Together We Heal

all right

isn't this wonderful it's nikki thomas

in the afternoon kblx family we have

another

informative exciting conversation today

and i'm sure you've been hearing it on

the radio together

we heal and it sounds amazing

that's because it is amazing and we've

got

more of your questions answered today

because we have an

expert in the building she is dr

navina baba from the san francisco

department of

public health how are you today i'm

really i'm well thank you so much for

asking it's my pleasure to be here

i love it that we have a doctor in the

house because

all the questions that we have about

covid

about the vaccine it's so interesting

it's an ongoing dialogue that's

happening right now

that's so important and the together

we heal campaign is doing an excellent

job of doing just that bringing the

community together

uh in an effort to heal and to provide

the

information and the resources that we

need right now so

tell us more about the together we heal

campaign and how

how it all began yeah i'm excellent um

introduction about the

together we heal campaign so the

campaign is really an awareness campaign

it was born out of the community and has

really been community driven and led

which makes it so exciting um it's an

awareness campaign

um that talks about how you know people

within the community are protecting

themselves and each other

and their families and their community

members all the actions that they're

taking um and you know at the beginning

of the pandemic this was included

getting testing

um and ensuring you know that they were

masking and socially distancing and that

continues

and it's evolved to you know as vaccines

have enrolled to getting vaccinated

so um it it really highlights the unsung

heroes the frontline people that are

doing this work

um and all of us in fact um in our

in the ways that we are protecting each

other um so it's a tribute to that it's

a reminder

of you know all that we've been through

and where we've come and where we're

going

um so it's it's a campaign um that is

actually it is centered on our

communities that have been most impacted

by cobit which includes our black

african-american communities and our

communities of color

i love the idea of putting some extra

on coming together at this time because

it's

one of the loneliest times because we

could have a whole another conversation

about how lonely it is to

um speak to all the things that we've

been through

you know the lockdown the isolation the

stay home

the are there going to be enough

supplies for me

so the word together is just very

powerful

right now um so how is san francisco

ensuring that equity plays a role

in the distribution of the vaccines

yeah you know one of the things that um

again um the fact that

you know that the the pandemic has

really impacted our communities of color

we were very intentional in how we

rolled out vaccine

um and we worked with our healthcare

partners as well as our community

partners

to ensure that there was um access low

barrier access to vaccine

um and so our mass vaccine vaccination

sites we intentionally set them up in

more the southeast quadrant of the city

so the market

um city college and then also um and

moscone um

and south of market um all again very

intentional that we wanted to make sure

that the communities that were hardest

hit by cobit also had

first priority access to vaccine

additionally um we've done a lot of

neighborhood community

um events um with our community-based

partners

to ensure that that um you know if

people don't want to go to a big

center that they have you know maybe a

small local area that

they would feel more comfortable going

to um they have access to they can ask

questions um and then obviously i'm

partnering with the medical community

because people really do trust their

doctors

um and want to get that one-on-one and

so ensuring that vaccines

um could be made available in healthcare

systems as well

okay so doctor i'm going to hit you with

a bunch

of the hardcore vaccine questions these

are always my

favorite because at a time like this

it's like folks

want like some definite answers and they

want to make sure that they've got the

facts straight

so does the vaccine contain the live

covet 19 virus

what are the ingredients found in the

vaccines and can these ingredients be

found in other vaccinations

medicines are things we use in our

day-to-day lives

so for the first question um none of the

vaccines contain lime virus

in fact none of the vaccines contain the

entire virus

almost all the vaccines have been

developed from a piece of the virus that

your immune system is able to respond to

um so how i like to um think about this

is

what the what the vaccines do is it

gives you a recipe

to um for your body to defend yourself

against cobia

um and so if you think about it kind of

as an analogy

if the first time you've ever eaten cake

and it's probably um you know many years

for a lot of us but if you just think

back to that moment

if you thought well gee i want to make

that that you had no recipe

think about all the things that you

would have to try to do right you have

to try to figure out well it tastes a

bit sweet so i should bring some buy

some sugar

