January 14, 2021

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VOLUME 139, ISSUE 11 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2021

UC DAVIS CHANCELLOR GARY MAY RECEIVES VACCINATION, ENCOURAGES PEOPLE OF COLOR TO TRUST VACCINE May and UC Davis Health’s Dr. David Tom Cooke said they hope that their vaccinations will ease skepticism about the vaccine in communities of color

BY REBECCA BIHN-WALLACE campus@theaggie.org On Jan. 5, Chancellor Gary May spoke to The California Aggie about his decision to be vaccinated against COVID-19 last December. May said he took the Pfizer vaccine on behalf of communities of color—particularly the Black community—who he said have expressed skepticism about the rapid development of vaccinations against the deadly virus. In doing so, he says he hopes to ease the concerns of Black people who doubt the efficacy of the new COVID-19 vaccines.

According to a December 2020 Pew Research study, the Black community has been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

Of the Black Americans surveyed, 71% knew someone who had been hospitalized due to COVID-19 or had died of COVID-19, compared to 54% of Americans overall. The percentage of Black Americans who said they would take the vaccine was only 42%, compared to 63% of Hispanic adults and 61% of white adults surveyed in the study.

“There is a cultural DNA of distrust [of the medical establishment] in the Black community,” said Dr. David Tom Cooke, a thoracic surgeon at UC Davis Health who participated in an Aug. 2020 coronavirus vaccine trial.

Cooke, who is Black, referenced the use of Black men in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the story of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman who died of cervical cancer without knowing that her doctor had harvested cells from her cervix that would later be used for groundbreaking medical research—research that benefited the doctors who commercialized her cell cultures.

Cooke also had concerns regarding a lack of diversity in early data release before he participated in the trial.

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Chancellor Gary May receives COVID-19 vaccine. (Chancellor May’s personal Twitter account / Courtesy)

DAVIS AWARDED PLATINUM STATUS FOR ITS BIKE-FRIENDLY CULTURE Professionals explain biking benefits and how Davis can still improve

BY SHRADDHA JHINGAN city@theaggie.org The City of Davis was recently re-certified on Dec. 16, 2020, as a “Platinum level Bicycle Friendly Community” by the League of American Bicyclists, according to a news statement from the City of Davis.

The process of recertifying happens every four years, and the “award recognizes the Davis community for its commitment to providing safer streets and better bicycling for everyone,” according to the news statement. A report can also be found online.

Amelia Neptune, the director of the Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) program at the League of American Bicyclists, explained that communities can apply for the BFC through an online application that includes the 5 E’s: education, engineering, evaluation and planning, encouragement as well as equity and inclusion.

“Because we get applications from such a wide variety of communities, from small rural towns to major urban metro regions, there is no strict one-size-fits-all rubric of criteria for what a community MUST do to reach each award level, but we base our award decisions on how well and how holistically the community approaches bicycling in each of the 5 E’s,” Neptune said via email.

After the online applications are submitted, input is also taken from residents through a survey, alongside bicyclists and advocates.

The application and survey results are then reviewed. As of January, there are 5 Platinum BFCs—however, no community has received the

Diamond award yet.

Jennifer Donofrio, the bike and pedestrian coordinator for the City of Davis, explained the factors that make Davis such a bike-friendly community.

“One is our extensive bike network with 108

Members of the community attending the Davis Pedalfest on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2019 at the Veterans Memorial Center Theater in Davis, Calif. (Justin Han / Aggie)

miles of bike lanes, 63 miles of pathways, and 29 grade-separated crossings allowing people on bikes to ride under and over train tracks, highways, and roadways,” Donofrio said via email.

Donofrio explained that the City also hosts events to promote biking.

“Together the City and community partners host over 100 bike themed events a year,” Donofrio said via email. “We have also made education one of our type priorities with the development of a bike education program, which has now shifted to a free online bike education class to learn the rules of the road.”

Ramon G. Zavala, the transportation demand manager for UC Davis Transportation Services, explained how the normalcy of biking, people moving to Davis for the biking culture and investing in infrastructure that supports biking contribute to the bike-friendliness of the city.

“The nation’s first bike lane, off-street paths throughout the city, and the willingness to explore more infrastructure designs all contribute to making bicyclists feel welcomed in town,” Zavala said via email. “Welcomed cyclists ride more.”

A lack of cars also promotes biking, according to Minister at the Davis Bike Collective Francisco Dominguez.

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PICNIC DAY BOARD OF DIRECTORS ‘DISCOVER SILVER LININGS’ IN PLANNING 2021 board shares preparations for the event

BY NORA FARAHDEL campus@theaggie.org Every Spring Quarter, UC Davis students and community members gather to celebrate Picnic Day. The day is filled with events for the public to enjoy and has stood as a UC Davis tradition for over 100 years. Last year, Picnic Day operations quickly shifted online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, transforming the usual in-person activities of the day to a solely virtual experience. In 2021, Picnic Day is scheduled to be online once again due to the public health concerns an in-person event would present. With the help of the Picnic Day board of directors, which is made up of eight student directors and surrounding assistant director teams, the event is set for April 17.

Jade Cervantes, a fourth-year animal biology major and entertainment director of the Picnic Day board of directors, explained the decision behind this year’s theme: “Discovering Silver Linings.”

“The board of directors decided on this theme because we wanted to highlight the fact that, despite everything we have been going through this year, we still try to find the silver lining in everything we can,” Cervantes said via email. “Maintaining an inspiring and hopeful attitude during these tough times can lead to new beginnings.”

The board meets every week to discuss objectives and bond further as a team. Caitlyn Liu, a fourth-year English and communication double major and chair of the Picnic Day board of directors, shared her experience planning and meeting online.

“We are constantly coming up with ideas on how we can make this year great, but also evaluating what’s realistic with the resources and time that we have,” Liu said via email. “It’s definitely a different experience from previous years but still fun nonetheless.”

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UC Davis Medical School experiences surge in applications Nationwide “Fauci effect” inspires students to enter healthcare career fields

BY HANNAH BLOME campus@theaggie.org Students around the nation are responding to the current health crisis with action. Medical schools across the country are experiencing a surge in applications, a trend which medical school admission administrators have dubbed “The Fauci Effect”.

“We’ve received more applications than ever before for the annual application cycle that ended Dec. 1, 2020,” said Dr. Mark Henderson, the associate dean for admissions at UC Davis’ School of Medicine, via email. “Last year we received 7,023 applications. This year we received 9,712 from students applying for admission in 2021.”

The surge in medical school interest at UC Davis Health is similar to that of schools across the nation. UC Davis’ numbers are leading among this national trend of applications.

“The increase in applications we are experiencing at UC Davis School of Medicine is part of an upward trend that other medical schools across the country are also seeing,” Henderson said.

“Our increase in applications, though, appears to be higher than at most schools—we received about 40% more applications over the previous year.

Nationwide, the Association of American Medical Colleges is reporting an 18% increase.”

An increase in medical career ambitions among young people can be attributed to inspiration from

leading doctors and scientists battling COVID-19.

Third-year cognitive science major Tori Rarick is motivated to enter the medical field out of her observation of brave healthcare workers during the pandemic.

“I’ve always wanted to help other people in the medical field, but I think because of COVID,

I see how important good doctors and health care workers are and also the prevalence of socioeconomic or racial disparities in the field,” Rarick said. “I want to help change that if I become a doctor. I was already tentatively set on the path but in the last month I’ve definitely decided to be fully dedicated to applying [to medical school].”

UC Davis Medical School. (Aggie File)

Like other graduate school programs, the UC Davis Medical School made pandemic relief adjustments to its application process for the 2020 application deadline, which may also explain the increase in applications this year. Updated admissions policies include accepting pass/fail grades for courses taken during the pandemic and accommodations for students who had to delay their Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) test.

“UC Davis School of Medicine will accept applications from individuals who were unable to take the MCAT due to COVID-related test cancellations,” the admissions website states.

“For these candidates, we will base secondary application decisions on the information that is available to us at the time of the application.”

“Some [students] were able to take required courses online, while others had to meet virtually,” said Charlene Green, the director of the office of admissions at the UC Davis School of Medicine, via email. “As a result of these changes, our admissions committee went above and beyond to keep pace with the continuous high volume of inquiries coming in. Additionally, our committee members completed required training on holistic admissions. The School of Medicine is on track to matriculate 136 students this coming year (128 were admitted in the current first-year class). The upcoming increase, however, was planned before the application surge.”

UC Davis researchers run COVID-19 childhood vaccine trials on infant primates The development of a children’s vaccine would allow kids to return to normal developmental environments and help curb the coronavirus pandemic

BY ANNETTE CAMPOS campus@theaggie.org Dr. Koen Van Rompay, a researcher at the UC Davis California National Primate Center, is leading a team dedicated to developing a childhood COVID-19 vaccine, which is currently being tested on infant primate monkeys at UC Davis.

The center is also using primates to research new reagents and diagnostic tests, according to a UC Davis News article. Tests are showing encouraging results which could soon lead to human trials.

The research team consists of Van Rompay; Dr. Sallie Permar, the head of pediatrics at Cornell Medicine; and Dr. Kristina De Paris, a researcher at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Currently, COVID-19 vaccine trials are available to healthcare workers and other limited groups of children and adults older than 12.

Researchers believe that providing immunity to children under age 12 and, as young as six months, could help control the spread of the virus.

“We would like to advocate that the vaccine be administered to younger children, especially less than five years old,” Permar said. “The pediatric vaccine schedule [of this age group] gets very high coverage; over 90% of children under 5 will get their vaccines. When it comes to older children such as those age 12, it falls to 40%.”

Van Rompay echoed these sentiments, saying that children often produce better immune responses than adults do.

“Children make good immune responses, often stronger and more durable than adults,” Van

Rompay said. “If those children are immune, they would not be able to transmit the virus to others; it would help reduce transmission in the community.

The researchers are testing two COVID-19 vaccines: the Moderna vaccine and a protein vaccine not yet widely available to the public.

Sixteen rhesus macaques monkeys have been separated into two groups of eight, and each group will receive one type of vaccine. The monkeys are being given two doses at four weeks apart, and blood samples are collected monthly.

So far, the monkeys have not shown any side effects. Permar hopes that these results will be reported this January.

The childhood vaccine development also serves the need for children to return to normal child development environments. The team hopes to begin human trials before the academic school year begins next fall.

“The sooner we can find a vaccine for children the better,” Van Rompay said. “These children can then go back to school; it’s good for the children’s welfare and education.”

Permar also noted the pandemic’s severe effects on children’s ability to go to school and interact with peers.

“While children do not have as much severe disease compared to adults, they certainly have been indirectly heavily impacted by the pandemic through the loss of in-person school, group activities and sports, all of which are important to a child’s development.”

Van Rompay emphasized that any risks that may come with the vaccine pale in comparison to those that are associated with having the virus.

