Modesto Bee: Newsom: Omicron Variant Not Likely To Lead To CA Lockdown 
Despite the finding of a new COVID variant, California can likely avoid repeating the shutdowns it saw in 2020 if residents continue to get vaccinated and get their boosters, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday. Federal health officials hours earlier confirmed the first case of the omicron variant in California. (Korte, 12/01)

Los Angeles Times: What We Know About The First U.S. Omicron Variant Case 
A person in San Francisco has been identified as having the first recorded case of the Omicron variant in the United States, health officials said Wednesday. Both California and federal officials suspect the coronavirus variant is likely in other parts of the country by now. They say its presence is a cause for concern but not panic. (Money, Dolan and Lin II, 12/01)

Bay Area News Group: What To Know About COVID-19 Omicron Virus Variant Found In Bay Area
Here’s what you need to know about the first U.S. case of COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant, confirmed in the Bay Area on Wednesday: Q: How was the case discovered? A: The person is a San Francisco resident who returned to the city from South Africa on Nov. 22. The person felt symptoms of COVID-19, was tested for the virus on Nov. 29 and self-isolated at home. The positive test was confirmed as the omicron variant early Wednesday morning. (Woolfolk, 12/01)

Sacramento Bee: COVID: How Will Omicron Variant Impact California Response? 
Local, state and federal health officials on Wednesday confirmed the first U.S. case of the omicron variant of COVID-19, in San Francisco. It remains unclear what effects the discovery might have on the pandemic’s trajectory and mitigation measures in California, where virus infections and hospitalizations — from the still-dominant delta variant — remained largely on a plateau for most of November. (McGough, 12/01)

San Francisco Chronicle: From ‘It’ll Blow Over’ To Fear For The Future: How People In S.F. Are Reacting To Omicron’s Arrival
News of the omicron variant’s arrival in San Francisco sparked a range of reactions among locals and tourists. Daniel and Hunter Goldman, visiting from Atlanta, were alarmed when they heard about the development. (Echevarria, 12/01)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: No Omicron Variant Found In Sonoma County, But Officials Expect The COVID-19 Mutation In Near Future
Sonoma County public health officials said Wednesday that no cases of the omicron variant have been detected here, though they expect the COVID-19 mutation will likely reach the North Bay in the near future. County public health lab staff have been genotyping a significant number of new local COVID-19 specimens since news of the omicron variant broke last week.In addition, more than 1,000 previously genotyped samples have been “retroactively,” analyzed, officials said. (Espinoza, 12/2)

Politico: CDC Looks For More Omicron Cases After Variant Is Detected In California
The new Omicron Covid-19 variant has been detected in California, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The individual who contracted the variant is a resident of San Francisco, was fully vaccinated and had mild symptoms after traveling to South Africa and returning home Nov. 22, the CDC said in a press statement. The individual tested positive Nov. 29. Health authorities in California have reached out to all close contacts of the individual in question, who is in self-quarantine, and all of them have tested negative. (Banco, Lim and Cancryn, 12/1)

CNBC: Omicron To Dominate And Overwhelm The World In 3-6 Months, Doctor Says
The new Covid variant omicron will likely “overwhelm the whole world” in the coming months, according to a Singapore-based infectious disease doctor. While vaccines against the strain can be developed quickly, they need to be tested over three to six months to prove that they can provide immunity against the variant, Dr. Leong Hoe Nam of Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital said Wednesday. “But frankly, omicron will dominate and overwhelm the whole world in three to six months,” he told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia.” (Ng, 12/2)

Axios: America Probably Won't Lead The Effort To Understand The Omicron Coronavirus Variant
The race to figure out just how dangerous the Omicron variant is will likely be a global effort, but some experts are skeptical that the U.S. will play a dominant role. The CDC has repeatedly come under fire for inadequate data collection throughout the pandemic — and figuring out how to respond to Omicron requires a lot of data that doesn't currently exist. (Owens, 12/2)

