Category: Covid-19

As the countys public health officer this week methodically reeled off the latest COVID-19 case rates, it quickly became clear that business owners greatest fears of yet another shutdown of indoor operations would not be realized.

We made it through a nail-biter here today, county Supervisor Jim Desmond said of the news that San Diego had escaped having to leave its red-tier reopening status for the states most restrictive purple tier. Its kind of a small victory.

But was it? After six months of navigating the dips and surges of the novel coronavirus and nervously monitoring Californias ever-changing rules for what is and isnt safe to reopen, local restaurants, bars and gyms are questioning how much longer if at all they and their employees can outlast the pandemic.

Since March, theyve weathered a cycle of government-mandated closings and subsequent reopenings, as the state wrestles with the challenge of containing the COVID-19 contagion without crushing local economies. The latest set of rules, guided by a Byzantine color-coded system tied to positivity rates, covers more than three dozen business sectors, with some able to widely reopen once the virus substantially recedes and still others limited to operating at no more than half their original capacity.

While businesses like hair and nail salons, retail stores and shopping centers can continue to operate indoors albeit at reduced capacities even under the states most restrictive guidelines, restaurants, wineries, bars, gyms, movie theaters, and some personal care services like tattoo parlors cannot.

And as San Diego moves into cooler weather, making street-side dining and outdoor workouts less appealing, and federal loan assistance is exhausted, the future feels more perilous for those businesses.

Lets face it, as bad as the pandemic has been on people and their health, it has been equally devastating or even more so to a lot of small businesses, said Greg Cox, who chairs the county Board of Supervisors. The one concern I have is we really have to guard against a kind of yo-yo effect where this week were in purple (tier) and then we have to close things down for three weeks and then open them back up and close them back down. That not only is not going to protect the public health but it will have an adverse impact on any ability to recover from this economic crisis.

Lesley and David Cohn, in this 2017 photo, are the founders of the Cohn Restaurant Group.

(K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune)

The Cohn Restaurant Group, San Diegos single biggest independent restaurant operator, currently has been able to keep all but two of its 23 local dining venues open for a combination of indoor and outdoor service. That indoor service, though, is limited to just 25 percent of a dining rooms capacity.

Come October, once the company runs out of the more than $560,000 in loan money it received from the federal Paycheck Protection Program to help cover wages and rents, its very possible the company will have to close a few more eateries, founder David Cohn said. Since being allowed to partially reopen, the company has hired back about 1,200 of the 1,800 employees it initially had to lay off, said his wife and co-founder, Lesley Cohn.

As we enter the fall and winter months, our restaurants cannot survive on 25 percent (capacity) even though we in California do have the ability to serve almost year-round outside, Lesley Cohn said in an interview this week. Based on the current color-coded system, it will be difficult to reach 50 percent occupancy, and were frustrated that theres no current state plan to get beyond 50 percent. How is that sustainable?

Unfortunately as of today, everything weve built over the past 38 years is in jeopardy.

Tensions in the business community have been building in recent weeks, to the point where a week ago some owners threatened to defy state mandates, as signs initially pointed to even tighter restrictions, prompting some owners to say they would continue operating indoors if faced with a shutdown.

Patrons Barbara Lartigau (left) and Deedee Simmons (right) enjoy lunchtime at Eastbound Bar and Grill on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020 in Lakeside.

(Eduardo Contreras / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Ben Clevenger, who owns two East County restaurants, said he was prepared to keep his Eastbound Bar and Grill in Lakeside open for indoor service if San Diego County had moved into the purple tier that would have barred dining inside.

We believe the metrics have to be changed, said Clevenger, who is also president of the San Diego chapter of the California Restaurant Association. This back and forth, its been too much and were tired of it. We understand the severity of the virus. Were all about the sanitation but we dont think the numbers are increasing because restaurants are open to 25 percent capacity. Its stressful telling your employees, Weve got hours for you, and then saying, Sorry were getting shut down again and were going to take your hours away.

While there already have been some permanent business closures related to the pandemic, experts predict in the months ahead a tsunami of shutterings amid a virus that shows no signs of a rapid retreat.

