Your Local Epidemiologist - California, 8-13-26

I thought I'd blog this edition of the California version of Your Local Epidemiologist - The Dose, by Matt Willis, to show how COVID is surging there. And if it can surge there, it can surge in other states as well, so be prepared.

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Covid-19 and West Nile surge, and California is protecting vaccine access
The CA Dose, August 13, 2026

Matt Willis, Aug 13, 2026 

Covid-19 hospitalizations are climbing ahead of a murky vaccine rollout, West Nile virus is posting its worst numbers in 20 years, and California is holding the line on vaccine access while the White House backslides even further. We’ll start with Covid-19.

Covid-19 illnesses are ramping up

After watching Covid-19 activity rise in wastewater through July, we’re seeing impacts in emergency departments and hospitals. In the last week of July, an average of 33 people were hospitalized with Covid-19 per day statewide. Hospitalizations have been steadily increasing, and are projected to reach over 70 daily Covid-19 admissions by the end of the month.

Virus levels in California have been upgraded from low to moderate in the national wastewater surveillance system (NWSS).

Covid-19 wastewater levels: California, August 2025 to now

Source: CDC

All California regions are seeing surges in virus activity, with the greatest rise in the central part of the state.

Source: CDPH

Where are the 2026-2027 fall Covid-19 vaccines? I’ve been looking for any sign of when the new vaccine will hit the market, and it’s been crickets.

This silence may be related to the uncertainty manufacturers feel this year. ACIP, the body that turns FDA approval into an actual recommendation, hasn’t met since December. ACIP was sued based on a lack of scientific basis for their changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, and won’t meet again until October 21–23.

The August 10 presidential executive order reinforced that the Covid-19 vaccine was dropped from the universal recommendation list for kids and pregnant women, and legal pushback is expected. So it’s kind of a mess at the federal level, and that has a chilling effect on vaccine roll outs. I expect we’ll know more by the end of the month.

Should you get vaccinated now? I recommend that if you’re at risk for more serious illness, go with the bird in hand and get the current vaccine. The likelihood of being exposed when you’re out and about is rising daily. You can find a shot near where you live in California at MyTurn.

Masks: We’re going to see more people using masks out there, and that’s a good thing. These days mask choices are about personal protection, and a well fitted N-95 type mask is highly protective against infection.

For anyone at higher risk for serious disease, or if you’re really focused on not getting Covid-19, its a good time to brush off the mask and consider wearing it in indoor public spaces when the virus is circulating at high levels. For me, we’re not there yet, but I’ll continue to provide updates on virus activity to guide your decisions.

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West Nile virus update

West Nile virus numbers are rising fast, and California has now recorded its first deaths of the season.

Here’s how the numbers have changes since my last WNV post. Since July 26:

• Human cases: 5 → 18 (11 counties) — including two deaths, in King and Glenn counties. This was Glenn county’s first WNV death ever. New first cases for this season were reported in Glenn, Kern, Riverside, and San Joaquin counties.

• Dead birds: 251 → 330 (20 counties).

• Mosquito samples: 1,001 → 1,890 (27 counties)

• Sentinel chickens: 2 → 16 (6 counties), including a first detection in Colusa County.

• Horses: 1 → 4 (4 counties), including a first case in Merced County.

This map shows WNV activity in California, calling out the counties where first detections in humans or animals happened between July 26 and October 7.

Source: CDPH; Annotated by Emely Bonilla, YLE.

18 WNV cases is more than twice the average for this time of year in California—peak season is still ahead of us. The national case count has climbed from 91 (July 21) to 181 (August 11), the highest in 20 years.

California is one of five states with elevated WNV activity.

Source: CDC

Why is this a severe year for WNV? There’s no formula for predicting year to year variability in West Nile burden. But temperature plays a major role.

This past winter and spring in California were among the hottest on record. Normally, in colder winter months, a fraction of mosquito populations die off. This year more made it through the warmer winter—and into a record hot spring. Higher temperatures accelerate reproduction for both mosquitoes and West Nile virus. The warming climate contributes to the burden of West Nile virus in California.

Sentinel chickens. In the last two weeks, WNV detection in sentinel chickens jumped from 2 to 16. It’s worth describing what a sentinel chicken actually is. I see them as unsung surveillance heroes. They’re out there right now, stationed in coops strategically placed around the state, getting bitten by whatever mosquitoes happens by. They’re naturally immune to WNV, and build antibodies after being infected. Local vector control workers draw a bit of chicken blood every week or two to see what’s shown up. They’re an inexpensive, low tech and critical part of our infectious disease intelligence system.

What you can do:

• Report dead birds. Call 1-877-WNV-BIRD (1-877-968-2473)—they’ll decide whether to send someone to retrieve and test the bird.

• Prevent bites. Dump standing water around your home at least weekly (flowerpots, pet bowls, old tires, anything that collects rain or hose runoff), make sure screens are intact, and use an EPA-registered repellent during dawn and dusk, when Culex mosquitoes—the species that carries WNV—are most active. There’s no vaccine and no treatment for WNV, so avoiding the bite is the best protection.

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California’s vaccine firewall

On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order that recommends immunizations for 11 diseases, down from the 18 the CDC recommended in 2024. Vaccines against RSV and hepatitis A and B would shift from universal recommendation to something offered only to higher-risk kids, and the order calls for the combined MMR shot to be split into three separate injections given at separate visits.

Does the presidential EO matter? I’d love to ignore it, because these presidential guest appearances into the world of science are predictably unscientific, designed to get attention, and carry less practical relevance for us in California (more on that later). And an executive order isn’t even the legal mechanism to impact vaccine policy in the U.S.—this one is already being challenged. But it’s not benign.

Once again, this roils the national vaccine waters and leaves people feeling confused about what it all means— just as we’re preparing to get our kids back to school. So here’s what to know about this week’s executive order.

