Learn & Serve: Join the Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury, By Judge Syda K. Cogliati • New Look at Willowbrook Park for Gutzwiller Memorial

COMMUNITY NEWS Learn & Serve

Join the Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury

By Judge Syda K. Cogliati

Are you interested in learning more about how our local government works? Are you interested in helping improve our local government?

Do you enjoy working in a collaborative setting with other community members? If you answered yes to these questions, you should consider applying to serve on the 2022-2023 Civil Grand Jury.

The Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury is a 19-member body responsible for investigating and reporting on local government performance.

Service on the Civil Grand Jury is for a one-year term, with an expected time contribution of about 20 hours per week.

Prior members of the Civil Grand Jury have described the pride and satisfaction they experienced in working together to closely examine local government functions, write reports on their findings, and make recommendations that have improved our community.

Our Civil Grand Juries have accomplished incredibly important work. The 20202021 Civil Grand Jury investigated our county’s response to the pandemic, our county’s response to the CZU fire and how our county is preparing to prevent future wildfires, how the Pajaro Valley School District responded to students’ need for remote-learning technology during the pandemic, and more.

Previous investigations have covered topics such homelessness, school safety, county elections, water districts, law enforcement agencies, and the public library system.

The importance of having a Civil Grand Jury that reflects our entire community cannot be understated.

The Civil Grand Jury needs people from all parts of our county and from diverse backgrounds. The Civil Grand Jury should consist of people who will bring a variety of perspectives to the important work of ensuring that our local government agencies are providing services in a fair, just, and transparent manner.

The current Civil Grand Jury has been working both in person and remotely through videoconferencing and document sharing programs.

We anticipate that the next Civil Grand Jury, which will begin its one-year term on July 1, 2022, will likewise have a hybrid system of remote and in-person work.

As the supervising judge of the Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury, I humbly request that you consider applying to serve on the 2022-2023 Civil Grand Jury.

The deadline for the Court to receive applications is April 29.

I am very optimistic that our applicants will include residents from all over the county, people of all backgrounds, and citizens with a strong commitment to the community.

Please also spread the word to your friends and family. Let them know about this wonderful opportunity to learn and make a difference.

The deadline for the Court to receive applications is April 29. n •••

If you have questions, email jury.information@santacruzcourt.org or go to the Civil Grand Jury website: www.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/ Departments/GrandJury.aspx

New Look at Willowbrook Park for Gutzwiller Memorial

The County of Santa Cruz Department of Parks, Open Space and Cultural Services invites the public to explore the conceptual drawings for the planned renovations to the play area at Willowbrook County Park — one component of reimagining the entire park in memory of Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller.

“Unveiling this next element is an exciting milestone in the Reimagining Willowbrook Park Project,” said Parks Director Jeff Gaffney said. “Amenities like this play feature and the memorial seating area will be both a tribute to Sgt. Gutzwiller and a great community benefit to the families like his that enjoy this park so much.”

County Parks along with the Santa Cruz County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, County Park Friends and Supervisor Zach Friend are releasing the initial drawings for updating the playground with new surfacing to make the play area accessible to more children.

Other updates will include the construction and installation of a memorial seating area on the south side of the pedestrian walkway bridge, park entry enhancements, a new flagpole and updates to the sport courts.

“Damon was a devoted father and public servant and this project will provide a safe and inclusive place for his kids and other children to play and remember him,” Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend said.

Current funding goals have yet to be met and opportunities to be a part of the legacy renovations of Willowbrook County Park are still available. n •••

For more information or to learn more about opportunities to participate in this project visit www.countyparkfriends.org/willowbrook.

“COVID Update” from page 7

California lawmakers have been considering 10 Covid-19 bills, which prompted a rally by thousands of people April 11 in Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles.

Two bills have been set aside: Assembly Bill 1993, to require all employees and independent contractors, public and private, to be vaccinated against Covid-19 to keep their job; and Senate Bill 871, to remove the personal belief exemption in the state’s student vaccine mandate.

Protection of the Educational Rights of Kids, headed by Amy Bohn in Newbury Park, which has filed six lawsuits against vaccine mandates, is watching to see if these measures comes back in a budget trailer bill in May — which avoids public hearings. The group is tracking 8 more Covid-19 bills. They include:

SB 1464: To require law enforcement officers to enforce public health orders, and cut funding if they do not and shift those funds to public health. The

California State Sheriffs’ Association is opposed along with the Peace Officers

Research Association of California and 20 more law enforcement organizations. An April 26 committee hearing has been postponed, which could mean lack of support.

SB 866: To allow children 12 and older to get COVID vaccines without parental consent.

SB 920: To authorize a medical board to inspect a doctor’s office and records without patient consent.

SB 1479: To mandate Covid testing plans at schools.

SB 1390: To prohibit a social media platform from amplifying misinformation or disinformation.

SB 1184: To authorize a health care provider or plan to disclose your child’s medical information to a school-linked services coordinator without parent consent.

AB 1793: To allow school officials to easily via access to a state immunization database.

AB 2098: To classify a physician or surgeon disseminating or promoting misinformation or disinformation related to COVID-19 as unprofessional conduct and grounds for disciplinary action. This is supported by Sen.

