A few days into the holiday break, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recalled 800,000 doses of H1N1 flu vaccine that had been distributed throughout the nation, according to a Yolo County Health Department press release.

The vaccines, which were designed for children aged between six and 35 months old, were not recalled for safety reasons – they failed to meet potency standards.

Three hundred doses made their way to Yolo County before officials received the order to halt use. It is not known exactly how many vaccines were sent to clinics and hospitals in Davis.

Health officer and director Dr. Joseph Iser of the Yolo County Health Department said the recall should not alarm individuals looking to get vaccinated. The recalled vaccines were completely safe, and their efficacy had just atrophied over time, he said.

“There’s a standardized amount of vaccine [in a shot] – let’s say antigen – and in fact when [these H1N1 vaccines] were released, they had that. But it degraded over time,” Iser said.

The press release maintained that children who had received the recalled H1N1 flu shots of lesser potency should continue to get their second shot to complete the vaccination process.

Children under the age of 10 must be vaccinated twice to ensure the proper development of antibodies that protect against the H1N1 virus. For example, an individual is given three Hepatitis B vaccines to ensure the vaccine has adequately stimulated the development of disease-fighting antibodies.

“Approximately a third of the people will be protected after one [shot],” Iser said. “Approximately two-thirds will be protected after two. And everyone should be protected after three. Some people are protected after one because their immune systems react more effectively to produce antibodies.”

Doses of the recalled vaccine that had not been given to patients were transferred to separate refrigerators at the Health Department until further instruction in order to avoid confusion between the recalled and authorized vaccines. Dr. Iser and his associates await further instruction from the state before sending back the vaccines.

H1N1 flu vaccines had been recalled twice more in the past under similar circumstances.

Major retailers like Rite Aid and Safeway had not received any vaccines. The recalled doses were sent exclusively to doctors, hospitals and clinics.

A CDC study that examined the period of time from Apr. 2009 to Nov. 14, 2009 estimated that the H1N1 flu virus had caused approximately 10,000 deaths and 213,000 hospitalizations in the United States. By contrast, regular seasonal influenza – referred to colloquially as “the flu” – kills about 36,000 people per year, according to the CDC website.

Data gathered by the CDC on regular seasonal influenza compared with H1N1 flu data demonstrates the H1N1 virus’s propensity to severely affect people under the age of 65. Ninety percent of deaths caused by the everyday seasonal flu are found in senior citizens at or above that age. With the H1N1 flu however, deaths occur much more commonly in people between the ages of 18 and 64.

Taking note of the broader demographic affected by “swine flu,” the CDC has stressed the importance of continuing the H1N1 vaccination program.

“One of the reasons we’ve had fewer deaths [is] the nation as a whole has had a pretty good response to it in that lots of people have received the vaccine and that a lot of people have been following our advice,” Iser said.

First-year student Imran Masood said he was not fortunate enough to have access to H1N1 flu vaccines when he contracted swine flu during fall quarter 2009. He wished he had received a vaccine to expedite his recovery.

“I had never had any sickness like it before,” Masood said. “I did not receive the vaccine. I kind of wish I had now. I got it pretty early in the school year, so the clinic didn’t have the vaccines yet.”

The enigmatic strain of influenza has not been as severe as medical experts once speculated.

“All of the predictions that we got were that we’d have more deaths due to H1N1.” Iser said. “It has been milder than what we thought it would be.”

YARA ELMJOUIE can be reached at city@theaggie.org.

While hunger is a worldwide problem, it has gone largely unmitigated in our own backyard.

The United States Department of Agriculture report on food stamp participation in 2007 revealed approximately 4,215,000 people are eligible for food stamps in California, but only about 48 percent actually receive benefits. California has continually ranked on the low end of food stamp participation, according to the report.

“Underutilization is a problem because we’re leaving valuable resources on the table,” said California Food Policy Advocates (CFPA) director of legislation George Manalo-LeClair. “This means that there is a lot of needless suffering that we could potentially eliminate.”

A new CFPA report Lost Dollars, Empty Plates specifically addressed the underutilization of federal benefits such as those provided by the State Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). The report suggests that part of the reason for underutilization is the red tape associated with getting help.

“There are a lot more administrative barriers associated with receiving food stamps in California than in other states,” LeClair said. “People have to make trips to the office during normal weekday business hours and so may have to miss work to come in which can jeopardize their employment.”

The CFPA report suggests several solutions to increase food stamp participation, including removing the asset test and the fingerprinting requirement and providing phone and web rather than in-person interviews to avoid having to miss work.

Low participation in SNAP means not only an increase in hunger but also a decrease in economic activity. The report estimates that Yolo County is missing out on as much as $24,024,718 in federal benefits, which is equivalent to an estimated $44,205,482 potential increase in economic activity.

