Wednesday, February 17, 2021

CoViD-19: Winter Storm Uri Delays Nationwide Vaccine Deliveries | California Rolls Out 'MyTurn' Statewide; Immediate Relief Agreement with Legislature | SF Ferris Wheel Wants 4 Year Extension |

 

(Taken 2.5.2021)

What a dumb day. Last night I came across a story about the so-called Observation Wheel at Golden Gate Park. Like the one proposed at Balboa Park, it was supposed to be temporary. Once it was fully installed, however, California went into stay-at-home orders and eventually only opened for about 5 weeks around October/November before the holiday surge and reinstatement of the stay-at-home order. So instead of asking for an extension of their "Certificate of Appropriateness" which is like, does this stupid fucking monster thing belong in a public park, for say, 6-9 months to earn back their losses, they're trying to extend this thing for four years, while still calling it temporary so they never have to go through CEQA or the EIR process. It's so gross. Spoiler alert: after three hours of calls and discussion, they continued the item to their next meeting on March 3rd. Meanwhile, the SF Recreation and Parks department will likely take all the same pleas and calls on Thursday while they determine whether the permit should be extended to 2025. I don't generally pay attention to Bay Area politics, but this very much could've been our same stupid predicament with the proposed Sky Wheel in Balboa Park. Thankfully that has been tabled, but I hope they never resurrect this misuse of Balboa Park lands. I don't plan on watching their future meetings because it was a total time suck, but I'll definitely follow the plight and the media spin that people who don't want it are somehow NIMBY or 'fun killers'. 

Nothing else really to report. The construction kicked back up today and was like sitting through a 5 hour series of earthquakes from 3-5 on the Richter Scale. It is a really good think Nova is staying with my mom. I also watched the State and County briefings and for fun we're watching Jen Psaki's briefing on YouTube because at this point we can predict how she's going to answer the same idiotic questions. ("I'm not here to negotiate that from this podium." or "We believe this IS a bipartisan bill as polls show as many as 80% of the American people want this relief and they want it now.") But I can hear Darren clinking around the kitchen letting me know it is time for cocktails, so I'll bid adieu until tomorrow. Stay safe out there. 

 

