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"disqusTitle": "COVID Boosters for Kids Age 5-11 Now Officially Approved",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 5:15 p.m. Monday, May 23.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>COVID vaccine boosters for kids age 5-11 are now rolling out across the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How we got here: On Tuesday, the FDA formally approved use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine booster for children age 5-11. On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met to review boosters for this age group, and later that same day, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky officially signed off, making these boosters available for rollout nationwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Skip to: \u003ca href=\"#findbooster\">Find a booster for a kid age 5-11 near you\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>Which kids age 5-11 can get a COVID booster shot?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Children age 5-11 are now eligible for a Pfizer booster shot as long as they'd had their first two vaccine shots at least 5 months ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means that to be eligible for a booster, a kid in this age group would have had their second shot by mid-December 2021. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11894855/cdc-recommends-pfizers-covid-vaccine-for-children-ages-5-to-11\">COVID vaccines were only made available to this age group on Nov. 2, 2021.\u003c/a>[aside postID=news_11890031 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1234768670-1920x1277.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, Pfizer's COVID vaccine is the only one that's been approved for use as a two-shot original vaccine series in children age 5-11. Since Pfizer also is the vaccine that's in the approvals process for use as a booster for this age group, there's no question of whether to \"mix and match\" vaccines for a child's first vaccine series and for their booster (a question adults currently face when choosing their COVID booster).\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why should kids age 5-11 get a COVID booster?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://covid19.ca.gov/vaccination-progress-data/#overview\">People 18 years old and younger currently account for 18.8% of COVID cases in California.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"While it has largely been the case that COVID-19 tends to be less severe in children than adults, the omicron wave has seen more kids getting sick with the disease and being hospitalized, and children may also experience longer-term effects, even following initially mild disease,\" said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf in \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-expands-eligibility-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine-booster-dose\">the FDA's announcement authorizing these boosters on Tuesday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Califf added that the FDA's authorization of boosters for this age group was \"to provide continued protection against COVID-19,\" and that \"vaccination continues to be the most effective way to prevent COVID-19 and its severe consequences.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://covid19.ca.gov/vaccination-progress-data/#overview\">Only 35% of children age 5-11 in California have been fully vaccinated.\u003c/a> Within this age group, the lowest vaccination rates are among Black and Latino children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/updates/covid-vaccination-rates-in-children-5-to-11-lagging-badly-in-california\">Low vaccination rates among California's children have been of concern to doctors for months\u003c/a>, with experts pointing to misinformation about COVID vaccines as one reason for low vaccine numbers. The state says that from April 18-April 24, 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://covid19.ca.gov/state-dashboard/#postvax-status\">unvaccinated people were 4.8 times more likely to get COVID than people who had received a vaccine booster shot\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"findbooster\">\u003c/a>Where can I find a Pfizer booster for kids age 5-11?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The first appointments for boosters for this age group will almost certainly become available at Bay Area pharmacies. This is because pharmacies take their guidance from the federal level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other vaccination sites in the Bay Area, like county-run locations, may have to wait a little longer, for the Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup to approve these boosters for kids age 5 to 11. Once this group of scientists approves the FDA and CDC's decision, these boosters will be able to roll out far more widely across California (and Nevada, Oregon and Washington).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remember that a certain location may only be offering a certain type of booster, whether that's Moderna, Pfizer or J&J. Make sure that the location you're walking into or where you're making an appointment offers the Pfizer booster if you're looking for a booster for a child age 5-11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1. Find a Pfizer booster shot through a local pharmacy.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several pharmacy chains are offering online appointments for the coronavirus vaccine booster, and some also offer walk-in boosters with no appointment:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cvs.com/immunizations/covid-19-vaccine?icid=cvs-home-hero1-banner-1-link2-coronavirus-vaccine\">CVS COVID-19 vaccine appointments \u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.riteaid.com/pharmacy/covid-qualifier?utm_source=state&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=Covid19&utm_content=Covid19scheduler_CA_2_12_21\">Rite Aid COVID-19 vaccine appointments\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mhealthappointments.com/covidappt\">Safeway (Albertsons) COVID-19 vaccine appointments\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.walgreens.com/findcare/vaccination/covid-19?ban=covid_vaccine_landing_schedule\">Walgreens COVID-19 vaccine appointments\u003c/a>, or call (800) WALGREENS/(800) 925-4733\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://costcorx.appointment-plus.com/appointments/book?section=typeOfVaccine&workflow=default\">Costco's COVID-19 vaccine appointments\u003cbr>\n\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>2. Find a Pfizer booster shot through My Turn.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://myturn.ca.gov/\">My Turn is the state's tool\u003c/a> that allows Californians to schedule vaccination appointments, as supplies allow. You can also try to \u003ca href=\"https://myturn.ca.gov/clinic.html\">find a walk-in appointment through My Turn\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Public Health said Monday that My Turn would start offering booster appointments to kids age 5 to 11 \"this week,\" because of the need for full testing of their \"complex statewide scheduling system.\" In the interim, CDPH suggests families \"contact clinics directly about walk in appointments.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When appointments do become available, you can \u003ca href=\"https://myturn.ca.gov/\">visit the My Turn page\u003c/a> and select \"Make an Appointment.\" My Turn will ask you for your information, and then for the ZIP code or location you'd like to use to search for vaccine appointments. You can give your home location, or you can input other locations to see which sites are available farther from your home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you can't travel to a clinic for your booster shot because of health or transportation issues, you can note this when registering on My Turn, and representatives from the California Department of Public Health will call you to arrange an in-home visit or transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you don't have an email address or a cellphone number, or you have questions, you can call the California COVID-19 hotline at (833) 422-4255 (Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m.-5 p.m PT) and sign up over the phone. English-speaking and Spanish-speaking operators are available. Callers needing information in other languages will be connected to a translation service that offers assistance in over 250 languages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889661\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11889661\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/michigan_shot_gettyimages-1234850852-8f2a1402d5a0ab808313f55bdac52f950c8ad974-scaled-e1632414475184.jpg\" alt=\"Blue-gloved hands administer a vaccine into a shoulder.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rufus Peoples receives his booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine during an Oakland County Health Department vaccination clinic at the Southfield Pavilion on Aug. 24, 2021, in Southfield, Michigan. \u003ccite>(Emily Elconin/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>3. Find a Pfizer booster shot through your county.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11855623/where-can-i-get-a-covid-19-vaccine-in-the-bay-area-your-questions-answered#county\">Visit your county's public health website \u003c/a>to learn how your county is vaccinating its residents. Remember that it may take a little while for county-run vaccination sites to start offering Pfizer boosters for this 5-11 age group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11855623/where-can-i-get-a-covid-19-vaccine-in-the-bay-area-your-questions-answered#county\">Find your Bay Area county in our list.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>4. Find a Pfizer booster shot through your health care provider.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have health insurance, check with your provider to see whether they can offer a child age 5-11 their booster shot. If you don't have health insurance but get medical care through a city- or county-run provider, you can check with that location. Remember that it may take a little while for providers to start offering Pfizer boosters for this 5-11 age group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11890031/where-can-i-get-a-pfizer-covid-booster-shot-near-me-heres-whos-eligible\">Read more about how to find a booster shot for a child age 5-11.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Which children and adults were already eligible for a booster?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Children under the age of 5 are still not eligible for their first series of the COVID vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/s0105-Booster-Shot.html\">Children and young adults age 12-17 have been eligible for a Pfizer booster shot\u003c/a> since January 2022, and now kids age 5-11 have joined that group. The CDC recommends a first COVID booster shot for everyone age 12 and older.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003cem>second\u003c/em> booster shot is currently recommended for:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Adults age 50 years and older.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>People age 12 years and older who are moderately or severely immunocompromised.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>People who got two doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11890031/where-can-i-get-a-pfizer-covid-booster-shot-near-me-heres-whos-eligible\">Find a booster shot near you.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A version of this story originally published on May 17, 2022.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 5:15 p.m. Monday, May 23.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>COVID vaccine boosters for kids age 5-11 are now rolling out across the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How we got here: On Tuesday, the FDA formally approved use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine booster for children age 5-11. On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met to review boosters for this age group, and later that same day, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky officially signed off, making these boosters available for rollout nationwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Skip to: \u003ca href=\"#findbooster\">Find a booster for a kid age 5-11 near you\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>Which kids age 5-11 can get a COVID booster shot?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Children age 5-11 are now eligible for a Pfizer booster shot as long as they'd had their first two vaccine shots at least 5 months ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means that to be eligible for a booster, a kid in this age group would have had their second shot by mid-December 2021. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11894855/cdc-recommends-pfizers-covid-vaccine-for-children-ages-5-to-11\">COVID vaccines were only made available to this age group on Nov. 2, 2021.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, Pfizer's COVID vaccine is the only one that's been approved for use as a two-shot original vaccine series in children age 5-11. Since Pfizer also is the vaccine that's in the approvals process for use as a booster for this age group, there's no question of whether to \"mix and match\" vaccines for a child's first vaccine series and for their booster (a question adults currently face when choosing their COVID booster).\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why should kids age 5-11 get a COVID booster?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://covid19.ca.gov/vaccination-progress-data/#overview\">People 18 years old and younger currently account for 18.8% of COVID cases in California.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"While it has largely been the case that COVID-19 tends to be less severe in children than adults, the omicron wave has seen more kids getting sick with the disease and being hospitalized, and children may also experience longer-term effects, even following initially mild disease,\" said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf in \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-expands-eligibility-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine-booster-dose\">the FDA's announcement authorizing these boosters on Tuesday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Califf added that the FDA's authorization of boosters for this age group was \"to provide continued protection against COVID-19,\" and that \"vaccination continues to be the most effective way to prevent COVID-19 and its severe consequences.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://covid19.ca.gov/vaccination-progress-data/#overview\">Only 35% of children age 5-11 in California have been fully vaccinated.\u003c/a> Within this age group, the lowest vaccination rates are among Black and Latino children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/updates/covid-vaccination-rates-in-children-5-to-11-lagging-badly-in-california\">Low vaccination rates among California's children have been of concern to doctors for months\u003c/a>, with experts pointing to misinformation about COVID vaccines as one reason for low vaccine numbers. The state says that from April 18-April 24, 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://covid19.ca.gov/state-dashboard/#postvax-status\">unvaccinated people were 4.8 times more likely to get COVID than people who had received a vaccine booster shot\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"findbooster\">\u003c/a>Where can I find a Pfizer booster for kids age 5-11?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The first appointments for boosters for this age group will almost certainly become available at Bay Area pharmacies. This is because pharmacies take their guidance from the federal level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other vaccination sites in the Bay Area, like county-run locations, may have to wait a little longer, for the Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup to approve these boosters for kids age 5 to 11. Once this group of scientists approves the FDA and CDC's decision, these boosters will be able to roll out far more widely across California (and Nevada, Oregon and Washington).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remember that a certain location may only be offering a certain type of booster, whether that's Moderna, Pfizer or J&J. Make sure that the location you're walking into or where you're making an appointment offers the Pfizer booster if you're looking for a booster for a child age 5-11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1. Find a Pfizer booster shot through a local pharmacy.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several pharmacy chains are offering online appointments for the coronavirus vaccine booster, and some also offer walk-in boosters with no appointment:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cvs.com/immunizations/covid-19-vaccine?icid=cvs-home-hero1-banner-1-link2-coronavirus-vaccine\">CVS COVID-19 vaccine appointments \u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.riteaid.com/pharmacy/covid-qualifier?utm_source=state&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=Covid19&utm_content=Covid19scheduler_CA_2_12_21\">Rite Aid COVID-19 vaccine appointments\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mhealthappointments.com/covidappt\">Safeway (Albertsons) COVID-19 vaccine appointments\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.walgreens.com/findcare/vaccination/covid-19?ban=covid_vaccine_landing_schedule\">Walgreens COVID-19 vaccine appointments\u003c/a>, or call (800) WALGREENS/(800) 925-4733\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://costcorx.appointment-plus.com/appointments/book?section=typeOfVaccine&workflow=default\">Costco's COVID-19 vaccine appointments\u003cbr>\n\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>2. Find a Pfizer booster shot through My Turn.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://myturn.ca.gov/\">My Turn is the state's tool\u003c/a> that allows Californians to schedule vaccination appointments, as supplies allow. You can also try to \u003ca href=\"https://myturn.ca.gov/clinic.html\">find a walk-in appointment through My Turn\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Public Health said Monday that My Turn would start offering booster appointments to kids age 5 to 11 \"this week,\" because of the need for full testing of their \"complex statewide scheduling system.\" In the interim, CDPH suggests families \"contact clinics directly about walk in appointments.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When appointments do become available, you can \u003ca href=\"https://myturn.ca.gov/\">visit the My Turn page\u003c/a> and select \"Make an Appointment.\" My Turn will ask you for your information, and then for the ZIP code or location you'd like to use to search for vaccine appointments. You can give your home location, or you can input other locations to see which sites are available farther from your home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you can't travel to a clinic for your booster shot because of health or transportation issues, you can note this when registering on My Turn, and representatives from the California Department of Public Health will call you to arrange an in-home visit or transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you don't have an email address or a cellphone number, or you have questions, you can call the California COVID-19 hotline at (833) 422-4255 (Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m.-5 p.m PT) and sign up over the phone. English-speaking and Spanish-speaking operators are available. Callers needing information in other languages will be connected to a translation service that offers assistance in over 250 languages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889661\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11889661\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/michigan_shot_gettyimages-1234850852-8f2a1402d5a0ab808313f55bdac52f950c8ad974-scaled-e1632414475184.jpg\" alt=\"Blue-gloved hands administer a vaccine into a shoulder.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rufus Peoples receives his booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine during an Oakland County Health Department vaccination clinic at the Southfield Pavilion on Aug. 24, 2021, in Southfield, Michigan. \u003ccite>(Emily Elconin/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>3. Find a Pfizer booster shot through your county.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11855623/where-can-i-get-a-covid-19-vaccine-in-the-bay-area-your-questions-answered#county\">Visit your county's public health website \u003c/a>to learn how your county is vaccinating its residents. Remember that it may take a little while for county-run vaccination sites to start offering Pfizer boosters for this 5-11 age group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11855623/where-can-i-get-a-covid-19-vaccine-in-the-bay-area-your-questions-answered#county\">Find your Bay Area county in our list.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>4. Find a Pfizer booster shot through your health care provider.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have health insurance, check with your provider to see whether they can offer a child age 5-11 their booster shot. If you don't have health insurance but get medical care through a city- or county-run provider, you can check with that location. Remember that it may take a little while for providers to start offering Pfizer boosters for this 5-11 age group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11890031/where-can-i-get-a-pfizer-covid-booster-shot-near-me-heres-whos-eligible\">Read more about how to find a booster shot for a child age 5-11.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Which children and adults were already eligible for a booster?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Children under the age of 5 are still not eligible for their first series of the COVID vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/s0105-Booster-Shot.html\">Children and young adults age 12-17 have been eligible for a Pfizer booster shot\u003c/a> since January 2022, and now kids age 5-11 have joined that group. The CDC recommends a first COVID booster shot for everyone age 12 and older.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003cem>second\u003c/em> booster shot is currently recommended for:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Adults age 50 years and older.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>People age 12 years and older who are moderately or severely immunocompromised.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>People who got two doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11890031/where-can-i-get-a-pfizer-covid-booster-shot-near-me-heres-whos-eligible\">Find a booster shot near you.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A version of this story originally published on May 17, 2022.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The search for COVID vaccines, tests and treatments could get easier Wednesday with the White House launch of \u003ca href=\"https://www.covid.gov/\">COVID.gov\u003c/a>, a website meant to be a one-stop shop for everything from free high quality masks to antiviral pills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We could not have done this six or eight months ago because we didn’t have all the tools we have now,” said White House COVID response coordinator Jeff Zients in an interview with NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the website launch, the White House is following through on a promise President Biden made in his State of the Union address. In that speech he announced a test-to-treat program “so people can get tested at a pharmacy, and if they’re positive, receive antiviral pills on the spot at no cost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The antiviral pills, especially Paxlovid from Pfizer, are highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death among people who are at high risk of severe disease from COVID infection. But they have to be taken within the first five days of the onset of symptoms. There’s been a disconnect between people getting diagnosed and actually getting these life-saving medications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up until this point, actually finding participating clinics and pharmacies wasn’t simple. According to the White House, there are now more than 2,000 test-to-treat locations around the country where people can get tested for COVID-19 and, if a prescriber says they need it, immediately get antiviral pills. COVID.gov has a new locator tool, making it easier to find these services quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, the site offers:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>A vaccine/booster locator\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A form to order free at-home COVID tests (currently 8 maximum per household)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A CDC community risk level lookup\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A testing locator\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Information about where to get free high quality masks\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Information on COVID symptoms, treatment, testing and travel\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“The new website is a great idea in theory,” said Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general in the Trump administration. He said he has often been supportive of Biden administration initiatives but says they’ve always been reactive rather than proactive. So, Adams said a website is wonderful if you have the tools to utilize it like internet access and a computer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://covid-19-test-to-treat-locator-dhhs.hub.arcgis.com/\">test-to-treat locator\u003c/a> can be more challenging to navigate on a mobile device than a desktop, for instance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The communities statistically most likely to need the services that are to be offered on the website are also the communities that are statistically most unlikely to be able to access it,” Adams added. “In other words, this could actually increase inequity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the items on this new website have been available elsewhere, like information from the CDC about levels of COVID spread in your community or the form to order free at-home rapid COVID tests. But this puts them all in one place at a time when the White House is trying to move from the crisis phase of the pandemic to a time when it is manageable and not as disruptive as it has been.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Coronavirus Resources and Explainers' tag='coronavirus-resources-and-explainers']“The nation’s medicine cabinet is full of effective treatments, we have free at-home tests, high quality masks, vaccines and boosters all available, so the website brings all these tools together and makes it convenient,” said Zients, who is leaving his role at the White House soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, Zients added that if Congress doesn’t come through with the additional COVID relief funds the White House has been asking for, these tools may not be there when people really need them. At the moment, with COVID case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths are all on the decline, there are plenty of rapid tests. And antiviral pills, which had been scarce, are plentiful now, too. But that’s largely thanks to government purchasing contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already the White House has had to forgo a new contract for monoclonal antibody treatments and a program to reimburse providers for testing and treating people who are uninsured is winding down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Congressional negotiations are ongoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden on Wednesday is scheduled to give an update on the country’s fight against COVID-19. In addition to drawing attention to the new website, Zients said Biden will “once again issue the urgent call for Congress to act and provide the funding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The concern is less about today. There’s plenty of supply. It’s about what happens six months from now if there is another COVID surge, like is happening now in Asia and Western Europe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to continue to protect the American people and prepare for any scenario,” Zients said. “I think it’s clear that the virus is unpredictable and moves fast and is not going to wait for Congress, so Congress needs to act urgently.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The COVID.gov website was designed to be as accessible and easy to use as possible. It is available in English, Spanish and a simplified Chinese, and the writing is purposely simple so the largest possible audience can understand and use the site. There is also a phone number for people who aren’t comfortable with the web.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">NPR.org\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+new+federal+website+aims+to+solve+a+key+COVID+problem%3A+where+to+get+antiviral+pills&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The search for COVID vaccines, tests and treatments could get easier Wednesday with the White House launch of \u003ca href=\"https://www.covid.gov/\">COVID.gov\u003c/a>, a website meant to be a one-stop shop for everything from free high quality masks to antiviral pills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We could not have done this six or eight months ago because we didn’t have all the tools we have now,” said White House COVID response coordinator Jeff Zients in an interview with NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the website launch, the White House is following through on a promise President Biden made in his State of the Union address. In that speech he announced a test-to-treat program “so people can get tested at a pharmacy, and if they’re positive, receive antiviral pills on the spot at no cost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The antiviral pills, especially Paxlovid from Pfizer, are highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death among people who are at high risk of severe disease from COVID infection. But they have to be taken within the first five days of the onset of symptoms. There’s been a disconnect between people getting diagnosed and actually getting these life-saving medications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up until this point, actually finding participating clinics and pharmacies wasn’t simple. According to the White House, there are now more than 2,000 test-to-treat locations around the country where people can get tested for COVID-19 and, if a prescriber says they need it, immediately get antiviral pills. COVID.gov has a new locator tool, making it easier to find these services quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, the site offers:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>A vaccine/booster locator\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A form to order free at-home COVID tests (currently 8 maximum per household)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A CDC community risk level lookup\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A testing locator\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Information about where to get free high quality masks\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Information on COVID symptoms, treatment, testing and travel\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“The new website is a great idea in theory,” said Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general in the Trump administration. He said he has often been supportive of Biden administration initiatives but says they’ve always been reactive rather than proactive. So, Adams said a website is wonderful if you have the tools to utilize it like internet access and a computer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://covid-19-test-to-treat-locator-dhhs.hub.arcgis.com/\">test-to-treat locator\u003c/a> can be more challenging to navigate on a mobile device than a desktop, for instance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The communities statistically most likely to need the services that are to be offered on the website are also the communities that are statistically most unlikely to be able to access it,” Adams added. “In other words, this could actually increase inequity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the items on this new website have been available elsewhere, like information from the CDC about levels of COVID spread in your community or the form to order free at-home rapid COVID tests. But this puts them all in one place at a time when the White House is trying to move from the crisis phase of the pandemic to a time when it is manageable and not as disruptive as it has been.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The nation’s medicine cabinet is full of effective treatments, we have free at-home tests, high quality masks, vaccines and boosters all available, so the website brings all these tools together and makes it convenient,” said Zients, who is leaving his role at the White House soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, Zients added that if Congress doesn’t come through with the additional COVID relief funds the White House has been asking for, these tools may not be there when people really need them. At the moment, with COVID case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths are all on the decline, there are plenty of rapid tests. And antiviral pills, which had been scarce, are plentiful now, too. But that’s largely thanks to government purchasing contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already the White House has had to forgo a new contract for monoclonal antibody treatments and a program to reimburse providers for testing and treating people who are uninsured is winding down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Congressional negotiations are ongoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden on Wednesday is scheduled to give an update on the country’s fight against COVID-19. In addition to drawing attention to the new website, Zients said Biden will “once again issue the urgent call for Congress to act and provide the funding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The concern is less about today. There’s plenty of supply. It’s about what happens six months from now if there is another COVID surge, like is happening now in Asia and Western Europe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to continue to protect the American people and prepare for any scenario,” Zients said. “I think it’s clear that the virus is unpredictable and moves fast and is not going to wait for Congress, so Congress needs to act urgently.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The COVID.gov website was designed to be as accessible and easy to use as possible. It is available in English, Spanish and a simplified Chinese, and the writing is purposely simple so the largest possible audience can understand and use the site. There is also a phone number for people who aren’t comfortable with the web.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">NPR.org\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+new+federal+website+aims+to+solve+a+key+COVID+problem%3A+where+to+get+antiviral+pills&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Do I Really Need Another Booster? The Answer Depends on Age, Risk and Timing",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Biden administration has given the go-ahead for another COVID vaccine booster for people aged 50 and older and certain people who are immunocompromised. They can now get another Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech booster at least four months after their last dose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But just because you can get an additional booster, does that mean you need to?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health officials argue that the protection provided by the COVID vaccine booster shots wanes over time. And they are concerned about people considered to be at highest risk of getting severe COVID.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn't make it clear how urgently people should be lining up for second boosters. The agency says these groups are \"eligible\" for the shots but it stopped short of saying they \u003cem>should\u003c/em> get them. And some infectious disease experts say not everyone in this age group needs another shot now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, if you're wondering whether to get a second booster, here are a few key factors to consider.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Risk of serious illness increases with age\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Risk tracks with age, and older people have the highest risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent study among people 60 and older in Israel found that r\u003ca href=\"https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-1478439/v1/24514bba-2c9d-4add-9d8f-321f610ed199.pdf?c=1648141784\">ates of COVID-19 infection and serious illness were lower in people who had a fourth dose\u003c/a> of the Pfizer vaccine compared to three shots.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=\"news_11855623,news_11898455,news_11904834\" label=\"More COVID Resources\"]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We're talking about extra protection from the most serious outcome of COVID,\" says \u003ca href=\"https://drerictopol.com/meet-eric-topol/\">Dr. Eric Topol,\u003c/a> founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://profiles.ucsf.edu/robert.wachter\">Dr. Bob Wachter,\u003c/a> chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, says he personally plans to sign up for a second booster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'm 64 and pretty healthy,\" he says. \"But the evidence is clear that six months out from my first booster shot, the effectiveness of that booster has waned considerably.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says another dose will boost his immunity and decrease the probability of infection. \"The benefits are very real,\" Wachter says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for people under 60 it's less clear a second booster is necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I don't think we have the data for younger people, 50 to even 60,\" says \u003ca href=\"https://profiles.ucsf.edu/monica.gandhi\">Dr. Monica Gandhi\u003c/a>, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. The study out of Israel didn't include this younger age group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She points out that other countries are targeting additional boosters for older people. Germany has authorized a fourth shot for people over 70. The U.K. is targeting people over the age of 75 and Sweden is giving fourth shots to people over 80. Gandhi says the U.S. \"is jumping the gun\" by forging ahead with shots for everyone over 50 without the relevant data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still the trendline is clear, says \u003ca href=\"https://profiles.ucsf.edu/peter.chin-hong\">Dr. Peter Chin-Hong,\u003c/a> an infectious disease specialist at UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The older you are, the bigger the benefit,\" he says. Although \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics\">the majority of deaths from COVID have been people older than 65\u003c/a>, \"there's a clear association with age and mortality with COVID,\" Chin-Hong says. \"It's really, really striking and it starts at age 50.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His advice? \"Walk to get the second booster if you're eligible.\" Then he says \"walk a little faster the older you get.\" His mom is in her 80s and he wants to protect her as much as possible. \"I'm telling her to walk quickly,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://vaccines.emory.edu/faculty/primary-faculty/delrio-carlos.html\">Dr. Carlos del Rio,\u003c/a> an infectious disease researcher at Emory University, thinks it's reasonable for people under 60 to wait. \"The vaccines are holding up pretty well against severe disease and death,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's also worth noting that even for people over 60, the added protection of an additional booster shot is small in absolute terms. People who got the first booster already have a very low risk of dying from COVID. Chin-Hong points out that in \u003ca href=\"https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-1478439/v1/24514bba-2c9d-4add-9d8f-321f610ed199.pdf?c=1648141784\">the Israeli study less than .1% of people with a third shot died,\u003c/a> a risk so low he calls it \"remarkable.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among people who got the fourth shot in this study just .03% died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Three shots is the magic number, we think, so far,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Underlying conditions put you at higher risk\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Certain medical conditions also increase the risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19 and that's the reason the FDA decided to authorize the additional boosters starting at age 50.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We know that people in the age range from about 50 to 65 — about a third of them have significant comorbidities,\" said \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization/peter-marks\">Dr. Peter Marks\u003c/a>, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, at a press conference Tuesday. \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html#:~:text=Having%20heart%20conditions%20such%20as,very%20sick%20from%20COVID%2D19.\">People with heart disease, lung disease, obesity and diabetes\u003c/a> are at higher risk for serious illness and death and people over 50 — particularly people of color — are more likely to have an additional risk factor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"So by choosing age 50 and up, to consider those at high risk or higher risk,\" Marks said. \"We felt like we would capture the population that might most benefit from this fourth dose.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to age, \"there's no bright cutoff of risk,\" agrees Wachter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are likely incremental increases in risk, year after year, as a person ages. A 50-year-old typically has lower risk than a 65-year-old, but health status matters, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"An unhealthy 55-year-old is probably at the same risk as a healthier 65-year-old,\" Wachter says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bottom line, risk goes up with age and underlying conditions, and Wachter says many people over 50 may benefit from another dose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Anyone who has a serious medical condition, I would certainly suggest thinking about getting a booster,\" says \u003ca href=\"https://www.uofmhealth.org/profile/922/preeti-n-malani-md\">Dr. Preeti Malani,\u003c/a> an infectious disease professor at University of Michigan Health. \"For my own family, for my parents and my in-laws, this is something that I will recommend,\" she says. \"Because that extra layer of protection does help ensure that if they get COVID, it's going to be milder.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Immunocompromised people may need an extra boost\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Health officials are particularly concerned about people who are immunocompromised because their immune responses to the vaccine tends to wane faster and they are at higher risk of getting severely ill or dying from COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That's why \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations/immuno.html\">anyone 12 or older with certain immunocompromised conditions can now get an additional shot \u003c/a>of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, four months after their last dose. A second booster of the Moderna vaccine can be given to people 18 years of age and older.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This includes people who have undergone solid organ transplants, or who are living with conditions that have a similar level of immunocompromise.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Timing from last dose or infection is important\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There is mounting evidence of waning vaccine protection against serious illness from COVID-19 in older and immunocompromised people, who are at least four to six months past their first booster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7107e2.htm?s_cid=mm7107e2_w\">Evidence of waning immunity comes from a recent CDC analysis\u003c/a> of COVID-19 emergency room visits and hospitalizations visits during the omicron-predominant period. Two months after a third dose, people were 91% protected against hospitalization. But by four months, that protection dropped down to about 78%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It means that people who were boosted three, four, five, six months ago probably have limited protection against current infection,\" Malani says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means a second booster can help shore up that protection, \"but it's not going to be long lasting.\" So the timing of the additional shot can be tricky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now the rate of viral infections has come down significantly since the peaks in January, but there are signs that infections are rising in some areas. The even more contagious omicron variant \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions\">BA.2 is now the dominant variant in the U.S\u003c/a>., and hospitalizations are also creeping up in some places.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peter Chin-Hong says some people might want to wait to get a booster until a time when cases start to rise in their community and they need the added protection more urgently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also notes there may be more effective vaccines on the horizon. As vaccine makers test omicron-specific vaccines and continue research on vaccines that could fend off multiple variants, it may make more sense for people at lower risk to wait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, if you're high-risk, you may not want to wait too long. Polls show \u003ca href=\"https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/poll-finding/kff-covid-19-vaccine-monitor-january-2022/\">many vaccinated people held off on a first booster dose \u003c/a> when they became available last year. But waiting until you see another outbreak in your community could be risky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It reminds me a little bit of trying to time the stock market. It turns out nobody's actually good at it,\" Wachter says. If there's another outbreak on the horizon, it's best to maximize your protection in advance of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There's one more factor to consider when deciding on the timing of a fourth dose: Have you had a recent COVID-19 infection? If you've had three shots and you've had an omicron infection sometime between December and now, \"I think it's reasonable to wait.