Richard Pan, a physician, and opposed by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.

To track these bills, see https:// leginfo.legislature.ca.gov

Hospital Fund Drive

Santa Cruz County, which updates its dashboard on Monday and Thursday, has 727 active cases, down from 10,000 at the peak.

The Pajaro Valley Health Care District Project must raise $15 million by Aug. 31 to buy Watsonville Community Hospital, bring it out of bankruptcy, and fund the first-year operations under the new ownership.

The hospital has 620 employees and shares the treatment of Covid-19 patients with Dominican Hospital.

Soquel Schools

Soquel Union Elementary School District reports seven active student cases and two staff cases. Four are at New Brighton Middle School, two at Main Street Elementary, and one at Soquel Elementary. One staff case is at Main Street Elementary and one at the district office.

The state of Calfiornia’s guidance to schools and childcare facilities: As of March 11, masks are not required but are strongly recommended.

“All community members have a right to make different choices with regard to recommended masking, and it is imperative that we respect personal choice and treat each other with respect and kindness,” posted Dr. Faris Sabbah, Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools.

Santa Cruz County Office of Education, with Inspire Diagnostic, has provided 421,400 tests.

Cases in schools peaked at 4,407 on Jan. 27, dropped to 44 on April 1, then rose to 130 on April 19. The 14-day positivity rate, 12.25% on January, dropped to .79%, then rose to 1.25%

Pfizer & Moderna

Parents anxious to have shots for their younger children under 5 are still waiting for Pfizer and BioNTech to gather data on whether a third dose is effective.

Pfizer initially applied for emergency use authorization for young children for two doses.

Pfizer stock peaked at $61 in December, fell in March to $46 and has been trading at $49.11.

On March 23, vaccine-maker Moderna reported positive results — no severe cases, hospitalizations, or deaths — in two clinical trials for children under 6 — and said it would ask the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use authorization for those children.

In the trial, Covid cases decreased 43.7% for kids 6 to 23 months, and 37.5% for kids 2 to 6. At the outset, the FDA called for vaccines to cut infection by at least 50%.

Moderna stock peaked in November at $368, then fell to $128 in March and hovers at $144.50.

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, citing studies in Germany, England and Wales.

Myocarditis Risk

In a 2022 report in the Journal of American Medical Association online, Dr. Matthew Oster of the CDC reported the government’s VAERS database received 1,991 reports of myocarditis after one dose of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine and 1,626 met the CDC’s definition for probable or confirmed myocarditis.

Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart, which can lead to clots, a stroke or heart attack.

Oster’s conclusion: “The risk of myocarditis after receiving mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines was increased across multiple age and sex strata and was highest after the second vaccination dose in adolescent males and young men. This risk should be considered.”

Public health officials say the scientific consensus is that Covid vaccines are safe, but some are skeptical about relying on science from drug-makers, which saw profits rise in 2021. They point to the U.S. government database, https://vaers.hhs. gov/, where health care providers are to report adverse events after a vaccine.

The reporting site was created after Congress passed a law in 1986 protecting vaccine manufacturers from civil personal injury lawsuits and wrongful death lawsuits resulting from vaccine injuries.

After Covid arrived, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar invoked the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, a 2005 law that allows the HHS secretary to provide legal protection to companies making or distributing critical medical supplies such as vaccines unless there’s “willful misconduct” by the company.

This lowers the cost of immunizations, and the protection lasts until 2024.

Fourth Shot?

Astudy of 274 health care workers in Israel published in April in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that a fourth dose of mRNA vaccine, Pfizer or Moderna, is “safe, and somewhat efficacious (primarily against symptomatic disease).”

They added, “Our results suggest that maximal immunogenicity of mRNA vaccines is achieved after three doses and that antibody levels can be restored by a fourth dose. Furthermore, we observed low vaccine efficacy against infections in health care workers, as well as relatively high viral loads suggesting that those who were infected were infectious. Thus, a fourth vaccination of healthy young health care workers may have only marginal benefits. Older and vulnerable populations were not assessed.”

Fully vaccinated means having two shots (Pfizer or Moderna) or one Johnson & Johnson shot. All were developed for the Wuhan Covid-19 strain.

For Omicron, the dominant variant, a booster shot is needed. Booster shots are 90 percent effective against preventing Omicron hospitalizations, according to the federal Centers of Disease Control.

Drug-maker payments

The year Covid-19 pandemic struck the U.S., the federal Medicare agency reported $9.03 billion in payments from drug companies and device-makers to 486,975 physicians and 1,212 teaching hospitals. These financial relationships can involve payments to providers for research, meals, travel, gifts, or speaking fees.

Medicare provides data via Open Payments, which allows the public to search for recipients receiving payments, as well as entities that made payments.

The 2021 data is under review.

Testing

The Santa Cruz County Office of Education reports 406,400 tests completed. Drive-though testing for students, staff and families is at:

Cabrillo College, Aptos, Parking Lot K, Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, 2601 E. Lake Ave., Watsonville, Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Santa Cruz County Office of Education, 399 Encinal St., Santa Cruz, Monday to Friday, 2 to 5 p.m.

“More on COVID” page 10