Community Calendar • Arts & Entertainment – Pages 20

SLVWD SEEKING BOARD APPLICANTS

Due 3 p.m., San Lorenzo Valley Water District, 13060 Highway 9, Boulder Creek The San Lorenzo Valley Water District is soliciting applicants to fill a vacancy on the Board of Directors created by the resignation of Lois Henry. The seat will go to election in November 2022 for a new 4-year term.

Applications are due by 3 p.m. and can be turned in at the SLVWD office or online at https://www.slvwd. com/home/news/board-directors-notice-vacancy. For questions, contact the District Secretary: hhossack@ slvwd.com or (831) 430-4636

Saturday April 16 Sunday April 17

EGGSTRAORDINARY EGG HUNT

Hop aboard Roaring Camp’s Forest Train for an Eggstraordinary Egg Hunt Saturday and Sunday, April 16 and April 17 in Felton. Upon arrival atop Bear Mountain, children can hunt for eggs, candies and special prizes; the Easter Bunny will be there, too. Other activities include gold panning, games and crafts.

Trains depart at 10:30 a.m., noon and 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $44.95 for adults, $29.95 for children 2-12 years; children under 2 ride for free. Reservations recommended. To book tickets, visit https:// www.roaringcamp.com/

Monday April 18

CZU REBUILDING MEETINGS: PERMITTING, TAX & WATER ISSUES

6-7:30 p.m., Boulder Creek Fire District, 13230 Highway 9 Fifth District Supervisor Bruce McPherson will host an in-person District 5 Town Hall on Rebuilding and Recovery with an update on the County’s rebuild permitting dashboard, as well as water projects in the San Lorenzo Valley.

Representatives will be available to answer questions after the presentations. The meeting will be at the Boulder Creek Fire District office.

Wednesday April 20

TEEN JOB FAIR

2-5 p.m., Laurel Park, 301 Center St., Santa Cruz Looking for talent as summer approaches?

The Access2Employment Teen Job Fair, sponsored by Santa Cruz Employment Access, will take place outside at Laurel Park. This event is free for employers and job seekers. Employers can call Amanda Ares at 831-420-5437 to register.

Sunday April 24

DINING FOR PARKINSON’S

10 a.m.-8 p.m., Erik’s DeliCafé, 102 Rancho Del Mar, Aptos, 1475 41st Ave, Capitola, and 1664 Soquel Dr, Santa Cruz Erik’s DeliCafé in Aptos, Capitola and Santa Cruz will host the second “Dine for a Day” for the Santa Cruz County Parkinson’s Group.

Dine in-store, online for delivery, curbside, or pick-up and part of your purchase will benefit the Santa Cruz County Parkinson’s Group, a project of nonprofit EASEPD.

During the pandemic, most of the group’s classes and meetings needed to pivot quickly to Zoom. Thanks to donations and efforts of the all-volunteer group, most classes and support programs continued and membership grew.

The Parkinson’s Foundation provides a free Hospital Safety Kit to protect, prepare, and empower people with Parkinson’s while hospitalized. Order at https://www.parkinson.org or call: 800-473-4636.

SPRING DANCE FESTIVAL AT EASTRIDGE CENTER

Saturday April 23 • Sunday April 24

11 a.m.-6 p.m., Eastridge Center Mall, 2200 Eastridge Loop, San Jose (off Capitol Expressway and Tully Road) The Spring Dance Festival, featuring local dance companies, is presented by sjDANCEco at Eastridge Center Mall,.

The event celebrates National Dance Week (April 15-24 and includes free dance classes at 11 a.m., 1, 2 and 5 p.m. both days on the main level of the mall.

Flying Colors Dance & Fitness of Hollister will present a new work by choreographers Amy Redmond Waran and Hilary Sharp titled “Villains,” set to music inspired by classic evil-doers: Cruella DeVille, Captain Hook, The Evil Queen from Snow White, and Maleficent on Saturday at 11:30 a.m.

