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M O N D AY, J A N U A RY 24- J A N U A RY 30, 2022
V I S I T A R C A D I AW E E K LY. C O M
Study: 72% of LA County had antibodies before COVID surges BY CITY NEWS SERVICE
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Photo courtesy of Mufid Majnun/Unsplash
least partially vaccinated. Almost 29% of unvaccinated participants had antibodies for COVID-19 because they had already been infected with the virus, giving them some protective immunity. Almost all of the unvaccinated participants who had been infected had antibodies, including participants who had COVID-19 several months before the study. The study also found that Black adults and people from lower income households had much lower rates of protective immunity, even though they had higher rates of antibodies from past infection. “These communities were hit on both sides: they
generally had lower vaccination rates, especially in the first few months that vaccines were available, and they also were harder hit by the earlier waves of COVID,” Sood said. The research team hopes policymakers and public health officials see the results and reconsider how COVID-19 will be addressed long-term. “Testing the symptomatic, ensuring access to new treatments and encouraging vaccinations for high-risk populations should be the pillars of our pandemic response going forward,” Sood said. “These findings indicate that preventing COVID surges may be increasingly unrealistic, but we can ensure
our healthcare system and hospitals have the needed capacity and patients have the care they need.” The study was co-authored by Sood, Olivier Pernet, Chun Nok Lam, Angela Klipp, Rani Kotha and Andrea Kovacs. Support was provided by Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Office of the President of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences of Keck School of Medicine of USC, Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics, and Keck Family Foundation.
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OC Attorney Todd Spitzer facing heat for releasing harassment investigation report BY PAUL ANDERSON CITY NEWS SERVICE
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USC study released Thursday found high rates of COVID-19 vaccination and prior infection before the delta and Omicron variant surges, casting doubt that the pandemic will end through herd immunity once enough people have been vaccinated or experienced a prior infection. The study, which was released in JAMA Network Open, estimates that about 72% of people in L.A. County had either been vaccinated or had antibodies from a prior COVID-19 infection last April, before the Delta and Omicron variants caused significant surges in COVID-19 cases. “Given that new variants continue to result in significant surges even in a place like L.A. County, which had some of the strictest mask mandates and most expansive testing capacity in the country -- we need to pivot our pandemic response from minimizing infections to minimizing the harm from infections,” said Neeraj Sood, one of the study’s leaders and director of the COVID Initiative at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics. Researchers established eight testing sites in L.A. County, where they tested COVID-19 antibodies in 1,335 adults who were deemed a representative sample of county residents during two weeks in midApril. The results were adjusted for demographics and vaccination rates using statistical methodology, according to USC. The study found that 13% of participants received a positive COVID-19 test during the pandemic, and nearly 61% of participants were at
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range County District Attorney Todd Spitzer’s office committed a “hostile and offensive” act by disseminating an internal investigation on sexual harassment allegations against a retired senior prosecutor -- and best man at Spitzer’s wedding -- to everyone in the office, according to an outside law firm’s report obtained Wednesday. The firm’s report, prepared by attorney Elisabeth A. Frater, was completed Aug. 2 but obtained Wednesday through a City News Service public records act request. Frater prepared the document as a follow-up to her initial investigation that was released May 7 into allegations of sexual harassment against retired senior prosecutor Gary LoGalbo. The county requested the follow-up report from Frater in response to complaints by attorneys for several female prosecutors who made the harassment allegations, contending that Spitzer and the county improperly released the original investigation. In the follow-up report, Frater concluded that county officials did nothing wrong by releasing the original investigative report in response to public records requests from City News Service and other media outlets. But Frater determined that Spitzer’s subsequent release of the report to every employee of his office, as well as his subsequent comments about the document to a reporter, violated county policies. Frater noted that the accusers were forced to participate in the original internal investigation under threat of discipline. “Thus, the evidence
supports a finding based on the preponderance of evidence that Mr. Spitzer’s dissemination of information the witnesses were compelled to give under threat of administrative discipline or termination, was an abuse or misuse of the power Mr. Spitzer held, and a reasonable person would find under these circumstances that the dissemination of the report office-wide was hostile and offensive,” Frater wrote. Spitzer declined to participate in the follow-up investigation, as did his office’s spokeswoman, Kimberly Edds, and Spitzer’s top assistant, Shawn Nelson. The original investigative report by Frater, completed April 28, substantiated the claims of sexual harassment against LoGalbo, who was accused of making inappropriate racial and sexual remarks to subordinates while bragging he was immune to consequences because he was Spitzer’s best friend. A more serious allegation was made by a supervisor who said Spitzer pressured him to discipline one of LoGalbo’s accusers. Frater in the April report did not find Spitzer retaliated against the woman, because he did not follow through with the threat of disciplining her and also signed off on her moving from a probationary to permanent employee. But Frater concluded that Spitzer and Edds were not credible in their accounts of Spitzer’s interaction with the supervisor about the employee. When the original investigative report was released to media on May 7, Spitzer issued a statement contending the investigation concluded that his office “responded promptly,
See Todd Spitzer Page 4