“The risks of the vaccine are so minimal

KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE compared to getting the virus,” Van Rompay said, adding that long-term exposure to the virus could bring cardiovascular complications and could affect the brain. “These days with social media, rumors and false information spread so fast. [It’s] something that we also have to work on.”

Although some vaccines have been delivered to the Primate Center, Van Rompay is waiting to receive the vaccine.

Permar, who has already received the COVID-19 vaccine, emphasized its importance,

adding that she hopes to enroll her own son as he approaches the age of 12 in a vaccine trial if one is still available.

“I feel very lucky to have gotten the vaccine,” Permar said. “These vaccines have proven to be so effective and very safe. There’s a lot of people who would like to start developing their vaccine immunity so that they can be protected for their jobs or families.”

COVID-19 vaccines arrive in Yolo County Health care workers and long-term care facilities receiving vaccine first, in accordance with California vaccine phases

BY RACHEL SHEY city@theaggie.org Yolo County began distributing the COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer on Dec. 18, 2020. According to Public Information Officer Jenny Tan, the county has also received “roughly 1500 of the Moderna vaccines and are expecting to get more.”

“The Pfizer vaccine is two shots 21 days apart and the Moderna vaccine is two shots 28 days apart,” Tan said. “So the delay between the first and second shot is a little bit longer for the Moderna one; in addition, the Moderna vaccine doesn’t have to be stored in an ultra-cold freezer, while the Pfizer vaccine has to be, so there’s a bit of a storage difference as well.”

As of Jan. 5, the vaccine is going to Tier 1 of Phase 1A of California’s vaccine phases, which includes Woodland Memorial Hospital and Sutter Davis Hospital, long-term care facilities, emergency medical service providers and dialysis centers, according to Tan. “This week we’re finishing up skilled nursing facilities, and we’re continuing with paramedics, emergency services, fire agencies,” Tan said. “We’re starting dialysis centers maybe later this week.

We’re going to start doing the second doses for a lot of the locations in Tier 1, because a lot of them got the Pfizer vaccine, and it’ll be 21 days since they received the first dose, so they’ll be up next.

Tier 2 could start as early as next week.”

Because of the logistical issues involved in

administering the vaccines, it could be a while before the general public begins receiving shots, Tan said.

“I think it’ll be at least a couple months before we finish Phase 1 in its entirety,” Tan said. “Maybe by spring or summer we’ll get to the general public.

It definitely depends on a lot of things—there’s a lot of work, there’s a lot of logistics that goes into it, and we have to give them doses twice. There’s a lot of work that’s gone on behind the scenes that a lot of people don’t realize.”

Yolo County District 4 Supervisor Jim Provenza added that fluctuating vaccine supplies received by the county increase the complexity of providing vaccines.

“The main problem is that we are not getting enough vaccines,” Provenza said via email.

“The number of vaccines we do receive is also unpredictable. Last week we received 1,000. This week, we only received 100. Hopefully, this is a problem our governor and new president will address.”

In addition, in many locations, the county must provide not only the vaccines, but also staff who are trained to administer the shots, Tan said.

“Right now, the county is handling most if not all of the vaccines,” Tan said. “For instance, at the hospitals, we didn’t administer it, since the hospitals have their own staff, but we provided them with the vaccine. At the skilled nursing facilities and the dialysis centers, we will be giving it to them and also administering it to staff, because they don’t have the trained staff to do that.”

The original plan was to have pharmacies

administer the vaccine, Provenza said.

“The state had asked that pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens administer the vaccines,” Provenza said via email. “However, because of a delay in the pharmacy program, Yolo County used its own supply of vaccines for both staff and residents of nursing homes and assisted living centers. We are close to completing vaccination [of] all of the staff and residents of these facilities.

Almost all residents accepted the vaccines. Almost

KAITLYN PANG / AGGIE

half of the staff refused.”

Tan also stated that small changes in the tier categories further complicates the effort.

“The state keeps slightly changing who’s in what tier or who’s in what phase, so that adds a burden at the county level to have to make up for those things or to add more clinics or more to the schedule because the state has added something,” Tan said.

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2021 | 3

Sustainability efforts continue in Yolo County amid COVID-19 restrictions Woodland City Government and a non-profit work towards the goal of local sustainability

BY YAN YAN HUSTIS HAYES city@theaggie.org On Dec. 9, 2021, Yolo County held its second public workshop for its Climate Action Plan. The plan is a continuation of Yolo County’s sustainability efforts.

According to the Yolo County website, the workshop was meant to help develop a long-term sustainability plan.

“One of Yolo County’s strategic goals is ‘A Sustainable Environment,’ which serves to focus the County’s energy on comprehensively planning its environmental roadmap for the future” the website reads. “The development of the Sustainability Plan is designed to support this goal by assessing and highlighting existing sustainability programs and processes.”

As Yolo County continues to move forward in its sustainability plan, sustainability efforts also continue at the city level and through independent local non-profit organizations. Woodland’s Environmental Sustainability Manager Ken Loman explained that Woodland itself has an independent committee for sustainability.

“The City of Woodland’s Sutainaiblity Advisory committee is not related to Yolo County’s Sustainability Program,” Loman said via email. “One of its functions is to assist the City of Woodland with implementing the community-based aspects of our Climate Action plan.”

According to the City of Woodland’s website, Woodland’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) is a planning document that provides community-based strategies to help the City, local businesses and residents in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“A local climate action plan is based on the premise that local governments and the communities they represent are uniquely capable of addressing many of the major sources of emissions within their jurisdictions” the website reads. “Local climate action plans typically address an array of activities and planning practices that directly or indirectly affect [greenhouse gas] emissions.”

Loman explained that those interested in Woodland’s sustainability efforts should visit the Environmental Services section of the city’s website.

In addition to the sustainability work through city government, Woodland also boasts several non-profits with the aim of environmental sustainability outreach and action. One of

KATHERINE HUNG / AGGIE these organizations, The Woodland Tree Foundation, has planted over 800 native valley oaks on the state highway over the last 20 years.

President of the Woodland Tree Foundation David Wilkinson explained that the foundation works closely with the city government.

“Tree planting is one of the goals in the City of Woodland’s CAP to absorb more greenhouse gases,” Wilkinson said. “We plan to reduce Woodland’s carbon footprint. The City of Woodland has been a big supporter. We work closely with the City on some of our tree planting projects. We’re very involved in public policy.”

While the Foundation doesn’t often work at the county level, Wilkinson explained that the Woodland Tree Foundation is currently helping the county landscape some of its community facilities in Woodland.

Wilkinson explained that the organization is not only environmentally beneficial, but is also an important facet of local environmental programs since it fosters a sense of community.

“Our motto is building community through canopy,” Wilkinson said. “The purpose of our foundation is to educate the public about the value of trees and to plant lots of trees

with volunteers through the community to instil pride in the neighborhood.”

Wilkinson explained that while Woodland has historically had tens of thousands of valley oak trees, recent counts show as few as 900 12-inch diameter valley oaks growing in the area.

“Most of them have been taken out over the years for farming, development and old age and never replanted,” Wilkinson said.

While COVID-19 has impacted the Foundation’s ability to gather large groups of volunteers, Wilkinson explained that they are continuing to carry out the foundation’s mission of tree planting and environmental suitability in a safe manner.

“We’re still planting,” Wilkinson said. “We’re just planting individually, or maybe with one partner. [...] we’ve just had to scale it back.”

For community members who want to get involved, Wilkinson recommends visiting the Woodland Tree Foundation website for more information about trees and volunteering opportunities.

“Hopefully we can get back to tree planting later this year,” Wilkinson said. “We’d love to have students or anyone sign up to volunteer. We can do that safely. We have a lot of planting to do later this year.”

Frontline healthcare workers reflect on receiving the COVID-19 vaccine Three healthcare workers discuss the impact of the pandemic on their profession and their physical and emotional reactions to receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine

KIYOMI WATSON / AGGIE

BY LIANA MAE ATIZADO features@theaggie.org As the first waves of COVID-19 vaccines begin to roll out, healthcare workers are among the first to receive the necessary doses. Three healthcare workers discussed their physical and emotional reactions to receiving the Pfizer vaccine after spending months on the frontline of the pandemic.

Eva Teniola, a clinical nurse in the emergency department, was the first person at the UC Davis Medical Center to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Teniola received the first dose of the vaccine on Dec. 15, 2020 and the second dose on Jan. 5. “[Being the first recipient of the vaccine] was an unexpected surprise,” Teniola said. “I am thankful, hopeful, relieved and amazed with science.”

Teniola reported feeling no side effects after receiving the first dose. After the second, she experienced soreness at the injection site but was otherwise unaffected and prepared to immediately return to work.

As a healthcare worker, Teniola stated that COVID-19 has had a huge impact on her workplace.

“It’s so sad to see the faces of my patients fighting between life and death and yet they’re alone, both young and old,” Teniola said. “And it almost makes me cry every time I see a colleague so burned out, emotionally and physically, but they have to go on and take care of others since they need us more in times like these.

Everytime I go to work, I always tell myself, ‘All of this will end,’ and I strongly believe that.”

Teniola also noted the effects of the pandemic on her family members. Her 12-year-old son’s education and socialization has been impacted by the shift to online learning, and she is unable to visit the rest of her family in the Philippines due to travel restrictions. Despite these challenging circumstances, Teniola has hope for the near future.

“I am 95% immune and protected, but my husband, my son, as well as the rest of Americans, are not yet vaccinated,” Teniola said. “The good news is we have started the vaccination and that’s the first step. Anybody [or] anything is a source for spreading this debilitating virus until we have herd immunity, but I am even more relieved and positive that we are heading in the right direction.”

Christina Tran, a full spectrum family medicine physician at Kaiser Permanente in Roseville, received her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Jan. 2. Tran reported feeling nervous, as she does with all vaccines, but also excited in the week leading up to her vaccination appointment.

“I felt a sense of relief that this is something that will help the pandemic, which has been so severe,” Tran said. “I was just glad to be part of the solution.”

Tran stated that the vaccine was painless as it used a very small needle, which she hardly felt. Tran also reported that the only side effect she experienced was a mild soreness in her arm, which did not inhibit any of her daily activities and lasted less than 24 hours.

“It was a really good experience,” Tran said. “Afterwards, they made you sit with the nurses in a socially-distanced area to be observed for 15 minutes and to make sure you weren’t having a reaction. I felt very safe and watched. I didn’t have any reaction and just left and I felt fine.”

Like many other healthcare workers, Tran has had to navigate the integration of virtual medicine into her profession. Tran said that she was surprised to find that much of her work can be done

via telephone and online video appointments. Still, Tran noted that she has experienced a bit of virtual fatigue after spending so much time communicating with patients and coworkers online.

“There’s definitely a huge learning curve, to see what you’re comfortable with and what you’re not comfortable with when it comes to virtual medicine,” Tran said. “It’s definitely helped me practice medicine in a different way that is still good and safe for the patient, and also safe for us, so that we can remain healthy and keep helping others.”

Although some may be hesitant to receive the vaccine, Tran recommends visiting the Center for Disease Control (CDC) website for accurate information regarding the vaccination trials.

