Even Your Pets Can Get Covid Tests From LA Health Department

Fox News: Los Angeles County Health Department Offering Free COVID-19 Testing For Pets
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is offering free COVID-19 testing for pets who may have been exposed to the virus. Los Angeles health officials announced the initiative on Aug. 20, stating that it has recently received funding to conduct the free COVIS-19 testing on pets. (Sabes, 8/21)

How exactly do you test a dog for covid? In case you missed it, this story explains how —

Texas Monthly: Your Pets Have Been Getting COVID-19 Too. Here’s Why That Matters.
Brushing a dog’s teeth is hard enough. The dog looks at you plaintively, eyes wide with betrayal, as you insert the toothbrush and perform a quick pantomime of a tooth cleaning in the seconds before it closes its jaws—and heart—to you. Researchers at the lab of Texas A&M veterinary epidemiologist Sarah A. Hamer have a more difficult task: they must get pets to submit to a nasal swab, something which even many humans have to be cajoled into doing. (Larson, 3/21)

More on the spread of covid —

Fortune: The CDC Has Guided The U.S. COVID Epidemic To A Soft Landing—A Manufactured Conclusion That Flies In The Face Of Science, Some Experts Say
Earlier this month the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention introduced new COVID guidelines that brought the country’s COVID epidemic in for a soft landing, of sorts—or tried to, anyway. It dropped the guidance that Americans quarantine if they’ve been in close contact with someone who has the virus, as well as the recommendation to social-distance. ... The rules belie the state of things. COVID levels in at least some parts of the U.S. were recently at or around highs seen during the Omicron surge late last year into early this year. We’re talking all-time highs. (Prater, 8/21)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Researchers Release COVID Plan For Schools Based On Equity
A group that includes researchers, a public health department director and a Georgia legislator has released a plan for schools nationwide to respond to COVID-19 with an eye toward minimizing harm to Black and Latino students and other populations most affected by the pandemic. (Pratt, 8/22)

Fox News: Public School Districts Implementing COVID Restrictions Meet Ferocious Community Pushback 
School districts have re-implemented mandates for children for the 2022-2023 academic year, against the wishes of many parents across the U.S., who have been fighting it tooth and nail at board of education meetings. Most recently, a 4-year-old boy in San Francisco, California was kicked out of school for not wearing a mask, Fox News Digital reported Friday. (Grossman, 8/22)

The New York Times: Jill Biden Tests Negative For The Coronavirus
Jill Biden, the first lady, left isolation after testing negative for the coronavirus on Sunday, nearly a week after she tested positive while on vacation in South Carolina. Dr. Biden had been isolating in a private residence there, but joined President Biden in Rehoboth, Del., on Sunday, according to a statement from Elizabeth Alexander, her communications director. (Montague, 8/21)

In related news about the pandemic —

NPR: Released During COVID, Some People Are Sent Back To Prison With Little Or No Warning
More than 11,000 people have been released from federal prison in the last couple of years, to ride out the pandemic at home, often with their families and loved ones. But that situation can be precarious. ... The Bureau of Prisons told NPR that 442 people who were released during the pandemic have now returned to prison. Only 17 people out of more than 11,000 who were released committed new crimes, mostly drug related ones, while they were out. More than half, some 230 people including Eva Cardoza, got sent back for alleged alcohol or drug use. Other cases involved technical violations. (Johnson, 8/22)

Fox News: Dr. Birx: CDC At 'Inflection Point,' Expects Real Change Following Watershed Admission
Former White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx praised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for its rare admission of missteps in how the agency responded to COVID-19. "A lot of directors would have just tried to tweak [it], and tweaking the agency at this point was not going to be successful," Birx said during an appearance on "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "This is an inflection point." (Aitken, 8/21)