TRENTON, N.J. (CBSNewYork) New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy spoke briefly Friday about how the state will handle COVID vaccines when they become available.
Were going to have our own process and our own checks and balances, not just on efficacy, but also on equity and other factors in terms of how we think about not just is it safe, but whats the order of distribution, et cetera, he said.
This comes a day after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced New York state will have its own health officials to screen any federally approved vaccine, saying, Im not going to trust the federal governments opinion.
MORE: Gov. Cuomo: Im Not Going To Trust The Federal Governments Opinion On Potential Approved COVID-19 Vaccine
Murphy, meanwhile, also announced hes extending the public health emergency by another 30 days.
Its the seventh time hes extended it.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had a problem: A new vaccine could save lives and end a viral epidemic that had infected millions of Americans. The immunization was safe, effective, and widely available. Most insurance companies planned to cover it. But few people were taking it.
That epidemic was human papillomavirus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted infection that sometimes causes cervical cancer and other serious conditions. In 2006, after federal regulators approved the first HPV vaccine, the CDC officially recommended that all adolescent girls be immunized. In 2011, the agency extended the recommendation to boys, too.
But uptake of the vaccine was, by all accounts, abysmal. So the agency launched a campaign to promote the importance of the HPV vaccine.
Extensive fact sheets, created by a consulting firm and released on the CDCs website, addressed parents concerns that the vaccine would encourage their kids to become sexually active. Doctors and nurses began delivering talking points, provided by the CDCs communications team and disseminated by partners such as the Immunization Action Coalition, a foundation-, industry-, and government-funded nonprofit, that touted the vaccines cancer-preventing qualities.
Immunizations jumped. By 2017, 49 percent of adolescents were up to date with the HPV vaccine.
That figure is still below CDC goals. But the HPV campaign, focusing on a vaccine that is entirely optional and given after early childhood, has become the subject of extensive research in the years since. And, as scientists edge closer to finalizing vaccines for Covid-19, lessons from HPV and other vaccine messaging campaigns are suddenly more relevant than ever.
Indeed, while its possible a vaccine could be approved for public use as early as this fall, and widely available sometime next year, its unclear how many Americans will be willing to take it. Many analysts are optimistic that an effective vaccine will be welcomed, but surveys indicate widespread suspicion. Officials appear to be preparing a response: In early July, CDC Director Robert Redfield testified at a Senate hearing that the agency has spent months developing a plan to build Covid-19 vaccine confidence, though he offered few details.
A preliminary CDC vaccine rollout plan, published in mid-September, describes good communication as essential to a successful Covid-19 vaccination program, and notes the agency will engage and use a wide range of partners, collaborations, and communication and news media channels in an effort to reach different audiences.
Theres often this assumption that if we build it, they will come, said Kaitlin Christenson, vice president of vaccine acceptance and demand at the Sabin Vaccine Institute, a global nonprofit funded by a mix of government, pharmaceutical industry, and foundation sources. But even the most effective vaccine is not going to produce results if it isnt taken up and delivered effectively.
Sometimes overlooked, vaccine messages from brochures in doctors offices to Instagram posts are as vital to a vaccine campaign as the vaccine itself, some experts say. Over the years, vaccine messaging specialists have homed in on tactics, from those generating fear to others that evoke community values, that can boost compliance.
Before the early 2000s, said Glen Nowak, a health communications expert at the University of Georgia and former communications director for the CDCs National Immunization Program, CDC leadership believed that vaccines needed little fanfare to convince the public of their value. Up until then, Nowak said, it was assumed that vaccines will speak for themselves. Policymakers also often leaned on state day care and school vaccination mandates to win compliance.
But telling people to do something because you say so isnt a really effective way of getting them to feel confident, Nowak added. He recalled that when flu recommendations changed to include children in the early 2000s, it became clear that public and provider communications would be needed to foster awareness and compliance with the new recommendations. The HPV vaccine, released a few years later, underscored the idea that just posting new vaccine guidelines wasnt enough.
Today, the creation of vaccine messages, sitting at the intersection of marketing and medicine, can take months or years to unfold. Sometimes the process is spearheaded by vaccine manufacturers, hospitals, or pharmacies. Often, though, the campaigns are the work of government agencies trying to boost vaccine use or address looming concerns among hesitant parents.
The CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases has a contract with a communications firm that develops millions of dollars worth of educational materials and campaigns, mostly directed at flu and HPV messaging, according to Nowak. It also has its own communications team to develop materials, targeting messages based on data from the previous year about who did or did not have high vaccination rates.
