All right, folks, welcome to the second keynote of EuroPython 2021. It's with great pleasure and definitely an honor that I'm introducing Abigail as our second keynote speaker. Here she is, welcome. Abigail is a great member of the Python community. She is an organizer of Python, Python Ghana and Python Africa. And if that weren't enough, she's also the lead of PyLadies in Ghana. She's a great advocate of women in technology and a recipient of a PSF Community Service Award. Abigail, that's amazing, that's really great. We are so excited to have you here and I'm really grateful that you took the time to prepare your presentation and we are all excited about your keynote. So I don't want to take any of your time. So the floor is yours, Abigail, thank you so much. Thank you, thank you so much for this opportunity. Hi, everyone, I'm Abigail and today I'm going to be speaking to you about Python in a Pan-African world. I'm Abuna because I was born on a Tuesday. So a little bit background about that. So tribes or ethnic groups from where I come from, frequently give their children a day name which corresponds to the day and the week when they were born.  So audience, if you would want to know what your name will be based on the day you were born, please feel free to ask me in the comment session and I'll definitely answer. A bit more about myself. Again, my name is Abigail, Mr. Nyami Dobe and if you're wondering if I have another name, you're right. I was named Mr. Nyami after my grandfather whom I never met. It literally means I plead with God. And it is a very significant name to me because I get asked sometimes what inspired the name. People are also eager to know where I come from and it's a big deal because then I get to talk more about where I come from and then they also get to learn new things most of the times. So I live in Accra, Ghana and actually I'm speaking from Accra, Ghana and the weather here is actually amazing. We are in the rainy season currently and we are enjoying a very nice weather here. So on community building, I have been involved with the Python software community in Africa since 2017. This has shaped my career and has given me the opportunity to meet other amazing people. So at the start, I was a mentee at my first Jungle Girls event which happened in Accra here and I was inspired by Silent Works, a Jamaican who is based in Ghana. I was inspired by him to also help empower more women in the field. So I took up the task of mentoring three girls as my first mentor experience and since then, I have been on a journey of helping more women become leaders and active participants in the Python open source community. And so I currently lead the PyLadies Ghana community and together with my team, we've helped over 300 women kickstart their journeys with Python, linked them to internship and job opportunities among others. As said earlier, I've also organized three PyCons in Africa. PyCon Ghana, which happened in 2018 and PyCon Africa for both 2019 and then 2020. Earlier this year too, I volunteered at PyCon US. So currently I'm working on a STEM for Girls initiative which is an initiative that is going to help raise the next generation of women in STEM. I believe that women technology and education need to come together as strongly as possible and I'm doing my part to help create a future in which they do. So there's this quote here that I really relate to which goes by, we rise by letting others which was said by Robert Ingersoll. Throughout my journey, I've found it hard to warm in. I've been so fascinated about helping people climb up their career journeys. It sort of gives me some kind of fulfillment when I see especially members of my community climbing up. For example, if I was the one who recommended them for say a job opportunity or a speaking engagement or their first contribution to open source, it really gives me joy. And what I've realized is during these times that I have so much given back to the society. I have met people who have had a lot of impact in my life and have also given me a voice. And also I have seen a massive growth in terms of my career path. And I'm very, very much grateful. So I believe that we rise by letting others. All right. So I'll go on ahead and talk a bit more about pan-Africanism. So pan-Africanism envisions an Africa with its people unified. An Africa where its people both on the continent and in the diaspora share not merely a common history but also a common destiny. And modern day pan-Africanism cannot be talked about without the mention of Kwamin Krumah. He was a pan-African activist who became the first president of Ghana. He's a brain behind the organization of African Unity which is now known as the African Union. This union has brought African leaders together several times to deliberate on agendas that is bringing unity and then strength among Africans. So he basically emerged as a major advocate for the unity of independent Africa and his footprint, I believe, and his endeavor can never be overlooked. All right. So about identity. Identity in Africa is determined by a lot of things but I'm going to be touching on language, art, and community. On languages, so there are over 1.35 billion people in Africa and Africa is home to over 1,600 different languages. Aside that, too, there are also dialects that are spoken by various ethnic groups. The most widely spoken language of Africa is Swahili. And I believe that, or in fact, it is a fact that due to colonialism, European languages such as English, Spanish, French, have become the official languages of some African countries. Still on languages and on software and technology resources I'll be touching on three things. That is the Masakani community, African language data sets and then Paging. So Masakani, pardon me if I'm unable to mention this well but Masakani is an organization in Africa which is interested in natural language processing research in African languages for Africans. And they believe that colonialism has resulted in a technological space that does not understand our names, our cultures, our places and our history. And a lot of their research has gone into making these things readily available and then to help folks understand better all of these things. In that regard, through their research, we have been able to acquire some data sets used substantially in the natural language processing. Examples of these data sets can be found in news, named entity recognition, machine translation, I mean, sentiment analysis that basically helps researchers or I mean, scientists be able to predict sentiment from people's social media posts, for example. There's also data sets for speech recognition and then topic modeling. I believe that these contributions are very much important because then it makes the life of scientists or researchers easy as these data sets are readily available for people to explore it. All right, so Pigeon, so Pigeon is a simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as straight or where both groups speak languages which are different from the language of the country in which they reside. Currently, there are 18 Pigeon languages all over the world and a few can be found in Africa as well. It is also important to note that it is not a native language, but it's instead learned as a second language. And people often switch between these forms depending on the social setting. Researchers are building dictionaries to actually help convert Pigeon to English just so that we can break or better understand that communication barrier between different ethnic groups. They actually also hope that their research can help bridge semantic gap and improve our understanding of public conversations. There's also the BBC News that's also casted in Pigeon. So these are just a few examples of Nigerian Pigeon actually. So a simple hello in Nigerian Pigeon is hafa. Hafa. I'll leave you to actually go through the second example as shown here. This is also the BBC site that's broadcast news in Pigeon language. Please do take time to visit the site and also try to read the news and then see if you better understand what they are trying to communicate. Should in case you don't understand, you can as well use the dictionaries that are available to explain some of the words that are used. All right. So I'll move on to music. Music in Africa is rich and diverse, considering the different languages, beliefs, religions, et cetera in the continent. What actually fascinates me more is how some of them are used to pass down stories from generation to generation. Now in African music, the works of Felakuti cannot be underestimated because he was regarded as the pioneer of Afrobeat and was a staunch pan-Africanist. He was endorsed by a lot of superstars in the Western world and has greatly influenced the style of the majority of current musicians. So I ask, what would you be listening to if it were not for African music? I think it's something to really ponder about. All right. So still on music, hip-hop, I believe, has emerged as a powerful force that has partly shaped black identity worldwide. And hip-hop is also considered to be a pan-African concept. And when we come to the world of Python, people are using the Spotify library in the world of music. An example I found was the fact that people were using Spotify to observe the differences between 80s and 90s hip-hop music. And by the way, if you didn't know about Spotify, Spotify is a Python library for the Spotify web API. If you have deep interest in music and would love to use the library, please go on ahead and feel free to reach out and also let me know what your findings are. Um, talking about African arts, this head, as shown in this slide, is one of many arts and was produced in the kingdom of Benin, which is now in the modern day Edo state in Nigeria. It was part of a huge tradition of artistic metal work that lasted hundreds of years. It is believed that the two largest collections of Benin bronzes are located in the Ethnological Museum of Berlin and in the British Museum in London. Well, the third largest collection is located in several museums in Nigeria. I think you agree with me that now it is almost impossible to go into a Western museum and not encounter African art traditions. A lot of them are in the form of looted artefacts. Please, our folks in Europe, it would be nice to have them back, please. But then also, we can agree that European artists have taken vast amounts of inspiration from African art and practices and forms, especially the gents of 20th century modernism like Picasso, Broncusi or Giacometti, sorry about that, or Modigliani. Apologies if I was unable to mention these currently. But this is really how far African art has seen the world and I'm really a proud fan of African art. All right, so on community, I believe that the Python community has contributed massively to pan-Africanism. This is a photo that was taken at the first ever PyCon Africa. This is actually not the entire photograph but yeah, this is really what our community looks like. And I must say that it has really brought us together, united us and has really contributed massively to pan-Africanism. So there has been several PyCons, Python meetups on the continent that have seen the bringing closer of Africans on the continent and in the diaspora. This is just a representation of folks or countries in Africa who are actively organizing Python conferences or organizing meetups. And now this is just a research I personally made. It doesn't necessarily represent what it is now but these are countries that I know are actively actively organizing and doing a lot of community building in terms of the Python software community. So I believe that people have experienced in-depth African culture and have met people with common goals which have led to building healthy relationships and fostering healthy competition. So I want to touch on a bit of lessons that I have learned throughout my years of being a community builder in the Python software community. So I'll be taking quotes or nuggets from this book written by David Noonan, a book entitled ESOP and the CEO. So what David Noonan did was to put together a few of ESOP's fables and also real world stories or experiences and then draw very powerful business insights. So for those of us who do not know ESOP, he's popularly known for his fables which