California - Coronavirus COVID-19

[Auntie Cipation]

Unfortunately these people will all be labeled "virus deniers" by many. The reality is that people who live active social lives, outside of the home, can't survive a ten month (and counting) stretch in a closed society. Our Governor (in AZ) talks about the collateral damage from lock downs, such as depression, suicide, drug abuse, domestic violence, etc. I wish he would also talk about the positive aspects of being open. Dinners in a restaurant, a trip to a casino, sitting on a bar stool watching a game, enjoying live music, attending or hosting parties, etc. All of these things are extremely important to many people's daily lives, yet some places deny that completely.

I must disagree. While living in a 'closed' society is clearly difficult for many socially-active people, and I do recognize that negative mental health outcomes will occur for some subset of people, it is by no means a given that such people "can't survive" a stretch of limited activity.

For generations there have been people with illnesses that confined them to home, if not to bed, for a year or more. (My own father experienced such as a youth. I think it was rheumatic fever although I'm not certain).

There have been countless incidents of natural disasters that dramatically altered daily life for entire communities for months if not years.

And what about life during the world wars -- certainly there were geographical regions where daily social activities were severely curtailed if not absent completely for months at a time.

The difference I see is that in those various events of the past, the restriction was either enforced by mother nature or imposed by authorities that were trusted.

Somehow we now are in a situation where people no longer trust authorities such as the public health offices, and instead persist in claiming that the restrictions are not necessary (in spite of experts asserting otherwise) and are instead merely a political tool.

Somehow enough people decided that because their daily life was normally safe and comfortable, that such safety and comfort were somehow guaranteed, and that if it was recommended that their lifestyle needed to change for a time to respond to a threat, that such a threat must be of political origin, rather than recognizing that we are all subject to the laws of nature and of biology.

If people had trusted their health authorities from the start, there would have been IMO a reasonable chance of halting the spread of covid-19 nearly a year ago. The vaccines could be arriving now to protect a population who appreciated the protection even though it wasn't in the midst of medical service crises across the world.

Sadly, because of how contagious and easily transmissible this virus happens to be, it only took a segment of people refusing to follow the advice given by the public health authorities to allow the virus to run rampant across the entire globe.

 

[MrX]

You make excellent points. Clearly if everybody is on the same page (and, which is important, are compelled to comply) then successes, such as New Zealand, are possible in a relatively short period of time. "Time" is the key, in my opinion. In hindsight I think we all would have signed up for six or eight weeks of deprivation in order to kill this thing last Spring. But once it became evident that that was not going to happen here, it is justifiable to weigh the risks of the virus versus the extended loss of "time" spent living a relatively normal life. In some States that choice is left to the individual. In California it is not, and the results certainly justify questioning the mitigation strategy.

 

[margarita25]

 

[margarita25]

 

[margarita25]

 

[coastal]

Law Enforcement Frustrated With Place on Vaccine Distribution List

NBC7: San Diego Cannabis Workers Get Vaccinated Before Cops

Local law enforcement leaders say state and county officials have pushed police officers too far back in line to get a vaccine, and, as they wait their turn, some police chiefs are saying their concerns have gone unanswered.

They feel like they’ve been forgotten,” said Chula Vista Police Chief Roxana Kennedy, who is also the president of the San Diego County Police Chiefs and Sheriffs Association. “It’s a challenging thing for an organization. So as law enforcement leaders we felt we had to step forward and try to figure out why.”

It's a question police chiefs all over San Diego are asking county leaders: Why are so many others able to get vaccines ahead of their officers – including cannabis industry workers?

When thousands of fire department workers and EMT's in San Diego County started getting their shots at the end of December, San Diego police union president Jack Schaeffer was hopeful.

“I thought that we’d be the following week or something like that,” Schaeffer said. “And it seemed like things were heading in that direction -- and then they took a turn that I wasn’t prepared for.”

That turn? The state, and now the county, has yet to allow police officers to get their vaccine.

“They keep telling me we’re going to be the next group,” Schaeffer said. “But is that next group after half a million people are already vaccinated, or is that going to be next week? I have no idea, and that’s been very confusing.”

Schaeffer, Kennedy and four other local police chiefs spoke with NBC7 Investigates, including Capt. Matt Nicholass, La Mesa's interim police chief; El Cajon police chief Mike Moulton; Community College District police chief Joseph Ramos; and San Diego Unified School District interim police chief Joey Florentino.

All six officials told NBC 7 that officers are often first to the scene of traffic crashes and 911 calls, and are regularly administering CPR to those victims and Narcan to overdose patients, as well as triaging people with traumatic injuries.

