By | | Bay Area News GroupAnother new form of the coronavirus, whose emergence in India is coinciding with a surge in cases, has been detected in the San Francisco Bay Area by Stanford University.One confirmed case and seven presumed cases of the Indian variant were found by Stanford’s Clinical Virology Laboratory, which has developed tests to detect the presence of viruses already spreading around the world. The cases involved Stanford patients.“This demonstrates the rapid spread of this variant,” said Dr. Ben Pinsky, medical director of the laboratory.The discovery of the strain,...…By | | Bay Area News GroupAnother new form of the coronavirus, whose emergence in India is coinciding with a surge in cases, has been detected in the San Francisco Bay Area by Stanford University.One confirmed case and seven presumed cases of the Indian variant were found by Stanford’s Clinical Virology Laboratory, which has developed tests to detect the presence of viruses already spreading around the world. The cases involved Stanford patients.“This demonstrates the rapid spread of this variant,” said Dr. Ben Pinsky, medical director of the laboratory.The discovery of the strain,...WW…

Left to right: Dr. Robert Rodriquez (UCSF)/ Dr. Eric Goosby (Susan Merrell)/ Dr. David A. Kessler (AP)Three UC San Francisco physicians will help guide President-elect Joe Biden’s pandemic response strategy as members of his newly-announced Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board.One of these local experts, Dr. David Kessler, will serve as a co-chair of the board, which will work with health officials nationwide to create policies to stem the virus’s spread, ensure vaccines are safe, reduce health disparities and reopen schools and businesses.Many of the members have already been working with...…Left to right: Dr. Robert Rodriquez (UCSF)/ Dr. Eric Goosby (Susan Merrell)/ Dr. David A. Kessler (AP)Three UC San Francisco physicians will help guide President-elect Joe Biden’s pandemic response strategy as members of his newly-announced Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board.One of these local experts, Dr. David Kessler, will serve as a co-chair of the board, which will work with health officials nationwide to create policies to stem the virus’s spread, ensure vaccines are safe, reduce health disparities and reopen schools and businesses.Many of the members have already been working with...WW…

By | | Bay Area News GroupA new Stanford concludes that Trump rallies resulted in more than 30,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and likely caused more than 700 deaths among attendees and their close contacts.“The communities in which Trump rallies took place paid a high price in terms of disease and death,” concludes the research, conducted by economists from the university’s Institute for Economic Policy Research.The new analysis, which is not peer-reviewed, studies the trajectory of the pandemic in counties that were the sites of 18 Trump campaign rallies last summer in cities such as...…By | | Bay Area News GroupA new Stanford concludes that Trump rallies resulted in more than 30,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and likely caused more than 700 deaths among attendees and their close contacts.“The communities in which Trump rallies took place paid a high price in terms of disease and death,” concludes the research, conducted by economists from the university’s Institute for Economic Policy Research.The new analysis, which is not peer-reviewed, studies the trajectory of the pandemic in counties that were the sites of 18 Trump campaign rallies last summer in cities such as...WW…

GET BREAKING NEWS IN YOUR BROWSER. CLICK HERE TO TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS.XBy | | Bay Area News GroupThis was a silent spring for Bay Area residents, as COVID-19 trapped us indoors to wait, worry and whine.But outside, our birds re-discovered their most sexy serenades. The stage was all theirs.A first-ever acoustic comparison of avian songs before and during the springtime shutdown reveals that birds respond quickly when humans hush.They sang more softly — and these songs were faster, with a wider, lower and more romantic range of pitch, according to the study, published in .The sound levels...…GET BREAKING NEWS IN YOUR BROWSER. CLICK HERE TO TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS.XBy | | Bay Area News GroupThis was a silent spring for Bay Area residents, as COVID-19 trapped us indoors to wait, worry and whine.But outside, our birds re-discovered their most sexy serenades. The stage was all theirs.A first-ever acoustic comparison of avian songs before and during the springtime shutdown reveals that birds respond quickly when humans hush.They sang more softly — and these songs were faster, with a wider, lower and more romantic range of pitch, according to the study, published in .The sound levels...WW…

By | | Bay Area News GroupWith one injection, Dusta Eisenman and other Bay Area volunteers are joining the unprecedented search for a COVID-19 vaccine, eager to help end the worst pandemic in a century.“I wanted to do my part and be a team player, to get people back to working, people healthy and kids back at school,” said Eisenman, 44, a San Jose mother of three and Kaiser pediatric nurse.Kaiser’s study of a Pfizer vaccine, launched at their Santa Clara and Sacramento facilities on Monday, represents the beginning of several trials in the San Francisco Bay Area — part of a vast network of...…By | | Bay Area News GroupWith one injection, Dusta Eisenman and other Bay Area volunteers are joining the unprecedented search for a COVID-19 vaccine, eager to help end the worst pandemic in a century.“I wanted to do my part and be a team player, to get people back to working, people healthy and kids back at school,” said Eisenman, 44, a San Jose mother of three and Kaiser pediatric nurse.Kaiser’s study of a Pfizer vaccine, launched at their Santa Clara and Sacramento facilities on Monday, represents the beginning of several trials in the San Francisco Bay Area — part of a vast network of...WW…

GET BREAKING NEWS IN YOUR BROWSER. CLICK HERE TO TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS.XBy | | Bay Area News GroupAmid Gov. Gavin Newsom’s scenario of a post-sheltering world, there are two chilling words: herd immunity.Tomorrow’s tableau — waiters with masks, distant desks, split-shift schools — will be the new normal, he told reporters in his Tuesday press briefing, “at least until we have herd immunity.”The phrase came up again as he explained what’s ahead, as “we begin to transition into suppression, ultimately, on our way to herd immunity” and a vaccine. He repeated it later, describing progress...…GET BREAKING NEWS IN YOUR BROWSER. CLICK HERE TO TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS.XBy | | Bay Area News GroupAmid Gov. Gavin Newsom’s scenario of a post-sheltering world, there are two chilling words: herd immunity.Tomorrow’s tableau — waiters with masks, distant desks, split-shift schools — will be the new normal, he told reporters in his Tuesday press briefing, “at least until we have herd immunity.”The phrase came up again as he explained what’s ahead, as “we begin to transition into suppression, ultimately, on our way to herd immunity” and a vaccine. He repeated it later, describing progress...WW…