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"title": "COVID is Everywhere (Again) in the Bay Area. What to Know About the Latest XFG 'Stratus' Variant",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Looking for information about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053906/covid-vaccines-booster-2025-fda-cdc-who-can-get-updated-vaccine-novavax-pfizer-moderna-where-find\">the FDA’s limited approval of 2025-26 COVID vaccines?\u003c/a> Read what we know about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053906/covid-vaccines-booster-2025-fda-cdc-who-can-get-updated-vaccine-novavax-pfizer-moderna-where-find\">who can get an updated COVID shot this year.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated Aug. 27\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it feels like several people you know are complaining of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954507/covid-symptoms-after-pride-how-to-find-test\">feeling sick with what they assume is an “awful summer cold” — perhaps with an especially sore throat — \u003c/a>there’s a good chance it could be COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>COVID-19 levels in Bay Area wastewater have gone up 50% in August compared to the month before, and are still far exceeding the winter peak, according to Stanford’s WastewaterSCAN team, which monitors coronavirus presence in human sewage. And according to \u003ca href=\"https://skylab.cdph.ca.gov/calwws/\">the California Department of Public Health’s own wastewater tracking\u003c/a>, infections statewide numbers also surpassed winter highs back in July.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s also a new top variant out there, XFG or “Stratus.” This now makes up 82% of variants detected in Bay Area wastewater, according to Stanford. People infected with Stratus often report a scratchy, hoarse throat that’s easily mistaken for allergies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The previous top variant, NB.1.8.1 or “Nimbus” — known for a particularly nasty sore throat that earned it the nickname “razor blade throat” — now only makes up 5.2% of variants in local wastewater, according to Stanford. So if you suspect you’ve got COVID-19, right now it’s more likely to be the XFG strain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, what do you need to know about the symptoms of XFG? What’s the COVID-19 incubation period in 2025, how long should you isolate and where can you still find a free COVID-19 test? And if you’re unfortunate enough to suffer painful throat symptoms, what can you do to ease your symptoms?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for everything you need to know about the new Stratus variant or jump straight to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#xfg-stratus-nimbus-covid-symptoms-sore-throat\">What are the symptoms of XFG (Stratus)?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#covid-incubationperiod-2025\">If I’m exposed, how long before I get sick with COVID in 2025?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#stratus-nimbus-variants-vaccines-work\">Do the latest COVID-19 vaccines work against the new variant, and should I get another shot?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#freecovidtests\">Where can I still find free COVID-19 tests?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>And if you’re reading this because you suspect you \u003cem>have\u003c/em> COVID-19:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#covid-isolation-guidance-cdc-2025\">How long should I isolate with COVID-19 in 2025?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#covid-incubation-period\">I tested negative. Can I trust my antigen kit?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#nimbus-razor-blade-throat-medicine-remedy\">How can I soothe my painful sore throat if I’m infected?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>What is XFG, and is it worse than previous variants?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>XFG or Stratus is currently the most prevalent COVID-19 subvariant in the Bay Area at 82%, according to WastewaterSCAN.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Unfortunately, you won’t be able to use \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions\">the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s own\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions\"> \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions\">variant tracker\u003c/a> to see the top variants nationwide, as it was last updated in June.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Nimbus before it, Stratus is absolutely more transmissible — that is, more contagious and more easily caught — than previous variants, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF. That’s how a new variant ends up beating its siblings and “rising to the top of the charts,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>XFG’s particular “superpower,” said Chin-Hong, “is that it has four mutations in the spike protein, which make it just a little bit more transmissible than the previous variants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s no evidence that Stratus causes more serious disease, Chin-Hong said, echoing \u003ca href=\"https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/25062025_xfg_ire.pdf\">the World Health Organization’s June briefing designating it a “variant under monitoring.” \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite this, new variants like Stratus \u003cem>will\u003c/em> still cause more people to go to the hospital with COVID-19, he said, “because if it’s fueling more people getting it, some of those people are going to be more vulnerable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"xfg-stratus-nimbus-covid-symptoms-sore-throat\">\u003c/a>What are the symptoms of the new XFG Stratus COVID-19 variant?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Chin-Hong confirmed that no surprising wild card symptoms have yet been reported for XFG — they’re the same COVID-19 symptoms you’re used to hearing about from previous variants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That said, Chin-Hong noted that doctors are hearing that people infected with Stratus report suffering from scratchy, hoarse throats that resemble allergy symptoms. And previously with Nimbus, patients particularly complained about the very painful throat symptom that \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/covid19-sore-throat-razor-blade-vaccine-4688df53917022cb61204e08b41d5952\">earned NB.1.8.1 the unfortunate nickname of “razor blade throat.”\u003c/a>[aside postID=science_1997707 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/07/MediCalGetty.jpg']\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why is Stratus — and Nimbus before it — causing such throat symptoms? They’re descendants of the omicron variant that first emerged in 2021, and “I think omicron in general prioritizes the upper respiratory tract instead of the getting into the lungs as much,” Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8989396/\">One 2022 study from the United Kingdom\u003c/a> found that a higher proportion of patients — up to 70% of those studied — reported sore throats when infected with the omicron variant compared with earlier variants. Or as Chin-Hong put it, “a lot of the action is at the throat level.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As with previous variants to reach the Bay Area, Chin-Hong noted that more people also now appear to experience more non-respiratory symptoms like diarrhea, nausea and vomiting when they get COVID-19 — gastrointestinal symptoms that folks can often initially dismiss as being unrelated to the virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the CDC, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/covid/signs-symptoms/\">this is the full list of the possible symptoms of COVID-19\u003c/a>:\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>Remember, you might have a combination of these symptoms or just one. They might be mild or feel more severe. But if you’re experiencing any of these, take a COVID-19 test (more on this below).\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"nimbus-razor-blade-throat-medicine-remedy\">\u003c/a>OK, so how can I soothe my sore throat if I’m infected?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For any kind of sore throat, it might be tempting to focus on topical medicine for your throat itself. But in general, systemic therapies — treatments which enter through your bloodstream like Advil and affect your whole body — “are better than topical ones,” Chin-Hong said. His recommendations:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ibuprofen and acetaminophen\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ibuprofen (like Advil) is better than acetaminophen (like Tylenol) in this case, he said, although you should check with your health provider if you have other medical conditions which might make taking ibuprofen unsafe. If your throat hurts too much to swallow a pill, you can consider liquid versions of these drugs, but make sure you use the right dose depending on age, Chin-Hong said. And if you’re using a combination cold remedy like Nyquil, be aware it might already contain ibuprofen or acetaminophen — and be careful not to accidentally double-dose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Topic remedies\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You could try warm remedies like chicken soup, broth, lemon tea, honey or cold ones like popsicles, ice cream or ice chips. The upside of these treatments is the immediate relief they can bring, but they might also not last as long. You could also try gargling salt water, “which may loosen mucus” Chin-Hong said, or sucking lozenges with menthol or a mild anesthetic like benzocaine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Environmental treatments to try \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chin-Hong also recommends:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Stay hydrated\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Get your rest\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Don’t smoke or expose yourself to smoke\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Consider a humidifier, as dryness may make your symptoms worse.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>And you should consider seeking medical attention if your symptoms last longer than a week, if your sore throat is very severe, and if you begin drooling or become unable to eat or drink, Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"covidcasesbayarea\">\u003c/a>What are the current COVID-19 cases in the Bay Area right now?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Actual “COVID cases” — that is positive test results — are no longer tracked as closely by local and state public health bodies. In the absence of widespread up-to-date data on positive test results, monitoring the presence of the coronavirus in human sewage has become an increasingly important way to gauge the levels of COVID-19 spread in a particular area. This is because if you have COVID-19, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1963120/one-way-to-monitor-a-communitys-coronavirus-infections-raw-sewage\">the virus will show up in your feces \u003c/a>soon after you’re infected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053957\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053957\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/WWSCAN_SARSCoV2_wastewater_concentrations_SF_Bay_Area_last_24_months_20250826.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"763\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/WWSCAN_SARSCoV2_wastewater_concentrations_SF_Bay_Area_last_24_months_20250826.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/WWSCAN_SARSCoV2_wastewater_concentrations_SF_Bay_Area_last_24_months_20250826-160x64.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/WWSCAN_SARSCoV2_wastewater_concentrations_SF_Bay_Area_last_24_months_20250826-1536x610.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Concentrations of COVID-19 in Bay Area wastewater, as of Aug. 26, 2025. \u003ccite>(Stanford/WastewaterSCAN)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Despite recent increases in COVID-19 levels in the Bay Area’s wastewater, Amanda Bidwell from Stanford’s WastewaterSCAN team said that average concentrations are still lower than this time last year when \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11987343/covid-bay-area-wastewater-variant-symptoms-isolation-guidance\">the Bay Area experienced a summer surge\u003c/a>. However, the Bay Area’s wastewater sites monitored by Stanford are currently in the “high” category, and have kept rising over the last three weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can check the COVID-19 levels in your own county’s wastewater according to WastewaterSCAN’s monitoring:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=Ci0QACABSABSBmU5ZTg3ZVIGMzc0MzBhWgZOIEdlbmV41AGKAQZiNDYyMGHAAQE%3D&selectedChartId=b4620a\">San Francisco \u003c/a>| \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=CkUQACABSABSBjVhYTY5OVIGMDJkMjQyUgZkZDM2ZmJSBjY3YzJlYlIGMjkzYjI1WgZOIEdlbmV40gGKAQY1OTRlYzPAAQE%3D&selectedChartId=594ec3\">Alameda\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=Cj0QACABSABSBjA3Y2VkN1IGN2NhOTA1UgY3NGIzOWFSBmM5NWU2NFoGTiBHZW5leNIBigEGMjc3MmU4wAEB&selectedChartId=2772e8\">San Mateo\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=Cj0QACABSABSBjI1NDgxOVIGOGE5YjRiUgY1NzlkYTNSBmM4ZDM1N1oGTiBHZW5leNIBigEGZDVjZjMzwAEB&selectedChartId=d5cf33\">Santa Clara\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=Ci0QACABSABSBjc0ZDAyNlIGNTc1NzM4WgZOIEdlbmV40gGKAQY1MDg4Y2XAAQE%3D&selectedChartId=5088ce\">Contra Costa\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=Ci0QACABSABSBmZhMmQ2M1IGMGM4MDkxWgZOIEdlbmV40gGKAQYwMzU3N2bAAQE%3D&selectedChartId=03577f\">Solano\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=CkQQACABSABSBjI0ZDAzMFIGNjQ3M2MwUgZiOTI1ZTdSBmRkZTg4ZlIGODRkNDg5WgZOIEdlbmV4dYoBBmZhZGM0ZsABAQ%3D%3D&selectedChartId=fadc4f\">Marin\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=CjIQACABSABSBjMwMzJjOFIGNzFhMmY0UgZiYzc5ZjlaBk4gR2VuZXjSAYoBBmQ1NjA5Yw%3D%3D&selectedChartId=d5609c\">Sonoma\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=CiUQACABSABSBmI3MjNhZVoGTiBHZW5leNIBigEGZDU1MTZkwAEB&selectedChartId=d5516d\">Napa\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11948962\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11948962\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut.jpg\" alt=\"In this photo illustration, a COVID-19 self-test package is seen on a dark table.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">When COVID-19 cases rise, strongly consider rising up — and testing if you feel symptoms. \u003ccite>(Photo Illustration by Michael Ho Wai Lee/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"stratus-nimbus-variants-vaccines-work\">\u003c/a>Is the latest COVID-19 vaccine still effective against the new variants?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Yes: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12001396/where-can-i-get-new-covid-vaccine-near-me-2024\">The COVID-19 vaccine that rolled out in August 2024 \u003c/a>is effective against XFG, or Stratus, Chin-Hong said, because like Nimbus it’s a descendant of JN.1, which last year’s vaccines were based on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you didn’t \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12001396/where-can-i-get-new-covid-vaccine-near-me-2024\">get your COVID-19 shot in the fall, Chin-Hong has a message\u003c/a>: Go get one now, particularly if you plan to travel this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only will your protection last roughly a year, he said, “getting it now if it’s being paid for would help that person navigate through what we might see in the summer, but also later on in the year if rules change” — referring to the widespread uncertainty about \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/vaccines-fda-kennedy-covid-shots-rfk-trump-bb4de15b6ff955d6cd0b406aaec3cdc5\">how President Donald Trump’s administration might further change the U.S.’s vaccine policies\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/covid/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html\">Currently, the CDC recommends the COVID-19 vaccine for most adults 18 and older\u003c/a>, which means that most health insurance companies should cover the costs for people with insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"covid-incubationperiod-2025\">\u003c/a>I think I was exposed or have symptoms. When should I take a COVID-19 test?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Step 1: Know about updated incubation times \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’ve heard that incubation times for the virus are getting shorter — that is, the amount of time between getting exposed to COVID-19 and testing positive — it’s true. People are testing positive more quickly than they were in 2020, when the average incubation period was five to seven days, because it has changed with each new variant, Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three days is a common period of time between exposure and getting sick, Chin-Hong said, and given this trend, it makes sense to take a COVID-19 test as early as two days after exposure if you’re already having symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"covid-incubation-period\">\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>Step 2: Don’t trust a negative early COVID-19 test\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If your first test is negative, you should absolutely test again the next day if symptoms persist — and again after that if you’re still negative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s why you can’t necessarily trust a negative at-home COVID-19 test in 2025: While incubation times have gotten shorter, doctors are seeing people take longer to get a positive test, Chin-Hong said, and that’s probably more to do with how much quicker someone with COVID-19 might develop \u003cem>symptoms\u003c/em> in 2025 than they would have done in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a reminder, those symptoms are the sign that your body’s immune system is mounting a response to an invading virus. Back at the start of the pandemic, by the time you developed COVID-19 symptoms and took a test, it would probably already be positive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at this stage of the pandemic, “we likely have more immune cells circulating that can recognize the enemy, so it ‘sounds the alarm’ quicker [and] people might feel something faster than in the old days,” Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease physician and researcher at Stanford University, also put it this way for NPR in 2024: “With our immune systems primed, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2024/01/07/1222847727/coronavirus-faq-my-partner-roommate-kid-got-covid-and-i-didnt-how-come\">the body’s response [now] comes much more quickly than it would have back in 2020\u003c/a> when SARS-CoV-2 was a novel pathogen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And because many of us take a COVID-19 test when we \u003cem>start\u003c/em> to feel sick, we might actually be testing way too early for an at-home antigen kit to successfully detect enough virus inside us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bottom line: If you’re testing because you’ve started feeling unwell, don’t assume a negative result means you don’t actually have COVID-19. Play it safe, stay home as much as you can and wear a well-fitted mask if you can’t. Take another antigen test 48 hours later, Chin-Hong said. You can also seek out a PCR test, which is more sensitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Step 3: Make sure your COVID-19 test hasn’t expired\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those COVID-19 tests you might have in a drawer may be approaching their expiration date if they haven’t already passed it. And an expired test could give you an unreliable result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list\">You can check the FDA’s list of antigen test types \u003c/a>to see \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list\">whether the box you’re holding has had its shelf life extended\u003c/a> by the manufacturer. The FDA said that if a test’s shelf life has been extended, it’s because the manufacturer has given the agency enough “data showing that the shelf-life is longer than was known when the test was first authorized.” (In other words, it’s still OK to use that test.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another tip from Chin-Hong: “A quick and dirty way” to know if you’re using a functional COVID-19 test is to make sure the control line turns positive. If that doesn’t happen, “that means the test is probably not working,” he warned.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"covid-isolation-guidance-cdc-2025\">\u003c/a>If I test positive, how long do I have do isolate with COVID-19 in 2025?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In March 2024, the CDC officially revised their national COVID-19 isolation guidance, saying that \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2024/p0301-respiratory-virus.html\">COVID-positive people could now return to work or regular activities\u003c/a> once “symptoms are improving overall” and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/prevention/precautions-when-sick.html\">they’ve been fever-free for at least 24 hours\u003c/a> without use of a fever-reducing medication.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11973108/how-long-to-isolate-with-covid-in-2024-california-now-says-that-depends-on-symptoms\">Read more about current isolation guidance for COVID-19.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’ve been infected, consider asking your health provider for the COVID-19 medication \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\">Paxlovid, an antiviral treatment in pill form that is still available free by prescription in California. \u003c/a>Read more on \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\">requesting a prescription for Paxlovid, with or without health insurance.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"freecovidtests\">\u003c/a>Where can I \u003cem>still\u003c/em> find a free COVID-19 test?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Good question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finding a quick, free COVID-19 test — whether an at-home antigen test or a PCR test — has gotten progressively harder at this stage of the pandemic as more sites and services have been shuttered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And visiting \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/lab-leak-true-origins-of-covid-19/\">the White House site that once offered you free at-home COVID-tests\u003c/a> through USPS will now greet you with an image of Trump superimposed over the headline “LAB LEAK: The True Origins of COVID-19,” as well as \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/18/g-s1-61324/lab-leak-white-house-covid-origins\">a page dedicated to the theory disputed by many scientists\u003c/a> that the pandemic was caused by the coronavirus leaking from a government laboratory in Wuhan, China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957645\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957645\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with long hair inserts a long cottonswab in her nostril while standing in the doorway of her home.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Janet Franco-Orona swabs her nose for a COVID-19 test at her home in San José on Feb. 3, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So, what do you do now if you don’t already have a supply of antigen tests for COVID-19 at home right now? Try the following:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Purchase a COVID-19 at-home antigen test at a pharmacy near you\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>The quickest option will also be one of the most expensive up-front: Purchasing an at-home antigen test at a nearby pharmacy. (Ideally, ask someone to purchase one for you so you don’t potentially expose other people at the pharmacy, and if you really have to go yourself, wear a well-fitted N95 mask to help lower the risk you pose to others.) These at-home test kits are usually around $20 for a pack of two.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have health insurance, you can \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969300/how-to-get-reimbursed-for-at-home-covid-tests-in-2023\">request reimbursement from your health insurer for the cost of up to eight at-home tests per month\u003c/a>, so don’t throw away your receipts.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Find a COVID-19 PCR testing site near you\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>PCR testing is more accurate than an antigen test. It’s more sensitive at picking up traces of the coronavirus in your body, but it may take longer to get your results than with an at-home test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, there are still some sites offering free COVID-19 testing around the state. Try visiting \u003ca href=\"https://myturn.ca.gov/testing.html\">MyTurn.ca.gov/testing\u003c/a> and applying the “Free Sites” filter from the drop-down menu. You can also find\u003ca href=\"https://findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov/\"> a health center near you \u003c/a>and ask if they offer COVID-19 testing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://testinglocator.cdc.gov/Search\">The CDC’s COVID-19 test locator\u003c/a> is no longer operational.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have health insurance, you may be able to get a PCR test ordered by your health care provider with the costs covered. Having a test ordered by a provider is — usually — the only way to get your testing costs covered if you have Medicare, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>If you have health insurance, contact your provider\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>If you’re insured through major Bay Area providers like Kaiser Permanente or Sutter Health, the easiest way to get a COVID-19 test may be to make an appointment through your provider.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most providers offer sign-ups online through a member login and appointments can also be made by phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>An earlier version of this story was originally published on June 26. KQED’s Lesley McClurg, Alexander Gonzalez and Brian Watt contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A new COVID variant called XFG, or \"Stratus\" is spreading. Here's what you need to know about the incubation period, symptoms (including particular throat symptoms) and when to take a test.",
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"title": "COVID is Everywhere (Again) in the Bay Area. What to Know About the Latest XFG 'Stratus' Variant | KQED",
"description": "A new COVID variant called XFG, or "Stratus" is spreading. Here's what you need to know about the incubation period, symptoms (including particular throat symptoms) and when to take a test.",
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"headline": "COVID is Everywhere (Again) in the Bay Area. What to Know About the Latest XFG 'Stratus' Variant",
"datePublished": "2025-08-08T11:55:39-07:00",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Looking for information about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053906/covid-vaccines-booster-2025-fda-cdc-who-can-get-updated-vaccine-novavax-pfizer-moderna-where-find\">the FDA’s limited approval of 2025-26 COVID vaccines?\u003c/a> Read what we know about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053906/covid-vaccines-booster-2025-fda-cdc-who-can-get-updated-vaccine-novavax-pfizer-moderna-where-find\">who can get an updated COVID shot this year.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated Aug. 27\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it feels like several people you know are complaining of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954507/covid-symptoms-after-pride-how-to-find-test\">feeling sick with what they assume is an “awful summer cold” — perhaps with an especially sore throat — \u003c/a>there’s a good chance it could be COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>COVID-19 levels in Bay Area wastewater have gone up 50% in August compared to the month before, and are still far exceeding the winter peak, according to Stanford’s WastewaterSCAN team, which monitors coronavirus presence in human sewage. And according to \u003ca href=\"https://skylab.cdph.ca.gov/calwws/\">the California Department of Public Health’s own wastewater tracking\u003c/a>, infections statewide numbers also surpassed winter highs back in July.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s also a new top variant out there, XFG or “Stratus.” This now makes up 82% of variants detected in Bay Area wastewater, according to Stanford. People infected with Stratus often report a scratchy, hoarse throat that’s easily mistaken for allergies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The previous top variant, NB.1.8.1 or “Nimbus” — known for a particularly nasty sore throat that earned it the nickname “razor blade throat” — now only makes up 5.2% of variants in local wastewater, according to Stanford. So if you suspect you’ve got COVID-19, right now it’s more likely to be the XFG strain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, what do you need to know about the symptoms of XFG? What’s the COVID-19 incubation period in 2025, how long should you isolate and where can you still find a free COVID-19 test? And if you’re unfortunate enough to suffer painful throat symptoms, what can you do to ease your symptoms?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for everything you need to know about the new Stratus variant or jump straight to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#xfg-stratus-nimbus-covid-symptoms-sore-throat\">What are the symptoms of XFG (Stratus)?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#covid-incubationperiod-2025\">If I’m exposed, how long before I get sick with COVID in 2025?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#stratus-nimbus-variants-vaccines-work\">Do the latest COVID-19 vaccines work against the new variant, and should I get another shot?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#freecovidtests\">Where can I still find free COVID-19 tests?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>And if you’re reading this because you suspect you \u003cem>have\u003c/em> COVID-19:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#covid-isolation-guidance-cdc-2025\">How long should I isolate with COVID-19 in 2025?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#covid-incubation-period\">I tested negative. Can I trust my antigen kit?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#nimbus-razor-blade-throat-medicine-remedy\">How can I soothe my painful sore throat if I’m infected?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>What is XFG, and is it worse than previous variants?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>XFG or Stratus is currently the most prevalent COVID-19 subvariant in the Bay Area at 82%, according to WastewaterSCAN.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Unfortunately, you won’t be able to use \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions\">the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s own\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions\"> \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions\">variant tracker\u003c/a> to see the top variants nationwide, as it was last updated in June.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Nimbus before it, Stratus is absolutely more transmissible — that is, more contagious and more easily caught — than previous variants, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF. That’s how a new variant ends up beating its siblings and “rising to the top of the charts,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>XFG’s particular “superpower,” said Chin-Hong, “is that it has four mutations in the spike protein, which make it just a little bit more transmissible than the previous variants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s no evidence that Stratus causes more serious disease, Chin-Hong said, echoing \u003ca href=\"https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/25062025_xfg_ire.pdf\">the World Health Organization’s June briefing designating it a “variant under monitoring.” \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite this, new variants like Stratus \u003cem>will\u003c/em> still cause more people to go to the hospital with COVID-19, he said, “because if it’s fueling more people getting it, some of those people are going to be more vulnerable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"xfg-stratus-nimbus-covid-symptoms-sore-throat\">\u003c/a>What are the symptoms of the new XFG Stratus COVID-19 variant?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Chin-Hong confirmed that no surprising wild card symptoms have yet been reported for XFG — they’re the same COVID-19 symptoms you’re used to hearing about from previous variants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That said, Chin-Hong noted that doctors are hearing that people infected with Stratus report suffering from scratchy, hoarse throats that resemble allergy symptoms. And previously with Nimbus, patients particularly complained about the very painful throat symptom that \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/covid19-sore-throat-razor-blade-vaccine-4688df53917022cb61204e08b41d5952\">earned NB.1.8.1 the unfortunate nickname of “razor blade throat.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why is Stratus — and Nimbus before it — causing such throat symptoms? They’re descendants of the omicron variant that first emerged in 2021, and “I think omicron in general prioritizes the upper respiratory tract instead of the getting into the lungs as much,” Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8989396/\">One 2022 study from the United Kingdom\u003c/a> found that a higher proportion of patients — up to 70% of those studied — reported sore throats when infected with the omicron variant compared with earlier variants. Or as Chin-Hong put it, “a lot of the action is at the throat level.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As with previous variants to reach the Bay Area, Chin-Hong noted that more people also now appear to experience more non-respiratory symptoms like diarrhea, nausea and vomiting when they get COVID-19 — gastrointestinal symptoms that folks can often initially dismiss as being unrelated to the virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the CDC, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/covid/signs-symptoms/\">this is the full list of the possible symptoms of COVID-19\u003c/a>:\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>Remember, you might have a combination of these symptoms or just one. They might be mild or feel more severe. But if you’re experiencing any of these, take a COVID-19 test (more on this below).\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"nimbus-razor-blade-throat-medicine-remedy\">\u003c/a>OK, so how can I soothe my sore throat if I’m infected?