Two Cases Of COVID-19 Brazilian Variant Found In San Diego County

Speaker 1: 00:00 The Brazilian variant of COVID-19 is detected in San Diego. Speaker 2: 00:05 Some vaccines may be less effective or that somebody who's already had COVID might be reinfected. Speaker 1: 00:11 I'm Maureen Cavenaugh with Jade Heinemann. This is KPBS midday edition, Speaker 3: 00:24 California. Speaker 1: 00:25 New attorney general will be the first Asian American in that office. Speaker 3: 00:29 Certainly Rob Bonta is coming into this job with a reputation as a criminal justice reformer, but expectations will be high that he is going to meet some of their expectations and hopes. Speaker 1: 00:40 Pandemic drinking is leading to an increase in liver disease and we'll meet the San Diego artists behind the new single Southeast summers. That's ahead. On mid day, Speaker 1: 01:00 There is breaking news today that governor Newsome is expanding the pool of people who are eligible for a COVID vaccine. The state says starting April 1st, every one 50 years old and up can apply for a vaccine appointment and starting April 15th, people 16 and up will be eligible for the vaccine. That's the good news. The problematic news is that the Brazilian variant of COVID-19, which caused a deadly spike in cases in that country has been found in San Diego County. Officials say two people have been infected with what's being called the P one variant. One of the people came here from Mexico. The other is from San Diego and has not traveled. The two people do not know each other. Here's Dr. Eric McDonald, the county's medical director of epidemiology and immunization services. Speaker 2: 01:52 The Brazilian variant in particular is one that, um, does have, uh, decreased neutralization by Sera, which means that is possible that the vaccine may be less or some vaccines may be less effective or that somebody who's already had COVID might be reinfected with the strain, Speaker 1: 02:13 Uh, whether the variant is more transmissible is still being investigated. Joining me of San Diego union Tribune health reporter, Paul Sisson. Paul, welcome back. Thanks for having me now, I suppose the fact that no connection has been found between the two people who tested positive for the Brazilian variant could mean the variant is in general circulation in San Diego. Speaker 3: 02:35 Yes, yes, exactly. Uh, you know, by process of elimination, if you have these two people that not knowing each other or ever having had any contact with each other, uh, then, uh, that's exactly what Dr. McDonald concluded. It yesterday's press conference. Uh, they, they do believe that this variant is in general circulation in San Diego County. Uh, I talked to Dr. Christian Anderson overage Scripps research Institute, uh, yesterday. And he said, he thinks, you know, it's not really showing up in their, uh, genetic surveillance that they're doing have a positive test results. Uh, so he said, he thinks its prevalence is still, probably under 1% of all cases that are coming in and have other Speaker 1: 03:15 Cases been found in California. Speaker 3: 03:17 Yes. Uh, so far they've announced that they found a total of four, uh, that total appears to include one of our two cases. Uh, and I think that their last update was on the 19th of this month. Uh, so I think a few other cases, including one here in San Diego County, uh, have been reported to the California department of public health, but haven't yet been added to the total. So I think we're probably going to get an update on that, uh, still this week Speaker 1: 03:42 Now, how did the P one variant effect Corona virus cases in Brazil? Speaker 3: 03:48 Gosh, you know, it really just, it just caused them to have a massive uptick, uh, here in the spring, you know, they had, they had a really big outbreak in, in, uh, you know, started in the now and then spread throughout much of the country, uh, late last year. Um, and this appeared to be just mostly, uh, the, the more commonly, uh, circulating variants, uh, that have spread out of Wuhan China. Uh, but, but then, uh, you know, and so, so a lot of the countries, uh, a lot of the States there in Brazil, uh, had a, a high level of, you know, what we would call herd immunity. A lot of people had gotten infected and late in the year and it looked like, uh, you know, they were probably a lot of them going to be immune to getting any kind of reinfection. Uh, and then P one came along and, uh, reinfected, uh, uh, many, many people, uh, throughout the country. And to this day, they're, they're really struggling. I saw a government report yesterday, uh, that came out, uh, maybe like last week. And then it indicated that many of their intensive care units are, are now over 90% occupancy. Speaker 1: 04:51 Do we know if this variant is more deadly? Speaker 3: 04:54 Uh, it does not, uh, from what they can tell at the moment, you know, and they're still researching this, but what the experts have said is they haven't seen a huge increase in mortality or transmission, uh, you know, on Twitter today, I saw some folks who said, ah, well, you know, actually we are seeing, uh, some additional, uh, uh, transmissibility, but other