July 13, 2020
Eden Health District COVID-19 Bulletin

“We went into COVID with people marginally housed, homeless, in overcrowding living situations, with no living wage, no paid leave, no sick leave. It’s not one thing, it’s not two things, it’s a lot of things all coming together to make this a very difficult thing to prevent in some communities, and also difficult to recover from in those same communities.”
Alameda County Health Director Kimi Watkins-Tartt, 7/12/20

Castro Valley girl is trying to save the Oakland Zoo, one bracelet at a time.
Andy Soulard has been visiting the Oakland zoo since she was just a baby. Her favorite animals are tigers, warthogs and guinea hogs. She also loves riding the aerial gondola. For Andy, as well as everyone else, Covid-19 ended her zoo outings in March. If the pandemic-forced shutdown lasts too much longer, zoo officials have stated it may have to close permanently.
 
When 6-year-old Soulard heard this news, she took action. She donated $5 she got from the Tooth Fairy. And, to help the zoo with day-to-day expenses, she launched a  a Facebook fundraising page  with the modest goal of raising $200.
 
Then the page went viral. As of today, donations have topped $170,000 from more than 3,300 donors.

For every donation of $25 or more Andy makes a bracelet. Thanks to friends and neighbors, Andy is fulfilling more than 200 orders. As she explained, “We’re buying smaller beads so they can fit in an envelope so we can mail them out.”
“She helped to feed all of the animals at the zoo for a month now,” Andy’s mom, Kelly Soulard, said when Any had raised $80,000.
 
The Soulards say they’ll probably keep the fundraiser going until the end of the month but, if and when school returns in August, Andy’s bracelet-making days may have to end.

Source:  KPIX News
By the Numbers
CONFIRMED CASES
Alameda County: 7,976

Contra Costa County: 4,661

California: 326,187

U.S.: 3,327,388
REPORTED DEATHS
Alameda County: 148

Contra Costa County: 90

California: 7,053

U.S.: 135,295
Sources: Johns Hopkins University, LA Times & Alameda & Contra Costa Counties Dashboard
For Bay Area trends visit SF Chronicle tracker .
Bay Area News
East Bay Times, July 13, 2020
Alameda County became California’s 30th county placed on the state’s watch list because of growing concerns over the novel coronavirus pandemic, health officials announced Sunday . In the past two weeks, Alameda County averaged a Covid-19 case rate of 104 positive results per 100,000 people. The threshold to be placed on the list is 100 cases per 100,000, according to the state department of public health. The state puts counties on its watch list if they exceed thresholds for certain criteria, including significant changes in Covid-19 infection rates, increases in hospitalizations, and availability of ICU beds and ventilators.

East Bay Times, July 13, 2020
Outdoor dining is off the table again in Alameda County, officials announced late Friday. “Today we learned the state issued updated guidance, dated July 9th, prohibiting outdoor dining in non-variance counties, which includes Alameda County,” the county said in a news release . "While Alameda County’s Health Officer Order allowed for outdoor dining, under this stricter State guidance, all restaurants, wineries and bars in Alameda County may only be open for drive-through or pickup/delivery options."

Editor's Note : Outdoor dining is permitted in all Bay Area counties, with now the exception of Alameda County. The county has not filed documentation ( called attestation ) with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) certifying that it has met certain readiness criteria. Submitting this documentation is necessary for counties to move further ahead in the state's Resilience Roadmap .

  • Tri-Valley cities proceeding as is absent new health order, Pleasanton Weekly, July 11, 2020. City leaders in Pleasanton, Livermore and Dublin are proceeding with their street closures and other moves to encourage outdoor restaurant activity while interpreting the state's updated terms as guidance, not a new order.

  • Frustration grows with the Bay Area’s patchwork of quickly changing coronavirus rules, Mercury News, July 13, 2020. The Bay Area’s coronavirus response, once a model of regional coordination whose aggressiveness against the virus outpaced California’s, has devolved into a patchwork of competing and at times conflicting rules, leaving business owners and elected officials frustrated and confused nearly four months after the lockdown orders first went into effect.

  • Focus on Alameda County intensifies, SF Chronicle, July 12, 2020. Thirty-five people with the 1,000-person Alameda County Sheriff’s Office have been infected with the virus, according to Sgt. Ray Kelly, a spokesman. The sheriff’s office tweeted Sunday that a senior deputy is in the intensive care unit in critical condition with Covid-19 and is “fighting so hard to survive.”