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For any kind of sore throat, it might be tempting to focus on topical medicine for your throat itself. But in general, systemic therapies — treatments which enter through your bloodstream like Advil and affect your whole body — “are better than topical ones,” Chin-Hong said. His recommendations:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ibuprofen and acetaminophen\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ibuprofen (like Advil) is better than acetaminophen (like Tylenol) in this case, he said, although you should check with your health provider if you have other medical conditions which might make taking ibuprofen unsafe. If your throat hurts too much to swallow a pill, you can consider liquid versions of these drugs, but make sure you use the right dose depending on age, Chin-Hong said. And if you’re using a combination cold remedy like Nyquil, be aware it might already contain ibuprofen or acetaminophen — and be careful not to accidentally double-dose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Topic remedies\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You could try warm remedies like chicken soup, broth, lemon tea, honey or cold ones like popsicles, ice cream or ice chips. The upside of these treatments is the immediate relief they can bring, but they might also not last as long. You could also try gargling salt water, “which may loosen mucus” Chin-Hong said, or sucking lozenges with menthol or a mild anesthetic like benzocaine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Environmental treatments to try \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chin-Hong also recommends:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Stay hydrated\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Get your rest\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Don’t smoke or expose yourself to smoke\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Consider a humidifier, as dryness may make your symptoms worse.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>And you should consider seeking medical attention if your symptoms last longer than a week, if your sore throat is very severe, and if you begin drooling or become unable to eat or drink, Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"covidcasesbayarea\">\u003c/a>What are the current COVID-19 cases in the Bay Area right now?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Actual “COVID cases” — that is positive test results — are no longer tracked as closely by local and state public health bodies. In the absence of widespread up-to-date data on positive test results, monitoring the presence of the coronavirus in human sewage has become an increasingly important way to gauge the levels of COVID-19 spread in a particular area. This is because if you have COVID-19, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1963120/one-way-to-monitor-a-communitys-coronavirus-infections-raw-sewage\">the virus will show up in your feces \u003c/a>soon after you’re infected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053957\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053957\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/WWSCAN_SARSCoV2_wastewater_concentrations_SF_Bay_Area_last_24_months_20250826.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"763\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/WWSCAN_SARSCoV2_wastewater_concentrations_SF_Bay_Area_last_24_months_20250826.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/WWSCAN_SARSCoV2_wastewater_concentrations_SF_Bay_Area_last_24_months_20250826-160x64.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/WWSCAN_SARSCoV2_wastewater_concentrations_SF_Bay_Area_last_24_months_20250826-1536x610.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Concentrations of COVID-19 in Bay Area wastewater, as of Aug. 26, 2025. \u003ccite>(Stanford/WastewaterSCAN)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Despite recent increases in COVID-19 levels in the Bay Area’s wastewater, Amanda Bidwell from Stanford’s WastewaterSCAN team said that average concentrations are still lower than this time last year when \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11987343/covid-bay-area-wastewater-variant-symptoms-isolation-guidance\">the Bay Area experienced a summer surge\u003c/a>. However, the Bay Area’s wastewater sites monitored by Stanford are currently in the “high” category, and have kept rising over the last three weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can check the COVID-19 levels in your own county’s wastewater according to WastewaterSCAN’s monitoring:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=Ci0QACABSABSBmU5ZTg3ZVIGMzc0MzBhWgZOIEdlbmV41AGKAQZiNDYyMGHAAQE%3D&selectedChartId=b4620a\">San Francisco \u003c/a>| \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=CkUQACABSABSBjVhYTY5OVIGMDJkMjQyUgZkZDM2ZmJSBjY3YzJlYlIGMjkzYjI1WgZOIEdlbmV40gGKAQY1OTRlYzPAAQE%3D&selectedChartId=594ec3\">Alameda\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=Cj0QACABSABSBjA3Y2VkN1IGN2NhOTA1UgY3NGIzOWFSBmM5NWU2NFoGTiBHZW5leNIBigEGMjc3MmU4wAEB&selectedChartId=2772e8\">San Mateo\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=Cj0QACABSABSBjI1NDgxOVIGOGE5YjRiUgY1NzlkYTNSBmM4ZDM1N1oGTiBHZW5leNIBigEGZDVjZjMzwAEB&selectedChartId=d5cf33\">Santa Clara\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=Ci0QACABSABSBjc0ZDAyNlIGNTc1NzM4WgZOIEdlbmV40gGKAQY1MDg4Y2XAAQE%3D&selectedChartId=5088ce\">Contra Costa\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=Ci0QACABSABSBmZhMmQ2M1IGMGM4MDkxWgZOIEdlbmV40gGKAQYwMzU3N2bAAQE%3D&selectedChartId=03577f\">Solano\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=CkQQACABSABSBjI0ZDAzMFIGNjQ3M2MwUgZiOTI1ZTdSBmRkZTg4ZlIGODRkNDg5WgZOIEdlbmV4dYoBBmZhZGM0ZsABAQ%3D%3D&selectedChartId=fadc4f\">Marin\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=CjIQACABSABSBjMwMzJjOFIGNzFhMmY0UgZiYzc5ZjlaBk4gR2VuZXjSAYoBBmQ1NjA5Yw%3D%3D&selectedChartId=d5609c\">Sonoma\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=CiUQACABSABSBmI3MjNhZVoGTiBHZW5leNIBigEGZDU1MTZkwAEB&selectedChartId=d5516d\">Napa\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11948962\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11948962\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut.jpg\" alt=\"In this photo illustration, a COVID-19 self-test package is seen on a dark table.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">When COVID-19 cases rise, strongly consider rising up — and testing if you feel symptoms. \u003ccite>(Photo Illustration by Michael Ho Wai Lee/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"stratus-nimbus-variants-vaccines-work\">\u003c/a>Is the latest COVID-19 vaccine still effective against the new variants?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Yes: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12001396/where-can-i-get-new-covid-vaccine-near-me-2024\">The COVID-19 vaccine that rolled out in August 2024 \u003c/a>is effective against XFG, or Stratus, Chin-Hong said, because like Nimbus it’s a descendant of JN.1, which last year’s vaccines were based on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you didn’t \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12001396/where-can-i-get-new-covid-vaccine-near-me-2024\">get your COVID-19 shot in the fall, Chin-Hong has a message\u003c/a>: Go get one now, particularly if you plan to travel this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only will your protection last roughly a year, he said, “getting it now if it’s being paid for would help that person navigate through what we might see in the summer, but also later on in the year if rules change” — referring to the widespread uncertainty about \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/vaccines-fda-kennedy-covid-shots-rfk-trump-bb4de15b6ff955d6cd0b406aaec3cdc5\">how President Donald Trump’s administration might further change the U.S.’s vaccine policies\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/covid/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html\">Currently, the CDC recommends the COVID-19 vaccine for most adults 18 and older\u003c/a>, which means that most health insurance companies should cover the costs for people with insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"covid-incubationperiod-2025\">\u003c/a>I think I was exposed or have symptoms. When should I take a COVID-19 test?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Step 1: Know about updated incubation times \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’ve heard that incubation times for the virus are getting shorter — that is, the amount of time between getting exposed to COVID-19 and testing positive — it’s true. People are testing positive more quickly than they were in 2020, when the average incubation period was five to seven days, because it has changed with each new variant, Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three days is a common period of time between exposure and getting sick, Chin-Hong said, and given this trend, it makes sense to take a COVID-19 test as early as two days after exposure if you’re already having symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"covid-incubation-period\">\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>Step 2: Don’t trust a negative early COVID-19 test\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If your first test is negative, you should absolutely test again the next day if symptoms persist — and again after that if you’re still negative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s why you can’t necessarily trust a negative at-home COVID-19 test in 2025: While incubation times have gotten shorter, doctors are seeing people take longer to get a positive test, Chin-Hong said, and that’s probably more to do with how much quicker someone with COVID-19 might develop \u003cem>symptoms\u003c/em> in 2025 than they would have done in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a reminder, those symptoms are the sign that your body’s immune system is mounting a response to an invading virus. Back at the start of the pandemic, by the time you developed COVID-19 symptoms and took a test, it would probably already be positive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at this stage of the pandemic, “we likely have more immune cells circulating that can recognize the enemy, so it ‘sounds the alarm’ quicker [and] people might feel something faster than in the old days,” Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease physician and researcher at Stanford University, also put it this way for NPR in 2024: “With our immune systems primed, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2024/01/07/1222847727/coronavirus-faq-my-partner-roommate-kid-got-covid-and-i-didnt-how-come\">the body’s response [now] comes much more quickly than it would have back in 2020\u003c/a> when SARS-CoV-2 was a novel pathogen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And because many of us take a COVID-19 test when we \u003cem>start\u003c/em> to feel sick, we might actually be testing way too early for an at-home antigen kit to successfully detect enough virus inside us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bottom line: If you’re testing because you’ve started feeling unwell, don’t assume a negative result means you don’t actually have COVID-19. Play it safe, stay home as much as you can and wear a well-fitted mask if you can’t. Take another antigen test 48 hours later, Chin-Hong said. You can also seek out a PCR test, which is more sensitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Step 3: Make sure your COVID-19 test hasn’t expired\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those COVID-19 tests you might have in a drawer may be approaching their expiration date if they haven’t already passed it. And an expired test could give you an unreliable result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list\">You can check the FDA’s list of antigen test types \u003c/a>to see \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list\">whether the box you’re holding has had its shelf life extended\u003c/a> by the manufacturer. The FDA said that if a test’s shelf life has been extended, it’s because the manufacturer has given the agency enough “data showing that the shelf-life is longer than was known when the test was first authorized.” (In other words, it’s still OK to use that test.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another tip from Chin-Hong: “A quick and dirty way” to know if you’re using a functional COVID-19 test is to make sure the control line turns positive. If that doesn’t happen, “that means the test is probably not working,” he warned.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"covid-isolation-guidance-cdc-2025\">\u003c/a>If I test positive, how long do I have do isolate with COVID-19 in 2025?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In March 2024, the CDC officially revised their national COVID-19 isolation guidance, saying that \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2024/p0301-respiratory-virus.html\">COVID-positive people could now return to work or regular activities\u003c/a> once “symptoms are improving overall” and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/prevention/precautions-when-sick.html\">they’ve been fever-free for at least 24 hours\u003c/a> without use of a fever-reducing medication.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11973108/how-long-to-isolate-with-covid-in-2024-california-now-says-that-depends-on-symptoms\">Read more about current isolation guidance for COVID-19.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’ve been infected, consider asking your health provider for the COVID-19 medication \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\">Paxlovid, an antiviral treatment in pill form that is still available free by prescription in California. \u003c/a>Read more on \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\">requesting a prescription for Paxlovid, with or without health insurance.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"freecovidtests\">\u003c/a>Where can I \u003cem>still\u003c/em> find a free COVID-19 test?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Good question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finding a quick, free COVID-19 test — whether an at-home antigen test or a PCR test — has gotten progressively harder at this stage of the pandemic as more sites and services have been shuttered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And visiting \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/lab-leak-true-origins-of-covid-19/\">the White House site that once offered you free at-home COVID-tests\u003c/a> through USPS will now greet you with an image of Trump superimposed over the headline “LAB LEAK: The True Origins of COVID-19,” as well as \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/18/g-s1-61324/lab-leak-white-house-covid-origins\">a page dedicated to the theory disputed by many scientists\u003c/a> that the pandemic was caused by the coronavirus leaking from a government laboratory in Wuhan, China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957645\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957645\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with long hair inserts a long cottonswab in her nostril while standing in the doorway of her home.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Janet Franco-Orona swabs her nose for a COVID-19 test at her home in San José on Feb. 3, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So, what do you do now if you don’t already have a supply of antigen tests for COVID-19 at home right now? Try the following:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Purchase a COVID-19 at-home antigen test at a pharmacy near you\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>The quickest option will also be one of the most expensive up-front: Purchasing an at-home antigen test at a nearby pharmacy. (Ideally, ask someone to purchase one for you so you don’t potentially expose other people at the pharmacy, and if you really have to go yourself, wear a well-fitted N95 mask to help lower the risk you pose to others.) These at-home test kits are usually around $20 for a pack of two.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have health insurance, you can \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969300/how-to-get-reimbursed-for-at-home-covid-tests-in-2023\">request reimbursement from your health insurer for the cost of up to eight at-home tests per month\u003c/a>, so don’t throw away your receipts.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Find a COVID-19 PCR testing site near you\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>PCR testing is more accurate than an antigen test. It’s more sensitive at picking up traces of the coronavirus in your body, but it may take longer to get your results than with an at-home test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, there are still some sites offering free COVID-19 testing around the state. Try visiting \u003ca href=\"https://myturn.ca.gov/testing.html\">MyTurn.ca.gov/testing\u003c/a> and applying the “Free Sites” filter from the drop-down menu. You can also find\u003ca href=\"https://findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov/\"> a health center near you \u003c/a>and ask if they offer COVID-19 testing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://testinglocator.cdc.gov/Search\">The CDC’s COVID-19 test locator\u003c/a> is no longer operational.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have health insurance, you may be able to get a PCR test ordered by your health care provider with the costs covered. Having a test ordered by a provider is — usually — the only way to get your testing costs covered if you have Medicare, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>If you have health insurance, contact your provider\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>If you’re insured through major Bay Area providers like Kaiser Permanente or Sutter Health, the easiest way to get a COVID-19 test may be to make an appointment through your provider.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most providers offer sign-ups online through a member login and appointments can also be made by phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>An earlier version of this story was originally published on June 26. KQED’s Lesley McClurg, Alexander Gonzalez and Brian Watt contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "health-experts-alarmed-by-rfk-jr-s-frightening-cuts-to-mrna-vaccine-funding",
"title": "Health Experts Alarmed by RFK Jr.’s ‘Frightening’ Cuts to mRNA Vaccine Funding",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday that it would cancel nearly half a billion dollars in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11933882/beyond-vaccines-biotech-is-booming-in-the-bay-area-despite-a-cooling-economy\">mRNA vaccine\u003c/a> contracts, including with a company based in the East Bay — a move that experts said was based on unfounded safety concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the department would wind down its investments in the technology \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11849045/pfizer-and-moderna-covid-19-vaccines-breathtakingly-effective-says-ucsfs-dr-robert-wachter\">first used to vaccinate against COVID-19\u003c/a>, experts called the move “frightening” and said it could hamper biomedical companies’ ability to prepare for future virus outbreaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Have we already forgotten this quickly what these vaccines actually did for us during COVID-19? How many lives they saved — millions of lives,” asked Dr. Abraar Karan, who researches emerging vaccinations against COVID-19, bird flu and other infectious diseases at Stanford University. “Actually, that was a proof of concept that we need to be investing more, not less, in this technology.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A total of 22 pulled investments include contracts with Emory University and funding for a trial at Emeryville-based Gritstone, which primarily focuses on cancer research and was \u003ca href=\"https://www.biospace.com/gritstone-bio-announces-update-to-comparative-phase-2b-covid-19-clinical-trial\">granted HHS funding to test a new COVID-19 vaccine\u003c/a> meant to have longer durability and protection from existing and emerging strains of the virus in 2023. The company did not respond to KQED’s request for comment about what programs the cuts will affect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vaccinations that use mRNA technology, like the Moderna and Pfizer shots that were rolled out to fight COVID-19 in 2021, protect people by generating a fragment of the virus to initiate an immune response in the body. They’re considered to be one of the best tools scientists have against fast-moving and changing illnesses — like those that cause pandemics — because they can be created and tested more quickly than older “whole-virus” inoculations, and can be altered more easily as illnesses evolve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11900064\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11900064\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-scaled.jpg\" alt='A small glass vial on a table with a label that reads, \"Moderna OCVID-19 Vaccine.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine awaits administration at a vaccination clinic in Los Angeles on Dec. 15, 2021. \u003ccite>(Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Despite a strong body of research showing their safety and effectiveness, Kennedy and the Trump administration have repeatedly called the vaccines dangerous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a video posted Tuesday on Instagram explaining the canceled mRNA investments, Kennedy falsely claimed that the vaccines “don’t perform well against viruses that affect the upper respiratory tract,” and said that one mutation in a virus can render them ineffective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Karan said that Kennedy’s assertion, which has become prominent among a rising cohort of vaccine-skeptical Americans, is based on the idea that the shots are meant to prohibit respiratory illnesses entirely, and can retain full effectiveness long-term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s not really the standard we use for any vaccines,” he told KQED. “We used to give people flu shots, and we would say, ‘This can help reduce the duration of symptoms. It can make it so that you’re not sick for five days, maybe for two or three days.’[aside postID=news_12045979 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1668874864-1020x646.jpg']“It’s reducing the severity of severe disease — that was sort of the standard,” he continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kennedy also claimed in the social media video that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines encourage the disease to mutate, and can be rendered ineffective by a single mutation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Karan said that’s “fundamentally untrue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With RNA viruses, you’ve got a lot of mutations going on constantly, so vaccines need to be updated,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take flu shots, for example. The U.S. produces whole-virus vaccines for influenza, which contain dead or weakened strains of the virus, as opposed to the fragment isolated in mRNA shots, but “you still run into the same problem,” according to Karan. “We have to update flu vaccines every year as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Catherine Flores, the executive director of the California Immunization Coalition, said she’s worried that Kennedy’s history of comments about mRNA and other vaccines, coupled with the pulled funding, could cause more people to fear vaccinations in general, even when they’ve been proven to be safe and effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, the U.S. has already recorded \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/measles-outbreak-texas-rfk-vaccines-8cf4641b04731c713edb524ca943490c\">its highest number of measles cases\u003c/a> in three decades due to outbreaks beginning in undervaccinated parts of West Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028314\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028314\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/FluGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1405\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/FluGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/FluGetty-800x562.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/FluGetty-1020x717.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/FluGetty-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/FluGetty-1536x1079.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/FluGetty-1920x1349.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A CVS in Huntington Park on Aug. 28, 2024. \u003ccite>(Christina House/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Following the Texas outbreak, Kennedy \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/07/nx-s1-5354900/hhs-rfk-endorses-mmr-measles-vaccine-stoking-supporters-fury\">endorsed the measles vaccine in April\u003c/a>, but he’s historically been skeptical of it and has been a central figure in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1997008/the-marin-town-where-rfk-jr-s-message-took-root\">rising movement questioning overall vaccine safety\u003c/a> and effectiveness. The U.S.’s overall vaccination rate against the virus has \u003ca href=\"https://hub.jhu.edu/2025/06/03/united-states-measles-vaccination-rate-declines/\">fallen 2.5%\u003c/a> since 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the U.S. is currently considered to have eliminated measles, it will lose that status if the disease continues to spread for a year without interruption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s insidious,” Flores said. “Because [Kennedy] has this title and this platform … some people are going to hear it and other people are going to start thinking twice about [vaccines], whereas before maybe they didn’t have those doubts. How many people just won’t vaccinate now because of that creation of doubt that he’s planting?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to its potential effect on vaccination rates, which are key to the “\u003ca href=\"https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/herd-immunity-lockdowns-and-covid-19\">herd immunity\u003c/a>” so often referenced during the pandemic, Flores is worried that cutting investment in new technology could leave the U.S. underprepared for future viral outbreaks.[aside postID=news_12044201 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/VaccinationsStory.jpg']The move comes just two months after HHS cancelled a more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/05/28/nx-s1-5414642/trump-vaccine-bird-flu-mrna'\">$750 million contract with Moderna\u003c/a> to develop a vaccine protecting against flu strains with pandemic potential, including bird flu. The deal was coupled with benefits such as the right to purchase shots for Americans ahead of a potential bird flu pandemic. For years, scientists have been warning that the virus that right now rarely transfers from person to person could mutate to be more infectious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The mRNA technology that we had ready to go when COVID-19 started happening was because of all the research that was going on in the past,” Flores told KQED. “It just didn’t happen. It was already under study and use and investigation, and so this can set a lot of projects, a lot of opportunities, back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health and Human Services said in its announcement that its Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority division, which housed the mRNA research projects, would shift to focus on vaccines with “stronger safety records” and more “transparent” practices, including whole-virus vaccines — like those in flu shots — and new technologies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear how the divestment will affect overall mRNA research, though Flores believes it will be harder and more costly for companies. She and Karan both said that the latest mRNA booster shots tailored to emerging strains of COVID-19 should roll out as scheduled this fall, but how companies plan to research and develop future shots is unknown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a press conference in Alaska later Tuesday, Kennedy said work was underway on an alternative “universal vaccine” to protect against COVID-19 and the flu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/carlysevern\">\u003cem>Carly Severn\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday that it would cancel nearly half a billion dollars in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11933882/beyond-vaccines-biotech-is-booming-in-the-bay-area-despite-a-cooling-economy\">mRNA vaccine\u003c/a> contracts, including with a company based in the East Bay — a move that experts said was based on unfounded safety concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the department would wind down its investments in the technology \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11849045/pfizer-and-moderna-covid-19-vaccines-breathtakingly-effective-says-ucsfs-dr-robert-wachter\">first used to vaccinate against COVID-19\u003c/a>, experts called the move “frightening” and said it could hamper biomedical companies’ ability to prepare for future virus outbreaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Have we already forgotten this quickly what these vaccines actually did for us during COVID-19? How many lives they saved — millions of lives,” asked Dr. Abraar Karan, who researches emerging vaccinations against COVID-19, bird flu and other infectious diseases at Stanford University. “Actually, that was a proof of concept that we need to be investing more, not less, in this technology.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A total of 22 pulled investments include contracts with Emory University and funding for a trial at Emeryville-based Gritstone, which primarily focuses on cancer research and was \u003ca href=\"https://www.biospace.com/gritstone-bio-announces-update-to-comparative-phase-2b-covid-19-clinical-trial\">granted HHS funding to test a new COVID-19 vaccine\u003c/a> meant to have longer durability and protection from existing and emerging strains of the virus in 2023. The company did not respond to KQED’s request for comment about what programs the cuts will affect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vaccinations that use mRNA technology, like the Moderna and Pfizer shots that were rolled out to fight COVID-19 in 2021, protect people by generating a fragment of the virus to initiate an immune response in the body. They’re considered to be one of the best tools scientists have against fast-moving and changing illnesses — like those that cause pandemics — because they can be created and tested more quickly than older “whole-virus” inoculations, and can be altered more easily as illnesses evolve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11900064\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11900064\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-scaled.jpg\" alt='A small glass vial on a table with a label that reads, \"Moderna OCVID-19 Vaccine.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/12/GettyImages-1237257297-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine awaits administration at a vaccination clinic in Los Angeles on Dec. 15, 2021. \u003ccite>(Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Despite a strong body of research showing their safety and effectiveness, Kennedy and the Trump administration have repeatedly called the vaccines dangerous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a video posted Tuesday on Instagram explaining the canceled mRNA investments, Kennedy falsely claimed that the vaccines “don’t perform well against viruses that affect the upper respiratory tract,” and said that one mutation in a virus can render them ineffective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Karan said that Kennedy’s assertion, which has become prominent among a rising cohort of vaccine-skeptical Americans, is based on the idea that the shots are meant to prohibit respiratory illnesses entirely, and can retain full effectiveness long-term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s not really the standard we use for any vaccines,” he told KQED. “We used to give people flu shots, and we would say, ‘This can help reduce the duration of symptoms. It can make it so that you’re not sick for five days, maybe for two or three days.’\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It’s reducing the severity of severe disease — that was sort of the standard,” he continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kennedy also claimed in the social media video that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines encourage the disease to mutate, and can be rendered ineffective by a single mutation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Karan said that’s “fundamentally untrue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With RNA viruses, you’ve got a lot of mutations going on constantly, so vaccines need to be updated,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take flu shots, for example. The U.S. produces whole-virus vaccines for influenza, which contain dead or weakened strains of the virus, as opposed to the fragment isolated in mRNA shots, but “you still run into the same problem,” according to Karan. “We have to update flu vaccines every year as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Catherine Flores, the executive director of the California Immunization Coalition, said she’s worried that Kennedy’s history of comments about mRNA and other vaccines, coupled with the pulled funding, could cause more people to fear vaccinations in general, even when they’ve been proven to be safe and effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, the U.S. has already recorded \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/measles-outbreak-texas-rfk-vaccines-8cf4641b04731c713edb524ca943490c\">its highest number of measles cases\u003c/a> in three decades due to outbreaks beginning in undervaccinated parts of West Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028314\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028314\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/FluGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1405\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/FluGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/FluGetty-800x562.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/FluGetty-1020x717.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/FluGetty-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/FluGetty-1536x1079.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/FluGetty-1920x1349.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A CVS in Huntington Park on Aug. 28, 2024. \u003ccite>(Christina House/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Following the Texas outbreak, Kennedy \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/07/nx-s1-5354900/hhs-rfk-endorses-mmr-measles-vaccine-stoking-supporters-fury\">endorsed the measles vaccine in April\u003c/a>, but he’s historically been skeptical of it and has been a central figure in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1997008/the-marin-town-where-rfk-jr-s-message-took-root\">rising movement questioning overall vaccine safety\u003c/a> and effectiveness. The U.S.’s overall vaccination rate against the virus has \u003ca href=\"https://hub.jhu.edu/2025/06/03/united-states-measles-vaccination-rate-declines/\">fallen 2.5%\u003c/a> since 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the U.S. is currently considered to have eliminated measles, it will lose that status if the disease continues to spread for a year without interruption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s insidious,” Flores said. “Because [Kennedy] has this title and this platform … some people are going to hear it and other people are going to start thinking twice about [vaccines], whereas before maybe they didn’t have those doubts. How many people just won’t vaccinate now because of that creation of doubt that he’s planting?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to its potential effect on vaccination rates, which are key to the “\u003ca href=\"https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/herd-immunity-lockdowns-and-covid-19\">herd immunity\u003c/a>” so often referenced during the pandemic, Flores is worried that cutting investment in new technology could leave the U.S. underprepared for future viral outbreaks.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The move comes just two months after HHS cancelled a more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/05/28/nx-s1-5414642/trump-vaccine-bird-flu-mrna'\">$750 million contract with Moderna\u003c/a> to develop a vaccine protecting against flu strains with pandemic potential, including bird flu. The deal was coupled with benefits such as the right to purchase shots for Americans ahead of a potential bird flu pandemic. For years, scientists have been warning that the virus that right now rarely transfers from person to person could mutate to be more infectious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The mRNA technology that we had ready to go when COVID-19 started happening was because of all the research that was going on in the past,” Flores told KQED. “It just didn’t happen. It was already under study and use and investigation, and so this can set a lot of projects, a lot of opportunities, back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health and Human Services said in its announcement that its Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority division, which housed the mRNA research projects, would shift to focus on vaccines with “stronger safety records” and more “transparent” practices, including whole-virus vaccines — like those in flu shots — and new technologies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear how the divestment will affect overall mRNA research, though Flores believes it will be harder and more costly for companies. She and Karan both said that the latest mRNA booster shots tailored to emerging strains of COVID-19 should roll out as scheduled this fall, but how companies plan to research and develop future shots is unknown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a press conference in Alaska later Tuesday, Kennedy said work was underway on an alternative “universal vaccine” to protect against COVID-19 and the flu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/carlysevern\">\u003cem>Carly Severn\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Debunking 6 Common Myths About Homelessness in California",
