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The widely anticipated decision replaces the emergency use authorization granted by the agency last December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the first COVID-19 vaccine to be subject to a full review by the U.S. regulator and to get an approval that puts the vaccine on par with other marketed vaccines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The full approval could make it easier for employers, the military and universities to mandate vaccination and may reassure some people who are hesitant about the vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While this and other vaccines have met the FDA’s rigorous, scientific standards for emergency use authorization, as the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-covid-19-vaccine\">acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California Gov. Gavin Newsom was quick to issue supportive words Monday morning in a statement emailed to reporters, saying he encourages “all Californians to trust the science and protect themselves and their community by getting vaccinated.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Tomás Aragón, California’s public health officer, said the agency’s official approval of the vaccine “underscores the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine and comes at a critical juncture as many of our communities are grappling with increasing cases fueled by the faster spreading Delta variant.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“For weeks we have watched cases go up at an alarming pace among individuals who are not vaccinated while the vaccinated are largely protected, especially against severe and long-term illness,” he said in a statement. “We know the vaccines work. We know vaccines are safe. We know they save lives. If you are not vaccinated, let this be the milestone that gets you there. Get vaccinated to protect yourself and help put an end to this deadly pandemic.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3 class=\"edTag\">Approval could lead to more vaccinations\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/poll-finding/kff-covid-19-vaccine-monitor-june-2021/\">June poll\u003c/a> from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 31% of unvaccinated people said they would be more likely to get a COVID-19 vaccine once one receives full approval from the FDA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While millions of people have already safely received COVID-19 vaccines, we recognize that for some, the FDA approval of a vaccine may now instill additional confidence to get vaccinated,” Woodcock said. “Today’s milestone puts us one step closer to altering the course of this pandemic in the U.S.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FDA’s full approval applies to people 16 and older. 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FDA officials have acknowledged the interest in vaccination for children in that age group, but were unable Monday to provide a timeline for a decision on use of the vaccine for those under 12.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Currently there are still trials ongoing here,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told reporters. “The agency has to wait for the companies to submit. … Obviously, we will move swiftly, but first the trials have to be finished … and the data need to be submitted to us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FDA acted Monday without convening a customary public meeting of expert advisers to vet information about the vaccine and make recommendations to the regulator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Sunday, 73%\u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations\"> of adults have had at least one dose\u003c/a> of the Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine. 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"content": "\u003cp>The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized the administration of an additional dose of one of the messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccines for people who have certain immunocompromising conditions amid growing evidence that they do not get adequate protection from the normal two-dose regimen of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision was formally an amendment to the emergency authorization under which the mRNA vaccines are already being used. It does not apply to the one-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which has been used far less in this country than the mRNA products. It is unclear how many immunocompromised Americans would have received the J&J vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today’s action allows doctors to boost immunity in certain immunocompromised individuals who need extra protection from COVID-19,” Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement released shortly before midnight. “As we’ve previously stated, other individuals who are fully vaccinated are adequately protected and do not need an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine at this time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patient groups and the physicians who treat them have been advocating for \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/05/14/uncertain-protection-from-covid-vaccines-leaves-cancer-patients-in-limbo/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">immunocompromised people\u003c/a> — for instance, solid organ \u003ca href=\"https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2779852\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">transplant recipients\u003c/a> who take immunosuppressant drugs — to be given an additional dose, especially in the face of the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant. Several countries — France, Germany, Britain, and Israel among them — are or will soon be giving third doses to immunocompromised people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The amended emergency use authorizations say the third doses of vaccine should be given at least 28 days after the second shot in the series. The Pfizer vaccine, which can be given to people 12 years of age and older, is administered in two doses, 21 days apart. The Moderna vaccine, which can be given to people 18 and older, is given in two doses 28 days apart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The documents do not enumerate in detail who is eligible for an additional vaccine dose. They say people who have had a solid organ transplant or who have been diagnosed with conditions that are “considered to have an equivalent level of immunocompromise” can get a third dose of vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vaccine advisory panel that makes recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on use of vaccines indicated late last month that it was amenable to recommending a different dosing schedule for immunocompromised patients, but could not do so while the emergency use authorizations under which the vaccines are deployed stipulate only a two-dose or one-dose regimen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our hands are really tied with the current regulatory situation,” Camille Kotton, director of the transplant and immunocompromised host infectious diseases clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital, said during the July 22 meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group is scheduled to meet on Friday to recommend the changes the FDA’s revision allows. It is expected that CDC Director Rochelle Walensky will sign off on the recommendation later on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the COVID-19 vaccines were fully licensed, doctors could decide on their own to give an additional dose to some of their patients. So-called off-label use is common medical practice. But the unusual status of these vaccines — they are the first ever to be deployed under emergency use authorizations — precludes that possibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The confusion about how to proceed has created a bit of a free-for-all, with some immunocompromised people — and some regular people worried by the Delta variant — crossing state lines and using subterfuge to \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/08/03/people-chasing-covid-19-vaccine-boosters-create-headaches-for-the-health-care-system/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">obtain an additional dose of vaccine\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one state, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/mississippi-offer-covid-vaccine-booster-doses-immunocompromised-people-n1276076\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mississippi\u003c/a>, decided not to wait for federal action, telling vaccine providers and physicians to assess whether their immunocompromised patients should be given an additional vaccine dose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a presentation during ACIP’s meeting in July, CDC staff said that immunocompromised people make up about 2.7% of the American population. They include people with cancer who are undergoing some forms of therapy, people with advanced or untreated HIV infection, people born with severe immunodeficiencies, and organ or stem cell transplant patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People who \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2021-07/07-COVID-Oliver-508.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">are immunocompromised\u003c/a> are more likely to get severely ill from COVID-19 and are more likely to have breakthrough infections, the CDC experts said. They are also more likely to have prolonged infections, creating the possibility that they will give rise to troublesome mutations of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week the World Health Organization \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/08/04/who-calls-for-a-temporary-moratorium-on-administering-booster-shots-of-covid-19-vaccines/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">called for a moratorium\u003c/a> on giving additional doses of vaccine to people who are fully vaccinated in a bid to speed vaccination in lower-income countries where few doses have yet been available. But agency officials made clear they make an exception for immunocompromised people. “There is increasing evidence that there are some populations … who don’t respond to the vaccine as well as the general population does,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/08/09/who-expert-rush-covid-19-booster-shots-premature/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kate O’Brien\u003c/a>, WHO’s director of immunizations, vaccines, and biologics. “We don’t want that to be confused with the policy … of whether booster doses should be given.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/08/12/fda-authorizes-additional-dose-of-covid-19-vaccine-for-the-immunocompromised/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">story\u003c/a> was originally published by \u003ca href=\"http://www.statnews.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">STAT\u003c/a>, an online publication of Boston Globe Media that covers health, medicine, and scientific discovery.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized the administration of an additional dose of one of the messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccines for people who have certain immunocompromising conditions amid growing evidence that they do not get adequate protection from the normal two-dose regimen of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision was formally an amendment to the emergency authorization under which the mRNA vaccines are already being used. It does not apply to the one-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which has been used far less in this country than the mRNA products. It is unclear how many immunocompromised Americans would have received the J&J vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today’s action allows doctors to boost immunity in certain immunocompromised individuals who need extra protection from COVID-19,” Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement released shortly before midnight. “As we’ve previously stated, other individuals who are fully vaccinated are adequately protected and do not need an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine at this time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patient groups and the physicians who treat them have been advocating for \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/05/14/uncertain-protection-from-covid-vaccines-leaves-cancer-patients-in-limbo/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">immunocompromised people\u003c/a> — for instance, solid organ \u003ca href=\"https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2779852\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">transplant recipients\u003c/a> who take immunosuppressant drugs — to be given an additional dose, especially in the face of the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant. Several countries — France, Germany, Britain, and Israel among them — are or will soon be giving third doses to immunocompromised people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The amended emergency use authorizations say the third doses of vaccine should be given at least 28 days after the second shot in the series. The Pfizer vaccine, which can be given to people 12 years of age and older, is administered in two doses, 21 days apart. The Moderna vaccine, which can be given to people 18 and older, is given in two doses 28 days apart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The documents do not enumerate in detail who is eligible for an additional vaccine dose. They say people who have had a solid organ transplant or who have been diagnosed with conditions that are “considered to have an equivalent level of immunocompromise” can get a third dose of vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vaccine advisory panel that makes recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on use of vaccines indicated late last month that it was amenable to recommending a different dosing schedule for immunocompromised patients, but could not do so while the emergency use authorizations under which the vaccines are deployed stipulate only a two-dose or one-dose regimen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our hands are really tied with the current regulatory situation,” Camille Kotton, director of the transplant and immunocompromised host infectious diseases clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital, said during the July 22 meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group is scheduled to meet on Friday to recommend the changes the FDA’s revision allows. It is expected that CDC Director Rochelle Walensky will sign off on the recommendation later on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the COVID-19 vaccines were fully licensed, doctors could decide on their own to give an additional dose to some of their patients. So-called off-label use is common medical practice. But the unusual status of these vaccines — they are the first ever to be deployed under emergency use authorizations — precludes that possibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The confusion about how to proceed has created a bit of a free-for-all, with some immunocompromised people — and some regular people worried by the Delta variant — crossing state lines and using subterfuge to \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/08/03/people-chasing-covid-19-vaccine-boosters-create-headaches-for-the-health-care-system/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">obtain an additional dose of vaccine\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one state, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/mississippi-offer-covid-vaccine-booster-doses-immunocompromised-people-n1276076\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mississippi\u003c/a>, decided not to wait for federal action, telling vaccine providers and physicians to assess whether their immunocompromised patients should be given an additional vaccine dose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a presentation during ACIP’s meeting in July, CDC staff said that immunocompromised people make up about 2.7% of the American population. They include people with cancer who are undergoing some forms of therapy, people with advanced or untreated HIV infection, people born with severe immunodeficiencies, and organ or stem cell transplant patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People who \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2021-07/07-COVID-Oliver-508.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">are immunocompromised\u003c/a> are more likely to get severely ill from COVID-19 and are more likely to have breakthrough infections, the CDC experts said. They are also more likely to have prolonged infections, creating the possibility that they will give rise to troublesome mutations of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week the World Health Organization \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/08/04/who-calls-for-a-temporary-moratorium-on-administering-booster-shots-of-covid-19-vaccines/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">called for a moratorium\u003c/a> on giving additional doses of vaccine to people who are fully vaccinated in a bid to speed vaccination in lower-income countries where few doses have yet been available. But agency officials made clear they make an exception for immunocompromised people. “There is increasing evidence that there are some populations … who don’t respond to the vaccine as well as the general population does,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/08/09/who-expert-rush-covid-19-booster-shots-premature/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kate O’Brien\u003c/a>, WHO’s director of immunizations, vaccines, and biologics. “We don’t want that to be confused with the policy … of whether booster doses should be given.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/08/12/fda-authorizes-additional-dose-of-covid-19-vaccine-for-the-immunocompromised/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">story\u003c/a> was originally published by \u003ca href=\"http://www.statnews.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">STAT\u003c/a>, an online publication of Boston Globe Media that covers health, medicine, and scientific discovery.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "CDC Again Recommends Indoor Masking, Even for Some Vaccinated People",
"headTitle": "CDC Again Recommends Indoor Masking, Even for Some Vaccinated People | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Federal health officials advised Tuesday that even people who’ve had their COVID-19 shots wear masks in public indoor settings in areas with widespread transmission of the coronavirus, a major setback in the progress in the U.S. epidemic that reflects a surging variant and the country’s ongoing struggles to increase vaccination rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reversal to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s earlier guidance comes as the Delta variant — the most transmissible version of the pathogen yet, by far — is igniting outbreaks and driving hospitalizations up in states with low vaccination rates, like Missouri, Arkansas, and Florida. The variant is responsible for \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/07/23/burning-questions-delta-next-phase-covid-19-pandemic/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">seemingly increasing numbers of breakthrough infections.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC also recommended that schools reopen in the fall with universal indoor masking for all students, teachers, and staff, even among people who are vaccinated — a policy decision that will ultimately be left up to state and local officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Children should return to full-time, in-person learning in the fall with proper prevention strategies in place,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said during a press briefing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, President Biden reiterated Walensky’s call that precautions would enable safer resumption of in-person schooling. “Masking students is inconvenient, I know, but will allow them to learn and be with their classmates with the best available protection,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just two months ago, the CDC said that fully vaccinated people no longer needed to wear masks indoors, citing evidence that the immunizations prevented many cases entirely and left those who still got infected “less likely to … transmit [the virus] to others.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in addition to spreading more efficiently, Delta seems to have at least some ability to evade the immune response people generate after being vaccinated. Multiple studies have indicated that immunized people are still broadly protected against severe COVID-19 and death, but there is emerging evidence that Delta can cause breakthrough cases at higher rates than other virus versions — and that in some of those infections, people are still harboring large amounts of virus that could be passed to others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walensky said that new research indicates that vaccinated people are only contributing a small amount to overall transmission, the vast majority of which is occurring among people who haven’t received immunizations. But the data “unfortunately warrants” the updated recommendations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In those cases, those rare cases that we have breakthrough infections, we felt it important for people to understand that they have the potential to transmit virus to others,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walensky called masks “a temporary measure” and urged people to get vaccinated, framing the shots as the tools that can suppress transmission rates in lasting ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really need to work to get these areas in the country that have substantial and high amount of transmission right now down to lower amounts of transmission,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The masking recommendations for vaccinated people applies to communities with “substantial” or “high” transmission rates, which together the CDC defines as 50 cases or more per 100,000 people over the past seven days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transmission rates in nearly two-thirds of U.S. counties are in those categories, with wide swaths of Nevada, Utah, and many southern states experiencing those levels of spread, \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CDC data show\u003c/a>. Some communities are reporting several hundred new cases per 100,000 people in the past week — what Walensky called “really an extraordinary amount of viral transmission.