【《We Chinese in America》Media Editor Tang Zhao, December 15, 2022】Per County of San Diego Communications Office, San Diego County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to fight the illicit fentanyl crisis by increasing education, outreach and early intervention, working to detect “outbreaks” or clusters of overdoses, and expanding distribution of overdose medication. (Photo credit: County of San Diego Communications Office)
Tuesday’s action comes after the Board of Supervisors and County District Attorney’s office declared fentanyl deaths a public health crisis in late June.
Supervisors asked County staff then to create a plan to address the rapidly increasing numbers of fentanyl overdose deaths, which spiked to 743 people in the county in 2021. That more than quadrupled the rate from 2019 and accounted for more than 70% of all overdose deaths in 2021.
Accidental fentanyl overdose deaths nationally have become the number one killer of 18-to 45-year-old people, surpassing deaths from car accidents, gun violence, heart disease and COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Board Chair Nathan Fletcher said Tuesday’s action could give the fentanyl crisis the full attention it deserves and hopefully start progress in fighting it.
“I’m completely supportive of everything in (this action),” Fletcher said, “the public health messaging, the Narcan (naloxone) distributions, the rapid response to overdose outbreaks.”
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Pharmaceutical fentanyl was approved for treating severe pain, typically for people suffering from advanced cancer, according to the CDC.
Fentanyl overdoses and deaths have skyrocketed in recent years as illegal drug markets mix it with heroin and cocaine—without the user’s knowledge.
County Health and Human Services Agency staff told supervisors Tuesday that they will move forward with a four-part strategy to build on the actions the County has already taken to address the problem.
Conduct Overdose Prevention Education
HHSA will continue outreach that began in 2021, including a fentanyl awareness campaign viewed more than 10 million times featuring billboards, advertisements in six languages, and social media connecting people to County websites with more information. The expanded campaign will include a media campaign focusing on young people, and presentations and naloxone trainings for parents and community groups. Naloxone is an FDA approved medication designed to rapidly reverse an opioid overdose.
Expand Naloxone Distribution
The County launched an expanded naloxone distribution campaign in July that featured naloxone training and outreach. Starting next year, 12 naloxone vending machines will be installed around the county to help people experiencing overdoses.
New efforts will include working with local colleges and universities to expand naloxone availability and working with County Emergency Medical Services on efforts to “leave behind” naloxone kits when emergency responders answer drug-related calls.
Early Intervention
Another key early intervention effort will be working with people who are at higher risk of suffering a fentanyl overdose. That would include people who go to emergency rooms and have suffered a non-fatal overdose.
Improve Detections of Outbreaks of Overdoses
Health and Human Services will expand its surveillance and overdose data. That will allow it quickly identify clusters of outbreaks, rather than individual cases, which will allow it to respond rapidly to address outbreaks.
(Source: County of San Diego Communications Office)
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【《We Chinese in America》Media Editor Tang Zhao, December 14, 2022】As an ongoing effort to enhance our valuable service to We Chinese in America website readers, We Chinese in America website posts English and Chinese versions of “IRS News Release” ， “IRS Fact Sheets”， and “tax tips” directly received from IRS Media Relations Office in Washington, D.C.. We are pleased to take on this important role partnering with IRS to better inform the public.
IRS reminds those over age 72 to start withdrawls from IRAs and retirement plans to avoid penalties
The Internal Revenue Service today reminded those who were born in 1950 or earlier that funds in their retirement plans and individual retirement arrangements face important upcoming deadlines for required minimum distributions to avoid penalties.
Required minimum distributions, or RMDs, are minimum amounts that many retirement plan and IRA account owners must generally withdraw annually after they reach age 72. Account owners can delay taking their first RMD until April 1 following the later of the calendar year they reach age 72 or, in a workplace retirement plan, retire. RMDs are taxable income and may be subject to penalities if not timely taken.
IRAs: The RMD rules require traditional IRA, and SEP, SARSEP, and SIMPLE IRA account holders to begin taking distributions at age 72, even if they’re still working. Account holders reaching age 72 in 2022 must take their first RMD by April 1, 2023, and the second RMD by Dec. 31, 2023, and each year thereafter.
