Today on AirTalk, we break down the latest COVID-19 headlines. Also on the show, we learn more about COVID-19 vaccine passports, discuss racism in the Nextdoor app and talk about the closing of the 90-year-old Boyle Heights Sears location.
COVID-19 AMA: More Californians Are Eligible For The Vaccine, Astrazeneca Latest And More
In our continuing series looking at the latest medical research and news on COVID-19, Larry Mantle speaks with Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at the UCSF Medical Center.
Topics today include:
California has opened up vaccine eligibility and it’s relying on the honor system
Should we be worried about the Astrazeneca vaccine?
Did virus variants evolve in people with weakened immune systems?
A listener wrote to us saying she was experiencing vaccine guilt
6 feet distance is the wisdom, but can kids at schools be seated closer together?
According to the DOH, three vaccinated people in Hawaii tested positive for COVID
Americans are pretty great at getting their second vaccine dose
LA County has partnered with Healthvana to create vaccine passports - what are the ethics and also how are other countries negotiating similar passport systems?
Guest:
Peter Chin-Hong, M.D., infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at the UCSF Medical Center; he tweets
What The Present (And Future) Of Vaccination Records Looks Like Here And Abroad, And The Ethical Issues That Come With Them
As more people get shots of the COVID-19 vaccine in their arms, more parts of society and the economy can potentially open. But amid a massive vaccine rollout with lots of people making their case for why they should be at the front of the line, how will local and state officials keep track of who has been vaccinated, and what potential ethical issues could arise from giving out this kind of documentation?
Today on AirTalk, we’ll talk with the CEO of a company that is working with Los Angeles County to provide digital vaccine records, sometimes called “passports” to county residents, and we’ll look at some of the ethical concerns that may arise with opening certain parts of society to those who have been vaccinated.
Guests:
Ramin Bastani, CEO of Healthvana, a Los Angeles-based company that provides patient platforms to healthcare providers; Healthvana has partnered with Los Angeles County to provide residents with digital vaccine records
Nicole Hassoun, visiting scholar at the Mario Einaudi
NextDoor Promised Changes To Make Its App Less Discriminatory. Has The App’s Culture Improved?
NextDoor, the neighborhood app that is intended to operate like a coffee shop bulletin, has fostered a community that can occasionally be less than neighborly.
User complaints began to surface surrounding the nationwide George Floyd protests last summer that content moderators were deleting posts discussing racial injustice and support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
In response, Nextdoor improved its AI systems to identify racism, removed certain features, and offered new unconscious bias training for leads, or unpaid content moderators who live in the communities registered on the app. Despite its efforts, the surge in active daily users spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic has forced Nextdoor to deal with racism, discrimination, and misinformation that its platform is often riddled with.
With vaccination rollouts in full swing, Nextdoor is a source for many on scheduling appointments and other related information. Yet, many are worried that the app is not equipped to handle these issues at the hyperlocal level. Today, we discuss changes that Nextdoor has made to address these issues and where they are still prevailing. What has your experience been using Nextdoor? Call and tell us about it at 866-893-5722.
We reached out to NextDoor. They responded with this statement:
Our purpose at Nextdoor is to cultivate a kinder world where neighbors can rely on one another, where all feel welcome. As a community building platform, we explicitly prohibit racism, discrimination, or hate speech of any kind and take this issue extraordinarily seriously. Our Anti-racism taskforce, working with outside bias and social justice experts and academics, has been hard at work updating community guidelines, building products, and putting diversity at the fore, adding to our Boards and employee base.
In an effort to ensure neighborhoods on Nextdoor reflect the diversity of neighborhoods in real life, we have taken several important steps:
Strengthened our community guidelines to more succinctly define the values of the community we want to build together at Nextdoor.
Rolled out our Neighbor Pledge globally, which defines the behaviors that are expected and the values of the communities we are helping to build. Accepting the pledge is required to use Nextdoor.
Improved community moderation by launching a supplement to our Neighborhood Leads program with a new “community reviewer” role. Since then, we have added over 100k Community Reviewers.
In partnership with The New Quo, Nextdoor has launched an online course specifically for Neighborhood Leads and Community Reviewers that provides tools on inclusive moderation and anti-bias education.
Guests:
Arielle Pardes, senior writer at WIRED; she tweets
Will Payne, assistant professor in geographic information science at Rutgers University who researches spacial data and urban inequality; he tweets
Ralinda Harvery Smith, freelance writer based in Santa Monica and Nextdoor user; last summer she wrote the LA Times Op-Ed “I’m the Black person Nextdoor, trying to sort the site’s value from its ugliness”; she tweets
After Nearly A Century, The Boyle Heights Sears Store Is Headed For Closure
After 94 years serving the Boyle Heights community, the historic Sears store on the corner of Olympic Boulevard and Soto Street is holding its final sale.
What will happen to the building remains unclear— the company that owns Sears, Transformco, has not indicated whether a new renter has been found. The Boyle Heights Sears building still houses the department store on the ground floor, while the rest of the building sits largely empty. For the surrounding community, the loss of the Sears is both historical and practical; the store has long been a cornerstone for Latinos living in Boyle Heights, and is one of the only big-box stores in the area. But its closure is not particularly surprising, as in-store retail has declined in recent decades and developers began eyeing the property years ago. Izek Shomof, a Los Angeles-based developer, purchased the Sears building in 2013 as part of a project consisting of residential units, offices, restaurants and workspaces. The project has not advanced, however, and the residential idea has been scrapped. For community members wanting to keep gentrification at bay, redevelopment plans have raised concerns about rising prices and displacement in Boyle Heights.
Today on AirTalk, we’re learning more about the history and local significance of the Boyle Heights Sears store and other community retail touchstones. Did you grow up going to the Boyle Heights Sears, or another store that served as a community hub? What do these store closures mean to you? Give us a call at 866-893-5722.
Guest:
Michael Lisicky, retail writer and contributor to many outlets including Forbes.com, where he authored the recent piece, “A 94-Year-Old Sears Store Has Never Given Up On A Los Angeles Neighborhood, But That May Soon Change”