Perhaps the most important question now about COVID-19 is the degree to which a prior infection protects from a second infection by the new coronavirus. This affects vaccine development and herd immunity and is something for each of us to consider as antibody tests are now available. I am a...
Public Health Workers Fighting Virus Face Growing Threats
Emily Brown was stretched thin. As the director of the Rio Grande County Public Health Department in rural Colorado, she was working 12- and 14-hour days, struggling to respond to the pandemic with only five full-time employees for more than 11,000 residents. Case counts were rising. She was already at...
Face Masks With Windows Mean More Than Smiles to Deaf People
SAN DIEGO — Michael Conley felt especially isolated these past few months: A deaf man, he was prevented from reading lips by the masks people wore to prevent the spread of COVID-19. But then he met Ingrid Helton, a costume designer who sewed him a solution – masks with plastic...
Pop Open a Bottle, California Wine Tasting Rooms Reopening
SAN DIEGO — California wineries started uncorking their bottles and welcoming people back to their tasting rooms Friday as the state's $145 billion tourism industry gears up with hotels, zoos, museums and aquariums also allowed to reopen. With COVID-19 cases in the state still growing, the tourism industry is trying...
Winning Bid For PLA-Build of Herrera Elementary Is $3M Under Estimate
Fresno Unified trustees gave the green light this week to a $37.6 million construction bid for the new Juan Felipe Herrera Elementary School in southeast Fresno. Trustee Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas made a point of asking how the bid compared with prior estimates. Chief operations officer Karin Temple said the winning...
New Research Shows How Face Masks Can Stop Second and Third Coronavirus Waves
[aggregation-styles] Fortune A study published Wednesday by scientists in the U.K. finds that widespread adoption of face masks, in addition to lockdowns, could prevent further waves of the coronavirus and allow for less strict lockdown measures. The researchers, who hail from Cambridge University and Greenwich University, argue that lockdowns alone...
Oregon Pauses Reopening as Number of Daily Infections Hits a High
[aggregation-styles] Los Angeles Times Subscription Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said Thursday evening that a noticeable increase in coronavirus infections was cause for concern and that she was putting all county applications for further reopening on hold for seven days. The Oregon Health Authority reported 178 new confirmed COVID-19 cases Thursday,...
Downplaying Virus Risk, Trump Gets Back to Business as Usual
WASHINGTON — At the White House, aides now routinely flout internal rules requiring face masks. The president's campaign is again scheduling mass arena rallies. And he is back to spending summer weekends at his New Jersey golf club. Three months after President Donald Trump bowed to the realities of a pandemic that put...
No New COVID-19 Cases Reported After Infected Hair Stylists Exposed 140 Clients in Missouri
[aggregation-styles] NBC News Two Missouri hair stylists who saw dozens of clients while infected with the coronavirus did not pass the illness to any of their customers who were tested, health officials said. The diagnosis of the two stylists at the same Great Clips in Springfield, Missouri, last month raised...
Homelessness Deepens in Los Angeles County, Jumps 13%
LOS ANGELES — The number of homeless people counted across Los Angeles County jumped 12.7% over the past year to more than 66,400 and authorities fear that figure will spike again once the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic is felt, officials said Friday. The majority of those experiencing homelessness...