Friday, August 27, 2021 – California Healthline

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Hospitals ‘At Capacity’ Amid COVID Delta Surge 
More Sacramento County residents have died of COVID-19 in the first three weeks of August than in any full calendar month since February, according to the county health office, as the highly contagious delta variant of coronavirus bombards the capital region with infections and fills up hospital beds. The county’s data dashboard shows at least 76 confirmed coronavirus deaths this month. That’s nine more than all of March and on pace to more than double the fatality rate from April through July, a stretch that averaged a little less than 40 deaths a month. (McGough, 8/26 )

Los Angeles Times: COVID-19 Cases Rise Among Unvaccinated Youth, Latinos
Los Angeles County has seen a slowdown in the latest surge in COVID-19 patients headed to hospitals, but it is unclear yet whether it has gotten past another peak, Barbara Ferrer, director of the county public health department, said Thursday. It’s “hard to know,” Ferrer said, cautioning that “we have a lot of risk right now” as many people return to their routines and children and teachers go back to school with the highly transmissible Delta variant circulating in the county. (Alpert Reyes and Lin II, 8/26)

San Diego Union-Tribune: COVID-19 Cases On Rise In San Diego Jails; Detention Staff Required To Vaccinate Or Test Weekly 
Amid a continuing rise in COVID-19 cases in San Diego County jails, the Sheriff’s Department is requiring that its detention staff either be vaccinated against the disease or undergo weekly testing. As of Thursday, there were at least 200 active COVID-19 cases among those in custody throughout the county’s seven detention facilities, or a little more than 5 percent of the 3,876 people in jail, according to department data. That was an increase of 85 cases since Wednesday. (Riggins. 8/26)

Orange County Register: Coronavirus: L.A. County Reported 3,226 New Cases And 31 New Deaths, Aug. 26 
Los Angeles County public health officials reported 3,226 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases to 1,394,488 as of Thursday, Aug. 26. The total number of cases represents 13.9% of Los Angeles County’s population. Officials reported 31 new deaths linked to the coronavirus, for a total 25,181 deaths since tracking began. The total number of deaths represents 0.25% of Los Angeles County’s population. (Goertzen, 8/26)

The Bakersfield Californian: 1 New Coronavirus Death, 488 New Cases Reported Thursday 
Kern County Public Health Services reported one new coronavirus death and 488 new cases on Thursday. The total number of COVID-19 deaths in Kern County now stands at 1,453, while the total number of cases is 122,386. (8/26)

The Bakersfield Californian: Case Rates In Kern Are Highest In Bakersfield
In the earliest days of the pandemic in Kern County, coronavirus cases first appeared in southwest Bakersfield before migrating downtown. The waves of COVID-19 that hit the county since March 2020 didn’t have that same trajectory, but the latest surge of the virus seems to be a return to form. (Gallegos, 8/26)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Could Pay $400,000 Settlement To Church That Fought COVID-19 Mandates 
Los Angeles County could soon settle a lawsuit against an evangelical church that defied a public health order barring indoor worship during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last August, the county sued Grace Community Church in Sun Valley for holding in-person, indoor services that drew thousands of unmasked congregants. (Cosgrove, 8/27)

Los Angeles Times: Long COVID’s Daunting Toll Seen In Earliest Pandemic Patients
COVID-19 patients in Wuhan were among the pandemic’s first victims, and a comprehensive new study finds that a year after shaking the coronavirus, survivors were more likely than their uninfected peers to suffer from mobility problems, pain or discomfort, anxiety and depression. A detailed accounting of 1,276 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in the pandemic’s opening months reveals that a full year later, almost half continued to report at least one lingering health problem that is now considered a symptom of “long COVID.” (Healy, 8/27)

Bay Area News Group: COVID-19 At Oakland Schools Shuts Down Several Classrooms
Almost three weeks after Oakland Unified School District’s 35,000 students returned to classrooms since the start of the pandemic, dozens of students and teachers have reported getting COVID-19 off-campus and seven classes have been forced to temporarily close to prevent its spread. Earlier this week, however, district officials learned that at least 12 cases — some of which had prompted them to close classrooms — were based on false positive test results. (Sciacca, 8/26)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: Sonoma County Schools See 83 Virus Cases In First Two Weeks
Sonoma County schools dealt with at least 83 cases of COVID-19 within the first two weeks of the school year, health officials said in a community briefing this week. Of the cases identified, 68 were students and 16 were staff members. Around 10%, or eight of those cases, were determined by contact tracers to be caused by school-based transmission. Those and other countywide statistics presented Wednesday by Sonoma County public health workers on the epidemiology and school support team offer a broad snapshot of schools’ dealings with COVID-19 during their initial weeks of full-time in-person instruction. (Tornay, 8/26)

