COVID-19 cases: Officials report 20 more COVID deaths, bringing toll to 33,096 in LA County: Another 20 COVID-19-related deaths were reported in Los Angeles County on Friday while the number of virus-positive patients in local hospitals ticked up slightly. The 20 new deaths lifted the county’s cumulative virus-related death toll to 33,096, according to the county Department of Public Health.
According to state figures, there were 827 COVID-19-positive patients in county hospitals as of Friday, up from 802 on Thursday. Of those patients, 101 were being treated in intensive care, down from 124 a day earlier. County officials have said roughly 43% of the COVID-19-positive patients were
admitted for virus-related illness; others were admitted for other reasons, with some only learning they were infected when they were tested at the hospital.
The county reported another 3,694 coronavirus infections Friday, raising the overall total from throughout the pandemic to 3,396,657. The county-reported case figures are believed to undercount the actual number of infections because many people now rely on at-home tests, the results of which often are not relayed to county health officials.
The average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 8.5% as of Friday.
If You’re Suffering After Being Sick With Covid, It’s Not Just in Your Head: from the New York Times: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines long Covid as having “a wide range of symptoms that can last more than four weeks or even months after infection.” The World Health Organization sets the line at three months and says symptoms must last “for at least two months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis.” Both highlight fatigue, shortness of breath, cognitive dysfunction, brain fog, pain, digestive symptoms, depression, anxiety, cough, headache and sleep disturbances.
Under the C.D.C. definition, someone with a single symptom just four weeks after illness can be lumped under the long Covid umbrella with someone bedbound for years.
However, it’s been long known that many respiratory illnesses can cause lingering symptoms. One study found that about 30 percent of people with influenza had at least one symptom that would qualify as long Covid in the three- and six-month periods after the acute illness, compared with about 37 percent of those who had Covid.
The symptom descriptions for long Covid are too vague. Do “brain fog” and “fatigue” mean people don’t feel as sharp as they were and are a little off their jogging times, or are they experiencing a cognitive crisis so profound that they cannot find words and are so fatigued that brushing their teeth leaves them unable to get out of bed for the rest of the day? The latter has happened even to some people who had mild bouts of Covid-19.
One of the most important findings is that, as with many other illnesses, the elderly or those already in frail health seem more likely to have ongoing issues, especially if they had severe cases of Covid.
Existing definitions fail to capture the subcategories of long Covid, with different symptom clusters and levels of severity and persistence, creating an obstacle to research and treatments.
A clinical trial that doesn’t differentiate among subcategories could miss signals of promising results that would help one group and not another.
Treatments, too, would differ. Some long Covid patients crash after even limited physical or cognitive effort. Staying within their limits, or pacing, is crucial. However, many told me their primary care physicians would tell them to condition themselves through increased activity. That’s sensible advice for others with mild deconditioning due to lingering symptoms, but it made them feel worse and resist the advice. Some told me that their physicians then saw them as stubborn and lazy.
Monkeypox: The number of monkeypox cases in Los Angeles County continues to increase, but the rate of new infections appears to be slowing, a county health official said. Meanwhile, the trend was reflected in Pasadena, according to City records.
Pasadena’s latest records show an increase of two cases between August 17 and August 24, whereas the previous week had increased by seven cases.
County Department of Public Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Rita Singhal told reporters in an online briefing Thursday that the county had been seeing a doubling of overall cases every nine days, but that pace has slowed, with the doubling rate now closer to 16 days.
As of Thursday, there were a total of 1,349 confirmed or suspected cases of monkeypox in the county, including cases in Pasadena and Long Beach, which both have their own health departments separate from the county. That number was up roughly 30% from a week ago.
Doses of the monkeypox vaccine still remain in limited supply, both locally and nationally, but Singhal said the county is in line to receive more doses soon. Residents who fall into the eligibility criteria can register online at ph.lacounty.gov/monkeypoxsignup to be alerted when a vaccine dose is available.
Monkeypox is generally spread through intimate skin-to-skin contact, resulting from infectious rashes and scabs, though respiratory secretions and bodily fluids exchanged during extended physical episodes, such as sexual intercourse, can also lead to transmission, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. It can also be transmitted through the sharing of items such as bedding and towels.
