COVID-19
breaking news & updates
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COVID Test Resources
Food Pantries
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Concord Granting $7M In COVID Funds To 22 Local Nonprofits
At its March 7 meeting, the Concord City Council allocated $7 million in one-time federal funds to 22 local nonprofits serving the city. The funds come from $27 million overall that Concord received as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, also known as the COVID-19 Stimulus Package. “As a city that benefits from the contributions of so many wonderful nonprofit organizations, we are grateful for this unique, one-time opportunity to make a significant investment in their work,” said Concord Mayor Laura Hoffmeister. East Bay Times Read more
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Protesters Force Closure Of Vaccine Clinic At Sonoma School
A small group of anti-vaccine protesters forced the closure of a COVID-19 vaccine clinic last Thursday at Sassarini Elementary School in the town of Sonoma, police said Tuesday. Three people “became unruly” at the site, Police Sgt. Scott McKinnon said, according to The Sonoma Index-Tribune. “Our decision to shut down the clinic was based on a desire to avoid escalation and perceived threat to staff, students, parents and community,” Dr. Elizabeth Kaufman, acting superintendent of Sonoma Valley Unified School District, said in a statement Tuesday. The protesters were not detained. “If it happens again within the city, they will be arrested,” McKinnon said. SF Chronicle
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Health Department Issues Advisory About Produce Grown Near Martinez Refinery
The Contra Costa County health department says residents living near the refinery in Martinez should not eat produce grown in soil that was potentially exposed to a "spent catalyst with heavy metals" until further testing is finished. "We are making this recommendation out of an abundance of caution," county health officer Dr. Ori Tzvieli said Tuesday in a statement. "There is no immediate health threat to the community. That said, it’s also always better to be safe than sorry." NBC Bay Area Read more
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COVID & Beyond: A Community Meeting For People With Disabilities & Seniors Taking Place Today
Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson invites residents with disabilities and seniors to join him for a virtual community meeting. Now that the State and County emergency health orders have ended, there are valid concerns many have about their health and safety. Come learn about the latest COVID-19 updates and what this new phase means for Alameda County, and share your comments and concerns about issues that are important to you. The guest speaker will be Nicholas J. Moss, MD, MPH, Alameda County Health Officer. The event is scheduled for today, March 13, from 5-6 p.m. Register
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Vaccine/Testing/Treatment News
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Is It Time For Another COVID Booster Shot? Health Officials Aren’t Sure
People who received the bivalent COVID-19 booster when it first became available more than six months ago may wonder whether it’s time to roll up their sleeves again. The mantra of public health officials throughout the pandemic has been for individuals to maintain their immunity levels by staying up to date on vaccinations. But no one seems to know what happens next. The bivalent boosters were engineered to guard against the original coronavirus strain and recent BA.4/5 omicron subvariants. Even with a batch of recent studies showing that the protection they afford wanes after a few months, there is no apparent timeline for the next round of shots in the U.S. SF Chronicle Read more
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New Nasal COVID Treatment Being Tested At Brigham And Women's Hospital
Local researchers have some promising news about a new drug that could combat COVID-19 and other inflammatory diseases, and it's given through the nose. Current monoclonal antibody treatments which are given by IV and target the spike protein of the coronavirus are no longer effective against circulating variants. But researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital have tested a different type of monoclonal antibody that is designed to stimulate anti-inflammatory cells in the body and could hopefully work against any coronavirus variant. They found that when the drug was given intranasally to 39 patients with COVID-19 daily for 10 days, it dampened the inflammatory response to the virus and decreased lung inflammation without significant side effects. CBS News Read more
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State/National/International News
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COVID Experts Today: Eating Out, Masking Less, Even Booking Cruises
Just like us, they disinfected groceries, left their mail outside for 24 hours, canceled family gatherings, stopped eating out. But today, for the medical experts at the forefront of dealing with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, everyday life has become more normal. All have been vaccinated and boosted, and many have had COVID too, a combination that seems to provide more durable protection. While the pandemic isn’t gone, their risk calculations these days look different. “We all have moments where we forget COVID exists, when we want to enjoy a moment without thinking about it,” says Elizabeth Connick, professor of medicine and immunobiology and chief of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Arizona. “It feels more normal, but I don’t think it’s back to the way it used to be.” Washington Post Read more
