club of Cupertino is among the clubs in Rotary District 5170 that have partnered with other organizations to help ease India’s COVID-19 crisis. Cupertino Rotarians, together with Rotary e-club of SV Smart Village and the nonprofit Pratham USA, are raising funds to support a global grant for an oxygen generator for COVID-19 patients in New Delhi, as well as an additional effort to provide for more immediate distribution of oxygen products. (Gelhaus, 5/9)

Los Angeles Times: Low COVID-19 Rates, Deaths Continue For Los Angeles County 
COVID-19 deaths and cases continued to drop in Los Angeles County , the Department of Public Health reported Sunday, even as the region approached a grim new marker of 24,000 deaths from the pandemic. The count, which could be low because of delays in weekend reporting, included five deaths, 248 new cases and 400 hospitalizations. (Campa, 5/9)

Los Angeles Daily News: With 5 More Coronavirus Deaths Reported, LA County Climbs To 23,999 Total 
Los Angeles County reported 248 new cases of COVID-19 and five additional deaths on Sunday, May 9, though health officials say the relatively low numbers likely reflect reporting delays over the weekend. According to state figures, there were 389 people hospitalized with the virus as of Sunday in Los Angeles County, down from 400 on Saturday. The number of those patients in intensive care increased from 87 to 90. (5/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Did Alameda County Have A Huge COVID Surge? No. Here's What Happened
Alameda County’s coronavirus case count increased by more than 1,350 this week, raising concern over a possible surge amid California’s falling COVID-19 numbers. But did the county really experience a 581% spike in infections while every other county in the Bay Area showed steady numbers?No. It turns out the jump was the result of the state tabulating long-backlogged cases, county officials said. (Vaziri, 5/7)

NBC News: Walt Disney World, Universal Studios To End Temperature Checks For Guests
Walt Disney World Resorts announced this week that it will begin to phase out temperature checks at parks and facilities before the end of the month. The theme parks and related resorts will end temperature screenings for cast members on May 8 and for visiting guests on May 16, according to an announcement on Disney's website. The change comes as Florida begins to make adjustments to its local coronavirus regulations. (Vaughn, 5/7)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bottoms Up! S.F. Bars Reopen Indoors At 25% Capacity, No Food Required
For the first time in more than a year, San Francisco bars can serve drinks indoors without offering meals — and patrons slowly found their way to their favorite watering holes over the weekend. The momentous change happened Friday, days after San Francisco reached the yellow tier, the least restrictive in California’s color-coded reopening system. Until then, bars could reopen only if they served food in addition to drinks. (Hernández and Said, 5/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Is Close To Herd Immunity. But We May Never Get There
The Bay Area has among the best COVID-19 vaccination rates in the United States and several counties are approaching the threshold of herd immunity, where the virus eventually dies out because it can no longer find people to infect. If the region was in a bubble, that could eliminate nearly all coronavirus infections. But with vaccine uptake already waning across California and the U.S. — and vaccines still unavailable to large swaths of the world — the level of global immunity required to squash the pandemic is almost certainly unattainable, at least for a long time to come, infectious disease experts say. (Allday and Ho, 5/9)

San Diego Union-Tribune: 'It's Been A Tough Year And A Half.' Nursing Home Residents, Families Relish Return Of Visits 
Long-time sweethearts Raymond E. and Valerie Hanks spent their Cinco de Mayo sitting side-by-side Wednesday outside of the adjoining senior living facilities in Bankers Hill they call home. In normal years, it wouldn’t be strange for the married couple of 55 years to spend an afternoon in the shared courtyard of St. Paul’s Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and St. Paul’s Manor. (Mapp, 5/9)

CapRadio: Valley Vision, CapRadio Release Latest COVID-19 Resilience Poll 
A year after the pandemic’s onset, what are the experiences, perceptions, concerns and hopes of people living in California’s capital region? The latest COVID-19 Resilience Poll released on Monday offers insight and clarity on a variety of issues related to living in this time of the coronavirus, from jobs and schools to racial and class inequities and paths forward. (Gonzalez, 5/10)