generally talked about life. It is believed that ESOP may have been an African from Ethiopia because his fables had the presence of camels, elephants, and apes, et cetera. So as I go on with the lessons too, I'm definitely going to highlight a few key people who have contributed massively to the Python software community in Africa. This here is Malin Mangami from Zimbabwe. She's a director at the PSF and chair of the, chair of Python Africa. So being on the main organizers team has given me a lot of leadership experiences. And on this quote, good managers give street answers including I don't know. I believe that learning to say I don't know as a leader it's a skill you need to master. It's a skill that you need to be okay with and not shy from. Instead of trying to prove you know it when in fact you don't learn to say how can it be achieved or who can do it better? I believe that that way as a leader, you don't have to figure everything all by yourself. And it's also in a way shows your team members that you value their opinions. And I mean, also better still in future they could also become leaders. So I was told that there's this pizza war in Europe I was told that some Europeans love pineapples as toppings on their pizza. And I should also say that in Africa too particularly in Western Africa we also have wars with regards to Jollof rice. So Jollof rice originated from Western Africa and there's always been I mean the fact that say Cameroonians or Nigerians or Ghanians are the best people in making a Jollof rice meal. But then I can attest to the fact that Jollof rice you enjoy the best Jollof rice from Ghana. I think I'm in the best position to say this because I've had Nigerian Jollof rice before and trust me you would enjoy the Ghanaian Jollof rice better. All right, so on this quote, make sure you know your guests before offering them hospitality. Same on food during the time that we organized Pike on Africa. I think one of the things I failed to really research was about the different kinds of foods that people may prefer. And because we're hosting it in Ghana we actually had on the menu a lot of Ghanaian or Western Africa foods. Now I go to find out that West Africans enjoy spices a lot whereas it's not the same when you go to East Africa. And so when they attended a conference a few of them struggled a bit with our food but then I was happy when they started getting used to it and in fact some of them even started asking for more but then I think that to help meet people's needs it is important that you make sure you know your guests before offering them hospitality. This is a very powerful woman in the Django Software Foundation, Anna Makarude. She has also contributed so much to the Python software community in Africa. I'm sorry. So on this quote, the best managers genuinely appreciate their employees. I believe that appreciation could be in the form of recognition, pay raise, et cetera. And also I believe that for open source contributions not all contributions can be found in repository. Some of the contributions are merely sending in response sending and responding to emails about a meetup or a conference such as this. It is a reason why I'm happy about Amanda Kasari and her colleagues project on creating and publishing community-generated contribution schemas for open source ecosystems. The aim is to also clarify who is present in the open source and the impact that they have had. They're currently looking for individuals to help identify these ways that people are contributing. I'll share the link in the comment session so you can apply if you're interested in volunteering. And I think that it's an opportunity for me to also say thank you to organizers of this conference. It's really not easy. I have an experience in organizing this. And thank you so much, Mark Andre, Chouk, the rest of the team members. Thank you so much for putting together this amazing conference. So there's a quote again from David Nunan's book. That reads that a company should seek to develop their leaders at every level, not just managers. I've experienced this leading the Pilates Ghana community. Most of the times, we tend to strictly fall on our team members or people who sort of hold leadership positions in our community when it comes to them delivering their task. But then I think that it's okay to actually train other people or other members of the community just so that should in case some of these folks are unavailable, they would definitely be someone to replace them or to take up their positions. So please do well, if you're a manager, please do well to develop your leaders at every level. Yeah. Yeah, so on purpose, I really love this quote. People want to work for a cause, not just for a living. So inspire workers by helping them understand that their work has higher purpose. This is the amazing team behind PyCons in Africa. A few of them were not captured in this photo and I used the opportunity to mention their names, Isha Bello, Chooks, Jake, Ahmad, thank you all so much. I can't stress enough the impact that Danielle has had on the entire Python community in Africa. I'm sure that a few of us in the audience may know Danielle. Thank you so much for all the work you keep doing with the Python software community in Africa. And there's also Rex Ford who has volunteered so much to capture these amazing images. Without him, we wouldn't have been able to tell our stories graphically or using graphical representations. Thank you all so much. I believe that without the numerous volunteers, advocates and mentors, none of all we have achieved in Africa would be possible. So these are a few challenges that we are facing in Africa, challenges that I believe that we face in Africa. There's this bit about opportunities. I've realized that ever since those spare or arise in remote work opportunities, I have seen a lot of senior developers in Africa get a lot of these opportunities living behind junior developers. And I asked myself, how then do these junior developers become senior developers if we don't give them a shot? So I will entreat you if you're a developer, advocate in your organization and you're looking into hiring African talent, please do want to look in the way of junior developers as well. Another issue that we also have or is centered around internet. These are, this particular internet issue can be seen in two different ways. Either you don't easily have access to internet or internet is expensive here in Africa. I also think that another challenge is travel and then visa. So I've experienced this and I know a few other Africans who have also experienced visa denials to be able to contribute to same. Other big conferences that happen in the Western world. I believe that it is a problem that we really face here. So putting everything together and going back to the beginning, I would like you to ponder on these. On language, we all can now attest that Africa is a continent of resourceful, inventive polyglots and also the fact that Europe has left its languages in Africa and they are now in our hands. African words, patterns and concepts have entered the languages. They are changing them or we are changing them and Africanizing them whether anyone likes it or not. Thank you so much. Africa is going to take care of your languages for you. And so on thought, I believe that Kwame Prumas politist of pan-Africanism has helped shape not just the African continent but the entire post-colonial world. And also if we are going to consider whether East or West African, it will be a nice example if it is true. But either way, the world is thinking or the world's thinking is full of African concepts, stories and ideas. On food, European cooking is full of African ingredients and flavors. I believe you can attest to the fact that you are literally eating African influences. On arts, African arts traditions have driven European arts forward for over 150 years. On people, African people are at work right here and right now. We are making a difference in our Python community. We have folks like Marlene, Jessica O'Pane, Mani Young, Michael, just to name a few. Taking part in the international Python community. And in fact, myself here, given this talk, we are making a difference that affects you. So on how will Python programming be transformed in African hands? I believe that Africa has made its marks on the world's languages, music, food, arts, communities, just to name a few. And it has a history and culture of taking all the influences that comes its way, adapting them to its needs and sending them back transformed. Does anyone imagine an Africa or does anyone imagine Africa will not do the same with Python programming language or in fact, or with programming in general? Python is in Africa and growing. And that means that Africa is in Python as well. Nobody can see what software will look like in future. But without doubt, I believe that Africa will be a part of it and a way it works and what it's useful and what it does. On this note, if you're an African in the diaspora, I mean treating you to go back to your roots, find ways to positively impact the hope and Africanism movement. We all look forward to a better Africa with its people continually impacting the entire world. On this moment, and in the many languages that I can speak, I say, biebla, medase, ape, and thank you. Wow, that was fantastic. I loved it. Thank you so much. Really, it was really great. It was really interesting. I also liked, and I was looking at and there was confetti now in the room. I was also looking at the questions and everybody was saying how, also just listening to you is just fantastic. I will say one thing. Don't put anything like pineapple on pizza. No, no, no, that's not okay. So we have a few minutes left. So there were some questions. I will go in order here in the room. There are lots of comments here. And Chuck is also showing up. Hello, Chuck. So first of all, there was a question about pigeon. So I will show it here on the screen. And the question was, do you think that pigeon could be thought a little bit like Esperanto, trying to create a global language that everybody can speak? Well, I don't know much about Esperanto, but then yes, it's, pigeon has proven to break the communication barrier in some areas in Africa. And I believe that if it is similar to Esperanto, I believe that it is really helping to sort of bridge that communication barrier. Yeah. Fantastic. Another question here. I will show it to you here. So one thing that we do a lot at EuroPython is processing visa support letters for people. And we do have the issue that, especially for some countries, it's we get a very high rejection rate for visas. Do you think we can do something better there to avoid this problem of getting this visa denied? Yes. I think so. And I have actually experienced that where organizers of DjangoCon really went all out to try and then get my visa. I mean, then when it was denied, I think, yes, the community can do a lot. I mean, say if we have a way to kind of reach out to the embassies and give them all the info they need on say Africans who are traveling to Europe to kind of experience the conference, I think it would really be of much help because then we wouldn't have to answer a whole lot of questions and there wouldn't be doubts from the embassies as to if we are indeed attending the conference. Yeah, yeah, I can understand. I can understand. Then there was a quick, just in the last minute, there was just a quick comment saying that we are happy to see, I'll also show it, that there are initiatives, written documents, written information, written resources in pigeon because lots of people speak it and it's important. So I was very happy that you showed us the BBC and other. Yeah, I'm really glad I was able to highlight that. Thank you. Awesome. So we are out of time. Remember, folks, there are two, not one, two social events. There is a cooking show by Chok, we use so far, appearing is appearing briefly and there is a game board games with Alan, I believe. They are in Optiver and in Brian, they will be on Zoom and the links are in the room descriptions, in the room topics. So click and join. They will start in three minutes at 1805 Central European Summer Time. All right, so thank you, Abigail, again. It was a fantastic presentation and we really loved it. Thank you. Bye.


