Seniors-Only Vaccination Site

Good Morning, I’m Annica Colbert….it’s Thursday, February 11th. A new seniors-only vaccination site opens today. We’ll have that story next, but first... let’s do the headlines…. Two cases of the south-african variant of the virus were reported in California on Wednesday. Both cases were discovered in the San Francisco bay area. It’s a worrisome development as some covid-19 vaccines have been ineffective against the variant. Meanwhile in San Diego county, health officials reported more than 800 new covid-19 cases and 51 deaths on Wednesday. Hospitalizations from the virus are now down below 1000 in total for the first time this year. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria created a nine-member Black Advisory group on Wednesday. He says the advisors will help his administration tackle the unique challenges facing Black San Diegans. The group will meet quarterly and will hold their first meeting on February 19th. State Senator Brian Jones, a republican from Santee, introduced a new measure on Wednesday that will increase penalties against people who steal packages from houses, so-called “porch pirates.” Jones noted that home delivery of goods has increased due to the pandemic and that seniors and disabled californians rely on package delivery the most. From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now. Stay with me for more of the local news you need. A new “seniors only” covid-19 vaccination site opens today in San Marcos. KPBS North county reporter Jacob Aere has the details. The site will be the first of its kind designed just for seniors in San Diego County. It’s focusing on the most vulnerable and frail… who do not have the support of family members or caregivers. It’s run by Gary and Mary West Health. Tim Lash is the CEO, and says they studied other vaccination sites across the county to streamline the process for seniors. “We’re going to start with about 100 vaccinations per day and quickly, based upon vaccine availability, move to over 500 per day.” The site in San Marcos will be open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m and appointments can be made through the county website or by calling 2-1-1 for those 65 and older. And that was KPBS North County reporter Jacob Aere Another vaccination super station will be opening soon at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. It comes as new data from the state shows that there’s been a lot of progress already in slowing the spread of the virus. KPBS’ John Carroll has more. This Friday, the Del Mar Fairgrounds will become the sixth vaccination super station in San Diego County. Scripps Health is partnering with the county and the Fairgrounds to operate the station. If you fall into the current tiers - health care workers and those 65 and older, you can get vaccinated for free, no insurance needed. At a news conference in Fresno Wednesday, Governor Newsom said the state is making good progress knocking down the COVID numbers. 24:18 - 24:25 “A month ago today, we had 13.9% positivity rate here in the state of California. Today, we’re down to 4.8%.” Newsom says the only thing holding the state back from getting more doses out is the limited supply coming from the federal government. That story from KPBS’ John Carroll. Despite the fact that vaccination sites seem to be sprouting up everywhere, there are still neighborhoods with little access. City Heights, a neighborhood filled with immigrants hit-hard by the pandemic, for example. KPBS reporter Max Rivlin-Nadler tells us how one health center is working to get the word out and expand access.. There are no county-run vaccine facilities in City Heights or Mid-City… but La Maestra Community Health center’s Javier Rodriguez says that if you’re eligible for the vaccine, it’s easy to become a patient at La Maestra and receive one…by going to its screening station on the corner of Fairmount and University Avenues…. The center has already vaccinated 1000 people…. and has also been reaching out to community members to let them know about the vaccine….. JAVIER RODRIGUEZ / LA MAESTRA COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER As you know there is a lot of vaccine hesitancy, vaccine resistance, so providing a lot of education, whether it be phone calls, texts that we send, flyers that we come up with that the vaccines are safe… the vast majority of people do fine, even after the second dose. Rodriguez also says that the health center is ready to send out its mobile units, with the necessary cooling equipment, to communities…. Expanding access… Once the state gives the OK. That was KPBS’ Max Rivlin-Nadler Governor Newsom says a six-billion dollar plan to reopen some schools could be finalized by Friday. KPBS reporter Matt Hoffman says teachers are pushing to get vaccinated in order to keep teachers safe and kids in school long-term. Newsom says the plan would reopen some schools-- 00:27:36:17 Newsom allow our youngest cohorts to return safely to school starting with K - second grade, then ultimately get cohorts up to 6th grade at least in the first phase Even though a deal to reopen schools is close, teachers and their unions still have some questions-- Kisha Borden leads the San Diego Education Association which represents more than 7-thousand educators from San Diego Unified. 00:03:29:22 Kisha Borden, San Diego Education Association What I’m hearing from members is they really do not feel comfortable coming to classrooms while in the purple level Some teachers want to get vaccinated before returning to the classroom. Newsom says he wants to prioritized educators, but there’s a supply shortage. Unions have also called for regular testing, and hope a deal that’s safe for teachers and students is in place soon. 00:12:18:12 Borden Teachers are ready to go back and we definitely want to see schools back in session back in person in the fall. We don't want to see another school year like this. That was KPBS’ Matt Hoffman. Meanwhile, A growing number of California parents and lawmakers are calling for youth sports to open up again, citing physical and mental health concerns. CapRadio’s Nicole Nixon reports. Most high school and other youth sports have been suspended since last spring. But that could change soon. Gov. Gavin Newsom hinted this week new guidelines on youth sports would be closely tied to a looming deal on reopening public schools. But critics including GOP Assemblyman Kevin Kiley say there’s no reason to delay. KILEY: I don’t think anyone is saying that right now we should have fully crowded basketball arenas with people sitting shoulder to shoulder, but there are absolutely safe ways that we can get all of our students athletes back on the field of play. Kiley says the state has effectively stolen experiences and possibly scholarships from prep athletes. He and more than 30 other lawmakers from both parties sent a letter to the governor calling for loosened restrictions on youth sports. That story from CapRadio’s Nicole Nixon. Oceanside has never had a female or Latina mayor... until Esther Sanchez was elected to the role in November. KPBS North County reporter Jacob Aere spoke with Sanchez to learn more about what she has planned as mayor of North County’s largest