EdSource: Quarantines And Teacher Shortages: A Double Whammy For California Districts 
Quarantines and teacher shortages are threatening to overwhelm school districts already struggling to provide independent study for tens of thousands of students who have chosen it or could be forced into it because of Covid infections and exposure. Many districts are confused over how to educate students in quarantine — what’s required, what’s allowed and what’s funded. At this point, independent study, even for eight to 14 days due to a quarantine, is the only education option that the state is willing to fund other than in-person instruction. The Legislature let the one-year law setting the rules for distance learning expire at the end of June. (Fensterwald and Marquez Rosales, 8/27)

Los Angeles Times: The Frenzy Behind Happy Masks: How A Face Covering Went Viral
Nikki Hart had to get some Happy Masks for her kids. The Culver City mother of two had heard parents extol the fit and filtration of the company’s face coverings. And when her 4-year-old son tried on a friend’s mask, it didn’t fog up his eyeglasses. So on Aug. 9, Hart logged onto the company’s website and prepared for the 6 p.m. release of a new batch of Happy Masks. With the return to school looming, Hart said she knew of several other moms who were hoping to score them, too. “It felt like I was trying to get tickets to the Rolling Stones,” she said. (Miller, 8/27)

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego To Mandate City Workers Be Fully Vaccinated 
The City of San Diego notified all 11,000 of the city’s employees by email Thursday that they must get a COVID-19 vaccine by Nov. 2. The city is the first major government agency in the region to mandate that all employees get vaccinated. Los Angeles issued a similar mandate last week requiring city workers to be vaccinated by Oct. 5. The email to San Diego city employees does not explain the rationale for the Nov. 2 deadline. (Garrick, 8/26)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Rage Against The Vaccine: How A San Diego Group Is Lashing Out At COVID-19 Rules 
On an August morning, 300 people flooded the San Diego County Board of Supervisors meeting to protest mask and vaccine guidelines that officials advocate as life-saving measures in the COVID-19 pandemic. Demonstrators called them constitutional violations and assaults on personal liberty. “We are fighting for freedom with people around the world,” said Alysson Hartmann, co-founder of ReOpen San Diego, which organized the protest. “We are the only thing standing between tyranny and our country and kids.” (Brennan and Durham, 8/26)

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat: FDA’s Approval Of Pfizer Vaccine Draws Limited Reaction
People cite a wide range of reasons for declining the coronavirus vaccines here in Sonoma County and elsewhere, but one common explanation has been, “They don’t have real FDA approval.” For months, health workers have doled out shots of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson under emergency use authorizations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. That authorization was given after the formulas had gone through three stages of vigorous study. Full approval requires a fourth stage, one that examines a larger pool of vaccine and placebo recipients over a longer period of time. (Barber and Espinoza, 8/26)

Bay Area News Group: Free Air Purifiers To Be Given Away By Bay Area Air District To Protect Vulnerable People From Wildfire Smoke 
In an effort to reduce the growing health risks from wildfire smoke to some of the Bay Area’s most vulnerable residents, air regulators announced Thursday they plan to provide free air purifiers to 3,000 low-income Bay Area residents who suffer from asthma and other breathing problems. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District, a state agency based in San Francisco, said it will spend $350,000 on the program, and will seek donations from corporations and others to expand it more broadly in the months ahead. (Rogers, 8/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: Caldor Fire Prompts First Evacuation Warnings Inside Lake Tahoe Basin
Evacuation warnings were issued inside the Tahoe Basin on Thursday for the first time since the Caldor Fire erupted southwest of Lake Tahoe two weeks ago, and evacuations were ordered at Echo Summit. Residents of Christmas Valley in the South Lake area were told to prepare to vacate their homes while residents between Twin Bridges and Echo Summit were ordered to leave. The developments in El Dorado County came as another new wildland fire started in Tuolumne County, forcing evacuations in Sonora. (Cabanatuan and Hepler, 8/26)

Los Angeles Times: A Hellish Summer In Lake Tahoe: Choked In Smoke With The Caldor Fire Closing In Fast
The smell of burnt pine chokes the mountain air, but it’s the signs along the roadways that announce the early end of the summer season at South Lake Tahoe. “FOREST CLOSED,” “NO CAMPING,” “NO BARBECUES.”As the destructive Caldor fire creeps closer to the popular resort area, the boaters, hikers and beachgoers who typically descend on South Lake Tahoe ahead of Labor Day have all but vanished. And the lake itself — a blue jewel of California — is now choppy and dark under a dense blanket of smoke. The layer of ash in the area is thick enough in some places to leave footprints. (Smith and Armond, 8/27)