\" Wachter says. He says a recent infection likely puts a person in a similar immunologic state as a second booster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Rob Stein and Michaeleen Doucleff contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Do+I+really+need+another+booster%3F+The+answer+depends+on+age%2C+risk+and+timing&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Biden administration has given the go-ahead for another COVID vaccine booster for people aged 50 and older and certain people who are immunocompromised. They can now get another Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech booster at least four months after their last dose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But just because you can get an additional booster, does that mean you need to?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health officials argue that the protection provided by the COVID vaccine booster shots wanes over time. And they are concerned about people considered to be at highest risk of getting severe COVID.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn't make it clear how urgently people should be lining up for second boosters. The agency says these groups are \"eligible\" for the shots but it stopped short of saying they \u003cem>should\u003c/em> get them. And some infectious disease experts say not everyone in this age group needs another shot now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, if you're wondering whether to get a second booster, here are a few key factors to consider.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Risk of serious illness increases with age\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Risk tracks with age, and older people have the highest risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent study among people 60 and older in Israel found that r\u003ca href=\"https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-1478439/v1/24514bba-2c9d-4add-9d8f-321f610ed199.pdf?c=1648141784\">ates of COVID-19 infection and serious illness were lower in people who had a fourth dose\u003c/a> of the Pfizer vaccine compared to three shots.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We're talking about extra protection from the most serious outcome of COVID,\" says \u003ca href=\"https://drerictopol.com/meet-eric-topol/\">Dr. Eric Topol,\u003c/a> founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://profiles.ucsf.edu/robert.wachter\">Dr. Bob Wachter,\u003c/a> chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, says he personally plans to sign up for a second booster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'm 64 and pretty healthy,\" he says. \"But the evidence is clear that six months out from my first booster shot, the effectiveness of that booster has waned considerably.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says another dose will boost his immunity and decrease the probability of infection. \"The benefits are very real,\" Wachter says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for people under 60 it's less clear a second booster is necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I don't think we have the data for younger people, 50 to even 60,\" says \u003ca href=\"https://profiles.ucsf.edu/monica.gandhi\">Dr. Monica Gandhi\u003c/a>, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. The study out of Israel didn't include this younger age group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She points out that other countries are targeting additional boosters for older people. Germany has authorized a fourth shot for people over 70. The U.K. is targeting people over the age of 75 and Sweden is giving fourth shots to people over 80. Gandhi says the U.S. \"is jumping the gun\" by forging ahead with shots for everyone over 50 without the relevant data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still the trendline is clear, says \u003ca href=\"https://profiles.ucsf.edu/peter.chin-hong\">Dr. Peter Chin-Hong,\u003c/a> an infectious disease specialist at UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The older you are, the bigger the benefit,\" he says. Although \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics\">the majority of deaths from COVID have been people older than 65\u003c/a>, \"there's a clear association with age and mortality with COVID,\" Chin-Hong says. \"It's really, really striking and it starts at age 50.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His advice? \"Walk to get the second booster if you're eligible.\" Then he says \"walk a little faster the older you get.\" His mom is in her 80s and he wants to protect her as much as possible. \"I'm telling her to walk quickly,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://vaccines.emory.edu/faculty/primary-faculty/delrio-carlos.html\">Dr. Carlos del Rio,\u003c/a> an infectious disease researcher at Emory University, thinks it's reasonable for people under 60 to wait. \"The vaccines are holding up pretty well against severe disease and death,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's also worth noting that even for people over 60, the added protection of an additional booster shot is small in absolute terms. People who got the first booster already have a very low risk of dying from COVID. Chin-Hong points out that in \u003ca href=\"https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-1478439/v1/24514bba-2c9d-4add-9d8f-321f610ed199.pdf?c=1648141784\">the Israeli study less than .1% of people with a third shot died,\u003c/a> a risk so low he calls it \"remarkable.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among people who got the fourth shot in this study just .03% died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Three shots is the magic number, we think, so far,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Underlying conditions put you at higher risk\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Certain medical conditions also increase the risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19 and that's the reason the FDA decided to authorize the additional boosters starting at age 50.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We know that people in the age range from about 50 to 65 — about a third of them have significant comorbidities,\" said \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization/peter-marks\">Dr. Peter Marks\u003c/a>, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, at a press conference Tuesday. \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html#:~:text=Having%20heart%20conditions%20such%20as,very%20sick%20from%20COVID%2D19.\">People with heart disease, lung disease, obesity and diabetes\u003c/a> are at higher risk for serious illness and death and people over 50 — particularly people of color — are more likely to have an additional risk factor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"So by choosing age 50 and up, to consider those at high risk or higher risk,\" Marks said. \"We felt like we would capture the population that might most benefit from this fourth dose.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to age, \"there's no bright cutoff of risk,\" agrees Wachter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are likely incremental increases in risk, year after year, as a person ages. A 50-year-old typically has lower risk than a 65-year-old, but health status matters, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"An unhealthy 55-year-old is probably at the same risk as a healthier 65-year-old,\" Wachter says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bottom line, risk goes up with age and underlying conditions, and Wachter says many people over 50 may benefit from another dose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Anyone who has a serious medical condition, I would certainly suggest thinking about getting a booster,\" says \u003ca href=\"https://www.uofmhealth.org/profile/922/preeti-n-malani-md\">Dr. Preeti Malani,\u003c/a> an infectious disease professor at University of Michigan Health. \"For my own family, for my parents and my in-laws, this is something that I will recommend,\" she says. \"Because that extra layer of protection does help ensure that if they get COVID, it's going to be milder.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Immunocompromised people may need an extra boost\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Health officials are particularly concerned about people who are immunocompromised because their immune responses to the vaccine tends to wane faster and they are at higher risk of getting severely ill or dying from COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That's why \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations/immuno.html\">anyone 12 or older with certain immunocompromised conditions can now get an additional shot \u003c/a>of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, four months after their last dose. A second booster of the Moderna vaccine can be given to people 18 years of age and older.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This includes people who have undergone solid organ transplants, or who are living with conditions that have a similar level of immunocompromise.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Timing from last dose or infection is important\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There is mounting evidence of waning vaccine protection against serious illness from COVID-19 in older and immunocompromised people, who are at least four to six months past their first booster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7107e2.htm?s_cid=mm7107e2_w\">Evidence of waning immunity comes from a recent CDC analysis\u003c/a> of COVID-19 emergency room visits and hospitalizations visits during the omicron-predominant period. Two months after a third dose, people were 91% protected against hospitalization. But by four months, that protection dropped down to about 78%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It means that people who were boosted three, four, five, six months ago probably have limited protection against current infection,\" Malani says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means a second booster can help shore up that protection, \"but it's not going to be long lasting.\" So the timing of the additional shot can be tricky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now the rate of viral infections has come down significantly since the peaks in January, but there are signs that infections are rising in some areas. The even more contagious omicron variant \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions\">BA.2 is now the dominant variant in the U.S\u003c/a>., and hospitalizations are also creeping up in some places.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peter Chin-Hong says some people might want to wait to get a booster until a time when cases start to rise in their community and they need the added protection more urgently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also notes there may be more effective vaccines on the horizon. As vaccine makers test omicron-specific vaccines and continue research on vaccines that could fend off multiple variants, it may make more sense for people at lower risk to wait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, if you're high-risk, you may not want to wait too long. Polls show \u003ca href=\"https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/poll-finding/kff-covid-19-vaccine-monitor-january-2022/\">many vaccinated people held off on a first booster dose \u003c/a> when they became available last year. But waiting until you see another outbreak in your community could be risky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It reminds me a little bit of trying to time the stock market. It turns out nobody's actually good at it,\" Wachter says. If there's another outbreak on the horizon, it's best to maximize your protection in advance of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There's one more factor to consider when deciding on the timing of a fourth dose: Have you had a recent COVID-19 infection? If you've had three shots and you've had an omicron infection sometime between December and now, \"I think it's reasonable to wait.\" Wachter says. He says a recent infection likely puts a person in a similar immunologic state as a second booster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Rob Stein and Michaeleen Doucleff contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Do+I+really+need+another+booster%3F+The+answer+depends+on+age%2C+risk+and+timing&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Starting Wednesday, March 23, \u003ca href=\"https://www.hrsa.gov/coviduninsuredclaim/submission-deadline\">the federal program that’s been funding COVID testing and care for people without health insurance has ended\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means that finding a test if you’re uninsured just became a little more complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until now, the providers of COVID tests and care could bill the COVID-19 Uninsured Program from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for the costs of giving these services to uninsured folks. This change — which was announced only one week ago, on March 16 — means COVID testing sites can no longer bill the federal government for testing uninsured people. In some cases, this means they’ll no longer be able to provide those services to people without insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/omicron-ba-2-variant-represents-rising-share-of-u-s-covid-19-cases-11647979879\">potential of another COVID surge ahead from the new BA.2 omicron variant\u003c/a>, it’s important to know how your testing and care options might have changed if you don’t have health insurance. Keep reading for what you need to know.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Your county will almost certainly still offer you a free COVID test with no insurance\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While private providers are most affected by this change because they are now unable to bill the federal government for COVID tests for uninsured people (more on that below), your Bay Area county is most likely unaffected by this change. So far, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Sonoma and Marin counties all have confirmed to KQED that there’s no change in their ability to offer uninsured folks free COVID testing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is because counties usually draw their funding for testing and vaccination from other sources. For example, a spokesperson for Contra Costa County said that its Board of Supervisors “allocated funding from the American Rescue Plan Act for health services for COVID-19 activities, including supporting vaccination and testing services for the community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means that if you need a COVID test quickly, and don’t have health insurance, going to a county-sponsored site might be your most reliable route.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Use the links below to find your county’s community testing sites:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://covid-19.acgov.org/testing.page\">Alameda County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cityofberkeley.info/covid19-testing/\">City of Berkeley COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.coronavirus.cchealth.org/get-tested\">Contra Costa County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://coronavirus.marinhhs.org/covid-19-testing-information\">Marin County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.countyofnapa.org/2776/COVID-19-Testing\">Napa County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/find-out-about-your-covid-19-testing-options\">San Francisco County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/testing\">San Mateo County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sccgov.org/sites/covid19/Pages/covid19-testing.aspx\">Santa Clara County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.solanocounty.com/depts/ph/coronavirus_links/faq___community_testing_sites.asp\">Solano County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://socoemergency.org/emergency/novel-coronavirus/testing-and-tracing/\">Sonoma County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>Other testing sites might have stopped offering free COVID tests for uninsured people\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Now that providers can no longer claim the costs of testing uninsured folks for COVID from the federal government, you might find that the testing site down the street from you has stopped offering free tests to people without insurance. But different testing providers are handling it in different ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some sites may continue offering free COVID tests to those without insurance. In the Bay Area, the provider Virus Geeks promises that now that the HRSA funding has ended, they will cover the costs of free testing for uninsured people. “Everyone who does not have insurance is welcome to get testing at any of our sites for free,” said Virus Geeks CEO Frank Lee in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='coronavirus']Virus Geeks has sites across the Bay Area, including in San Francisco, Oakland, Redwood City and San Pablo. \u003ca href=\"https://my.virusgeeks.com/\">The full list of Virus Geeks testing centers is available here.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other testing sites may now ask you to pay an out-of-pocket fee to get a test if you don’t have health insurance. \u003ca href=\"https://www.totaltestingsolutions.com/\">Total Testing Solutions\u003c/a>, for example, says they will “be moving to self-pay testing, but are doing our best to keep it as low as possible,” and offering rapid testing for $49 or virtual testing [at-home tests done with the assistance of a testing expert provided through a video call] for $25.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some testing sites may make changes to their eligibility criteria for uninsured people. This includes \u003ca href=\"https://www.testthepeople.org/\">Test the People\u003c/a>, which has sites in Oakland and San Francisco where — starting Friday, March 25 — only uninsured people who have COVID symptoms will be able to get a free COVID test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Craig Rouskey, CEO of renegade.bio which operates Test the People, estimates that currently 16% to 20% of people using the program’s sites are uninsured. As of Friday, these patients without insurance will be asked to attest to having symptoms before getting their test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rouskey says that Test the People is “currently reaching out to our partners in public health and nonprofit sectors to support the testing of asymptomatic uninsured individuals,” and that focusing on testing symptomatic people will allow the organization to at least “sequence those positive results from symptomatic people and help track the next variants of concern, which is really where we’re going with the pandemic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this is to say: Getting a COVID test without insurance from a noncounty testing site has now become far less straightforward. So we strongly advise that you check the provider’s website before heading to their testing site — because you might find that if you don’t have insurance, they might charge you for the test, or not provide it at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11898455/where-to-find-a-covid-test-near-you-in-the-bay-area#locations\">Find a noncounty testing site near you.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>You can still get free at-home COVID tests from the federal government via USPS\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>You can order up to eight free at-home COVID-19 antigen tests online from the federal government and the United States Postal Service. Previously, the federal government only provided four free tests per household but, as of March 7, people who have already received their original can make a second order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tests and shipping are completely free of charge. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11901928/you-can-now-order-free-covid-at-home-tests-via-usps\">Find out more about ordering your free COVID at-home tests via USPS.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Sign up for California’s Uninsured Group program\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California is still covering tests for some residents without coverage through the COVID-19 Uninsured Group program, managed by the Department of Health Care Services. Thanks to state legislation from 2020, the program offers free COVID-19 testing, hospital care and treatment to anyone in California who doesn’t have insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any uninsured person can apply to the program, regardless of income or immigration status. Once you’re enrolled, you can receive COVID-19 testing and treatment from any Medi-Cal provider for free across California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The catch: To enroll, “you first have to find a medical provider in your community that has been designated by the state as a qualified provider,” explains David Kane, senior attorney with the Western Center on Law and Poverty — and you can’t submit the application yourself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/eligibility/Documents/COVID-19UninsuredGroupProgram/MC-374-ENG-09-2020.pdf\">COVID-19 Uninsured Group program application is available online\u003c/a>, and you can fill it out yourself — but it can only be submitted to Medi-Cal \u003cem>through\u003c/em> that qualified provider (QP). There are dozens of QPs across the Bay Area that can help you file your application so it reaches Medi-Cal. You can find an \u003ca href=\"https://cadhcs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=62f87cadcea54cf887289e7eceda14f5\">interactive map of all the QPs in the Bay Area, along with their contact information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once you find a qualified provider, that provider has to know how to process an application,” Kane said. He added that because this program is not as widely known, unfortunately some qualified providers may be unfamiliar with how to file an application.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kane acknowledges that the burden of explaining what the Uninsured Group program is should not be placed on the patient, but adds that there are several options available if someone calls a provider who is not aware that this resource exists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Patients should tell a provider they are uninsured, or underinsured, and need coverage to access this care and that they know specifically about the COVID-19 Uninsured Group program, and ask to be enrolled in that program,” he explained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kane says that if the provider insists they still don’t know what you’re talking about or that you’re not eligible for the program, you should either:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Request to speak to someone who works at that provider who is informed about this resource.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Reach out to another qualified provider.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://healthconsumer.org/contact/\">Contact the Health Consumer Alliance\u003c/a>, an advocacy group that supports Californians seeking health coverage and offers free legal aid.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“This program exists for people who need it,” Kane said. “Just about everybody [who’s uninsured] in California is eligible. So be persistent until you are enrolled.” Read a \u003ca href=\"https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/eligibility/Documents/COVID-19UninsuredGroupProgram/COVID-19UninsuredGroupFAQ.pdf\">FAQ on the state’s COVID-19 Uninsured Group program\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Starting Wednesday, March 23, \u003ca href=\"https://www.hrsa.gov/coviduninsuredclaim/submission-deadline\">the federal program that’s been funding COVID testing and care for people without health insurance has ended\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means that finding a test if you’re uninsured just became a little more complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until now, the providers of COVID tests and care could bill the COVID-19 Uninsured Program from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for the costs of giving these services to uninsured folks. This change — which was announced only one week ago, on March 16 — means COVID testing sites can no longer bill the federal government for testing uninsured people. In some cases, this means they’ll no longer be able to provide those services to people without insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/omicron-ba-2-variant-represents-rising-share-of-u-s-covid-19-cases-11647979879\">potential of another COVID surge ahead from the new BA.2 omicron variant\u003c/a>, it’s important to know how your testing and care options might have changed if you don’t have health insurance. Keep reading for what you need to know.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Your county will almost certainly still offer you a free COVID test with no insurance\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While private providers are most affected by this change because they are now unable to bill the federal government for COVID tests for uninsured people (more on that below), your Bay Area county is most likely unaffected by this change. So far, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Sonoma and Marin counties all have confirmed to KQED that there’s no change in their ability to offer uninsured folks free COVID testing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is because counties usually draw their funding for testing and vaccination from other sources. For example, a spokesperson for Contra Costa County said that its Board of Supervisors “allocated funding from the American Rescue Plan Act for health services for COVID-19 activities, including supporting vaccination and testing services for the community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means that if you need a COVID test quickly, and don’t have health insurance, going to a county-sponsored site might be your most reliable route.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Use the links below to find your county’s community testing sites:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://covid-19.acgov.org/testing.page\">Alameda County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cityofberkeley.info/covid19-testing/\">City of Berkeley COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.coronavirus.cchealth.org/get-tested\">Contra Costa County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://coronavirus.marinhhs.org/covid-19-testing-information\">Marin County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.countyofnapa.org/2776/COVID-19-Testing\">Napa County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/find-out-about-your-covid-19-testing-options\">San Francisco County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/testing\">San Mateo County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sccgov.org/sites/covid19/Pages/covid19-testing.aspx\">Santa Clara County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.solanocounty.com/depts/ph/coronavirus_links/faq___community_testing_sites.asp\">Solano County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://socoemergency.org/emergency/novel-coronavirus/testing-and-tracing/\">Sonoma County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>Other testing sites might have stopped offering free COVID tests for uninsured people\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Now that providers can no longer claim the costs of testing uninsured folks for COVID from the federal government, you might find that the testing site down the street from you has stopped offering free tests to people without insurance. But different testing providers are handling it in different ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some sites may continue offering free COVID tests to those without insurance. In the Bay Area, the provider Virus Geeks promises that now that the HRSA funding has ended, they will cover the costs of free testing for uninsured people. “Everyone who does not have insurance is welcome to get testing at any of our sites for free,” said Virus Geeks CEO Frank Lee in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Virus Geeks has sites across the Bay Area, including in San Francisco, Oakland, Redwood City and San Pablo. \u003ca href=\"https://my.virusgeeks.com/\">The full list of Virus Geeks testing centers is available here.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other testing sites may now ask you to pay an out-of-pocket fee to get a test if you don’t have health insurance. \u003ca href=\"https://www.totaltestingsolutions.com/\">Total Testing Solutions\u003c/a>, for example, says they will “be moving to self-pay testing, but are doing our best to keep it as low as possible,” and offering rapid testing for $49 or virtual testing [at-home tests done with the assistance of a testing expert provided through a video call] for $25.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some testing sites may make changes to their eligibility criteria for uninsured people. This includes \u003ca href=\"https://www.testthepeople.org/\">Test the People\u003c/a>, which has sites in Oakland and San Francisco where — starting Friday, March 25 — only uninsured people who have COVID symptoms will be able to get a free COVID test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Craig Rouskey, CEO of renegade.bio which operates Test the People, estimates that currently 16% to 20% of people using the program’s sites are uninsured. As of Friday, these patients without insurance will be asked to attest to having symptoms before getting their test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rouskey says that Test the People is “currently reaching out to our partners in public health and nonprofit sectors to support the testing of asymptomatic uninsured individuals,” and that focusing on testing symptomatic people will allow the organization to at least “sequence those positive results from symptomatic people and help track the next variants of concern, which is really where we’re going with the pandemic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this is to say: Getting a COVID test without insurance from a noncounty testing site has now become far less straightforward. So we strongly advise that you check the provider’s website before heading to their testing site — because you might find that if you don’t have insurance, they might charge you for the test, or not provide it at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11898455/where-to-find-a-covid-test-near-you-in-the-bay-area#locations\">Find a noncounty testing site near you.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>You can still get free at-home COVID tests from the federal government via USPS\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>You can order up to eight free at-home COVID-19 antigen tests online from the federal government and the United States Postal Service. Previously, the federal government only provided four free tests per household but, as of March 7, people who have already received their original can make a second order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tests and shipping are completely free of charge. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11901928/you-can-now-order-free-covid-at-home-tests-via-usps\">Find out more about ordering your free COVID at-home tests via USPS.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Sign up for California’s Uninsured Group program\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California is still covering tests for some residents without coverage through the COVID-19 Uninsured Group program, managed by the Department of Health Care Services. Thanks to state legislation from 2020, the program offers free COVID-19 testing, hospital care and treatment to anyone in California who doesn’t have insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any uninsured person can apply to the program, regardless of income or immigration status. Once you’re enrolled, you can receive COVID-19 testing and treatment from any Medi-Cal provider for free across California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The catch: To enroll, “you first have to find a medical provider in your community that has been designated by the state as a qualified provider,” explains David Kane, senior attorney with the Western Center on Law and Poverty — and you can’t submit the application yourself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/eligibility/Documents/COVID-19UninsuredGroupProgram/MC-374-ENG-09-2020.pdf\">COVID-19 Uninsured Group program application is available online\u003c/a>, and you can fill it out yourself — but it can only be submitted to Medi-Cal \u003cem>through\u003c/em> that qualified provider (QP). There are dozens of QPs across the Bay Area that can help you file your application so it reaches Medi-Cal. You can find an \u003ca href=\"https://cadhcs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=62f87cadcea54cf887289e7eceda14f5\">interactive map of all the QPs in the Bay Area, along with their contact information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once you find a qualified provider, that provider has to know how to process an application,” Kane said. He added that because this program is not as widely known, unfortunately some qualified providers may be unfamiliar with how to file an application.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kane acknowledges that the burden of explaining what the Uninsured Group program is should not be placed on the patient, but adds that there are several options available if someone calls a provider who is not aware that this resource exists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Patients should tell a provider they are uninsured, or underinsured, and need coverage to access this care and that they know specifically about the COVID-19 Uninsured Group program, and ask to be enrolled in that program,” he explained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kane says that if the provider insists they still don’t know what you’re talking about or that you’re not eligible for the program, you should either:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Request to speak to someone who works at that provider who is informed about this resource.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Reach out to another qualified provider.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://healthconsumer.org/contact/\">Contact the Health Consumer Alliance\u003c/a>, an advocacy group that supports Californians seeking health coverage and offers free legal aid.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“This program exists for people who need it,” Kane said. “Just about everybody [who’s uninsured] in California is eligible. So be persistent until you are enrolled.” Read a \u003ca href=\"https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/eligibility/Documents/COVID-19UninsuredGroupProgram/COVID-19UninsuredGroupFAQ.pdf\">FAQ on the state’s COVID-19 Uninsured Group program\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "i-felt-as-if-i-failed-why-do-some-people-feel-shame-at-getting-covid",
"title": "'I Felt As If I Failed': Why Do Some People Feel Shame at Getting COVID?",
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"headTitle": "‘I Felt As If I Failed’: Why Do Some People Feel Shame at Getting COVID? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]G[/dropcap]etting COVID can make a person feel a variety of emotions: anger, fear, frustration. But many folks have reported experiencing another kind of reaction to their own positive test result: a feeling of shame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those who haven’t experienced it themselves, the idea of being ashamed at getting COVID — during a literal pandemic, no less — might seem odd. And yet \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11902308\">when we asked KQED audiences for their stories\u003c/a>, “COVID shame” was something that many people told us they couldn’t help but feel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I cried the second I saw the pink line,” one audience member told KQED. “I felt as if I failed myself and society.” Like most people who sent us their stories, they asked to remain anonymous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought I would be a disappointment to [my staff], I thought I’d let them down,” a person who worked in hospitality wrote. Another person said social media had been compounding their feelings of guilt and shame after testing positive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I saw a friend’s post of a small, masked gathering on Instagram,” they wrote. “The caption said something about how no one in the photo had ever had COVID because they took ‘the right precautions.’ Ouch.” The post, they wrote, “made me feel like I caught COVID because I hadn’t [taken precautions].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Dr. Marissa Raymond-Flesch, UCSF physician\"]‘[Getting COVID] felt like a moral failing on some level — like there would be an assumption that I took an unnecessary risk, or did something to get myself sick.’[/pullquote]Not even medical professionals are immune from feeling shame at testing positive. UCSF physician Marissa Raymond-Flesch told KQED about her experience of catching the delta variant “after being incredibly COVID-cautious for the entire pandemic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It felt,” wrote Raymond-Flesch, “like a moral failing on some level — like there would be an assumption that I took an unnecessary risk, or did something to get myself sick. It helped me to understand how much judgment people harbor about those who get COVID.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And judging from KQED’s audience responses, you don’t have to get COVID to feel COVID shame. “If I ever do test positive, I know it will feel like I did something wrong,” one anonymous audience member said. “I feel a lot of shame and anxiety related to any minor sniffle, even when I test negative,” said another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, this isn’t everyone’s COVID reality. There are many people who continue to feel fear or anxiety rather than shame when they test positive — people more concerned about lost wages, or being immunocompromised and high-risk, or not having access to reliable health information in languages other than English, than being ashamed of what others might think of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it begs the question: How did we get to a point where contracting the disease that’s been raging at pandemic level across the globe still feels, for some, like a personal failing?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why talking about COVID can be like talking about sexual health\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There’s a long history of shame — and shaming — when it comes to viruses and disease. Especially when it involves contagion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This history is something that’s often most keenly felt in the world of sexual health and sexually transmitted infections. Bay Area teacher and sex educator Julia Feldman said the parallels between how we talk about COVID and conversations about sexual health have been there since the start of the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11902462\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 804px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/gettyimages-1237291550-dabc9b233c1a9c6516b0c2f0b08a5324dfcf86bc.jpg\" alt=\"A hand holding a white and red rapid antigen test.\" width=\"804\" height=\"603\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11902462\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/gettyimages-1237291550-dabc9b233c1a9c6516b0c2f0b08a5324dfcf86bc.jpg 804w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/gettyimages-1237291550-dabc9b233c1a9c6516b0c2f0b08a5324dfcf86bc-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/gettyimages-1237291550-dabc9b233c1a9c6516b0c2f0b08a5324dfcf86bc-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 804px) 100vw, 804px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some audience members told KQED they felt intense shame and guilt about the ripple effects their positive diagnosis had created for others in their lives. \u003ccite>(Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The major overlap, said Feldman, is that “from the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve been taught that it’s our responsibility to stay healthy, and that we can do things to \u003cem>do\u003c/em> that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “major misconception” underlying feelings of shame in regard to both sexual health and COVID, she said, is that “if we do ‘all the right things,’ we won’t get it. And that the logical extension of that is, well, if you do get it, it must mean you’ve done something wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this environment, you don’t need to have caught COVID to feel like you’re constantly teetering on the precipice of shame. Despite never having tested positive, audience member Rachel S. said she experienced intense “guilt and shame” just waiting for test results anytime she felt she might have COVID symptoms — and quizzed herself constantly about what she might have done “wrong”: “‘Was it from when I sat at that outdoor patio the other day? Or visited my parents last week? I knew I shouldn’t have!’ etc.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Julia Feldman, teacher and sex educator\"]‘From the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve been taught that it’s our responsibility to stay healthy, and that we can do things to \u003cem>do\u003c/em> that.’[/pullquote]Audience members also reported feeling intense shame and guilt about the ripple effects their positive diagnosis created for others in their lives — the exposure they’d caused family members, or the impact on their work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I held my baby niece the day before I tested positive. I’d also met my sisters, parents, and my 3-year-old had gone to preschool,” wrote one audience member. “I was so upset that I had exposed so many people, some vulnerable without being able to be vaccinated, and hadn’t just stayed home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Exposure, close contact, wearing protection, getting tested, vaccination: It’s striking how much of our language around COVID mirrors the vocabulary of sexual health. (One anonymous audience member even referred to her COVID diagnosis — and how she felt others would judge her for it — as “my Scarlet Letter.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And of course, shame and shaming around infection is nothing new.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a tool for social control, shame around sexuality and sexual health has existed as long as we know,” said Feldman. “Because especially our current society is so deeply impacted by purity culture from religion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘It’s our job to not get sick’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The idea of personal wrongdoing always being to blame for infection — whether it’s COVID or an STI — is just not accurate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every doctor will tell you that you can take every precaution and use condoms, get tested regularly, communicate as much as you can with your partners, and you can still contract an STI — even if you do all ‘the right things,'” said Feldman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet notions of shame persist around sexual health and COVID in ways they don’t with the common cold, or a bout of flu, precisely because of that idea of being well behaved enough to escape infection. In contrast to those winter bugs, with STIs and COVID Feldman said “we’re taught that it’s our job to not get sick.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11902464\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1706px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11902464\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/rapid-antigen-getty-1360218499-68f8812df7a058f0fe404fbc8c7f3736393405d4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1706\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/rapid-antigen-getty-1360218499-68f8812df7a058f0fe404fbc8c7f3736393405d4.jpg 1706w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/rapid-antigen-getty-1360218499-68f8812df7a058f0fe404fbc8c7f3736393405d4-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/rapid-antigen-getty-1360218499-68f8812df7a058f0fe404fbc8c7f3736393405d4-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/rapid-antigen-getty-1360218499-68f8812df7a058f0fe404fbc8c7f3736393405d4-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/rapid-antigen-getty-1360218499-68f8812df7a058f0fe404fbc8c7f3736393405d4-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1706px) 100vw, 1706px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An AccessBio CareStart COVID-19 antigen home test. \u003ccite>(Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Several audience members told KQED they actually felt more ashamed to get COVID \u003cem>because\u003c/em> they’d been so cautious previously — and been vocal about their caution — as if their positive test was some kind of divine punishment for their hubris, inviting judgment upon them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was ashamed because I felt like I would be judged, having been vocal about wearing masks and getting tested regularly on my social media,” one person told us. “It felt like a failure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another audience member, Nicole, said that after two years of working from home, masking, rarely socializing and “being critical of others who weren’t doing everything ‘right’, I got it anyway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of course it was embarrassing to have the thing I had considered so avoidable, that only ignorant or selfish people got,” wrote Nicole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Anonymous\"]‘I was ashamed because I felt like I would be judged, having been vocal about wearing masks and getting tested regularly on my social media. It felt like a failure.’[/pullquote]In some cases, the sense of responsibility felt by people at getting COVID can have truly devastating consequences. Earlier this month, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-16/covid-took-his-dad-away-then-his-dreams-began-to-fade\">Los Angeles Times featured the story of Anthony Michael Reyes Jr.\u003c/a>, a 17-year-old who contracted COVID at school and brought it back into his LA household.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After his father was placed on a ventilator and died from the disease, Reyes is reported as having spoken of blaming himself for getting COVID at school and infecting his father. Almost three months after his father’s death, Reyes took his own life.