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CDC Relaxes Mask Guidelines for 63% of Counties: Vaccine Mandate Proposed for All Workers, By Jondi Gumz
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CDC Relaxes Mask Guidelines for 63% of Counties
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By Jondi Gumz
Vaccine Mandate Proposed for All Workers
Asign the Covid-19 pandemic is easing: On Friday, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed mask guidelines for 63% of counties.
Based on new cases and hospital admissions, Santa Cruz County rates medium, yellow on the map, so new guidelines apply. The CDC said people with symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID-19 should wear a mask. The recommendation for those at high risk for severe illness is to talk to your healthcare provider about whether you need to wear a mask and take other precautions.
Counties with a high level of Covid-19 (such as Monterey County) are red on the map and everyone is expected to wear a mask indoors. A sizeable number of counties (such as San Mateo County) have a low number of cases and are colored green, no restrictions.
In the past two weeks, three Santa Cruz County residents with significant underlying conditions died of Covid-19, bringing the death toll over two years to 252.
Underlying conditions were a factor in all 13 of the most recent deaths during the peak of the highly contagious and thoughtto-be-mild Omicron variant. Eleven of the people who died were 75 or older.
Meanwhile, the number of active cases has plummeted – from more than 10,000 at the peak in January to 2,473 as of Feb. 24 – and a bankruptcy judge approved the sale of Watsonville Community Hospital to the Pajaro Valley Health Care District Project.
Statewide hospitalizations, which had exceeded 15,000 at the peak, have dropped below 5,000, and the test positivity rate, which was 23% in January, has fallen to 4%.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 13 blocked the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration mandate that employers with 100 or more workers vaccinate or test, saying the agency did not have the right, California lawmakers have introduced various bills to address Covid-19.
The Supreme Court allowed a federal vaccine mandate for health care workers and of course employers can mandate vaccines or tests for their employees if they feel it’s needed.
On the table in California: AB 1993 Assembly Member Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) to mandate vaccines for all employees and independent contractors — and require employers to verify their workers are immunized. It may be heard in committee March 13. Co-authors include Assembly Member Mark Stone (D-Scotts Valley) and Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento).
Senate Bill 1479, proposed by Pan, to mandate Covid testing plans and require the California Department of Public Health to help school districts develop them.
Senate Bill 871, proposed by Pan, to end a personal belief exemption in the state’s student vaccine mandate.
Senate Bill 866, proposed by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, to allow children 12 and older to get COVID vaccines without parental consent.
Track these bills at https://leginfo. legislature.ca.gov
Hospital Sale Approved
On Feb. 22, Judge Mary Elaine Hammond approved the sale of the Watsonville Community Hospital operation – which has 620 employees -- to the Pajaro Valley Healthcare District Project, a local consortium that was the sole bidder.
Fundraising has generated $20 million, and leaders such as Mimi Hall, formerly the county’s Health Services director, hopes to gain state funding, which could happen in light of a $20 billion budget surplus.
To donate to the consortium, see https://www.pvhdp.org/
Watsonville Community Hospital has been sharing the local Covid patient load with Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz.
School Mask Mandate
On Feb. 16, Santa Cruz County and Bay Area counties followed Gov. Gavin Newsom in lifting the indoor mask mandate in response to declining hospitalizations and test positivity.
The state still requires masks at schools – attendees at high school basketball playoffs must be masked -- but will reassess data Feb. 28.
Parent Rob Ellison was outraged by photos of Gov. Newsom, without a mask, with sports celebrity Magic Johnson, without a mask, taken at a sold-out, 80,000-fan Los Angeles Rams game and posted on Johnson’s Instagram page.
His concern: Kids in masks with speech delays, reading delays, depression and anxiety – and the double standard for Newsom, according to the full-page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle. For information, email outragedparentsbayarea@gmail.com.
Ellison created a GoFundMe campaign to spread the word and 300+ donors gave more than $15,000.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revoked that Emergencies Act nine days after police broke up a encampment of protesters in the nation’s capital seeking an end to Covid restrictions.
Myocarditis
In Japan, the number of case reports of myocarditis following COVID-19 vaccination have recently increased, according to a case study published in January 2022.
Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart, which can lead to clots, a stroke or heart attack.
The Japanese government amended the label for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna to add myocarditis to their list of significant “adverse drug reactions.”
Young Kids, No Approval
Parents anxious to have shots for their younger children (six months to 4 years) must wait for Pfizer and BioNTech to gather more data on whether a third dose produces the desired result. That may be in early April.
When Pfizer began applying for emergency use authorization for young children, the application was for two doses, not three. According to U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the goal was to see if two doses would provide enough protection.
In January, Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House chief medical adviser, said younger children will likely need three doses because two shots did not induce an adequate immune response in 2- to 4-year-olds in Pfizer’s clinical trials.
Mary Holland, president and general counsel of Children’s Health Defense, contends there is no COVID emergency for children under 5 years old.
Children have a 99.995% recovery rate, and a body of medical literature indicates that “almost zero” healthy children under 5 have died from COVID, according to Holland. She cited these studies: • Germany: Zero deaths for children under 5. • England and Wales: Throughout 2020 and 2021, only one child under 5 without comorbidities died from
COVID . A comorbidity means one or more diseases is present along with the primary infection.
Vaccination
Public health officials consider vaccinations to be the number one tool to prevent hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19.
According to County Public Health, and the most recent three deaths were unvaccinated along with being older and having underlying conditions. (The county website now lists vaccination status as “yes” or “no.”)
The most COVID fatalities in the county occurred in January 2021, when vaccines were not available and 22 people died in one week, according to the county Covid-19 dashboard.
California reports 83% of residents age 5 and up have had at least one shot.
On the CDC Covid tracker, Santa Cruz County reports 92.7% of residents age 12 and up have at least one shot and 84.6% fully vaccinated, numbers little changed fromtwo weeks ago.
Fully vaccinated means having two shots (Pfizer or Moderna) or one Johnson & Johnson shot. All were developed for the initial Covid-19 coronavirus.
For Omicron, a booster shot is needed. Booster shots are 90 percent effective against preventing Omicron hospitalizations, according to the federal Centers of Disease Control.
