UCLA Health on Omicron

Our prior post dealt with the new Omicron variant and modified rules issued by UCLA. Below is a piece from UC News/UCLA on the variant:

Understanding omicron, the new COVID-19 variant

By Chayil Champion, UCLA

Thursday, December 2, 2021

Countries around the world are making preparations against omicron, a new variant of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. On Wednesday, Dec. 1, omicron's presence in California was confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health officials are once again cautioning the public about getting vaccinated, frequent testing and potentially stepping up tried-and-true measures to prevent transmission such as mask-wearing and hand-washing.

We spoke with Shangxin Yang, a pathologist at UCLA Health, about the new variant and what everyone needs to know.

Shangxin Yang

How is the omicron variant different from the delta variant and others?

It has a lot of mutations in its genome. Compared to the original coronavirus, the delta variant has fewer than 20 genetic changes to the gene for the spike protein. The omicron variant has more than 30 genetic changes. It’s almost double. The more changes there are in the spike protein gene, the more likely the vaccines and the therapeutic drugs could lose their efficacy. It’s not good news, especially for those who have not been vaccinated.

It’s no surprise that we’re seeing this at the starting point of the winter. The outbreak really intensifies during the holiday season because places become more crowded due to travel and shopping. It’s the perfect time for omicron to start emerging and it has the potential to become another big variant.

Is the omicron variant more dangerous or more contagious than delta?

There are not enough data or cases reported to know yet.  The danger is that we are always two steps behind the virus. First of all, the variant is already circulating in the population by the time we detect it. The second reason we are behind is because we have to then characterize the virus’ behavior. We’re trying to assess how infectious it is and that takes a longer time. By the time we figure these answers out, the virus is already widespread.

The good thing is we learned a lot from delta, so we’ve had a more proactive response to the omicron variant. But to put a stop to other variants emerging, people have to get vaccinated and reduce transmission, which is what enables the mutations.

Do our current vaccines protect against it (including the booster)?

Most likely, yes, and here’s why. The vaccine creates two “arms” of immunity: the humoral arm and the cellular arm. The humoral immune response triggers the creation of antibodies to neutralize the virus. But changes to the virus can impact the effectiveness of the antibodies, which means that the vaccinated can still get COVID-19 and spread it.

Now, cellular immunity is different. It’s more important when it comes to preventing severe disease. Our cells are trained to recognize the virus, and they help keep the virus from causing severe damage to our bodies. Those who are vaccinated will likely not get that sick if they contract the variant. The problem is we have a vaccine that was created almost two years ago for a virus that appeared two years ago. Once we have a vaccine that is based on the current variant, we can catch up with the virus.

Should we prepare for states and cities to shut down again?

I think it is highly unlikely, being that people are so tired of being locked down. Also, we have other preventive measures. We can have people get vaccinated and get the boosters, and we can have people wear masks. We know those measures work beautifully.

Why are countries from Australia to Israel closing their borders so quickly?

It’s more political than anything. Closing borders can only slow down the virus for a few weeks or a couple of months. The problem is once you’ve identified the virus, it’s already too late. It’s already widespread. So, closing the borders is not effective. The virus is already there.

Can we expect to have COVID variants from now on?

Yes, until we are able to get the entire human population vaccinated. It’s not just about the United States. We’re talking about the entire human population. A lot of the new variants come from areas where there are not a lot of vaccines available.

Hypothetically speaking, if the whole world got vaccinated, would that keep other variants from forming?

I believe it will most likely go away or it will become a very mild virus. It will not cause severe disease anymore. It will become like the common cold. I feel like the latter is more of a possibility, considering that the virus has already widened its spread and has already adapted to humans. I think it will likely be here to stay even if you vaccinate the entire population, but it will not cause severe sickness or death anymore.

What are the symptoms of omicron?

It’s not much different than those of the other variants: cough, loss of smell, diarrhea, fever, runny nose and headache. The symptoms may vary, but we don’t have enough data yet to know how.

What is the most sensible thing for people to do at this point?

We should continue doing what we have been doing. We should continue to wear masks and get vaccinated. Those who have already been vaccinated should make sure they get their booster. Make sure your kids are vaccinated and continue to protect our loved ones and ourselves. We just can’t let down our guard at this point.

Source: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/understanding-omicron-new-covid-19-variant.

Looking for Omicron at UC-SD

UC San Diego tells students who traveled over Thanksgiving to get tested for COVID-19

San Diego Union-Tribune, Gary Robbins, 12-2-21

UC San Diego on Thursday sent a message to its nearly 43,000 students telling them that they should get tested for COVID-19 “as soon as possible” if they traveled over the Thanksgiving break, whether they are vaccinated or not. “While cases have not increased significantly in San Diego County or on our campus, they are expected to trend upward due to Fall Break travel,” the message said. The statement reflects concern about the newly discovered Omicron variant, which scientists say could be more contagious than the Delta strain and potentially more harmful.

