COVID-19
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Local CVS, Walgreens Are Rolling Out Omicron Boosters. Here’s How To Know You’ll Get The Updated Shot
With the Omicron-specific COVID-19 booster now available, how can you ensure that the booster you sign up for is the new one and not the old one? While some pharmacy sites, like Walgreens, make it clear when you sign up for an appointment that they are offering the “updated” booster, others, like CVS, don’t specify. But rest assured — any booster shot you receive now will be the new one, pharmacists confirmed. When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the updated vaccine — called a bivalent vaccine — the agency also changed its authorization for the original vaccine, saying it can no longer be used as a booster for people 12 and older. The original vaccine will still be used for people getting their initial vaccine doses, a CVS spokesperson confirmed.
As of Friday, CVS had booster appointments available in San Francisco for the afternoon, while Walgreens had booster appointments available starting next week.
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How To Get Free COVID Tests In SF Bay Area Now That Federal Testing Program Has Ended
There are still many low-cost or free testing options for Bay Area residents at pharmacies or community-based sites. Local testing options are listed on county health department websites and can typically be found through a quick online search. In most cases, the counties will bill health insurance companies for anyone with coverage. Pharmacies such as Walgreens and CVS also work with insurance companies to offer home test kits. Some have them available for pickup or will bill the providers directly, while others require customers to pay the cost out of pocket and seek reimbursement. People will have to shop around for deals and check with their private health care providers to find out what’s covered — and those without insurance can still seek out free coronavirus tests from regional public health authorities. It’s just going to require a little bit more effort than before. SF Chronicle Read more
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UC Berkeley To Require, But Not Enforce, Indoor Masks For Students Who Decline Flu Vaccine
UC Berkeley will again require students and employees who choose not to get vaccinated against influenza to mask up indoors during the upcoming flu season, a rule that has been in place since 2020 but led to outcry last week from critics of vaccines, masks and mandates relating to either. The university has not broadly communicated the requirement and says it does not have an enforcement mechanism to ensure students are either vaccinated or masked. “We aren’t verifying people’s records,” said Tami Cate, a UC Berkeley spokesperson. “It’s a self-attestation.” SF Chronicle
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San Jose Restaurant Owner Charged With Misusing $3.5 Million In COVID Funds
A San Jose restaurant owner is in hot water, accused of taking millions in COVID-19 relief funds and using it for personal gain. Court documents showed that David Tai Leung, who owns half of Tomi Sushi and Seafood Buffet, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday. According to a grand jury indictment filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, in 2021, Leung received $3.5 million from the restaurant revitalization fund aimed at helping restaurants recover from losses during the pandemic. Leung was charged with taking the money to invest in securities, refinance his Sacramento home and cover checks to a car dealer and a casino. NBC Bay Area Read more
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Eden Health District Announces Grants Program
Community non-profit agencies serving residents of the Eden area (Hayward, San Leandro, Castro Valley, Ashland, Cherryland, San Lorenzo, Fairview, and Hayward Acres) are encouraged to apply for community grants up to $25,000. Key priorities for funding include mental health, housing and homelessness, and food and nutrition. Here is the link to apply: https://ethd.org/grants/application-forms/. Grant applications are due September 30 at noon. Grant awards will be made in December of 2022. Services funded by community grants should start in January of 2023. |
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COVID Vaccine/Treatment News |
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CDC Recommends The First Updated COVID-19 Booster
CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H., last week endorsed the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) recommendations for use of updated COVID-19 boosters from Pfizer-BioNTech for people ages 12 years and older and from Moderna for people ages 18 years and older. Updated COVID-19 boosters add Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 spike protein components to the current vaccine composition, helping to restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination by targeting variants that are more transmissible and immune-evading. In the coming weeks, CDC also expects to recommend updated COVID-19 boosters for other pediatric groups, per the discussion and evaluation of the data by ACIP on Sept. 1, 2022. When data are available and FDA authorizes these other types of COVID-19 boosters, CDC will quickly move to help make them available in the United States. CDC Read more
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New COVID Booster Shot Shows "Tremendous Promise." Can It Prevent The Next Surge?