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"headTitle": "Debunking 6 Common Myths About Homelessness in California | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Homelessness is one of the most prominent, hardest to solve — and most polarizing — problems California faces today. It’s an intensely emotional issue, as images of squalid encampments are enough to bring many to tears. But it’s also an intensely political one, with state and local leaders squabbling over how best to address the crisis, all while facing acute pressure from their constituents to act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So it’s no wonder that when it comes to the homelessness crisis, there’s a lot of talk out there — and not everything you hear is true. Here are some of the most common myths surrounding homelessness. Let us help you separate fact from fiction using data.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\u003ch2>1. MYTH: Most unhoused people come here from somewhere else\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>FACT:\u003c/strong> It’s often said that people who are down on their luck move here because of the nice weather and abundant social services. But the data doesn’t bear that out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vast majority of people who are homeless in California are from California — and most are still living in the same county where they lost their housing, according to a recent large-scale \u003ca href=\"https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/sites/default/files/2023-06/CASPEH_Report_62023.pdf\">survey of unhoused Californians (PDF)\u003c/a> conducted by the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. The survey found that 90% of participants were from California (meaning they lived in California when they became homeless) and 75% lived in the same county where they were last housed. And 66% were born in California, while 87% were born in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local data shows the same thing. In Santa Clara County, for example, \u003ca href=\"https://osh.sccgov.org/continuum-care/reports-and-publications/santa-clara-county-homeless-census-and-survey-reports-point\">85% of people surveyed \u003c/a>during the 2023 point-in-time count reported they were residents of the county when they became homeless. And 54% had lived in Santa Clara County for 10 or more years.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\u003ch2>2. MYTH: Everyone living on the street is addicted to drugs or mentally ill\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>FACT:\u003c/strong> People living on the street are more likely to experience addiction or a mental illness than the general population — but by no means do those two conditions affect everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if they had ever been hospitalized due to a mental health condition, 27% of homeless Californians \u003ca href=\"https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/sites/default/files/2023-06/CASPEH_Report_62023.pdf\">surveyed by UCSF (PDF)\u003c/a> said yes. One in three reported attempting suicide at some point during their life. And 23% reported ever experiencing a significant period of hallucinations, while 25% said they had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to drug use, 56% of people surveyed by UCSF reported ever using amphetamines regularly, 33% reported ever using cocaine regularly, and 22% reported ever using non-prescribed opioids regularly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.lahsa.org/documents?id=8164-2024-greater-los-angeles-homeless-count-results-long-version-.pdf\">Newly released data\u003c/a> from Los Angeles County found similar results — 24% of people surveyed during this year’s point-in-time count reported having a serious mental illness, and 27% reported a substance-use disorder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those rates are far higher than among the general population. Less than 4% of adults in California have a serious mental illness, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.chcf.org/publication/2022-edition-mental-health-california/#related-links-and-downloads\">California Health Care Foundation\u003c/a>. Rates of mental illness are higher in families with incomes below the federal poverty line and among people who are incarcerated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, 9% of Californians met the criteria for a \u003ca href=\"https://www.chcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/SubstanceUseDisorderAlmanac2022.pdf\">substance use disorder (PDF)\u003c/a> in 2021, according to the California Health Care Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\u003ch2>3. MYTH: Most people living on the streets are veterans\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>FACT: \u003c/strong>Veterans are disproportionately represented in California’s homeless population. But thanks to a major effort by the federal government to end veteran homelessness over the past decade, the number of homeless vets in California has dropped significantly — \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2023/11/homeless-veterans-california-election-2024/\">falling\u003c/a> from nearly 16,800 in 2011 to almost 10,400 in 2022. But in recent years, the number has plateaued. State-funded homes for unhoused vets are \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2023/11/homeless-veterans-california-election-2024/\">underused\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, new efforts to tackle homelessness are setting aside special resources for unhoused vets. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/01/california-homeless-prop-1/\">Proposition 1\u003c/a>, a recently approved $6.4 billion bond, promises to create 4,350 new homes for unhoused people who need mental health and addiction services. About half of those new homes will be reserved for veterans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How great is the need for those services? Of the homeless Californians surveyed by UCSF, 6% reported serving in the military. Of those who served, just 19% reported receiving benefits from the Veterans Administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County’s \u003ca href=\"https://osh.sccgov.org/continuum-care/reports-and-publications/santa-clara-county-homeless-census-and-survey-reports-point\">2023 point-in-time count\u003c/a> tallied 508 unhoused veterans — 5% of the county’s total homeless population. This year, \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/about/research-and-reports/pit/\">San Francisco\u003c/a> counted 587 homeless veterans — 7% of the city’s total homeless population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11993225\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021122-Fresno-Homeless-Camps-LV-CM-12.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11993225\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021122-Fresno-Homeless-Camps-LV-CM-12.jpg\" alt=\"A small dog is seen near an encampment filled with pieces of wood, metal and tents.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021122-Fresno-Homeless-Camps-LV-CM-12.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021122-Fresno-Homeless-Camps-LV-CM-12-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021122-Fresno-Homeless-Camps-LV-CM-12-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021122-Fresno-Homeless-Camps-LV-CM-12-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021122-Fresno-Homeless-Camps-LV-CM-12-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021122-Fresno-Homeless-Camps-LV-CM-12-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tents line up against a fence at a homeless encampment near Highway 180 in west Fresno on Feb. 11, 2022. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela / CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\u003ch2>4. MYTH: People who are homeless don’t work and don’t want to work\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>FACT:\u003c/strong> Some people who don’t have a home still hold down one or more jobs, while others are trying to find work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the homeless Californians \u003ca href=\"https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/sites/default/files/2023-06/CASPEH_Report_62023.pdf\">surveyed by UCSF (PDF)\u003c/a>, 18% reported earning income from a job (either formal employment or informal/gig work) in the past month. When the researchers eliminated people who were older than 62 or had mental or physical disabilities from the data, the percentage was higher — 25% reported working in the past month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even if people are working, they aren’t making enough to afford rent. Fast food workers, for example, make a median wage of $17.32 an hour in California, but they’d need to make more than twice that to rent a one-bedroom home, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://nlihc.org/oor/state/ca\">National Low Income Housing Coalition\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That doesn’t mean people aren’t trying. Of everyone surveyed by UCSF, 44% said they were looking for work. Others made ends meet in other ways; 40% reported earning income from recycling or odd jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many participants reported barriers to working or finding work, including: their age, a disability, lack of transportation to and from a job, a criminal record, and the amount of time they spent trying to find food, water and shelter while also safeguarding their belongings on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2022-PIT-Count-Report-San-Francisco-Updated-8.19.22.pdf\">San Francisco (PDF)\u003c/a>, 17% of homeless residents surveyed during the 2022 point-in-time count were working, while 32% were unemployed and looking for work, 32% weren’t looking for work, and 20% were unable to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Job loss also contributed to many people becoming homeless. In \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2022-PIT-Count-Report-San-Francisco-Updated-8.19.22.pdf\">San Francisco (PDF)\u003c/a>, 21% of people surveyed in 2022 reported that losing their jobs was what drove them into homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\u003ch2>5. MYTH: People who are homeless don’t want shelter or housing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>FACT:\u003c/strong> City leaders will sometimes label homeless residents as “service-resistant” if they refuse to accept shelter or other services. However, outreach workers say the reality is much more complicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people want to go inside, but they also want to be met halfway,” said Shaunn Cartwright, who has worked with homeless communities in San José for years. “Why would I go into a tiny home if I’m only going to be thrown out later? Or why would I want to go into a tiny home if there’s no housing after?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other people living on the streets have severe post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental health conditions and can’t live in a barracks-style shelter where dozens of people sleep side-by-side on cots, she said. Many shelters also prohibit pets, won’t let couples bunk together, or don’t have room for people to store their belongings. All of those restrictions deter many people from accepting a placement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11991834,news_11991340,news_11989926\" label=\"Related Stories\"]But data suggests that when people are offered shelter that meets their needs, they are likely to accept it. Cities and counties throughout California opened hotels and motels for homeless residents during the COVID-19 pandemic through the state’s Project Roomkey program. It was a novel idea at the time — offering private rooms as shelter for homeless residents instead of the traditional barracks-style model. And it was widely used, according to a recent \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/05/california-homeless-project-roomkey/\">statewide analysis of the program\u003c/a>. That proves that people are eager to come inside given the right conditions, Nichole Fiore, a principal associate with research firm Abt Global, who co-authored the report, told CalMatters in May. She said people who had refused shelter in the past were willing to try Roomkey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People will come indoors if they are offered autonomy, safety, privacy if they’re able to keep their partners, their pets, their possessions,” Fiore said. “When their needs are met and their needs are considered, then people will come indoors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\u003ch2>6. MYTH: If you want to help, leave food at a homeless encampment\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>FACT:\u003c/strong> Leaving food at a homeless camp without first asking what type of food the residents there want — or if they even want food at all — actually can cause more harm than good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ll just see boxes of food just sitting on a corner,” Cartwright said, “and you can tell that somebody dropped it off, but it’s not necessarily what people are interested in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uneaten food will sit there and rot, attracting rats and flies and making the entire area smell. And rotting food can add to an encampment’s garbage problem, making it more likely the authorities will come and sweep the camp, forcing the residents to leave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Illegal dumping is already a major problem at homeless encampments, Cartwright said. Sometimes, people who live in nearby houses will take their trash to the camp and dump it — leaving the camp residents to deal with trash that was never theirs to begin with, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you do want to help, Cartwright has some advice: “Ask the people in the area, ‘Hey, what are you guys into?’”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "There’s a lot of misinformation floating around out there about homelessness in California. The data dispels several common myths.",
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"title": "Debunking 6 Common Myths About Homelessness in California | KQED",
"description": "There’s a lot of misinformation floating around out there about homelessness in California. The data dispels several common myths.",
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"headline": "Debunking 6 Common Myths About Homelessness in California",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/marisa-kendall/\">Marisa Kendall\u003c/a>, CalMatters",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Homelessness is one of the most prominent, hardest to solve — and most polarizing — problems California faces today. It’s an intensely emotional issue, as images of squalid encampments are enough to bring many to tears. But it’s also an intensely political one, with state and local leaders squabbling over how best to address the crisis, all while facing acute pressure from their constituents to act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So it’s no wonder that when it comes to the homelessness crisis, there’s a lot of talk out there — and not everything you hear is true. Here are some of the most common myths surrounding homelessness. Let us help you separate fact from fiction using data.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\u003ch2>1. MYTH: Most unhoused people come here from somewhere else\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>FACT:\u003c/strong> It’s often said that people who are down on their luck move here because of the nice weather and abundant social services. But the data doesn’t bear that out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vast majority of people who are homeless in California are from California — and most are still living in the same county where they lost their housing, according to a recent large-scale \u003ca href=\"https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/sites/default/files/2023-06/CASPEH_Report_62023.pdf\">survey of unhoused Californians (PDF)\u003c/a> conducted by the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. The survey found that 90% of participants were from California (meaning they lived in California when they became homeless) and 75% lived in the same county where they were last housed. And 66% were born in California, while 87% were born in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local data shows the same thing. In Santa Clara County, for example, \u003ca href=\"https://osh.sccgov.org/continuum-care/reports-and-publications/santa-clara-county-homeless-census-and-survey-reports-point\">85% of people surveyed \u003c/a>during the 2023 point-in-time count reported they were residents of the county when they became homeless. And 54% had lived in Santa Clara County for 10 or more years.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\u003ch2>2. MYTH: Everyone living on the street is addicted to drugs or mentally ill\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>FACT:\u003c/strong> People living on the street are more likely to experience addiction or a mental illness than the general population — but by no means do those two conditions affect everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if they had ever been hospitalized due to a mental health condition, 27% of homeless Californians \u003ca href=\"https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/sites/default/files/2023-06/CASPEH_Report_62023.pdf\">surveyed by UCSF (PDF)\u003c/a> said yes. One in three reported attempting suicide at some point during their life. And 23% reported ever experiencing a significant period of hallucinations, while 25% said they had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to drug use, 56% of people surveyed by UCSF reported ever using amphetamines regularly, 33% reported ever using cocaine regularly, and 22% reported ever using non-prescribed opioids regularly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.lahsa.org/documents?id=8164-2024-greater-los-angeles-homeless-count-results-long-version-.pdf\">Newly released data\u003c/a> from Los Angeles County found similar results — 24% of people surveyed during this year’s point-in-time count reported having a serious mental illness, and 27% reported a substance-use disorder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those rates are far higher than among the general population. Less than 4% of adults in California have a serious mental illness, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.chcf.org/publication/2022-edition-mental-health-california/#related-links-and-downloads\">California Health Care Foundation\u003c/a>. Rates of mental illness are higher in families with incomes below the federal poverty line and among people who are incarcerated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, 9% of Californians met the criteria for a \u003ca href=\"https://www.chcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/SubstanceUseDisorderAlmanac2022.pdf\">substance use disorder (PDF)\u003c/a> in 2021, according to the California Health Care Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\u003ch2>3. MYTH: Most people living on the streets are veterans\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>FACT: \u003c/strong>Veterans are disproportionately represented in California’s homeless population. But thanks to a major effort by the federal government to end veteran homelessness over the past decade, the number of homeless vets in California has dropped significantly — \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2023/11/homeless-veterans-california-election-2024/\">falling\u003c/a> from nearly 16,800 in 2011 to almost 10,400 in 2022. But in recent years, the number has plateaued. State-funded homes for unhoused vets are \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2023/11/homeless-veterans-california-election-2024/\">underused\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, new efforts to tackle homelessness are setting aside special resources for unhoused vets. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/01/california-homeless-prop-1/\">Proposition 1\u003c/a>, a recently approved $6.4 billion bond, promises to create 4,350 new homes for unhoused people who need mental health and addiction services. About half of those new homes will be reserved for veterans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How great is the need for those services? Of the homeless Californians surveyed by UCSF, 6% reported serving in the military. Of those who served, just 19% reported receiving benefits from the Veterans Administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County’s \u003ca href=\"https://osh.sccgov.org/continuum-care/reports-and-publications/santa-clara-county-homeless-census-and-survey-reports-point\">2023 point-in-time count\u003c/a> tallied 508 unhoused veterans — 5% of the county’s total homeless population. This year, \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/about/research-and-reports/pit/\">San Francisco\u003c/a> counted 587 homeless veterans — 7% of the city’s total homeless population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11993225\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021122-Fresno-Homeless-Camps-LV-CM-12.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11993225\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021122-Fresno-Homeless-Camps-LV-CM-12.jpg\" alt=\"A small dog is seen near an encampment filled with pieces of wood, metal and tents.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021122-Fresno-Homeless-Camps-LV-CM-12.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021122-Fresno-Homeless-Camps-LV-CM-12-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021122-Fresno-Homeless-Camps-LV-CM-12-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021122-Fresno-Homeless-Camps-LV-CM-12-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021122-Fresno-Homeless-Camps-LV-CM-12-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/021122-Fresno-Homeless-Camps-LV-CM-12-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tents line up against a fence at a homeless encampment near Highway 180 in west Fresno on Feb. 11, 2022. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela / CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\u003ch2>4. MYTH: People who are homeless don’t work and don’t want to work\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>FACT:\u003c/strong> Some people who don’t have a home still hold down one or more jobs, while others are trying to find work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the homeless Californians \u003ca href=\"https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/sites/default/files/2023-06/CASPEH_Report_62023.pdf\">surveyed by UCSF (PDF)\u003c/a>, 18% reported earning income from a job (either formal employment or informal/gig work) in the past month. When the researchers eliminated people who were older than 62 or had mental or physical disabilities from the data, the percentage was higher — 25% reported working in the past month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even if people are working, they aren’t making enough to afford rent. Fast food workers, for example, make a median wage of $17.32 an hour in California, but they’d need to make more than twice that to rent a one-bedroom home, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://nlihc.org/oor/state/ca\">National Low Income Housing Coalition\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That doesn’t mean people aren’t trying. Of everyone surveyed by UCSF, 44% said they were looking for work. Others made ends meet in other ways; 40% reported earning income from recycling or odd jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many participants reported barriers to working or finding work, including: their age, a disability, lack of transportation to and from a job, a criminal record, and the amount of time they spent trying to find food, water and shelter while also safeguarding their belongings on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2022-PIT-Count-Report-San-Francisco-Updated-8.19.22.pdf\">San Francisco (PDF)\u003c/a>, 17% of homeless residents surveyed during the 2022 point-in-time count were working, while 32% were unemployed and looking for work, 32% weren’t looking for work, and 20% were unable to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Job loss also contributed to many people becoming homeless. In \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2022-PIT-Count-Report-San-Francisco-Updated-8.19.22.pdf\">San Francisco (PDF)\u003c/a>, 21% of people surveyed in 2022 reported that losing their jobs was what drove them into homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\u003ch2>5. MYTH: People who are homeless don’t want shelter or housing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>FACT:\u003c/strong> City leaders will sometimes label homeless residents as “service-resistant” if they refuse to accept shelter or other services. However, outreach workers say the reality is much more complicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people want to go inside, but they also want to be met halfway,” said Shaunn Cartwright, who has worked with homeless communities in San José for years. “Why would I go into a tiny home if I’m only going to be thrown out later? Or why would I want to go into a tiny home if there’s no housing after?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other people living on the streets have severe post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental health conditions and can’t live in a barracks-style shelter where dozens of people sleep side-by-side on cots, she said. Many shelters also prohibit pets, won’t let couples bunk together, or don’t have room for people to store their belongings. All of those restrictions deter many people from accepting a placement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But data suggests that when people are offered shelter that meets their needs, they are likely to accept it. Cities and counties throughout California opened hotels and motels for homeless residents during the COVID-19 pandemic through the state’s Project Roomkey program. It was a novel idea at the time — offering private rooms as shelter for homeless residents instead of the traditional barracks-style model. And it was widely used, according to a recent \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/05/california-homeless-project-roomkey/\">statewide analysis of the program\u003c/a>. That proves that people are eager to come inside given the right conditions, Nichole Fiore, a principal associate with research firm Abt Global, who co-authored the report, told CalMatters in May. She said people who had refused shelter in the past were willing to try Roomkey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People will come indoors if they are offered autonomy, safety, privacy if they’re able to keep their partners, their pets, their possessions,” Fiore said. “When their needs are met and their needs are considered, then people will come indoors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\u003ch2>6. MYTH: If you want to help, leave food at a homeless encampment\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>FACT:\u003c/strong> Leaving food at a homeless camp without first asking what type of food the residents there want — or if they even want food at all — actually can cause more harm than good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ll just see boxes of food just sitting on a corner,” Cartwright said, “and you can tell that somebody dropped it off, but it’s not necessarily what people are interested in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uneaten food will sit there and rot, attracting rats and flies and making the entire area smell. And rotting food can add to an encampment’s garbage problem, making it more likely the authorities will come and sweep the camp, forcing the residents to leave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Illegal dumping is already a major problem at homeless encampments, Cartwright said. Sometimes, people who live in nearby houses will take their trash to the camp and dump it — leaving the camp residents to deal with trash that was never theirs to begin with, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you do want to help, Cartwright has some advice: “Ask the people in the area, ‘Hey, what are you guys into?’”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Stuck With $300 Million Tab as FEMA Denies COVID Housing Program Expenses",
"headTitle": "California Stuck With $300 Million Tab as FEMA Denies COVID Housing Program Expenses | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>When California took the unprecedented step in the spring of 2020 to move thousands of homeless residents into hotels to protect them from the ravages of COVID-19, it did so believing the federal government would foot a large chunk of the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, following what California officials say is an abrupt about-face from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, cities and counties suddenly are on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars they expected FEMA to cover. At a time when budgets already are tight, it’s left local governments scrambling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to be quite a problem in the next few years if something doesn’t change to fix it,” said Wendy Huff Ellard, a disaster recovery lawyer with Baker Donelson who represents several California counties seeking compensation from FEMA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At issue is a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/FEMA-Oct.-16-2023-reimbursement-letter.pdf\">letter (PDF)\u003c/a> FEMA sent the state in October, saying it would not pay for hotel stays of longer than 20 days between June 11, 2021 and May 11, 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That will cost California state and local governments more than $300 million collectively, according to an estimate from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means individual cities and counties throughout the state could be out tens of millions (Sonoma County has $32 million at risk, while San Diego County has up to $28 million) or even more (San Francisco estimates the change will cost it $114 million).\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Limiting hotel stays\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/04/03/at-newly-converted-motel-governor-newsom-launches-project-roomkey-a-first-in-the-nation-initiative-to-secure-hotel-motel-rooms-to-protect-homeless-individuals-from-covid-19/\">launched the hotel shelter program\u003c/a> — dubbed Project Roomkey — in April 2020, just a month after the COVID-19 pandemic prompted him to \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/3.4.20-Coronavirus-SOE-Proclamation.pdf\">declare a state of emergency (PDF)\u003c/a>. Health experts were terrified that California, with its massive homeless population, would see the virus wreak havoc in crowded shelters and unsanitary encampments. The state rolled out a plan to move unhoused people with COVID-19, as well as those particularly vulnerable to the virus — people who were over 65 or had pre-existing respiratory, immune or other chronic diseases — into empty hotel rooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11847782,news_11914346,news_11927968 label='Homelessness During COVID']Individual cities and counties leased and paid for those hotel rooms with the expectation that FEMA would reimburse them. At first, the federal agency agreed to cover 75% of the cost for eligible expenses, including the rooms and services such as meals, security and cleaning. By January 2021, FEMA agreed to reimburse 100% of those costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In all, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11825653/california-found-hotels-for-10000-homeless-residents-what-next\">Roomkey served about 62,000 people throughout the pandemic\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Roomkey launched, FEMA had no rules governing how long someone could stay in a hotel room, according to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. Officials there claim FEMA didn’t set the 20-day limit until October 2023, long after the unhoused residents had moved out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its letter, FEMA said it capped stays between June 2021 and May 2023 because by that time, transmission rates were down, and 20 days were the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s maximum recommended period of quarantine. Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/06/11/as-california-fully-reopens-governor-newsom-announces-plans-to-lift-pandemic-executive-orders/\">lifted the state’s stay-at-home order in June 2021\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Things had changed,” said Robert Fenton, regional administrator for FEMA Region 9, in a phone call with CalMatters. “The vaccine was readily available. Testing was readily available.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fenton, who wrote the October letter, insisted FEMA’s policy has not changed — despite the assertions of state officials and multiple cities and counties. Fenton said that from the beginning, the federal agency said it would pay for shelter stays that were based on “health guidance” and limited to what was needed to address immediate threats to health and safety. State and local officials should have known that referred to the CDC guideline of quarantining for up to 20 days — because that’s the policy Newsom and local health departments followed themselves, Fenton said. But there is no evidence FEMA made that 20-day rule explicit prior to October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC’s 20-day quarantine recommendation was for people who had or were exposed to COVID-19. But the state, and California cities and counties, interpreted FEMA’s rules to mean the federal agency would pay for hotel rooms for unhoused people who were unusually susceptible to the virus — but had not been infected or exposed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Randy Scott\"]‘[Project Roomkey] changed my life, really.’