So basically it's nearing the end of finals period right now And I realized I've not been filming anything because I've just been so stressed and so busy trying to Actually, you know do well on my finals because apparently that's good So yeah, it's been it's been an absolute time wish I was filming more But I wanted to at least put out kind of one video During finals period to kind of give you guys a quick update and let you guys know How stressed I am because I feel like that's important You know showing like a lot of times It's like I feel like these college logs are just like oh everything's so great everything's so happy But a lot of times I'm just like really really stressed and don't have a lot of time to do much But I thought I'd give you guys a little peek into my life. So actually One big thing actually one of my classes didn't have a final exam and had a final project So this was my digital systems class, which is kind of a crash course and microprocessors concurrence operating systems and like real-time scheduling and all that kind of cool stuff That probably is meaningless to you guys. But anyways, we had a final project me and my one of my good friends Tommy It was actually a partner project. So we we chose to make an 8-bit game emulator So I don't know if you guys have heard of like something called chip 8 but basically chip 8 was like a it was a Kind of computer system that was used in this in the 70s to actually like run 8-bit video games So what we did is we implemented a basically a chip 8 virtual machine on an Arduino So yeah, it was close to 2,000 lines of code. The hardware itself wasn't that complicated. It's actually it's actually right here So the hardware only pretty much consisted of what an LCD screen driver for the LCD screen The Arduino and then like a button pad so it was It was interesting to say the least but basically we implemented it first on a computer and got it to work with the like computer graphics and everything and then honestly The hardest part was taking all those keyboard inputs taking all the the graphics and stuff that worked on like a fast Processor on a computer and then trying to get it to work on that tiny thing So I'll actually give you guys a little demo right now. Just to show you how it works Yeah, my room's an absolute mess. I normally try to clean my room for these videos to kind of make it seem like I'm you know living Somewhere that is actually functional, but I'm not at the moment I have no motivation nor need to clean my room because I'm just very sleep deprived But anyways, I'm uploading a video right now, but you know, we can put the computer and get this going regardless Yeah, what videos this wake why waking up at 5 a.m. In college sucks We're always on the grind whether it seems like we are or not And yeah, let's get this demo going All right, so basically I'm really I can attempt to kind of explain how this works because it's really complicated But basically we have this we have this main Arduino driver program that really like in reality Is not doing that much it's just kind of mapping setting up the keypad ab objects the the LCD screen object And then it has this giant like switch statement just for all the different op codes Because it is it is practically like a virtual machine So it has different op codes for different functions and there's different functions associated with each of those op codes And those are actually all stored and like written in in C file So like actually the majority of the code for this project is not Arduino like we maybe have what like 150 lines of Arduino code everything else we have like four full C libraries a full of like Lines and lines of C code like I said, we're close to 2,000 lines at this point. It's it's absolutely insane But basically this is this is what it looks like So this is a this is one of the games that the chip a can play it's called airplane So as you can see it isn't on Arduino So the screen updating isn't exactly the fastest, but we have a little airplanes flying around I think if we do this right, we can actually drop bombs You know the keypad and but I think it's key number Key number eight click key number eight we can Oh, it's not key number eight. Okay. It's one of these buttons. That's where oh, there we are. There we are See and it drops bombs. I think basically you try to not drop bombs on other airplanes And if the bomb reaches the ground you got a successful hit and that's a point But basically this is one of literally like the hundreds of games that the system can play So we have like snake. We have Pac-Man. We have like space invaders It can literally play any of that all you need to do is download like the little like it's literally just like 200 or 200 like hex characters like it's literally like maybe like 10 or 15 lines of Stuff that you just load into program memory and then it runs instantly because we built the entire emulator it's absolutely insane took a long time to build but That was one quick update on one project and then I'll inform you guys on the final I had yesterday. So basically deep in all of this squalor is a Is a review sheet for my artificial intelligence class So we had a ton of material it was kind of like a like a sampling class So we went into a focus went into a bunch of different topics on a bunch of different things But basically we were we got two full pieces of paper to bring to the final so as you guys can see we Absolutely took full advantage of all of that I think we condensed like a 21-page Google doc into two pages so you can see like back Propagation all the stuff because like we went into like everything like supervised learning unsupervised learning computer vision intelligent robotics like all of that stuff is on there like natural language processing and Since it's a sampler class, that's great Right, we don't go into super big depth in any of the topics, but you still need to know more So that was nuts that final was yesterday at 2 p.m. Actually very difficult a lot more difficult than I expected But we're done with that now. We just have one more military history That's tomorrow at 7 p.m. And then I'm out of here. So I'll take you guys along for the rest of the day See what happens see with the grind Excuse me. I See what the grind is really like not that I haven't shown that before but also look at this view like the weather's finally Shipping up. It's literally been a rain for like the past. I don't know two weeks. You can see See Harkness Tower peeking out right there I'm gonna miss this view. I really am This is this was a great suite. So Anyways, I'll stop reminiscing. Let's roll on my way to Durfis Durfis is pretty much like the Kind of the little all-purpose general store on meals campus that you can go to if you miss lunch or something I've been studying all morning. So I have no motivation to go to the dining hall and do the lunch So I'm just gonna go grab some chicken tenders and some caffeine and we'll keep the day going Good to have been secured


Let's stand behind. I mean, let's not look lonely at the time. He says we stand behind, so we can stay socially distanced behind. Let's see if we all want to sneak out and do our job. Good afternoon, everyone. Joe Prado, representing Fresno County Department of Public Health. I'm also leading the vaccine response for Fresno County. I want to thank you all for being here today. And I want to thank Cargings-Mancosta, Governor Newsom, Senator Hortado, Assembly Arambula, also Supervisor Pacheco, thank you, and Mayor Dyer as well. I appreciate them coming here today and really what a great time for us to talk about the vaccine response here in Fresno County. And during this time, this historic time, we really need to think about how can our nation, our state, and our county get through this pandemic. And the only way we can get through this pandemic is through bold leadership. Bold leadership at all levels is necessary to get through this pandemic together. So as we think about Fresno County and the Central Valley, we have seen significant health inequities in these areas here. Well, we have appreciated, and it started at the federal level, the focus on equity. We've seen this through the federal policies, and then Governor Newsom definitely has put an exclamation point on equity throughout this entire response. And that is something that the Central Valley and Fresno County has appreciated. And that is something that we need to continue to push forward. So post-COVID, when that happens, equity cannot go away. These equity principles must stay intact because it will be a key part of public health moving forward. Fresno County so far has administered 94,000 doses. This was done through partnerships and collaboration. Yeah, great, thank you. The partnership and collaboration was very key and important, and this was done through our cities, our community-based organizations, our local businesses, our schools, our medical providers, and our media partners. We cannot be here today with 94,000 doses without each and every one of you. And moving forward, all of you will be a key component in ensuring that we can continue to make our communities safe and this public health infrastructure that we are building today. Everyone that I just mentioned, this cannot go away. We cannot forget COVID. We must remember it and continue to build our public health infrastructure outside of government walls and within our community. So I want to just thank you, and I really appreciate you having me today. And now I'm going to pass it off to one of our bold leaders, Supervisor Pacheco. Thank you. I'm proud to welcome the honorable Governor Gavin Newsom to Fresno County and the big Fresno fairgrounds. Joining me today are my colleagues, Supervisors Nathan Magsig and Buddy Mendes. This is the home of Fresno County's main vaccination center. The Governor is here to witness firsthand the success of Fresno County rolling out its vaccination program. And hopefully today, the Governor will bring exciting news of an increase in Fresno County's allocation of COVID-19 vaccinations. No pressure, Governor. I would also like to thank the Governor for allowing Fresno County to pilot a pilot program for our essential farm workers. I am pleased to report the program was a resounding success with 85 to 90 percent of our essential farm workers accepting the vaccinations. Fresno County has led the effort in vaccinating our most essential farm workers more than any other county in the state of California. And Governor, with your help, we can do even more. Next is Mayor Jerry Dyer. Thank you. Thank you, Brian. Appreciate it. And also with me, I have Council Member Soria from the Fresno City Council. I want to personally thank the Governor for being here today in our community. It means a lot when the leaders of this state come to your community and get to see and learn firsthand what the issues are and what the process is in place. You know, one of the unifying messages I believe across this country is the fact that we need more vaccines. We all agree with that. We all have vulnerable populations. We all have people within our communities that are suffering, people who have ended up in the ICU units, people who have died. Unfortunately, we all have that. And there is a unified message from from mayors across the United States asking for more vaccines to be disseminated in their local jurisdiction. And so we need that. Those vaccines are the lifeline, the lifeline to opening up schools, the lifeline to opening up our economy. And so we all agree we need more vaccines in our community. I'm looking forward to the message that the Governor gives us today in terms of that increase here in Fresno County. The other thing that I have found that we need just as much as vaccines is unity. You know, in time of crisis, I spent 40 years in the Police Department. One of the things that I saw in time of crisis, that people either stand shoulder to shoulder and they encourage one another and support one another. Or they become divided and they begin to blame one another and point fingers at one another. And unfortunately, we've seen far too much of that in terms of the pandemic and the