District V Vaccine Distribution Sites in June
As of Thursday, June 3, 74.7 percent of Contra Costa residents ages 12 and older have been partially vaccinated and 65 percent are fully vaccinated.
This is higher then the state average - 65.9 percent of Californians have at least one vaccine dose. This is great progress, but the pandemic is not over yet. Contra Costa Health Services encourages everyone ages 12 and older to get a safe, effective, no-cost vaccine.
We still have a ways to go before Contra Costa County is fully vaccinated which is why we will be hosting vaccine distributions in Bay Point, Pittsburg, and Rodeo this June. With the support of Contra Costa Health Services and Kaiser Permanente, we are able to bring the vaccine to your neighborhood. Please view the flyers for more information about the vaccine distributions. |
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The Price of Liberty: A Memorial Day Greeting Once again, we welcome another Memorial Day—a day that engenders both somber reflection on the lives given in service to our country as well as gratitude-filled celebration of the fruits of their sacrifice that we, our children, and our children’s children enjoy.
I believe most of us understand that the decision to enter military service often has far reaching consequences that go beyond deployment. It often means short- or long-term separation from family. And service members even encounter financial challenges. But no matter how aware we are of the cost, we are never prepared for the loss of a young soldier. We understand that service cannot be rendered without sacrifice. Peace cannot be maintained without a premium. Liberty cannot be sustained without a levy. Yet each loss shakes the most patriotic Americans to the core our souls. |
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This Memorial Day I wish that I could harvest the power of the universe and bring all conflict to an end. But the reality is, those who have lost their lives in service to this country made only deposits towards to our liberty. Freedom is not achieved with a one-time payment. Sadly, there are yet others who from time to time will have to make the payments required to keep the Bell of Liberty ringing for the next generation of Americans. We do not love war, but we love liberty. We do not love to fight, but we love freedom. And I fear the cost of holding on to what we value does not diminish with time.
So how then do we honor those who made the deposit and may yet be called upon to continue the payments?
First, we honor them by ensuring that the liberty they bought at so great a price is granted to every American, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, gender, age or any other real or perceived differentiator. We honor them by avoiding the slippery slope of picking and choosing who is deserving of rights, and making sure that every American, and those within the sphere of our influence, are treated with dignity, equality, equity, and justice.
Second, we honor them by making sure that those who fought and served by their sides, but survived - perhaps with physical and emotional scars - are treated with dignity. It’s unconscionable that we send a young man or a young woman off to war, and when they return, damaged by the experience of making that liberty payment for us, we behave as if they’re a burden. Yes, we have Veteran’s Affairs departments. And we have periodic events where we extol the virtue of them having served. But when it comes down to making sure they have access to services without bureaucratic red tape, we often complain about the cost. How ironic that they made the payments for our liberty, and we question the payment for their care.
My heart bursts with gratitude today for those who made the deposit and for those who continue to make the payments so that the star-spangled banner yet waves, “o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” |
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COVID-19 Adult Ambassadors Help Ramp Up Vaccinations
Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS), under the direction of Anna Roth, RN, MS, MPH, has developed an innovative outreach strategy aimed at ramping up COVID-19 vaccines across the county. As part of the outreach strategy, Director Roth and her team created a program where individuals who are trained as “community ambassadors” are deployed across three divisions of the county (East, Central, West) and focus on hard-to-reach communities, registering residents for vaccines. Ambassadors in the three divisions are supervised on a day-to-day basis by three project coordinators who report to the program manager, Ernesto De La Torre, MS. East Contra Costa County has had a number of challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, with communities like Bay Point disproportionately affected. This reality has clearly not been lost to CCHS since the East County ambassadors, led by their coordinator Nicola Ifill-Fraser, Ed.D., MPH, have been actively engaged with both the District 5 and District 3 supervisors’ offices. On Wednesday, April 21, Supervisor Glover and his staff visited one of the vaccination clinics hosted by Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Pittsburg. Pastor Maurice Bates had been working closely with CCHS Assistant Director and Chief Equity Officer, Gilbert Salinas, MPA, to bring the on-site vaccine clinic to fruition. However, as Pastor Bates reported, the groundwork of Dr. Ifill-Fraser’s East County ambassador team and volunteers from Mt. Zion Baptist Church, was critical to engaging community members and signing them up for the vaccines. They knocked on doors. They stood in parking lots. They did what was necessary to get the vaccines into arms. |