scientists are kind of pushing back against that these are prepress papers that haven't yet had full peer review. So it's a little hard to know exactly what to make of them, but it doesn't appear at the, at least at the outset that the transmissibility and, and, uh, and mortality factor is, is super higher than, than what we've already seen it with. Other variants. Speaker 1: 05:36 Yeah. Let me talk to you a minute about another variant, because when the [inaudible] variant first discovered in the UK, when that showed up in the us, there were concerns that would become the dominant strain by March. Has that happened Speaker 3: 05:50 Last? I heard it had not yet happened in San Diego County, uh, Dr. Anderson over at Scripps research. He, he indicated to me, uh, about mid month that, uh, he felt like there was somewhere between 30 and 40% of the positive tests that were coming back in San Diego County were of the one, one seven variant. Uh, I think last month he said that he felt like we were still on track to, uh, reach dominance of one, one seven in San Diego County, uh, by the end of the month. But we haven't gotten a more recent update on that. So I have to confess that I'm not quite sure what their current thinking is. Uh, you know, we've, we've managed to vaccinate so many people now, uh, that, uh, that certainly plays into the equation. Speaker 1: 06:34 What do we know about this Brazilian variant? Do doctors think it could become Dominic? Speaker 3: 06:39 Uh, I was just talking to Dr. Anderson about that, uh, over email this morning. Uh, he, he indicated that he doesn't really expect it to out-compete 107 at this point. He says the evidence that he's seen, uh, seems to indicate that that one, one seven is just more transmissible. Uh, and so over time capable of, uh, of out competing, uh, P one or the, uh, the variant that that's come out of South Africa, Speaker 1: 07:04 Do we know if our current vaccines are effective against the P one? Very, Speaker 3: 07:09 Uh, you know, the, the vote is still out on that to some degree. Uh, the, the most research, uh, that has been done, uh, has been for the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. They did test that pretty extensively in South America, and it looks like it may have a fair amount of, uh, of effectiveness against P one, but probably less so than the, than the strains that are, uh, that are coming out of, uh [inaudible] um, originally, uh, and same with Moderna and, uh, and Pfizer, uh, you know, th they're still doing research on vaccine efficacy, but, but early, uh, results from initial trials seem to indicate that you need somewhere between two and three times as many antibodies in your blood, uh, to fight off P one, uh, and, uh, than other, uh, more commonly circulating, uh, variants. Speaker 1: 07:59 Okay, then, so what is the health community saying about the best way to deal with this variant? Speaker 3: 08:04 Uh, they're saying, Hey guys, please continue to get vaccinated as quickly as possible. And in the meantime, please do everything you can, uh, to avoid getting infected. Uh, the more this thing replicates in our bodies, the more chances are that it, uh, that it has additional mutations. Uh, and so keeping that the amount of infection low, uh, is just very critical at this, uh, at this moment that we're at where vaccination is really starting to take hold. Uh, I talked to Paul OFA, the infectious disease expert on the, on the East coast earlier today. And he was saying, you know, we really do expect even with [inaudible], uh, if you're vaccinated, you should have a much lower chance of hospitalization or of death. So even if you do get infected, it's, uh, the consequences are much less likely to be severe if you're vaccinated. So the, the real Speaker 4: 08:56 Critical, uh, take home at this moment is, is get vaccinated as soon as you possibly can. Speaker 5: 09:01 I've been speaking with San Diego union Tribune health reporter, Paul Sisson, Paul, as always. Thank you very much. Thank you, Speaker 6: 09:15 California assemblymen, Rob Bonta has been chosen by governor Gavin Newsome to become the state's next attorney general upon his appointment. Bonta would be the first Asian American to occupy the position of attorney general, a notable milestone, which comes at a time of increased anti-Asian American hate across the nation in particular, Filipino Americans comprise the largest ethnic group in San Diego behind Latinos, and are by far the most populous Asian American community in the area, San Diego activists and Filipino resource center director. Joanne field says that Bonta his appointment is a huge step forward for the community. Speaker 7: 09:53 The appointment of Rob Bonta to become California's next attorney general is really promising of what other opportunities that will be afforded for other Filipinos and Asian Pacific Islanders to run for office and to aspire, to lead in the community. Speaker 6: 10:13 Joining me to discuss Rob Bonta, his appointment as attorney general is K Q E D politics and government editor, Scott Schafer, Scott, welcome. Hi Jade. So where does Bonta is Ascension to one of the state's highest offices fit in