Some COVID-19 trends bettering in California, however hospitalizations and deaths rising
California’s BA.5 surge may have peaked, with new instances trending down, in keeping with state information analyzed by The Chronicle. The state reported a mean of 43 new day by day instances per 100,000 residents on Tuesday, down from 49 per 100,000 two weeks in the past. The Bay Area can be exhibiting enchancment, with 38 instances per 100,000 as of Tuesday, a 21% lower since July 12. California’s common coronavirus take a look at optimistic fee, which displays the proportion of checks coming again optimistic, fell to fifteen% after peaking at 16.3% on July 15. Hospitalizations, a lagging indicator of pandemic trends, are rising. There had been 4,826 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 throughout the state Tuesday — up from 4,377 two weeks in the past — with 907 in Bay Area hospitals. Deaths are additionally up. Nearly 44 individuals die of COVID-19 day by day in California, with the Bay Area reporting seven new day by day deaths.
Los Angeles may be capable of keep away from new masks mandate this week
With indicators that COVID-19 may be slowing down in Los Angeles County, well being officers at the moment are reconsidering what had appeared to be a march towards a brand new common indoor masks mandate. Recent declines in case numbers and coronavirus-positive hospitalizations might pull the county again from the brink of such a mandate, news accounts reported. “We may be positioned to pause the implementation of universal masking,” Barbara Ferrer, the county’s well being director, instructed the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. The county is ready to resolve on the mandate by Thursday.
Ferrer mentioned if the county’s hospital admission fee of recent COVID sufferers falls to 10 per 100,000 residents, it might “trigger a reassessment on the need to re-implement an indoor masking mandate.” The county didn’t have present hospitalization information Tuesday resulting from a reporting delay from the California Department of Public Health. It is categorized within the “high” transmission stage, and the Los Angeles Times reported that the county was averaging about 6,100 coronavirus instances a day over the earlier week, as of Monday, which was down 11% from the prior week’s common of practically 6,900 instances a day.
Study hyperlinks smoking to threat of extreme COVID-19 issues
Adults who reported smoking or vaping prior to being hospitalized for COVID-19 had been extra seemingly than those that did not imbibe to expertise extreme COVID-19 issues, together with demise, in accordance a brand new examine printed within the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS ONE. The examine used the American Heart Association’s COVID-19 registry information to have a look at sufferers with COVID-19 in 107 hospitals nationwide between January 2020 and March 2021. People who reported smoking had been 45% extra prone to die and 39% extra prone to obtain mechanical air flow in comparison with nonsmokers, researchers discovered.
“In general, people who smoke or vape tend to have a higher prevalence of other health conditions and risk factors that could play a role in how they are impacted by COVID-19. However, the robust and significant increase in the risk of severe COVID-19 seen in our study, independent of medical history and medication use and particularly among young individuals, underscores the urgent need for extensive public health interventions such as anti-smoking campaigns and increased access to cessation therapy, especially in the age of COVID,” mentioned Aruni Bhatnagar, the examine’s senior writer and a professor of medication, biochemistry and molecular biology on the University of Louisville. “These findings provide the clearest evidence to date that people who smoke or vape have a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 and dying as a result of SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
Bay Area vaccination for infants and toddlers outpaces nationwide common
About 24% of Marin County kids ages 6 months to 4 years, who grew to become eligible for COVID vaccination photographs final month, have gotten their first dose – a lot greater than the three% of kids nationally. Several different Bay Area counties are reporting related charges: in San Francisco and San Mateo counties, 21% of kids on this age group have gotten their first dose. In Alameda County, 16% of infants and toddlers have gotten their first shot. Vaccine uptake for these youngest Americans has lengthy been anticipated to be decrease than that in older kids and adults, and the latest native and nationwide figures mirror that.
Scientists hint earliest COVID-19 instances to critters in Wuhan market
A brand new examine factors to evidence that the earliest cases of COVID-19 in humans emerged at a wholesale fish market in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, a discovering earlier rebuffed by China. An worldwide crew of 18 researchers linked these instances to contaminated bats, foxes and different stay mammals offered both for consumption as meat or for his or her fur. The examine printed in Science on Tuesday helps early experiences that animals offered at Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market had been the seemingly supply of the pandemic that has claimed not less than 6.4 million lives since rising in China.
“These are the most compelling and most detailed studies of what happened in Wuhan in the earliest stages of what would become the COVID-19 pandemic,” mentioned Stephen Goldstein of the University of Utah School of Medicine and a co-author of the examine led by U.S. researchers. “We have convincingly shown that the wild animal sales at the Huanan Market in Wuhan are implicated in the first human cases of the disease.”
