Daily Archives: August 18, 2021

Pope Francis appealed to people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in what he called "an act of love," in a video message published on his Twitter account on Wednesday.

In the message, recorded in Spanish, Francis said that "thanks to God's grace and the work of many we now have vaccines to protect us from COVID-19."

The religious leader, who wields significant political and moral authority among the 1.3 billion Catholics in the world, appealed that shots be made widely available amid stark disparities in vaccination rates between the developed and the developing world.

"They bring us hope that the pandemic may end, but only if they are available to all and if we collaborate with one another," Francis said.

The message comes amid ongoing debate, especially in more conservative or religious communities, over the efficacy and safety of vaccines. In Poland, an overwhelmingly Catholic-majority country, local church authorities have sent mixed signals over vaccines and government public health efforts.

In North America, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops which represents the church in the country, said in March that Catholics should avoid the Johnson & Johnson vaccine over concerns about the use of fetal tissues.

Francis, who already in previous occasions had come out in favor of making coronavirus vaccines more widely available, reiterated his support for the jabs.

"Getting the vaccines that are authorized by the respective authorities is an act of love... Love to oneself, and love for one's family and friends," he said.

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Pope urges world to get vaccinated against coronavirus - POLITICO Europe

Minnesota recorded more than 3,000 new coronavirus cases Tuesday from over 57,000 tests, the most cases and test results reported in a single day since April.

The Minnesota Department of Health no longer reports coronavirus numbers on weekends so Tuesdays statistics are actually from more than one day from Saturday through 4 a.m. Monday. Nevertheless, the 3,054 cases reported Tuesday was an increase of 45 percent over a week ago using the same reporting structure.

The more contagious delta variant is the cause of nearly all new infections in Minnesota. More than 99 percent of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths are residents who are not fully vaccinated.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says community transmission of the coronavirus is widespread enough that masks are recommended in 80 of the states 87 counties. Seven are in the moderate transmission category and there are none where spread is considered low.

Meanwhile, the test-positivity rate in the state has again exceeded the 5 percent caution threshold.

Masks are important, but health officials maintain that vaccination is the best way to avoid contracting and spreading the coronavirus. Breakthrough infections are rare and much less likely to be severe.

Jan Malcolm, the state health commissioner, said this years summer surge is shaping up to be worse than a year ago, before there were vaccines to protect against the coronavirus.

Even more striking, compared to last year at this time our case rates are 54 percent higher than they were, Malcolm said.

Three more COVID-19 deaths were also reported Thursday. They ranged in age from their 50s to their 70s and all resided in Hennepin County with two in private homes and one in a behavioral health facility.

There have been 7,737 COVID-19 fatalities, including 4,533 deaths in long-term care. About 88 percent of deaths have been seniors.

Hospitalizations continue to rise, with 434 patients requiring care and 115 in critical condition. Fewer than 3 percent of Twin Cities hospital beds are currently available, according to state data.

Since the pandemic began, more than 11 million samples from 4.8 million residents have been screened for the coronavirus. There have been 629,354 infections diagnosed, and of those who tested positive 612,681 have recovered enough they no longer need to be isolated.

There are an estimated 8,500 people with active cases who are recovering at home, roughly double the number just two weeks ago.

Minnesota has administered more than 6 million doses of vaccine and 3.2 million have gotten at least one dose. There are 3 million Minnesotans whove completed their vaccination series.

Vaccinations have climbed considerably in recent weeks, thanks to a combination of concern over the delta variant and a $100 reward being paid by the state to the newly vaccinated. New vaccinations of 12- to 17-year-olds since have increased by about 20,000 doses since a back-to-school vaccination push began earlier this month.

Roughly 70 percent of residents 16 and older have gotten at least one shot.

For more information about vaccines visit:VaccineConnector.mn.gov. Apply for the $100 vaccine reward at mn.gov/covid19/100.

Link:

3K COVID-19 cases reported in Minnesota, highest level since April. See a map of where transmission is high. - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press

A nasal swab being placed into vial at a free COVID-19 community test site in Anchorage. (Bill Roth / ADN archive)

The Department of the Interior is complying with White House guidance that federal employees and contractors will be asked to show theyre fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or be regularly tested if they are not.

