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7/21/2021Los Angeles Times - eNewspaperall of the pain and suffering that we’ve all seen there’s still people who either don’tbelieve it or don’t believe that it can affect them.”The highest-risk Californians — notably the elderly — have been vaccinated at high rates.But the numbers drop off for younger segments of the population, and children under theage of 12 still aren’t eligible to be vaccinated.“I think sometimes the mentality is that people think, ‘Well, I’m not going to get that sick.I’m going to be OK. I’m not going to die from COVID; I’m young; I’m healthy,’ ” Ghalysaid. “And I can tell you, hopefully that’s the case, but that’s not necessarily the case.”From June 22 to July 6, the daily number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Californiaincreased from 978 to 1,228, a nearly 26% bump, state data show.Over the last two weeks, the daily count swelled by an additional 76%, reaching 2,164 as ofMonday.California’s intensive care units also are filling up. As of Monday, 552 coronavirus-positiveindividuals were in ICUs statewide, more than double the total a month ago.The latest numbers still pale in comparison to the peak of the last wave, when more than21,000 COVID-19 patients were packed into hospitals and nearly 4,900 people were inICUs on some days.Officials have long characterized coronavirus transmission as a dangerous chain: Therising number of infections trigger corresponding increases in hospitalizations a week ortwo later and, eventually, an uptick in deaths.However, inoculations have the power to interrupt that. There’s a wealth of academic andreal-world data demonstrating the high level of protection afforded by vaccines, especiallywhen it comes to preventing serious illness and death.“We have the tools to end this epidemic. It is up to us to utilize those tools to theirmaximum,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious-diseases expert, tolda Senate committee Tuesday.In Los Angeles County, for example, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients hasmore than doubled in the last month.But out of the nearly 4.8 million people countywide who had been fully vaccinated as ofJuly 13, only 213 — or .0045% — later ended up hospitalized for COVID-19.In Ventura County, Health Officer Dr. Robert Levin said recent data show thatunvaccinated residents are 22 times more likely to be infected and hospitalized than thosewho have rolled up their sleeves.“All community members should take action to protect themselves and others against thispotentially deadly virus,” he said mes/default.aspx?pubid 50435180-e58e-48b5-8e0c-236bf740270e2/4

7/21/2021Los Angeles Times - eNewspaperSan Bernardino County hospitals also are “seeing a rising number of COVID-19 patients,and, if national statistics are any indication, they are all unvaccinated,” according tointerim Public Health Director Andrew Goldfrach.“What everyone needs to recognize is that we cannot end this pandemic until we havevaccinated the vast majority of our population,” Goldfrach said in a recent situationupdate. “It was that way with polio, it was that way with smallpox, it was that way with themeasles, and it will take mass vaccination to eliminate COVID-19. The truth is that wehave it within our collective power to stop the sickness and deaths.”Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,has said that more than 97% of COVID-19 hospitalizations nationwide are among thosewho have not been vaccinated.Like hospitalizations, coronavirus cases have rebounded statewide over the last month —though they’re nowhere near as high as previous surges.Over the weeklong period ending Monday, California reported an average of 4,200 newcases per day, more than four times the level in mid-June.During the height of the fall-and-winter surge, the state was recording more than 40,000daily cases, on average.And many experts believe the healthcare system is better armored against an uptick ininfections this time largely because of vaccinations.Of particular concern now is the Delta variant, which is believed to be twice astransmissible as the conventional coronavirus strains. Despite arriving in the state fairlyrecently, it has quickly become the dominant variant in California.Like other variants, Delta is the result of natural mutations that occur as the coronavirusreplicates and spreads. Reducing the number of infections, Ghaly said, limits the chancesfor the virus to adapt in even more dangerous ways.“The virus can’t mutate without a host. It doesn’t mutate sitting on a tabletop; it doesn’tmutate sitting in a respiratory droplet in the air,” she said.Given the risk Delta poses to those who have yet to be fully inoculated, 16 counties —including Ventura, Santa Barbara, Sacramento, San Francisco and Santa Clara — are nowurging all residents, even those who have been fully vaccinated, to wear masks in indoorpublic settings such as grocery stores, movie theaters and retail outlets.L.A. County is mandating that masks be worn in such settings.All of those counties have gone beyond the guidance issued by the California Departmentof Public Health, which continues to advise that fully vaccinated residents are allowed togo mask-free nearly everywhere, though uninoculated residents must still mask up inpublic indoor mes/default.aspx?pubid 50435180-e58e-48b5-8e0c-236bf740270e3/4