While some vaccine recipients may be reporting side effects, it’s important, Tran said, to look at the prevalence of those same conditions in the general community, not just among people who have received the vaccine. Those conditions may be reported because they regularly occur in the general community, not only as a side effect of the vaccines.

“The Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines are mRNA vaccines,” Tran said. “Basically, you’re helping your body make a blueprint to fight [a protein in] the COVID-19 virus. You’re not injecting yourself with the virus itself, so there’s no way you can get sick from COVID-19. This vaccine is the answer to end this pandemic, to be able to be with your loved ones and to open everything back up.”

Natasha Abadilla, who is in her final year of medical school at Stanford School of Medicine, is currently in the interviewing process for residency in child neurology. Abadilla received her first dose of the vaccine on Dec. 26, 2020. Stanford initially excluded frontline residents, fellows and medical students from their vaccine rollout process. Eventually, all those doing clinical work were made eligible to receive the vaccine.

Abadilla described receiving the vaccine as similar to receiving a flu shot. She noted that, just like after receiving a flu shot, vaccine recipients may experience a slight feeling of sickness, but this is likely just a sign that their immune system is waking up. The amount of relief that Abadilla felt after receiving the vaccine led her to realize how tense and anxious she felt during the entire year of 2020.

“After I got the vaccine, because I just felt so relieved, I realized I had been harboring feelings,” Abadilla said. “I was feeling anxious

that I might get [COVID-19] and transmit it to my patients or my boyfriend who I live with. I was feeling sad because I didn’t get to go home for Christmas for the first time in my whole life. I was feeling very stressed out about my patients and about what was happening in the world. Just the fact that I got [the vaccine] and I was seeing everyone else [get it too], and knowing that the vaccine was now being rolled out—[it] felt like such a relief. It was a really emotional moment for me.”

Abadilla’s education was put on pause at the beginning of the pandemic because medical students were initially kept home from the clinics and hospitals. Because many medical students are young and healthy, there was a concern that they may be asymptomatic carriers of the virus. After about 10 weeks, Abadilla and her peers were put back into the clinics as part of patient care teams, but were prohibited from seeing COVID-19 patients.

As a daughter of Filipino immigrants, Abadilla is interested in healthcare disparities and patient education. Abadilla said that more minorities have died because of COVID-19 than Caucasian people, are more likely to feel anxious about the vaccine and will likely receive the vaccine later than more affluent Caucasian people. Abadilla encourages healthcare professionals to talk to their minority patients about trusting the vaccine, and to make sure they know how to protect themselves against COVID-19.

“When people feel a little bit wary or anxious about getting the vaccine, I totally understand,” Abadilla said. “Especially in some communities, like the Black American community, where they were historically tested on unfairly and illegally with many other kinds of treatments. I completely understand and it is so valid to feel anxious. I would like them to have a serious talk with their doctor, or someone who knows their own medical history, and see what they say about the vaccine. Unless they have a medical history where the vaccine is contraindicated, I am almost certain that they will say it’s a very good idea to get the vaccine right now.”

After a year full of anxiety surrounding safety concerns caused

by COVID-19, the vaccine is now providing hope to healthcare workers and the general public alike.

“I think people are a little bit more hopeful because the vaccine has increased morale by quite a bit,” Abadilla said. “It’s not as sad, gloomy or frustrating as it was before the vaccine came out. The patients that we take care of are still very, very sick and it’s

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Professors reflect on how they’ve adapted to be sensitive to students’ needs DURING remote learning Faculty discuss the challenge of conducting school online and the changes they’ve needed to make to be more accommodating

BY LYRA FARRELL features@theaggie.org Over the last two quarters of instruction, professors have needed to make changes to their style of teaching as well as be especially observant of and responsive to their students’ needs.

While teaching over Zoom, Noah Guynn, a professor of French and comparative literature, has sometimes questioned the impact he has on his students.

“I think I reach my students, but I don’t always know.” Guynn said. “There have been specific moments where I’ve been really worried that I did the wrong thing or said the wrong thing. And it’s just not easy.”

Upon doing some research, Guynn initially decided that he would give his students the option to keep their camera off during class.

“Stanford in particular had a very informative website saying, ‘This is why requiring students to turn their cameras on is incredibly hard on students and especially students who are already vulnerable,’” Guynn said.

After a quarter of teaching this way and noticing that many students chose to keep their cameras off, however, Guynn decided to request that students turn their cameras on to increase engagement and help them adjust to this style of learning.

“My guess is that students will get more comfortable with it if they are asked to do it,” Guynn said. “And that they’ll become more comfortable with one another as a result. One thing I noticed for sure is that students who are visible are definitely performing better academically.”

Although Brian Trainor, a psychology professor, wants students to turn their cameras on, he hopes that by not requesting this of them, they will feel more at ease.

“I am teaching a much smaller class this quarter, and I’m hoping that more people will have cameras on, at least when we’re interacting,” Trainor said. “And so I know that’s a touchy thing, whether people have cameras on. So I’m mostly focusing on trying to make people feel comfortable.”

Guynn speculated that some students decide to keep their cameras off because they don’t feel adequately prepared for class, but he values open communication with his students.

“I’m happier knowing that students trust me to say, ‘I didn’t have time, and so I’m not prepared, but I want to be here to benefit from the conversation,’” Guynn said. “I’d rather know that they’re not prepared so that I can anticipate what needs to be done and [...] know this is not the person to call on.”

A student using the Zoom app on their laptop. (Justin Han / Aggie) According to Guynn, when he receives emails from students giving reasons for not being able to turn work in on time, it’s often clear to him that the reasons are fabricated.

“It’s often painfully obvious, and I never say anything because even contrived excuses more often than not are based on something real that the student doesn’t really want to share,” Guynn said.

According to Trainor, when he received emails from students giving reasons for not being able to turn in work, he was forgiving because he recognizes the complexity of many students’ lives.

“Basically this quarter if they told me something, I just took their word for it,” Trainor said. “I’ve seen a lot of crazy stuff that happens to students, like so many of our students are first in their family to go to college, working jobs, taking care of their parents or siblings.”

In an attempt to be more available to students, Guynn gave out his home number at the beginning of Fall Quarter, which he later found to be a mistake.

“During [COVID-19], certain kinds of rules and boundaries are actually more important than usual because [it’s] very reassuring that there’s a certain expectation,” Guynn said.

According to Tobias Warner, a professor of French and Italian, something he’s done to be more accommodating in general, but especially for international students, has been breaking longer lectures into 10-15 minute segments with corresponding quizzes.

“It’s a little bit easier in the sense that I’ve chosen to just do shorter lecture videos and online quizzes and have those be the delivery of some of the course content so students can really, no matter where they are, engage with the material,” Warner said.

Trainor also decided to make his lectures shorter with more concentrated material.

“This quarter I’m just trying to [focus on] cutting back on content,” Trainor said. “Doing less material and making it better.”

Guynn feels that not every decision he made over the course of this last quarter was beneficial to his students, one of them being holding class on Election Day. “I felt terrible,” Guynn said. “It was the biggest failure of the quarter for me on Election Day.” He initially believed that it was in his students’ best interest for him to continue with instruction as he normally would on Election Day, but later sensed that it caused them an unnecessary burden.

“They just looked so overwhelmed and upset and just [...] emotionally and intellectually and probably physically exhausted,” Guynn said. “I apologized in the next class and just said, I’m really sorry. I thought that that was the right thing to do, and it clearly wasn’t.”

Warner noted that professors have seen the effort students are putting into their educations despite how challenging it can be.

“Faculty are really impressed with how hard students have been working in often really challenging circumstances for them to engage in and be present,” Warner said. “It’s certainly challenging for us to teach you all as well.”

Warner believes that students and professors are doing everything they can to maintain connections despite conducting school and learning remotely.

“We’re all in this situation for some time longer, it seems, so we’re all doing our best, faculty and students, to try to find ways to connect and keep that teacher-student connection going,” Warner said. “That’s why we’re all here—to learn and to share that passion for the material.”

A day in the life of a UC Davis student athlete during COVID-19 Despite continuous postponements on athletics, UC Davis football player Daniel Whelan details the routine he’s created for himself during the pandemic

BY FARRAH BALLOU features@theaggie.org

Daniel Whelan, a fourth-year sustainable environmental design major and communication minor and member of the UC Davis football team, during the 2019 season. (Courtesy Photo) Daniel Whelan, a fourth-year sustainable environmental design major, begins his mornings early with a 6:45-7:00 a.m. wake-up call. He gets ready and heads out for his 8:15 a.m workout with the football strength coaches. Due to COVID-19, Whelan stated that the team is unable to practice together.

Instead, players must sign up for one of three different scheduled

times where they may meet with a small group. Previously, he stated the players’ season was on pause, as restrictions made it difficult to have a uniform practice.

“It was tough for a while, and we couldn’t do anything, but now we’re allowed to at least work out and run,” Whelan said.

In regards to COVID-19 concerns, he stated that an outdoor

tent was built outside of the weight room where players must wear masks around strength coaches and practice social distancing guidelines. In addition to new protocols, Whelan mentioned that players need to get tested every Monday.

“I don’t mind getting tested every week as long we’re able to do what we’re doing,” Whelan said.

After their practice ends at 10 a.m., Whelan returns home to make his first meal. His usual breakfast ranges from scrambled eggs and waffles to a protein smoothie. During this daily activity, he likes to wind down after practice with meditation, Youtube or reading. Following his meal, Whelan takes his dog, Jordy, along with his roommate and his roommate’s dog to the park.

Afterwards, Whelan returns to begin his first class of the day.

Currently, Whelan is enrolled in two asynchronous lectures that are two hours long each. He likes to complete one class in the afternoon and follows it with a chat with his family, specifically his father who lives in the U.K. Afterwards, he makes his lunch and follows a weekly meal schedule that he plans on Sundays.

“I cook every meal, every day,” Whelan said. “I don’t meal prep. I already know what I’m making, and I have it ready to go.”

Following his lunch, he likes to complete his next two-hour asynchronous class and any work associated with it. When his class is complete, Whelan begins preparing his dinner. His favorite meal to make at the moment is shrimp pasta with alfredo sauce and a side of garlic bread. As he eats, he likes to relax by watching a TV show and prefers to make tea or hot chocolate once the show is over.

His night time routine consists of finishing any homework, meditating and prepping for bed. Since practice is so early, he is typically in bed between 9:30-10:30 p.m.

Globally, COVID-19 has pivoted the lifestyle for student athletes as the normal training and competitive schedule have shifted. Yet for Whelan, this change is not entirely negative.