“We really do need to have a conversation about this,” Kennedy said, “and maybe there’s a misunderstanding about what law enforcement really does.”

Kennedy said she tried to have that conversation, reaching out to the County Board of Supervisors and Public Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten. Supervisor Nora Vargas wrote Kennedy back, she said, but no one else responded.

“It makes you feel like they don’t even want to listen to what we’re walking about,” Kennedy said.

NBC7 Investigates reached out to a county spokesman for a comment but has not heard back.

El Cajon's Moulton said it’s not just police who should be worried.

"We’re just as concerned about the public as we are for our police officers,” said Moulton, adding that there is a fear that asymptomatic officers could unknowingly be super spreaders of the virus.

“We can be part of the problem if we are vulnerable, and getting sick and moving it around to other people,” Schaeffer said.

Officers are getting sick, in fact.

Public records from the San Diego Police Department show that, as of Jan. 5, almost 170 officers have tested positive, and nearly 1,000 officers have reported being exposed to the virus – more than have the department.

In Chula Vista, more than 200 police employees have had to isolate or quarantine, including 74 workers who tested positive or were diagnosed with COVID-19 – a large number, considering that Chula Vista only has 250 officers.

As of Jan. 29, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department reported 520 total positive cases of COVID-19 among its employees, 118 of which are active.

“It’s hard ... because we’re not trying to be disrespectful at all,” Kennedy said. “We’re really not. We’re just trying to make sure that we can protect our officers, the community and the families that our officers go home to."

Sometimes there are spare vaccines left over at the end of the day at county vaccination sites, and about 300 San Diego police officers have managed to get a vaccine that way, as well as 75 Chula Vista officers.

Kennedy estimated that roughly 3,600 officers in San Diego County are currently unvaccinated.

Meanwhile other counties have chosen to vaccinate law enforcement officers, including Orange, Riverside, Bakersfield, Sonoma and Humboldt counties.

<<<snip

 

[margarita25]

California says it will fully reopen in June, citing falling Covid-19 case rates - CNN

 

[margarita25]

L.A. County reports 1st known cases of coronavirus variants detected in South Africa and Brazil | KTLA

“The mutated version of the virus first identified in South Africa, known as the B.1.351 variant, was found in one case last week. Meanwhile, another variant of concern first detected in Brazil, known as the P.1 variant, was found in three cases.

“Although these are the first reported cases of the South Africa and Brazil variant in L.A. County, it is likely there are additional undetected and undiagnosed cases,” Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a virtual briefing Wednesday.

That’s because “very few” of the county’s coronavirus specimens undergo genomic sequencing to determine the variant type, Ferrer said.”

 

[margarita25]

 

[10ofRods]

I must disagree. While living in a 'closed' society is clearly difficult for many socially-active people, and I do recognize that negative mental health outcomes will occur for some subset of people, it is by no means a given that such people "can't survive" a stretch of limited activity.

For generations there have been people with illnesses that confined them to home, if not to bed, for a year or more. (My own father experienced such as a youth. I think it was rheumatic fever although I'm not certain).

There have been countless incidents of natural disasters that dramatically altered daily life for entire communities for months if not years.

And what about life during the world wars -- certainly there were geographical regions where daily social activities were severely curtailed if not absent completely for months at a time.

The difference I see is that in those various events of the past, the restriction was either enforced by mother nature or imposed by authorities that were trusted.

Somehow we now are in a situation where people no longer trust authorities such as the public health offices, and instead persist in claiming that the restrictions are not necessary (in spite of experts asserting otherwise) and are instead merely a political tool.

Somehow enough people decided that because their daily life was normally safe and comfortable, that such safety and comfort were somehow guaranteed, and that if it was recommended that their lifestyle needed to change for a time to respond to a threat, that such a threat must be of political origin, rather than recognizing that we are all subject to the laws of nature and of biology.

If people had trusted their health authorities from the start, there would have been IMO a reasonable chance of halting the spread of covid-19 nearly a year ago. The vaccines could be arriving now to protect a population who appreciated the protection even though it wasn't in the midst of medical service crises across the world.

Sadly, because of how contagious and easily transmissible this virus happens to be, it only took a segment of people refusing to follow the advice given by the public health authorities to allow the virus to run rampant across the entire globe.

I wish I could like this post several times. From an anthropological point of view - it truly was very recent that people expected to be able to live however they wished, go many places, and all without consequences of serious illnesses. People don't realize how bad the consequences of measles and mumps used to be (and those are minor compared to small pox or typhoid or typhus).

 

[10ofRods]

California has the lowest positivity rate in the nation.

