Coronavirus

Oakland Equity Caucus Budget Approved, $26.9M in COVID-19 Funding for Most Impacted Communities, Redirects Police Funding

Published

4 years ago

June 25, 2020

OAKLAND, Calif. – On Tuesday, June 23, Oakland City Council approved the “Community First Budget” proposed by Finance Chair Lynette Gibson McElhaney, and Equity Caucus partners Vice Mayor Reid, Councilmembers Noel Gallo and Loren Taylor. Informed by Oakland’s 2018 Equity Indicators Report, this budget aims to guide the City’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic while addressing the Community’s demands for a transformation in public safety and policing.

During this meeting, Councilmember McElhaney and the Equity Caucus made clear, through their proposed policy directives, their commitment to reducing OPD’s usage of the City’s general-purpose funds by 50% as alternative methods for community safety are scaled to meet the safety needs of residents.

This reduction is paired with investments in the Oakland Department of Violence Prevention, which Councilmember McElhaney championed in 2017, a $1.35M investment in alternative safety measures like MACRO, a program designed to dispatch health workers instead of police for mental health service calls, and $200,000 in further funding to the Oakland Police Commission, the strongest and most independent police commission in the country.

“As a Black woman, I have lived in police terror and do not have the luxury to talk about it academically,” said Councilmember McElhaney. “The call to defund and reimage policing is right, but we also owe it to the community to really get it done right this time before we see another black man murdered on video or another black child killed in our streets due to community violence. ”

In this “Community First Budget”, the Oakland Equity Caucus also increased funding for COVID-19 measures demanded by community members and organizations. To ensure accountability and the equitable use of taxpayer dollars, this budget also included directives that would ensure issues like homelessness, community policing, senior support, and youth development are better prioritized in the City Administration structure.

“Amidst this pandemic and this moment of deep pain, our workers and our community are counting on us to get this money out immediately,” said Councilmember McElhaney. “This is our opportunity to throw a lifeline to our businesses systematically excluded from federal funding, our artists going hungry, and our community organizations fighting tooth and nail against COVID-19 with their own funds.”

Some of these investments in the community include:

$28.3M to expand residential anti-displacement funding
$9.5M for citywide broadband to bridge the digital divide and ensure access to learning for youth and community members from historically marginalized communities
$4M to support small businesses
$1.8M to support artists, arts organizations, cultural institutions, and youth programming
$700,000 to support Oakland’s Multi-Ethnic Chambers of Commerce and entrepreneurship efforts
$500,000 for community-led COVID-19 relief initiatives utilizing credible messengers
$400,000 to support workforce development programs for neighborhood beautification

The Equity Caucus delivered approximately $30M to Oakland’s Flatland communities without losses to service or layoffs to workers.

“We are proud to have been a leading voice standing shoulder to shoulder with our labor partners to avert layoffs and service reductions,” said Councilmember McElhaney.

R. Maurice Arnold

Posts by R. Maurice Arnold

Bay Area

Authorities Warn: There’s a COVID Surge in California

According to data estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the coronavirus in California’s wastewater has spiked for eight consecutive weeks. Hospitalizations and emergency room visits have also increased since the rise of the new subvariants. Over the last month, Los Angeles County experienced an average of 389 hospital patients per day that tested positive for the coronavirus. The FLiRT subvariants such as KP.3.1.1. Made up over 2% of coronavirus samples nationwide, an increase of more than 7% last month.

Published

3 months ago

August 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Photo provided by California Black Media.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

California is experiencing a COVID-19 surge this summer, experts warn, as numbers of infections increased for the third month this year.

State public health authorities attribute the summer COVID surge to more infectious subvariants that have emerged as the coronavirus evolves.

Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, stated that subvariants of COVID-19 called FLiRT increased in recent months, particularly one named KP.3.1.1 that has become the most common strain in the country.

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases expert at UC San Francisco, said that the subvariant KP.3.1.1 seems most adept at transmission.

“The subvariant is the one that people think will continue to take over, not only in the United States, but … around the world,” Chin-Hong said.

The majority of the people who tested positive for COVID-19 complained of a sore throat and a heavy cough. Risk factors that can increase the illness include age, underlying health issues, and vaccine dosage.