with the current reckoning we're having as a nation and understanding the extent of violence and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders? Speaker 4: 10:36 Well, obviously Rob Bonta, if he's confirmed by the legislature, which is all, but certain, uh, will become the first Filipino American to be attorney general in California. And I would venture to guess perhaps the United States of America. And, uh, that's significant. The thing about attorneys general though, is that sometimes they come into the office with reputations of being progressive as did Javier Bissera and Kamala Harris before that. And then sometimes, uh, you know, the advocates are a little disappointed that they don't go far enough, and I'll give you just one example. And that would be how Javier Bissera withheld police records, uh, after the passage of a law KQBD and other news organizations had to fight him to get some of those records released. So we will see, I mean, certainly Rob Bonta is coming into this job with a reputation as a criminal justice reformer. He was endorsed by people like Alicia Garza from black lives matter, uh, but expectations will be high, but he is going to meet some of their expectations and hopes. Speaker 6: 11:31 And can you give us a brief overview of his political career so far? What led governor Newsome to nominate him? Speaker 4: 11:38 Well, he knows him from, uh, probably, uh, going all the way back to when Newsome was mayor of San Francisco, Rob Bonta worked as a deputy city attorney, uh, for, uh, about a decade or so. Um, and then he was elected to the state assembly from representing the East Bay, Oakland and Alameda and other parts of the East Bay in 2012. Uh, and he's been reelected easily, uh, ever since, uh, and they have a relationship they're both Bay area. Politicians they've come to know each other. I got the impression yesterday at the press conference, uh, that the governor knows Bonta his family, uh, Fanta and his wife met when they were 17 years old and, uh, you know, sort of high school sweetheart situation. And so they've been close they're allies. And I think, you know, one thing that Gavin Newsome was looking for as any governor would is someone who would be quote unquote, loyal, you know, somebody who's going to be an ally, especially going into a possible recall, and then reelection campaign. Uh, you want to have an attorney general who you can trust Speaker 6: 12:36 As he steps into the most powerful law enforcement office in the state of California. It is notable that Bonta has spoken out against harsher penalties for perpetrators of hate crime, uh, that some have advocated for, Speaker 8: 12:49 For people say that there's a hate crime let's issue the death penalty. That's not the place to go for me. We have enough enhancements, enough mass incarceration enough over sentencing. Do we, Speaker 6: 13:00 You have a sense of what his relationship is with the law enforcement community and how we can expect him to interact with them during this tenure? Speaker 4: 13:08 Yeah, well, the attorney general is the, you know, they sometimes refer to them as the top cop and they have to have good relationships or at least working relationships with, uh, each County district attorney, as well as sheriffs, local law enforcement police and so on. But, you know, Bonta is somebody who has been, has embraced criminal justice reforms, uh, in the, in the shape of prop 47 and prop 57 that voters approved. He has passed a legislation that bans private prisons, uh, he opposes cash bail. He also supports more oversight and investigation of police shootings. So right away, you can see that those are not positions that most law enforcement officials, especially district attorneys embrace. So the initial reaction from the district attorney's association, at least the predominant one, there's a sort of a rogue group of more liberal district attorneys. They were cheered by his appointment, but, uh, I think that the district attorney's group in California was pretty congratulatory, but not much more. I'm sure they're taking a wait and see attitude. Speaker 6: 14:12 And if you could talk a bit about the political landscape Bonta will be stepping into as the incoming attorney general. Speaker 4: 14:18 Yeah, well, of course, California has been the tip of the spear against the Trump administration, uh, Javier Bissera who's now the health and human services secretary filed about 120 lawsuits on a huge range of issues against the federal government on the, uh, on immigration, on healthcare women's health, LGBT rights. And so though that kind of confrontational approach me AIG is no longer needed with the Biden administration now in place and very friendly to California. And so they will have to sort of figure out new priorities. I would imagine Speaker 9: 14:52 That he will be focusing on things like environmental justice, environmental regulations on healthcare, consumer advocacy, as well as the more bread and butter issues of public safety that attorneys general always focus on. I've been speaking, Speaker 1: 15:07 Working with Scott Schafer, senior editor for KQ EDS Speaker 9: 15:09 Politics and government