What makes for an effective messaging campaign, though, is a more elusive question. Jody Tate, director of research and policy for the Health Policy Partnership, a consultancy, said effective messaging digs into survey and focus group data to understand peoples reluctance whether its based on concerns about safety, or something more fundamental, such as a language barriers or access to medical care and then tailors itself accordingly.
Who delivers those messages is also crucial, Tate said. Overwhelmingly, surveys find that doctors and nurses are the most trusted sources of vaccine information. A 2018 Wellcome Global Monitor survey found that roughly three-quarters of adults around the world trust their doctor or nurse ahead of family and friends, religious leaders, and celebrities. Doctors are the ideal messengers, Nan wrote.
Rejecting the flash of some advertising, many experts favor a simple, fact-based approach. And simple messages, repeated often, can potentially be effective, said Christopher E. Clarke, a health and environmental risk communication scholar at George Mason University. (Indeed, in a metanalysis of 14 years worth of influenza-related communications by the CDC, Nowak found that visible and frequent reminders raised vaccination rates).
Experts are divided, though, on whether a straightforward tell-the-facts approach is really enough. There is growing evidence that traditional communication of vaccines e.g., messages focusing on statistics has not worked well, Nan wrote. More successful strategies, she added, rely on trustworthy messengers, telling stories rather than using statistics, and appeals to moral values.
In 1999, when Nowak, then director of communications for the CDCs immunization program, looked at why more people 65 years and older werent getting the flu vaccine, he discovered they didnt think the CDCs fact-based materials which urged high-risk groups, including the frail and elderly, to get vaccinated applied to them. They were, after all, in their 60s and 70s. They werent frail or elderly, they told Nowak in focus groups. They were healthy and active.
Over the years, the agency has remade its flu and other vaccine messaging to be more positive and appeal to peoples desire to stay healthy and maintain their quality of life.
Positive framing has proven, in some cases, to work well. A study published in May, which looked specifically at HPV vaccine messaging, found that negatively worded messages could actually increase the perception of risk associated with taking vaccine itself. Negative messaging was not a good way to communicate, said Porismita Borah, an author of the study and an associate professor of communications at Washington State University. Kelly Moore, associate director for immunization education at the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) and a former CDC adviser, said that fear and uncertainty can lead to inaction.
Instead, she said, it is messages that are positive messages of hope and optimism and empowerment that encourage people to take action, because they believe that by what they are doing, they can change their destiny.
But some experts argue that fear can offer a more effective push. The chickenpox vaccine was licensed and recommended for all children in 1995. But its uptake was poor for the first few years, said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and a frequent government adviser on vaccine policy who also helped invent a rotavirus vaccine that is produced by Merck.
I think people thought of chickenpox as a benign right of childhood passage, he said. But as many as 13,000 people were hospitalized and 150 people died each year in the early 1990s as a result of chickenpox and the vaccines maker, Merck, used those figures to create a more aggressive advertising TV commercial campaign, which included interviews with parents who had lost children to chickenpox. It was dramatic, and they were criticized for that, Offit said. But the campaign, in conjunction with increasing public school mandates, also worked: By 2014, 91 percent of U.S. children 19 to 35 months old had received one dose of the vaccine.
Similarly, HPV vaccine messaging has sometimes preyed on peoples fear: In 2016, for example, its maker, also Merck, ran ads that featured adults with cervical cancer, asking their parents if they knew a vaccine could have prevented it. Some research suggests that, at least when it comes to the HPV vaccine, anticipated regret can be a powerful motivator.
What convinces people? Offit asked. Sadly, I think fear is more powerful than reason.
Some vaccine messaging campaigns simply fail. And some messengers can also endanger messaging campaigns.
In 2002, fearing that terrorists would use smallpox as a weapon, President George W. Bush ordered half a million military members to be vaccinated against the disease before launching a voluntary program for health care and emergency workers the following year. Amid concerns that the vaccine wasnt safe, he had himself vaccinated and announced it to the press.
But fewer than 40,000 health care workers accepted vaccination. Some people still didnt feel the vaccine, which can cause rare but serious complications, was safe. The administration didnt consult with doctors, critics say, and didnt anticipate that politics would play a role in peoples decision to be vaccinated. The program was launched just months before the U.S. went to war with Iraq, and many liberals believed the vaccination campaign was propaganda.
Todays climate poses a distinctive, uncharted challenge: No other vaccine has been made at such breakneck speed, amid such publicity, and with such political division, said Clarke.