“Honestly, I think it’s leveled the playing fields for student athletes,” Whelan said. “Now we are all in the same boat. We’re all staying at home. We’re actually at an advantage where we’re allowed to workout and exercise and then come back and do our school.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2021 | 5

EDITORIAL THE

C ALIFORNIA A GGIE

E DI TOR I AL B OAR D

ANJINI VENUGOPAL Editor-in-Chief MARGO ROSENBAUM Managing Editor SABRINA HABCHI Campus News Editor EDEN WINNIFORD City News Editor CALVIN COFFEE Opinion Editor SOPHIE DEWEES Features Editor ALLIE BAILEY Arts & Culture Editor OMAR NAVARRO Sports Editor MADELEINE PAYNE Science & Tech Editor

JUSTIN HAN Photo Director KATHERINE FRANKS Design Director JOELLE TAHTA Layout Director KAITLIN ARAGHI Copy Chief ALEX WEINSTEIN Copy Chief KESHAV AGRAWAL Website Manager BEN CHENG Social Media Manager JOSHUA GAZZANIGA Distribution Manager LAURIE PEDERSON Business Development Manager

UC Davis must promptly provide clarity on reopening plans for Fall Quarter Students, faculty and staff deserve more information about UC plans Though the recent University of California Office of the President (UCOP) press release on Jan. 11 stating plans to resume in-person instruction in the fall has come with excitement, the Editorial Board has mixed feelings about the announcement.

The decision was made by UC President Michael Drake in consultation with the 10 UC chancellors, and although we admire the UC’s understanding of “the importance of communicating its plans as early as possible,” the information provided only says that individual campuses will announce further details in accordance with local and state health guidelines.

Around this time of year and in the coming months, there is much for current (and incoming) students to consider, including signing leases, planning for study abroad and the big one—whether to commit to a specific school. In-person instruction is almost certainly a factor that students will consider while making plans for the upcoming year.

But California currently ranks 43rd in the nation in administering the vaccine per 100,000 residents, and across the U.S. there have been issues with rollout. Administrators and graduate students at elite medical centers received vaccines while frontline workers are still waiting, according to The New York Times. In December, the L.A. Times reported that some wealthy patients offered to pay tens of thousands of dollars to cut the line; others are patients with concierge doctors whose services include “working to get their clients vaccinated as soon as it’s possible.”

Phase 2, which most students will likely fall under, has an estimated start date of “Summer/Fall,” and will be determined

by California’s vaccine advisory committee. The Editorial Board questions if it is too hasty to presume that COVID-19 vaccines will “soon” become available to students and staff.

The announcement raises more questions than it answers—it provides no real timeline or plan. Will the vaccine be mandatory?

Will students need to travel to Davis before Fall Quarter for their vaccinations? And will it be offered to students without a UC Student Health Insurance Plan, free of charge? When asked for further comment on an article by The California Aggie reporting on this news, a UCOP senior communications strategist said that no further information will be provided at this time.

We commend UC Davis on its availability of widespread testing

for students and community members—just last week the university administered over 14,000 COVID-19 tests and encouraged students to get tested 1-2 times a week. Given the risks associated with returning to campus for in-person instruction, however, students and faculty deserve more information on how the university plans to ensure access to the vaccine and whether individuals will be required to receive the vaccine before attending classes.

Whether or not UC Davis is actually able to reopen its campus for Fall Quarter 2021, the individual UC campuses should guarantee that there will still be online offerings for both students and staff who feel uncomfortable attending class in-person or are unable to be vaccinated due to health risks.

There are at-risk populations—older and immunocompromised faculty, staff and students—that may suffer extreme consequences from contracting COVID-19. It feels unfair to release a blanket statement without plans in place to ease worries among these groups.

Offering a remote option alongside in-person classes in fall 2021 likely wouldn’t be very difficult—lectures could be livestreamed, and concerned professors could continue to offer their classes remotely.

Some people likely won’t feel comfortable returning to campus until the U.S. has herd immunity to COVID-19, which White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci estimated could happen in fall 2021 if the vaccine rollout is efficient—which has not been the case so far and even less so in California.

While the members of the Editorial Board will be getting vaccinated when possible and encourage other students to do so as well, there may be students who have concerns and choose not to receive the vaccine. Will the university provide a minimum threshold of students that need to be vaccinated for classes to resume?

We’ve been hoping for almost a year for the announcement that UC Davis will reopen, but we would like the guarantee that proper measures will be put in place in order to ensure the safety of UC Davis students, staff and faculty. The university must provide answers to the many questions that still remain—releasing vague information can be more stressful than not knowing anything at all.

The Editorial Board is angered by the discrepancy between responses to peaceful protests and violent riots Predominately white rioters who violently stormed Congress were met with significantly less force than peaceful BLM protestors over the summer Wednesday, Jan 6., 2021, brought both hope and grief to an already-fracturing America. That morning, Jon Ossoff was declared winner of the senate runoff election in Georgia, making him the first Millennial elected to the U.S. Senate. His victory followed that of Raphael Warnock, who became Georgia’s first Black Senator and the 11th African American to ever serve in the Senate.

By the afternoon, the news was overshadowed by domestic terrorists who—riled up by the lies and disinformation spewed by our president—infiltrated the Capitol building with loose intentions of stopping the official counting of electoral votes.

On Jan. 6, President Donald Trump’s actions displayed a flagrant disregard for the health of our citizens, the safety of our elected officials and the state of our nation. Though his words have a history of inspiring violence and hate, the false claims he made during his rally incited a direct attack on our Capitol, halting the democratic proceedings that uphold our nation’s ideals.

President-elect Joe Biden addressed the nation that afternoon, saying, “The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true America—do not represent who we are.” Yet these acts of terrorism have shown us that the division and hatred perpetrated by President Trump remains rampant in the U.S.—creating a divide that will not disappear after the transfer of presidential power on Jan. 20.

Though this anger and bigotry is encouraged by the words of

our president, it is supported and upheld by the racist institutions that exist in our county. Many noted how last summer’s peaceful Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests were met with violent and unnecessary military responses, while the domestic terrorists that attacked our Capitol were helped down the stairs and took selfies with police officers.

During the BLM protests, peaceful activists in Washington D.C.’s Lafayette Park—who were predominantly Black—were met with thousands of National Guards, batons and rubber bullets, repeated uses of tear gas and on one particular day, 88 arrests.

In contrast, rioters from Jan. 6—who were mostly white—were met with distinctly less force, even after police discovered Molotov cocktails and guns on Capitol grounds. That day there were only 13 arrests despite rioters attacking police officers with chemicals, storming and vandalizing Congress and stealing an array of items such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s podium and mail.

The message is clear: white rioters can storm and loot the halls of Congress, while Black protestors can’t even stand in the neighboring park.

The Editorial Board believes that Trump is not a fit leader for our country, as he has irresponsibly incited violence in an attempt to undermine November’s election results. Though he only has two more weeks as president, we support Trump’s removal from office.

Trump and other GOP lawmakers’ lies about rampant voter fraud spurred this riot. Despite denouncing the violence carried out by the rioters, many continued to perpetuate false claims about the election being stolen.

The prominence of hate symbols at our Capitol significantly impacted marginalized communities who have faced this kind of targeted hate before. The worsening pandemic is already a constant stressor, and this civil unrest only adds another layer of anxiety— the Editorial Board asks both professors and students to be more accommodating of each other.

Even if our democratic process works, and there is a peaceful transition of power to Biden on Jan. 20, the divisions in our country will not be magically healed on Inauguration Day. A sizable percentage of Americans trust conspiracy theories more than the truth and Trump over democratic values.

It will take time and hard work to repair our country, and Biden has a monumental task in front of him. But every one of us can help as well, by organizing with compassion and educating our friends and family members about misinformation on the Internet. And of course, we must cast our votes only for candidates who believe in the importance of the truth and uphold the values of our democracy.

This article was originally published online on Friday, Jan. 8, 2021.

6 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

HUMOR MY UNFORTUNATE NOSE JOB I killed it

BY MARGARET LEE mcslee@ucdavis.edu The pandemic has really brought me a lot of financial anxiety recently. Even if the world economy is more anxious than I am, I still tried my best to get some kind of monetary support. So a few months ago, I decided to venture out and try to get a nose job.

Ever since I was young, people had always considered one of my body parts superior: my nose. I tried getting it employed, and even looking for jobs on jobs.com. But my nose is still unfortunately jobless. I’ve literally tried everything—I even wear make down instead of make up because my nose would look too good. It would be unfair for everyone else looking for livelihood. I seriously felt like the world was ending.

I hate how the law of attraction only works for attractive people. What kind of world am I living in? My heart was broken. I was in so much pain that my cardiologist boyfriend couldn’t even help me with my situation. He didn’t know how to ease my heart in any way. I wonder how he even became a doctor.

Anyway, my friend suggested that I just look for another part of me to get employed. So I made a whole new resume for my photographic memory. I could probably get a job off that, but I’m worried because most people in the company I’m applying to are Apple users and I might get judged because my photographic memory has Android quality. Thankfully, I was still able to get an interview despite my 360 pixel quality memory and got the job! I killed it! My boss said I killed it! But to clarify, I would never kill anyone.

This article is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional. The story and or names of “sources” are fictionalized.

Toucan. (Tambako the Jaguar / Creative Commons)

A GLIMPSE BEHIND THE TIRES Is it time to retire the Michelin Man?

BY EAN KIMURA etkimura@ucdavis.edu The Michelin Man is seen by many as a lovable, family-friendly, quiet humanoid stack of tires. Is that the real Michelin Man though? According to some, that may not be the truth. Details have leaked about an incident in which the beloved mascot cussed out executives at the French tire company upon learning that Michelin executives don’t actually take his food reviews into consideration for their annual Michelin Guide.

“Look, he’s an idiot. He only got a job with us because there are no other walking stacks of tires,” said an unnamed executive who was in the room. “That day, he just came into the room, raving about a new Spanish restaurant he found. We asked him what it was, and he said Panera. I don’t know what was more shocking that he hadn’t been to a Panera or that he thought his Greek goddess cobb salad was Spanish cuisine.”

“Then he started going on about how we needed to give this place five stars,” the executive continued. “Usually, we just tell him we’ll take his review into consideration, but this time some intern had to open his big fat mouth and tell him that wasn’t how Michelin Stars worked.”

“We had just created a Yelp account that we convinced him was the official Michelin guide, just to get him to shut up,” the executive said. “It worked pretty well up to that point.”

According to others in the room, things completely devolved when the Michelin Man and “that smug little intern” got into a heated argument where the intern showed the Michelin Man an actual Michelin Guide. He did not take it well.

“At that point, he turned on all of us,” another unnamed board member said. “He just started screaming, cussing people out, I think at one point he threw a tire through the window.”

The tirade ended when the Michelin Man approached the intern hysterically laughing in the corner and screamed in his face, “I’m the Michelin Man! I am not to be trifled with!” before being dragged out by security.

Neither Michelin CEO Florent Menegaux nor the Michelin Man have commented on the incident at this time.

Michelin man from Michelin commercial “Rain”. (Michelin)

This article is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional. The story and or names of “sources” are fictionalized.

