Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
If Your State Clamped Down On Covid Like California, It Fared Better
San Francisco Chronicle: States Like California With Strict COVID Rules Fared Better In Pandemic, UCLA Economists Say
Large states such as California that implemented stricter pandemic restrictions had better economic and health outcomes on average than those with less stringent measures, according to UCLA economists. The states’ economies, measured in gross domestic product, declined everywhere in 2020, according to the June 2021 UCLA Anderson Forecast, the widely followed quarterly economic outlook on California and the nation put out by the university’s Anderson School of Management. Large states with stricter government responses like mask mandates and business restrictions, like California and Washington, had smaller declines than those with less strict interventions such as Florida and Texas, the UCLA researchers said. (Echeverria, 6/10)
Los Angeles Times: As California Reopens, Mask-Wearing And Symbolism Change
With California’s full economic reopening days away, there remains one question that has not been fully resolved in the minds of many eager to get back to normal life: To mask, or not to mask? Beginning Tuesday, most of California’s mask rules imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic — covering customers’ trips to the store, the gym and restaurants — will disappear for those who are vaccinated. There is growing evidence of the shots’ power to prevent serious disease and blunt transmission of the coronavirus, and health officials are increasingly unified in their belief that those who are fully inoculated can safely resume many activities without wearing face coverings. (Lin II and Money, 6/10)
AP: California Businesses Baffled By Various Reopening Rules
Businesses in California remain baffled by the shifting rules over who needs to wear masks and where as the nation’s largest state fully reopens from the pandemic on Tuesday. While Gov. Gavin Newsom’s health agency has said vaccinated people won’t need to wear face coverings in many public places, state regulators — following several lengthy and hotly contested debates — are still drafting rules for workers. (6/11)
Los Angeles Times: L.A. Teacher Union Pact Requires Masks, COVID Tests In Fall
Masks will remain on for students and staff at Los Angeles schools this fall, and coronavirus testing will continue for all, under a tentative agreement announced Thursday between district officials and the teachers union. The mask mandate would continue regardless of whether employees or students are vaccinated, with rare potential exceptions for students with disabilities. And the coronavirus testing would take place at least once every two weeks. That’s a possible step back from the current practice, which has required testing every week since campuses gradually reopened in April. (Blume, 6/10)
AP: California Debates Public Health Spending As Virus Recedes
California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to spend the state’s extraordinary budget surplus on correcting the most widespread financial impacts of the pandemic, pledging to give $600 payments to most taxpaying adults while committing to pay off all of their outstanding rent and utility bills. But left out of the governor’s $267.8 billion budget proposal last month: Money to rebuild local public health departments, whose staffing shortages and fragmented funding were exposed by the coronavirus, impeding a more coordinated response to the crisis. (Beam, 6/11)