There is no precedent for this challenge, he said.
With at least several months likely remaining until the most ambitious Covid-19 vaccine will potentially go to market, a recent Gallup survey found that around one in three Americans say they would not get a free, FDA-approved Covid-19 vaccine. Surveys also suggest that Black Americans are more hesitant about the vaccine than white Americans potentially a legacy of longstanding discrimination against Black people in the health care system.
Partisanship matters, too. The Gallup survey also found that only around half of Republicans currently plan to take the vaccine when available. The country has been divided along partisan lines on many preventative measures against Covid-19. That political divide will likely spill over to the upcoming Covid-19 vaccine, warned Nan, who, like Clarke, believes tailoring messaging to peoples political or religious views could be essential to uptake. While other kinds of public messaging campaigns match messages with the receivers worldview, Nan explained the technique has rarely been used in vaccination messaging.
But Graham Dixon, a science and risk communication professor at The Ohio State University, said that a Covid-19 vaccine messaging strategy that presents a consensus not only in the scientific community, but among policymakers, could be effective in increasing vaccination. There has been a great deal of political polarization in this issue, he said, and its almost inevitable that peoples decision to get a Covid-19 vaccine will land in the same way if we dont create a messaging strategy that emphasizes a depoliticized message.
In the past, other messaging campaigns have drawn on anti-polarization strategies to try to build consensus around contentious issues. A climate change awareness campaign from 2008, for example, featured famous political adversaries including the left-wing pastor Al Sharpton and the right-wing evangelist Pat Robertson sitting together on couches, talking about their shared concern about the environment.
If and when a Covid-19 vaccine becomes available, messaging should be consistent across the political spectrum, and in a perfect world should feature influential leaders from the Republican and Democratic parties, Dixon wrote in a follow-up email. But, he added, it was probably wishful thinking to believe that Joe Biden and Donald Trump would appear together in a PSA encouraging Covid-19 vaccination.
Despite what Redfield has described as months of planning at the CDC for how to build vaccine confidence, its unlikely the agency will unveil official campaigns until a vaccine goes to market.
Asked in July for details about its plan, a CDC spokesperson sent me a link to the agencys existing framework for vaccinating with confidence and referred further questions to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HHS declined repeated requests for comment and provided only unattributed information via email, writing that Operation Warp Speed (OWS) the federal initiative to deliver 300 million doses of a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine by January 2021 is committed to maximum transparency.
Since then, CDC has released some additional details of the campaign as part of a 57-page interim playbook that outlines vaccination plans for local and state public health officials.
Some journalists, legislators, and scientists have accused OWS of a lack of transparency about its process for selecting vaccine candidates. That opacity, critics say, exacerbates concerns over any potential vaccines safety and efficacy.
If the operations name foreshadows more messaging from government agencies, experts caution there is reason to be wary. The term warp speed was an unfortunate term, Offit said. That particular message, he said, suggests corners are being cut to create a vaccine.
Constantly saying youre going fast makes people think youre going recklessly fast, said Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at New York Universitys Grossman School of Medicine.
Beth Bell, a clinical professor of global health at the University of Washington and member of the CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, said shes not sure how the name came about. (The committee is not directly involved in the nuts and bolts of vaccine messaging.) I think those of us who are looking at recommendations are quite serious about not cutting corners and not sacrificing safety for speed, Bell said.
To convince Americans already concerned about vaccine safety to take a vaccine developed at record or warp speed, transparency will be key: Loud and clear throughout this period of preparation, and when a vaccine is available, its going to need to be very clear what we know about the vaccine, and frankly, what we dont know, said Jason Schwartz, a health policy scholar at Yale University.
Experts believe that vaccine messaging that presents more information even if that information is incomplete, or changes as more evidence emerges can sway people toward vaccine confidence. I understand why members of the public are skeptical and hesitant right now, said Moore, the Immunization Action Coalition staffer, during a conversation in July. Someone recently asked me if I would take the first vaccine that rolls off the line, and I said, I would like to see the data and then Ill make my decision. If thats my approach, then I respect others for having the same approach.
Nonetheless, experts hope that a safe, effective vaccine and any messaging that accompanies it will be welcomed by the majority of Americans who will have to receive it to reach herd immunity.
Id like to think it would be like the end of the movie Contagion, Offit said, where everybodys lining up to get this vaccine.
Jillian Kramer is a journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic, Scientific American, and more. This article was originally published on Undark.