Los Angeles Times: Did A Collision Of COVID-19 And HIV Forge The Omicron Variant? 
The Omicron variant, now present in at least 23 countries around the world, was probably incubated in the body of a person with an immune system battered by HIV or another immune-compromising condition that can cause a prolonged coronavirus infection, according to the South African scientist who detected the fast-spreading genetic mutant. Tulio De Oliveira said the emergence of Omicron in a patient unable to clear the virus quickly was “the most plausible” origin story for the world’s newest variant of concern. (Healy, 12/02)

Stat: Some Experts Believe Omicron Variant May Have Evolved In An Animal Host
When Covid-19 variants arise, the accepted wisdom is that the constellation of mutations they contain developed in an immunocompromised person who contracted the virus and couldn’t shake the infection. But some scientists have an alternative theory for where the latest variant of concern, Omicron, may have acquired the unusual mutations that stud its spike protein. They speculate the virus could have evolved in another animal species. (Branswell, 12/2)

Los Angeles Times: The Omicron Variant Is Starting To Weigh On Travel: ‘Two Steps Forward And One Step Back’
Another Greek letter is in the headlines and the travel industry is bracing for a new COVID-19 jolt. Several business conferences and international gatherings have been postponed because of the uncertainty generated by the latest coronavirus variant — Omicron — and airlines are preparing for a pause to the rebound of travel that the industry started to see over the last few months. (Martin, 12/1)

Stat: Biden's New Covid Plan: More Boosters, Free Home Testing, And 'Monoclonal Antibody Strike Teams' 
President Joe Biden will announce a new plan this afternoon for combating the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The plan includes a new campaign to increase uptake of booster shots, new policies meant to provide Americans with free at-home coronavirus tests, and more stringent policies on international travel. Public health officials still don’t know much about the Omicron variant, including whether it causes milder symptoms than other forms of the coronavirus, or whether it is more transmissible than other variants. The first case of the Omicron variant detected in the United States was announced by U.S. health officials on Wednesday Dec. 1. (Florko, 12/2)

CBS News: Americans With Private Health Insurance To Be Reimbursed For At-Home COVID-19 Tests
Americans with private health insurance will be reimbursed for at-home tests, President Biden is announcing Thursday, and international travelers will now be required to undergo stricter COVID-19 testing, according to a phone briefing by a senior administration official Wednesday. The new measures the president is expected to describe in remarks at the National Institutes of Health are part of a new administration strategy to curb the virus this winter, as the new Omicron coronavirus variant prompts concerns about how easily it may spread, how severe its symptoms are and whether existing vaccines are effective against it. (12/2)

Fresno Bee: Gavin Newsom Urges COVID Vaccines As Omicron Variant Hits CA 
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday said he wasn’t surprised about the confirmation of California’s first case of the omicron variant of COVID-19, saying officials were able to identify the case due to the state’s “aggressive” testing protocols. Newsom made the comments while speaking at Frank Sparkes Elementary School in the Merced County community of Winton. (Miller, 12/1)

City News Service: As Omicron Strain Arrives In State, LA County Officials Boost Vaccines, Patience 
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Los Angeles County ticked upward slightly on Wednesday, Dec. 1 , while health officials again urged people to get vaccinated or receive a booster shot in response to the discovery in Northern California of the Omicron variant of the virus. The Omicron variant was first identified in South Africa, and it was designated a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization last week. Although no cases of the variant have been confirmed in Los Angeles or Southern California, health officials have said it is likely already circulating in the United States. (12/1)

CIDRAP: Data Suggest Third COVID Vaccine Dose Reduces Infection, Hospitalization
A third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine appears to counteract waning vaccine protection in the short term, according to a preliminary case-control analysis of more than 500,000 coronavirus tests in Israel. In the retrospective study, published yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine, a team led by Maccabi Healthcare Services researchers found a 1.8% SARS-CoV-2 infection rate after a booster dose, compared with 6.6% after two vaccine doses. Participants receiving the booster also seemed to be at lower risk for hospitalization. (12/1)