Performing Sunday are: DanceCenterBestDanceCrew of Ben Lomond, at 11:15 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Ballet Rep of Boulder Creek, 11:30 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. Shakti Bhakti (Classical Indian dance) of Santa Cruz, noon, and Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center of Santa Cruz, 2:15 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. All performance times are approximate. https://www.sjdanceco.org Photo: DBDC, Ben Lomond

Wednesday April 27

MEET YOLANDE WILBURN

4 p.m., Felton Branch Library Community Room, 6121 Gushee St. Meet Yolande Wilburn, the dynamic new director of Santa Cruz Public Libraries, at a gathering hosted by Felton Library Friends in the Felton Branch community room.

She will talk briefly about her early days as director and the things that the system is working toward, then answer your questions. She brings a wealth of experience in urban, rural, and academic library settings.

Wilburn believes that libraries are not just community hubs for education and information.

“They also connect people-providing a haven for youth, and helping people stay engaged in the digital world and connected through homebound, social, and business services,” she said. “Libraries help communities develop their identity by working closely with diverse groups to understand the needs and aspirations, providing enhanced quality of life.”

Friday April 29

SCOTTS VALLEY HIGH GOLF FUNDRAISER

9 a..m check-in, Noon tee-time for first group, DeLaveaga Golf Course, 401 Upper Park Rd, Santa Cruz The Scotts Valley High School Falcon Club, a 501c3 nonprofit, will host the 20th Annual Golf Tournament to support SVHS sports programs on Friday, April 29, at DeLaveaga Golf Course.

The tournament will be a Best Ball Scramble format.

Cost is $160 per person and includes a round of golf, golf cart, box lunch and dinner.

There will be prizes for “closest to the pin” and “longest drive,” contests for men and women, and awards, plus “Hole in One” for a new car.

Put together a foursome and register online at www. falconclub.org or make check payable to SVHS Falcon Club and mail to 715 Tabor Drive, Scotts Valley, CA 95066. Questions: kweaversv@gmail.com or 831-905-0544.

Sunday May 1

MULTICULTURAL FAIR

Noon-3 p.m., Vine Hill School, 151 Vine Hill School Road, Scotts Valley

The Scotts Valley Unified School District is sponsoring is a Multicultural Fair at Vine Hill School. There will be art, music, food trucks, and crafts celebrating diversity from around the world. SVUSD families and community members are invited to attend.

Wednesday May 4 Thursday May 5

NEST FLIGHT

Virtual Conference NEST Flight will be a 2-day virtual experience, in time for graduation season. This annual conference is geared toward young professionals, recent grads and current students in high school or college. If you are 17 to 24 and exploring your options for the future, this conference is for you.

Hosted by Digital NEST and founder Jacob Martinez, this event features 20 inspiring speakers, hands-on workshops, powerful panel discussions and one of a kind networking opportunities — crafted to help students propel their careers, no matter where you are in your job exploration.

Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings is keynote speaker. Emcee is Amber Gonzalez-Vargas, senior program manager at Latino Community Foundation, which has invested $17 million in 150 grassroots Latino-led nonprofits. Registration: $20. See https://www.nestflight.org/

LUNAFEST: BENEFIT FOR WOMENCARE

7 p.m. Wed., Del Mar Theatre, 1124 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz Friends of WomenCARE announce the LUNAFEST Film Festival in person at the Del Mar Theatre, with virtual screening available May 5-7.

This program of short films aims to inspire with stories that champion women and gender nonconforming individuals, highlighting their aspirations, accomplishments, resilience, strength and connection.

Proceeds go to WomenCARE, which provides a safe haven where women with any type of cancer find mutual support, shared experiences, and open hearts.

Last year’s event raised $14,000. Organizers expect this year’s event will sell out.

Tickets are $20 at https://www.lunafest.org/ screenings/hybrid-friends-womancare-santa-cruzca-050422

This year’s films include:

How to Be at Home: By Andrea Dorfman. Coping with isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Close Ties to Home Country: By Akanksha Cruczynski. An immigrant dog walker connects with the wealthy pets she cares for.

