On April 29, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will give small businesses hit hardest by this pandemic a $6.2 billion tax cut over the next six years – a critical lifeline that will help get our small businesses back on their feet and an important component of California’s economic recovery strategy.
Today, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a series of initiatives building on the state’s work to vaccinate California’s hard-to-reach communities against COVID-19, address vaccine hesitancy and drive innovative efforts in the communities hardest hit by the pandemic. New efforts focus on direct appointment assistance; community outreach including neighborhood canvassing, phone banking and text banking; at-home vaccinations and transportation services; and an additional $33 million in funding, bringing the total to $85.7 million, to support community-based organizations.
What is the opposite of vaccine-hesitant? Vaccine-delighted? Vaccine-obsessed? Whatever we call it, that was me in mid-December, when the rollout began. As a front-line medical worker in New York City, I had been working in labor and delivery, in a high-risk inpatient unit, and in prenatal clinics for eight pandemic months that seemed like forever. When I was given a vaccine appointment, one of the first available in our hospital — I moved child care and work obligations and mountains to get to it, without question.
Cece Linder was living in a 770-square-foot apartment outside Washington, D.C., last spring when the area went into lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.
When the pandemic passed the one-year mark, Lisa Phillips wasn't exactly eager to walk down memory lane. She had developed symptoms and quarantined with a suspected case of COVID-19 last spring, lost her mother to the disease in July and been hospitalized in November from what she describes as a nervous breakdown fueled by grief and isolation.