In Alaska, there are more than 2,500 employees at Interior, including at agencies like the National Park Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The agency is strongly encouraging all employees and contractors to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and is working on a way to determine employee and contractor vaccination status that fits with recent White House guidance, according to the Interiors website.

That guidance, released by Democratic President Joe Biden in late July, says that any onsite contractor or employee who is not vaccinated will have to wear a mask, physically distance and comply with a weekly or twice weekly screening testing requirement, and be subject to restrictions on official travel.

An Aug. 6 email to agency employees from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, obtained by the Daily News, described the departments updated guidelines, saying the new process will be implemented in the coming days and weeks.

Employees who arent fully vaccinated also will soon be required to go through COVID-19 testing in order to enter federal buildings, according to the email.

Additionally, employees, contractors and visitors who arent fully vaccinated must wear masks indoors and continue to physically distance themselves.

Federal employees, contractors and visitors regardless of vaccination status must wear masks in areas where COVID-19 transmission is high, according to the email.

In the email, Haaland said 35 Interior employees agency-wide have died from COVID-19.

Link:

Interior Department employees will soon need to be regularly tested for coronavirus if they don't get vaccinated - Anchorage Daily News

This is an updated version of an article first published on Nov. 13, 2020.

The Delta-variant-driven wave of coronavirus infections is driving a new surge in testing and that could mean more surprise medical bills.

Congress wrote rules last spring to make most coronavirus testing free for all Americans. But patients, with or without insurance, have found holes in those new coverage programs.

Federal law does not, for example, require insurers to cover the routine testing that a growing number of workplaces and schools are mandating. Some doctors and hospitals have tacked unexpected fees onto coronavirus testing bills, leaving patients with surprise charges ranging from a few dollars to over $1,000.

In the past year, Ive collected patients bills related to coronavirus. As part of that project, Ive read through more than 100 patient stories about coronavirus tests. Many patients are happy to report no charge at all, while others have been billed large unexpected fees or denied claims related to coronavirus tests.

[Have a bill you want to share? Submit it here.]

The surprise bills have hit uninsured Americans as well as those with robust coverage. The health data firm Castlight estimates that 2.4 percent of coronavirus test bills leave some share of the charge to consumers, which means there could be millions of patients facing fees they did not expect.

These are some simple steps you can take to lower your chances of becoming one of them.

Many states, counties and cities/towns now have public testing facilities. Very few patients have reported surprise medical bills from those testing sites (although its not impossible). You can typically use your state health department website to find public testing options.

If a public test site isnt an option where you live, you might consider your primary care doctor or a federally qualified health clinic. The largest surprise coronavirus test bills Ive reviewed tend to come from patients who are tested in hospitals and free-standing emergency rooms. Those places often bill patients for something called a facility fee, which is the charge for stepping into the room and seeking service.

Patients are finding that these fees can pop up even when they dont actually set foot in the facility. Multiple patients at one Texas emergency room had $1,684 facility fees tacked onto their drive-through coronavirus tests. A patient in New York faced a $1,394 charge for her test at a tent outside a hospital. The majority of the bill was the facility fee. The investigative news site ProPublica has reported on how facility fees can sometimes cost as much as 10 times the coronavirus test itself.

If you get your test at a primary care provider, or at a public test site, you shouldnt have to worry about that type of billing. They typically do not charge facility fees for coronavirus tests or any other types of care.

When patients receive a surprise medical bill related to a coronavirus test, often the charges they face are not for the test itself, but instead for other services that the patient may not have known about.

Some of these make sense: Many bills for coronavirus tests have fees for the doctor visit that went along with it. Others make less sense, like the bills that include screenings for sexually transmitted diseases. Those extra fees appear to be a bit more common in emergency rooms, or when health providers send their samples to outside laboratories. But they can happen at public testing sites, too: One Connecticut doctor regularly tested patients for dozens of illnesses at a town drive-through. The patients thought they were simply getting coronavirus tests.