desk. Scott, thank you so much for joining us. You're so welcome. [inaudible] Speaker 1: 15:30 This is KPBS midday edition. I'm Maureen Cavenaugh with Jade Heinemann. What do people do when they're shut up in their homes? Anxious about a deadly disease, stressed out about kids, not in school and jobs on the line. Well, for many people during the pandemic, the answer is drink last fall around research corporation study found that consumption of alcohol in the U S was up 14% last year with a big 41% increase among women and doctors are starting to see the results of increased drinking as those soothing cocktails and bottles of wine turn into serious health problems. Joining me is Dr. Rohit Lumumba, who specializes in gastroenterology and liver diseases at UC San Diego health. Dr. Lumumba, welcome to the pro. Speaker 9: 16:20 Thank you, Maureen. Glad to be here. Speaker 1: 16:22 Have you experienced an increase in patients with alcoholic liver disease during the pandemic? Speaker 9: 16:28 Yes. Um, we have a group of eight hepatologist at UC San Diego, and, uh, we are definitely seeing a big increase in patients who are excessively consuming alcohol and then the severe form of it, including alcoholic, hepatitis, uh, acute pancreatitis related to excessive alcohol use. And then those patients who have a decompensated liver disease that need liver transplantation. So those rates are increasing nationally. And, uh, particularly in San Diego, Speaker 1: 17:00 I've seen a change then in the age or circumstances of the people who are coming in with liver problems. Speaker 9: 17:07 Yeah. So what we observed, and these are anecdotal experiences, but confirmed by national studies, as you just mentioned that now we are seeing patients who, you know, used to have a normal life, maybe consumed, you know, one to two drinks every day, but suddenly because of the pandemic lost a job or a family member, some major life event happened that caused a trigger for these, you know, normal individual who then start increasing their consumption of alcohol and then get into trouble without really realizing that this could be harmful to them. And this is the particular section of the society that I think is increasing, where they had no idea that they could be in trouble because of alcohol. And now they need, uh, admission to the hospital they're having GI bleed or need a liver transplantation. Speaker 1: 17:57 And are the, the people that you're seeing perhaps younger or are, are they skewing female or anything of that nature? Speaker 9: 18:04 Yeah, we definitely seeing, um, alcoholic hepatitis, uh, to be happening in younger and younger age groups. Um, we're seeing individuals in their late twenties, early thirties and forties who are presenting with acute alcoholic hepatitis, and this, I think it has been rising even before the pandemic and then just pandemic added fuel to the fire. We're also seeing increased number of women presenting good, uh, alcoholic hepatitis, but in San Diego, we're seeing it across the board. And it's particularly important here, uh, because of, uh, Hispanic ethnicity being a risk factor for fatty liver disease. Speaker 1: 18:46 I think lots of people wonder how much alcohol puts their health at risk. Does that amount differ from person to person? Speaker 9: 18:54 This is an important question. And there are many ways of looking into it. If you ask a liver doctor that what is the risk of liver related mortality, then, you know, daily consumption of alcohol increases your risk for liver related mortality. Although just lightly, what is particularly damaging is something called us binge drinking. This is really something to be completely avoided. It's harmful across the board, particularly harmful in those patients or individuals who are overweight and obese. What is binge drinking? It is consuming six drinks for men within four to six hours and four drinks for women within four to six hours. And so that's really bad for the liver and general health. And that absolutely must be awarded. Speaker 1: 19:44 And doctor, what does too much alcohol do to the liver? Speaker 9: 19:48 You drink excessively portrayed in the liver cells start dying. They secrete inflammatory cytokines leading to scarring in the liver, leading to cirrhosis liver. If it continues unabated long-term, Speaker 1: 20:01 Is there any way to reverse the damage? Speaker 9: 20:04 Absolutely. There are many ways of reversing the damage, but one thing that definitely works, even in the setting of cirrhosis, if you completely quit or abstain from alcohol, you can reverse the disease and you can reduce the risk of complications as well as decompensation. So number one is completely abstaining from alcohol. If you get in trouble, how do you do that? I think really identifying issues related to excessive alcohol use, they might be related to depression, anxiety, certain triggers in life, and potentially could be improved with therapy, alcohol anonymous, as well as family and psychosocial support. There are also treatments available for alcohol use disorder, because particularly that's where if you have difficulty in maintaining the moderate amount of alcohol intake and you