7/21/2021Los Angeles Times - eNewspaperWhen asked about the possibility of issuing a new statewide mask mandate, Newsom saidthat “if we can get more people vaccinated, that answer is unequivocal: We won’t need it.”“We’re not looking to do any physical distancing, any social distancing. We’re not lookingto close anything down. We’re fully committed to getting our kids back in school, inperson, for instruction,” he said. “But we need to get more people vaccinated.”While the inoculation campaign has largely entered a more deliberate phase — one whereofficials, in cooperation with community groups and local leaders, are working on theground to answer questions, dispel misinformation and build vaccine confidence — someareas are taking a different approach, at least when it comes to their employees.Pasadena will require all city employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 once the shotsreceive federal approval — the first municipality in Southern California to take that step.San Francisco already has ordered all workers in “high-risk settings,” such as hospitals,nursing homes and residential facilities for the elderly, and jails, to be fully vaccinated bySept. 15. All 35,000 city workers — including police, firefighters, custodians and clerks —also will need to get vaccinated or risk losing their jobs once a vaccine has been formallyapproved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.However, the vast majority of cities and counties have yet to adopt that tactic.Dr. Muntu Davis, L.A. County’s health officer, said last week that “we do recognize thatnot everyone is going to get vaccinated, and we accept that. It is a personal decision at thistime.”But, he added, “If you make a decision to not get vaccinated, make sure you’re doingeverything you can to reduce your risk, especially at this moment.”Times staff writers Faith E. Pinho and Rong-Gong Lin II contributed to this mes/default.aspx?pubid 50435180-e58e-48b5-8e0c-236bf740270e4/4

7/21/2021Current COVID-19 infection rate would put LA County in purple tier if CA was still using reopening system - ABC7 Los AngelesCORONAVIRUS LOS ANGELESCurrent infection rate would put LA County inpurple tier if CA was still using reopeningsystemWednesday, July 21, 2021 5:46AMIf California was still using its color-coded framework for lifting COVID-19 restrictions, LosAngeles County would now be in the most restrictive purple tier.On June 15, California lifted most of its coronavirus-related restrictions and did away with itstier-based system, the Blueprint for a Safer Economy. But if the state's reopening blueprintwere still in effect, a current surge in coronavirus cases would push Los Angeles and SanBernardino counties into the purple tier -- prompting many closures and restrictions,including no indoor dining. Ventura County would be in the red -- or substantial -- tier, ple-tier-california-reopening-system/10901183/2/8

7/21/2021Current COVID-19 infection rate would put LA County in purple tier if CA was still using reopening system - ABC7 Los AngelesOrange County would fall into the orange -- or moderate -- tier and Riverside County wouldbe in the least restrictive yellow tier.Los Angeles County late Saturday night re-instituted a requirement that everyone wearmasks in indoor public settings, regardless of vaccination status. Previously, onlyunvaccinated people were required to wear masks indoors. However, since compliance wasbased solely on the honor system, officials said many unvaccinated people were likely failingto comply with the rule.Health officials say unvaccinated people and the highly contagious Delta variant are themajor factors contributing to the recent spike in cases in L.A. County, which marked its12thconsecutive day of 1,000 or more new COVID-19 infections Tuesday.Seventeen California counties, including Santa Barbara, are recommending mask wearingindoors.Meanwhile, Pasadena's indoor mask mandate could go into effect as early as Wednesday.Pasadena, which has its own health agency independent from L.A. County, announcedMonday night it would impose the mask-wearing requirement.