Yelp, the crowd-sourced ratings website for restaurants and other small businesses nationwide, reports that between March 1 and Aug. 31, more than 1,900 San Diego County businesses formerly listed on the site have permanently closed, Since it began tracking temporary and permanent business closures in March, Yelp found that 61 percent of all the restaurants that closed temporarily across the country have transitioned to permanent closures. For bars and nightclubs, its 54 percent, and for fitness centers, 43 percent.

While there are no recent stats for restaurant closures alone in San Diego County, as of July 10, there were 226 eateries in San Diego County listed as permanently closed since March 1. A recent report from the National Restaurant Association offered an even more sobering statistic: Some 100,000 restaurants nationwide are already out of business due to the coronavirus. In California, the restaurant industrys trade group predicts that eventually, 30 percent of restaurants will close permanently.

As San Diegos economy continues to reel from the abrupt shutdown in March, the losses have been staggering, even as the county has seen some recent signs of improvement. As of early August, there were an estimated 250,000 San Diegans without jobs five times more than at the beginning of the year, according to the San Diego Association of Governments.

The countys gross domestic product is now forecast to decline between $10 and $15 billion, said SANDAG economist Ray Major. Thats a 4.5 percent drop, which he says effectively erases all of the gains of the last two years. The leisure and hospitality sector, which includes the $10 billion a year restaurant industry, has been especially hard hit.

This is going to fundamentally change the restaurant scene in San Diego, Major said. If you ran a deli in a downtown highrise, for example, and depended on those office workers to patronize you, thats completely dried out. The person who ran the deli in our building downtown has told me theyre not going to make it. They ran through their life savings.

Inside North Parks Tiger!Tiger! tavern in 2016.

(K.C. Alfred)

One of the more surprising casualties of COVID-19 is the North Park gastropub Tiger! Tiger! The popular beer bar and restaurant permanently closed Sept. 18. Owners of the 9-year-old restaurant bar say they couldnt see a path forward in the limited-seating, uncertain times the industry is facing.

The ownership, however, will continue to operate its Blind Lady Alehouse, as well as Panama 66 at the San Diego Museum of Art.

Co-founder Clea Hantman, who launched Tiger! Tiger! with her husband Jeff Motch and Jenniffer and Lee Chase, declined to comment for this article but they posted a message on their Facebook page.

COVID-19 did us in, they said. Running a restaurant historically has razor-thin margins. Attempting to run a restaurant in the middle of a pandemic with mounds of debt piling up is nonsensical. We tried many different paths for this business over the last six months and each one took us down a dead end. With the end of our lease approaching fast, we all really believe we had no other choice.

Led by Junior Leoso, Pacific Beach Training currently offers both group classes and private lessons at its indoor facility at the state-required rate of 10 percent capacity.

(Courtesy of Pacific Beach Training)

Fitness centers, hit with one of the most stringent caps on occupancy under the states new tiered system, face especially challenging economics, given that they can only fill their buildings up to 10 percent of their total capacity. While many, if they have the space, have expanded to outdoors, it isnt a sustainable solution, say some.

You wouldnt know it by talking to him, but Junior Leoso is in a tough spot. The 40-year-old owner of specialty fitness gym, Pacific Beach Training, took on a new, much pricier lease in March for 2,500 square feet of indoor workout space.

Shortly thereafter he was forced to close his doors and become extra resourceful. And with no adjacent usable outdoor space available to him, his creativity has continued, meaning in-person classes were replaced by online classes and later supplemented with outdoor classes at not-so-nearby parks.

Currently, the gym can serve no more than 12 people per class inside the facility. To pay the bills, Leoso has needed to lean heavily on his side business, Dedicated Dads, a hybrid fitness and mental health program for fathers that has thrived online during the pandemic.

If we dont reopen the doors, or we cant go full bore and advertise by the new year, which is only three months away, were going to be in big trouble and will have to really reassess what the plan is moving forward, Leoso said. We cant sustain it on 10 percent capacity.

Michael Hamanaka (arms out middle), owner of The Movement Warehouse in Pacific Beach, works outside with clients.