Conservationists have warned that half a million sharks lives are in danger as companies rush to manufacture vaccination for Covid-19. According to reports, a vital ingredient used in some of the vaccines now under development is squalene, which comes from sharks. Squalene is a natural oil, which is collected from these marine species.
It has been said that pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has already started using squalene in its adjuvant - an immunological agent used to enhance the immune response of a vaccine. A few months back, the firm said that it would produce a billion doses of the shark-based adjuvant for their use in coronavirus vaccines. But Shark Allies, a US-based campaign group dedicated to the protection of sharks and rays, mentioned in an online petition that this could spell potential disaster for sharks and humans since this resource is neither sustainable nor reliable for the mass production of a COVID-19 vaccine. The group stated, Shark squalene production requires relying on a finite, wild animal population. Most shark species are already at critical levels and will not withstand an increase in demand for a global vaccine.
Shark Allies has instead urged companies that are making Covid-19 vaccines to replace shark squalene with non-animal squalene ASAP. It added: Include non-animal squalene in all tests for current and future products that use squalene. Support and develop large-scale production of non-animal squalene. Reports have stated that nearly 3000 sharks are slaughtered to produce a ton of squalene. So if one dose of vaccine with squalene is enough to immunize the world population against coronavirus, it would need around 250,000 dead sharks, conservationists estimated, adding if two doses would be needed to save people from the deadly virus, the number would automatically increase to half a million.
Writing against this animal cruelty, Shark Allies said in the petition, which has been signed by over nine thousand people, Squalene made from shark liver oil is used most commonly because it is cheap to obtain and easy to come by, not because it is more effective than other sources. Countries producing shark squalene may soon need the oil for their own vaccine. The supply chain has never been tested at the scale that a coronavirus vaccine would demand. There is also very little quality control and transparency in the shark squalene industry. In a nutshell, exploiting sharks for a key vaccine ingredient that can be derived from more sustainable and reliable non-animal alternatives is a detrimental and destructive approach.
Making the argument stronger, the group backed its statements with facts and wrote on its website, Why would a company choose to use shark-derived squalene in their adjuvants, over sustainable plant-based alternatives? The only answer we can see is cost. Plant-based squalene is approximately 30% more expensive than shark squalene. One of the reasons shark squalene is cheaper is because of the ease of extraction of squalene from the shark.
Squalene with a purity of >98% is obtained directly from the liver oil of a shark after a single distillation phase in a vacuum at temperatures of 200-230 degrees Celsius. This process takes only 10 hours whereas nearly 70 hours of processing are required to obtain olive oil squalene with a purity higher than 92%. The purity of non-shark-derived squalene, however, can be comparable to that of shark squalene.
Shark Allies concluded: We want to make this clear, Shark Allies is no way asking these companies to slow down the process of a COVID-19 vaccine. Instead, we are asking these companies to replace the shark squalene in some of these vaccine adjuvants with alternative non-animal-derived squalene.
Brown Co. to release list of businesses and events that break COVID-19 safety guidelines Fox11online.com
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The state on Friday reported six new deaths and 128 new cases of COVID-19, according to the Department of Health and Social Services COVID-19 dashboard.
The newly reported deaths included a man in his 60s from Anchorage who died recently, according to a statement sent out by DHSS on Friday.
According to DHSS, the five other deaths were identified as COVID-19 deaths by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Preventions National Center for Health Statistics, which reviews and codes all death certificates across the country and may identify COVID-19 deaths that were not immediately reported to the state.
They included an Anchorage man in his 60s who died in July; a Fairbanks man in his 60s who died in August; an Anchorage man in his 50s who died in August; a man in his 70s from a smaller community in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area who died in August; and a Soldotna man in his 70s who died while he was out of state.
In total, 52 Alaskans have died with COVID-19 since the pandemic began here in March.
While Alaskas death rate remains among the lowest in the country, Friday saw the highest number of deaths reported by the state in a single day. The previous high occurred on Aug. 25, when the state reported the deaths of four Anchorage residents.
Statewide as of Friday, 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. Fourteen people with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infections were on ventilators as of Friday afternoon.
Active cases of COVID-19 among Alaska residents fell from 4,519 on Thursday to 4,424 on Friday. According to state data, there are also 684 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 127 new cases of COVID-19 involving residents, there were 68 new cases in Anchorage; 22 in Fairbanks; nine in North Pole; six in Juneau; three in Chugiak; three in Utqiagvik; two in Eagle River; two in Kotzebue; one in Soldotna; one in Delta Junction; one in Palmer; one in Wasilla; and one in Bethel.