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Not a moral failing’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If a person tells themself that getting COVID can be a moral slipup, that also confers a kind of goodness — superiority, even — on the people who haven’t gotten it yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This notion of avoiding COVID if you make “the right choices” can also lead to framing ourselves (and other people) as accordingly trustworthy or not, Feldman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s something echoed in the story of one anonymous audience member who told us how they contracted COVID from a house guest whose assurances of having tested negative earlier turned out to be false.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt ashamed of myself for trusting blindly and not taking enough precautions to protect myself,” said the commenter. “I should have used my judgment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a person is surrounded by messages that COVID only happens to the careless and the reckless, actually \u003cem>getting\u003c/em> COVID can create a kind of jarring dissonance in the mind, between the kind of person someone thinks themselves to be (cautious, COVID-negative) and the kind of person a positive test “reveals” them to be. Another audience member told us of her “mistake” sharing an unmasked indoor meal with another person, which led to her own positive COVID test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why did I trust this young man? … The guilt and shame I felt was intense,” she said. “I had prided myself on being a responsible person and very cautious about COVID.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901091\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901091\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-scaled.jpg\" alt='Several small boxes are stacked next to each other on a counter, each one has the same design and label, which read, \"COVID-19 Antigen Home Test.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rapid COVID-19 test kits await distribution at Union Station in Los Angeles on Jan. 7, 2022. \u003ccite>(Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When we infuse so much meaning into these concepts, we’re really doing ourselves a great disservice,” said Feldman. “Because it’s not a moral failing if you get sick. And that’s kind of the messaging that people have been given from the start of the pandemic: that if you get it, you’re failing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Accountability without shame’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Of course, not everyone thinks shaming some people who get COVID is necessarily a bad thing. (As \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ukgirlinsf/status/1484696098568499202\">one Twitter user responded to KQED’s callout\u003c/a> about COVID shame: “If they didn’t take precautions or wear a mask, or get vaccinated, and get COVID then they absolutely should feel guilty! Only those taking precautions who still contract COVID should feel guilt free.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s easy to find people who think those who are reckless — with their socializing, with not getting vaccinated — should be shamed. But as a tool for change and a public health mitigation, shame doesn’t actually work, said Feldman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The data shows us that fear and shame are not effective strategies,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Julia Feldman, teacher and sex educator\"]‘It’s not a moral failing if you get sick.’[/pullquote]Feldman wants to see us talk less in terms of shame and more about accountability: for the choices we make, and how they affect others in our lives. Many of us default to binary thinking, she said, because of how complex these conversations can be. And much of sex education historically has not been “able to hold space for those complexities, for teaching people how to navigate risk and also understand personal and collective risk — and when your risk can impact other people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it comes to sexual health, that’s one of the few areas where our personal decisions about risk impact other people’s risk,” Feldman said — a dynamic with clear parallels to COVID. Yet rather than rushing to feel or impart shame, “can we hold responsibility for making informed decisions for being communicative about our risk?” asked Feldman, so that “we’re also not shaming people when it turns out that the risks they took didn’t pan out?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Can we have accountability without shame?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A painful history\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In a place like the Bay Area, the notion of feeling shame for contracting a contagious disease with high community spread — or being made to feel ashamed for it — can’t help but raise difficult memories of the height of the AIDS epidemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jesus Guillen is an independent consultant on HIV and aging. For him, the shame he’s seeing people exhibit around their positive COVID results is a reminder that when it comes to contagious disease, “after 40 years of the first HIV/AIDS cases, we still have so much stigma and discrimination.” And shame, said Guillen, “will not \u003cem>be\u003c/em> there without the stigma and discrimination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An important connection Guillen draws between HIV/AIDS and COVID is that still-pervasive notion that a person can contract either condition “because you are not being careful.” In reality, of course, “it takes only one person, one distraction,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Jesus Guillen, founder, HIV Long Term Survivors\"]‘Shame will not \u003cem>be\u003c/em> there without the stigma and discrimination.’[/pullquote]As the San Francisco-based founder of the online support network HIV Long Term Survivors, Guillen’s focus is on the kinds of practical and emotional assistance that people living with HIV/AIDS receive — and what they’ve historically been denied. For Guillen, when it comes to COVID, a glaring indication of the sheer lack of support your average person receives is found in the absence of post-diagnosis follow-up, or even counseling, for those who test positive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Guillen said a question he often gets is, “How soon should I seek out a therapist after my HIV diagnosis?” Over the decades, his answer remains the same: “The first day.” And while AIDS and COVID are of course markedly dissimilar as diseases in many important ways, Guillen said he’s nonetheless struck by the parallels in the all-too-frequent silence at the point of diagnosis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901097\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing scrubs and a face mask and a plastic protector sticks a nose swab into another person's nose.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Merline Jimene administers a COVID-19 test swab at a testing site in the international terminal of Los Angeles International Airport amid a surge in omicron variant cases on Dec. 21, 2021. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Unless you’re receiving your test results from your regular health care provider, who is more likely to offer a follow-up treatment plan, a positive COVID test result from a provider or laboratory isn’t usually followed by an offer of professional emotional support, or guidance navigating next steps. For folks testing positive through rapid at-home antigen tests, that absence of support is likely to be felt more strongly. And Guillen suggests that for many, this — the absence of support at diagnosis — is when a lack of communication sets in, and the shame can soon follow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowledge levels around COVID and how it affects the body (specifically, how it might affect yours) also wildly vary from person to person, said Guillen. To generalize about how much the average person knows about the coronavirus is “just a huge mistake,” he said, and it’s something that’s only exacerbated by a lack of support at the point of diagnosis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After all, if a person has had access to reliable, accurate information about COVID and to a regular health care provider to make them aware of their own risk levels, then that person is more likely to weigh their positive test result with the facts. For others who lack that access, getting diagnosed with COVID can feel like facing something utterly terrifying — and shameful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Shame and silence\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The thing about shame is that it’s a deeply lonely place to be. So perhaps it’s no surprise that the pandemic — a time of frequent isolation, whether you’re COVID-positive or not — has provided such fertile ground for shame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I cried every day in isolation,” one anonymous audience member told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shame also feeds off silence. Feldman said it’s telling that many folks who get COVID often wait to reveal their diagnosis to their wider circles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people aren’t announcing that they have tested positive until they’ve recovered, and can show on the other side that they are strong — and that it didn’t affect them negatively,” she observed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his work with people living with HIV/AIDS, Guillen has seen too many patients feel like they have to hide a diagnosis to all but a select few. “The reality is that every time that we hide it, of course, then we are not comfortable with ourselves,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feldman was struck that even New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a public figure noted for her radical transparency and vulnerability online — only shared her own positive COVID test after her recovery. Whether they realize it or not, Feldman said, by waiting to disclose their diagnosis after the fact, many people are sharing “only in light of their proof that they are healthy enough to come out the other side.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.instagram.com/p/CYxZkQOgyjI/\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shame is also practically unhelpful during COVID — the secrecy that it feeds can have a chilling effect on transparent communication. In Dec. 2021, Crystal Clark, a psychiatrist and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, \u003ca href=\"https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2021/12/covid-shame-torments-the-infected/\">said she’d observed how COVID shame was even resulting in some people not getting tested\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They believe that they have been doing everything as they should, and feel like, ‘I can’t have this,'” said Clark. “They avoid finding out, because if they do, it’s that guilt and shame that goes with that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feldman gave the example of a person who chooses to dine indoors, but also chooses to tell their elderly family members that they’ve done so “so they know the risks that I took, and will probably choose to be outdoors for the next week because that was a risk I took.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But there’s nothing shameful about \u003cem>taking\u003c/em> that risk,” she stressed. “If there’s anything shameful, it would be about taking that risk and then not being transparent about the people that you’re potentially endangering.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Felt like I wasn’t doing my part’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Throughout the pandemic, official public health language has consistently laid emphasis on the role of the individual in fighting COVID: stop the spread, flatten the curve, do your part. It’s perhaps no surprise then that in comments from KQED’s audience, the idea of personal responsibility — and its often-crushing weight — looms so large.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like I felt I wasn’t doing my part as well as I could have to help end this pandemic,” wrote Rachel S. Another anonymous audience member wrote of their guilt at feeling “like I could have made better choices (even though we don’t go anywhere or travel.).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bad choices, good choices, never being quite sure which is which: Shame may thrive within silence and stigma, but it also feeds off isolation and confusion — two things that have been in overabundance during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Rachel S., KQED audience member\"]‘It’s like I felt I wasn’t doing my part as well as I could have to help end this pandemic.’[/pullquote]Physical isolation has been enforced during COVID, both for people who test positive and for all of us during periods of what we’ve collectively called “lockdown” or “quarantine,” as a precautionary measure to avoid community spread. But we’ve also been isolated from reliable information — whether by being flooded with misinformation about vaccines online, or by confusion borne out of a lack of clarity around what’s safe, and what’s not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In many ways it’s possible to see the idea that anyone would even experience shame at testing positive for COVID as an entirely predictable, inevitable consequence of the sheer amount of personal responsibility placed upon individuals over the last two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/ScrewyDecimal/status/1480205386665844736\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’re told testing is the responsible thing to do to stop community spread of COVID, and to keep our loved ones and communities safe. And yet, as we’ve seen during the omicron surge, a PCR test with results that come back soon enough to be meaningful can be extremely hard to locate. Twenty-two months into the pandemic, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11901928/you-can-now-order-free-covid-at-home-tests-via-usps\">you can now order four free at-home COVID tests per household from the federal government via the United States Postal Service\u003c/a> — but that’s not nearly enough to cover a house full of roommates, or a multigenerational home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Coronavirus Resources' tag='coronavirus-resources-and-explainers']To wear a mask is to do your part and to do the right thing, we’re told. But assistance in acquiring the right mask has been spotty at best. The first nationwide program to offer free high-quality masks launched in January 2022. For almost two years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stressed wearing masks as a crucial way to slow the spread of COVID. But its guidance on which masks were safest was only updated in mid-January 2022, confirming that N95s offered “the highest level of protection.” Until now, people have largely been left to work out which mask will protect them best on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When vaccines became widely available in 2021, people were told that getting their shot was the best way to protect not just themselves but their communities. Yet finding an appointment in those first weeks and months was such a complicated, frustrating process that it involved word-of-mouth tips and a degree of tech proficiency that left many people simply unable to find the vaccine they desperately wanted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So if things go wrong — and you already carry the notion that getting COVID is somehow a personal failing — it might be easy to feel like you chose the wrong path and, because you did, you’re to blame.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We need a reframing’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Increasing numbers of vaccinated people have been testing positive for COVID in recent weeks due to the surging omicron variant — most of them not requiring hospitalization thanks to the effectiveness of vaccines. Could there be a silver lining to the spread of omicron, in the sense of decreasing shame by making catching COVID a more universal experience?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/danahull/status/1480319166959611906?s=21\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UCSF’s Dr. Marissa Raymond-Flesch hopes so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that any experience that becomes more and more universal becomes less shameful, and I think that’s good and wonderful,” she told KQED — but said she also hopes that COVID potentially becoming endemic isn’t the only reason to wave goodbye to the shame of a positive test. “I think that there is room to trust each other — that we are all doing the very best that we can every day — and to figure out what those trade-offs are for our own health and well-being,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with the sheer weight of personal responsibility placed on individuals during the pandemic, set against a centuries-long backdrop of shaming around disease, can we \u003cem>ever\u003c/em> truly escape the specter of shame as long as COVID is with us? Or for the next great contagious threat to public health?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want to believe that we can learn from our mistakes,” said Julia Feldman. “But I think it’s very similar to sexual health. You can’t learn from your mistakes without access to accurate information … I think as a society, we need a reframing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Feldman, it’s not just about evolving our thinking around disease, but also “our understanding of risk and responsibility” — and learning to accept the complexity and nuances of those conversations. As a collective, she said, it’s about finding a way to “hold space” for those competing ideas: “Yes, we want to do everything we can to keep ourselves safe — and at the same time, no matter how much you tried, the reality is that there’s nothing you can do to stay 100% safe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we’re going to accept that shame does not correct people’s behavior in an effective and long-term way, what does?” Feldman asked. “I think it’s something that’s very antithetical to our cultural approach to individualism, this notion that there is collective responsibility, that my actions impact you — and that that’s not a bad thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Jesus Guillen, founder, HIV Long Term Survivors\"]‘I really believe that if we don’t deal with the stigma and discrimination in one health issue, we will never [move] ahead with the next one.’[/pullquote]Jesus Guillen suggests that these internalized social judgments will persist as long as diseases like AIDS and COVID continue to be seen less as health conditions and more as symbols, loaded with moral and political meaning. And Guillen said that if unaddressed, our collective inability to divorce diseases from judgment will only get worse for those who contract those diseases — whatever they are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really believe that if we don’t deal with the stigma and discrimination in one health issue, we will never [move] ahead with the next one,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in the meantime, as we approach the three-year mark of the coronavirus pandemic, if someone still experiences shame as their default emotion when they test positive, UCSF’s Dr. Marissa Raymond-Flesch offers a perspective that she found personally comforting after her own positive diagnosis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My husband told me, ‘It’s like you’ve been standing in a hurricane for more than a year with an umbrella and you finally got wet,'” said Raymond-Flesch. “It was an incredibly helpful metaphor that I’ve shared with many patients and colleagues who have tested positive since then.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She tells those people “that we are in the middle of a pandemic, and we are each doing the best that we can to get by, in so many ways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">G\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>etting COVID can make a person feel a variety of emotions: anger, fear, frustration. But many folks have reported experiencing another kind of reaction to their own positive test result: a feeling of shame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those who haven’t experienced it themselves, the idea of being ashamed at getting COVID — during a literal pandemic, no less — might seem odd. And yet \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11902308\">when we asked KQED audiences for their stories\u003c/a>, “COVID shame” was something that many people told us they couldn’t help but feel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I cried the second I saw the pink line,” one audience member told KQED. “I felt as if I failed myself and society.” Like most people who sent us their stories, they asked to remain anonymous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought I would be a disappointment to [my staff], I thought I’d let them down,” a person who worked in hospitality wrote. Another person said social media had been compounding their feelings of guilt and shame after testing positive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I saw a friend’s post of a small, masked gathering on Instagram,” they wrote. “The caption said something about how no one in the photo had ever had COVID because they took ‘the right precautions.’ Ouch.” The post, they wrote, “made me feel like I caught COVID because I hadn’t [taken precautions].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Not even medical professionals are immune from feeling shame at testing positive. UCSF physician Marissa Raymond-Flesch told KQED about her experience of catching the delta variant “after being incredibly COVID-cautious for the entire pandemic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It felt,” wrote Raymond-Flesch, “like a moral failing on some level — like there would be an assumption that I took an unnecessary risk, or did something to get myself sick. It helped me to understand how much judgment people harbor about those who get COVID.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And judging from KQED’s audience responses, you don’t have to get COVID to feel COVID shame. “If I ever do test positive, I know it will feel like I did something wrong,” one anonymous audience member said. “I feel a lot of shame and anxiety related to any minor sniffle, even when I test negative,” said another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, this isn’t everyone’s COVID reality. There are many people who continue to feel fear or anxiety rather than shame when they test positive — people more concerned about lost wages, or being immunocompromised and high-risk, or not having access to reliable health information in languages other than English, than being ashamed of what others might think of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it begs the question: How did we get to a point where contracting the disease that’s been raging at pandemic level across the globe still feels, for some, like a personal failing?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why talking about COVID can be like talking about sexual health\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There’s a long history of shame — and shaming — when it comes to viruses and disease. Especially when it involves contagion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This history is something that’s often most keenly felt in the world of sexual health and sexually transmitted infections. Bay Area teacher and sex educator Julia Feldman said the parallels between how we talk about COVID and conversations about sexual health have been there since the start of the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11902462\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 804px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/gettyimages-1237291550-dabc9b233c1a9c6516b0c2f0b08a5324dfcf86bc.jpg\" alt=\"A hand holding a white and red rapid antigen test.\" width=\"804\" height=\"603\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11902462\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/gettyimages-1237291550-dabc9b233c1a9c6516b0c2f0b08a5324dfcf86bc.jpg 804w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/gettyimages-1237291550-dabc9b233c1a9c6516b0c2f0b08a5324dfcf86bc-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/gettyimages-1237291550-dabc9b233c1a9c6516b0c2f0b08a5324dfcf86bc-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 804px) 100vw, 804px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some audience members told KQED they felt intense shame and guilt about the ripple effects their positive diagnosis had created for others in their lives. \u003ccite>(Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The major overlap, said Feldman, is that “from the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve been taught that it’s our responsibility to stay healthy, and that we can do things to \u003cem>do\u003c/em> that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “major misconception” underlying feelings of shame in regard to both sexual health and COVID, she said, is that “if we do ‘all the right things,’ we won’t get it. And that the logical extension of that is, well, if you do get it, it must mean you’ve done something wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this environment, you don’t need to have caught COVID to feel like you’re constantly teetering on the precipice of shame. Despite never having tested positive, audience member Rachel S. said she experienced intense “guilt and shame” just waiting for test results anytime she felt she might have COVID symptoms — and quizzed herself constantly about what she might have done “wrong”: “‘Was it from when I sat at that outdoor patio the other day? Or visited my parents last week? I knew I shouldn’t have!’ etc.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Audience members also reported feeling intense shame and guilt about the ripple effects their positive diagnosis created for others in their lives — the exposure they’d caused family members, or the impact on their work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I held my baby niece the day before I tested positive. I’d also met my sisters, parents, and my 3-year-old had gone to preschool,” wrote one audience member. “I was so upset that I had exposed so many people, some vulnerable without being able to be vaccinated, and hadn’t just stayed home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Exposure, close contact, wearing protection, getting tested, vaccination: It’s striking how much of our language around COVID mirrors the vocabulary of sexual health. (One anonymous audience member even referred to her COVID diagnosis — and how she felt others would judge her for it — as “my Scarlet Letter.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And of course, shame and shaming around infection is nothing new.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a tool for social control, shame around sexuality and sexual health has existed as long as we know,” said Feldman. “Because especially our current society is so deeply impacted by purity culture from religion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘It’s our job to not get sick’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The idea of personal wrongdoing always being to blame for infection — whether it’s COVID or an STI — is just not accurate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every doctor will tell you that you can take every precaution and use condoms, get tested regularly, communicate as much as you can with your partners, and you can still contract an STI — even if you do all ‘the right things,'” said Feldman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet notions of shame persist around sexual health and COVID in ways they don’t with the common cold, or a bout of flu, precisely because of that idea of being well behaved enough to escape infection. In contrast to those winter bugs, with STIs and COVID Feldman said “we’re taught that it’s our job to not get sick.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11902464\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1706px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11902464\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/rapid-antigen-getty-1360218499-68f8812df7a058f0fe404fbc8c7f3736393405d4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1706\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/rapid-antigen-getty-1360218499-68f8812df7a058f0fe404fbc8c7f3736393405d4.jpg 1706w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/rapid-antigen-getty-1360218499-68f8812df7a058f0fe404fbc8c7f3736393405d4-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/rapid-antigen-getty-1360218499-68f8812df7a058f0fe404fbc8c7f3736393405d4-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/rapid-antigen-getty-1360218499-68f8812df7a058f0fe404fbc8c7f3736393405d4-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/rapid-antigen-getty-1360218499-68f8812df7a058f0fe404fbc8c7f3736393405d4-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1706px) 100vw, 1706px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An AccessBio CareStart COVID-19 antigen home test. \u003ccite>(Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Several audience members told KQED they actually felt more ashamed to get COVID \u003cem>because\u003c/em> they’d been so cautious previously — and been vocal about their caution — as if their positive test was some kind of divine punishment for their hubris, inviting judgment upon them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was ashamed because I felt like I would be judged, having been vocal about wearing masks and getting tested regularly on my social media,” one person told us. “It felt like a failure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another audience member, Nicole, said that after two years of working from home, masking, rarely socializing and “being critical of others who weren’t doing everything ‘right’, I got it anyway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of course it was embarrassing to have the thing I had considered so avoidable, that only ignorant or selfish people got,” wrote Nicole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In some cases, the sense of responsibility felt by people at getting COVID can have truly devastating consequences. Earlier this month, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-16/covid-took-his-dad-away-then-his-dreams-began-to-fade\">Los Angeles Times featured the story of Anthony Michael Reyes Jr.\u003c/a>, a 17-year-old who contracted COVID at school and brought it back into his LA household.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After his father was placed on a ventilator and died from the disease, Reyes is reported as having spoken of blaming himself for getting COVID at school and infecting his father. Almost three months after his father’s death, Reyes took his own life.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Not a moral failing’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If a person tells themself that getting COVID can be a moral slipup, that also confers a kind of goodness — superiority, even — on the people who haven’t gotten it yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This notion of avoiding COVID if you make “the right choices” can also lead to framing ourselves (and other people) as accordingly trustworthy or not, Feldman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s something echoed in the story of one anonymous audience member who told us how they contracted COVID from a house guest whose assurances of having tested negative earlier turned out to be false.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt ashamed of myself for trusting blindly and not taking enough precautions to protect myself,” said the commenter. “I should have used my judgment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a person is surrounded by messages that COVID only happens to the careless and the reckless, actually \u003cem>getting\u003c/em> COVID can create a kind of jarring dissonance in the mind, between the kind of person someone thinks themselves to be (cautious, COVID-negative) and the kind of person a positive test “reveals” them to be. Another audience member told us of her “mistake” sharing an unmasked indoor meal with another person, which led to her own positive COVID test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why did I trust this young man? … The guilt and shame I felt was intense,” she said. “I had prided myself on being a responsible person and very cautious about COVID.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901091\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901091\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-scaled.jpg\" alt='Several small boxes are stacked next to each other on a counter, each one has the same design and label, which read, \"COVID-19 Antigen Home Test.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rapid COVID-19 test kits await distribution at Union Station in Los Angeles on Jan. 7, 2022. \u003ccite>(Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When we infuse so much meaning into these concepts, we’re really doing ourselves a great disservice,” said Feldman. “Because it’s not a moral failing if you get sick. And that’s kind of the messaging that people have been given from the start of the pandemic: that if you get it, you’re failing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Accountability without shame’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Of course, not everyone thinks shaming some people who get COVID is necessarily a bad thing. (As \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ukgirlinsf/status/1484696098568499202\">one Twitter user responded to KQED’s callout\u003c/a> about COVID shame: “If they didn’t take precautions or wear a mask, or get vaccinated, and get COVID then they absolutely should feel guilty! Only those taking precautions who still contract COVID should feel guilt free.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s easy to find people who think those who are reckless — with their socializing, with not getting vaccinated — should be shamed. But as a tool for change and a public health mitigation, shame doesn’t actually work, said Feldman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The data shows us that fear and shame are not effective strategies,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Feldman wants to see us talk less in terms of shame and more about accountability: for the choices we make, and how they affect others in our lives. Many of us default to binary thinking, she said, because of how complex these conversations can be. And much of sex education historically has not been “able to hold space for those complexities, for teaching people how to navigate risk and also understand personal and collective risk — and when your risk can impact other people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it comes to sexual health, that’s one of the few areas where our personal decisions about risk impact other people’s risk,” Feldman said — a dynamic with clear parallels to COVID. Yet rather than rushing to feel or impart shame, “can we hold responsibility for making informed decisions for being communicative about our risk?” asked Feldman, so that “we’re also not shaming people when it turns out that the risks they took didn’t pan out?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Can we have accountability without shame?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A painful history\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In a place like the Bay Area, the notion of feeling shame for contracting a contagious disease with high community spread — or being made to feel ashamed for it — can’t help but raise difficult memories of the height of the AIDS epidemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jesus Guillen is an independent consultant on HIV and aging. For him, the shame he’s seeing people exhibit around their positive COVID results is a reminder that when it comes to contagious disease, “after 40 years of the first HIV/AIDS cases, we still have so much stigma and discrimination.” And shame, said Guillen, “will not \u003cem>be\u003c/em> there without the stigma and discrimination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An important connection Guillen draws between HIV/AIDS and COVID is that still-pervasive notion that a person can contract either condition “because you are not being careful.” In reality, of course, “it takes only one person, one distraction,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As the San Francisco-based founder of the online support network HIV Long Term Survivors, Guillen’s focus is on the kinds of practical and emotional assistance that people living with HIV/AIDS receive — and what they’ve historically been denied. For Guillen, when it comes to COVID, a glaring indication of the sheer lack of support your average person receives is found in the absence of post-diagnosis follow-up, or even counseling, for those who test positive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Guillen said a question he often gets is, “How soon should I seek out a therapist after my HIV diagnosis?” Over the decades, his answer remains the same: “The first day.” And while AIDS and COVID are of course markedly dissimilar as diseases in many important ways, Guillen said he’s nonetheless struck by the parallels in the all-too-frequent silence at the point of diagnosis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901097\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing scrubs and a face mask and a plastic protector sticks a nose swab into another person's nose.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Merline Jimene administers a COVID-19 test swab at a testing site in the international terminal of Los Angeles International Airport amid a surge in omicron variant cases on Dec. 21, 2021. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Unless you’re receiving your test results from your regular health care provider, who is more likely to offer a follow-up treatment plan, a positive COVID test result from a provider or laboratory isn’t usually followed by an offer of professional emotional support, or guidance navigating next steps. For folks testing positive through rapid at-home antigen tests, that absence of support is likely to be felt more strongly. And Guillen suggests that for many, this — the absence of support at diagnosis — is when a lack of communication sets in, and the shame can soon follow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowledge levels around COVID and how it affects the body (specifically, how it might affect yours) also wildly vary from person to person, said Guillen. To generalize about how much the average person knows about the coronavirus is “just a huge mistake,” he said, and it’s something that’s only exacerbated by a lack of support at the point of diagnosis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After all, if a person has had access to reliable, accurate information about COVID and to a regular health care provider to make them aware of their own risk levels, then that person is more likely to weigh their positive test result with the facts. For others who lack that access, getting diagnosed with COVID can feel like facing something utterly terrifying — and shameful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Shame and silence\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The thing about shame is that it’s a deeply lonely place to be. So perhaps it’s no surprise that the pandemic — a time of frequent isolation, whether you’re COVID-positive or not — has provided such fertile ground for shame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I cried every day in isolation,” one anonymous audience member told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shame also feeds off silence. Feldman said it’s telling that many folks who get COVID often wait to reveal their diagnosis to their wider circles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people aren’t announcing that they have tested positive until they’ve recovered, and can show on the other side that they are strong — and that it didn’t affect them negatively,” she observed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his work with people living with HIV/AIDS, Guillen has seen too many patients feel like they have to hide a diagnosis to all but a select few. “The reality is that every time that we hide it, of course, then we are not comfortable with ourselves,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feldman was struck that even New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a public figure noted for her radical transparency and vulnerability online — only shared her own positive COVID test after her recovery. Whether they realize it or not, Feldman said, by waiting to disclose their diagnosis after the fact, many people are sharing “only in light of their proof that they are healthy enough to come out the other side.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Shame is also practically unhelpful during COVID — the secrecy that it feeds can have a chilling effect on transparent communication. In Dec. 2021, Crystal Clark, a psychiatrist and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, \u003ca href=\"https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2021/12/covid-shame-torments-the-infected/\">said she’d observed how COVID shame was even resulting in some people not getting tested\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They believe that they have been doing everything as they should, and feel like, ‘I can’t have this,'” said Clark. “They avoid finding out, because if they do, it’s that guilt and shame that goes with that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feldman gave the example of a person who chooses to dine indoors, but also chooses to tell their elderly family members that they’ve done so “so they know the risks that I took, and will probably choose to be outdoors for the next week because that was a risk I took.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But there’s nothing shameful about \u003cem>taking\u003c/em> that risk,” she stressed. “If there’s anything shameful, it would be about taking that risk and then not being transparent about the people that you’re potentially endangering.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Felt like I wasn’t doing my part’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Throughout the pandemic, official public health language has consistently laid emphasis on the role of the individual in fighting COVID: stop the spread, flatten the curve, do your part. It’s perhaps no surprise then that in comments from KQED’s audience, the idea of personal responsibility — and its often-crushing weight — looms so large.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like I felt I wasn’t doing my part as well as I could have to help end this pandemic,” wrote Rachel S. Another anonymous audience member wrote of their guilt at feeling “like I could have made better choices (even though we don’t go anywhere or travel.).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bad choices, good choices, never being quite sure which is which: Shame may thrive within silence and stigma, but it also feeds off isolation and confusion — two things that have been in overabundance during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Physical isolation has been enforced during COVID, both for people who test positive and for all of us during periods of what we’ve collectively called “lockdown” or “quarantine,” as a precautionary measure to avoid community spread. But we’ve also been isolated from reliable information — whether by being flooded with misinformation about vaccines online, or by confusion borne out of a lack of clarity around what’s safe, and what’s not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In many ways it’s possible to see the idea that anyone would even experience shame at testing positive for COVID as an entirely predictable, inevitable consequence of the sheer amount of personal responsibility placed upon individuals over the last two years.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>We’re told testing is the responsible thing to do to stop community spread of COVID, and to keep our loved ones and communities safe. And yet, as we’ve seen during the omicron surge, a PCR test with results that come back soon enough to be meaningful can be extremely hard to locate. Twenty-two months into the pandemic, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11901928/you-can-now-order-free-covid-at-home-tests-via-usps\">you can now order four free at-home COVID tests per household from the federal government via the United States Postal Service\u003c/a> — but that’s not nearly enough to cover a house full of roommates, or a multigenerational home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>To wear a mask is to do your part and to do the right thing, we’re told. But assistance in acquiring the right mask has been spotty at best. The first nationwide program to offer free high-quality masks launched in January 2022. For almost two years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stressed wearing masks as a crucial way to slow the spread of COVID. But its guidance on which masks were safest was only updated in mid-January 2022, confirming that N95s offered “the highest level of protection.” Until now, people have largely been left to work out which mask will protect them best on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When vaccines became widely available in 2021, people were told that getting their shot was the best way to protect not just themselves but their communities. Yet finding an appointment in those first weeks and months was such a complicated, frustrating process that it involved word-of-mouth tips and a degree of tech proficiency that left many people simply unable to find the vaccine they desperately wanted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So if things go wrong — and you already carry the notion that getting COVID is somehow a personal failing — it might be easy to feel like you chose the wrong path and, because you did, you’re to blame.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We need a reframing’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Increasing numbers of vaccinated people have been testing positive for COVID in recent weeks due to the surging omicron variant — most of them not requiring hospitalization thanks to the effectiveness of vaccines. Could there be a silver lining to the spread of omicron, in the sense of decreasing shame by making catching COVID a more universal experience?\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>UCSF’s Dr. Marissa Raymond-Flesch hopes so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that any experience that becomes more and more universal becomes less shameful, and I think that’s good and wonderful,” she told KQED — but said she also hopes that COVID potentially becoming endemic isn’t the only reason to wave goodbye to the shame of a positive test. “I think that there is room to trust each other — that we are all doing the very best that we can every day — and to figure out what those trade-offs are for our own health and well-being,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with the sheer weight of personal responsibility placed on individuals during the pandemic, set against a centuries-long backdrop of shaming around disease, can we \u003cem>ever\u003c/em> truly escape the specter of shame as long as COVID is with us? Or for the next great contagious threat to public health?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want to believe that we can learn from our mistakes,” said Julia Feldman. “But I think it’s very similar to sexual health. You can’t learn from your mistakes without access to accurate information … I think as a society, we need a reframing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Feldman, it’s not just about evolving our thinking around disease, but also “our understanding of risk and responsibility” — and learning to accept the complexity and nuances of those conversations. As a collective, she said, it’s about finding a way to “hold space” for those competing ideas: “Yes, we want to do everything we can to keep ourselves safe — and at the same time, no matter how much you tried, the reality is that there’s nothing you can do to stay 100% safe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we’re going to accept that shame does not correct people’s behavior in an effective and long-term way, what does?” Feldman asked. “I think it’s something that’s very antithetical to our cultural approach to individualism, this notion that there is collective responsibility, that my actions impact you — and that that’s not a bad thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I really believe that if we don’t deal with the stigma and discrimination in one health issue, we will never [move] ahead with the next one.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Jesus Guillen suggests that these internalized social judgments will persist as long as diseases like AIDS and COVID continue to be seen less as health conditions and more as symbols, loaded with moral and political meaning. And Guillen said that if unaddressed, our collective inability to divorce diseases from judgment will only get worse for those who contract those diseases — whatever they are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really believe that if we don’t deal with the stigma and discrimination in one health issue, we will never [move] ahead with the next one,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in the meantime, as we approach the three-year mark of the coronavirus pandemic, if someone still experiences shame as their default emotion when they test positive, UCSF’s Dr. Marissa Raymond-Flesch offers a perspective that she found personally comforting after her own positive diagnosis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My husband told me, ‘It’s like you’ve been standing in a hurricane for more than a year with an umbrella and you finally got wet,'” said Raymond-Flesch. “It was an incredibly helpful metaphor that I’ve shared with many patients and colleagues who have tested positive since then.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She tells those people “that we are in the middle of a pandemic, and we are each doing the best that we can to get by, in so many ways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "at-home-covid-test-reimbursement-from-blue-shield-to-kaiser-how-to-get-your-health-insurance-to-pay-you-back",