East Bay Times, July 13, 2020
As the rate of positive COVID-19 test results is on the rise in Contra Costa County, health officials are issuing new orders , including barring indoor worship services and requiring outdoor diners to wear masks at all times “except when putting food and drink in the mouth,” the county’s announcement stated. Indoor dining remains banned.


SF Chronicle, July 12, 2020
In early April, when testing for the coronavirus was beginning to ramp up, the virus was detected almost evenly throughout Alameda County, from low-income neighborhoods in Oakland and San Leandro to middle-income areas in Hayward and wealthy enclaves in the Tri-Valley. But the pandemic, it turned out, would not impact everyone equally.
A Chronicle analysis of public health data in Alameda County found that the coronavirus has grown at a far quicker pace in low-income neighborhoods where more people couldn’t work from home and where access to critical testing and other resources remained sparse early on. Rates of infection are nearly five times higher in neighborhoods like Oakland’s Fruitvale than in the wealthiest suburbs, The Chronicle found. The explosion of coronavirus cases in lower-income areas occurred across the Bay Area and the country. 

SF Chronicle, July 10, 2020
Sixty-six people have been infected with the coronavirus and five residents have died at a Marin County skilled nursing facility struck with a coronavirus outbreak. Marin Post Acute, a 170-bed skilled nursing facility in San Rafael, has reported 49 cases among residents and 17 cases among staff, according to the California Department of Public Health. Forty-five of the cases were active on Friday.

USA Today, July 12, 2020
Costco Wholesale Club will continue to offer special operating hours for members 60 and older and vulnerable shoppers every weekday morning. In the Bay Area, as posted on Costco's website , the senior shopping hours are 8 to 9 a.m. at Costco warehouses in San Leandro, Richmond and South Francisco. At the Livermore and San Francisco warehouses senior shopping hours are from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.
Health News
Laura Rowello, freelance writer, Washington Post, July 13, 2020
As kids reenter social settings, it’s important to teach them to protect themselves while they’re away from home, to reduce the risk of them bringing the virus back to their parents, says  Kristin Moffit, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital . Children should sleep in a bedroom alone, even if it means rearranging sleeping quarters. Designate one adult, ideally one who is not in a high-risk population, to monitor and interact with the sick child, but even that person should keep contact to a minimum.

Anne Flaherty, ABC News, July 9, 2020
Here are three things to know about kids, schools and Covid-19:
  • It’s rare for kids to get really sick. But it’s also become widely accepted that asymptomatic teens and young adults in general are driving transmission of the virus in the U.S. because of work or attending social gatherings. Less evident, though, is whether much younger children, under age 10 or so, are more or less likely to spread the virus than adults.
  • Comparisons with Europe don’t really work: Schools reopened in Europe after cases came down to much a greater extent than in U.S. Further new data from Germany that found infections among children and teens under age 19 went from about 10% in early May to nearly 20% in late June.
  • The CDC guidelines might change, even if the science doesn’t. CDC helped to develop a White House plan that called for schools only to open after cases in a community decline for 14 days -- allowing the area to enter "phase 2."

Hannah Devlin, science correspondent, The Guardian, July 12, 2020
The evidence on any mask use, outside of surgical masks, is still emerging: there appears to be some benefit, but the exact parameters of which masks are the best and the extent to which they protect the wearer or those around them are still being figured out. A tighter fitting around the face is probably better, but  the CDC suggests any covering , including a bandana, is better than none.

Mercury News, July 10, 2020
As the globe enters a frightening new phase of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci addressed  the world’s first global COVID-19 Conference  on Friday, held virtually. Fauci summarized what we’ve learned during the first seven months of the pandemic.

“We’ve learned, painfully, that this is a highly highly efficient transmitter,” Fauci said. The most common route is through respiratory droplets, expelled when an infected person coughs, sneeze, speaks or breathes. Secondly, contaminated surfaces can cause infection. Finally, there is thought to be some degree of “aerosolized” transmission, through microdroplets that linger in the air, but the extent of this risk remains unclear. 

SF Chronicle, July 13, 2020
One-third of young people across the country may be at risk of getting seriously sick with Covid-19, especially if they smoke or vape, according to a UCSF study published Monday in the Journal of Adolescent Health . Smoking was the most common risk factor for severe Covid-19 complications among otherwise largely healthy young people, the study found.