[/pullquote]Fenton said he sent the October letter spelling out the 20-day cap after seeing the reimbursement requests submitted by California cities and counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not new,” he said. “What I’m doing is clarifying the original guidance of the original policy and providing that back to them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California officials disagree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state sent FEMA a letter last month asking the federal agency to reconsider the 20-day cap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California is committed to maximizing federal aid to local communities and intends to aggressively advocate for FEMA to rescind the decision to deny public assistance to local governments,” Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, said in an email to CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor’s office looks forward to the federal government “honoring its commitments,” spokesman Daniel Lopez added in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while the state, which serves as an intermediary between local officials and FEMA, can put pressure on FEMA, it has no authority to force the federal agency to change its mind, Ellard said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When everything was really bad, and it was top of mind for everyone, FEMA was advising a lot of the applicants that it would provide the necessary support, that the federal government would be there to support the need,” Ellard said. “And now that things have calmed down a bit, the story has changed. I think FEMA and the federal government generally has seen the size and scale of the recovery and the expenses and now is walking back some of the earlier approvals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The October letter also clarified that FEMA would not reimburse cities and counties for unoccupied rooms leased through Roomkey. That’s a tough pill to swallow for local officials, who sometimes had empty quarantine rooms as virus transmission rates fluctuated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Blindsided’ by FEMA’s letter\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Sacramento County didn’t limit how long people could stay in its Roomkey hotel rooms, said Kyle Hammon with the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance. Until the program ended, people generally were allowed to stay until they got permanent housing or wanted to leave for other reasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our county, for sure, and other counties, I’m sure we all were pretty blindsided by this,” he said of FEMA’s letter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 20-day cap could force Sacramento County to forfeit nearly $9 million in FEMA reimbursements officials there had been counting on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s about 1% of the county’s annual discretionary revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is difficult to say where exactly the impacts would be felt, but there would be either cuts or, at the very least, missed opportunities,” Patrick Kennedy, chair of the county Board of Supervisors, said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In all, the county spent more than $50 million on Project Roomkey — $8.8 million of which FEMA already reimbursed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FEMA’s choice to introduce a new rule years after counties spent the Roomkey money is “indefensible,” said Susan Ellenberg, president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Her county could lose nearly $16 million thanks to the 20-day rule and FEMA’s refusal to reimburse for vacant rooms. To make matters worse, the county anticipates a $250 million budget deficit in the next fiscal year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/06/labor-health-costs-lead-santa-clara-county-to-project-250-million-deficit-in-upcoming-fiscal-year\">according to The Mercury News\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, the message is that we can’t count on our federal government to be accountable for promises that have been made and money that was spent in reliance on those promises,” Ellenberg said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using hotel rooms as shelter is not cheap: \u003ca href=\"https://homelessness.acgov.org/homelessness-assets/img/reports/Final%20PRK%20Report%20Summary.pdf\">Alameda County estimated Project Roomkey costs about $260 per participant per night (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There were other options to help pay. The state kicked in over $260 million, and counties also used federal CARES Act and American Rescue Plan funding. Some counties, including San Benito, Sutter and Calaveras, ran hotel programs without applying for FEMA funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Scott Murray, California Department of Social Services\"]‘The success of the program in keeping people safe outside of hospital settings is well documented.’[/pullquote]But for most local governments, especially those with the largest homeless populations, FEMA was intended to be a big part of their Roomkey strategy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now that the federal agency is poised to deny California governments hundreds of millions of dollars, local officials have limited options. If FEMA denies their claims, they can appeal and even go to arbitration at an administrative court in Washington, D.C.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The process could take a year or more, Ellard said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She worries FEMA might even use the 20-day cap to claw back money already paid to counties. If a county can’t pay, it could mean they get less funding during the next disaster, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What would local governments have done differently?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When Roomkey launched in 2020, it was meant as an emergency health measure to prevent homeless Californians from dying on the street or in crowded shelters — not as an ongoing housing program. Throughout all of 2020, state officials had to ask FEMA every month to extend the program another 30 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as the pandemic dragged on, cities and counties saw the federally funded hotel rooms as a unique opportunity to stabilize their vulnerable homeless populations. They brought in social workers to help residents get their identification and other paperwork in order and tried to find them permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were more successful at engaging individuals because we had a set location and because they had access to food and shelter,” said Wendy Osikafo, director of the Kings County Human Services Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the county’s “primary objective” was providing temporary shelter for 386 people at high risk of COVID-19 complications, Osikafo said the continuity provided by motel rooms helped 95 people move on to long-term housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kings County is still waiting for more than $8 million from FEMA — the vast majority of the $9.9 million that the Central Valley county spent to shelter people. Changes to the federal agency’s funding rules could “drastically reduce” how much is reimbursed, Osikafo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attempts to move people from Roomkey hotels into long-term housing were far from perfect. In Sacramento County, just 25% of people who left the hotels ended up in permanent homes, compared to 32% who went into other temporary shelters and 41% who landed back on the streets or weren’t tracked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the program made a major difference for some people. Randy Scott, 59, lived off and on inside a drainage culvert along a San Pablo creek for 10 years. When he wasn’t sleeping there, he was usually in jail — picked up for parole violations stemming from past offenses, including a 2017 assault case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, he landed a motel room in the East Bay suburb of Pittsburg through Project Roomkey. Scott lived there for about a year. Having a stable place to live allowed him to hold down a job and buy a car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It changed my life, really,” Scott said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, he works nights as a security guard at a storage facility in Richmond, where he lives in a trailer on the property. During the day, he works for a nonprofit doing outreach at homeless encampments. He has health insurance and paid vacation time, he’s filing taxes, and for the first time in about three decades, he’s no longer under any kind of court supervision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no way any of that would have happened if he’d been kicked out of his motel room after 20 days, Scott said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11953216 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/061623-UNHOUSED-LOS-ANGELES-AP-DD-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“I needed that time to get a job and help me with my mental health and to get me in contact with services,” he said. “Nothing happens in 20 days in government. Nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Would state and local officials in California have acted differently if they knew FEMA wouldn’t reimburse lengthy Project Roomkey stays? That’s a tough question, say those involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The success of the program in keeping people safe outside of hospital settings is well documented,” Scott Murray, deputy director of public affairs and outreach programs for the California Department of Social Services, said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California did not see widespread COVID-19 deaths among its unhoused communities, as experts initially feared. Roomkey also helped set a new standard of care in the state. After seeing how homeless occupants benefited from having a private space with a door that locked — instead of sleeping on a cot in a traditional, crowded shelter — many California homeless service providers are opting to use similar models. Newsom’s latest plan is to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11972474/newsom-administration-makes-progress-on-tiny-home-promise\">deploy 1,200 tiny homes\u003c/a> throughout the state as another way to give homeless occupants a private place to shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ellenberg said she’s sure Roomkey saved lives in Santa Clara County. If they had known from the beginning FEMA wouldn’t pay for longer stays, they might have imposed limits. But it’s hard to imagine a blanket 20-day cap, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we think about what the impact would have been on people with health vulnerabilities, older adults, people with underlying conditions, if we had told them we can help and support you but only for three weeks,” Ellenberg said, “that would have been disastrous.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Lauren Hepler contributed to this article.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "When Gov. Newsom launched a plan in 2020 to move unhoused residents into empty hotel rooms to prevent the spread of COVID-19, cities and counties were counting on federal government reimbursements. Now, FEMA says it won't be paying for long-term stays from mid-2021 to 2023.",
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"sourceUrl": "https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/02/fema-roomkey-october-letter/",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When California took the unprecedented step in the spring of 2020 to move thousands of homeless residents into hotels to protect them from the ravages of COVID-19, it did so believing the federal government would foot a large chunk of the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, following what California officials say is an abrupt about-face from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, cities and counties suddenly are on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars they expected FEMA to cover. At a time when budgets already are tight, it’s left local governments scrambling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to be quite a problem in the next few years if something doesn’t change to fix it,” said Wendy Huff Ellard, a disaster recovery lawyer with Baker Donelson who represents several California counties seeking compensation from FEMA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At issue is a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/FEMA-Oct.-16-2023-reimbursement-letter.pdf\">letter (PDF)\u003c/a> FEMA sent the state in October, saying it would not pay for hotel stays of longer than 20 days between June 11, 2021 and May 11, 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That will cost California state and local governments more than $300 million collectively, according to an estimate from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means individual cities and counties throughout the state could be out tens of millions (Sonoma County has $32 million at risk, while San Diego County has up to $28 million) or even more (San Francisco estimates the change will cost it $114 million).\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Limiting hotel stays\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/04/03/at-newly-converted-motel-governor-newsom-launches-project-roomkey-a-first-in-the-nation-initiative-to-secure-hotel-motel-rooms-to-protect-homeless-individuals-from-covid-19/\">launched the hotel shelter program\u003c/a> — dubbed Project Roomkey — in April 2020, just a month after the COVID-19 pandemic prompted him to \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/3.4.20-Coronavirus-SOE-Proclamation.pdf\">declare a state of emergency (PDF)\u003c/a>. Health experts were terrified that California, with its massive homeless population, would see the virus wreak havoc in crowded shelters and unsanitary encampments. The state rolled out a plan to move unhoused people with COVID-19, as well as those particularly vulnerable to the virus — people who were over 65 or had pre-existing respiratory, immune or other chronic diseases — into empty hotel rooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Individual cities and counties leased and paid for those hotel rooms with the expectation that FEMA would reimburse them. At first, the federal agency agreed to cover 75% of the cost for eligible expenses, including the rooms and services such as meals, security and cleaning. By January 2021, FEMA agreed to reimburse 100% of those costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In all, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11825653/california-found-hotels-for-10000-homeless-residents-what-next\">Roomkey served about 62,000 people throughout the pandemic\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Roomkey launched, FEMA had no rules governing how long someone could stay in a hotel room, according to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. Officials there claim FEMA didn’t set the 20-day limit until October 2023, long after the unhoused residents had moved out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its letter, FEMA said it capped stays between June 2021 and May 2023 because by that time, transmission rates were down, and 20 days were the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s maximum recommended period of quarantine. Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/06/11/as-california-fully-reopens-governor-newsom-announces-plans-to-lift-pandemic-executive-orders/\">lifted the state’s stay-at-home order in June 2021\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Things had changed,” said Robert Fenton, regional administrator for FEMA Region 9, in a phone call with CalMatters. “The vaccine was readily available. Testing was readily available.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fenton, who wrote the October letter, insisted FEMA’s policy has not changed — despite the assertions of state officials and multiple cities and counties. Fenton said that from the beginning, the federal agency said it would pay for shelter stays that were based on “health guidance” and limited to what was needed to address immediate threats to health and safety. State and local officials should have known that referred to the CDC guideline of quarantining for up to 20 days — because that’s the policy Newsom and local health departments followed themselves, Fenton said. But there is no evidence FEMA made that 20-day rule explicit prior to October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC’s 20-day quarantine recommendation was for people who had or were exposed to COVID-19. But the state, and California cities and counties, interpreted FEMA’s rules to mean the federal agency would pay for hotel rooms for unhoused people who were unusually susceptible to the virus — but had not been infected or exposed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Fenton said he sent the October letter spelling out the 20-day cap after seeing the reimbursement requests submitted by California cities and counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not new,” he said. “What I’m doing is clarifying the original guidance of the original policy and providing that back to them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California officials disagree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state sent FEMA a letter last month asking the federal agency to reconsider the 20-day cap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California is committed to maximizing federal aid to local communities and intends to aggressively advocate for FEMA to rescind the decision to deny public assistance to local governments,” Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, said in an email to CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor’s office looks forward to the federal government “honoring its commitments,” spokesman Daniel Lopez added in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while the state, which serves as an intermediary between local officials and FEMA, can put pressure on FEMA, it has no authority to force the federal agency to change its mind, Ellard said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When everything was really bad, and it was top of mind for everyone, FEMA was advising a lot of the applicants that it would provide the necessary support, that the federal government would be there to support the need,” Ellard said. “And now that things have calmed down a bit, the story has changed. I think FEMA and the federal government generally has seen the size and scale of the recovery and the expenses and now is walking back some of the earlier approvals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The October letter also clarified that FEMA would not reimburse cities and counties for unoccupied rooms leased through Roomkey. That’s a tough pill to swallow for local officials, who sometimes had empty quarantine rooms as virus transmission rates fluctuated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Blindsided’ by FEMA’s letter\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Sacramento County didn’t limit how long people could stay in its Roomkey hotel rooms, said Kyle Hammon with the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance. Until the program ended, people generally were allowed to stay until they got permanent housing or wanted to leave for other reasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our county, for sure, and other counties, I’m sure we all were pretty blindsided by this,” he said of FEMA’s letter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 20-day cap could force Sacramento County to forfeit nearly $9 million in FEMA reimbursements officials there had been counting on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s about 1% of the county’s annual discretionary revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is difficult to say where exactly the impacts would be felt, but there would be either cuts or, at the very least, missed opportunities,” Patrick Kennedy, chair of the county Board of Supervisors, said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In all, the county spent more than $50 million on Project Roomkey — $8.8 million of which FEMA already reimbursed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FEMA’s choice to introduce a new rule years after counties spent the Roomkey money is “indefensible,” said Susan Ellenberg, president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Her county could lose nearly $16 million thanks to the 20-day rule and FEMA’s refusal to reimburse for vacant rooms. To make matters worse, the county anticipates a $250 million budget deficit in the next fiscal year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/06/labor-health-costs-lead-santa-clara-county-to-project-250-million-deficit-in-upcoming-fiscal-year\">according to The Mercury News\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, the message is that we can’t count on our federal government to be accountable for promises that have been made and money that was spent in reliance on those promises,” Ellenberg said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using hotel rooms as shelter is not cheap: \u003ca href=\"https://homelessness.acgov.org/homelessness-assets/img/reports/Final%20PRK%20Report%20Summary.pdf\">Alameda County estimated Project Roomkey costs about $260 per participant per night (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There were other options to help pay. The state kicked in over $260 million, and counties also used federal CARES Act and American Rescue Plan funding. Some counties, including San Benito, Sutter and Calaveras, ran hotel programs without applying for FEMA funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But for most local governments, especially those with the largest homeless populations, FEMA was intended to be a big part of their Roomkey strategy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now that the federal agency is poised to deny California governments hundreds of millions of dollars, local officials have limited options. If FEMA denies their claims, they can appeal and even go to arbitration at an administrative court in Washington, D.C.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The process could take a year or more, Ellard said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She worries FEMA might even use the 20-day cap to claw back money already paid to counties. If a county can’t pay, it could mean they get less funding during the next disaster, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What would local governments have done differently?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When Roomkey launched in 2020, it was meant as an emergency health measure to prevent homeless Californians from dying on the street or in crowded shelters — not as an ongoing housing program. Throughout all of 2020, state officials had to ask FEMA every month to extend the program another 30 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as the pandemic dragged on, cities and counties saw the federally funded hotel rooms as a unique opportunity to stabilize their vulnerable homeless populations. They brought in social workers to help residents get their identification and other paperwork in order and tried to find them permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were more successful at engaging individuals because we had a set location and because they had access to food and shelter,” said Wendy Osikafo, director of the Kings County Human Services Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the county’s “primary objective” was providing temporary shelter for 386 people at high risk of COVID-19 complications, Osikafo said the continuity provided by motel rooms helped 95 people move on to long-term housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kings County is still waiting for more than $8 million from FEMA — the vast majority of the $9.9 million that the Central Valley county spent to shelter people. Changes to the federal agency’s funding rules could “drastically reduce” how much is reimbursed, Osikafo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attempts to move people from Roomkey hotels into long-term housing were far from perfect. In Sacramento County, just 25% of people who left the hotels ended up in permanent homes, compared to 32% who went into other temporary shelters and 41% who landed back on the streets or weren’t tracked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the program made a major difference for some people. Randy Scott, 59, lived off and on inside a drainage culvert along a San Pablo creek for 10 years. When he wasn’t sleeping there, he was usually in jail — picked up for parole violations stemming from past offenses, including a 2017 assault case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, he landed a motel room in the East Bay suburb of Pittsburg through Project Roomkey. Scott lived there for about a year. Having a stable place to live allowed him to hold down a job and buy a car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It changed my life, really,” Scott said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, he works nights as a security guard at a storage facility in Richmond, where he lives in a trailer on the property. During the day, he works for a nonprofit doing outreach at homeless encampments. He has health insurance and paid vacation time, he’s filing taxes, and for the first time in about three decades, he’s no longer under any kind of court supervision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no way any of that would have happened if he’d been kicked out of his motel room after 20 days, Scott said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I needed that time to get a job and help me with my mental health and to get me in contact with services,” he said. “Nothing happens in 20 days in government. Nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Would state and local officials in California have acted differently if they knew FEMA wouldn’t reimburse lengthy Project Roomkey stays? That’s a tough question, say those involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The success of the program in keeping people safe outside of hospital settings is well documented,” Scott Murray, deputy director of public affairs and outreach programs for the California Department of Social Services, said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California did not see widespread COVID-19 deaths among its unhoused communities, as experts initially feared. Roomkey also helped set a new standard of care in the state. After seeing how homeless occupants benefited from having a private space with a door that locked — instead of sleeping on a cot in a traditional, crowded shelter — many California homeless service providers are opting to use similar models. Newsom’s latest plan is to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11972474/newsom-administration-makes-progress-on-tiny-home-promise\">deploy 1,200 tiny homes\u003c/a> throughout the state as another way to give homeless occupants a private place to shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ellenberg said she’s sure Roomkey saved lives in Santa Clara County. If they had known from the beginning FEMA wouldn’t pay for longer stays, they might have imposed limits. But it’s hard to imagine a blanket 20-day cap, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we think about what the impact would have been on people with health vulnerabilities, older adults, people with underlying conditions, if we had told them we can help and support you but only for three weeks,” Ellenberg said, “that would have been disastrous.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Lauren Hepler contributed to this article.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11968709/cold-flu-or-rsv-how-to-tell-which-virus-you-might-have-from-testing-to-symptoms\">A whole host of winter respiratory viruses is circulating\u003c/a> in the first weeks of 2024 — which means you probably know several people who are sick right now. And for a fourth January running, we \u003cem>still\u003c/em> have to worry about COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this stage in the pandemic, worrying that your sore throat, cough or congestion might, in fact, be COVID-19 is a natural thought, especially as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957790/the-new-covid-eris-variant-and-rising-cases-what-you-need-to-know\">the Bay Area is experiencing another wave of infections fueled by the new JN.1 strain\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to: \u003ca href=\"#covidtestincubation\">My first COVID-19 test was negative. What do I do now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>But while testing negative on an at-home antigen test can bring some relief, unfortunately, you may no longer be able to trust that initial result in the way you could earlier in the pandemic.[aside postID=news_11967946,news_11968709,news_11970001,news_11966797 label='COVID Is Still With Us']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for what you need to know about COVID-19 incubation periods in 2024, why an early negative test could be a false result, and what to do if you’re caught in a “Wait, so do I have COVID or not?” testing limbo.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>It could take more time to test positive for COVID-19 than in years past\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some medical experts say they’ve noticed that at this stage of the pandemic, it’s often taking much longer for people to get a positive test result on an at-home COVID-19 antigen test. In other words, they’re observing that people with COVID-19 symptoms are taking an antigen test and getting a negative result — only to get a positive result on a different test several days later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means that many people could wrongly assume they don’t have COVID-19 after that first negative test and then inadvertently spread the virus to friends and family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, said he and his colleagues are now “seeing people take longer to get a positive test” even though they have COVID-19 symptoms. \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-09/covid-rising-home-test-taking-longer-discover-infections\">Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious diseases at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, told the \u003cem>Los Angeles Times\u003c/em>\u003c/a> that she’s also noticed this delay — and that a patient might not get a positive test result up until the fourth day after the start of their symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s a confusing additional aspect to this too: “Paradoxically,” said Chin-Hong, incubation times for the virus have gotten shorter throughout the pandemic. This means people have tested positive for COVID-19 more quickly than in 2020, when the average incubation period was five days because the incubation period has changed with each new variant. Chin-Hong’s advice in the last year has been that if you’re having COVID-19 symptoms, it now makes sense to take a test as early as two days after exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So how do shorter incubation times square with this newly observed delay on positive COVID-19 tests?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Your COVID-19 symptoms might be starting earlier\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Right now, experts aren’t 100% sure why antigen tests are taking longer to return a positive COVID-19 result. But Chin-Hong said that the hypothesis that makes sense to him is less about the efficacy of the antigen tests themselves and way more about how much quicker someone with COVID-19 might develop symptoms in 2024 than they would have done in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a reminder, those symptoms are the sign that your body’s immune system is mounting a response to an invading virus — and back at the start of the pandemic, by the time you developed COVID-19 symptoms and took a test it would probably already be positive, Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at this stage of the pandemic, most of us now have “a lot of immune experience” with COVID-19, Chin-Hong said — and the average person’s immune system is increasingly “on guard” and “activated more than in 2020,” he said. So when your body detects a burgeoning coronavirus infection now, “your whole immune system just gets agitated and active, and you begin to get sick sooner, but you actually don’t have as much virus in your blood yet,” Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease physician and researcher at Stanford University, also put it this way for NPR: “With our immune systems primed, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2024/01/07/1222847727/coronavirus-faq-my-partner-roommate-kid-got-covid-and-i-didnt-how-come\">the body’s response [now] comes much more quickly than it would have back in 2020\u003c/a> when SARS-CoV-2 was a novel pathogen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And because many of us take a COVID-19 test when we \u003cem>start\u003c/em> to feel sick, we might be testing way too early at that time for an at-home antigen kit to successfully detect enough virus inside us. This mismatch between when your symptoms start and when you’ve enough virus present in your body to result in a positive COVID-19 test “was started to be observed in early omicron, but I think it just seems more accentuated now,” Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, Hudson of Kaiser Permanente Southern California told the \u003cem>L.A. Times\u003c/em> that for her, this delay in positive tests \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-09/covid-rising-home-test-taking-longer-discover-infections\">might be attributable to people’s accumulated immunity from COVID-19\u003c/a> over the years — either from getting infected or getting vaccinated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-09/covid-rising-home-test-taking-longer-discover-infections\">“It’s actually pushing back the time that people’s COVID tests are coming up positive,” Hudson \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-09/covid-rising-home-test-taking-longer-discover-infections\">said\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-09/covid-rising-home-test-taking-longer-discover-infections\">.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bottom line is: If you’re testing because you’ve started feeling unwell, it’s unwise to assume in 2024 that a negative result automatically means you don’t have COVID-19, because you might just be testing too early.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"covidtestincubation\">\u003c/a>So … what should I do if my first COVID-19 test is negative?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Experiencing the onset of symptoms that feel like COVID-19 is unpleasant and worrying enough. And now, this new possible delay around even knowing if you have COVID-19 adds another element of frustration and uncertainty to what’s already a stressful situation. Even if you’ve been able to\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957790/the-new-covid-eris-variant-and-rising-cases-what-you-need-to-know#freecovidtests\"> find free COVID-19 tests being given away or by order from the U.S. government via USPS\u003c/a>, one COVID-19 scare in a family can run through that stockpile pretty fast — and the cost of purchasing new COVID-19 antigen kits can really add up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re in the limbo of not knowing whether you actually have COVID-19 yet, here’s what to do:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>If your first test is negative for COVID-19, test again later\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have symptoms but have tested negative, don’t assume it means you’re COVID-free. \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/testing.html\">The CDC recommends that you take another antigen test 48 hours later\u003c/a> and then test again after another 48 hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chin-Hong advises that you can also \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957790/the-new-covid-eris-variant-and-rising-cases-what-you-need-to-know#freecovidtests\">seek out a PCR test\u003c/a>, which is more sensitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>While you’re unsure, play it safe \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have symptoms and don’t know why yet for sure, stay home as much as you can. If you truly can’t stay indoors and away from others, wear a well-fitted mask to protect your community and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967946/covid-ventilation-guide-indoors-windows\">try to ensure you’re in well-ventilated spaces.