Among communities smaller than 1,000 not identified to protect confidentiality, there was one new case in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area; three in the Nome Census Area; two in the Bethel Census Area; and one in Bristol Bay.
The only new nonresident case was in Anchorage.
The states testing positivity rate as of Friday was 2.31% over a seven-day rolling average.
Editors note: This story has been updated to reflect changes to state data that resolved discrepancies in the number of Alaskans who have died with COVID-19.
In late July, at one of his weekly COVID press conferences, Gov. Steve Bullock said young people have been driving the spread of COVID-19 throughout Montana.
Were seeing more and more that the younger age groups are contributing to our increase in cases, Bullock said.
At the press conference, Caty Gondeiro, a 23-year-old Helena resident, shared her personal COVID-19 story. Gondeiro didnt know where she contracted it, but said she hadnt been taking the virus too seriously. She developed moderate symptoms, and more than three weeks after testing positive she still struggled to take walks. But she said she was less concerned about herself than about the people in her life who might not recover if she passed the virus on to them.
Were driving the spread of this. While we may recover from this, we have people in our lives that wont, Gondeiro said.
The message was aimed at people under the age of 40, who have accounted for 54.4% of all cases across Montana through mid-September, and a much higher number in some areas.
The World Health Organization has noted a similar trend worldwide. While young people who contract COVID-19 often dont get as sick as members of more vulnerable populations do, they are amplifying the spread of the virus through their interactions with a larger number of people.
In recent weeks, Montana has experienced its largest outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic. Since that July press conference, the states death toll from COVID-19 has more than tripled to 165 deaths as of Sept. 24. The total number of recorded cases statewide has increased from 3,676 to 11,242 in that same span.
The outbreak has been significantly driven by students returning to school and by young people in their 20s and 30s.
Over the past two weeks, there has been a 50% increase in cases afflicting people from age 20 to 39, said Stacey Anderson, lead epidemiologist for the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. They have mostly been infected during attendance at social events, including parties, family gatherings and going to bars, Anderson said.
Aware that young people are a significant vector of COVIDs spread, health departments across Montana have implemented a variety of strategies to help reach young people with information about the virus spread, from social media marketing to distribution of masks and sanitizing equipment on college campuses to placing ubiquitous public health messages at bars. The operative theory, based on successful past public health campaigns, is that public health officials have to reach their target audience where they are. Examples include distributing free condoms on college campuses, helping hairstylists recognize signs of domestic violence and teaching barbers how to educate customers about colon cancer and sexually transmitted infections.
In general, though, reaching young people especially those who arent gathered in institutions like colleges or the military is difficult. A 2015 review by the National Academy of Sciences found that there is limited evidence on these difficult-to-reach populations and on what strategies may be most effective in engaging them so they are better able to recognize and care about the potential risks they create or encounter.
Additionally, the review found that public health campaigns can be less likely to benefit people who are economically or educationally disadvantaged.
Younger people are the ones who attend weddings. Weve had several outbreaks associated with weddings. Or theyre service workers. We found they hang out together after work, and go out and socialize at bars and have parties, Flathead City-County Health Officer Tamalee St. James Robinson said.
She later added: Im not sure how you reach them. Social media has been our best attempt. Facebook, stuff like that. I dont know, theyre a hard group to reach.
SOCIAL MEDIA
One of the most effective ways to reach younger people, the National Academy of Sciences review found, is social media. Public health officials in both Gallatin and Flathead counties said social media has been a target of their outreach efforts.
Whitney Bermes, a spokeswoman for Gallatin County, said the department has used age-targeted Spotify and YouTube ads to get its messages across. Flathead County is focusing on Facebook, Robinson said.
Barbara Schneeman, a spokeswoman for RiverStone Health in Yellowstone County, said the county is also developing a social media plan aimed at young adults. In Missoula, the health department has created YouTube videos to provide updates on the virus as it spreads, with the videos racking up hundreds of views.
Recruiting celebrity spokespeople has also been a focus for outreach campaigns across the state. Football coaches at Montana State and the University of Montana participated in a public service announcement for the states Mask Up Montana campaign. Actor and part-time Montana resident Jeff Bridges delivered a 30-second digital public service announcement for the Montana Hospital Association. At the national level, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci went on the popular Barstool Sports podcast aimed at young people and was interviewed for a cover story in InStyle Magazine.