First, this is not new rhetoric. The president is just putting more ink behind the changes RFK Jr announced months ago — disruptions that are intended to unravel the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule. Those changes were challenged by the American Academy of Pediatrics, and have not gone into effect as the lawsuit unfolds. The EO does not change that.

Second, the EO is not feasible, even if it were good science. (It isn’t.) The divided MMR vaccine doesn’t exist in the U.S.—it wasn’t manufactured and distributed in the U.S. because it makes too much sense, practically, economically, and scientifically to be protected against three terrible diseases with one shot.

Third, the EO does not change California’s immunization recommendations or school and child care vaccination requirements.

Last, and most important, California saw this coming and built protections.
Last year, when it became clear the federal science steering wheel was in reckless hands, California moved fast to get some distance.

In September the governor signed AB 144, a bill to insulate us from eroding federal health standards. AB 144 locks in, as a floor, the preventive-care and immunization recommendations that were in effect on January 1, 2025—before RFK Jr.’s vaccine overhaul.

Health plans in California must keep covering vaccines, without any new disruptions—no cost-sharing, and no extra paper work or permissions. That extends to Medi-Cal, which can cover childhood vaccines outside the federal Vaccines for Children program for lower income families.

Regional support. California also joined the West Coast Health Alliance, with Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii, to hold solid, science-based regional standards. Across the West Coast, instead of being stuck with federal recommendations, our vaccine access is tied to the guidance of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Family Physicians. All of which reliably stick to the science, and focus on what’s best for their patients.

So what does a California family need to know before school starts?

Nothing has changed. The same vaccines, in the same formulations, on the same schedule, are still recommended for California kids. Access hasn’t budged—not through your pediatrician, not through your insurance, not through Medi-Cal. Because AB 144 already grounds us in a pre-RFK Jr. baseline, and in the professional societies’ evidence-based guidance.

We’re benefiting from state public health and elected leaders who read the moment a year ago. While the federal vaccine conversation lurches from lawsuit to lawsuit, California families can tune it out and get the shots they need.

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Bottom line

That’s it for this week! Next week we’ll focus on getting kids safely back in school.

Love,

Matt

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Dr. Matt Willis is the author of Your Local Epidemiologist in California. A California native, he’s served as a primary care physician, CDC epidemiologist, and public health officer for Marin County, where he guided the pandemic response. He lives in Marin with his family and their dogs Teddy and Ramona.

A special thanks to Emely Bonilla, Masters in Public Health candidate at UC Berkeley and summer intern at YLE, for her contributions to today’s edition.

Ten Tips From Infectious Disease Experts

From TIME Magazine's Angela Haupt 8-10-26:

10 Things Infectious-Disease Experts Don’t Worry About 

Every year, Jill Roberts sends her microbiology students out to swab the filthiest surface they can find on campus. Most of them march straight to the bathroom—and every year, they’re wrong. “You won’t believe what I found in the computer lab,” a lone student will tell her. “Oh yeah, I will,” says Roberts, a molecular epidemiologist and professor at the University of South Florida College of Public Health. The bathroom gets cleaned every day; the keyboard everyone shares does not.

That’s the key to how infectious-disease experts rank risk: The things that feel gross and the things that actually make you sick aren't always the same. It’s an oddly freeing distinction. Sort the genuine threats from the merely unpleasant ones, and a surprising amount of everyday dread will dissipate. 

Here are 10 things infectious-disease experts don’t worry about.

Disinfecting every surface

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, has a simple way of deciding where to focus his attention: “I respect air more than surfaces,” he says.

That’s especially true during respiratory virus season. Instead of constantly wiping down counters and doorknobs, he thinks about ventilation. When a large group of people comes over, for example, he cracks open a window. If the heat or air conditioning is running, he makes sure it’s bringing in outside air instead of simply recirculating what’s already in the room.

That doesn’t mean surfaces never matter. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends cleaning food-preparation surfaces with hot, soapy water—and sanitizing those contaminated by raw meat or poultry. If someone is sick, clean frequently touched surfaces first, then apply a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-registered disinfectant according to its label. But a slightly dusty coffee table isn’t where Chin-Hong directs most of his energy. Improving the air typically gives you “a bigger bang for your buck,” he says.

Washing their sheets constantly

If your weekly sheet-washing routine occasionally becomes an every-other-week routine, Roberts isn’t concerned. She regularly hears from people who are convinced their bedding needs near-constant attention. “People are like, ‘I need to wash my sheets every 15 minutes,’” she says. “No, you really don’t. Every once in a while would be great, but people are excessive with the clean things.” 

For most healthy people, bedding isn’t a major source of infectious disease. Roberts would much rather see people focus on washing their hands at important times—like before eating and after using the bathroom—and handling raw food safely.

“We’re not supposed to be sterile,” she says. “People have microbes, and it’s actually healthy to have microbes on you.”

Antibacterial soap

Chin-Hong doesn’t seek out soap with an antibacterial label. “I just use plain soap, because regular soap works really well,” he says.

The important part is using it—and doing so at the right times. Chin-Hong washes his hands before eating, after using the bathroom, after handling raw food, and after caring for someone who’s sick. He thinks about timing more than frequency, rather than washing or sanitizing indiscriminately throughout the day.

“It’s about habit of mind rather than using technology or fancy additives,” he says. In other words: You don’t need the bougiest bottle on the shelf. You need to remember to use the ordinary one next to the sink. 

Their winter coat

The COVID pandemic left some people wondering whether everything they wore needed to go directly into the washing machine. Roberts fielded plenty of questions about items that had rarely seemed urgent before. “Do I need to wash my winter coat? Not really,” she says.

Socks are a different story: They should be washed regularly because fungi thrive in warm, damp environments. The distinction illustrates how Roberts evaluates risk. Rather than treating everything we wear as equally germy, she considers where microbes are likely to grow—and whether the item could realistically help spread them.

