Monday, March 15, 2021 | California Healthline

San Francisco Chronicle:
S.F. To Open Vaccinations To High-Risk Adults, Plus All Homeless And Incarcerated People

People 16 to 64 with disabilities or other health conditions that put them at high risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19 will be eligible to receive vaccines in San Francisco and much of the state Monday. The city will also open appointments to individuals who live or work in high-risk congregate care settings, including correctional facilities, homeless shelters and residential care and treatment facilities, the Department of Public Health announced Friday. People experiencing homelessness will be eligible. (Vaziri, 3/14)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Disabled, Compromised Residents Eligible For Vaccine Monday In Sonoma County

Approximately 4.4 million Californians aged 16 and older will become eligible for coronavirus vaccinations Monday on the basis of their physical disabilities and high-risk medical conditions. It’s a long-awaited opportunity for those vulnerable populations, but there is widespread concern the lack of required verification will encourage eager residents to jump their place in line for a shot of vaccine. “It’s definitely a concern,” said Dr. Urmila Shende, Sonoma County’s vaccine chief. “As we’ve seen from the beginning, there’s a lot of desire for the vaccine. And that’s a good thing. I would just hope people understand the situation, that the entire health of our community really does rely on vaccinating the most vulnerable first.” (Barber, 3/13)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
San Diegans With Certain Health Conditions Eligible For Vaccine Starting Monday 

California opens coronavirus vaccination to more than 4 million residents with high-risk medical conditions and disabilities Monday, allowing those age 16 to 64 to make appointments if they have a range of different medical conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, kidney disease and severe obesity. While many have been working to document their illnesses so they will be able to get an appointment as quickly as possible, the California Department of Public Health said late this week that documentation will not be necessary. To “protect confidentiality,” vaccination clinics will ask those with qualifying conditions to “sign a self-attestation that they meet the criteria for high-risk medical conditions or disabilities” before receiving their shot. (Wosen and Sisson, 3/12)

The Bakersfield Californian:
Clinica Sierra Vista Offering COVID-19 Vaccines To People With Eligible Health Conditions 

As California expands eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines to people with certain high-risk medical conditions, Clinica Sierra Vista announced it is opening appointments to those individuals. (3/14)

LA Daily News:
As Pool Of Eligible Vaccine-Seekers Expands, More Clinic Sites Added In LA County 

With the pool of eligible COVID-19 vaccine recipients about to expand again Monday, Los Angeles County is getting some additional vaccination clinics. The county’s rate of new cases and hospitalizations continued their general decline on Saturday, March 13. The county health department reported 793 new cases of COVID-19 and 42 additional deaths, bringing the totals to 1,209,632 cases and 22,446 deaths since the pandemic began. (3/13)

Bay Area News Group:
Your Bay Area Guide To (Legitimately) Score A Vaccine — Even If You’re Not ‘Eligible’ Yet 

Some enterprising Californians who aren’t eligible for a coronavirus vaccine yet — we’re looking at you, relatively healthy 16-to-64 year olds — are finding ways to get them anyway. And they’re not lying about being health care workers or dressing up as senior citizens to do it. In the coming weeks, millions more people will become eligible — including people with certain disabilities and health problems starting Monday. But even then, most Californians will be waiting — perhaps all the way until the May 1 deadline for full eligibility President Biden set on Thursday. Feeling impatient? Here are a few ways residents of the Golden State who lack priority access are snagging shots now. (DeRuy, 3/13)

Bay Area News Group:
One In Four California Adults Have Received At Least One Vaccine Dose 

New coronavirus cases in California keep declining while the total number of vaccinated residents in the state continues to rise, positive signs that a massive winter surge that sent cases and deaths in the state skyrocketing is coming to an end. On Friday, California counties reported 3,652 new COVID-19 cases, according to data tracked by this news organization. The state now has a seven-day average of 3,677 new cases, the lowest the average has been since Oct. 22, before the surge sent average case rates as high as 45,388 on Dec. 22. There have been 3,594,282 cases in California since the start of the pandemic, although that does not include cases where an individual was infected but never tested for the virus. (Castaneda, 3/13)

Stanford News:
In Stanford Lecture, Moderna Scientist Shares The Recipe For Making Medicine Out Of RNA 

