COVID-19
breaking news & updates
|
|
|
“We don’t really talk about herd immunity anymore. What we’ve learned about this virus is that it continues to change and mutate, and it’s sort of a dance between the immunity in the population and what the virus is doing — and it’s a continual change. It’s dynamic.”
Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County’s Public Health Director and Health Officer
|
|
|
February is American Heart Month
Each February, NHLBI (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) and The Heart Truth® celebrate American Heart Month by motivating Americans to adopt healthy lifestyles to prevent heart disease. Manage stress
|
|
|
Bulletin Publication Schedule For Next Week
Due to the Presidents' Day holiday next Monday, the COVID-19 Bulletin will be published only once next week, on Wednesday, February 22.
|
|
|
COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
|
|
|
San Francisco Looks Like A Deflating Pandemic Housing Bubble — While Housing Markets In New York And Chicago Remain Stable
The home price correction has been fairly mild on a national level, with U.S. home prices falling just 2.5% between June and November. But on a regional level, the correction in the second half of 2022 was a mixed bag. Among the 20 major markets tracked by Case-Shiller, 12 markets saw home prices fall by less than 5% in the second half of 2022. That includes markets like Chicago (-0.9%) and New York (-2.2%). Meanwhile, eight markets saw local home prices fall by over 5% in the second half of 2022. That includes sharp drops in markets like San Francisco (-12.3%), Seattle (-11.4%), and Phoenix (-7.15%). Yahoo! Finance Read more
|
|
|
Local Health Officials Concerned Over Late Norovirus Surge
After three years of worrying about respiratory viruses such as COVID and RSV, an old bug is making a new surge. Norovirus cases are surging at a time of year when they're usually tapering off. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, positive norovirus tests on average exceeded 15% over a three-week period that ended last week. The virus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea, is most serious in young children, the elderly and people with compromised immunity. And it’s contagious. Dr. Peter Chin Hong, infectious disease specialist with UCSF, says the virus spreads rather easily. NBC Bay Area Read more
|
|
|
COVID Vaccine/Testing/Treatment News |
|
U.S. To Buy 1.5 Million Doses Of Novavax Vaccine
The U.S. government has agreed to buy 1.5 million more doses of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, the company announced on Monday. Additionally, the drugmaker will be given funds for the development of an updated vaccine by the fall. Unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that use an mRNA-based approach to developing immunity, the Novavax vaccine uses traditional protein-based technology, which federal health officials hoped would make it more palatable to some vaccine holdouts. The vaccine is available to everyone 12 and older as a primary dose. Since it became available under emergency use authorization in August, only 77,551 individuals have completed their primary vaccination series using the Novavax shots, according to federal data. SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
|
COVID Deaths 5-Fold Lower After Bivalent Vs Monovalent Booster
Recipients of the bivalent (two-strain) COVID-19 vaccine booster were 14 times less likely to die of Omicron BA.4/BA.5 infections than their unvaccinated peers and 5 times less likely to die than recipients of the monovalent (single-strain) booster, particularly among older people, finds a study in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) led the study of people aged 12 years and older in 24 US jurisdictions from Oct 3, 2021, to Dec 24, 2022. CIDRAP Read more
|
|
|
State/National/International News |
|
COVID-19 Effects On California Will Linger For Years
Gov. Gavin Newsom says California’s COVID-19 state of emergency will end on Feb. 28, just four days shy of three years since he issued the first of countless orders he said were necessary to cope with the pandemic. “Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been guided by the science and data – moving quickly and strategically to save lives,” Newsom said in October announcing the February end date. “The state of emergency was an effective and necessary tool that we utilized to protect our state, and we wouldn’t have gotten to this point without it.” The efficacy of Newsom’s pandemic orders will be debated for years, particularly the shutdowns of schools and businesses and the billions of dollars in no-bid contracts his administration issued. What cannot be debated, however, is that their impacts on millions of Californians will linger for years, decades or perhaps even generations. CalMatters Read more
|
|
|
While The World Sanitized Surfaces, A Group Tried To Warn Early On About Airborne Spread
A large group of experts from around the world say they warned the World Health Organization (WHO) at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that SARS-CoV-2 spreads through airborne particles, but their concerns weren't acknowledged until 3 months later, according to an account published late last week in Clinical Infectious Diseases. The group says that, on Feb 7, 2020, Junji Cao, PhD, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences told Lidia Morawska, PhD, of Queensland University of Technology in Australia that he worried that authorities might not recognize the risk of aerosol SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Aerosols are tiny virus-laden particles expelled through the mouth and nose that can travel long distances on air currents. CIDRAP Read more
|
|
|
Virus Infection Increases Diabetes Risk By 66%, Penn State Study Finds
COVID-19 survivors have a 66% higher risk of developing type 1 or type 2 diabetes following their diagnosis compared to those who were not infected with the coronavirus, according to a study by Penn State College of Medicine researchers published Monday. The researchers found that SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — binds to an enzyme receptor found on the surface of many organs and tissues, including cells found in the pancreas, small intestine and kidneys, affecting insulin levels.