Eating sushi and other foods they love

This one boils down to your personal risk/reward balance. To some food-safety experts, enjoying a roll of raw fish isn’t worth the risk. Dr. Heidi Torres, an infectious-disease physician and assistant professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, has plenty of colleagues who refuse to eat raw foods like sushi and beef tartare. She isn’t one of them. “They’re probably safer than me,” she says. “I love those things, and I refuse to stop eating them.”

To reduce her risk, she’s selective about where she eats them. She looks for restaurants that appear clean, have good health-department ratings, and are busy enough that ingredients aren’t sitting around for days. “I’m not gonna pick up that gas-station sushi,” she says.

Dr. Daniel Griffin, chief of the division of infectious disease at Island Infectious Disease Medical in Long Island, N.Y., takes a similar approach when he travels internationally. Despite being a parasitologist, he still wants to try the local cuisine. “Sometimes I’ll take risks I wouldn’t normally take,” he says, “but it’s to have that cultural experience.” He remains thoughtful about what he orders and how it was prepared—but he doesn’t let his expertise strip the fun out of eating.

Washing their reusable bags after every grocery trip

The tote bags living in your trunk are technically supposed to be washed, and almost nobody does it. Roberts is relaxed about that, within reason. "You grocery shop once a week? You probably don't need to wash them all that much," she says. However, it’s a different story if you shop daily, or if you skip the produce bags and let loose vegetables roll around in the tote. Then they've earned a trip through the laundry. 

One reason reusable bags don’t get washed: People choose pretty ones they’re reluctant to ruin in the laundry. Roberts suggests saving those for other errands and using a plain, machine-washable tote for groceries. “If you want to save that one, don’t use it for your groceries,” she says. “Use your ugly one that you got for free, and then throw it in the laundry.” That way, if raw meat leaks or loose produce rolls around inside, you won’t hesitate to wash it.

Travel 

Chin-Hong doesn’t dread getting on a plane or visiting a new part of the world. “I don’t worry about travel,” he says. What does he do instead? Prepare.

Before a trip, he makes sure he’s up to date on vaccines and learns about the specific health risks at his destination. Depending on where he’s going, that might mean packing insect repellent, taking medication to prevent malaria, or learning what food and water precautions travelers should follow once they arrive.

That advance work is what allows him to relax once he gets there. He identifies the handful of precautions that match the destination—and doesn’t spend the trip imagining everything that could go wrong.

Following a perfect phone-cleaning routine

Yes, your phone is dirty. Roberts has her students swab their own phones, and they’re routinely horrified by what grows. “We pick up things from the bathroom,” she says. “We pick up E. coli and things like that on the phone.”

Yet the experts aren’t necessarily disinfecting theirs every night. Dr. Ashley Drews, medical director of infectious diseases and system epidemiologist at Houston Methodist, readily admits she doesn’t clean hers as often as recommended. “Between you and me, I’m not that good about it,” she says. “Maybe this is one of those do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do.”

If you want to clean yours, Drews recommends removing the case and wiping both it and the phone with a not-too-wet alcohol-based wipe, then letting everything air-dry before putting the case back on. Roberts takes an even simpler approach: When the screen starts looking visibly grimy, she wipes down the entire phone. Neither one is losing sleep over missing a day.

Settling for hand sanitizer

Hand sanitizer isn’t a lazy or inferior choice in every situation. “A lot of people ask, ‘Well, can I just use the hand sanitizer?’” Roberts says. “And sure—they’re very effective.”

She keeps it within reach when soap and water aren’t convenient, especially before eating on the go. “Just pop one of those things into your bag, and hit that hand sanitizer before you pick up a hamburger,” she says.

There are exceptions. Alcohol-based sanitizer doesn’t work well against norovirus, Griffin says. If someone nearby is vomiting or has diarrhea, he makes a point of washing thoroughly with soap and water. Sanitizer also isn’t ideal when your hands are visibly dirty. But for ordinary use when you’re out and about, there’s no reason to feel guilty about reaching for it.

Eliminating every possible risk

Torres knows how easily learning about infectious diseases can send someone spiraling. “You can end up wanting to live in a bubble and never go outside—and that’s just impossible,” she says. “If you go too far down the rabbit hole, you get a little depressed.”

Her goal is to minimize risk, not eliminate it. That might mean choosing the reputable sushi restaurant, skipping the overcrowded hot tub, or washing her hands before eating. It doesn’t mean avoiding every food, destination, or activity that carries even a remote possibility of illness.

Chin-Hong thinks about risk as a continuum, rather than dividing the world into safe and dangerous. “I want to engage with the world,” he says. “I’m not afraid of most things. I just prioritize things different ways.”

Your Local Epidemiologist: The Dose: 8-11-26

EO for routine childhood vaccines, Covid-19, fire, heat, and more

The Dose (August 11)

Katelyn Jetelina, Aug 11, 2026

This week started off with a bang with an executive order on routine childhood vaccinations. So much for this administration not touching childhood vaccines before the midterms. I try to break down the signal from the noise for you below (there was a lot of noise.)

Plus: Michigan health officials say iceberg lettuce is now all clear, but we have a new produce item making us sick in 27 states: jalapeños. Covid-19, fire smoke, and heat risk continue to march forward. And we end with some good news.

Here’s your “disease weather report”, and most importantly, what it may mean for you and your family.

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Disease weather report

Record-breaking Cyclosporo outbreak coming to a halt

The nationwide cyclosporiasis count is now more than 20,000 cases for the year, but that’s an undercount, since many people with milder symptoms simply stay home rather than seek care. The total will keep climbing, both because multiple outbreaks are underway and because the largest, centered in Michigan, is still working through a backlog of investigations. This could easily become the largest foodborne outbreak in history.

The contaminated lettuce behind it appears to be out of circulation: several metrics are declining quickly, including the test positivity rate. In Michigan, the outbreak’s epicenter, emergency department visits are falling, and the number of recent new infections is nearly zero. (See below.) That second metric is especially useful because it isn’t skewed by reporting delays or lab-confirmation backlogs.

