Patterns of public health policy around the coronavirus are beginning to repeat themselves.

When the COVID-19 pandemic reached the U.S. eight months ago, state officials urged Californians to stay home to prevent the potential spread of the virus. It was intended as a temporary measure, and for a moment it appeared to be working. My early reporting focused on the details of the lockdown, followed by evidence that California was “crushing the curve” and keeping case numbers down.

Eight months later, we’re essentially back where we started. California officials have instituted a new curfew that bans social gatherings between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. The majority of counties are in the most restrictive category in the state’s color-coded reopening system. Cases and hospitalizations are on the rise, and officials fear holiday gatherings will only exacerbate this trend.

As CapRadio’s health care reporter, it’s my job to send a message to our listeners: it’s not over yet.

Vaccine development offers some hope of protection in the coming months, but it won’t be universally available at first, and it won’t put an immediate end to virus transmission. As we head toward the end of 2020, I’ve been checking in with doctors, public health officials, academics and community members about their fears and concerns.

Here are some of the biggest issues that have sprung up in my reporting over the last two months:

Gatherings are still a major problem.

Health officials in Sacramento County say the main reason for the ongoing spread of the virus is that people are continuing to gather indoors with friends and family.

The state put out guidelines this fall asking people to only socialize outdoors, and with limitations on who they invite. But experts are worried that guidance will go by the wayside during the colder months.

Back in September, UC Berkeley epidemiologist John Swarzberg described a worst-case scenario to me:

“That we loosen up society too quickly in terms of businesses and other activities and that results in another surge in early to mid- November, and the holiday travel of Thanksgiving and Christmas exacerbate that problem greatly … that would portend a very bad prognosis for 2021.”

So far, this has proven to be true. California’s testing positivity rate is now 6.2%, up from just 2.8% in October.

Flu season poses a dual threat to health care systems.

As a health care reporter, I write a story every year urging people to get a flu shot. This year, that message took on new urgency.

“While we continue to grapple with COVID-19, we run the risk of further straining our already-taxed health care infrastructure if we don’t take simple and effective precautions against the spread of influenza,” Los Angeles-based physician Dr. Jack Chao told me.

It can be difficult for emergency room staff to tell COVID-19 and influenza apart, given that some of the symptoms are similar. And both types of patients require staff to wear personal protective equipment, which some nurses say is still in short supply. 

I’m also hearing from hospitals that staff are in short supply. Normally that can be fixed by recruiting out-of-state health care workers, but many of the national nursing registries are already strained due to COVID-19 surges all over the country.

Vaccine adherence will be a challenge.

Looking ahead, I’m going to try to learn more about Sacramento County’s strategy for distributing COVID-19 vaccines once they become available.

Rachel Allen, with Sacramento County’s immunization assistance program, says distributing the flu vaccine is a “dry run” for a COVID-19 shot.

“We are using every one of our clinics, whether they’re walk-up or drive-through … to make it accommodate what we’re going to need for a COVID vaccine,” she said.

But some doctors already foresee a challenge with getting patients to accept the new vaccine once it’s available. Dr. Beatrice Tetteh, a pediatrician in Sacramento’s Pocket neighborhood who largely sees Medi-Cal patients, says she’s already talking to families about the shot.

“There are people that believe that vaccines are unnecessary, that our immune systems are strong enough on their own,” she said. “And one conversation I often have with parents about this is letting them know that vaccines are the way that our immune systems get trained to be strong ... I think that there's going to still be people that will not want to do a COVID-19 vaccine.”

This week, I’ll be asking doctors how they plan to communicate with vaccine-hesitant patients about the COVID-19 shot. I’ll also be working with CapRadio’s Sarah Mizes-Tan to learn more about how beliefs about vaccines vary between different cultural communities. While this pandemic is taking a toll on everyone, we will continue to provide all the essential information you need to get through it. Stay safe.

Sammy Caiola
Health Care Reporter

Deeper Dive

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My recent story about a website that some have accused of spreading disinformation in Stockton is a story that I think perfectly encapsulates an issue we’re seeing play out on the national stage. Distrust of news is a phenomenon we’ve seen perpetuated by President Trump since 2016. Now more than ever, people have noted how difficult it can be to determine fact from fiction when it comes to the news these days, regardless of their political leanings. So when I heard this was happening at a small-scale level in Stockton, I wanted to learn more.

When it comes to a blog like 209 Times, the biggest thing that many Stockton residents were worried about was that it was spreading news that wasn’t true and that those lies resulted in real impacts on the city. But another problem was the lack of a trusted, local media source to call out the lies and set the record straight.

The site toes the line between blog and news site, but many residents use it as a news source because there are so few actual local news outlets covering the area. While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a private citizen starting a blog that expresses their own thoughts and feelings, problems arise when people view opinions and biased information in the same way they’d view news from a trusted media source.

