Monkeypox: Pasadena Public Health Department has received reports of the first cases of monkeypox infection in four Pasadena residents, according to a city statement Tuesday afternoon.
Monkeypox is a viral infection that can spread through contact with body fluids, monkeypox sores, or shared items (such as clothing and bedding) that have been contaminated with fluids from sores of a person with monkeypox. Although monkeypox is not generally considered a sexually transmitted infection, it can be transmitted during sex through skin-to-skin and other intimate contact, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
All cases being reported have been confirmed by PPHD to meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) definition for either a probable or confirmed case. Monkeypox generally spreads through prolonged skin-to-skin contact. Contact includes prolonged intimate interactions, and sharing of infected bedding or clothing. If you have sex or intimate physical contact with many people, risk of contracting monkeypox is higher.
The individuals are adults and are recovering with monitoring and support from PPHD. To maintain patient confidentiality, no other details on these individuals will be shared.
PPHD is following up directly with those who have had close contact with these individuals and may be at risk for infection. Close contacts are informed on how to assess and monitor for signs and symptoms of illness and are considered for post-exposure prophylaxis with vaccination.
California this week became the latest state to step up its response to monkeypox, with Gov. Gavin Newsom declaring a state of emergency on Monday because of the growing outbreak.
There have been roughly 800 cases so far in California, with the most per capita in San Francisco, which declared its own state of emergency last week. On Tuesday, Los Angeles County, which has had more than half of California’s monkeypox cases, also issued an emergency proclamation, and officials announced that a child in Long Beach had contracted the virus.
If you’re feeling worried about another pandemic, it’s important to remember that monkeypox is unlikely to become the next Covid-19, as my colleague Knvul Sheikh explains. Monkeypox is rarely fatal and not as contagious as Covid, and we’ve had tests and vaccines for the virus for years.
But vaccine supply is limited, and the shots aren’t widely available to the public. For the most part, they’re being given to people who know they’ve been exposed to the virus, as the vaccine can help prevent an infection from developing even after exposure.
California has received 61,000 vaccine doses from the federal government so far and has distributed 25,000, according to Newsom’s office. But state officials estimate that they need at least 600,000 additional doses.
The viral disease monkeypox is spreading around the world. So far, there are more than 6,300 known cases in the U.S., almost entirely among gay and bisexual men. New York, California, Illinois and some cities have declared states of emergency, following the World Health Organization’s own declaration of a global emergency.
The headlines are grim enough that you might be worried that monkeypox is like SARS or Covid: another virus that could disrupt or even threaten your life. The good news is monkeypox is much less contagious and much less likely to be deadly than Covid. There are also vaccines and treatments originally developed for smallpox that work on monkeypox.
But while monkeypox probably will not kill you, it can be excruciating enough that you want to avoid it nonetheless: It can cause pain that some patients compare to glass shards scraping against the skin. And although the virus is afflicting mostly gay and bisexual men now, that could change if it continues to spread unchecked. Nothing about the virus limits its spread to only men who have sex with men (not all of whom identify as gay or bisexual).
Cases (of COVID-19): Virus wave seems to be topping out-Infections and hospitalizations fall in L.A. County, but deaths are on the rise.
NEW CORONAVIRUS infections in the county fell 24% from mid-July. (From the Los Angeles Times) By Luke Money and Rong-Gong Lin II
The summer coronavirus wave in Los Angeles County — fueled by super-contagious Omicron subvariants — appears to be cresting as cases continue to fall, but the picture is far from good. COVID-19 deaths — the result of weeks of substantial transmission — remain on the rise and aren’t likely to decrease for some time. Moreover, cases remain highly elevated. The latest data extend the trends health officials noted last week, when they canceled implementation of a long-looming mask mandate. And although the pandemic has regularly upended prognostications, metrics are moving in a promising direction almost across the board.
Over the week ending Wednesday, the nation’s most populous county tallied an average of 5,200 new coronavirus infections a day, down 24% from mid-July — the apparent peak of summer’s surge. It’s “the largest drop in average case counts that we’ve seen since the end of the winter surge,” Ferrer told the county Board of Supervisors.
On a per capita basis, L.A. County is reporting 363 new cases a week for every 100,000 residents, down 15% from the prior week. A rate of 100 or more is considered high.
The downward trend is evident across California, which is reporting 287 cases a week for every 100,000 residents, a 14% week-over-week decrease. The San Francisco Bay Area is reporting 256 cases a week for every 100,000 residents, a 10% decrease from the prior week. And Orange County is reporting 229 cases a week for every 100,000 residents, down 19%.