Sacramento Bee: Most Sacramento District Students Did Not File Vaccine Status
More than 70% of students ages 12 and older in Sacramento City Unified who are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine have not reported their vaccine status to the school district by the district’s Nov. 30 deadline. The Sacramento City Unified school board voted in October to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for all eligible students and staff. The mandate requires full vaccination by the Nov. 30 deadline and also includes all dependent charter schools and adult education centers. (Morrar, 12/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: This Was One Of The First School Districts In California To Mandate Student COVID Vaccinations. Here’s How It’s Going
Several school districts in the East Bay were among the first in California to approve COVID-19 vaccination mandates for students — even before the state in early October announced plans to add the vaccine to its required list, the first in the U.S. to do so. Some California school districts have pushed back and said they will defy the orders. But the rollout is already well under way in districts like Piedmont, Oakland, Berkeley and Hayward Unified in Alameda County, as well as West Contra Costa Unified. The Piedmont district, which serves 2,420 students in the small, affluent city of about 11,000 surrounded by Oakland, announced its vaccine requirement on Sept. 22 and had one of the earliest deadlines. All vaccine-eligible Piedmont Unified School District students 12 and older were asked to provide proof of vaccination status or a medical exemption by Nov. 17. The exemption did not apply to religious or personal beliefs. (Hwang, 12/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: Rise In COVID Cases Among Youth At California Correctional Facilities Worries Advocates
Forty-nine youths who are currently lodged at state juvenile correctional facilities have active cases of COVID-19, and community justice organizations are calling for improvements at the juvenile justice division amid what they call a “dangerous new outbreak.” Authorities with the Division of Juvenile Justice, which is part of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, wouldn’t say where the coronavirus cases were located, citing confidentiality. Spokesperson Mike Sicilia told The Chronicle that “upticks in youth cases have been noted in the past couple of weeks,” but said that because of “youth privacy” the division was unable to disclose more than the aggregate total. (Hernández, 12/01)

Modesto Bee: Stanislaus K-12 School Districts Report COVID-19 Cases
Modesto and Turlock school districts reported a combined 40 COVID-19 cases in the days leading up to their Thanksgiving breaks.Countywide data was not available. The Health Services Agency is transitioning to a new statewide school outbreak reporting system that will “increase the completeness and timeliness of COVID-19 case reporting within schools,” according to a message on the dashboard Wednesday. (Isaacman, 12/01)

The Baltimore Sun: Kids Still Have A Lot Of Questions About COVID-19. Here Are Experts’ Responses To Some Of Them. 
Nearly two years after the coronavirus first surfaced, kids continue to wrestle with what the pandemic means for them. Their questions range in tone and urgency, with some seeking more clarity about the vaccines and others wondering why such precautions as mask wearing and social distancing are still necessary even with the proliferation of COVID-19 immunizations. Here are some of the questions that students asked during sessions with Johns Hopkins Health Education and Training Corps volunteers and staff, with responses from several Maryland-based physicians and public health experts. (Miller, 12/1)

The Baltimore Sun: COVID Misinformation Has Reached Young Minds. A Johns Hopkins Program Seeks To Reverse The Damage.
The eighth graders at Baltimore Design School have just one more class period separating them from a holiday weekend, the excitement palpable as the doctor attempts to get their attention. Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos grew up not far from the school, he tells them, a son of Greek immigrants who dreamed of serving the city that took them in. “Tostitos!” one child called out as Galiatsatos patiently explained how to say his name. “You can call me Dr. G,” he says. “It’s also my DJ name, if you ever want to go to the club with me.” This intrigues the students, some of who believe that all scientists somehow work for the government and have an agenda, according to their health teacher, Erin Nutsugah. (Miller, 12/1)

Bloomberg: Meta Removes China-Based Network Pushing Covid-19 Misinformation
Meta Platforms Inc. said it removed a China-based network of more than 500 Facebook accounts that sought to push a false narrative about the U.S. government’s attempts to blame the Covid-19 pandemic on China. The campaign involved the fake persona of a Swiss biologist named Wilson Edwards, who in July posted on Facebook and Twitter Inc. that the U.S. was pressuring World Health Organization scientists to blame the virus on China, according to Meta’s monthly report on coordinated influence operations on its social networks. (Nix, 12/1)