(Eduardo Contreras / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Five blocks east, The Movement Warehouse has fared far better for one simple reason: ample outdoor space.

Weve never done better, said gym owner Michael Hamanaka, who added that memberships shot up when he reopened with outdoor classes. With access to 3,500 square feet of turf and limited competition, Hamanaka was able to sign on a record 45 new members in July.

He even raised prices knowing that his high-intensity weight-lifting gym was pretty much the only option in town. The Movement Warehouse is in a relatively cushy spot, with Hamanakas business far more immune to frequently changing government restrictions that have simultaneously crippled his friend Leosos similar-but-different fitness venture.

I think I sound OK because Ive definitely had my nights of kicking and screaming, and trying to figure this stuff out. Now its about survival, Leoso said. Its about doing everything we can and only worrying about the things we can control.

Flamin Pho & Sushi Bar

(Courtesy of Flamin Pho)

As stressed and anxiety-ridden and overworked as many restaurateurs are right now, many say they are determined to vanquish the fallout from the virus without sacrificing their businesses. Some, like Afghan immigrant Tariq Wasimi, are working long hours, filling in as servers and food runners, as a way to save money on labor.

Weve been able to break even because my business partner, Stavro Yousif, and I have put in 12-hour days for the last six months, said Wasimi, owner of Flamin Pho & Sushi Bar in downtown San Diego. Before COVID, his restaurant could seat 72. Now its been slashed to 28, all outdoors. We havent had a server, just he and I.

Here you go, Wasimi said to a customer, who was picking up an order, as he spoke with a reporter. Hi, can I help you, he asked another.

This year was on pace to be the 2-1/2-year-old restaurants best. But after taking in $650,000 in sales last year, Flamin Pho is currently at only a quarter of that revenue. Loans from family members have helped keep the business afloat, and despite the lean times, Wasimi remains determined to not let his business slip away.

Its nerve-wracking because Im just about to finally open inside dining and hire people, but I dont want to be in that stage where two weeks from now I have to let people go, he sighed. Im scared if the (coronavirus) rate goes up by a couple numbers and Im shut down again. But Ill be damned if I give up on this place. Ill do whatever it takes to survive.

Like Wasimi, longtime restaurateur Terryl Gavre has been working much longer hours, intent on keeping her venues open without incurring major losses. In a move to buy some time for the 10-year-old Bankers Hill Bar + Restaurant she owns with chef-partner Carl Schroeder, they are closing temporarily after this weekend.

While they were able to do enough business to break even, that was no longer possible when their federal loan money that amounted to less than $250,000 ran out a week ago, Gavre said. The temporary closure of Bankers Hill is possible, Gavre said, because of the willingness of their landlord to give them free rent over the next several months as they regroup and await a wider reopening of restaurants.

Its all been very stressful. You are constantly running things through your head day and night, what if this happens, OK, then Ill do this, and what if this happens. You dont get any peace, said Gavre, who also owns Cafe 222, a small breakfast and lunch spot in downtown San Diego. Every time they make a change in the rules, you have to react by either finding your staff or laying them off again. So right now, with Bankers Hill, wed rather wait and hold onto all our assets until we have a fighting chance to make a profit. I know well be itching to get back in there.

Even more daunting is the road ahead for the many bars in San Diego that have never served food and have made no arrangements to do so in order to comply with the current state guidelines that would let them open indoors at 25 percent capacity.

Jasper JJ Sciuto is the lead bartender and manager for the Lamplighter, which has remained mostly closed during the pandemic.

(Jarrod Valliere / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

At the Lamplighter in Mission Hills, the lights are off and the mood seemingly even darker at one of San Diegos most well-known dive bars.

We would be so screwed if my dad didnt have other things going on, said Jasper JJ Sciuto, who helps run the bar with his brother Joe. The family business the senior Sciuto bought the bar in 1994 has been closed since March, save for a two-week window in late June when bars that dont also serve food were allowed to open.

For now, the Lamplighter must remain closed until San Diego enters the next tier, when the county is deemed to be at a moderate risk level and daily new COVID-19 cases are between one and 3.9 cases per 100,000 residents. Although without outdoor space, Lamplighter may have to remain closed until the county hits the even more seemingly out-of-reach yellow tier that means minimal COVID spread.