"title": "At-Home COVID Test Reimbursement: From Blue Shield to Kaiser, How to Get Your Health Insurance to Pay You Back",
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"headTitle": "At-Home COVID Test Reimbursement: From Blue Shield to Kaiser, How to Get Your Health Insurance to Pay You Back | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 4:15 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Jan. 15, 2022, people with private health insurance can get reimbursed by their insurer for the cost of up to eight at-home COVID tests per month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This program applies only to at-home tests purchased on or after Jan. 15, 2022, and covers eight free tests \u003cem>per covered individual\u003c/em> per month. “That means \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/01/14/fact-sheet-the-biden-administration-to-begin-distributing-at-home-rapid-covid-19-tests-to-americans-for-free/\">a family of four, all on the same plan, would be able to get 32 of these tests\u003c/a> covered by their health plan per month,” the White House has confirmed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#covidtestreimbursement\">How does reimbursement for COVID tests work?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#insurancelist\">Find your health insurer and their policy in our list\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#many\">How many COVID tests will insurance cover?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#noinsurance\">What if you don’t have health insurance?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Remember, this reimbursement is completely different from the White House program that allows you to \u003ca href=\"https://www.covidtests.gov/\">order free at-home COVID tests online\u003c/a> from the federal government and the United States Postal Service. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11901928/you-can-now-order-free-covid-at-home-tests-via-usps\">Read more about how to order those four free tests per residential address via USPS.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>First off, will the states of emergency ending affect my reimbursement?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>No — at least not yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Feb. 28, 2023, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11929285/newsom-to-end-californias-covid-state-of-emergency-in-february\">California’s COVID-19 state of emergency will officially come to an end\u003c/a>. The White House has also announced that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/01/30/1152702709/covid-emergency-declarations-end-white-house\">the federal state of emergency for COVID will then end on May 11\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The end of the national emergency \u003cem>will\u003c/em> have big effects upon nationwide funding for COVID vaccines and testing, and will stop requiring insurers to cover reimbursement for COVID tests. But California has enacted several laws that force insurers to keep covering such COVID care, even after the state and federal states of emergency wind down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of these — \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1473\">State Bill 1473\u003c/a> — requires insurers to not only keep covering the costs of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11914514/if-you-get-covid-should-you-try-to-get-paxlovid-heres-how-with-or-without-health-insurance\">COVID therapeutic treatments like Paxlovid\u003c/a>, but also to keep reimbursing their members for the costs of up to eight over-the-counter COVID tests a month. But this law only keeps the current situation in place until six months after the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-07/with-covid-emergency-ending-will-i-have-to-pay-for-tests\">end of the federal emergency.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means that after Nov. 11, if you want Paxlovid or to get reimbursed for COVID tests by an insurer, you’ll have to make sure you are obtaining these services “in-network.” And at this stage of the year, specific details about what that’ll look like in practice come November are lacking.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"covidtestreimbursement\">\u003c/a>The two ways that reimbursement works\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If you have private health insurance, how you get your reimbursement and your tests — and whether you get reimbursed after purchase or have costs covered up-front — totally depends on which insurer you have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each insurance company is doing this differently, so make sure you know what’s available for you according to your plan \u003cem>before\u003c/em> you buy a test.[aside postID=news_11901928 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53138_GettyImages-1361961811-qut.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People covered by Medicare are currently not eligible to get reimbursed for at-home COVID-19 tests. However, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) plans \u003cem>are\u003c/em> required to cover the costs of at-home tests. In California, this includes all Medi-Cal plans as well. If your Medi-Cal plan is provided by any of the major insurers we include in our guide, you can request a reimbursement by following the same format.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Some insurers will reimburse for the tests you’ve purchased\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some insurance companies, like Kaiser Permanente, Aetna and Blue Shield of California, are asking policyholders to request a reimbursement \u003cem>after\u003c/em> purchasing a COVID-19 test by filling out a claim form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These forms are usually returned by mail, and you’ll most likely find the address for where to mail it on the form itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These reimbursement forms request that you also submit a receipt of these purchases — so if you buy the tests at a pharmacy, be sure to keep your receipt. Some insurers are also now requesting that you provide a UPC code (a.k.a. the barcode) from the box for the tests you purchased. So to maximize your chances of getting your reimbursement, be sure to keep your receipt and your boxes for any tests you purchase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Some insurers will cover the cost of your tests up-front \u003cem>when\u003c/em> you buy them\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some insurance companies are choosing to cover the cost of tests at the time of purchase. For example, that’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.uhc.com/health-and-wellness/health-topics/covid-19/coverage-and-resources/covid-19-at-home-testing-coverage/preferred-retailers\">what UnitedHealthcare is doing with a very select number of test providers\u003c/a>, like Rite Aid and Walmart Pharmacy. If you’re covered by UHC and have Optum Rx benefits, you can show your member ID card when picking up your tests at one of these stores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other insurers, encouraged by the federal government, also have set up \u003ca href=\"https://www.cms.gov/how-to-get-your-at-home-OTC-COVID-19-test-for-free\">networks of preferred stores and pharmacies where policyholders can get tests with no up-front costs\u003c/a>. If your insurer has set up a network like this, you can still buy tests from other places — but you most likely won’t be fully reimbursed, because insurance companies are only required to cover up to $12 per test if they were bought outside that network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remember, only \u003cem>some\u003c/em> insurance companies have a network of preferred test providers. If your insurer doesn’t have one, you can go through the regular reimbursement process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901953\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901953\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53138_GettyImages-1361961811-qut.jpg\" alt=\"close up shot of boxes of COVID at-home test kits\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1313\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53138_GettyImages-1361961811-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53138_GettyImages-1361961811-qut-800x547.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53138_GettyImages-1361961811-qut-1020x698.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53138_GettyImages-1361961811-qut-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53138_GettyImages-1361961811-qut-1536x1050.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Beginning Tuesday, you can also order up to four at-home COVID tests per household, to be delivered for free via the United States Postal Service. \u003ccite>(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"insurancelist\">\u003c/a>How does your health insurer handle reimbursement for at-home COVID tests?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kaiser Permanente\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How to get at-home test costs covered: \u003cem>Submit a reimbursement claim form by mail.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/health-wellness/coronavirus-information/testing#faqs-on.html#/signon\">Submit a reimbursement form online \u003c/a>(scroll down to “Get reimbursed for a home test purchased outside Kaiser Permanente,” and follow the link to log in to your KP account).\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Get the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/FI-KP-Medical-Claim-Form_web-document.pdf\">Kaiser Permanente at-home COVID test reimbursement claim form\u003c/a> (will download PDF).\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Kaiser’s California Member Services hotline is (800) 464-4000.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Blue Shield of California\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How to get at-home test costs covered: \u003cem>Submit a reimbursement claim form by mail.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Get the \u003ca href=\"https://www.blueshieldca.com/bsca/bsc/public/common/PortalComponents/sites/StreamDocumentServlet?fileName=SITES_Other_2022_COVID%20Test%20Claim%20Form_v1_12232021.pdf\">Blue Shield at-home COVID test reimbursement claim form\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>UnitedHealthcare (UHC)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How to get at-home test costs covered: \u003cem>Get your costs covered up-front when you purchase through an approved test provider.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>If you have an Optum Rx logo on your member ID card, you can buy your at-home COVID tests from one of\u003ca href=\"https://www.uhc.com/health-and-wellness/health-topics/covid-19/coverage-and-resources/covid-19-at-home-testing-coverage/preferred-retailers\"> UnitedHealthcare’s “preferred retailers” \u003c/a>and have the costs covered at the point of purchase.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>If you choose to buy a test outside the network, \u003ca href=\"https://www.uhc.com/content/dam/uhcdotcom/en/memberresources/forms/PDF-UA-Over-the-Counter-OTC-At-home-COVID-19-Test-Reimbursement-Form.pdf\">you will have to submit a claim reimbursement form, available here (PDF)\u003c/a>. Keep in mind that UHC will cover only up to $12 for each individual test. So if you bought 10 tests for the price of $30 each, United will only cover $120 out of the $300 total cost.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cigna\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How to get at-home test costs covered: \u003cem>Submit a reimbursement claim form by mail or fax.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Get the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cigna.com/static/www-cigna-com/docs/coronavirus/covid-otc-med-claim-form.pdf\">Cigna at-home COVID test reimbursement claim form (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Please note: \u003ca href=\"https://www.cigna.com/coronavirus/\">Cigna says it will not cover tests bought for employment purposes.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Cigna will cover the full cost of at-home tests, regardless of whether you buy them from providers inside or outside their network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anthem Blue Cross\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How to get at-home test costs covered: \u003cem>Submit a reimbursement claim form online.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Sign into \u003ca href=\"https://www.anthem.com/login/\">anthem.com \u003c/a>using your Anthem insurance plan credentials. Once logged in, click on the Claims & Payments tab (located in the upper-left portion of the screen), and then select the Submit a Claim option.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>You’ll then see an electronic form that asks you for certain information, including whether you bought the test within the U.S. or abroad, the location and date of your purchase and a photo or scan of the receipt to verify your purchase.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aetna\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How to get at-home test costs covered: \u003cem>Submit a reimbursement claim form online.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Sign into \u003ca href=\"https://member.aetna.com/MbrLanding/RoutingServlet?createSession=true&custNumSel=A&serviceName=home&ae_ptparam_cmpId=int_aetnaco\">Aetna’s member website\u003c/a> using your insurance plan credentials. Once logged in, click on “Submit a claim for reimbursement.”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>You’ll then see an electronic form that asks you for certain information, including the location and date of your purchase and a photo or scan of the receipt to verify your purchase.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.aetna.com/individuals-families/member-rights-resources/covid19/otc-in-home-test-faqs.html\">Aetna’s FAQ on reimbursement\u003c/a>, once your claim is approved, a check will be mailed to you.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"many\">\u003c/a>How many COVID tests will my insurance cover?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Each person covered in your plan is eligible for eight free tests each month. Insurance companies are quick to point out that this means eight \u003cem>individual\u003c/em> tests, not eight packs of tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11898455 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52826_GettyImages-1227768883-qut.jpg']Some tests are being sold as a two-pack, where one box includes two tests. If you buy one of these boxes, your insurance will count that as two from your eight available monthly tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most insurance companies are defining a “month” as a 30-day period, so it’s also a good idea to keep track of the dates of your purchases to make sure you don’t exceed the cap and miss out on a reimbursement.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"noinsurance\">\u003c/a>What if I don’t have health insurance?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Remember, you don’t need health insurance to \u003ca href=\"https://www.covidtests.gov/\">order four free at-home COVID tests online\u003c/a> from the federal government and the United States Postal Service. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11901928/you-can-now-order-free-covid-at-home-tests-via-usps\">Read more about how to order four free tests per residential address via USPS.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you or someone in your community doesn’t have access to the internet to order these free tests, USPS says you can contact their helpline by calling 1-800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489). Please note that an earlier version of this number given on USPS’s FAQs appears to have been the wrong one. You should also be prepared for potentially long wait times using this helpline.\u003cbr>\nYou can also\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11898455/where-to-find-a-covid-test-near-you-in-the-bay-area\"> use our guide to look for a free or low-cost COVID test near you\u003c/a>, many of which do not require health insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>We want our coverage to be complete and helpful to our audiences. If you’re facing issues with your insurer in processing a reimbursement, \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeNeTOr9UQF0xOIVQ3JDd5QptMeUNgPFhLy9mM8ZUEiO0CSlQ/viewform?embedded=true\">let us know here\u003c/a> or by filling out the form below. Please note that we won’t be able to respond to you personally, but will update this guide with new information we find.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeNeTOr9UQF0xOIVQ3JDd5QptMeUNgPFhLy9mM8ZUEiO0CSlQ/viewform?embedded=true\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This story includes reporting by KQED’s Carly Severn.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "At-Home COVID Test Reimbursement: From Blue Shield to Kaiser, How to Get Your Health Insurance to Pay You Back | KQED",
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"headline": "At-Home COVID Test Reimbursement: From Blue Shield to Kaiser, How to Get Your Health Insurance to Pay You Back",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 4:15 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Jan. 15, 2022, people with private health insurance can get reimbursed by their insurer for the cost of up to eight at-home COVID tests per month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This program applies only to at-home tests purchased on or after Jan. 15, 2022, and covers eight free tests \u003cem>per covered individual\u003c/em> per month. “That means \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/01/14/fact-sheet-the-biden-administration-to-begin-distributing-at-home-rapid-covid-19-tests-to-americans-for-free/\">a family of four, all on the same plan, would be able to get 32 of these tests\u003c/a> covered by their health plan per month,” the White House has confirmed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#covidtestreimbursement\">How does reimbursement for COVID tests work?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#insurancelist\">Find your health insurer and their policy in our list\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#many\">How many COVID tests will insurance cover?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#noinsurance\">What if you don’t have health insurance?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Remember, this reimbursement is completely different from the White House program that allows you to \u003ca href=\"https://www.covidtests.gov/\">order free at-home COVID tests online\u003c/a> from the federal government and the United States Postal Service. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11901928/you-can-now-order-free-covid-at-home-tests-via-usps\">Read more about how to order those four free tests per residential address via USPS.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>First off, will the states of emergency ending affect my reimbursement?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>No — at least not yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Feb. 28, 2023, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11929285/newsom-to-end-californias-covid-state-of-emergency-in-february\">California’s COVID-19 state of emergency will officially come to an end\u003c/a>. The White House has also announced that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/01/30/1152702709/covid-emergency-declarations-end-white-house\">the federal state of emergency for COVID will then end on May 11\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The end of the national emergency \u003cem>will\u003c/em> have big effects upon nationwide funding for COVID vaccines and testing, and will stop requiring insurers to cover reimbursement for COVID tests. But California has enacted several laws that force insurers to keep covering such COVID care, even after the state and federal states of emergency wind down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of these — \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1473\">State Bill 1473\u003c/a> — requires insurers to not only keep covering the costs of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11914514/if-you-get-covid-should-you-try-to-get-paxlovid-heres-how-with-or-without-health-insurance\">COVID therapeutic treatments like Paxlovid\u003c/a>, but also to keep reimbursing their members for the costs of up to eight over-the-counter COVID tests a month. But this law only keeps the current situation in place until six months after the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-07/with-covid-emergency-ending-will-i-have-to-pay-for-tests\">end of the federal emergency.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means that after Nov. 11, if you want Paxlovid or to get reimbursed for COVID tests by an insurer, you’ll have to make sure you are obtaining these services “in-network.” And at this stage of the year, specific details about what that’ll look like in practice come November are lacking.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"covidtestreimbursement\">\u003c/a>The two ways that reimbursement works\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If you have private health insurance, how you get your reimbursement and your tests — and whether you get reimbursed after purchase or have costs covered up-front — totally depends on which insurer you have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each insurance company is doing this differently, so make sure you know what’s available for you according to your plan \u003cem>before\u003c/em> you buy a test.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People covered by Medicare are currently not eligible to get reimbursed for at-home COVID-19 tests. However, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) plans \u003cem>are\u003c/em> required to cover the costs of at-home tests. In California, this includes all Medi-Cal plans as well. If your Medi-Cal plan is provided by any of the major insurers we include in our guide, you can request a reimbursement by following the same format.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Some insurers will reimburse for the tests you’ve purchased\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some insurance companies, like Kaiser Permanente, Aetna and Blue Shield of California, are asking policyholders to request a reimbursement \u003cem>after\u003c/em> purchasing a COVID-19 test by filling out a claim form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These forms are usually returned by mail, and you’ll most likely find the address for where to mail it on the form itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These reimbursement forms request that you also submit a receipt of these purchases — so if you buy the tests at a pharmacy, be sure to keep your receipt. Some insurers are also now requesting that you provide a UPC code (a.k.a. the barcode) from the box for the tests you purchased. So to maximize your chances of getting your reimbursement, be sure to keep your receipt and your boxes for any tests you purchase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Some insurers will cover the cost of your tests up-front \u003cem>when\u003c/em> you buy them\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some insurance companies are choosing to cover the cost of tests at the time of purchase. For example, that’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.uhc.com/health-and-wellness/health-topics/covid-19/coverage-and-resources/covid-19-at-home-testing-coverage/preferred-retailers\">what UnitedHealthcare is doing with a very select number of test providers\u003c/a>, like Rite Aid and Walmart Pharmacy. If you’re covered by UHC and have Optum Rx benefits, you can show your member ID card when picking up your tests at one of these stores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other insurers, encouraged by the federal government, also have set up \u003ca href=\"https://www.cms.gov/how-to-get-your-at-home-OTC-COVID-19-test-for-free\">networks of preferred stores and pharmacies where policyholders can get tests with no up-front costs\u003c/a>. If your insurer has set up a network like this, you can still buy tests from other places — but you most likely won’t be fully reimbursed, because insurance companies are only required to cover up to $12 per test if they were bought outside that network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remember, only \u003cem>some\u003c/em> insurance companies have a network of preferred test providers. If your insurer doesn’t have one, you can go through the regular reimbursement process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901953\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901953\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53138_GettyImages-1361961811-qut.jpg\" alt=\"close up shot of boxes of COVID at-home test kits\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1313\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53138_GettyImages-1361961811-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53138_GettyImages-1361961811-qut-800x547.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53138_GettyImages-1361961811-qut-1020x698.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53138_GettyImages-1361961811-qut-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53138_GettyImages-1361961811-qut-1536x1050.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Beginning Tuesday, you can also order up to four at-home COVID tests per household, to be delivered for free via the United States Postal Service. \u003ccite>(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"insurancelist\">\u003c/a>How does your health insurer handle reimbursement for at-home COVID tests?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kaiser Permanente\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How to get at-home test costs covered: \u003cem>Submit a reimbursement claim form by mail.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/health-wellness/coronavirus-information/testing#faqs-on.html#/signon\">Submit a reimbursement form online \u003c/a>(scroll down to “Get reimbursed for a home test purchased outside Kaiser Permanente,” and follow the link to log in to your KP account).\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Get the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/FI-KP-Medical-Claim-Form_web-document.pdf\">Kaiser Permanente at-home COVID test reimbursement claim form\u003c/a> (will download PDF).\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Kaiser’s California Member Services hotline is (800) 464-4000.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Blue Shield of California\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How to get at-home test costs covered: \u003cem>Submit a reimbursement claim form by mail.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Get the \u003ca href=\"https://www.blueshieldca.com/bsca/bsc/public/common/PortalComponents/sites/StreamDocumentServlet?fileName=SITES_Other_2022_COVID%20Test%20Claim%20Form_v1_12232021.pdf\">Blue Shield at-home COVID test reimbursement claim form\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>UnitedHealthcare (UHC)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How to get at-home test costs covered: \u003cem>Get your costs covered up-front when you purchase through an approved test provider.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>If you have an Optum Rx logo on your member ID card, you can buy your at-home COVID tests from one of\u003ca href=\"https://www.uhc.com/health-and-wellness/health-topics/covid-19/coverage-and-resources/covid-19-at-home-testing-coverage/preferred-retailers\"> UnitedHealthcare’s “preferred retailers” \u003c/a>and have the costs covered at the point of purchase.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>If you choose to buy a test outside the network, \u003ca href=\"https://www.uhc.com/content/dam/uhcdotcom/en/memberresources/forms/PDF-UA-Over-the-Counter-OTC-At-home-COVID-19-Test-Reimbursement-Form.pdf\">you will have to submit a claim reimbursement form, available here (PDF)\u003c/a>. Keep in mind that UHC will cover only up to $12 for each individual test. So if you bought 10 tests for the price of $30 each, United will only cover $120 out of the $300 total cost.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cigna\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How to get at-home test costs covered: \u003cem>Submit a reimbursement claim form by mail or fax.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Get the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cigna.com/static/www-cigna-com/docs/coronavirus/covid-otc-med-claim-form.pdf\">Cigna at-home COVID test reimbursement claim form (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Please note: \u003ca href=\"https://www.cigna.com/coronavirus/\">Cigna says it will not cover tests bought for employment purposes.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Cigna will cover the full cost of at-home tests, regardless of whether you buy them from providers inside or outside their network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anthem Blue Cross\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How to get at-home test costs covered: \u003cem>Submit a reimbursement claim form online.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Sign into \u003ca href=\"https://www.anthem.com/login/\">anthem.com \u003c/a>using your Anthem insurance plan credentials. Once logged in, click on the Claims & Payments tab (located in the upper-left portion of the screen), and then select the Submit a Claim option.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>You’ll then see an electronic form that asks you for certain information, including whether you bought the test within the U.S. or abroad, the location and date of your purchase and a photo or scan of the receipt to verify your purchase.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aetna\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How to get at-home test costs covered: \u003cem>Submit a reimbursement claim form online.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Sign into \u003ca href=\"https://member.aetna.com/MbrLanding/RoutingServlet?createSession=true&custNumSel=A&serviceName=home&ae_ptparam_cmpId=int_aetnaco\">Aetna’s member website\u003c/a> using your insurance plan credentials. Once logged in, click on “Submit a claim for reimbursement.”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>You’ll then see an electronic form that asks you for certain information, including the location and date of your purchase and a photo or scan of the receipt to verify your purchase.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.aetna.com/individuals-families/member-rights-resources/covid19/otc-in-home-test-faqs.html\">Aetna’s FAQ on reimbursement\u003c/a>, once your claim is approved, a check will be mailed to you.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"many\">\u003c/a>How many COVID tests will my insurance cover?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Each person covered in your plan is eligible for eight free tests each month. Insurance companies are quick to point out that this means eight \u003cem>individual\u003c/em> tests, not eight packs of tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Some tests are being sold as a two-pack, where one box includes two tests. If you buy one of these boxes, your insurance will count that as two from your eight available monthly tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most insurance companies are defining a “month” as a 30-day period, so it’s also a good idea to keep track of the dates of your purchases to make sure you don’t exceed the cap and miss out on a reimbursement.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"noinsurance\">\u003c/a>What if I don’t have health insurance?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Remember, you don’t need health insurance to \u003ca href=\"https://www.covidtests.gov/\">order four free at-home COVID tests online\u003c/a> from the federal government and the United States Postal Service. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11901928/you-can-now-order-free-covid-at-home-tests-via-usps\">Read more about how to order four free tests per residential address via USPS.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you or someone in your community doesn’t have access to the internet to order these free tests, USPS says you can contact their helpline by calling 1-800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489). Please note that an earlier version of this number given on USPS’s FAQs appears to have been the wrong one. You should also be prepared for potentially long wait times using this helpline.\u003cbr>\nYou can also\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11898455/where-to-find-a-covid-test-near-you-in-the-bay-area\"> use our guide to look for a free or low-cost COVID test near you\u003c/a>, many of which do not require health insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>We want our coverage to be complete and helpful to our audiences. If you’re facing issues with your insurer in processing a reimbursement, \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeNeTOr9UQF0xOIVQ3JDd5QptMeUNgPFhLy9mM8ZUEiO0CSlQ/viewform?embedded=true\">let us know here\u003c/a> or by filling out the form below. Please note that we won’t be able to respond to you personally, but will update this guide with new information we find.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe\n src='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeNeTOr9UQF0xOIVQ3JDd5QptMeUNgPFhLy9mM8ZUEiO0CSlQ/viewform?embedded=true?embedded=true'\n title='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeNeTOr9UQF0xOIVQ3JDd5QptMeUNgPFhLy9mM8ZUEiO0CSlQ/viewform?embedded=true'\n width='760' height='500'\n frameborder='0'\n marginheight='0' marginwidth='0'>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ci>This story includes reporting by KQED’s Carly Severn.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Skip to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#symptoms\">What are the symptoms of a breakthrough infection of COVID?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#todo\">What steps should I follow if I test positive?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>We used to think of breakthrough cases of COVID in vaccinated people as being relatively rare. But the rise of the omicron variant has shown that’s no longer the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We know \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11899272/omicron-evades-pfizer-and-moderna-vaccines-new-studies-suggest-but-boosters-help\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> booster shots help raise your protection against omicron\u003c/a>, as public health officials urge everyone eligible for one to get one. We also know that being vaccinated still gives you greater protection against severe hospitalization and death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, when a breakthrough case happens, it can be easy to feel surprise and shock. Just ask three of our own KQED hosts:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/ogpenn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pendarvis Harshaw\u003c/a>, KQED Arts and Culture columnist and host of the\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/rightnowish\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> podcast Rightnowish\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/amadrigal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alexis Madrigal\u003c/a>, cohost of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum\">KQED Forum\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/mlagos\">Marisa Lagos\u003c/a>, California politics and government correspondent and cohost of the\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/politicalbreakdown\"> Political Breakdown\u003c/a> podcast\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>All three have experienced their own breakthrough COVID cases in the last months, and there’s a lot they wish they’d known. If you’ve been wondering how a positive COVID test right now might affect your daily life, keep reading to learn about their experiences — from the symptoms and logistical stresses to the importance of self-care, and what they wish they could have planned for beforehand.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"symptoms\">\u003c/a>What are the common symptoms of a breakthrough COVID case?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>For Pendarvis Harshaw, the first sign of his COVID case in summer 2021 was losing his smell. “I got a bit of a cough and the first thing I remember was trying to spray some cologne and then smell it,” he says. “That’s when I was like, ‘Wait, I can’t smell my cologne.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901698\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1020px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901698\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/OGPenn_LaraKaur_1920x1080-1020x574-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1020\" height=\"574\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/OGPenn_LaraKaur_1920x1080-1020x574-1.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/OGPenn_LaraKaur_1920x1080-1020x574-1-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/OGPenn_LaraKaur_1920x1080-1020x574-1-160x90.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED podcast host Pendarvis Harshaw \u003ccite>(Lara Kaur/Community Portrait Pop-Up)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In Marisa Lagos’s home, all of her family contracted the omicron variant over the holidays. For her, it showed up as what she calls “flu-like symptoms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was in bed for a few days, just really fatigued. But nothing serious — nowhere even approaching, needing to go to the hospital,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While most people with a breakthrough COVID case experience mild symptoms, you still should acknowledge that you’re sick and it won’t feel great. And people experience symptoms differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976780/what-i-learned-from-my-mild-breakthrough-case-of-covid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of UCSF’s Department of Medicine, told NPR \u003c/a>that the terminology “mild” is really a catchall. It can go from being “a day of feeling crummy to being completely laid up in bed for a week, all of your bones hurt and your brain isn’t working well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Common COVID-19 symptoms, according to the CDC, include\u003c/strong>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Fever or chills\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Cough\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Fatigue\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Muscle or body aches\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Headache\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>New loss of taste or smell\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Sore throat\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Congestion or runny nose\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Nausea or vomiting\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Diarrhea\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>After a COVID home test and a drive-through rapid PCR test both came back positive, the realization sank in for Harshaw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think I had one day where I was just, like, straight on the ground … laid out in a fetal position,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As far as symptoms, he remembers a “little bit of the sniffles, a little bit of sneezing, definitely chills, body aches — you name it. … Energy depleted, feeling like gravity is tenfold.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alexis Madrigal says his early symptoms started with a “little tickle in the back of the throat” and a stuffy nose. “It wasn’t really until the test came back positive that I was like, ‘Oh, no.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don’t necessarily expect a COVID infection to register in your body like you assume it might, says Madrigal, who notes there was “nothing super distinctive” about his sickness at that early stage of testing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I did lose my sense of smell, but it was much later,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901702\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901702\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53013_unnamed-1-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53013_unnamed-1-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53013_unnamed-1-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53013_unnamed-1-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53013_unnamed-1-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53013_unnamed-1-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED host Alexis Madrigal \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alexis Madrigal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>When should you get a COVID test?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>If you have a fever or a cough or feel any \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">symptoms outlined by the CDC\u003c/a>, you could have COVID-19 and should get tested. If you’ve come in close contact with someone who tested positive for the virus, get tested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this advice comes with the \u003cem>big\u003c/em> caveat: We know that finding a test fast, whether it’s an onsite PCR test or an at-home test like a BinaxNOW kit, can be tricky — and, in the case of at-home tests, expensive. And you might have to be prepared to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11898455/where-to-find-a-covid-test-near-you-in-the-bay-area\">explore multiple options for getting a COVID test\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have to acknowledge that we are in a position of privilege,” says Lagos, since she and her family “had access to a lot of at-home tests that we had bought prior to this scare ahead of seeing people for Christmas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11898455/where-to-find-a-covid-test-near-you-in-the-bay-area\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Looking for a COVID test near you in the Bay Area? Read our guide to finding one.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I’m fully vaccinated. When should I take a COVID test? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Do you have symptoms? If so, try to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11898455/where-to-find-a-covid-test-near-you-in-the-bay-area\">find a test immediately\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC recommends that if you’ve come into close contact with someone with COVID-19, fully vaccinated people should be tested five to seven days after your last exposure — i.e., when you came into contact with someone who has a confirmed case of COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is already \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/coronavirus/how-long-are-you-contagious-with-omicron-covid-infection-heres-what-health-experts-say/2727655/\">evidence that the omicron variant may have a shorter incubation period than previous forms of COVID\u003c/a>. But if you choose to test earlier than five days from an exposure, don’t take an early negative result as definitive proof you \u003cem>don’t\u003c/em> have COVID. Keep testing, to be sure you’re not infectious and inadvertently spreading COVID to others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lagos’s story highlights the importance of repeat testing — and not accepting an early at-home negative result as a sign someone has no COVID risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had actually asked everybody to take those rapid tests [over the holidays], just to be safe,” she says. “And so we had tested ourselves and our kids. I did have one kid who had some minor cold symptoms and we tested him repeatedly. And he didn’t come up positive until after Christmas, after we had seen people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901699\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901699\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Marisa-Lagos-lead.