The new kid on the infectious-disease vaccine block, a molecule called ribonucleic acid or RNA, is not only revolutionizing the pharmaceutical industry but will also speed advances in treating cancer and genetic diseases, said Melissa Moore, PhD, of Moderna Therapeutics. Moore, Moderna’s chief scientific officer for platform research, chronicled the creation of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine before a virtual audience of more than 600 during the 41st annual Katharine D. McCormick Distinguished Lecture on March 8. The lecture, sponsored by Stanford Medicine’s Office of Faculty Development and Diversity, is held annually on International Women’s Day to honor McCormick, a celebrated biologist who on her death in 1967 left a bequest of $5 million (equivalent to $40 million in today’s money) to Stanford University. (Goldman, 3/12)

The Bakersfield Californian:
As COVID-19 Variants Spread, Race For Widespread Vaccination Begins 

Following President Joe Biden’s primetime address on Thursday, everyone in America could be forgiven for circling a new date on their calendar. July 4.That’s the day the president said there is a good chance Americans could gather with their friends and family to celebrate not only Independence Day, but the country’s “independence from this virus.” (Morgen, 3/14)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
With COVID-19 Infections At Nearly Zero, UC San Diego Urges Students Not To Go Away For Spring Break

UC San Diego is urging students not to head off to party spots for spring break to help the university maintain what has been a nearly perfect recent effort to stave off COVID-19 infections. The campus experienced a small COVID-19 surge in early January, after students returned from the Christmas holidays. But the infection rate among students who are living at UCSD or attending in-person classes now stands at 0.01 percent. (Robbins, 3/15)

Bay Area News Group:
This San Mateo County Community Went From 10 Coronavirus Cases To 551 Overnight 

For a while, North Fair Oaks looked like a COVID-19 miracle. The small, unincorporated community in San Mateo County had all the makings of a hot spot, with a largely Latino population, many of whom were essential workers in crowded housing, similar to hard-hit East Palo Alto nearby. Yet for months, public data from San Mateo County put North Fair Oaks’ case number at 10. Everardo Rodriguez wasn’t convinced. (Castaneda, 3/14)

Bay Area News Group:
Their East San Jose Neighbors Were Dying. So Frustrated Community Leaders Formed Their Own COVID Task Force 

Magdalena Carrasco’s frustration was boiling over. More than a third of Santa Clara County’s first coronavirus deaths had swept through just four ZIP codes in the East San Jose community where she had grown up. She wasn’t surprised by the outsized toll on the City Council district she represented: While office workers stayed home, traffic had hardly eased in East San Jose as residents went to their shifts as cooks, cleaners and grocery store employees. Yet as of mid-May, the two testing sites in East San Jose were open only by appointment on weekdays, and many Spanish speakers still didn’t know what to do if they got sick on the job. (Kelliher, 3/14)

Bay Area News Group:
How The Bay Area’s COVID Response Failed Latinos 

When COVID-19 came to the Perez family’s apartment, the Bay Area’s shutdown was powerless to stop it. “Work from home” and “shelter in place” had little relevance in a small home in San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood where 10 people jostled for space, with Yanira Perez, her husband and two children consigned to a bunk bed and adjacent hammock. After a roommate who worked in construction brought the virus home in April, it was just a matter of time before they all were infected. “Here in Canal, we said it’s the nest of the virus because almost everyone got it,” Perez recalled. (Castaneda, Kelliher and DeBolt, 3/14)

San Francisco Chronicle:
Counting The Bay Area’s Lost Lives During The Coronavirus Pandemic

COVID-19 has claimed more than 2.6 million lives worldwide since the start of the pandemic with more than 5,500 of those deaths being Bay Area residents. The first Bay Area virus-related death was reported March 9, 2020, more than a month after California’s first reported case. A later autopsy, however, linked the death of a Santa Clara County resident on Feb. 6 to the virus, which is believed to be the first virus-related death in the U.S. (3/14)

San Francisco Chronicle:
‘Sometimes You Cry And Nobody Sees You’: S.F. City Workers Reflect On Brutal Pandemic Year

In an empty corner of Moscone Center, now the headquarters for San Francisco’s pandemic response, a flyer left taped to the wall recently read: “Designated crying area, please limit episode to 15 minutes. ”The sign wasn’t entirely a joke, said Department of Emergency Management director Mary Ellen Carroll, who oversees the COVID command center, where hundreds of city workers toil. (Moench, 3/15)