As a result, Lamplighters entire staff has been let go even the brothers, who are collecting unemployment. Still, Joe Sr. is able to make the rent payments, meaning the bar, best known for its late-night karaoke and stiff drinks, is in no danger of permanently closing anytime soon, JJ said.

We just keep waiting it out. My brother and I depend on this for jobs, JJ said. Were now at the point where we need to find (new jobs).

Zak Higson, left, his brother, Nate Higson, center, and friend and business partner, Grant Tondro, are the founders of 3 Local Brothers restaurant and brewery group.

(San Diego Union-Tribune)

North County restaurant owner Grant Tondro understands well the roller coaster ride that has defined the COVID-19 landscape for local businesses. Not only did he and his two partners, Zak and Nate Higson, have to temporarily close or reduce operations at a few of their dining and drinking venues in Carmel Valley, Rancho Bernardo and San Marcos, but they also had to abandon plans for a major expansion that involved seven new projects.

This last six months has been absolutely insane, between the constant changing restrictions and the overall public sense of fear, said Tondro, who co-founded the 3 Local Brothers restaurant/brewery company. Weve all got pivot fatigue because we have to reinvent our business every single day. Im not sleeping, Im eating too much and Ive been stretched in ways I didnt realize I could be stretched.

As the prospect of increasingly vacant storefronts becomes an unfortunate reality in the coming months, the question becomes, how will that affect the daily life and character of San Diegos mature, once vibrant neighborhoods.

There will be a big difference between how things look like in one year vs. in four years, says Bill Fulton, a former city of San Diego planning director and director of Rice Universitys Kinder Institute for Urban Research. In one year, its pretty grim. Were going to see huge, permanent closure of all restaurants, bars and gyms. But once the system swallows all that, I see no reason why restaurants, bars and gyms would not come back, but it will take several years.

Staff writer Gary Warth contributed to this report.

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COVID-19 infection rates become weekly 'nail-biter' for local businesses: Can they outlast pandemic? - The San Diego Union-Tribune

HONOLULU (KHON2) -- Visitors who decide to fly to Hawaii before Oct. 31 should consider which island they want to visit as the inter-island quarantine remains in place, for now, through October.

In his latest emergency proclamation, Governor David Ige extended the inter-island quarantine but left it up to the county mayors to decide whether the quarantine should be kept in place, lifted, or if they want to see additional testing measures put in place.

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19 OCCC inmates test positive for COVID-19 - KHON2

Risk of COVID-19-related death among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma prescribed inhaled corticosteroids: an observational cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform  The Lancet

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Risk of COVID-19-related death among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma prescribed inhaled corticosteroids: an...

While the medical world rushes to develop an effective and safe vaccine for the deadly coronavirus which is sweeping across the planet, millions of doses of other life-saving immunizations against other diseases, continue to be delivered by the United Nations - albeit at a somewhat slower pace.

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FROM THE FIELD: COVID-19's 'deadly layer of complexity' depicted in photos - UN News

As we face the current crisis, and guided by the principle of human security, I think it is essential to set the goal of leaving no ones health behind as we work towards achieving universal health coverage, he said in a pre-recorded speech to the UN General Assembly on Friday.

Based on this shared goal, Mr. Suga said Japan will proactively lead international efforts focused on three areas, with safeguarding lives topping the list.

He told world leaders gathered virtually for the Assemblys annual high-level segment that Japan fully supports the development of therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics against the new coronavirus disease, and is working to ensure they will be accessible to everyone, everywhere.

As the world must also prepare for future health crises, Japan has pledged to expand support to developing nations. For example, the country is working with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the establishment of a regional centre for public health and emerging disease.

Mr. Suga reported that so far, Japan has provided over $1.5 billion in foreign aid to medical and health centres during the pandemic. We will continue to work with other countries to improve the conditions of water, sanitation and hygiene, nutrition and other environmental factors, he said.

At the same time, the Prime Minister emphasized that it is critically important to take action to revitalize developing economies hit hard by the crisis. Here, Japan will implement a COVID-19 Crisis Response Emergency Support Loan totalling up to 400 billion Yen, or roughly $4.5 billion, over a two-year period.

