By Jondi Gumz
The year Covid-19 pandemic struck the U.S., the federal Medicare agency reported $9.03 billion in payments from drug companies and device-makers to 486,975 physicians and 1,212 teaching hospitals.
These financial relationships can involve payments to providers for research, meals, travel, gifts, or speaking fees.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services provides data via a search tool called Open Payments, which allows the public to search for recipients receiving payments, as well as entities that made payments.
Medicare says the purpose is to provide the public with a more transparent health care system.
All information available on the Open Payments database is open to personal interpretation, the agency said on its website, and if there are questions about what the data means, patients and their advocates should speak directly to the health care provider for a better understanding.
The 2021 data is under review.
Two years after the pandemic arrived, Covid cases have waned nationwide. See the federal Center for Disease Control map showing most counties green: Low transmission.
On Wednesday, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended the mask mandate on airlines — due to expire April 18 — through May 3 because of an uptick in cases. The Transportation Security Administration noted the Omicron “BA.2 subvariant that now makes up more than 85% of U.S. cases.”
The latest Omicron variant called XE is the most easily spread, according to researchers, but its predecessors, BA1 and BA2, are less deadly.
Hospitalizations which peaked in January from Omicron have plummeted, in California and locally.
The state Department of Public Health reports hospitalizations down from 20,000 at the peak of the Omicron surge in January to 1,100, and test positivity, 23% in January, now 1.7%.
In Santa Cruz County, only seven people are hospitalized with Covid, — none in intensive care. In the past two weeks, no county resident has died of Covid.
The Omicron variant called BA.2 “appears to be about 50% more transmissible than the original omicron strain BA.1, according to UC Davis Health. “Preliminary data suggests omicron BA.1 causes the same severity of disease and symptoms, but it’s affecting younger people more.”
Proposed Laws
On April 11, thousands of people rallied in Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles to protest vaccination mandates for city workers and a slew of COVID bills in the state Legislature.
On March 29, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) said she would hold Assembly Bill 1993, which would have required all employees and independent contractors, public and private, to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to keep their job. She cited opposition from public safety unions (highway patrol, firefighters and correctional offices) and improved pandemic conditions.
Protection of the Educational Rights of Kids, headed by Amy Bohn in Newbury Park, which has filed six lawsuits against vaccine mandates, is watching to see if this measure comes back in a budget trailer bill in May — a strategy that avoids public hearings.
The group is tracking 10 Covid-19 bills proposed by California lawmakers. Besides AB 1993, they include:
SB 871: To remove the personal belief exemption in the state’s student vaccine mandate for age zero and above. That bill has not been scheduled for committee hearing, which could indicate a lack of support.
SB 1464: To require law enforcement officers to enforce public health orders, and cut funding if they do not and shift those funds to public health. The California State Sheriffs’ Association is opposed along with the Peace Officers Research Association of California and 20 more law enforcement organizations.
- SB 866: To allow children 12 and older to get COVID vaccines without parental consent.
- SB 920: To authorize a medical board to inspect a doctor’s office and records without patient consent.
- SB 1479: To mandate Covid testing plans at schools.
- SB 1390: To prohibit a social media platform from amplifying misinformation or disinformation.
- SB 1184: To authorize a health care provider or plan to disclose your child’s medical information to a school-linked services coordinator without parent consent.
- AB 1793: To allow school officials to easily via access to a state immunization database.
- AB 2098: To classify a physician or surgeon disseminating or promoting misinformation or disinformation related to COVID-19 as unprofessional conduct and grounds for disciplinary action. This is supported by Sen. Richard Pan, a physician, and opposed by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.
To track these bills, see https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
On March 30, Dr. Pamela Popper posted updates on lawsuits challenging the state of Ohio’s emergency declaration, which was lifted last June, and a similar case in Hawaii which is pending and against the state of Washington for three children injured by the mask mandate, and a case against the federal Health and Human Services agency, challenging use of the PCR test.