For young men, smoking or vaping may more than double the potential of being hospitalized, needing intensive care, or even dying from the virus. For young women, who suffer more from other risk factors, smoking or vaping could increase the possibility 1½ times.

Guardian, July 12, 2020
People who have recovered from Covid-19 may lose their immunity to the disease within months, according to research suggesting the virus could reinfect people year after year, like common colds. In the first longitudinal study of its kind, scientists analyzed the immune response of more than 90 patients and healthcare workers and found levels of antibodies that can destroy the virus peaked about three weeks after the onset of symptoms then swiftly declined. Blood tests revealed that while 60% of people marshaled a “potent” antibody response at the height of their battle with the virus, only 17% retained the same potency three months later.

SF Chronicle, July 13, 2020
A vaccine may not be enough to end the coronavirus pandemic and restore society to some semblance of normalcy, according to doctors and researchers who say  effective treatments  for Covid-19 are equally important. “I’d much rather put my money on the drugs rather than the vaccine for now,” said Dr. Lee Riley, an infectious-disease expert at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health.

NY Times, July 10, 2020
In a CDC study, the researchers found that pregnant women with Covid-19 were more likely to be hospitalized than nonpregnant women who had the virus, but it did not say whether the pregnant women were hospitalized because of labor and delivery, or because of complications from Covid-19. Data sets that the researchers would have needed to make that distinction “were not available,” the study said.

Science, July 10, 2020
Hospital and death records show that Black people, Latinos, and Native Americans are disproportionately suffering and dying from severe disease; nationwide, Black people are  dying at 2.5 times the rate of whites . But without knowing the race of everyone tested, Shah can’t say whether high death rates among Black people in the United States are driven primarily by more exposure and infection, diagnosis at a later stage of disease, or a higher risk of severe illness once infected.
California News
The view from inside hospitals as coronavirus surge hits
LA Times, July 13, 2020
Statewide, the number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 has increased nearly 50% over the last two weeks and now sits at a record high. The earlier peak of 3,497 hospitalized patients in California on April 29 was surpassed June 20, and the number has continued to climb every day since then. On Saturday, 6,322 people were hospitalized with Covid-19 in California.

Recent projections suggest that the hospital system in California will be able to handle the demand, in part because busier hospitals can transfer patients to facilities with more space. But even still, the strain on some hospitals is unprecedented.

LA Times, July 13, 2020
California has seen coronavirus cases and hospitalizations skyrocket in the last month as the economy reopened and residents go back to summer socializing. The rate at which Covid-19 tests are coming back positive in California over the previous seven days hit 8.3% on Sunday. That’s the highest percentage since April, a continuing sign that the coronavirus is spreading throughout the state.

A week ago, on July 5, the so-called positivity rate over the previous seven days was 6.8%; and the Sunday before that, on June 28, it was 5.9%.

Sacramento Bee, July 13, 2020
The threat of fining or shutting down recalcitrant businesses is one that most local governments in California have been loathe to take, fearing it would stir anger among constituent businesses who believe their rights are being infringed. But with virus infections surging, Yolo and El Dorado county officials say they’d rather take a tough stance in hopes it will help slow virus spread and allow them to avoid being ordered by the state to once again shut down entire segments of the economy. In Southern California, the cities of Santa Monica and West Hollywood are among jurisdictions who announced they too would institute fines for those blatantly disregarding virus safety efforts.

CalMatters, July 12, 2020
As Californians rush to get tested to reassure themselves and their families they aren’t carrying the virus, many have echoed frustrations: Appointments that are weeks out. Tests being denied. Growing delays for results, and lost tests. Confusion about what insurance will and will not cover. Others have had a mostly seamless experience, in and out of a testing center in less than 30 minutes and results within a day or two.

Politico, July 10, 2020
Gov. Newsom on Friday ordered California prison officials to expedite the release of up to 8,000 inmates in a move that follows mounting pressure from lawmakers and advocates to better limit the spread of the coronavirus among incarcerated Californians and prison staff.

The order applies to inmates who have less than a year remaining on their sentences and prohibits the early release of people serving time for domestic violence offenses or other violent crimes, or who are assessed to pose a high risk of violence.

