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