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Marisa-Lagos-lead.jpeg 1000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Marisa-Lagos-lead-800x534.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Marisa-Lagos-lead-160x107.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED host Marisa Lagos \u003ccite>(Stephanie Lister/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I’m not yet vaccinated. When should I take a COVID test? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re not fully vaccinated and are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, you should get tested immediately. If you’re not fully vaccinated and have been in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, get tested immediately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC says you should get tested again five to seven days after your last exposure and immediately if you experience symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"todo\">\u003c/a>What steps should I follow if I test positive for COVID?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>If you do test positive for COVID with an at-home test or a PCR test, don’t panic. Find a way to confirm your results with a second test while you plan to isolate yourself from anyone else in your household. \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/steps-when-sick.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The CDC has a specific checklist you can follow if you get sick. \u003c/a>Read along for key takeaways and advice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Reporting your positive COVID test\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>If you test positive for COVID on a PCR test, someone from the health department may call you as part of their \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/contact-tracing.html#you-are-diagnosed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">contact tracing efforts\u003c/a> to slow the spread of COVID.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, if you test positive for COVID using a home antigen test, the California Department of Public Health says \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/Over-The-Counter-Tests-LHJ-Guidance.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">there are certain steps you should take to report your results\u003c/a> when using an over-the-counter test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul class=\"p-rich_text_list p-rich_text_list__bullet\" data-stringify-type=\"unordered-list\" data-indent=\"0\" data-border=\"0\">\n\u003cli data-stringify-indent=\"0\" data-stringify-border=\"0\">Use the instructions on your test to self-report your COVID-positive results.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli data-stringify-indent=\"0\" data-stringify-border=\"0\">Some over-the-counter tests may have automatic reporting, while others require you to report your own results through an app on your phone.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli data-stringify-indent=\"0\" data-stringify-border=\"0\">If your test does not provide electronic reporting and you have health care coverage, you can share your results with a health care provider to receive appropriate medical care.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Kaiser says that if you have a positive home antigen test — whether you’re symptomatic or not — you’re considered positive for COVID and \u003cem>don’t\u003c/em> need to confirm with a PCR test, but you should still report your positive COVID-19 home test. If you’re a Kaiser member, you can report your positive test using their \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/SkkECkRozNIYAX4zS9hOx2?domain=healthy.kaiserpermanente.org\">positive COVID-19 home test e-visit\u003c/a> tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a journalist, Lagos says she can’t help but be “struck” by what the lack of a consistent system for self-reporting positive home test results means for public COVID case numbers this winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re probably undercounting these pretty dramatically at this point,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Talk to your people\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’ve tested positive for COVID, it’s essential that you let any of your close contacts know that they may have been exposed to the virus. Whether this is through a group text or a phone call, letting anyone you may have come into direct contact with gives others a chance to prepare and get tested themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Madrigal says he began interrogating himself about whom he’d been in contact with — his neighbors, his mother-in-law and his children. “\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You kind of get in touch with folks, and they immediately want to go get tested,” he said. “That’s people’s very natural reaction.” \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But when \u003cem>is\u003c/em> the best time for your close contacts to get tested?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The CDC says that someone with COVID-19 can spread the virus starting 48 hours or two days before the person has any symptoms or tests positive. For your fully vaccinated close contacts, it’s best if they take their test five to seven days after their initial exposure of coming into contact with you. For anyone unvaccinated, it’s important that they get tested right away. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Madrigal says that going back and tracing everyone he came into contact with, and handling those logistics, were some of the most challenging aspects of getting COVID: “When we say we’re ‘all in it together’ in a positive way … you’re also all in it together in the sense that everyone you’ve exposed is in it with you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was tough,” he admits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901097\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901097\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing scrubs and a face mask and a plastic protector sticks a nose swab into another person's nose.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Merline Jimene administers a COVID-19 test swab to a person at a testing site located in the international terminal at Los Angeles International Airport amid a surge in omicron variant cases on Dec. 21, 2021. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Isolate from others\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC recommends\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/quarantine-isolation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> isolating yourself from other members of your household\u003c/a> — if possible, within a separate, contained area in your home and away from others — for at least five full days, with Day Zero as the day you first experienced symptoms. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11900296/cdc-recommends-shorter-covid-isolation-and-quarantine-periods\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">This CDC guidance changed from a previous isolation period of 10 days\u003c/a>, and local public health experts encourage you to weigh the risks of breaking isolation earlier than 10 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s essential to only venture out if you need to seek immediate medical care. If you’re experiencing\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html\"> any of the CDC’s emergency warning signs\u003c/a> like trouble breathing, pressure in the chest, or pale, gray, or blue-colored skin, seek medical care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Madrigal says that as soon as his at-home test came back positive, he was on the phone to schedule his PCR test while packing a bag to isolate from his family in a separate apartment. “We were lucky enough to find a neighbor who had a rental [nearby]” where he was able to isolate, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Lagos acknowledges she feels “lucky” to have had access to paid time off, during which she and her partner could stay home, “in terms of preventing it from spreading throughout a household, I mean — we have tiny homes in San Francisco,” she notes. “Most of us don’t \u003cem>have\u003c/em> extra bedrooms or bathrooms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For that reason, Lagos says that in her personal experience, much of the official advice about isolating with COVID “is not that practical when you’re actually in this situation — particularly with kids involved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If finding a separate space to wait out isolation or quarantine outside your home isn’t possible for you, either, try to designate spaces within your home that reduce the possibility of transmission. That might look like sleeping in another room, using a separate bathroom, wearing masks inside at all times or improving ventilation within your home — for example, by opening your windows. The CDC also recommends avoiding sharing all personal household items — towels, dishes, glassware — with the folks you live with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Think about it this way, recommends Madrigal: Even if you can’t isolate in a completely separate space, “what is the way that I can reduce my exposing the people around me as much as possible?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Monitor your symptoms\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remember to keep track of your symptoms — even if it means writing them down. If you ever have any of the following symptoms, or any of the other \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html#seek-medical-attention\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">emergency warning signs per the CDC\u003c/a>, call 911 immediately:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Trouble breathing\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Persistent pain or pressure in the chest\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>New confusion\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Inability to wake or stay awake\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Pale, gray, or blue-colored skin, lips, or nail beds, depending on skin tone\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp class=\"tr-paragraph\" data-pm-slice='2 2 [\"paragraph-wrapper\",{}]'>Madrigal says it’s essential to keep an eye on your body after your COVID diagnosis: “If I didn’t have these kinds of metrics [like resting heart rate], I might just think it was all in my head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Pendarvis Harshaw, KQED columnist and host of podcast Rightnowish\"]‘Any time you go through something traumatic, you go through something significant — you want a support group.’[/pullquote]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901091\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901091\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-scaled.jpg\" alt='Several small boxes are stacked next to each other on a counter, each one has the same design and label, which read, \"COVID-19 Antigen Home Test.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rapid COVID-19 test kits await distribution at Union Station in Los Angeles on Jan. 7, 2022. \u003ccite>(Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Find a support network\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harshaw’s own COVID diagnosis came at a time when he and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13901531/lawyers-investigate-death-of-steve-zumbi-gaines-zion-i-mc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a community of fans were grieving after the death of Steve ‘Zumbi’ Gaines\u003c/a>, the prolific MC of Zion I. Recognizing that his positive result was coming at a particularly tough time, rather than running from that fact, was key for him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any time you go through something traumatic, you go through something significant — you want a support group … to survive life, have a support group,” Harshaw says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several of Harshaw’s friends also caught COVID in different circumstances around the same time Harshaw himself was isolating. In this way, having loved ones to turn to and talk about their shared experiences in a group chat transformed Harshaw’s isolation time into a source of comfort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it comes to facing something of this magnitude, make sure you have a friend or two that you can talk to,” he advises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Don’t overlook self-care\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Get plenty of rest, stay hydrated and take over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen as needed to address any physical discomfort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Harshaw, balancing his own COVID diagnosis and mental health required a careful dance between nourishing his physical and spiritual self-care. “It was the balance of trying to nurture myself,” he says. “Like physical nourishment, and make sure I eat soup and drink juice while \u003cem>also\u003c/em> don’t lose my head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once Harshaw had addressed and handled the logistics of child care, he resolved to unplug. For him, this looked like grabbing a book, a puzzle, and an intricate coloring sheet from the library and turning up the jazz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also admits that was the time\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13898520/cat-daddy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> he finally bonded with his cat\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11900815\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11900815 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/pexels-cottonbro-3737623-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A bag of oranges in a white knit bag. \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/pexels-cottonbro-3737623-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/pexels-cottonbro-3737623-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/pexels-cottonbro-3737623-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/pexels-cottonbro-3737623.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">When it comes to logistics like grocery shopping, reach out to a network of support and find someone who can help. \u003ccite>(Cottonbro/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>How do I handle the logistics of a positive test?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Let’s face it: A positive COVID result requires a near-immediate halt to your typical day-to-day life as you know it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you first get that positive result, you’ll start thinking about all the ways you might be interacting with others, from the care you provide for your family to how you interact with roommates — and, of course, your work and ability to earn money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Handling child care when you have COVID\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because Madrigal and his whole family had to isolate, his kids were out of school for a week — and his partner also had to quarantine \u003cem>with\u003c/em> them. “My wife had to have a whole bunch of conversations with her work,” he admits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he adds that child care extended beyond their family unit and included others from a wider circle of support — family, neighbors, friends — who helped them out by bringing over toys for their kids to play with. “I\u003cspan data-pm-slice='1 1 [\"paragraph-wrapper\",{},\"paragraph\",{\"id\":\"p13-0\"}]'>t was pretty sweet how people kind of came together in our community around,” says Madrigal.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Think about neighbors, friends and extended family members who would be able to step in and support with child care while you’re isolating, or even who might be able to pick essential care items like groceries or medicines, if home delivery isn’t an option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Harshaw, who co-parents his young daughter, coordinating child care with her mother after his positive test was crucial. “I asked if she could take my daughter for a couple more days while I got better,” he says. “Hats off to her. She held it down, and I really appreciate that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Groceries and accessing food while self-isolating\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you’re isolating, it’s essential that you stay home until it’s safe for you to be around others — and the CDC recently changed its isolation guidance to span at least a full five days. That makes grabbing the essential supplies you need to isolate difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it came to figuring out what to eat and how to get groceries, Harshaw turned to his networks of support. “I worked with the neighbor to get a couple of things,” he says. “But other than that, I just dug deep into my cabinets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says having his old emergency earthquake go-bag ready from the start of the pandemic was his go-to for feeding himself while he self-isolated — that, and a bag of frozen only-open-in-case-of-emergency lemons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Find out if your employer can cover your pay while you self-isolate\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Talk to your employer to identify what protections you have in case of a COVID-19-positive diagnosis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The repercussions of not going to work are not equal for all workers. Many hourly workers are not granted the same protections or benefits that salaried workers are. At the end of 2021, California ended its COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL), which granted workers 80 extra hours of leave if they tested positive for the coronavirus or had to care for a family member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, exclusion pay is still required for California workers who have to quarantine due to a COVID-19 exposure at your workplace. Through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/COVID19Resources/FAQ-Exclusion-Pay-ETS.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS)\u003c/a>, Cal/OSHA requires employers to maintain an employee’s pay and benefits for any worker who is “excluded” from a workplace while they isolate or quarantine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are limitations to this temporary exclusion pay, however. The ETS does not extend to any COVID exposure that wasn’t work-related. So if you were exposed outside of work, your employer isn’t obligated by the state to pay for lost wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also limited to workers, which means the state is not requiring your employer to maintain your pay or benefits if you’re caring for a family member — including children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, you may be eligible for sick leave or other benefits such as disability insurance, paid family leave, or unemployment insurance benefits. Your own city or county also may offer programs to support people who are losing work because of a COVID diagnosis, such as \u003ca href=\"https://oewd.org/employees-impacted-covid-19\">San Francisco’s Right to Recover \u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Program that provides $1,285 to reimburse “or pay reasonable and necessary personal, family, or living expenses” to any worker who lives in SF and tests positive for COVID,\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">and “anticipates \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">experiencing financial hardship during their two-week quarantine or isolation\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.” This particular program is offered regardless of a person’s immigration or citizenship status. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Skip to: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11894053/got-covid-19-at-your-job-and-applying-for-workers-comp-in-california-heres-how-it-works\">Got COVID-19 at Your Job and Applying for Workers’ Comp in California? Here’s How It Works\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Alexis Madrigal, co-host of KQED's Forum\"]‘The best way I can describe it is: I can feel where my heart is all the time. And not in, like a cute way.’[/pullquote]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899398\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11899398\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A gloved blue hands held by a nurse in a blue robe hold a small white COVID-19 testing vial and swab.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1291\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut-800x538.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut-1020x686.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut-1536x1033.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A registered nurse stirs a nasal swab in testing solution after administering a COVID-19 test at Sameday Testing on July 14, 2021, in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>What should people who’ve just tested positive know?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As natural as it is, don’t panic thinking you’ve automatically exposed or infected your loved ones in your home, says Madrigal. That’s not “actually how the virus works.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You actually have some leverage to protect the people around you even after you’ve tested positive and been in the house with them,” he says. Madrigal also says to remember that, with the proper isolation and protection, keeping your loved ones safe from COVID isn’t off the table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For him, another big takeaway he wishes he’d known before getting COVID is the importance of preparing a COVID emergency plan \u003cem>before\u003c/em> you test positive — much like you would have for an earthquake or wildfire — to make your life easier while you prepare to isolate or quarantine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Some things to include in your COVID emergency kit\u003c/strong>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Food and liquids to last up to 10 days\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Extra N95s, KN95s or well-fitting masks\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Fans or other ventilation\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Extra testing supplies\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A designated place to isolate — that could be in a space closed off from roommates, family members or children\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A phone tree, texting group or go-to list of people who could help you with child care or groceries — it could be a neighbor, friend or family member\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Harshaw says that for him, getting COVID offered a lesson in suppressing the ego: “\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s not about self. It’s not about how you’re perceived by the larger community. It is really about the health: the benefit of us as a people being on one accord.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harshaw also says that isolating and spending a lot of alone time with yourself brings its own challenges — especially if you want to stay glued to the news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s hard to be with yourself. There are some pretty ugly thoughts in there,” he says. “So, having a support group, having hobbies and healthy outlets — and a couple of snacks.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Worried about getting a breakthrough COVID infection? Hear directly from three KQED hosts who've been there — and read what they wish they'd known.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Skip to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#symptoms\">What are the symptoms of a breakthrough infection of COVID?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#todo\">What steps should I follow if I test positive?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>We used to think of breakthrough cases of COVID in vaccinated people as being relatively rare. But the rise of the omicron variant has shown that’s no longer the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We know \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11899272/omicron-evades-pfizer-and-moderna-vaccines-new-studies-suggest-but-boosters-help\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> booster shots help raise your protection against omicron\u003c/a>, as public health officials urge everyone eligible for one to get one. We also know that being vaccinated still gives you greater protection against severe hospitalization and death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, when a breakthrough case happens, it can be easy to feel surprise and shock. Just ask three of our own KQED hosts:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/ogpenn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pendarvis Harshaw\u003c/a>, KQED Arts and Culture columnist and host of the\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/rightnowish\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> podcast Rightnowish\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/amadrigal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alexis Madrigal\u003c/a>, cohost of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum\">KQED Forum\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/mlagos\">Marisa Lagos\u003c/a>, California politics and government correspondent and cohost of the\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/politicalbreakdown\"> Political Breakdown\u003c/a> podcast\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>All three have experienced their own breakthrough COVID cases in the last months, and there’s a lot they wish they’d known. If you’ve been wondering how a positive COVID test right now might affect your daily life, keep reading to learn about their experiences — from the symptoms and logistical stresses to the importance of self-care, and what they wish they could have planned for beforehand.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"symptoms\">\u003c/a>What are the common symptoms of a breakthrough COVID case?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>For Pendarvis Harshaw, the first sign of his COVID case in summer 2021 was losing his smell. “I got a bit of a cough and the first thing I remember was trying to spray some cologne and then smell it,” he says. “That’s when I was like, ‘Wait, I can’t smell my cologne.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901698\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1020px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901698\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/OGPenn_LaraKaur_1920x1080-1020x574-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1020\" height=\"574\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/OGPenn_LaraKaur_1920x1080-1020x574-1.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/OGPenn_LaraKaur_1920x1080-1020x574-1-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/OGPenn_LaraKaur_1920x1080-1020x574-1-160x90.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED podcast host Pendarvis Harshaw \u003ccite>(Lara Kaur/Community Portrait Pop-Up)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In Marisa Lagos’s home, all of her family contracted the omicron variant over the holidays. For her, it showed up as what she calls “flu-like symptoms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was in bed for a few days, just really fatigued. But nothing serious — nowhere even approaching, needing to go to the hospital,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While most people with a breakthrough COVID case experience mild symptoms, you still should acknowledge that you’re sick and it won’t feel great. And people experience symptoms differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976780/what-i-learned-from-my-mild-breakthrough-case-of-covid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of UCSF’s Department of Medicine, told NPR \u003c/a>that the terminology “mild” is really a catchall. It can go from being “a day of feeling crummy to being completely laid up in bed for a week, all of your bones hurt and your brain isn’t working well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Common COVID-19 symptoms, according to the CDC, include\u003c/strong>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Fever or chills\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Cough\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Fatigue\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Muscle or body aches\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Headache\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>New loss of taste or smell\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Sore throat\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Congestion or runny nose\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Nausea or vomiting\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Diarrhea\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>After a COVID home test and a drive-through rapid PCR test both came back positive, the realization sank in for Harshaw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think I had one day where I was just, like, straight on the ground … laid out in a fetal position,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As far as symptoms, he remembers a “little bit of the sniffles, a little bit of sneezing, definitely chills, body aches — you name it. … Energy depleted, feeling like gravity is tenfold.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alexis Madrigal says his early symptoms started with a “little tickle in the back of the throat” and a stuffy nose. “It wasn’t really until the test came back positive that I was like, ‘Oh, no.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don’t necessarily expect a COVID infection to register in your body like you assume it might, says Madrigal, who notes there was “nothing super distinctive” about his sickness at that early stage of testing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I did lose my sense of smell, but it was much later,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901702\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901702\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53013_unnamed-1-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53013_unnamed-1-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53013_unnamed-1-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53013_unnamed-1-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53013_unnamed-1-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53013_unnamed-1-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED host Alexis Madrigal \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alexis Madrigal)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>When should you get a COVID test?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>If you have a fever or a cough or feel any \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">symptoms outlined by the CDC\u003c/a>, you could have COVID-19 and should get tested. If you’ve come in close contact with someone who tested positive for the virus, get tested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this advice comes with the \u003cem>big\u003c/em> caveat: We know that finding a test fast, whether it’s an onsite PCR test or an at-home test like a BinaxNOW kit, can be tricky — and, in the case of at-home tests, expensive. And you might have to be prepared to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11898455/where-to-find-a-covid-test-near-you-in-the-bay-area\">explore multiple options for getting a COVID test\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have to acknowledge that we are in a position of privilege,” says Lagos, since she and her family “had access to a lot of at-home tests that we had bought prior to this scare ahead of seeing people for Christmas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11898455/where-to-find-a-covid-test-near-you-in-the-bay-area\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Looking for a COVID test near you in the Bay Area? Read our guide to finding one.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I’m fully vaccinated. When should I take a COVID test? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Do you have symptoms? If so, try to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11898455/where-to-find-a-covid-test-near-you-in-the-bay-area\">find a test immediately\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC recommends that if you’ve come into close contact with someone with COVID-19, fully vaccinated people should be tested five to seven days after your last exposure — i.e., when you came into contact with someone who has a confirmed case of COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is already \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/coronavirus/how-long-are-you-contagious-with-omicron-covid-infection-heres-what-health-experts-say/2727655/\">evidence that the omicron variant may have a shorter incubation period than previous forms of COVID\u003c/a>. But if you choose to test earlier than five days from an exposure, don’t take an early negative result as definitive proof you \u003cem>don’t\u003c/em> have COVID. Keep testing, to be sure you’re not infectious and inadvertently spreading COVID to others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lagos’s story highlights the importance of repeat testing — and not accepting an early at-home negative result as a sign someone has no COVID risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had actually asked everybody to take those rapid tests [over the holidays], just to be safe,” she says. “And so we had tested ourselves and our kids. I did have one kid who had some minor cold symptoms and we tested him repeatedly. And he didn’t come up positive until after Christmas, after we had seen people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901699\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901699\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Marisa-Lagos-lead.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Marisa-Lagos-lead.jpeg 1000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Marisa-Lagos-lead-800x534.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/Marisa-Lagos-lead-160x107.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED host Marisa Lagos \u003ccite>(Stephanie Lister/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I’m not yet vaccinated. When should I take a COVID test? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re not fully vaccinated and are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, you should get tested immediately. If you’re not fully vaccinated and have been in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, get tested immediately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC says you should get tested again five to seven days after your last exposure and immediately if you experience symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"todo\">\u003c/a>What steps should I follow if I test positive for COVID?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>If you do test positive for COVID with an at-home test or a PCR test, don’t panic. Find a way to confirm your results with a second test while you plan to isolate yourself from anyone else in your household. \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/steps-when-sick.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The CDC has a specific checklist you can follow if you get sick. \u003c/a>Read along for key takeaways and advice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Reporting your positive COVID test\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>If you test positive for COVID on a PCR test, someone from the health department may call you as part of their \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/contact-tracing.html#you-are-diagnosed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">contact tracing efforts\u003c/a> to slow the spread of COVID.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, if you test positive for COVID using a home antigen test, the California Department of Public Health says \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/Over-The-Counter-Tests-LHJ-Guidance.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">there are certain steps you should take to report your results\u003c/a> when using an over-the-counter test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul class=\"p-rich_text_list p-rich_text_list__bullet\" data-stringify-type=\"unordered-list\" data-indent=\"0\" data-border=\"0\">\n\u003cli data-stringify-indent=\"0\" data-stringify-border=\"0\">Use the instructions on your test to self-report your COVID-positive results.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli data-stringify-indent=\"0\" data-stringify-border=\"0\">Some over-the-counter tests may have automatic reporting, while others require you to report your own results through an app on your phone.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli data-stringify-indent=\"0\" data-stringify-border=\"0\">If your test does not provide electronic reporting and you have health care coverage, you can share your results with a health care provider to receive appropriate medical care.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Kaiser says that if you have a positive home antigen test — whether you’re symptomatic or not — you’re considered positive for COVID and \u003cem>don’t\u003c/em> need to confirm with a PCR test, but you should still report your positive COVID-19 home test. If you’re a Kaiser member, you can report your positive test using their \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/SkkECkRozNIYAX4zS9hOx2?domain=healthy.kaiserpermanente.org\">positive COVID-19 home test e-visit\u003c/a> tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a journalist, Lagos says she can’t help but be “struck” by what the lack of a consistent system for self-reporting positive home test results means for public COVID case numbers this winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re probably undercounting these pretty dramatically at this point,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Talk to your people\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’ve tested positive for COVID, it’s essential that you let any of your close contacts know that they may have been exposed to the virus. Whether this is through a group text or a phone call, letting anyone you may have come into direct contact with gives others a chance to prepare and get tested themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Madrigal says he began interrogating himself about whom he’d been in contact with — his neighbors, his mother-in-law and his children. “\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You kind of get in touch with folks, and they immediately want to go get tested,” he said. “That’s people’s very natural reaction.” \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But when \u003cem>is\u003c/em> the best time for your close contacts to get tested?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The CDC says that someone with COVID-19 can spread the virus starting 48 hours or two days before the person has any symptoms or tests positive. For your fully vaccinated close contacts, it’s best if they take their test five to seven days after their initial exposure of coming into contact with you. For anyone unvaccinated, it’s important that they get tested right away. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Madrigal says that going back and tracing everyone he came into contact with, and handling those logistics, were some of the most challenging aspects of getting COVID: “When we say we’re ‘all in it together’ in a positive way … you’re also all in it together in the sense that everyone you’ve exposed is in it with you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was tough,” he admits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901097\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901097\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing scrubs and a face mask and a plastic protector sticks a nose swab into another person's nose.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1360301966-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Merline Jimene administers a COVID-19 test swab to a person at a testing site located in the international terminal at Los Angeles International Airport amid a surge in omicron variant cases on Dec. 21, 2021. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Isolate from others\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC recommends\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/quarantine-isolation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> isolating yourself from other members of your household\u003c/a> — if possible, within a separate, contained area in your home and away from others — for at least five full days, with Day Zero as the day you first experienced symptoms. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11900296/cdc-recommends-shorter-covid-isolation-and-quarantine-periods\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">This CDC guidance changed from a previous isolation period of 10 days\u003c/a>, and local public health experts encourage you to weigh the risks of breaking isolation earlier than 10 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s essential to only venture out if you need to seek immediate medical care. If you’re experiencing\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html\"> any of the CDC’s emergency warning signs\u003c/a> like trouble breathing, pressure in the chest, or pale, gray, or blue-colored skin, seek medical care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Madrigal says that as soon as his at-home test came back positive, he was on the phone to schedule his PCR test while packing a bag to isolate from his family in a separate apartment. “We were lucky enough to find a neighbor who had a rental [nearby]” where he was able to isolate, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Lagos acknowledges she feels “lucky” to have had access to paid time off, during which she and her partner could stay home, “in terms of preventing it from spreading throughout a household, I mean — we have tiny homes in San Francisco,” she notes. “Most of us don’t \u003cem>have\u003c/em> extra bedrooms or bathrooms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For that reason, Lagos says that in her personal experience, much of the official advice about isolating with COVID “is not that practical when you’re actually in this situation — particularly with kids involved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If finding a separate space to wait out isolation or quarantine outside your home isn’t possible for you, either, try to designate spaces within your home that reduce the possibility of transmission. That might look like sleeping in another room, using a separate bathroom, wearing masks inside at all times or improving ventilation within your home — for example, by opening your windows. The CDC also recommends avoiding sharing all personal household items — towels, dishes, glassware — with the folks you live with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Think about it this way, recommends Madrigal: Even if you can’t isolate in a completely separate space, “what is the way that I can reduce my exposing the people around me as much as possible?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Monitor your symptoms\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remember to keep track of your symptoms — even if it means writing them down. If you ever have any of the following symptoms, or any of the other \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html#seek-medical-attention\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">emergency warning signs per the CDC\u003c/a>, call 911 immediately:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Trouble breathing\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Persistent pain or pressure in the chest\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>New confusion\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Inability to wake or stay awake\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Pale, gray, or blue-colored skin, lips, or nail beds, depending on skin tone\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp class=\"tr-paragraph\" data-pm-slice='2 2 [\"paragraph-wrapper\",{}]'>Madrigal says it’s essential to keep an eye on your body after your COVID diagnosis: “If I didn’t have these kinds of metrics [like resting heart rate], I might just think it was all in my head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Any time you go through something traumatic, you go through something significant — you want a support group.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901091\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11901091\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-scaled.jpg\" alt='Several small boxes are stacked next to each other on a counter, each one has the same design and label, which read, \"COVID-19 Antigen Home Test.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/GettyImages-1237588762-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rapid COVID-19 test kits await distribution at Union Station in Los Angeles on Jan. 7, 2022. \u003ccite>(Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Find a support network\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harshaw’s own COVID diagnosis came at a time when he and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13901531/lawyers-investigate-death-of-steve-zumbi-gaines-zion-i-mc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a community of fans were grieving after the death of Steve ‘Zumbi’ Gaines\u003c/a>, the prolific MC of Zion I. Recognizing that his positive result was coming at a particularly tough time, rather than running from that fact, was key for him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any time you go through something traumatic, you go through something significant — you want a support group … to survive life, have a support group,” Harshaw says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several of Harshaw’s friends also caught COVID in different circumstances around the same time Harshaw himself was isolating. In this way, having loved ones to turn to and talk about their shared experiences in a group chat transformed Harshaw’s isolation time into a source of comfort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it comes to facing something of this magnitude, make sure you have a friend or two that you can talk to,” he advises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Don’t overlook self-care\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Get plenty of rest, stay hydrated and take over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen as needed to address any physical discomfort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Harshaw, balancing his own COVID diagnosis and mental health required a careful dance between nourishing his physical and spiritual self-care. “It was the balance of trying to nurture myself,” he says. “Like physical nourishment, and make sure I eat soup and drink juice while \u003cem>also\u003c/em> don’t lose my head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once Harshaw had addressed and handled the logistics of child care, he resolved to unplug. For him, this looked like grabbing a book, a puzzle, and an intricate coloring sheet from the library and turning up the jazz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also admits that was the time\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13898520/cat-daddy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> he finally bonded with his cat\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11900815\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11900815 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/pexels-cottonbro-3737623-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A bag of oranges in a white knit bag. \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/pexels-cottonbro-3737623-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/pexels-cottonbro-3737623-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/pexels-cottonbro-3737623-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/pexels-cottonbro-3737623.