Some healthcare workers refuse to take COVID-19 vaccine, even with priority access
LA Times' COLLEEN SHALBY, EMILY BAUMGAERTNER, HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS, ALEJANDRA REYES-VELARDE and JACK DOLAN: "They are front-line workers with top priority access to the COVID-19 vaccine, but they are refusing to take it.
At St. Elizabeth Community Hospital in Tehama County, fewer than half of the 700 hospital workers eligible for the vaccine were willing to take the shot when it was first offered. At Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, one in five front-line nurses and doctors have declined the shot. Roughly 20% to 40% of the L.A. County’s front-line workers who were offered the vaccine did the same, according to county public health officials.
So many front-line workers in Riverside County have refused the vaccine — an estimated 50% — that hospital and public officials met to strategize how best to distribute the unused doses, Public Health Director Kim Saruwatari said."
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Stimulus package will keep California limping along. But the economic chasm is deepening
Sac Bee's DALE KASLER: "Billions of dollars in fresh COVID-19 economic relief are on their way, but the just-enacted stimulus package won’t do any good for the Natomas Sports Club.
The Sacramento business shut down permanently in early November, a casualty of months of restrictions imposed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The shutdown eliminated 89 jobs.
“It kind of speaks to how dramatic the financial impact has been on certain industries,” said Larry Gilzean, president of the club’s parent company Spare Time Inc., which operates seven other sites in the area. “We were one of the first industries shut down and we’ve had severe limitations on operations.”"
California child care centers, workers to benefit from $1B in federal relief
Sac Bee's JEONG PARK: "A new round of federal coronavirus relief could help California’s essential workers pay for child care and could keep the lights on at child care centers struggling to stay open, according to advocates for the centers.
The COVID-19 stimulus package President Donald Trump signed this week provides about $10 billion for child care providers, including Head Start. California expects to receive about $1 billion of that money, Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a press conference last week.
“I hope this reimbursement will help some of the programs on the edge,” said Christine Johnson-Staub, a senior policy analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Law and Social Policy."
Questions linger over Newsom’s friendship with lobbyist who threw French Laundry party
TARYN LUNA and PHIL WILLON, LA Times: "On the website of one of Sacramento’s most influential lobbying firms, partner Jason Kinney boasted of his close connection to Gavin Newsom, noting he has advised the governor for “nearly 14 years.”
The plug suddenly disappeared last month, days after Newsom drew national criticism for attending Kinney’s 50th birthday dinner at the famed Napa Valley restaurant the French Laundry.
The event turned into a political disaster for Newsom, drawing charges of hypocrisy at the very time the governor urged residents to avoid gatherings and stay home as much as possible amid an unprecedented surge in the coronavirus."
Going to a NYE party in California? Tool lets you calculate the COVID risk
Sac Bee's SUMMER LIN: "Coronavirus cases are surging across the country as family and friends continue to gather during the holiday season.
If you’re wondering if you should attend a party to ring in the new year, there’s a tool to assess the risk of COVID-19 spreading at gatherings in every California county.
Georgia Institute of Technology researchers created a map tool that allows users to assess the chances of at least one person testing positive for COVID-19 at an event. Counties in yellow pose have the lowest risk while those in dark red pose a risk greater than 99%."
READ MORE related to Pandemic: California spent millions on ventilators. Why they're sitting unused during COVID surge -- Sac Bee's JASON POHL
San Francisco struggles to stem ‘horrific’ uptick in opioid overdoses, drug abuse
RACHEL SCHEIER, California Healthline: "In early 2019, a formerly homeless man named Tom Wolf posted a thank-you on Twitter to the cop who had arrested him the previous spring, when he was strung out in a doorway with 103 tiny bindles of heroin and cocaine in a plastic baggie at his feet.
“You saved my life,” wrote Wolf, who had finally gotten clean after that bust and 90 days in jail, ending six months of sleeping on scraps of cardboard on the sidewalk.
Today, he joins a growing chorus of people, including San Francisco’s mayor, calling for the city to crack down on an increasingly deadly drug trade. But there is little agreement on how that should be done. Those who demand more arrests and stiffer penalties for dealers face powerful opposition in a city with little appetite for locking people up for drugs, especially as the Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police movements push to drastically limit the power of law enforcement to deal with social problems."
California’s new workplace laws: COVID-19 safety, family leave and more
MARGOT ROOSEVELT, LA Times: "Sweeping new laws ramping up in 2021 will force California businesses to offer employees more help to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, including measures on disclosure of workplace infections, on healthcare and wage replacement, and on job-protected leave to care for sick family members.
For state lawmakers, 2020 “was a year that started out with lots of aspirational plans,” said Ken Jacobs, chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center. “But it became a year about saving lives.”
What with legislators’ personal COVID-19 scares and Capitol shutdowns, “leadership basically asked us to kill any bill that wasn’t COVID-related,” said Heath Flora (R-Ripon) vice chair of the Assembly’s Labor and Employment Committee."
New year rings in new traffic and public safety laws in California
QUINN WILSON, Press-Enterprise: "An assortment of new traffic laws will take effect in 2021 that could change the way Californians travel local and state roadways.
The laws include measures to curb distracted driving, ensure emergency vehicles in action have proper space on local streets and to eliminate liabilities for anyone rescuing a child from a locked car.
Another measure, not directly tied to traffic, explores new ways to alert the public when a need to evacuate arises. While some new laws begin Jan. 1, others won’t take effect until later in the year and some are still under development."
Newsom Appoints New Leader to Beleaguered Employment Department
KQED: "Backlogged payments, busy phone lines, unanswered emails and reports of ever-growing fraudulent claims — it's been a rocky time for the California Employment Development Department.
Now, however, Gov. Gavin Newsom is appointing a new lead to the state's unemployment office to right the ship.
Rita Saenz will lead the EDD as director, Newsom announced Wednesday."
Gov. Newsom proposes $2 billion in incentives for schools to return to in-person classes
MAGGIE ANGST, Mercury News: "Facing growing pressure from parents and educators worried that students are falling further behind, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday unveiled a $2 billion package of incentives for California school districts to reopen classrooms for in-person instruction as early as mid-February even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage.
The package boosts spending for coronavirus testing, including weekly tests at schools in communities with the highest rates of COVID-19 transmission. It doesn’t appear to mandate testing, however.
And although teachers are expected to be in the mix of essential workers next in line to receive the coronavirus vaccine along with people at least 75 years old, it’s unclear whether they’ll be inoculated in time to safely return to classrooms about six weeks from now because distribution of vaccines has been lagging nationwide, including in California."