Retirement Plans: In 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) plans; profit-sharing and other defined contribution plans; and defined benefit plans, the first RMD is due by April 1 of the later of the year they reach age 72, or the participant is no longer employed (if allowed by the plan). A 5% owner of the employer must begin taking RMDs at age 72.
RMDs may not be rolled over to another IRA or retirement plan. See the RMD Comparison Chart that highlights some of the basic RMD rules that apply to IRAs and defined contribution plans. Roth IRAs do not require distributions while the original owner is alive.
RMD Calculations and 50% tax on missed distributions
An IRA trustee, or plan administrator, must either report the amount of the RMD to the IRA owner or offer to calculate it. An IRA owner, or trustee, must calculate the RMD separately for each IRA owned. They may be able to withdraw the total amount from one or more of the IRAs. However, RMDs from workplace retirement plans must be taken separately from each plan.
Not taking a required distribution, or not withdrawing enough, could mean a 50% excise tax on the amount not distributed. The IRS has worksheets to calculate the RMD and payout periods.
Inherited IRAs
An RMD may be required for an IRA, retirement plan account or Roth IRA inherited from the original owner. Retirement Topics - Beneficiary has information on taking RMDs from an inherited IRA or retirement account and reporting taxable distributions as part of gross income. Publication 559, Survivors, Executors and Administrators, can help those in charge of the estate complete and file federal income tax returns, and explains their responsibility to pay any taxes due on behalf of the decedent or person who has died.
2020 coronavirus-related distribution
Since 2020 RMDs were waived, an account owner or beneficiary who received an RMD in 2020 had the option of returning it to their IRA or other qualified plan to avoid paying taxes on that distribution. A 2020 RMD that qualified as a coronavirus-related distribution may be repaid over a 3-year period or have the taxes due on the distribution spread over three years.
A 2020 withdrawal from an inherited IRA could not be repaid to the inherited IRA but may be spread over three years for income inclusion. For more information see the Coronavirus Relief for Retirement Plans and IRAs page.
Taxpayers can find forms, instructions, publications, Frequently Asked Questions regarding Required Minimum Distributions and other easy-to-use tools at IRS.gov.
Internal Resource Service
Media Relation Office
Washington, D. C
Media Contact: 202 317 4000
Public Contact: 800 829 1040
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【《We Chinese in America》Media Editor Tang Zhao, December 12, 2022】Per he San Diego County Department of Animal Services would love to find forever homes for every animal in their care and they are offering a Santa Paws adoption special of $12 per pet in December. All animals will be spayed or neutered, have vaccinations, a microchip and a one-year license for dogs in the service area.(Photo credit: County of San Diego Communications Office)
“Make a real difference in the life of an animal by giving one or two a caring home,” said Animal Services Director Kelly Campbell. “You can be an angel to one of our region’s homeless pets.”
On the subject of giving, it is quite possible that you know someone who would love a pet. If after careful thought, you have decided to give an animal as a gift, why not give a gift certificate from a County shelter and let the recipient pick out their lifetime family member? That ensures a good match for both human and animal.
The first step to finding a new best friend is browsing all the lovable animals from cats to dogs to chickens and pigs available now on the Adoptions page. Animal Services staff recommend picking out a second and third choice too, just in case your first choice is already chosen by another person.
Walk-in hours are from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at both the South Shelter, 5821 Sweetwater Road in Bonita, or the North Shelter, 2481 Palomar Airport Road in Carlsbad.
Fill out an application online to print or pick one up at the shelter. Applications can also be emailed but it is quicker to go in person.
If you cannot adopt, consider fostering or volunteering.
(Source: County of San Diego Communications Office)
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【《We Chinese in America》Media Editor Tang Zhao, December 13, 2022】With coronavirus cases surging and hospitalizations worsening, Los Angeles County is again facing the possibility of a renewed public indoor mask mandate. (Photo credit: New York Times)
The return of such rules, which haven’t been on the books since March, is not a given. But with the startling formation of a third straight fall-and-winter wave, officials have said a new order could be implemented shortly after the new year should hospitalizations worsen.
“We are seeing a rapid acceleration again,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. “This is the time to put that mask back on.”
Any new indoor mask mandate hinges on two metrics related to the pressure COVID-19 is exerting on hospitals in the nation’s most populous county.
One of the two triggers, which are based on criteria developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has already been met. The second could be weeks away, but it remains highly uncertain whether it will be reached.
