Has California 'bent the curve'? Hospital numbers suggest plateau of summer surge
Sac Bee's TONY BIZJAK: "California may be bending the curve again in its coronavirus fight after a turbulent two months of rising rates, although once-burned officials remain shy about offering any boasts that the resilient virus is anywhere near tamed.
The number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals around the state has dropped 22 percent in the last three weeks to 5,596 Californians from a high of 7,170.
That’s a reversal of what had been a worrisome month-plus surge of increased hospitalizations. COVID hospital patient numbers are considered one of the key indicators of how deeply the virus is hitting the state. The number of intensive care patients also has come down off its peak from three weeks ago."
Why did California's top health official resign over the weekend?
The Chronicle's ERIN ALLDAY: "The abrupt departure of California’s top public health officer Sunday came as a shock to many local leaders at the front lines of the state’s pandemic response, who described Dr. Sonia Angell as helpful and hands-on but still somewhat of an enigma after less than a year on the job.
Angell resigned a few days after officials revealed a critical failure in the state computer system that collects infectious disease data, which resulted in an undercounting of new coronavirus cases since July 25. Gov. Gavin Newsom had touted a sharp drop in new cases on Aug. 3, saying he was optimistic that the state was starting to pull out of a two-month surge. State officials said he learned only that evening about the data-collection glitch.
On Monday, Newsom refused to say outright that Angell’s exit was due to the data error, “but if it’s not obvious, I encourage you to consider the fact that we accepted her resignation,” he said in a news briefing."
CalPERS chief's resignation followed ethics complaint, allegations over $1B deal
Sac Bee's DALE KASLER: "The resignation last week of CalPERS’ chief investment officer followed an anonymous complaint to the state’s ethics watchdog agency amid allegations that he had approved a $1 billion deal with a firm in which he’s a shareholder.
Yu Ben Meng, who was in charge of overseeing the giant public employee pension fund’s $411 billion portfolio, had OK’d in March a $1 billion investment with a private equity fund controlled by Blackstone Group Inc., a New York financial firm. Meng’s conflict-of-interest disclosure statements showed he held as much as $100,000 in Blackstone stock.
An anonymous tipster sent the Fair Political Practices Commission, the ethics watchdog, a complaint about Meng last Tuesday, said FPPC spokesman Jay Wierenga. The complaint made vague allegations about disclosures of economic holdings and included a two-page list of Meng’s personal investments, including his ownership of Blackstone stock."
Does your mask work? New study separates the worthy from the worthless
The Chronicle's AIDIN VAZIRI: "That bandanna might make you look like a cool outlaw from an old Western movie but it’s largely ineffective in protecting you from the coronavirus, according to a new study.
A group of researchers at Duke University tested 14 different types of common face masks to determine which ones work best to stop the transmission of respiratory droplets during regular speech - and which ones are practically useless.
Fitted N95 masks, which are usually reserved for health care professionals, came out on top of the rankings, while three-layer surgical masks and homemade cotton masks also performed well."
Why did most of Sac County's federal pandemic aid go to sheriff's payroll?
Sac Bee's EDITORIAL BOARD: "Did Sacramento County just turn the “defund the police” slogan on its head? County officials appear to have given the vast majority of the county’s federal coronavirus emergency funding to the office of Sheriff Scott Jones.
It’s a bad look, especially at a time when the death of George Floyd has inspired a protest movement that questions the role law enforcement plays in our society and in our public budgets. But is there a logic in how Sacramento County CEO Nav Gill decided to use the federal aid? That’s a question that needs to be answered during today’s meeting of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors.
Sacramento County has received a total of $181 million in federal aid funds as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES), but it appears these emergency funds have mostly funded law enforcement."
KHN donates $63M to expand traces of virus cases in California
Sac Bee's CATHIE ANDERSON/DARRELL SMITH: "Kaiser Permanente will pour $63 million into building teams of hundreds of home-grown contract tracers to slow the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 10,000 Californians and pummeled communities of color here and across the U.S.
“We must reduce the spread of COVID-19 and care for the communities that are being hardest hit by the virus,” Kaiser Permanente chairman and CEO Greg A. Adams said in a statement Monday announcing the new initiative.
Kaiser is giving the money as a grant to the Oakland-based Public Health Institute to create teams based in communities hard-hit by COVID-19 that will be embedded in Kaiser clinical settings and supporting local public health departments — the better to flood COVID hot spots and reduce the numbers sickened by the deadly virus."