CIDRAP: Children With Poorly Controlled Asthma At Higher Risk Of Severe COVID-19
A study yesterday in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine of Scottish children shows that 5- to 17-year-olds with poorly controlled asthma are three to six times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared with those without asthma. The authors of the study said children with asthma should consider vaccination against COVID-19 as soon as possible. The study was based on health records from more than 750,000 children. Among those, 63,463 had asthma, and among that group, there were 4,339 confirmed cases of COVID-19 from Mar 1, 2020, to Jul 27, 2021. Sixty-seven of those children required hospitalization. (12/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: SFO Is Ramping Up COVID Testing For International Travelers In The Hunt For Omicron
San Francisco International Airport is expanding testing of incoming international travelers in an effort to detect the new omicron variant of the coronavirus — the first case of which was found in a San Francisco resident who returned from South Africa on Nov. 22. SFO is one of four U.S. airports — along with Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, John F. Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International — expanding testing of passengers as part of an existing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pilot program that began in October. The CDC picked those four airports because they are among the busiest in the U.S. for international travel. (Ho, 12/01)

San Francisco Chronicle: Will Bay Area Mask Mandates Remain In Place Or Tighten Now That Omicron Is Here? Here’s What Officials Say
The discovery of the omicron coronavirus variant in the Bay Area could deal a setback to the progress the Bay Area region has made over the past few weeks in tamping down infections and moving toward loosened restrictions. Officials in San Francisco, where the first case of the new, highly transmissible variant in the country was confirmed on Wednesday — in a vaccinated traveler who returned to the city after a trip to South Africa — said all mitigation measures, including the universal indoor mask mandate, will stay in place indefinitely. (Vaziri, 12/01)

CNBC: Biden Asks Businesses To Proceed With Vaccine Mandate After Omicron Variant Arrives In U.S.
President Joe Biden on Thursday asked businesses to voluntarily move forward with the administration’s Covid-19 vaccine and testing requirements, even as the rule is challenged in court, after U.S. officials confirmed the first case of the omicron variant in the U.S. “We’re asking businesses to step forward and do what’s right to protect our workers and to protect our communities, which is to put in place some sort of vaccination requirement or testing requirements for the workplace,” a senior administration official said. (Kimball, 12/2)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Family, Mandates Pushing The Unvaccinated To Get COVID-19 Shots 
Look closely at what’s happening in the very busy coronavirus vaccination clinic at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, and you can see true kid power at work. True, most of the 400-600 shots being given daily since the operation reopened on Nov. 3 have been to kids ages 5 to 11, but sometimes it’s the youngest that gets the dominoes falling all the way up the family line. (Sisson, 12/1)

NPR: Roe V. Wade's Future Is In Doubt After Historic Arguments At Supreme Court
The right to an abortion in the United States appeared to be on shaky ground as a divided Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on the fate of Roe v. Wade, the court's 1973 decision that legalized abortion in the United States. At issue in Wednesday's case — Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization — was a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Until now, all the court's abortion decisions have upheld Roe's central framework — that women have a constitutional right to an abortion in the first two trimesters of pregnancy when a fetus is unable to survive outside the womb, roughly 24 weeks. But Mississippi asked the Supreme Court to reverse all its prior abortion decisions and return the abortion question to the states. (Totenberg, 12/1)

California Healthline: Conservative Justices Seem Poised To Overturn Roe’s Abortion Rights
A majority of the members of the Supreme Court seemed sympathetic Wednesday during arguments to Mississippi’s assertion that the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized the procedure throughout the country, was wrongly decided. (Rovner, 12/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: How A Supreme Court Move To Restrict Abortion Rights Would Impact Safe Havens Like California
The Supreme Court appeared likely Wednesday to roll back and quite possibly overturn Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 ruling that declared a constitutional right to abortion, a reversal that would divide the country and send millions of pregnant women on trips to California and other states where abortion remained legal. In nearly two hours of arguments on a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy — about nine weeks before Roe’s viability standard — the court’s six conservatives signaled that they were prepared to uphold the law. At least four of the justices suggested going further and allowing each state, or Congress, to decide when or whether women could terminate their pregnancies. (Egelko, 12/01)