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">When it comes to logistics like grocery shopping, reach out to a network of support and find someone who can help. \u003ccite>(Cottonbro/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>How do I handle the logistics of a positive test?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Let’s face it: A positive COVID result requires a near-immediate halt to your typical day-to-day life as you know it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you first get that positive result, you’ll start thinking about all the ways you might be interacting with others, from the care you provide for your family to how you interact with roommates — and, of course, your work and ability to earn money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Handling child care when you have COVID\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because Madrigal and his whole family had to isolate, his kids were out of school for a week — and his partner also had to quarantine \u003cem>with\u003c/em> them. “My wife had to have a whole bunch of conversations with her work,” he admits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he adds that child care extended beyond their family unit and included others from a wider circle of support — family, neighbors, friends — who helped them out by bringing over toys for their kids to play with. “I\u003cspan data-pm-slice='1 1 [\"paragraph-wrapper\",{},\"paragraph\",{\"id\":\"p13-0\"}]'>t was pretty sweet how people kind of came together in our community around,” says Madrigal.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Think about neighbors, friends and extended family members who would be able to step in and support with child care while you’re isolating, or even who might be able to pick essential care items like groceries or medicines, if home delivery isn’t an option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Harshaw, who co-parents his young daughter, coordinating child care with her mother after his positive test was crucial. “I asked if she could take my daughter for a couple more days while I got better,” he says. “Hats off to her. She held it down, and I really appreciate that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Groceries and accessing food while self-isolating\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you’re isolating, it’s essential that you stay home until it’s safe for you to be around others — and the CDC recently changed its isolation guidance to span at least a full five days. That makes grabbing the essential supplies you need to isolate difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it came to figuring out what to eat and how to get groceries, Harshaw turned to his networks of support. “I worked with the neighbor to get a couple of things,” he says. “But other than that, I just dug deep into my cabinets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says having his old emergency earthquake go-bag ready from the start of the pandemic was his go-to for feeding himself while he self-isolated — that, and a bag of frozen only-open-in-case-of-emergency lemons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Find out if your employer can cover your pay while you self-isolate\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Talk to your employer to identify what protections you have in case of a COVID-19-positive diagnosis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The repercussions of not going to work are not equal for all workers. Many hourly workers are not granted the same protections or benefits that salaried workers are. At the end of 2021, California ended its COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL), which granted workers 80 extra hours of leave if they tested positive for the coronavirus or had to care for a family member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, exclusion pay is still required for California workers who have to quarantine due to a COVID-19 exposure at your workplace. Through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/COVID19Resources/FAQ-Exclusion-Pay-ETS.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS)\u003c/a>, Cal/OSHA requires employers to maintain an employee’s pay and benefits for any worker who is “excluded” from a workplace while they isolate or quarantine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are limitations to this temporary exclusion pay, however. The ETS does not extend to any COVID exposure that wasn’t work-related. So if you were exposed outside of work, your employer isn’t obligated by the state to pay for lost wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also limited to workers, which means the state is not requiring your employer to maintain your pay or benefits if you’re caring for a family member — including children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, you may be eligible for sick leave or other benefits such as disability insurance, paid family leave, or unemployment insurance benefits. Your own city or county also may offer programs to support people who are losing work because of a COVID diagnosis, such as \u003ca href=\"https://oewd.org/employees-impacted-covid-19\">San Francisco’s Right to Recover \u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Program that provides $1,285 to reimburse “or pay reasonable and necessary personal, family, or living expenses” to any worker who lives in SF and tests positive for COVID,\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">and “anticipates \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">experiencing financial hardship during their two-week quarantine or isolation\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.” This particular program is offered regardless of a person’s immigration or citizenship status. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Skip to: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11894053/got-covid-19-at-your-job-and-applying-for-workers-comp-in-california-heres-how-it-works\">Got COVID-19 at Your Job and Applying for Workers’ Comp in California? Here’s How It Works\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘The best way I can describe it is: I can feel where my heart is all the time. And not in, like a cute way.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11899398\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11899398\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A gloved blue hands held by a nurse in a blue robe hold a small white COVID-19 testing vial and swab.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1291\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut-800x538.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut-1020x686.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/RS52942_GettyImages-1328758598-qut-1536x1033.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A registered nurse stirs a nasal swab in testing solution after administering a COVID-19 test at Sameday Testing on July 14, 2021, in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>What should people who’ve just tested positive know?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As natural as it is, don’t panic thinking you’ve automatically exposed or infected your loved ones in your home, says Madrigal. That’s not “actually how the virus works.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You actually have some leverage to protect the people around you even after you’ve tested positive and been in the house with them,” he says. Madrigal also says to remember that, with the proper isolation and protection, keeping your loved ones safe from COVID isn’t off the table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For him, another big takeaway he wishes he’d known before getting COVID is the importance of preparing a COVID emergency plan \u003cem>before\u003c/em> you test positive — much like you would have for an earthquake or wildfire — to make your life easier while you prepare to isolate or quarantine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Some things to include in your COVID emergency kit\u003c/strong>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Food and liquids to last up to 10 days\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Extra N95s, KN95s or well-fitting masks\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Fans or other ventilation\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Extra testing supplies\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A designated place to isolate — that could be in a space closed off from roommates, family members or children\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A phone tree, texting group or go-to list of people who could help you with child care or groceries — it could be a neighbor, friend or family member\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Harshaw says that for him, getting COVID offered a lesson in suppressing the ego: “\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s not about self. It’s not about how you’re perceived by the larger community. It is really about the health: the benefit of us as a people being on one accord.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harshaw also says that isolating and spending a lot of alone time with yourself brings its own challenges — especially if you want to stay glued to the news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s hard to be with yourself. There are some pretty ugly thoughts in there,” he says. “So, having a support group, having hobbies and healthy outlets — and a couple of snacks.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Don’t have time to go through the whole post? Jump to a specific section:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#scientists\">\u003cstrong>Why are scientists worried?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#moment\">\u003cstrong>What do we know at the moment?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#arise\">\u003cstrong>How did the new variant arise?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#restrictions\">\u003cstrong>Are there any travel restrictions?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>South African scientists identified a new version of the coronavirus this week that they say is behind a recent spike in COVID-19 infections in Gauteng, the country’s most populous province. It’s unclear where the new variant actually arose, but it was first detected by scientists in South Africa and has now been seen in travelers to Belgium, Botswana, Hong Kong and Israel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health Minister Joe Phaahla said the variant was linked to an “exponential rise” of cases in the last few days, although experts are still trying to determine whether the new variant, named B.1.1.529, is actually responsible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11896107\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/GettyImages-1234850823-1020x680.jpg\"]From just over 200 new confirmed cases per day in recent weeks, South Africa saw its daily number of new cases rocket to 2,465 on Thursday. Struggling to explain the sudden rise in cases, scientists studied virus samples from the outbreak and discovered the new variant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement on Friday, the World Health Organization designated it as a “variant of concern,” naming it “omicron” after a letter in the Greek alphabet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After convening a group of experts to assess the data, the U.N. health agency said that “preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant,” as compared to other variants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The number of cases of this variant appears to be increasing in almost all provinces in South Africa,” the WHO said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"scientists\">\u003c/a>Why are scientists worried about this new variant?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>It appears to have a high number of mutations — about 30 — in the coronavirus’s spike protein, which could affect how easily it spreads to people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sharon Peacock, who has led genetic sequencing of COVID-19 in Britain at the University of Cambridge, said the data so far suggests the new variant has mutations “consistent with enhanced transmissibility,” but said that “the significance of many of the mutations is still not known.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick, described the variant as “the most heavily mutated version of the virus we have seen.” He said it was concerning that although the variant was only being detected in low levels in parts of South Africa, “it looks like it’s spreading rapidly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S.’s top infectious diseases doctor, said American officials had arranged a call with their South African counterparts later on Friday to find out more details and said there was no indication the variant had yet arrived in the U.S.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"moment\">\u003c/a>What’s known and not known about the new variant?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Scientists know that the new variant is genetically distinct from previous variants, including the beta and delta variants, but do not know whether these genetic changes make it any more transmissible or dangerous. So far, there is no indication the variant causes more severe disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It will likely take weeks to sort out whether the new variant is more infectious and whether vaccines are still effective against it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Sharon Peacock, University of Cambridge\"]‘The jury is out on how well this variant will do where there are other variants circulating.’[/pullquote]Even though some of the genetic changes in the new variant appear worrying, it’s unclear whether they will pose a public health threat. Some previous variants, like the beta variant, initially alarmed scientists but didn’t end up spreading very far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t know if this new variant could get a toehold in regions where delta is,” said Peacock of the University of Cambridge. “The jury is out on how well this variant will do where there are other variants circulating.” To date, delta is by far the most dominant form of COVID-19, accounting for more than 99% of sequences submitted to the world’s biggest public database.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"arise\">\u003c/a>How did the new variant arise?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The coronavirus mutates as it spreads and many new variants, including those with worrying genetic changes, often just die out. Scientists monitor COVID-19 sequences for mutations that could make the disease more transmissible or deadly, but they cannot determine that simply by looking at the virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peacock said the variant “may have evolved in someone who was infected but could then not clear the virus, giving the virus the chance to genetically evolve,” in a scenario similar to how experts think the alpha variant — which was first identified in England — also emerged, by mutating in an immune-compromised person.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"restrictions\">\u003c/a>Are the travel restrictions being imposed by some countries justified?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration has already \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/11/26/1059339865/coronavirus-variant-covid-omicron-travel-bans\">announced new travel restrictions\u003c/a> that include South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Namibia. The policy does not apply to American citizens or lawful permanent residents, but they must still test negative for the coronavirus prior to travel. About a dozen other countries have taken similar action, including the U.K. and some countries in Europe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the recent rapid rise in COVID-19 in South Africa, restricting travel from the region is “prudent” and would buy authorities more time, said Neil Ferguson, an infectious diseases expert at Imperial College London.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='More COVID-19 Coverage' tag='coronavirus']Jeffrey Barrett, director of COVID-19 Genetics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, thought that the early detection of the new variant could mean that restrictions taken now would have a bigger impact than when the delta variant first emerged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With delta, it took many, many weeks into India’s terrible wave before it became clear what was going on and delta had already seeded itself in many places in the world and it was too late to do anything about it,” he said. “We may be at an earlier point with this new variant so there may still be time to do something about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post includes additional reporting from NPR.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>From just over 200 new confirmed cases per day in recent weeks, South Africa saw its daily number of new cases rocket to 2,465 on Thursday. Struggling to explain the sudden rise in cases, scientists studied virus samples from the outbreak and discovered the new variant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement on Friday, the World Health Organization designated it as a “variant of concern,” naming it “omicron” after a letter in the Greek alphabet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After convening a group of experts to assess the data, the U.N. health agency said that “preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant,” as compared to other variants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The number of cases of this variant appears to be increasing in almost all provinces in South Africa,” the WHO said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"scientists\">\u003c/a>Why are scientists worried about this new variant?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>It appears to have a high number of mutations — about 30 — in the coronavirus’s spike protein, which could affect how easily it spreads to people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sharon Peacock, who has led genetic sequencing of COVID-19 in Britain at the University of Cambridge, said the data so far suggests the new variant has mutations “consistent with enhanced transmissibility,” but said that “the significance of many of the mutations is still not known.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick, described the variant as “the most heavily mutated version of the virus we have seen.” He said it was concerning that although the variant was only being detected in low levels in parts of South Africa, “it looks like it’s spreading rapidly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S.’s top infectious diseases doctor, said American officials had arranged a call with their South African counterparts later on Friday to find out more details and said there was no indication the variant had yet arrived in the U.S.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Even though some of the genetic changes in the new variant appear worrying, it’s unclear whether they will pose a public health threat. Some previous variants, like the beta variant, initially alarmed scientists but didn’t end up spreading very far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t know if this new variant could get a toehold in regions where delta is,” said Peacock of the University of Cambridge. “The jury is out on how well this variant will do where there are other variants circulating.” To date, delta is by far the most dominant form of COVID-19, accounting for more than 99% of sequences submitted to the world’s biggest public database.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"arise\">\u003c/a>How did the new variant arise?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The coronavirus mutates as it spreads and many new variants, including those with worrying genetic changes, often just die out. Scientists monitor COVID-19 sequences for mutations that could make the disease more transmissible or deadly, but they cannot determine that simply by looking at the virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peacock said the variant “may have evolved in someone who was infected but could then not clear the virus, giving the virus the chance to genetically evolve,” in a scenario similar to how experts think the alpha variant — which was first identified in England — also emerged, by mutating in an immune-compromised person.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"restrictions\">\u003c/a>Are the travel restrictions being imposed by some countries justified?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration has already \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/11/26/1059339865/coronavirus-variant-covid-omicron-travel-bans\">announced new travel restrictions\u003c/a> that include South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Namibia. The policy does not apply to American citizens or lawful permanent residents, but they must still test negative for the coronavirus prior to travel. About a dozen other countries have taken similar action, including the U.K. and some countries in Europe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the recent rapid rise in COVID-19 in South Africa, restricting travel from the region is “prudent” and would buy authorities more time, said Neil Ferguson, an infectious diseases expert at Imperial College London.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Jeffrey Barrett, director of COVID-19 Genetics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, thought that the early detection of the new variant could mean that restrictions taken now would have a bigger impact than when the delta variant first emerged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With delta, it took many, many weeks into India’s terrible wave before it became clear what was going on and delta had already seeded itself in many places in the world and it was too late to do anything about it,” he said. “We may be at an earlier point with this new variant so there may still be time to do something about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post includes additional reporting from NPR.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Why COVID Tests Still Matter, Even If You're Vaccinated — and Where to Find a Free Test",
"title": "Why COVID Tests Still Matter, Even If You're Vaccinated — and Where to Find a Free Test",
"headTitle": "KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Skip to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#locations\">Where to find a free COVID test in your county.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#timing\">How soon after possible COVID exposure to get a test.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#why\">Why you might want a COVID test even if you have no symptoms.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>More than 60% of Californians are fully vaccinated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the spread of the delta variant in the Bay Area and a recent jump in new cases across the state, including infections in vaccinated people, serve as a reminder that the pandemic is still not over — and that COVID testing is still crucial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some counties, like San Francisco, have already reopened their testing sites to meet a growing demand. And health experts stress that getting tested for COVID-19, even after you’re fully vaccinated, is an effective way to stop the spread of coronavirus faster.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Why getting tested for COVID is still important — even if you’re vaccinated\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\"As a vaccinated person,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, professor of medicine and an infectious disease specialist at UCSF, \"you are very unlikely to go to the hospital, get in a breathing tube and die.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"What I can tell you is you potentially could transmit it to others,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breakthrough cases, or instances when a fully vaccinated person contracts COVID-19, are still very rare, Chin-Hong explained. But knowing with certainty that you are not infected can make a huge difference for those who are much more vulnerable to the coronavirus, like children under 12, who are not yet eligible for a vaccine, or the immunocompromised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Knowledge is power,” he said. “Not knowing you have [COVID-19] is much worse than knowing you have it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you get tested and receive a positive result, you can then let those with whom you’ve been in close contact know so they can also get tested and take preventive measures. \"You may break the chain of transmission,\" Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The COVID symptoms to watch out for right now\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>You may also consider getting tested even if you haven’t been in close contact with someone who has contracted the virus. Health officials recommend you keep an eye out for symptoms like headaches, fever and a sore throat. Sneezing also is now being seen among some fully vaccinated folks as a COVID-19 symptom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Sneezing hadn’t been seen before until delta, among vaccinated folks,\" Chin-Hong explained. He points out that sneezing could be mistaken for allergies or a mild cold and that would dissuade folks from getting tested. But it’s best to be completely sure of your own status, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fully vaccinated people may avoid the worst symptoms thanks to the vaccine, \"but in the meantime, you probably are exposing a lot of other people to COVID-19 unknowingly,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11881587\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 892px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11881587 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/gettyimages-1328759187-fd5739ecd09b1029489c13ae04803e969b8470c4.jpg\" alt=\"A medical assistant stands over a woman and takes a swab from her nose.\" width=\"892\" height=\"669\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/gettyimages-1328759187-fd5739ecd09b1029489c13ae04803e969b8470c4.jpg 892w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/gettyimages-1328759187-fd5739ecd09b1029489c13ae04803e969b8470c4-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/gettyimages-1328759187-fd5739ecd09b1029489c13ae04803e969b8470c4-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 892px) 100vw, 892px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A medical assistant administers a COVID-19 test at Sameday Testing on July 14, 2021, in Los Angeles. COVID-19 cases are on the rise in most states as the highly transmissible delta variant has become the dominant strain in the U.S. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"timing\">\u003c/a>How soon after possible COVID exposure to get a test\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that if you’re fully vaccinated and get a known exposure to someone with confirmed or suspected COVID, you should get tested three to five days after exposure. The CDC also recommends you wear a mask in public indoor settings for 14 days or until you receive a negative test result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People who are not fully vaccinated should be tested immediately after being identified and, if negative, tested again in five to seven days after the last exposure or immediately if symptoms develop during quarantine, says the CDC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chin-Hong said that the timing of your exposure definitely matters for whether you get a test, and when. If you’ve been in close contact with someone with a COVID diagnosis (that means you were together, unmasked, for more than 15 minutes and less than six feet apart), \"we usually start thinking of exposure as around two days before the diagnosis of the friend,\" said Chin-Hong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"For example, if somebody went to a party with somebody five days ago, but then didn't hang out with that person since five days ago, but that person got diagnosed two days ago, they wouldn't need to worry about it,\" Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"why\">\u003c/a>No symptoms or known exposure? Reasons you still might want to find a COVID test\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You'll be visiting vulnerable or unvaccinated people.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, professor of pediatrics and of epidemiology and chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Stanford University School of Medicine, said that the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2021/08/20/to-avoid-rolling-blackouts-state-fast-tracks-diesel-fueled-power/\">COVID-19 delta variant produces a viral load that is much higher than other variants\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though the infection rate among vaccinated people is low, vaccinated people who are infected with the delta variant still carry the same amount of the virus in their nose and throat compared to people who are unvaccinated and infected with the delta variant. What this means is that those who are vaccinated “don’t tend to be as sick as the unvaccinated,” explains Maldonado. “But they could potentially spread [COVID] more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You have unvaccinated schoolkids in your home.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the first week of school, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11885647/what-if-your-kid-brings-covid-19-home-heres-how-these-families-dealt-with-it\">58 students and 10 staff members tested positive in Oakland Unified School District schools\u003c/a>. The tallies are much higher in other parts of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All this means that if you have children under 12 in your home, who aren’t eligible yet for COVID vaccination, you might want to regularly test them yourself to ensure they’re not bringing COVID home from school — or that \u003cem>you’re\u003c/em> bringing COVID into the home and infecting them. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884622/how-to-keep-your-child-safe-from-the-delta-variant\">Read more on keeping children safe from the delta variant.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You'll be traveling to a country that demands a test.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many countries are requiring entrants to present a negative COVID test taken within a certain time frame of departure (often 72 hours, or three calendar days). Many airlines will ask for proof of this test before you’re allowed to board a flight.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"locations\">\u003c/a>Where to find a COVID test in the Bay Area\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>If you're looking for COVID-19 testing in the Bay Area, you have several options — and for many testing sites you don’t need health insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unless otherwise noted, the testing sites use nasal or oral swabs to determine whether you have the virus — not an antibody (serology) blood-based test to determine whether you've been exposed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most sites require appointments, and test results should be available within three days. Some sites only offer tests to patients who have at least one symptom or have been exposed to the virus, although most now offer them to all frontline or essential workers, regardless of symptoms or exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Find a COVID test in your Bay Area county\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a complete list of COVID test providers throughout California, use \u003ca href=\"https://www.arcgis.com/apps/Nearby/index.html?appid=43118dc0d5d348d8ab20a81967a15401&distance=10&find=95377%252C%2520Tracy%252C%2520California\">the state's map that says it shows all public and private COVID testing providers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://covid-19.acgov.org/testing.page\">Alameda County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.coronavirus.cchealth.org/get-tested\">Contra Costa County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://coronavirus.marinhhs.org/covid-19-testing-information\">Marin County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.countyofnapa.org/2776/COVID-19-Testing\">Napa County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/find-out-about-your-covid-19-testing-options\">San Francisco County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/testing\">San Mateo County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sccgov.org/sites/covid19/Pages/covid19-testing.aspx\">Santa Clara COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.solanocounty.com/depts/ph/coronavirus_links/faq___community_testing_sites.asp\">Solano County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://socoemergency.org/emergency/novel-coronavirus/testing-and-tracing/\">Sonoma County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Skip to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#locations\">Where to find a free COVID test in your county.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#timing\">How soon after possible COVID exposure to get a test.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#why\">Why you might want a COVID test even if you have no symptoms.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>More than 60% of Californians are fully vaccinated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the spread of the delta variant in the Bay Area and a recent jump in new cases across the state, including infections in vaccinated people, serve as a reminder that the pandemic is still not over — and that COVID testing is still crucial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some counties, like San Francisco, have already reopened their testing sites to meet a growing demand. And health experts stress that getting tested for COVID-19, even after you’re fully vaccinated, is an effective way to stop the spread of coronavirus faster.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Why getting tested for COVID is still important — even if you’re vaccinated\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\"As a vaccinated person,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, professor of medicine and an infectious disease specialist at UCSF, \"you are very unlikely to go to the hospital, get in a breathing tube and die.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"What I can tell you is you potentially could transmit it to others,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breakthrough cases, or instances when a fully vaccinated person contracts COVID-19, are still very rare, Chin-Hong explained. But knowing with certainty that you are not infected can make a huge difference for those who are much more vulnerable to the coronavirus, like children under 12, who are not yet eligible for a vaccine, or the immunocompromised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Knowledge is power,” he said. “Not knowing you have [COVID-19] is much worse than knowing you have it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you get tested and receive a positive result, you can then let those with whom you’ve been in close contact know so they can also get tested and take preventive measures. \"You may break the chain of transmission,\" Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The COVID symptoms to watch out for right now\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>You may also consider getting tested even if you haven’t been in close contact with someone who has contracted the virus. Health officials recommend you keep an eye out for symptoms like headaches, fever and a sore throat. Sneezing also is now being seen among some fully vaccinated folks as a COVID-19 symptom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Sneezing hadn’t been seen before until delta, among vaccinated folks,\" Chin-Hong explained. He points out that sneezing could be mistaken for allergies or a mild cold and that would dissuade folks from getting tested. But it’s best to be completely sure of your own status, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fully vaccinated people may avoid the worst symptoms thanks to the vaccine, \"but in the meantime, you probably are exposing a lot of other people to COVID-19 unknowingly,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11881587\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 892px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11881587 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/gettyimages-1328759187-fd5739ecd09b1029489c13ae04803e969b8470c4.jpg\" alt=\"A medical assistant stands over a woman and takes a swab from her nose.\" width=\"892\" height=\"669\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/gettyimages-1328759187-fd5739ecd09b1029489c13ae04803e969b8470c4.jpg 892w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/gettyimages-1328759187-fd5739ecd09b1029489c13ae04803e969b8470c4-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/gettyimages-1328759187-fd5739ecd09b1029489c13ae04803e969b8470c4-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 892px) 100vw, 892px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A medical assistant administers a COVID-19 test at Sameday Testing on July 14, 2021, in Los Angeles. COVID-19 cases are on the rise in most states as the highly transmissible delta variant has become the dominant strain in the U.S. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"timing\">\u003c/a>How soon after possible COVID exposure to get a test\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that if you’re fully vaccinated and get a known exposure to someone with confirmed or suspected COVID, you should get tested three to five days after exposure. The CDC also recommends you wear a mask in public indoor settings for 14 days or until you receive a negative test result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People who are not fully vaccinated should be tested immediately after being identified and, if negative, tested again in five to seven days after the last exposure or immediately if symptoms develop during quarantine, says the CDC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chin-Hong said that the timing of your exposure definitely matters for whether you get a test, and when. If you’ve been in close contact with someone with a COVID diagnosis (that means you were together, unmasked, for more than 15 minutes and less than six feet apart), \"we usually start thinking of exposure as around two days before the diagnosis of the friend,\" said Chin-Hong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"For example, if somebody went to a party with somebody five days ago, but then didn't hang out with that person since five days ago, but that person got diagnosed two days ago, they wouldn't need to worry about it,\" Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"why\">\u003c/a>No symptoms or known exposure? Reasons you still might want to find a COVID test\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You'll be visiting vulnerable or unvaccinated people.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, professor of pediatrics and of epidemiology and chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Stanford University School of Medicine, said that the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2021/08/20/to-avoid-rolling-blackouts-state-fast-tracks-diesel-fueled-power/\">COVID-19 delta variant produces a viral load that is much higher than other variants\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though the infection rate among vaccinated people is low, vaccinated people who are infected with the delta variant still carry the same amount of the virus in their nose and throat compared to people who are unvaccinated and infected with the delta variant. What this means is that those who are vaccinated “don’t tend to be as sick as the unvaccinated,” explains Maldonado. “But they could potentially spread [COVID] more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You have unvaccinated schoolkids in your home.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the first week of school, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11885647/what-if-your-kid-brings-covid-19-home-heres-how-these-families-dealt-with-it\">58 students and 10 staff members tested positive in Oakland Unified School District schools\u003c/a>. The tallies are much higher in other parts of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All this means that if you have children under 12 in your home, who aren’t eligible yet for COVID vaccination, you might want to regularly test them yourself to ensure they’re not bringing COVID home from school — or that \u003cem>you’re\u003c/em> bringing COVID into the home and infecting them. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884622/how-to-keep-your-child-safe-from-the-delta-variant\">Read more on keeping children safe from the delta variant.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You'll be traveling to a country that demands a test.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many countries are requiring entrants to present a negative COVID test taken within a certain time frame of departure (often 72 hours, or three calendar days). Many airlines will ask for proof of this test before you’re allowed to board a flight.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"locations\">\u003c/a>Where to find a COVID test in the Bay Area\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>If you're looking for COVID-19 testing in the Bay Area, you have several options — and for many testing sites you don’t need health insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unless otherwise noted, the testing sites use nasal or oral swabs to determine whether you have the virus — not an antibody (serology) blood-based test to determine whether you've been exposed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most sites require appointments, and test results should be available within three days. Some sites only offer tests to patients who have at least one symptom or have been exposed to the virus, although most now offer them to all frontline or essential workers, regardless of symptoms or exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Find a COVID test in your Bay Area county\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a complete list of COVID test providers throughout California, use \u003ca href=\"https://www.arcgis.com/apps/Nearby/index.html?appid=43118dc0d5d348d8ab20a81967a15401&distance=10&find=95377%252C%2520Tracy%252C%2520California\">the state's map that says it shows all public and private COVID testing providers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://covid-19.acgov.org/testing.page\">Alameda County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.coronavirus.cchealth.org/get-tested\">Contra Costa County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://coronavirus.marinhhs.org/covid-19-testing-information\">Marin County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.countyofnapa.org/2776/COVID-19-Testing\">Napa County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/find-out-about-your-covid-19-testing-options\">San Francisco County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smcgov.org/testing\">San Mateo County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sccgov.org/sites/covid19/Pages/covid19-testing.aspx\">Santa Clara COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.solanocounty.com/depts/ph/coronavirus_links/faq___community_testing_sites.asp\">Solano County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://socoemergency.org/emergency/novel-coronavirus/testing-and-tracing/\">Sonoma County COVID tests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "How to Keep Your Child Safe From the Delta Variant",