To avoid those extra charges, ask your provider what diseases they will screen for. It can be as simple as saying: I understand Im having a coronavirus test. Are there any other services youll bill me for? Having a better understanding of that up front can save you a headache later, and you can make an informed decision about what care is actually needed. If your providers cant tell you what theyll bill for, that may be a signal you want to seek care elsewhere.

Uninsured patients have faced coronavirus bills upward of $1,000, according to billing documents reviewed by The New York Times.

That type of billing is legal: Health care providers are not required to provide free coronavirus tests to Americans who lack health insurance. But they do not necessarily have to bill patients directly. The federal government has set up a provider relief fund: Health providers can seek reimbursement for coronavirus testing and treatment provided to those without coverage. Once again, it pays to ask ahead of time how providers handle uninsured patients and whether they submit to the fund. Unfortunately, they are not required to do so and could continue to pursue the debt.

You should also be aware that 17 states have authorized their state Medicaid plans to cover coronavirus test costs for uninsured Americans. This means your state government can pay the bill instead of you. You can find out if you live in one of these states here.

New federal laws regulate how health providers and insurers can bill patients for coronavirus tests. Understanding how they work can help you push back on charges that may not be allowed.

The new laws state that health insurers must cover coronavirus tests ordered by a doctor without any cost to the patients. This means that standard deductibles and co-payments youd face for other services do not apply.

There is one important exception in those laws: Insurers do not have to cover routine coronavirus testing ordered by a school or workplace. If your job mandates that you get tested each week, for example, it is up to your health plan whether it wants to pay those bills.

For that type of testing, youll want to be especially careful about where you get tested, and ask more questions about the fees you may have to pay. Some employers are already directing their workers to be tested at public sites, in part to reduce the possibility of surprise charges.

For the coronavirus tests that insurers do have to cover, there is still a bit of a gray area. The law requires insurers to cover any other services that are necessary to get the coronavirus test, but doesnt define what makes the cut. Most experts agree that a doctor visit fee is a pretty clear example of a service that ought to qualify, and that patients facing those types of bills ought to appeal to their insurer for coverage. Other services, like a flu test or even an X-ray conducted alongside a coronavirus test, present a murkier situation. If youre facing fees like those, you might want to enlist your doctor to tell the insurer why the additional care was needed.

One last thing to know about the federal laws is that they require insurers to fully cover out-of-network coronavirus tests. This can be especially important for patients who go to an in-network doctor but unknowingly have their sample sent to an out-of-network laboratory, a situation Ive seen many times. Your health plans typical rules for out-of-network care should not apply to the coronavirus test. They can, however, be applied to other parts of the test experience (the doctor visit fee, for example), so it is safer to stick with in-network providers whenever possible.

One other issue to look for is what billing codes your doctor used for the test visit. Many of the surprise bills Ive reviewed involve a doctor charging a visit fee, then sending the test to an outside laboratory that submits its own claim. The health plan might apply a co-pay to the doctors visit because its not clearly linked in billing records to the coronavirus test. In this case, you may need to work with your health provider to get your visit recoded to show a coronavirus test occurred.

Nearly everything I know about coronavirus test billing comes from reading the bills that hundreds of Times readers have sent describing their experiences. If you receive a bill related to coronavirus testing and treatment, we ask that you take a moment to submit it here. It will help me continue to report on the types of fees patients face, and can help identify areas of the country where patients are facing unusually high fees.

See the article here:

Will You Have to Pay for a Coronavirus Test? Here's How to Avoid a Surprise Bill - The New York Times

Today is Tuesday.Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. Subscribe here: thehill.com/newsletter-signup.

The British government has touted this falls United Nations climate summit in Glasgow as the most inclusive ever but an inability to access coronavirus vaccinations, coupled with international travel bans, may prevent some delegates from attending, The Washington Post reported.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised that his country and its allies would provide full vaccination to each negotiator, observer and accredited journalist who could not get a vaccine in their home country, according to the Post. But the time to get inoculated before Novembers U.N. Climate Change Conference is rapidly running out and those vaccines have yet to materialize.

That means the least-developed nations face a double-bind. They are forecast to shoulder an outsize burden in a warming world, the Post reported. However, their vaccination rates hover below 2 percent, jeopardizing their attendance at a summitwhose decisions will disproportionately impact them.

