COVID-19 was twice as contagious as experts thought when pandemic started, study says
Sac Bee's KATIE CAMERO: "During the first months of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization estimated that each sick individual was infecting an average of two others. This “basic reproductive number” — or (R0) and pronounced “R naught” — reveals how contagious a disease is.
Now, new research from Duke University says the number was likely twice as big, with one infected individual bringing down an average of 4 to 5 people with them, according to a study published Sept. 24 in the journal PLOS One.
The findings also show that governments in the 57 countries analyzed had about 20 days from their first reported cases to enforce preventive measures such as social distancing and face mask guidelines to prevent widespread infections and deaths — which they did not take advantage of."
READ MORE related to Pandemic: Worldwide death toll from pandemic eclipses 1M -- AP's ADAM GELLER/RISHABH R JAIN; Gov. Newsom sees counties moving into new COVID-19 tiers -- CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR in Sac Bee; 500K sharks may have to die in the fight against COVID-19. Here's why -- Sac Bee's KATIE CAMERO; Another scary thing about COVID: Survivors aren't fully recovering -- The Chronicle's ERIN ALLDAY; Why one coronavirus metric might be keeping your county from reopening -- LA Times's SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA
Why did California fires suddenly roar? Weekend winds topped freeway speeds
Sac Bee's TONY BIZJAK: "Pacific Gas and Electric announced Monday afternoon that it is ending its latest “public safety power shutoff” and will have electricity restored to most of the 65,000 affected customers in 16 counties by midnight. As of Monday afternoon, almost all customers had already had their power restored.
In making the announcement, the utility company said wind speeds topped 70 miles per hour on Sunday in mountain areas in the Bay Area, at Mt. St. Helena in Sonoma, and in Butte County at Jarbo Gap.
The utility company shut off power in those and other areas this weekend to avoid fire-causing damage to the electrical grid system."
READ MORE related to Wildfire Season: Newsom declares state of emergency in 3 counties -- The Chronicle's NANETTE ASIMOV; More mandatory evacuations ordered; 3 dead in Zogg Fire -- Sac Bee's SAM STANTON/MICHAEL MCGOUGH/RYAN SABALOW/TONY BIZJAK; California Wine Country hit by another year of devastating wildfires -- Sac Bee's SAM STANTON/MICHAEL MCGOUGH/RYAN SABALOW/TONY BIZJAK; Butte County towns, including Paradise, face danger from North Complex fire -- Sac Bee's RYAN SABALOW/TONY BIZJAK/JASON POHL; Will smoke from latest fires impact Sacramento? What to expect in Northern California -- Sac Bee's MICHAEL MCGOUGH; Glass Fire photos: Inside another Wine Country firestorm -- The Chronicle's STAFF
Trump administration: 2020 census to end Oct. 5, despite court order
AP's MIKE SCHNEIDER: "U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross says the 2020 census will end Oct. 5, despite a federal judge’s ruling last week allowing the head count of every U.S. resident to continue through the end of October, according to a tweet Monday from the Census Bureau.
The tweet said the ability for people to self-respond to the census questionnaire, as well as the door-knocking phase, in which census takers go to homes that haven’t responded, is targeted to end Oct. 5.
The announcement came as a virtual hearing was being held in San Jose as a follow-up to U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh’s preliminary injunction. The injunction last week suspended the Census Bureau’s deadline for ending the count Sept. 30; this automatically reverted the deadline back to an older Census Bureau plan, in which the date for ending field operations was Oct. 31."
Newsom gets flu shot during live-streamed news conference
The Chronicle's ALEXEI KOSEFF: "Gov. Gavin Newsom encouraged Californians to do their part to prevent a potential “twindemic” of the coronavirus and the flu this fall by getting his flu shot in the middle of a live-streamed news conference Monday.
After providing his regular updates on the wildfires ravaging the state and the latest figures on new coronavirus cases, Newsom reminded viewers that “flu season’s just around the corner.” Then he stripped off his jacket and walked over to a doctor who had been waiting off-camera with the vaccine.
Newsom has been warning for weeks that the state could be hit by another wave of coronavirus cases as flu season is peaking in December and January, straining hospitals’ resources and diminishing their capacity to fight both diseases."
Polls 2020: As Biden, Trump begin debates, the races in battleground states are tight
LA Times's BRIAN CONTRERAS: "When President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden butt heads during Tuesday night’s presidential debate, they will be hoping to win support from some of the millions of Americans who will be watching.
