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XHow to Get Proof of the COVID Vaccine Ahead of Thanksgiving
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
Show-stopping turkeys and extended family get-togethers are back this Thanksgiving.
With 81% of Angelenos ages 12 and older have been fully vaccine, restaurants have reopened and travel has more or less resumed at full capacity.
But, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health warns, the cold winter weather and increased indoor socialization are ripe conditions for the coronavirus to breed, either through young unvaccinated children or rare breakthrough cases. Already, the county is seeing a spike in cases.
And some municipalities are tightening COVID-19 restrictions - Los Angeles itself instituted a rule that requires proof of vaccination to enter restaurants, malls and theaters.
If your family is flying into town for the holidays, or you're venturing out of sunny L.A. for colder pastures, here are some things to consider so you don't get turned away from your vacation rental.
To board a plane:
All travelers coming to the U.S. for the holidays must be fully vaccinated with an FDA-authorized or World Health Organization-approved vaccine. Visitors from outside the state or country will be required to fill out a form at LAX that indicates they understand CDC recommendations for traveling upon arrival.
The U.S. requires all travelers ages 2 and older to wear face masks in any indoor public space, including the plane. And if U.S. residents 2 and older are traveling back to the country from an international destination, they must show proof of a recent negative COVID test.
Utilize COVID rapid tests
The CDC recommends vaccinated travelers take a COVID test at least three days before traveling, and requires it for unvaccinated individuals. LAX offers nasal PCR tests with a three-to-five hour turnaround time that cost $125, one-hour rapid PCR tests for $199, and one-hour antigen tests at $80. Testing sites can be found at Terminal 6, Terminal 2 and the Tom Bradley International Terminal. You can book appointments online.
L.A. County also has several testing sites scattered across the county, which can be found here.
It's generally best practice to buy a couple rapid tests at your local drugstore and keep them while traveling in case someone in your party starts displaying COVID symptoms.
Get vaccinated and receive a CDC-issued card
You are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after your second Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or your first Johnson&Johnson vaccine.
The CDC-issued paper COVID vaccine is perhaps the most universally recognized form of proof across the United States and is given to anyone who is vaccinated against COVID-19. All fields, including the date of when you got vaccinated, should be filled out.
However, this form of proof is also the most precarious. A paper card can go missing, or get damaged and become unreadable. Keep the card in a safe, dry, easy-to-access area and take a picture of it in case it goes missing. Take a picture of it too, since many establishments will accept a digital photograph as proof.
Get a digital vaccination record
If you got both vaccines in California, the state health department will have them on file at myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov. Fill out a few key pieces of information like your name and your birth date, and the site will send your record to your smartphone or email.
If you got vaccinated in L.A. County, health startup and county partner Healthvana will also send you a digital record via text or email that you can screenshot, download, or embed into Apple Wallet or Google Pay for easy access. If you got your second dose outside of the county, you will be able to input it into Healthvana's app.
If you got your vaccine in L.A. County but can't find the link from Healthvana, you can request it at healthvana.com/contact.
Traveling to Europe? Get the European Union COVID pass
Traveling to Europe? First of all, lucky you. Second of all, the E.U. has a standardized set of rules for digital vaccination records, called a Digital COVID Certificate, that are used by all 27 countries (and even some non-E.U. countries like Norway). Some E.U. countries may not accept local digital vaccination records from U.S. municipalities, and having a DCC may make it easier to enter establishments. If you are not from the E.U., you can ask the country you are traveling to for a DCC as long as that country accepts your form of vaccination proof.Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
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Mother Blames TikTok For Daughter’s Death in ‘Blackout Challenge’ Suit
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
The mother of a 10-year-old girl who died after allegedly trying a dangerous online “challenge” has sued Culver City-based TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance, claiming the social media app’s algorithm showed her videos of people choking themselves until they pass out.
Nylah Anderson, an intelligent child who already spoke three languages, was “excruciatingly asphyxiated” and found unconscious in her bedroom on Dec. 7, according to a complaint filed Thursday in federal court in Pennsylvania. She spent five days in pediatric intensive care until succumbing to her injuries.
The lawsuit, filed by her mother Tawainna Anderson, claims TikTok’s algorithm had previously shown Nylah videos depicting the “Blackout Challenge,” in which people hold their breath or choke themselves with household items to achieve a euphoric feeling. That encouraged her to try it herself, the lawsuit alleged.