Pasadena To Require Vaccines For Employees,Face Masks IndoorsBy CBSLA StaffJuly 20, 2021 at 3:30 pmPASADENA (CBSLA) — Pasadena will soon require face coveringsindoors regardless of vaccine status as COVID cases spike acrossLos Angeles County. The city is also working on a policy that wouldrequire its city employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.“While Pasadena’s case rates were lower than Los Angeles County’srate last week, weekend case rates continued to climb,” LisaDerderian, city spokesperson, said. “Pasadena now meets the[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]’s definition of‘substantial transmission’ of COVID-19.”

The Pasadena Department of Public Health was said to be nalizingthe updated public health order that is expected to be posted thisweek. The order will require face masks indoors in both public andbusiness settings, regardless of vaccination status.“We’ve also detected the Delta variant in multiple householdsunrelated to each other so we know it’s really driving our spread,”said Pasadena Public Health Director Dr. Ying-Ying Goh.In addition, Derderian said the city manager was working on animplementation order to mandate that all city employees getvaccinated.“Currently, [there are] approximately 60% of employees whoattested to being vaccinated,” she said. “Although, with an upwardtrend in positive cases and the new variant, a mandatory policy isthe right thing to do to protect employees who at times spend morehours at work [than] home.”Derderian said the city would be the first in Southern California toinitiate the policy and follows a similar announcement from theUniversity of California system.“Initially, we were waiting for Food and Drug Administrationapproval for at least one of the COVID vaccinations,” saidDerderian. “But at this point that may be a while so want to moveforward once we can formalize this policy.”

7/21/2021Los Angeles Times - eNewspaperTime to bring back the maskmandatesBY PETER K. ENNS AND JAKE ROTHSCHILDLast week, nearly every state in the U.S. experienced an increase in daily coronaviruscases. Driven by the Delta variant, this rise and an accompanying increase inhospitalizations have sparked a debate about returning to indoor mask mandates for all,regardless of vaccination status.Los Angeles County announced Thursday that face masks will be required indoors forboth vaccinated and unvaccinated people, and the state of Hawaii has maintained asimilar requirement amid rising cases. However, officials in both New York City andChicago recently rejected the idea of a new universal indoor mask mandate.Are mask requirements again necessary in the U.S.? Our research shows why the answeris yes in many places: The unvaccinated are least likely to wear masks.We could avoid mask mandates if everyone who is eligible gets vaccinated. Nearly half ofthe U.S. population is fully vaccinated, and almost 70% of adults (and nearly 90% of those65 and up) have received at least one dose. But these vaccination rates vary substantiallyby county. Federal and local governments must continue to find creative ways toencourage — or require — vaccination. France recently introduced new vaccinationrequirements, and despite some controversy, a rush for vaccines ensued.Until vaccination rates increase, it might seem that the simplest solution is to require theunvaccinated to wear masks, and several states have adopted this policy. Masks helpprevent those infected from spreading the virus, and they also offer protection to thosewearing the mask. But that bifurcated approach doesn’t work well if unvaccinatedindividuals are unlikely to follow mask require- ments when the vaccinated no longerneed to wear masks. The unvaccinated are also the least concerned about the Deltavariant.To understand the mask-wearing behaviors of the unvaccinated population, we surveyed anationally representative sample of 939 adults in the U.S. from July 11 to July 14. Wereminded respondents that masks have been used to limit the spread of the coronavirusand we then asked if they would wear a mask in a variety of settings where unvaccinatedpeople were asked to do so: at a friend’s party, at a grocery store, at the post office and at ajob. As a follow-up, we asked each person to tell us whether he or she has received fault.aspx?pubid 50435180-e58e-48b5-8e0c-236bf740270e1/2

