What Matters Most For Your Health?

When the pandemic forced day programs for people with developmental disabilities to close, some made a rapid turn to virtual activities. In Richmond, a progressive art studio ensures its artists with developmental disabilities remain connected.

Bay Area health departments have been reaching out to leaders in Black communities to talk to them about the COVID-19 vaccine. These are communities that are disproportionately vulnerable, yet also ones with most hesitancy to trust the vaccine. 

As the COVID-19 vaccine rollouts continue across the state and the country, there have been multiple polls, surveys, and articles that say among all racial and ethnic groups, Black Americans are the most hesitant to get it.

News about the pandemic has been hard to miss. Coronavirus hospitalizations are soaring across California, leading to stricter COVID-19 restrictions in much of the state. Health officials are preparing for another surge of cases in the next few weeks, and they predict hospital ICU beds could reach peak capacity soon.

I visit the bottom floor of the Alisal Health Center in East Salinas in February. It’s home to the Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program, where new parents on Medi-Cal can get prenatal or postpartum care. 

This summer, farmworkers in California have been working with extreme heat, wildfire smoke, and, in Monterey County, high rates of COVID-19 as they harvest and pick the food we eat every day. Then, there’s another health concern, and it’s been around for much longer — pesticide exposure.

In Salinas, if you make a run to the grocery store to pick up a bag of kale, you’ll probably pass rows and rows of the leafy green.