have, uh, excessive alcohol use, then you probably want to see a D addiction psychiatrist who can help you reduce your alcohol consumption. And that way you can reduce the risk of end organ damage. That's what we call when you develop cirrhosis of the liver or pancreatitis and inflammation in the pancreas. So treatment of alcohol use disorders would be important, and that is available where you could be offered psychotherapy or certain medications that will reduce your risk for excessive drinking. Speaker 1: 21:27 What are the consequences to a person's health of not addressing the issue and not getting help to stop drinking? Speaker 9: 21:35 I think there are a lot of consequences. Yeah. In terms of liver disease, you know, development of cirrhosis or something called alcoholic hepatitis when patients develop jaundice, which is yellow color of the eye and skin, they may develop confusion may come into the hospital with vomiting of blood. And sometimes patients develop life-threatening infections and may die. Once you develop alcoholic hepatitis, the risk of mortality goes up to about 50% over 90 days. So it's a fatal disease, unless you stop drinking alcohol completely, and you can get supportive, nutritional care. Other adverse health effects include acute pancreatitis as well as chronic pancreatitis where patients develop severe abdominal pain related to excessive alcohol use leading to inflammation in the pancreas. And that can also be life-threatening in some individuals. And then we know that alcohol use also causes certain kinds of cancers, including liver cancer. Speaker 1: 22:37 And don't some people actually need liver transplants. Speaker 9: 22:40 Yes, we have seen nationally and especially here in San Diego, number of patients presenting need for liver transplantation has increased, especially related to alcoholic liver disease and alcoholic hepatitis. Speaker 1: 22:56 You expect to see more patients with liver disease finally come in for treatment as the pandemic threat continues to decrease. Speaker 9: 23:03 Absolutely. We're already seeing this and we've started some outreach in South Bay, as well as in impaired County and El central, because we really think that if you see liver disease, mortality rates are significantly higher in San Diego and Imperial County. Also liver cancer rates are also about two times higher in San Diego and Imperial County than an average County in the United States. Why is that? And I think it may be because of a Hispanic ethnicity predominantly in our two counties, as well as rampant, diabetes, obesity, and on top of it, potentially alcohol use combined with the risk of liver disease Speaker 10: 23:46 Due to diabetes. And all of these metabolic problems with alcohol use is, uh, you know, adding fuel to the fire and leading to excessive liver disease related morbidity and mortality. So I do expect more and more patients to come. I've been speaking with Speaker 11: 24:03 Dr. Rohit Lumumba. He specializes in gastroenterology and liver diseases at UC San Diego health. Dr. Lumumba, thank you so much for, Speaker 10: 24:12 Thank you so much, Maureen, as my pleasure, appreciate you doing this program, Speaker 11: 24:20 California was already facing bottlenecks and its nursing supply pre pandemic. And because of COVID-19 constraints, nursing students have spent the last year with limited access to in-person training and a story that first aired on the California report. Shireen Kerim a student at Pierce college in Los Angeles, got a firsthand look. Speaker 10: 24:41 You know, one of the things that we've done, even though it really doesn't mimic a urethra is like water bottles. They putting a water bottle into the stuffed animal, like a little opening, things like that, but someone's urethral. Opening is smaller than a water bottle hall. Speaker 11: 24:58 Erin, uh, Bila is a nursing student at San Diego state university. She's talking about learning. Honey's a fully catheter and medical procedure where a tube is inserted into patients. [inaudible] to collect their urine, normally ability practicing this task on a medical mannequin. But these days, her model is a unicorn pillow Speaker 10: 25:16 Before the pandemic. When I learned fully catheter, I only practice it when I was in-person. I only practice it when I had access to the labs and now I can practice it at any time. You know, why couldn't that be a good thing? Here's why it's not a good thing when there's no one there to correct my habits. And so it becomes a habit forming thing. And it's hard to break habits when you have practiced that so many times. So it's really good to correct them while you're, while you're still learning. Speaker 11: 25:48 Gerard Brogan director of nursing practice at the California nursing association says he's worried. Remote training will compromise the clinical skills of newer nurses. He explains why by sharing an example about a friend who felt a constant need to urinate after he was catheterized during a hospital, Speaker 10: 26:06 He asked, uh, the nurse coming by who was a new grad who done simulation. She looked at the computer reader and said, everything's fine. Then he saw an older nurse who