Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Vaccine Altruists Find Appointments for Those Who Can’t
An army of volunteers help people who otherwise would have had difficulty securing a covid vaccination because of cumbersome computer or telephone registration systems. (Anna Almendrala, )
In Speech, Governor Defends Pandemic Response: During his annual State of the State address from an empty Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged for the first time the threat of a “partisan political power grab” that he decried as a distraction from the battle against covid. Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, CalMatters and AP.
In related news —
AP: Fact check: Governor skips details on pandemic handling
CalMatters: Fact-checking Gavin Newsom’s 2021 State of the State speech
LA School District, Teachers Union Reach Deal: Los Angeles students are a critical step closer to returning to campus beginning in mid-April under a tentative agreement reached Tuesday. Read more from the Los Angeles Times and Politico. Continued coverage, below.
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
The Bakersfield Californian:
Mass Vaccination Efforts For Farm Workers Will Be Held At Forty Acres In Delano
Central Valley farmworkers will be able to get the COVID-19 vaccine over a six-weekend period in March and April at the historic Forty Acres property just west of Delano. The vaccination clinics will operate through a partnership between the United Farm Workers, UFW Foundation, Kern County Latino COVID-19 Task Force, Kern County, Kern Medical and Cesar Chavez Foundation, which owns and manages the grounds. According to a joint news release from the organizations, the first clinics will be held Saturday and Sunday at the property, located at 30168 Garces Highway. The news release stated that the clinics should be able to accommodate thousands of farmworkers in the region. (3/9)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Kern Supervisors Approve Mobile Clinics For Farm Workers, New Diversity Director
Kern County supervisors approved two mobile vaccination clinics for agriculture workers and created a new diversity director position at a meeting Tuesday. Although unrelated, the two actions are meant to address inequality concerns in different areas of Kern. The two mobile health clinics will be deployed by Kern Medical to various locations that are easy for agriculture workers to access. Operating outside standard business hours, the two clinics will try to make it easy for agriculture workers to be vaccinated as the spring growing season begins. (Morgen, 3/9)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Bakersfield College Makes Its Debut As A Community COVID-19 Vaccination Site
Bakersfield College made its debut as a community COVID-19 vaccination site with an event on Tuesday — one of just four that the college is hosting in a matter of days, including one at its Delano Campus. This week the college expects to vaccinate as many as 450 to 500 residents, and it’s the beginning of more vaccination events to be come. (Gallegos, 3/9)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Del Mar Fairgrounds Vaccine Superstation To Close Friday Through Sunday
The Del Mar Fairgrounds COVID-19 vaccine superstation will close from Friday through Sunday, according to Scripps Health. The closure is a consequence of a glitch in MyTurn (myturn.ca.gov), the state’s vaccine notification and scheduling system, which offered 1,800 more appointments at the Del Mar superstation on Monday and Tuesday than Scripps had planned to administer. Rather than cancel those appointments, the health system honored them. But that left fewer doses for the rest of the week. Scripps asked the county for another 1,800 doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine to make up the difference but did not receive additional doses. (Wosen, 3/9)
Los Angeles Times:
Hollywood Line-Cutters Close Pasadena COVID Vaccine Clinic
Pasadena officials on Tuesday canceled a COVID-19 vaccination clinic for senior citizens, grocery store employees and other essential workers after hundreds of people who were not eligible for the shots signed up for appointments. People who did not yet qualify for the vaccine under state guidelines claimed about 900 of the 1,500 slots at a clinic that was designed for people older than 65 and essential workers who live or work in Pasadena, city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said. (Nelson, 3/9)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
One-Shot Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Arrives In County
The much-anticipated Johnson & Johnson vaccine has arrived in San Diego County, giving a third and more speedy option to protect area residents from COVID-19. In a setback to the county’s vaccine efforts, however, Scripps Health announced Tuesday that the Del Mar Fairgrounds COVID-19 superstation will close from Friday through Sunday because of a glitch in the appointment system that led to a shortage of doses. In encouraging signs, the county reported 473 cases on Tuesday, the 26th day in a row that cases were below the 1,000 mark. (Warth and Wosen, 3/9)
Los Angeles Times:
Appeals Court Rules L.A. County Can Reimpose Outdoor Dining Ban If It Chooses
With outdoor dining in Los Angeles County back in full swing, a state appeals court ruled this month that county health officials can reimplement restrictions on restaurants if coronavirus cases spike again. The opinion by the California 2nd District Court of Appeal reverses a lower court ruling on Dec. 8 that would have required the L.A. County Department of Public Health to conduct a risk-benefit analysis before it ordered restaurants to shutter their al fresco setups. (Seidman, 3/9)
Los Angeles Times:
2021 California COVID Economic Recovery To Outpace U.S.
The U.S. and California economies will experience near-record growth this year thanks to widespread vaccinations for COVID-19 and massive federal relief for struggling workers and businesses, UCLA forecasters predict. “A waning pandemic combined with fiscal relief means a strong year of growth in 2021 — one of the strongest years of growth in the last 60 years — followed by sustained higher growth rates in 2022 and 2023,” according to the quarterly economic outlook released Wednesday. (Roosevelt, 3/10)
LA Daily News:
New Coronavirus Cases Among LAPD Officers, Civilians Falling Dramatically, Chief Says
New coronavirus cases among Los Angeles Police Department officers have slowed to a trickle just as officials have started their mass vaccination program for all sworn and civilian employees. On Tuesday, the department reported just 11 new cases among officers and civilian employees in the past week, said Chief Michel Moore in a meeting with police commissioners. That’s less than half the number of new cases compared to just the week before, when Moore said 34 tested positive. In December and January, LAPD saw hundreds of employees a week getting infected. Over the winter, six LAPD employees died, for a total of eight department-wide since the beginning of the pandemic more than a year ago. (Cain, 3/9)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
San Diego Biotech Developing Antibody Treatments Against New COVID Strains
San Diego biotech Sorrento Therapeutics announced Tuesday that it is beginning to test antibody treatments that could work against new, faster-spreading strains of the coronavirus. Those strains have generated considerable concern lately. While the overall number of new coronavirus cases continues to decline across the U.S., some researchers and public health experts say that variants first found in the U.K., South Africa and Brazil could fuel yet another surge. Sorrento is testing about a dozen antibodies that it believes could work against these strains, as well as others that arise in the future. (Wosen, 3/9)
Capital & Main:
Vaccine Distribution Key Element In Gov. Newsom’s Plan To Reopen Schools
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest attempt to change the conversation around classroom reopenings, a bill passed by the state Legislature last week, is a classic carrot-and-stick approach to the state’s 1,037 school districts. It dangles the prospect of state cash before those districts that can manage to get schools opened by April 1 — but for those that cannot, the financial incentive is reduced by 1% a day, every day, through mid-May. It’s an approach that essentially penalizes some districts for needing more time to be sure they reopen safely. Beyond that, though, the bill, which passed with bipartisan support, appears to place the emphasis on the money. In so doing, it distracts from a far more important announcement that came from Newsom’s office last week — more important, that is, if it’s fully realized. (Kreidler, 3/10)
Sacramento Bee:
Tutoring, Meals And More: What California’s School Reopening Plan Has For Families
Schools must use at least 85% of the money for in-person instruction, and at least 10% should be used to hire paraprofessionals for supplemental instruction, with a focus on rehiring those who were subject to layoffs. Otherwise, there’s a wide range of ways schools can use the funds. They can extend the school day or year, launch summer school programs, provide meals to vulnerable students, create extra programming and instruction for students, hire mental health professionals, or create extra training for educators, among other things. (Korte, 3/10)
Los Angeles Times:
UC Davis Offers To Pay Students $75 To Stay Put For Spring Break
No caravans of college students in Miami or beach parties in Malibu during a pandemic, please. UC Davis is offering a sure-fire incentive to keep students from traveling during spring break and potentially spreading the coronavirus: money. (Pinho, 3/10)
LA Daily News:
Assembly Bill Proposes Cash Bonuses To Help Retain Burned-Out Health Care Workers
Nearly 100,000 California health care employees of large companies could receive as much as $10,000 in coronavirus bonuses next year under proposed legislation that Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, unveiled Tuesday, March 9, during a Zoom press conference. The estimated cost of the proposed legislation, dubbed the Health Care Worker Recognition and Retention Act, is about $6 billion, said Dave Regan, president of Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers West, which represents almost 100,000 workers statewide. Companies with more than 100 employees would pay the bonuses. “Everyone wants to say thank you to our health care workers,” Muratsuchi said. “This is their opportunity.” (Green, 3/9)