As free trade should not stop even with the restrictions caused by the crisis, Mr. Suga again underscored the importance of universal access to a COVID-19 vaccine. Japan also will continue to promote reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and economic partnership agreements with other countries, among other developments.

Looking to the future, Prime Minister Suga emphasized the importance of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of overall efforts to build back better after the pandemic.

The ongoing crisis is heavily impacting the education of children and the youth who shape the future. It is also affecting women among others, he observed.

To create a more inclusive society, he again outlined three points for action, starting with ensuring the importance of the UN and multilateralism.

While I greatly respect the activities and efforts of the UN thus far, I would also like to emphasize that the Organization is in need of neutral and fair governance more than ever, said Mr. Suga. Thus, Japan stands ready to cooperate in the process for UN reform, including of the Security Council and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO is key in our collective response to infectious diseases, he stated. Through its review and reform, I believe the WHO will be able to make even better use of necessary expertise at the right time, in the right manner.

COVID-19 also must not jeopardize international peace and security, and Mr. Suga underscored Japans continued contributions in this arena.

His third point concerned the rule of law which he said must be upheld in times of increasing uncertainty, describing it as the foundation of order, both domestic and international, and the very spirit which the UN is built on.

Full statement available here

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Japan to 'proactively lead' on COVID-19 response efforts - UN News

She pointed to the influencer twins Brooklyn and Bailey McKnight as an example of what the future will look like for university marketing. The twins, who have millions of followers on Instagram and YouTube, are paid by Baylor University, which they attend, to promote the school as a destination for prospective students. (In August, the twins announced on Instagram that they had both contracted Covid-19; It is NOT due to in person classes that this happened, they wrote, praising Baylors safety precautions.)

Temple University has created paid positions for student vloggers, and shared content created by influencers on campus across its official social channels. We keep a good pulse on the influencers in our student body, Kristen Manka-White, a marketer at the school, told Inside Higher Ed.

The University of Maryland is planning to start paying students to share coronavirus safety information on social media in the coming weeks as part of a larger student ambassador program, said Sophie Tullier, assistant director of assessment and research for the division of student affairs.

The ambassador program began when the school limited the number of students returning to campus, leaving many R.A.s without jobs. The students were reassigned as ambassadors, with duties including handing out safety information on campus and providing other students with masks. Some of them will also be paid for posting on their own social media accounts.

The students wont be paid based on their posts engagement rate, Ms. Tullier said, explaining that instead, a social media post would count for 15 minutes or 30 minutes of work at an hourly wage. She added that while the school does plan to track engagement rates for the content, we wont be using that as any sort of incentive pay structure.

The goal, she said, is for them is to come up with content and bullet points. These could include identifying Monday as for how to maintain your mental health and Covid, while Tuesday is about, you know, remembering to wear your mask, and Wednesday is a reminder to keep doing the daily monitoring.

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Colleges Are Hiring Their Own Students as Covid-19 Safety Influencers - The New York Times

If you eliminate us in the data, we no longer exist, saysAbigail Echo-Hawk,a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and director of theUrban Indian Health Institute.

By Lizzie WadeSep. 24, 2020 , 12:20 PM

Sciences COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.

Abigail Echo-Hawk cant even count how many times shes been called a troublemaker. Its happened at conferences, workshops, and even after she testified before Congressall places where she has advocated for the full and ethical inclusion of American Indians and Alaska Natives in public health data. I didnt used to know what to say, she says. Now, my answer is, Is calling for justice making trouble?

As the director of the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI) and the chief research officer for the Seattle Indian Health Board, Echo-Hawk has been working for years with Indigenous people, mostly in cities, across the United States to collect data about their communities. She has also advised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health, and many universities on best practices for analyzing data about American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic has given Echo-Hawks work even more urgency.

The virus has taken a disproportionate toll on many Indigenous communities in the United States. But its full impact is unclear because of problems Echo-Hawk has long fought to correct, including racial misclassification and the exclusion of Indigenous communities from data sets and analyses used to make health policy decisions.