LA Times, July 10, 2020
Latino residents of Los Angeles County are contracting the coronavirus at a much faster pace than other racial and ethnic groups, and are twice as likely to have contracted the virus than white residents. “Latinx people are more than twice as likely as people who are white to be infected with the virus. And they also have had a steeper increase in their number of cases,” Barbara Ferrer, director of public health for Los Angeles County, said last week.
US News
Washington Post, July 13, 2020
New U.S. coronavirus cases reached record levels over the weekend, with deaths trending up sharply in a majority of states, including many beyond the hard-hit Sun Belt. Although testing has remained flat, 20 states and Puerto Rico reported a record-high average of new infections over the past week. Five states, Arizona, California, Florida, Mississippi and Texas, also broke records for average daily fatalities in that period.
Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2020
New coronavirus infections topped 15,000 in Florida, the largest one-day increase in any state since the start of the pandemic, while more than half U.S. states, including some that  avoided a significant surge  in the spring, were reporting steady climbs in new cases. The number of daily infections in the U.S. surpassed 60,000 for a third consecutive day on Saturday, after reaching a record of more than 66,000 cases the previous day, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University showed.

CNN, July 13, 2020
The White House is making a concerted effort to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci as he becomes increasingly vocal about his concerns over reopening the country amid a national surge in coronavirus cases. Recent moves by the White House to publicly diminish the nation's top infectious disease expert amounts to a significant escalation as it seeks to divert attention from the government's failure to contain the coronavirus and instead push Trump's call to reopen the country. That effort continued Monday morning, when the President retweeted a baseless claim by game show host Chuck Woolery that "everyone is lying" about the coronavirus -- including the CDC.

The Guardian, July 13, 2020
As the CDC prepared to release new details on its guidance for reopening US schools, the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, reiterated the administration’s push to reopen fully in September and  repeated  Donald Trump’s threat to pull funding from schools which do not do so. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, DeVos said “the rule should be that kids go back to school this fall”, adding that any coronavirus hotspots can be “dealt with on a school-by-school or a case-by-case basis.”

Bloomberg, July 13, 2020
If you’re Black in America, Covid-19 is more likely to kill you, and the disparity has only widened as cases have surged across the U.S. In counties where the majority of residents are Black, the death rate has climbed to 3.5 times the national average, up from roughly three times as high in May. In places where African Americans exceed 13.4% of the population, the proportion they make up of the U.S., the death rate is double the national average.
Bay Area Education News
Many Bay Area school districts have recently announced that they will start the school year with 100% distant learning including:


Some districts plan to begin phasing in classroom instruction in September or October, although any transition will depend upon the degree of the spread of the virus in the community and ability to keep students safe.

As stated by Hayward Superintendent Matt Wayne , " we need to be flexible when planning for the upcoming school year. Just last week we thought we would be able to dine inside restaurants only to learn that the Alameda County Public Health Department has delayed moving to the next reopening phase due to an increase in cases."

Other school districts are surveying parents on their preference for distant learning or a hybrid model.


In San Jose, the school district was planning on returning to hybrid classroom i nstruction in August . Last week the local teachers union, however, informed the district that in alignment with the California Teachers Association , they believe it is unsafe for teachers to provide in-person instruction and the teachers will not return to classrooms at this time.

Other districts, apparently, are holding off on any decision until later in the month:

California & US Education News
EdSource, July 10, 2020
As coronavirus cases spike across California, some school districts are making the decision to keep campuses closed to most students and to educate them online next school year. Districts in Los Angeles County, which has more coronavirus cases than any county in the state, are preparing for the possibility of classes being completely online at the start of the school year. In neighboring San Bernardino County, its school district this week announced classes would resume next month online.

Associated Press, July 12, 2020
“The single most important thing we can do to keep our schools safe has nothing to do with what happens in school. It’s how well we control COVID-19 in the community,” Dr. Tom Frieden, former head of the CDC, said. “Right now there are places around the country where the virus is spreading explosively and it would be difficult if not impossible to operate schools safely until the virus is under better control.”

NY Times, July 11, 2020
As school districts across the United States consider whether and how to restart in-person classes, their challenge is complicated by a pair of fundamental uncertainties: No nation has tried to send children back to school with the virus raging at levels like America’s, and the scientific research about transmission in classrooms is limited. The World Health Organization has now concluded that  the virus is airborne  in crowded, indoor spaces with poor ventilation, a description that fits many American schools. But there is enormous pressure to bring students back — from parents, from pediatricians and child development specialists, and from President Trump.