Source: Michigan State Health Department.

Thanks to an FDA Enforcement Report, we now know the actual number of lettuce cases recalled was 236,192! Interestingly, only 2.5% of recalled lettuce was from Taco Bell. Almost half of the recalled product was supplied to Walmart. This makes Taylor Farms’ communications that much more atrocious because it means that many got sick when everyone thought it was just Taco Bell.

What this means for you: You can now return to all your leafy greens.

Salmonella in jalapeños

Another, separate outbreak (Salmonella this time, which means getting sick 12-72 hours after eating) is now active and linked to fresh jalapeños from Sinaloa, Mexico. The latest official CDC count is 345 people sick across 27 states, with 36 hospitalized. Two cases have antibiotic-resistant strains.

Chipotle and Qdoba both pulled the supplier’s jalapeños, and the recall has since expanded downstream to include prepared foods from brands such as Taylor Farms (yes, again), Ready Meals, Meal Simple, Higher Harvest, and Deli Kitchen that used the contaminated peppers as an ingredient.

What this means for you: Throw away (or avoid purchasing) jalapeños and associated foods at Hannaford, Kroger, Stop and Shop, Target, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, and Whole Foods.

Covid-19 summer wave continues to rise

Covid-19 levels remain low, but emergency visits are increasing in 43 states. We are clearly in a wave that has come like clockwork every summer since the pandemic, for reasons that still puzzle epidemiologists. As expected, hospitalizations have begun to increase after the typical lag in testing trends, but they remain at a record low.

Test positivity rate for Covid-19 (and flu and RSV). Source: CDC.

What this means for you: If you don’t want to get sick, the time to wear a mask in crowded, indoor areas is starting.

Air quality and heat galore

Air quality remains poor in the Northwest due to wildfires, which seem to be becoming increasingly common these days.

Also, more than 75 million people, concentrated in the South, will be at risk of heat illness.

Heat illness risk across the United States for August 11, 2026. Source: NOAA

What this means for you: Here are six things you need to know about heat illness.

6 things to know about heat illness

Katelyn Jetelina, Marisa Donnelly, PhD, and Matt Willis

·

Jul 1

When I picture a heat death, I used to imagine someone collapsing outside in the blazing sun while working at a construction site. That definitely happens, but what I learned while working at CDC is that it can also look like Shirley.

Read full story

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Spotlight: Executive order on childhood vaccines

Yesterday, an executive order and a press conference announced changes to the routine childhood vaccination schedule. (So much for the administration pulling back on vaccine policy before the midterms. More than 80% of Americans still strongly support having access to vaccines.) As expected, it was a lot of craziness, so instead of refuting everything, I’m here to tell you what it means for you today:

Not much. Families can still access all vaccines on the AAP schedule. Pediatricians should continue offering vaccines, and these vaccines remain covered without cost-sharing under current law.

What it is: Most of what the EO does is set direction and ask for plans. HHS has 90 days to present a plan for offering MMR as separate shots, which isn’t possible yet because single-antigen measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines aren’t currently manufactured in the U.S. In fact, nowhere in the world is there a single-dose version of vaccines. It would take years of research and development to execute this. Other pieces, such as a framework proposing to reclassify hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and rotavirus vaccines away from “recommended for all children” or the development of new vaccine adjuvants, don’t have set timelines at all.

What it is NOT: There is no new scientific data to justify a new policy. This is also not legislation. In other words, Congress didn’t pass it, and it can’t override state or federal law on its own. (Remember, vaccine policy is mainly determined by the states rather than the federal government.)

When I will worry: If one of three things happens:

1. Autism is added to the Vaccine Injury Table. This could bankrupt the compensation program by opening it to a flood of lawsuits. If the program collapses, two things follow: families with vaccine injuries would lose their main source of compensation, and manufacturers, no longer protected from massive liability, would likely stop producing vaccines altogether.

2. Funding for the Vaccines for Children Program is withdrawn, which would halt free vaccines for 1 in 2 children in the U.S.

3. Federal powers (such as withholding funding) are used to compel states to change their vaccine exemption policies.

This EO may reach #3. It directs the Department of Justice to pursue legal action against states that don’t offer religious or medical exemptions from school vaccine requirements. Only a handful of states (California, Maine, West Virginia, Connecticut, and New York) have no religious exemptions, so they would be impacted the most, but it would take years with legal battles. All the other states could be impacted in other ways, but that depends on how the legal fights unfold, how far DOJ pushes it, and how states respond. Too many variables to call yet.

What this means for you: Chaos and confusion are the point. Keep a steady head. Families can still access all vaccines on the AAP schedule. Pediatricians should continue offering vaccines, and these vaccines remain covered without cost-sharing under current law.

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Good news

• Major depression among teens continues to decline, showing roughly a 30% drop in depression since peak years. This was also the case for deaths from suicide in older teens and adults through age 34. (Dr. Thomas Farley)

  

  Figure by Dr. Thomas Farley

• An ancient protein could aid existing cancer treatments. C3, a protein that evolved long before the human circulatory system, may help with treating cancer more efficiently. When produced inside tumors, C3 blocks cells that suppress the immune system and provides an opportunity for immunotherapy to work more effectively. This effect was observed even in treatment-resistant tumors. (ScienceDaily)

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Bottom line

Lettuce is safe, jalapeños aren’t (for now), and despite the headlines and a purposefully confusing press conference from the Health Secretary, nothing about your kids’ vaccines actually changed this week. Keep a steady head out there. It’s a lot to keep up with.

Love, YLE

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Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) comprises a team of experts, ranging from physicians to immunologists to epidemiologists to nutritionists, working together with one goal: to “translate” ever-evolving public health science so that people are well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. The YLE suite of newsletters reaches over 475,000 people across more than 132 countries. This newsletter is free to everyone, thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members.

