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| My sister's puppy, Roxy (Taken 12.25.2020) |
We did it. I finally gave in an bundled Disney+ into my Hulu account so that we could watch Soul. Darren has always been a fan of jazz, but recently discovered a trove of Thelonious Monk performances that were previously unavailable, so he's been watching and rediscovering old favorites incessantly the last couple months. We've also made Nova a fan of A Late Show with Stephen Colbert and band leader Jon Baptiste, so it was a no-brainer that we were going to watch the movie before we were filled with spoilers. So all I'll say is that we enjoyed it. This means I can finally see Hamilton, as I'm probably the last American who's never seen it, but don't expect me to watch any of the universes because I'm not interested.
For today, however, it's all media briefings. I watched the World Health Organization's presser and marked a couple links I think everyone should watch. Then, since I was already up early, I watched New York Governor Cuomo's briefing and then New Jersey's, caught the local news, and then watched Governor Newsom. I was a little disappointed he didn't address EDD and why it's been mostly down all day, he seemed pretty resigned today with the 'sobering' numbers. And I can't blame him. You can only shout at the abyss so many times, and it's clear that places like Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino and other super right wing trumpy areas are just going to keep defying the state orders without any enforcement. It's gross. Especially because it's mostly wealthier white people who think everything should open at the risk of the BIPOC service workers who are the ones getting sick and dying with higher frequency. Last night I was looking at this link that was on my COVID-19 resource page called Covid ActNow and that's probably why I've been up since 3am.
Anyway, some of the numbers for the day haven't come in, namely the US numbers from The Tracking Project and the San Diego County Numbers, so I'll do another post later tonight. If you're on EDD and awaiting news, just hold tight...I'm sure we'll know more by the end of the day.
- California Media Briefing with Governor Newsom & Secretary Ghaly
- New Phase based on travel "surge on top of surge on top of surge"
- Stay-at-home were set for at least 3 weeks, with today as expiration
- 4-week ICU projections to be announced Tuesday, 12/29
- It is clear and likely that the order will be extended with ICU projections
- Southern California Hospitals
- LA had 12k-15k cases per day the last few weeks
- Over weekend 96% of LA hospitals were on diversion (33% pre-surge)
- On average, an LA County hospital spend 16 hours on diversion on Sat
- Routine ER Care being slowed
- Staffing:
- State sending team to LA with reps from EMSA, CDPH, OES
- encouraging 'load leveling'
- leveraging all options in 'contingency care'
- 1,028 staff in 116 facilities statewide
- 86 approved staffing waivers (for 3:1 nurse to patient ratio)
- Feds approved DMAT and DOD teams
- 5 alternate care sites throughout state
- California COVID-19 Data:
- Aggregate California ICU Bed Availability: 0.0%
- 33,170 New Cases/2,155,976 Total Cases (1.6% increase)/37,661 7-day avg
- 64 New Deaths/24,284 Total Deaths (0.3% increase)/230 7-day avg
- 3,238 deaths 14-day change
- 12.5% 14-day test positivity rate/
- 20,642 COVID-19 Hospitalizations (+583 patients, +2.8% from prior day, 38% 14-day increase)
- 4,360 COVID-19 ICU hospitalized in CA (+146 patients, +3.3% from prior day, 37% 14-day increase)
- 1,385 ICU beds available (-90 from prior day)
- 67% increase in daily test average from Nov to Dec
- Southern California most impacted: LA, Riverside, San Bernardino
- Vaccinations:
- CVS (499 facilities) & Walgreens (357 facilities) partnerships to vaccinate
- Part A: Skilled Nursing Facilities
- Part B: Assited living, residential care, & other long-term care
- Community Vaccine Advisory Committee met for Phase 1B and 1C
- Phase 1B Tier One
- 75+
- Workers in education and childcare, emergency services, food & agriculture (farm workers, grocery workers)
- Phase 1B Tier Two
- 65+ with underlying health condition and/or disability
- Workers in transportation and logistics; undstrial, residential, and commercial sectors, critical manufacturing, incarcerated individuals, the homeless/unhoused
- Phase 1C Under Consideration/in Wednesday's meeting
- 16-64 with underlying medical conditions and/or disability
- Workers in water & waste management, defense, energy, chemical & hazardous, communication & IT, financial services, government ops/community service
- Moderna 904,900: 672,600 received/232,300 coming this week
- Pfizer 858,000: 327,600+233,025/297,375 coming this week
- Total 1.76million doses anticipated by end of this week/month
- 261,672 vaccines administrated as of 12/26
- FEDERAL COVID-19 RELIEF
- $600 to qualifying individuals
- $600 per child
- $300 additional unemployment enhancement
- SNAP increase by 15% for 6 months
- $25b rental assistance
- Expands pandemic-EBT program
- Extends PUA to March 14
- Reopens PPP for small biz
- Extends refundable payroll tax credits for paid sick & family leave through March 21
- MEDIA QUESTIONS:
- Enforcement: state will withhold discretionary monies from Counties willfully creating resolutions; OSHA enforcements; ABC issuing fines throughout state of CA, Board of Cosmetology, Also local enforcement. Sheriffs, Counties, and public are generally in compliance.
- California State Association of Counties has developed guidelines with regard to discretionary funds and will withhold if necessary. Good behavior will save lives. What more evidence do counties like Riverside need with all the cases and deaths?