The group is defending doctors in Washington State, Ohio, and Maine attacked by state medical boards for prescribing early treatment drugs for Covid and speaking out about Covid vaccines. Updates are at https://makeamericansfreeagain.com/
Two Years
Santa Cruz County, which updates its dashboard on Monday and Thursday, has 495 active cases, down from 10,000 at the peak, and 259 deaths.
The county reports 103 active cases among younger people age 25 to 34, and 110 deaths of those 85 and older.
Underlying conditions were a factor in 19 of the 20 most recent local deaths during the peak of the highly contagious and thought-to-be-mild Omicron variant.
The most COVID fatalities in the county occurred in January 2021, when vaccines were not available and 22 people died in one week.
The nonprofit Pajaro Valley Healthcare District Project must raise $15 million by Aug. 31, according to Santa Cruz County Administrative Officer Carlos Palacios, to buy Watsonville Community Hospital out of bankruptcy and fund the first year of operations under local ownership.
Watsonville based Driscoll’s is matching all donations up to $1.75 million until May 1. If $1.75 million is raised from the community, it results in $3.5 million. To donate, see www.pvhdp.org
The hospital has 620 employees and shares the treatment of Covid-19 patients with Dominican Hospital.
Two of the five governing board members live in Aptos, John Friel and Dr. Katie Gabriel-Cox. The other three are Marcus Pimental, Jasmine Najera, and Tony Nunez.
Pajaro Valley Schools
Pajaro Valley schools, which ended spring break April 11, report only 7 active student cases and 3 staff cases in April.
Two of the student cases are at Valencia Elementary. The other Aptos schools report zero cases.
The state’s guidance to schools and childcare facilities: After March 11, masks are not required but are strongly recommended.
“All community members have a right to make different choices with regard to recommended masking, and it is imperative that we respect personal choice and treat each other with respect and kindness,” posted Dr. Faris Sabbah, Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools.
Santa Cruz County Office of Education, with Inspire Diagnostic, has provided 398,900 tests.
Cases in schools peaked at 4,407 on Jan. 27, dropping to 44 on April 10. The 14-day positivity rate, 12.25% on January, is down to .79%.
Pfizer & Moderna
It’s April and parents anxious to have shots for their younger children under 5 are still waiting for Pfizer and BioNTech to gather data on whether a third dose is effective.
Pfizer initially applied for emergency use authorization for young children for two doses.
Pfizer stock peaked at $61 in December, fell in March to $46 and has been trading at $53.
On March 23, vaccine-maker Moderna reported positive results — no severe cases, hospitalizations, or deaths — in two clinical trials for children under 6 — and said it would ask the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use authorization for those children.
In the trial, Covid cases decreased 43.7% for kids 6 to 23 months, and 37.5% for kids 2 to 6. At the outset, the FDA called for vaccines to cut infection by at least 50%.
Moderna stock peaked in November at $368, then fell to $128 in March and stabilized in April at $159.50.
Mary Holland, president and general counsel of Children’s Health Defense, contends there is no COVID emergency for children under 5 years old.
Children have a 99.995% recovery rate, and a body of medical literature indicates that “almost zero” healthy children under 5 have died from COVID, according to Holland, citing studies in Germany, England and Wales.
Myocarditis Risk
In a 2022 report in the Journal of American Medical Association online, Dr. Matthew Oster of the CDC reported the government’s VAERS database received 1,991 reports of myocarditis after one dose of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine and 1,626 met the CDC’s definition for probable or confirmed myocarditis.
Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart, which can lead to clots, a stroke or heart attack.
Oster’s conclusion: “The risk of myocarditis after receiving mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines was increased across multiple age and sex strata and was highest after the second vaccination dose in adolescent males and young men. This risk should be considered.”
Public health officials say the scientific consensus is that Covid vaccines are safe, but some are skeptical about relying on science from drug-makers, which saw profits rise in 2021. They point to the U.S. government database, https://vaers.hhs.gov/, where health care providers are to report adverse events after a vaccine.
The reporting site was created after Congress passed a law in 1986 protecting vaccine manufacturers from civil personal injury lawsuits and wrongful death lawsuits resulting from vaccine injuries.