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delta’s general transmissibility stems at least in part from changes in its genome that allow it to build up much higher levels of virus in the upper airway, leading to people emitting more virus for longer periods of time, meaning they are more likely to infect others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told STAT that health experts do not have studies proving that fully vaccinated people are transmitting the virus. Rather, the official said, the updated guidance is based on studies showing that vaccinated people who contract the Delta variant have similarly high levels of virus in their airways, which suggested that they may be infectious to others. With other variants, vaccinated people had substantially lower levels of virus in their noses and throats compared to unvaccinated people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new masking guidelines provide an unwelcome turn in the pandemic. As vaccines started rolling out, it was clear they weren’t just protecting people from getting so sick they needed hospital care or they would die, but that they were also drastically cutting transmission. Experts say vaccines are still limiting transmission even with Delta, but not to the same level as before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s taken some time for scientists to tease apart all that Delta can do in vaccinated people. Most concerningly, it has been ripping through unvaccinated populations, leading to another surge in hospitalizations in some states that are almost entirely among people who haven’t been immunized. Experts are still trying to determine if Delta causes more severe disease on average than other variants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recent infection clusters that included vaccinated people — and that broadly caused mild and asymptomatic cases — raised worries that Delta was potentially spreading among vaccinated people to an extent. Walensky said the CDC was conducting outbreak investigations of the clusters to determine whether and to what extent vaccinated people were passing the virus on to others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If vaccinated people are transmitting the virus, masks could help in cases when people are asymptomatic or in the period when they are infectious but haven’t yet developed symptoms. Under existing CDC guidelines, vaccinated people who were showing symptoms were still urged to isolate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vaccinated people passing the virus to other vaccinated people isn’t ideal, but given how protective the shots are against the worst outcomes, the bigger concern right now is that vaccinated people could be contributing to the spread of the virus to unvaccinated people. Vaccinated people could also be transmitting the virus to individuals who didn’t mount robust responses to the shots because their immune systems are suppressed, including some with cancer or who have received organ transplants. Children under 12 are also not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear how the new CDC guidelines will land with an American public that \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/07/22/public-health-officials-have-tools-to-beat-back-covid-again-does-anyone-want-to-use-them/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">seems eager to move on from the pandemic\u003c/a>, even if the pandemic is not done with them. Many people who are vaccinated feel like they’ve done their part and might be unwilling to take a step back. And while health officials hope they can persuade some of the remaining unimmunized people to roll up their sleeves by improving access or addressing concerns, some portion of people have cemented their resistance to the shots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the previous guidelines, unvaccinated people were still supposed to wear masks in public indoor settings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC says breakthrough cases still appear to be rare given how many people have been vaccinated, and the vast majority of infections are asymptomatic or mild. It’s also thought that because so many of those cases are so tame, many go undetected. However, many experts argue that breakthrough infections that cause no symptoms shouldn’t really be considered as cases. Mild or asymptomatic breakthrough infections are signs that the vaccines — whose top aim is to stave off death and severe illness — are doing their job, experts stress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/07/27/cdc-recommend-masks-indoors-even-for-those-vaccinated-against-covid-19/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">story\u003c/a> was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">STAT\u003c/a>, an online publication of Boston Globe Media that covers health, medicine, and scientific discovery.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Federal health officials advised Tuesday that even people who’ve had their COVID-19 shots wear masks in public indoor settings in areas with widespread transmission of the coronavirus, a major setback in the progress in the U.S. epidemic that reflects a surging variant and the country’s ongoing struggles to increase vaccination rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reversal to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s earlier guidance comes as the Delta variant — the most transmissible version of the pathogen yet, by far — is igniting outbreaks and driving hospitalizations up in states with low vaccination rates, like Missouri, Arkansas, and Florida. The variant is responsible for \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/07/23/burning-questions-delta-next-phase-covid-19-pandemic/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">seemingly increasing numbers of breakthrough infections.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC also recommended that schools reopen in the fall with universal indoor masking for all students, teachers, and staff, even among people who are vaccinated — a policy decision that will ultimately be left up to state and local officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Children should return to full-time, in-person learning in the fall with proper prevention strategies in place,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said during a press briefing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, President Biden reiterated Walensky’s call that precautions would enable safer resumption of in-person schooling. “Masking students is inconvenient, I know, but will allow them to learn and be with their classmates with the best available protection,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just two months ago, the CDC said that fully vaccinated people no longer needed to wear masks indoors, citing evidence that the immunizations prevented many cases entirely and left those who still got infected “less likely to … transmit [the virus] to others.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in addition to spreading more efficiently, Delta seems to have at least some ability to evade the immune response people generate after being vaccinated. Multiple studies have indicated that immunized people are still broadly protected against severe COVID-19 and death, but there is emerging evidence that Delta can cause breakthrough cases at higher rates than other virus versions — and that in some of those infections, people are still harboring large amounts of virus that could be passed to others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walensky said that new research indicates that vaccinated people are only contributing a small amount to overall transmission, the vast majority of which is occurring among people who haven’t received immunizations. But the data “unfortunately warrants” the updated recommendations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In those cases, those rare cases that we have breakthrough infections, we felt it important for people to understand that they have the potential to transmit virus to others,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walensky called masks “a temporary measure” and urged people to get vaccinated, framing the shots as the tools that can suppress transmission rates in lasting ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really need to work to get these areas in the country that have substantial and high amount of transmission right now down to lower amounts of transmission,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The masking recommendations for vaccinated people applies to communities with “substantial” or “high” transmission rates, which together the CDC defines as 50 cases or more per 100,000 people over the past seven days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transmission rates in nearly two-thirds of U.S. counties are in those categories, with wide swaths of Nevada, Utah, and many southern states experiencing those levels of spread, \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CDC data show\u003c/a>. Some communities are reporting several hundred new cases per 100,000 people in the past week — what Walensky called “really an extraordinary amount of viral transmission.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delta’s general transmissibility stems at least in part from changes in its genome that allow it to build up much higher levels of virus in the upper airway, leading to people emitting more virus for longer periods of time, meaning they are more likely to infect others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told STAT that health experts do not have studies proving that fully vaccinated people are transmitting the virus. Rather, the official said, the updated guidance is based on studies showing that vaccinated people who contract the Delta variant have similarly high levels of virus in their airways, which suggested that they may be infectious to others. With other variants, vaccinated people had substantially lower levels of virus in their noses and throats compared to unvaccinated people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new masking guidelines provide an unwelcome turn in the pandemic. As vaccines started rolling out, it was clear they weren’t just protecting people from getting so sick they needed hospital care or they would die, but that they were also drastically cutting transmission. Experts say vaccines are still limiting transmission even with Delta, but not to the same level as before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s taken some time for scientists to tease apart all that Delta can do in vaccinated people. Most concerningly, it has been ripping through unvaccinated populations, leading to another surge in hospitalizations in some states that are almost entirely among people who haven’t been immunized. Experts are still trying to determine if Delta causes more severe disease on average than other variants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recent infection clusters that included vaccinated people — and that broadly caused mild and asymptomatic cases — raised worries that Delta was potentially spreading among vaccinated people to an extent. Walensky said the CDC was conducting outbreak investigations of the clusters to determine whether and to what extent vaccinated people were passing the virus on to others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If vaccinated people are transmitting the virus, masks could help in cases when people are asymptomatic or in the period when they are infectious but haven’t yet developed symptoms. Under existing CDC guidelines, vaccinated people who were showing symptoms were still urged to isolate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vaccinated people passing the virus to other vaccinated people isn’t ideal, but given how protective the shots are against the worst outcomes, the bigger concern right now is that vaccinated people could be contributing to the spread of the virus to unvaccinated people. Vaccinated people could also be transmitting the virus to individuals who didn’t mount robust responses to the shots because their immune systems are suppressed, including some with cancer or who have received organ transplants. Children under 12 are also not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear how the new CDC guidelines will land with an American public that \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/07/22/public-health-officials-have-tools-to-beat-back-covid-again-does-anyone-want-to-use-them/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">seems eager to move on from the pandemic\u003c/a>, even if the pandemic is not done with them. Many people who are vaccinated feel like they’ve done their part and might be unwilling to take a step back. And while health officials hope they can persuade some of the remaining unimmunized people to roll up their sleeves by improving access or addressing concerns, some portion of people have cemented their resistance to the shots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the previous guidelines, unvaccinated people were still supposed to wear masks in public indoor settings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC says breakthrough cases still appear to be rare given how many people have been vaccinated, and the vast majority of infections are asymptomatic or mild. It’s also thought that because so many of those cases are so tame, many go undetected. However, many experts argue that breakthrough infections that cause no symptoms shouldn’t really be considered as cases. Mild or asymptomatic breakthrough infections are signs that the vaccines — whose top aim is to stave off death and severe illness — are doing their job, experts stress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/07/27/cdc-recommend-masks-indoors-even-for-those-vaccinated-against-covid-19/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">story\u003c/a> was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">STAT\u003c/a>, an online publication of Boston Globe Media that covers health, medicine, and scientific discovery.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Last Year Saw the Biggest Drop in U.S. Life Expectancy Since WWII",
"headTitle": "Last Year Saw the Biggest Drop in U.S. Life Expectancy Since WWII | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Life expectancy in the United States declined by a year and a half in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says the coronavirus is largely to blame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>COVID-19 contributed to 74% of the\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr015-508.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> decline in life expectancy from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77.3 years in 2020\u003c/a>, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the largest one-year decline since World War II, when life expectancy dropped by 2.9 years between 1942 and 1943. Hispanic and Black communities saw the biggest declines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For African Americans, life expectancy dropped by 2.9 years from 74.7 years in 2019 to 71.8 in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. Hispanics — who have a longer life expectancy than non-Hispanic Blacks or whites saw the largest decline in life expectancy during the pandemic, dropping three years from 81.8 years in 2019 to 78.8 years in 2020. Hispanic males saw the biggest decline, with a drop of 3.7 years. COVID-19 was responsible for 90% of the decline among Hispanics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increase in drug overdose deaths was also a factor in declining life expectancy. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/07/14/1016029270/drug-overdoses-killed-a-record-number-of-americans-in-2020-jumping-by-nearly-30\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">More than 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2020\u003c/a>. That’s the highest number reported in a single year. Other causes of death contributing to the decline were increases in homicide and deaths from diabetes and chronic liver disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just last month a study published in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1343\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>British Medical Journal\u003c/em>\u003c/a> looked at life expectancy data for the U.S. and compared it with life expectancy data from 16 other high-income countries. The study found the U.S. decrease in life expectancy from 2018 to 2020 was 8.5 times greater than the average decrease in peer countries. And the U.S. declines were most pronounced among minority groups, specifically Black and Hispanic people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Study author \u003ca href=\"https://medschool.vcu.edu/expertise/detail.html?ID=831\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steven Woolf of the Virginia Commonwealth University\u003c/a> School of Medicine, told NPR’s Allison Aubrey, “We have not seen a decrease like this since World War II. It’s a horrific decrease in life expectancy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is impossible to look at these findings and not see a reflection of the systemic racism in the U.S.,”\u003ca href=\"https://populationhealth.duke.edu/people/lesley-curtis-phd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Lesley Curtis, chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences\u003c/a> at Duke University School of Medicine, told NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The range of factors that play into this include income inequality, the social safety net, as well as racial inequality and access to health care,” Curtis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=U.S.+Life+Expectancy+Fell+By+1.5+Years+In+2020%2C+The+Biggest+Drop+Since+WWII+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Life expectancy in the United States declined by a year and a half in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says the coronavirus is largely to blame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>COVID-19 contributed to 74% of the\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr015-508.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> decline in life expectancy from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77.3 years in 2020\u003c/a>, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the largest one-year decline since World War II, when life expectancy dropped by 2.9 years between 1942 and 1943. Hispanic and Black communities saw the biggest declines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For African Americans, life expectancy dropped by 2.9 years from 74.7 years in 2019 to 71.8 in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. Hispanics — who have a longer life expectancy than non-Hispanic Blacks or whites saw the largest decline in life expectancy during the pandemic, dropping three years from 81.8 years in 2019 to 78.8 years in 2020. Hispanic males saw the biggest decline, with a drop of 3.7 years. COVID-19 was responsible for 90% of the decline among Hispanics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increase in drug overdose deaths was also a factor in declining life expectancy. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/07/14/1016029270/drug-overdoses-killed-a-record-number-of-americans-in-2020-jumping-by-nearly-30\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">More than 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2020\u003c/a>. That’s the highest number reported in a single year. Other causes of death contributing to the decline were increases in homicide and deaths from diabetes and chronic liver disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just last month a study published in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1343\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>British Medical Journal\u003c/em>\u003c/a> looked at life expectancy data for the U.S. and compared it with life expectancy data from 16 other high-income countries. The study found the U.S. decrease in life expectancy from 2018 to 2020 was 8.5 times greater than the average decrease in peer countries. And the U.S. declines were most pronounced among minority groups, specifically Black and Hispanic people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Study author \u003ca href=\"https://medschool.vcu.edu/expertise/detail.html?ID=831\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steven Woolf of the Virginia Commonwealth University\u003c/a> School of Medicine, told NPR’s Allison Aubrey, “We have not seen a decrease like this since World War II. It’s a horrific decrease in life expectancy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is impossible to look at these findings and not see a reflection of the systemic racism in the U.S.,”\u003ca href=\"https://populationhealth.duke.edu/people/lesley-curtis-phd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Lesley Curtis, chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences\u003c/a> at Duke University School of Medicine, told NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The range of factors that play into this include income inequality, the social safety net, as well as racial inequality and access to health care,” Curtis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=U.S.+Life+Expectancy+Fell+By+1.5+Years+In+2020%2C+The+Biggest+Drop+Since+WWII+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Unpaid Utility Bills? California Will Pay Off $2 Billion to Avoid Shutoffs",
"headTitle": "Unpaid Utility Bills? California Will Pay Off $2 Billion to Avoid Shutoffs | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Two years ago the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power shut off electricity at Will Hollman’s home in the San Fernando Valley, forcing the family to rely on a gasoline generator. In late June of this year, the department disconnected the water, too — despite a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/4.2.20-EO-N-42-20.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">statewide moratorium on water shutoffs\u003c/a> that Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/6.11.21-EO-N-08-21-signed.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recently extended through Sept. 30\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollman, his 10-year-old son and his 16-year-old stepdaughter endured 11 days of temperatures in the high 90s to low 100s without water or power. For 11 days, they camped out in air-conditioned grocery stores, Starbucks or his truck. They couchsurfed and used friends’ showers. Hollman played it off with the kids as some kind of fun obstacle course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He called the department’s customer service, and said a representative told him that he must pay off his utility debt of $9,064.13 — largely consisting of charges that Hollman disputes as erroneous — before water or power could be restored.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been demoralizing, humiliating,” Hollman said on the eighth day. “I have a history of paying my bills, working, being a good provider. You… start having feelings of failure as a parent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately the state’s water agency convinced the LA department to turn on Hollman’s water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those 11 days without water or power are a window into what could happen to millions of Californians in the coming months and years, depending on how swiftly and effectively the state distributes relief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Official estimates of unpaid water and energy bills accumulated during the pandemic verge on $2.7 billion, affecting a few million Californians — and \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/SozYyHYaDUI?t=2096\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">those figures have been growing\u003c/a> rapidly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has so far prioritized rent relief — keeping people housed — over utilities relief. A spokesperson for the state’s COVID-19 Rent Relief program said that of the $158 million distributed as of July 16, less than $40,000 had gone to utilities relief. Utility debt makes up about 6% of all assistance requested so far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 11, lawmakers revealed a plan to use one-time federal relief money to address the debt. The deal is a patchwork of new programs to forgive $2 billion of utilities debt and old programs to help households chip away at the rest, with a wide range of eligibility criteria and timelines. But it doesn’t extend current shutoff moratoria past Sept. 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re laser-focused on getting this assistance out the door as quickly as possible,” Newsom said in a statement about ongoing rent relief and the utilities relief plan. He has signed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/07/16/governor-newsom-signs-state-budget-legislation-7-16-21/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">energy bills relief into law\u003c/a>, while the water bills relief still awaits his signature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This will be an important “reboot” to protect Californians and utility companies, said Ellen Hanak, director of the Water Policy Center at the Public Policy Institute of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t want people to be shut off from basic services,” Hanak said, “But it’s also a hit to the entire community if utilities aren’t able to balance their books, because that can have all sorts of ripple effects on the abilities of water and electrical systems to run well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to forgiving California’s utility debt, key questions remain:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Will $2 billion be nearly enough?\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Can the money be distributed quickly enough to prevent shutoffs?\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“For public health and safety, it’s important for people to have roofs over their heads, clean water and power. Those are all pieces of the puzzle,” Hanak said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp id=\"h-a-catch-22-at-la-s-utilities-department\">\u003cstrong>A Catch-22 at \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>LA’s Utilities Department?