Good morning, and welcome to the Important California e-newsletter. It’s Thursday, Aug. 25. I’m Corinne Purtill, a science and medication reporter at The Occasions.
It’s been slightly below 100 days because the U.S. logged its first case of monkeypox in Boston on Could 19. Since then, almost 16,000 instances of the virus have been confirmed nationwide. Greater than 3,000 confirmed or suspected instances of monkeypox have been reported in California alone.
Monkeypox isn't like COVID-19: It’s a well-known virus for which vaccines are already out there and requires a lot nearer contact to unfold. Even so, a beleaguered U.S. public well being system has struggled to include the outbreak‚ a problem that solely grows with each new constructive case.
The overwhelming majority of instances reported in California and elsewhere have been amongst males who've intercourse with different males. However “there’s no purpose, no organic purpose, why they're the one danger group,” infectious-disease epidemiologist Maureen Miller instructed me final week. “And so they’re not.”
I spoke with Miller, who can also be a medical anthropologist at Columbia College, for a narrative that explores a significant concern scientists have about monkeypox: that it's going to cross over from people to different animals species, which might make it a lot tougher to include.
Earlier than this outbreak, most human instances of the illness got here from shut contact with contaminated animals whereas farming, looking or enjoying. In contrast to smallpox, which solely contaminated people, this explicit orthopoxvirus is much less discriminating in its alternative of mammal host. Squirrels, prairie canines, groundhogs and probably many species of rats and mice can all be contaminated.
Quite a lot of the methods pets present affection for homeowners — licking their faces, nuzzling their pores and skin, leaping up into their bedding — are potential pathways for viral transmission. An contaminated pet might then cross the virus to different animals by way of bites, scratches, feces or urine. Rodents might additionally catch it extra immediately from people by burrowing into rubbish and coming into shut contact with contaminated bedsheets, clothes or bandages. And as soon as a virus is established in an animal inhabitants, there’s an opportunity it may be handed again to people, doubtlessly in an altered — and extra vicious — type.
“These are actually massive issues,” mentioned Jane Sykes, a professor of small animal inner medication on the UC Davis Faculty of Veterinary Medication.
“The inhabitants of canines and cats within the U.S. is greater than the mixed human populations of Australia and the U.Okay., however the function that they play within the unfold of infectious ailments in households has actually been ignored,” Sykes mentioned. “It’s actually vital that we've pets. However I additionally assume that they must be thought-about once we’re approaching management of infectious ailments.”
Earlier this month, the Lancet medical journal printed a scientific account of the primary identified case of human-to-dog monkeypox transmission. An Italian greyhound in Paris apparently caught it from his contaminated homeowners by sleeping of their mattress.
I spoke with the veterinarian to grasp what pet homeowners and others tasked with caring for animals ought to find out about monkeypox. Our dialog has been evenly edited.
What are your issues concerning the reported case of human-to-dog transmission?
I really feel that we needs to be cautious leaping to conclusions primarily based on that one case report. It’s actually vital that individuals know that the susceptibility of canines to this illness has not been confirmed. We do not know from the paper simply how a lot [monkeypox] DNA was detected, so there stays the likelihood that this canine might have been contaminated with monkeypox virus DNA however didn’t even have an lively an infection. We don’t have any reviews of antibodies to a pox virus within the canine’s serum. It’s potential that down the highway they’ll do this testing and it'll get reported, however proper now, we don’t have that data.
How do viruses unfold from people to animals?
Even when they’re folks infections, typically canines and cats can play a job within the unfold of these pathogens in a family. If the virus survives within the surroundings for lengthy durations of time and there’s heavy contamination with furnishings, towels, bedding and so forth, contact between an animal and people objects may additionally have the potential for transmission. And we all know that the virus can be unfold in respiratory secretions akin to nasal discharge. So if an proprietor was kissing and licking and rubbing on the face of their pet — which we all know folks do — that might additionally result in transmission.