UCSD scientists have joined in the global effort to determine whether current vaccines and existing and experimental drugs will be effective against Omicron. The new variant was first reported in South Africa on Nov. 24. The first case in the U.S. was reported Wednesday in San Francisco. The case involves a man who had recently traveled to South Africa. He was vaccinated against COVID-19 but had yet to get the booster shot. Thursday’s message represents a sharp change in tone for UCSD, the largest university south of Los Angeles.

In November 2020, the school implored students not to travel over Thanksgiving, or to get tested before they left campus. This year, the school didn’t urge either course of action before the holiday. Instead, officials said they would test students when they got back. They didn’t envision telling students to do it ASAP. 

Dr. Davey Smith, chief of infectious diseases at UCSD, said, “There is a chance we could find (Omicron in the new testing) but I bet we find it in the community first.” ...

Full story at https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2021-12-02/uc-san-diego-students-tested-covid-19.

December Coronavirus Rules

New, modified coronavirus protocols were released by UCLA at the beginning of this month. 

From the Bruin: UCLA released new guidelines with restrictions for on-campus events and departmental social gatherings, according to a campuswide email Wednesday. The announcement came after scientists in South Africa detected the highly transmissible omicron COVID-19 virus variant, which the World Health Organization designated a variant of concern on Nov. 26. On Wednesday, UC San Francisco researchers identified a case of COVID-19 in California caused by the omicron variant, the first confirmed case in the U.S. Preliminary research shows that the variant may only produce mild illness, according to a UCLA announcement Tuesday.

The updated protocols highly encourage virtual events, as new cases of COVID-19 remain high and the new strains of the virus continue to emerge, including the omicron variant, said Michael J. Beck and Megan McEvoy, co-chairs of the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Task Force, in the emailed announcement...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2021/12/01/ucla-announces-guidelines-for-campus-gatherings-amid-concern-for-omnicron-variant.

Below are the official rules as of December 1:

Source: https://ucla.app.box.com/s/ldwgbdtwohcwbmbrk2gzdmb478od5566.

More on the UC-SB Munger Monster Dorm

Former UC Campus Architects Slam UCSB’s Munger Hall Proposal

They outline their 'extreme concern and opposition' to the proposed dormitory building in letter to UC President Michael Drake

By Jade Martinez-Pogue, Noozhawk, December 1, 2021

A group of eight former campus architects within the University of California system slammed UC Santa Barbara’s proposed Munger Hall dormitory in a letter sent to UC President Michael Drake last month, calling the proposed building a “disaster in the making.”

“Unfortunately, the Munger Hall project fails to meet the high standards that the university has set for itself,” the letter asserts. “At best, this project as currently conceived is a sociological and psychological experiment that has the potential to cause great harm overtime to thousands of students.

“There is no telling the actual harm that could be engendered by this project.”

The 11-story, 159-foot-tall Munger Hall was designed by 97-year-old billionaire Charles Munger, who donated $200 million toward the approximately $1.4 billion project under the condition that his designs would be followed exactly. The project, which is intended to house 4,500 students and be completed by the fall term in 2025, has drawn criticism from local community members, architects, and students for its “jail-like” design and windowless rooms. As The Daily Nexus, UCSB’s student newspaper, first reported, the letter to Drake was signed by former UC associate vice chancellors and campus architects from eight of the 10 UC campuses, with a combined 122 years of experience.

The undersigned include Michael Bade from UC San Francisco, Don Caskey from UC Riverside, Ed Denton from UC Berkeley, Rebekah Gladson from UC Irvine, M. Boone Hellmann from UC San Diego, Thomas Lollini from UC Merced, Charles Oakley from UC Los Angeles, and Frank Zwart from UC Santa Cruz.

“We write to you to express our extreme concern and opposition to the UC Santa Barbara project known as Munger Hall,” the letter said. “We all have substantial experience in the planning, design, and construction of university facilities … We all continue to embrace the values of the university, having worked daily as campus architects to express these values in its built environment, to ultimately heighten the human experience for everyone.” Munger Hall, the letter said, does not meet the high level of standards that the UC system holds itself to.

The dorm building fails to meet “both the spirit and details” of several essential requirements and guidelines established in UCSB’s 2010 Long Range Development Plan and 2010-20 Capital Financial Plan and Physical Design Framework, the architects wrote. The letter goes on to point out that the LDRP describes itself as a “major advance in campus planning with a renewed focus on … increased emphases on both the natural setting and civic quality of campus buildings and civic and open spaces.” The focus of campus spaces and their patterns of circulation and use should be the “most highly valued of the campus” — its magnificent setting, the LDRP notes. 