COW’S PERSPECTIVE ON FACE MASKS

BY RUSHI TAWADE rntawade@ucdavis.edu

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2021 | 7

UC Davis professors discuss the future of Republican politics Trump has shifted the Republican Party towards populism and redefined the Republican candidate, according to professors

BY SNEHA RAMACHANDRAN features@theaggie.org Since President-elect Joe Biden was announced the winner of the 2020 presidential election, there has been great discourse about the future of Republican politics. Many Americans have found that President Donald Trump’s time in office has caused a shift in values between the Republican and Democratic parties. UC Davis professors commented on the future of Republican politics and how Trump will affect the Republican Party’s candidates in the coming years.

Isaac Hale, a professor of political science, explained how Trump’s rhetoric has shifted the Republican Party over the past four years.

“In comparison with previous Republican presidential candidates like Mitt Romney or John McCain, Trump ran with a much more populist message,” Hale said. “When I say populist, I mean a more economically liberal and socially conservative message. Trump ran on things like the wall, but he also ran against George W. Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also ran on protecting Social Security and Medicare, which again was a very strong contrast to previous Republican candidates. But the thing to keep in mind here, is that’s not how we actually govern.”

Christopher Hare, an assistant professor of political science, had a similar perspective on how Trump has moved the Republican Party in a more populist direction. Hare noted that two prominent shifts have been in terms of the style and substance of governance.

“In terms of style, the party has become more confrontational and suspicious of elites,” Hare said. “On substance, the party has deprioritized traditional Republican goals of reigning in government spending, entitlement programs and the national debt. At the same time, it has shifted positions considerably on other issues like immigration and trade. Some of these trends were present before Trump, but [he has] catalyzed these trends more firmly and established them among the Republican Party establishment.”

According to Hale, Trump’s time in office was similar to previous Republican presidents. However, the rhetoric Trump used throughout his time campaigning and in office set him apart from traditional presidents.

“I think the effect of Trump’s words will have great reverberations,” Hale said. “I think we will continue to see much more Trump-like candidates going forward, but I don’t think we will see a drastic realignment of the party away from its policy.”

Since 2016, media platforms have become a battlefield for Trump supporters and opponents to voice their opinions on American politics. Hare explained how the media has influenced the political climate over the past four years.

“The media plays an amplifying role, but there are also real fundamental differences within and between the parties,” Hare said. “I think the media is sometimes unfairly scapegoated as the primary or even sole cause of polarization, but the reality is much more nuanced.”

Seeta Chaganti, an English professor, discussed how the extent of hate speech might change in the media following President-elect Biden’s inauguration.

“On the surface, the official specific rhetoric that floats into everyone’s lives during the current administration might feel different: less hateful and violent towards particular groups,” Chaganti said. “Whether that will actually mean significant policy and social change that will meaningfully protect those groups from the historical harm and dispossession to which they’ve been subjected, I’m not sure.”

During the Trump administration there has been a rise in accusations of fake news from both the Democratic and Republican parties. Chaganti described the extent to which fake news has had a polarizing effect on the two parties.

“I think it’s hard to talk about what people actually believe versus what they are instrumentalizing in order to justify what they’re doing,” Chaganti said. “Fake news definitely offered people a lot of instruments. It did seem to be the case that people who identified with different political affiliations were watching very different news sources. So, there has been this disorienting sense that wildly differing stories about what was happening on the same news day were out there. But I don’t know if that’s fundamentally different from other moments.”

Within the Republican Party itself, Hale noted that there is not as much polarization surrounding Trump’s actions as the

KIYOMI WATSON / AGGIE

media portrays.

“Republicans and groups such as the Lincoln Project have a huge spotlight in the media, but they don’t represent much of the Republican electorate,” Hale said. “The most recent Gallup poll puts Trump’s approval rating at around 87% among Republicans.

In contrast, the most recent Republican president George W. Bush, only had a 67% Republican approval rating in December of 2008.”

Since Biden was announced the winner of the 2020 election, there have been accusations of voter fraud. Several polls have found that up to 70% of Republicans are doubtful about the results. Hale commented on how these numbers might influence support for President-elect Biden in the coming years.

“I don’t think that it’s going to affect governance very much,” Hale said. “Democrats viewed President Trump [as] illegitimate in large part due to the electoral college inversion that happened in the 2016 election. But despite that, Trump had a large number of incredibly consequential policy accomplishments like the tax cuts and fixing three Supreme Court justices—and I think the same pattern will follow for Biden.”

The attack on the Capitol was just one severe instance of the opposition to President-elect Biden’s confirmation. Chaganti described the possibility of future riots and the effect they will have on the general public.

“It does seem possible [that the riots will continue] and I am interested to see the response,” Chaganti said. “One result of the Capitol events on [Jan. 6] is that it became very clear how many in that crowd were [law enforcement] and military. And of course there’s the question of why on-duty officers let it go as far as it did.

Maybe this is optimistic of me, but I wonder if that has made clear to an even wider mainstream what kinds of deep historical racist structures we’re talking about when we invoke concepts like ‘law and order,’ a phrase that gets used variously to describe both parties.”

Hale explained how the pattern of the division in Congress will be detrimental to the future of our democracy.

“Compared to 30 or 40 years ago, legislative productivity in Congress [has] incredibly declined,” Hale said. “And that’s especially true under a divided government. When one party controls Congress and another controls the White House, that will tend to be the case.”

However, the trend of distrust in the election process is not a Trump-specific story but rather a long-term trend. According to Hale, there has also been a trend of violence among the parties due to election results as of late.

“I think that there’s a scenario where the parties will continue to have polarizing ideologies and a strong dislike between partisans,” Hale said. “I think that we will also continue to see the opposing side believe that there is evidence against an election that transcends the democratic process and people will continue to think that this evidence is a matter of existential life or death, [...] which we didn’t see in previous decades.”

Moving forward, Hale believes that although there will likely be Trump-like characters in American politics, it is unlikely that other politicians will be able to mimic Trump’s messages and political base.

“We have already seen 2024 presidential hopefuls like Senators Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio using Trump-like messaging and really trying to position themselves as the next Trump,” Hale said. “But I think that this will be a tough sell because Trump has a particular sway within the Republican Party, and the fact that he was a reality TV star before becoming president is not something that every U.S. senator can replicate.”

Hale noted that Trump’s experience in the entertainment industry largely influenced his reach as a candidate in 2016.

“I think, particularly in the Republican Party, we are going to continue to see outsider candidates like Donald Trump,” Hale said. “I think we are going to continue to see them doing well and trying to repeat the success of Donald Trump. But, I don’t think they will be very effective because Trump has a made-fortelevision personality, and his background gave him a lot of free media coverage which really helped him out in the 2016 election.”

According to Hale, Republican voters seem to be distrustful of the Republican Party and its elites. Surveys taken in 2016 found that a majority of Republicans supported a candidate that was not preferred by the Republican Party establishment.

“Trump was able to credibly claim to voters that, ‘I am not like other Republicans and the Republican Party is corrupt, so you should vote for me,’” Hale said. “In a way, he ran against the Republican Party in 2016, and he was strongly opposed by the Republican Party establishment in the 2016 primary. I don’t think people like Cruz, Rubio or Hawley can make that same kind of commitment.”

Hale discussed the possibility of Trump running for reelection in the next presidential term.

“I think it is certainly possible that Trump goes into private life,” Hale said. “I think it is very unlikely that he will stay in the public eye. But I am not sure if he will run for re-election in 2024. Grover Cleveland served for two non-consecutive terms as president, but it’s not something that happens very frequently.”

Hare stated that the future of red America will depend heavily on the evolution of the Democratic Party moving forward.

“If [the Democratic Party] continues to move left, I believe Republicans will be able to coalesce around an agenda to prevent European-style socialism,” Hare said. “The big question is whether the Republican Party attempts to rebuild a majority by cementing and adding support among white and minority working-class voters, or by recapturing college-educated, urban and, especially, suburban voters, who might be resistant to some of the policy proposals from the left wing of the Democratic Party.”

First-year Jennifer Li’s experience attending UC Davis From Singapore Li explains the ups and downs of participating in online school in a different time zone

BY KATIE DEBENEDETTI features@theaggie.org

Jennifer Li, a first-year undeclared student in the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis, on the Helix Bridge in Singapore. (Courtesy Photo)

Adjusting to online classes has been challenging for every student, but international students who are living outside of the country have faced a completely different set of challenges. Time zone changes, exam times and COVID-19 rules have affected students residing in different countries, like Jennifer Li, a first-year undeclared student who has been living in Singapore throughout the pandemic.

Li, who grew up shifting between Singapore and Los Angeles, began her time at UC Davis from her childhood bedroom, almost 10,000 miles away from the university. Besides being a freshman at a new school, she said that the 16-hour time difference between Singapore and California is challenging.

“I think the time zones would be the biggest [challenge],” Li said. “Some of the lectures were still live, and I think the discussion sections are super helpful for some classes. I kind of missed out on that a little just because I wasn’t able to wake up at 3 a.m.”

Li also said that, like many students who did not move into the dorms or live off-campus in Davis, it is difficult to get involved, meet other students and form relationships with professors.

“I am a person that learns a lot through discussion, and asking questions is a big thing for me so just not having that live interaction, not even with my peers but with my professors [was challenging],” Li said. “I think human interaction was the biggest thing that was missing.”

Despite being so far away, Li decided to rush a sorority and apply for a position on the wider Panhellenic council. She said that joining these activities virtually has helped her to meet new people and stay up to date with what is happening in Davis.

Though being far from Davis has been hard, Li said that her professors have been very understanding of her situation and have allowed her to do most work asynchronously. Li explained that typically on a school day she will begin by listening to recorded lectures from the night before, since most of her classes are from 12-3 a.m. in Singapore. Then, she’ll spend the afternoon doing homework, assignments and studying for exams, dividing the work by subject. Li said that classes being completely online and mostly asynchronous has been very helpful.

“I think one thing that’s really good about being asynchronous is that I have a lot of freedom for how I want to use my time,” Li said. “I’m not really confined to ‘I have to do this work now,’ so I can plan out what works best for me.”

Though it has been an unconventional experience, Li has found some positives in spending her freshman year of college at home.

“The college workload is so different than high school, and being a first year, it was a lot to adjust to, so having other factors of my life be really familiar was really comforting,” Li said. “It didn’t feel like all of a sudden everything was changing.”

8 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Looking back at the emo revival Years of fantastic music that never quite hit the mainstream, maybe because it was never supposed to

BY JACOB ANDERSON arts@theaggie.org When one of the flag-bearers of the emo revival, Snowing, broke up in 2011, their announcement post included a joke about how the band’s brief three year run made them “over 90 in emo years.”

The post—which marked the end of a group that produced some of the rawest, purest emo in the last decade—comes to about 80 words.

The original emo movement came from the lonely basements of the midwest, birthed from more traditional hardcore punk and tempered by melancholy. Those groups—Braid, Mineral, Sunny Day Real Estate, Promise Ring, American Football, to name a few—were bits of lightning captured in the bottles of alternative tuning and reminiscence. All were unbelievably white and unbelievably overwrought in the best ways. And most died within a few years of their debut album.