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Be especially careful not to spread any virus around folks who are at higher risk for serious illness or hospitalization from COVID-19, which includes older people, immunocompromised and disabled people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Remember: Just because it’s not COVID-19 doesn’t mean you’re not still sick\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if you turn out not to have COVID-19 after several days of testing but you’re still experiencing symptoms, you might still be infected with one of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11968709/cold-flu-or-rsv-how-to-tell-which-virus-you-might-have-from-testing-to-symptoms\">the other highly infectious winter respiratory viruses out there like flu, RSV or a bad cold.\u003c/a> And if you’re sick, you could easily infect your friends, family or colleagues with whatever you’re suffering from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Give yourself permission not to trust a friend’s negative test, too\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What if it’s a friend who’s experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, and they’re insisting that they’re safe to meet with you because “they took a test and it’s negative”?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing what you know — that it can sometimes take folks longer to get a positive COVID-19 test in 2024 — you should feel free to compassionately tell your friend that while you trust \u003cem>them\u003c/em>, you can’t trust an early negative test right now. There’s a good chance that they have no idea that positive tests can be increasingly delayed and will be relieved to know that by staying home, they haven’t accidentally spread an infectious disease to you or other loved ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if they disagree and insist they’re still safe to meet up? You should feel free to decline, even if it feels awkward. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957790/the-new-covid-eris-variant-and-rising-cases-what-you-need-to-know\">Remember, it’s not weird to not want to get COVID-19.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Stock up on free COVID-19 tests …\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finding a quick, free COVID-19 test — whether an at-home antigen test or a PCR test — has gotten progressively harder at this stage of the pandemic as more sites and services have shuttered. The federal government has, at least, restarted its \u003ca href=\"https://www.covid.gov/tests\">free at-home COVID-test-ordering service\u003c/a> through USPS, meaning you can once again order another four free antigen tests to be delivered to your door for a future time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957790/the-new-covid-eris-variant-and-rising-cases-what-you-need-to-know#freecovidtests\">Read more about where to find free or low-cost COVID-19 tests this winter.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>… but make sure your COVID-19 tests haven’t expired\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the COVID-19 tests being made available right now (\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11970001/free-covid-tests-near-me-public-library\">for example, at your local public library\u003c/a>) may be approaching their expiration date if they haven’t already passed it. And an expired test could give you an unreliable result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list\">You can check the FDA’s list of antigen test types \u003c/a>to see \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list\">whether the box you’re holding has had its shelf life extended\u003c/a> by the manufacturer. The FDA said that if a test’s shelf life has been extended, it’s because the manufacturer has given the agency enough “data showing that the shelf-life is longer than was known when the test was first authorized.” (In other words, it’s still OK to use that test.)\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID-19\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger and help us decide what to cover here on our site and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[hearken id=\"10483\" src=\"https://modules.wearehearken.com/kqed/embed/10483.js\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11968709/cold-flu-or-rsv-how-to-tell-which-virus-you-might-have-from-testing-to-symptoms\">A whole host of winter respiratory viruses is circulating\u003c/a> in the first weeks of 2024 — which means you probably know several people who are sick right now. And for a fourth January running, we \u003cem>still\u003c/em> have to worry about COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this stage in the pandemic, worrying that your sore throat, cough or congestion might, in fact, be COVID-19 is a natural thought, especially as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957790/the-new-covid-eris-variant-and-rising-cases-what-you-need-to-know\">the Bay Area is experiencing another wave of infections fueled by the new JN.1 strain\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to: \u003ca href=\"#covidtestincubation\">My first COVID-19 test was negative. What do I do now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>But while testing negative on an at-home antigen test can bring some relief, unfortunately, you may no longer be able to trust that initial result in the way you could earlier in the pandemic.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for what you need to know about COVID-19 incubation periods in 2024, why an early negative test could be a false result, and what to do if you’re caught in a “Wait, so do I have COVID or not?” testing limbo.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>It could take more time to test positive for COVID-19 than in years past\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some medical experts say they’ve noticed that at this stage of the pandemic, it’s often taking much longer for people to get a positive test result on an at-home COVID-19 antigen test. In other words, they’re observing that people with COVID-19 symptoms are taking an antigen test and getting a negative result — only to get a positive result on a different test several days later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means that many people could wrongly assume they don’t have COVID-19 after that first negative test and then inadvertently spread the virus to friends and family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, said he and his colleagues are now “seeing people take longer to get a positive test” even though they have COVID-19 symptoms. \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-09/covid-rising-home-test-taking-longer-discover-infections\">Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious diseases at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, told the \u003cem>Los Angeles Times\u003c/em>\u003c/a> that she’s also noticed this delay — and that a patient might not get a positive test result up until the fourth day after the start of their symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s a confusing additional aspect to this too: “Paradoxically,” said Chin-Hong, incubation times for the virus have gotten shorter throughout the pandemic. This means people have tested positive for COVID-19 more quickly than in 2020, when the average incubation period was five days because the incubation period has changed with each new variant. Chin-Hong’s advice in the last year has been that if you’re having COVID-19 symptoms, it now makes sense to take a test as early as two days after exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So how do shorter incubation times square with this newly observed delay on positive COVID-19 tests?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Your COVID-19 symptoms might be starting earlier\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Right now, experts aren’t 100% sure why antigen tests are taking longer to return a positive COVID-19 result. But Chin-Hong said that the hypothesis that makes sense to him is less about the efficacy of the antigen tests themselves and way more about how much quicker someone with COVID-19 might develop symptoms in 2024 than they would have done in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a reminder, those symptoms are the sign that your body’s immune system is mounting a response to an invading virus — and back at the start of the pandemic, by the time you developed COVID-19 symptoms and took a test it would probably already be positive, Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at this stage of the pandemic, most of us now have “a lot of immune experience” with COVID-19, Chin-Hong said — and the average person’s immune system is increasingly “on guard” and “activated more than in 2020,” he said. So when your body detects a burgeoning coronavirus infection now, “your whole immune system just gets agitated and active, and you begin to get sick sooner, but you actually don’t have as much virus in your blood yet,” Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease physician and researcher at Stanford University, also put it this way for NPR: “With our immune systems primed, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2024/01/07/1222847727/coronavirus-faq-my-partner-roommate-kid-got-covid-and-i-didnt-how-come\">the body’s response [now] comes much more quickly than it would have back in 2020\u003c/a> when SARS-CoV-2 was a novel pathogen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And because many of us take a COVID-19 test when we \u003cem>start\u003c/em> to feel sick, we might be testing way too early at that time for an at-home antigen kit to successfully detect enough virus inside us. This mismatch between when your symptoms start and when you’ve enough virus present in your body to result in a positive COVID-19 test “was started to be observed in early omicron, but I think it just seems more accentuated now,” Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, Hudson of Kaiser Permanente Southern California told the \u003cem>L.A. Times\u003c/em> that for her, this delay in positive tests \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-09/covid-rising-home-test-taking-longer-discover-infections\">might be attributable to people’s accumulated immunity from COVID-19\u003c/a> over the years — either from getting infected or getting vaccinated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-09/covid-rising-home-test-taking-longer-discover-infections\">“It’s actually pushing back the time that people’s COVID tests are coming up positive,” Hudson \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-09/covid-rising-home-test-taking-longer-discover-infections\">said\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-09/covid-rising-home-test-taking-longer-discover-infections\">.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bottom line is: If you’re testing because you’ve started feeling unwell, it’s unwise to assume in 2024 that a negative result automatically means you don’t have COVID-19, because you might just be testing too early.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"covidtestincubation\">\u003c/a>So … what should I do if my first COVID-19 test is negative?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Experiencing the onset of symptoms that feel like COVID-19 is unpleasant and worrying enough. And now, this new possible delay around even knowing if you have COVID-19 adds another element of frustration and uncertainty to what’s already a stressful situation. Even if you’ve been able to\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957790/the-new-covid-eris-variant-and-rising-cases-what-you-need-to-know#freecovidtests\"> find free COVID-19 tests being given away or by order from the U.S. government via USPS\u003c/a>, one COVID-19 scare in a family can run through that stockpile pretty fast — and the cost of purchasing new COVID-19 antigen kits can really add up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re in the limbo of not knowing whether you actually have COVID-19 yet, here’s what to do:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>If your first test is negative for COVID-19, test again later\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have symptoms but have tested negative, don’t assume it means you’re COVID-free. \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/testing.html\">The CDC recommends that you take another antigen test 48 hours later\u003c/a> and then test again after another 48 hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chin-Hong advises that you can also \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957790/the-new-covid-eris-variant-and-rising-cases-what-you-need-to-know#freecovidtests\">seek out a PCR test\u003c/a>, which is more sensitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>While you’re unsure, play it safe \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have symptoms and don’t know why yet for sure, stay home as much as you can. If you truly can’t stay indoors and away from others, wear a well-fitted mask to protect your community and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967946/covid-ventilation-guide-indoors-windows\">try to ensure you’re in well-ventilated spaces.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Be especially careful not to spread any virus around folks who are at higher risk for serious illness or hospitalization from COVID-19, which includes older people, immunocompromised and disabled people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Remember: Just because it’s not COVID-19 doesn’t mean you’re not still sick\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if you turn out not to have COVID-19 after several days of testing but you’re still experiencing symptoms, you might still be infected with one of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11968709/cold-flu-or-rsv-how-to-tell-which-virus-you-might-have-from-testing-to-symptoms\">the other highly infectious winter respiratory viruses out there like flu, RSV or a bad cold.\u003c/a> And if you’re sick, you could easily infect your friends, family or colleagues with whatever you’re suffering from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Give yourself permission not to trust a friend’s negative test, too\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What if it’s a friend who’s experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, and they’re insisting that they’re safe to meet with you because “they took a test and it’s negative”?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing what you know — that it can sometimes take folks longer to get a positive COVID-19 test in 2024 — you should feel free to compassionately tell your friend that while you trust \u003cem>them\u003c/em>, you can’t trust an early negative test right now. There’s a good chance that they have no idea that positive tests can be increasingly delayed and will be relieved to know that by staying home, they haven’t accidentally spread an infectious disease to you or other loved ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if they disagree and insist they’re still safe to meet up? You should feel free to decline, even if it feels awkward. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957790/the-new-covid-eris-variant-and-rising-cases-what-you-need-to-know\">Remember, it’s not weird to not want to get COVID-19.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Stock up on free COVID-19 tests …\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finding a quick, free COVID-19 test — whether an at-home antigen test or a PCR test — has gotten progressively harder at this stage of the pandemic as more sites and services have shuttered. The federal government has, at least, restarted its \u003ca href=\"https://www.covid.gov/tests\">free at-home COVID-test-ordering service\u003c/a> through USPS, meaning you can once again order another four free antigen tests to be delivered to your door for a future time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957790/the-new-covid-eris-variant-and-rising-cases-what-you-need-to-know#freecovidtests\">Read more about where to find free or low-cost COVID-19 tests this winter.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>… but make sure your COVID-19 tests haven’t expired\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the COVID-19 tests being made available right now (\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11970001/free-covid-tests-near-me-public-library\">for example, at your local public library\u003c/a>) may be approaching their expiration date if they haven’t already passed it. And an expired test could give you an unreliable result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list\">You can check the FDA’s list of antigen test types \u003c/a>to see \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list\">whether the box you’re holding has had its shelf life extended\u003c/a> by the manufacturer. The FDA said that if a test’s shelf life has been extended, it’s because the manufacturer has given the agency enough “data showing that the shelf-life is longer than was known when the test was first authorized.” (In other words, it’s still OK to use that test.)\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID-19\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger and help us decide what to cover here on our site and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "The JN.1 COVID Variant: Symptoms, Incubation Period and When to Test",
"headTitle": "The JN.1 COVID Variant: Symptoms, Incubation Period and When to Test | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>If it feels like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954507/covid-symptoms-after-pride-how-to-find-test\">many people you know are getting COVID-19 again \u003c/a>… you’re not alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fueled by a new subvariant called JN.1, COVID-19 rates are way up for the start of 2024, as part of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1985786/bay-area-covid-flu-cases-on-the-rise-but-not-surging-like-last-year\">a sharp rise that began back in November.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, what do you need to know about the symptoms of JN.1? Is there an updated incubation period to know about for COVID-19 in 2024, and where can you even find a free COVID-19 test now? Keep reading for everything you need to know, or jump straight to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#JN1covidsymptoms\">What are the symptoms of JN.1?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#covidincubationperiod\">What’s the incubation time for COVID-19 now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#covidincubationperiod\">I tested negative. Can I trust my antigen kit?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#freecovidtests\">Where can I still find free COVID-19 tests?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>And remember, the new COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer — and most recently Novavax — are available across California. The new shots are free for everyone, with or without health insurance, and are formulated to target strains like these latest subvariants. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11960630/free-new-covid-vaccine-near-me-2023\">Read where to find the new COVID-19 vaccine near you.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What is JN.1, and why is it spreading so much?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Right now, JN.1 is the most prevalent COVID-19 subvariant in the United States, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)\u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions\"> estimates currently makes up almost 62% of cases nationwide\u003c/a>. Behind it is the previous top variant, HV.1, which now only makes up 14.8% of cases across the country.[aside postID=news_11967946,news_11968709,news_11970001,news_11966797 label='COVID Is Still With Us']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(If you’re losing track of all these subvariants of the omicron variant by this stage of the pandemic, that’s understandable. To recap: The swell of COVID-19 cases in summer 2023 was fueled by EG.5, unofficially nicknamed “Eris” by some online just as XBB.1.16 before it was nicknamed “Arcturus” — even though \u003ca href=\"https://www.who.int/news/item/16-03-2023-statement-on-the-update-of-who-s-working-definitions-and-tracking-system-for-sars-cov-2-variants-of-concern-and-variants-of-interest\">the World Health Organization has revised its naming conventions\u003c/a> to reserve “Greek labels” only for “variants of concern.” After the summer of EG.5, HV.1 rose to national prominence, followed now by JN.1.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whereas HV.1 was a part of the XBB sublineage of the omicron variant, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/whats-new/SARS-CoV-2-variant-JN.1.html\">JN.1 is closely related to the BA.2.86 strain\u003c/a>, the CDC said in an announcement declaring JN.1 “a variant of interest” back in December. And when you’re dealing with descendants like JN.1 and HV.1 before it, it’s important to remember that each new subvariant is more easily transmitted, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time something rises up the charts in the ‘tree of COVID life,’ by essence it had to have a superpower that makes them more powerful than the rest,” Chin-Hong said. “And that superpower is generally transmissibility.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JN.1’s infectiousness means that the “strategies people could use to escape infection over the summer during our surge are probably not working right now,” Chin-Hong said — added to the fact that winter holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year prompted travel and brought many people together in crowded gatherings. All of this means that “we all get together, we mix risks from all over the country [and] we don’t have much time to recover before being exposed and exposing others,” Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aside from its infectiousness, the CDC said in its Dec. 8 briefing that there’s “no evidence that JN.1 presents an increased risk to public health relative to other currently circulating variant,” and “no indication of increased severity from JN.1 at this time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, Chin-Hong stressed, JN.1’s increased transmissibility still means that “more people will get infected, which means that our hospitals will be fuller, and that will limit our ability to care for those who have other illnesses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"JN1covidsymptoms\">\u003c/a>What are the symptoms of JN.1?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Chin-Hong confirms that no surprising wild card symptoms have yet been reported for JN.1, or HV.1 before it — they’re the same COVID-19 symptoms you’re used to hearing about from previous variants. Or at least, that’s how it looks right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Like the other omicron flavors,” Chin-Hong said, “many [cases] start with a sore throat,” followed by congestion and a dry cough. From there, “the other symptoms — headache, runny nose, muscle aches, diarrhea or upset stomach, fever, loss of smell— may also join in,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The characteristics of the person becoming infected can also shape what symptoms are experienced,” Chin-Hong said, noting that a person age 75 or over or an immunocompromised person who didn’t \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11960630/free-new-covid-vaccine-near-me-2023\">receive the new COVID-19 vaccine\u003c/a> “may experience shortness of breath or difficulty breathing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the CDC, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html\">this is the full list of the possible symptoms of COVID-19\u003c/a>:\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>Remember, you might have a combination of these symptoms or just one. They might be mild or feel more severe. But if you’re experiencing any of these, take a COVID-19 test (more on this below).\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"covidcasesbayarea\">\u003c/a>What are the current COVID-19 cases in the Bay Area right now?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“COVID cases” — that is, positive test results — are not tracked in the way they once were. There’s more on that below, but in the absence of up-to-date widespread data on positive COVID-19 test results, watching for the presence of the coronavirus in human sewage has become increasingly important instead for gauging the levels of COVID-19 spread in a particular area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford University’s WastewaterSCAN project monitors the presence of COVID-19 — as well as other viruses — in wastewater across the U.S. (For example, you can \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=CiQQACABSABSBjM3NDMwYVoIWEJCX2JrcHR4rAGKAQY3NjI5ZDM%3D&selectedChartId=7629d3\">see the concentration of COVID-19 in wastewater collected from the Oceanside San Francisco watershed\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And when it comes to COVID-19 in Bay Area sewage, after numbers came down after that summer swell, WastewaterSCAN’s Ali Boehm told KQED by email on Jan. 8 that \u003ca href=\"https://wwscan.ghost.io/\">those levels of COVID-19 are unfortunately “high and increasing” right now\u003c/a>. In the chart below, which shows a trend line aggregated from the Bay Area wastewater sites, you can see how the current rise compares to the highest spike visible, which is the initial omicron surge of winter 2021-22.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11972211\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11972211\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/COVID-1-08-wastewater.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1239\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/COVID-1-08-wastewater.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/COVID-1-08-wastewater-800x516.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/COVID-1-08-wastewater-1020x658.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/COVID-1-08-wastewater-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/COVID-1-08-wastewater-1536x991.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A chart showing COVID-19 levels collected from across Bay Area wastewater sites. \u003ccite>(WastewaterSCAN)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As for other winter respiratory viruses, levels of RSV in Bay Area wastewater are “still quite high and have not clearly started decreasing,” Boehm said. One bit of good news: Boehm said that local wastewater shows that the flu is “not circulating now like it did at this time last year.” \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11968709/cold-flu-or-rsv-how-to-tell-which-virus-you-might-have-from-testing-to-symptoms\">Read more about the different symptoms of RSV and flu in relation to COVID-19.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Statewide, COVID-19 metrics are also back on the upswing after a lull. \u003ca href=\"https://covid19.ca.gov/state-dashboard/\">The state’s 7-day COVID-19 positivity test rate \u003c/a>tracks the average percentage of people in California each week who get a positive diagnostic test result from a lab after taking a PCR test. The statewide positivity rate reached its highest point for the entire year back on Sept. 2, at 17.4%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after falling to a low of 6.1% on Nov. 3, the weekly average positivity rate has climbed again to 12.3% as of the most recently available data, collected on Jan. 1. (It’s worth noting that many people who suspect they have COVID-19 in 2023 test themselves at home with an antigen test kit, not a PCR test — so this tracking from the California Department of Public Health \u003cem>doesn’t\u003c/em> represent the full picture of COVID-19 positivity around the state.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: What else would you like to read an explainer on right now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>After a lull following the 2023 summer swell, \u003ca href=\"https://covid19.ca.gov/state-dashboard/\">the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19\u003c/a> in California began climbing again in November and peaked on Dec. 22 with a 7-day average of 2,339 people hospitalized statewide. The most recent available data, from Dec. 31, shows a drop to a 7-day average of 1,990 patients.[aside postID=news_11960630 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/005_SanFrancisco_UnitedinHealthKidsCOVIDVaccination_11092021-qut-1020x680.jpg']Why don’t we have firmer numbers on how many people are actually testing positive for COVID-19 right now? Earlier in the pandemic, most people were getting diagnostic PCR tests through official sites, which were then tracked through their laboratory processing and had their numbers reported — the way the state’s official test positivity rate is still tracked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the arrival of widespread antigen tests has now given more people a way to test themselves for COVID-19 at home without having to find a PCR test (albeit in a manner \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11950386/at-home-covid-tests-are-still-effective-in-2023-and-you-can-still-get-them-for-free\">different from how a PCR test “detects” the virus\u003c/a>). But while public officials have urged at-home testers to report positive results to their local health authority, very few people still do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this goes some way to explain why the “true” number of people who currently have COVID-19 in 2023 is a very difficult number to report — and why any official number from PCR testing almost certainly represents a big undercount.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11948962\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11948962\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut.jpg\" alt=\"In this photo illustration, a COVID-19 self-test package is seen on a dark table.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">When COVID-19 cases rise, strongly consider rising up — and testing if you feel symptoms. \u003ccite>(Photo Illustration by Michael Ho Wai Lee/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Is the new COVID-19 vaccine still effective against JN.1 and HV.1?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Yes: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11960630/free-new-covid-vaccine-near-me-2023\">The new COVID-19 vaccine that’s now available across California \u003c/a>is formulated to target the XBB sublineage, from which HV.1 is descended. And that same vaccine is “still effective against JN.1,” too, Chin-Hong said, despite this latest subvariant having more than “30 more mutations than XBB.1.5, which the vaccine is based on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"covidincubationperiod\">\u003c/a>I think I was exposed, or have symptoms. When should I take a COVID-19 test?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Step 1: Know about updated incubation times for JN.1\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’ve heard that incubation times for the virus are getting shorter — that is, the amount of time between getting exposed to COVID-19 and testing positive for COVID-19 — it’s true. People are testing positive for COVID-19 more quickly than they were in 2020 when the average incubation period was five days because the incubation period has changed with each new variant, confirms Chin-Hong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While “we don’t have a ton” of up-to-date information on incubation times at this stage of the pandemic, notes Chin-Hong, given this general trend, it makes sense to take a COVID-19 test as early as two days after exposure if you’re already having symptoms. But there’s a crucial update for 2024…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Step 2: Don’t trust a negative early COVID-19 test\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If your first test is negative, you should absolutely test again the next day if symptoms persist — and again after that if you’re still negative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s why you can’t necessarily trust a negative at-home COVID-19 test in 2024: While incubation times have gotten shorter, “paradoxically, we’re seeing people take longer to get a positive test,” Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why? Chin-Hong said that the hypothesis that makes sense to him is less about the efficacy of the antigen tests themselves and way more about how much quicker someone with COVID-19 might develop \u003cem>symptoms\u003c/em> in 2024 than they would have done in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a reminder, those symptoms are the sign that your body’s immune system is mounting a response to an invading virus — and back at the start of the pandemic, by the time you developed COVID-19 symptoms and took a test it would probably already be positive, Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at this stage of the pandemic, most of us now have “a lot of immune experience,” Chin-Hong said — and the average person’s immune system is increasingly “on guard” and “activated more than in 2020,” he said. So when your body detects a burgeoning coronavirus infection now, “your whole immune system just gets agitated and active, and you begin to get sick sooner, but you actually don’t have as much virus in your blood yet,” Chin-Hong said. Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease physician and researcher at Stanford University, also put it this way for NPR: “With our immune systems primed, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2024/01/07/1222847727/coronavirus-faq-my-partner-roommate-kid-got-covid-and-i-didnt-how-come\">the body’s response [now] comes much more quickly than it would have back in 2020\u003c/a> when SARS-CoV-2 was a novel pathogen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And because many of us take a COVID-19 test when we \u003cem>start\u003c/em> to feel sick, we might actually be testing way too early at that time for an at-home antigen kit to successfully detect enough virus inside us. This mismatch between when your symptoms start and when you’ve got enough virus present in your body to result in a positive COVID-19 test “was started to be observed in early omicron, but I think it just seems more accentuated now,” Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious diseases at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, told the Los Angeles Times that for her part, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-09/covid-rising-home-test-taking-longer-discover-infections\">she attributes this delay we’re seeing in accurate test results to people acquiring accumulated immunity\u003c/a> from COVID-19 over the years, either from getting infected or vaccinated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-09/covid-rising-home-test-taking-longer-discover-infections\">“It’s actually pushing back the time that people’s COVID tests are coming up positive,” Hudson said.\u003c/a> “So some people are testing at Day 1 and Day 2 … If they probably tested themselves a couple of days later, there’s a pretty good chance that it actually would turn out to be COVID.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bottom line is: If you’re testing because you’ve started feeling unwell, don’t assume a negative result means you don’t actually have COVID-19. Play it safe, stay home as much as you can and wear a well-fitted mask if you can’t, and take another antigen test 48 hours later, Chin-Hong said. You can also seek out a PCR test, which are more sensitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Step 3: Make sure your COVID-19 test hasn’t expired\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the COVID-19 tests being made available right now (\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11970001/free-covid-tests-near-me-public-library\">for example, at your local public library\u003c/a>) may be approaching their expiration date if they haven’t already passed it. And an expired test could give you an unreliable result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list\">You can check the FDA’s list of antigen test types \u003c/a>to see \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list\">whether the box you’re holding has had its shelf life extended\u003c/a> by the manufacturer. The FDA said that if a test’s shelf life has been extended, it’s because the manufacturer has given the agency enough “data showing that the shelf-life is longer than was known when the test was first authorized.” (In other words, it’s still OK to use that test.)