Wednesday, March 24, 2021

CoViD-19: US Cases Increasing, San Diego Surpasses 3,500 Deaths | Jen & Dustin Share Vaccine Story | Ward Supports AB122, Idaho Stop | Photos: San Diego Zoo Safari Park |

 

Tank Puppy Rhino M'wezi (Born Aug 2020) at San Diego Zoo Safari Park (Taken 3.24.21)

I was thinking about how many times people say we should meet up at the San Diego Zoo or Safari Park and I was thinking about what a miserable experience that would be. I watched the gorillas for like 20 minutes today, then stopped at the Turaco to make him do his silly bird call, then after walking the full lagoon, spent a ton of time with the lions who came right up to me at the glass to do their daily chuffing, watching rhinos Holly and Mwezi, and then Darren and I sat in our little spot to watch the elephants until after the park closed. (Security generally gives 30 minutes or so before more aggressively nudging people out.) I took 460 pictures today. Darren patiently finds a bench and brings a book. I also have a philosophy that Zoos are more like museums than amusement parks, so we speak in hushed tones if we even talk at all. So yeah, you probably don't want to go to either park with me. I'm not fun. 

Going there kinda kicked my butt though, so I'm gonna call it a night. I'll get to the rest of my email tomorrow, I guess. Today Nathan Fletcher laid out three paths for San Diego to move to the orange tier, so that's worth understanding, and the COVID response team talked about the spread of variants and concerns that case rates are rising again across the country as people become more mobile and things continue reopening. I also included a letter I got from Chris Ward after asking him to support the "Idaho Stop" for bicycles, and a link to a sweet story about my pals Jen & Dustin's vaccination story as first-time parents. Catch ya tomorrow. Keep staying diligent and keep safe out there. 


  • COVID-19: 
  • White House:
    • Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Cecilia Rouse, and Member of the Council of Economic Advisers Heather Boushey, March 24, 2021
    • A Proclamation on National Equal Pay Day, 2021
    • Press Briefing by White House COVID-19 Response Team and Public Health Officials
      • Vaccines:
        • 27 million vaccines will be distributed next week
        • 2/3 of those will go to states. 1/3 will go to pharmacy channels.
        • Tripled output of vaccines since January
      • $81B from ARP will be distributed to schools this spring
      • US Cases seeing an uptick. ~55k new cases/day (~3% increase)
  • Politics:
  • Other Reading:
  • Global COVID-19 Stats (JHU 3.24.21 10:27pm):
    • 124,774,967 Known Cases
    • 2,743,475 Known Deaths
  • US COVID-19 Stats 
    • CDC COVID-19 Vaccination Data Tracker
    • JHU
      • 30,009,773 Cases
      • 545,237 Deaths
    • CDC Data Tracker:
      • 29,769,325 Known Cases 
      • 541,289 Known Deaths
      • 169,223,125 Doses Delivered
      • 130,473,853 Doses Administered
        • Moderna  
          • 80,649,000 delivered/61,719,260 administered
        • Pfizer
          • 83,829,525 delivered/65,995,871 administered
        • Janssen 
          • 4,744,600 delivered/2,622,182 administered
  • California COVID-19 Stats:
    • State of California Safe Schools For All Hub
    • Vaccination progress dashboard
    • Aggregate California ICU Bed Availability: 30%
    • R-effective: 0.80
    • 19,809,080 Doses Delivered
    • 15,537,745 Doses Administered
    • 1,955 New Cases/3,551,056 Total Cases (5.1 new cases/100k)
    • 254 New Deaths/56,850 Total Deaths (0.04 new deaths/100k)
    • 1.9% 7-day test positivity rate
    • 2,987 COVID-19 Hospitalizations (-18 patients, -0.6% from prior day)
    • 676 COVID-19 ICU hospitalized in CA (-27 patients, -4.0% from prior day)
    • 2,223 ICU beds available (-131 from prior day)
  • San Diego County Media Briefing:
    • 27 County Vaccines Sites can do 35k shots per day. Current supply only allows for 12k at this time. 
    • Expanding stations to prepare for more vaccine and to make access more equitable. 
    • Sharp is now handling homebound seniors. Can only do 25-30 shots per day. CalFire is helping in rural areas. UCSD may come online to help. 
    • 100% SNF have had 2nd doses, 94% long-term care facilities have had 2nd doses.
    • Three Paths to move from Red Tier to Orange Tier. All involve controlling our case rate:
      • Case rate under 4 cases/100k for two consecutive weeks
      • Once state administers 4 million vaccines in healthy place index top quartile, Orange tier moves from 4 cases/100k to under 6 cases/100k. State is currently at 2.9 million in that quartile. San Diego would need to keep case rate around where it is now (5.5) or better for two weeks to move to Orange once that 4 million threshold is met. 
      • Two consecutive weeks of Healthy Equity Positivity and Test Positivity to both fall in Yellow Tier for two consecutive weeks. 
    • Two cases of P1 variants have been found in San Diego. 1 San Diego resident, 1 non-County resident. 
    • Questions:
      • P1 (Brazilian) variant is a Variant of Concern. Believed to have easier transmission. Possible that some vaccines may be less effective or escape neutralizing antibodies, which would allow for infection or reinfection. 
        • Neither were vaccinated
        • Neither were hospitalized
        • Both have recovered
        • Resident had no travel history which means there are community cases. Detected through CDC's whole genome sequencing program. Had about half dozen close contacts. 
        • Non-resident had traveled internationally. Detected through local genome sequencing program. No local contacts, but airline, other possible contacts were notified. 
      • State still has a travel advisory which discourages non-essential travel more than 120 miles and encourages at 10 day quarantine if one travels to another state or country. 
      • Blue Shield distribution hasn't changed or affected vaccine distribution. 
      • When state hits 4 million HPI doses, assessment of tiers would look retroactively to case rate. Would have to be two consecutive weeks. Other caveat is counties must be in current tier for three weeks. April 8th would be earliest possible date, but if cases increase, we could have to 'reset' the clock. 
  • San Diego County 
  • Assemblyman Chris Ward Supports AB122:
    Dear Ms. Bystrak,

    Thank you for correspondence expressing your support for Assembly Bill (AB) 122 authored by Assemblymember Boehner Horvath, relating to vehicles.

    Current law requires the driver of any vehicle, including a person riding a bicycle, when approaching a stop sign at the entrance of an intersection, to stop before entering the intersection. AB 122 would instead permit a person riding a bicycle approaching a stop sign to yield the right-of-way to any vehicles that have stopped at the entrance of the intersection, have entered the intersection, or are approaching the intersection, and to continue to yield the right-of-way until it is reasonable to proceed.

    The measure passed out of the Assembly Committee on Transportation, with my support, on a 10-4 vote and is currently in the Assembly Committee on Appropriations waiting to be heard.

    One of the impediments to increased bicycle use is traffic safety.  Traffic collisions killed 455 cyclists in California between 2016 and 2018, the highest rate in any three-year period since the mid-1990s.  Other states have already learned that when cyclists are allowed to yield at stop signs, they choose safer streets and will spend less time in dangerous intersections.  Cyclists in other states are safer as a result of yielding at stops and it is for this reason that I supported AB 122 when it came before me for a vote.

    Again, thank you for contacting me about your support for AB 122. 
San Diego Zoo Safari Park (Posted as taken 3.24.21)



































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