was trained, not on the simulation, told her the exact same problem. She looked at the capita pipe for want of a better term. And it was pink Speaker 11: 26:29 Hospitals overwhelmed with patients during the pandemic nursing programs are struggling, provide enough clinical hours to their nursing students. This force the board of nursing to Laffer relaxed requirements. And now students like Erin, a bla are doing simulation exercises of the time. Instead of a quarter of the time, like usual on top of this, some nursing programs had the pause schooling entirely until they could adapt to the new remote learning says Duran SPEDs of UC San Francisco. This will delay the supply of new nurses at the same time. Some current staff are burning out, Speaker 10: 27:01 Losing nurses, close to retirement. A few years early is not great, but we knew that they were going to retire. If we end up losing a bunch of nurses who were in their thirties, those are nurses who had another 20 or 30 years of working life available for us. Speaker 11: 27:16 There are also deeper concerns about remote training beyond just being able to effectively insert a catheter here's drawed Rogan. Again, Speaker 10: 27:24 Common sense would tell you that you cannot simulate emotion nurses. Look after people in the last stages of the life, for example, and you cannot simulate the fear and dread. And frankly, we're worried about the attempt to do so. In this assignment, you will care for Tina Jones, a 28 year old woman who has been admitted to shadow general hospital to treat an infected wound on her foot. You will also consider Tina's chronic health conditions, type two diabetes mellitus and allergy induced asthma. Yeah, that's like the background she's giving me my background on my patient. Speaker 11: 28:04 Resume Erin, a bla walks you through one of her stimulation, exercises, blessing tests, her knowledge and basic vital checks and pharmacology, but a B like can't really communicate with a patient. At one point, a belay says something completely unrelated to the lesson, but patient Tina Jones, silver responds with a mechanical affirmation. Speaker 10: 28:22 So it's to say that Tina Jones, I don't know much about her besides what meds I need to give her the pain she was feeling on her left leg. And I couldn't pry more into her personality. I can imply into her personal life. I couldn't pry into her worries. I couldn't pry even into her pain. For some reason, Speaker 11: 28:42 Areas of hospitals that have been most restricted from nursing students are emergency rooms and ICU because those are the places where it's hardest to manage risk. That means that nursing students are cut off from important specialized in-person training at a time when California needs specialized nurses, more than it has in decades. Speaker 1: 29:00 And that was Shireen. Korem a student at Pierce college in Los Angeles. Reporting her story was produced as part of a collaboration between the California report and Cal matters college journalism network. This is KPBS mid day edition. I'm Maureen Cavenaugh with Jade Heinemann this weekend, local musical ensemble project blank presents a live performance and screening of Sarah Henny is experimental documentary and composition control. Toe honeys is a contemporary composer who studied percussion at UC San Diego. This piece explores and Speaker 5: 29:42 Sound with a cast of trans women, performing vocal exercises and reciting fragments of speech therapy texts all alongside a score of percussion strings and found instruments. Composers, Sarah Hennis recently spoke with KPBS arts producer, Julia Dixon Evans. Here's that interview let's start with the work's title concerto, which is the musical term for the lowest women's vocal range. What does this work say about gender and about sound? Speaker 12: 30:15 Well, this is actually a big topic in a choral pedagogy right now, especially in like high schools and colleges, because choral teachers are starting to see more and more students transitioning at younger ages. And they've suddenly realized that like the intensely gendered world of vocal music, uh, is causing them a lot of problems because they want to treat their students with respect. And, you know, they now have female students who might be, you know, in the bass section, it's a very straightforward, easily understandable version of like what really, what the piece is titled after, which is that this idea of the so-called female voice does not exist. That a female voice is the voice of a person who is female. Speaker 5: 31:05 I'd like to play a short clip from the work. Hey, Sarah trans women's voices are unaffected by increasing estrogen levels in the body and not in the same way that trans men's voices are impacted by increasing testosterone. How does this work touch on what is known as voice feminization therapy? Speaker 12: 32:03 The original seed of this work was that I wanted to create a trans woman only space. And I was thinking about before I had the title or before I had this, um, kind of speech exercise thing in the piece, I was thinking about the social condition of, of like never having your own space. Um, of, of usually just being