Weekly CA-COVID Update 7/13/22

California

Dinuba High School is the second school in the Central Valley to join the Merced Automatic Admission Program… 

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law key elements of a new $307.9-billion state budget, a spending plan centered on gas refunds for 17.5 million taxpayers to soften the sting of high fuel prices and the cost of living…

The governor signed Assembly Bill 1621 on 6/30 to further restrict privately manufactured firearms, commonly known as ghost guns, in California…

The number of hate crimes in California rose for the third year in a row in 2021 and included a sizable uptick in the number of anti-Asian crimes, according to the California Department of Justice’s annual report on hate crimes. In 2021, there were 1,763 reported hate crimes, up 33 percent from the year prior… 

New research from UC Irvine shows that fires caused by human activity — be it arson, a neglected campfire, sparking electrical equipment, or ill-conceived gender reveal parties — spread faster, burn hotter and destroy more trees than those caused by lightning strikes…

Coronavirus

The Biden administration is considering whether to expand second COVID-19 booster shots to adults under 50 in an effort to counter the latest, highly contagious variant, which has driven up hospitalization rates and deepened worries about waning immunity among those vaccinated or boosted at least six or so months ago…

Despite the FDA's full approval of the COVID-19 vaccine, 58.8 percent of Californians who are not fully vaccinated are still worried about its side effects, according to a new UCLA survey… 

In late June, the FDA’s independent vaccine advisers voted 19-2 to recommend the agency authorize COVID-19 booster formulations that target the Omicron variant, while acknowledging data gaps that persist on the shots’ efficacy over time…

Pharmacists can prescribe the leading COVID-19 pill directly to patients under a new U.S. policy that’s intended to expand use of Pfizer’s drug Paxlovid…