“Food stamps provide ‘bagable’ nutrition benefits for as much as $100 worth of food per person per month,” LeClair said. “Food stamps also have a ripple effect in benefiting agriculture and grocery stores – resources which are valuable in kickstarting a stagnant economy.”

According to the CFPA report, there are 27,783 people eligible for food stamps in Yolo County, but only about 9,527 or 34 percent are actually getting the help they need.

“Due to the economic conditions a lot of people who never dreamed of having to rely on food stamps are now finding themselves standing in line,” said executive director of the Yolo County Food Bank Jose Martinez.

Martinez believes that food insecurity can have mental as well as physical repercussions.

“Have you ever been hungry? It can be very mentally difficult to face that situation,” Martinez said. “Studies have shown that children who go hungry often do worse in school because they’re busy thinking about when their next meal might be.”

The Yolo County Food Bank distributes food directly to individuals and serves 70 other non-profit organizations in the county. Martinez estimated that they reach about 20,000 people every month, but believes there is a lot more to be done.

“We have a program called Friday’s Table during which we distribute food directly to individuals. We used to get about 120 people every Friday but now we get about 300,” Martinez said. “That’s almost a 150 percent increase in demand. I’m certain we’re not reaching everyone.”

Other organizations such as Davis Community Meals and the Short Term Emergency Aid Committee (STEAC) have also seen an increase in demand.

“We’ve been seeing a lot of new faces,” said executive director of Davis Community Meals Bill Pride. “I know for a fact that usage went up at least 25 percent between last year and the year before.”

Davis Community Meals provides meals three times per week at St. Martin’s Church.

“To me, it’s a mission to make sure everyone in the community is healthy and able to provide for themselves,” Pride said.

STEAC has been providing emergency food, clothing and other services to people in Yolo County since 1967.

“There’s nothing typical about any of the people we work with,” said executive director Susan Simon, who has been with STEAC for six years. “We get everyone from single homeless individuals to a family of 10.”

STEAC provides food packages for families and the homeless with three meals a day per person for as many as five days per month.

“The bottom line is you have to eat to stay alive,” Simon said. “If we ever ran out of money and had to choose only one program to keep, it would be the Food Closet because that’s the most important thing we do.”

JANE TEIXEIRA can be reached at city@theaggie.org.

Golf champion Tiger Woods’ recent indiscretions have provided the media with plenty of bulletins. They also gave two UC Davis professors inspiration for a study that found the scandal has cost Woods’ sponsors’ shareholders $12 billion.

Victor Stango, an assistant professor of management in the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, said that in the wake of the Woods’ scandal most media discussions focused on the losses Woods himself would suffer. However, Stango and UC Davis associate professor of economics, Christopher Knittel, wanted to determine the losses that Woods’ sponsors, such as Gatorade, Nike and Buick, suffered.

In doing so, the study addressed the question of whether or not celebrity endorsements actually add value to a company.

“If [celebrity endorsements] did not add value, then a scandal surrounding the richest athlete in the world, in terms of endorsement income, would not influence stock prices,” Knittel said.

In order to conduct the study, the pair tracked changes in Woods’ sponsors’ stock prices after the news broke of Woods’ infidelities. Stango said that these changes measured how much stocks dropped daily and the effect on the company’s value. Through their observations of the stock prices the two professors estimated the value of Woods’ entire set of sponsors fell by 2.3 percent.

Nike, PepsiCo and Electronic Arts emerged as the greatest losers out of all of Woods’ sponsors with a 4.3 percent loss.

The results of the study showcase that celebrity endorsements do make a difference in regard to a company’s value. Findings from other researchers, such as Nielson Company, a marketing and advertising research company, appear to support this claim, as well.

Take Woods’ recent dismissal by former sponsor AT&T and Nielsen Company’s report that Woods’ last prime time television commercial aired Nov. 29. If Woods had no influence on the value of his sponsors, they would have no reason to drop him, Knittel said.

The losses Woods may suffer if other sponsors take AT&T’s lead and begin phasing him out of their advertisement campaigns would be extremely detrimental. Thanks mainly to his endorsements, Woods maintains his position as the first and only athlete to earn $1 billion dollars. Golf.com reported in 2008 Woods’ earned around $100 million with only $7.7 million coming directly from tournaments and other course activities.

Knittel and Stango created their study to concentrate specifically on Woods’ sponsors, instead of Woods himself. They produced one of the first projects to target the economic consequences of the scandal, and in doing so, attracted much media attention in the process. The study has been the source of articles and news coverage for The Huffington Post, Yahoo News and CNBC.

Apart from garnering nation-wide attention, the study has also proven to be a great real-world example of marketing, finance and economics for many of Stango’s students.