Yet the fact is, many of the country’s votes are already effectively out of contention. Barring some unforeseeable cataclysm, blue states will vote for Biden, and red states will vote for Trump. That’s why you rarely hear about presidential candidates campaigning in Hawaii or Wyoming — or California (except to raise money in the Golden State). It’s not worth expending time and resources for electoral votes effectively guaranteed to one party.
For a high-profile event like a debate — much like each party’s convention — the candidates are thinking about winning over the relatively few undecided or persuadable voters in the minority of too-close-to-call states."
Here's what to expect in the first 2020 presidential debate between Trump and Biden
LA Times's ARIT JOHN: "After months of trading barbs through social media, speeches, TV ads and two nominating conventions, President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will meet face to face — and at least six feet apart — on Tuesday for the first presidential debate.
The presidential race has been stable for the last few months, with polls showing Biden ahead. Though it’s unclear what would change voters’ minds at this point in the race, the debate will give both Biden, 77, and Trump, 74, a chance to demonstrate their mental agility after facing attacks from one another.
Both candidates have been preparing in their own ways. Biden is prepping with advisors, and the president is watching the former vice president’s 2008 and 2012 debates."
Calmer winds but more heat, dry conditions
The Chronicle's ANNIE VAINSHTEIN: "After a hot, dry, windy weekend that helped fuel the latest onslaught of wildfires in the Bay Area, the weather outlook for the week has both positives and negatives.
Winds should ease during the week, forecasters said — but while temperatures are expected to go down a notch, the weather likely will remain fairly warm, and humidity will stay low.
“The lowering of the winds will be helpful for the wildfires,” said Anna Schneider, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. “But the low humidity and warm temperatures will not.”"
Housing is core issue in SF's Wiener-Fielder Senate race
SCOTT SORIANO in Capitol Weekly: "While most electoral contests in San Francisco are a fierce fight, incumbents up for reelection tend to have an easy run. A year ago, few thought that Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, a veteran San Francisco politician, would have difficulty defending his Senate District 11 seat.
But when activist and first-time candidate Jackie Fielder came in second in the spring primary – 33% to Wiener’s 56% — people started to comment on the race.
Media coverage emerged comparing Fielder, a woman in her 20s who has never held elective office, to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive House Democrat from the Bronx who defeated 10-term incumbent Joseph Crowley, a powerful Democrat in New York and in the House."
In rural California, Newsom's gas-powered car ban is a stretch
Sac Bee's RYAN SABALOW/PHILLIP REESE: "It’s a long drive to just about anywhere Gary Wright needs to go. A rancher in the far northeastern corner of California, he sometimes has to drive nearly 100 miles, one-way, to get to where his cattle graze. It’s 36 miles to Klamath Falls, Ore., for a significant errand run.
There are only a few gas stations along the routes through the forests and high deserts in Modoc County — let alone electric vehicle charging stations. There are none near the rangeland where Wright’s cattle graze.
So he was baffled when Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that California would require all new passenger cars and trucks to be electric or “zero-emission” by 2035 to combat climate change."
READ MORE related to Green New Deal: Trump's EPA asks Newsom to rethink gas car ban: 'You can't even keep the lights on today' -- Sac Bee's ANDREW SHEELER
New law paves way for California to make its own insulin, generic drugs in effort to lower costs
Sac Bee's SOPHIA BOLLAG: "California could make its own insulin and other prescription drugs in an effort to lower costs under a bill Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he signed into law Monday.
Newsom first proposed that California create its own prescription drug label in his January budget proposal. The legislation Newsom signed, Senate Bill 852, attempts to implement that plan by directing California’s Health and Human Services Agency to explore partnerships with drug manufacturers that could make drugs more affordable and accessible.
California wouldn’t develop new drugs under the law, but would instead try to make cheaper versions of generic drugs, or drugs that are no longer protected by patents."
The California Republican Party endorsed three candidates who say QAnon theories should be heard
Sac Bee's LARA KORTE: "For years, the falsehoods of the QAnon movement lived on the fringes of the internet.
It was a collection of conspiracy theories aimed at exposing a supposed deep-state cabal of pedophiles. But in recent months, despite being baseless and untrue, the theories have made their way to mainstream social media platforms, gaining traction with some celebrities and a swath of congressional candidates.
In California, at least four Republicans candidates have expressed interest in QAnon ideas."