As it turns out, dwelling in songs about your own sadness for hundreds of basement shows isn’t a sustainable way to live.

For this reason and many others, few traditional emo acts have ever truly broken into the mainstream, and its current adherents follow the tradition of glorious two-album runs punctuated by implosion. Imagine what mindstate you’d have to put yourself in to write lines like “Wasting away any trace of normal blood so the fingers feel drunk/Erasing any prospect that the rest of life will feel less numb” (“Fuck, Dantooine is Big”

by Marietta) or “Why is it that when we sneeze/ There’s a chance we’ll die/Alone, alone, alone, alone” (“It’s Not What You Think It Is” by The Brave Little Abacus). Imagine then putting yourself back into that mindstate to sing those same ridiculous, terribly sad things two or three nights per week, every week. It seems rough. As a listener, you have the privilege of turning off the music whenever you want, but for those making it, it’s their life—they don’t get to stop the set when it

becomes too much.

It’s not super surprising that what you might haughtily call “true emo” while turning your nose up at My Chemical Romance is hard to keep around, artistically. Multiply that by the factor of the subject matter being really heavily juvenile a lot of the time—high school crushes, feeling lonely and driving nowhere in particular, the minutiae of teen angst—and the equation looks dire for the bands of the late-2000s/early-2010s emo revival: Into it. Over it., Algernon Cadwallader, Foxing, The Hotelier, CSTVT, etc.

Dear and the Headlights, the pop-y, nearly country-ish emo revival group out of Arizona, followed this formula to the letter, just about. Two godly albums across three years, just peeking over the edge of relevance by touring with Paramore and Jimmy Eat World, only to throw it all away because it was boring work to deal with all the fame. The defining line of their (622 word) breakup post goes like this: “We started meeting and talking about how we could get more fans and how we could get people to our website and not just Myspace or Facebook.” (Yes, this was 2011.) Dismissing any parallels to flushing a lottery ticket down the toilet because you don’t want to talk to a bank clerk that might come to mind reading that line, there’s an almost Greek arc created by the band disappearing so early, warding off any chance of the senility and mediocrity that late-discography releases so often entail. Instead, the band is set in stone as a stellar unit of 2000s culture, a duo of classic albums that won’t age the way the rest of us will.

The emo revival is essentially over as of the mid 2010s, though of course that doesn’t mean that there’s no more emo music coming out. What it really means is that the intricate guitarwork and shrill vocals of that specific wave failed to break into the mainstream, and it happened because those bands were never supposed to. Emo probably wouldn’t be emo if more than a few bands at a time were allowed to graduate from basement solipsism.

According to Tom Mullen in his book “Anthology

BY ITZELTH GAMBOA arts@theaggie.org

KIYOMI WATSON / AGGIE

of Emo: Vol. 1,” the genre itself is “music where every note sounds like it could be the last note that person ever played.” Now that’s emo.

Classic emo revival albums like “What It Takes To Move Forward” or “We Cool?” have already cemented themselves into (niche) music history, independent of the temporary nature of the genre.

Good art usually gets remembered.

It’s a genre that’s embarrassing, childish and unmistakably heartfelt. And when kids from the midwest get sad enough again (maybe right now?) it will likely come back in full force. Bands like Origami Angel and Hot Mulligan are already picking up the existent slack from where the tide returned to the ocean, and the traditions of emo have long been carved into the annals of the Scene.

Even beyond the genre proper, decades of the genre’s presence have had impact beyond emo’s

own boundaries.

Proper emo music might never be anything but a rolling series of fireworks displays, with bands vanishing as fast as they light up, but it could be said that that’s really how it’s supposed to be. It’s a product of precious but transient immaturity, and everyone has to grow up at some point.

Dear and the Headlights ended their second and final album with “I Know,” a song railing against the performative sadness they’d engaged with up to that point, which takes on new meaning within the context that this really was their last song. It feels like an almost literary way to end a band—throwing away the very lens that brought them success in the first place. After the band’s breakup, frontman Ian Metzger moved east and got a job in a blueberry field.

‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 4’ prompts more confusion than resolution The final season of the Netflix original is a rushed, dramatic ending with too much packed in all at once

Television Show: “Parks and Recreation” (2009-2015) Parks department worker Leslie Knope loves her small town in Indiana. In order to help Ann Perkins, a local nurse, Knope makes it her mission to turn an abandoned construction site into a park. But as the show progresses, Knope and Perkins run into obstacles that make their situation more difficult.

Parks and Recreation is one of my favorite shows. I love Leslie—she’s strong and intelligent, but a laughably dorky woman with big dreams. It’s rare to see a woman leading a team that consistently shows emotions and yet is ready to take charge of every situation. I have yet to watch an episode that has not left me laughing out loud.

Movie: “Soul” dir. by Pete Docter (2020) Soul follows a jazz artist trying to make it big and live out his musical dreams. But in the meantime, he works as a middle school music teacher. When the musician finally gets the chance of a lifetime, he unexpectedly dies and arrives in another realm where mentors help unborn souls find their spark.

I don’t know if it’s the gloomy weather or the fact that I’m graduating soon, but the idea of a “life purpose” is something I have been thinking a lot about lately. As I’m working through an existential crisis, I often find myself looking for a meaning in everything I’m doing. But “Soul” left me feeling comfortable with life, despite the fact that I was sitting in a pool of my tears at the end.

Book: “Humans” by Brandon Stanton (2020) While this isn’t exactly literature, Stanton’s book full of conversations with random people on the street brings just as much emotion as a regular book. Stanton documents his travels around the world through photos and interviews with people who reveal their life stories. While some people share their happy memories, others share their struggles that bring you to tears. Stanton’s book is a reminder that everyone is going through something.

Album: “Folklore” by Taylor Swift (2020) Taylor Swift’s surprise album is undoubtedly one of my favorite albums. It is beautifully crafted, vulnerable and catchy. “Folklore” includes pop hits like “the last great american dynasty” that tells the story of her Rhode Island home and country comebacks like “betty” that describes a boy who pleads for his ex-girlfriend’s forgiveness. I had the entire album on repeat when it came out; there is not one skippable song.

BY MUHAMMAD TARIQ arts@theaggie.org Whether you’re into magic and Archie Comics or just want a glimpse of childhood nostalgia to escape the horrors of 2020, Netflix’s “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” is the show for you.

The Netflix original series is a stark reimagining of the 1996 show “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and the “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” comic book series by Archie Comics.

The fourth and final season of the show was released on Dec. 31, 2020. “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 4” delves deeper into the beloved and overused coming-of-age genre, with its dark themes of magic and blood sacrifice, steamy and often surprising relationships and declarations of feminism coloring each episode.

Many awkward make-out sessions lead to confessions of a Romeo-and-Juliet-inspired teenage-love mixed in with imminent peril and destruction as consuming magical catastrophes head the young protagonist’s way.

In the roughly eight hour season, viewers see Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka) and Sabrina Morningstar (also played by Kiernan Shipka) struggle to keep their two worlds separate, with Spellman as a regular teenage half-mortal, halfwitch and Morningstar as the queen of hell.

All the while, 16-year-old Sabrina attempts to deal with the changing tides of friendship, an exaggerated high-school experience with bathroom stall revelations and virtually no time in class and boy problems in which the prince of hell Caliban (Sam Collet), the seemingly innocent Harvey Kinkle (Ross Lynch) and the moody bad boy Nicholas Scratch (Gavin Leatherwood) all plague both Sabrinas’ hearts.

There is also a magical calamity foreshadowed in each episode with the arrival of an Eldritch Terror, an all-consuming magical entity specifically designed to wreak havoc on Sabrina’s beloved home of Greendale and bring an end to the world.

Sabrina and her group, who you have a hardtime believing are 16-year-olds, is made up of her ex-boyfriend Harvey Kinkle and her two-best friends Rosalind Walker (Jasmine Sinclair) and Theo Putnam (Lachlan Watson). These four friends make up the original Fright Club—the magical bad-guy fighting team.

The Coven, which no longer worships and derives its power from the Dark Lord, Lucifer Morningstar (Luke Cook), but rather the wise goddess Hecate, is headed by Sabrina’s aunties, the newly-converted feminist Zelda Spellman (Miranda Ott) and her ditzy-yet-wise sister Hilda Spellman (Lucy Davis).

Each episode is dedicated to the Fright Club and the Coven fighting against one of the Eldritch

Terrors—the Darkness, the Uninvited, the Weird, the Perverse, the Cosmic and the Returned—all of which lead up to The Void and the End of All Things.

Fans of the 1996 show are even given a throwback to the original aunties of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” with Morningstar being transported into an alternative reality where she meets the original aunt Hilda (Caroline Rhea) and aunt Zelda (Elizabeth Broderick).

While awkward teens and deadly magic make for an entertaining watch, there seems to be a disconnect in the show between confident and grandeur displays of magical abilities and helplessness in the face of danger.

On numerous occasions, the Spellmans and the witches can easily use magic to perform necromancy to bring the dead back to life, summon and banish demons and portal between hell and the mortal realm. However, during life or death situations they can’t seem to use their abilities when they need them most and have to use good ole medieval sword-fighting or macewielding instead.

SABRINA on 11

Promotional poster of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina which is streaming on Netflix. (Netflix)

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2021 | 9

Sudoku Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row, column, and 3x3 square must contain each digit. Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing.

Answer to previous puzzle 01/07/21

crossword

Answer to previous puzzle 01/07/21

10 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2021

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SCIENCE & TECH ENZYME INHIBITOR COULD BECOME A POTENTIAL TREATMENT FOR ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE This compound reduces neuroinflammation characteristic in many neurodegenerative disorders

BY MICHELLE WONG science@theaggie.org Although there are currently no cures for most neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), recent advancements in the field have shown promising results. In a study led by Bruce Hammock, a professor in the department of entomology and nematology, in collaboration with the Hui Zheng lab at the Baylor College of Medicine, researchers found that inhibiting an enzyme called soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) in mice leads to a reduction in neuroinflammation, which is associated with AD. Anamitra Ghosh, an instructor in Hui Zheng’s lab, explained that in both human AD patients and their mouse models, there are significantly increased levels of sEH in their brains in comparison to normal individuals. According to their paper, “an epoxide hydrolase inhibitor reduces neuroinflammation in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease” because sEH contributes to the rapid hydrolysis of epoxy fatty acids, which have anti-inflammatory properties.

In order to combat the effects of sEH in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, Hammock’s lab identified the treatment of a compound called TPPU to inhibit the enzyme. Ghosh stated that after administering this molecule to their mice models with AD, the Hui Zheng lab found that epoxy fatty acid levels were restored back to normal and neuroinflammation was reduced. Their paper also stated that “improved synaptic integrity and cognitive function” was observed through two behavioral tests.