Beth The Vacuum, R.I.P.

I got a big kick of Senator Charles Grassley's goodbye to his faithful vacuum cleaner, Beth. The New York Times comments sections had tributes by readers to their own long-time appliances, with a few nasty comments by those with no sense of humor at all.

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Senator bids farewell to Beth, his ‘faithful’ vacuum cleaner
For Chuck Grassley, 92, who has been in Congress for 45 years, one servant has been by his side longer than any other: his mother-in-law’s beige Hoover

The Times 8-9-26

"The death notice for the vacuum cleaner was posted at 3.52pm on Saturday afternoon by the senator Chuck Grassley in a message that seemed, in its abruptness and grammatical oddities, to hint at genuine heartbreak.

"Grassley is the longest serving Republican senator in US history and for most of his 45 years in Congress, in a fickle age of politics, there had been one constant servant: his mother-in-law’s old vacuum cleaner.

"He named it Beth, after a former staffer. Beth, a beige vacuum with a red dust bag, had been with his mother-in-law for 15 years before joining the Grassley household in 1992.

“OLD FAITHFUL,” he called her. “She never lets me down.” It sometimes seemed, to his followers, that he mentioned Beth more than his wife of more than 70 years. Now she had taken her last, wheezing breath.

“U willl see BETH no more,” he wrote. “See black that’s from electrical sparks. It’s not safe to use anymore. GOOD BYE BETH . U hv been a real workhorse. Ur namesake still is hard worker. I will miss u.”

"It was a eulogy that seemed, in its clunking manner, to mirror the characteristics of its subject. It was almost poetry.

"Tim Scott, a Republican senator for South Carolina, was among the first to offer condolences. “Sorry for your loss,” he wrote on X. “They don’t build them like they used to.”

"Josh Turek, an Iowa Democrat and state representative who is running for the Senate against Grassley’s Republican colleague, said: “Sounds like Beth had a heck of a run.”

"There were, naturally, those who sought to see, in the passing of a Hoover, a larger political point. Opponents of Grassley made pointed remarks about term limits and the decline of American manufacturing. One supporter claimed that it was Beth’s dying wish that Grassley and other senators immediately pass legislation, championed by President Trump, requiring voters to show passports or birth certificates to vote.

"Grassley is not the first member of Congress to develop a strong attachment to a piece of machinery. John Boehner, a former Speaker of the House, appears frequently with his lawn mower. 

"The senator John Kennedy has a cross trainer in his garage that he has named Margaret, “after Margaret Thatcher because both kick butt”. His wife, Becky, “won’t let me bring Margaret in the house,” he said, in a video posted this year. So he uses Margaret in his garage and then lifts weights, watched over, metaphorically speaking, by his Iron Lady companion. 

"Grassley’s Hoover, Beth, would generally appear in Grassley’s public pronouncements around Thanksgiving. His wife and daughter were cooking for 30, he announced in 2018. “So my housework contribution begins,” he said. “This is my machine.” He named the machine after Beth Levine, who served for 20 years as his communications adviser, a role that usually involves a lot of “clean-up”, in public relations parlance.

“Yes, I am the Beth namesake!” Levine told The Times in an email on Sunday. “I can vividly remember him calling into the office when I first learnt about the vacuum, probably more than 15 years ago, long before the vacuum was named.”

"Whenever he posted about his vacuum cleaner, she would get messages from friends. “I have loved seeing each one of the posts and will always appreciate that that’s how he remembers my work for him and the people of Iowa,” she said. “Not only has it been fun and an honour to have a US senator name his vacuum after you (yes, I would call it an honour!), it’s been a great way to keep in touch with former colleagues and friends.”

"Grassley would write about the vacuum during other holidays too. “Faithful Beth has about 3 hours of cleaning to get ready for 25/30,” he wrote on Christmas Day in 2022. The following June, the senator Shelley Moore Capito posed with Grassley and a cardboard cut-out photograph of the vacuum cleaner. “Turns out Senator Capito is a big fan of Beth,” he said.   

Senators Grassley and Capito with Beth        

"Followers of Beth received some footage, a few months later, of the vacuum and the senator in action together, sucking the dust from a large blue rug. “She never lets me down & im grateful I can count on OLD FAITHFUL,” he wrote.

"But all political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream, at a happy juncture, end in failure, said Enoch Powell. For that is the nature of politics and of human affairs and of vacuum cleaners.

"Yet for all those lamenting the end of an era, there were others who said that Beth was not yet dead, that she only needed a new power cord.

“I manage a hardware & electronics shop in Ankeny,” one of these said, beneath his announcement. “We would be honored to pick up and repair Beth free of charge.”

Mamdani's Israel Derangement Syndrome & His Woke NYC School Board

Every time I read an article like this, I'm grateful that my parents moved out of New York before I was born; and that I received a wonderful public school education in the days before political correctness and constant indoctrination. We didn't know what our teachers' politics and ideologies were. All we cared about was learning reading, writing, and arithmetic -- and we did, unlike today's students.

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Mamdani taps Israel-hating, anti-cop radicals for NYC school board

David Spector, New York Post, 8-8-26 

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has inserted radical anti-police and anti-Israel members to the Panel for Education Policy, including one who is pushing public schools to have segreagated racism-reflection rooms, The Post has learned.

Among Mamdani’s 13 picks for the agency is race-obsessed former Department of Education official Lucas Koehler, head of the $500 million endowment for the Foundation for City College.

Koehler — who is white — pushed his agency to “dismantle white dominant culture” and supported segregated spaces in city classrooms for non-white educators to reflect on their purported anti-black racism.

The “separate spaces for white people and non-black people of color” would be used “to interrogate their own internalized anti-black racism and unlearn white dominant behaviors without causing harm to black colleagues,” reads a statement Koehler endorsed during his DOE tenure from the Division of Early Childhood Education Antiracism Coalition, extremism watchdog Canary Mission found.