Private schools say they're ready to open and are pushing LA County to let them
LA Times's ANDREW J CAMPA: "A coalition of private schools, including the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, called Monday for the County Board of Supervisors and public health officials to begin accepting waiver applications to allow elementary schools to open — an issue that Board Chair Kathryn Barger said would be discussed at their Tuesday meeting. Calling itself the “Students First Coalition,” the group also includes Village Christian School and several other religious organizations.
The Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District on Monday penned its own letter, backed by several South Bay mayors, also urging the county to accept waiver applications.
The letters included at least one prominent signatory from the American Academy of Pediatrics."
READ MORE related to Education: Feds to ship millions of coronavirus rapid tests in bid to reopen K-12 schools -- AP; Even when the smoke clears, schools find student trauma can linger -- EdSource's CAROLYN JONES
How does Trump's $750 federal income tax payment compare to average Americans?
Sac Bee's SUMMER LIN: "President Donald Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, according to a report from The New York Times.
Tax return information for Trump and his businesses was obtained by The New York Times and released in a Sunday report. Trump has refused to release his tax returns and in July, the Supreme Court allowed the Manhattan district attorney to expedite an order to deny Trump’s claim that he has immunity from subpoenas, The Hill reported.
The Times report said Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the same year he was elected president and his first year in office. Trump reportedly didn’t pay income taxes in 10 of the last 15 years because “he reported losing much more money than he made,” according to Times."
READ MORE related to Economy: PG&E stock plummets 5.5% as outages hit 28,000 customers in multiple counties -- The Chronicle's ROLAND LI; Napa's famed castle Castello di Amorosa one of many wineries to suffer losses in Glass Fire -- The Chronicle's ESTHER MOBLEY
Black construction workers in Bay Area say employers don't stop abuse
The Chronicle's OTIS R. TAYLOR JR: "When he arrived at a construction site at 1100 Broadway in Oakland on June 26, 2019, Leiroi Bowie found a noose on the barricade near his assigned elevator.
It wasn’t the first noose Bowie, who is Black, had seen on the job.
“I’ve only worked for two companies, and at both companies I received a noose,” said Bowie, who has been an elevator mechanic for four years."
California prison union wants to be an influential force in politics. Can it win over voters?
Sac Bee's WES VENTEICHER: "The bad news keeps coming for California correctional officers.
They took a pay cut amid a pandemic that has infected more than 3,500 prison employees, killing nine.
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced Friday it will close a state prison in Tracy, affecting 469 correctional officers’ jobs, in what could be the first of two closures under Gov. Gavin Newsom."
READ MORE related to Police, Prisons, Protests & Public Safety: San Diego police probe claim that officer's social media post made light of memorial for man he fatally shot -- LA Times's DAVID HERNANDEZ; Video shows man pistol-whipping LAPD officer in police station, pointing cop's gun at him -- LA Times's RICHARD WINTON/KEVIN RECTOR; Breonna Taylor verdict highlights issues with police accountability, UC Berkeley professors say -- Daily Californian's BLAKE EVANS
Public transit agencies can skip long environmental reviews under bill signed by Newsom
The Chronicle's ALEXEI KOSEFF: "Public transit agencies will be able to temporarily bypass environmental reviews and fast-track projects such as bike lanes, bus routes and light-rail service under a bill signed Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
SB288, by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, exempts “sustainable transportation projects” from the California Environmental Quality Act for the next two years. It will allow planners to skip a study of the potential effects of their projects on air quality, infrastructure and other environmental criteria, which can add months or even years to the development process and can sometimes be used to block them altogether.
Wiener said the bill would promote projects that could reduce driving and carbon emissions, while also cutting time and costs for public transit agencies that are struggling financially because of the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement on Twitter, he called it a “big win in the fight against climate change & for economic recovery.”
How Giants navigated year of COVID, social justice, newcomers at the helm
The Chronicle's HENRY SCHULMAN: "From the spring training shutdown in March, through seemingly endless negotiations to create a 2020 season, the two-a-days of practice at an odd summer camp, to a season that began with controversy over one knee that did not touch the ground at Dodger Stadium, through a year of twice-daily coronavirus testing and one false-positive test, the Giants had so much to endure.
As a bonus, they had to navigate the strangeness with a new manager and outsize coaching staff that brought sometimes radical changes, and play 60 games with no fans and canned crowd noise.
The Giants got through it in every way, minus the one win they lacked to reach the playoffs, and turned in one of the two most surprising performances of the truncated season, a close second place to the Marlins’ successful postseason bid."