Health experts stated that the demand for the COVID-19 vaccine has increased in Northern California. However, people are having a hard time getting the vaccine due to the increasing number of cases.

Oakland Post

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California Black Media

Gov. Newsom and Gov. DeSantis Go Head-to-Head in Nationally Televised Debate

Conservative Fox News personality Sean Hannity moderated the duel, during which the TV pundit, more than once, injected his opinion, and appeared to be providing subtle assists to DeSantis. As the debate progressed, it was clear that opinions about each topic discussed was representative of the philosophical and political chasm that divides liberal and conservative America, and a preview of campaign mudslinging that is bound to intensify as the 2024 presidential campaign ensues.

Published

11 months ago

December 10, 2023

Oakland Post

The debate between Gov. Gavin Newsom and Gov. Ron DeSantis was moderated by Fox News personality Sean Hannity. California Black Media image.

By California Black Media

In an intense, 95-minute-plus televised faceoff between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Nov. 30, the men traded jabs and putdowns, defended their respective gubernatorial records, disagreed sharply on how to solve the country’s most pressing problems, and expressed clashing views on the performance of the Biden-Harris administration.

Conservative Fox News personality Sean Hannity moderated the duel, during which the TV pundit, more than once, injected his opinion, and appeared to be providing subtle assists to DeSantis.

As the debate progressed, it was clear that opinions about each topic discussed was representative of the philosophical and political chasm that divides liberal and conservative America, and a preview of campaign mudslinging that is bound to intensify as the 2024 presidential campaign ensues.

“I’ll tell you why I’m here,” Newsom said. “I’m here to tell the truth about the Biden-Harris record and also compare and contrast Ron DeSantis’ record and the Republican Party’s record” with that of California.

DeSantis blasted Newsom’s management of the COVID-19 crisis and criticized Newsom for prevalent crime, homelessness and deteriorating social conditions in California cities.

“You have the freedom to defecate in public in California,” DeSantis said. “You have the freedom to pitch a tent on Sunset Boulevard. You have the freedom to create a homeless encampment under a freeway and even light it on fire. They’re not the freedoms our founding fathers envisioned.”

Newsom took a jab at DeSantis’ presidential candidacy, predicting that the Florida Governor would be endorsing GOP frontrunner Donald Trump soon.

“There’s one thing we have in common,” Newsom said. “Neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024.

Oakland Post

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BayCityNews

FDA Updates Approval of Pfizer Booster Vaccine for Children Under 5

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration updated its approval Tuesday of the Pfizer-BioNTech booster vaccine, making it available to some children under age 5. Before this update, children under 5 were not eligible for COVID-19 booster shots. Instead, they received three doses of the regular vaccine.

Published

2 years ago

March 22, 2023

Oakland Post

As of December 2022, children age 4 and younger who have not been vaccinated receive the omicron variant-specific booster vaccine as the third dose in their primary vaccine series, following two doses of the original Pfizer vaccine.

By Eli Walsh
Bay City News

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration updated its approval Tuesday of the Pfizer-BioNTech booster vaccine, making it available to some children under age 5.

Before this update, children under 5 were not eligible for COVID-19 booster shots. Instead, they received three doses of the regular vaccine.

However, children in that age range who completed their initial vaccination series before December 2022 only received three doses of the original Pfizer vaccine, and are less protected against more infectious variants of the virus as a result.

FDA officials updated the vaccine’s emergency use authorization Tuesday to allow those children who only received the original Pfizer COVID vaccine to receive one dose of the bivalent booster if it has been at least two months since they completed their initial series.

Other children under age 5 are not eligible for the booster, although everyone age 5 and up is eligible for a booster.

“Currently available data show that vaccination remains the best defense against severe disease, hospitalization and death caused by COVID-19 across all age groups, and we encourage all eligible individuals to make sure that their vaccinations are up to date with a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine,” said Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

Clinical data has found that both the original Pfizer vaccine and the booster vaccine that targets the omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are safe for everyone aged 6 months and up and effective at preventing the worst outcomes of COVID infection, including serious illness and death.

COVID vaccines are available at primary care providers, retail pharmacies and some facilities operated by local health departments.

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