- California has plenty of resources that will come from Relief Bill even if they're not spelled out as such. Supports are not insignificant, and will be spelled out in January budget. Particularly relief from schools, child care, rental relief, SNAP relief...all relieve burden by state. Disappointed there's no discretionary funds, the specific earmarks will make a difference.
- State has been planning on expanding hospitals within existing rooms and footprint, as well as alternative care sites for months. Physical space is less of an issue than staffing.
- Secretary Ghaly:
- Travel is and has been a concern. Increase slope is less sharp now but will have to see as Christmas and NYE cases set in.
- Stay local, stay at home for NYE. Things that were lower risk are now
- Less worried about space...while it's true some hospitals are using every inch...but staffing is the challenge across impacted regions
- Expecting several "traveling nurses" on January 4th to be distributed across the state and also alternative sites
- Incarcerations/CDCR Facilities
- 9,421 current cases among inmates with 99 in hospitals
- Total incarcerated: 100k
- Reduced population by over 21k since march
- Rolling releases for non-violent arrested inmates with < 6mos on sentence (non/non/nons - non-violent, non-DV, non-sex offense)
- More testing, mask mandate, outbreaks require N-95, medically high-risk individuals, isolation & quarantine spaces at all facilities, staggered dining and rec schedules, video visits
- Vaccine enforcement of distributions is being developed and will be issued transparently across state, will not allow people to jump the line.
- Final message: it's gonna get worse before it gets better. Trends have come down but not enough. Need people to take this seriously and follow the stay-at-home orders.
- COVID-19:
- Why The World Is Seeing Some Of Its Most Extreme Pandemic Lockdowns - NPR (12.27.2020)
- Governor Cuomo Media Briefing:
- Weekend numbers, especially positivity rate increases, are likely because there was less testing and people who chose to be tested were known exposures or showing symptoms, but it will continued to be studied.
- Addressing fraud: vaccines are a valuable commodity, there will be increasing fraud, NY state police believes multiple felonies committed and will send to Attorney General. Cuomo will sign an Executive Order: Anyone who engages in fraud, fined up to $1million and will revoke all state licenses for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc.
- NY extending eviction moratorium through 5/1 via Executive Order.
- EO withholding pay increases for all commissioners and statewide elected officials.
- Working on a pilot plan between The Bills and NY Dept of Health. "Can't keep economy closed until critical mass of vaccine distribution...looking at 6, 9, 12 months."
- The WHO Final Presser of 2020 was kind of emotional today. I don't watch these regularly, but I suggest listening to the remarks I've linked:
- Dr Mike Ryan: We're learning how to do everything better, but this was not the big one. This is highly transmissible and deadly, but we could see worse and we have to be ready for the future. Virus will remain endemic into the future.
- Dr. Bruce Aylward: "We're still not fully prepared for this (pandemic), let alone the next one."
- Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus "If the world walks together, there is a solution...so I am hopeful."
- I've talked and posted about this a lot...over the course of the pandemic we learned that Sars-CoV-2 isn't likely to be transmitted via fomites, but rather through droplets and aerosols, but this is a good refresher on that. Still Disinfecting Surfaces? It Might Not Be Worth It - NPR (12.28.2020)
- Politics/News:
- I went to bed feeling pretty good that the pandemic relief package was finally signed. And then I went on Twitter. There are so many questions now. There are people saying that because of the expiration of benefits on Saturday, that people receiving UI, PUA, Fed-Ed, or PUAC, will miss a week of benefits. The governor of NJ says that there will be a gap but it is likely to be retroactive when it is distributed. There is other speculation (particularly in other states) that the delay will mean people will have to reapply for benefits, which may also mean they have to use their income from 2020, and if that was mostly UI, PUA, PUAC, and Fed-Ed, the income will likely be lower than the income the benefit was based on in the first place, so payment awards could go down. I am hoping that all of this gets more clear over the next few days, if not hours, and while I realize this is a national issue, my concern, selfishly, is just what California has to say about all of it, knowing that the CA-EDD system was under immense scrutiny for backlogs, fraud, and asking for people to return money for overpayment. As it is, I've been out of work since March (with a short rehire in May for which I got one week of income but lost two weeks of benefits plus those $600 bonus weeks because of it) and just got an email that EDD can't verify my identity. WHAT? 9 months later? I try to give the benefit of the doubt to bureaucratic systems and the massive amounts of moving parts and chaos that this pandemic has wrought, but I certainly understand people's frustrations with these social safety nets.
- Meanwhile, Stimulus 2: Trump Demands Congress Remove ‘Wasteful Items’ After Redlining Bill - Heavy (12.28.2020)
- Here's the statement acquired by CNN's Jim Acosta (12.27.2020)
- Can he do that? Rescissions, How Do They Work? - CRFB (5.3.18)
- A divided nation asks: What’s holding our country together? - AP News (12.28.2020)
- San Diego County News and Data:
- State Data:
- Southern California ICU Bed Availability: 0.0%
- 3,133 New Cases/145,777 Total Cases (+2.2% from prior day)
- 0 Deaths/1,402 Total Deaths
- 67.1 cases/100k population (Based on week ending 12/15, Assessed on 12/22. Unadjusted Case Rate)
- 10.9% Test Positivity (Assessed on 12/22)
- 17.2% Health Equity Positivity (Assessed on 12/22)
- 1,526 COVID-19 hospitalized patients (+45 patients, +3.0% from prior day)
- 398 COVID-19 ICU hospitalized patients (+1 patients, +0.3% from prior day)
- 175 ICU beds available (+4 from prior day)
- Universities:
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