like the only person in the room who is trans much less a trans woman, like basically almost all the time without those spaces. There's really intense pressure on trans women to, um, assimilate in ways that are, uh, easier for trans masculine people. Because the things that physically happen to trans masculine people make them more identifiable as a cisgender male than trans women typically do what, meaning their voices get lower. They can grow beards. And there are certainly, there are similar things going in the other direction, but voice is not one of them. Speaker 12: 33:07 And so I found the voice to be really like the perfect sort of distillation of this issue of trans women unfairly being forced into conforming to these like cisgender stereotypes of what being a woman means. Um, so I, uh, took a class at Ithaca college where I live several years ago, that the class is taught by speech pathology professionals and grad students for trans people. And of course the name of the class specifies as trans people, not trans women, but when you attend the class, there are no trans men there. It's only a trans woman, which is not to say that trans men don't feel uncomfortable with their voices because I know that that's true, but it's a different kind of discomfort where a trans woman's voice can actually like cause them to be unsafe or cause us to be unsafe the way that the class is set up. Speaker 12: 34:08 And I will say, I'm very careful to say this, that I do not find the practice of teaching, uh, components of cis-gender female speech to trans women, to be a bad thing. Like I completely understand and empathize with people who would like to speak differently than they currently do. But I will say that the way that this vocal instruction is set up and not just to Ethica college, but in general, the impulse by speech pathologists is to look at cis-gender female speech and say, all right, this is what a woman sounds like. And here are the Sonic components of that. And now you try to imitate that because aside from that being, you know, physically impossible, for lots of reasons, it sets up this internal monologue that the thing that you are trying to do is unattainable. And so we are made to feel that we are less than in a way that like we cannot control. And so I really think that the way these speech classes should be taught is to help someone based on their own unique needs and characteristics find a voice that makes them feel comfortable rather than telling them here's what CIS women do. And now you try it, which I think is, is really fraught for a lot of reasons. Speaker 13: 35:31 Concerto is described as something that exists in the spaces between traditional documentary and experimental music. What can be gained from live scoring films, especially ones where sound is so important. Speaker 12: 35:51 Uh, well, I always say that the it's not a film with a score. It's a piece of music with a film, you know, with most films that have music, the music is there to support the film, but in contraltos the musicians are an equal partner. Like obviously the, the video is the focus of the piece in terms of like subject matter. But the musicians are almost this kind of like Greek chorus. You know, part of the experience of the piece is that the instrumental parts are very physical, the pieces an hour long. And so by the end of the piece, you have very tired performers working really hard, and that visual and experiential aspect of the piece is really important to me. Contrato is a performance piece. It's, it's a, a piece of live music with a video Speaker 13: 36:41 And you have ties to San Diego. You studied with Steven [inaudible]. What does it mean to you to bring this work here to a place you've lived and worked in? Speaker 12: 36:54 It's amazing. I really wish I could be there in person. The two years that I spent it UCS were really important to me. And I went to a somewhat conservative, um, big state school for undergrad. And I remember being 21 and just so excited to go to a school where everyone was just totally entrenched in experimental music. It just was a really great experience for me. And also I started to write more sort of, for lack of a better word, proper compositions, you know, like dots on paper type of pieces. And so it was only two years of my life, but it's still, uh, an experience that like is important to me and that I still think about a lot. So yeah, I'm really happy that the work gets to be presented in San Diego. Speaker 5: 37:41 Sarah hen is the composer of the experimental video and music work control too. And she spoke with KPBS arts producer, Julia Dixon, Evans control tow will be performed by project blank and screened online Friday at 7:00 PM and Sunday at 2:00 PM. And new summertime Anthem about Southeast San Diego was just released called Southeast summers. It's a feel good collaboration between homegrown artist, Ryan, Anthony, Michie, slick and Andrew Day from low rider cars to rollerskates the song highlights the Southeast vibe [inaudible] joining me is Ryan Anthony. One of three Speaker 6: 38:36 Of the artists who just released Southeast summers with Andrew Day and Michi slick Ryan. Welcome. Speaker 