Motecuzoma Sanchez, the founder of 209 Times, has openly admitted that he has a political bias, and that he does not like former Stockton mayor Michael Tubbs. Some of the articles on his site have accused Tubbs of doing things that his staff has said were “outright lies,” but many of those who read the site may not have known to fact-check those stories. The result, good or bad, was that Sanchez and 209 Times have said they take a large amount of credit for ousting Tubbs in the most recent election.

Local fact-based journalism is so important because, as seen in Stockton’s case, access to community news is the backbone of democracy. Without a local media source of record and fact-based journalism, it can be almost impossible to obtain the proper context and understanding of policy and politics in your city to make informed decisions about candidates running for office. Because Stockton’s news landscape is so tumultuous at the moment, many residents don’t know what media sources to trust. Was Mayor Tubbs corrupt? Should he have continued to be the Stockton mayor? It would depend on what you read for news in Stockton.

As the former Stockton Record Columnist Mike Fitzgerald points out in my story, the “Civic IQ” of a place lowers when local news abandons a community. And of course, without local journalism to cover things like school board meetings and city hall meetings, who is holding public officials accountable? Who is looking out for the good of a community?

Sarah Mizes-Tan
Race and Equity Reporter

This election was different, but it wasn’t voting by mail or waiting days — even weeks — for election results. Having covered elections in Utah, a primarily vote-by-mail state where I grew up and spent the first years of my career, I was used to that already. (Though maybe not used to waiting quite so long — California’s final House race was finally called Monday night for Republican Rep. Mike Garcia.)

It wasn’t even the pandemic — I was still able to interview voters in-person with a microphone on a boom pole then spend some time socially distanced in the newsroom.

For me, the biggest difference covering this election was being assigned “day shift” and clocking out by 6 p.m. on Election Day — THAT hasn’t happened since I was a newsroom intern. But I still stayed up late watching election results and then got up at 3 a.m. the next day to get those results on the air for CapRadio’s listeners.

And while this year has been unprecedented (I’m sorry) in many ways, the thing I wasn’t quite ready for was keeping track of so many ballot propositions! I love a good post-mortem, and it’s been interesting to look at where these 12 ballot props ended up.

As I reported earlier this month, one thing this election revealed is that while California is a true-blue Democratic state when it comes to voting on candidates, voters’ views become much more nuanced on ballot propositions.

We saw this with ballot measures like Propositions 15 and 16, which would have revamped state property tax law and reinstated affirmative action. Despite backing from top officials like Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Democratic Party, both measures failed.

There are all kinds of reasons for this, including pricey campaign ads, geography (I had a great time looking at these ballot prop results maps post-election) and personal politics and philosophy.

And while it’s not necessarily surprising that ballot props will sometimes go against the state’s political norms, it’s always interesting to see what happens when issues — rather than candidates with an R or a D next to their name — are on the ballot.

Nicole Nixon
Politics Reporter

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December ushers in a longstanding tradition at CapRadio called "Sounds of the Season." Through New Years Day, enjoy assorted sacred and secular pieces that will help get you in the holiday spirit with over 30 one-hour specials.

This year you'll also find five original specials produced by CapRadio's very own hosts.

Holiday Reflections with Gary Vercelli is a collection of personal stories told by renowned musicians, CapRadio colleagues, and members of the local community, interspersed with jazz-flavored holiday classics.

In December Around The World, host Jennifer Reason illuminates global cultural traditions through music ranging from trios to vocal and percussion ensembles.

Andrew Mills focuses on famous jazz families as he hosts There Is No Greater Love, featuring the Marsalises, the Brubecks, the Pizzarellis and more.

In a nostalgic nod to holiday films, TV shows and popular traditions that helped shape the last century Victor Forman turns back the clock with A 20th Century Christmas.

To cap off our quintet of local shows, Avery Jeffry presents The More the Merrier: Christmas with the Big Bands featuring swinging sets from Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Diana Krall and Veronica Swift.

NPR's Book Concierge, an annual interactive guide to great reads, releases its top 2020 recommendations. Take a look at the list of more than 380 books ranging from memorable autobiographies to geeky deep-dive topics to current social reflections, all hand-selected by NPR staff and trusted critics. Pick a favorite (or 10!) from the website's unique artistic layout of book covers, or sort by topic, and settle in for a wonderful literary treat.

CapRadio and NPR are accessible any time you want through your Amazon Alexa, Google Home or Apple Homepod smart speaker. To help you out, our digital products team put together a guide so you can easily stream the news and music you love.

In order to better serve our listeners, we now have a web page where you can check the status of our broadcast signals across our coverage areas. You can also report problems you're having and easily access other listening options through our online streaming, mobile app and more.