San Francisco Chronicle:
Maskless Uber Passenger Surrenders As Assaulted Uber Driver Gets Nearly $100,000 In Donations

The maskless Uber passenger seen on video coughing on and allegedly assaulting a driver in San Francisco last week turned herself in Sunday and posted bail, her lawyer said. Arna Kimiai turned herself in at the women’s jail in San Francisco around 7 p.m., and was posting a $75,000 bond, lawyer Seth Morris confirmed. She faces charges for first degree robbery, battery on transit employee or passenger, violation of health and safety codes and conspiracy to commit a crime, according to booking information. (Moench, 3/14)

Bay Area News Group:
How SF Giants Fans Can Buy Oracle Park Tickets

The Giants are still awaiting a green light from city officials in San Francisco to reopen Oracle Park to fans, but the organization is planning to alert season-ticket holders on Monday how they can reserve seats for upcoming games. Season-ticket holders will be given the opportunity to purchase four-game packages or single-game tickets for seats that will be set up in socially distanced pods. The Giants have three different four-game packages available in April as the team hosts 13 games during the month. (Crowley, 3/14)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
A Santa Rosa Doctor’s Grueling Year On The Front Lines Battling COVID-19

Dr. Veronica Jordan has cared for scores of coronavirus patients over the past year at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital. Some fell very ill but recovered. Others died. One patient in particular stays with her. He was a vineyard worker who battled the pathogen with a singular ferocity. Despite receiving an treatment, the man became so ill last spring that he was in the intensive-care unit where he had a tube put down his throat to open his airway. (Murphy, 3/13)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
Scientists Hustle To Create New Tests, Drugs And Expand Telemedicine To Battle COVID-19 Over The Long Term 

Open a laptop. Pull up a chair. Talk to your doctor from the comfort of your home. For years, telemedicine has been billed as the next big thing. It’s still mostly a niche nationally — but maybe not for long. The pandemic is proving that things can change in a snap. San Diego’s Scripps Health created a customized telemedicine conferencing system last March. It took just three weeks. Since then more than 510,000 patients have had “virtual visits” with doctors, helping minimize the spread of COVID-19. (Robbins, 3/14)

Bay Area News Group:
Bay Area Lawmaker’s Bill Would Make 988 The 911 Of Mental Health Emergencies

State Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan has introduced a bill to establish a mental health hotline with the number 988, which she hopes will be easy for people to remember when someone is having a mental health crisis. If eventually approved by the Legislature and signed into law, the bill would require the state’s Office of Emergency Services to create at least one crisis resource center to coordinate responses to mental health calls. It also would require counties to establish 988 as the primary phone number for mental health crises — just as 911 is embedded in every local communication system. (Mukherjee, 3/15)

The Bakersfield Californian:
Pandemic’s Ripple Effect Of Mental Health Issues Could Last Years

Heather Berry, a licensed clinical social worker with a private practice in the Kern River Valley, has been a mental health provider for more than 30 years. Berry described the impact of social isolation on those who already lived alone as a “double whammy.” But the pandemic and its emotional and psychological effects are virtually universal. “The overall view is that we have all suffered greatly. I mean, who hasn’t?” Berry said. “Fear, irritability, exhaustion, uncertainty, tension in relationships … no one is coming out of this untouched.” (Mayer, 3/14)

San Diego Union-Tribune:
Documentary Focuses On San Diego Therapist, Patients With Multiple Personalities 

San Diego therapist Karen Marshall remembers the first time she realized there were other people living inside of her. She was in her late 20s and on a camping trip with her former partner when she crawled into a sleeping bag one night and suddenly began speaking with another voice: “I split, and another part of me came out and she freaked and so did I. ”Marshall has dissociative identity disorder or DID, and her long journey toward healing, along with those of her patients, is the subject of “Busy Inside,” a documentary that will air at 8 p.m. Tuesday on the World Channel public television station. The 53-minute film is being presented as part of “America ReFramed,” a series that features documentaries on social issues. (Kragen, 3/15)

Stanford News:
Reimagining Palliative Care Learning During A Pandemic 

Last March, when it looked like medical students would not be able to complete an in-person palliative medicine clerkship, one of the clinical rotations offered during the final two years of medical school, Laura Lundi, who coordinates the program, had an idea. Why not use Palliative Care Always, an online course offered through Stanford Online and recently launched on Coursera? (DeNofrio, 3/12)