Generation Impact: The Coder: By Samantha Knowles. A 13-year-old girl designs and builds an app to help kids stay connected to their incarcerated parents.

Proof of Loss: By Katherine Fisher. After fire takes their home, a father and daughter must find a way to salvage what remains: each other.

When You Clean a Stranger’s Home: By Sharon Arteaga. A first-generation high school student describes what she and her mom learn about people when cleaning their homes.

Between the Lines: Liz at Large: By Abi Cole. Frustrated with lack of diversity in The New Yorker cartoons, an artist submits her illustrations, becoming the first Black woman cartoonist.

Wearable Tracy: By Emily McAllister. A Bronx woman’s social experiment connects her with fellow New Yorkers who might otherwise remain strangers.

To the Future With Love: By Shalleece Haas & Hunter “Pixel” Jimenez. An animated self-portrait of a nonbinary trans teen caught between the expectations of his Guatemalan immigrant family and his dreams of living happily ever after with his long-distance boyfriend.

To the Future, With Love

Friday May 20

REGIONAL ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

9 a.m.-11 a.m., Online Seminar MBEP’s 8th Annual Regional Economic Outlook will feature Christopher Thornberg, Founding Partner of Beacon Economics, LLC.

Widely considered to be one of the nation’s leading economists, Dr. Thornberg is an expert in revenue forecasting, regional economics, economic policy, and labor and real estate markets.

Beacon Economics is a leading independent research and consulting firm dedicated to delivering accurate, insightful, and objectively-based economic analysis to public and private sector clients in California and across the United States. Tickets are $29. Register at https://tinyurl.com/MBEP-REO2022-register n

“COVID Update” from page 7

Signs of Normalcy

Kayak.com reports the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Mexico and Slovankia are open to visitors — with no Covid-19 restrictions.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams lifted the vaccine mandate for performers and professional athletes, allowing Kyrie Irving, a top player for the Brooklyn Nets, on the court even though he opted out of Covid vaccination.

Santa Cruz County closed the vaccination site at Felton Community Hall March 9 after giving 2,000 vaccinations and referred residents to the newly opened Santa Cruz Community Health office in Ben Lomond. On March 27, the county closed the vaccine clinic at the old Watsonville City Hall, where 20,000 vaccinations were given.

A new Omicron variant called BA.2 “appears to be about 50% more transmissible than the original omicron strain BA.1, according to UC Davis Health. “Preliminary data suggests omicron BA.1 causes the same severity of disease and symptoms, but it’s affecting younger people more.”

Two Years

Santa Cruz County, which updates its dashboard on Monday and Thursday, has 419 active cases, down from 10,000 at the peak, and three more deaths, bringing the total to 259.

Underlying conditions were a factor in 19 of the 20 most recent local deaths during the peak of the highly contagious and thought-to-be-mild Omicron variant.

The latest deaths were people 65 and older, two with underlying conditions. The county website lists vaccination status in death 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.

County supervisors have chosen five board members for the Pajaro Valley Health Care District Project, the local consortium awarded the bid by a bankruptcy judge to buy Watsonville Community Hospital, which has 620 employees and shares the treatment of Covid-19 patients with Dominican Hospital.

They five are Marcus Pimental, John Friel, Jasmine Najera, Tony Nunez and Dr. Katie Gabriel-Cox. Pimental and Najera must run for re-election in November.

The Pajaro Valley Health Care District Project aims to raise $16.5 million to buy Watsonville Community Hospital and fund the first-year operations under the new ownership. Watsonville based Driscoll’s is matching all donations up to $1.75 million until May 1.

If $1.75 million is raised from the community, it results in $3.5 million. To donate, see https://www.pvhdp.org/

Scotts Valley Schools

Scotts Valley schools, which is on spring break April 4-8, report only 2 active student cases and zero staff cases in April.