When the first COVID-10 vaccines arrived nearly two years ago, they came with the promise that their formulas could be adjusted quickly and easily to target coronavirus variants and allow for a nimble defense to an evolving pathogen. Now that promise is being put to the test. Millions of Americans 12 and older are newly eligible to get redesigned booster shots authorized last week by federal officials. The new products — called “bivalent” vaccines, because they address two strains of the virus — target both the ancestral coronavirus that launched the pandemic as well as currently circulating Omicron subvariants. SF Chronicle Read more
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There's No Bad Time To Get A New COVID Booster If You're Eligible, CDC Director Says
Americans will now have access to updated COVID booster shots after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on reformulated versions of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines Thursday night. Some doses could be available as soon as Friday, with a wider rollout planned for next week. Health officials expect another surge of infections this fall and winter, and say the shots — which target the original coronavirus strain as well as the more contagious Omicron variant — will help boost peoples' waning immunity and protect against serious disease and death. What should you keep in mind if you're ready to roll up your sleeve? CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky spoke with Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep about the new boosters.
"Doses are rolling into pharmacies and other sites now, and I would say if you're eligible for your boost there is no bad time to go out and get one," Walensky says. CapRadio
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COVID Vaccines Will Likely Become Annual Like Flu Shots, White House Officials Say
COVID vaccinations will likely become an annual affair, White House officials said Tuesday, with a schedule resembling that of flu shots. "In the absence of a dramatically different variants, we likely are moving towards a path with a vaccination cadence similar to that of the annual influenza vaccine, with annual updated COVID-19 shots matched to the currently circulating strains for most of the population," Dr. Anthony Fauci said at a White House briefing. The reasoning behind this expectation, according to Fauci and White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha, has to do with improved protection from newly updated COVID booster shots. NBC News Read more
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China Approves Inhaled COVID Vaccine
China has become the first country to approve an inhaled COVID vaccine. Made by CanSino, it has similar ingredients to its injected vaccine, using a harmless adenovirus as a carrier for the genetic code that teaches the body how to fight COVID. Inhaled as a fine mist, Convidecia Air can provide good protection after just one breath, the company says. Other researchers, including teams in the UK and the US, have been investigating nasal spray vaccines. Scientists say these may give added immunity in the lining of the nose and upper airways, where COVID typically enters the body. The National Medical Products Administration of China granted CanSino approval for its inhaled vaccine to be used as a booster dose. BBC
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Pfizer Isn’t Sharing COVID Vaccines With Researchers For Next-Gen Studies
Researchers studying next-generation vaccines to fight an evolving COVID-19 threat are running into problems getting existing vaccines to use in their research. Because Pfizer and Moderna hold the patents for the current vaccines, researchers would likely have to get the companies’ permission to use them for research into products like nasal or pan-coronavirus vaccines. Right now, Pfizer isn’t sharing its vaccines for research purposes, a spokesperson confirmed to STAT. Moderna didn’t comment when we asked. Pfizer’s stance is legal and in line with the company’s commercial interests, said Ana Santos Rutschman, a professor of law at Villanova University. STAT Read more
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State/National/International News |
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U.S. Health Officials Brace For Another Fall COVID Surge, But With Fewer Deaths
Fall is on the horizon and public health officials are again bracing for another wave of COVID cases. Over the past two years, fall and winter have brought devastating COVID surges that took hundreds of thousands of lives and pushed hospitals to the breaking point. But U.S. health officials say the nation is in a much different place today due to the arsenal of tools doctors now have to fight the virus. “We are in a much, much better place. We are in a better place because people have gotten vaccinated and boosted. We’ve got treatments that are widely available,” Dr. Ashish Jha, White House COVID response coordinator, said in an August interview with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. CNBC Read more
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Will Return To Office Get Serious In September?
