The Brief

Updated COVID shots will be “widely available” in Los Angeles County by the middle of next week, public health officials said Thursday.

“There will be a gradual rollout to get vaccines on the ground, and it will take some time to get scheduling systems set up," said Janina Morrison, the county's chief physician of clinical services for public health. “Pharmacies and health care providers will be receiving orders directly from the manufacturers and will let their patients and customers know about availability.”

L.A. County health officials are urging people to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Cases and hospitalizations are continuing to creep up nationally and the threat of other respiratory viruses, including flu and RSV, loom this fall. For the first time, vaccines are available against all three.

“We know lots and lots of people who are vaccinated and then got infected,” said L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. “That doesn’t change our reality that both that natural immunity you get from being infected and the vaccines themselves, that protection is waning over time. Study after study after study says that it wanes over time. We need to get ourselves boosted, we can’t afford to take the risk of getting infected.”

Ferrer said local cases have “somewhat plateaued,” but are still relatively high, having doubled in the past month.

“We’re not in a place where there are alarming increases in cases or wastewater testing,” she said.

Manufacturers say the tweaked mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer are effective against EG.5, the COVID strain that is currently dominant in the United States, as well as other emerging variants.

It is completely safe for people to get a flu shot and a COVID shot on the same day, usually one in each arm, according to Ferrer.

“Be prepared for an earlier than usual flu season,” she said. “The east and south are seeing a spike, so go ahead and make your flu shot appointment so you’re prepared.”

Hospitalizations decreased a small amount in L.A. County, but it’s not clear if that trend will hold.

Will insurance cover the COVID shot?

Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance plans are covering the full cost of vaccines, without co-pays. So insured people will be able to get the updated COVID vaccine at their doctor’s offices or pharmacies at no cost. The same applies to Medicare beneficiaries.

On Oct. 1, the COVID vaccine will be covered for everyone on Medicaid — Medi-Cal in California — based on a law passed last year in Congress. For people who are uninsured or underinsured, the Biden administration launched the Bridge Access Program, which will make the vaccine available this season at no cost.

The new government program allows the CDC to purchase and distribute COVID vaccines and allocate them through its network of state and local health departments. Vaccines for federally qualified health centers as well as certain pharmacy chains will be supported through both government and manufacturer-supplied resources.

But the Bridge Access Program is temporary. According to the CDC’s website, no-cost vaccines will be available until the end of 2024.

Bridge Access providers will be added this week to the Vaccines.gov website, which can help people find locations to get the free vaccines.

Children from low-income families will be able to get free vaccines through the CDC’s Vaccines for Children program.

When will the updated COVID shot be available? 

This is the first time COVID shots will be provided through the commercial market. In order to get it covered by your health insurance, you must stay in-network. If you get the shot from a provider out of your insurance network, there may be a cost.

Kaiser Permenente, the largest insurer in the state, told LAist that the “initial supply of the updated vaccines may be limited” and that it would primarily administer the Pfizer vaccine when it’s available.

“Kaiser Permanente will begin administering the updated COVID vaccines according to the CDC’s clinical guidance as soon as we have updated our systems and processes to reflect that guidance and when supply becomes available,” the company said.

Some CVS and Walgreens pharmacies are already offering the shots, and both company’s websites say more locations and vaccine appointments will be added as inventory increases.

For young children 6 months to 6 years old, it’s best to get them vaccinated at their pediatrician’s office. Many chain pharmacies won’t vaccinate young children, so pay attention when you’re making appointments to the age restrictions.

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority told its employees Friday to stop work, shut down their computers and stay off agency systems while it looked into “a potential security issue affecting our systems,” its chief executive confirmed to LAist.

That shutdown order was still in place Monday evening, according to a LAHSA official not authorized to speak on the record.

Gita O'Neill, the agency’s interim CEO, told LAist on Friday evening that the agency did not “yet have enough information to say definitively whether any sensitive or confidential personal information was accessed.”

She has not answered questions about whether or not services for unhoused people are disrupted.

Gita O’Neill, interim CEO of LAHSA, speaks ahead of the annual homeless count on Jan. 20, 2026.

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Jordan Rynning

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LAist

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LAHSA holds highly sensitive information collected from people experiencing homelessness in the region. The agency oversees the Homeless Management Information System, or HMIS, which includes unhoused people’s names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and disabilities, as well as self-reported mental health and substance abuse history, income sources and domestic violence history.

In a statement Monday, LAHSA said it had taken its internal computer systems offline “as a precaution” and “engaged outside cybersecurity specialists to investigate the nature and scope of the incident.” The statement, sent on O'Neill's behalf by outside public relations strategist Trevor Daley, continued to call it “a potential cybersecurity incident.”

The agency is “taking steps to maintain essential operations,” the statement added, saying LAHSA “remains open” while the investigation continues. It said the agency is working with its technical and legal teams.