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Gov. Gavin Newsom Tests Positive For COVID-19 For 2nd Time
Gov. Gavin Newsom has tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time in less than a year, his office announced Wednesday night. A spokesperson from Newsom's office told KPIX that Newsom is exhibiting "mild symptoms", while First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom had tested negative. The governor plans to work remotely and self-isolate in accordance with California Department of Public Health guidance. Currently, CDPH recommends isolation for at least five days after start of symptoms, regardless of vaccination status, previous infection or lack of symptoms. CBS News Read more
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What People With "Super Immunity" Can Teach Us About COVID And Other Viruses
Three years into the pandemic, a select group of people have achieved something some once thought impossible: They have never tested positive for COVID. Scientists around the world are searching for the genetic reasons these people have dodged COVID — despite repeated exposure to the virus. Were they born with a form of super immunity? What's behind their Houdini-like success at escaping infection? NBC News Read more
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What's Your Current Risk Of Getting Long COVID? Estimates Hover Around 5%-10%
It's a question few people know how to answer, even after three pandemic years and more than 100 million COVID cases in the U.S.: When someone gets infected today, what is their risk of developing long COVID? "Even the medical community is unclear on all of this. The data is just emerging so rapidly and the estimates are varied," said Dr. Rainu Kaushal, chair of the department of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine. In the absence of definitive data on long COVID risk, seven researchers investigating the condition's prevalence in the U.S. offered NBC News their best guesses. Most said it's fair to assume that the current risk for vaccinated people is 10% or less, and some thought the odds were smaller — 5% or lower. NBC News Read more
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People Are Far Less Likely To Get Long COVID After Omicron, Study Finds
Researchers still have a lot to learn about Long COVID — when symptoms linger long after a COVID-19 infection is over — but new data suggest there may be some good news for people infected with the virus more recently. In a study that will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in April (and which has not yet been published), researchers report that people who tested positive for COVID-19 during Omicron waves were no more likely to report lingering symptoms after recovery than people who had never had COVID-19. By contrast, those who were infected with the original SARS-CoV-2 variant were up to 67% more likely to report lingering symptoms than those who did not have COVID-19. Time Read more
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Long COVID Patients Face Medical Debt After Insurance Denies Claims
In June 2021, 32-year-old Alyssa Maness was diagnosed with POTS, a nervous system disorder that her doctors believe was triggered by COVID. POTS, or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, caused numbness throughout her arms and legs, a pins-and-needles sensation and sudden drops in her heart rate. Because her heart problems didn't go away, in early 2022 her doctors began conducting a series of lab tests in an attempt to better understand her long COVID symptoms. When Maness submitted the testing to her insurance — Anthem Blue Cross — the provider deemed the testing medically unnecessary and declined to cover the cost. She’s now on the hook for the medical bills, which have already cost her more than $10,000 out of pocket. NBC News Read more
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Sweden's Gamble
On 5 April, Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist for the Swedish public health authority, sent an email to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) expressing concern about proposed new advice that face masks worn in public could slow the spread of the pandemic coronavirus. "We would like to warn against the publication of this advice," Tegnell wrote. How much people without symptoms contribute to spread was a "question that remains unanswered," he wrote, and the advice "would also imply that the spread is airborne, which would seriously harm further communication and trust among the population and health care workers." Science Read more
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A day ago my wife collapsed and was taken to the Hermann Hospital here in houston via ambulance. The diagnosis? She has COVID pneumonia, and it’s all my fault. We both had gotten our 2 doses of vaccine, as well as the 2 booster doses, so I let down my guard. I stopped wearing masks in public places, stopped using hand sanitizer, stopped distancing, and stopped doing all the things you are supposed to do to fight COVID. I caught the virus and brought it home and gave it to her. So now my wife is paying the price for my negligence.