Today well turn again to the warming West, where the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation declared the Colorado Rivers first-ever federal shortage on Monday. Then well travel to the U.K., where the government is wading into one of the biggest battles in clean energy: hydrogen versus electricity.

For Equilibrium, we are Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Please send tips or comments to Saul at selbein@thehill.com or Sharon at sudasin@thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @saul_elbein and @sharonudasin.

Lets get to it.

Historic water cuts hit a thirsty West

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has announced a water shortage for the drought-stricken Colorado River for the first time in history meaning hard times for Central Arizonas farmers.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced future cutbacks on Monday after an unusually dry spring left the total Colorado River basin storage at 40 percent capacity a decline of 49 percent from this time last year, Zack Budryk reported for The Hill.

Like much of the West, and across our connected basins, the Colorado River is facing unprecedented and accelerating challenges, Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tanya Trujillo said in a Bureau of Reclamation news release.

How bad are things? Pretty bad. Spring runoff into the Lake Powell storage reservoir from the Upper Basin states Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming amounted to just 26 percent of the average, the Bureau of Reclamation said. The amount that would have flowed to Lake Mead, which stores water for the Lower Basin states Arizona, Nevada and California is about 32 percent of the annual average.

So what is actually going to happen, and when? Lake Powell will release just 7.48 million acre-feet in water year 2022 (Oct. 1, 2021 through Sept. 30, 2022) a 9 percent drop from this years 8.23 million acre feet.

Lake Mead, meanwhile, will adjust to its first-ever Level 1 Shortage Condition for calendar year 2022 (Jan. 1, 2022 through Dec. 31, 2022). Three places will face hefty cuts, as per domestic and international agreements that stem back to the 1944 Water Treaty with Mexico.

Those cuts are:

Arizona is hit hardest,losing just less than 8 percent of its state water supply, the Arizona Department of Water Resources said in a news release.

In addition, the shortage will also eliminate about 30 percent of the Colorado River supply to the critically important Central Arizona Project (CAP), the Arizona Department of Water Resources news release said.

CAP is the 336-mile conduit system that conveys water to central and southern Arizona where the brunt of desert agriculture occurs.

DRY TIMES IN ARIZONA

For farmers, the cuts could be dire. The reductions will eliminate about 60 percent of current CAP supplies in Pinal County, the Arizona Daily Star reported, citing Paul Orme, a Phoenix attorney who represents four central Arizona irrigation districts.

That could drastically reduce water available to farmers. And assuming drought conditions persist, an inter-state deal called the 2019 Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan could lead these same farmers to lose their entire CAP supply by 2023.

They would still be allowed to drill new wells, but those wells would only generate about 28 percent of what they received from CAP, Orme said, according to the Daily Star.

It will be interesting to see what materializes in terms of investments in irrigation technologies that use less water, changes in cropping patterns, and/or fallowing lands, Sharon Megdal, director of the University of Arizonas Water Resources Research Center, told Equilibrium.

What does this mean for the future? The Bureau of Reclamations declaration is a stark reminder that the over-allocation of the Colorado River System must be reckoned with, Megdal said.

While the Central Arizona farming sector will bear the brunt of these initial reductions, models indicate high probabilities that further cutbacks will occur in a few years affecting municipal, industrial and tribal users as well, according to Megdal.

Both water managers and users will need to prepare for these more adverse eventualities, with continued adaptation efforts occurring on both the supply and demand sides of the equation, she said.

Last words: It will not be easy, especially with all the uncertainty, but I do think that the region will demonstrate its resilience through what I will call innovative adaptability, Megdal added.

For a deep dive into one such innovation, please read Sharons new story in Ensia, on how desalination might play a role in revitalizing a parched Colorado River Delta mirroring lessons learned by unlikely partners in the Middle East.

Clean energy cold war: Hydrogen versus electricity

A new hydrogen power plan from the U.K. government has avoided two treacherous pitfalls in one of green energys most contested grudge matches: Hydrogen versus electric power.

But as the U.S. prepares to spend $9 billion on hydrogen research under the bipartisan infrastructure plan, its worth paying attention to both.