\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Should I be altering my behavior right now?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>With the onset of winter respiratory virus season, everyone should consider taking extra or new steps to protect themselves from COVID-19 infection during a rise in level, even if it feels like “a step backward” for you, at this stage of the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This might include bringing a well-fitting N95 mask along to indoor spaces that you know could be crowded, like the grocery store. Or if you’re hosting people indoors in your home, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967946/covid-ventilation-guide-indoors-windows\">ensure the space has good ventilation by taking measures like opening windows\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the weather allows, you might also consider favoring outdoor hangouts and meetups with friends and family at this current time, to help reduce the potential risks of COVID-19 transmission. The chances are good that the folks you’re meeting up with could also be feeling a little anxious about the recent rise in cases but might not feel able to articulate it for fear of killing the social vibe. Consider doing the quieter folks in your circle a favor and being the person who raises the issue first to keep everyone safer. Remember: It’s not weird to not want to get COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re at higher risk for serious illness or hospitalization from COVID-19, it’s an especially good idea to take extra precautions against the virus right now. These groups can include older people, immunocompromised and disabled folks, and people who “haven’t been recently vaccinated, in the last six months or so,” advises Chin-Hong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another reason you might consider being extra cautious about COVID-19 right now is if you’ve got upcoming travel plans (for example, for the holidays).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if your symptoms are mild, a COVID-19 infection can require isolation from other people for well over a week — and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11942172/should-everyone-be-trying-to-get-paxlovid-for-covid-now-yes-basically#paxlovidrebound\">you can double that timeline if you get a rebound (i.e., second) infection\u003c/a>, which is surprisingly common even in people who don’t take the antiviral treatment, Paxlovid.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"freecovidtests\">\u003c/a>Where can I \u003cem>still\u003c/em> find a free COVID-19 test?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Good question. Finding a quick, free COVID-19 test — whether an at-home antigen test or a PCR test — has gotten progressively harder at this stage of the pandemic as more sites and services have been shuttered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal government has, at least, restarted its \u003ca href=\"https://www.covid.gov/tests\">free at-home COVID-test-ordering service\u003c/a> through USPS, meaning you can once again order another four free antigen tests to be delivered to your door for a future time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957645\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957645\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with long hair inserts a long cottonswab in her nostril while standing in the doorway of her home.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Janet Franco-Orona swabs her nose for a COVID-19 test at her home in San José on Feb. 3, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But what do you do now if you don’t already have a supply of antigen tests for COVID-19 at home right now? Try the following:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Purchase a COVID-19 at-home antigen test at a pharmacy near you\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>The quickest option will also be one of the most expensive up-front: Purchasing an at-home antigen test at a nearby pharmacy. (Ideally, ask someone to purchase one for you so you don’t potentially expose other people at the pharmacy — and if you really have to go yourself, wear a well-fitted N95 mask to help lower the risk you pose to others.) These at-home test kits are usually around $20 for a pack of two antigen tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have health insurance, you can \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969300/how-to-get-reimbursed-for-at-home-covid-tests-in-2023\">request reimbursement from your health insurer for the cost of up to eight at-home tests per month\u003c/a>, so don’t throw away your receipts.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Find a COVID-19 PCR testing site near you\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>PCR testing is more accurate than an antigen test — because it’s more sensitive at picking up traces of the coronavirus in your body — but it may take longer to get your results than with an at-home test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, there are still some sites offering free COVID-19 testing around the state. Try using:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://myturn.ca.gov/testing.html\">MyTurn.ca.gov/testing\u003c/a> and applying the “Free Sites” filter from the drop-down menu.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://testinglocator.cdc.gov/Search\">The CDC’s COVID-19 test locator.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>If you have health insurance, you may be able to get a PCR test ordered by your health care provider with the costs covered. Having a test ordered by a provider is — usually — the only way to get your testing costs covered if you have Medicare, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Try your local public library\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11970001/free-covid-tests-near-me-public-library\">Free COVID-19 tests may also be available for pick-up at your local Bay Area public library \u003c/a>this winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more information, read \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11970001/free-covid-tests-near-me-public-library\">our new guide to which Bay Area public libraries are giving away free at-home antigen tests\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>If you have health insurance, contact your provider\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>If you are insured with major Bay Area providers, such as Kaiser Permanente or Sutter Health, the easiest option to secure a COVID-19 test may be to make an appointment through your particular provider. Most providers offer sign-ups online through a member’s login, and appointments can also be made by phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more ideas on how to find a free or low-cost COVID-19 test near you, see \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11940562/how-to-find-a-free-covid-test-near-you-in-2023-because-its-getting-harder\">the KQED guide, which includes finding a test through your Bay Area county’s public health department or at a private testing site\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can also read \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11950386/at-home-covid-tests-are-still-effective-in-2023-and-you-can-still-get-them-for-free\">our guide to using at-home antigen tests in 2023 and how effective they are\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Tested positive for COVID-19? Consider asking for a Paxlovid prescription\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\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\">Paxlovid (pronounced “pax-LOH-vid” or sometimes “PAX-loh-vid”) is a highly effective antiviral treatment for COVID-19\u003c/a>, available free by prescription in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The treatment is fairly simple and entails taking a pill orally twice a day for five days. There’s evidence that it could help \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11942172/should-everyone-be-trying-to-get-paxlovid-for-covid-now-yes-basically#paxlovidlongcovid\">lower your risks of developing long COVID-19\u003c/a>, and as well as helping to \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\">reduce your risks of severe illness or hospitalization\u003c/a>, it can also help ease symptoms during an infection.[aside postID=news_11954507 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS66630_GettyImages-1369841386-qut-1020x680.jpg']Because of good supply, the drug is no longer reserved for people most at risk of severe illness from COVID-19, and everyone is encouraged to contact a health care provider to see whether they qualify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of February 2023, you no longer need proof of a positive COVID-19 test \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11942172/should-everyone-be-trying-to-get-paxlovid-for-covid-now-yes-basically\">to get a prescription for Paxlovid either\u003c/a>. But for it to be effective, health officials recommend starting a course of Paxlovid within five days of a positive test. This means that taking a test as soon as you suspect you have COVID-19 is still very important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you took Paxlovid for a previous COVID-19 infection, can you retake it for a new infection? Yes, it’s “definitely OK” to do so, said UCSF’s Chin-Hong if it’s a new, “distinct episode of COVID”. The only time it wouldn’t make sense to take Paxlovid a second time, Chin-Hong said, is for the \u003cem>same\u003c/em> infection — because you “will likely not benefit in taking another course even if you still test positive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re seeking a prescription, be aware that as of November there have been some changes to how Paxlovid is funded, meaning \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11966797/paxlovid-free-eligibility-california-2023\">people with health insurance should make sure they’re requesting Paxlovid “in-network” to avoid an unexpected bill. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read more on \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\">how to request a prescription for Paxlovid, with or without health insurance\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID-19\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger and help us decide what to cover here on our site and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[hearken id=\"10483\" src=\"https://modules.wearehearken.com/kqed/embed/10483.js\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>An earlier version of this story was originally published on Nov. 22. KQED’s Lesley McClurg, Alexander Gonzalez and Brian Watt contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>If it feels like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954507/covid-symptoms-after-pride-how-to-find-test\">many people you know are getting COVID-19 again \u003c/a>… you’re not alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fueled by a new subvariant called JN.1, COVID-19 rates are way up for the start of 2024, as part of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1985786/bay-area-covid-flu-cases-on-the-rise-but-not-surging-like-last-year\">a sharp rise that began back in November.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, what do you need to know about the symptoms of JN.1? Is there an updated incubation period to know about for COVID-19 in 2024, and where can you even find a free COVID-19 test now? Keep reading for everything you need to know, or jump straight to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#JN1covidsymptoms\">What are the symptoms of JN.1?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#covidincubationperiod\">What’s the incubation time for COVID-19 now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#covidincubationperiod\">I tested negative. Can I trust my antigen kit?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#freecovidtests\">Where can I still find free COVID-19 tests?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>And remember, the new COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer — and most recently Novavax — are available across California. The new shots are free for everyone, with or without health insurance, and are formulated to target strains like these latest subvariants. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11960630/free-new-covid-vaccine-near-me-2023\">Read where to find the new COVID-19 vaccine near you.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What is JN.1, and why is it spreading so much?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Right now, JN.1 is the most prevalent COVID-19 subvariant in the United States, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)\u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions\"> estimates currently makes up almost 62% of cases nationwide\u003c/a>. Behind it is the previous top variant, HV.1, which now only makes up 14.8% of cases across the country.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(If you’re losing track of all these subvariants of the omicron variant by this stage of the pandemic, that’s understandable. To recap: The swell of COVID-19 cases in summer 2023 was fueled by EG.5, unofficially nicknamed “Eris” by some online just as XBB.1.16 before it was nicknamed “Arcturus” — even though \u003ca href=\"https://www.who.int/news/item/16-03-2023-statement-on-the-update-of-who-s-working-definitions-and-tracking-system-for-sars-cov-2-variants-of-concern-and-variants-of-interest\">the World Health Organization has revised its naming conventions\u003c/a> to reserve “Greek labels” only for “variants of concern.” After the summer of EG.5, HV.1 rose to national prominence, followed now by JN.1.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whereas HV.1 was a part of the XBB sublineage of the omicron variant, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/whats-new/SARS-CoV-2-variant-JN.1.html\">JN.1 is closely related to the BA.2.86 strain\u003c/a>, the CDC said in an announcement declaring JN.1 “a variant of interest” back in December. And when you’re dealing with descendants like JN.1 and HV.1 before it, it’s important to remember that each new subvariant is more easily transmitted, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time something rises up the charts in the ‘tree of COVID life,’ by essence it had to have a superpower that makes them more powerful than the rest,” Chin-Hong said. “And that superpower is generally transmissibility.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JN.1’s infectiousness means that the “strategies people could use to escape infection over the summer during our surge are probably not working right now,” Chin-Hong said — added to the fact that winter holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year prompted travel and brought many people together in crowded gatherings. All of this means that “we all get together, we mix risks from all over the country [and] we don’t have much time to recover before being exposed and exposing others,” Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aside from its infectiousness, the CDC said in its Dec. 8 briefing that there’s “no evidence that JN.1 presents an increased risk to public health relative to other currently circulating variant,” and “no indication of increased severity from JN.1 at this time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, Chin-Hong stressed, JN.1’s increased transmissibility still means that “more people will get infected, which means that our hospitals will be fuller, and that will limit our ability to care for those who have other illnesses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"JN1covidsymptoms\">\u003c/a>What are the symptoms of JN.1?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Chin-Hong confirms that no surprising wild card symptoms have yet been reported for JN.1, or HV.1 before it — they’re the same COVID-19 symptoms you’re used to hearing about from previous variants. Or at least, that’s how it looks right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Like the other omicron flavors,” Chin-Hong said, “many [cases] start with a sore throat,” followed by congestion and a dry cough. From there, “the other symptoms — headache, runny nose, muscle aches, diarrhea or upset stomach, fever, loss of smell— may also join in,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The characteristics of the person becoming infected can also shape what symptoms are experienced,” Chin-Hong said, noting that a person age 75 or over or an immunocompromised person who didn’t \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11960630/free-new-covid-vaccine-near-me-2023\">receive the new COVID-19 vaccine\u003c/a> “may experience shortness of breath or difficulty breathing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the CDC, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html\">this is the full list of the possible symptoms of COVID-19\u003c/a>:\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>Remember, you might have a combination of these symptoms or just one. They might be mild or feel more severe. But if you’re experiencing any of these, take a COVID-19 test (more on this below).\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"covidcasesbayarea\">\u003c/a>What are the current COVID-19 cases in the Bay Area right now?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“COVID cases” — that is, positive test results — are not tracked in the way they once were. There’s more on that below, but in the absence of up-to-date widespread data on positive COVID-19 test results, watching for the presence of the coronavirus in human sewage has become increasingly important instead for gauging the levels of COVID-19 spread in a particular area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford University’s WastewaterSCAN project monitors the presence of COVID-19 — as well as other viruses — in wastewater across the U.S. (For example, you can \u003ca href=\"https://data.wastewaterscan.org/tracker/?charts=CiQQACABSABSBjM3NDMwYVoIWEJCX2JrcHR4rAGKAQY3NjI5ZDM%3D&selectedChartId=7629d3\">see the concentration of COVID-19 in wastewater collected from the Oceanside San Francisco watershed\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And when it comes to COVID-19 in Bay Area sewage, after numbers came down after that summer swell, WastewaterSCAN’s Ali Boehm told KQED by email on Jan. 8 that \u003ca href=\"https://wwscan.ghost.io/\">those levels of COVID-19 are unfortunately “high and increasing” right now\u003c/a>. In the chart below, which shows a trend line aggregated from the Bay Area wastewater sites, you can see how the current rise compares to the highest spike visible, which is the initial omicron surge of winter 2021-22.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11972211\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11972211\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/COVID-1-08-wastewater.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1239\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/COVID-1-08-wastewater.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/COVID-1-08-wastewater-800x516.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/COVID-1-08-wastewater-1020x658.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/COVID-1-08-wastewater-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/COVID-1-08-wastewater-1536x991.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A chart showing COVID-19 levels collected from across Bay Area wastewater sites. \u003ccite>(WastewaterSCAN)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As for other winter respiratory viruses, levels of RSV in Bay Area wastewater are “still quite high and have not clearly started decreasing,” Boehm said. One bit of good news: Boehm said that local wastewater shows that the flu is “not circulating now like it did at this time last year.” \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11968709/cold-flu-or-rsv-how-to-tell-which-virus-you-might-have-from-testing-to-symptoms\">Read more about the different symptoms of RSV and flu in relation to COVID-19.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Statewide, COVID-19 metrics are also back on the upswing after a lull. \u003ca href=\"https://covid19.ca.gov/state-dashboard/\">The state’s 7-day COVID-19 positivity test rate \u003c/a>tracks the average percentage of people in California each week who get a positive diagnostic test result from a lab after taking a PCR test. The statewide positivity rate reached its highest point for the entire year back on Sept. 2, at 17.4%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after falling to a low of 6.1% on Nov. 3, the weekly average positivity rate has climbed again to 12.3% as of the most recently available data, collected on Jan. 1. (It’s worth noting that many people who suspect they have COVID-19 in 2023 test themselves at home with an antigen test kit, not a PCR test — so this tracking from the California Department of Public Health \u003cem>doesn’t\u003c/em> represent the full picture of COVID-19 positivity around the state.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: What else would you like to read an explainer on right now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>After a lull following the 2023 summer swell, \u003ca href=\"https://covid19.ca.gov/state-dashboard/\">the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19\u003c/a> in California began climbing again in November and peaked on Dec. 22 with a 7-day average of 2,339 people hospitalized statewide. The most recent available data, from Dec. 31, shows a drop to a 7-day average of 1,990 patients.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Why don’t we have firmer numbers on how many people are actually testing positive for COVID-19 right now? Earlier in the pandemic, most people were getting diagnostic PCR tests through official sites, which were then tracked through their laboratory processing and had their numbers reported — the way the state’s official test positivity rate is still tracked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the arrival of widespread antigen tests has now given more people a way to test themselves for COVID-19 at home without having to find a PCR test (albeit in a manner \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11950386/at-home-covid-tests-are-still-effective-in-2023-and-you-can-still-get-them-for-free\">different from how a PCR test “detects” the virus\u003c/a>). But while public officials have urged at-home testers to report positive results to their local health authority, very few people still do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this goes some way to explain why the “true” number of people who currently have COVID-19 in 2023 is a very difficult number to report — and why any official number from PCR testing almost certainly represents a big undercount.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11948962\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11948962\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut.jpg\" alt=\"In this photo illustration, a COVID-19 self-test package is seen on a dark table.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62644_GettyImages-1237599780-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">When COVID-19 cases rise, strongly consider rising up — and testing if you feel symptoms. \u003ccite>(Photo Illustration by Michael Ho Wai Lee/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Is the new COVID-19 vaccine still effective against JN.1 and HV.1?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Yes: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11960630/free-new-covid-vaccine-near-me-2023\">The new COVID-19 vaccine that’s now available across California \u003c/a>is formulated to target the XBB sublineage, from which HV.1 is descended. And that same vaccine is “still effective against JN.1,” too, Chin-Hong said, despite this latest subvariant having more than “30 more mutations than XBB.1.5, which the vaccine is based on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"covidincubationperiod\">\u003c/a>I think I was exposed, or have symptoms. When should I take a COVID-19 test?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Step 1: Know about updated incubation times for JN.1\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’ve heard that incubation times for the virus are getting shorter — that is, the amount of time between getting exposed to COVID-19 and testing positive for COVID-19 — it’s true. People are testing positive for COVID-19 more quickly than they were in 2020 when the average incubation period was five days because the incubation period has changed with each new variant, confirms Chin-Hong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While “we don’t have a ton” of up-to-date information on incubation times at this stage of the pandemic, notes Chin-Hong, given this general trend, it makes sense to take a COVID-19 test as early as two days after exposure if you’re already having symptoms. But there’s a crucial update for 2024…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Step 2: Don’t trust a negative early COVID-19 test\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If your first test is negative, you should absolutely test again the next day if symptoms persist — and again after that if you’re still negative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s why you can’t necessarily trust a negative at-home COVID-19 test in 2024: While incubation times have gotten shorter, “paradoxically, we’re seeing people take longer to get a positive test,” Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why? Chin-Hong said that the hypothesis that makes sense to him is less about the efficacy of the antigen tests themselves and way more about how much quicker someone with COVID-19 might develop \u003cem>symptoms\u003c/em> in 2024 than they would have done in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a reminder, those symptoms are the sign that your body’s immune system is mounting a response to an invading virus — and back at the start of the pandemic, by the time you developed COVID-19 symptoms and took a test it would probably already be positive, Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at this stage of the pandemic, most of us now have “a lot of immune experience,” Chin-Hong said — and the average person’s immune system is increasingly “on guard” and “activated more than in 2020,” he said. So when your body detects a burgeoning coronavirus infection now, “your whole immune system just gets agitated and active, and you begin to get sick sooner, but you actually don’t have as much virus in your blood yet,” Chin-Hong said. Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease physician and researcher at Stanford University, also put it this way for NPR: “With our immune systems primed, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2024/01/07/1222847727/coronavirus-faq-my-partner-roommate-kid-got-covid-and-i-didnt-how-come\">the body’s response [now] comes much more quickly than it would have back in 2020\u003c/a> when SARS-CoV-2 was a novel pathogen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And because many of us take a COVID-19 test when we \u003cem>start\u003c/em> to feel sick, we might actually be testing way too early at that time for an at-home antigen kit to successfully detect enough virus inside us. This mismatch between when your symptoms start and when you’ve got enough virus present in your body to result in a positive COVID-19 test “was started to be observed in early omicron, but I think it just seems more accentuated now,” Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious diseases at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, told the Los Angeles Times that for her part, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-09/covid-rising-home-test-taking-longer-discover-infections\">she attributes this delay we’re seeing in accurate test results to people acquiring accumulated immunity\u003c/a> from COVID-19 over the years, either from getting infected or vaccinated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-09/covid-rising-home-test-taking-longer-discover-infections\">“It’s actually pushing back the time that people’s COVID tests are coming up positive,” Hudson said.\u003c/a> “So some people are testing at Day 1 and Day 2 … If they probably tested themselves a couple of days later, there’s a pretty good chance that it actually would turn out to be COVID.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bottom line is: If you’re testing because you’ve started feeling unwell, don’t assume a negative result means you don’t actually have COVID-19. Play it safe, stay home as much as you can and wear a well-fitted mask if you can’t, and take another antigen test 48 hours later, Chin-Hong said. You can also seek out a PCR test, which are more sensitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Step 3: Make sure your COVID-19 test hasn’t expired\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the COVID-19 tests being made available right now (\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11970001/free-covid-tests-near-me-public-library\">for example, at your local public library\u003c/a>) may be approaching their expiration date if they haven’t already passed it. And an expired test could give you an unreliable result.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list\">You can check the FDA’s list of antigen test types \u003c/a>to see \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list\">whether the box you’re holding has had its shelf life extended\u003c/a> by the manufacturer. The FDA said that if a test’s shelf life has been extended, it’s because the manufacturer has given the agency enough “data showing that the shelf-life is longer than was known when the test was first authorized.” (In other words, it’s still OK to use that test.)\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Should I be altering my behavior right now?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>With the onset of winter respiratory virus season, everyone should consider taking extra or new steps to protect themselves from COVID-19 infection during a rise in level, even if it feels like “a step backward” for you, at this stage of the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This might include bringing a well-fitting N95 mask along to indoor spaces that you know could be crowded, like the grocery store. Or if you’re hosting people indoors in your home, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967946/covid-ventilation-guide-indoors-windows\">ensure the space has good ventilation by taking measures like opening windows\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the weather allows, you might also consider favoring outdoor hangouts and meetups with friends and family at this current time, to help reduce the potential risks of COVID-19 transmission. The chances are good that the folks you’re meeting up with could also be feeling a little anxious about the recent rise in cases but might not feel able to articulate it for fear of killing the social vibe. Consider doing the quieter folks in your circle a favor and being the person who raises the issue first to keep everyone safer. Remember: It’s not weird to not want to get COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re at higher risk for serious illness or hospitalization from COVID-19, it’s an especially good idea to take extra precautions against the virus right now. These groups can include older people, immunocompromised and disabled folks, and people who “haven’t been recently vaccinated, in the last six months or so,” advises Chin-Hong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another reason you might consider being extra cautious about COVID-19 right now is if you’ve got upcoming travel plans (for example, for the holidays).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if your symptoms are mild, a COVID-19 infection can require isolation from other people for well over a week — and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11942172/should-everyone-be-trying-to-get-paxlovid-for-covid-now-yes-basically#paxlovidrebound\">you can double that timeline if you get a rebound (i.e., second) infection\u003c/a>, which is surprisingly common even in people who don’t take the antiviral treatment, Paxlovid.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"freecovidtests\">\u003c/a>Where can I \u003cem>still\u003c/em> find a free COVID-19 test?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Good question. Finding a quick, free COVID-19 test — whether an at-home antigen test or a PCR test — has gotten progressively harder at this stage of the pandemic as more sites and services have been shuttered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal government has, at least, restarted its \u003ca href=\"https://www.covid.gov/tests\">free at-home COVID-test-ordering service\u003c/a> through USPS, meaning you can once again order another four free antigen tests to be delivered to your door for a future time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957645\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957645\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with long hair inserts a long cottonswab in her nostril while standing in the doorway of her home.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS47065_033_SanJose_COVIDTesting_02032021-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Janet Franco-Orona swabs her nose for a COVID-19 test at her home in San José on Feb. 3, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But what do you do now if you don’t already have a supply of antigen tests for COVID-19 at home right now? Try the following:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Purchase a COVID-19 at-home antigen test at a pharmacy near you\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>The quickest option will also be one of the most expensive up-front: Purchasing an at-home antigen test at a nearby pharmacy. (Ideally, ask someone to purchase one for you so you don’t potentially expose other people at the pharmacy — and if you really have to go yourself, wear a well-fitted N95 mask to help lower the risk you pose to others.) These at-home test kits are usually around $20 for a pack of two antigen tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have health insurance, you can \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969300/how-to-get-reimbursed-for-at-home-covid-tests-in-2023\">request reimbursement from your health insurer for the cost of up to eight at-home tests per month\u003c/a>, so don’t throw away your receipts.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Find a COVID-19 PCR testing site near you\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>PCR testing is more accurate than an antigen test — because it’s more sensitive at picking up traces of the coronavirus in your body — but it may take longer to get your results than with an at-home test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, there are still some sites offering free COVID-19 testing around the state. Try using:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://myturn.ca.gov/testing.html\">MyTurn.ca.gov/testing\u003c/a> and applying the “Free Sites” filter from the drop-down menu.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://testinglocator.cdc.gov/Search\">The CDC’s COVID-19 test locator.