It's Tuesday. Marin County has one of the highest Covid vaccination rates in the nation. Plus, the Los Angeles City Council president steps down after racist comments. |
 | | Marin County has gone from having low rates of childhood vaccination to posting the highest rates of Covid-19 vaccination in the state of California.Jim Wilson/The New York Times |
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SAN RAFAEL — About 37 percent of California children ages 5 to 11 have gotten their Covid shots since they first became eligible late last year. |
At the bottom of the pack are Lassen and Modoc Counties, in the northeast corner of the state, where fewer than 8 percent in that age group have received the vaccine, according to state data. |
At the very top? Marin County. |
Here, more than 80 percent of children 5 to 11 have their Covid shots, and the wealthy Bay Area county has become a model for improving immunization efforts nationwide. |
"Just from the beginning of the pandemic, people were like, 'I can't wait to get vaccinated,'" said Ryan Paulger, a longtime Marin County resident I recently met at a vaccine clinic in San Rafael. He sat beside his 3-year-old daughter as she colored with crayons minutes after receiving her first Covid vaccine. |
Paulger said that when his first child, a son, was born six years ago, his neighbor in Fairfax recommended that Paulger skip his childhood vaccines. He didn't heed that advice, and said it's been a long time since he's even heard something along those lines in Marin. |
That's a far cry from the Marin County of a decade ago, when the region's childhood vaccination rates were among the lowest in the state. I recently wrote about Marin's transformation from a haven for "anti-vaxxers" to a strong pro-vaccine county, with one of the highest Covid vaccination levels in the nation. The shift here came as the "anti-vax" label increasingly became associated with conservatives' opposition to Covid vaccines. It also came after years of local efforts to change parents' opinions and a strict 2015 California law requiring that students get vaccinated for childhood diseases. |
Marin County's immunization rates began ticking up around 2013, and the pandemic provided another boost. With widespread school and business closures as well as the risks of dying from the novel disease, the benefits of vaccines became very clear, residents say. |
 | | Jessica and Nick Scott with their 6-month-old son, Arlo, as he got his first Covid-19 shot from Paul Quintillan, a registered nurse, in San Rafael.Jim Wilson/The New York Times |
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"All these things were being taken away, and all you could do was get vaccinated," said Cathy Stone, a registered nurse, in between administering Covid vaccines at Northgate Mall in San Rafael, where a former Victoria's Secret store had been converted into a vaccine clinic decorated with balloons and Star Wars cutouts. |
Stone, 66, said that in her role she had talked to people in Marin who were still distrustful of vaccines. She said some mistakenly believed that the Covid shot would change their DNA, or that there was a microchip in it — and she hasn't been able to change their minds. |
But for the most part, she has found it rewarding to be part of the county's Covid vaccine rollout. She has administered shots to her children's teachers and her friends and neighbors, she said. |
Later that day, a young girl in pink leggings who was clutching a stuffed animal ran toward Stone and jumped into her arms. It was her 3-year-old granddaughter, who had arrived so her grandma could give her the Covid vaccine. |
 | | The Mill fire destroyed nearly 60 homes in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood.Brian L. Frank for The New York Times |
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If you read one story, make it this |
A rare Black community in Siskiyou County endured for decades, despite segregation, economic hardship and a pandemic. Then came the Mill fire. |
Here's what else to know today |
 | | An artist's rendition showing the bullet train passing through Altamont. Some officials question whether the project will ever be completed. Reuters |
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- High-speed rail: How California's bullet train project went off the rails.
- Bacon court case: The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear a challenge to a California law that set some of the nation's strictest animal welfare standards for pork. Vox explains why it matters.
- Midterms: The hostility between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Kevin McCarthy, who could succeed her if Republicans take control of the House, has only intensified as the election approaches.
- Weinstein: The second sex crimes trial of Harvey Weinstein is underway in Los Angeles and among the witnesses expected to testify is Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a filmmaker and the wife of Gov. Gavin Newsom.
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- Merced murder: Two brothers have been charged in connection with the kidnapping and murder of a young family, who were found in a rural orchard in the Central Valley.
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- School football canceled: Amador High School in Sacramento ended its football season after officials discovered a racist chat thread involving a majority of the school's football team, The Los Angeles Times reports.
- Exodus of the rich: Among the nation's most populated regions, the San Francisco metro area saw the biggest drop in median household income between 2019 and 2021, as many wealthy residents left during the pandemic, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
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 | | Black Sky Photography for Sotheby's International Realty |
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For $2 million: A Colonial Revival cottage in Carmel-by-the-Sea, a renovated Edwardian house in San Francisco and a midcentury-modern home in Los Angeles. |
 | | Lisa Nicklin for The New York Times |
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 | | Flowers at the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve in Lancaster.Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times |
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Today's tip comes from Dolores Sloan: |
"My partner and I frequent the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve, near Lancaster, all seasons except summer. It is a little over an hour drive from our home in Santa Monica, and except for the early springtime when poppies cover the hillsides in a wide swatch of bright orange, it's pretty much all to yourself. The springtime crowds are unaware of the joys all year of great moderate and easy trails, expansive views and clean and invigorating air. It is a lifesaver in the most challenging times of the pandemic, offering peace of mind from worries of stray contagion, the ever-in-motion air offering heady inhalations." |
Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We'll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter. |
 | | Great Basin bristlecone pines are known for their extraordinarily slow growth, expanding as little as one inch every 100 years. |
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And before you go, some good news |
Ten thousand feet up in the White Mountains of east-central California, in a harsh alpine desert where little else survives, some of the oldest trees in the world grow. |
Several Great Basin bristlecone pines in the Inyo National Forest have been alive for more than 4,000 years. These ancient organisms seem to have escaped the stringent laws of nature. |
"Bristlecones are kind of magical that way," said Constance Millar, an ecologist who has been studying the pines for more than three decades. Read more from The Times. |
Thanks for reading. I'll be back tomorrow. — Soumya |
Briana Scalia and Steven Moity contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com. |
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