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollman’s utilities troubles began well before the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After opening an account in 2017, he began receiving unusually high electricity charges topping $1,000 — even during months when no one was living in the house because he was staying with his parents — which Hollman attributes to billing errors by the LA utility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under financial stress following a messy separation, Hollman said he let the bills pile up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By early 2019, his unpaid balance had mounted to nearly $9,000. He applied for $2,000 of assistance from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services to keep service on. But the water agency insisted on full payment of his bill, according to correspondence from his social worker reviewed by CalMatters. In March of 2019, the department shut off his power due to non-payment. He bought a generator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the power shutoff, the electricity charges continued, labeled as “unmetered estimated consumption” in bills reviewed by CalMatters, meaning the utility generated them without checking Hollman’s meter. In December 2019, a customer service representative credited his account with several thousand dollars, but, according to Hollman, told him that the department couldn’t stop the continuing energy charges or issue more credits until a technician read his meter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which required that the power be turned back on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which couldn’t happen until he paid off the debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Hollman tells it, he was caught in a Catch-22.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April 2020, amid the first pandemic surge, the LA utilities department closed Hollman’s account with an unpaid balance of $9,064.13, meaning that he couldn’t open a new account until he paid off the debt, which could affect his credit score or be taken to small claims court. But, Hollman said, a representative promised that water would stay on while the pandemic lasted. For over a year, it did — until a technician arrived unannounced in late June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The LA utilities department tells a somewhat different story. In a statement, a department spokesperson said that it had disconnected Hollman’s water in October 2017 and power in March 2019 because Hollman had made no payments since opening his account in March 2017. The spokesperson said the department turned off his water twice more after detecting unauthorized use, in April 2019 and again this past June, when it “came to light to LADWP… that water service had illegally been turned back on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While declining to comment on the high “unmetered estimated consumption” charges or Hollman’s apparent Catch-22, the spokesperson said the department restored water service in early July “in an attempt to work out a payment plan… for the water and power that was consumed since 2017.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollman disputes that he illegally reconnected the water, saying it never stopped flowing and that he never received notices it would be shut off. He said that a water department representative told him last week that he had to pay a third of his outstanding bill — money that he said he doesn’t have — before he can qualify for a payment plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp id=\"h-mounting-debt-and-shutoffs-despite-protections\">\u003cstrong>Mounting Debt, and Shutoffs Despite Protections\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollman is not alone. Despite shutoff protections, the California State Water Resources Control Board has received 308 \u003ca href=\"https://watershut-off.covid19.ca.gov/#:~:text=State%20of%20California%20COVID%2D19%20Water%20Shutoff%20Report&text=If%20you%20require%20translation%20assistance,submitting%20a%20water%20shutoff%20report.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reports of water disconnections during the pandemic\u003c/a>. No agency tracks power shutoffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson said the state water board got water restored in each case, including for Hollman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, the state water board estimated that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2021/01/water-debt-california-households-face-water-shutoffs/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">1.6 million households were late on water bills that totaled over $1 billion across California\u003c/a>, and were growing quickly. The California Municipal Utilities Association estimated \u003ca href=\"https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/CSDA/b24702e8-8a42-4614-8c45-bc3cba37ea2c/UploadedImages/Advocate/Take_Action/covid19_utility_debt_assistance_coalition_letter.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">unpaid energy bills at publicly owned utilities topped $300 million\u003c/a>, while close to 4 million customers of investor-owned utilities were behind on energy bills, totaling $1.4 billion, as of late June, according to a California Public Utilities Commission spokesperson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many people don’t know that they are still protected from shutoffs. Some no longer are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the state reopened in mid-June, Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/6.11.21-EO-N-08-21-signed.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">quietly extended the moratorium on water shutoffs to Sept. 30.\u003c/a> One water system has already said \u003ca href=\"https://www.padredam.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=231\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">that it will resume shutoffs the next day.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Public Utilities Commission \u003ca href=\"https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M389/K401/389401945.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">also extended the power shutoff moratorium to Sept. 30\u003c/a>, days before it was set to expire on June 30. But that only applies to customers of investor-owned utilities, leaving the quarter of Californians served by publicly owned utilities vulnerable, said Mad Stano, an energy equity attorney at the Greenlining Institute, a racial justice nonprofit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>LA’s water department is the largest publicly owned utility in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11747148/map-public-power-providers-in-california\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the United States\u003c/a>. During the pandemic, customers’ unpaid bills there increased more than 10-fold, from $37 million accrued during 2019 to $400 million accrued during the first eight months of the pandemic, according to a state Water Board report. \u003ca href=\"https://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2021/21-0540_misc_05-19-21.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">More than one in five customers behind on bills had debt over $1,000\u003c/a>. The department has voluntarily chosen to extend its own moratorium on shutoffs for nonpayment, according to a spokesperson, but has not yet announced an end date. It has also not publicized that decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2021/01/water-debt-california-households-face-water-shutoffs/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Deborah Bell-Holt\u003c/a> didn’t know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975857\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 683px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1975857\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/01212021_WaterDebt_SH_03-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/01212021_WaterDebt_SH_03-scaled-1.jpg 683w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/01212021_WaterDebt_SH_03-scaled-1-160x240.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deborah Bell-Holt sits in front of her house in Jefferson Park near Downtown Los Angeles on Jan. 21, 2021, holding her water and power bill. \u003ccite>(Shae Hammond/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her utilities bill ballooned to $19,308.45 during the pandemic as her South Los Angeles household grew to include 12 children, grandchildren and friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bell-Holt assumed that disconnections would start June 30, when evictions were set to begin had lawmakers not made \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2021/06/california-eviction-moratorium-deal/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a last-minute deal.\u003c/a> She scrambled to send the department $500 in late May and $200 on June 25th, hoping a few payments would stave off shutoffs. To afford that, she said she took out a $500 loan with 347% interest, which she’s still paying back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bell-Holt said that if she’d known she wasn’t at risk on June 30, “I wouldn’t put us in a hole like that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state and utilities haven’t done enough to inform Californians about protections, Stano contends. “The state needs to require… communications to people so they don’t make financial decisions that they don’t have to make,” they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp id=\"h-living-without-water-or-power\">\u003cstrong>Living Without Water or Power\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Hollman’s third day this summer without water or power, it hit 100 degrees outside. Inside the house was even hotter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollman and his kids are used to life without air conditioning in one of California’s hottest regions. Their generator — which requires $10 of fuel per day, on average — only powers the lights, electronics and refrigerator. Normally, Hollman might cool the house by hosing down the roof and outdoor plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, the family lingered at McDonald’s. “It becomes very difficult to keep your spirit up, but you have to for your kids,” Hollman said. “You can’t crack.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the fifth day, his son thanked Hollman for the best day ever, after the two spent the afternoon cutting through the heat on skateboards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the ninth morning, Hollman ran out of generator fuel. He reminded his kids not to open the refrigerator, so the food wouldn’t spoil. He knew his car’s radiator was low, but he was out of coolant and bottled water. He crossed his fingers that the old truck wouldn’t overheat on the way to the gas station. It did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a dance that people shouldn’t have to f—ing do,” Hollman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975859\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975859\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/07172021_Hollman_PU_Sized_03-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/07172021_Hollman_PU_Sized_03-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/07172021_Hollman_PU_Sized_03-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/07172021_Hollman_PU_Sized_03-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/07172021_Hollman_PU_Sized_03-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/07172021_Hollman_PU_Sized_03.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Will Hollman’s day typically begins by filling this container with gas for the generator he’s relied on since electricity was shut off to his San Fernando Valley home. \u003ccite>(Pablo Unzueta/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp id=\"h-relief-on-the-way-for-california-utility-bills\">\u003cstrong>Relief On the Way\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>for California Utility Bills\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Theoretically, lawmakers’ new deal could prevent more people from that dance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/FullBudgetSummary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Newsom proposed $2 billion to relieve utilities debt\u003c/a>. Legislators agreed to the price tag in June, but continued negotiating the distribution plan in private.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2021/07/california-budget-legislature/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The result is two budget bills\u003c/a> that would create new programs that pay utilities directly to forgive customer debt accrued during the pandemic, prioritizing those at greatest risk of shutoffs. The \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB135\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California Arrearage Payment Program\u003c/a> would forgive $994 million in energy debt, while the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB148\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California Water and Wastewater Arrearage Payment Program\u003c/a> would forgive \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB129\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$985 million\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In both cases, utilities must opt in. They must also offer all customers with pandemic debt a payment plan that would protect them from shutoffs as long as they enroll and stay current on the plan. Plus, the first forbids energy utilities from disconnecting power to a customer for 90 days after applying forgiveness to their account. Neither bill extends the shutoff moratoria, though the \u003ca href=\"https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M393/K048/393048062.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Public Utilities Commission has extended a moratorium\u003c/a> on shutoffs for a segment of water utilities, which cover about 16% of customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pending legislation also funnels an unspecified amount of federal relief money into two \u003ca href=\"https://www.csd.ca.gov/Pages/LIHEAPProgram.aspx\">existing\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ocs/programs/lihwap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">programs\u003c/a> for which households must be income-eligible and apply for the assistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear whether Hollman will be eligible for the programs, given that he accrued his debt before the COVID-19 pandemic. He may be at risk of another water shutoff soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp id=\"h-a-repeat-of-rent-relief-troubles\">\u003cstrong>A Repeat of Rent Relief Troubles?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has created countless new assistance programs during the pandemic — many mired by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2020/12/why-few-farmworkers-isolate-in-californias-free-covid-19-hotel-rooms/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">delays\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2020/05/undocumented-immigrants-state-disaster-aid-unreachable/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">bureaucracy\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/01/bank-of-america-lost-hundreds-of-millions-on-california-unemployment-fiasco/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">scandals\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s \u003ca href=\"https://housing.ca.gov/covid_rr/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">COVID rent relief program\u003c/a> is one example. As \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2021/04/california-rent-relief-tenants/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CalMatters reported\u003c/a>, lengthy online applications available in too few languages initially blocked access to vulnerable renters, while distribution has been painfully slow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California utility bill debt forgiveness programs proposed last week sidestep some of these problems by requiring utilities, instead of customers, to apply, and by not requiring customers to prove eligibility. Advocates cheered that choice, but worried lawmakers didn’t go far enough to prevent shutoffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water program legislation requires the water board to start distributing funds by Nov. 1. But that’s a month after the shutoff moratorium ends, said Jennifer Clary, California state director of nonprofit Clean Water Action. “I’m a little concerned about that gap,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stano of the Greenlining Institute said that the bill language doesn’t prevent publicly owned utilities from shutting off power right now. They said it also doesn’t provide enough guidance to ensure that payment plans are sufficiently accessible and reasonable to keep people safe from shutoffs — especially given that only about two-thirds of the debt is expected to be forgiven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will not be celebrating anything until the risk of disconnection is removed,” said Stano, who is pushing for the energy shutoff moratorium to be extended past Sept. 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A life-long Democrat, Hollman finds his faith in government assistance tested. He says he’s never relied much on it until his work as a telecommunications salesman for brick-and-mortar businesses came to a sudden halt last March. He applied for unemployment benefits so that he could focus on overseeing his children’s virtual schooling without any electricity coming to the house, but the checks don’t cover rent, food and generator fuel. He borrowed money, sold assets and made partial rent payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like millions of Californians, Hollman has run into \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-edd-unemployment-crisis-explained/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">unemployment benefits snafus.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The last one happened several nights after the water department turned the water back on. Hollman received his unemployment payment to his Bank of America unemployment benefits account, but said when he tried paying bills the next morning, the money had already been withdrawn. He said he filed reports of identity theft with police and the Employment Development Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollman also said he called his landlord to tell him he wouldn’t be able to make July’s rent — and that he hasn’t heard back about the $5,000 in rent relief he’s applied for from the city of Los Angeles. He said he planned to find work this summer, but has been in crisis mode since the water shutoff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It can’t be understated,” Hollman texted, “how delicate the balance of survival is.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Lawmakers have agreed to pay off $2 billion of Californians’ utilities debt, but haven’t extended the shutoff moratoria past Sept. 30. One family’s experience of surviving a heat wave without water or power reveals what’s at stake.",
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"description": "Lawmakers have agreed to pay off $2 billion of Californians’ utilities debt, but haven’t extended the shutoff moratoria past Sept. 30. One family’s experience of surviving a heat wave without water or power reveals what’s at stake.",
"title": "Unpaid Utility Bills? California Will Pay Off $2 Billion to Avoid Shutoffs | KQED",
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"headline": "Unpaid Utility Bills? California Will Pay Off $2 Billion to Avoid Shutoffs",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Two years ago the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power shut off electricity at Will Hollman’s home in the San Fernando Valley, forcing the family to rely on a gasoline generator. In late June of this year, the department disconnected the water, too — despite a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/4.2.20-EO-N-42-20.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">statewide moratorium on water shutoffs\u003c/a> that Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/6.11.21-EO-N-08-21-signed.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recently extended through Sept. 30\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollman, his 10-year-old son and his 16-year-old stepdaughter endured 11 days of temperatures in the high 90s to low 100s without water or power. For 11 days, they camped out in air-conditioned grocery stores, Starbucks or his truck. They couchsurfed and used friends’ showers. Hollman played it off with the kids as some kind of fun obstacle course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He called the department’s customer service, and said a representative told him that he must pay off his utility debt of $9,064.13 — largely consisting of charges that Hollman disputes as erroneous — before water or power could be restored.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been demoralizing, humiliating,” Hollman said on the eighth day. “I have a history of paying my bills, working, being a good provider. You… start having feelings of failure as a parent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately the state’s water agency convinced the LA department to turn on Hollman’s water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those 11 days without water or power are a window into what could happen to millions of Californians in the coming months and years, depending on how swiftly and effectively the state distributes relief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Official estimates of unpaid water and energy bills accumulated during the pandemic verge on $2.7 billion, affecting a few million Californians — and \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/SozYyHYaDUI?t=2096\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">those figures have been growing\u003c/a> rapidly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has so far prioritized rent relief — keeping people housed — over utilities relief. A spokesperson for the state’s COVID-19 Rent Relief program said that of the $158 million distributed as of July 16, less than $40,000 had gone to utilities relief. Utility debt makes up about 6% of all assistance requested so far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 11, lawmakers revealed a plan to use one-time federal relief money to address the debt. The deal is a patchwork of new programs to forgive $2 billion of utilities debt and old programs to help households chip away at the rest, with a wide range of eligibility criteria and timelines. But it doesn’t extend current shutoff moratoria past Sept. 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re laser-focused on getting this assistance out the door as quickly as possible,” Newsom said in a statement about ongoing rent relief and the utilities relief plan. He has signed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/07/16/governor-newsom-signs-state-budget-legislation-7-16-21/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">energy bills relief into law\u003c/a>, while the water bills relief still awaits his signature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This will be an important “reboot” to protect Californians and utility companies, said Ellen Hanak, director of the Water Policy Center at the Public Policy Institute of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t want people to be shut off from basic services,” Hanak said, “But it’s also a hit to the entire community if utilities aren’t able to balance their books, because that can have all sorts of ripple effects on the abilities of water and electrical systems to run well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to forgiving California’s utility debt, key questions remain:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Will $2 billion be nearly enough?\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Can the money be distributed quickly enough to prevent shutoffs?\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“For public health and safety, it’s important for people to have roofs over their heads, clean water and power. Those are all pieces of the puzzle,” Hanak said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp id=\"h-a-catch-22-at-la-s-utilities-department\">\u003cstrong>A Catch-22 at \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>LA’s Utilities Department?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollman’s utilities troubles began well before the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After opening an account in 2017, he began receiving unusually high electricity charges topping $1,000 — even during months when no one was living in the house because he was staying with his parents — which Hollman attributes to billing errors by the LA utility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under financial stress following a messy separation, Hollman said he let the bills pile up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By early 2019, his unpaid balance had mounted to nearly $9,000. He applied for $2,000 of assistance from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services to keep service on. But the water agency insisted on full payment of his bill, according to correspondence from his social worker reviewed by CalMatters. In March of 2019, the department shut off his power due to non-payment. He bought a generator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the power shutoff, the electricity charges continued, labeled as “unmetered estimated consumption” in bills reviewed by CalMatters, meaning the utility generated them without checking Hollman’s meter. In December 2019, a customer service representative credited his account with several thousand dollars, but, according to Hollman, told him that the department couldn’t stop the continuing energy charges or issue more credits until a technician read his meter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which required that the power be turned back on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which couldn’t happen until he paid off the debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Hollman tells it, he was caught in a Catch-22.