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>If you have health insurance, you may be able to get a PCR test ordered by your health care provider with the costs covered. Having a test ordered by a provider is — usually — the only way to get your testing costs covered if you have Medicare, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Try your local public library\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11970001/free-covid-tests-near-me-public-library\">Free COVID-19 tests may also be available for pick-up at your local Bay Area public library \u003c/a>this winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more information, read \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11970001/free-covid-tests-near-me-public-library\">our new guide to which Bay Area public libraries are giving away free at-home antigen tests\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>If you have health insurance, contact your provider\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>If you are insured with major Bay Area providers, such as Kaiser Permanente or Sutter Health, the easiest option to secure a COVID-19 test may be to make an appointment through your particular provider. Most providers offer sign-ups online through a member’s login, and appointments can also be made by phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more ideas on how to find a free or low-cost COVID-19 test near you, see \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11940562/how-to-find-a-free-covid-test-near-you-in-2023-because-its-getting-harder\">the KQED guide, which includes finding a test through your Bay Area county’s public health department or at a private testing site\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can also read \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11950386/at-home-covid-tests-are-still-effective-in-2023-and-you-can-still-get-them-for-free\">our guide to using at-home antigen tests in 2023 and how effective they are\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Tested positive for COVID-19? Consider asking for a Paxlovid prescription\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\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\">Paxlovid (pronounced “pax-LOH-vid” or sometimes “PAX-loh-vid”) is a highly effective antiviral treatment for COVID-19\u003c/a>, available free by prescription in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The treatment is fairly simple and entails taking a pill orally twice a day for five days. There’s evidence that it could help \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11942172/should-everyone-be-trying-to-get-paxlovid-for-covid-now-yes-basically#paxlovidlongcovid\">lower your risks of developing long COVID-19\u003c/a>, and as well as helping to \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\">reduce your risks of severe illness or hospitalization\u003c/a>, it can also help ease symptoms during an infection.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Because of good supply, the drug is no longer reserved for people most at risk of severe illness from COVID-19, and everyone is encouraged to contact a health care provider to see whether they qualify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of February 2023, you no longer need proof of a positive COVID-19 test \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11942172/should-everyone-be-trying-to-get-paxlovid-for-covid-now-yes-basically\">to get a prescription for Paxlovid either\u003c/a>. But for it to be effective, health officials recommend starting a course of Paxlovid within five days of a positive test. This means that taking a test as soon as you suspect you have COVID-19 is still very important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you took Paxlovid for a previous COVID-19 infection, can you retake it for a new infection? Yes, it’s “definitely OK” to do so, said UCSF’s Chin-Hong if it’s a new, “distinct episode of COVID”. The only time it wouldn’t make sense to take Paxlovid a second time, Chin-Hong said, is for the \u003cem>same\u003c/em> infection — because you “will likely not benefit in taking another course even if you still test positive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re seeking a prescription, be aware that as of November there have been some changes to how Paxlovid is funded, meaning \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11966797/paxlovid-free-eligibility-california-2023\">people with health insurance should make sure they’re requesting Paxlovid “in-network” to avoid an unexpected bill. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read more on \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\">how to request a prescription for Paxlovid, with or without health insurance\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID-19\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger and help us decide what to cover here on our site and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>An earlier version of this story was originally published on Nov. 22. KQED’s Lesley McClurg, Alexander Gonzalez and Brian Watt contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"headTitle": "Another COVID Variant? What to Know About BA.2.86, Your Immunity and Boosters | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I’ve heard there is yet another new variant of SARS-CoV-2. Say it ain’t so!\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, it is so. Viruses mutate, new variants emerge. That’s happened a number of times with SARS-CoV-2 since the start of the pandemic in 2020. And it’s happening again. In mid-August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced: “A new variant of SARS-CoV-2 called BA.2.86 was detected in samples from people in Denmark and Israel. At least two cases have been identified in the United States. This variant is notable because it has multiple genetic differences from previous versions of SARS-CoV-2.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact there are 35 mutations on the spike protein compared to currently circulating variants. That’s as big of a difference as there was between the original virus and the omicron variant identified in November 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spike protein is what the virus uses to enter our cells. Those mutations could potentially help the virus evade the protection provided by COVID vaccinations and prior infections, says \u003ca href=\"https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/about\">Katelyn Jetelina,\u003c/a> an epidemiologist and scientific consultant to the CDC, who writes the “Your Local Epidemiologist” blog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC and the World Health Organization are taking a closer look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s not yet enough data to assess the potential of this variant to cause a wave. But the CDC said on Wednesday that, “based on what [it] knows now, existing tests used to detect and medications used to treat COVID-19 appear to be effective” for the variant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC also believes that BA.2.86 may be more capable of causing infection in people who have previously had COVID-19 or who have received COVID-19 vaccines because the mutations on the spike protein could allow it to evade our immune systems despite prior vaccinations and having had COVID-19. Scientists are evaluating the effectiveness of the new booster expected to be approved by mid September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And companies that make antigen tests, vaccines and treatments are testing them to see if they are effective on the variant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the conclusion is that this variant poses a significant risk of triggering waves of cases due to its mutations, it will get it own name. That name, next in the Greek alphabet for COVID variants, would be pi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I have a 66-year-old friend who’s never stopped wearing a mask and still refuses to go to restaurants, movies or even socialize indoors. He has had the latest booster. Are these extreme precautions still warranted at this stage? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s complicated,” says \u003ca href=\"https://profiles.mountsinai.org/waleed-javaid\">Dr. Waleed Javaid,\u003c/a> epidemiologist and director of Infection Prevention and Control at Mount Sinai Downtown in New York City. “Some people refused to mask, and others refuse to unmask. Part of it is knowing your risks, like if you are traveling in a crowded space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Javaid says we need to to be empathetic to the needs of others. “We don’t know other peoples’ risks. Some people may have serious illnesses, immunocompromising conditions, cancers, or transplants — and not share this information with their friends or loved ones.”[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Dr. Waleed Javaid, director, Infection Prevention and Control at Mount Sinai Downtown in New York City\"]‘We don’t know other peoples’ risks. Some people may have serious illnesses, immunocompromising conditions, cancers, or transplants — and not share this information with their friends or loved ones.’[/pullquote]\u003ca href=\"https://publichealth.jhu.edu/faculty/1972/andrew-stanley-pekosz\">Andrew Pekosz,\u003c/a> a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, says “it’s still very, very clear” that the hospitalizations and deaths from COVID — \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#hospitalizations-landing\">currently on the rise\u003c/a> — are being driven by certain portions of the population: those over the age of 65, those with underlying medical conditions, individuals on cancer treatment, solid organ transplant recipients and people who are immunocompromised. “In my opinion, if you are in those groups that should more than justify taking a few extra precautions if you want to minimize your risk,” he says. “And I think we as a society needs to be a little bit more accepting of those individuals who feel the need to take those steps to protect themselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for case counts, the end of the public health emergency for COVID means many data points on cases are no longer collected. But in the U.S., \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklyhospitaladmissions_7dayeddiagnosed_00\">emergency room visits\u003c/a> are still tallied and are rising. U.S. hospitalizations are still reported as well and have been increasing steadily since July, based on CDC data. For the week ending Aug. 12, there were 12,613 new hospitalizations for the virus, up from 10,370 the previous week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How long will it take for the new booster, coming in the fall, to confer protection? A week? Ten days? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, news alert: A meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices \u003ca href=\"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/08/25/2023-18288/advisory-committee-on-immunization-practices\">has been set for Sept. 12\u003c/a> to discuss the updated COVID-19 booster, likely to be followed by the CDC director adopting their recommendation very soon after and making recommendations on who should get the updated shot. Pharmacies and doctors offices are already gearing up to give the shot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now back to the immunity you can expect. “It takes up to two weeks for you to have the best protection [from a vaccine],” says Dr. Javaid. Andrew Pekosz says for COVID the vaccines may even work a bit faster because of prior immunity people have from vaccines and from \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.html#est-infections\">having had the virus.\u003c/a> “Within ten days you would detect increases in your immunity and by two weeks you should be at pretty good levels that would be protecting you from a COVID-19 infection and particularly severe COVID-19,” Pekosz says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When does protection of COVID vaccines and boosters wane? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have that long-term data available yet,” says Dr. Javaid. “There are multiple factors involved. There are patient factors, illnesses, immunocompromising conditions and the ability to mount immune response depending on medications — like steroids — that suppress the immune system. There are also viral factors, like if the virus mutates enough to evade our immune system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In general, says Javaid, being vaccinated will provide some degree of protection against infection that can last for months or even years because of the body’s immune memory. This means vaccinated individuals will likely have milder symptoms than unvaccinated. And so far, Javaid says, the vaccines have held up well against severe disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There are three vaccines this fall — the flu vaccine, the expected fall COVID booster and the RSV vaccine. Can I get them all at once?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can get the flu shot and fall booster together without any interference of the effectiveness of either, says \u003ca href=\"https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/profiles/Frieman-Matthew/\">Matthew Frieman,\u003c/a> research professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “In fact,” says Frieman, “vaccines that would combine the two are in clinical trials.”[aside postID=news_11954507,news_11957790,news_11948759 label='COVID resources']Dr. Javaid points out that children get vaccines that combine protection — like one for mumps, measles and rubella (German measles) with no problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/coadministration.htm\">The CDC gives the thumbs up to getting the flu and COVID vaccines together as well\u003c/a> and says you can even get them in the same arm, though getting each in a different arm can help reduce short-term pain that can come with getting a vaccination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for timing … The new boosters aren’t here yet. October is considered the best month to get a flu shot since protection can wane over the flu season, which ends in May or June. So assuming that the new booster is out by then, you could go for a two-fer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there are new vaccines, just recently approved, for \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/index.html\">respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)\u003c/a>, which is also a fall virus and which is most dangerous for very young kids and older adults. A vaccine is recommended for people 60+ and is available now, and another was just approved\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/21/1194677541/pfizers-rsv-vaccine-to-protect-babies-gets-greenlight-from-fda\"> for pregnant women\u003c/a> to provide protection for their babies from RSV right from birth. There’s also a treatment for infants that works like a vaccine to protect them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there isn’t yet data available on whether people over 60 can take the RSV vaccine simultaneously with the COVID and flu vaccines. You may want to consult with your doctor about timing for the RSV vaccine if you are in a risk group, suggests the immunologist Pekosz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I’m over 65. Does that impact immunity from the booster? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In older adults the body may not be as aggressive in making antibodies as it in younger years, says Dr. Javaid. “This is why it’s a good idea to ask your doctor if the CDC recommends more frequent boosting for your age or for individuals in certain risk groups.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pekosz adds that for your average over-65er, “the immune response from the vaccine should last from four to six months in terms of protecting from severe disease.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And everyone should be considering the updated booster when it’s available, says Pekosz, “because the variants that are circulating now are very different from what was in the last vaccine for COVID-19.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/isolation.html\">\u003cstrong>The CDC advises\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> that people exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID wear a mask for at least 10 days and people who test positive themselves wear a mask for at least five days. A reader asks if five days is enough for someone who is infected? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Javaid says that if you are exposed to COVID-19 and don’t develop symptoms right away, it’s good to stay masked for the CDC’s recommended time because if you do develop the virus in the days ahead, your infectiousness is highest in the first few days, and you can’t be sure when that might be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s news on home tests as well. On this week’s reporter’s call, the CDC said there is some funding to send tests to libraries and public health departments so check to see if free tests are available. And also check prices since online and retail stores may sometimes discount home tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>See \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">all KQED COVID resources and explainers\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Fran Kritz is a health policy reporter based in Washington, D.C., and a regular contributor to NPR. She also reports for the \u003c/em>Washington Post\u003cem> and \u003c/em>Verywell Health\u003cem>. Find her on Twitter: @fkritz\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">npr.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I’ve heard there is yet another new variant of SARS-CoV-2. Say it ain’t so!\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, it is so. Viruses mutate, new variants emerge. That’s happened a number of times with SARS-CoV-2 since the start of the pandemic in 2020. And it’s happening again. In mid-August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced: “A new variant of SARS-CoV-2 called BA.2.86 was detected in samples from people in Denmark and Israel. At least two cases have been identified in the United States. This variant is notable because it has multiple genetic differences from previous versions of SARS-CoV-2.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact there are 35 mutations on the spike protein compared to currently circulating variants. That’s as big of a difference as there was between the original virus and the omicron variant identified in November 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spike protein is what the virus uses to enter our cells. Those mutations could potentially help the virus evade the protection provided by COVID vaccinations and prior infections, says \u003ca href=\"https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/about\">Katelyn Jetelina,\u003c/a> an epidemiologist and scientific consultant to the CDC, who writes the “Your Local Epidemiologist” blog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC and the World Health Organization are taking a closer look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s not yet enough data to assess the potential of this variant to cause a wave. But the CDC said on Wednesday that, “based on what [it] knows now, existing tests used to detect and medications used to treat COVID-19 appear to be effective” for the variant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC also believes that BA.2.86 may be more capable of causing infection in people who have previously had COVID-19 or who have received COVID-19 vaccines because the mutations on the spike protein could allow it to evade our immune systems despite prior vaccinations and having had COVID-19. Scientists are evaluating the effectiveness of the new booster expected to be approved by mid September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And companies that make antigen tests, vaccines and treatments are testing them to see if they are effective on the variant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the conclusion is that this variant poses a significant risk of triggering waves of cases due to its mutations, it will get it own name. That name, next in the Greek alphabet for COVID variants, would be pi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://publichealth.jhu.edu/faculty/1972/andrew-stanley-pekosz\">Andrew Pekosz,\u003c/a> a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, says “it’s still very, very clear” that the hospitalizations and deaths from COVID — \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#hospitalizations-landing\">currently on the rise\u003c/a> — are being driven by certain portions of the population: those over the age of 65, those with underlying medical conditions, individuals on cancer treatment, solid organ transplant recipients and people who are immunocompromised. “In my opinion, if you are in those groups that should more than justify taking a few extra precautions if you want to minimize your risk,” he says. “And I think we as a society needs to be a little bit more accepting of those individuals who feel the need to take those steps to protect themselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for case counts, the end of the public health emergency for COVID means many data points on cases are no longer collected. But in the U.S., \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklyhospitaladmissions_7dayeddiagnosed_00\">emergency room visits\u003c/a> are still tallied and are rising. U.S. hospitalizations are still reported as well and have been increasing steadily since July, based on CDC data. For the week ending Aug. 12, there were 12,613 new hospitalizations for the virus, up from 10,370 the previous week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How long will it take for the new booster, coming in the fall, to confer protection? A week? Ten days? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, news alert: A meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices \u003ca href=\"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/08/25/2023-18288/advisory-committee-on-immunization-practices\">has been set for Sept. 12\u003c/a> to discuss the updated COVID-19 booster, likely to be followed by the CDC director adopting their recommendation very soon after and making recommendations on who should get the updated shot. Pharmacies and doctors offices are already gearing up to give the shot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now back to the immunity you can expect. “It takes up to two weeks for you to have the best protection [from a vaccine],” says Dr. Javaid. Andrew Pekosz says for COVID the vaccines may even work a bit faster because of prior immunity people have from vaccines and from \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.html#est-infections\">having had the virus.\u003c/a> “Within ten days you would detect increases in your immunity and by two weeks you should be at pretty good levels that would be protecting you from a COVID-19 infection and particularly severe COVID-19,” Pekosz says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When does protection of COVID vaccines and boosters wane? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have that long-term data available yet,” says Dr. Javaid. “There are multiple factors involved. There are patient factors, illnesses, immunocompromising conditions and the ability to mount immune response depending on medications — like steroids — that suppress the immune system. There are also viral factors, like if the virus mutates enough to evade our immune system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In general, says Javaid, being vaccinated will provide some degree of protection against infection that can last for months or even years because of the body’s immune memory. This means vaccinated individuals will likely have milder symptoms than unvaccinated. And so far, Javaid says, the vaccines have held up well against severe disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There are three vaccines this fall — the flu vaccine, the expected fall COVID booster and the RSV vaccine. Can I get them all at once?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can get the flu shot and fall booster together without any interference of the effectiveness of either, says \u003ca href=\"https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/profiles/Frieman-Matthew/\">Matthew Frieman,\u003c/a> research professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “In fact,” says Frieman, “vaccines that would combine the two are in clinical trials.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Dr. Javaid points out that children get vaccines that combine protection — like one for mumps, measles and rubella (German measles) with no problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/coadministration.htm\">The CDC gives the thumbs up to getting the flu and COVID vaccines together as well\u003c/a> and says you can even get them in the same arm, though getting each in a different arm can help reduce short-term pain that can come with getting a vaccination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for timing … The new boosters aren’t here yet. October is considered the best month to get a flu shot since protection can wane over the flu season, which ends in May or June. So assuming that the new booster is out by then, you could go for a two-fer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there are new vaccines, just recently approved, for \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/index.html\">respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)\u003c/a>, which is also a fall virus and which is most dangerous for very young kids and older adults. A vaccine is recommended for people 60+ and is available now, and another was just approved\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/21/1194677541/pfizers-rsv-vaccine-to-protect-babies-gets-greenlight-from-fda\"> for pregnant women\u003c/a> to provide protection for their babies from RSV right from birth. There’s also a treatment for infants that works like a vaccine to protect them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there isn’t yet data available on whether people over 60 can take the RSV vaccine simultaneously with the COVID and flu vaccines. You may want to consult with your doctor about timing for the RSV vaccine if you are in a risk group, suggests the immunologist Pekosz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I’m over 65. Does that impact immunity from the booster? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In older adults the body may not be as aggressive in making antibodies as it in younger years, says Dr. Javaid. “This is why it’s a good idea to ask your doctor if the CDC recommends more frequent boosting for your age or for individuals in certain risk groups.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pekosz adds that for your average over-65er, “the immune response from the vaccine should last from four to six months in terms of protecting from severe disease.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And everyone should be considering the updated booster when it’s available, says Pekosz, “because the variants that are circulating now are very different from what was in the last vaccine for COVID-19.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/isolation.html\">\u003cstrong>The CDC advises\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong> that people exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID wear a mask for at least 10 days and people who test positive themselves wear a mask for at least five days. A reader asks if five days is enough for someone who is infected? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Javaid says that if you are exposed to COVID-19 and don’t develop symptoms right away, it’s good to stay masked for the CDC’s recommended time because if you do develop the virus in the days ahead, your infectiousness is highest in the first few days, and you can’t be sure when that might be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s news on home tests as well. On this week’s reporter’s call, the CDC said there is some funding to send tests to libraries and public health departments so check to see if free tests are available. And also check prices since online and retail stores may sometimes discount home tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>See \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">all KQED COVID resources and explainers\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Fran Kritz is a health policy reporter based in Washington, D.C., and a regular contributor to NPR. She also reports for the \u003c/em>Washington Post\u003cem> and \u003c/em>Verywell Health\u003cem>. Find her on Twitter: @fkritz\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">npr.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Seventeen \u003ca href=\"https://hcai.ca.gov/california-announces-300-million-in-financial-support-for-community-hospitals-across-the-state/\">financially distressed California hospitals\u003c/a> — including three that filed for bankruptcy earlier this year — will receive close to $300 million in interest-free loans, state officials announced Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2023/01/hospital-closure/\">Madera Community Hospital\u003c/a>, which closed its doors in January, stands to receive the biggest chunk, $52 million. The money comes from the Distressed Hospital Loan Program, which the Legislature created to support rural and independent hospitals that faced financial challenges coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Madera hospital had requested $80 million, but the money it received is expected to be enough to fund a reopening for the rural hospital about 25 miles north of Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adventist Health, which operates hospitals in four West Coast states, last month announced a proposal to take over Madera’s operations through a management agreement, contingent on it receiving the state funds. In a letter outlining its terms, Adventist \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Madera-LOI-20230727-final.pdf\">projected needing $55 million to reopen (PDF)\u003c/a> and another $30 million to sustain operations in the second year.[aside postID=news_11958245 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/033023_Hollister_Hospital_LV_CM_01-1020x680.jpg']Madera will initially receive $2 million to cover immediate operating costs. Officials at Adventist Health and Madera Community will have to submit a “comprehensive hospital turnaround plan” and, if approved, will then become eligible to receive the remaining $50 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This financial assistance is an important step in the right direction to help Madera Community Hospital reopen its doors to the community. We have more work to do, but I’m proud to have led this effort,” said Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, a Fresno Democrat whose district includes Madera and who authored legislation that led to the loan program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adventist Health in a written statement said it is working with “community partners and stakeholders in developing a thoughtful, comprehensive hospital turnaround plan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beverly Hospital, located east of Los Angeles, will receive $5 million to cover operations while it is in bankruptcy. The hospital applied for $35 million, but it is now set to be bought by Adventist Health White Memorial. A bankruptcy judge last week approved \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/bh-638.pdf\">Adventist’s $39 million purchase of Beverly (PDF)\u003c/a>.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"State Treasurer Fiona Ma\"]‘The hospitals approved for this program have shown a detailed plan for financial recovery and these funds will help them keep the doors open so they can keep serving their communities.’[/pullquote]Another bankrupt hospital, Hazel Hawkins Memorial, will receive the $10 million it requested. It’s the only source of emergency care in San Benito County, a rural community east of Monterey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The hospitals approved for this program have shown a detailed plan for financial recovery and these funds will help them keep the doors open so they can keep serving their communities,” said State Treasurer Fiona Ma, whose office is helping administer the funds. Ma said her team has already begun providing instructions and assistance to the awarded hospitals.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Biggest loans to distressed hospitals\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Department of Health Care Access and Information reviewed applications and selected hospitals for the program. Thirty hospitals applied for loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other hospitals that will receive significant funding include the following:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tricitymed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/agenda-packet.Special-Meeting-7.27.23.pdf\">Tri-City Medical Center (PDF)\u003c/a> in San Diego will receive $33.2 million. The hospital recently announced plans to suspend its labor and delivery services amid “financial losses.”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2023/01/hospital-closure/\">Kaweah Delta Health Care District\u003c/a> in Visalia will get a $20.8 million loan. This hospital laid off 130 employees late last year.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://inewsource.org/2023/02/07/el-centro-hospital-financial-problems/\">El Centro Regional Medical Center\u003c/a> in Imperial County, which in January closed its maternity ward, will receive $28 million.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://pmhd.org/\">Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District\u003c/a>, Imperial County’s only other hospital, also is set to receive $28 million.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dameronhospital.org/\">Dameron Hospital\u003c/a> in Stockton, now also being managed by Adventist Health, will be loaned $29 million.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>Vulnerable California hospitals\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Most California hospitals are part of large networks that can navigate turbulent financial periods. A number of community and independent hospitals have struggled for years, especially after the peak of the pandemic. Some recently reduced services or laid off staff.[aside label='More on Health Care' tag='health-care']Hospitals have pointed to a number of factors for their distressed state — increased labor costs, and inadequate reimbursement from public insurance programs, Medicare and Medi-Cal, and in \u003ca href=\"https://fresnoland.org/2023/03/01/reimbursements-rates-madera-hospital-closure/\">some cases private insurance.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some hospitals began to ask the state for help late last year, but the closure of Madera Community Hospital prompted more urgency from lawmakers. It shut its doors after Trinity Health, a large Catholic health system, pulled out of negotiations to purchase the hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Madera Community Hospital in the San Joaquin Valley was the only general acute care hospital in the county of about 160,000 people. The closest emergency rooms are about \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article272712840.html\">30 and 40 minutes drive away in Fresno and Merced\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Distressed Hospital Loan Program closes at the end of 2031. Hospitals will get an 18-month grace period and then will have to repay loans over a six-year period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Seventeen \u003ca href=\"https://hcai.ca.gov/california-announces-300-million-in-financial-support-for-community-hospitals-across-the-state/\">financially distressed California hospitals\u003c/a> — including three that filed for bankruptcy earlier this year — will receive close to $300 million in interest-free loans, state officials announced Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2023/01/hospital-closure/\">Madera Community Hospital\u003c/a>, which closed its doors in January, stands to receive the biggest chunk, $52 million. The money comes from the Distressed Hospital Loan Program, which the Legislature created to support rural and independent hospitals that faced financial challenges coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Madera hospital had requested $80 million, but the money it received is expected to be enough to fund a reopening for the rural hospital about 25 miles north of Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adventist Health, which operates hospitals in four West Coast states, last month announced a proposal to take over Madera’s operations through a management agreement, contingent on it receiving the state funds. In a letter outlining its terms, Adventist \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Madera-LOI-20230727-final.pdf\">projected needing $55 million to reopen (PDF)\u003c/a> and another $30 million to sustain operations in the second year.