|
|
|
A New Turn In The Fight Over Masks
For many Americans, wearing a mask has become a relic. But fighting about masks, it seems, has not. Masking has widely been seen as one of the best COVID precautions that people can take. Still, it has sparked ceaseless arguments: over mandates, what types of masks we should wear, and even how to wear them. A new review and meta-analysis of masking studies suggests that the detractors may have a point. The paper—a rigorous assessment of 78 studies—was published by Cochrane, an independent policy institution that has become well known for its reviews. The review’s authors found “little to no” evidence that masking at the population level reduced COVID infections, concluding that there is “uncertainty about the effects of face masks.” The Atlantic
|
|
|
How Do Pandemics Begin? There's A New Theory — And A New Strategy To Thwart Them
For decades, scientists pretty much thought they understood how pandemics, such as COVID-19, began. It centers on this idea of what's called spillover. Most new pathogens, up to 75%, come from animals. They're often viruses that have been circulating in animals for decades, even centuries. At some point, they jump — or "spill over" — into people. This theory has shaped how scientists look for new deadly pathogens — or try to predict which ones could cause future pandemics. NPR
|
|
COVID-19 Made Pulse Oximeters Ubiquitous. Engineers Are Fixing Their Racial Bias
During the COVID-19 pandemic, one measurement became more important than almost any other — blood oxygen saturation. It was the one concrete number that doctors could use to judge how severe a case of COVID-19 was and know whether to admit people into the hospital and provide them with supplemental oxygen. But pulse oximeters, the device most commonly used to measure blood oxygen levels, don't work as well for patients of color. NPR Read more
|
|
|
Berkeley Mental Health Crisis Team To Launch This Summer
A 24/7, three-member Specialized Care Unit will begin operating this summer to offer a non-police response for anyone experiencing a mental health crisis in Berkeley, city officials said at a community meeting Thursday. The SCU was born out of conversations following the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the nationwide protests against police racism and brutality that followed. In Berkeley, that included calls to limit low-level police stops and create an independent group that could respond to mental health crises. Berkeley police currently oversee the Mobile Crisis Team that responds to these calls five days a week, and the in-person response involves a police officer alongside mental health professionals. The SCU will not be armed and will eventually phase out the mental health response for police. Berkeleyside Read more
|
|
|
Can Family Medicine Improve America’s Mental Health?
