Morning Brief: Drinking While Vaccinated, The Yellow Tier, And ‘Top Chef’

Good morning, L.A. It’s April 29.

If you’ve gotten your second dose of the coronavirus vaccine, perhaps you’ve celebrated by opening a bottle of wine or mixing yourself a cocktail. But many of our readers and listeners want to know if that’s safe — do the vaccine and alcohol mix?

On our newsroom’s AirTalk show, Dr. Dean Blumberg, professor of medicine and chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, said that drinking too much could cause an adverse reaction.

“We know that people who drink heavily are likely to have an impaired immune response to the vaccine,” he said, “and we know that people who are heavy drinkers also get more infections than those who are moderate drinkers or than those who abstain.”

With that said, Blumberg added that as with most things, moderation is key — and in this case, it might even do some good.

“Moderate drinking is okay, and probably does have some advantages,” he said. “One drink a day for adult women [and] up to two drinks a day for men reduces inflammation. Sometimes our immune systems are a bit overactive.”

Keep reading for more on what’s happening in L.A. today, and bottoms up.

What Else You Need To Know Today

• L.A. County has begun to meet the criteria for moving into the yellow tier, the state’s least restrictive level in its COVID-19 reopening guidelines.
• Playgrounds will reopen beginning Monday, May 3, at all LAUSD elementary schools and early education centers.
• Several members of the California House delegation are shocked by the findings in our recent reporting on nursing homes.
• L.A. Democratic Congresswoman Judy Chu called on President Joe Biden to address anti-Asian hate crimes during his first speech to a joint session of Congress last night.
• The COVID-19 pandemic led to fewer cars on the road and fewer crashes overall last year, but the death toll on L.A. streets remained high.

Before You Go … What The Academy Awards Might Learn From 'Top Chef'

Oscar statues, all in a line. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

If you know the cooking competition show “Top Chef,” you’re familiar with its premise: challenge a bunch of chefs to create a multi-course gourmet dinner with ingredients they only can buy at a gas station mini-mart. In three hours.

What if the Oscars tried something similar? At the start of the ceremony, give “Lady Bird” director Greta Gerwig a three-minute film script for two characters written by Emerald Fennell of “Promising Young Woman.” Over the course of half-a-dozen intervals during the show, we watch Gerwig rehearse with “Creed” actor Tessa Thompson and Rami Malek from “Bohemian Rhapsody”...