distribution of vaccines. And so, yes, we need vaccines, but we also need to stand together as Americans and support each other and encourage each other and know that we're doing the very best that we can at all levels to get these vaccines into the arms of as many people as we possibly can. So we can reopen our schools, our economy and ultimately save lives. Next, I'd like to introduce Assemblymember Joaquina Ramble, if you would please come forward. I'd like to begin by grounding myself in a Native American proverb. No single raindrop believes itself responsible for the flood. I'd like to focus on three parts of that proverb. First, the single raindrop, second, responsibility and finally the flood. I am but a single raindrop in this process of advocating for our communities, our communities of color, our poor, our immigrants. And I'm so pleased to be standing here today with so many other raindrops as we are excited for what is to come. I come with a sense of responsibility. Responsibility I learned from working in an emergency room where you take care of every single person who walks through your doors. A similar responsibility I must imagine our governor feels for the great state of California and all Californians as he is providing resources and taking care of us as well. But it is with justice, with gratitude, with appreciation and hope that I am also standing here. Because we are in this together, all together. But I want to highlight, if I can, some of the choices that our governor has made that have put us on solid footing and pointed us in the right direction towards equity. We were the first state in the nation to declare a state of emergency. That was a bold decision and one which we need to appreciate and be thankful for our governor. Similarly, similarly, our governor allocated a strike team for the Central Valley to make sure that we were having our resources during the surge that we had this summer. Similarly, he issued a stay at home order during our holidays which helped to save thousands of people's lives. He also is helping to bring resources here with equity in mind. And so with that gratitude, with appreciation for all those who are working on the front lines right now, it is hope that I want to share the most with you. Because this announcement will give hope to our people that progress is being made to eradicate this brutal virus. It will give hope to us that we can safely reopen our economy and it will give hope that we can return to the lives that we knew. I am so pleased to play a small role here today and so grateful that so many are helping us to deliver for our communities. With that, I would now like to invite Senator Hurtado to the microphone. Thank you Assemblymember Arambula. I really want to take this opportunity to thank all the community members, the Fresno County Department of Public Health, our governor who has been a great listener and just a great advocate for the Central Valley. You know, the Central Valley Fresno County were the top agricultural region in the nation. We feed the state, we feed the nation and really we feed the world and our agriculture employees have been extremely important to our food supply chain. And a lot of us have been really emphasizing that importance. To me, it's a little bit personal because my parents both work in poultry plants. And I think about all the families and the children of the parents that are working at the poultry plants and the meat plants all across this nation. The same fears that I had back when I was a child are even greater today for the children of those parents. And it's important to get them vaccinated because of the pathogens that they come across in the nature of the work that they do. So we've got to start really thinking about addressing COVID today, but also preventing the COVIDs of the future because the COVIDs of the future are happening and occurring as we speak. And there's a lot of work for us to do and unity is so important. As the mayor mentioned, we need to be united because there's plenty of work for all of us to do, but we can only do it if we are united. So I want to once again thank the governor for all of his work and just caring for the Central Valley and providing the resources that we need. You know, an investment in the Central Valley is an investment in California and an investment in the nation. So thank you, Governor. And I would like to invite Congressman Cost at this moment. Thank you, Senator Hurtado for all the good work you do. And I thank all of my colleagues here for joining with us to welcome our governor here, the governor of the great state of California, who is always welcome in our valley. And we appreciate all the focus and attention you are giving to this most difficult crisis that we are facing in California. I think it's important, though, that we thank those who deserve the most thanks. And that's our health care workers, whether we're talking about our physicians, our nurses, whether we're talking about our efforts with regards to those who work in our health care centers or hospitals or clinics. These people every day are trying to protect our health and they are putting themselves at risk and their families at risk. And so let's give a shout out for all those health care workers, not only here in Fresno County, but throughout the state of California and throughout our nation. In addition to that, I want to, it's a fitting and appropriate that we're at the big Fresno Fair, as Melissa indicated. The number one agricultural state in the nation and the number one agricultural county in the state. And this is the center for so much activity and Fresno County is to be committed for the vaccination center that they have provided here. As is said, 94,000 vaccines so far and we're just beginning, almost 10% of the county's population, which is on track where we're out right now in terms of California. But let's understand where we are. We have a vaccine shortage here in our country today and we have vaccine disparities. But I tell you, I am confident with the governor's efforts and with the president's efforts that it's going to get better in the next two weeks. It's going to get better in the next month and it's going to get better in the next two months. Why? The president 10 days ago ordered 200 million more vaccine doses that are going to be provided between now and this summer for a total of 600 million vaccine doses that will allow for two shots both in the visor and the Modena vaccine. On February 24th, Johnson and Johnson will come before the approval of the CDC and the FDA for a new one shot vaccine that will begin in production in March. Pfizer also indicated that they think they can double production before the end of the year and they've been able to shorten their vaccine development time from 110 days for a vaccine to 60 days. It's going to get better. It's going to get better in the next two weeks and in the next month and in the next two months. And that's why efforts like here in Fresno County, it's so important and all of our Valley Counties and the entire state to build up that capacity to ensure that we can address the needs of this state and of this nation. Let me just say that the governor has been at the forefront as mentioned and making tough decisions that are unpopular. Dr. Vorhaw and others have stood up when, you know, it's not easy to shut down businesses and restaurants. I mean, we want to go out. We all got cabin fever, right? And this is a great state. But we've had to take incredible actions to knock down this pandemic when we have not had a vaccine available. We now have vaccines available and it's making a difference. And by the middle of this summer, we will reach the president's goal to have over 70% of Americans vaccinated along with other efforts. Now, a lot of my colleagues say, well, what can you do to help out? I'll tell you what you can do to help out. Support our efforts on a COVID relief package that we hope to produce before the middle of March. It will provide additional support for state, for local government, for more testing, for ramp up of trying to provide protection for our schools so that we can get them open again because we must get our schools open again and to get our economy open again to get our restaurants going. But this is all part of a plan that the president unveiled almost two weeks ago, a national plan with cooperation with our states and local government. And that's why if you want to be helpful, if you want to be supportive, we're all in this together. Blaming and pointing fingers doesn't solve any problems. It doesn't produce one more vaccine. But working together, supporting the governor's efforts, supporting the efforts with the Congress in this very important legislation that we hope to pass by March 14th, we will provide the basis of support that our country needs. We know people are hurting. We know there's frustration. In some cases that frustration turns to anger. And there's fear. There's fear. A lot of people, pre-existing conditions. But Fresno County has demonstrated that we can do a great deal if we have the support for our farm workers. Essential workers, we had to treat them as their essential workers, to ensure that our packing sheds and to ensure that our food processing facilities, like the effort Fresno County did with Foster Farms last week, 1079 vaccines in four days, 91% of the workforce. We want to replicate that throughout the valley. So, ladies and gentlemen, let's give a warm welcome to a dear friend of mine, a person in the first week as he was sworn in to governor as governor, did not go to San Francisco, did not go to Los Angeles, but went to a small valley farm community. And he said, the San Joaquin Valley is a critical part of California's character, its ability, and its tenacious desire to do better. And our farm communities throughout here reflect that. And if they don't have adequate water, if they don't have adequate housing, he says they're not going to succeed, and he's right. And he's dedicated his administration to addressing these needs here in the valley, and he's never forgotten us. And he's made tough decisions that aren't popular right now, as you can tell from some folks. But he is tenacious, and he is steadfast, and working together, we're going to get through this. Americans get through crises when we work together. And Governor Gavin Newsom is giving us the leadership and the direction to ensure that we come together and that we fight this pandemic so that we have the outcomes that we want by the middle of this summer and into this fall. Give a warm Fresno County welcome to Governor Gavin Newsom. Thank you for being here, Governor. Thank you, Congressman. Thank you, all of you, Ms. Mayer. Thank you, Assemblymember, Senator. Thank you to Councilwoman and, of course, members of the County Board of Supervisors. Joe, thank you for assembling all of us here today.  I just wanted to quickly update you on where we are in this pandemic and where we're going. I want to level set in terms of the progress that's being made in this state, the progress that we're also making on behalf of each and every one of you here in the Central Valley, and in particular here in Fresno County. First, let's just begin with the top line numbers. A month ago today, we had 13.9% positivity rate here in the state of California. Today, we're down to 4.8%. 13.9%. 30 days later, 4.8%. 30 days ago, we reported just shy of 50,000 cases of COVID in the state of California. Today, 8,400. We're seeing progress in every category, including hospitalizations. Hospitalizations in the last two weeks are significantly down. 34% decline in hospitalizations over the last 14 days, 28% decline in the number of people in our ICUs. We're seeing testing continue across the state, and that testing is providing us a sense of the community spread that's also led us to a deeper and greater understanding of variants. The issue of mutations is top of mind, not only here in the state of California across this nation, but increasingly around the globe. Important to update you on what we know. We have 30 state genomics labs that are doing isolate testing. Over 12,000 isolates have been sequenced here in the state of California. We currently, as I speak to you, we have 159 identifiable cases of the UK variant in the state. We have 1,203 identifiable West Coast variants in the state. There are two types of West Coast variants. I said yesterday that we had not identified any Brazilian variants, and that's true. Yesterday, I also said we hadn't identified any South African variants that's no longer true. As of a few hours ago, we have the first reported cases of South African variants. Two cases have been reported through Stanford, one in Alameda County, and one in Santa Clara County. So two variants that we identify as South African variants now are in the state of California. So I say that to make the point. Tremendous progress. 