LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A summer surge of COVID-19 cases in Southern California comes as many residents become complacent about safe behaviors.

Could this be adding to the spike in infections?

As a caregiver, Tracey Benson of Inglewood is very protective about her mom’s health. All this time she has been able to keep her from getting a COVID infection, but it’s getting harder and harder.

“We are staying on top of it, but I think others should join and do the same and not be so relaxed,” Benson said.

Doctors say this relaxed attitude toward COVID may be fueling the spread of the latest variant called FLiRT.

“It is quite widespread,” said infectious disease specialist Dr. Suman Radhakrishna with Dignity Health California Hospital Medical Center.

She said the FLiRT variant is 20% more contagious than the original virus, but less likely to cause serious disease, which may be another reason why people are letting their guard down.

“A lot of people are walking around who are asymptomatic. You hug each other, you kiss each other, you’re sharing food,” she said.

According to the CDC, California’s wastewater has reached a “very high” level for COVID for the first time since last winter. L.A. County health officials said other indicators, such as the number of cases and hospitalizations, have doubled in the last month.

Think of the last time you went to a gathering and someone tested positive. Did you test yourself? Did you isolate yourself? Doctors say people are forgetting the important lessons we’ve learned.

“You should say to yourself, if I test positive, I’m going to stop the transmission right here with me. And I’m going to quarantine myself for the five-day prescribed period. Every person has a duty to protect everyone else around them so we should be doing our part,” Radhakrishna said.

Besides those measures, Dr. Radhakrishna says vaccination remains our best weapon and summer may be a good time to boost your immunity.

“If you’re traveling now, you want to be protected now,” she said.

This is especially true for those in vulnerable groups.

“It is still very bad for the immuno-compromised. And for the ones who are suffering in the throes of infection, it is very bad as well,” said Radhakrishna.

For her mom’s sake, Benson is hoping people will continue to cover their cough, social distance, test if they need to and get vaccinated.

“Health is important not just for oneself, but for your other family members. It’s really important,” said Benson.

Image credit:
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announces the Arizona Diamondbacks 1st round pick, 29th overall, Slade Caldwell at the 2024 MLB Draft at Cowtown Coliseum in Ft. Worth, Texas on Sunday, July 14, 2024

As usual, the state of California led the way in having the most 2024 MLB Draft picks. But it is notable how some schools have steadily increased their number of players taken while one state in particular has continued to drop off in draft production.

California had 63 players selected this year, compared to Florida’s 57. North Carolina (46), Texas (40) and Virginia (29) rounded out the top five.

Last year, 67 players from California went in the draft, while 65 came from Texas.

The state that has declined the most precipitously in recent years is Georgia. Georgia saw 19 players picked this year after totaling just 18 in 2023. Throughout the 2010s, Georgia annually had 25 or more players picked in the top 20 rounds and didn’t have a year below 20 picks in any year that decade.

Five states—Vermont, South Dakota, Montana, Rhode Island and Wyoming—went pickless.

This was produced using PramanaLabs’ Shift tool through Baseball America’s partnership with Pramana.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law Monday prohibiting schools from informing parents when students change their pronouns in school. The Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth (SAFETY) Act also imposes responsibilities on the State Department of Education to develop resources to “increase support for LGBTQ pupils.”

According to the California legislature’s LGBTQ caucus, the SAFETY Act is necessary to prevent school boards from outing the gender identity of students. In July 2023 several schools passed so-called “forced outing” policies, which required teachers to notify parents if their child identifies as transgender. The SAFETY Act bans that practice, standardizing the obligations of teachers across California. The bill enjoyed broad support from LGBTQ groups as well as the California Teachers Association, a large teachers union in the state.

Though the SAFETY Act enjoyed support in California’s legislature, it is not without its critics. The California Policy Center, a think tank generally critical of California’s Democratic government, suggested that the law amounts to an unfair infringement on parental rights. They claim that, “while it is certainly prudent to protect the privacy of a child from the public… children do not have a right to privacy that transcends their parents’ well-established rights.”

In response to this sort of worry, proponents of the law have argue that parental rights need not require teachers inform parents about their children. Instead, they write, a student’s gender identity “is generally a matter to be discussed between the child and their parents in the … manner chosen by the family.”