Cases: Pasadena Public Health reported 16 new cases and no fatalities on Friday, September 30th. LA County reported 1682 cases on Friday and 6 deaths.
Subvariant warns winter is coming AN INCREASE in COVID-19 cases is widely expected this fall and winter. By Rong-Gong Lin II and Luke Money for the LA Times: As officials in California and beyond try to assess how severe a fall-and-winter coronavirus wave may be, one key factor is the growth of several new subvariants now emerging.
It’s too soon to say whether any of the newer variants will rise to prominence in the ways Omicron and Delta did. None have been documented in significant numbers in California or the nation. Still, experts say another super-spreading subvariant — combined with more people being indoors when the weather gets cold — could bring new challenges.
For now, California remains in a lull, with cases and hospitalizations declining since mid-summer. But in Los Angeles County, weekly deaths remain elevated and well above springtime lows, likely fueled by a case rate that, while improved, is still substantial.
But officials can’t rule out the possibility of a severe wave, given the unpredictability of the coronavirus.
Following the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the pandemic’s previous surges have coincided with the emergence of new variants or subvariants that were more transmissible and circumvented the protections afforded by vaccines or previous infections. Such constant mutations make the coronavirus a moving target. So while officials are largely confident that California and the U.S. are relatively well positioned heading into colder months — thanks to ready supplies of vaccines, therapeutics and the rollout of updated booster shots — they continue to keep a watchful eye on the horizon.
Among them is BA.2.75.2, which Fauci identified as “one that looks suspicious — that it might start to evolve as a [troublesome] variant.”
BA.2.75.2 has not been found widely in the U.S., and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not counting it separately from the less worrisome but similarly named BA.2.75. The concern with BA.2.75.2 is that our collective antibodies — whether primed from past vaccination or a previous case — may be less able to recognize this new subvariant and ward off infection.
Another subvariant, BA.2.3.20, could potentially be even worse because it has lots of mutations, though its level of immune escape hasn’t been characterized, Topol said. And a fourth mutation worth watching is known as XBB.
UC San Francisco infectious-disease expert Dr. Peter Chin-Hong is keeping an eye on another subvariant, BF.7, also known as BA.5.2.1.7, which could be contributing to a significant share of cases in Belgium and other European countries.
None of these subvariants are circulating at high levels in the U.S., CDC data show. And there’s hope that updated bivalent boosters — formulated specifically to target BA.5 and another Omicron subvariant, BA.4 — will also afford extra protection against those subvariants’ descendants, such as BF.7 and BA.4.6. But what’s worrisome about other strains that have a high level of immune escape, including BA.2.75.2, is that they could begin a new surge and potentially reinfect people who have recovered even recently — something that occurred this summer when BA.5 supplanted BA.2.12.1.
Masks: Saying community levels of COVID-19 transmission in the city declined since Sept. 5, the Pasadena Public Health Department revised its health order requirement that face masks be worn on buses, trains and other mass transit vehicles into only a recommendation on Friday.
Face coverings are now only “recommended” and not required on transit vehicles, including ride-hail vehicles, and at transit hubs.
Los Angeles County took similar action. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced it was adhering to the health order guidance and would no longer require masks.
The Economy (worldwide): (From the New York Times): The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge remained elevated in August, data released on Friday showed, further evidence that the central bank is contending with a stubborn problem as it tries to choke off the worst inflation in four decades.
The Personal Consumption Expenditures inflation measure, which is the measure the Fed officially targets as it tries to achieve 2 percent annual inflation, climbed 6.2 percent over the year through August. While that was a slowdown from 6.4 percent in July, it was higher than the 6 percent that economists in a Bloomberg survey had expected.
The details of the report were even more concerning. Price increases have been moderating somewhat on an overall basis, partly because gas prices have been declining. But after volatile fuel and food prices were stripped out to get a sense of underlying inflationary pressures, the index climbed 4.9 percent over the year through August, an acceleration from 4.7 percent the month before. And on a monthly basis, the core index picked up by 0.6 percent, the fastest increase since June.
US stocks have notched their their longest streak of quarterly losses since the market collapse of 2008, weighed down by central banks’ determination to tame inflation through higher interest rates.Stocks end month down 9.3%, worst drop since March 2020. Wall Street closed out a miserable September on Friday with the Standard & Poor’s 500 posting its worst monthly skid since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic crashed global markets.
The benchmark index ended the month with a 9.3% loss and posted its third straight losing quarter. It’s now at its lowest level since November 2020 and is down by more than a quarter since the start of the year.
The main reason financial markets continue to struggle is fear about a possible recession, as interest rates soar in hopes of beating down the high inflation that’s swept the world.
The European Commission reported on Friday that consumer prices in the countries that use the euro as their currency rose at an annual rate of 10 percent in September, again reaching the highest level since the creation of the euro more than two decades ago.
The double-digit pace was a big jump from 9.1 percent in August, the previous record.
The numbers are just the latest evidence of how the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which once provided most of Europe’s energy, is undermining economic growth, sowing anxiety and straining government resources in Europe more severely than in the United States and many other regions.
Energy prices, which rose at an annual rate of 40.8 percent in the eurozone in September, were the main contributor to the accelerating inflation, driven higher by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Food prices rose 11.8 percent in September, from 10.6 percent in August.
And this: UNDERSTANDING RETIREMENT-Is another crisis looming for public pension funds? By Laurence Darmiento for the LA Times: Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was shock enough for pension funds holding Russian assets, suddenly worth little.
Then, the prolonged conflict and lingering pandemic drove inflation to heights not seen in 40 years — raising interest rates and putting an end to a decade-long bull run in stocks, the biggest driver of pension fund gains.
The collateral damage wrought by the disruption as well as fears of a protracted recession are now raising questions about the finances of the multibillion-dollar systems relied upon by more than 4 million California public workers to carry them through their retirement.
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS, the nation’s largest state pension fund, experienced a 6.1% investment loss in the fiscal year that ended June 30. It was the first annual loss since the Great Recession for the fund that provides pension benefits to employees of the state and nearly 2,900 counties, cities, special districts and other public employers. Assets fell to $440 billion after topping $500 billion last year.
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System, or CalSTRS, the nation’s largest teachers’ pension plan, lost 1.3% last fiscal year, its first decline too in more than a decade .
And things may not get better anytime soon.
Growth in advanced economies is expected to drop sharply from 5.1% in 2021 to 2.6% this year, according to a forecast released this summer by the World Bank that is 1.2 percentage points lower than its January projection — leading to worries that lackluster market returns may extend indefinitely.
In California, current and retired employees covered by CalPERS, CalSTRS and other public-sector pension plans have some of the nation’s best protection against such downturns.
A set of related court decisions called “the California rule” guarantees, with only rare exceptions , that the benefits promised to a public employee the day they begin work are the same ones they will get the day they retire.
State bolsters benefits in paid family leave program-Low-income workers can see 90% wage replacement. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a bill that will increase the amount of money workers receive under the state’s paid family and medical leave program. The move will provide a boost to ensure that low-wage workers are not locked out of a benefit they are already paying for, supporters say.
Beginning in 2025, the state will pay up to 90% in wage replacement for new parents and those who need to take time off to care for a seriously ill family member or themselves.
Senate Bill 951 by Sen. María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) also ensures that the wage replacement will remain between 60% and 70% during the next two years, after the rate was scheduled to return to 55% beginning Jan. 1, 2023.