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April 2020, amid the first pandemic surge, the LA utilities department closed Hollman’s account with an unpaid balance of $9,064.13, meaning that he couldn’t open a new account until he paid off the debt, which could affect his credit score or be taken to small claims court. But, Hollman said, a representative promised that water would stay on while the pandemic lasted. For over a year, it did — until a technician arrived unannounced in late June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The LA utilities department tells a somewhat different story. In a statement, a department spokesperson said that it had disconnected Hollman’s water in October 2017 and power in March 2019 because Hollman had made no payments since opening his account in March 2017. The spokesperson said the department turned off his water twice more after detecting unauthorized use, in April 2019 and again this past June, when it “came to light to LADWP… that water service had illegally been turned back on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While declining to comment on the high “unmetered estimated consumption” charges or Hollman’s apparent Catch-22, the spokesperson said the department restored water service in early July “in an attempt to work out a payment plan… for the water and power that was consumed since 2017.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollman disputes that he illegally reconnected the water, saying it never stopped flowing and that he never received notices it would be shut off. He said that a water department representative told him last week that he had to pay a third of his outstanding bill — money that he said he doesn’t have — before he can qualify for a payment plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp id=\"h-mounting-debt-and-shutoffs-despite-protections\">\u003cstrong>Mounting Debt, and Shutoffs Despite Protections\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollman is not alone. Despite shutoff protections, the California State Water Resources Control Board has received 308 \u003ca href=\"https://watershut-off.covid19.ca.gov/#:~:text=State%20of%20California%20COVID%2D19%20Water%20Shutoff%20Report&text=If%20you%20require%20translation%20assistance,submitting%20a%20water%20shutoff%20report.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reports of water disconnections during the pandemic\u003c/a>. No agency tracks power shutoffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson said the state water board got water restored in each case, including for Hollman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, the state water board estimated that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2021/01/water-debt-california-households-face-water-shutoffs/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">1.6 million households were late on water bills that totaled over $1 billion across California\u003c/a>, and were growing quickly. The California Municipal Utilities Association estimated \u003ca href=\"https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/CSDA/b24702e8-8a42-4614-8c45-bc3cba37ea2c/UploadedImages/Advocate/Take_Action/covid19_utility_debt_assistance_coalition_letter.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">unpaid energy bills at publicly owned utilities topped $300 million\u003c/a>, while close to 4 million customers of investor-owned utilities were behind on energy bills, totaling $1.4 billion, as of late June, according to a California Public Utilities Commission spokesperson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many people don’t know that they are still protected from shutoffs. Some no longer are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the state reopened in mid-June, Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/6.11.21-EO-N-08-21-signed.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">quietly extended the moratorium on water shutoffs to Sept. 30.\u003c/a> One water system has already said \u003ca href=\"https://www.padredam.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=231\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">that it will resume shutoffs the next day.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Public Utilities Commission \u003ca href=\"https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M389/K401/389401945.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">also extended the power shutoff moratorium to Sept. 30\u003c/a>, days before it was set to expire on June 30. But that only applies to customers of investor-owned utilities, leaving the quarter of Californians served by publicly owned utilities vulnerable, said Mad Stano, an energy equity attorney at the Greenlining Institute, a racial justice nonprofit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>LA’s water department is the largest publicly owned utility in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11747148/map-public-power-providers-in-california\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the United States\u003c/a>. During the pandemic, customers’ unpaid bills there increased more than 10-fold, from $37 million accrued during 2019 to $400 million accrued during the first eight months of the pandemic, according to a state Water Board report. \u003ca href=\"https://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2021/21-0540_misc_05-19-21.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">More than one in five customers behind on bills had debt over $1,000\u003c/a>. The department has voluntarily chosen to extend its own moratorium on shutoffs for nonpayment, according to a spokesperson, but has not yet announced an end date. It has also not publicized that decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2021/01/water-debt-california-households-face-water-shutoffs/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Deborah Bell-Holt\u003c/a> didn’t know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975857\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 683px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1975857\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/01212021_WaterDebt_SH_03-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/01212021_WaterDebt_SH_03-scaled-1.jpg 683w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/01212021_WaterDebt_SH_03-scaled-1-160x240.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deborah Bell-Holt sits in front of her house in Jefferson Park near Downtown Los Angeles on Jan. 21, 2021, holding her water and power bill. \u003ccite>(Shae Hammond/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her utilities bill ballooned to $19,308.45 during the pandemic as her South Los Angeles household grew to include 12 children, grandchildren and friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bell-Holt assumed that disconnections would start June 30, when evictions were set to begin had lawmakers not made \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2021/06/california-eviction-moratorium-deal/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a last-minute deal.\u003c/a> She scrambled to send the department $500 in late May and $200 on June 25th, hoping a few payments would stave off shutoffs. To afford that, she said she took out a $500 loan with 347% interest, which she’s still paying back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bell-Holt said that if she’d known she wasn’t at risk on June 30, “I wouldn’t put us in a hole like that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state and utilities haven’t done enough to inform Californians about protections, Stano contends. “The state needs to require… communications to people so they don’t make financial decisions that they don’t have to make,” they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp id=\"h-living-without-water-or-power\">\u003cstrong>Living Without Water or Power\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Hollman’s third day this summer without water or power, it hit 100 degrees outside. Inside the house was even hotter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollman and his kids are used to life without air conditioning in one of California’s hottest regions. Their generator — which requires $10 of fuel per day, on average — only powers the lights, electronics and refrigerator. Normally, Hollman might cool the house by hosing down the roof and outdoor plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, the family lingered at McDonald’s. “It becomes very difficult to keep your spirit up, but you have to for your kids,” Hollman said. “You can’t crack.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the fifth day, his son thanked Hollman for the best day ever, after the two spent the afternoon cutting through the heat on skateboards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the ninth morning, Hollman ran out of generator fuel. He reminded his kids not to open the refrigerator, so the food wouldn’t spoil. He knew his car’s radiator was low, but he was out of coolant and bottled water. He crossed his fingers that the old truck wouldn’t overheat on the way to the gas station. It did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a dance that people shouldn’t have to f—ing do,” Hollman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975859\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975859\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/07172021_Hollman_PU_Sized_03-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/07172021_Hollman_PU_Sized_03-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/07172021_Hollman_PU_Sized_03-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/07172021_Hollman_PU_Sized_03-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/07172021_Hollman_PU_Sized_03-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/07172021_Hollman_PU_Sized_03.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Will Hollman’s day typically begins by filling this container with gas for the generator he’s relied on since electricity was shut off to his San Fernando Valley home. \u003ccite>(Pablo Unzueta/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp id=\"h-relief-on-the-way-for-california-utility-bills\">\u003cstrong>Relief On the Way\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>for California Utility Bills\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Theoretically, lawmakers’ new deal could prevent more people from that dance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/FullBudgetSummary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Newsom proposed $2 billion to relieve utilities debt\u003c/a>. Legislators agreed to the price tag in June, but continued negotiating the distribution plan in private.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2021/07/california-budget-legislature/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The result is two budget bills\u003c/a> that would create new programs that pay utilities directly to forgive customer debt accrued during the pandemic, prioritizing those at greatest risk of shutoffs. The \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB135\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California Arrearage Payment Program\u003c/a> would forgive $994 million in energy debt, while the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB148\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California Water and Wastewater Arrearage Payment Program\u003c/a> would forgive \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB129\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$985 million\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In both cases, utilities must opt in. They must also offer all customers with pandemic debt a payment plan that would protect them from shutoffs as long as they enroll and stay current on the plan. Plus, the first forbids energy utilities from disconnecting power to a customer for 90 days after applying forgiveness to their account. Neither bill extends the shutoff moratoria, though the \u003ca href=\"https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M393/K048/393048062.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Public Utilities Commission has extended a moratorium\u003c/a> on shutoffs for a segment of water utilities, which cover about 16% of customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pending legislation also funnels an unspecified amount of federal relief money into two \u003ca href=\"https://www.csd.ca.gov/Pages/LIHEAPProgram.aspx\">existing\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ocs/programs/lihwap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">programs\u003c/a> for which households must be income-eligible and apply for the assistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear whether Hollman will be eligible for the programs, given that he accrued his debt before the COVID-19 pandemic. He may be at risk of another water shutoff soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp id=\"h-a-repeat-of-rent-relief-troubles\">\u003cstrong>A Repeat of Rent Relief Troubles?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has created countless new assistance programs during the pandemic — many mired by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2020/12/why-few-farmworkers-isolate-in-californias-free-covid-19-hotel-rooms/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">delays\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2020/05/undocumented-immigrants-state-disaster-aid-unreachable/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">bureaucracy\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/01/bank-of-america-lost-hundreds-of-millions-on-california-unemployment-fiasco/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">scandals\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s \u003ca href=\"https://housing.ca.gov/covid_rr/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">COVID rent relief program\u003c/a> is one example. As \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2021/04/california-rent-relief-tenants/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CalMatters reported\u003c/a>, lengthy online applications available in too few languages initially blocked access to vulnerable renters, while distribution has been painfully slow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California utility bill debt forgiveness programs proposed last week sidestep some of these problems by requiring utilities, instead of customers, to apply, and by not requiring customers to prove eligibility. Advocates cheered that choice, but worried lawmakers didn’t go far enough to prevent shutoffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water program legislation requires the water board to start distributing funds by Nov. 1. But that’s a month after the shutoff moratorium ends, said Jennifer Clary, California state director of nonprofit Clean Water Action. “I’m a little concerned about that gap,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stano of the Greenlining Institute said that the bill language doesn’t prevent publicly owned utilities from shutting off power right now. They said it also doesn’t provide enough guidance to ensure that payment plans are sufficiently accessible and reasonable to keep people safe from shutoffs — especially given that only about two-thirds of the debt is expected to be forgiven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will not be celebrating anything until the risk of disconnection is removed,” said Stano, who is pushing for the energy shutoff moratorium to be extended past Sept. 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A life-long Democrat, Hollman finds his faith in government assistance tested. He says he’s never relied much on it until his work as a telecommunications salesman for brick-and-mortar businesses came to a sudden halt last March. He applied for unemployment benefits so that he could focus on overseeing his children’s virtual schooling without any electricity coming to the house, but the checks don’t cover rent, food and generator fuel. He borrowed money, sold assets and made partial rent payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like millions of Californians, Hollman has run into \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-edd-unemployment-crisis-explained/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">unemployment benefits snafus.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The last one happened several nights after the water department turned the water back on. Hollman received his unemployment payment to his Bank of America unemployment benefits account, but said when he tried paying bills the next morning, the money had already been withdrawn. He said he filed reports of identity theft with police and the Employment Development Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollman also said he called his landlord to tell him he wouldn’t be able to make July’s rent — and that he hasn’t heard back about the $5,000 in rent relief he’s applied for from the city of Los Angeles. He said he planned to find work this summer, but has been in crisis mode since the water shutoff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It can’t be understated,” Hollman texted, “how delicate the balance of survival is.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Here's What You Need to Know About the More Transmissible Delta Variant",
"headTitle": "Here’s What You Need to Know About the More Transmissible Delta Variant | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cspan class=\"big-cap-wrap\">\u003cspan class=\"big-cap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/span>t’s getting even riskier to remain unvaccinated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The United States, as a whole, is still in good shape for the summer of reunions and revived activities. But for those who haven’t been immunized against COVID-19, there is a new concern: the emergence of yet another coronavirus variant, one with a nasty combination of features that makes it even more dangerous than the other strains that have caused global alarms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The variant, known as Delta, was first spotted in India and helped power that country’s recent explosive outbreaks. Also called B.1.617.2, it seems to be the most transmissible version of the coronavirus seen thus far, but also carries some ability to get around the body’s immune protection generated after vaccination or an initial infection. (There’s also some evidence that it is more likely to cause severe disease, though researchers are still trying to confirm that.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“It’s really like the worst of both worlds,” said epidemiologist Nathan Grubaugh of the Yale School of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Globally, the variant’s march around the world could ignite major epidemics, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/uganda-south-africa-cape-town-africa-coronavirus-pandemic-c5d7c2b0f927c8bd4d8d91fbf2cda1ea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">given vaccine shortages\u003c/span>\u003c/a> in many nations. In unvaccinated populations, experts generally have greater fears about more transmissible variants than ones that are, say, just deadlier, because by causing more cases than would have occurred otherwise, the faster spreading strains can result in greater hospitalizations and deaths overall. Delta appears to be able to do that and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Taken all together, this is something which is really, really anxiety-inducing from a global health perspective,” said epidemiologist William Hanage of Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">In the United States, Delta accounts for just 6% of sequenced cases, federal health officials said this week, though its prevalence is building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">On an individual level, people who have had their full vaccine regimens — a figure that this week in the U.S. \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">crossed\u003c/span>\u003c/a> 50% among those 12 and older — don’t need to be particularly worried about Delta. The COVID-19 immunizations retain the large bulk of their effectiveness against the variant, though with different vaccines used in different parts of the world, scientists are still parsing how each of them fare. Experts so far have been particularly impressed with how strongly the two-dose mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, which account for the bulk of shots delivered in the U.S., stand up to different versions of the virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">But it’s not as if the SARS-CoV-2 virus has disappeared from the United States. It’s been clear that it would continue to circulate among unvaccinated people going forward. Now, any clusters that emerge and are driven by Delta will grow bigger and faster. And for those who do contract it — with some evidence from England indicating that people infected with Delta are more likely to be hospitalized — “it’s going to be worse for them,” Hanage said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">With so many people vaccinated, whatever outbreaks occur likely won’t lead to huge spikes that inundate hospitals — but they will lead to some people dying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Nationwide, cases have plunged from where they were just months ago, though the pace of decline has slowed. Study after study has shown the vaccines aren’t just protecting people from COVID-19, but are blunting transmission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">That wall of protection will benefit people who are unvaccinated as well, as will other factors that could be contributing to lower transmission rates, including immunity levels from natural infection and seasonal factors that seem to put some brake on spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">But some unvaccinated people remain more vulnerable than others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The story of the pandemic — both globally and within the United States — has been one of hot spots and areas that are better protected. Now, states where immunization rates are lagging — like Idaho, Wyoming, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi — are going to be more susceptible to ongoing outbreaks than states like those in the Northeast, where vaccine uptake has been much higher, particularly as communities slough off remaining countermeasures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Plus, more transmissible variants like Delta require a higher level of population immunity to be slowed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1402321777200611336?s=20\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The silver lining of the appearance of different variants is that, for whatever twists evolution has thrown our way, \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/05/13/vaccines-work-variants-complicated/\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">the vaccines have largely been able to withstand them\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. Variants that have some capability to “escape” the immune response elicited by vaccines might cause breakthrough infections at higher rates, and their transmission might not be slowed as quickly. The shots, however, have maintained their incredibly robust ability to prevent sickness and severe outcomes from COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">But research into Delta has also underscored the importance of getting both shots of the two-dose vaccines. \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.uk/government/news/vaccines-highly-effective-against-b-1-617-2-variant-after-2-doses\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">A study\u003c/span>\u003c/a> from Public Health England last month showed the Pfizer regimen was 88% effective at protecting against symptomatic illness from the variant, and the AstraZeneca vaccine was 60% effective — just slight drops in performance compared to other forms of the virus. But after just one shot, those figures plummeted to 33% for both vaccines. (The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been authorized in the United States.