Don’t wait to get second booster, well being official says
Residents 50 and older shouldn’t wait till the autumn to get a second booster photographs primarily based on their hopes for an up to date vaccine higher tailor-made to focusing on omicron subvariants, Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis mentioned Tuesday. During a COVID-19 replace to the county supervisors, he mentioned, “BA.5 is much better at evading the immune system,” in reference to the coronavirus pressure now dominating. “You’re protected for 60 to 90 days with that second booster. We don’t need to wait for the fall vaccine. We recommend people 50 and over don’t wait .…because of the increase in infectivity and immune evasion of BA.5.” BA.5 now represents not less than 82% of recent COVID instances. There have been no COVID deaths reported amongst those that obtained a second booster, Willis mentioned.
Marin case charges close to January excessive, however hospitalizations secure
Wastewater surveillance information exhibits COVID-19 an infection charges in Marin County at the moment are much like these reached on the peak of the primary omicron surge in January, however hospitalization charges stay secure – which implies the chance of an contaminated individual being hospitalized is lowering over time, county Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis instructed the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. Death charges are down considerably because of immunity from vaccination and prior an infection, widespread availability of the oral antiviral Paxlovid, and the latest variants being much less virulent, he mentioned.
Over 40% of oldsters of youngsters below 5 will “definitely not” get them vaccinated: ballot
About 43% of oldsters with kids ages 6 months to 4 years mentioned they may “definitely not” get their baby vaccinated towards COVID-19, in a survey printed Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. That marks a considerable enhance from the 27% of oldsters who answered the identical approach in April. The causes mother and father supplied for his or her stance on vaccines, which grew to become accessible for the youngest kids on June 18, embrace issues in regards to the newness of the vaccine, potential unintended effects, and total security. Additionally, about 1 in 10 mother and father did not suppose their baby wanted the vaccine or weren’t anxious about COVID-19, the nationally consultant survey discovered.
Social media has strongest tie to conduct dysfunction in tweens
On the heels of pandemic years that shepherded youth into digital exercise, UCSF researchers printed a examine Tuesday linking display time to disruptive conduct issues in tweens. They discovered social media has an particularly sturdy affect, in comparison with actions like video video games and texting. According to the UCSF-led national study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, children ages Sept. 11 who spend extra time on screens have a better probability of creating such issues.
Social media use was most certainly to be linked to conduct dysfunction — marked by violating others’ primary rights or societal guidelines with actions equivalent to bullying and stealing. Activities like watching movies and tv, taking part in video video games, and texting — had been extra prone to be related to oppositional defiant dysfunction, a sample of indignant or irritable temper, argumentative or defiant conduct, and vindictiveness. Self-reported display time within the examine averaged 4 hours per day. Researchers discovered that point above 4 hours was related to a 69% greater prevalence of conduct dysfunction and a 46% greater prevalence of ODD.
Meta seeks to cease eradicating COVID misinformation
The dad or mum firm of Facebook and Instagram requested its oversight board on Tuesday of it might pull again on its efforts to gradual the unfold of harmful COVID-19 misinformation. “Now that the COVID-19 situation has evolved, we’re seeking the Oversight Board’s opinion on whether we should change the way we address this type of misinformation through other means, like labeling or demoting it,” Meta’s president of Global Affairs Nick Clegg wrote in a weblog publish. That suggests the corporate would now not take away deceptive posts associated to the pandemic, reversing a 2020 coverage that at present gives for removing of 80 distinct false claims about COVID-19 and vaccine. “Meta is fundamentally committed to free expression and we believe our apps are an important way for people to make their voices heard,” Clegg mentioned, acknowledging, “inherent tensions between free expression and safety isn’t easy.”
BA.5 and BA.4 make up 95% of recent instances in U.S.
The extremely transmissible BA.5 coronavirus variant made up 82% of the sequenced instances within the U.S. final week, with its BA.4 sister pressure making up a further 13%. The two omicron sublineages have successfully crowded out BA.2, at 0.3%, and BA.2.12.1, at 5%, which drove the spring wave of COVID-19 instances throughout the nation. The U.S. is averaging about 120,000 new instances per day, up from 105,000 a month in the past earlier than the newer subvariants gained dominance.
