Category: TV

On October 30, California Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled a new $120 million, 134,000 sq. foot coronavirus testing facility in Valencia, north of L.A.

“This new laboratory will allow California to ensure its testing capacity is timely, equitable and cost-effective – just when Californians need it most,” Newsom said at the opening. At the time, Newsom boasted that the facility had been stood up quickly and $25 million under budget.

But on Monday, the California Department of Public Health announced that significant deficiencies in the Valencia Branch Laboratory during an initial routine inspection that occurred in early December. It is not the first time the facility has had issues.

“The deficiencies identified by Laboratory Field Services, although they are taken very seriously, do reflect that we established the laboratory on an accelerated timeframe, and we knew that there might be growing pains that would require work and process improvements,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly.

Less than two weeks after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the opening of the giant state COVID-19 testing lab in Valencia, the facility’s launch was marred by an unexpectedly high number of inconclusive test results. The state’s top health officer confirmed the news on November 10, but said problems that caused the issue have been identified and addressed.

Read the full press release from the California Department of Public Health below:

The Laboratory Field Services Division of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), which regulates laboratories in the state, found significant deficiencies in the Valencia Branch Laboratory during an initial routine inspection that occurred in early December, when the laboratory first opened. PerkinElmer is confident these deficiencies will be quickly remedied to avoid any impact on the laboratory’s license.

PerkinElmer, the operator of the Valencia Branch Laboratory with CDPH, was provided the deficiencies on February 19, 2021, and has until March 1, 2021, to formally respond with how it has addressed or plans to address the laboratory’s initial challenges. In the interest of transparency, PerkinElmer and CDPH have agreed to make this public now instead of waiting until the full report on the Valencia Branch Laboratory is finalized mid-March.

The Valencia Branch Laboratory is seeking accelerated accreditation through the College of American Pathologists (CAP), a third-party independent entity, so that Californians have no doubt about the quality of the services at the laboratory. The CAP performed its initial inspection on Friday, February 19, 2021 and the laboratory fully expects a prompt and positive response.

California opened the Valencia Branch Laboratory in collaboration with PerkinElmer to expand laboratory testing capacity and ensure access to testing for neighborhoods that were disproportionately affected by the pandemic at a time when testing was relatively scarce and supply chains were strained.

The Valencia Branch Laboratory has successfully increased testing availability in communities at high risk for contracting COVID-19 such as essential workers, those in congregate care settings, and communities of color. The Valencia Branch Laboratory has performed more than 1.5 million tests on samples from a network of more than 1,500 specimen collection sites developed with churches, schools, clinics, essential workplaces, and community-based organizations.

Out of a total of more than 1.5 million tests performed, the Valencia Branch Laboratory has issued corrected reports for approximately 60 (.0039%) samples and been unable to test approximately 250 samples (.017%) due to lab errors.

“One incorrect test result is one too many. California takes these findings seriously and has been working hand in hand with PerkinElmer from the beginning to ensure Californians have the accurate, timely, high-quality test results,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly. “When we opened the laboratory we committed to improving on our efforts to ensure we are delivering the best possible services. As a result, laboratory procedures and protocols are constantly evaluated and improved upon.”

“The Valencia Branch Laboratory was built and opened on an accelerated timeline to address a critical need for more COVID-19 testing capacity during this pandemic – and that capacity arrived just in time for our unprecedented winter surge,” Dr. Ghaly continued. “The deficiencies identified by Laboratory Field Services, although they are taken very seriously, do reflect that we established the laboratory on an accelerated timeframe, and we knew that there might be growing pains that would require work and process improvements.”

PerkinElmer, a global diagnostics company that runs the laboratory for the state, believes that the Valencia Branch Laboratory is not in danger of closure as nearly all of the deficiencies have been resolved for some time given the original inspection occurred over 10 weeks ago. The deficiencies that have not been fully resolved are in the process of being resolved and will be sufficiently resolved soon.

“PerkinElmer’s partnership with the State of California has enabled us to meaningfully help millions of residents in local communities as we have worked together to battle the pandemic,” said Prahlad Singh, PerkinElmer’s president and chief executive officer. “PerkinElmer remains confident in our continued positive impact, operating the highest quality laboratory to serve California residents.”

Throughout the pandemic, states have had to work independently to expand COVID-19 testing in order to mitigate the spread of the virus. As testing became more readily available, supply chains were stretched globally. This patchwork left many states ill prepared to address the rise in community transmission rates, and eventually hospitalizations. And the lack of access to testing exacerbated long-standing health inequities in low-income, minority, and rural communities.