50,000 cases down to 8,000 cases. 14% positivity now down below 5% positivity. Isolation issues related to ICUs and issues related to hospitalizations trending and moving in the right direction allowed us to lift that stay-at-home order in the state. And now we're continuing to progress people through these tiers. Yesterday, we announced more counties moving out of that purple tier, and we anticipate within a week or two even more counties moving as that will force or rather allow for the re-institution of opportunities for businesses to open with more capacity. And as the mayor rightfully said, to get our kids back in school. A top priority for all of us, particularly parents like myself with four young kids. Update briefly, on schools, we're working with the legislature on a $6.6 billion early action package. Progress is being made. As I said yesterday, I maintain confidence that we will announce a deal as early as Friday with the legislature that will allow our youngest cohorts to return safely to school starting with kindergarten to second grade and ultimately get cohorts up to sixth grade, at least in that first phase. We continue to make progress in terms of not only those negotiations on school reopening, but also on more small business relief. I noted just yesterday that we closed the door on the second round of applications for state grants that we're providing five to $25,000 for small businesses that was part of a half a billion dollar appropriation. We're looking to triple that and potentially even do more with the legislature. And we're hoping as early as next week to move early action in that space that will provide billions of dollars in direct grants and aid to not only our small businesses, but also provide support for nonprofits and cultural institutions here in the state. So a lot of activity, working with the legislature, a lot of energy, and most of that progress will manifest with early votes as early we hope is next Tuesday and later into the week, the end of next week. Now let me come back to Central Valley. Let's talk specifically about where we are. I just had the privilege of meeting an 85 year old former farm worker. She just received her second Pfizer shot. She's here with her husband as well. She represents now the fifth or rather five millionth person that's now been vaccinated here in the state of California. We have crossed the threshold of five million people being vaccinated. I want to put that in perspective. On Friday of last week, we announced 225,000 vaccinations over 24 hour reporting period that represented four million mark in less than a week. We've now reached five million. It took us about seven days to go from three to four million. You get a sense of the progress that is being made this flywheel in terms of the distribution, the application, the administration of the vaccine real progress is being made. We announced new vaccination sites just this week up and down the state of California. Last week, a partnership with FEMA and California Office of Emergency Service and the Biden administration. Two sites, one Cal State LA, one site in Northern California, Oakland Coliseum focused exclusively on the issue of equity geofencing the geographic areas in and around those sites to make sure that underserved and underrepresented communities are getting their access, fair access and distribution of these vaccines. Our commitment to equity is not rhetorical. It's real. But let me make this crystal clear. From all the reporting you've seen at the county level and the state will be putting out the aggregate of that county data later into this week as it relates to demographics, we are falling short of our goals of making sure that we truly are being equitable in the distribution administration of this vaccine. I am proud of Fresno County. I'm proud of the Mayor. I'm proud of the supervisors. I'm proud of the Assemblymember, Senator, and I'm proud of your congressmen for their commitment not passing interest to the issue of equity. It was noted a moment ago a pilot project three plus thousand farm workers that have had vaccine administered in a pilot that's now just concluded. We are committed to working with the Biden administration to land on a date because I know you want a date for when we have a mass vaccination site here in the valley and a location. When we have that information, I'll provide it. When you ask me, I'll repeat what I just said. When we have that information, we will provide it. Our commitment, our resolve to provide you that support is real. We've had very advanced conversations with the administration. That's why we're confident in socializing that effort. And we are making sure that we do it in a timely manner, but we're not waiting. Today, we're also announcing an effort to take our OptumServe sites. We have 20 of them throughout the state of California. They've been doing a lot of testing on the basis of equity and the first OptumServe site now for vaccinations will be at your city college in the next few days and again focused on equity. So this is the beginning of an effort to streamline, to focus, to re-energize this equity lens, working the farm worker community, working with small business, large business, thank you Foster Farms for their efforts to vaccinate over 1000 of their staff, which they did quite efficiently in this last week. But we have to do more. One of the areas where we're seeing progress is two. We're seeing now commitment from the Biden administration, not only on these larger mass vaccination sites, but a commitment to community clinics, which are the backbone of the healthcare delivery system here in the Valley. The administration yesterday announced upwards of 1 million directly allocated vaccines to community clinics. That will also help the Valley in terms of access and distribution in a culturally competent way to those most in need. They're starting around half a million next week and they'll get up to a million of which California received roughly 10% of that allocation. Accordingly, we are about to receive 10% of another 1 million dose allocation and that's directly to pharmacies here in the state of California. This does not come out of our broader allocation and supply. The partnership again, the Biden administration with some of our largest pharmacy chains here in the state of California, 100 pharmacies are part of that project as well. Again, focus on equity, focus on census tracks, underserved communities. We also last week announced 110 community-based organizations receiving tens of millions of dollars in grants in language, peer to peer, trusted messenger strategies to help deliver the message of the efficacy and safety of these vaccines. Many of those community-based organizations located not only here in Fresno proper but in the entire region and in the Valley and so that commitment will continue. This is just the beginning. This is not the end. There is no having made it when it comes to vaccines but I will make this note because it's important. A week ago you had 8,000 vaccines into this county. This week you have over 19,000 vaccines into this county. It's not enough. No one's denying that and I'll close by making the point that congressman just made. The issue of vaccinations is an issue of available supply nationwide. The issue of scarcity is real. While there's light at the end of the tunnel, that's demonstrable in the state's capacity to already administer over 5 million doses. The reality is at the end of the day we're only receiving a little over 1 million a week. The last seven days we've averaged 181,000 doses being administered every day. The last five days we've administered over a million doses. You get a sense of what I mean by scarcity. So when people say where's the state sending the vaccines? We're sending them everywhere. They're out. The state doesn't hold one vaccine. There's not a vial in any warehouse. The state of California does not have any vaccine. We are part of a distribution strategy that comes directly from Pfizer to providers and comes from a third party provider, McKesson, on behalf of Moderna and their vaccine to communities all up and down the state of California. We simply do not have the allocation that we need to get to the levels where we all need to go. 1.08 million last week we received 1.08 million. We anticipate receiving this week and a little over 1.2 million next week. We have more work to do to get more supplies up. And as Jim said, the good news is come March, April, May, we're going to start seeing more abundance. We're going to see more availability, not only of Pfizer and Moderna, but also, as the congressman said, J&J, the one-dose regimen and the emergency youth authorization. We hope as early as the end of this month and start to get those vaccinations into people's arms as early as next month. So light at the end of the tunnel, real progress across the spectrum, a commitment, not a passing interest in the issues of equity, a resolve to make sure every part of the state is included. And to be here today is indeed an honor, particularly with all these extraordinary elected officials that have one commitment. And that is to you, your public health, and to helping us revitalize this economy, not only here in this region, but in this state. And for that, I'm here with gratitude and appreciation to each and every one of them. With that, we're happy, of course, to answer any questions. Hi, this is Jocelyn with CBS 47. You mentioned the 19,000 doses a week we received this week. Can we continue to expect that in the coming weeks? And what about other counties such as Merced County, Madera County, other Valley counties? And there's just been this sense of the Central Valley being left behind. Given our vulnerable populations, ag workers, just many people who have underlying health conditions here, how much of a priority is the Central Valley? Top priority always has been. We've made that crystal clear. Equity is our guiding lights, our North Star, and we've been, we mean business about that. The pilot we've just done for the farm workers is a demonstrable proof point of that. The work we're doing being here today to help support the efforts that are already underway. This mass vaccination site, the announcement as it relates to how we're going to begin to convert these OptumServe sites in a strategic way is another example that our commitment to you to provide some clarity over the next few weeks. But again, with the reality that the state as a whole, a nation as a whole, is dealing with scarcity in terms of total number of available vaccines. We have a three-week window of visibility on vaccinations. That's what the Biden administration is providing this state. That's what we are in turn providing to the counties. Here's a caveat. Next week, we are going to formalize our partnership with Blue Shield and Kaiser, third-party administrators, in order to provide more clarity, more transparency, and more accountability as it relates to the distribution of vaccines. And that will allow all of us, in a granular way, not only look county by county here in the valley, but more granularly within those counties to see how we're performing and to see that we're getting our fair share of these vaccines. Governor Rich Rodriguez from Fox26 in Fresno. First question. There are a number of people who are waiting on their checks from EDD in Fresno County. What kind of hope