“The TikTok Defendants’ algorithm determined that the deadly Blackout Challenge was well-tailored and likely to be of interest to 10-year-old Nylah Anderson, and she died as a result,” the suit said.
In a previous statement about Nylah’s death, a TikTok spokesperson noted the “disturbing” challenge predates TikTok, pointing to a 2008 warning from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about deadly choking games. The spokesperson claimed the challenge “has never been a TikTok trend.” The app currently doesn’t produce any search results for “Blackout Challenge” or a related hashtag.
“We remain vigilant in our commitment to user safety and would immediately remove related content if found,” the TikTok statement said. “Our deepest sympathies go out to the family for their tragic loss.”
At least four other children or teens have died after allegedly attempting the Blackout Challenge, according to the Anderson lawsuit. TikTok has grappled with dangerous challenges on its platform before, including one in which people tried to climb a stack of milk crates. That was considered so dangerous that TikTok banned the hashtag associated with it last year. In February, TikTok updated its content rules to combat the dangerous acts and other harmful content.
The Anderson lawsuit comes as lawmakers and state attorneys general scrutinize how TikTok and other social media can be bad for teens and younger users, including by damaging their mental health, causing negative feelings about their body image and making them addicted to the apps.
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Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
Netflix Updated Its Culture Memo for the First Time in 5 Years to Address Censorship, Secrecy
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
Netflix promised change after its poor first-quarter earnings. One of the first targets: the Netflix Culture document.
The changes, which Variety reported on Thursday, indicate a new focus on fiscal responsibility and concern about censorship. While promises to support honest feedback and open decision-making remain, the memo’s first update in almost five years reveals that the days of lax spending are over. The newly added “artistic expression” section emphasizes Netflix’s refusal to censor its work and implores employees to support the platform’s content.
The “artistic expression” section states that the company will not “censor specific artists or voices” and specifies that employees may have to work on content “they perceive to be harmful.” The memo points to ratings, content warnings and parental controls as ways for users to determine what is appropriate content.
Censorship has been a contentious issue within Netflix. Last year, employees walked out in protest after the company stood by comedian Dave Chappelle’s special, “The Closer,” which many said was transphobic. The streaming service has since announced four more specials from the comedian, who was attacked on stage at Netflix’s first comedy festival. The show will not air on the platform, as Netflix did not tape the event.
The reaction to Chappelle’s 2021 special ripples further in the updated memo. After firing an employee who leaked how much the company paid for the special, the new “ethical expectations” section directs employees to protect company information.
The memo also reflects pressure borught by poor first-quarter earnings. Employees are now instructed to “spend our members’ money wisely,” and Variety reported that earlier passages that indicated a lack of spending limits were cut. Variety also found that the updated memo removed promises that the company would not make employees take pay cuts in the face of Netflix’s own financial struggles.
These updates come as employee morale has reportedly dropped and editorial staffers at the Netflix website TuDum were laid off en masse. Those employees were offered two weeks of severance pay—and Netflix has now cut a section in the memo promising four months of full pay as severance.
As the company that literally wrote the book on corporate culture faces internal struggles, it's unlikely that making employees take on more responsibility while prioritizing corporate secrecy and discouraging content criticism will improve morale.
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
‘Raises’: Mahmee Secures $9.2M, Wave Financial Launches $60M Fund
Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
Venture Capital
Mahmee, an integrated care delivery platform for maternal and infant health that connects patients, health professionals, and healthcare organizations to increase access to prenatal and postpartum care, raised a $9.2 million Series A funding round led by Goldman Sachs.
FutureProof Technologies, a climate risk analytics platform, raised $6.5 million in capital led by AXIS Digital Ventures along with Innovation Endeavors and MS&AD Ventures.
Anja Health, a doctor-backed cord blood banking company, raised $4.5 million led by Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six.
Funds
Wave Financial LLC, a digital asset investment management company, is launching a $60 million fund to deploy capital via cryptocurrency.
Raises is dot.LA’s weekly feature highlighting venture capital funding news across Southern California’s tech and startup ecosystem. Please send fundraising news to Decerry Donato (decerrydonato@dot.la).
Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.