“One of the nicest things to come out of this, actually, is the positive feedback I’ve heard from some of my MBA students,” Stango said. “I plan to bring some of what [Knittel and I] learned into the classroom this winter.”

The study was conducted over the winter break, when the university was officially closed. This did not prevent UC Davis staff from playing an integral role in the study’s development.

“The PR staff took time out from their busy holiday schedules to assist us in releasing the results,” Stango said. “They really went above and beyond the call of duty.”

KELLEY REES can be reached at city@theaggie.org.

THURSDAY

Drugged driving

A patient who had just received narcotic drugs got into their vehicle and left on Sutter Place.

FRIDAY

Party – Hobo Party

Six transients were seen with open containers on Chestnut Lane.

When old people attack

An elderly female was seen walking in the bike lane with a walker on Covell Boulevard at Highway 113.

SATURDAY

Worst way to straighten your hair

An intoxicated individual passed out on Second Street between J and K Streets and was lying on top of the railroad ties.

The one Santa left behind

A resident on Alvarado Avenue found a box of new DVDs on top of their heating and air conditioning unit.

SUNDAY

TVs that watch themselves

A resident on Alhambra Drive returned home from vacation to find a television on upstairs that the resident did not leave turned on.

One confused pet

A resident on Eligio Lane found a brown fluffy puppy wearing a red kitty collar with paw prints on it but no identifying tag.

This calls for a public stoning

A former roommate stole decorative stones from the front yard of an individual on Calaveras Avenue.

POLICE BRIEFS are compiled by JEREMY OGUL from the public logs of the Davis Police Department, which can be found online at cityofdavis.org/police/log. The events reported here reflect the official version of what happened. This segment appears Tuesdays.

A new resolution could save renters money in the city of Davis beginning as early as September 2010.

ASUCD unanimously passed the resolution in support of an ordinance requiring the return of interest earned on security deposits to Davis renters on Nov. 19, 2009.

This resolution seeks to refund interest earned on security deposits at the end of the lease period to its rightful owners – the renters, said Chris Dietrich, ASUCD vice president.

Although the amount of money saved from such an ordinance varies, it is not expected to save a significant amount. However, any bit saved helps, Dietrich said.

The Davis City Council will vote and decide whether to pass the ordinance at next Wednesday’s meeting. The City-UCD Student Liaison Commission will lay out a recommendation to the Davis City Council.

Ultimately, this ordinance strives to protect renters’ rights. The majority of renters in Davis are students, according to a press release from ASUCD.

Dietrich, along with his fellow members in the City-UCD Student Liaison Commission, began researching prospective solutions to this problem in September 2009. Dietrich said the current resolution is a follow through of a past concern.

ASUCD created the Davis Model Lease, which strives to balance the interests of renters and apartment managers. Currently, about half of the apartment complexes in Davis use this lease, which requires the return of interest earned on security deposits. However, the apartment complexes that do not abide by this lease often do not return interest earned on security deposits.

This disparity among Davis apartment complexes’ policies is the primary reason why Dietrich proposed this resolution.

UCD student representatives on the City-UCD Student Liaison Commission support this ordinance. According to Dietrich, there is not a clear consensus among rental property owners. The ordinance could pose a challenge administratively for complexes that currently do not refund tenants for interest earned on security deposits.

Generally, smaller complexes do not refund interest earned on security deposits, Dietrich said. The number crunching is time consuming and turnover during this end-lease period is particularly burdensome for apartment managers and staff.

Isabelle Medina, corporate office manager of Tandem Properties, which owns 15 apartment complexes in Davis, said that renters are reimbursed for 2 percent of interest earned on security deposits at the end of the lease period.

Carlos Hernandez, manager of La Salle Apartments, currently reimburses tenants for 2 percent of interest earned on security deposits per year. Hernandez stated that the policy will be changing.

The amount of money renters are reimbursed for depends on several factors, including the condition of the apartment at the end of the lease period and how long the tenant has lived in the apartment, Hernandez said.

Sherri Vivas, manager of Le Tournesol Apartments, notes that the refunded percentage of the interest earned on the security deposits has been declining. Le Tournesol residents currently receive 1.5 percent of interest earned on security deposits per year. In accordance with the Davis Model Lease, tenants initially received 5 percent of interest earned on security deposits per year. Ten to 11 years ago, however, 5 percent declined to 2.75 percent. Five years ago, 2.75 percent lowered to 1.5 percent.

The next City-UCD Student Liaison Commission meeting is Jan. 13 at 4:30 p.m. in the City Chambers Conference Room, 23 Russell Blvd.

THERESA MONGELLUZZO can be reached at city@theaggie.org.