CapRadio: Worried About Going Out Once California Reopens? Experts Say Take It Slow. 
The world around us is changing. As vaccination rates rise businesses are reopening, people are beginning to see more friends and many workplaces are inviting employees back onsite. While this may be exciting to some Californians, others are feeling what experts refer to as “reentry anxiety,” or fears around returning to "normal" social life, whether that’s a small gathering or a one-on-one interaction.  (Caiola, 5/10)

Los Angeles Times: No Escaping COVID-19, Even At California's Remote Slab City 
This Shangri-La of desert weirdness has for years drawn tourists from around the world. Some would stay in one of the dilapidated RV’s rented out by Rodney “Spyder” Wild. It cost only $30, and guests got breakfast and running water. But even the “last free place in America,” as locals call it, didn’t stand a chance against COVID-19.“The people that come visit me — Iceland, Russia, Japan — stopped coming,” said Wild, 55, the owner of the RV compound that he rents out on Airbnb. “The pandemic hurt people all over the world.” (Vega, 5/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. High School Seniors Can Return To Campus For Final Few Weeks, Teachers Union Says
Seniors in San Francisco public high schools can head back to campus for classes in the final few weeks of the school year before graduation, teachers union officials announced over the weekend. United Educators of San Francisco said it reached agreement with the San Francisco Unified School District on Friday that will allow 12th-grade students to return to in-person learning starting this Friday. The last day of instruction for the school district is June 2, and graduation ceremonies take place June 1-3. (Hwang, 5/9)

Los Angeles Times: No-Show High School Students Reject COVID Reopening Rules 
The “Zoom in a room” option for in-person schooling — the format for high school in Los Angeles and San Francisco — has failed to draw back the vast majority of students. Although official attendance data have not yet been released, a survey of L.A. Unified parents indicated that about 17% of high school students would come back to campus.L.A. Unified is hardly alone in struggling to persuade high school students to return — or in offering a lean reopening experience. (Esquivel and Blume, 5/9)

EdSource: Students, Community Organizations Ask Judge To Order Mental Health Services, Internet Access 
Arguing that appropriating billions of dollars alone will not ensure action, community organizations and parents from Los Angeles and Oakland are asking an Alameda County Superior Court judge to order the state to immediately provide computers and internet access and address the mental health needs of children who have borne the brunt of the pandemic. The May 3 request for immediate relief comes six months after the plaintiffs sued the State Board of Education, the California Department of Education and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. Now they’re now seeking a preliminary injunction to force the state to respond. Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith has set June 4 for a hearing. (Fensterwald, 5/10)

Fierce Healthcare: Scripps Health Says Malware Took Down Its Computer Networks As State Regulators Monitor The Situation 
Scripps Health said the cyberattack last weekend that took down its IT systems stemmed from malware on its computer network. San Diego-based Scripps Health, which operates five hospitals in the region, is still offline following the cyberattack on Saturday, May 1 that has significantly disrupted care and forced medical personnel to use paper records. (Landi, 5/7)

Los Angeles Times: They Go One By One, Door By Door — How A Hospital's 'Promotoras' Are Bridging Gaps To Services 
Shoes hit the pavement, and before they even start heading up the staircases of the nearby apartment buildings, before they make their way into the narrow corridors, the group of four approaches passing residents to ask: Have they had the COVID-19 vaccine yet and, if not, do they know where to get it? Do they have any concerns? This is routine for the “promotoras” of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach — bilingual representatives who connect lower-income families with services such as mental health or rental assistance and, more recently, share information on COVID-19 and how to get the vaccines. (Nyugen, 5/7)

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Farmworkers’ Advocate Heads To Yale For Master’s In Public Health
When Rosa González dreamed about what she wanted to be when she grew up, she pictured the quintessential image of a doctor in a white lab coat. Her idea of what a career in health care looked like began to shift, however, when she started an internship at UC Davis, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in human development in 2013. (Chavez, 5/8)