"headTitle": "KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It's inevitable that when kids mix as they head back to school, germs spread. And in a pandemic year fueled by the delta variant, some of those germs may cause COVID-19. The CDC has advice for keeping your child protected from this highly contagious version of the coronavirus now and this fall: Mask up in schools and other crowded venues, and make sure everyone age 12 and older in the family gets a COVID-19 shot.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But what if your kids are younger than that? What if they develop symptoms or come into contact with someone who tests positive for the coronavirus?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rules for testing and quarantining vary from place to place, so we asked several public health experts — all parents — about their personal strategies for keeping their kids and families safe these days.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>What Do I Do if My Kid Wakes Up with the Sniffles?\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Keep your child at home and consult the pediatrician.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\"This happened to us [recently], for camp,\" says\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.mmg.pitt.edu/person/seema-s-lakdawala\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Seema Lakdawala\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a virologist who studies flu transmission at the University of Pittsburgh. She has two daughters, ages 5 and 8. \"My [8-year-old] daughter woke up and was sneezing and had a runny nose.\"\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She kept her daughter home and then called the pediatrician to talk through her symptoms. The likely culprit was allergies, the doctor told her; the child has known allergies to grass pollen, and it's already hay fever season where she lives. Sure enough, when Lakdawala gave her daughter allergy medication, her symptoms resolved.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The key, says Lakdawala, is that her daughter had no known exposures to COVID-19. \"If we had been on a plane recently, or otherwise traveling, then I would definitely want to get her tested for COVID,\" the parent says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Test for the coronavirus when warranted.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ahead of those sniffles, while everyone's healthy, figure out where your child and others in your home can get\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/01/847368012/how-reliable-are-covid-19-tests-depends-which-one-you-mean\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">PCR-tested\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the coronavirus on short notice with quick results. \"Our pediatrician's office, like many pediatric clinics, has walk-in hours for children who are sick,\" says\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bumc.bu.edu/busm/profile/cassandra-pierre/\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Cassandra Pierre\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, medical director of public health programs at Boston Medical Center and the parent of 3-year-old twins. \"Those hours are in the morning, which means my child could get tested and, hopefully, get the results in the same day.\"\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Keep your child at home until those test results come back, says Pierre.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[ad fullwidth]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another option is to buy some over-the-counter,\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/04/22/989934597/as-at-home-coronavirus-tests-hit-pharmacies-what-role-can-they-play-in-the-pande\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">rapid antigen tests\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from the pharmacy now and keep them in your medicine cabinet for a time when you might need them, says\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-people/gronvall/\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gigi Gronvall\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an immunologist and researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. She has two kids, ages 11 and 14. These swab tests are less sensitive than PCR tests (so they might miss very minor infections). But they're quick, easy to use, and considered to be fairly accurate in people who are actively sick. \"They certainly provide peace of mind, especially if [people are] symptomatic,\" Gronvall says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even if those symptoms turn out to be \"just a cold,\" try not to spread it.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whatever your child's COVID-19 status, please don't send them back to school if they're still coughing and sneezing, Pierre says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her 3-year-old was home sick from day care with a cold the day we spoke with her. \"If my son is still sick tomorrow, still stuffy and having nasal secretions, I wouldn't necessarily put him right back and expose other children to another respiratory virus,\" Pierre says. As difficult as it is to arrange for child care, the pandemic has driven home to her that \"we really rely on the decisions that other people make,\" she says. \"I want to make sure that I'm making good decisions to prevent other children and parents potentially from getting sick.\"\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If kids must return to camp or school or day care with mild cold symptoms, they should wear masks consistently, says\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://profiles.ucsf.edu/monica.gandhi\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Monica Gandhi\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an infectious disease doctor at UCSF.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=news_11881535]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>What If My Child Tests Positive for the Coronavirus?\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\"Don't panic,\" says Pierre. \"The first thing to remember is that children are incredibly resilient.\" Most cases of COVID-19 in\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html#Children\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">children are mild\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Keep a close eye on your child and check in with the pediatrician, particularly if your child has underlying health conditions that may need monitoring.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Think ahead of time about who will take care of whom — and how — if somebody gets sick.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Households are complicated, so think right now about how you could limit the sick child's contact with others in your home. Consider how you and any other members could best divvy up care. If your situation requires backup, Lakdawala suggests reaching out to fully vaccinated family members, friends or neighbors who may be able to step in and offer help.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Lakdawala and her husband have walked through this scenario. They are both fully vaccinated, but their two children are not yet eligible. If one child tests positive for the coronavirus, she says, they will split the household into parent-child pairs in different parts of the house. They might then take turns in the kitchen and minimize the amount of time they're in enclosed spaces with each other.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Layer protections to reduce the risk of household transmission.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Space is limited for most families in the U.S. Still, there are proven ways to reduce the risks of transmission. The key is to rely on multiple types of protection.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">COVID-19 is primarily transmitted\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/sars-cov-2-transmission.html\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">through the air\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, so Pierre notes that \"respiratory hygiene is your No. 1 priority.\"\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If indoor space is shared with a sick person, everyone in the house\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/07/17/1017075240/delta-variant-is-spreading-fast-and-new-cases-are-rising-is-time-to-mask-up-agai\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">should wear masks\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as much as possible, says Gandhi. This means at all times, except when eating, drinking and sleeping. For the sick person, this reduces the amount of virus they exhale into the air, and for others in the household, it limits the amount of virus they breathe in. If a room is available, an older child who is sick with COVID-19 may be able to isolate there, says Pierre. This limits the presence of the virus to a specific part of the home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Get fresh air into the house to disperse any clouds of virus that may be lingering in the air, Lakdawala advises: \"Open the windows, turn on the fans, get some air circulating.\"\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Air purifiers, available in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884658/free-air-filters-for-lower-income-people-with-asthma-how-bay-area-homes-can-sign-up\">six Bay Area counties\u003c/a> to lower-income residents with asthma,\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> could help filter virus out of the air in a closed room, Pierre adds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another possible route of transmission is picking up the live virus on your hands and touching your eyes, nose or mouth. So periodically\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/disinfecting-your-home.html\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">clean and disinfect\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> shared surfaces such as the bathroom counter or kitchen table, particularly if a sick person has been coughing or sneezing nearby, Pierre says. After a few days (the CDC recommends\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/testing.html\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">three to five days\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> after a known exposure), it's a good idea to get the rest of the household tested for the coronavirus.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The best defense, Pierre says, is vaccines. \"We really should be thinking about getting as many people in the household vaccinated as possible to protect themselves, but also to protect the child.\" Vaccinated people can provide care\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html#anchor_1617376555813\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">without needing to quarantine\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, so long as they remain healthy, without COVID-19 symptoms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Keep your child home until they're no longer contagious.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though asymptomatic infections can spread disease, too, people with COVID-19 are most likely to spread the infection to others when symptoms first appear. So\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/quarantine.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fif-you-are-sick%2Fisolation.html\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">10 days after symptoms first appear\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, if those symptoms have resolved without the continued use of fever-reducing medicine, the illness is no longer considered contagious, Gronvall says. Sometimes, children develop symptoms such as loss of taste and smell that can last longer, \"but as far as there being a danger to others, these symptoms don't need to interfere with them going back to school,\" she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Again, if child care is an issue, fully vaccinated family members, friends or neighbors may be able to help.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11884679\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11884679\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS46334_012_KQED_SanFrancisco_Playgrounds_12102020-qut.jpg\" alt=\"young child on slide wearing a mask\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS46334_012_KQED_SanFrancisco_Playgrounds_12102020-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS46334_012_KQED_SanFrancisco_Playgrounds_12102020-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS46334_012_KQED_SanFrancisco_Playgrounds_12102020-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS46334_012_KQED_SanFrancisco_Playgrounds_12102020-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS46334_012_KQED_SanFrancisco_Playgrounds_12102020-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A child goes down a concrete slide at Youngblood Coleman Playground in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>What Kind of Mask Should a Child Wear?\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wear any mask that fits well — with no gaps around the mouth, nose or chin — and is comfortable. While adults these days are being encouraged\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/02/03/962197192/5-hacks-to-make-your-face-mask-more-protective\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">to step up our mask game\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> beyond cloth versions, the advice for children may be a little different. \"The best mask is one that they can wear for long periods of time, even in school,\" Pierre says. \"A cotton mask is the most comfortable, lightweight and breathable.\"\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bonus points if the kids like the design: A child is more likely to wear a mask they find appealing, and to wear it consistently and correctly. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\"My kids have the cutest masks,\" Lakdawala says. \"They have the ones that look like little cat faces and smiley faces or dogs or bears or whatever.\" Gronvall's 11-year-old prefers a mask that is \"silky and has pictures of cats in outer space that have lasers coming out of their eyes,\" so she has ordered several of those masks to send with him to school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kids can also DIY existing masks with art supplies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you want to add more protection, Gandhi suggests wearing two masks, which creates a tighter mask fit on the face, or adding a filter layer to a child's mask. \"You can buy a cloth mask with a pocket, and\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.18.20233353v1\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">use vacuum bag material as a filter\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. It's thin and it blocks virus very effectively,\" she says. Still, she agrees that the bottom line with kids is comfort. So if these interventions make them less likely to wear the mask, she says you can skip them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Is It OK to Hug Our Kids When They're Sick with COVID-19?\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The reassurance of physical contact — hugs and cuddles — can be important, especially for little ones, Lakdawala says. \"I'm not going to deny or deprive my child of that comfort when they're not feeling well.\" And you may feel that way, too. But Pierre says that if the kids are older, \"I would recommend physical distancing.\"\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/11/covid-19-most-contagious-first-5-days-illness-study-finds\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Studies suggest\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that a person with COVID-19 is most infectious in the first five days, so Gandhi says she'd aim to limit close contact in that period. \"For the first five days, I'd let them watch TV and I would try to not be as cuddly,\" she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\"At night, if a child has a fever and needs comfort, that can be difficult,\" says Pierre. Nobody recommends wearing a protective mask while sleeping, but if you're sharing a bed with a sick child, you might consider facing in the same direction from behind them, or away — so they're not breathing directly into your face — and opening up the windows or using air purifiers to help clear the air.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lakdawala says wearing masks when someone is sick with COVID-19, and, again, divvying up care responsibilities (including hugs), can help reduce the risk that everyone in the household gets sick.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside label='Coronavirus Coverage' tag='coronavirus,vaccines,vaccination']\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>What Do I Do if My Child Is Sent Home From School After a COVID-19 Exposure?\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If your child is unvaccinated, quarantine your child, wear masks, watch for symptoms and test.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the school district provides specific instructions for quarantining, follow that guidance, Pierre says. The CDC has a specific definition for \"close contact\" between kids in schools, and\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/contact-tracing/contact-tracing-plan/appendix.html#contact\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">it is more lenient\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> than in other settings: \"If your child is physically distancing 3 feet from another child who's sick and both of them are wearing masks consistently, we would not actually consider that to be an exposure,\" says Pierre. \"But if that is not what has happened, then the child needs\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/quarantine.html\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">to be quarantined\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\"\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the house, take reasonable precautions, says Pierre, \"but it's not necessarily with the rigor of having to go to your room and stay there,\" unless your child develops symptoms or tests positive for the coronavirus. Instead, try to keep some physical distance between the quarantining child and other household members, and have the child and/or those other family members wear a mask, especially those who are the most vulnerable and unvaccinated.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Lakdawala's home, her two children — both too young to be vaccinated — typically share a room. If one were in quarantine, \"I would separate them in terms of where they would sleep, but I would probably still send the other one to school if it was just an exposure,\" she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She would wait a few days and then get the quarantining child tested for the coronavirus with a PCR test. In the interim, she'd\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">watch for symptoms\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. If no symptoms develop or the test comes back negative, it's fine to resume all the usual activities\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-guidance.html#contact-tracing\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">after seven to 14 days\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, depending on your school's policy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And while the child in quarantine is staying home, Lakdawala says, the rest of the household can keep on with essential business — school, work, grocery shopping and the like — with some precautions. The whole family should refrain from playdates or gatherings and wear masks in public, indoor settings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>NPR editor and producer \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/468930062/jane-greenhalgh\">\u003cem>Jane Greenhalgh\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and correspondent \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/146944972/rob-stein/\">\u003cem>Rob Stein\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed reporting, and KQED's Jenny Pritchett contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=How+To+Keep+Your+Child+Safe+From+The+Delta+Variant&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Some public health experts are also parents of little kids, and have to strategize to keep those too young to be vaccinated from getting or spreading the delta variant. Here are their tips.",
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"description": "Some public health experts are also parents of little kids, and have to strategize to keep those too young to be vaccinated from getting or spreading the delta variant. Here are their tips.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It's inevitable that when kids mix as they head back to school, germs spread. And in a pandemic year fueled by the delta variant, some of those germs may cause COVID-19. The CDC has advice for keeping your child protected from this highly contagious version of the coronavirus now and this fall: Mask up in schools and other crowded venues, and make sure everyone age 12 and older in the family gets a COVID-19 shot.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But what if your kids are younger than that? What if they develop symptoms or come into contact with someone who tests positive for the coronavirus?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rules for testing and quarantining vary from place to place, so we asked several public health experts — all parents — about their personal strategies for keeping their kids and families safe these days.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>What Do I Do if My Kid Wakes Up with the Sniffles?\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Keep your child at home and consult the pediatrician.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\"This happened to us [recently], for camp,\" says\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.mmg.pitt.edu/person/seema-s-lakdawala\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Seema Lakdawala\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a virologist who studies flu transmission at the University of Pittsburgh. She has two daughters, ages 5 and 8. \"My [8-year-old] daughter woke up and was sneezing and had a runny nose.\"\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She kept her daughter home and then called the pediatrician to talk through her symptoms. The likely culprit was allergies, the doctor told her; the child has known allergies to grass pollen, and it's already hay fever season where she lives. Sure enough, when Lakdawala gave her daughter allergy medication, her symptoms resolved.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The key, says Lakdawala, is that her daughter had no known exposures to COVID-19. \"If we had been on a plane recently, or otherwise traveling, then I would definitely want to get her tested for COVID,\" the parent says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Test for the coronavirus when warranted.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ahead of those sniffles, while everyone's healthy, figure out where your child and others in your home can get\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/01/847368012/how-reliable-are-covid-19-tests-depends-which-one-you-mean\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">PCR-tested\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the coronavirus on short notice with quick results. \"Our pediatrician's office, like many pediatric clinics, has walk-in hours for children who are sick,\" says\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bumc.bu.edu/busm/profile/cassandra-pierre/\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Cassandra Pierre\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, medical director of public health programs at Boston Medical Center and the parent of 3-year-old twins. \"Those hours are in the morning, which means my child could get tested and, hopefully, get the results in the same day.\"\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Keep your child at home until those test results come back, says Pierre.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another option is to buy some over-the-counter,\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/04/22/989934597/as-at-home-coronavirus-tests-hit-pharmacies-what-role-can-they-play-in-the-pande\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">rapid antigen tests\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from the pharmacy now and keep them in your medicine cabinet for a time when you might need them, says\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-people/gronvall/\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gigi Gronvall\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an immunologist and researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. She has two kids, ages 11 and 14. These swab tests are less sensitive than PCR tests (so they might miss very minor infections). But they're quick, easy to use, and considered to be fairly accurate in people who are actively sick. \"They certainly provide peace of mind, especially if [people are] symptomatic,\" Gronvall says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even if those symptoms turn out to be \"just a cold,\" try not to spread it.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whatever your child's COVID-19 status, please don't send them back to school if they're still coughing and sneezing, Pierre says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her 3-year-old was home sick from day care with a cold the day we spoke with her. \"If my son is still sick tomorrow, still stuffy and having nasal secretions, I wouldn't necessarily put him right back and expose other children to another respiratory virus,\" Pierre says. As difficult as it is to arrange for child care, the pandemic has driven home to her that \"we really rely on the decisions that other people make,\" she says. \"I want to make sure that I'm making good decisions to prevent other children and parents potentially from getting sick.\"\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If kids must return to camp or school or day care with mild cold symptoms, they should wear masks consistently, says\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://profiles.ucsf.edu/monica.gandhi\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Monica Gandhi\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an infectious disease doctor at UCSF.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>What If My Child Tests Positive for the Coronavirus?\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\"Don't panic,\" says Pierre. \"The first thing to remember is that children are incredibly resilient.\" Most cases of COVID-19 in\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html#Children\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">children are mild\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Keep a close eye on your child and check in with the pediatrician, particularly if your child has underlying health conditions that may need monitoring.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Think ahead of time about who will take care of whom — and how — if somebody gets sick.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Households are complicated, so think right now about how you could limit the sick child's contact with others in your home. Consider how you and any other members could best divvy up care. If your situation requires backup, Lakdawala suggests reaching out to fully vaccinated family members, friends or neighbors who may be able to step in and offer help.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Lakdawala and her husband have walked through this scenario. They are both fully vaccinated, but their two children are not yet eligible. If one child tests positive for the coronavirus, she says, they will split the household into parent-child pairs in different parts of the house. They might then take turns in the kitchen and minimize the amount of time they're in enclosed spaces with each other.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Layer protections to reduce the risk of household transmission.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Space is limited for most families in the U.S. Still, there are proven ways to reduce the risks of transmission. The key is to rely on multiple types of protection.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">COVID-19 is primarily transmitted\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/sars-cov-2-transmission.html\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">through the air\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, so Pierre notes that \"respiratory hygiene is your No. 1 priority.\"\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If indoor space is shared with a sick person, everyone in the house\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/07/17/1017075240/delta-variant-is-spreading-fast-and-new-cases-are-rising-is-time-to-mask-up-agai\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">should wear masks\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as much as possible, says Gandhi. This means at all times, except when eating, drinking and sleeping. For the sick person, this reduces the amount of virus they exhale into the air, and for others in the household, it limits the amount of virus they breathe in. If a room is available, an older child who is sick with COVID-19 may be able to isolate there, says Pierre. This limits the presence of the virus to a specific part of the home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Get fresh air into the house to disperse any clouds of virus that may be lingering in the air, Lakdawala advises: \"Open the windows, turn on the fans, get some air circulating.\"\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Air purifiers, available in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884658/free-air-filters-for-lower-income-people-with-asthma-how-bay-area-homes-can-sign-up\">six Bay Area counties\u003c/a> to lower-income residents with asthma,\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> could help filter virus out of the air in a closed room, Pierre adds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another possible route of transmission is picking up the live virus on your hands and touching your eyes, nose or mouth. So periodically\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/disinfecting-your-home.html\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">clean and disinfect\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> shared surfaces such as the bathroom counter or kitchen table, particularly if a sick person has been coughing or sneezing nearby, Pierre says. After a few days (the CDC recommends\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/testing.html\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">three to five days\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> after a known exposure), it's a good idea to get the rest of the household tested for the coronavirus.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The best defense, Pierre says, is vaccines. \"We really should be thinking about getting as many people in the household vaccinated as possible to protect themselves, but also to protect the child.\" Vaccinated people can provide care\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html#anchor_1617376555813\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">without needing to quarantine\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, so long as they remain healthy, without COVID-19 symptoms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Keep your child home until they're no longer contagious.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though asymptomatic infections can spread disease, too, people with COVID-19 are most likely to spread the infection to others when symptoms first appear. So\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/quarantine.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fif-you-are-sick%2Fisolation.html\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">10 days after symptoms first appear\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, if those symptoms have resolved without the continued use of fever-reducing medicine, the illness is no longer considered contagious, Gronvall says. Sometimes, children develop symptoms such as loss of taste and smell that can last longer, \"but as far as there being a danger to others, these symptoms don't need to interfere with them going back to school,\" she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Again, if child care is an issue, fully vaccinated family members, friends or neighbors may be able to help.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11884679\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11884679\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS46334_012_KQED_SanFrancisco_Playgrounds_12102020-qut.jpg\" alt=\"young child on slide wearing a mask\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS46334_012_KQED_SanFrancisco_Playgrounds_12102020-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS46334_012_KQED_SanFrancisco_Playgrounds_12102020-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS46334_012_KQED_SanFrancisco_Playgrounds_12102020-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS46334_012_KQED_SanFrancisco_Playgrounds_12102020-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/RS46334_012_KQED_SanFrancisco_Playgrounds_12102020-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A child goes down a concrete slide at Youngblood Coleman Playground in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>What Kind of Mask Should a Child Wear?\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wear any mask that fits well — with no gaps around the mouth, nose or chin — and is comfortable. While adults these days are being encouraged\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/02/03/962197192/5-hacks-to-make-your-face-mask-more-protective\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">to step up our mask game\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> beyond cloth versions, the advice for children may be a little different. \"The best mask is one that they can wear for long periods of time, even in school,\" Pierre says. \"A cotton mask is the most comfortable, lightweight and breathable.\"\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bonus points if the kids like the design: A child is more likely to wear a mask they find appealing, and to wear it consistently and correctly. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\"My kids have the cutest masks,\" Lakdawala says. \"They have the ones that look like little cat faces and smiley faces or dogs or bears or whatever.\" Gronvall's 11-year-old prefers a mask that is \"silky and has pictures of cats in outer space that have lasers coming out of their eyes,\" so she has ordered several of those masks to send with him to school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kids can also DIY existing masks with art supplies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you want to add more protection, Gandhi suggests wearing two masks, which creates a tighter mask fit on the face, or adding a filter layer to a child's mask. \"You can buy a cloth mask with a pocket, and\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.18.20233353v1\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">use vacuum bag material as a filter\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. It's thin and it blocks virus very effectively,\" she says. Still, she agrees that the bottom line with kids is comfort. So if these interventions make them less likely to wear the mask, she says you can skip them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Is It OK to Hug Our Kids When They're Sick with COVID-19?\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The reassurance of physical contact — hugs and cuddles — can be important, especially for little ones, Lakdawala says. \"I'm not going to deny or deprive my child of that comfort when they're not feeling well.\" And you may feel that way, too. But Pierre says that if the kids are older, \"I would recommend physical distancing.\"\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/11/covid-19-most-contagious-first-5-days-illness-study-finds\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Studies suggest\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that a person with COVID-19 is most infectious in the first five days, so Gandhi says she'd aim to limit close contact in that period. \"For the first five days, I'd let them watch TV and I would try to not be as cuddly,\" she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\"At night, if a child has a fever and needs comfort, that can be difficult,\" says Pierre. Nobody recommends wearing a protective mask while sleeping, but if you're sharing a bed with a sick child, you might consider facing in the same direction from behind them, or away — so they're not breathing directly into your face — and opening up the windows or using air purifiers to help clear the air.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lakdawala says wearing masks when someone is sick with COVID-19, and, again, divvying up care responsibilities (including hugs), can help reduce the risk that everyone in the household gets sick.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>What Do I Do if My Child Is Sent Home From School After a COVID-19 Exposure?\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If your child is unvaccinated, quarantine your child, wear masks, watch for symptoms and test.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the school district provides specific instructions for quarantining, follow that guidance, Pierre says. The CDC has a specific definition for \"close contact\" between kids in schools, and\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/contact-tracing/contact-tracing-plan/appendix.html#contact\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">it is more lenient\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> than in other settings: \"If your child is physically distancing 3 feet from another child who's sick and both of them are wearing masks consistently, we would not actually consider that to be an exposure,\" says Pierre. \"But if that is not what has happened, then the child needs\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/quarantine.html\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">to be quarantined\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\"\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the house, take reasonable precautions, says Pierre, \"but it's not necessarily with the rigor of having to go to your room and stay there,\" unless your child develops symptoms or tests positive for the coronavirus. Instead, try to keep some physical distance between the quarantining child and other household members, and have the child and/or those other family members wear a mask, especially those who are the most vulnerable and unvaccinated.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Lakdawala's home, her two children — both too young to be vaccinated — typically share a room. If one were in quarantine, \"I would separate them in terms of where they would sleep, but I would probably still send the other one to school if it was just an exposure,\" she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She would wait a few days and then get the quarantining child tested for the coronavirus with a PCR test. In the interim, she'd\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">watch for symptoms\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. If no symptoms develop or the test comes back negative, it's fine to resume all the usual activities\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-guidance.html#contact-tracing\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">after seven to 14 days\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, depending on your school's policy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And while the child in quarantine is staying home, Lakdawala says, the rest of the household can keep on with essential business — school, work, grocery shopping and the like — with some precautions. The whole family should refrain from playdates or gatherings and wear masks in public, indoor settings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>NPR editor and producer \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/468930062/jane-greenhalgh\">\u003cem>Jane Greenhalgh\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and correspondent \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/146944972/rob-stein/\">\u003cem>Rob Stein\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed reporting, and KQED's Jenny Pritchett contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=How+To+Keep+Your+Child+Safe+From+The+Delta+Variant&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Digital vaccine cards — referred to by some as “vaccine passports” — have been available to Californians since June through the California Department of Public Health. And with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11881585/with-the-delta-variant-spreading-fast-is-it-time-to-mask-up-again\">the COVID-19 delta variant continuing to spread statewide\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11883397/indoor-mask-mandate-reinstated-in-most-bay-area-counties-regardless-of-vaccination-status\">Bay Area counties recently reinstating a mask mandate indoors\u003c/a>, the likelihood that you might need to provide proof of vaccination to enter certain restaurants, venues and bars is increasing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proof of vaccination among staff is also becoming more common among employers. On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a mandate that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884606/newsom-mandates-covid-vaccines-or-regular-tests-for-all-california-teachers\">all California teachers and staff be vaccinated for COVID-19\u003c/a> or be tested weekly — the first such statewide mandate in the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you haven’t signed up for your digital vaccine card yet, read on for more details of what CDPH’s digital vaccine verification looks like, why you might want to have one, how to request your digital vaccine record online and what do if you have problems with the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Skip straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#why\">Why should I get a digital vaccine card?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#howto\">What does the application process look like?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#problems\">Whom do I contact if it’s not working?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#outside\">NEW: What if I got vaccinated outside California?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>What is a digital COVID vaccine record? What does it look like?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/\">Your digital COVID vaccine record\u003c/a> refers to the details of your COVID vaccination as stored in the California Immunization Registry (CAIR, which also stores details of \u003cem>all\u003c/em> your vaccinations, not just your COVID shots).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s being referred to as your “digital COVID vaccine card” is really just a screenshot of that online record — plus a QR code that’s attached to it. It’s an alternative way of verifying your COVID vaccination status if and when venues or businesses request to see it. Previously, you’d only have been able to show the paper copy of your vaccine record (the one you received when you got your shot) or a photo of that paper copy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/\">The state’s digital COVID vaccine record\u003c/a> works by taking the phone number or email address associated with your COVID vaccine appointment, and then matching those details with the vaccination information stored with CAIR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The link you’ll receive from the CDPH will either be texted to you or emailed, depending on the contact method you provide. The link opens to a webpage with your COVID vaccination record(s), including which brand of vaccine you received and when you got your shot(s). You can screenshot this page and save it to your computer or phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The webpage will contain a QR code, which you can also screenshot and save on your phone. If you’re at a venue that can read SMART Health Cards, you can present a copy of this QR code for them to scan.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"why\">\u003c/a>Why should I get a digital vaccine card? Where could I be asked for mine?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/\">The sign-up process is fairly simple\u003c/a>, and no separate app download is required. The electronic record of your vaccination may also be easier to read than a photo of your paper vaccine card, which will have been handwritten by a member of the staff at your vaccination appointment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This digital record is also a good option if you’ve straight-up misplaced or damaged your paper vaccine card recently. (If that’s you, and you’re seeking a replacement for your CDC card, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/Lost-your-COVID-vaccine-card-Here-s-what-you-16377496.php\">The San Francisco Chronicle has a guide to how to request one\u003c/a>.) Not only can you use the digital version as proof of your vaccination, but you can print it out to replace your paper card.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has stressed that \u003ca href=\"https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/faq\">the digital vaccination record is \u003cem>not\u003c/em> a vaccine passport\u003c/a>, and that you are not required to obtain one. The \u003ca href=\"https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/faq\">state’s vaccine card FAQ\u003c/a> also says that California “will not be implementing a mandatory passport system in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Public Health lists \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/Vaccine-Record-Guidelines-Standards.aspx\">several alternative ways to prove your vaccination status\u003c/a> if required, including your CDC card (the paper copy or a photo of the card on your phone) or documentation of vaccination from a health care provider.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some venues have the right to ask you to provide proof of vaccination as a condition of entry — and they’re going to do that regardless of whether you call that proof a “passport” or not. These venues might include larger locations like concert halls and sporting stadiums, and smaller venues like gyms and bars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, hundreds of San Francisco bars announced they’d be requiring proof of vaccination upon entry for customers. (\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/7/26/22594908/restaurants-bars-proof-vaccination-san-francisco-bay-area\">Read the list of these bars and venues requiring proof of vaccination\u003c/a> via SF Eater.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Your workplace may also ask you to provide proof of vaccination. Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued a mandate that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884606/newsom-mandates-covid-vaccines-or-regular-tests-for-all-california-teachers\">all California teachers and staff be vaccinated for COVID-19\u003c/a> or be tested weekly. In the past two weeks, the state also has issued vaccination or regular testing mandates for state employees and health care workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"howto\">\u003c/a>Step-by-step: How to get your digital vaccine card\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Visit the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/\">Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record\u003c/a> portal to start the process of requesting your vaccination record electronically. The request process is all based around this one webpage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, input your name and birthday:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11879218\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1067\" height=\"692\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1.png 1067w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1-800x519.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1-1020x662.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1-160x104.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1067px) 100vw, 1067px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, you’ll provide the phone number or email address you gave when you originally made your COVID vaccine appointment:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11879219\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1008\" height=\"353\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2.png 1008w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2-800x280.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2-160x56.