USA Today, July 13, 2020
On the same week the president tweeted out an all-caps demand that schools reopen in the fall, an Iowa school district shifted its summer school to online learning only. After just two days of in-person learning, school officials had sent home eight of the 60 kids in the program because they had temperatures of 100.4 degrees or higher. The same week, two states with surging numbers of Covid-19 infections pushed for in-person instruction every day, while a school district in another state with spiking numbers declared its 86,000 students would start the year learning at home. Across the country, parents, students, teachers and anyone else seeking a little direction on schools’ reopening plans for the fall were left spinning.
Southern Californian stricken with coronavirus sees the outside world after 3 months 
Michael Orantes received a rousing welcome, as family and friends cheered, as he embraced the outside world after being in the hospital for months. Most of his time there was spent in intensive care fighting Covid-19.
 
Nurse practitioner Ana Carchi vividly remembers the first week in April when Orantes arrived, struggling to breathe. "We honestly didn't think he was going to make it. He was very sick," she said. The 32-year-old construction worker had just returned from a trip to Spain.
 
Staff at Centinela Hospital in Inglewood tried every option to avoid having to resort to a ventilator, from which some patients never return. But his body was fighting itself, and Orantes ended up on a ventilator for more than two months.
 
Dr. Paryus Patel, the head of the hospital, said that Orantes battled a "catastrophic storm."
 
The patient prayed. He thought about his 2-year-old girl, Elizabeth, who missed him at home. "He said, 'Make sure I wake up. I have a daughter.'
So that crushed me. Heartbreaking," said Dr. Anna Carchi with Centinela Hospital.

Last week, with heaving sobs, relatives took turns embracing Orantes as members of the family’s church sang songs and praised the Centinela Hospital staff. Orantes's medical team did not take a single day off for 90 days.
 
The hospital doctor says it was their moral duty.

"Treating patients and saving lives. Is that something of amazement? No, that is our job," said Dr. Patel.
 
As for Orantes, he has a long way to go before he can go back to work, but for now, he’s happy to be home with his family again.
 
Sources:  ABC Los Angeles and  NBC Los Angeles
International News
Editorial, The Lancet, July 11, 2020
As much of western Europe begins to ease countrywide lockdowns, globally the pandemic may still be in its infancy, with more than  160,000 new cases  reported each day since June 25. The USA, Brazil, and India each logged more than 100 000 new cases from June 26 to July 3. But the pandemic also rages in Russia, forming a belt of infection that tracks through central Asia and into the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. Increasing COVID-19 cases in South Africa mean that the pandemic has a strong foothold in sub-Saharan Africa.

Two seroprevalence studies from   Spain   and   Geneva   published in The Lancet reveal an estimated seroprevalence of 5% nationally (10% in urban areas) and 10·8%, respectively. Even if antibodies confer immunity, most of the global population remains susceptible to SARS-CoV-2. 5 months after WHO declared the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak a global health emergency, the virus continues to beat a concerning and complex path.

Reuters, July 13, 2020
Coronavirus infections rose above 13 million across the world on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, climbing by one million in just five days in a pandemic that has killed more than half a million people. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there would be no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future, with too many countries headed in the wrong direction. “If basics are not followed, the only way this pandemic is going to go, it is going to get worse and worse and worse. But it does not have to be this way.”

Reuters, July 13, 2020
Deaths in Mexico from the coronavirus pandemic rose above 35,000 on Sunday, with the Latin American country overtaking Italy for the world’s fourth-highest death total, according to Reuters data. But leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that the pandemic was “losing intensity” in Mexico, and blamed what he called “conservative media” for causing alarm.

Bloomberg, July 13, 2020
Germany’s top health official warned of the risks of a renewed outbreak of the coronavirus as tourists tired of restrictions partied at their favorite beaches in Spain. The number of new cases each day in Germany has remained well below 1,000 for about a month, yet the infection rate rose above the key threshold of 1.0 for the first time in almost three weeks on Sunday, raising alarm bells. The current figure of 1.04 means 100 infected people are estimated to pass the disease to 104 others.

Reuters, July 13, 2020
Hong Kong will tighten social distancing measures again starting Wednesday amid growing worries about a third wave of coronavirus infections, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said. The government will limit group gatherings to four people, from 50, a measure last seen during the second wave in March. Twelve types of establishments, including gyms and gaming centers, must shut down for a week.
Analysis/Opinion
LA Times, July 12, 2020
Long before the official case count began to climb, the virus was freewheeling. Federal officials grappling with a shortage of test kits issued narrow testing criteria; that meant key local spreaders in the state’s budding outbreak were going unnoticed and untraced. California found itself unprepared, overwhelmed and constantly lagging, a Los Angeles Times investigation has found. Those early failures left California far behind in the fight against the coronavirus, and it has struggled to keep up, even as cases surge today.