First steps: The British government wants the country to produce 5 gigawatts of low-carbon hydrogen by 2030, according to a strategy document released on Tuesday approximately equivalent to the energy needs of 3 million households, The Guardian reported.

That fuel would largely be dispatched to the sectors most difficult to fully electrify: Industry, the power grid and some forms of heavy transport.

Tiptoeing around controversy: That neatly avoids some of hydrogens most controversial applications, said Jan Rosenow, Europe Director of the International Regulatory Assistance Project, which works to decarbonize the worlds largest economies.

A bad strategy would have been: hydrogen used everywhere, to heat homes, in personal transport that it is a panacea, Rosenow told Equilibrium,

A blocking act by fossil fuels? Using hydrogen for those two applications only makes senseif you're an oil and gas company, analyst Michael Liebreich told clean energy trade journal Recharge in June.

If it works, then you're embedded in the hydrogen industry but if it doesn't work, you've delayed the transition to the thing you don't make, which is electricity.

FIGHTS OVER ENERGY SOURCES

A contest over heating: In Britain, natural gas producers like the idea of subbing in hydrogen for the existing gas infrastructure. But this is more complicated than it sounds: hydrogen molecules are far smaller than natural gas molecules, Rosenow said meaning the existing infrastructure risks leaking what the U.S. Department of Labor described as a highly flammable gas.

Also, producing zero-emission hydrogen for home heating costs 2.7 times more than electric heating, according to a study by University College London.

And a contest over cars: In the U.S., car manufacturer Toyota has pushed back on electric car mandates that it sees as a risk to its hydrogen business, as we covered in July.

What is clear is that urban transport buses that operate the same routes in the city, and can be charged in a depot at night, or personal vehicles will most likely not be serviced by hydrogen, Rosenow said.

At current prices, a kilogram of hydrogen delivers slightly more energy than a kilogram of diesel, but costs four times more, The Associated Press reported.

So what should hydrogen be used for? Only the unavoidable, according to Liebreich.

His office has put out the Hydrogen Ladder, which ascends from industries he calls uncompetitive metro trains, domestic heating to those he calls unavoidable, like long-haul aviation and fertilizer production.

First in line for greening, Rosenow said: The around 75 million tons of industrial hydrogen (according to the AP) currently produced from fossil fuels like gas and coal. And barring a huge breakthrough in battery technology, hydrogen could also be what gas and oil are now: A stable store of dispatchable power that can be held for seasons or even years, he added.

A looming problem: The U.K. largely restricted its hydrogen strategy to the unavoidable side of Liebreichs ladder.

But another big question looms where will that hydrogen come from? Will it be truly green, produced from water via wind or solar energy? Or will it be blue, generated from ammonia or natural gas, with leakage at a minimum and emissions somehow captured and stored?

The U.K. government currently plans a twin track approach that will include both four parts blue to one part green, according to Reuters. Thats a second-rate solution to the climate emergency, Juliet Philips of climate think-tank E3G told the Times.

Takeaway: Expect all these fights to be mirrored in the U.S. the moment the bipartisan infrastructure bill passes.

And whatever future breakthroughs hydrogen tech may hold, the current U.K. strategy, as described by Rosenow, is a prod to get started with what we know works building far more clean electricity capacity.

Tech Tuesday

Administration: Solar could provide up to 40 percent of U.S. power by 2035

Airlines turn to tech solutions for climate uncertainty

Please visit The Hills sustainability section online for the web version of this newsletter and more stories. Well see you on Wednesday.

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The Hill's Sustainability Report: Coronavirus could keep developing nations from key climate talks | TheHill - The Hill

The Oregon Health Authority on Monday announced 4,396 new coronavirus cases from the preceding three days, pushing the weekly total to a pandemic record.

Oregon reported 12,740 cases in the past week, or an average of 1,820 a day, setting a new high. Cases are up 53% from the previous week, marking the sixth consecutive week of gains.

The Oregon Health Authority in July stopped reporting cases on the weekends, leading to high three-day totals announced on Mondays. The new cases included 2,027 for Friday, 1,533 Saturday and 836 Sunday.