Ghosh elaborated that their collaboration with Hammock was vital to this research, as Hammock is known to be a pioneer in the field of sEH and other epoxides. Hammock explained that he began research with this enzyme when he was an entomologist and toxicologist in graduate school. While striving to develop an insecticide that harmed insects with minimal damage to the environment, Hammock studied how to disrupt the process of metamorphosis. It was through this research that Hammock first became familiar with epoxide hydrolases, which led him to more than 50 years of experience in the field.

“So this started as research trying to kill insects, became very basic research on how the insects undergo metamorphosis, then basic research asking what this enzyme from insects does in mammals and now we’re working on chronic disease like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and acute diseases,” Hammock said.

Hammock added that sEH can also be used to treat neuropathic pain, or when the nerves themselves generate pain. He described this pain to be intractable or unable to be controlled with standard medical treatment. Although there are currently no treatments, the sEH inhibitors could potentially help those who are suffering.

“There’s light at the end of the tunnel,” Hammock said. “We’re in human trials and we know the compound is at least safe and soon we’ll be able to ask [if it is] effective. And so now [the time] until it’s available in the drug store is a couple of years and not a

CATHY TANG / AGGIE

couple decades.”

While Hammock’s lab was mainly in charge of the biochemistry aspect of the study, the Hui Zheng lab took charge of the neurobiology and animal studies aspect. Ghosh first became interested in neurodegeneration in graduate school when doing rotations in a lab that dealt with Parkinson’s disease.

“I found [the field of neurodegenerative diseases] really really interesting because even [though] so many people [are] working, still today we do not have any prominent drug which can cure the disease,” Ghosh said. “So that actually was really fascinating to do something. As a researcher, there are a lot of questions [such as] why something is happening and what I can contribute to the field.”

Ghosh explained that neuroinflammation is a relatively new field of study in terms of neurodegeneration. Although there has

been a lot of recognition of research concerning neurodegenerative orders, there are still no medicines available that can slow down or stop the process. However, he strongly believes that sEH is a valid target for helping treat such disorders, and that TPPU shows great promise as a potential drug and therapeutic molecule in the future.

“Although we do not have any particular medicine that will cure the disease or slow down the process [...] in the last 10 years, we’ve moved tremendously in the field,” Ghosh said. “Now we know there are a lot of genes that are directly associated with risk for AD. So there is this interaction between the gene as well as the environmental cause. We do not have any medicine, but I am hopeful that [we will] soon because we are actually getting to being deep in the field. People need to be a little bit hopeful that it’s actually coming. That’s my promise and I strongly believe that it will not be that far.”

RESEARCHERS ARE USING THE GROWING FIELD OF PALEOPROTEOMICS TO RETELL HISTORY One recent study indicated that fruits and spices from Asia arrived in the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age CATHY TANG / AGGIE

BY FRANCHESKA TORRES science@theaggie.org In the emerging field of paleoproteomics, researchers have discovered evidence that fruits and spices from Asia arrived in the Mediterranean earlier than originally speculated, according to the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. This research implies that in the Bronze Age, distant societies were connected by longdistance trade.

Paleoproteomics involves analyzing a variety of food proteins and plant residue that is preserved in the calculus—plaque— of teeth, which is formed when bacteria in the human mouth petrifies. The field involves the difficult task of assigning individual protein remnants to certain particles of food which consists of strict identification, and which requires the protein surviving for thousands of years, according to the study.

Dr. Glendon J. Parker, a professor of environmental toxicology, and Dr. Jelmer W. Eerkens, a professor of anthropology, are both members of the Forensic Sciences Graduate Group at UC Davis

and are both familiar with the field of paleoproteomics, a subset of proteomics. The professors collaborate together on a range of projects.

The field of proteomics is possible because the chemistry of calculus is an appropriate environment for the preservation of different biochemicals used to study the past, according to Eerkens.

New techniques in studying this preservation is contributing to a new era of research.

“We’re lucky people didn’t brush their teeth very regularly in ancient times,” Eerkens said.

One of the projects the professors are currently working on involves using proteomic signatures to estimate sex from a deceased individual’s teeth, which is important in the case of children, as there are no skeletal markers of sex. It is only when adulthood is reached that morphological differences appear between males and females. This data is used to investigate child mortality patterns in ancient populations that existed in a variety of locations such as California, and abroad in Peru, American Samoa and the Nile Valley, according to Eerkens.

Proteomics is used with substances other than teeth such as hair, which is also a good protein source, according to Parker. The professor is interested in developing forensic methods where you can detect genetic markers in hair protein to infer the genotype of an individual. Then it is possible to get random match probabilities from the protein, as opposed to the DNA. Similar to the study, Dr. Eerkens has done work with the calculus of teeth to analyze the bacteria preserved in it to study alkaloid remains, such as nicotine. When nicotine is found preserved in ancient calculus samples, it can tell the examiner about the tobacco use in ancient societies.

Parker notes that this field of research is important because, although DNA is a richer source of information from a sample than protein, the protein is more stable than the DNA and is more likely to persist in an environment like calculus.

The advantage of proteins is that they represent the expression of a genome, according to Eerkens. If two people had identical genomes, but were exposed to different environments, then different protein signatures would be present. For example, if you take identical twin adults and one of them is pregnant, there will be proteins present in the pregnant twin that indicate the individual has been pregnant. The twin that is not pregnant will not have any traces of these proteins, despite the siblings having identical genomes.

“There’s additional information present in proteins that DNA can’t give us,” Eerkens said.

In the study of Mediterranean food trade, it was discovered that allergy-associated proteins appear to be the most stable in human calculus because of their thermostability. According to Parker, plant-based proteins in general are pretty stable. Allergens are also of interest due to them having different effects on humans today compared to ancient societies. Those societies required strong immune systems because of the natural way food was harvested.

“They weren’t in an environment that is sterile like today,” Parker said.

Paleoproteomics has been used in the past to detect bloodborne pathogens and host inflammatory responses. One study, published in 2017, used paleoproteomics to study 300-year-old dental pulp specimens from sixteen individuals. The individuals were from two archeological funeral sites located in France. One was documented as having the plague and the other was not.

It was discovered that three Yersinia pestis proteins were in 3/8 of the dental pulp specimens from the plague funeral site. The dental pulp specimens originating from the plague-negative site did not have traces of the protein. These distinctions would be unknown if it weren’t for the technologies and methods associated with paleoproteomics.

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“I thought that was problematic given the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 in the Black, Latin-American and Indigenous communities,” Cooke said.

The trial was double-blind, meaning that neither its coordinators nor its participants knew whether the participants were being given placebos or the real vaccine.

“I was recently ‘unblinded’ and learned that I’d received the vaccine,” Cooke said.

He received the first Pfizer shot in August and the second, final shot in September.

May was vaccinated following the second shipment of Pfizer vaccines to UC Davis Health in December 2020. He acknowledged the necessity of essential workers receiving the vaccine, saying that approximately 6,000 of those workers at UC Davis Health were vaccinated before he was.

“UC Davis Health received those vaccinations from Pfizer in the second week of December and those two weeks they were really focusing on those essential workers,” said Dana Topousis, a spokesperson for UC Davis.

“I was sensitive to not jumping in front of people and making sure that our essential workers got theirs first,” May said. “I didn’t want to use my privilege to jump the line, but the weight of being able to tell that story to these communities [of color] outweighed that concern.”

May said that the vials containing the Pfizer vaccine in the second shipment to UC Davis Health contained about 20% more material than what was received in the first shipment, enabling more people to access it.

“I’d always planned to get vaccinated—I wasn’t hesitant about that,” he said. “I guess we had an informal conversation in one of our leadership meetings where I was sharing with the team that there was a lot of skepticism and reluctance in the Black community [about the vaccine], even within my family and my friends and my social network. When [UC Davis] got the vaccine a month later, the opportunity

presented itself.”

He spoke about the legacy of malpractice and mistreatment by the medical establishment and the U.S. government in the Black community, which may account for the community’s skepticism regarding COVID-19 vaccinations.

“I think there’s a long history,” he said.

“If you go back as far as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, where Black patients were injected with syphilis without their knowledge, there are a series of incidents and events like this. There have been instances of mistreatment, maltreatment and there’s the view that Black people have a higher tolerance for pain.”

May said that the historical mistreatment and record speed of the vaccine development contributed to increased skepticism in Black American communities.

“Being someone in science, in a leadership role that is respected within the community, it was good for me to take it,” May said. “I’ve had conversations with people as close to me as my sister and friends and family—some of whom I’ve persuaded and some of whom are deciding on their own.”

According to Cooke, COVID-19 continues to disproportionately affect the Black community due to higher numbers of Black people in essential worker jobs. People of color are also more likely to take public transportation, increasing their potential exposure to COVID-19. He noted that the workers who cleaned up the Capitol building following a violent protest by President Donald Trump supporters on Jan. 6 were people of color.

“When you look at that attack and the aftermath of that attack, if you look at the images and the videos of the people sweeping up the glass and the debris and packaging the debris from that terrorist attack, there are people of color doing that,” Cooke said. “They cannot work from home. They were there in the middle of the night.

They were there cleaning up the U.S. Capitol, the seat of our democracy.”

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In continuing to promote a bike culture, there are various goals that can still be achieved in Davis, according to Donofrio.

“Our goals are to reduce bike theft, improve our pavement conditions, bring bike share back, and improve our bike parking,” Donofrio said via email.

Ultimately, Davis’ achievement of being awarded platinum status showcases its accessibility through biking, as well as a means of staying healthy, Donofrio explained.

“Biking needs to be easy to do, saves time, and it needs to be normal,” Donofrio said via email.

“No special outfits or special bike is needed.

Getting friends and groups to bike together to showcase how fun and easy biking is can encourage people to bike.”

PICNICDAY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Amanda Portier, a third-year community and regional development major and the vice chair of the Picnic Day board, reflected on the quick adaptation to an online format last year in order to protect the health of the Davis community.

“There was great communication between the board and all our partners, both on and off campus, and lots of creativity and dedication to bring the virtual format together,” Portier said via email. “We transformed our typical merchandise sales to a fundraising event for [UC Davis] Health which was very successful.”

In terms of improvement this year, the board aims to have new content and expand their merchandise line. Above all, they hope to create a Picnic Day that maintains the spirit of the event.

“You can’t replace an in-person experience, but we’re working to convert as many Picnic Day traditions as possible to an online format,” Portier said via email. “We hope that this brings new and old students a day where they can explore their Davis community, learn new things, have fun and feel proud to be an Aggie. The virtual format is also a unique opportunity for students living

off campus to share Picnic Day with household members who may not have been able to attend an in-person event.”

Some students already are looking forward to taking advantage of the event. Andrea Navarrete, a fourth-year cell biology major, decided she will attend Picnic Day 2021 during her final year at UC Davis.

“I do want to go just because it’s my last year and I don’t know when I’ll be back in Davis,” Navarrete said. “I think I definitely want to check it out. I’m sure that they’ve been able to accommodate, and everyone’s been used to being online now so it’s not going to be as weird.”