Along with widespread vaccination, testing availability remains critical to California as the state looks to regain some sense of normal life again. Reliable, timely and cost-effective test results are critical to allowing schools and many businesses to re-open with confidence as the prevalence of COVID-19 continues to decline in California.

The full report on the Valencia Branch Laboratory, with responses from PerkinElmer, will be made available in mid-March.

It’s another unpleasant week of news and probably one of the most devastating news was the winter strom that hit the country — specifically Texas. During the first part of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver unpacked the “full-blown humanitarian crisis” happening in Texas as the state was facing no electricity, lack of clean water and dozens of death.

True to form, Fox News blamed the power outages during the Texas storm on green energy, specifically frozen wind turbines. Tucker Carlson was adamant about this, saying that green energy means a less reliable power grid. He punctuated that with “it’s science!”

Oliver responded to Carlson’s thoughts by pointing out how his advertisers basically include “a man in a sexual relationship with a pillow”. He also dragged Carlson saying, “just because you loudly insist that something ‘is science’! doesn’t make it science…that’s science”

He continued, “Finally, calling windmills silly fashion accessories is just absurd. The only time you could conceivably make that claim was when The Bachelor contestant Deandra dressed up as a windmill for her night one entrance in a clear allusion to Peter and Hannah’s fantasy suite f*ckfest and even then, it’s not silly. It’s horny.”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott further fueled Carlson’s Green Deal assessment and told Sean Hannity, “This shows how the Green Deal would be a deadly deal.”

“He knows that’s horsesh*t,” said Oliver. The host unpacked the facts saying that Texas relies on wind power for only about 25% of its total electricity. The vast majority of Texas energy comes from thermal heat sources and those were impacted by the storm. Even if Texas wind turbines would stop spinning, the state would be, as Oliver put it, “in deep sh*t”.

Texas is not on the federal power grid. The majority of the state is on its own grid which was part of the cause for the calamity. Texas leaders designed it this way to avoid federal regulation.

Olive said that independence meant that Texas was limited in its ability to import energy from neighboring states and it also meant that there was significant pressure on Ercot, the company that manages the state’s grid.

During the storm, Ercot scrambled to meet surging demands. They have since admitted that Texas was “‘seconds and minutes’ away from catastrophic months-long blackouts”.

“Ercot was not alone when it came to being unprepared for the storm,” explained Oliver. “It manages the grid, but not the power companies that supply it.” Ercot could not compel companies to winterize their facilities so they would be prepared for the storm. The state left that up to power companies — and many those companies opted against the upgrades because it was too expensive.

This isn’t the first time Texas was impacted by a winter storm. Although it wasn’t as strong, 10 years there was a storm that caused major outages. As a result,  federal regulators warned that power plants needed to winterize to prevent this from happening again. Oliver cut to foootage of state officials 10 years ago saying what would happen if they didn’t act. Obviously, they didn’t act.

“So much of the problems this week stem from Texas’ state philosophy of ‘every man for himself’ and that attitude has defined the response from their elected officials,” said Oliver.

Tim Boyd, mayor of Colorado City, Texas posted on Facebook, “No one owes you are your family anything nor is it the local government’s responsibility to support you during trying times like this!” The backlash was so severe that he resigned.

Then there is “the saga of Ted F*cking Cruz” as Oliver said. As heavily reported, Cruz went to Cancun with his family. When photos of him surfaced on social media, he returned to Texas the next day saying that it was his original plan to go to Cancun and drop his family off then come back.

Things just got worse for Cruz as he admitted that wasn’t the plan. He basically threw his children under the bus saying that they wanted to go to Cancun and he was just “trying to be a good dad.”

On top of all that, a text chain between Heidi Cruz and neighbors was leaked proposing that they all go on vacation to Cancun.

Then there is former governor and former U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry who said that Texas would live without electricity to keep federal regulators out of their business. Of course, Oliver did not mince words in his response.

“Oh f*ck off Rick Perry,” shaded Oliver. “Far be it from me to question the wisdom of a man who failed running for president twice, and who came in 12th on Dancing with the Stars.”

He continued, “This mess only happened because those in charge didn’t implement critical lessons from 10 years ago and while I’d like to think they’ll learn lessons from this week, remember who you’re dealing with here.” From there, pics of Cruz and Abbott flashed on the screen.

Oliver urged viewers to help citizens of Texas out via feedingtexas.org and said, “They deserve better than a pat on the back from their fortitude and independence as they shiver to death and representatives who f*ck off to Mexico at the first sign of danger.”