Hospitalizations also climbed over the weekend, although the trajectory slowed. Oregon reported 752 people with COVID-19 are hospitalized, up 19 since the last public report. The number of people in intensive care stands at 206, up 21 since Fridays figures.

Its too early to tell if that slower growth will continue, and some metrics suggest it wont, as hospitalizations typically lag new positive cases.

The states test positivity rate for the cases reported Monday is alarmingly high, at 13.6%, exceeding the daily rates reported last week.

Meanwhile, the states previous high for weekly cases had been 10,355, set for the week ending Dec. 6.

Vaccines:

Oregon reported 3,013 newly administered doses, which includes 751 on Sunday and the remainder from previous days.

Where the new cases are by county: The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (18), Benton (54), Clackamas (296), Clatsop (73), Columbia (19), Coos (66), Crook (19), Curry (136), Deschutes (355), Douglas (350), Harney (11), Hood River (10), Jackson (542), Jefferson (30), Josephine (363), Klamath (15), Lane (567), Lincoln (35), Linn (178), Malheur (17), Marion (163), Morrow (13), Multnomah (504), Polk (46), Tillamook (66), Umatilla (109), Union (39), Wallowa (11), Wasco (22), Washington (166), Yamhill (103).

Who died: Oregons 2,936th death linked to COVID-19 is a 54-year-old Douglas County who tested positive Aug.7 and died on Aug. 14 at Mercy Medical Center.

The 2,937th fatality is a 27-year-old Douglas County woman who tested positive Aug. 6 and died Aug. 14 at Mercy Medical Center.

Oregons 2,938th death is a 79-year-old Douglas County man who tested positive July 29 and died Aug. 12 at Mercy Medical Center.

The 2,939th fatality is an 80-year-old Crook County woman who tested positive Aug. 6 and died Aug. 12 at her residence.

Oregons 2,940th death is a 69-year-old Coos County woman who tested positive Aug. 3 and died Aug. 11 at a location still being confirmed.

The 2,941st fatality is a 90-year-old Jackson County woman who tested positive July 27 and died Aug. 11 at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center.

Oregons 2,942nd death is an 88-year-old Jackson County man who tested positive July 13 and died Aug. 13 at his residence.

The 2,943rd fatality is a 69-year-old Lane County man who tested positive July 30 and died Aug. 12 at his residence.

Oregons 2,944th death is a 47-year-old Jefferson County woman who tested positive July 23 and died Aug. 12 at St. Charles Bend Hospital.

The 2,945th fatality is a 47-year-old Washington County man who tested positive Aug. 9 and died on Aug.13 at his residence.

Oregons 2,946th death is a 93-year-old Washington County man who tested positive July 23 and died on Aug. 5 at his residence.

The 2,947th fatality is a 54-year-old Multnomah County man who tested positive Aug. 9 and died Aug. 11 at Adventist Health Portland.

Oregons 2,948th death is a 93-year-old Wasco County man who tested positive Aug. 5 and died Aug. 11 at his residence.

The 2,949th fatality is a 63-year-old Jackson County man who tested positive June 10 and died on Aug. 12 at Providence Medford Medical Center.

Each person had underlying health conditions or officials were determining if underlying conditions were present.

Hospitalizations: 752 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 are hospitalized, up 19 from Friday, a record during the pandemic. That includes 206 people in intensive care, 21 more than Friday and a new high point since the beginning of the pandemic.

Since it began: Oregon has reported 242,843 confirmed or presumed infections and 2,949 deaths. To date, the state has reported 4,723,999 doses administered, fully vaccinating 2,351,758 people and partially vaccinating 201,626 people.

To see more data and trends, visit https://projects.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/

-- Ted Sickinger; tsickinger@oregonian.com; 503-221-8505; @tedsickinger

Here is the original post:

Oregon posts 53% increase in weekly coronavirus cases as part of record-setting span - OregonLive

The presence of wildfire smoke last year during the pandemic may have been responsible for at least 19,000 additional coronavirus cases on the West Coast, and 700 subsequent deaths, a new study shows.

