Solano Land Trust opens 3 sites this weekend A3
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DAILYREPUBLIC.COM | Well said. Well read.
Zelenskyy agrees to negotiate with Russia; Putin puts nuclear forces on alert Los Angeles Times
Marissa Leshnov/For CalMatters
Dr. Kim Rhoads has helped set up the Umoja Health pop-up clinic in Oakland to vaccinate Black residents.
Covid-19 has turned deadlier for Black Californians,
who have the state’s lowest vaccination rate Kristen Hwang CALMATTERS
OAKLAND — Deondray Moore sat in a plastic folding chair, rolled up his sleeve and got his first Covid-19 shot in the parking lot of Center of Hope Community Church in Oakland about a week ago. He was the last in his family to get vaccinated after putting it off for more than a year, and only acquiesced because he wants to be in the delivery room when his son is born this summer. “My mom has been trying to get me vaccinated forever, since the (vaccines) came out,” Moore said. “My partner got it quick, and her kids got it as fast as they could. She wasn’t playing around. She was like ‘Don’t miss out on the baby.’ ” The 35-year-old Oakland native,
an African American, knows multiple people who have contracted Covid-19 and died. Moore wears a mask and doesn’t go out much. But he’s suspicious of the vaccine and the way it was developed. “I just don’t trust the government,” he said. African Americans, who have a litany of historical reasons to mistrust public health officials and doctors, have the lowest vaccination rate in the state, at 55%. Covid-19 has become deadlier for Black Californians since the widespread availability of vaccinations, and vaccine hesitancy could be among the reasons why. Other races, which have higher vaccination rates, have seen death rates rise, but not as dramatically. A CalMatters analysis shows since last summer, the rate of Black Californians dying from
Covid-19 has increased tenfold — from one death per 100,000 people last July to 10.4 deaths this week. That surpasses Latinos and all races except Pacific Islanders, who are dying at the rate of 14.7 per 100,000, according to state data. And while statewide deaths from Covid have declined in the past week, they have continued to rise for African Americans. So far, 5,544 Black people have died from the virus in California. Dr. Kim Rhoads, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco, said she isn’t surprised by the growing death rate among African Americans. “Disparities aren’t new. They aren’t new to Covid,” said Rhoads, who helped organize the
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to negotiations with Russia on Sunday “without preconditions” even as Moscow put its nuclear forces on high alert and Russian troops bore down on Kyiv and continued their thrust toward a number of cities across the country. The Ukrainian government plans to dispatch a delegation to meet with its Russian counterparts “without preconditions” on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, near the Pripyat River, according to a statement issued by Zelenskyy’s official channel on the Telegram messaging app. Earlier in the day, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, had set a 3 p.m. local time deadline for Ukraine to join negotiations, saying that rejecting the proposal would put “all responsibility for the bloodshed” on the Ukrainian side, according to a report from Russian state news outlet RIA. Confirmation of the Ukrainians’ participation was received moments before the deadline ran out, Medinsky later said. “For our part, we guarantee 100% safety of the route, passage, and we will wait at this place for a delegation of the Ukrainian administration.” It remains unclear who will head the Ukrainian delegation and where exactly it will meet. Zelenskyy’s statement said Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko would take responsibility “for ensuring that all planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation’s travel, talks and return.” Zelenskyy had rejected an earlier call for negotiations in Belarus, saying that holding talks there – per Moscow’s demand – was untenable when Belarusian territory was being used as a staging ground for the Russian invasion. “Of course, we want peace, we want to meet, we want for the war to end,” Zelenskyy said earlier. “Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul, Baku – we have suggested all that to Russia.”
For complete story go to dailyrepublic.com
See Black, Page A8
‘We don’t count’: The Californians who can’t return to normal Ana B. Ibarra CALMATTERS
Renata Garza-Silva loves movies – she longs to sit in a theater without having to worry about Covid-19 and whether others around her are masked. Hillary Liber dreams about going back to the gym. She misses her inperson fitness classes, but for now a makeshift home workout space in the middle of her living room will have to do. Garza-Silva, who is immunocompromised, and Liber, who is diabetic, are among the millions of Californians at greater risk of complications from a Covid-19 infection despite being fully vaccinated. Both women worry that the statewide protective measuresthat had given them some peace of mind during the pandemic are now lifting, increasing their susceptibility and limiting where they can go and what they can do.
Lauren Justice for Cal Matters
Renata Garza-Silva, a teacher in Los Angeles, poses for a portrait inside her classroom, Thursday, Feb. 17. Throughout California, people like Garza-Silva and Liber who have health conditions, such as heart disease, autoimmune disorders and diabetes, are forced to re-evaluate their risks. Every day, they ask themselves whether buying groceries, going to work, eating at a restaurant or visiting the post office is worth the risk of contracting a virus that could leave them hospitalized – or worse.
For people at higher risk, the pandemic has meant walking a fine line for two years. “I’m always balancing out the fear of missing out with the fear of going out,” Liber said. For people at higher risk, the pandemic has meant walking a fine line for two years. “I’m always balancing out the fear of missing out with the fear of going out,” Liber said. Under loosened state guidelines, vaccinated
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people now can go maskless in indoor public spaces, except health care facilities, schools and prisons. Garza-Silva said this amplifies her worries, and she’s upset that state health officials have virtually ignored people like her when setting guidelines for returning life to “normal.” “People in my position, young children and older people are just ignored. We don’t count whatsoever,” said GarzaSilva, 48, a middle school teacher and resident of La Crescenta whose immune
system is weakened because of medication she takes after a kidney transplant. “I don’t know that people understand how many of us there are.” About a third of adults in California – close to 10 million people – are at elevated risk of serious complications from Covid-19, according to a 2020 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation. This includes 6 million people who are 65 and older, but also millions of others with heart disease, diabetes, lung disorders, obesity and
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other conditions. (The data did not include seniors in nursing homes or children.) Organ transplant patients and those undergoing cancer treatment or taking anti-inflammatory steroids – which are used to treat autoimmune diseases such rheumatoid arthritis and lupus – are among those considered “moderately or severely immunocompromised,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationwide about
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