Dr. James Hamblin, The Atlantic, July 13, 2020
Based on the U.S. response to Covid-19 since February, some scientists now believe that we’re likely to see the virus spread to the point of becoming endemic. That would mean it is with us indefinitely, and the current pandemic would end when we reach levels of “herd immunity,” traditionally defined as the threshold at which enough people in a group have immune protection so the virus can no longer cause huge spikes in disease. Some mathematicians now believe that in the U.S., the level needed to reach herd immunity is much lower than initially imagined. Or it could be, if we choose the right future.

Kaiser Health News, July 13, 2020
As the COVID toll climbs, sick workers and families of the dead face another daunting burden: fighting for benefits from workers’ compensation systems that, in some states, are stacked against them. In interviews with lawyers and families across the nation, KHN found that health care workers, including nurses’ aides, physician assistants and maintenance workers ― have faced denials or long-shot odds of getting benefits paid. In some cases, those benefits amount to an ambulance bill. In others, they would provide lifetime salary replacement for a spouse.

Nicolas Florko, health policy reporter, STAT, July 13, 2020
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the country’s top public health agency, is being kicked around by the White House. And it doesn’t have much power to kick back. As President Trump spars with nearly all of the federal agencies that have a hand in his administration’s much-maligned response to the coronavirus pandemic, he’s been particularly successful at sidelining the CDC.

Tom Stienstra, SF Chronicle, July 11, 2020
The combination of closed vacation destinations in Hawaii, Europe and elsewhere, and 100%-booked cabins and campgrounds across California, is forcing many with vacation time to scramble wildly for answers to the question of where they can go this summer. As the peak vacation season arrives in the “Summer of COVID,” as some call it, I have adopted eight rules to avoid grief and find opportunities to get out of the house. They range from what I call “The Egegik Behavior Testament” to adventures in Northern California wilderness areas. If you follow them, your trip planning this season will go much smoother.
East Bay Focus
by day as of 7/11/20
by day as of 7/11/20
Alameda County Data : 2,061 n ew cases have been recorded over the last 14 days. The number of confirmed infections is currently doubling every 32.2 days.
Contra Costa County Data : 1,859 new cases have been recorded over last 14 days. The number of confirmed infections is currently doubling every 23.2 days.
Top 8 Locations of Cases in Alameda County , data as of 7/12/20
Oakland: 3,066

Hayward: 1,233

Eden MAC: 483

Fremont: 416

San Leandro: 397

Livermore: 282

Union City: 256

Castro Valley: 232
Top 8 Locations of Cases in Contra Costa County , data as of 7/11/20
Richmond: 1046

Antioch: 542

Concord: 521

San Pablo: 435

Pittsburgh: 385

Bay Point: 209

Walnut Creek: 202

Brentwood: 167
How Dr. Fauci deals with everyday Covid-19 risks
Earlier this month, the Washington Post interviewed Dr. Anthony Fauci , director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and four other health specialists on how they work through Covid-19 risks in their everyday lives.

We believe you will find Dr. Fauci's answers instructive, and have copied them below.

When and where do you wear a mask?

It dominates everything I do. The only time I don’t wear one is when I am alone, when I am home with my wife, or when I am speaking in public — provided there is 6 feet between me and the people to whom I am speaking, as was the case when I answered questions at the recent Congressional hearings.

Besides family, do you allow anyone else inside your home, such as cleaners or service people for repairs?
The only person who comes into the house besides (my wife) Christine and me is the woman who cleans the house once every two weeks. She wears a mask and gloves at all times while in the house.

Do you shop in grocery stores, or order online? Do you wash the items off or disinfect the outside of packages once you get home?

I do physically go to the grocery store, but I wear a mask and keep my distance. I usually go at odd times. I spend half the day alone in my office, and I’m part-time at the White House. In the late afternoon or evening, when I’m finished with the White House, I go shopping for groceries, or to drugstores. I don’t disinfect the bags. In general, I will take the materials out of the bags, then wash my hands with soap and water, and then use Purell, and let everything sit for a day.

Would you dine inside a restaurant? Outside? Do you get takeout?

We don’t do anything inside. I don’t eat in restaurants. We do get takeout.

