SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Deaths from the coronavirus pandemic are spiking across the country, yet a new poll finds little increase in alarm among Americans about COVID-19 infections and no significant change in opinion about how the government should act to slow the spread. The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public...
California Begins Vaccinations Against COVID-19 Amid Huge Case Surge
LOS ANGELES — Vaccinations against COVID-19 began Monday in California amid a huge surge in infections and hospitalizations. Intensive care unit nurse Helen Cordova received a shot of the Pfizer vaccine at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who watched and applauded, tweeted that Cordova was one...
‘Relieved’: US Health Workers Start Getting COVID-19 Vaccine
The biggest vaccination campaign in U.S. history kicked off Monday as health workers rolled up their sleeves for shots to protect them from COVID-19 and start beating back the pandemic — a day of optimism even as the nation's death toll closed in on 300,000. “I feel hopeful today. Relieved,”...
Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Population Plummets. Is Species Near ‘Collapse’?
[aggregation-styles] The Tribune Preliminary numbers from an annual monarch butterfly population count in Pismo Beach show the insect species has suffered a devastating blow and is teetering closer to extinction. Volunteers only saw about 200 butterflies during this year’s count at the Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove, one of...
Fresno ICU Doctor on Packed Hospitals: ‘There is No Help on the Way’
[aggregation-styles] Los Angeles Times The last time Dr. Eyad Almasri had a day off was in November, when he was infected with COVID-19. His symptoms were not life-threatening, but it crushed him, he said, that he couldn’t be with his patients for 10 days. A pulmonologist with the Fresno campus...
COVID Tests Lagging: Slower Turnaround Times Creeping Back for Californians
Seven days a week, San Francisco’s public health laboratory operates until midnight. Workers are exhausted, their director says. And still, the COVID-19 specimens keep coming in their little plastic tubes, with test results expected quickly to help manage California’s alarming surge of infections. The lab was set up earlier in...
First Coronavirus Vaccines Head To States, Starting Historic Effort
[aggregation-styles] The New York Times Subscription At Novant Health in Winston-Salem, N.C., the new ultracold freezers are ready — enough to eventually house more than 500,000 doses of the first coronavirus vaccine approved in the United States. In Los Angeles, the Cedars-Sinai medical center has installed extra security cameras to...
Viral Spread: Americans Paying the Price for Thanksgiving
With some Americans now paying the price for what they did over Thanksgiving and falling sick with COVID-19, health officials are warning people — begging them, even — not to make the same mistake during the Christmas and New Year's season. “It’s a surge above the existing surge,” said Ali...
Hospitals Prepare to Get First Vaccine Doses. Here’s California’s Plan.
SACRAMENTO — As California reported a record of nearly 35,500 positive coronavirus cases on Friday, there's a glimmer of hope: The state is awaiting the first batch of coronavirus vaccine and plans to distribute it to hospitals to inoculate healthcare workers on the front lines of the pandemic. The state...
White House Demands FDA Approve COVID Vaccine. Threatens FDA Chief’s Job.
WASHINGTON — White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Friday pressed Food and Drug Administration chief Stephen Hahn to grant an emergency use authorization for Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine by the end of the day or face possible firing, two administration officials said. The vaccine produced by Pfizer Inc. and...