Politico: 5 Takeaways From The Supreme Court Showdown Over Abortion
At least five justices expressed a willingness to significantly pare down, if not overturn, Roe v. Wade, during Wednesday’s argument over a Mississippi law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks. The nearly two hours of oral arguments revealed a court divided not only on the merits of the particular state law, but also on whether compromise is possible on abortion rights, the future of the court‘s standing with the American public, the bar for overturning longstanding precedent and what other dominoes might fall should a majority decide to overturn Roe. (Gerstein and Miranda Ollstein, 12/1)

AP: Biden HIV/AIDS Strategy Calls Racism ‘Public Health Threat’
The Biden administration in its new HIV/AIDS strategy calls racism “a public health threat” that must be fully recognized as the world looks to end the epidemic. The strategy released Wednesday on the annual commemoration of World AIDS Day is meant to serve as a framework for how the administration intends to shape its policies, research, programs and planning over the next three years. (12/1)

AP: Fauci Says COVID-19 Diverted Resources From Fight Against AIDS
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said Tuesday the COVID-19 pandemic has diverted scientific and financial resources from the fight against AIDS, seriously impeding global efforts to achieve the U.N. goal of ending AIDS by 2030. Fauci told the U.N. General Assembly that tackling COVID-19 has also disrupted supply chains and increased the risk for people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, of being infected with another deadly virus. (12/1)

The Bakersfield Californian: Memorial Hospital Aims To Become Kern's Second Teaching Hospital 
Memorial Hospital announced this week it will apply to become a teaching hospital serving up to 30 graduates per year from the Morehouse School of Medicine, a historically Black medical college in Atlanta, under an $8 million to $10 million initiative that could help address the southern Central Valley’s physician shortage. (Cox, 12/1)

California Healthline: Hospitals Refused To Give Patients Ivermectin. Lockdowns And Political Pressure Followed.
Hospitals in Montana and Idaho reported threats and harassment from public officials and family members of patients who were denied treatment with a drug not authorized to treat covid-19. (Volz, 12/2)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Voters Angry, Frustrated Over Homeless Crisis, Demand Fast Action, Poll Finds
Amid deep frustration over widespread, visible homelessness, Los Angeles voters want the government to act faster and focus on shelter for people living in the streets, even if those efforts are short-term and fall short of permanent housing, a new poll of county voters shows. Most voters continue to express empathy for homeless people, but also impatience and disappointment with the region’s leadership, according to the poll, conducted by the Los Angeles Business Council Institute in cooperation with The Times. (Oreskes and Lauter, 12/1)

Sacramento Bee: Mustard Seed School Gives Kids An Oasis From Homelessness 
Homelessness brings with it challenges that wouldn’t even occur to most people.It’s not just a need for shelter, food, and clothing. What if you are a parent and your family is without reliable housing? How do you get your kids to school? One local nonprofit, Sacramento Loaves and Fishes, strives not just to provide services and resources to people experiencing homelessness, but to be an oasis for all who need it. That’s why one of the many services and programs they provide is an emergency school called Mustard Seed. (Murphy, 12/02)

Sacramento Bee: How Gavin Newsom’s Dyslexia Has Shaped Him As CA Governor 
When Gavin Newsom hired political consultant Garry South to work on his first campaign for governor, South tried to find an issue that would humanize the then-San Francisco mayor to voters who saw him as a privileged member of the Bay Area elite. He learned from Newsom’s family that the mayor struggled with dyslexia, a condition that makes it very difficult for him to read. South thought he had the perfect story. Newsom, however, wouldn’t have it. (Bollag, 12/02)