So Labor Day has come and gone. Now what? Bosses want employees back. But will the employees show up? Remember last year? Many companies were betting on an almost-normal September, with large numbers of office workers returning to their desks in New York and the sputtering Midtown economy perking up again. The variants of the virus — first Delta and, later, Omicron — and the subvariants that eventually appeared dashed that. The expectations seem more modest this time around. James Parrott, director of economic and fiscal policies at the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School, said that September could be “an inflection point.” NY Times Read more
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Trauma, Time And Mental Health — New Study Unpacks Pandemic Phenomenon
Did you lose track of time during the early days of the pandemic? If so, you’re not alone. A new study says a majority of Americans experienced time distortions at the beginning of the pandemic, which are common during traumatic times. Researchers say those who lost their time sense could be at greater risk for mental health disorders — such as depression and anxiety — and screening for time distortions could help get treatment to those who need it. Washington Post Read more
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Yale Researchers Discover Potential Long COVID Causes And Treatments
Yale researchers discovered that several common medications can be used to improve and treat some of the long-term effects of COVID-19 — known as Long COVID or post-COVID-19 conditions. A preprint of the new study, which was published online in August, investigates ways to treat symptoms ranging from fatigue and fever to respiratory, heart, neurological and digestive conditions. These symptoms can last more than four weeks or even months after infection. Yale Daily News Read more
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COVID-19 May Have Orphaned 7.5 Million Kids Worldwide
Worldwide, about 10.5 million children may have lost parents or caregivers to COVID-19 and 7.5 million were orphaned, according to new study that estimated excess mortality using World Health Organization (WHO) data. In the study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, a University of Oxford researcher led a team in analyzing excess COVID-19–related deaths from Jan 1, 2020, to May 1, 2022. The team noted that previous global total estimates and country-level comparisons were limited by inconsistencies in COVID-19 testing and incomplete death reporting. CIDRAP Read more
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Monkeypox Cases Are Falling, But Experts Warn That The Outbreak Is Not Over
The number of new monkeypox cases in the United States has fallen by 40% since early August — a signal that the country's outbreak could be abating. According to an NBC News analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the seven-day average of new reported cases decreased from a daily average of 465 on Aug. 10, to 281 on Aug. 31. The overall drop in cases is largely driven by falling case counts in big cities including New York City and Los Angeles. NBC News Read more
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SF Expands Monkeypox Vaccine Eligibility; 2nd Doses Now Available
Eligibility to get the monkeypox vaccine is expanding at the same time that the San Francisco Department of Public Health is allowing people who’ve received the first dose to schedule an appointment for their second. As of Sept. 6, any gay or bisexual man, or any man or trans person who has sex with men or trans people, can receive a first dose. Sex workers, certain clinicians or lab workers, and people with a close contact in the past two weeks or who’d been at a venue where monkeypox was identified in that timespan had already been able to get the jab regardless. But outside of those categories, gay and bisexual men and trans people had only been able to be vaccinated if they reported multiple sexual partners in the previous two weeks. KRON4 Read more
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Total Confirmed Cases
Bay Area: 1,737,913
California: 11,126,044
U.S.: 94,805,569
Alameda County
Primary Vaccine Series Completed: 83.0%
Total Cases: 342,817
Total Deaths: 2,004
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 7.2%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 9/7): 114
ICU Beds Available (as of 9/7): 94
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Total Reported Deaths
Bay Area: 9,073
California: 95,004
U.S.: 1,047,727
Contra Costa County
Primary Vaccine Series Completed: 83.2%
Total Cases: 267,252
Total Deaths: 1,413
Test Positivity (7-day rate): 8.6%
Hospitalized Patients (as of 9/7): 57
ICU Beds Available (as of 9/7): 40
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Why COVID-19 Death Rates Remain Stubbornly Flat
Deaths from COVID-19 are at some of their lowest rates in the United States since the start of the pandemic, but they’re still alarmingly high, according to some health officials. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that, on average, close to 400 people are dying of the disease every day. The total number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths is trending downward, albeit at an agonizingly slow pace. And as summer gives way to fall, federal health officials are bracing for another spike in cases. 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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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Alameda County, cumulative
as of 9/7/2022
Oakland: 97,459
Hayward: 41,976
Fremont: 37,680
San Leandro: 20,854
Berkeley: 19,868
Eden MAC: 18,434
Livermore: 16,415
Union City: 15,002
Alameda: 12,660
Castro Valley: 12,185
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Top 10 Locations of Cases in
Contra Costa County, cumulative
as of 9/7/2022
Richmond: 37,012
Antioch: 33,913
Concord: 27,918
Pittsburg: 21,037
Brentwood: 17,557
San Pablo: 15,542
Walnut Creek: 14,365
San Ramon: 13,860
Oakley: 12,984
Martinez: 9,646
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About Eden Health District |
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The Eden Health District Board of Directors are Chair Mariellen Faria, Vice Chair Pam Russo, Secretary/Treasurer Roxann Lewis, Gordon Galvan and Ed Hernandez. 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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