The study, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, offers the most detailed accounting yet of how the devastating 2020 wildfire season is believed to have amplified the coronavirus outbreak.

It traces increases in infections to periods of smoke in more than 50 counties in California, Oregon and Washington.

Some of the biggest smoke-related spikes were in the Sierra foothills and Central Valley, according to the study, but parts of the Bay Area also saw jumps. In Sonoma County, 13.1% of the cases from March to December last year were linked to smoke, or 1,754. This compares to 17.3% of the cases in Butte County, which had the largest percentage of smoke-associated cases of any California county.

Calaveras County fared the worst in terms of per-capita deaths. More than half of the countys 22 coronavirus fatalities were tied to smoke. The highest number of overall COVID-19 deaths associated with smoke were in Fresno and Alameda counties, with 131 and 110 people dying, respectively.

While a correlation between wildfire smoke and COVID-19 doesnt prove causation, the studys authors say the tie is no coincidence. Plenty of research since the start of the pandemic has suggested that exposure to smokes primary unhealthy component PM 2.5, which refers to particulate matter that is 2.5 micrometers in size or smaller, compromises peoples immunity and increases susceptibility to COVID-19. Scientists also hypothesize that the virus may be spread by the particles.

The new findings come as the delta variant fuels yet another surge of coronavirus infections across the country while fire season is again in high gear in the West. Parts of California are already blanketed in smoke, with bad air recently reported as far away as New York and North Carolina.

Its a horrible combination, said Francesca Dominici, one of the authors of the study and a biostatistician at Harvard Universitys T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Together, the wildfires and COVID-19 make us even sicker.

The new research is based on statistical modeling done by Dominici and her colleagues at Harvard University and Californias Environmental Systems Research Institute in San Bernardino County.

The teams models crunched coronavirus numbers in 92 counties during non-smoky periods from March 15 to Dec. 16 and how these numbers changed when wildfire smoke brought particulate pollution. The area the researchers examined covered 95% of the population in California, Oregon and Washington. They excluded areas that did not have sufficient data for modeling.

The models took into consideration lag times between viral exposure and testing, and they adjusted for several variables, including changes in weather and population.

Areas with the most coronavirus cases and deaths linked to smoke last year were often those closest to the fires.

The researchers found that across the counties a daily increase in PM 2.5 concentrations of 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air in smoke over 28 days correlated with an average 11.7% increase in coronavirus cases and 8.4% increase in COVID-19 deaths. The 24-hour concentration of PM 2.5 is generally considered unhealthy for some people when it gets above 35 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

In California, Sutter County followed Butte County in tallying the largest percentage of smoke-related coronavirus cases: 16.2% of all infections. Both are north of Sacramento, where bad air from several Sierra fires collected. In Mendocino County, where Californias largest fire in history burned, the August Complex fires, 14.6% of cases were associated with smoke.

Sacramento County, meanwhile, counted the most overall coronavirus cases tied to wildfires in the state: 4,639.

Beyond proximity to fires, the researchers said that the same factors resulting in some areas having more coronavirus cases than others racial makeup, pre-existing medical conditions and access to health care, for example explain why certain areas may be more vulnerable to smoke.

In some counties, including San Francisco, the number of coronavirus cases tied to smoke was actually less than what it would have been without a smoky fire season, according to the study. The researchers presumed that residents in these areas took extra precautions because of the wildfires, such as staying indoors as much as possible, buying air filters and wearing masks while outside. This could have boosted their level of protection to the virus.

The 2020 fire season went down as one of the nations worst, with a record 4.1 million acres burned in California. Many remember the eerie orange sky that emerged over the Bay Area because of wildfire smoke last September.

John Balmes, a professor of medicine at UCSF who was not affiliated with the new paper, said the research both helps validate the connection between wildfires and COVID-19 and underscores the need to do something about it.

This study is just one more set of evidence that we have to be doubling down on our efforts to reduce catastrophic wildfire risk, he said.

In the meantime, Balmes and the studys authors advise people to avoid exposure to smoke as best they can.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander

Originally posted here:

Wildfire smoke linked to thousands of coronavirus cases on West Coast - San Francisco Chronicle