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“After the second dose, we see the amount of antibody in a person’s blood is even higher than after the first dose, and therefore more people will be above a threshold,” Wendy Barclay, a virologist at Imperial College London, said at a press briefing Wednesday. “There’s a certain level of antibody and immunity you need to be protected. We know that’s a certain level for the Alpha variant, and there will be a slightly higher level required to protect against Delta variant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The Alpha variant Barclay referenced is also known as B.1.1.7 and first appeared last fall in the United Kingdom. Before Delta, it was the most transmissible variant and became dominant in a number of countries, including the United States, but does not have any meaningful immune escape prowess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Scientists have estimated that Delta is perhaps 60% even more transmissible than Alpha. And in the U.K., it’s overtaken Alpha in frequency — which some experts have speculated could happen in the United States as well. \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The latest U.S. data\u003c/span>\u003c/a> indicate Alpha accounted for nearly 70% of sequenced cases, but Delta is amassing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The urgency, then, is to get as many people immunized as quickly as possible, so more people are protected and there are fewer infections overall, as Delta increasingly accounts for more of the country’s cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“If you’ve had your first dose, make sure you get that second dose, and for those who have been not vaccinated yet, please, get vaccinated,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a White House briefing Tuesday, where he highlighted the threat of Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">There are several factors that appear to give Delta its transmission boost over Alpha. For one, Delta “can transmit more easily in a vaccinated population than the Alpha variant can,” epidemiologist Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London told reporters Wednesday. That advantage will become particularly noticeable in countries with higher vaccination coverage, like the United Kingdom and the United States, because Alpha will encounter greater barriers as it tries to spread. (It’s not that Delta can run rampant through vaccinated populations; it’s a matter that it can transmit comparatively more efficiently because of its immune escape capability.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">In fact, some experts anticipate that in the United States, variants like Delta, Beta and Gamma could start to claw away at Alpha’s dominance because they have greater abilities to spread among vaccinated populations, though the likelihood of that will depend on how many people remain unvaccinated. (Beta, or B.1.351, first appeared in South Africa, while Gamma, or P.1, emerged in Brazil.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">But Delta also appears to have some other advantages. “The virus itself is fitter in human airway cells,” Barclay said about what early research indicates. That means that an infected person will likely emit more virus into the air, and that the virus is more adept at infecting cells, so people need to be exposed to less of it to contract it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/06/10/more-transmissible-variant-covid-19-vaccinations-even-more-crucial/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">story\u003c/a> was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">STAT\u003c/a>, an online publication of Boston Globe Media that covers health, medicine, and scientific discovery.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cspan class=\"big-cap-wrap\">\u003cspan class=\"big-cap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/span>t’s getting even riskier to remain unvaccinated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The United States, as a whole, is still in good shape for the summer of reunions and revived activities. But for those who haven’t been immunized against COVID-19, there is a new concern: the emergence of yet another coronavirus variant, one with a nasty combination of features that makes it even more dangerous than the other strains that have caused global alarms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The variant, known as Delta, was first spotted in India and helped power that country’s recent explosive outbreaks. Also called B.1.617.2, it seems to be the most transmissible version of the coronavirus seen thus far, but also carries some ability to get around the body’s immune protection generated after vaccination or an initial infection. (There’s also some evidence that it is more likely to cause severe disease, though researchers are still trying to confirm that.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“It’s really like the worst of both worlds,” said epidemiologist Nathan Grubaugh of the Yale School of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Globally, the variant’s march around the world could ignite major epidemics, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/uganda-south-africa-cape-town-africa-coronavirus-pandemic-c5d7c2b0f927c8bd4d8d91fbf2cda1ea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">given vaccine shortages\u003c/span>\u003c/a> in many nations. In unvaccinated populations, experts generally have greater fears about more transmissible variants than ones that are, say, just deadlier, because by causing more cases than would have occurred otherwise, the faster spreading strains can result in greater hospitalizations and deaths overall. Delta appears to be able to do that and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Taken all together, this is something which is really, really anxiety-inducing from a global health perspective,” said epidemiologist William Hanage of Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">In the United States, Delta accounts for just 6% of sequenced cases, federal health officials said this week, though its prevalence is building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">On an individual level, people who have had their full vaccine regimens — a figure that this week in the U.S. \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">crossed\u003c/span>\u003c/a> 50% among those 12 and older — don’t need to be particularly worried about Delta. The COVID-19 immunizations retain the large bulk of their effectiveness against the variant, though with different vaccines used in different parts of the world, scientists are still parsing how each of them fare. Experts so far have been particularly impressed with how strongly the two-dose mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, which account for the bulk of shots delivered in the U.S., stand up to different versions of the virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">But it’s not as if the SARS-CoV-2 virus has disappeared from the United States. It’s been clear that it would continue to circulate among unvaccinated people going forward. Now, any clusters that emerge and are driven by Delta will grow bigger and faster. And for those who do contract it — with some evidence from England indicating that people infected with Delta are more likely to be hospitalized — “it’s going to be worse for them,” Hanage said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">With so many people vaccinated, whatever outbreaks occur likely won’t lead to huge spikes that inundate hospitals — but they will lead to some people dying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Nationwide, cases have plunged from where they were just months ago, though the pace of decline has slowed. Study after study has shown the vaccines aren’t just protecting people from COVID-19, but are blunting transmission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">That wall of protection will benefit people who are unvaccinated as well, as will other factors that could be contributing to lower transmission rates, including immunity levels from natural infection and seasonal factors that seem to put some brake on spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">But some unvaccinated people remain more vulnerable than others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The story of the pandemic — both globally and within the United States — has been one of hot spots and areas that are better protected. Now, states where immunization rates are lagging — like Idaho, Wyoming, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi — are going to be more susceptible to ongoing outbreaks than states like those in the Northeast, where vaccine uptake has been much higher, particularly as communities slough off remaining countermeasures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Plus, more transmissible variants like Delta require a higher level of population immunity to be slowed.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The silver lining of the appearance of different variants is that, for whatever twists evolution has thrown our way, \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/05/13/vaccines-work-variants-complicated/\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">the vaccines have largely been able to withstand them\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. Variants that have some capability to “escape” the immune response elicited by vaccines might cause breakthrough infections at higher rates, and their transmission might not be slowed as quickly. The shots, however, have maintained their incredibly robust ability to prevent sickness and severe outcomes from COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">But research into Delta has also underscored the importance of getting both shots of the two-dose vaccines. \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.uk/government/news/vaccines-highly-effective-against-b-1-617-2-variant-after-2-doses\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">A study\u003c/span>\u003c/a> from Public Health England last month showed the Pfizer regimen was 88% effective at protecting against symptomatic illness from the variant, and the AstraZeneca vaccine was 60% effective — just slight drops in performance compared to other forms of the virus. But after just one shot, those figures plummeted to 33% for both vaccines. (The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been authorized in the United States.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“After the second dose, we see the amount of antibody in a person’s blood is even higher than after the first dose, and therefore more people will be above a threshold,” Wendy Barclay, a virologist at Imperial College London, said at a press briefing Wednesday. “There’s a certain level of antibody and immunity you need to be protected. We know that’s a certain level for the Alpha variant, and there will be a slightly higher level required to protect against Delta variant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The Alpha variant Barclay referenced is also known as B.1.1.7 and first appeared last fall in the United Kingdom. Before Delta, it was the most transmissible variant and became dominant in a number of countries, including the United States, but does not have any meaningful immune escape prowess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Scientists have estimated that Delta is perhaps 60% even more transmissible than Alpha. And in the U.K., it’s overtaken Alpha in frequency — which some experts have speculated could happen in the United States as well. \u003ca href=\"https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The latest U.S. data\u003c/span>\u003c/a> indicate Alpha accounted for nearly 70% of sequenced cases, but Delta is amassing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The urgency, then, is to get as many people immunized as quickly as possible, so more people are protected and there are fewer infections overall, as Delta increasingly accounts for more of the country’s cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“If you’ve had your first dose, make sure you get that second dose, and for those who have been not vaccinated yet, please, get vaccinated,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a White House briefing Tuesday, where he highlighted the threat of Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">There are several factors that appear to give Delta its transmission boost over Alpha. For one, Delta “can transmit more easily in a vaccinated population than the Alpha variant can,” epidemiologist Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London told reporters Wednesday. That advantage will become particularly noticeable in countries with higher vaccination coverage, like the United Kingdom and the United States, because Alpha will encounter greater barriers as it tries to spread. (It’s not that Delta can run rampant through vaccinated populations; it’s a matter that it can transmit comparatively more efficiently because of its immune escape capability.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">In fact, some experts anticipate that in the United States, variants like Delta, Beta and Gamma could start to claw away at Alpha’s dominance because they have greater abilities to spread among vaccinated populations, though the likelihood of that will depend on how many people remain unvaccinated. (Beta, or B.1.351, first appeared in South Africa, while Gamma, or P.1, emerged in Brazil.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">But Delta also appears to have some other advantages. “The virus itself is fitter in human airway cells,” Barclay said about what early research indicates. That means that an infected person will likely emit more virus into the air, and that the virus is more adept at infecting cells, so people need to be exposed to less of it to contract it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "FDA OKs Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine For Ages 12-15",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Food and Drug Administration says children 12 to 15 years old are now eligible to receive a key COVID-19 vaccine, as the agency on Monday \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine-emergency-use\">expanded its emergency use authorization\u003c/a> for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Janet Woodcock, the acting FDA commissioner, said the expansion “brings us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Parents and guardians can rest assured that the agency undertook a rigorous and thorough review of all available data, as we have with all of our COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorizations,” Woodcock said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until now, the Pfizer vaccine had been authorized only for people age 16 and older. Pfizer asked the FDA to broaden its emergency use authorization for the vaccine after \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/03/31/982983455/pfizer-says-covid-19-vaccine-shows-100-efficacy-in-adolescents\">announcing in late March\u003c/a> that clinical trials found “100% efficacy and robust antibody responses” in study participants who were 12 to 15 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FDA first granted Pfizer’s request for an emergency use authorization, or EUA, for its COVID-19 vaccine \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/12/11/945366548/fda-authorizes-covid-19-vaccine-for-emergency-use-in-u-s\">in December\u003c/a>. It got federal approval to include children as young as 12 years old in its vaccine trial \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/10/13/923248377/will-kids-get-a-covid-19-vaccine-pfizer-to-expand-trial-to-ages-12-and-up\">last October\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All three makers of U.S.-authorized vaccines — Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — are studying the safety and effectiveness of their vaccines in children, including as young as 6 months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson & Johnson said last week that its vaccine “will initially be tested in a small number of adolescents, which will be expanded to a larger group in a step-wise approach, if initial data shows an acceptable safety profile.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those expanded trials started last month, when J&J vaccine shots were given to teens from 16 to 17 years old. If all goes well, the trial will include kids as young as 12, \u003ca href=\"https://www.jnj.com/johnson-johnson-expands-phase-2a-clinical-trial-of-covid-19-vaccine-candidate-to-include-adolescents\">the company says\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moderna \u003ca href=\"https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-provides-clinical-and-supply-updates-covid-19-vaccine\">said in mid-April\u003c/a> that its vaccine study in adolescents is now fully enrolled, with around 3,000 people age 12 to 17 slated to receive doses. A second phase of the study will follow, including children who are from 6 months to 11 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pfizer says it won’t be ready to ask the FDA for new emergency use authorization expansions for kids younger than 12 until September. One such request would cover children from 2 to 5 years old; a second would apply to ages 5 to 11. A third request, aimed at protecting infants and toddlers, isn’t expected until the fourth quarter of this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pfizer and BioNTech say they have the capacity to manufacture up to 2.5 billion vaccine doses in 2021, and to produce at least 3 billion doses in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In another move that could boost COVID-19 vaccine availability, Pfizer recently asked the FDA to approve a change that would allow its vaccine to be stored at common refrigerator temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (roughly 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit) for up to four weeks. The company says it submitted data about the vaccine’s stability at those temperatures on April 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In general, Pfizer’s vaccine must be stored at ultra-cold temperatures of around -70 degrees Celsius (-94 degrees Fahrenheit). The company \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/02/24/965835993/what-is-a-cold-chain-and-why-do-so-many-vaccines-need-it\">loosened that requirement\u003c/a> a bit in February, however, saying the shots, which use messenger RNA, could safely be kept at typical home freezer temperatures, -25 to -15 degrees Celsius (-13 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit), for up to two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The COVID-19 vaccine’s success has brought billions of dollars to Pfizer. In the first quarter of 2021 alone, the vaccine added $3.5 billion in global revenue, Pfizer chairman and CEO Albert Bourla \u003ca href=\"https://s21.q4cdn.com/317678438/files/doc_financials/2021/q1/Q1-2021-Earnings-Conference-Call-Prepared-Remarks-FINAL.pdf\">told investors\u003c/a> in a conference call last Tuesday. Over the entire year, Pfizer could bring in around $26 billion based on the vaccine, Bourla said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company and BioNTech, its development and revenue-sharing partner, have shipped some 430 million doses to 91 countries and territories, Bourla said last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=FDA+OKs+Pfizer+COVID-19+Vaccine+For+12-15+Age+Group&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Food and Drug Administration says children 12 to 15 years old are now eligible to receive a key COVID-19 vaccine, as the agency on Monday \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine-emergency-use\">expanded its emergency use authorization\u003c/a> for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Janet Woodcock, the acting FDA commissioner, said the expansion “brings us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Parents and guardians can rest assured that the agency undertook a rigorous and thorough review of all available data, as we have with all of our COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorizations,” Woodcock said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until now, the Pfizer vaccine had been authorized only for people age 16 and older. Pfizer asked the FDA to broaden its emergency use authorization for the vaccine after \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/03/31/982983455/pfizer-says-covid-19-vaccine-shows-100-efficacy-in-adolescents\">announcing in late March\u003c/a> that clinical trials found “100% efficacy and robust antibody responses” in study participants who were 12 to 15 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FDA first granted Pfizer’s request for an emergency use authorization, or EUA, for its COVID-19 vaccine \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/12/11/945366548/fda-authorizes-covid-19-vaccine-for-emergency-use-in-u-s\">in December\u003c/a>. It got federal approval to include children as young as 12 years old in its vaccine trial \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/10/13/923248377/will-kids-get-a-covid-19-vaccine-pfizer-to-expand-trial-to-ages-12-and-up\">last October\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All three makers of U.S.-authorized vaccines — Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — are studying the safety and effectiveness of their vaccines in children, including as young as 6 months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson & Johnson said last week that its vaccine “will initially be tested in a small number of adolescents, which will be expanded to a larger group in a step-wise approach, if initial data shows an acceptable safety profile.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those expanded trials started last month, when J&J vaccine shots were given to teens from 16 to 17 years old. If all goes well, the trial will include kids as young as 12, \u003ca href=\"https://www.jnj.com/johnson-johnson-expands-phase-2a-clinical-trial-of-covid-19-vaccine-candidate-to-include-adolescents\">the company says\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moderna \u003ca href=\"https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-provides-clinical-and-supply-updates-covid-19-vaccine\">said in mid-April\u003c/a> that its vaccine study in adolescents is now fully enrolled, with around 3,000 people age 12 to 17 slated to receive doses. A second phase of the study will follow, including children who are from 6 months to 11 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pfizer says it won’t be ready to ask the FDA for new emergency use authorization expansions for kids younger than 12 until September. One such request would cover children from 2 to 5 years old; a second would apply to ages 5 to 11. A third request, aimed at protecting infants and toddlers, isn’t expected until the fourth quarter of this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pfizer and BioNTech say they have the capacity to manufacture up to 2.5 billion vaccine doses in 2021, and to produce at least 3 billion doses in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In another move that could boost COVID-19 vaccine availability, Pfizer recently asked the FDA to approve a change that would allow its vaccine to be stored at common refrigerator temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (roughly 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit) for up to four weeks. The company says it submitted data about the vaccine’s stability at those temperatures on April 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In general, Pfizer’s vaccine must be stored at ultra-cold temperatures of around -70 degrees Celsius (-94 degrees Fahrenheit). The company \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/02/24/965835993/what-is-a-cold-chain-and-why-do-so-many-vaccines-need-it\">loosened that requirement\u003c/a> a bit in February, however, saying the shots, which use messenger RNA, could safely be kept at typical home freezer temperatures, -25 to -15 degrees Celsius (-13 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit), for up to two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The COVID-19 vaccine’s success has brought billions of dollars to Pfizer. In the first quarter of 2021 alone, the vaccine added $3.5 billion in global revenue, Pfizer chairman and CEO Albert Bourla \u003ca href=\"https://s21.q4cdn.com/317678438/files/doc_financials/2021/q1/Q1-2021-Earnings-Conference-Call-Prepared-Remarks-FINAL.pdf\">told investors\u003c/a> in a conference call last Tuesday. Over the entire year, Pfizer could bring in around $26 billion based on the vaccine, Bourla said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company and BioNTech, its development and revenue-sharing partner, have shipped some 430 million doses to 91 countries and territories, Bourla said last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=FDA+OKs+Pfizer+COVID-19+Vaccine+For+12-15+Age+Group&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>This week, news of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/coronavirusliveupdates/news/11871298/bay-area-man-treated-for-rare-blood-clot-after-receiving-jj-vaccine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">rare blood clot\u003c/a> in a patient at UCSF, after he received the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, brought this very small risk close to home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The chance of developing these blood clots is tiny \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> only 2 in 1 million. And UCSF reported Monday that the patient is doing well and expected to go home in a few days. Still, knowing there is a risk at all is upsetting and confusing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health experts agree Johnson & Johnson is still a great vaccine. \u003ca href=\"https://www.susanaramirez.net/\">\u003cb>Professor Susana Ramírez\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a UC Merced expert in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.communicationculturehealth.