It’s additionally actually vital that individuals proceed to grasp the significance of the human-animal bond and never do something drastic, like relinquish an animal as a result of they’re anxious about monkeypox, or bathe animals with doubtlessly dangerous chemical substances.
If folks suspect they've monkeypox, what ought to they do to forestall the virus from spreading to pets or different animals?
Folks with identified or suspected exposures or infections ought to undoubtedly not have interaction in very shut contact akin to co-sleeping with a pet. If there are immunocompromised folks within the family, the animals needs to be faraway from the family and cared for by others who should not immune compromised. In any other case, the animal needs to be saved remoted from different animals and folks within the house for 21 days after the primary identified publicity and monitored for sickness.
What indicators of sickness ought to folks search for of their pet?
We nonetheless don’t know the indicators that pets might develop, however primarily based on analysis research it's prone to be decreased urge for food, inactivity or sleeping extra resulting from fatigue or muscle aches. They may additionally develop pores and skin lesions, which could seem as a spotty rash on areas the place there's not hair masking the pores and skin or just some raised purple bumps. Contaminated prairie canines in the 2003 U.S. outbreak had rashes and lymph node enlargement.
Would you anticipate canines and cats to get better from monkeypox simply as people do?
Sure, completely. Experimental research completed in laboratory animals present that restoration might happen.
And now, right here’s what’s taking place throughout California:
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Bye bye, inner combustion. California air regulators are set to vote immediately on sweeping new guidelines that might prohibit the sale of all new gasoline-powered vehicles, SUVs, minivans and pickups within the state by 2035. If different states comply with as anticipated, the landmark choice might reshape the American auto trade. Los Angeles Occasions
Biden administration to cancel (some) scholar debt. President Biden moved Wednesday to cancel $10,000 in scholar debt for people incomes lower than $125,000 yearly, and prolonged a pause on mortgage repayments for all debtors by way of the top of the yr. About $28.5 billion of the nation’s $1.6 trillion in federal mortgage debt belongs to three.8 million Californians. A UC Merced economist estimates that 92% of these debtors shall be eligible for the mortgage forgiveness. Los Angeles Occasions
L.A. STORIES
A jury sides with Vanessa Bryant in crash scene picture trial. A jury ordered Los Angeles County to pay Vanessa Bryant, widow of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, and widower Chris Chester $31 million in damages after sheriff’s deputies and firefighters shared graphic pictures of their spouses’ and youngsters’s deaths in a 2020 helicopter crash. Attorneys argued that the illicit pictures violated their purchasers’ proper to privateness and inflicted emotional misery. The decision occurred to fall on Mamba Day, which Los Angeles declared in Kobe Bryant’s honor in 2016 (he wore jersey Nos. 8 and 24.) The town unveiled a 125-foot mural by L.A.-based illustrator Nikkolas Smith of the late Lakers star. Los Angeles Occasions
What’s with the turtles? Sit by any park pond in Los Angeles lengthy sufficient, and also you’re sure to see a turtle or two poke its head above the water. How did a reptile native to the Mississippi Valley unfold so extensively throughout California? And if the world’s lone native turtle species is nearing endangered standing, the place did all these testudines come from? The Occasions uncovers a reptilian thriller. Los Angeles Occasions
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POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
Abortion rights might quickly be a part of California’s Structure. A measure to amend the state Structure so as to add protections for abortion rights seems on observe for victory this fall. A brand new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Research ballot finds that 71% of California voters help the proposed modification, and majorities again different insurance policies aimed toward defending abortion rights. Los Angeles Occasions
Sephora pays for concealing information gross sales. Make-up retailer Sephora should pay California $1.2 million and alter its privateness insurance policies after the corporate allegedly bought clients’ private data with out their permission, below the phrases of a settlement introduced Wednesday. Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta mentioned Sephora did not right its insurance policies when notified that it was violating state privateness legal guidelines. Sacramento Bee