Koehler, who worked for the DOE from 2014-2022, also called on the agency to sever all ties with the NYPD and said that cops pose a “threat” to minority students, as part of the letter he signed on to.

“In addition to the threat in-school police pose to black and brown children and their families, the funding allocated to the NYPD necessarily keeps money away from the social services that keep children safe and secure, and therefore better able to learn and grow,” the statement from the DECE antiracism coalition read.

Another radical anti-cop pick for the board is Raysa S. Rodriguez, who heads the Citizens Committee for Children, a group that has repeatedly called to defund the police.

The CCC called for the NYPD to stop issuing quality-of-life violations and for the City Council to reject funding a $225 million NYPD training facility in Queens. 

Another pick Mamdani placed on the board is Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center alum Dr. Madeline “Maddy” Fox, who signed a letter accusing Israel of genocide and denying the existence of widespread antisemitism on college campuses.

“There is no rampant crisis of antisemitism on our campuses, despite prolonged attempts by the current administration to persuade the public that there is one,” read the 2025 letter, signed by Jewish faculty at CUNY, Berkley and Georgetown.

The letter went on to accuse the Trump administration of “Islamaphobia” for its attempts to combat antisemitism.

“This campaign of repression and censorship, including deportation and detention, is evidence of an Islamophobic and racist campaign against political dissent,” the letter said.

The PEP’s 24-member board approves contracts for the Department of Education — which boasts a $45 billion budget, sets policies and manages school closures.

Of the board’s 23 voting members, 13 are picked by the mayor.

Persecuting and Prosecuting Dr.Fauci

I was relieved when I saw this article in MedPage Today. Everybody but me seems to think Dr Fauci is guilty of COVID -- or something -- and Rand Paul has been busy persecuting him for years. I just don't get it and don't understand why they want this man in prison. They hated the COVID lockdown and having to wear masks and get vaccinated, so they decided to make a scapegoat out of Dr Fauci and hold him personally responsible for the pandemic. It's outrageous.

Next time we have a pandemic -- and we will -- it'll go easier for you  if you just follow the advice of public health officials rather than fighting against those officials and blaming them for everything.

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 Seeking to Prosecute Fauci Is Disgraceful

— The Senate committee's actions are legally flawed and set a dangerous precedent

by Lawrence Gostin, JD, LLD (Hon), Contributing Writer, MedPage Today

Lawrence Gostin is Distinguished University Professor, Georgetown University’s highest academic rank, and Founding O’Neill Chair in Global Health Law. He directs the WHO Center on National and Global Health Law. 

August 7, 2026

"I have been friends with Tony Fauci, MD, for 40 years, working alongside him, from AIDS and Ebola through to the COVID-19 pandemic and mpox. He deserves our gratitude, not politics. But that's not what I want to write about.

"In a party-line vote on August 6, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held Fauci in contempt of Congress and referred him to the Justice Department for potential criminal prosecution. The decision is legally flawed, and the underlying allegations are absurd.

"The vote stems from a hearing on July 29 focused on Fauci's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the origins of the coronavirus, during which he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times. Sen. Rand Paul, MD (R-Ky.), the committee chair, argued that Fauci lacked a legitimate reason to sidestep the committee's questions, since he'd previously received a preemptive presidential pardon from Joe Biden protecting him from federal prosecution for his actions from 2014 through January 19, 2025.

"Yet, Fauci had every reason to be concerned. His pardon period ended 18 months before the Senate hearing; fresh charges tied to actions during this period could have emerged. And Paul has reportedly made repeated pledges to put him "behind bars." The July hearing appeared to be designed as a perjury trap: if any testimony contradicted reams of public statements and personal diary entries, it's all but certain the Justice Department would bring politically motivated charges.

"Presidential pardons, moreover, do not apply to state criminal charges. But the Fifth Amendment applies to both. Shortly after Fauci refused to testify, state attorneys general in Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida vowed to commence state investigations. If a state prosecutor brings charges, the constitutional privilege remains valid. So, in anticipation of potential state charges, Fauci had no choice but to refrain from testifying.

"Let's turn now to the troubling procedural elements of the vote. Under federal law, a referral for criminal contempt of Congress requires a vote by the entire Senate (or House). Given filibuster rules, it is inconceivable the committee would have secured 60 votes. Sen. Paul's move to bypass a full Senate vote and refer the case directly to the Department of Justice (DOJ) appears incompatible with the law. If the DOJ secures a grand jury indictment, this procedural malpractice is itself cause for a judge to dismiss the case.

"Congressional oversight is designed to evaluate policy, refine agency operations, and prepare for future emergencies. Transforming oversight hearings into prosecutorial inquisitions shifts the goal from learning lessons to political score-settling. And Paul's hearing was purely score-settling. It had little to do with a thoughtful examination of the COVID-19 pandemic: the virus' origins, funding for enhanced pathogen research, and the effectiveness of public health measures. (In my next column, I will unpack the public health interventions in question and show why it is absurd to assign responsibility to a senior NIH scientist.)

"If Congress genuinely wanted a full and honest discussion of the COVID-19 response, it had an established legal mechanism. Federal law empowers Congress to grant statutory immunity, protecting against criminal prosecution (except in cases of perjury or giving a false statement) while removing the ability of a witness to invoke their privilege against self-incrimination. The committee chose not to grant Fauci legal immunity, leaving his Fifth Amendment rights fully intact. Its failure to issue immunity appears to demonstrate the Senate committee's bald political objectives of seeking revenge -- a hallmark of the second Trump administration.