can you give them if I can be so indulgent? This is a large sports community. People are back on the field, but they can't touch a football and they can't touch a baseball. When will that rule in? We're looking forward to making announcements. I've been working personally, directly, with advocates that include my wife and myself to get youth sports up and going again. Again, I'm a father of four young children, four to 11. So forgive the personalization of this, that deeply our desire is to see youth sports competition return. Now, that happened a few weeks ago for track and field and a number of other sports. We're looking forward to updating the guidelines as conditions approve for baseball. And yes, I am not naive. I know where I am. Know your audience. Also, I'm part of that fan base for football, which is more challenging, more complex, and we are in deep negotiations with advocates across the spectrum, including the let them play coalition that have been outstanding in terms of not only providing evidence, but providing support to update our guidelines. When I say we're working overtime on that, what I mean by that is I'm hoping in the next number of days to be able to more specifically answer that question because of our commitment to let these kids back out on the field of play. That said, on the issue of backlogs, we went through backlog through a strike team at Edd. We identified 1.65 million backlogged cases. We were able to get through all but 110 of those 110 from 1.6 plus million. And we've been able to close that backlog. And we're making real progress, but that backlog again is dynamic. That was the old backlog over the course last few weeks. We have cumulative examples, and I'm sure those are the ones you've cited as it relates to efficiently getting those checks out, but do not be naive that we have to do so in a way that addresses this rampant fraud we've seen all across the United States. So we want to do that with verification and we want to deal with the sophistication of understanding that we have since last October when we began the process of changing our protocols as it relates to the distribution of the same. Governor, you mentioned the City College, I believe. Do you mean Fresno City College will be the OptumServe site? And if so, where, how many will we get at that site? How many vaccinations daily? Yeah, we're starting at 420 on the first day. We're building up from that. So get a sense. Thousands a week want to do more than that. That's what we're starting. We'll get you the exact address and get you the exact date. My hope is to get it. I have a date. That's the 18th. I'm hoping to deliver before the 18th. In fact, I'm confident we will. If you want to socialize this, say the 18th, but I imagine the chances are substantially high that we'll get it done before the 18th, but that's when we contractually have demanded it. Can I ask if those doses come out of the county's allocation and will the county's allocation remain where it is for this coming week or will it potentially fall back down again? Everything's dynamic. It depends on what the state of California gets. Again, state doesn't have doses of vaccines. The federal government distributes those vaccines through their networks. Again, McKesson and Pfizer directly. And so based upon what we know, yes, we can anticipate a similar amount of vaccines based upon what the federal government has told us in terms of the visibility over the next few weeks. As it relates to new vaccines, the community clinic vaccines will be additive. The site we will announce with the Biden administration will be additive. The efforts at the pharmacies will be additive. As it relates to the OptumServe, it will come from existing allocations. Governor Jim Jacobs with GV Wire. I wanted to talk to you about the planning aspect of this. You mentioned we're getting 19,000 vaccines this week in Fresno County with 8,000 prior a couple weeks before that. The difficulty that our county health department has had is planning ahead. They say that they get the dump Thursday morning with how much vaccine we're getting the next week. Can you assure counties that they're going to get a three-week look ahead at how much vaccine they're going to be getting for a three-week period so they can plan more effectively for distribution? That's exactly our resolve. That's our commitment. And having just received that ourselves as a state, we're now providing that window the local level. Now, let me just say this. The purpose of the third-party administrator, the contract, by the way, will be made public this week. I know people are eager to see the contract provisions. Next week it goes into effect on the 15th. We'll provide much more transparency and much more accountability to these numbers and allocations in a stronger and more clear window as it relates to that three-week visibility. But based upon what we know, there should be similar allocations based upon this week's allocations based again on the assurances from the Biden administration. But this is dynamic. And as you know well, we've had fits and starts over the course of the last few months. There was a moment near the end of the last administration where we were promoting close to 50 million doses two weeks, two days later. Find out they didn't exist. And so on the basis of what we're told, we're able to communicate that to the counties. Third-party administrator will provide even more clarity with more specificity and detail than we've seen in the past. Hi, Governor Kerry Klein with Alley Public Radio. Thanks for being here. You've said that the Central Valley is a top priority for vaccinations. But by judging by the numbers of vaccine doses administered here in the region, we're falling short of most other regions in the state. Is it because we're not getting vaccines delivered here at the rate that other regions are in the state? At the end of the day, I think you're improving every single day. I'm really proud of the work the folks behind me have done. You're getting close to 100,000 vaccines. You're getting close to that 10% threshold, which is where we are as a state. And so I think these folks have done a really admirable job. We all need more clarity. We all need more vaccines that will provide swifter, more efficient administration of the vaccines. Sites like this, they've just been remarkably well managed. This has provided 20 plus thousand of those 94 plus thousand for the region. And these additional sites will provide even faster and more efficient throughput. Can you give us a little bit of an update on the lab in Valencia that seems to be falling short of the expectations from the state? Are you going to do an investigation on that? Is that going to skew the numbers that we have? We won't skew the numbers. We're not going to do an investigation. We are actively investigating. We sent a team down there a number of days ago. It's partnership with Perkin Elmer. By the way, all of us are very familiar with Perkin Elmer. Any of us have had kids very familiar with Perkin Elmer because they provide a lot of the genomics testing and testing for all newborns in the state of California. They're a world-class company, but peers that they're falling short in terms of the work at that lab. We're working through those issues. As soon as I have more clarity, I can assure you I'll provide you more clarity. Governor, thank you so much for taking our questions. David Tau with GVWire. When I talked to my barber, Mr. Garcia this morning, that I was coming to see you, that you'd be in town, he was very upset with you. He used a lot of words that begin with F and they weren't favorite. He was upset because he said he closed his business when other businesses were open, and he thinks that your appearance here today and the increase in vaccines are because you're facing a recall. So I'm wondering what would you say to people like Mr. Garcia and maybe to the protesters that are outside who are upset with you and there may be a recall pending? What's your reaction to that and what would you say to them? Every single day I'm focused on supporting small business. I'm a small business person myself. Started right out of college and grew up in politics. I had the privilege of a lifetime taking pen to paper, getting 13 investors, $7,500 each to open my first business with a part-time employee, Pat Kelly. Grew that business to over 20 businesses up and down the state of California, hundreds of employees. I don't say that to impress you or anybody, but to impress upon you, my passion, my respect, my reverence for small businesses. I was very proud to be part of a package in November, emergency appropriation with senator support and the assembly member's support to get half a billion dollars at grants for businesses just like his, to provide a pathway we provided in January in a new budget to waive fees, annual fees for business just like his, to provide a framework where we're working with the legislature where more than triple the allocation of grants to businesses just like his. This pandemic has put pressure on all of us. The state is weathering this pandemic as well or better than most other states in this nation. Look at a per capita basis where we compare to other large states across this country. It's been challenging and it's been trying, particularly for small businesses like his. So empathy, deep reverence, respect for the struggles and challenges he faces, but I want him to know that we're doing everything in our power to get this economy moving again safely. The fastest way to open businesses permanently is to eliminate and end this pandemic, this deadly disease. And as we make progress, not only of vaccinations, but through non-pharmaceutical interventions like mask wearing and physical distancing, we'll get there sooner than later and we'll provide supports for people like him and hundreds of thousands of other businesses throughout the state. And what's your argument against the recall? I'm focused every single day on getting businesses open, our schools reopen, increasing the rate of vaccinations more than tripled the daily vaccination rate. We're committed and resolved to doing that in every part of the state.  This pandemic has impacted in terms of communities all across the state. And so that's my focus. Hi, Governor. This is Maria Berreyes from Telemundo. They're telling me this is the last question. So this is in regards to farm workers. Every press conference, they have been said that farm workers are very important for the state and the whole country. But why is it that they're not considered essential workers like older farm line workers in the country? Well, our farm workers are essential workers from my perspective. Our food delivery system is foundational to the success not only of our economy but foundational in terms of our economic capacity. And so what I mean by that is from day one, we made sure that we are providing supports for farm workers and food workers across the spectrum as it relates to sick leave as it relates to workers comp as it relates to housing for harvest program now in 15 counties in the state as it relates to direct grants regardless of your immigration status. And I know some folks perhaps opposed by me didn't like that support directly to folks. But with so many people and mixed status families, I was very proud to support those workers and will continue to focus and resolve to help workers across the spectrum that have been there from day one that never took a day off and fed and took care of each and every one of us from the beginning of this pandemic to where we are today. So I value and respect those workers. I value and respect all of you. I'm honored to be here again today and thank you again to assembly member Romula. Thank you to Senator Hurtata. Thank you to Mayor Dreyer. Thank you to Congressman Jim Costa. Thank you to the county supervisors and this and the city council member. Really grateful to their incredible leadership. The county health team here job well done. We look forward to being back and I can assure you we will be back often over the course of the next few weeks and months. Thank you very, very much.