As the letter continued, the LDRP directs campus planners to locate buildings and spaces to take full advantage of the campus’ “extraordinary coastal beauty” and enhance views and increase access to the natural areas from the campus proper. “Munger Hall, in which over 90% of the student bedrooms have no windows, fails to make UCSB’s magnificent natural setting its focus,” the letter said.

The letter also pointed out that the proposed building height is more than double the 65-foot height limit for buildings on its site called for in the LDRP, and that the building would nearly equal the 175-foot height of Storke Tower in the center of campus. If constructed as currently designed, Munger Hall would be the tallest building in Santa Barbara County and 37% taller than the Granada Theatre in downtown Santa Barbara, the letter said. “As campus architects, we saw the thoughtful development of campus plans as a significant responsibility,” the letter writers said. “For the regents to accept a project that so blatantly ignores clearly-established development guidelines calls into question the purpose and value of the entire campus planning enterprise.”

There are some significant state building code standards that the university will be forced to compromise to attain a certificate of occupancy, the letter claimed.

The UC Board of Regents has the autonomy from typical building code requirements since the UC system is the “authority having jurisdiction,” the undersigned explained, meaning that the regents can approve what are called “alternate means of compliance.”

The building’s lighting and ventilation systems will have to be substantially modified to even try to achieve any alternative means of compliance rather than meet code requirements in regards to natural light and ventilation in bedrooms, the letter said. The code “workarounds” will also be highly energy-dependent and will be in direct conflict with the UC’s carbon neutrality goal, it continued. Given the current coronavirus pandemic, the undersigned called into question the wisdom of residential buildings relying on mechanical ventilation. However, UCSB claims that Munger Hall is in full compliance with the California building and mechanical codes, including requirements related to light and ventilation, university spokeswoman Andrea Estrada told Noozhawk.

"The project is not seeking an 'alternative means of compliance' or any 'workarounds,' as stated in the letter," the university said in a written statement Estrada sent to Noozhawk. "The project team has been working closely with architect of record VTBS to ensure the project is held to the highest standards possible, often above and beyond building code requirements." On top of the building’s questionable design feats, the project also poses “troubling” and “unavoidable” effects on student housing rates, the letter said.

Publicly released information for the building indicates that the project cost is over $330,000 per bed — the most expensive residential project in UC history. The letter writers compared Munger Hall to UCSB’s San Joaquin Villages student apartment complex, which at the time of approval in 2014 had a project cost of $166,830 per bed, or equivalent to $209,445 today. 

“Munger Hall’s cost per bed is more than 50% greater than that,” the undersigned wrote. “The inevitable increase in housing rates will adversely affect the affordability of a University of California education.”

The university said that the characterization of cost per bed in the letter is misleading, as the design is not complete so the final number for construction has yet to be determined. "In due time, the university will be able to accurately apportion the costs directly attributable to housing and those costs attributable to other uses. When all is evaluated and the final numbers are calculated, the housing cost per bed will be very competitive with typical residence halls, if not a bit less," Estrada said in a statement. 

"Ultimately, the goal for the project is to provide students a better housing experience at a lower monthly cost than they would find in Isla Vista."

While the pressure for student housing at UCSB is intense, the architects said that Munger Hall — “a social petri dish so foreign to the character of the Santa Barbara campus” and an “ill-informed attempt to warehouse students” — is not the answer. The letter goes on to say that a failed investment of that size is bound to ripple through the UC system, and that it is a “disaster in the making” if the project becomes a model for future student housing. “Our students and our campus landscapes all deserve better,” the architects wrote.

In tying up the letter, they pointed out that Munger has been widely quoted as saying “no two architects ever agree on anything,” but that this proposal has demonstrated quite the opposite: the architectural community across the nation is speaking out loudly against it. “We ask that you take a step back and embrace the values of a humane environment, one that fosters health, safety, and welfare, instead of one that may forever harm generations of young students,” the letter said. “We acknowledge the idea of the solution, but Munger Hall is not the answer.” 

In response to the former campus architects' letter, the university "appreciates and understands" the concerns raised, but seeks to clarify some misconceptions about the project. "Munger Hall was uniquely designed to help UC Santa Barbara meet the demand for safe, affordable, on-campus housing that students desire while also fulfilling the university’s obligation to support previous enrollment increases that were mandated by the California legislature and governor," the university said.