L.A. County’s weekly test positivity rate — the proportion of conducted and reported tests confirming coronavirus infection — also dipped, from 15% a week ago to 13.7% Wednesday, officials said. The number of new coronavirus outbreaks reported at worksites, nursing homes and homeless settings has also declined.
Hospitals, which have not been nearly as stressed as they were during the pandemic’s previous waves, have also begun to see some relief. As of Tuesday, 1,273 coronavirus-positive patients were hospitalized countywide, down about 4% from last month’s peak, recorded on July 20.
The share of emergency department visits associated with people seeking care for COVID-19-related symptoms has also fallen.
That’s not to say that the still-widespread community transmission isn’t having an impact, however.
One major metric still not heading in the right direction is deaths. Over the last week, L.A. County reported 116 COVID-19 fatalities, a 7% increase from a week ago.
The number of coronavirus-positive patients in L.A. County’s intensive care units has not yet seen a sustained downward trend, though the figure remains low overall. There were 138 such patients as of Tuesday, roughly the same as in the prior week.
One reason for the recent downturn in infections could be that, eight months into the rapidly evolving Omicron era, the coronavirus may have stabilized.
Since late April, three Omicron subvariants — BA.2, BA.2.12.1 and BA.5 — have, at times, been the most common version of the coronavirus circulating nationwide.
It’s the last one that now has a stranglehold on viral transmission. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, BA.5 made up an estimated 85.5% of new cases for the week ending Saturday.
Given its dominance and transmissibility, it’s possible BA.5 is simply running out of people to infect. And unlike earlier phases of this most recent wave — which were dominated by the BA.2 and BA.2.12.1 subvariants that transitioned directly into BA.5 — there appears to be no readily visible successor on the horizon.
Still, there is uncertainty. At a briefing July 28, Ferrer said she had talked with state officials about whether BA.5 has run its course and has fewer people to infect.
BA.5 has been the source of so much worry among public health officials because of its ability to reinfect those who had come down with an earlier Omicron strain.
It’s too soon to say for certain that the worst is behind L.A. County. But should recent trends continue, it would mean that the region was able to navigate the pandemic’s latest wave without resorting to the reimposition of universal indoor masking restrictions ordered by county officials.
Some businesses and institutions have decided on their own to impose restrictions, such as canceling large gatherings, moving events outdoors and instituting mask requirements.
Many officials have said the one-two punch of vaccines and widely available treatments, along with general changes in the nature of the coronavirus itself, had rendered most infections relatively mild and lessened the urgency for strict public health measures.
Only one California county, Alameda, instituted a new public indoor mask mandate in response to rising infections this spring, but that measure was short-lived. L.A. County came close to reviving its mask requirements but decided not to after seeing enough improvement in its pandemic metrics last week.
Residents should still protect themselves, officials said. It is still strongly encouraged that masks be worn in public indoor spaces. BA.5 remains highly infectious, and in a group of 50 people, there’s a 60% to 70% likelihood that someone in that group is infected, Ferrer has said.
Unvaccinated people in L.A. County are twice as likely to test positive for the coronavirus compared with people who have completed their primary vaccination series, according to figures presented Tuesday. They are also four times as likely to be hospitalized, and six times as likely to die, compared with those who have finished their primary vaccination series.
Vaccines: Los Angeles County’s health director said Wednesday she hopes the availability of a new form of COVID-19 vaccine, Novavax, will prompt people who have been hesitant about the previously available shots to finally consider getting vaccinated.
The county will begin offering doses of the Novavax vaccine Wednesday, providing the shots at not only its usual vaccination sites but in mobile clinics. The Novavax vaccine is a more traditional protein-based shot, rather than the mRNA technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna shots that were previously available.
For now, Pasadena won’t be offering Novavax, according to Pasadena spokesperson Lisa Derderian.
Meanwhile, County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told the County Board of Supervisors Tuesday that “we’re going to be able to say to folks, you know, we understand you had some concerns, you were worried about the new (mRNA) technology that wasn’t really so new, but folks who were worried about it with the vaccines, now we have something that really we’ve been making vaccines using this technology for over 30 years.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the Novavax vaccine July 13 after it was found to be 90% effective against mild, moderate and severe disease in the company’s Phase 3 clinical trial involving 30,000 participants ages 18 and older.