"The shift from legislative oversight to criminal prosecution creates broader risks to science and public health. The committee's actions send a clear message of intimidation to prominent scientists, physicians, and public health professionals at the federal, state, and local levels. Consequently, public health leaders will have to think twice about taking on public service at federal scientific agencies and state or municipal public health departments. If serving the nation during a public health emergency carries the threat of personal legal jeopardy and public vilification, why would highly qualified professionals work in the public sector? And if scientists still choose to enter public service, they will hesitate before saying anything publicly, which undermines the essential guidance needed during a crisis.

"The targeting of Fauci will also further erode public trust in scientific institutions, which is already plummeting from constant denigration by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Framing public health decisions as matters of criminal intent rather than complex crisis management undermines public faith in medical recommendations, vaccines, and scientific consensus. It is also insidiously aimed at sowing public confusion and fueling the spread of false and misleading health information.

"There is nothing informative or constructive that came from the Senate hearing. Fauci has served seven U.S. presidents during his career in public service; four of them were Republicans. President George W. Bush presented Fauci with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008 for advancing understanding and treatment of HIV/AIDS and as the principal architect of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has saved 26 million lives globally. During his first term, President Trump awarded Fauci a presidential commendation for his work on Operation Warp Speed -- a public-private partnership that accelerated development of COVID-19 vaccines, estimated to have saved up to 20 million lives.

"Seeking to prosecute a career civil servant who led the nation through multiple public health emergencies under both Democratic and Republican presidents is disgraceful. It is an abuse of power, legally baseless, and sets a dangerous precedent that threatens the future of public health."

"El-Sayed, the Democrats, AIPAC and the war on American Jews"

What's pathetic is that you hear very few "normal" Democrats denouncing this constant antisemitism from the radical socialists. What are they afraid of?

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El-Sayed, the Democrats, AIPAC and the war on American Jews.

The Michigan primary was a referendum on the Jewish presence in the public square. The consequences of normalizing his antisemitism will impact much more than the pro-Israel group.

Jonathan S. Tobin, 8-6-26

"It would be difficult to underestimate the impact of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed on American politics. His victory in the Michigan Senate Democratic primary over Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) has inspired endless commentary and analysis about the sources of his personal appeal, the shortcomings of his opponent, the state of the electorate and the failures of pollsters to come even close to predicting the results. And it won’t be until we see how he fares against his Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, in the general election, that we will have a better idea of how most Americans—and not just Democratic primary voters—feel about his beliefs.

"But there should be no mistaking one thing: Democrats have given a person whose most important issue was demonizing Jewish participation in American politics a narrow plurality. By rallying around him and unifying behind his candidacy, as the defeated party establishment has already done, they are normalizing a hateful position against a segment of citizenry. They are declaring that politics driven by traditional tropes of antisemitism and money is not merely debatable, but a stand they can all get behind if it means winning a majority in the U.S. Senate.

Anti-Zionism is antisemitism

"Like other public antisemites on the left and right, the 41-year-old El-Sayed has declared his love of the Jewish people and his “commitment to Jewish safety” after winning the primary by less than one percentage point—about 15,000 votes out of more than 1.5 million. Similar sentiments have been heard before by Democrats associated with the progressive “Squad” in the U.S. House of Representatives, like fellow Michigander Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has also attempted to deflect justified charges of antisemitism. All of them, like El-Sayed’s pledges, are equally insincere.

"He and other left-wing opponents of Israel claim that they are merely “criticizing” Israel’s current government and expressing sympathy for Palestinian Arabs in the Gaza Strip. They also say that by attacking the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, they are merely decrying the influence of money in American politics and seeking to prevent special interests or a foreign country from attempting to “buy” Congress.

"But these excuses aren’t merely deceptive. They are a flimsy cover for stands that seek not so much to put AIPAC in its place as to remove Jews from the American public square—other than those who join with Jew-haters to try to demonize a key aspect of Jewish identity and faith.

"They do not “criticize” Israel as much as they wish to delegitimize the existence of the one Jewish state on the planet. They want to strip it of its rights and ability to defend itself against an international movement that seeks its destruction.

"Their opposition to an “ethno-state” is limited only to the Jewish one and indifferent to the dozens that are Muslim. Their desire to rid the electoral system of the influence of campaign spending is limited to those individuals and entities that organize support for Israel. They have no problem with the people, organizations or interests supporting those who back Islamists. They claim that American citizens who back their country’s Israeli ally are malign actors working on behalf of foreign influence. Yet they see nothing wrong with the infinitely greater resources being spent in the United States by Islamist nations like Qatar to spread and normalize Jew-hatred.

"They aim to drive AIPAC out of American politics, and yet, they take money, as El-Sayed did, from those affiliated with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group not merely openly antisemitic but founded as a front for Hamas. And they seek to isolate and silence those who point to the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is linked to CAIR.

"All of this illustrates that the anti-Zionism that drives the efforts of a growing cadre of Muslim politicians such as El-Sayed is indistinguishable from a hatred of Jews. El-Sayed explicitly seeks to redefine Judaism and eliminate one of its key elements—love of the land of Israel and its centrality in Jewish life—to clear himself of justified charges of antisemitism.

Democrats keep shifting left

"In the last decade since progressives began an effort to wrest control of the Democrats from its establishment after their presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, was defeated by President Donald Trump, a wave of left-wing candidates have sought to transform the party.

"It began not just with the election of the four charter members of the left-wing congressional “Squad” in 2018, but with the refusal of the party establishment to isolate or condemn Tlaib and Omar when they initially engaged in open antisemitism. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn’t just prevent the censure of Omar for her now-infamous antisemitic tweet stating, “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby,” referencing money and the lobbying group AIPAC, and analogizing Israel to the Taliban.

"In fact, Pelosi went on to pose with them for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine to show that she and Democrats embraced what they rightly saw as politicians who spoke for their party’s base, which were not merely open to socialism but also hated Israel and were hostile to Jews. They were also afraid of being accused of Islamophobia, which in practice in the 21st century isn’t hatred for Islam but a willingness to notice Muslim Jew-hatred.

"What matters about those events is that set of choices has informed and explained Democratic Party politics in the years since then.