After Covid arrived, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar invoked the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, a 2005 law that allows the HHS secretary to provide legal protection to companies making or distributing critical medical supplies such as vaccines unless there’s “willful misconduct” by the company, according to a report by CNBC.
This lowers the cost of immunizations, and the protection lasts until 2024.
Fourth Shot?
A study of 274 health care workers in Israel published in April in the New England Journal of Medicine found evidence that a fourth dose of mRNA vaccine, Pfizer or Moderna, is “safe, and somewhat efficacious (primarily against symptomatic disease).”
They added, “Our results suggest that maximal immunogenicity of mRNA vaccines is achieved after three doses and that antibody levels can be restored by a fourth dose. Furthermore, we observed low vaccine efficacy against infections in health care workers, as well as relatively high viral loads suggesting that those who were infected were infectious. Thus, a fourth vaccination of healthy young health care workers may have only marginal benefits. Older and vulnerable populations were not assessed.”
Fully vaccinated means having two shots (Pfizer or Moderna) or one Johnson & Johnson shot. All were developed for the initial Covid-19 coronavirus.
For Omicron, the dominant variant, a booster shot is needed. Booster shots are 90 percent effective against preventing Omicron hospitalizations, according to the federal Centers of Disease Control.
California reports 83.8% of residents age 5 and up have had at least one shot.
On the CDC Covid tracker, Santa Cruz County reports 90.6% of residents age 5 and up have at least one shot and 82.4% fully vaccinated.
As of April 1, people 50 and older in California are eligible for a second mRNA booster shot from Moderna or Pfizer. Also, kids 12 and older are eligible for the Pfizer booster and those 18 years and older with moderate and severe immune-suppression are eligible for a Moderna booster.
Omicron Less Deadly
Omicron is deadly than Delta, which raged in 2021.
Santa Cruz County reports 259 Covid deaths, up from 225 as of Dec. 15, before Omicron was confirmed on Dec. 16 and 17.
One statistic is similar: 79% to 81% of those who died had pre-existing conditions.
Why do people fear Omnicron?
They may have a pre-existing condition (diabetes, obesity, asthma, high blood pressure).
Half of Americans do, so they are at higher risk for severe Covid illness.
So are people 85 and older.
Some people who got Covid experience “long Covid,” with fatigue and brain fog months afterward. A 2022 study in the journal Cell by researchers following more than 200 patients found many acute Covid patients had low cortisol, which could be addressed.
Testing
The Santa Cruz County Office of Education reports 406,400 tests completed. Drive-though testing for students, staff and families at these locations:
Cabrillo College, Aptos, Parking Lot K, Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, 2601 E. Lake Ave., Watsonville, Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Santa Cruz County Office of Education, 399 Encinal St., Santa Cruz, Monday to Friday, 2 to 5 p.m.
Directions for rapid response antigen tests are at drive.google.com/file/d/1U8AdsSyH14sDvrjD6T25krhvOFRFsuXs/view
For test options see: https://tinyurl.com/get-tested-santa-cruz.
Based on federal recommendations, the state shortened the isolation time for those testing positive from 10 days to five days.
Schedule booster shots at https://myturn.ca.gov/ or by asking your local doctor and pharmacies. For local vaccine providers, visit www.santacruzhealth.org/coronavirusvaccine.
For help scheduling an appointment, call the Community Bridges Helpline at 831-219-8607 or 831-440-3556 (English, Spanish, Mixteco and Triqui).
For local information on COVID-19, go to www.santacruzhealth.org/coronavirus or call (831) 454-4242 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
•••
Total COVID cases: 495
•••
COVID Deaths: 259
As of April 11
Age
85 and older: 110 • 75-84: 61 • 65-74: 46 • 60-64: 15 • 55-59: 4 • 45-54: 10 • 35-44: 8 • 25-34: 5
Underlying Conditions
Yes: 209 • No: 50
Race
White 147 • Latinx 89 • Asian 16 • Black 3 • Amer Indian 1 • Hawaiian 1 • Another 2
Gender
Men: 133 • Women: 126
Location
At facility for aged: 115 • Not at a facility: 144