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">communication, culture and public health\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, recently shared some guidelines with KQED’s \u003c/span>Raquel Maria Dillon\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> about how to evaluate risks around these vaccines. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There have been 16 of these rare blood clot cases out of about 8 million Johnson & Johnson doses given out in the U.S. Can you put that overall risk of this vaccine in context for us?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Susana Ramírez: \u003c/span>\u003c/i>The extraordinarily rare events that we are seeing, with these blood clotting disorders are tragic and sad, but they’re extremely rare. But the potential to be infected with the coronavirus is much higher than the potential to get one of these severe side effects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As humans, we really want to avoid bad outcomes. And so it’s really easy for us to focus on the negative outcomes that we might be hearing about, even when those outcomes are so very rare. And the risks from the coronavirus are not so obvious. Some people get very sick and they are hospitalized, and some people die, but other people may not get a very significant disease. I think what we need to focus on is the relative risk here is much lower for side effects than of getting the actual coronavirus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>We’ve heard from our audience that they have concerns that the J&J shot is for homeless people or people who don’t have time to come back for a second shot. They’re basically worried it’s a lower quality option. How do you address that? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ci>Ramírez\u003c/i>: I think the very most important fact to remember is that all three of the vaccines that are available to people in the United States have incredibly high efficacy rates. The very best vaccine is the one that you can get in your arm as soon as possible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All three of these vaccines have prevented serious hospitalization and death from this disease. And that’s the worst case, right? That’s the worst-case outcome. And all three of these vaccines are effective at preventing those.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003c/b>But the problem with trying to compare [efficacy rates] is that these three vaccines were developed at different times, and they were developed and tested with essentially different groups of people. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines were tested really at the early end of the pandemic over a year ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The J&J clinical trials finished very recently. And by that time, we’d been engaging in behavioral measures like wearing masks and social distancing. So those things had been in place for months when the J&J vaccine was tested. So we were a different population, and the disease itself was different by this point. We had more variants that were circulating. And so it was really tested under very different conditions. So there’s not an apples to apples comparison that you can do, although it’s tempting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some ways, even though we see a lower effectiveness, it’s really among a disease that had evolved and changed and adapted to our conditions. And so the fact that the vaccine is still effective in that context, I think is a real strength and plus in the J&J column. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t think by any stretch of the imagination that we should think about it as a lesser kind of vaccine. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think that there is definitely a kernel of truth to the idea that folks are talking about the two-dose vaccines, the Pfizer and Moderna, being for more privileged people. You have to have certain privileges like a flexible job, transportation to the vaccination site twice, a stable residence and a phone number to make those follow-up appointments, and then the ability to take some time off if you’re not feeling well after the vaccine. But that doesn’t make any of the vaccines better from a disease prevention perspective. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Are you concerned that the appeal of the J&J shot — convenience — might not be enough to convince people to get it at this point? And what would that mean for getting to herd immunity, which is the broader societal goal? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ci>Ramírez\u003c/i>: You’re absolutely right. The number one goal is we want everybody to get a vaccine as soon as possible. We need to think about really messaging on that convenience. I think there are people like me who are terrified of needles. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We would prefer just having to go one time. And that convenience — it’s not just about the needle. You have to take time off to get the vaccine. We may have localized side effects, which is not a big deal. But if you’re feeling kind of yucky or you have a headache, you don’t really want to go back to work the next day. And so that would be twice that you have to do that for the other two vaccines. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So the convenience of a one-shot vaccine is really something that we need to be talking up and selling because it’s a big deal. It’s a positive condition of this particular vaccine.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In my opinion, I don’t see a clear clinical reason to prefer one vaccine over another vaccine. So it’s really about the convenience.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb> I think people want to make rational decisions, especially when it comes to their health, but there are a lot of numbers being thrown around. You’ve got Pfizer and Moderna with efficacy rates in the 90s and Johnson & Johnson’s lower. So why is this so confusing? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ci>Ramírez\u003c/i>: I think the key number that we should be looking at as individuals is which of these vaccines is going to prevent me from getting this disease? And then which one of those is going to prevent such a severe case that I’m hospitalized or die from it? All of these have been tested in slightly different ways. And they’ve considered efficacy and measured it in different ways, like having some symptoms, any symptoms, having a positive test, or being hospitalized. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The takeaway is all three of these vaccines have prevented serious hospitalization and death from this disease. And that’s the worst case, right? That’s the worst-case outcome. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The numbers are really confusing. Even highly educated people have a really hard time making sense of risk because it’s not just a number, it’s a value and a set of values. We’re talking about our own health and the health of our loved ones. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, again, it’s hard to compare, but [the three vaccines are] all incredibly good. The Moderna and the Pfizer vaccines were tested early on in the pandemic and they had different clinical outcomes. And now that they’ve been out in the real world, the other comparisons of efficacy are hard to make.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s hard to give people what they want, which is a really concrete answer to the question, How risky is this vaccine? I think the best answer that we can give is the risk of the vaccines is much, much, much lower than the risk of serious complications from the coronavirus, should you not be vaccinated. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This whole thing — the pandemic and the vaccines — is kind of a science experiment taking place on a world stage. What can people learn about science from this?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ci>Ramírez\u003c/i>: \u003c/span>The fact that we have three vaccines in the U.S. and seven in the world that are already authorized for preventing a disease that no one knew about 18 months ago — that is amazing! And millions of people have already been vaccinated. I think it’s really important that we appreciate the incredible scientific achievement and the logistical feats that were involved in getting to this point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we stop to appreciate the fact that we have this global health crisis and we already have, and have had for months, the ability to control it — I think that should inspire confidence in science. And I also think that the temporary pause that occurred with the distribution of the J&J vaccine should also be applauded and celebrated as a way of increasing our confidence in science, because that pause shows that the real-world tracking and monitoring of the vaccines is is working.\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>This week, news of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/coronavirusliveupdates/news/11871298/bay-area-man-treated-for-rare-blood-clot-after-receiving-jj-vaccine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">rare blood clot\u003c/a> in a patient at UCSF, after he received the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, brought this very small risk close to home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The chance of developing these blood clots is tiny \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> only 2 in 1 million. And UCSF reported Monday that the patient is doing well and expected to go home in a few days. Still, knowing there is a risk at all is upsetting and confusing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health experts agree Johnson & Johnson is still a great vaccine. \u003ca href=\"https://www.susanaramirez.net/\">\u003cb>Professor Susana Ramírez\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a UC Merced expert in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.communicationculturehealth.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">communication, culture and public health\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, recently shared some guidelines with KQED’s \u003c/span>Raquel Maria Dillon\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> about how to evaluate risks around these vaccines. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There have been 16 of these rare blood clot cases out of about 8 million Johnson & Johnson doses given out in the U.S. Can you put that overall risk of this vaccine in context for us?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Susana Ramírez: \u003c/span>\u003c/i>The extraordinarily rare events that we are seeing, with these blood clotting disorders are tragic and sad, but they’re extremely rare. But the potential to be infected with the coronavirus is much higher than the potential to get one of these severe side effects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As humans, we really want to avoid bad outcomes. And so it’s really easy for us to focus on the negative outcomes that we might be hearing about, even when those outcomes are so very rare. And the risks from the coronavirus are not so obvious. Some people get very sick and they are hospitalized, and some people die, but other people may not get a very significant disease. I think what we need to focus on is the relative risk here is much lower for side effects than of getting the actual coronavirus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>We’ve heard from our audience that they have concerns that the J&J shot is for homeless people or people who don’t have time to come back for a second shot. They’re basically worried it’s a lower quality option. How do you address that? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ci>Ramírez\u003c/i>: I think the very most important fact to remember is that all three of the vaccines that are available to people in the United States have incredibly high efficacy rates. The very best vaccine is the one that you can get in your arm as soon as possible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All three of these vaccines have prevented serious hospitalization and death from this disease. And that’s the worst case, right? That’s the worst-case outcome. And all three of these vaccines are effective at preventing those.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003c/b>But the problem with trying to compare [efficacy rates] is that these three vaccines were developed at different times, and they were developed and tested with essentially different groups of people. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines were tested really at the early end of the pandemic over a year ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The J&J clinical trials finished very recently. And by that time, we’d been engaging in behavioral measures like wearing masks and social distancing. So those things had been in place for months when the J&J vaccine was tested. So we were a different population, and the disease itself was different by this point. We had more variants that were circulating. And so it was really tested under very different conditions. So there’s not an apples to apples comparison that you can do, although it’s tempting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some ways, even though we see a lower effectiveness, it’s really among a disease that had evolved and changed and adapted to our conditions. And so the fact that the vaccine is still effective in that context, I think is a real strength and plus in the J&J column. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t think by any stretch of the imagination that we should think about it as a lesser kind of vaccine. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think that there is definitely a kernel of truth to the idea that folks are talking about the two-dose vaccines, the Pfizer and Moderna, being for more privileged people. You have to have certain privileges like a flexible job, transportation to the vaccination site twice, a stable residence and a phone number to make those follow-up appointments, and then the ability to take some time off if you’re not feeling well after the vaccine. But that doesn’t make any of the vaccines better from a disease prevention perspective. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Are you concerned that the appeal of the J&J shot — convenience — might not be enough to convince people to get it at this point? And what would that mean for getting to herd immunity, which is the broader societal goal? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ci>Ramírez\u003c/i>: You’re absolutely right. The number one goal is we want everybody to get a vaccine as soon as possible. We need to think about really messaging on that convenience. I think there are people like me who are terrified of needles. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We would prefer just having to go one time. And that convenience — it’s not just about the needle. You have to take time off to get the vaccine. We may have localized side effects, which is not a big deal. But if you’re feeling kind of yucky or you have a headache, you don’t really want to go back to work the next day. And so that would be twice that you have to do that for the other two vaccines. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So the convenience of a one-shot vaccine is really something that we need to be talking up and selling because it’s a big deal. It’s a positive condition of this particular vaccine.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In my opinion, I don’t see a clear clinical reason to prefer one vaccine over another vaccine. So it’s really about the convenience.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb> I think people want to make rational decisions, especially when it comes to their health, but there are a lot of numbers being thrown around. You’ve got Pfizer and Moderna with efficacy rates in the 90s and Johnson & Johnson’s lower. So why is this so confusing? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ci>Ramírez\u003c/i>: I think the key number that we should be looking at as individuals is which of these vaccines is going to prevent me from getting this disease? And then which one of those is going to prevent such a severe case that I’m hospitalized or die from it? All of these have been tested in slightly different ways. And they’ve considered efficacy and measured it in different ways, like having some symptoms, any symptoms, having a positive test, or being hospitalized. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The takeaway is all three of these vaccines have prevented serious hospitalization and death from this disease. And that’s the worst case, right? That’s the worst-case outcome. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The numbers are really confusing. Even highly educated people have a really hard time making sense of risk because it’s not just a number, it’s a value and a set of values. We’re talking about our own health and the health of our loved ones. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, again, it’s hard to compare, but [the three vaccines are] all incredibly good. The Moderna and the Pfizer vaccines were tested early on in the pandemic and they had different clinical outcomes. And now that they’ve been out in the real world, the other comparisons of efficacy are hard to make.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s hard to give people what they want, which is a really concrete answer to the question, How risky is this vaccine? I think the best answer that we can give is the risk of the vaccines is much, much, much lower than the risk of serious complications from the coronavirus, should you not be vaccinated. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This whole thing — the pandemic and the vaccines — is kind of a science experiment taking place on a world stage. What can people learn about science from this?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ci>Ramírez\u003c/i>: \u003c/span>The fact that we have three vaccines in the U.S. and seven in the world that are already authorized for preventing a disease that no one knew about 18 months ago — that is amazing! And millions of people have already been vaccinated. I think it’s really important that we appreciate the incredible scientific achievement and the logistical feats that were involved in getting to this point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we stop to appreciate the fact that we have this global health crisis and we already have, and have had for months, the ability to control it — I think that should inspire confidence in science. And I also think that the temporary pause that occurred with the distribution of the J&J vaccine should also be applauded and celebrated as a way of increasing our confidence in science, because that pause shows that the real-world tracking and monitoring of the vaccines is is working.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The city of San Francisco is opening up a second vaccine center in the Mission District at a union headquarters at 18th and Capp streets. The site will provide about 200 shots per day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the city’s fourth neighborhood vaccination site and will be operated in partnership with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ltfrespuestalatina.com/contact\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Latino Task Force\u003c/a>, a coalition made up of dozens of community-based organizations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To have a local community-run-and-implemented site means that you will have that extra touch if you have questions, if you’re scared, if you speak Spanish, and we’re local,” said Valerie Tulier-Laiwa of the Latino Task Force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She says the Mission sites have become models for other community groups who want to reach essential workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new site is planned to be open Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m, by \u003ca href=\"https://www.ltfrespuestalatina.com/copy-of-tested\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">appointment\u003c/a> and with limited drop-in availability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the city’s release:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mission residents and residents in eligible ZIP codes can sign up for an appointment in person at 24th and Mission Wednesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. or at 701 Alabama Street Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Mission neighborhood residents and workers can email LatinoTaskForceSF@gmail.com to request an appointment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/RaquelMDillon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Raquel Maria Dillon\u003c/em>\u003c/a> \u003cem>and \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/StarkKev\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Stark\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The city of San Francisco is opening up a second vaccine center in the Mission District at a union headquarters at 18th and Capp streets. The site will provide about 200 shots per day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the city’s fourth neighborhood vaccination site and will be operated in partnership with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ltfrespuestalatina.com/contact\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Latino Task Force\u003c/a>, a coalition made up of dozens of community-based organizations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To have a local community-run-and-implemented site means that you will have that extra touch if you have questions, if you’re scared, if you speak Spanish, and we’re local,” said Valerie Tulier-Laiwa of the Latino Task Force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She says the Mission sites have become models for other community groups who want to reach essential workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new site is planned to be open Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m, by \u003ca href=\"https://www.ltfrespuestalatina.com/copy-of-tested\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">appointment\u003c/a> and with limited drop-in availability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the city’s release:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mission residents and residents in eligible ZIP codes can sign up for an appointment in person at 24th and Mission Wednesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. or at 701 Alabama Street Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Mission neighborhood residents and workers can email LatinoTaskForceSF@gmail.com to request an appointment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/RaquelMDillon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Raquel Maria Dillon\u003c/em>\u003c/a> \u003cem>and \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/StarkKev\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Stark\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Regeneron Says Its Antibody Treatment Protected Against COVID-19 in Study",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"big-cap-wrap\">\u003cspan class=\"big-cap\">R\u003c/span>\u003c/span>egeneron Pharmaceuticals said Monday that a single administration of its monoclonal antibody cocktail reduced the risk that volunteers exposed to COVID-19 would develop the disease by 81%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study enrolled 1,500 healthy volunteers, each of whom shared a home with someone who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, and randomized them to receive a single dose of its antibody treatment, given subcutaneously as four shots, or placebo. After 29 days, 11 patients in the treatment group developed COVID-19 compared to 59 on placebo. And for the subjects who got COVID-19 despite treatment, their symptoms resolved after one week, compared to three weeks for those on placebo. In 204 patients who had already tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus at the study’s outset, the injection reduced their chances of progressing to symptomatic COVID-19 by 31%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The results were made public in a press release and will be published in a scientific journal or presented at a medical meeting at a later date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those results mirror similar results seen in a study conducted by Eli Lilly of its monoclonal antibody in nursing homes. One key difference: While in previous studies by both Lilly and Regeneron, antibodies had to be given intravenously, in this one Regeneron used a formulation that could be given with an under-the-skin injection. Lilly is also exploring a subcutaneous injection of its antibodies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s “a really, really big deal,” said Myron Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina and one of the study’s lead investigators. He said that having to start an IV is “unequivocally” one of the barriers to using the antibodies either for treatment or prevention. The other barrier? Awareness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In order for these antibodies to be used for treatment and prevention and for treatment as prevention, we need the patients or their families familiar with the opportunity,” Cohen said. “We need health providers to be familiar with these drugs and comfortable administering them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And why do we need antibodies when there are already vaccines? Dan Barouch, the director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a key figure in the development of the J&J vaccine and another investigator in Regeneron’s study, said that the approaches are “complementary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As of now, there are still substantial numbers of people who are not fully vaccinated,” Barouch said. What’s more, some people, including those with compromised immune systems, might not generate enough antibodies one their own — and could benefit from antibodies that are injected into their bodies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some circumstances, say, an outbreak at a nursing home, the monoclonal antibodies, which start working immediately, could be the better approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adverse events occurred in 20% of those who received the antibody cocktail and 29% of those who received placebo. None of the antibody cocktail recipients were hospitalized, but four volunteers in the placebo group were. Injection site reactions occurred in 4% of those who received the antibody and 2% of those who received placebo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regeneron said 35% of study volunteers were Latinx and 5% were Black. About a third had at least one risk factor that would put them at high risk if they developed COVID-19. A third were obese, and 38% were over 50.