"That’s why in the aftermath of the Hamas-led Palestinian-Arab assault in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the reaction from so many Democrats has been to turn on the Jewish state. Many Democrats believe that former Vice President Kamala Harris was defeated by Trump in 2024 because she and former President Joe Biden were insufficiently hostile to Israel, despite their hamstringing of the Jewish state’s post-Oct. 7 war effort and slow-walking of arms deliveries.

"And it is why the Democratic caucuses in both the House of Representatives and the Senate are now on record as supporting an embargo on aid to Israel, including defensive weapons like the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

Accepting blood libels

"They defend this as a reaction to what they claim is the brutality of Israel, but what they are really telling us is something else. They are making clear that the majority of their officeholders, party cadres, liberal mainstream media allies, and academic and cultural thought leaders have accepted the toxic left-wing ideologies that define Jews and Israel as “white” oppressors. This belief that they are always in the wrong, no matter what they do, and that those who wish to destroy the Jewish state are oppressed minorities always in the right is at the heart of the surge of antisemitism since Oct. 7.

"That is how blood libels and other fabricated propaganda about Israel committing “genocide” in Gaza, deliberately starving Palestinians or dragging (and even blackmailing) the Trump administration to go to war against Iran have become not so much widely believed on the political left but viewed as unquestionably true.

"That is the political eco-system that made possible the rise of someone like El-Sayed. Without it, it would have been unthinkable for a candidate to win a major party nomination for the U.S. Senate via a campaign that was largely based on the idea that the most important challenge facing the American people is the existence of a lobbying group that seeks to promote support for Israel. The fact that AIPAC’s reach and resources are dwarfed by other lobbying groups that represent major industries and that it spends less than leftist mega-donors, like the family of George Soros, on candidates who, among other causes, oppose Israel is dismissed. El-Sayed’s campaign is driven by anti-Jewish bigotry, not concern about campaign finance laws.

"Yet beyond the specifics of the efforts to maliciously and falsely portray AIPAC as a sinister group manipulating the system against U.S. interests, there is something more at stake in this debate. Those who single out AIPAC and have shockingly buffaloed most Democrats into saying they won’t take contributions from it or its members are seeking to drive Jews out of the American public square.

"Just as bad, Democrats who still claim to support Israel and who don’t condemn AIPAC, like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), endorsed El-Sayed after the primary. For them, partisanship is more important than opposing antisemitism. That same mindset caused Senate Democrats to boycott a hearing chaired by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States and elsewhere.

"It is entirely true that part of El-Sayed’s appeal is linked to a hunger for populism and a rejection of failed political establishments across the political spectrum. He is also profiting from the lack of historical memory among so many Americans who are willing to fall for the siren call of far-left economics that he promotes (despite the wealthy health professional’s declaration that he is not a socialist).

"His charisma and political skills, and, by contrast, Stevens’s dull political persona, also played a role in the outcome. Though she was a genuine moderate, her ability to marginalize him and fend off his claims that she was the candidate of a “foreign” lobby was also undermined by her fear of alienating anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment in a party where both were already normalized. Her reflexive criticism of Israel and willingness to acquiesce to the demonization of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—a now-standard trope of pro-Israel Democrats—also made it difficult to point out that El-Sayed’s positions were as immoral and prejudicial as they were wrongheaded.

"Yet even supporters of El-Sayed, like Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times’ anti-Zionist columnist, noted his megalomaniacal tendencies, so typical of hate-mongers, which cause him to believe that those who oppose him can’t be sincere.

A test for 2028

"The existence of a large Arab and Muslim-American population in Michigan—and the ubiquity of anti-Jewish prejudice in that particular community—was another factor, though one that hasn’t been replicated in U.S. politics, except in certain circumstances, as Mamdani’s victory in New York City showed.

"Still, El-Sayed’s support was largely limited to white privileged voters, along with his Arab and Muslim base. The credentialed elites are the base of the Democratic Party these days, not the working-class voters it once represented and now largely scorns. He did poorly among African-Americans, who are a vital constituency for Democrats. As much as Jews and blacks have split on many issues, convincing African-Americans to buy into the idea that a pro-Israel lobby was the country’s greatest problem was a tough sell.

"Nevertheless, the consequences of a campaign that normalizes El-Sayed’s vile tactics will be felt throughout the political system and American discourse.

"It remains to be seen whether Rogers will be more effective in pointing out El-Sayed’s extremism. It will also be interesting to see if African-Americans turn out for a candidate with little to say to them in the numbers Democrats need to prevail.

"Much attention will also focus on Michigan’s Jewish community, mainly in and around Detroit, which makes up only 1.4% of the state’s electorate. It is still overwhelmingly politically liberal and loyally votes the Democratic ticket. If a significant minority reflexively votes for the Democratic candidate, as was the case with Mamdani in the 2025 New York City mayoral election, regardless of El-Sayed’s contempt for Jewish interests and rights, it will be a sign of the moral collapse of liberal Jewry.

"It should be remembered that in March, a domestic terrorist, Ayman Mohamed Ghazali, crashed his pickup truck—loaded with gasoline and commercial fireworks—into Temple Israel, a large Reform synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. Fortunately, no one was hurt except for the attacker himself, who was shot and killed by law enforcement. El-Sayed rationalized that crime by saying it was understandable since the terrorist was upset about the death of his brother, a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, who was killed as a result of Israel’s efforts to prevent the Iranian proxy group from attacking their country.

"If, rather than a test of the appeal of El-Sayed’s antisemitism, the election hinges on a verdict about the Trump administration, the Democrats may be able to carry their candidate over the finish line. If so, then the problem won’t be just the addition of an antisemite to the Senate. It will be a signal sent to his party as well as the still relatively small minority of Republicans that share his prejudices, that targeting Jews will be both acceptable and good politics in 2028."

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS. Follow him: @jonathans_tobin.