Munger Hall designs presented to UCSB’s Design Review Committee on Oct. 5 show each residential “bedroom cluster” has eight 10-by-7-foot bedrooms that share a bathroom (with two toilets, two sinks, two showers), a small kitchen, and a “study” area with a long table and chairs. Each “house” has eight of these clusters (64 people total) sharing a larger communal kitchen, laundry facilities, and “great room” with long tables and chairs, according to the design renderings. Each residential floor of the building has eight of these houses, which would be about 512 people, according to the proposed floor plan. The designs proposed a first floor with reading rooms, multipurpose rooms, a convenience store, and fitness centers. 

Students at the University of Michigan told Noozhawk about their experiences living in the Munger Graduate Residences, a 2015 dormitory for graduate students. That building is much smaller than the building proposed for UCSB, but features a similar design concept with windowless bedrooms. 

They had mostly a negative view of the experience, former students told Noozhawk.

Source:

https://www.noozhawk.com/article/former_uc_campus_architects_slam_ucsbs_munger_hall_proposal.

Winter Quarter: No LA County Lockdown

UCLA might have opened up early - at least partially - along the lines of UC-San Diego, but LA County guidelines tended to override such options. With the new Omicron variant, there has been talk about new lockdowns. But so far, LA County authorities seem to be resisting that approach. From the LA Times: 

No significant new coronavirus-related restrictions are planned in Los Angeles County following the emergence of the Omicron variant, a top health official said Tuesday. “At this moment, we have really, I think, sensible precautions in place,” Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told the county Board of Supervisors.

L.A. County’s existing COVID-19 rules are already among the strictest in the state. They include a blanket mandate for residents to wear masks in indoor public spaces, regardless of whether they’ve been vaccinated. The county also requires patrons and employees of indoor bars, wineries, breweries, distilleries, nightclubs and lounges to show proof that they’ve been fully vaccinated for COVID-19. Similar but more expansive rules in the city of Los Angeles cover a host of additional businesses, including indoor restaurants, gyms and movie theaters.

But despite the worries accompanying the new variant and the approach of winter, officials in L.A. and throughout California are nowhere close to publicly discussing the kind of stringent restrictions that were in effect at this time last year, when a round of regional stay-at-home orders shut down or severely constrained many aspects of the state’s economy and residents’ lives. That attitude is also reflected at the federal level...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-11-30/l-a-county-has-no-plans-for-an-omicron-lockdown.

LA Times Editorial Criticizes Regents - Without Naming Them - for Having No Test

LA Times, 12-1-21: The SAT and ACT college admission exams are riddled with problems in their current form. Though they can be helpful predictors of whether students will succeed in college, they shut out too many bright and otherwise qualified candidates because those who can spend the money for private tutoring will almost always have the edge in getting higher scores. More affluent students also can pay to take the tests over and over to get their best possible scores. So, it’s understandable, if not ideal, that the University of California dropped them for acceptance decisions.

But now UC has decided it will not use any entrance exam. Not the state’s standardized test for 11th graders. Not an exam that UC designs itself. University officials concluded any test would be prone to bias and the state’s Smarter Balanced exam would provide only modest additional useful information. This nonetheless is a problematic decision, especially after a committee of faculty leaders concluded in 2020, after expansive study, that the SAT and ACT were worth keeping and could help diversify the student population. UC should reconsider this policy and use at least one test as part of its admission process, though it should be free to students with a few no-cost retries.

Grade inflation is widespread at affluent high schools, creating an inequitable situation. The holistic review UC uses for admission that can count any number of factors that the admissions officers happen to find appealing is even more subjective than course grades. A test score can be an important check against straight-A report cards or a more lackluster transcript — which is what the faculty committee concluded three years ago. If a student has glowing grades but flubs a test badly time after time, that raises legitimate questions about how earned those grades were. And a student who performs well on the test but has weak grades might have had teachers who were tougher graders. Likewise, the student might be the sort of independent soul who would make a brilliant university student but doesn’t do well with the regimented rules and limited course offerings of high school...

Full editorial at https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-12-01/editorial-uc-dumped-college-entrance-exams-big-mistake.

And still more want to get in

From the LA Times: The University of California and California State University extended their admissions deadlines Tuesday after both systems faced connectivity issues as a crush of students raced against an 11:59 p.m. deadline to submit their applications. 

UC has extended its deadline to 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 1, but students must have started an application by Tuesday to be accepted into the system. Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach and San Luis Obispo also extended their application deadlines to 11:59 on Dec. 1, and Cal State Fresno, Los Angeles, Pomona, San Diego and San Jose extended their deadlines to Dec. 15. Other campuses had previously set later submission deadlines. 

Both college systems described the problems on Twitter as connectivity issues...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-11-30/crush-of-last-minute-applications-crash-uc-cal-state-computers.