and if you you know bought it or if you

ate a chocolate cake you'd think oh

maybe there should be some chocolate but

most of us would probably have a

disaster of a cake without a recipe

right

but and it's the same with the virus um

the first time your body sees

the virus it may not know what to do and

it may um the virus may overwhelm it and

that's why we get a lot of bad um

outcomes from cobit but if we can give

your body the road map of how to protect

itself just like we need a recipe to

make a cake

um you will have a much better outcome

in fact these vaccines are so effective

that um you know the majority people

don't get disease at all and the

minority that do

it's very mild disease so um that

that is just one explanation and what we

give you is one

ingredient to um ensure that your body

can protect itself against the vaccine

so no lie vaccine

and just one small ingredient that is

taken from the virus but it's not live

um

and then in terms of the um actual

what's in the vaccine

um you're right that there are things in

the vaccine but they're

um there are inactive ingredients that

allow um the vaccine to be viable

um in terms of being able to get into

your body um but these are all things

that are found in normal

everyday foods and medicines so

most of us are exposed to these

ingredient active ingredients on a

regular basis

um and they don't pose any harm

unless there's one specific case if you

have a specific

allergic reaction to one of these

ingredients it might cause harm but that

allergic reaction is very rare

wow i think i think the analogy about

the cake was the best answer

that i've heard in this entire pandemic

oh uh seriously that's something that i

was in the dark

about and as you answered the question i

was like oh

wow everything made sense because we

were seeing so many

um stories at the beginning of the

pandemic about

the virus overwhelming the body and

you know as we go along it just makes

sense that you know

the explanation that you just gave us it

just it made everything

make sense in my head that it's just

excellent

wow okay so what resources would you

recommend for someone wanting to educate

themselves

and make an informed decision on getting

vaccinated because that's what we're all

trying to do right now

yes um and i think there's a couple

different resources i can point to

um one is you know the cdc has

guidelines the california department of

public health has guidelines and our own

um you know government um sf.gov has a

lot of

great resources um so i would say um

those are all good places that to find

good information and correct information

the other thing that i would say is if

you are listening to this and you've

gotten vaccinated

you are like one of the best people to

talk about vaccine and why you got

vaccinated to your

loved ones um to your neighbors to your

community

if um you made that decision and what

kind of compelled you to make that

decision and why you felt

it was the right decision to you because

it is those one-on-one conversations

that really

um help to get the right facts out there

um we also know that people trust their

doctor

and we are making um you know doctors

available at our vaccine sites to answer

questions

so if you do have questions um and

you're in san francisco we can

definitely accommodate that

but um i always think um the people that

have gotten vaccinated and the choices

of why they've decided to

are one of the most powerful tools we

have so i would really encourage you

if you have questions to talk to

somebody that's gotten vaccinated

um or talk to your doctor and if you

have been vaccinated to kind of spread

the word

amazing amazing i'm so glad that we get

together for conversations like this

because they

really really allow us to feel

empowered and also shift into a decision

one way or the other um again there's so

much information that we get

i mean our phones are great technology

but at the same time it can lead us

down all these different rabbit holes

and you just don't know which way to

turn sometimes

so this has been an amazing conversation

and

again i i feel like the weight has been

lifted and now i see the light

and everything is just coming together

in in the brain right now so if you want

more information you can go to sf.gov

and all the things that we've talked

about there's resources there's

information so that you

can make an empowered decision uh nobody

likes to feel like somebody's making

decisions

for them um that's the other thing so

again when we say together we heal it's

not just

a one option thing it is hey we're

coming together

for conversations and for information

and to clear the air and to get

uh the proper information um to everyone

who wants and needs it

dr navina baba san francisco department

of

public health thank you so much

for this you don't even know it's almost

like

i feel like i i'm we're on facebook live

and i'm in church too i feel like i'm in

church because

i'm like preach says preach this is

amazing

awesomeness again sf.gov kblx family for

more information and for more resources

together we heal

i could not have said that better doctor

navina baba thank you so much for your

time today

oh my pleasure thank you so much nikki

take care thank you