AGENDA 21 RADIO

BY CHRISS STREET

California Governor Jerry Brown officially declared a ‘State of Emergency’ as the hepatitis A outbreak that started with the homeless has now entered the general population.

The governor’s ‘Emergency Proclamation’: “allows the state to increase its supply of hepatitis A vaccines in order to control the current outbreak.” The Department of Health and Human Services has been distributed vaccines to at-risk populations, but the new order allows the California Department of Public Health authority to immediately purchase vaccines directly from manufacturers and distribute them to impacted communities.

Hepatitis A is spread when the virus is ingested by mouth from contact with hands, objects, food, or drinks that are contaminated by the feces of an infected person. The infection typically causes fever, a general ill feeling, yellowness of the skin, lack of appetite, and nausea. Death comes from horribly painful liver failure.

Breitbart News reported on October 8: “California Hepatitis A Outbreak on Verge of Statewide Epidemic.” As of October 13, the number of cases spiked to at least 569 people diagnosed, 386 hospitalized and 18 dead. That compares to 179 cases for all of 2015.

California health officials tracked the initial outbreak of the highly-contagious liver disease to the City of San Diego pushing the homeless out of downtown tourist venues, to relieve their rampant drug and prostitution trade, during the run-up to Major League Baseball’s July 2016 All-Star Game that was held at Petco Park.

California social justice warriors refer to anti-homeless ordinances as the modern-day equivalent to post-slavery Jim Crow and Depression era anti-Okie laws that dispersed “undesirables” after dark. The City of San Diego was forced to sign the Spencer Settlement in 2006, which forbids its Police Department from enforcing the city’s “Illegal Lodging Enforcement Guidelines” between the hours of 9 pm to 5:30 am. As a result, the homeless were allowed to concentrate in congested tent city encampments that stretch for blocks east of downtown San Diego near freeway onramps.

Adequate personal hygiene and sanitation can help prevent the spread of the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control. But “homeless rights” have resulted in grim situations, like in San Francisco where streets littered with syringes and feces have been reported in every district. Police Department 2016 incident data reveals that reports of syringes in public areas was up by 41 percent and reports of feces was up 39 percent.

The California Department of Public Health calls “hepatitis A virus is very hardy in the environment and can live for months outside the human body. It is very hard to kill, and most common cleaning fluids are not effective. Handwashing with water and soap is needed, since waterless hand sanitizers are also not effective.”

An epidemiologist with the Division of Viral Hepatitis at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Monique Foster, told the Los Angeles Times that California’s hepatitis A outbreak will persist, despite prevention: “It’s not unusual for them to last quite some time — usually over a year, one to two years.”