The appointment started out routine enough: a patient in need of help for high blood pressure. Then, said Kristen James, a family medicine doctor-in-training, the patient started crying, and it turned into a mental health visit. It wasn’t the first time that happened in the South Los Angeles clinic where James works as a third-year resident physician — and it won’t be the last. Primary care providers are at the forefront of the nation’s deepening behavioral health crisis because when patients walk into a doctor’s office, they bring all their needs with them. Asthma. Anxiety. Diabetes. Depression. Sniffles. Stress. Washington Post Read more
|
|
|
Survey: Nearly 3 In 5 Teen Girls Felt Persistently Sad Or Hopeless In 2021
Teen girls reported record levels of violence, sadness, and thoughts of suicide in 2021, experiencing distress at twice the rate of teen boys, according to new federal data released Monday. The nearly 3 in 5 teen girls who felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021 was a 60% increase compared to a decade earlier. That finding is just one of several alarming data points in the latest version of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which also identified higher rates of mental health issues and suicidal behavior among teens who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning. STAT Read more
|
|
|
Almost Half Of Children Who Go To ER With Mental Health Crisis Don’t Get The Follow-Up Care They Need, Study Finds
Every night that Dr. Jennifer Hoffmann works as an attending physician in the pediatric ER, she says, at least one child comes in with a mental or behavioral health emergency. Over the span of her career, she’s seen the number of young people needing help grow enormously. “The most common problems that I see are children with suicidal thoughts or children with severe behavior problems, where they may be a risk of harm to themselves or others,” said Hoffmann, who works at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. “We’re also seeing younger children, especially since the pandemic started. Children as young as 8, 9 or 10 years old are coming to the emergency department with mental health concerns. CNN Read more
|
|
|
Fentanyl Crisis/Drug Trends |
|
Undocumented Fentanyl Dealers In S.F. Could Be Easier To Deport Under New Proposal
Some immigrants convicted of selling fentanyl in San Francisco would lose protections from the city’s sanctuary laws, potentially making it easier to deport them, under legislation proposed Tuesday by Supervisor Matt Dorsey. The lawmaker said his proposal is a “hard line” against those selling the super-powerful synthetic opioid that has claimed more than 1,400 lives in San Francisco since 2020. While Dorsey’s proposal aligns with recent moves by the mayor and district attorney to seek more punishment for fentanyl dealers, it may draw opposition from advocates of the sanctuary law, which under most circumstances bars city authorities from assisting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE. SF Chronicle Read more
|
|
|
Addiction Drug Prices Vary Widely
Medication used to treat opioid use disorder has become cheaper over the last several years, but affordability can still be a problem, depending on a patient's insurance, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open. Experts have called for improved access to medication-assisted treatment like buprenorphine to fight the substance use crisis. But there's uneven access based on cost. The CDC-led study found the overall daily average of out-of-pocket costs for buprenorphine decreased from $4.79 in 2015 to $1.19 in 2020 in their analysis across Medicaid, commercial, and self-pay. Axios
|
|
|
Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 1,911,400
California: 12,031,907
U.S.: 102,924,134
Alameda County
Check the Dashboards Below for
the Latest Figures
|
|
Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 9,782
California: 100,300
U.S.: 1,114,804
Contra Costa County
Check the Dashboards Below for
the Latest Figures
|
|
|
Cardiology Expert Shares Tips For Healthy Heart Year-Round
A healthy heart is vital to overall wellness and as we wrap up Heart Health Month, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center’ (WRNMMC) cardiology expert shares important tips for a healthy heart year round. According to a Proclamation on American Heart Month released by the White House, heart disease has been the leading cause of death in the United States, claiming nearly 700,000 lives a year, and for one cardiology fellow, understanding what heart disease is and taking preventative measures is important.
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Read more
|
|
- COVID-19 testing is a good idea, but keep in mind, people who test negative can still harbor the virus if they are early in their infection.
|
|
-
A viral test tells you if you have a current infection.
-
An antibody test might tell you if you had a past infection.
|
|
|
About Eden Health District |
|
The Eden Health District Board of Directors are Chair Pam Russo, Vice Chair Ed Hernandez, Secretary/Treasurer Roxann Lewis, Mariellen Faria and Surlene Grant. The Chief Executive Officer is Mark Friedman.
The Eden Health District is committed to ensuring that policy makers and community members receive accurate and timely information to help make the best policy and personal choices to meet and overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
We welcome your feedback on our bulletin. Please contact editor Lisa Mahoney.
|
|
|
Follow Us on Social Media |
|
|
|
|
|
|