Vine Hill Elementary has one student case. So does Scotts Valley Middle School.

SPECIALTY SCREEN & GLASS SHOP

“We have the lowest positivity rate yet since the beginning of 2022,” Superintendent Tanya Kraus reported to parents on March 30.

Rather than ask staff to distribute Covid test kits the day before students return, the superintendent is asking families to tests at home. Kraus hopes case rates will remain low, allowing end-of-the-year student activities to take place.

Test positivity for the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, which reports testing for public schools, is .91 percent, lower than the state.

The state’s guidance to schools and childcare facilities: After 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 398,900 tests.

Cases in schools peaked at 4,407 on Jan. 27, dropping to 97 on March 30. The 14-day positivity rate, 12.25% on January, is down to .91%.

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 $52 to $55.

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 rose to stabilize at $179.

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.”

The CDC looked at its data in February: Of 164 million total doses of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine given to those 18 years and older, there were 359 reports of myocarditis to VAERS in the seven days post-vaccination meeting CDC definition.

Most patients were hospitalized, and 69% recovered.

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, according to a report by CNBC.

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

“The protection that you are getting from the third, it is good enough, actually quite good for hospitalizations and deaths,” he said. “It’s not that good against infections.”

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, 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.

California reports 83.9% of residents age 5 and up have had at least one shot.

On the CDC Covid tracker, Santa Cruz County reports 90.4% of residents age 5 and up have at least one shot and 82.1% fully vaccinated.

On April 1, California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly, and Dr. Tomás Aragon, director of the California Department of Public Health and state public health officer, announced that people 50 and older are eligible for a second mRNA booster shot from Moderna or Pfizer. Kids 12 and older are eligible for the Pfizer booster and those 18 years and older with moderate and severe immune-suppression are eligible for a Moderna booster.

This is the recommendation of the 18-member Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup on which Tomas sits.

Omicron Less Deadly

Omicron is deadly than Delta, which raged in 2021. Santa Cruz County reports 259 Covid deaths, up from 225 as of Dec. 15, before Omicron was confirmed on Dec. 16 and 17.

One statistic is similar: 79% to 81% of those who died had pre-existing conditions.

Why do people fear Omnicron?

They may have a pre-existing condition (diabetes, obesity, asthma, high blood pressure).

Half of Americans do, so they are at higher risk for severe Covid illness.

So are people 85 and older.

Some people who got Covid experience “long Covid,” with fatigue and brain fog months afterward. A 2022 study in the journal Cell by researchers following more than 200 patients found many acute Covid patients had low cortisol, which could be addressed.

Testing

The Santa Cruz County Office of Education offers drive-though testing for students, staff and families at these locations:

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.

Directions for rapid response antigen tests are at https:// drive.google.com/file/d/1U8AdsSyH14sDvrjD6T25krhvOFR FsuXs/view

For test options: https://tinyurl.com/get-tested-santa-cruz.

Based on federal recommendations, the state shortened the isolation time for those testing positive from 10 days to five days.

Schedule booster shots at https://myturn.ca.gov/ or by asking your local doctor and pharmacies. For local vaccine providers, visit www.santacruzhealth.org/coronavirusvaccine.

For help scheduling an appointment, call the Community Bridges Helpline at 831-219-8607 or 831-440-3556 (English, Spanish, Mixteco and Triqui).

For local information on COVID-19, go to www.santacruzhealth.org/coronavirus or call (831) 454-4242 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. n •••

Total COVID cases: 419

•••

COVID Deaths: 259

As of March 31

Age

85 and older: 110 • 75-84: 61 • 65-74: 46 • 60-64: 15 • 55-59: 4 45-54: 10 • 35-44: 8 • 25-34: 5

Underlying Conditions

Yes: 209 • No: 50

Race

White 147 • Latinx 89 • Asian 16 • Black 3 • Amer Indian 1 Hawaiian 1 • Another 2 Gender Men: 133 • Women: 126 Location At facility for aged: 115 • Not at a facility: 144