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Indiana University Opens Research Institute Addressing Stigma Around Mental Health
A new research institute at Indiana University, made possible by a $3 million donation from the Jim Irsay family, has formally launched its mission to become a leading national center for addressing the stigma surrounding mental illness and other health issues such as HIV, epilepsy, cancer, dementia and addiction. Along with targeting stigma, Irsay Institute researchers are tackling issues of substance use disorder, sexuality and reproduction, the health care system, global health, and the effects of climate on health. While having a rich array of research areas, the Irsay Institute has a special connection to advancing the goals of the Colts’ Kicking the Stigma initiative, an effort to raise awareness about mental health and remove the stigma often associated with mental health disorders. Indiana University Read more
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Seniors With Anxiety Frequently Don’t Get Help. Here’s Why
Anxiety is the most common psychological disorder affecting adults in the U.S. In older people, it’s associated with considerable distress as well as ill health, diminished quality of life, and elevated rates of disability. Yet, when the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent, influential panel of experts, suggested last year that adults be screened for anxiety, it left out one group — people 65 and older. Kaiser Health News Read more
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Fentanyl Crisis/Drug Trends
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U.S. Deploys Powerful Scanners At Border To Fight Fentanyl Smuggling
The trucks packed with cucumbers, green beans and bananas inched forward in a long, looping line, waiting to come into the United States at the Mariposa port of entry, one of the border’s busiest crossings for Mexican-grown produce. U.S. inspectors used to refer only a handful of drivers for cargo screening with powerful scanning equipment to check for illegal drugs. But on a recent morning they routed every truck through a new drive-through machine the size of a carwash. Known as a “multi-energy portal,” the equipment has allowed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to scan nearly six times as much cargo per day. Washington Post Read more
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Mexico’s President Says Fentanyl Is A U.S. Issue
As investigators continued their search for the gunmen who kidnapped four Americans in the border city of Matamoros last week, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador lashed out at U.S. Republican lawmakers who have proposed sending troops into Mexico, telling them that the United States should concentrate on curbing its rampant appetite for illegal drugs. “Why don’t you take care of your young people? Why don’t you take care of the serious problem of social decay? Why don’t (you) temper the constant increase in drug consumption?” López Obrador asked Thursday at his daily news conference. LA Times Read more
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Feds Knew For Years Fentanyl-Tainted Pills From Mexican Pharmacies Were Killing Americans
Officials at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and State Department have known for more than three years that some pharmacies in Mexico are selling counterfeit medications laced with illicit fentanyl — and that American tourists are overdosing and dying from them. A California medical examiner first alerted federal authorities in the spring of 2019, when 29-year-old Brennan Harrell died of a fentanyl overdose after he and a friend bought pills at a drug store in Cabo San Lucas. Afterward, his parents said, they cooperated with the DEA during a months-long investigation they say ended with the agency promising to take action that did not materialize. LA Times Read more
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Why It’s So Hard To Get Answers On Long COVID
Scientists have been scrambling to understand long COVID ever since the first SARS-CoV-2-infected patients reported persistent symptoms in early 2020. The condition includes a wide range of symptoms new or worsened after a SARS-CoV-2 infection that last at least three months post-infection and affect a person’s quality of life. A recent estimate suggests about 65 million people worldwide are affected. Thousands of long COVID studies have hit the preprint servers over the past few years, and literal reams of new knowledge have emerged. But despite the research interest, disentangling long COVID’s symptoms from those of other conditions like chronic lung diseases, autoimmune syndromes, and neuropsychiatric disorders remains a challenge, and scientists still don’t understand who’s at greatest risk for developing long-term health problems after a COVID-19 infection. VOX Read more
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- 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.
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A viral test tells you if you have a current infection.
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An antibody test might tell you if you had a past infection.
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About Eden Health District
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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.
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