7/21/2021Los Angeles Times - eNewspaperCOVID-19 vaccine. We are thus able to analyze the mask-wearing habits of those whohave and have not been vaccinated.The results are striking: In each scenario, respondents who have not been vaccinated weremore likely to say they would not wear a mask than those who have received at least onevaccination shot. Nearly half of the unvaccinated say they would not wear a mask at aparty (49%) or a grocery store (48%), despite explicit requests for them to do so.Mask refusal rates among the unvaccinated were slightly less when we asked about thepost office (43%) and work (37%) but still greater than among vaccinated respondents.Further, the survey showed that about 15% of all adults are both unvaccinated andunwilling to wear masks when asked to in public. This is a significant population, whichcould enable the spread of dangerous new mutations like the Delta variant. Given maskresistance, a universal requirement may be the only effective approach. When everyone isrequired to wear a mask, businesses, government offices and employers do not need toworry about vaccine verification and unvaccinated people cannot easily avoid masking.It may feel unfair that individuals shunning the vaccine and masks could cause us all tohave to mask up again. But until vaccinations are more broadly required, policies like thefederal rule that everyone wear masks on planes, trains and buses is the most viableoption.More than 608,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States. To preventmore illnesses and deaths, more counties will again need to require everyone to mask up.Peter K. Enns is co-founder of Reality Check Insights and professor of government anddirector of the Cornell Center for Social Sciences at Cornell University. @pete enns. JakeRothschild is a senior data scientist at Reality Check Insights. @jake atimes/default.aspx?pubid 50435180-e58e-48b5-8e0c-236bf740270e2/2

7/20/2021CDC Says Delta Variant Makes Up an Estimated 83 Percent of US Cases - The New York s/delta-variant-usa.htmlLIVE Coronavirus UpdatesThe Delta variant makes up an estimated 83 percent ofU.S. cases, the C.D.C. director says.By Sheryl Gay StolbergJuly 20, 2021, 4:10 p.m. ETThe highly infectious Delta variant now accounts for an estimated 83 percent of newcoronavirus cases in the United States — a “dramatic increase” from early July, when itcrossed the 50 percent threshold to become the dominant variant in this country, thedirector of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.In some regions, the percentage is even higher — particularly where vaccination rates arelow, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C. director, said during a Senate health committeehearing. Two-dose vaccines have been shown to be effective against the Delta variant butquestions have been raised about Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose regimen against Delta.While almost 60 percent of U.S. adults are fully vaccinated, less than half of the total U.S.population is.She said the C.D.C. would update its website later Tuesday to reflect the new estimate ofDelta cases, which the agency derives from gene sequencing of new coronavirus cases.The new figure comes as new cases have been rising across the United States, though cases,hospitalizations and deaths remain a fraction of their peaks. Still, public health experts arewatching the increases with deep concern and Dr. Walensky warned last week that “this isbecoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” The seven-day average now shows more than35,000 new daily cases, up from about 11,000 a day not long ago, according to a New YorkTimes database.Tuesday’s hearing was contentious at times. Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah,pressed Dr. Janet Woodcock, the acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration,on when the F.D.A. would authorize booster shots — and was not happy when she could notprovide a specific answer. Federal health officials have said booster shots are not necessarynow and have pressed Pfizer for more itics/delta-variant-usa.html?referringSource articleShare1/2

7/20/2021CDC Says Delta Variant Makes Up an Estimated 83 Percent of US Cases - The New York TimesOther Republicans clashed with witnesses over matters including mask mandates, boostershots for Covid-19 vaccines and “gain of function” research designed to identify geneticmutations that could make a virus more powerful.Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, escalated his long-running attacks on Dr.Anthony S. Fauci, President Biden’s top medical adviser for the coronavirus pandemic, andaccused Dr. Fauci of committing a crime by lying to Congress in May when he told senatorsthat the National Institutes of Health did not fund “gain of function” research at a laboratoryin Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the pandemic’s early days.Dr. Fauci, in turn, accused the senator of falsely implying that the N.I.H. is somehowresponsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths from the pandemic — an extraordinaryexchange for the Senate, where witnesses almost always defer to lawmakers.“I have never lied before Congress and I do not retract that statement,” Dr. Fauci declared,adding, “Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly, and I wantto say that s/politics/delta-variant-usa.html?referringSource articleShare2/2

Democracy Dies in DarknessVaccine hesitancy morphs into hostility, as oppositionto shots hardensBy Dan Diamond, Hannah Knowles and Tyler PagerJuly 15, 2021 at 9:58 a.m. EDT9.7kOn July Fourth, President Biden celebrated dramat

Anderson said Tuesday that the couple could face sentences extending from the "upper teens. to low 20s" if found guilty on all charges. When asked how prosecutors would argue the couple's actions were responsible for Morton's. death, Anderson said the firefighter was "fighting a fire that was started because of a smoke. bomb."