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Madera will initially receive $2 million to cover immediate operating costs. Officials at Adventist Health and Madera Community will have to submit a “comprehensive hospital turnaround plan” and, if approved, will then become eligible to receive the remaining $50 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This financial assistance is an important step in the right direction to help Madera Community Hospital reopen its doors to the community. We have more work to do, but I’m proud to have led this effort,” said Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, a Fresno Democrat whose district includes Madera and who authored legislation that led to the loan program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adventist Health in a written statement said it is working with “community partners and stakeholders in developing a thoughtful, comprehensive hospital turnaround plan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beverly Hospital, located east of Los Angeles, will receive $5 million to cover operations while it is in bankruptcy. The hospital applied for $35 million, but it is now set to be bought by Adventist Health White Memorial. A bankruptcy judge last week approved \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/bh-638.pdf\">Adventist’s $39 million purchase of Beverly (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Another bankrupt hospital, Hazel Hawkins Memorial, will receive the $10 million it requested. It’s the only source of emergency care in San Benito County, a rural community east of Monterey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The hospitals approved for this program have shown a detailed plan for financial recovery and these funds will help them keep the doors open so they can keep serving their communities,” said State Treasurer Fiona Ma, whose office is helping administer the funds. Ma said her team has already begun providing instructions and assistance to the awarded hospitals.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Biggest loans to distressed hospitals\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Department of Health Care Access and Information reviewed applications and selected hospitals for the program. Thirty hospitals applied for loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other hospitals that will receive significant funding include the following:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tricitymed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/agenda-packet.Special-Meeting-7.27.23.pdf\">Tri-City Medical Center (PDF)\u003c/a> in San Diego will receive $33.2 million. The hospital recently announced plans to suspend its labor and delivery services amid “financial losses.”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2023/01/hospital-closure/\">Kaweah Delta Health Care District\u003c/a> in Visalia will get a $20.8 million loan. This hospital laid off 130 employees late last year.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://inewsource.org/2023/02/07/el-centro-hospital-financial-problems/\">El Centro Regional Medical Center\u003c/a> in Imperial County, which in January closed its maternity ward, will receive $28 million.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://pmhd.org/\">Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District\u003c/a>, Imperial County’s only other hospital, also is set to receive $28 million.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dameronhospital.org/\">Dameron Hospital\u003c/a> in Stockton, now also being managed by Adventist Health, will be loaned $29 million.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>Vulnerable California hospitals\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Most California hospitals are part of large networks that can navigate turbulent financial periods. A number of community and independent hospitals have struggled for years, especially after the peak of the pandemic. Some recently reduced services or laid off staff.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Hospitals have pointed to a number of factors for their distressed state — increased labor costs, and inadequate reimbursement from public insurance programs, Medicare and Medi-Cal, and in \u003ca href=\"https://fresnoland.org/2023/03/01/reimbursements-rates-madera-hospital-closure/\">some cases private insurance.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some hospitals began to ask the state for help late last year, but the closure of Madera Community Hospital prompted more urgency from lawmakers. It shut its doors after Trinity Health, a large Catholic health system, pulled out of negotiations to purchase the hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Madera Community Hospital in the San Joaquin Valley was the only general acute care hospital in the county of about 160,000 people. The closest emergency rooms are about \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article272712840.html\">30 and 40 minutes drive away in Fresno and Merced\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Distressed Hospital Loan Program closes at the end of 2031. Hospitals will get an 18-month grace period and then will have to repay loans over a six-year period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Ashley Hooks always planned to retire at Lakewood Regional Medical Center, where she has been a nurse for 12 years. But now, Hooks said, staffing issues are so bad and burnout so severe that she’s rethinking how she wants to spend the rest of her career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/coronavirus/2021/08/california-nurses-shortage/\">number of nurses at the hospital\u003c/a> dropped from just below 500 to 330 according to her union’s roster, said Hooks, who is 53.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It wasn’t even this difficult during the height of the COVID pandemic,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hooks’ stress reflects the pressure many California nurses are under because of steep understaffing that she and others say is driving many professionals out of the industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the Hospital Association of Southern California, nursing vacancy rates among local hospitals exceed 30%. Prior to the pandemic, the average \u003ca href=\"https://hasc.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/10/hasc.pdf\">vacancy rate was 6% (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Within the last year-and-a-half or so, it’s really gotten worse,” Hooks said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now the Legislature is looking at several ideas to address the nursing shortage by bringing more early-career nurses into the field. But so far, the groups with most to gain — or lose — are at odds over how to solve the staffing problems afflicting California’s health care workforce.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Joanne Spetz, director, Institute for Health Policy Studies at UC San Francisco\"]‘There is a lot of trauma in the nursing workforce. The numbers are not good.’[/pullquote]Labor organizations and hospitals want nursing schools to prioritize certain applicants for admission, such as people who already have experience in the industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have enough nurses entering the system as opportunities are opening up for them to leave the system,” said Peter Sidhu, a nurse and executive vice president of United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the schools say that won’t help them graduate more nurses. They need more faculty and more hands-on training opportunities to increase class sizes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hospitals and unions say they don’t have much time to waste. Estimates show California faces a shortage of about 36,000 licensed nurses, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://healthforce.ucsf.edu/LongtermCare\">UC San Francisco Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Preliminary data from a statewide survey conducted in 2022 shows nurses cut back on the number of hours worked per week since 2020, and nearly half the workforce reports symptoms of burnout, said Joanne Spetz, director of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at UC San Francisco, who has studied nursing workforce issues for more than a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More nurses, even those as young as 35, are thinking about leaving the profession entirely or retiring within the next two years, and half of the workforce had at least one patient die of COVID-19, Spetz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a lot of trauma in the nursing workforce,” Spetz said. “The numbers are not good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Union-backed bills for nursing shortage\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Labor advocates say the nursing shortage creates a vicious cycle. The nurses on shift wind up doing more work. They get burned out and flee the industry, worsening the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the UNAC/UHCP turned their attention to the state’s community college system, where graduates can earn degrees to become nursing assistants, licensed vocational nurses or registered nurses. Both groups say community colleges offer the most affordable and efficient way to earn a nursing degree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of their ideas aims to help high school students get into nursing schools faster. Another would give entry-level workers the chance to move into more skilled and higher-paid positions like nursing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957012\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957012\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses02.jpg\" alt='Health Care workers hold signs that read, \"Engineers & Scientists of California United for Our Patients.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses02.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses02-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses02-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses02-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses02-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some longtime California nurses said staffing issues are so bad and burnout is so severe that many are rethinking how they want to spend the rest of their careers. \u003ccite>(Rahul Lal/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sidhu’s union is sponsoring a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1695\">bill\u003c/a> that would create a pilot program for high school students who take extra classes to have preferential admission into a community college nursing program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB689\">second measure\u003c/a>, which is co-sponsored by SEIU and the California Hospital Association (CHA), would require community colleges to set aside 15% of enrollment slots for health care workers looking to further their education with a more advanced degree. They say helping current workers get higher-paying jobs within health care will help with retention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we talk to our hospital members, workforce issues are the number one thing that keep them up at night,” said Jan Emerson-Shea, spokesperson for the CHA. “We also hear from employees that they’ve tried getting into community college programs, but because they’re so impacted, it can take them three, four or five years to get into the program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California colleges skeptical of union bills\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>But community college and some university nursing school leaders contend neither bill will boost the number of graduates. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2023/03/california-nursing-school/\">Nursing programs are full\u003c/a>, they say, and the proposals do nothing to expand the number of admission slots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These bills come up and I wonder who on earth would propose something like this to impact the community colleges without getting our input,” said Tammy Vant Hul, south region president of the California Organization of Associate Degree Nursing Program Directors.[aside label='More on California Health Care' tag='health-care']Vant Hul is also dean of nursing at Riverside City College, the second largest community college nursing program in the state. High school students would not have completed enough prerequisites to apply directly to a nursing program, much less be guaranteed admission, Vant Hul said, and existing health care workers already get additional points during the admissions process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem isn’t generating career interest in nursing; it’s creating more spots, program leaders say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Karen Bradley, president of the California Association of Colleges of Nursing, said nursing programs have an overabundance of competitive applicants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have not had a dip at all in enrollment in my program. I have a waiting list,” said Bradley, who is also dean of California Baptist University’s nursing program. “Every dean is going to tell you that they have a waiting list or enough qualified applicants that they turn away students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 14,000 new students enrolled in nursing programs during the 2020–21 school year, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.rn.ca.gov/pdfs/education/schoolrpt20-21.pdf\">Board of Registered Nursing’s annual school report (PDF)\u003c/a>. That’s about 1,000 fewer students than the previous two years due to smaller class sizes, but schools across the state received more than 55,000 applications, a 10-year record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bills’ sponsors say they have spoken with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, which has not taken a position on any of the workforce bills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957013\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957013\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses03.jpg\" alt='Dozens of health care workers march in protest outside of a Kaiser Permanente building in Sacramento, California. One yellow and black sign reads, \"Patient Care Is In Crisis.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses03.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses03-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses03-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses03-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses03-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses03-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">According to the Hospital Association of Southern California, nursing vacancy rates among local hospitals exceed 30%. Prior to the pandemic, the average vacancy rate was 6%. \u003ccite>(Rahul Lal/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Separate from the bills, the UNAC/UHCP lobbied for a \u003ca href=\"https://ebudget.ca.gov/2023-24/pdf/Enacted/BudgetSummary/HigherEducation.pdf\">$300 million investment (PDF)\u003c/a> over five years to double the state’s nursing school capacity. It was included in the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2023/06/california-budget-deal-what-you-need-to-know/\">state budget Gov. Gavin Newsom signed\u003c/a> earlier this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The details of how the money will be spent have not been decided, Sidhu said, but it could be used to increase faculty salaries and overcome other factors that limit class sizes.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More room needed for California nurse trainees\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Representatives for nursing programs say the money will be helpful, but they’re worried about other bottlenecks that they say prevent them from enrolling more students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lack of nursing faculty caps class sizes, for instance, with potential educators instead choosing to make more money working in health care. They also say hospitals are not offering enough opportunities for their students to get hands-on training.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As we move forward with the nursing shortage, clinical placements are an issue. So many hospitals kind of downsized their willingness to bring on students during the pandemic, and those spots never came back,” said Linda Zorn, legislative chair for the California Organization of Associate Degree Nursing and executive director of economic and workforce development for Butte-Glenn Community College District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1577\">third proposal\u003c/a> in the Legislature attempts to clear that hurdle by guaranteeing clinical placement spots for community college students. A mix of opponents are fighting the bill, including hospitals, four-year universities and some community college advocates who say it will take spots away from other students and overwhelm nursing staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some hospitals aren’t big enough. They can’t take on hundreds of students. They have 25 beds,” said Sarah Bridge, senior legislative advocate for the Association of Health Care Districts, which represents primarily small, rural hospitals in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the 2020–21 school year, the most commonly cited reason by nursing schools for decreasing class sizes was “unable to secure clinical placements,” according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.rn.ca.gov/pdfs/education/schoolrpt20-21.pdf\">Board of Registered Nursing’s annual school report (PDF)\u003c/a>, in part due to workforce challenges resulting from the pandemic. The report states that more than 15,000 students were impacted by restricted training spots compared to roughly 2,200 students during the 2018–19 school year.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Linda Zorn, legislative chair, California Organization of Associate Degree Nursing\"]‘So many hospitals kind of downsized their willingness to bring on students during the pandemic, and those spots never came back.’[/pullquote]Bridge said many small and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2023/05/hospital-closures-california-2/\">rural hospitals also are teetering on the edge of a financial crisis\u003c/a>. It costs about $7,000 to train one student, not including the salary cost of nurses who supervise students. Multiply that by the number of student trainees accepted and some hospitals can’t foot the bill, Bridge said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zorn said nursing schools know they have to be sensitive to how many students get sent to any one hospital, which is part of the reason many are skeptical of the bill. The number of student training spots recently has been limited by the profession’s thinly stretched workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It can close down the rural hospitals if you don’t have the correct staffing,” Zorn said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaders from four-year degree programs also say the proposal would displace their nursing students in favor of community college students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill sponsors say the intent of the legislation is to create more training capacity, not to displace existing students, as some critics have claimed, said Eric Robles, legislative director for the UNAC/UHCP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If hospitals are getting bailouts, I would sure hope everybody believes our nurse workforce needs a bailout too,” Robles said. “And that bailout can come through strengthening the pipeline, growing the workforce and maintaining the workforce.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Ashley Hooks always planned to retire at Lakewood Regional Medical Center, where she has been a nurse for 12 years. But now, Hooks said, staffing issues are so bad and burnout so severe that she’s rethinking how she wants to spend the rest of her career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/coronavirus/2021/08/california-nurses-shortage/\">number of nurses at the hospital\u003c/a> dropped from just below 500 to 330 according to her union’s roster, said Hooks, who is 53.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It wasn’t even this difficult during the height of the COVID pandemic,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hooks’ stress reflects the pressure many California nurses are under because of steep understaffing that she and others say is driving many professionals out of the industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the Hospital Association of Southern California, nursing vacancy rates among local hospitals exceed 30%. Prior to the pandemic, the average \u003ca href=\"https://hasc.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/10/hasc.pdf\">vacancy rate was 6% (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Within the last year-and-a-half or so, it’s really gotten worse,” Hooks said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now the Legislature is looking at several ideas to address the nursing shortage by bringing more early-career nurses into the field. But so far, the groups with most to gain — or lose — are at odds over how to solve the staffing problems afflicting California’s health care workforce.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Labor organizations and hospitals want nursing schools to prioritize certain applicants for admission, such as people who already have experience in the industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have enough nurses entering the system as opportunities are opening up for them to leave the system,” said Peter Sidhu, a nurse and executive vice president of United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the schools say that won’t help them graduate more nurses. They need more faculty and more hands-on training opportunities to increase class sizes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hospitals and unions say they don’t have much time to waste. Estimates show California faces a shortage of about 36,000 licensed nurses, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://healthforce.ucsf.edu/LongtermCare\">UC San Francisco Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Preliminary data from a statewide survey conducted in 2022 shows nurses cut back on the number of hours worked per week since 2020, and nearly half the workforce reports symptoms of burnout, said Joanne Spetz, director of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at UC San Francisco, who has studied nursing workforce issues for more than a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More nurses, even those as young as 35, are thinking about leaving the profession entirely or retiring within the next two years, and half of the workforce had at least one patient die of COVID-19, Spetz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a lot of trauma in the nursing workforce,” Spetz said. “The numbers are not good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Union-backed bills for nursing shortage\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Labor advocates say the nursing shortage creates a vicious cycle. The nurses on shift wind up doing more work. They get burned out and flee the industry, worsening the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the UNAC/UHCP turned their attention to the state’s community college system, where graduates can earn degrees to become nursing assistants, licensed vocational nurses or registered nurses. Both groups say community colleges offer the most affordable and efficient way to earn a nursing degree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of their ideas aims to help high school students get into nursing schools faster. Another would give entry-level workers the chance to move into more skilled and higher-paid positions like nursing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957012\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957012\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses02.jpg\" alt='Health Care workers hold signs that read, \"Engineers & Scientists of California United for Our Patients.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses02.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses02-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses02-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses02-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses02-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some longtime California nurses said staffing issues are so bad and burnout is so severe that many are rethinking how they want to spend the rest of their careers. \u003ccite>(Rahul Lal/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sidhu’s union is sponsoring a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1695\">bill\u003c/a> that would create a pilot program for high school students who take extra classes to have preferential admission into a community college nursing program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB689\">second measure\u003c/a>, which is co-sponsored by SEIU and the California Hospital Association (CHA), would require community colleges to set aside 15% of enrollment slots for health care workers looking to further their education with a more advanced degree. They say helping current workers get higher-paying jobs within health care will help with retention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we talk to our hospital members, workforce issues are the number one thing that keep them up at night,” said Jan Emerson-Shea, spokesperson for the CHA. “We also hear from employees that they’ve tried getting into community college programs, but because they’re so impacted, it can take them three, four or five years to get into the program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California colleges skeptical of union bills\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>But community college and some university nursing school leaders contend neither bill will boost the number of graduates. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2023/03/california-nursing-school/\">Nursing programs are full\u003c/a>, they say, and the proposals do nothing to expand the number of admission slots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These bills come up and I wonder who on earth would propose something like this to impact the community colleges without getting our input,” said Tammy Vant Hul, south region president of the California Organization of Associate Degree Nursing Program Directors.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Vant Hul is also dean of nursing at Riverside City College, the second largest community college nursing program in the state. High school students would not have completed enough prerequisites to apply directly to a nursing program, much less be guaranteed admission, Vant Hul said, and existing health care workers already get additional points during the admissions process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem isn’t generating career interest in nursing; it’s creating more spots, program leaders say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Karen Bradley, president of the California Association of Colleges of Nursing, said nursing programs have an overabundance of competitive applicants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have not had a dip at all in enrollment in my program. I have a waiting list,” said Bradley, who is also dean of California Baptist University’s nursing program. “Every dean is going to tell you that they have a waiting list or enough qualified applicants that they turn away students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 14,000 new students enrolled in nursing programs during the 2020–21 school year, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.rn.ca.gov/pdfs/education/schoolrpt20-21.pdf\">Board of Registered Nursing’s annual school report (PDF)\u003c/a>. That’s about 1,000 fewer students than the previous two years due to smaller class sizes, but schools across the state received more than 55,000 applications, a 10-year record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bills’ sponsors say they have spoken with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, which has not taken a position on any of the workforce bills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957013\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957013\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses03.jpg\" alt='Dozens of health care workers march in protest outside of a Kaiser Permanente building in Sacramento, California. One yellow and black sign reads, \"Patient Care Is In Crisis.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses03.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses03-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses03-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses03-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses03-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/CMNurses03-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">According to the Hospital Association of Southern California, nursing vacancy rates among local hospitals exceed 30%. Prior to the pandemic, the average vacancy rate was 6%. \u003ccite>(Rahul Lal/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Separate from the bills, the UNAC/UHCP lobbied for a \u003ca href=\"https://ebudget.ca.gov/2023-24/pdf/Enacted/BudgetSummary/HigherEducation.pdf\">$300 million investment (PDF)\u003c/a> over five years to double the state’s nursing school capacity. It was included in the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2023/06/california-budget-deal-what-you-need-to-know/\">state budget Gov. Gavin Newsom signed\u003c/a> earlier this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The details of how the money will be spent have not been decided, Sidhu said, but it could be used to increase faculty salaries and overcome other factors that limit class sizes.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More room needed for California nurse trainees\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Representatives for nursing programs say the money will be helpful, but they’re worried about other bottlenecks that they say prevent them from enrolling more students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lack of nursing faculty caps class sizes, for instance, with potential educators instead choosing to make more money working in health care. They also say hospitals are not offering enough opportunities for their students to get hands-on training.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As we move forward with the nursing shortage, clinical placements are an issue. So many hospitals kind of downsized their willingness to bring on students during the pandemic, and those spots never came back,” said Linda Zorn, legislative chair for the California Organization of Associate Degree Nursing and executive director of economic and workforce development for Butte-Glenn Community College District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1577\">third proposal\u003c/a> in the Legislature attempts to clear that hurdle by guaranteeing clinical placement spots for community college students. A mix of opponents are fighting the bill, including hospitals, four-year universities and some community college advocates who say it will take spots away from other students and overwhelm nursing staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some hospitals aren’t big enough. They can’t take on hundreds of students. They have 25 beds,” said Sarah Bridge, senior legislative advocate for the Association of Health Care Districts, which represents primarily small, rural hospitals in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the 2020–21 school year, the most commonly cited reason by nursing schools for decreasing class sizes was “unable to secure clinical placements,” according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.rn.ca.gov/pdfs/education/schoolrpt20-21.pdf\">Board of Registered Nursing’s annual school report (PDF)\u003c/a>, in part due to workforce challenges resulting from the pandemic. The report states that more than 15,000 students were impacted by restricted training spots compared to roughly 2,200 students during the 2018–19 school year.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Bridge said many small and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2023/05/hospital-closures-california-2/\">rural hospitals also are teetering on the edge of a financial crisis\u003c/a>. It costs about $7,000 to train one student, not including the salary cost of nurses who supervise students. Multiply that by the number of student trainees accepted and some hospitals can’t foot the bill, Bridge said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zorn said nursing schools know they have to be sensitive to how many students get sent to any one hospital, which is part of the reason many are skeptical of the bill. The number of student training spots recently has been limited by the profession’s thinly stretched workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It can close down the rural hospitals if you don’t have the correct staffing,” Zorn said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaders from four-year degree programs also say the proposal would displace their nursing students in favor of community college students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill sponsors say the intent of the legislation is to create more training capacity, not to displace existing students, as some critics have claimed, said Eric Robles, legislative director for the UNAC/UHCP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If hospitals are getting bailouts, I would sure hope everybody believes our nurse workforce needs a bailout too,” Robles said. “And that bailout can come through strengthening the pipeline, growing the workforce and maintaining the workforce.”\u003c/p>\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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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"title": "Marketplace",
"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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"mindshift": {
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"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"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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"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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"title": "On The Media",
"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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"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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"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",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"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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},
"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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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"order": 16
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},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
"title": "Science Friday",
"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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},
"snap-judgment": {
"id": "snap-judgment",
"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
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