Los Angeles Times: Data Breach Affects 400,000 Planned Parenthood Patients In L.A. 
A hacker accessed the personal information of roughly 400,000 patients of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles in October, the reproductive healthcare provider said Wednesday. Planned Parenthood Los Angeles said in a statement that there is no evidence so far that any patients’ information was used for fraudulent purposes, and it was notifying patients whose information was accessed. (Yee and Martinez, 12/01)

KQED: California Failed To Protect Outdoor Workers From Wildfire Smoke Under Biden's New OSHA Chief
President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the nation’s worker health and safety efforts largely failed in his previous job to enforce protections for California outdoor workers exposed to toxic wildfire smoke. That’s according to an investigation by KQED and The California Newsroom. As the state faced its largest wildfire seasons on record, employers were required to take steps to prevent millions of outdoor workers from breathing harmful levels of smoke — such as by providing N95 masks or moving them indoors on days with unhealthy air. (Romero, 12/02)

San Francisco Chronicle: UCSF Oakland Just Got $17 Million To Find A Cure For Sickle Cell Disease. Here’s The Plan
UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland is preparing to launch a clinical trial next year that researchers hope could put an end to sickle cell disease through the use of gene-editing technology. The hospital received $17 million in grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the National Institutes of Health’s Cure Sickle Cell Initiative to use gene-editing technology known as CRISPR on adults. (Flores, 12/01)

Modesto Bee: UCLA Survey: Fewer Californians Reported Having Sex In 2020
Nearly one in four California adults didn’t have sex in 2020, the highest mark recorded in the 20-year history of a comprehensive UCLA health survey. The California Health Interview Survey asks tens of thousands of respondents each year a broad range of questions about their health, including how many sex partners they had during the past 12 months. It is conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research in collaboration with the California Department of Public Health and the Department of Health Care Services. (Reese, 12/02)

California Healthline: As Climate Worsens, Environmentalists Grapple With The Mental Toll Of Activism
After her son's death by suicide, a mother promotes mental health for environmentalists. It's part of a larger push to address the burnout and psychological stress that can affect activists. (Smith, 12/2)

Stat: Liquid Biopsies Could Screen For Countless Cancers. Who Should Get Them?
By the time cancer is discovered, it’s often too late to change its course. Close to half of cancers will already have spread, making death — whether within months, five years, or ten years —  a near certainty. Mammograms, colonoscopies, and other cancer screenings may have caught some. But medicine doesn’t screen for many cancers — though in the future, it’s likely we will be able to with a simple blood draw.  Biotech companies are working to develop what are known as liquid biopsies, tests designed to detect dozens of different cancers. Studies suggest some of these tests can even find aggressive cancers when they’re still constrained and likely curable, saving hundreds of thousands of lives. (Chen, 12/2)

Bay Area News Group: Serenading Severely Disabled People: Music Therapy 'brings Delight'
Most of the severely developmentally disabled people living in Life Services Alternatives‘ homes scattered among Santa Clara County neighborhoods cannot speak or walk. Some come from family homes where aging parents can no longer look after them while others come from institutions. Now, they can live in a government-licensed neighborhood house with around-the-clock support. “It’s kind of amazing to see how people respond to a loving and caring environment,” says LSA executive director Dana Hooper. “Most of these individuals are nonverbal but they communicate a lot — with their smiles, with their expressions, with blinks of eyes. We often see growth that maybe was stifled by the environment they were in before they came here. Our philosophy is this should be a home for life.” (Baron, 12/02)

AP: California Water Districts To Get 0% Of Requested Supplies
Water agencies in drought-stricken California that serve 27 million residents and 750,000 acres of farmland won’t get any of the water they've requested from the state heading into 2022 other than what's needed for critical health and safety, state officials announced Wednesday. It's the earliest date the Department of Water Resources has issued a 0% water allocation, a milestone that reflects the dire conditions in California as drought continues to grip the nation’s most populous state and reservoirs sit at historically low levels. State water officials said mandatory water restrictions could be coming and major water districts urged consumers to conserve. (Ronayne, 12/1)