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/04/12/regeneron-antibody-cocktail-covid-simple-injection/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">story\u003c/a> was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">STAT\u003c/a>, an online publication of Boston Globe Media that covers health, medicine and scientific discovery.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"big-cap-wrap\">\u003cspan class=\"big-cap\">R\u003c/span>\u003c/span>egeneron Pharmaceuticals said Monday that a single administration of its monoclonal antibody cocktail reduced the risk that volunteers exposed to COVID-19 would develop the disease by 81%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study enrolled 1,500 healthy volunteers, each of whom shared a home with someone who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, and randomized them to receive a single dose of its antibody treatment, given subcutaneously as four shots, or placebo. After 29 days, 11 patients in the treatment group developed COVID-19 compared to 59 on placebo. And for the subjects who got COVID-19 despite treatment, their symptoms resolved after one week, compared to three weeks for those on placebo. In 204 patients who had already tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus at the study’s outset, the injection reduced their chances of progressing to symptomatic COVID-19 by 31%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The results were made public in a press release and will be published in a scientific journal or presented at a medical meeting at a later date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those results mirror similar results seen in a study conducted by Eli Lilly of its monoclonal antibody in nursing homes. One key difference: While in previous studies by both Lilly and Regeneron, antibodies had to be given intravenously, in this one Regeneron used a formulation that could be given with an under-the-skin injection. Lilly is also exploring a subcutaneous injection of its antibodies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s “a really, really big deal,” said Myron Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina and one of the study’s lead investigators. He said that having to start an IV is “unequivocally” one of the barriers to using the antibodies either for treatment or prevention. The other barrier? Awareness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In order for these antibodies to be used for treatment and prevention and for treatment as prevention, we need the patients or their families familiar with the opportunity,” Cohen said. “We need health providers to be familiar with these drugs and comfortable administering them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And why do we need antibodies when there are already vaccines? Dan Barouch, the director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a key figure in the development of the J&J vaccine and another investigator in Regeneron’s study, said that the approaches are “complementary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As of now, there are still substantial numbers of people who are not fully vaccinated,” Barouch said. What’s more, some people, including those with compromised immune systems, might not generate enough antibodies one their own — and could benefit from antibodies that are injected into their bodies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some circumstances, say, an outbreak at a nursing home, the monoclonal antibodies, which start working immediately, could be the better approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adverse events occurred in 20% of those who received the antibody cocktail and 29% of those who received placebo. None of the antibody cocktail recipients were hospitalized, but four volunteers in the placebo group were. Injection site reactions occurred in 4% of those who received the antibody and 2% of those who received placebo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regeneron said 35% of study volunteers were Latinx and 5% were Black. About a third had at least one risk factor that would put them at high risk if they developed COVID-19. A third were obese, and 38% were over 50.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/2021/04/12/regeneron-antibody-cocktail-covid-simple-injection/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">story\u003c/a> was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://www.statnews.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">STAT\u003c/a>, an online publication of Boston Globe Media that covers health, medicine and scientific discovery.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "COVID Variants, Vaccines and Staying Safe: What You Should Know",
"headTitle": "COVID Variants, Vaccines and Staying Safe: What You Should Know | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>If you’ve been following the coronavirus headlines lately, you’ve likely been hearing a lot about new coronavirus variants. As a result, you may be freaking out, experiencing pandemic fatigue or be just plain confused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation='Dr. Robert Siegel, Stanford University']‘The vaccines are so wildly effective, they produce such a strong immune response that the variants that exist now, even the ones that are slightly better at spreading, they all seem to be susceptible to the vaccine.’[/pullquote]Doctors have called some coronavirus variants highly concerning — but there are things you can do to protect yourself against infection, like getting the vaccine when you’re eligible and doubling down on your masking and distancing habits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We consulted medical experts Dr. Robert Siegel, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford, and Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at UCSF, as well as CDC guidance, on what you need to know about variants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What is a variant?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Viruses are constantly changing. When a virus hijacks a host cell and replicates, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/health/coronavirus-variant-tracker.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mistakes occur\u003c/a> so that the genetic makeup of the copies isn’t exactly the same as the original. These errors are called mutations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more times that the virus copies itself, the more viruses that are made, the more mistakes that are made,” Siegel said. “Variants are just [viruses with] collections of mutations. So they inevitably arise as long as there’s lots of people that are infected making virus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists can track variants by looking for a distinct set of inherited mutations. In addition to an alphanumeric string, coronavirus variants are often referred to by the part of the world where they were first observed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siegel says the emergence of variants is “basically normal for all viruses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Do variants change the way the virus behaves?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many variants have no effect on the behavior of a virus. But as mutations accumulate, errors can occur in parts of the virus’s genetic material that alter its physical properties and behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These changes may affect where and how strongly a virus binds to host cells, its ability to evade an immune response, how fast it can copy itself or how easy it is for someone to transmit the virus to another person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thus, some variants may persist longer, become more infectious or be more resistant to antibodies or vaccines than others. If you think about it, we’re all familiar with this basic truth about viruses because it’s why the annual flu vaccine is more effective one year and less in another year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like all viruses, those that cause the flu change constantly — in fact, says Siegel, influenza makes far more mistakes when it copies than the coronavirus. The more errors a virus makes, the more mutations and the more variants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each year, scientists around the world \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/vaccine-selection.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">track them\u003c/a> to see which influenza viruses are making people sick, how quickly or widely they’re spreading, and how well the previous year’s vaccine works against them. More than 100 countries participate in this work, tracking thousands of test samples of the virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every February, the WHO gathers representatives from its own and the world’s top labs and national academies and recommends which viruses should be included in the annual flu vaccine. Each country then makes its own final decision. But it’s difficult to predict the spread and timing of flu viruses, so each year’s flu vaccine is more or less effective depending on factors such as what influenza virus shows up and when.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Are coronavirus variants more dangerous than the original virus?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In short, it depends on the variant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siegel says the vast majority of coronavirus variants don’t increase the virus’s ability to spread. Some, like the British \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7003e2.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">B.1.1.7 variant\u003c/a>, have been shown to be more contagious than the original coronavirus. Others, like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.krisp.org.za/publications.php?pubid=316\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South African\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00183-5/fulltext\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brazilian\u003c/a> variants, have mutations that research suggests make them somewhat more resistant to some treatments or vaccines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More transmissible variants, Dr. Siegel says, are potentially of greater concern because of how rapidly they can spread through the population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a virus, he said, “Winning the game is not necessarily making a variant that is more dangerous, it’s just making a variant that can spread more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vaccines used in the U.S. appear to protect against all known coronavirus variants — even more antibody-resistant variants — and the key to ending the pandemic is controlling the spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chin-Hong says the British variant is probably the most troubling of the variants out there. “It seems to be the bulldog of the variants,” he says. “Wherever it goes, it sets up shop and it bullies all the other variants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists are still studying why, but Chin-Hong says one hypothesis is that people infected with the B.1.1.7 variant appear to shed the virus for longer and have more copies of the virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Do vaccines work well against variants?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In short, yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The vaccines are so wildly effective,” Siegel said. “They produce such a strong immune response that the variants that exist now, even the ones that are slightly better at spreading, they all seem to be susceptible to the vaccine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While a handful of variants, particularly the South African variant, appear to be somewhat more resistant, \u003ca href=\"https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-retains-neutralizing-activity-against\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">data suggest\u003c/a> vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. are still effective at preventing serious illness and death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They still seem to be able to keep people out of the ICU,” Siegel said, “still seem to be able to keep people from dying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chin-Hong adds that two vaccines not authorized for use in the U.S., AstraZeneca and Novavax, may be less effective against some variants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Overall, how concerned are health experts about new variants? What can I do to protect myself?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/transmission/variant.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">classifies coronavirus variants\u003c/a> into three categories: Variant of Interest (VOI), Variant of Concern (VOC), and Variant of High Consequence (VOHC). There are currently no VOHC and five VOCs in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The variant that he’s most worried about, Siegel says, “is the variant that we haven’t seen yet.” He says that’s because we’re only now at the point with vaccine and infection rates that an immune resistant variant could emerge from the rest. Scientists call these “escape variants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He adds that with less than half the population vaccinated, there’s still a real risk for unvaccinated people to get the coronavirus unless they continue to protect themselves with masking and social distancing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not only do they have to be just as safe as they were,” he said. “They actually have to be safer because they might encounter a strain that’s more contagious.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With more transmissible variants like B.1.1.7 out there, Chin-Hong said that compared to a year ago, a person in their 30s is more likely to catch the virus from an infected person if you share an elevator. Unless, that is, you’re vaccinated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Silver lining number one is the vaccines will work,” Chin-Hong said. “Silver lining number two is we know what to do even if we don’t have a vaccine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With the finish line so close at hand in terms of if you’re going to get vaccinated in two weeks,” Siegel added, “You don’t want to get infected now.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The three vaccines approved in the U.S. -- Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson -- are all effective against the coronavirus variants. As the virus mutates, it's a race against time to stop the spread of the pandemic.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>If you’ve been following the coronavirus headlines lately, you’ve likely been hearing a lot about new coronavirus variants. As a result, you may be freaking out, experiencing pandemic fatigue or be just plain confused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘The vaccines are so wildly effective, they produce such a strong immune response that the variants that exist now, even the ones that are slightly better at spreading, they all seem to be susceptible to the vaccine.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Doctors have called some coronavirus variants highly concerning — but there are things you can do to protect yourself against infection, like getting the vaccine when you’re eligible and doubling down on your masking and distancing habits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We consulted medical experts Dr. Robert Siegel, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford, and Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at UCSF, as well as CDC guidance, on what you need to know about variants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What is a variant?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Viruses are constantly changing. When a virus hijacks a host cell and replicates, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/health/coronavirus-variant-tracker.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mistakes occur\u003c/a> so that the genetic makeup of the copies isn’t exactly the same as the original. These errors are called mutations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more times that the virus copies itself, the more viruses that are made, the more mistakes that are made,” Siegel said. “Variants are just [viruses with] collections of mutations. So they inevitably arise as long as there’s lots of people that are infected making virus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists can track variants by looking for a distinct set of inherited mutations. In addition to an alphanumeric string, coronavirus variants are often referred to by the part of the world where they were first observed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siegel says the emergence of variants is “basically normal for all viruses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Do variants change the way the virus behaves?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many variants have no effect on the behavior of a virus. But as mutations accumulate, errors can occur in parts of the virus’s genetic material that alter its physical properties and behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These changes may affect where and how strongly a virus binds to host cells, its ability to evade an immune response, how fast it can copy itself or how easy it is for someone to transmit the virus to another person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thus, some variants may persist longer, become more infectious or be more resistant to antibodies or vaccines than others. If you think about it, we’re all familiar with this basic truth about viruses because it’s why the annual flu vaccine is more effective one year and less in another year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like all viruses, those that cause the flu change constantly — in fact, says Siegel, influenza makes far more mistakes when it copies than the coronavirus. The more errors a virus makes, the more mutations and the more variants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each year, scientists around the world \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/vaccine-selection.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">track them\u003c/a> to see which influenza viruses are making people sick, how quickly or widely they’re spreading, and how well the previous year’s vaccine works against them. More than 100 countries participate in this work, tracking thousands of test samples of the virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every February, the WHO gathers representatives from its own and the world’s top labs and national academies and recommends which viruses should be included in the annual flu vaccine. Each country then makes its own final decision. But it’s difficult to predict the spread and timing of flu viruses, so each year’s flu vaccine is more or less effective depending on factors such as what influenza virus shows up and when.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Are coronavirus variants more dangerous than the original virus?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In short, it depends on the variant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siegel says the vast majority of coronavirus variants don’t increase the virus’s ability to spread. Some, like the British \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7003e2.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">B.1.1.7 variant\u003c/a>, have been shown to be more contagious than the original coronavirus. Others, like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.krisp.org.za/publications.php?pubid=316\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South African\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00183-5/fulltext\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brazilian\u003c/a> variants, have mutations that research suggests make them somewhat more resistant to some treatments or vaccines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More transmissible variants, Dr. Siegel says, are potentially of greater concern because of how rapidly they can spread through the population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a virus, he said, “Winning the game is not necessarily making a variant that is more dangerous, it’s just making a variant that can spread more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vaccines used in the U.S. appear to protect against all known coronavirus variants — even more antibody-resistant variants — and the key to ending the pandemic is controlling the spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chin-Hong says the British variant is probably the most troubling of the variants out there. “It seems to be the bulldog of the variants,” he says. “Wherever it goes, it sets up shop and it bullies all the other variants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists are still studying why, but Chin-Hong says one hypothesis is that people infected with the B.1.1.7 variant appear to shed the virus for longer and have more copies of the virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Do vaccines work well against variants?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In short, yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The vaccines are so wildly effective,” Siegel said. “They produce such a strong immune response that the variants that exist now, even the ones that are slightly better at spreading, they all seem to be susceptible to the vaccine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While a handful of variants, particularly the South African variant, appear to be somewhat more resistant, \u003ca href=\"https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-retains-neutralizing-activity-against\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">data suggest\u003c/a> vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. are still effective at preventing serious illness and death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They still seem to be able to keep people out of the ICU,” Siegel said, “still seem to be able to keep people from dying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chin-Hong adds that two vaccines not authorized for use in the U.S., AstraZeneca and Novavax, may be less effective against some variants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Overall, how concerned are health experts about new variants? What can I do to protect myself?