Virtual connections with chamber
Join the North San Diego Chamber board of directors, members and business leaders from 3:45 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday for an evening of connecting virtually. Attendees will break out into smaller groups, the groups will rotate, and attendees will introduce themselves and share something they like to do outside of work. New connections will be made with professional relationships to build on. Free for members; $19 for guests. Registration required at bit.ly/30957Dt.
America’s Finest Charter High School and Canyon Crest Academy have reached the semifinals of the 11th annual Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Contest, a nationwide competition where grade 6-12 students and their teachers creatively use STEM skills to propose solutions to challenges in their community. They are among 75 semifinalists whose schools will each receive $15,000 to be redeemed on DonorsChoose.org, as well as a Samsung Galaxy Note20. At Canyon Crest Academy, teacher Dvora Celniker and her students chose to address an aspect of homelessness: chronic pain from sleeping on hard, cold surfaces. They propose designing a sustainable, waterproof cot that folds into a portable backpack. At America’s Finest Charter
High School in San Diego, teacher Eduardo Rodriguez and his students noted the difficulty of maintaining the city’s more than 75,000 storm drains and drainage pipes. Their proposal would design an adjustable net for storm drains to collect debris, while allowing stormwater to run through. Ten finalist schools will be selected for a virtual pitch event before a panel of judges. Seven will win $65,000 in technology and classroom materials, while the remaining three will be named National Winners and receive the grand prize of $130,000 in classroom technology and supplies. Public voting will also determine two Community Choice winners. Visit samsung.com/us/solvefortomorrow.
San Diego Union-Tribune
The numbers speak for themselves. Latinos in San Diego County make up 32.6 percent of the population but are 55.6 percent of the COVID-19 cases, 43.9 percent of the deaths and just 16.8 percent of the vaccinations. Black San Diegans are 5 percent of the population, 3.6 percent of the cases and 4 percent of the deaths but only 2.2 percent of the vaccinations. The disease is disproportionately hurting communities of color. But the help is disproportionate, too.
Two medical students and a professor from UC San Diego make painfully clear in a new commentary in The San Diego Union-Tribune that the limited information made available by the county shows that ZIP codes in South County with the highest mortality rates have had significantly less access to vaccines than affluent, mostly White communities like La Jolla, Coronado and Del Mar. The authors note that this is happening even though Latinos, Blacks, Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders and American Indian/Alaskan natives under 65 are more likely to die of COVID-19 than Whites under 65.
There has never been a better or broader understanding of the scope of systemic racism or the need for racial equity in the United States, but San Diego County officials are failing people of color. And these disparities exist in San Diego County despite vows by political leaders to ensure that equity would be a key factor in vaccine distribution.
The problem isn’t unique to the county, which has vaccinated more than 600,000 people. A Kaiser Family Foundation study of data collected from 26 states last month found that overall, the vaccination rate among White Americans was more than three times higher than that for Latinos and twice as high as that for Black Americans. In California, Black and Latino residents have had 60 percent of the state’s reported COVID-19 infections, but less than 20 percent of total vaccinations. Meanwhile, White residents comprised 20 percent of infections — and 32.4 percent of vaccine recipients. This problem is particularly acute in impoverished Imperial County.
This isn’t about vaccine hesitancy, internet access or tech savviness. This is about the county getting vaccines to communities that need it. Yes, county officials have the 211 phone service to help make appointments and get rides to vaccination sites. They’ve set up walk-up vaccination sites and are going to senior housing communities to try to expedite vaccinations of those judged most at risk of dying from COVID-19. But the discrepancy exists.
In an interview with an editorial writer, county Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher said, “We have to do better. We have been working incredibly hard on multiple efforts. But we can do more.” He also said, “It’s worth noting that the population we’re allowed to vaccinate now is not the same population as COVID-19 cases.” That’s a fair point.
But activists have a powerful point when they contextualize vaccine distribution data in the history of a nation that has shown bad faith or worse in its treatment of non-White communities. To the extent it can under federal law and the state’s guidelines, the county should focus on getting vaccines to these vulnerable communities as soon as possible.