city. Esther Sanchez is very familiar with the city she now presides over as mayor. In fact, she was born in Oceanside and grew up in the city's Eastside community. “I went to all three public schools in this area, and I had my law office here and city hall is here… so my whole life feels like I’ve been in District 1.” Sanchez served 20 years on the Oceanside City council. “I still sometimes laugh when somebody calls me mayor because I really wanted to have more diversity on the council since we are a diverse community and it's just never been reflected on our representation.” Some of her top priorities include increasing local jobs, ensuring affordable housing and addressing climate change. “Because we are a beach town, we take such pride in zero waste, in being on the front lines of zero waste. But at the same time we still haven’t addressed the biggest issue and that is the jobs to resident ratio and cutting down on travel by car.” A former public defender, Sanchez says Oceanside also needs to look at police reform and how law enforcement treats people of color in her city. “We’re having our police and fire commission , we're asking them to address these issues. One of the things I want to make sure though is that the police and fire commission has the kind of diversity on the appointments so that people are actually going to go there and feel like their issues are being heard” The mayor noted the city’s struggle with finding beds for the homeless population. “We have not been able to address the homeless, we don't even have a shelter yet in Oceanside, the largest city in North County. So we have to move faster on that.” In the struggle between farms and housing development, Sanchez aims to leave the South Morro Hills community as agricultural land. “We still have a need for farming, it's not something that is going to go away.” “We don't need that land for housing, we don't need it. In our housing element and our report to the state we have enough infill land to reach out quotas that we’ve been given” Sanchez added that Oceanside would benefit from more business friendly policies so that people could work at business centers in their home community with liveable wage jobs She is looking for public input on issues affecting Oceanside. Especially in the midst of a pandemic when ethnic minorities and those with lower household incomes have been put at a further disadvantage. “I hope that I make it easy for people to want to talk to me about what they see are the issues for Oceanside and what they see for their neighborhoods and we’re able to figure out how to move forward.” That reporting from KPBS North County Reporter Jacob Aere. Coming up.... The San Diego International Jewish Film Festival is back, virtually, and it starts tonight. KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando has a preview next, just after the break. Last year the San Diego International Jewish Film Festival was able to hold its in person event just before the pandemic hit. But for its 31st year, the festival is moving online. KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando has this preview. A man puts on white gloves and carefully opens grimy, decades-old film cans to discover… CLIP (in French) Negatif originale! Then breathlessly, a French film archivist unspools an old motion picture negative. CHRISTINA FINK: So who knew people on this planet actually had jobs with white gloves. Right? Christina Fink is the festival and film programming chair. CHRISTINA FINK: …they take us into their world and it's a world that I don't know or walk in or even have friends that are involved with. And for those reasons, I love the documentaries like this where I learn something and I'm transported for an hour or so. Tomorrow When the Apricots Bloom transports us to 1930s Egypt to introduce us to the Jewish Frenkel Brothers who were known as the “Egyptian Disneys.” The documentary takes you on a delightful journey of discovery as we get to see Egypt’s first animated films. You can make a double feature of white-gloved archivists by then watching Glass Negatives. CLIP This was found in the attic as well…. A collection of 2700 glass plate negatives was recently found in Poland. The photographs were taken between 1914 and 1939. A young woman tries to unravel the mysteries behind these images. CLIP I have to ask some questions. What is this collection? Do we know who the photographer is?Do we know who these people are? So many questions and when I started asking them I realized many had no answers. But the film slowly uncovers some answers and provides a glimpse of Polish Jews from one village before their lives were destroyed in World War II. These films represent just two of the 36 features and documentaries showcased at this year’s San Diego International Jewish Film Festival. Fink says festival goers can buy single tickets rather than a festival pass, with most films available to watch over the next eleven days. CHRISTINA FINK: Twenty five out of the thirty six are available on demand throughout the entire festival and that is a huge, huge deal to let the viewer control the viewing time. Attendees can create their own programming blocks like focusing on World War II or even more narrowly on just Italy. So Holy Silence, about the Vatican’s response to anti-semitism pairs perfectly with Syndrome K about Italian doctors who invented a fake disease in order to hide Jews in their hospital. CHRISTINA FINK: Historians and scholars are still uncovering a lot of World War II history. You'd think we would know it all by this time, but that is not the case. Tonight’s opening feature, Shared Legacies: The African-American Jewish Civil Rights Alliance, will only be available for a 48-hour window. It looks at the close connections between Jews and African-Americans from the 1909 founding of the NAACP through the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. SHARI ROGERS: But what surprised me was the deep, deep friendships that existed. Shari Rogers directed Shared Legacies. SHARI ROGERS: I was hoping that I could somehow spark the emotion and the feeling in people's hearts and that the folks could understand that we have this shared legacy, that the Jewish people going all the way back to the Exodus story where Moses was sort of the the the original social protester against injustice, the social justice warrior. That Dr. King understood that the exodus was a story that that could empower the Black community, that this was a biblical movement. The screening of Shared Legacies will be followed by a live discussion. Many films will have discussions online or filmmakers’ introductions to provide additional exclusive content for fest goers. That was KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando. The virtual San Diego International Jewish Film Festival runs tonight through February 21st. That’s it for the podcast today. KPBS will be airing day three of the Impeachment trial for Former President Donald Trump. You can hear it live on KPBS 89.5 FM starting at 10am, or watch it on KPBS 2 on television. You can also catch it streaming live online at KPBS dot org, where you can also get the latest news and recaps of the day. I’m Annica Colbert. Thanks for listening and have a great day.