I told you, I told you Aria, today we have amazing talented ladies in the building and the rats was Leika and she's here, we must get out, ya kutua nyoka pangonin paka de jenesh kia kutua Namoratua Ya rasha, ya kua, ay, buwana Inspire a minute in desu kia, so ituka yo kenya buwana Hey! Ya, so we will let the beautiful lady introduce herself, the lady behind the mask Yes, kindly introduce yourself Wagwan My name is Leika Ya, um, I am, what, how do I introduce myself I'm 21 years old and I'm an artist Nice, so why did you decide to have a mask? Because you have a mask here, you have a mask over there We can't see you, we have to see you I'm doing filo, you can't see me Anyway, um, I chose the mask because I was, I have really serious anxiety So niki sumama mbelea watu, it's really crazy for me But it was, you know With such a voice It happens I saw you standing in front of people and you will shake to your knees You can't even speak here With the mask on With the mask on Ya, so that makes you feel so much better Ya, at first it was actually about my anxiety But the more I performed, you know, the more the better it gets So now it became a part of me So I'm just keeping it because it's a part of my brand now But at first it was because I was so scared to look at people Did people know that? Not really, no, they just thought it was fancy and stuff Ya, so you are very new to the music industry How has it been treating you? Pretty well actually, I'm here now, no? It's been nine months, nine months now I'm like a newborn baby I know But it's been amazing It's a roller coaster of emotions up and down You get used to it, you get the hang of it, it gets so much better How would you describe yourself as an artist? What would you say makes you stand out as an artist? First of all, my mask Second of all, my voice I'm not saying I'm better than anybody else But I know I'm not better than anybody else But I also know nobody else is like me So it's like, like I said, I'm unlike anyone else So maybe that's it Alright, so there's something quite interesting about you You've told us what makes you unique But there's something that makes you extra unique So there's this, it's called Simdesia Where an artist sees shapes and colors when they hear music I remember seeing it on Empire When Lucia, I don't know what had happened to him But he got that condition Where he sees shapes and colors when he sings So does that happen to you? Most of the time, yes I don't like talking about it much But it happens It's weird to explain But it happens, it's in my head I'm just like, wow, it happens It's like when you're doing drugs Don't do drugs though, but it's like when you're doing drugs So that is one It's like that for me It's a little, it's hard to explain But it happens When you're just doing your music Or when you just hear any kind of No, mostly when I'm alone And I'm listening to music Especially when I'm hearing new sounds and stuff When I'm listening to a new artist Or I'm listening to like, I'm exposing myself to new music And it's just hit so hard in my head It happens Okay, that's interesting We see you here after a few years So that you can explain it to us more We get to understand it You're just very new Like I said And you're working on your EP In the works Talk to us about that I mean, when a young artist Or rather a new artist Come into the industry Want to say manga I'll just do a single They're afraid to do bigger things Why did you decide to do an EP So soon? I've wanted to do an actual album For a really long time But I had to start releasing singles And stuff like that But right now And in guest studios So that I can actually work on an EP Because I have so many ideas in my head I can just put them in one place It will be amazing for somebody To just actually listen to my actual EP Because I will put my heart and soul into it So I want to work I want to work so much That I want to get an EP So that I can put my work in And put my voice in my heart out there For people to actually feel And listen to So when do you expect That she'll be done with the EP And are the four songs On your YouTube channel part of the EP No they're not Those are singles I want to keep them as they are But I'm working To make sure That by the end of this year I have an actual piece of art That I can share with people So by the end of this year I should have an EP coming That's great What are your expectations As you, you know Get into the industry And be bigger And be greater things Who do you want to work with What kind of stages do you want to perform in Oh my God Tomorrowland Because I've done For people who actually have listened to my music I've done some I listened to a lot of music So I also produced a lot of music So I have done some EDM So that's why I'm talking about Tomorrowland Who I want to work with As for now, here I want to work with Mata Nizhola Queen She's amazing I want to work with Fena I want to work with Femi Wan I want to work with Kinkaka I want to work with Yaba So my dream came true at that time In the song out That she's done with Yaba Yes it is It's on Spotify On his Roomba Ken Alba No no no It's a single But it's on Spotify I'll check it out Please do You might like it actually You might like it I think I will So today we are asking our audience Back at home You are 21 years old I'm sure you just Maybe left high school 3 or 3 years ago 3-4 years ago What is that one thing that Embarrassed you so much That you still remember? Where? Naskia where? Naskia what? Naskia what? Naskia where are you? I'm late for the immigration Where? The first time I actually performed Was sometime The end of last year We had a show after the immigration We had a show We were set to perform Wait I went up there I was set to perform 4 songs I'm out there performing my songs And I'm like Please let me finish What you want to do I want to perform on stage They're like I want to perform Because I'm like bro When she want me to do Oh no that's bad It was after a minute But it's okay now That's okay I did I still did I still did It was It was not really embarrassing It was just It was cringe But I feel like When you are a new artist Yeah And there is a line up Behind you I didn't know you were behind me I know it's not happening Toka it happens I'm sorry but it happens I don't want to get excited Skupo je tafika And then they'll be like They like her But you get this because They went organising And they started to organise Like wakadinali is a different genre Yeah So we expect her And then we expect her to be like You know, Niviri Exactly So yes, you are a different genre I don't want to get into it I want to figure out How to show them off For good men I was just like Are you going to hurt me? Should I get down? Okay I'll go now It's quite tough But Speaking of wakadinali And you being on the wrong stage It's very different Do you have somewhere in your heart That you are afraid That people will not accept it As it should be Because Whatever you are singing You are singing this type of R&B That You know I think I have interacted with artists That do your type of music And they are like What ono I am like I want to be different I want to be different I want to be different I want to be different Yes Talk to us about that And tell us What has your experience been like With Your audience Well If you know what your audience is You won't be worried About things like that Because you can't please everybody We are singing about you Yeah You can't You can't be out here Pleasing anybody And making people happy Yeah But like I know there's a good Like there's a good share of people Here And all over the world Because you know We don't only exist here We also exist in the world So I'm not just looking I'm looking at life here also Because there's Because I also I'm from here And I do this kind of music So that means There are people here Who listen to this kind of music And I love The people who love my music It's amazing But if you're not open to that Kind of thing I don't It's okay It's fine by me I'm not going to try And you know Like fit in To a genre It's a genre It's not everybody Fits in the genre I'm not going to Try and fit in something Yeah I don't belong to just Because somebody said That If it works for me And it's right And it's at the right time I'm going to do it I'm not saying I'm not open to it Juhnikifika Studio Na Skabana Trafengoma Trafengoma There's no way in hell I'm just going to It's going to happen But if it happens It happens And I'm open to it But if For now I do what I do And if you love it That's amazing If you don't Damn Too bad for you That's too sad for me Too bad for you too Because I have amazing music You do action Thank you So why don't people find Your songs You can find my songs On all social platforms YouTube, Leleika, L-E Space, L-A-I-K-A I'm on Instagram At Leleika also I'm on Twitter I'm on Spotify I'm on all social platforms As Leleika Yes So we would like you to perform Your newest song Okay Yes We love it And there's another lady Coming up And I wish you She is gorgeous Yes I wish you can do something That she's also talented I will try to talk to her after this Yes If you're trying to talk to me She will of course Any shout out? Yes Shout out to Finland Music They signed me And Finland Pictures And Director And All of my friends Because if I start calling names Out here So shout out to all of y'all Who listen to my music And thank you so much Yes Alright So thank you so much For coming through as well Thank you so much for having me We hope to see you here Again and again I would love to come back Tomorrow? Yeah Tomorrow we're not here Maybe next week Yeah So up next is Leleika Futureing Frankie Frankie Frankie Yes Okay


Hello and welcome to teens on topic. My name is Ben Skinner. I'll be your host today today We'll be talking more about the impact of the coronavirus on the American educational system We're joined today by four guests three of whom are high school students and one who is a college student So guys today, why don't we start off by talking about the impact of the coronavirus on the high school system? So like many high schools around the country our graduation ceremony at Davis High School has been canceled Or in at least in the the traditional sense has been canceled and we've been moving over to an online graduation ceremony And all of our traditional events have all become socially distanced So why don't you start us off Zoe? What are your thoughts on how this? On how the graduation has been going so far and the events that we've had. What do you think about this? I actually thought that the drive-by like celebration thing was a really nice touch because I didn't I was really worried that the district wouldn't put any effort into Things other than digital classroom, but the fact that they took the time to set that up Spend the money on it have a running radio show of thoughts and messages from teachers and Staff I just thought that was I thought it was really yeah, I thought it was really really nice and Let's see I think I'm like I know social distancing has been lifted in Davis to like a certain extent So with that, I guess I'm kind of wondering Um, I just I keep I'm sorry I keep hoping that we're staying safe because I know even at that event There are a lot of people who are not socially disting distancing even though the event was kind of lifted and downtown was bustling like it was like early March, so Other than that, I thought it was a really nice event Yeah, it has been nice to see a lot of community involvement It's really been made clear that people in this town really care and really want to help us have the best High school experience that we possibly can what are your thoughts Adam? Yeah, I