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1008px) 100vw, 1008px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The last step is creating a PIN number, which you’ll use to get access to your vaccine record when the link is texted or emailed to you:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11879220\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1021\" height=\"475\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/3.png 1021w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/3-800x372.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/3-160x74.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1021px) 100vw, 1021px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you provide a phone number, the link will be texted to you. If you provide an email address, you’ll get the link via email. Open the link and input the PIN you set earlier. You’ll then see your COVID vaccine record and your QR code. Screenshot and save the image, or print it out for a paper copy of your vaccination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This link to your digital vaccine record is available for 24 hours. After that, you’ll have to request your record and a new link again.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What if I used the same phone number or email address to make multiple vaccination appointments for my family?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>It’s totally fine. Just enter each vaccination record request separately, with the name of the vaccinated person and whatever phone number or email was used to make their appointment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"outside\">\u003c/a>What if I got vaccinated outside California?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>If you got vaccinated in a state other than California, see if that state offers a digital vaccine card equivalent to California’s My Vaccine Record that you can request and present when asked for proof of vaccination in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they don’t, you can just present a photo of your CDC vaccination card — since that card is provided for every COVID vaccination in the United States, regardless of which state it took place in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What if you got vaccinated in a country outside the U.S.? Take a look at the California Department of Public Health’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/Vaccine-Record-Guidelines-Standards.aspx\">recommended ways to show your proof of vaccination \u003c/a>to see what you can provide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You may also wish to consult the specific information on acceptable proof of vaccination in a particular city or county. For example, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfdph.org/dph/alerts/coronavirus-faq.asp\">San Francisco’s detailed FAQ on providing proof of vaccination \u003c/a>says that city establishments will accept “similar documentation issued by another foreign governmental jurisdiction” when it comes to vaccines, as long as the name on that documentation can be matched to your photo identification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfdph.org/dph/alerts/coronavirus-faq.asp\">San Francisco also provides specific advice to people who live in Canada and who got the AstraZeneca vaccine.\u003c/a> It confirms that a Canadian vaccination card \u003cem>will\u003c/em> satisfy the proof of vaccination requirement even though AstraZeneca’s vaccine wasn’t approved by the FDA — as long as you are fully vaccinated.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"problems\">\u003c/a>What if I can’t find my vaccine record, or there’s a mistake on it?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>If you submit your information to the portal but no link to your vaccination record is returned, the state recommends making sure:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>That you’re entering an email or phone number associated with your vaccine record (i.e., the contact details you originally used to make your vaccination appointment).\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>That you double-check you’ve entered the correct name and birthdate.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>If your record still isn’t found, or if the information that’s returned is wrong (for example, the wrong vaccination dates, dose number or dose brand), you can:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Follow \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Immunization/COVID-19VaccineRecord.aspx\">CDPH’s troubleshooting tips.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Call (833) 422-4255 (lines open Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m, Saturday-Sunday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.).\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Email novelvirus@cdph.ca.gov.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>CDPH also has a \u003ca href=\"https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/unmatched\">troubleshooting form\u003c/a> you can complete, but the state says it’ll take two to three weeks to get back to you with their findings and next steps,.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some people will have made their vaccination appointment over the phone via CPDH’s COVID hotline, precisely because they didn’t have a cellphone number or email address with which to make their appointment. If that’s you, we suggest contacting CDPH using the number above.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What if I don’t want to get a digital vaccine card?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>That’s OK — nobody’s going to make you get a digital vaccine card. The state says you are not required to obtain a digital COVID-19 vaccine record and that this system is entirely optional.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also just \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/Vaccine-Record-Guidelines-Standards.aspx\">\u003cem>one\u003c/em> of the ways to show your proof of vaccination\u003c/a>. You can still show your paper card anywhere that’s requesting proof of vaccination, or use another method included on \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/Vaccine-Record-Guidelines-Standards.aspx\">the California Department of Public Health’s list of ways to prove you’re vaccinated\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A version of this story was originally published on June 24.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Digital vaccine cards — referred to by some as 'vaccine passports' — are available via the California Department of Public Health. Here's how (and why) to get your vaccine record online.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Digital vaccine cards — referred to by some as “vaccine passports” — have been available to Californians since June through the California Department of Public Health. And with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11881585/with-the-delta-variant-spreading-fast-is-it-time-to-mask-up-again\">the COVID-19 delta variant continuing to spread statewide\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11883397/indoor-mask-mandate-reinstated-in-most-bay-area-counties-regardless-of-vaccination-status\">Bay Area counties recently reinstating a mask mandate indoors\u003c/a>, the likelihood that you might need to provide proof of vaccination to enter certain restaurants, venues and bars is increasing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proof of vaccination among staff is also becoming more common among employers. On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a mandate that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884606/newsom-mandates-covid-vaccines-or-regular-tests-for-all-california-teachers\">all California teachers and staff be vaccinated for COVID-19\u003c/a> or be tested weekly — the first such statewide mandate in the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you haven’t signed up for your digital vaccine card yet, read on for more details of what CDPH’s digital vaccine verification looks like, why you might want to have one, how to request your digital vaccine record online and what do if you have problems with the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Skip straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#why\">Why should I get a digital vaccine card?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#howto\">What does the application process look like?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#problems\">Whom do I contact if it’s not working?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#outside\">NEW: What if I got vaccinated outside California?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>What is a digital COVID vaccine record? What does it look like?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/\">Your digital COVID vaccine record\u003c/a> refers to the details of your COVID vaccination as stored in the California Immunization Registry (CAIR, which also stores details of \u003cem>all\u003c/em> your vaccinations, not just your COVID shots).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s being referred to as your “digital COVID vaccine card” is really just a screenshot of that online record — plus a QR code that’s attached to it. It’s an alternative way of verifying your COVID vaccination status if and when venues or businesses request to see it. Previously, you’d only have been able to show the paper copy of your vaccine record (the one you received when you got your shot) or a photo of that paper copy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/\">The state’s digital COVID vaccine record\u003c/a> works by taking the phone number or email address associated with your COVID vaccine appointment, and then matching those details with the vaccination information stored with CAIR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The link you’ll receive from the CDPH will either be texted to you or emailed, depending on the contact method you provide. The link opens to a webpage with your COVID vaccination record(s), including which brand of vaccine you received and when you got your shot(s). You can screenshot this page and save it to your computer or phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The webpage will contain a QR code, which you can also screenshot and save on your phone. If you’re at a venue that can read SMART Health Cards, you can present a copy of this QR code for them to scan.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"why\">\u003c/a>Why should I get a digital vaccine card? Where could I be asked for mine?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/\">The sign-up process is fairly simple\u003c/a>, and no separate app download is required. The electronic record of your vaccination may also be easier to read than a photo of your paper vaccine card, which will have been handwritten by a member of the staff at your vaccination appointment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This digital record is also a good option if you’ve straight-up misplaced or damaged your paper vaccine card recently. (If that’s you, and you’re seeking a replacement for your CDC card, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/Lost-your-COVID-vaccine-card-Here-s-what-you-16377496.php\">The San Francisco Chronicle has a guide to how to request one\u003c/a>.) Not only can you use the digital version as proof of your vaccination, but you can print it out to replace your paper card.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has stressed that \u003ca href=\"https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/faq\">the digital vaccination record is \u003cem>not\u003c/em> a vaccine passport\u003c/a>, and that you are not required to obtain one. The \u003ca href=\"https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/faq\">state’s vaccine card FAQ\u003c/a> also says that California “will not be implementing a mandatory passport system in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Public Health lists \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/Vaccine-Record-Guidelines-Standards.aspx\">several alternative ways to prove your vaccination status\u003c/a> if required, including your CDC card (the paper copy or a photo of the card on your phone) or documentation of vaccination from a health care provider.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some venues have the right to ask you to provide proof of vaccination as a condition of entry — and they’re going to do that regardless of whether you call that proof a “passport” or not. These venues might include larger locations like concert halls and sporting stadiums, and smaller venues like gyms and bars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, hundreds of San Francisco bars announced they’d be requiring proof of vaccination upon entry for customers. (\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/7/26/22594908/restaurants-bars-proof-vaccination-san-francisco-bay-area\">Read the list of these bars and venues requiring proof of vaccination\u003c/a> via SF Eater.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Your workplace may also ask you to provide proof of vaccination. Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued a mandate that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884606/newsom-mandates-covid-vaccines-or-regular-tests-for-all-california-teachers\">all California teachers and staff be vaccinated for COVID-19\u003c/a> or be tested weekly. In the past two weeks, the state also has issued vaccination or regular testing mandates for state employees and health care workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"howto\">\u003c/a>Step-by-step: How to get your digital vaccine card\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Visit the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/\">Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record\u003c/a> portal to start the process of requesting your vaccination record electronically. The request process is all based around this one webpage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, input your name and birthday:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11879218\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1067\" height=\"692\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1.png 1067w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1-800x519.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1-1020x662.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1-160x104.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1067px) 100vw, 1067px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, you’ll provide the phone number or email address you gave when you originally made your COVID vaccine appointment:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11879219\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1008\" height=\"353\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2.png 1008w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2-800x280.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2-160x56.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1008px) 100vw, 1008px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The last step is creating a PIN number, which you’ll use to get access to your vaccine record when the link is texted or emailed to you:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11879220\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1021\" height=\"475\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/3.png 1021w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/3-800x372.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/3-160x74.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1021px) 100vw, 1021px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you provide a phone number, the link will be texted to you. If you provide an email address, you’ll get the link via email. Open the link and input the PIN you set earlier. You’ll then see your COVID vaccine record and your QR code. Screenshot and save the image, or print it out for a paper copy of your vaccination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This link to your digital vaccine record is available for 24 hours. After that, you’ll have to request your record and a new link again.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What if I used the same phone number or email address to make multiple vaccination appointments for my family?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>It’s totally fine. Just enter each vaccination record request separately, with the name of the vaccinated person and whatever phone number or email was used to make their appointment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"outside\">\u003c/a>What if I got vaccinated outside California?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>If you got vaccinated in a state other than California, see if that state offers a digital vaccine card equivalent to California’s My Vaccine Record that you can request and present when asked for proof of vaccination in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they don’t, you can just present a photo of your CDC vaccination card — since that card is provided for every COVID vaccination in the United States, regardless of which state it took place in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What if you got vaccinated in a country outside the U.S.? Take a look at the California Department of Public Health’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/Vaccine-Record-Guidelines-Standards.aspx\">recommended ways to show your proof of vaccination \u003c/a>to see what you can provide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You may also wish to consult the specific information on acceptable proof of vaccination in a particular city or county. For example, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfdph.org/dph/alerts/coronavirus-faq.asp\">San Francisco’s detailed FAQ on providing proof of vaccination \u003c/a>says that city establishments will accept “similar documentation issued by another foreign governmental jurisdiction” when it comes to vaccines, as long as the name on that documentation can be matched to your photo identification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfdph.org/dph/alerts/coronavirus-faq.asp\">San Francisco also provides specific advice to people who live in Canada and who got the AstraZeneca vaccine.\u003c/a> It confirms that a Canadian vaccination card \u003cem>will\u003c/em> satisfy the proof of vaccination requirement even though AstraZeneca’s vaccine wasn’t approved by the FDA — as long as you are fully vaccinated.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"problems\">\u003c/a>What if I can’t find my vaccine record, or there’s a mistake on it?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>If you submit your information to the portal but no link to your vaccination record is returned, the state recommends making sure:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>That you’re entering an email or phone number associated with your vaccine record (i.e., the contact details you originally used to make your vaccination appointment).\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>That you double-check you’ve entered the correct name and birthdate.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>If your record still isn’t found, or if the information that’s returned is wrong (for example, the wrong vaccination dates, dose number or dose brand), you can:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Follow \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Immunization/COVID-19VaccineRecord.aspx\">CDPH’s troubleshooting tips.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Call (833) 422-4255 (lines open Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m, Saturday-Sunday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.).\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Email novelvirus@cdph.ca.gov.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>CDPH also has a \u003ca href=\"https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/unmatched\">troubleshooting form\u003c/a> you can complete, but the state says it’ll take two to three weeks to get back to you with their findings and next steps,.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some people will have made their vaccination appointment over the phone via CPDH’s COVID hotline, precisely because they didn’t have a cellphone number or email address with which to make their appointment. If that’s you, we suggest contacting CDPH using the number above.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What if I don’t want to get a digital vaccine card?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>That’s OK — nobody’s going to make you get a digital vaccine card. The state says you are not required to obtain a digital COVID-19 vaccine record and that this system is entirely optional.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also just \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/Vaccine-Record-Guidelines-Standards.aspx\">\u003cem>one\u003c/em> of the ways to show your proof of vaccination\u003c/a>. You can still show your paper card anywhere that’s requesting proof of vaccination, or use another method included on \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/Vaccine-Record-Guidelines-Standards.aspx\">the California Department of Public Health’s list of ways to prove you’re vaccinated\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A version of this story was originally published on June 24.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s only July, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is focusing on the coming school year, and its message is clear: It wants students back in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday, the agency issued updated guidance for K-12 schools, highlighting the importance of getting as many eligible kids vaccinated as possible in order to return classrooms to normal, or near normal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Dr. Jill Weatherhead, Baylor College of Medicine\"]‘There’s always going to be some risk, but we can reduce it in the healthiest way possible.’[/pullquote]So far, just 1 out of 3 kids ages 12 to 17 have received a COVID vaccine nationally. The Biden administration is hoping to boost these numbers before school starts in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For families who haven’t gotten their kids vaccinated yet, now is the time,” said Erin Sauber-Schatz, lead for the Community Interventions and Critical Populations Task Force at the CDC. “It takes five weeks to get fully vaccinated. If you got your first shot today, the second would be July 30 and you’d be fully vaccinated on Aug. 13. So now’s the time if you haven’t gotten vaccinated yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If a high school could document that everyone in the building were fully vaccinated, she said, school would look a lot like it did pre-pandemic. Of course, the reality is that most schools will have a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated students and staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The updated guidelines note that fully vaccinated staff and students may not need to wear masks at school. (Although because of the CDC order requiring masks on public transportation, they would have to mask up on school buses.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For students too young to be vaccinated at this time, the CDC suggests multiple strategies to reduce the risk of transmission: notably, mask-wearing for ages 2 and up and physical distancing when possible of a minimum of 3 feet in indoor school settings (even when children are vaccinated).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additional protective measures advocated in the CDC guidelines include hand-washing and good indoor ventilation and cleaning procedures. In addition, the CDC urges any students or staff with signs of infectious illness to stay home, be tested for COVID and quarantine if indicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The guidelines put a priority on in-school instruction and emphasize the need to be flexible. “If 3 feet is not feasible, it should not keep kids out of school,” Sauber-Schatz said. “In our guidance we focus on the most important prevention strategies, and they should be removed one at a time and then closely monitored” to make sure infection rates don’t rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC adds that enforcement of these guidelines is up to local jurisdictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>In California:\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>State public health officials announced Friday that they will release updated guidance for the fall school semester next week encouraging schools to return to full in-person classes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The guidance will align with the CDC’s and focus on COVID-19 testing support for schools and safety measures like wearing face coverings indoors. Officials with the California Department of Public Health said they’ll require students and staff to continue wearing face coverings indoors, regardless of vaccination status, to “ensure that all kids are treated the same.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the outset of the new year, students should be able to walk into school without worrying about whether they will feel different or singled out for being vaccinated or unvaccinated,” state Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, \u003ca href=\"https://covid19.ca.gov/vaccination-progress-data/#progress-by-group\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">more than 34% of the 3.1 million kids\u003c/a> ages 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated as of Friday, that’s according to the CDPH’s vaccine data portal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To help fund the state’s school system, Gov. Gavin Newsom also signed a funding package Friday that will allocate nearly $124 billion to support expanded after school and summer learning programs, increase school staff sizes and make pre-kindergarten available for free for all of the state’s 4-year-olds by 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip released a statement Friday supporting the full return to in-person classrooms for all grades in the fall, citing low community transmission and high vaccination rates in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were less than five cases of COVID transmission in schools with in-person learning among 48,000 students and teachers during the last school year, including during the height of our winter surge,” she said in the statement, and added that current vaccines are effective against the more infections delta variant spreading in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Philip said in school settings, masks will be required, but only indoors, and physical distancing will not be required. Additional safety procedures will be in place, including increased ventilation and symptom screenings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, in the immediate weeks ahead, parents may also be wondering about how to keep unvaccinated kids safe during summer vacations and outings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC recommends \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-risk.html\">not traveling until you’re fully vaccinated\u003c/a>, but that leaves many families with a conundrum, said Mayo Clinic pediatric infectious disease specialist \u003ca href=\"https://www.mayoclinic.org/biographies/rajapakse-nipunie-s-m-d-m-p-h/bio-20308514\">Dr. Nipunie Rajapakse\u003c/a> and Baylor College of Medicine assistant professor of adult and pediatric infectious diseases \u003ca href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.bcm.edu/people-search/jill-weatherhead-32866__;!!Iwwt!CRCarT-rT3I8tHi1Ah0Rkwy31yjBE15DbG1JHnZqWti4jbpB8ch0qnQp9mLc%24\">Dr. Jill Weatherhead\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That really puts families in a tough spot when you have parents and older siblings who have been vaccinated and younger siblings who have not,” Weatherhead said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don’t worry: You probably don’t need to leave unvaccinated kids at home, according to our sources — though much depends on a family’s individual circumstances and risk tolerance. But Weatherhead and Rajapakse said that many families will be able to make traveling with unvaccinated kids acceptably safe. Here’s how:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Flying:\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Last summer, Weatherhead’s husband drove the couple’s two young kids from Houston to their annual summer vacation in Michigan. This year, they flew — with plenty of hand sanitizer and distancing whenever possible. They were able to snag flights on a carrier that flies out of an airport that isn’t superbusy and allowed them to choose their own seats upon boarding. Of course, that’s not an option on most carriers, and Delta, one of the last U.S. airlines to leave middle rows vacant, began booking those seats in May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flights haven’t turned out to be superspreaders, although it matters who is seated near you: On \u003ca href=\"https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/3/20-4714_article\">a September flight \u003c/a>from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to New Zealand, at least four people within two rows of a contagious passenger got COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You never know who is seated near you, especially on long flights when you’re in close proximity,” Rajapakse said. “And at airports, people from different parts of the country and the world are mixing in a confined area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With no way of knowing which passengers are vaccinated, make sure unvaccinated kids keep their masks on as much as possible (\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-risk.html\">masks are still required in airports and on flights\u003c/a>). In addition, unvaccinated kids should also adhere to physical distancing guidelines while traveling and good hand hygiene — and get tested before and after the flight, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-during-covid19.html\">CDC\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That could mean finding a less-busy area in the airport to wait in before your flight, toting your own hand sanitizer, avoiding crowded restaurants and kiosks, and keeping snack and water breaks as brief as possible. If your kids need a snack on board, make sure they wait until other passengers have finished eating and masked up again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s always going to be some risk, but we can reduce it in the healthiest way possible,” Weatherhead said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Family Reunions:\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>To avoid awkward scenarios, have the COVID conversation ahead of time, Weatherhead suggests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People should have open discussions with the people they’re visiting about what makes them feel safe,” she said. “The more you can communicate that ahead of time, the more enjoyable it will be for everyone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, Weatherhead suggests saying: “Please, everyone get vaccinated because I’m bringing my 2-year-old and I want to see you, but I want to protect her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The easiest way to protect everyone in your family is to encourage the adults to get vaccinated and to ensure their tweens and teens are fully vaccinated before the planned gathering, Rajapakse and Weatherhead agreed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If there are unvaccinated individuals, the risk goes up for everyone,” Rajapakse said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The more you can “cocoon” unvaccinated kids by surrounding them with vaccinated people, the more you can protect them, Weatherhead said. “It’s the safest thing you can do besides staying home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once you’re there, you can further reduce risks by planning outdoor activities and spacing out tables at meals, Weatherhead added.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>At Home:\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Precautions shouldn’t end after your trip, even if most people in your community have let their guard down. With the delta variant now accounting for over half of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S., it’s important for anyone who’s not vaccinated to adhere to mask wearing and physical distancing — especially if you live in an area with low vaccination rates and high transmission, Rajapakse said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside tag=\"coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\" label=\"COVID-19 Resources and Explainers\"]Instead of focusing on national numbers, Rajapakse recommends staying on top of your community’s rates: “Knowing who you’re around and what’s going on in your community and who you’re interacting with is the more important statistic,” she said. “As we see the virus circulation rates go down, we will see risks go down — but the risk to kids is not zero, especially with the delta variant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If your under-12 kids are reluctant to be the only ones in a store wearing masks, put your own on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even though my husband and I are vaccinated, we wear masks to protect them as much as we can and to model that behavior for them,” Weatherhead said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And remember, vaccines for kids are on the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sheila Mulrooney Eldred is a freelance health journalist in Minneapolis. She’s written about COVID-19 for many publications, including Medscape, Kaiser Health News, Science News for Students and The Washington Post. More at \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/sheilaeldred.pressfolios.com__;!!Iwwt!EK3837L0Aze-xksfoR3K5AMElHCnihZwm5GA1qwGU6K4a94b-GMJup_1kYqv%24\">\u003cem>sheilaeldred.pressfolios.com\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. On Twitter: \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/milepostmedia?lang=en\">\u003cem>@milepostmedia\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bay City News and KQED’s Julie Chang contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=CDC+Updates+Guidelines+To+Protect+Kids+From+COVID+In+School.+Plus%3A+Vacation+Tips&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>So far, just 1 out of 3 kids ages 12 to 17 have received a COVID vaccine nationally. The Biden administration is hoping to boost these numbers before school starts in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For families who haven’t gotten their kids vaccinated yet, now is the time,” said Erin Sauber-Schatz, lead for the Community Interventions and Critical Populations Task Force at the CDC. “It takes five weeks to get fully vaccinated. If you got your first shot today, the second would be July 30 and you’d be fully vaccinated on Aug. 13. So now’s the time if you haven’t gotten vaccinated yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If a high school could document that everyone in the building were fully vaccinated, she said, school would look a lot like it did pre-pandemic. Of course, the reality is that most schools will have a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated students and staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The updated guidelines note that fully vaccinated staff and students may not need to wear masks at school. (Although because of the CDC order requiring masks on public transportation, they would have to mask up on school buses.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For students too young to be vaccinated at this time, the CDC suggests multiple strategies to reduce the risk of transmission: notably, mask-wearing for ages 2 and up and physical distancing when possible of a minimum of 3 feet in indoor school settings (even when children are vaccinated).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additional protective measures advocated in the CDC guidelines include hand-washing and good indoor ventilation and cleaning procedures. In addition, the CDC urges any students or staff with signs of infectious illness to stay home, be tested for COVID and quarantine if indicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The guidelines put a priority on in-school instruction and emphasize the need to be flexible. “If 3 feet is not feasible, it should not keep kids out of school,” Sauber-Schatz said. “In our guidance we focus on the most important prevention strategies, and they should be removed one at a time and then closely monitored” to make sure infection rates don’t rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC adds that enforcement of these guidelines is up to local jurisdictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>In California:\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>State public health officials announced Friday that they will release updated guidance for the fall school semester next week encouraging schools to return to full in-person classes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The guidance will align with the CDC’s and focus on COVID-19 testing support for schools and safety measures like wearing face coverings indoors. Officials with the California Department of Public Health said they’ll require students and staff to continue wearing face coverings indoors, regardless of vaccination status, to “ensure that all kids are treated the same.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the outset of the new year, students should be able to walk into school without worrying about whether they will feel different or singled out for being vaccinated or unvaccinated,” state Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, \u003ca href=\"https://covid19.ca.gov/vaccination-progress-data/#progress-by-group\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">more than 34% of the 3.1 million kids\u003c/a> ages 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated as of Friday, that’s according to the CDPH’s vaccine data portal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To help fund the state’s school system, Gov. Gavin Newsom also signed a funding package Friday that will allocate nearly $124 billion to support expanded after school and summer learning programs, increase school staff sizes and make pre-kindergarten available for free for all of the state’s 4-year-olds by 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip released a statement Friday supporting the full return to in-person classrooms for all grades in the fall, citing low community transmission and high vaccination rates in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were less than five cases of COVID transmission in schools with in-person learning among 48,000 students and teachers during the last school year, including during the height of our winter surge,” she said in the statement, and added that current vaccines are effective against the more infections delta variant spreading in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Philip said in school settings, masks will be required, but only indoors, and physical distancing will not be required. Additional safety procedures will be in place, including increased ventilation and symptom screenings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, in the immediate weeks ahead, parents may also be wondering about how to keep unvaccinated kids safe during summer vacations and outings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC recommends \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-risk.html\">not traveling until you’re fully vaccinated\u003c/a>, but that leaves many families with a conundrum, said Mayo Clinic pediatric infectious disease specialist \u003ca href=\"https://www.mayoclinic.org/biographies/rajapakse-nipunie-s-m-d-m-p-h/bio-20308514\">Dr. Nipunie Rajapakse\u003c/a> and Baylor College of Medicine assistant professor of adult and pediatric infectious diseases \u003ca href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.bcm.edu/people-search/jill-weatherhead-32866__;!!Iwwt!CRCarT-rT3I8tHi1Ah0Rkwy31yjBE15DbG1JHnZqWti4jbpB8ch0qnQp9mLc%24\">Dr. Jill Weatherhead\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That really puts families in a tough spot when you have parents and older siblings who have been vaccinated and younger siblings who have not,” Weatherhead said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don’t worry: You probably don’t need to leave unvaccinated kids at home, according to our sources — though much depends on a family’s individual circumstances and risk tolerance. But Weatherhead and Rajapakse said that many families will be able to make traveling with unvaccinated kids acceptably safe. Here’s how:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Flying:\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Last summer, Weatherhead’s husband drove the couple’s two young kids from Houston to their annual summer vacation in Michigan. This year, they flew — with plenty of hand sanitizer and distancing whenever possible. They were able to snag flights on a carrier that flies out of an airport that isn’t superbusy and allowed them to choose their own seats upon boarding. Of course, that’s not an option on most carriers, and Delta, one of the last U.S. airlines to leave middle rows vacant, began booking those seats in May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flights haven’t turned out to be superspreaders, although it matters who is seated near you: On \u003ca href=\"https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/3/20-4714_article\">a September flight \u003c/a>from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to New Zealand, at least four people within two rows of a contagious passenger got COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You never know who is seated near you, especially on long flights when you’re in close proximity,” Rajapakse said. “And at airports, people from different parts of the country and the world are mixing in a confined area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With no way of knowing which passengers are vaccinated, make sure unvaccinated kids keep their masks on as much as possible (\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-risk.html\">masks are still required in airports and on flights\u003c/a>). In addition, unvaccinated kids should also adhere to physical distancing guidelines while traveling and good hand hygiene — and get tested before and after the flight, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-during-covid19.html\">CDC\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That could mean finding a less-busy area in the airport to wait in before your flight, toting your own hand sanitizer, avoiding crowded restaurants and kiosks, and keeping snack and water breaks as brief as possible. If your kids need a snack on board, make sure they wait until other passengers have finished eating and masked up again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s always going to be some risk, but we can reduce it in the healthiest way possible,” Weatherhead said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Family Reunions:\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>To avoid awkward scenarios, have the COVID conversation ahead of time, Weatherhead suggests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People should have open discussions with the people they’re visiting about what makes them feel safe,” she said. “The more you can communicate that ahead of time, the more enjoyable it will be for everyone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, Weatherhead suggests saying: “Please, everyone get vaccinated because I’m bringing my 2-year-old and I want to see you, but I want to protect her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The easiest way to protect everyone in your family is to encourage the adults to get vaccinated and to ensure their tweens and teens are fully vaccinated before the planned gathering, Rajapakse and Weatherhead agreed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If there are unvaccinated individuals, the risk goes up for everyone,” Rajapakse said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The more you can “cocoon” unvaccinated kids by surrounding them with vaccinated people, the more you can protect them, Weatherhead said. “It’s the safest thing you can do besides staying home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once you’re there, you can further reduce risks by planning outdoor activities and spacing out tables at meals, Weatherhead added.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>At Home:\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Precautions shouldn’t end after your trip, even if most people in your community have let their guard down. With the delta variant now accounting for over half of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S., it’s important for anyone who’s not vaccinated to adhere to mask wearing and physical distancing — especially if you live in an area with low vaccination rates and high transmission, Rajapakse said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Instead of focusing on national numbers, Rajapakse recommends staying on top of your community’s rates: “Knowing who you’re around and what’s going on in your community and who you’re interacting with is the more important statistic,” she said. “As we see the virus circulation rates go down, we will see risks go down — but the risk to kids is not zero, especially with the delta variant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If your under-12 kids are reluctant to be the only ones in a store wearing masks, put your own on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even though my husband and I are vaccinated, we wear masks to protect them as much as we can and to model that behavior for them,” Weatherhead said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And remember, vaccines for kids are on the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sheila Mulrooney Eldred is a freelance health journalist in Minneapolis. She’s written about COVID-19 for many publications, including Medscape, Kaiser Health News, Science News for Students and The Washington Post. More at \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/sheilaeldred.pressfolios.com__;!!Iwwt!EK3837L0Aze-xksfoR3K5AMElHCnihZwm5GA1qwGU6K4a94b-GMJup_1kYqv%24\">\u003cem>sheilaeldred.pressfolios.com\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. On Twitter: \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/milepostmedia?lang=en\">\u003cem>@milepostmedia\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bay City News and KQED’s Julie Chang contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=CDC+Updates+Guidelines+To+Protect+Kids+From+COVID+In+School.+Plus%3A+Vacation+Tips&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"masters-of-scale": {
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},
"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"onourwatch": {
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"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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},
"pbs-newshour": {
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
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"politicalbreakdown": {
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"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 5
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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