Bay City News: Tesla Settles $1 Million Penalty For Air Quality Violations At Fremont Assembly Plant 
Officials from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District said Friday that Tesla, Inc., has agreed to pay a $1 million penalty and install a solar roof project to settle air quality violations at its Fremont factory. The settlement covers 33 notices of violation that the air district issued to Tesla and the notices of violation cover a range of violations, including emissions exceeding Tesla's permit limits, installing or modifying equipment without proper permits, failure to conduct required emissions testing, failure to maintain records and failure to report information to the air district in a timely manner. (5/8)

Bay Area News Group: Alameda: Police Should Not Respond To Calls For Someone In A Mental Health Crisis
Armed police officers should not respond to calls about people in a mental health crisis and the work should be shifted to others trained in counseling, [Alameda] city officials said, only a few weeks after the death of a man in police custody focused attention on the city. What’s more, the City Council wants to hear back by June 30 on a pilot program — and how it will be funded — on creating the new approach. The council took the action during a special meeting Saturday, after hearing from about two dozen speakers, demanding changes in how police interact with the public. (Hegarty, 5/9)

KQED: Are More Hate Crime Charges A Solution To Anti-Asian Violence? 
When people see attacks on Asians — including a recent near-fatal stabbing on San Francisco’s Market Street — many refer to them as hate crimes, in order to call out anti-Asian racism and violence. But the legal use of a hate crime charge is much trickier. And it raises some hard questions about whether the state should add harsher penalties for racially motivated attacks, or focus on rehabilitation and restorative justice. (Katayama, Lagos, Cruz Guevara, and Montecillo, 5/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Beating Of Asian Father Was A Hate Crime, Boudin Decides
The man accused of attacking a 36-year-old Asian father while he pushed a baby stroller last month will be charged with a hate crime, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced in a Twitter post. Boudin said on the social media platform Saturday that he “received new evidence” that the April 30 attack outside a Mission Bay grocery store was “racially motivated.” Police arrested Sidney Hammond, 26, in connection with the crime. (Rubinstein, 5/9)

Modesto Bee: Turlock Homeless Sweeps Draw National Law Center Criticism 
A national legal group on Thursday urged the Turlock City Council to change its local homeless crisis strategy and comply with COVID-19 guidelines released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instead of sweeping encampments and directing people to congregate shelters, the National Homelessness Law Center recommended Turlock apply for federal funding to provide individual housing at no local cost. (Lam, 5/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Budget Windfall Dangles Hopes For Homeless Housing, Immigrant Health Coverage
A year after tackling what state finance officials projected would be a record budget shortfall, California’s government is rolling in so much money that it could be forced to give some cash back to taxpayers. Bolstered by federal aid and an economy that has recovered faster than anticipated, particularly for the wealthiest Californians, Gov. Gavin Newsom will reveal his revised budget plan this week. The announcement kicks off a final negotiation with lawmakers over the multibillion-dollar surplus that’s expected to surpass rosy estimates from January. At stake is major spending on homelessness, health care for undocumented immigrants and the worsening drought. (Koseff, 5/9)

Bay Area News Group: A Video Revolution Shifting Housing Policy?
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new energy and testimony, through web-based platforms like Zoom and call-in participation, to state and Bay Area housing debates, policy watchers and advocates say. Logging into a virtual meeting – without the schedule-busting complications of travel, child care and sitting through hours of off-topic debates – has made it easier for activists to raise their voices. Winning public votes over new developments or housing policy often depends on getting bodies into city council chambers and state capitol committee rooms. But housing advocates have long lamented that land-use debates are dominated by small and dedicated cadres of older homeowners intent on killing projects. Meanwhile, young parents and renters who are more apt to support development simply cannot cram a day or night of civic engagement into their busy work and family schedules. (Hansen, 5/9)