AP: With Wildfire Threatening, Lake Tahoe Prepares For Emergency
The decision to flee their home Thursday in the mountains above Lake Tahoe became clear when Johnny White and Lauren McCauley could see flames on the webcam at their local ski resort. Even as ash rained down under a cloud of heavy smoke, the couple wasn’t panicked because they had an early warning to leave their home near Echo Summit, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of the lake, and wanted to avoid last-minute pandemonium if the wildfire continued its march toward the tourist destination on the California and Nevada border. (Metz and Melley, 8/27)

Los Angeles Times: Washington Fire Grows To More Than 80 Acres In Tuolumne County; Downtown Sonora Evacuated 
A growing fire in Northern California’s Tuolumne County prompted officials to issue mandatory evacuation orders Thursday. The Washington fire has burned at least 80 acres and was 5% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. (Yee, 8/26)

Sacramento Bee: Newsom Recall Candidate Faulconer Calls For Parental Leave
Gubernatorial recall candidate Kevin Faulconer wants to implement fully paid parental leave as part of a plan he says will support California women, especially working mothers. The plan, which Faulconer introduced Thursday, comes as he and other candidates lambaste recall front runner Larry Elder over comments he made in support of pregnancy discrimination. Faulconer accused Elder of wanting to “eradicate women’s protections” and said his plan will provide mothers with support when they need it most. (Korte, 8/26)

Los Angeles Times: ‘Mad Moms’ And Mask Mandates: Will They Determine Newsom’s Fate? 
Almost since its inception, the effort to oust Gov. Gavin Newsom has been inextricably tied to the pandemic’s impact on schools. Recall backers say they succeeded in qualifying for the ballot in large part because of mothers’ frustration with closed classrooms and their children’s struggles with virtual learning. Now, as recall ballots are dropping in mailboxes, children are returning to school amid heated battles over mask mandates and skyrocketing cases of the highly transmissible Delta variant. Leaders of the effort to remove Newsom for office are confident that women, exasperated by the effect of Newsom’s policies on their children, are the reason they will prevail. (Mehta, 8/27)

Los Angeles Times: How To Vote By Mail In Newsom California Recall Election 
If California was flirting with mail-in voting before 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic performed a shotgun wedding. To make sure the coronavirus didn’t shut people out of the November 2020 election, the state Legislature passed and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a measure requiring counties to send mail-in ballots to all registered voters, no application or request necessary. The state later extended this requirement through at least 2021.The ballots for the Sept. 14 recall election have already been delivered, and voters are starting to fill them out and return them. But it’s not too late to obtain a mail-in ballot if you’re a freshly registered voter or you’re living at a new address. Here are a few tips for how to obtain, return and track your ballot. (Healey, 8/27)

AP: Supreme Court Allows Evictions To Resume During Pandemic
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority is allowing evictions to resume across the United States, blocking the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban that was put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic. The court’s action late Thursday ends protections for roughly 3.5 million people in the United States who said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to Census Bureau data from early August. (Sherman, 8/27)

AP: California Advances 2 Zoning Bills To Promote Scarce Housing
Spurred by an affordable housing shortage, spiking home prices and intractable homelessness, California lawmakers on Thursday advanced the second of two measures designed to cut through local zoning ordinances. The measure promoted by Senate leader Toni Atkins and supported by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, both Democrats, would make it easier to build smaller second units on what are now single-family properties. That could include up to four units, such as duplexes or homes with attached living units, if the lot is split into two equal parcels under the bill. (Thompson, 8/26)

The New York Times: California Advances Zoning Measure To Allow Duplexes 
California needs more housing. More condominiums, more townhouses near mass transit, more suburban apartment buildings. There is no other solution to the state’s desperate homelessness problem and a deepening housing affordability crisis, according to a broad collection of economists and housing experts. Yet for years the State Legislature has struggled to follow their prescription to increase urban density, often because lawmakers fear angering suburban voters, whose preferences for single-family home living have been regarded as politically sacrosanct. (Dougherty, 8/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: It Took 13 Years, But 200 Affordable Homes Are Finally Coming To SoMa
When affordable housing builder Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. first bid on the parking lot at Fifth and Howard back in 2007, there were plenty of reasons to think it was a crazy idea. After all, at $12 million, the 32,000-square-foot parcel was expensive, and two well-capitalized condo developers were also chasing the property, bidding up the price. Furthermore, the Mayor’s Office of Housing didn’t have the money to fund the development. Even if they were able to convince the city to fund the land acquisition, where would the money come from to construct it? (Dineen, 8/26)