Now, let's keep it that way!

So using science and mitigation measures has worked here.

 

[Suglo]

The University of California and California State University announced Thursday that they will require COVID-19 vaccinations for all students, faculty and staff on campus properties this fall once the Food and Drug Administration gives formal approval to the vaccines and supplies are sufficiently available.

The directive is the largest of its kind in U.S. higher education, affecting more than 1 million members of the two public university systems. More than five dozen colleges nationwide have already announced they will require vaccination for enrollment this fall, including Yale, Princeton, Columbia and, in Claremont, Pomona and Claremont McKenna.

California's massive UC and Cal State systems plan to require COVID-19 vaccinations this fall

 

[10ofRods]

Law Enforcement Frustrated With Place on Vaccine Distribution List

NBC7: San Diego Cannabis Workers Get Vaccinated Before Cops

Local law enforcement leaders say state and county officials have pushed police officers too far back in line to get a vaccine, and, as they wait their turn, some police chiefs are saying their concerns have gone unanswered.

They feel like they’ve been forgotten,” said Chula Vista Police Chief Roxana Kennedy, who is also the president of the San Diego County Police Chiefs and Sheriffs Association. “It’s a challenging thing for an organization. So as law enforcement leaders we felt we had to step forward and try to figure out why.”

It's a question police chiefs all over San Diego are asking county leaders: Why are so many others able to get vaccines ahead of their officers – including cannabis industry workers?

When thousands of fire department workers and EMT's in San Diego County started getting their shots at the end of December, San Diego police union president Jack Schaeffer was hopeful.

“I thought that we’d be the following week or something like that,” Schaeffer said. “And it seemed like things were heading in that direction -- and then they took a turn that I wasn’t prepared for.”

That turn? The state, and now the county, has yet to allow police officers to get their vaccine.

“They keep telling me we’re going to be the next group,” Schaeffer said. “But is that next group after half a million people are already vaccinated, or is that going to be next week? I have no idea, and that’s been very confusing.”

Schaeffer, Kennedy and four other local police chiefs spoke with NBC7 Investigates, including Capt. Matt Nicholass, La Mesa's interim police chief; El Cajon police chief Mike Moulton; Community College District police chief Joseph Ramos; and San Diego Unified School District interim police chief Joey Florentino.

All six officials told NBC 7 that officers are often first to the scene of traffic crashes and 911 calls, and are regularly administering CPR to those victims and Narcan to overdose patients, as well as triaging people with traumatic injuries.

“We really do need to have a conversation about this,” Kennedy said, “and maybe there’s a misunderstanding about what law enforcement really does.”

Kennedy said she tried to have that conversation, reaching out to the County Board of Supervisors and Public Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten. Supervisor Nora Vargas wrote Kennedy back, she said, but no one else responded.

“It makes you feel like they don’t even want to listen to what we’re walking about,” Kennedy said.

NBC7 Investigates reached out to a county spokesman for a comment but has not heard back.

El Cajon's Moulton said it’s not just police who should be worried.

"We’re just as concerned about the public as we are for our police officers,” said Moulton, adding that there is a fear that asymptomatic officers could unknowingly be super spreaders of the virus.

“We can be part of the problem if we are vulnerable, and getting sick and moving it around to other people,” Schaeffer said.

Officers are getting sick, in fact.

Public records from the San Diego Police Department show that, as of Jan. 5, almost 170 officers have tested positive, and nearly 1,000 officers have reported being exposed to the virus – more than have the department.

In Chula Vista, more than 200 police employees have had to isolate or quarantine, including 74 workers who tested positive or were diagnosed with COVID-19 – a large number, considering that Chula Vista only has 250 officers.

As of Jan. 29, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department reported 520 total positive cases of COVID-19 among its employees, 118 of which are active.

“It’s hard ... because we’re not trying to be disrespectful at all,” Kennedy said. “We’re really not. We’re just trying to make sure that we can protect our officers, the community and the families that our officers go home to."

Sometimes there are spare vaccines left over at the end of the day at county vaccination sites, and about 300 San Diego police officers have managed to get a vaccine that way, as well as 75 Chula Vista officers.

Kennedy estimated that roughly 3,600 officers in San Diego County are currently unvaccinated.

Meanwhile other counties have chosen to vaccinate law enforcement officers, including Orange, Riverside, Bakersfield, Sonoma and Humboldt counties.

<<<snip

As I understand it, this article made quite an impact when it was published, 2 months ago. Each county got to do its own staging (within overall state guidelines which put the very elderly first but allowed each county to decide which workers were more "essential" than others. This article made San Diego County uncomfortable - as they are supposed to be a pro-police, law and order county (and that's how they vote).