UCSF’s Wachter highlights “that awkward period after at-risk exposure”
Dr. Bob Wachter, whose twitter feed has turn into a supply of essential COVID information within the Bay Area and a polestar for a lot of struggling about the best way to navigate residing by a pandemic, mentioned Tuesday morning that he was “in that awkward period after at-risk exposure.” He mentioned he’s now self-isolating after a weekend “college reunion of sorts” out of state. Two out of 20 individuals in attendance examined optimistic for a coronavirus an infection, Wachter tweeted. The occasion was “mostly outdoors but a few indoor maskless times.”
Wachter mentioned he deliberate to get examined Tuesday morning. “Will mask everywhere, isolate from wife/others, wait for (negative) tests x (two days) before I let down guard.” mentioned Wachter, UCSF’s chair of medication.
Biden tells reporters he’s “feeling better every day”
President Biden told reporters on Monday that he’s “feeling better every day” as he recovers from his coronavirus an infection, and the White House deliberate a summit on Tuesday to deal with a brand new technology of vaccines. After collaborating in a digital assembly to speak about pc chip manufacturing, Biden replied to reporters questions posed nearly, saying “everything’s on the button” with the medical checks he’s been receiving every night. He additionally mentioned he’s been sleeping higher, joking that his canine needed to wake him up Monday, the fourth day of Biden’s COVID isolation. “I’m feeling good – my voice is still raspy,” he mentioned, including he nonetheless had nasal congestion, however is on his approach “to fully recovered, God willing.”
Wealthier residents moved out of San Francisco as pandemic endured
The common revenue of people that moved out of San Francisco in the course of the early a part of the pandemic surged from a 12 months earlier: More rich, white-collar staff, a lot of whom might work remotely, left town. Between 2019 and 2020, the variety of taxpaying San Franciscans fell by 39,202, a drop of 4.5%, Internal Revenue Service information exhibits. Those departing made a mean of about $138,000 per 12 months in 2019, up 67% from the prior 12 months. Read extra about San Francisco’s out-migration, and the web migration, the quantity of people that moved out minus the quantity of people that moved in, that almost tripled in a single 12 months.
White House summit focuses on creating new vaccines to thwart future variants
The White House deliberate a Tuesday vaccine summit, gathering prime administration officers, scientists and pharmaceutical executives to debate a new generation of vaccines that would extra successfully guard towards contagious variants, and to put out a roadmap to develop them. The White House instructed Stat that the administration is making ready a sweeping initiative centered on such immunizations in hopes of thwarting future coronavirus variants and dramatically lowering coronavirus an infection and transmission charges, constructing on present photographs whose impression has been primarily to stop severe sickness and demise. The summit comes because the nation faces a surge of infections from BA.5, a variant that’s a extremely contagious, fast-spreading offshoot of the omicron pressure.
COVID-19 outbreaks hit LAX
COVID outbreaks sweeping through Los Angeles International Airport have precipitated not less than 400 confirmed COVID instances amongst Transportation Security Administration workers and staff at American and Southwest airways, in keeping with a Los Angeles Times report confirmed by the county Department of Public Health. At least 220 workers with the TSA at LAX have examined optimistic for the coronavirus, according to the county agency, the biggest lively outbreak at present being monitored by county well being officers. LAX and TSA officers mentioned nevertheless, that companies haven’t been impacted due to the outbreaks.
AP debunks pretend declare that U.S. army discovered movement illness drug in COVID-19 vaccines for kids
The COVID-19 vaccines don’t contain scopolamine, in keeping with specialists and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Associated Press reported in response to false claims on a web site recognized for satire and parody content material. Claims that the army made such a discovering are also false, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense instructed The Associated Press, stating, “There is absolutely no truth to that claim.” Scopolamine is a drug used to deal with movement illness.
Less than 3% of youngsters below 5 are vaccinated
The U.S. vaccination marketing campaign for kids below 5 is fizzling, with simply 544,000 kids in that age group having received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose as of final week — 2.8% of the 19 million eligible children within the age group, in keeping with federal information analyzed by the Kaiser Family Foundation. A little bit over a month for the reason that vaccines grew to become accessible to the youngest Americans, uptake has peaked and is quickly lowering. By comparability, the primary month vaccines had been made accessible to kids ages 5-11, greater than 5.3 million obtained their first dose, representing about 19% of that age group. The seven-day rolling common vaccination fee for kids below 5 peaked at simply over 28,000 on July 1 and decreased to about 13,000 on July 20. California is doing higher at uptake than the nationwide common however lagging behind a number of different states, with 4.3% of California children having obtained not less than one dose. The least vaccinated states for kids below 5 are Mississippi, 0.4%, and Alabama, 0.6%.