Long Beach health officials began offering the Novavax shots Monday. Ferrer said the shots will be available countywide Wednesday. Locations offering the shots can be found on the website vaccinatelacounty.com.
Residents can also contact their provider to see if their provider is offering Novavax.
Residents 18 years and older can get the Novavax vaccine, which is a two-dose primary series, with the second dose administered three weeks after the first. Boosters are not recommended and the Novavax vaccine is not authorized for children 17 and younger.
The availability of the new vaccine comes as the region slowly emerges from a surge of infections that almost prompted a new indoor mask-wearing mandate in the county. With case and hospitalization rates steadily dropping, the county announced last week it would defer imposing the mandate.
The Economy: The Senate passed legislation on Sunday that would make the most significant federal investment in history to counter climate change and lower the cost of prescription drugs, as Democrats banded together to push through major pieces of President Biden’s domestic agenda over unified Republican opposition.
The measure, large elements of which appeared dead just weeks ago amid Democratic divisions, would inject more than $370 billion into climate and energy programs. Altogether, the bill could allow the United States to cut greenhouse gas emissions about 40 percent below 2005 levels by the end of the decade.
It would achieve Democrats’ longstanding goal of slashing prescription drug costs by allowing Medicare for the first time to negotiate the prices of medicines directly and capping the amount that recipients pay out of pocket for drugs each year at $2,000. The measure also would extend larger premium subsidies for health coverage for low- and middle-income people under the Affordable Care Act for three years.
And it would be paid for by substantial tax increases, mostly on large corporations, including establishing a 15 percent corporate minimum tax and imposing a new tax on company stock buybacks.
Initially pitched as “Build Back Better,” a multi-trillion-dollar, cradle-to-grave social safety net plan on the order of the Great Society, Democrats scaled back the legislation in recent months and rebranded it as the Inflation Reduction Act. It was projected to lower the federal deficit by as much as $300 billion over a decade, though it remained to be seen whether it would counter inflation or lower costs for Americans in the long term.
U.S. job growth accelerated in July across nearly all industries, restoring nationwide employment to its prepandemic level, despite widespread expectations of a slowdown as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to fight inflation.
Employers added 528,000 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said on Friday, more than doubling what forecasters had projected. The unemployment rate ticked down to 3.5 percent, equaling the figure in February 2020, which was a 50-year low.
The labor market’s continued strength is all the more striking as gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, has declined for two consecutive quarters and as consumer sentiment about the economy has fallen sharply — along with the president’s approval ratings.
But the report could stiffen the Federal Reserve’s resolve to cool the economy. Wage growth sped up, to 5.2 percent over the past year, indicating that labor costs could add fuel to higher prices.
The number of job openings fell for the third consecutive month in June, a sign that the red-hot U.S. labor market may be starting to cool off.
Employers posted 10.7 million vacant positions on the last day of June, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That is high by historical standards but a sharp drop from the 11.3 million openings in May and the record 11.9 million in March. It was the largest one-month decline in the two decades that the government has kept track of this data, other than the two months at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
The drop was concentrated in retail, the latest sign that the sector is struggling as consumers shift their spending from goods back to services as the pandemic ebbs. But job postings have also fallen in leisure and hospitality, the sector that was the most strained by labor shortages last year.
The job market remains strong by most measures. There were still nearly twice as many job openings as unemployed workers in June, and employers are raising pay and offering other incentives to attract and retain staff. Layoffs remained near a record low in June, suggesting that employers were reluctant to part with staff they worked so hard to hire. And the number of workers voluntarily quitting their jobs remains high, although it has fallen from last year’s peak.
The recent decline in openings is likely to be encouraging news for policymakers at the Federal Reserve, who have been trying to slow down the economy in an effort to tame inflation. Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, and other officials have pointed to the number of vacant jobs as evidence that the labor market is too hot. They are hoping that employers will start posting fewer jobs and hiring fewer workers before they begin laying people off, allowing the job market to cool down without causing a spike in unemployment.
Federal Reserve officials on Tuesday made clear that they expected to continue raising rates to try to choke off the most rapid inflation in decades, putting them at odds with investors who had become more sanguine about the outlook for interest rate moves.
Stocks prices rose following the Fed’s meeting last week, as investors celebrated what some interpreted as a pivot: Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, said the central bank would begin making rate decisions on a meeting-by-meeting basis, which Wall Street took as a signal that its rate moves might soon slow down.
But a chorus of Fed officials has since made clear that a lurch away from rate increases is not yet in the cards.