CRIME, COURTS AND POLICING
San Francisco enterprise homeowners suggest civil disobedience. Annoyed enterprise homeowners within the Castro District have threatened to cease paying metropolis taxes and costs if the town doesn't assist the world’s unhoused folks. “You'll be able to’t have a vibrant, profitable enterprise hall when you've got folks handed out excessive on medication, littering your sidewalk,” the Castro Retailers Assn.'s co-president instructed the San Francisco Chronicle. “These folks must get assist.” San Francisco Chronicle
Orange County to pay inmate who misplaced being pregnant in custody. The county pays $480,000 to a former inmate who suffered a miscarriage after sheriff’s deputies stopped at Starbucks whereas driving her to a hospital. Sandra Quinones, whose lawyer says she is homeless and mentally unwell, was six months pregnant in 2016 when her water broke in her jail cell. Jailers didn't reply to her requires assist for 2 hours, the swimsuit alleges, and despatched her to the hospital not in an ambulance however in a patrol automobile whose deputies stopped for espresso. Orange County Register
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HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT
State well being officers eye children’ low COVID-19 vaccine charges. Solely 37% of California youngsters ages 5 to 11 have accomplished their major COVID-19 vaccination sequence, in contrast with 67% of adolescents 12 to 17 and 78% of adults 18 to 49. Los Angeles Occasions
Extra marshland on the horizon. San Diego adopted an aggressive local weather motion plan this month that pledges to create 700 extra acres of marshland throughout the town. Often known as wetlands, marshlands serve the twin objective of eradicating greenhouse gases from the air and preventing sea-level rise by appearing as a coastal sponge. San Diego Union-Tribune
“We're seen as disposable.” ManyAngelenos who make a dwelling from intercourse work — an umbrella time period that features stripping, performing and different types of promoting sexual providers — keep in mind the historical past of the HIV epidemic and are cautious of an identical dynamic enjoying out with monkeypox. “On the streets, they’re not pondering that it’s only for somebody who has intercourse with one other man,” one outreach employee instructed reporter Emily Alpert Reyes. After seeing how HIV reached different teams, “with monkeypox, they’re like, ‘We’re not falling for that.’” Los Angeles Occasions
CALIFORNIA CULTURE
A plea for a greater license plate. South Dakota has Mount Rushmore, Arizona has a cactus and California has ... the URL for the Division of Motor Automobiles. Editorial author Laurel Rosenhall makes the case for the standard license plate that displays a bit of extra of the Golden State’s pizzazz. Los Angeles Occasions
A brand new white rhino is born. Livia, a southern white rhino who lives on the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, gave beginning Aug. 6 to a child male. Each the calf and the first-time mother are doing properly, reported the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, which posted a video of the calf enjoying on the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Middle. An estimated 18,000 southern white rhinos stay in native habitats worldwide. San Diego Union-Tribune
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CALIFORNIA ALMANAC
Los Angeles: Sunny, 86. San Diego: Partly cloudy, 78. San Francisco: Partly cloudy, 68. San Jose: Partly cloudy, 84. Fresno: Sunny, 104. Sacramento: Partly cloudy, 94.
AND FINALLY
At this time’s California reminiscence is fromKimberly Denend Guthrie:
Each go to to my grandparents included a visit to see my Yugoslavian great-grandmother on Polk Avenue in San Francisco. All the pieces concerning the go to was overseas and thrilling, from the tunnel between the “entrance retailers” to the surface staircase main to every flat. My great-grandmother lived within the center one. Inside, sourdough bread, ham and cookies have been at all times ready. After lunch we’d stroll downhill to Ghirardelli Sq.. I’d marvel at how chilly and foggy the summer season might be. Strolling up the hill with my great-grandmother’s vice-like grip on an arm was powerful, but she at all times shared how she by no means felt winded in any respect.
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