  • COVID-19:
  • Politics:
  • News:
  • Other Reading/Writing:
    • Dodged this bullet in San Diego, at least for now! 'It's total NIMBYism': Feud erupts over the future of Golden Gate Park's Ferris wheel - SF Gate (2.16.2021)
      • 2/3 of written comments were in opposition
      • "It's fun!" was the most commented in favor of keeping the wheel
      • Supporters also cite support of suffering small businesses
      • Opponents express environmental concerns, noise and light pollution, no EIR or CEQA for the temporary installation, Sierra Club in strong opposition
      • Shouldn't be in Golden Gate Park, this commission is not tasked with economic recovery, but with the appropriateness of this installation in this park. Believes it should be somewhere else. Creeping with permanence. Original approval was 1 year, no extension. Why 4 year extension when revenue could be recovered in 8 months at 25%. Doesn't believe opposition is just a 'vocal minority' Prefers a continuance over an extension. Should be focused on historic landscape of music concourse and Golden Gate Park, Environmental concerns and economic concerns are not in this commission's purview. - Commissioner Jonathan Pearlman
      • Needs new generator, better fencing, can't be done in 6-12 month timeline. Consistent with use based on 1894 Midsummer Faire -Commissioner Lydia So
      • Vendor is demanding "certainty" before making investments on generators/fencing, etc. 
      • 3 County Supervisors are in favor of only a 6 month extension but no more than 12 months
      • Commissioner Aaron Hyland proposes just a 6 week extension so they can get a better plan for lighting, generator and reevaluate.
      • This is only judging on the Certificate of Appropriateness. Park and Rec is concerned with operations and economics. 
      • Vendor Phil Ginsburg is trying to justify the 4 year extension. 
      • Motion to continue until March 17 hearing. Seconded. Revised to March 3rd meeting. Shouldn't vote on a temporary C of A because it gets murky. Not that they won't get the extension, but the length of CofA needs to be revisited.
    • Rock N Roll Marathon, originally scheduled for June 5-6, 2021 is postponed/canceled. Organizers are hoping to be able to postpone to Fall 2021.
  • Global COVID-19 Stats (JHU 2/17/2021 7:23pm):
    • 109,885,555 Known Cases
    • 2,429,669 Known Deaths
  • US COVID-19 Stats 
    • CDC COVID-19 Vaccination Data Tracker
    • (JHU)
      • 27,824,650 Cases
      • 490,447 Deaths
    • (COVID Tracking Project):
      • 66,089 New Cases/27,606,974 Known Cases (2%+ Change over 7 Days)
      • 2,336 New Deaths/480,595 Known Deaths
      • 63,398 Current COVID-19 Hospitalizations
      • 13,103 Currently COVID-19 patients in ICU
      • 4,271 COVID-19 patients currently on ventilator
  • State of California Media Briefing From Coachella:
    • Expanding housing to harvest $24million
    • ~193k daily vaccines
    • Vaccinations
      • 6.3 million doses have been given in arms
      • 1,080,000 last week 
      • 1,280,000 this week 
      • 1,320,000 doses next week
    • Equity lens didn't appear balanced among health care workers, but next round will be representative of greater statewide demographics.
    • MyTurn is out of pilot and available statewide. 
    • Media Questions:
      • Vaccinations are available regardless of immigration status. There is no cost to. 
      • Gavin Newsom has give yet another explanation of tiers. Domestic workers are not in the first two tiers nor 1C. 
      • ICE facilities are under federal jurisdiction for vaccines 
      • CDCR ~1,000 cases/detained. Those staff and vulnerable populations have been included in early tiers. 
      • Blue Shield was chosen to move expeditiously and because they're doing it at no profit. Thus no reason for a bid. They have a huge network and can provide transparency, data collection, etc. 
      • Golden State Stimulus will be forthcoming with legislature. Also small business grants, Housing to Harvest, etc. This will be a joint statement. 
      • Dodged a fracking question because he hasn't read new senator's legislation introduced this morning.    
  • California COVID-19 Stats:
    • State of California Safe Schools For All Hub
    • Vaccination progress dashboard
    • Vaccination Tiers
    • Aggregate California ICU Bed Availability: 17.2%
    • R-effective: 0.65 
    • 4,090 New Cases/3,416,147 Total Cases (0.1% increase)
    • 30 Days Ago: 11.3% Positivity. Today 3.3% Positivity
    • 30 days Ago: 42,000 cases. Today ~4,000 cases. 
    • 400 New Deaths/47,507 Total Deaths (0.8% increase)
    • 4.1% 14-day test positivity rate
    • 8,855 COVID-19 Hospitalizations (-240 patients, -2.7% from prior day)
      • 38% 14-day reduction in hospitalizations
    • 2,533 COVID-19 ICU hospitalized in CA (-71 patients, -2.8% from prior day)
      • 33% 14-day reduction in ICU admissions
    • 1,643 ICU beds available (+14 from prior day)
  • San Diego County Media Briefing
    • Pfizer and Moderna come from Michigan and Massachusetts, so weather delays may force local vaccination sites to pause as early as Thursday.
    • 663,000 vaccines administered
    • Network of 5 Superstations and 15 PODs
    • High degree of confidence that vaccines can open to Tier 1C by March 1st
    • SAVE will focus on equity and will have dedicated blocks of appointments for the most vulnerable communities
    • Access to Black, Hispanic, and Filipina Nursing Associations to get them vaccinated
    • 1,174 long term care facilities have been vaccinated. 173 are scheduled. All SNFs will have vaccines finished by the end of the week. 
    • 2/1-2/16 13,577 calls to 2-1-1 90% with an average 1minute 31 second wait time. As of Tuesday, only an 18 second wait time. 
    • Cox and SDG&E will be including vaccination information in bill inserts
    • Media Questions:
      • Perceived unevenness of distribution, i.e. why do some sites shut down when others have available appointments is because of the two different vaccines. Each site will only do one vaccine. They're shipped separately.
      • Everyone has the same goal; to get vaccines in arms as fast as possible. Don't know what will happen when Blue Shield enters the fold, but don't expect problems. 
      • Documentation of disability will be necessary for subsequent tiers. 
      • It is believed that someone who has been vaccinated may still transmit the virus even if they remain asymptomatic
      • San Diego had 1st case of someone who got COVID after getting full vaccine and showed moderate symptoms after exposure. Their test is being sequenced to get further information. 
      • Over 200k Americans live in Baja California who are eligible for vaccinations. Conversations continue with Mexico and specifically Tijuana, where they are not vaccinating at the level we are. 
      • County isn't in any peril of going beyond the 6 week window of vaccinations. Anticipate next week things will get back to normal. 
      • Johnson & Johnson will be up for review on February 26.
      • All federally qualified health clinics are in network for vaccinations. 
      • Protocols for health care workers to verify eligibility, but of course there will be circumstances where people cut the line or weren't actually eligibility
      • Padres Superstation will have to close and relocate by early April. 
      • Asking people to get 2nd vaccine at the same place as 1st vaccine because they'll be familiar, they'll be sure to get same vaccine, and distribution accounts for the expected 2nd doses at each site.
  • San Diego County 
    • Free Testing Sites and Schedule in San Diego
    • VaccinationSuperstationSD
    • Vaccination Dashboard
    • State Data:
      • Southern California ICU Bed Availability: 14.8%
      • R-effective: 0.77
      • 698 New Cases/253,638 Total Cases
      • 5 Deaths/3,042 Total Deaths
      • 25.9 cases/100k population (Assessed on 2/16. Unadjusted Case Rate)
      • 6.4% Test Positivity (Assessed on 2/16)
      • 9.7% Health Equity Positivity (Assessed on 2/16)
      • 821 COVID-19 hospitalized patients (+2 patients, 0.2% from prior day)
      • 255 COVID-19 ICU hospitalized patients (-14 patients, -5.2% from prior day)
      • 217 ICU beds available (+25 from prior day)
    • County Data:
      • San Diego County Update - County News Center 
      • County Reserves COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments for Project SAVE
      • County of San Diego Influenza Watch, 2/17/2021 (686 Cases)
      • 539 New Cases/254,180 Total Cases 
      • 57 New Daily Deaths/3,099 Total Deaths
      • 765,500 Doses Shipped/663,194 Doses Administered
      • 4% Daily Test Positivity/5.7% (7-day avg after 7-day lag)/5.5% Test Positivity (14-day average)
      • 22.2 cases/100k population (Assessed on 2/16. Adjusted case rate per 100,000 excluding prisons.) 
      • 94% Case Investigation 
      • -6.4% Day Over Day COVID-19 Hospitalizations (770 patients. -54% over 30 days)
      • 26% ICU Capacity (250 patients. -39% over 30 days)
      • 4 New/44 Community Outbreaks (7-day)
        • Business 24
        • Retail 1
        • Restaurant 1
        • Grocery 1
        • Faith-based Setting 2
        • Government 2
        • Healthcare 2
        • Emergency Services 1
        • Food/Bev Processing 1
        • tk-12 school 3
        • Warehouse/Distribution 3
        • Hotel/Resort/Spa 1
        • Comm-Based Org 1
        • Social Club 1

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