What staff were told

Friday’s email to "Team LAHSA" carried the subject line "URGENT: Log Off and Shut Down for the Week." LAist obtained a copy, and O'Neill confirmed by text message that she had sent it.

“As a precaution while we look into a potential security issue affecting our systems, we're asking all staff to stop work and take their machines offline for the remainder of today and through the weekend,” the email said.

It told employees to “Log off and shut down your LAHSA computer” and not to log back in or connect to LAHSA systems, including email, “until you receive an all-clear from us.”

The email also told staff to report anything “unusual” before shutting down, such as “files renaming on their own, unexpected pop-ups or messages.”

What LAHSA leadership has said

In a texted response to LAist on Friday evening, O'Neill said she asked staff to take their computers offline “out of an abundance of caution” while the agency’s IT team assessed the situation.

“Our IT team is actively reviewing the situation now and working to understand exactly what occurred and whether any information was affected,” she wrote. “Protecting people’s personal and confidential information is a top priority in that review.”

Leaders of three LAHSA-funded service providers told LAist on Monday afternoon that they had not received any communications from LAHSA about the potential cybersecurity issue. All three use the HMIS system that holds unhoused people’s personal details.

Previous attacks against another LA housing agency

Another L.A. housing agency was previously hit by cyberattacks. The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles — a separate agency known as HACLA — has said hackers got inside its network in 2022 and may have accessed people’s names, Social Security numbers, financial accounts numbers and medical information.

Two years later, HACLA was breached again, according to an official notice, with hackers potentially accessing names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and phone numbers.

LAist reporter Aaron Schrank contributed reporting to this story.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath announced Monday that she is running to be the county’s first elected chief executive. Horvath is the only candidate so far to enter the race, which is set for 2028.

The new executive post will take the place of the county’s appointed CEO and implement key priorities of the county Board of Supervisors. The executive will oversee the county budget, which is currently roughly $50 billion, and labor relations with more than 100,000 employees.

Horvath was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2022 and was re-elected in June to another four-year term. She represents the county’s 3rd District, which covers the San Fernando Valley and parts of the Westside and Central Los Angeles. She is a former mayor of West Hollywood.

The supervisor made her announcement Monday via social media and her campaign website. She called the race a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.”

The backstory

Voters created the position in 2024 when they approved Measure G, which was proposed by Supervisors Horvath and Janice Hahn.

Among other changes, the measure allowed the Board of Supervisors to expand from five to nine members by 2030 and established an independent Ethics Commission, which held its first meeting last month.

The pushback

On Monday, Supervisor Kathryn Barger issued a statement saying she believed it was “premature” to campaign for the new county executive position when it remained unclear whether “the office itself is constitutional.”

Barger pointed to questions raised by former federal judge Stephen Larson about whether California’s Constitution allows an elected county executive to veto board decisions, control county contracts and take on powers state law currently gives the Board of Supervisors.

“Moving forward with an office that would fundamentally change how Los Angeles County is governed, without first resolving these questions, is putting the cart before the horse,” Barger said in her statement. “We need clarity.”

The primary election is scheduled for March 7, 2028.

The Los Angeles Unified School District said it’s reviewing how to proceed after Google’s announcement last week that it will not allow schools to use its search engine unless they opt in to using artificial intelligence.

Google said that in the coming months, access to products like Gemini and Google Search would be turned off by default until schools turn them on, saying it believes “schools should have control over AI in their classroom.” But Google Search, by default, includes an AI chatbot and uses AI to summarize search results — meaning that schools that restrict AI would not have access to Google Search.

Earlier this school year, LAUSD implemented a moratorium on students using generative AI on district-issued devices.

“We are reviewing Google’s announcement and its potential implications for schools, educators and students,” said a spokesperson for LAUSD. “Los Angeles Unified believes emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, have the potential to enhance teaching and learning when introduced thoughtfully, responsibly and with clear safeguards.”

“Search and A.I. are deeply integrated,” Chris Phillips, vice president for education at Google, said to The New York Times. He told the outlet that if a school bans AI, students “will not have access to search, and they’ll see a message from their school that indicates it’s not available.”

What are schools doing now?

Currently, students in LAUSD can still use Google to search for information, a district spokesperson said, but the AI mode — in which students can converse with the company’s chatbot, Gemini — is turned off. Some searches may still show an AI-generated summary or overview. The district has asked Google for a modification to allow the summaries to be turned off.

If a school does opt in to artificial intelligence, Google said it will offer a “guided learning” tool in its chatbot for student accounts “to help them work through problems without skipping straight to answers.”

The announcement has prompted outcry from advocates. "Google forced its AI products into classrooms, and parents fought back," said Lila Byock, founder of Schools Beyond Screens, the group that pushed for LAUSD’s AI moratorium, as well as the district’s screen time limit. "Now Google is refusing to take no for an answer. … Schools Beyond Screens calls on district leaders to reclaim their authority from corporate interests and divest from Google."

The district’s ad hoc committee on generative AI is scheduled to have its next meeting on Nov. 13.