I was highly critical of our county public health officer in the beginning, but liked that he listened to the teachers' unions and moved teachers up to the same level with firemen and law enforcement. No one was a genius, and no one had a crystal ball - mistakes were made.

The politicization regarding "cannabis workers" is designed to divide people. In California, cannabis dispensaries qualify as pharmacies, and pharmacy workers were in the tier after front line healthcare workers, but before police or teachers (that was a longstanding public health plan).

And indeed, it turns out that for some people, cannabis has medicinal properties and there's even research on it in these days of COVID...

 

[10ofRods]

California continues to have the nation's lowest positivity rate, but it's hard to find an article that's not behind a paywall:

California has one of the lowest coronavirus transmission levels in the U.S.

39 deaths reported yesterday. US had 421 total.

For the. entire span of COVID, California is 38th in terms of cases per capita. For deaths, 31st per capita.

So for a very urban state, that's darned good.

 

[Cool Cats]

California continues to have the nation's lowest positivity rate, but it's hard to find an article that's not behind a paywall:

California has one of the lowest coronavirus transmission levels in the U.S.

39 deaths reported yesterday. US had 421 total.

For the. entire span of COVID, California is 38th in terms of cases per capita. For deaths, 31st per capita.

So for a very urban state, that's darned good.

Did you find some reasons why? They were such a mess last year .. I think LA was the worst?

Just so glad to see this news, my aunt lives in La Cañada. I went my last 2 years of high school in the very small town of

Willows, California

 

[10ofRods]

Yes. The reason is that more than 70% of Califonians over the age of 12 are vaccinated.

And the only deaths we've had in the past few weeks have been among...the unvaccinated.

An unvaccinated person's chances of running into a COVID positive person are at the lowest they've ever been...

And L.A. is doing better than San Francisco (where a lesser percentage of people are vaccinated) and then there are some small rural counties who are anti-vax, where most of our cases and deaths are coming from. Very few people travel to those counties, though.

Delta variant is on the rise, but so far, no increase in hospitalizations or deaths and since we used mostly Pfizer and Moderna, the vaccinated people are not getting COVID.

 

[Auntie Cipation]

Yes. The reason is that more than 70% of Califonians over the age of 12 are vaccinated.

And the only deaths we've had in the past few weeks have been among...the unvaccinated.

An unvaccinated person's chances of running into a COVID positive person are at the lowest they've ever been...

And L.A. is doing better than San Francisco (where a lesser percentage of people are vaccinated) and then there are some small rural counties who are anti-vax, where most of our cases and deaths are coming from. Very few people travel to those counties, though.

Delta variant is on the rise, but so far, no increase in hospitalizations or deaths and since we used mostly Pfizer and Moderna, the vaccinated people are not getting COVID.

Yup. I live in the rural/anti-vaxx county that was the very last -- 58th of 58 counties in California -- to have their first case of covid, and now we are having a spike -- not as many cases as we had in November/December, but still high for us.

More of the recent cases are symptomatic, and a higher (though still low) proportion of them are needing hospitalization. Our public health dept suspects one of the variants is here. No vaccinated person has gotten it yet here.

Our first wave last winter included four deaths, all from among the elder folks in our skilled nursing facilities. This new wave has brought us our first death from among the under-55 crowd.

And only just over a third of us are fully vaccinated.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

California to require Covid vaccine for schoolchildren, Newsom announces (nbcnews.com)

“This is about keeping our kids safe & healthy,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in announcing the mandate.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced that the Covid-19 vaccine will be required for the state’s schoolchildren, the first such mandate in the nation.

"CA will require our kids to get the COVID-19 vaccine to come to school. This will go into effect following full FDA approval. Our schools already require vaccines for measles, mumps and more. Why? Because vaccines work. This is about keeping our kids safe & healthy,” the governor wrote in a tweet...

 

[kkdj]

California to require Covid vaccine for schoolchildren, Newsom announces (nbcnews.com)

“This is about keeping our kids safe & healthy,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in announcing the mandate.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced that the Covid-19 vaccine will be required for the state’s schoolchildren, the first such mandate in the nation.

"CA will require our kids to get the COVID-19 vaccine to come to school. This will go into effect following full FDA approval. Our schools already require vaccines for measles, mumps and more. Why? Because vaccines work. This is about keeping our kids safe & healthy,” the governor wrote in a tweet...

I know a LOT of parents that are going to rebel against this!

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

AP report: Proof of vaccine required as strict mandate takes effect in LA (detroitnews.com)