Trump's unemployment plan unworkable for California, Newsom says
Sac Bee's DAVID LIGHTMAN: "Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that it will be extremely difficult — and likely impossible — for the state to provide funding needed to give California’s unemployment workers the entire $400 additional benefit President Donald Trump has announced.
That benefit would cost the state an estimated $700 million each week, Newsom said at an afternoon news conference, at a time when California’s government is struggling to balance a budget ravaged by the sudden economic slump triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under another scenario, Newsom said, the state would have to come up with an additional $2.8 billion weekly."
San Quentin coronavirus disaster exposes a dangerous road to 'herd immunity'
LA Times's RONG-GONG LIN II/KIM CHRISTENSEN: "For critics of aggressive stay-at-home orders, the solution seems clear: Reopen the economy and enough people will eventually become infected by the novel coronavirus to achieve “herd immunity” even before a vaccine is available.
The idea is that eventually, a sufficient percentage of the population will have survived COVID-19 and become immune, which in turn protects the rest of the uninfected population by interrupting the spread of the virus.
But the disastrous situation unfolding at San Quentin State Prison over the last two months has become the latest of several cautionary tales that show how any effort to achieve herd immunity before a vaccine is available would come with enormous costs in terms of illness and death."
Latinos underrepresented on California redistricting commission
Sac Bee's KIM BOJORQUEZ: "Latinos are underrepresented on the commission that draws geographic boundaries for California political offices despite a campaign that highlighted their complete absence from the first group of people selected to serve on it.
Four of the 14 spots on the California 2020 Citizens Redistricting Commission are held by Latinos. That’s 29% percent of the commission.
The share disappointed Latino leaders who wanted the commission to more closely resemble California’s demographic makeup. Latinos represent 39.4% of California’s population."
Trump admin claims victory in rulings on asylum restrictions, but courts differ
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "Two years after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared thousands of immigrants fleeing domestic abuse or gang violence to be ineligible for U.S. asylum in virtually all cases, the Trump administration is celebrating the courts’ response.
The federal appeals courts that have reviewed Sessions’ decision “have rejected challenges to it in whole or in part, and upheld the attorney general’s authority to interpret the immigration laws,” Justice Department spokeswoman Alexa Vance said after the most recent ruling last month. “We will continue to defend the attorney general’s and the administration’s efforts to restore integrity to our asylum system.”
That’s hard to square with what the courts have actually said."
Coronavirus patient gets two-drug combo in global experiment at UCSF
The Chronicle's PETER FIMRITE: "Researchers at UCSF have begun testing a mixture of two of the most promising treatments for COVID-19 in hopes that the concoction will be the “golden ticket” everyone is looking for to neutralize the coronavirus and relieve world anxiety.
Doctors conducting the study, which is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, treated their first patient last week with a combination of remdesivir, an antiviral drug developed to treat Ebola, and interferon, an anti-inflammatory used for people with multiple sclerosis.
The hope is that, together, the two drugs will cut the length and severity of sickness and reduce the number of deaths caused by SARS-CoV-2, the specific coronavirus that causes COVID-19."
Defund the LAPD? At this pace, it would take 20 years to hit BLM's goal
LA Times's DAVID ZAHNISER/ADAM ELMAHREK/PRIYA KRISHNAKUMAR: "For much of this year, activists across Los Angeles staged protests and flooded city meetings with angry phone calls, demanding that Mayor Eric Garcetti and the City Council zero out funding for the Police Department.
“We want the dismantling of the LAPD entirely,” filmmaker Carter Moon, 27, said during one budget hearing. “We are working toward abolition, and every day you are just getting in our way.”
Council members ultimately cut the department’s budget by $150 million, slashing overtime pay and taking police staffing to its lowest level since 2008."
Russia approves and touts vaccine, but critics are skeptical
AP: "Russia on Tuesday became the first country to officially register a coronavirus vaccine and declare it ready for use, despite international skepticism. President Vladimir Putin said that one of his daughters has already been inoculated.
Putin emphasized that the vaccine underwent the necessary tests and has proven effective, offering a lasting immunity from the coronavirus. However, scientists at home and abroad have been sounding the alarm that the rush to start using the vaccine before Phase 3 trials — which normally last for months and involve thousands of people — could backfire. Other vaccine candidates, including ones being developed in the U.S. and Britain, are undergoing such widespread tests.
Speaking at a government meeting Tuesday, Putin said Russia’s vaccine had proven safe to use. The Health Ministry said in a statement that the vaccine is expected to provide immunity from the coronavirus for up to two years."