African American Project Joins Media Campaign to Combat Disparities in Black Health Page 2
Henrietta Lacks: Her Immortal Cells
The Other Good News From the 2020 Election
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Why White Voters Chose Trump: They Feel like a Minority Group in America...P7
Oakland Post “Where there is no vision, the people perish...” Proverbs 29:18
postnewsgroup.com
57th Year, No. 27
Weekly Edition. Edition. Dec. 23-29, 2020
Gov. Newsom Nominates CLBC Chair Dr. Shirley Weber for California Secretary of State By Antonio Ray Harvey California Black Media
Dr. Kim Rhoads
Local African American Physician Weighs in on COVID-19 Black Physicians Set Record Vaccines Dr. H. Geoffrey Watson gets COVID-19 vaccination.
By Tanya Dennis
Dr. Kim Rhoads became a household name in the Bay Area’s African American community after hosting a series of pop-up COVID-19 testing sites in Oakland this summer and fall. Fondly referred to as “Dr. Kim,” the surgeon traded in her white coat in 1993, taking on the mantle of associate director of Community Engagement for UCSF Cancer Center. An associate professor of epidemiology and bio statistics in the school of medicine, Rhoads created Umoja Health, born out of funding from UCSF’s chancellor and the community health organizations in the Bay Area to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Rhoads has conducted eight pop-ups from September through October, testing over 1,000 people with the majority of resources going to the African American community. When questioned about African Americans’ reticence in taking the vaccine, Rhoads responded by saying, “I understand Black people’s concerns because they are justified. I felt the same until I did my research.” Continued on Page 8
Straight on Safety, Value of COVID-19 Vaccine By Dr. H. Geoffrey Watson
Last week, I had the opportunity to meet and interview Dr. Mark Finch on the Health Beat TV show on Channel 78. , Highly experienced and world-traveled, Finch is one of the few African American infectious disease specialist in the Bay Area. Finch and I have
worked in the hospital together caring for critically ill COVID-19 patients. I asked Finch the questions often posed by my patients about the COVID-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna that were recently given emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Continued on Page 8
Hours after Gov. Gavin Newsom picked California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to be California’s next United States senator, he announced that he will submit to the State Legislature the nomination of Assemblymember Dr. Shirley N. Weber (D-San Diego) to replace him. If confirmed, Weber will become the first-ever African American to serve as Secretary of State of California. “Dr. Weber is a tireless advocate and change agent with unimpeachable integrity,” Newsom said. The daughter of sharecroppers from Arkansas, Weber’s father didn’t get to vote until his 30s and her grandfather never got to vote because he died before the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, according to Newsom’s statement. He described a point in her childhood in South Central Los Angeles where her civic-minded parents set up their living room to serve as a polling place for multiple elections. “Now, she’ll be at the helm of California’s elections as
Dr. Shirley Weber. Photo courtesy of en.wikipedia. org
the next Secretary of State – defending and expanding the right to vote and serving as the first African American to be California’s Chief Elections Officer,” Newsom said. Weber, an assemblymember since 2012, is a former president of the San Diego Board of Education and a retired Africa Studies Dept. professor for 40 years at San Diego State University. The mother of two children, three grandchildren and is the widow of the late Hon. Daniel Weber, a CaliforContinued on Page 8
Black Woman, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, Developed the Scientific Approach to the Coronavirus Vaccine
ary major in Sociology, in 2008 from the University of Maryland – Baltimore County, where she was a Meyerhoff Scholar and an NIH undergraduate scholar. She then enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she obtained her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology in 2014.
By Stacy M. Brown
In his remarks at a virtual meeting with the National Urban League, Dr. Anthony Fauci directly addressed the concerns and skepticism in the African American community about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine by pointing out that a Black physician was one of the lead researchers in developing the vaccine. “To my African American brothers and sisters ... this vaccine that you’re gonna be taking was developed by an African American woman. And that is just a fact,” Fauci said. The first vaccine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on December 12.
Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett. Photo courtesy of NNPA.
Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, a Black woman, has been at the forefront of the vaccine process, Fauci said. Corbett, 34, is an accomplished research fellow and the scientific lead for the Coronavirus Vaccines & Immunopatho-
genesis Team at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Vaccine Research Center (VRC). According to her biography, Corbett received a B.S. in Biological Sciences, with a second-
New School Board Will Grapple with Pandemic, OUSD’s Legacy of Distrust By Ken Epstein
Members of the school community are looking expectantly to January, when four new school board trustees take their seats, for signs that there will be new directions in Oakland public schools’ leadership. The new board members – Dr. Clifford Thompson, Mike Hutchinson, VanCedric Williams and Sam Davis – will be called on to work with the other three members of the sevenmember board to develop solutions in a district that faces deep divisions over school closings and austerity-driven budget cuts. At the same time, they must also find a path to re-
Alex Padilla. Photo courtesy of sos.ca.gov
Dr. Clifford Thompson
Mike Hutchinson
open the city’s classrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic that currently requires the dis-
trict to rely on Internet-based education. This past year was marked
by intense conflict in Oakland schools. A bitter teachers’ strike filled the streets of Oakland daily with thousands of teachers and their supporters and was widely supported in the community. In the wake of the strike, the school board and the administration stuck by an unpopular decision to close two schools, Roots Academy and Kaiser Elementary. Distrust and anger at the board and administration grew red hot during the prolonged and desperate protests of the schools’ parents and supporters and may have been instrumental in the decisions of the four inContinued on Page 8
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Alex Padilla, First Latinx Senator to Represent California By Kiki
Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Alex Padilla, 47, California’s secretary of state since 2015, to fill the Senate seat of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, when she resigns. Latinx folks comprise 40% of California’s population. Padilla is from Los Angeles, of Mexican descent, and has held public office since 1999, 21 years, when at age 26 he was elected to the Los Angeles City Council. Padilla served two terms in the California State Senate and two terms as secretary of state. There had been intense lobbying to appoint a Black woman to fill the seat and/or a Latinx person, replete with full page ads and open letters to Governor Newsom. Padilla issued a statement via Twitter video: “I am honored and humbled by the trust placed in me by Governor Newsom, and I intend to work each and every day to honor that trust and deliver for all Californians. From those Continued on Page 8
As Vaccinations Begin in California, a Second COVID Vaccine is Released By Quinci LeGardye California Black Media
A second COVID-19 vaccine will arrive in California this week, one that is easier for smaller community centers and pharmacies to safely distribute than the Pfizer vaccine, which must be stored at ultracold temperatures: around minus 70 degrees Celsius. On December 18, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the emergency use of a vaccine developed by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for adults 18 and older. The Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup, which includes scientists from California, endorsed the vaccine on December 20. The Moderna vaccine was developed using the same technology as the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. In clinical trials involving over 30,000 adults, the Moderna vaccine was found to have 94.5 % effi-
Barbara Lee (D-CA-13), who received the vaccine on December 19, encouraged Californians to take the shot.
cacy at preventing COVID-19. Distribution of the Moderna vaccine will prioritize similar groups as the Pfizer vaccine: healthcare workers and longterm care residents and staff first, followed by essential workers and members of highrisk groups. It will also be sent to many smaller and rural hospitals. The general public will likely not receive the vaccine until spring or summer of 2021 Continued on Page 8