Abigail has highlighted the inadequacy of, the restricted access to, and the delays in receiving data about how COVID-19 is affecting Indigenous people in the United States, says Spero Manson, director of the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health at the Colorado School of Public Health, who is Pembina Chippewa. But it all builds on her prior work.

Echo-Hawk, who is a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, grew up in rural Alaska. She credits her interest in public health to the values she saw modeled by the leaders and members of her tribal communities. They think about the health and well-being of an entire community in a very holistic way, Echo-Hawk says.

She had a different experience after moving to Seattle for college and seeking prenatal care for her first pregnancy at a local hospital. When a medical assistant found out that Echo-Hawk was Indigenous, she began to aggressively question her about drinking and drug use. (Echo-Hawk was doing neither.) That was very traumatic for me I was treated in a way that a lot of people of color are, and that is with disdain, discrimination, and outright racism. And it inhibited my care, she says.

She didnt see a doctor again until her second trimester, when she went to the Seattle Indian Health Board. There she was welcomed, trusted, and treated with respect. That experience set Echo-Hawk on a path that eventually led to studying health policy at the University of Washington, Bothell, and working at the research program Partnerships for Native Health, now at Washington State University. She became director of UIHI in 2016.

The system of colonialism in the United States has created, and continues to increase risk factors for, poor health outcomes in Native communities, Echo-Hawk says. The U.S. government removed many Indigenous communities from their lands and confined them to reservations. Many didnt have access to medical care and were cut off from their traditional diets and lifestyles, including spiritual practices that were tied to their homelands. Today, American Indians and Alaska Natives have higher rates of obesity, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease than white Americans, as well as higher rates of suicide. The system of oppression in the United States, Echo-Hawk says, has built a perfect environment to kill us in a pandemic.

But data showing the pandemics full impact on Indigenous communities across the country have not been collected, and accessing the information that does exist can be an uphill battle. Citing privacy concerns, for example, CDC initially denied tribal epidemiology centers, including UIHI, access to data about testing and confirmed COVID-19 cases, even though it was making those data available to states. Whats more, data collected by tribes, local and state health departments, and national agencies are often wildly inconsistent, says Desi Rodriguez-Lonebear, a social demographer at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation. I cannot tell you with any sort of certainty the number of positive cases of COVID-19 on my reservation right now, she says. Its shocking.

It also reflects an old pattern, Rodriguez-Lonebear says. For so long, data has been used against our people. For example, the U.S. census, which began in 1790, excluded all American Indians until 1860, and didnt count those living on reservations until 1900. The census data were then used to justify the invasion and settlement of supposedly empty land, Rodriguez-Lonebear says.

Today, American Indians and Alaska Natives make up about 2% of the U.S. population but are often left out of national data analyses or marked as statistically insignificant. I see being eliminated in the data as an ongoing part of the continuing genocide of American Indians and Alaska Natives. If you eliminate us in the data, we no longer exist, Echo-Hawk says.

One way this erasure happens is through racial misclassification, Echo-Hawk says. Documents such as hospital intake forms might not give people the option to identify as American Indian or Alaska Native, lumping them into an other category. Similarly, CDC reports maternal mortality data by three racial categories: white, Black, and Hispanic. All other races are classified as other. When UIHI did its own analysis of maternal mortality, it found that urban American Indian mothers were 4.2 times more likely to die during or shortly after pregnancy than non-Hispanic white mothers.

Echo-Hawk is pushing for similar detail on COVID-19 cases. Before the pandemic, she traveled the country working with Indigenous communities and training scientists at universities and other institutions to change their data collection and analysis practices. Now, she cant leave Seattle because of the pandemic, but shes working up to 15 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is probably the most troubling time ever in my career, she says. Echo-Hawk and others pushed CDC to give tribal health authorities access to COVID-19 caseswith some success. Still, the data are a sliver of what she asked for, she says. The federal government is failing to uphold their end of the bargain, Rodriguez-Lonebear agrees. CDC did not respond to a request for comment.

