California Gov. Gavin Newsom last week announced a $100 billion economic recovery plan to support small businesses and public schools, as well as Black and Brown families that were disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Medical students are helping Sacramento-area residents to get vaccinated, streamlining the process of vaccination while offering care that’s grounded in an understanding of patients’ ethnic backgrounds.
By Kiran Savage Sangwan, Special to CalMatters
Kiran Savage Sangwan is the executive director of the California Pan Ethnic Health Network, a statewide health advocacy organization focused on addressing racial and ethnic health disparities,
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After a long, hard year, hope is on the horizon. The arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine allows us to glimpse the welcome possibility of reopening our economy and our schools.
While we celebrate more Californians being vaccinated every day, Black and Latino communities continue to be significantly under-vaccinated and there is little perceptible improvement over time.
Just as we cannot yet declare victory over the pandemic, we cannot let up our fight for equity now. COVID-19 has only affirmed that racism is the most pressing public health crisis of our time.
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When Dr. Nadine Burke Harris received her COVID-19 vaccine in Oakland last month, she internally rejoiced.
As California’s surgeon general, the state’s top physician, she was glad to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to show others it was safe. But one of the most critical parts of the pandemic’s vaccine rollout reassuring Black and brown communities that the vaccines available are safe is an ongoing task.
“I think that I myself probably didn’t realize how . just that level of tension that I was holding, you know, around it,” Burke Harris said in a recent interview. “The fear of exposure, the fear of getting sick, it wasn’t even conscious for me. It was that awareness, that idea of being protected. . I would, of course, want everyone to feel that feeling.”
California allows vaccinations for everyone age 16 and up
Apr. 16, 2021 at 6:00 am
Newsom. Photo courtesy Wikipedia.
AMY TAXIN and DON THOMPSON, Associated Press
As California began offering vaccinations to everyone age 16 and over Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom urged more residents to sign up for appointments and not let apprehension over inoculations get in the way of protecting themselves against the illness.
Nearly half of Californians eligible for vaccination have received at least one shot against the coronavirus, Newsom said as the country’s most populous state began vaccinating everyone, regardless of occupation or health condition.
It comes as California and other states have seen vaccine supplies rise in recent weeks, despite the recent pause of the use of the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine as U.S. government health advisers evaluate whether a handful of unusual blood clots were linked to the shot.