Do you take any precautions with your mail or packages?

I used to, but now I just bring the mail in, wash my hands, then let it lie around for a day or two before I open it.

Do you go to friends' homes for dinner, or have friends to your house, or see them in other ways?

On the rare occasion when we have people over, we have them out on the deck, six feet apart, and we never have more than two people, and they are people who themselves are locked in. We wear masks, unless we are eating. We don’t share anything. There are no common bowls. Each person has his or her own receptacle. Some people even bring their own glasses.

We always do takeout and I tell the takeout people that I want the food in four separate plastic containers, so no one has to touch anyone else’s food. Everyone’s food is self-contained. Also, we always stay outside. We don’t do anything inside. If it’s too hot, or rainy, we cancel it.

Are you getting your hair cut?

I usually get it cut every five weeks, but I didn’t go for a long while. By the 11th week, it was looking really bad. So I asked the woman who cuts my hair if I could come in really early in the morning, at 7 a.m., and we arranged to do that. No one else was there. She wore a mask and I wore a mask.
Are you willing to fly? What about bus, train, subway?

I’m 79 years old. I am not getting on a plane. I have been on flights where I’ve been seated near people who were sneezing and coughing, and then three days later, I’ve got it. So, no chance. No Metro, no public transportation. I’m in a high risk group, and I don’t want to play around.

Would you visit your kids/grandkids?

My middle daughter, who teaches school in New Orleans, drove up here after they closed the schools. She could teach online from here, so she thought: Why not come home and see her parents? When she got here she went straight through the back entrance into the basement.

She stayed in our basement, which has a room with a bed, a shower, electricity, and she did not come upstairs for 14 days. My wife brought food down to her on paper dishes. She lives in a very high risk city, and she wouldn’t let us near her. I wanted to hug her when she arrived, but she said: “No way, dad.” She came upstairs after 14 days, and then stayed with us for several months.

What would you tell your kids or grandkids who wanted to join a protest march or go to a political rally?

My daughters feel very strongly about social injustice, but would not likely want to do that. They are very careful with their health. They stay away from crowds.

Would you go work out at a gym? Swim in a pool? Run? Walk?

I wouldn’t go to a gym. I need to be so careful. I don’t want to take a chance. I have a pool at home, so I swim in that. I do power-walking with Chris. I was running until about a year ago, but every time I went running, my back would tighten up the next morning. So now I walk the same distance. It just takes longer. We go every day with few exceptions, 3.5 miles per day during the week, four miles over the weekend. Prior to covid-19, I did it at lunch alone in the parks near NIH. Now, I do it in the evening with Chris around the neighborhood. On the weekends, Chris and I do it together on the C&O canal.

Are you making routine trips to the doctor or dentist?

No, not yet, although I might check in within the next few weeks with my physician to get some soothing meds for my throat since I have a hoarse voice from so many briefings and interviews. He will probably take a look and say: “Just stop talking so much.

What about mammograms? Would you get a routine mammogram/advise your wife/daughter to get one?

If routine, I’d probably tell her to wait.

Are you working in your office? What precautions do you take?

I don’t wear a mask when I’m alone in my office, but I slap one on if I walk out into the hall and could pass someone, like my assistant, who also wears one.

Will you ever shake hands again? Hug/kiss someone?

I think it’s going to be a while. The infection rate will have to be extremely low or nonexistent, or we have to have a vaccine. Right now, I don’t even think about doing it.

If you had young kids, would you send them back to school in the fall?

It really depends on where you live.

Have you been tested for the coronavirus?

Yes, every time I go to the White House.

What is your best guess about when a vaccine will be available?

We have multiple candidates, and my hope is that we will have more than one, probably by the end of this year or the beginning of 2021.
Eden Area Food Pantries
We have posted information on food pantries and food services in the cities of Hayward and San Leandro and unincorporated Alameda County including Castro Valley and San Lorenzo. You can access the information here on our website .

Alameda County has also released an  interactive map  listing food distributions and other social services. 
We are proud to partner with the East Bay Community Foundation in publishing this bulletin. Through donations to its COVID-19 Response Fund , the EBCF provides grants to East Bay nonprofit organizations delivering essential services to those most impacted by the economic fallout from the pandemic.
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The Eden Health District Board of Directors are Gordon Galvan, Chair, Mariellen Faria, Vice Chair, Charles Gilcrest, Secretary-Treasurer, Roxann Lewis and Pam Russo. 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.

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