14: 38:41 Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here today. Speaker 6: 38:45 How did you Michi and Andra connect for this collaboration? Speaker 14: 38:49 So me and my mates, we have, uh, we have, uh, that's that's the big homie that's Oh, G San Diego legend. That's my guy, Andrew Day, the HMI, Nate. He went to one of her concerts in San Diego. It was probably like 2015 and he got backstage and he sent me a video and she gave me a shout out. She was like, I really love, barely see the beach, Ryan, Anthony. I love you. I love you. And I was just like, I didn't even know. She knew about me. So then I reached out to her then, and I was just like, you know, thank you. You know, I, hopefully we could work, you know, in the, in the future, Speaker 6: 39:24 In the song, you shout out Southeast neighborhoods like skyline and Logan Heights. Tell me about the Southeast vibe. You, you all portrayed in the song and in the video, you know, what makes Southeast San Diego Southeast San Diego, especially during the summertime. Speaker 14: 39:39 Yeah, I mean, it's, it's the people, it's the weather. It's the, the backyard barbecues. It's the car hops is the, you know, even in the beach, the beach parties, it's, uh, it's just, it's always been a Vive summer in San Diego has always been a vibe. You know, when the sun come out, everybody come out and, you know, it's just a, it's like a party all the time and it's connecting and connecting with your loved ones and just enjoying each other. Speaker 6: 40:10 And, and I know you grew up in spring Valley. Um, how are your experiences reflected in this project? Speaker 14: 40:17 The project that the Southeast summers is on is called barely see the three. So this a, this like a, my trilogy is called belly should the beast. That's my brand. And, uh, ever since the first one, I've just always talked about my experiences in San Diego, growing up in San Diego maneuver and through, you know, cause there are negative aspects within Southeast San Diego that a lot of people are familiar with it, but it's just showing people how to maneuver through and still having a positive mindset about it and not falling victim to, you know, those obstacles that are thrown in, in my way. So I just, I always talk about the positive sides of things, even though there is negativity, always talk about the positive. Speaker 6: 41:02 Yeah. And I want to ask you about that positive. You know, you mentioned it is important to invoke positive feelings about growing up in these communities. Talk to me more about that. Speaker 14: 41:11 Look at when we're growing up, how they portray like African countries, right? We have this, they put this picture in our mind that everybody over there is poor. Everybody over there is dirty. Everybody over there needs 25 cents a day to live. And it's not like that. I mean, there probably are places within that, but the, you can't to group a whole people that that's how that entire causing it is. You know, it's a crazy perception of put onto an entire group of people. And I feel like when you're in inner cities, they do the same exact thing. I feel like it's an, any inner city across America or across the world, they put the negativity that negative cloud over that inner city. And they only want to show the negative stuff. So it's like, anytime you hear about spring Valley, Southeast national city on TV, somebody is a victim to something. So I like to bring the, okay, there are those things going on. Yeah. But check out all this other positive stuff going on, look at all these kids that are trying to improve their life and do better in it and progress our, our community as a whole. So I just, I just like to shine that positivity on us Speaker 6: 42:31 And Ryan, I know I follow you on Instagram and you're always out serving the community. Um, why is it so important to give of your time and talents? Like, Speaker 14: 42:40 Um, this community raised me. I am who I am because of this community. And I just, I, I love, I love to give back. I love to be outside with the, with the people and I don't ever feel like it's a, I'm helping somebody that needed or it's like, you know, these people don't have, so I'm giving it to them. It's just, these are my people. Like this is my family. This is his air, everything. It's my house. It's my house. You got to take care of your house. Speaker 6: 43:11 And, and I know this song is specific to Southeast San Diego, but I imagine many neighborhoods all across the country will relate to it. How do you feel about that? Speaker 14: 43:20 If it feel good. I got to my little cousin, he lives in Washington and he called me and he was so high. I pledge on song on the radio out here in Washington. I was like, yo, what? That's. Wow. And it was just, it was crazy how excited he was about it. It may be, you know, I was excited too, but just seeing his excitement, baby real happy. So it's, it's been real dope seeing it spread. Speaker 6: 43:48 I've been speaking with Ryan Anthony, one of three Southeast San Diego artists who just released South East summers. Thank you so much for joining us, Ryan. Thank you for having me. Speaker 15: 44:18 [inaudible].