Cervantes encouraged anyone who is hesitant about an online Picnic Day to give it a chance.

“Just do it,” Cervantes said via email. “It is just as exciting as the in-person event, and now even more people from around the world can attend.

We are bringing a lot of new and more creative ideas to Picnic Day this year and we would love for everyone to sign on and join in on the fun. It will be a Picnic Day you will never forget.”

SABRINA

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 “There’s a lot of anxiety for people about where they are in the tier or where they are in the phase, but once we get to a certain tier, we will absolutely let people know where to go get it, if they’re in that tier.”

Despite the good news of the vaccine rollout, the stay-at-home orders in Yolo County and the Greater Sacramento Area will likely continue, according to Tan.

“I think that having pretty much a closed to car traffic campus for the last 50 years has fostered a bike friendly healthy community,” Dominguez said via email.

The bike-friendly environment also contributes to the local culture in a few ways, such as increased happiness and consideration for others, according to Zavala.

“There’s a better connection to the community when not zipping around in a car,” Zavala said. “You notice graffiti and are more likely to report it. You share photos of pretty scenery. You communicate more with those around you. In all, it increases community cohesion.”

Not only does it benefit people, it also benefits the environment, according to Dominguez, by reducing the carbon footprint produced by cars.

“We’ll be under the stay at home order for at least a little bit, at least based on our region’s ICU hospital capacity,” Tan said. “We’ve been under the 15% mark, and we are still seeing cases come in from Christmas. We haven’t seen cases come in yet from New Years; it usually takes 1-2 weeks before we see all those cases come in, so I think we’ll be under it for a while.”

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 Mixed in with the magic, the season is filled with proclamations of undying love, soulmates, weirdly-timed marriages and random people dying bloody, gory deaths; all of which make the show and especially this season feel less serious and more comedic. To make matters worse, the season felt jam-packed with new plotlines, with each episode bringing a sudden colossal issue and just as quick of a resolution.

With very little heart-warming dialogue normally expected in the finale of a show and too many sound-effects and scene changes, the ending felt rushed. A new conflict, climax and unexpected resolution were all slipped in at the last few minutes of the final episode.

And there was one question I kept wondering as the show played out its final scene, without spoiling too much—they are witches, can’t they resurrect them? They’ve brought back plenty of people from the dead.

With harbingers of destruction, teenage love and angst, alternative realities and lots of spells and magic, “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 4” will have viewers not knowing what’s going to happen next and wondering “why does everything bad happen to Sabrina Spellman?”

Yet the dramatic ending will also leave fans wanting more, with unresolved questions leaving potential for another season.

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SPORTS Trying to fill the void Sport leagues across the world combat the inability to host fans

BY KATHERIN RAYGOZA sports@theaggie.org For a variety of reasons, this past year was difficult for sports around the world. Stadiums were mostly empty because of local restrictions caused by the pandemic. As teams approached their seasons without any fans in the stands, numerous unique innovations were created to fill the void in games.

Thanks to technology, fans are now allowed to attend live games from their homes.

The National Football League (NFL) started its season back in September 2020 and the number of attendees drastically dropped, as some stadiums were not allowed to have any fans in the arena. To help fans stay engaged on game days, Microsoft teamed up with the NFL and created a platform so fans could attend the games through a digital screen, which brought a different experience from past years.

“As demographics and viewing habits change and society becomes more digital in the way they consume information, the venues also have to change,” said Bennett Indart, a vice president at NTT Smart World Solutions.

These fan screens are called “fan mosaics” and will only be seen on the end zones of the field in key games with no fans, so that players are able to interact with them. For every game, Microsoft creates audio modifications to project an augmented crowd noise and try to mimic that of a real game.

This year’s fans will not be able to line up on ropes or cheer for their favorite players in the U.S. Women’s Open. While the pandemic made it difficult to host the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tournaments, the U.S. Golf Association and Cisco launched an app that provided viewers with an at-home experience.

The virtual experience has been designed so fans can download the app and watch the tournament from a distance. Not only will fans have a complete experience, but they will also have access to realtime scores, stats, highlights, live-streaming video, player tracking and more.

Being connected through a screen not only gives fans the joy of watching live, but it gives leagues an opportunity to expand the audience.

“Cisco brings the technology that enables us to connect fans to the U.S. Open,” said Bryan Miranda, the senior director of partnerships at the United States Golf Association (USGA).

Major League Baseball (MLB) took a different approach to filling in the seats of the stadiums.

Teams placed cardboard cutouts of people in each seat, relied on fake fan noise and had music along with the usual in-stadium PA announcers.

At first, Fox Sports had to move quickly and broadcast games without any fans on the stands. As the season progressed, they moved to augmented reality to fill the void of the empty stadium caused by the ongoing pandemic. The MLB teamed up with Silver Spoon Animation to create realistic virtual crowds in the stadium.

“We believe the crowd and seeing people in seats is part of a broadcast, is part of broadcasting high level sports in the major leagues,” said Brad Zager, the executive producer and head of production and operations at Fox Sports. “So we wanted to come up with a solution for that.”

Similarly, in the beginning of the soccer season, fans had no way of interacting with the game. The only way to watch the games was from your home on live television. The stadiums were completely empty, there were no in-stadium commentators and the shouts from players could be heard.

New York Mets’ outfielder Yoenis Céspedes prepares to bat in front of the cardboard cutout fans. (Al Bello / Getty Images) Popular soccer leagues from all over the world began to take different approaches. La Liga, Spain’s top flight league, generated screens with virtual fans, similar to MLB’s and added the normal sounds of a typical game.

“We respect a lot what the Bundesliga are doing and the Premier League, and the NBA, but what we are doing will be different,”said La Liga’s audiovisual director Melcior Soler. “We are thinking of this as a televised entertainment spectacle. What we are going to do is make you recall what you are used to seeing when the stadiums are full.”

Soler says his digital team and La Liga have been working with EA Sports and Norwegian technology specialists Vizrt to produce images which trick the eye into thinking the stands are full of fans.

Every sports league has had a tough time figuring out a solution to help fans feel present at a game.

Now, with the never-ending development of technology, they were able to make it possible in less than a few months. As sports continue to evolve and improve, technology seems to do so at the same time.

March Madness to take place in the Hoosier State NCAA chooses Indiana to host the entire men’s basketball tournament

Men’s NCAA Tournament to be held entirely in the state of Indiana (Harry How / Getty Images)

BY OMAR NAVARRO sports@theaggie.org The conclusion of the college football season means it is now the homestretch for college basketball. Usually, mid-January includes many conference rivalries and the battle for supremacy in their region; however, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a change of course for college basketball. Of course, the common goal is always a bid in the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) tournament and hopefully, a run in the national spotlight. But as we know, this era of sports has been anything but ordinary.

As we saw with college football, the NCAA and its programs have had trouble dealing with COVID-19. Even with scheduling that prioritizes reduced travel or the tons of precautions set forth, there have been many suspended and postponed games as well as halting of programs as a whole.

Basketball programs across the country continue to be paused due to a variety of reasons, and with the NCAA men’s basketball tournament coming up in roughly two months, it seems nearly impossible to hold a tournament like years’ past.

After months of planning, the NCAA announced on Jan. 4 that the men’s basketball tournament, known as March Madness, would be held strictly in the state of Indiana, mainly Indianapolis, creating a bubble-type environment, similar to that of the NBA’s.

“This is a historic moment for NCAA members and the state of Indiana,” said NCAA President Mark Emmert in the press release. “We have worked tirelessly to reimagine a tournament structure that maintains our unique championship opportunity for college athletes. The reality of

today’s announcement was possible thanks to the tremendous leadership of our membership, local authorities and staff.”

After last years’ cancellation that saw them lose an estimated $933 million in revenue not including the TV deal, the NCAA is trying to do everything possible for that not to happen again. Working with the Marion County Health Department, the NCAA medical protocols were approved and they will be partnering with local health provider to collect and administer COVID-19 tests for everyone involved.

The logistics, travel and other details remain to be seen, but the protocols and locations of the games have been set. They will play games on two courts inside Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indiana Farmers Coliseum, Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana (roughly an hour North of Indianapolis) and Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana (about an hour South of Indianapolis).

The Indiana Convention Center will be used as a practice facility and it will have many courts available for use.

In terms of the stay, teams will have a whole floor dedicated to themselves. Because the NCAA has a partnership with Marriott, most teams will be housed by the company, which has many hotels near the convention center where they will practice. On game days, teams will be transported from their hotels in a secure fashion, to try and avoid any contact or exposure with people not a part of the team.

“The 2021 version of March Madness will be one to remember, if for no other reason than the uniqueness of the event,” said NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt. “With

the direction of the Men’s Basketball Committee, we are making the most of the circumstances the global pandemic has presented.”

There are many questions not only as to how this will work, but to how does one get everyone transferred to Indiana without risking the health and safety of the athletes, staff and everyone else who may be in contact with them?

The NCAA released its initial health protocols for the tournament, and student-athletes, coaches, trainers, physical therapists, medical and equipment staff and officials will all have to show proof of seven consecutive negative tests before arriving in Indianapolis. Once there, they will be tested daily throughout their stay.

Aside from on-court activities, masks and social distancing will be required by athletes at all times, except when alone in their rooms or while eating in the designated areas. All will wear a KINEXON contact tracing device throughout the tournament, which are meant to help with contact tracing and let people know who a person with a positive test had been around. In the event of a positive test, these devices will help stop the spread of the virus before it gets bigger.

In terms of attendance, the initial plan is to allow all athletes, coaches, trainers, physical therapists, medical and equipment staff and officials to bring up to six family members each, capping at 420 in total per team. But, these people who are invited will not be allowed to be in close contact with anyone involved in the tournament.

Aside from family, the official word on if fans will be allowed is scheduled to be announced on Feb. 1, as the NCAA continues to work with health officials to figure out the best option.

“Our emphasis is on the safety and well-

being of everyone participating in the event,” said NCAA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brian Hainline.

“By working with local health officials to develop protocols and administer COVID-19 testing, we are confident we will provide a safe environment for student-athletes, coaches, administrators and officials.”

No official dates or specific timelines have been set for this event yet, but it is believed to be not too different from previous years, where the tournament runs from mid-March to April.

The NCAA could not afford to lose out on another lost March Madness tournament.

Absorbing the cost that this will bring will be worth it in the grand scheme of things, which is why they are desperate to make it work. In the NBA’s version of the bubble, the league spent $150 million in its entirety, but gained $1.5 billion in revenue. The benefits outweigh the cost, but the question remains on how successful will it really be.

The clock is ticking for the NCAA. With roughly two months left before the tournament, they must develop a fully detailed plan soon and prepare for all 68 teams they will host as well as the 67 games they hope will take place. This large bubble-type plan will take a lot of work but if done right, the NCAA might have figured out a way to hold other major college tournaments during a pandemic. Done wrong though, and the costs could be massive. The pressure is on the NCAA, not only to continue its long tradition of March Madness, but to make sure they are not risking the lives of anyone involved in the process.