BAR OUTREACH AND THE SERVICE INDUSTRY
Bars are also increasingly considered hotspots for transmission of COVID-19. With both service workers and bar clientele tending to be younger, such public gathering spaces are likely contributing to the spread of COVID-19 among people in their 20s and 30s, said Park County Health Officer Dr. Laurel Desnick.
Park County recently conducted an analysis of contact tracing data that shows how and where cases are spreading in the county. The results were unsurprising, Desnick said. Bars were one of the main locations where COVID is being spread.
Developmentally, this is the age group that is more social. It makes sense they are the ones that are free to be out. This is the way this society works, Desnick said.
Nick Chinman, a salesman at Bronkens Distributing in Bozeman, has worked with bars in Gallatin County to create universal signage encouraging people to take measures to protect themselves, such as wearing masks and maintaining social distancing. Chinman, who works in both Bozeman and Big Sky, said many Bozeman bars told him they were serving very few locals. He said he took the signage idea from the Chamber of Commerce in Big Sky, where his clients were reporting more local business.
Together with people including Mike Hope, owner of the Rocking R Bar in Bozeman, they created consistent signage, including handouts to put on tables encouraging people to keep six feet apart and a banner over Main Street.
Hope said the bar had to shut down for two weeks in July after an outbreak among staff. He said he sees his workers, as well as workers from other bars in downtown Bozeman, spending time together hanging out after work.
Sometimes theyre the customer too, when theyre not working, Hope said.
Hope said he is taking precautions to try to make the bar safer during the pandemic. The Rocking Rs occupancy level is normally 312 people, but the bar is now limiting its capacity to 75. The business today works like this: Wait at the door to be seated. Wear your mask until you get to your seat or table. If youre sitting at the bar, you must be at least two barstools away from the next party.
EFFECTS ON YOUNG PEOPLE
One part of the message that should be stressed is that COVID-19 can be a serious disease even for young people, Schneeman said.
Yellowstone County has seen at least one death of a person in their 30s. Statewide, three people in their 30s have died of COVID-19.
This is a disease that younger people can also die from, Schneeman said.
Robinson said one of the main difficulties in reaching younger people is that they think they wont get sick.
Its just a really hard population. They see themselves as invincible, Robinson said.
But young adults are not immune to the effects of COVID-19, studies have increasingly shown. About one-third of young adults age 18 to 25 are medically vulnerable to COVID-19, with pre-existing conditions like obesity and hypertension leading to adverse effects, according to a July study from the University of California San Francisco.
More than half of people who are infected with COVID-19 develop lung deformities, and up to 20% of people who become sick with the disease develop long-term heart damage. Once they are in hospital, young adults age 18 to 34 are twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as from a heart attack, according to a recent Harvard study.
DEFINITELY SEEING WORKPLACE SPREAD
Yellowstone County has had the largest outbreak of COVID-19 in Montana, with 2,990 recorded cases as of Sept. 24. An analysis of August positive test results by RiverStone Health found that about 44% of Yellowstone County residents who were infected during that month did not report a known contact who tested positive for COVID-19, Schneeman said.
Of that 44%, the most common shared characteristic is that 64% had been to work outside the home. A little more than half had been shopping, while only 27% had patronized a restaurant or bar.
Were definitely seeing workplace spread, Schneeman said.
Among the most vulnerable are front-line workers who interact with the public. That includes bartenders, who serve unmasked customers sitting at a bar and facing them for long periods of time, Robinson said.
In Park County, the health department surveyed people at a community-wide testing event in June about their COVID-19 circumstances in order to get a read on community attitudes. Nearly a third of respondents said they continue to work even though they dont feel safe at their jobs, Desnick said.
That attitude has been especially pronounced in the service industry, Desnick said. Park County set up surveillance testing of tourist-facing businesses near Yellowstones northern entrance. During that ongoing testing, many workers have reported that they dont feel safe interacting with tourists from across the country hour after hour, day after day, she said.
At the same time, its common for young service workers at restaurants and bars to socialize over drinks after work or visit co-workers homes to wind down after their shifts, increasing the risk of viral spread, Desnick said.
Its just a very hard needle to thread, Desnick said. Were asking them to go to work in very vulnerable places, and were blaming them for being vulnerable in the rest of their lives.
Robinson said its just part of being young.
Theyre just a social entity of society, and theyre going to find a way to be social, Robinson said.
Desnick said she doesnt blame the workers, who have little choice but to continue working during the pandemic.
Its hard to maintain good judgment in a pressure cooker, she said.
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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.
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.
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.
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