Echo-Hawk is a co-author on a recent article in theMorbidity and Mortality Weekly Reportthat found American Indians and Alaska Natives were 3.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 than non-Hispanic white people. That is a gross underreporting, she says, because the study could only analyze data from the 23 states that reported patients race and ethnicity over 70% of the time. The data is a national disgrace, and the gaps affect all communities of color, Echo-Hawk says. How can decisions be made in the United States to prevent, intervene, and treat COVID-19, when you cant even truly tell what populations are most affected?

Data can be used as a weapon to further marginalize and harm communities of color, especially Indigenous communities, agrees Kelly Gonzales, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation who studies the effects of systemic racism and colonialism on health at the Oregon Health & Science UniversityPortland State University School of Public Health. As a founding member of the independent Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Decolonizing Research and Data Council, she draws on Echo-Hawks work to design and teach methods of data collection and analysis that advance racial justice. On days where doing this work in the context of ongoing white supremacy and colonial violence feels really challenging and impossible, I remember her doing this work, and I remember Im not alone.

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COVID-19 data on Native Americans is 'a national disgrace.' This scientist is fighting to be counted - Science Magazine

White-crowned sparrows can cope with noisy cities, but their songs suffer.

By Erik StokstadSep. 24, 2020 , 5:25 PM

Sciences COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.

White-crowned sparrows are tough birds, able to survive the hustle and bustle of many North American cities. But growing noise pollution has forced males to sing louder, less effective songs in order to be heard by rivals and mates. During the pandemic lockdown this spring, the background din quieted. A new study shows that, in just a matter of weeks, the sparrows songs recovered the acoustic quality of songs sung decades ago, when city life was less noisy.

Elizabeth Derryberry, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and her colleagues have studied white-crowned sparrows in and around San Francisco for more than 2 decades, comparing their songs with recordings made in the 1970s. As traffic levels increased, the lowest frequencies of the sparrows songs rose, so as not to be drowned out by the background hum of vehicles. But their top frequencies remained about the same, narrowing the total bandwidth of their communication.

For many bird species, songs degraded in this way are less effective at deterring rivals and attracting females. Birds sing louder in noisy environments, and research has shown the resulting stress can speed aging and disrupt their metabolisms. Noise can also keep them from hearing their own chicksor the warnings of fellow birds; it may even be driving down bird diversity in many cities.

When the pandemic lockdown began in mid-March, Derryberry remembers seeing a striking photo of the Golden Gate Bridge. I was like, Oh my God, its empty. And that made her wonder how the sparrows were responding to the quieter conditions.

Derryberry couldnt travel to California, but her colleague, Jenny Phillips, a behavioral ecologist at California Polytechnic State University, recorded the birds in San Francisco and the surrounding areas (below). Her recordings revealed that the sparrows were singing 30% softer, on average, than before the lockdown. Whats more, they were singing songs with bandwidths typical of birds recorded in the 1970s. The combination of less background noise and the better signal from wider bandwidth meant the males could likely hear each other from twice as far away than before, they report today in Science.

The improved communication may have helped rival males avoid each other, meaning fewer fights. Phillips has previously found that urban birds are generally quicker to attack rivals. I think that the aggression levels might have gone down so that everybody chilled out, Derryberry says.

The new finding is good news from the point of view of the birds, says Sue Anne Zollinger, an ornithologist at Manchester Metropolitan University, who was not involved in the work. By showing the sparrows can adjust their songs to their environment, the study suggests species with more flexible behaviors can cope with aspects of changing environments. Reducing noise might allow other noise-sensitive bird species, such as California quail, to return to cities where they once sang. If we can work to make things quieter, it will really have a big impact.

But the respite provided by the pandemic has been short lived, as traffic and noise return to cities. When the birds start their springtime serenades next year, Derryberry and her colleagues plan to see whether their songs are suffering again.

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When COVID-19 silenced cities, birdsong recaptured its former glory - Science Magazine

TheWest Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of 10:00 a.m., September 24,2020, there have been 528,658 total confirmatorylaboratory results received for COVID-19, with 14,706 totalcases and 325 deaths.