Bay Area News Group: Santa Clara County Cut New Homelessness Almost 30% During COVID
Santa Clara County has housed nearly 5,000 people since January and cut its number of newly homeless residents by almost 30% over the past year — putting the county well on its way to meeting ambitious goals set in 2020. But the crisis is so extensive, that even those significant gains have failed to make a noticeable dent in the proliferation of homeless encampments from San Jose to Gilroy. (Kendall, 8/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Wants To Put Homeless Hotels Around The City. These Are The Neighborhoods Pushing Back
Many Japantown community leaders, business owners and residents are opposing San Francisco’s plan to buy a tourist hotel in the neighborhood and convert it into permanent affordable housing with social services for people experiencing homelessness. Locals say their opposition isn’t “anti-homeless,” pointing out many supported using the Buchanan Hotel to house homeless people during the pandemic. But they’re worried about the demise of tourism if one of the neighborhood’s two hotels is permanently lost, and critical of what they feel is a rushed process in a historically marginalized community. (Moench, 8/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bill To Decriminalize Psychedelics Shelved In California Legislature
A bill that would have decriminalized the use of A bill that would have decriminalized the use of some psychedelic drugs has stalled in the California Legislature — at least for this year — after its author pulled the proposal. The measure, SB519 by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, would have allowed the possession and personal use of hallucinogenic mushrooms, LSD, MDMA and other psychedelics, which supporters argue have therapeutic mental-health benefits. (Gardiner and Koseff, 8/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: Investigators Have Ruled Out 2 Causes Of Death In Case Of Mariposa Family, But Still Have No Answers
Investigators said Thursday they have ruled out exposure to chemicals from a mine along the trail and use of a gun or other weapon in the mysterious case of a former San Francisco family who died along with their dog on a remote Mariposa County hiking route. In its first update on the case in nearly a week, the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office provided more details about the timeline of events, indicating the family was spotted heading to the trailhead on the morning of Aug. 15 by a witness. (Gafni, 8/26)

Modesto Bee: Modesto Church’s Vaccine Religious Exemptions Questionable 
By offering documents to help people get around their employers’ COVID-19 vaccine mandates, The House Modesto on Sunday must have known it would be compared to nutty churches beating them to the punch. In his announcement offering untested religious exemptions to shots, The House senior associate pastor Mike Trenton acknowledged that “some churches in Northern California have already done this in the past week. ”That’s a curious approach, because the one getting the most attention is Rocklin’s Destiny Church. Its defiant pastor was ridiculed for holding superspreader services earlier in the pandemic, when most other churches followed public health orders and closed. (Garth Stapley, 8/25)

CalMatters: Audit Report Provides Ammo For Newsom Recall 
State Auditor Elaine Howle periodically issues a list of “high risk” state agencies and programs, essentially warnings to governors and state legislators about festering problems needing attention. … Howle’s latest report was released last week and from a purely political standpoint, the timing could not have been worse for Gov. Gavin Newsom. He’s trying to stave off a surprisingly powerful movement to recall him and several of the report’s items provide ammunition for the pro-recall campaign’s contention that he’s been a poor manager. The report’s most damning critique declares that “the state’s management of COVID-19 federal funds has led to inefficiency and may have resulted in substantial fraud.” (Dan Walters, 8/23)

Politico: The Recall Is Republicans’ Last Best Hope In Deep Blue California 
Recall is a blunt instrument. There’s no denying that it is bizarre that Larry Elder, the leading alternative candidate, could replace Newsom after getting less than 20 percent of the vote. The way the recall works is that voters are first asked whether or not to recall Newsom. If a majority says “yes,” he is gone. Then, whichever candidate gets the most votes on the replacement ballot, even if it’s a small plurality, becomes governor (Elder has led polls among replacement candidates with as little as 18 percent of the vote). (Rich Lowry, 8/25)

The New York Times: California Could Throw Away What It’s Won
If you live in California and haven’t yet voted or made plans to vote on the proposed recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom, please wake up. This is a situation in which apathy could have awesome consequences: California, which isn’t as liberal a state as you may imagine but is nonetheless considerably more liberal than the nation as a whole, may be about to absent-mindedly acquire a Trumpist governor who could never win a normal election. This would happen at a moment when control of statehouses is especially crucial because it shapes the response to the coronavirus. MAGA governors like Greg Abbott in Texas and Ron DeSantis in Florida aren’t just refusing to impose mask or vaccination requirements themselves; they’re trying to prevent others from taking precautions by issuing executive orders and backing legislation banning the imposition of such requirements by local governments and even private businesses. And that’s the kind of governor California will probably find itself with if the recall succeeds. (Paul Krugman, 8/26)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Must Be National Leader In Guaranteed Income 
The pandemic caused a sea change on universal basic income as people across the ideological spectrum realized the power of direct cash payments under federal and state COVID relief bills. Undeniable data, from the Stockton program and multiple rounds of stimulus checks, showed that people were able to buy food, pay their bills, and were mentally healthier as a result. When the pandemic subsides, there is a real foundation — built by proven policy, unbiased data, and rising political will — to establish guaranteed income programs in every city. (Yousef Baig, 8/27)