Jobs in Santa Cruz County • Inspector General To Be Chosen for

Jobs in Santa Cruz County Sector Sept. 2022 Change from Sept. 2021

Government 22,300 Up 1,800 Private education 17,600 Up 600 & health Manufacturing 7,800 Up 300 Construction 5,100 Up 300 Other 4,800 Up 300 Trade/transportation 16,500 Up 200 /utilities Professional/business 10,700 Up 100 services Financial 3,300 Up 100 Leisure/hospitality 13,000 0 Information 600 0 Nonfarm 101,700 Up 3,700 Farm 9,800 Down 100 Total 111,500 Up 3,600 ~~~ Labor force 137,600 Up 1.9% Employment* 132,900 Up 3.7% Unemployment 4,700 Down 31.9% Unemployment rate 3.8% 5.1%

Count is on the 12th of the month *Includes commuters out of the county

Source: California Employment Development Department

~~~ Unemployment in Santa Cruz County ticked down from 3.8% in August to 3.4% in September as the labor force dipped from 138,400 to 137,600.

Unemployment hovered around 3.8% in the summer compared to 17+% in 2020, fueled by pandemic restrictions.

Construction, a typically higher-paying sector, is healthy with more than 5,000 jobs. So is manufacturing, at 7,800 jobs. •••

Inspector General To Be Chosen for Sheriff’s Office

Santa Cruz County supervisors have green-lighted plans to recruit someone to be the first Inspector General for the Sheriff’s Office. Those interested must apply by Nov. 10.

The Inspector General is expected to start work Jan. 1 with a budget of $100,000 covering six months of operations, until the fiscal year ends June 30.

Sheriff Jim Hart supports the idea, contained in AB 1185 to provide oversight and boost public trust in law enforcement.

During community meetings, residents wanted oversight and transparency of the jail, which is part of the Sheriff’s Office.

“Briefs” page 26

“COVID Update” from page 7

“We are anticipating another winter surge,” said Dr. Cal Gordon, deputy health officer for the County of Santa Cruz.

To find providers with Covid-19 vaccine and walk-in clinics, see www. santacruzhealth.org/coronavirusvaccine.

Emergency Ending Feb. 28

On Sept. 12, the state health department reduced its Covid updates from daily to weekly, on Thursdays.

On Oct. 18, Gov. Newsom announced California’s state of emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic will end Feb. 28.

On Oct. 27, the state reported 1,600 hospitalized with a positive Covid test, and a 4.4% positivity rate, down from 20,000 and 23% in January.

The state said half the hospitalizations are due to Covid, with the other half coming to the hospital for another reason and testing positive.

California reports 72.4% of the population have had at least one shot.

On the CDC Covid tracker, Santa Cruz County reports 89.3% of residents have at least one shot, 80.7% with a primary series (two Pfizer or Moderna or one Johnson & Johnson) and 61.4% with a booster.

Lawsuits

On Oct. 24, Staten Island Supreme Court Justice Ralph Porzio ruled the October 2021 Covid vaccination requirement for unvaccinated sanitation workers who sued New York City is “arbitrary and capricious,” and that workers should be rehired with back pay.

He wrote, “We have learned … that the vaccine against COVID-19 is not absolute.”

Feds for Medical Freedom, which had their day in the U.S. Court of Appeals Fifth District on Sept. 13 in New Orleans challenging the Covid vaccine mandate for federal workers, is awaiting a decision. The group, which has 6,000 members, contends the president overstepped his authority. For updates, see feds4medfreedom.org.

Dr. Mark McDonald, a Los Angeles psychiatrist, and Dr. Jeff Barke, an Orange County primary care physician, are suing to stop Assembly Bill 2098, from becoming law. Under AB 2098, physicians who publicly challenge public health Covid edicts can be disciplined. The doctors say this is unconstitutional.

Children & Covid

Covid has claimed the lives of many elders, those 85 and older with medical conditions, but relatively few children, 442 children age 4 and under, according to the CDC.

More than 1 million people in the U.S. have died of Covid, so young children represent a tiny percentage of deaths.

Could it be that children represent an untapped windfall for the drug-makers?

It depends on whether these vaccines are added to the CDC vaccine schedule for children. See www.cdc.gov/vaccines/ schedules/hcp/imz/child-adolescent.html

Safety Signals

An early briefing document said the CDC would perform data mining, using data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System to look for “safety signals” from Covid-19 vaccines.

Later, the CDC Freedom of Information officer said “data mining is outside of the agency’s purview.”

The VAERS database, https://vaers. hhs.gov/, is where health care providers are to report adverse events after a vaccine. It 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.

Those who want to review data from V-Safe, the CDC’s after-vaccine health check-in app, can go to icandecide.org/vsafe. The Informed Choice Action Network, after filing two lawsuits and obtaining a court order for the data release, got 144 million rows of vaccine data entered by 10 million users and created a dashboard. The data can be searched by symptoms, adverse health impacts such as missed work or school, and type of medical care sought.

On Oct. 25, the British Medical Journal published a report by Australian scientistturned-journalist Maryanne Demasi on safety signal follow-up.

She cited a July 2021 disclosure by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finding “four potential adverse events of interest” in Medicare claims of people 65 and up who got Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine: Heart attack, abnormal blood clotting, bleeding that is hard to stop due to low platelet count, and pulmonary embolism (artery blockage caused by clots in the lung).

The FDA “does not believe there is a cause for concern,” noting the Pfizer vaccine was given to “many high-risk individuals,” older and with “significant co-morbidities,” such as high blood pressure, kidney disease or diabetes.

The disclosure added, “The FDA strongly believes the known and potential benefits of Covid-19 vaccination greatly outweigh the known and potential risks of Covid-19.”

The FDA promised it would “share further updates and information with the public as they become available,” and 18 days later, published plans for a followup epidemiological study to investigate, sharing the unadjusted relative risk ratio estimates, ranging from 42% to 91% increased risk.

More than a year later has passed, and the status and results of the follow-up study are unknown.

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

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.”

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

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. Analysts say Pfizer has been one of the largest winners, doubling revenue to $81 billion in sales in 2021 due to its Covid vaccine.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar invoked the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, a 2005 law allowing him to provide legal protection to companies making or distributing critical medical supplies such as vaccines unless there’s “willful misconduct” by the company. This protection lasts until 2024.

Testing

The Santa Cruz County Office of Education offers drive-though testing for students, staff and families at: Cabrillo College, Aptos, Parking Lot K, and Santa Cruz County Office of Education, 399 Encinal St., Santa Cruz. Hours are the same: Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Wed., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

See: https://tinyurl.com/get-tested-santacruz.

Booster shots: https://myturn.ca.gov/

Vaccine providers: www.santacruzhealth. org/coronavirusvaccine.

Local information: www.santacruzhealth. org/coronavirus or (831) 454-4242 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. n •••

Active COVID cases: 620

••• COVID Deaths: 274 As of Oct. 27 Age 85 and older: 120 •75-84: 62 • 65-74: 49 60-64: 15 • 55-59: 4 • 45-54: 10 35-44: 8 • 25-34: 5 Underlying Conditions Yes: 224 • No: 50 Vaccinated Yes: 37 • No: 237 Race White 161 • Latinx 90 • Asian 16 Black 3 • Amer Indian 1 Hawaiian 1 • Another 2 Gender Men: 139 • Women: 135 Location At facility for aged: 117 Not at a facility: 157