A new mandate would be on the table should 10% of all staffed inpatient hospital beds in L.A. County be filled with coronavirus-positive patients. That has happened for a sustained period of time only twice in the pandemic — both during the last two deadly winter surges.
According to the most recent data, 6.9% of hospital beds in L.A. County are being used by coronavirus-positive patients, up from 2% at the start of November. Trends from the preceding two weeks suggested the figure could hit 10% around Dec. 19, Ferrer said Tuesday.
But several days of improving data since then are pushing that estimate back, Ferrer said Thursday, and it’s still possible L.A. County won’t reach that threshold at all.
L.A. County officially reassesses its data every Thursday, the same day the CDC issues its weekly report. So, for instance, should L.A. County be above that threshold on Dec. 22 — and remain so for two weeks — a mask mandate would be announced Jan. 5 and go into effect a day later. The mandate could be canceled if cases and hospitalizations stabilize or decrease. Or it could come sooner if conditions deteriorate faster than expected.
Ferrer said she is strongly recommending people put their masks back on now in indoor public settings. But she says a two-week waiting period before any potential order is issued is important to give businesses the time to educate their workforce and post appropriate signage. “In order for this to be an effective strategy that allows there to be as high compliance as we can get, you do need to give people time,” she said.
Ferrer said the mandate generally relies on voluntary compliance. Even at schools, she said, parents are eligible to get exemptions for their children “if there’s a health or safety issue that affects that child.”
(Source: Harvard Medical School)
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THE PAUL HOM ASIAN (FREE) CLINIC
and
A TASTE OF ASIA, A WINE AND ASIAN FOOD PAIRING
Ronald Jan, M.D.
[Greeters at the Entrance to A TASTE OF ASIA, A WINE AND ASIAN FOOD PAIRING. Photo Courtesy: Ronald Jan, M.D.]
One year ago, We Chinese in America celebrated the 20th Anniversary of its founding. In the issue of December, 2021 We Chinese in America, the Paul Hom Asian (Free) Clinic, a student-run clinic was featured as a Cover Story ( Paul Hom Asian Clinic & Dr. Ronald Jan).The Clinic is supported in part by the University of California at Davis School of Medicine. To subsidize its operation, on November 12, 2022, the Clinic held a fundraising event, A TASTE OF ASIA, A WINE AND ASIAN FOOD PAIRING.
[Table Setting A TASTE OF ASIA, A WINE AND ASIAN FOOD PAIRING. Photo Courtesy: Ronald Jan, M.D.]
The event featured a formal dining experience of 8 Asian courses beginning with an appetizer of whole roast pig paired with a sparkling Barbera Pet-Nat and then 7 more courses of foods from different Asian restaurants in Sacramento all paired with a fine wine selected by famed restaurant food and wine writer, Mike Dunne. Here is the presentation of the foods and wines:
[The Order of (food and wine) presentation. Image Courtesy: Ronald Jan, M.D.]
There was even one live auction item….
[A special rice wine 1955 Gu Yue Long Shan Hua Diao. Photo Courtesy: Ronald Jan, M.D.]
The event was sponsored by a number of people and institutions including Paul’s brother, Tom Hom & the Hom Family Foundation from San Diego. …
[A TASTE OF ASIA, A WINE AND ASIAN FOOD PAIRING. Sponsor List. Photo Courtesy: Ronald Jan, M.D.]
The festive event presented some of the best aspects of Paul’s clinic—teamwork from the students whose decorations transformed an educational hall with multiple plaques displayed to an elegant dining hall to the students who picked up the foods from the different restaurants to the students who designed and plated the foods to the students who served the food and wine, to the students who greeted and registered the attendees, and the students who helped with the silent auction items….and yes, the students who helped to clean up after…and washed dishes and glassware the next day.
I believe that Paul would have been proud to see the dedication of students at the Clinic and the evolution of his Clinic over the past 50 years with an eye to a future of service to the community.
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About the author: Dr. Ronald G. Jan who specializes in Vascular Surgery is a Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of California at Davis School of Medicine. He also serves as the Director of Paul Hom Asian (Free) Clinic since 2005 (????). As a hobby, he holds WSET level 3 certification in wines and has been writing and publishing wine commentaries attracting lots of readers.
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