Symptoms include fresh pimples, blisters, rashes, fever and fatigue. There is no specific treatment. People who have been infected with smallpox, or have been vaccinated for it, may have immunity to monkeypox.
AND:
Some people argue that the name is racist and disparages an entire continent. Others view it as offensive to gay men. And then there are those who fear it could lead to indiscriminate killing of monkeys, as happened in Brazil.
All that menace from one word: monkeypox.
As the threat from the disease spreads, experts around the world have pledged to change its name to something that doesn’t carry the weight of stigma. No less an authority than the World Health Organization is holding an open forum to elicit suggestions for a new moniker.
But tossing out the old name is easier than deciding on a new one.
Already, public health agencies, researchers and nonprofit organizations around the world have taken it upon themselves to abbreviate or shorten the controversial name. But at this point there is little agreement on what to call the disease that has sickened more than 46,700 people around the world.
Of course, no matter what it may be called officially, it is monkeypox to us all now. And, I think maybe it is the monkeys who would benefit from not being associated with us in pretty much every way!
And now West Nile: To quote Rosanne Rosannadanna, 'It's always something!': Los Angeles County health officials have confirmed the county’s first human cases of West Nile virus this year, saying six cases have been identified since late July including one in Pasadena.
No specifics about the patients were released on Thursday — but according to the county Department of Public Health, the victims live in the Antelope Valley, San Fernando Valley and San Gabriel Valley. Most of the patients were hospitalized in late July and early August, and all are recovering, according to the county.
According to the state, a total of 18 human cases of West Nile virus had been confirmed in California as of last Friday, including one in Pasadena, which has its own health department separate from the county. Orange County announced a human case earlier this month.
The West Nile virus season typically runs from summer through fall, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People catch it from a bite from an infected mosquito, which contracts the virus when it feeds on an infected bird.
Schools: For a vast majority of California’s roughly six million K-12 students, this month is the beginning of a new school year.
There are the usual worries about cliques and classes, but also Covid-19 transmission, school safety, staffing shortages and lagging test scores after more than two years of pandemic disruption.
In California, many students’ schedules will also shift as the state enacts a first-of-its-kind law delaying start times so teenagers can get more sleep.
Pasadena Public Health Department Releases Updated COVID-19 guidance for the
2022-2023 School Year: With the retwn of students and staff to classrooms, Manuel Carmona, Interim Director of
Public Health, and the department issued updated public health guidance and continues to provide support to local schools and school families to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. The guidance emphasizes the importance of risk-reducing measures that will help keep Pasadena children in school, playing sports, and participating in other important youth activities. The measures are consistent with California Department of Public Health and CDC guidance.
Detailed requirements for managing COVID-19 cases and exposures in schools can be found in the Pasadena Public Health Department COVID-19 Exposure Management Plan Guidance in TK-12 Schools. In addition to providing direction to schools for reporting clusters of three or more cases of COVID-19 and recommendations for identifying close contacts in classrooms, the guidance shares requirements for student masking after exposure to a COVID-19 positive case.
Masking remains an effective non-pharmaceutical public health tool as explained by the CDC in a science brief about community use of masks and their effectiveness for preventing COVID-19 transmission. Properly worn masks with good filtration help slow the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses.
After exposure to a COVID-19 positive case, asymptomatic students and staff who have been identified as close contacts are permitted to remain in school and participate in all school activities as long as they:
- Wear a protective mask when around others indoors for 10 full days after the last date
- of exposure; AND
- Test with a COVID-19 diagnostic test (antigen or PCR, including over-thecounter/home tests) between Days 3-5 after the last date of exposure;
The school guidance is consistent with the most current Pasadena Health Officer Quarantine Order, which requires all residents exposed to a positive COVID-19 case to mask for 10 days and test between Days 3-5 following exposure.
The Pasadena Public Health Department guidance sets requirements and a minimum level of recommendations to guide schools in making decisions to protect the health and safety of their campus communities. The Department supports schools and districts that decide to implement additional layers of protection to respond to current COVID-19 conditions and concerns in campus communities.