DHHR has confirmed the deaths of a 96-year old female from Mason County, a 62-yearold female from Fayette County, a 72-year old male from Fayette County, an 86-yearold male from Kanawha County, a 69-year old female from Kanawha County, and an 89-yearold male from Pleasants County. Ourdeepest condolences are extended to these families for their loss, said BillJ. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. We are thankful for our healthcareprofessionals and all those on the front line who continue to treat WestVirginians battling COVID-19.

CASESPER COUNTY: Barbour(52), Berkeley (968), Boone (206), Braxton (13), Brooke (111), Cabell (759),Calhoun (25), Clay (34), Doddridge (19), Fayette (583), Gilmer (39), Grant(156), Greenbrier (125), Hampshire (103), Hancock (145), Hardy (87), Harrison(346), Jackson (258), Jefferson (427), Kanawha (2,468), Lewis (38), Lincoln(157), Logan (599), Marion (261), Marshall (162), Mason (140), McDowell (80),Mercer (407), Mineral (171), Mingo (366), Monongalia (1,959), Monroe (147),Morgan (53), Nicholas (98), Ohio (362), Pendleton (52), Pleasants (16),Pocahontas (59), Preston (151), Putnam (529), Raleigh (497), Randolph (240),Ritchie (11), Roane (49), Summers (47), Taylor (120), Tucker (17), Tyler (15),Upshur (64), Wayne (381), Webster (7), Wetzel (51), Wirt (12), Wood (356),Wyoming (108).

Pleasenote that delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from thelocal health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the localhealth department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain countymay not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual inquestion may have crossed the state border to be tested.Suchis the case of Clay, Marshall, and Mingo counties in this report.

Pleasevisit the dashboard located at http://www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more information.

Free COVID-19 testing locations are available today in Cabell, Marion, andSummers counties:

Cabell County, September24, 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM, Bloomingdale Baptist Church, 5241 State Route 10, SaltRock, WV

Marion County, September24, 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM, 1 Everest Drive, Fairmont, WV

Summers County, September24, 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM, Hinton Freight Depot, 506 Commercial Street, Hinton, WV

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COVID-19 Daily Update 9-24-2020 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

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The state on Thursday reported one new death and 142 new cases of COVID-19, according to the Department of Health and Social Services COVID-19 dashboard.

The state health department said Thursday that the newly reported death involved a Fairbanks man in his 50s. In total, forty-six Alaskans have died with COVID-19 since the pandemic began here in March. Alaskas death rate is among the lowest in the country.

Statewide as of Thursday, 39 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 while four other hospital patients were awaiting test results, according to state data. Of Alaskas 153 intensive care unit beds, 85 were in use statewide.

Infections continued to surge in the North Slope Borough community of Utqiagvik, where the state reported 15 new resident cases and one nonresident case for a total of 45 active cases. An emergency hunker down order is in place in Utqiagvik through Oct. 5, and other Arctic communities facing a rise in virus cases have also sought to enact more stringent pandemic restrictions.

Active cases of COVID-19 among Alaska residents rose from 4,482 on Wednesday to 4,519 on Thursday. According to state data, there are 694 active cases among nonresidents.

Of the new cases, it wasnt clear how many people were showing symptoms of the virus when they tested positive.

Of the 130 new cases of COVID-19 involving residents, there were 67 new cases in Anchorage; 15 in Utqiagvik; eight in Fairbanks; eight in Juneau; three in North Pole; three in Wasilla; two in Eagle River; one in Chugiak; one in Kenai; one in Seward; one in Palmer; one in Douglas; one in Sitka; and one in Bethel.

Among communities smaller than 1,000 not identified to protect confidentiality, there was five in the Bethel Census Area; four in the Nome Census Area; four in the Northwest Arctic Borough; one in the Denali Borough; one in the Fairbanks North Star Borough; one in the North Slope Borough; and one in the Prince Wales-Hyder Census Area.

Of the 12 nonresident cases, eight were in Anchorage; two were in Fairbanks; one was in Utqiagvik; and one was in an unknown region of the state.

The states testing positivity rate as of Thursday was 2.09% over a seven-day rolling average.

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Tracking COVID-19 in Alaska: 1 death and 142 new cases reported Thursday - Anchorage Daily News