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CDC \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/transmission/variant.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">classifies coronavirus variants\u003c/a> into three categories: Variant of Interest (VOI), Variant of Concern (VOC), and Variant of High Consequence (VOHC). There are currently no VOHC and five VOCs in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The variant that he’s most worried about, Siegel says, “is the variant that we haven’t seen yet.” He says that’s because we’re only now at the point with vaccine and infection rates that an immune resistant variant could emerge from the rest. Scientists call these “escape variants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He adds that with less than half the population vaccinated, there’s still a real risk for unvaccinated people to get the coronavirus unless they continue to protect themselves with masking and social distancing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not only do they have to be just as safe as they were,” he said. “They actually have to be safer because they might encounter a strain that’s more contagious.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With more transmissible variants like B.1.1.7 out there, Chin-Hong said that compared to a year ago, a person in their 30s is more likely to catch the virus from an infected person if you share an elevator. Unless, that is, you’re vaccinated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Silver lining number one is the vaccines will work,” Chin-Hong said. “Silver lining number two is we know what to do even if we don’t have a vaccine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>It was a year ago that we suddenly all found ourselves working from home and obsessively washing our hands as the novel coronavirus started to spread in the U.S. and the Bay Area. A lot has changed since then: how we live, work, parent, plan and communicate. The coronavirus is hardly “novel” anymore. It has altered all of our lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[aside postID=news_11855623,news_11864473]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>KQED science reporters \u003cb>Lesley McClurg\u003c/b> and \u003cb>Peter Arcuni\u003c/b>, along with science editor \u003cb>Jon Brooks\u003c/b>, spoke with Morning Edition host Brian Watt about what it was like to cover an unprecedented global pandemic over the past year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The following has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You have been covering COVID-19 since before it was even called that. Can you take us back to those early days before we knew much about the virus?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[aside postID=science_1972824]\u003c/span>\u003cem>Peter Arcuni\u003c/em>:\u003c/i> I remember coming into work last January expecting to do a story about fish ears. But my editor pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey, we need you to roll on a CDC teleconference about an outbreak of this new virus in China.’ And that’s when I learned about it for the first time. At that point, we didn’t even know what to call it. It didn’t have an official name, and what was a coronavirus anyway? As reporters, I think we were all just scrambling to figure out how serious it was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Lesley McClurg:\u003c/i> I think it was the exact same morning that I heard my first news clip about some virus circulating in China. I went back and listened and 17 people had died by that point. I was assigned to go to the San Francisco International Airport and just meet people coming in from a place called Wuhan and asked them, “What is it like in China?” So I raced to the airport. I had no idea even how to say the word Wuhan. I remember being really embarrassed about that. So I’m waiting for people coming in from customs and some are wearing masks and I start talking to them. I remember one woman, she was actually carrying her mask, and she was obviously not very worried about the new “coronavirus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most people were pretty excited to come to San Francisco. It was Lunar New Year. That was the last direct flight to come in from Wuhan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Jon Brooks:\u003c/i> What I remember clearly is talking to the head of our online engagement team in January after the first U.S. cases were reported. She was concerned about this coronavirus thing. I had seen things in the news and we hadn’t really been covering it. And I remember telling her, “Yeah, don’t worry about it.” Worst. Editorial. Guidance. Ever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even after that, we did have a lot of editorial discussion over how much attention to give this. I remember talking to our NPR colleagues about not wanting to overplay this because we didn’t quite know what was happening. We did not want to panic anyone unnecessarily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What is a story you remember doing that really sticks out in your memory?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>LM:\u003c/i> The virus hit home for me in April. I was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1960827/vaping-may-increase-covid-19-risk-even-for-the-young-healthy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">interviewing this young guy\u003c/a> named Colin Finnerty, a 21-year-old who works at a ski resort; he’s a lift operator there. The virus just took him out. This kid spent 10 days in the hospital. He almost didn’t make it. And that’s when I remember thinking, okay, this thing is not the flu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>PA:\u003c/i> In the beginning the virus really was this scary unknown for people. So as reporters, we wanted to start putting a face to it. The first person I got to know who had it was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1958262/whats-it-like-to-be-in-quarantine-with-the-coronavirus-meet-carl-34-days-counting\">a cruise ship passenger\u003c/a> named Carl Goldman who wound up in Nebraska in a biocontainment lockdown facility for a month. Nowadays, he would probably just spend two weeks at home isolating. But what struck me was Carl’s super positive attitude. I remember him talking about doing his 10,000 steps in this tiny room in Nebraska.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I spoke to Carl a few weeks ago, and unfortunately he has some long hauler symptoms. He’s actually been in a wheelchair due to a nerve condition that he and his doctors think could have been exacerbated by COVID-19. But Carl being Carl, he’s kept positive. He even wants to book another cruise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>JB:\u003c/i> I edited one of Lesley’s stories about doctors and nurses who were absolutely exhausted and feeling “betrayed” by people who weren’t following the guidelines. These health care workers were breaking down, witnessing so much death and pain. And they knew it didn’t have to be this way. They knew if people had just followed the guidelines, they wouldn’t be there in the hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other thing I remember is, I was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/coronavirusliveupdates\">live blogging\u003c/a> everything. And then when the news came down that Major League Baseball was shutting down — that of all things hit me — because they played entire seasons during World War II. They did not stop. If they were shutting down Major League Baseball, exactly what were we dealing with here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Things really were moving fast. You could go to the kitchen to get a glass of water and the whole story changed when you got back to your computer. So did covering the coronavirus change how you report your stories?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>LM:\u003c/i> As a science reporter, you really want science to be way down the line in terms of our understanding of something. It has to be vetted by journals and editors and peers. And you don’t put it on the air until we really know that it’s solid, factual science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this point in the coronavirus, we didn’t know anything. And so we’re putting stuff on the air that’s a preprint, stuff that has never been vetted by peer review. You know, can you get the coronavirus from touching a surface? Is it airborne? We didn’t know whether those answers were concrete, and we had to be vetting them on the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think my takeaway is that, as science reporters, we need to do a lot more educating the public about the scientific process so they understand that’s how science works. Because I think they were really confused that we had information that changed over time, and yet that really is science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>JB:\u003c/i> It was not just “news you can use,” it was “news you must use.” You know: Your school won’t be open tomorrow; in fact, don’t even leave your house. What started as a science story, became a public health story, became an everything story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other thing was this was a very hard story to report and keep track of because the health officials sort of kept moving the goal post of what was important to them. Early on they were tracking these metrics that they called “indicators,” including contact tracing ability and protective equipment supply and other stuff. We tried to stay abreast of all that. It was a lot of work. But pretty soon they just ditched the whole thing. They scrapped it and started keeping track of other things that they felt were important. And, you know, I think they were kind of making it up as they went along and we had to go along for the ride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>As the pandemic continued, was there a sense of monotony ever, even though things seem to be changing a lot, did you start feeling like you were kind of saying the same stuff?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>PA:\u003c/i> Absolutely. As much as things were changing, there were other things that were staying the same: Stay 6 feet apart; do your activities outside; wash your hands; wear your mask. I started to feel like there were only so many times I could write that story before the audience would tune out or burnout or get fatigued. For us science reporters, I think one of the big things was sitting down and talking about how we can tell these stories in new, creative ways. So we did FAQs. We made a quiz for people to test how well they were doing in their stay at home bubble. I remember doing a PSA early on with my daughter to show people how to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1960866/why-washing-your-hands-works-so-well-and-how-to-do-it-right\">wash their hands\u003c/a> and why it works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The challenge, and really the hope, was to help the audience, without totally freaking them out or losing them.\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>If another pandemic came around, what is your take away from this one?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>LM:\u003c/i> Well, I certainly wouldn’t run to the airport the next time a virus is circulating. Hopefully we learned some of the basics. I also think I would focus more on the positive. I think journalists are kind of inherently skeptical, kind of picky people. I think we really focused on a lot of the concerns: Do masks work 100 percent? Is this vaccine 100 percent effective? And yet masks, we have learned, work really well, even if they’re not 100 percent effective. And this vaccine is almost 100 percent effective, and I don’t think we really stressed that enough\u003cb>. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>PA:\u003c/i> And in terms of vaccines, you know, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1972824/covid-19-vaccine-your-questions-answered\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">how fast\u003c/a> we got them. A year ago, doctors were telling us it could be two years, maybe a year. We got three vaccines in less than a year, which is just crazy when you think about the decades it can take to develop other vaccines. We still don’t have a vaccine for HIV. So even with all the uncertainty and the snafus with testing and the response on the federal level, there were some real bright spots for science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>JB:\u003c/i> I will certainly remember how rapidly the rug can be pulled out from underneath the entire world. Just like that, things were shut down. But I will also remember the resilience of us, the human race. We’re still here. Take \u003cem>that,\u003c/em> coronavirus. We’re going to beat you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003cem>Peter Arcuni\u003c/em>:\u003c/i> I remember coming into work last January expecting to do a story about fish ears. But my editor pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey, we need you to roll on a CDC teleconference about an outbreak of this new virus in China.’ And that’s when I learned about it for the first time. At that point, we didn’t even know what to call it. It didn’t have an official name, and what was a coronavirus anyway? As reporters, I think we were all just scrambling to figure out how serious it was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Lesley McClurg:\u003c/i> I think it was the exact same morning that I heard my first news clip about some virus circulating in China. I went back and listened and 17 people had died by that point. I was assigned to go to the San Francisco International Airport and just meet people coming in from a place called Wuhan and asked them, “What is it like in China?” So I raced to the airport. I had no idea even how to say the word Wuhan. I remember being really embarrassed about that. So I’m waiting for people coming in from customs and some are wearing masks and I start talking to them. I remember one woman, she was actually carrying her mask, and she was obviously not very worried about the new “coronavirus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most people were pretty excited to come to San Francisco. It was Lunar New Year. That was the last direct flight to come in from Wuhan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Jon Brooks:\u003c/i> What I remember clearly is talking to the head of our online engagement team in January after the first U.S. cases were reported. She was concerned about this coronavirus thing. I had seen things in the news and we hadn’t really been covering it. And I remember telling her, “Yeah, don’t worry about it.” Worst. Editorial. Guidance. Ever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even after that, we did have a lot of editorial discussion over how much attention to give this. I remember talking to our NPR colleagues about not wanting to overplay this because we didn’t quite know what was happening. We did not want to panic anyone unnecessarily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What is a story you remember doing that really sticks out in your memory?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>LM:\u003c/i> The virus hit home for me in April. I was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1960827/vaping-may-increase-covid-19-risk-even-for-the-young-healthy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">interviewing this young guy\u003c/a> named Colin Finnerty, a 21-year-old who works at a ski resort; he’s a lift operator there. The virus just took him out. This kid spent 10 days in the hospital. He almost didn’t make it. And that’s when I remember thinking, okay, this thing is not the flu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>PA:\u003c/i> In the beginning the virus really was this scary unknown for people. So as reporters, we wanted to start putting a face to it. The first person I got to know who had it was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1958262/whats-it-like-to-be-in-quarantine-with-the-coronavirus-meet-carl-34-days-counting\">a cruise ship passenger\u003c/a> named Carl Goldman who wound up in Nebraska in a biocontainment lockdown facility for a month. Nowadays, he would probably just spend two weeks at home isolating. But what struck me was Carl’s super positive attitude. I remember him talking about doing his 10,000 steps in this tiny room in Nebraska.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I spoke to Carl a few weeks ago, and unfortunately he has some long hauler symptoms. He’s actually been in a wheelchair due to a nerve condition that he and his doctors think could have been exacerbated by COVID-19. But Carl being Carl, he’s kept positive. He even wants to book another cruise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>JB:\u003c/i> I edited one of Lesley’s stories about doctors and nurses who were absolutely exhausted and feeling “betrayed” by people who weren’t following the guidelines. These health care workers were breaking down, witnessing so much death and pain. And they knew it didn’t have to be this way. They knew if people had just followed the guidelines, they wouldn’t be there in the hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other thing I remember is, I was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/coronavirusliveupdates\">live blogging\u003c/a> everything. And then when the news came down that Major League Baseball was shutting down — that of all things hit me — because they played entire seasons during World War II. They did not stop. If they were shutting down Major League Baseball, exactly what were we dealing with here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Things really were moving fast. You could go to the kitchen to get a glass of water and the whole story changed when you got back to your computer. So did covering the coronavirus change how you report your stories?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>LM:\u003c/i> As a science reporter, you really want science to be way down the line in terms of our understanding of something. It has to be vetted by journals and editors and peers. And you don’t put it on the air until we really know that it’s solid, factual science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this point in the coronavirus, we didn’t know anything. And so we’re putting stuff on the air that’s a preprint, stuff that has never been vetted by peer review. You know, can you get the coronavirus from touching a surface? Is it airborne? We didn’t know whether those answers were concrete, and we had to be vetting them on the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think my takeaway is that, as science reporters, we need to do a lot more educating the public about the scientific process so they understand that’s how science works. Because I think they were really confused that we had information that changed over time, and yet that really is science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>JB:\u003c/i> It was not just “news you can use,” it was “news you must use.” You know: Your school won’t be open tomorrow; in fact, don’t even leave your house. What started as a science story, became a public health story, became an everything story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other thing was this was a very hard story to report and keep track of because the health officials sort of kept moving the goal post of what was important to them. Early on they were tracking these metrics that they called “indicators,” including contact tracing ability and protective equipment supply and other stuff. We tried to stay abreast of all that. It was a lot of work. But pretty soon they just ditched the whole thing. They scrapped it and started keeping track of other things that they felt were important. And, you know, I think they were kind of making it up as they went along and we had to go along for the ride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>As the pandemic continued, was there a sense of monotony ever, even though things seem to be changing a lot, did you start feeling like you were kind of saying the same stuff?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>PA:\u003c/i> Absolutely. As much as things were changing, there were other things that were staying the same: Stay 6 feet apart; do your activities outside; wash your hands; wear your mask. I started to feel like there were only so many times I could write that story before the audience would tune out or burnout or get fatigued. For us science reporters, I think one of the big things was sitting down and talking about how we can tell these stories in new, creative ways. So we did FAQs. We made a quiz for people to test how well they were doing in their stay at home bubble. I remember doing a PSA early on with my daughter to show people how to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1960866/why-washing-your-hands-works-so-well-and-how-to-do-it-right\">wash their hands\u003c/a> and why it works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The challenge, and really the hope, was to help the audience, without totally freaking them out or losing them.\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>If another pandemic came around, what is your take away from this one?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>LM:\u003c/i> Well, I certainly wouldn’t run to the airport the next time a virus is circulating. Hopefully we learned some of the basics. I also think I would focus more on the positive. I think journalists are kind of inherently skeptical, kind of picky people. I think we really focused on a lot of the concerns: Do masks work 100 percent? Is this vaccine 100 percent effective? And yet masks, we have learned, work really well, even if they’re not 100 percent effective. And this vaccine is almost 100 percent effective, and I don’t think we really stressed that enough\u003cb>. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>PA:\u003c/i> And in terms of vaccines, you know, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1972824/covid-19-vaccine-your-questions-answered\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">how fast\u003c/a> we got them. A year ago, doctors were telling us it could be two years, maybe a year. We got three vaccines in less than a year, which is just crazy when you think about the decades it can take to develop other vaccines. We still don’t have a vaccine for HIV. So even with all the uncertainty and the snafus with testing and the response on the federal level, there were some real bright spots for science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>JB:\u003c/i> I will certainly remember how rapidly the rug can be pulled out from underneath the entire world. Just like that, things were shut down. But I will also remember the resilience of us, the human race. We’re still here. Take \u003cem>that,\u003c/em> coronavirus. We’re going to beat you.\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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"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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"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": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
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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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"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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"perspectives": {
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"planet-money": {
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
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"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"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",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
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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.",
"airtime": "SUN 12am-1am, SAT 2pm-3pm",
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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.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/reveal300px.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/reveal",
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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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"source": "kqed",
"order": 16
},
"link": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
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