The Economy: From the New York Times: President Biden announced last week that the federal government would cancel billions in student debt. The move, which promises to offer widespread relief for tens of millions of Americans, has ignited a fiscal debate and raised the possibility of opening a deep political rift that could rival those created by last year’s stimulus check scuffle and the 2008 bank bailouts.
The program, in a nutshell: It would forgive up to $20,000 per borrower, so long as the person earned less than $125,000 a year, or is in a household that earned less than $250,000. Current students are eligible, though if they were claimed as dependents, that would cap their relief.
Because Biden used executive action instead of going through Congress, legal challenges are expected. (That said, it isn’t clear who would have the standing to file a lawsuit.)
Praise came from some. Liberal Democrats and labor advocates, who had pressed Biden to fulfill one of his campaign promises, lauded the announcement. But some Biden allies said the president didn’t go far enough. They wanted $50,000 in relief per borrower.
Even some in the business community offered some support. The C.E.O. of the National Housing Conference, David Dworkin, called the initiative “one of the most consequential administrative actions for housing in a generation,” and said it could bring millions of new home buyers into the market.
Criticism came from others. Much of it — including the cost of the program and its effect on inflation — was captured in a Twitter thread by Jason Furman, a former Obama economic adviser who has opposed the move. “Pouring roughly half trillion dollars of gasoline on the inflationary fire that is already burning is reckless,” he wrote.
Others argue that the move doesn’t address the underlying problem of soaring higher-education costs, with some worried that universities may raise tuition and students may borrow more if they believe debt could be canceled again. Some experts say a better solution is making student loans erasable through bankruptcy.
And then there is the criticism that student debt cancellation is a giveaway to the wealthy (though the highest amount of relief will go to those who qualified for Pell grants for low-income families). That point was echoed by both Democrats and Republicans: Representative Tim Ryan, Democrat of Ohio, who’s locked in a tight race for an open Senate seat there, said the move sent “the wrong message to the millions of Ohioans without a degree working just as hard to make ends meet.”
From the New York Times: President Biden is offering what independent analysts suggest would be his most targeted assistance yet to middle-class workers — while trying to repair what he casts as a broken bridge to the middle class.
The big winners from President Biden’s plan to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in student loans are not rich graduates of Harvard and Yale, as many critics claim.
In fact, the benefits of Mr. Biden’s proposals will largely go to the middle class. According to independent analyses, the people eligible for debt relief are disproportionately young and Black. And they are concentrated in the middle band of Americans by income, defined as households earning between $51,000 and $82,000 a year.
The Education Department estimates that nearly 90 percent of affected borrowers earn $75,000 a year or less. Ivy League graduates make up less than 1 percent of federal student borrowers nationwide.
Economists say the full scope of Mr. Biden’s plan, including significant changes meant to reduce the payments that millions of borrowers will make for years to come, will help middle-income earners from a wide range of schools and backgrounds.
Yet despite the appeal of such debt relief, the program still has set off a contentious debate as economists and political figures assess the full consequences of the plan. By some estimates, it will cost as much as a half-trillion dollars over the course of a decade, imposing a future burden on American taxpayers.
The plan also could encourage colleges to raise tuition even faster than they already are. Schools could try to persuade borrowers to take on as much debt as possible to cover higher tuition, with the belief that the federal government would help pay it back.
Fed Chair Jay Powell declared the Federal Reserve “must keep at it until the job is done” as he used a speech at Jackson Hole to deliver his most hawkish message to date on the US central bank’s determination to tame soaring inflation by raising interest rates.
In a hotly anticipated address at the first in-person gathering of global central bankers since the pandemic, Powell said reducing inflation would probably result in “a sustained period of below-trend growth” and predicted there “will very likely be some softening of labour market conditions”.
Some conservative and Democratic economists also say the program could add significantly to what is already the highest inflation rate in four decades. Evidence suggests those claims are overstated, however, and American shoppers are not likely to see prices spike because of the program.
AND: Officials in California set into motion a plan that’ll ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. The decision is expected to accelerate the global transition to electric vehicles.
That’s because California is the largest auto market in the United States, and more than a dozen other states typically follow its lead when setting their own auto emissions standards.
That’s good news for the climate. But what about the environmental footprint of all those electric vehicles? While E.V.s are definitely better than cars that run on fossil fuels, they do have their own problems.