Pushing through a pandemic challenge

Thompson: 'Oncein-a-lifetime tragedy'

State Sen. Bill Dodd runs into a lot of people on the job. Most join him as a mask-wearing germ fighter. Some don’t. And, while Dodd may have some clout at the State Capitol, it’s not as if he’ll strong-arm anyone into putting on a face covering.

“In this day and age, anything confrontationally is probably a mistake,” Dodd says. “Something might happen to you while you’re trying to do the right thing. You don’t know how people will react.”

Then again, Dodd has found himself in an elevator and someone tried to enter bare-faced.

“I said, ‘Look, I’m sorry. You’re not wearing a mask’ and I’ll send

the elevator back,” remembers Dodd, figuring between home, offices and his car, “I bet I have 30” face coverings.

Yes, it’s been a trying year for everyone — including local elected officials such as Dodd, U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, and Vallejo City Councilmember Rozzana Verder-Aliga.

“The coronavirus pandemic has been a once-ina-lifetime tragedy for all of us,” Thompson said Thursday via is Washington, D.C., communications director Alex Macfarlane. “We’ve lost more than half a million of our friends, neighbors, loved ones and family members, and millions more have been sick. Kids can’t see their friends in school or visit grandparents. Dreams of owning small businesses were shattered. Our frontline essential health workers have dedicated countless hours to caring for the sick, coming home exhausted and scared each day. And so many of us were stuck at home and isolated from our everyday lives.”

The one-year anniversary, added Thompson, “is a hard one, in part because it didn’t have to be this bad. But it’s also a chance to reflect on the light at the end of the tunnel. President Biden just signed a $1.9 trillion recovery plan into law and help is on the way. We just hit an average of 2 million vaccines administered each day. So as we mourn, we can see hope this spring season.”

If told a year ago that the virus would kill more than 500,000 Americans in the next year, “I would have been astonished,” Dodd said. “A year ago I was thinking that this would be done in May or June if we just shut down the economy and flatten the curve. And we all did a good job. Then we got the second and third wave and, God forbid, we get a fourth wave.”

When it comes to the job, Dodd said he misses colleagues and misses residents of his district in Vallejo, Benicia, Napa and American Canyon he would typically see at community events.

“It’s been horrible, really,” Dodd said, understanding the only option is a Zoom call “and, frankly, that just doesn’t go very deep. I didn’t even know what ‘Zoom’ was a year ago.”

And it’s not vanishing,

says Dodd.

“When the pandemic’s over, I don’t think Zoom is going to be over,” he said. “For official business, I’ve got a feeling we’ll be running with video calls and conferencing.”

COVID-19 or not, “we still have a job to do in Sacramento and not just with the pandemic. The wildfires. Homelessness. There are really critically important issues in the Legislature,” Dodd said.

Of Dodd’s 20 staff people, he’s only seen a few face-toface in the last year.

“I’m not complaining. It’s what you have to do to get things done in a pandemic environment,” he said.

Beyond his job, Dodd said he’s realized “how important my family is and how brutal it is not to be able to see your kids and your grand-kids on a regular basis.”

Perhaps pondering the pandemic years down the road, “I think what’s going to stand out is, ‘What impact did this have on our society in terms of education for our kids and social interaction with family and friends,” Dodd said. “I think those are the things we’re really going to remember — what we value so much in our communities and in our society in general.”

Verder-Aliga and her family had returned a year ago from a Philippines vacation — two weeks later the state was in shelter-inplace.

“We were thankful to have left Manila just in time for their own lockdown,” said Verder-Aliga, in her eighth year a Vallejo councilmember, recalling the day “live council meetings were canceled as we went into virtual Zoom meetings and wearing masks, washing hands, 6-feet distancing became the norm.”

Verder-Aliga continued her job with Solano County Behavioral Health clinics as an “essential” employee.

“I had to learn and train staff how to use Zoom and or Microsoft Team virtual platforms to do their work and provide services to our mental health clients,” she said. “Of course, all social events were canceled.”

Before Verder-Aliga knew it, “I was gravely concerned about the rising COVID-19 infections and death toll. I remember talking to frontline health care workers who were exhausted taking care of sick people. I remember tuning in on CNN every day to monitor what was going on in the country and the world. I was

worried about the health and safety of my family, coworkers and friends. No one ever thought that this public health crisis was going to last this long. I am grateful to all our frontline workers for their hard work and sacrifices. I am also thankful that at least we now see a light at the end of the tunnel. There is hope.”

Verder-Aliga said she “will no longer take for granted visiting with friends and family more often especially elderly family members. Being able to roam around freely and get together with family and friends are precious. We have been isolated from one another in own bubble for so long, we don’t know if we are able to get back to normal again.”

It’s not going to be a quick heal, says VerderAliga.

“It will take probably 2 to 5 years for our city to recover,” she said. “We also need to get as many residents vaccinated so we can get back to some form of normalcy.”

The financial burden on Vallejo because of COVID-19 “is in the millions,” said Verder-Aliga, because of decreased tax revenues, business closures, delay in economic development projects and lost jobs.

“We all need to make sacrifices, be patient and take care of ourselves. We had a recession in 2008 and we survived,” Verder-Aliga said. “I am confident that we will survive this current crisis. I believe in the American spirit.”

Dodd said President Biden’s just-signed COVID-19 relief package “will be particularly good for the Vallejo ferry system in keeping it operating. With the pandemic, nobody’s been riding transit. It’s been devastating. And we have to get kids back in the classroom.”

Dodd knows how he’ll celebrate the pandemic’s ending.

“I’m looking forward to getting back to community events,” he said. “And seeing live music. I miss music. “

One other dream postpandemic.

“Go to a full stadium and watch the San Francisco Giants win another World Series,” he said.

Dodd’s legislative colleagues from Los Angeles might disagree.

Championship baseball or not, “I’d be very, very happy if it’s 100 years until the next pandemic,” Dodd said.