totally agree with what Zoe said I think the event in itself was really like meaningful to me because I just saw like all my neighbors all my teachers from middle school And even elementary school all my high school teachers coming out to show support for us coming out They all like built like giant like Sets and stuff like all the different groups on campus clubs and and sports groups and it was really just like it almost made me cry just like seeing all the people like out there for us like Davis community and Davis parents really care and I think it was really nice Absolutely. Yeah, Zara. Yeah, I I agree too. So unlike Adam and Zoe I'm from Da Vinci instead of DHS So I saw a little bit of a different perspective But I also drove through the DHS drive-thru and I thought it was really nice because it wasn't just towards, you know A particular school it was to all of David Davis's, you know high school community So I really liked that a lot and I thought it was it just kind of it was really nice to be able to like see Everyone like who I haven't seen in quite a long time, you know And maybe I wouldn't have really saw seen them anyways because we weren't that close But like especially my old elementary teachers and then at my drive-thru I saw all of my old junior high teachers and so it was really sweet seeing people that You know before maybe if we didn't have the pandemic I might have not really thought too much about going to see but then I saw them and I it made a meaningful impact in the And it was really nice seeing how the Davis community kind of came together and realized this was an issue that you know Kind of senior year has been kind of torn apart, you know, we kind of were hoping for a lot of things, but then It disappeared so I thought that was really meaningful and it was really sweet Yeah, one thing that I saw that was really interesting was that like you said Zoe there were a lot of people who were not socially distant and a lot of them were not even wearing masks and looked like they were Really making a pretty minimal effort to try and avoid becoming infected So what do you guys think do you think that's something that is like a do you think we're at a point where that is a behavior that we should Think is is okay as a society or is that something that we should still be discouraging because obviously the coronavirus Threat it is not at all gone. So while people are talking more about reopening and trying to return to lives as normal The reality is that we're not in a situation where that's something that we're able to do in my opinion What are people saw so do people think that's something that is okay or something that we should be discouraged? Who wants to talk on that issue? Adam then what do you think? Yeah, I think that we should definitely continue to be cautious Just as like our community and Davis and I think it's important to like continue wearing masks Just like when you're outside when you're you know, maybe seeing friends from a distance when you're on a walk I think you should always wear a mask especially when you're like picking up food or like going to somewhere where people and strangers might be But it definitely is like it feels like some of the people in our community at least at the point where they're kind of fed up with the whole You know like all these precautions and all the mask wearing and the the distancing So I do see like where they're coming from like it's it is really hard to like stay stay vigilant and stay You know careful, but I think it's important and we need to keep you know staying on top of that Yeah, the reality is that really not very much as it has actually changed since we Move over to distance learning for school. So I think you're absolutely right Adam It is very important to still be cautious Zoe. Oh Yeah, um, I definitely agree with Adam that like I can I can understand people's perspective that after two months They're really tired of this. I still think it should be enforced, but it's interesting that 2020 has really thrown so many things at us that now even the coronavirus the pandemic is not at the top of people's lists on what to focus on so it's it's just really interesting to witness that and I still I still do think that like social distancing and mass should be enforced But I also Understand why people might feel tired, but still like for the greater good for the public safety. I think it should still Yeah, we should still try and keep up with that as much as possible Zara, what do you think? I Agree that it was that I did see some people that were not really following regulations in a way We had like for my school some people participated in a distance picnic But that word distance was not actually really there at all because I saw photos and videos of The picnic afterwards and no one like very few people were actually following Distancing but a lot of other people were huddled in groups close together And I just it felt a little weird because you called it a distance picnic and you didn't follow that and it's you know The threat of coronavirus isn't really gone. So you should still You know pay attention to the rules and I understand like everyone's quite fed up I'm fed up, but I'm still following Guidelines because I want to keep other people safe who are you know, they Can be harmed because of this so it's it's a little Disappointing yet. I can understand. It's just it's very disappointing. Yeah, for sure So thank you guys for sharing your thoughts on the high school situation Now I want to turn our focus towards the situation regarding colleges and we are fortunate enough to be joined today by Emma Who is a current college student? So Emma, what is your perspective on this ban as a current college student? How have you been interpreting what's been going on? It was definitely a big change for me going back Home here in Davis. I am attending a school on the East Coast called Drexel in Philadelphia Which was really exciting. I got to live in a city and I got all these opportunities, which I was super excited about but when Drexel Transition to online learning. I think there was a lot of losses on the students part Drexel had a lot of technology that was available for students and a lot of high-tech labs that Obviously a student is not going to have that same level of technology in their own home So that was definitely disappointing, especially when tuition is the same price so it's always been a little frustrating thinking about the How expensive tuition is compared to the quality of education we're receiving But on the bright side, I think my teachers have honestly been pretty good about transitioning online and being understanding of the fact that it's a difficult time for all of us and that a student might not be at their best levels Yeah, for sure and to our current high school students. What are your guys's expectations going forward as far as At least for us seniors our potential first semester of college Adam I know you're a senior you expect and or hope that college will be in person in the fall Or do you think that it'll be continued online like Emma just described? So in my situation I'm going to a UC and the UCs have come out and said that they will be having on campus school In the fall, but I think it's definitely going to be like a hybrid system because they've talked about having some In-person classes where the class sizes are like below 30 students So some like seminars and like certain classes But honestly, I think most of the like a wide majority of the classes are going to be online But we're still going to be living in the dorms. So it's going to be an interesting situation for sure But we'll have to see. Yeah Zoe Um, so I'll be going to the east coast as well. And so it's a private school. So they said that it's still going to Yeah, it's still gonna happen On the campus. It's actually going to be in New York City So it's it should be interesting to see how the city picks up from like everything that's happening Um, but so far current plans are to yeah, so far current plans are to resume classes There Zara So I'll also be attending a UC and it's they said the same thing. I'll actually be going to the same UC as Adam Yeah, Berkeley But um, it's a little interesting because they did say it will be a hybrid system of in-person and It's a little weird because today I'm supposed to do my freshman orientation stuff And so I'm kind of scared about you know applying for classes because it's a little weird because Now class sizes are smaller. So I don't know, you know If I'm going to be able to get into all the classes I want to especially being a freshman You don't have a huge priority over classes unless you were senior. Those are classes you need to graduate So I'd be kind of competing with others Um, but a lot of things haven't really changed for me because I'm also taking What we're still going to be online classes if it wasn't going to be if there wasn't the pandemic Because I was going to take some summer classes online to fulfill some courses. So things haven't really like I guess It's going to be different. But I don't think it's going to be hard for me to Transition I think I'm expecting what I was expecting in a way Yeah, and then I'm curious from our current college student What is kind of the experience like of having this expectation of what your first year of college is going to Be like and then having that just completely altered by the coronavirus because that's definitely been something that High schoolers have been experiencing, but I'm curious what that's like at a college level It's it's definitely not the First year experience that I was expecting when I went to college But I think that you are going to lose out If I know that you guys were talking about how Your colleges are planning to meet in person but Going online, I think you do lose out on some aspects of the first year of experience just in the sense of having The the first year is when you make a meet a lot of new people since everyone is having this new experience and To be fair, I did kind of cement what Who I was friends with and who I wasn't friends with by the time that I Uh, we transitioned to online classes, but I think that it definitely Missed out on I think a lot of things socially as well as different Opportunities that were offered in the spring as well as I think this Is more unique to Extreme weather areas, but I am obviously not used to cold weather because I'm from California But it was pretty cold in the winter So I was not leaving my dorm very out to accept to go to classes because I could not stand the cold Even though I was told it was a mild winter But that I think I also wasn't doing a lot in my winter quarter So I was like I'm gonna get back into it and it's gonna be super fun in my spring quarter And then they said you're going back home Yeah For sure Does anyone have any final thoughts that they'd like to share related to the coronavirus? I guess that's just the last thing I would would add then is that throughout all of this I think what's been really interesting is that while it has been very rough on a lot of people We've also seen like a high schooler talked about a lot of really positive community outreach And people really trying to show that they care and then on the college level We've seen colleges really doing the best that they possibly can to adapt their curriculum to an online format And it's we're all learning so much in this process And I think it'll be really neat to see what long term changes and what long term ramifications There are from all of this that's that's going on. So thank you all today for sharing your thoughts I'm ben skinner. This has been teams on topic. Thank you for joining us. We hope to see you next time