 You're tuned into the COVID-19 community report here on KDRT LP 95.7 FM in Davis, California. I'm Autumn Lab A. Renaud. Today is Tuesday, March 30, 2021, and this is Episode 58. We're sharing local news and resources focusing on what's impacting Davis and nearby cities in Yolo County during the COVID-19 pandemic. My guest today is Ann Turnes Bellamy, who spent the past year doing intense reporting on COVID-19 for the Davis Enterprise. And we'll get to that interview in just a couple of minutes. I've talked about this throughout the month, but here at the end of March, we are wrapping up Women's Hurstory Month. And on that note, I would like to give a heap of praise to the moderators and admins at the COVID-19 Community Response Group on Facebook. I am lifting up the all-female team who have volunteered to moderate and admin this incredible resource over the past year, despite their own challenges throughout the pandemic. In fact, the organization, the inception of that group was inspiration for me launching this radio show. So here's to you. Kate Mellon, Annie Baba, Rachel Warren, Anush Jodorian, Emily Hill, Joanna Friesner, Lea Dara, Adrian Richie, Adelita Serena, Kiana Freitas, Tony Rizzo, Kalista Hickman, Devin Adams, Ifit Ma, Dori Mellon, Ruby Cosgrove, Zocreai Mukome, and Sophia Ocampo. You have done heavy lifting this year, women serving your community, and on behalf of many, I sincerely thank you. All right, moving on to vaccine updates. With news from the Biden administration that 90% of Americans will be eligible for the vaccine by April 19, and many of us who are eager to get vaccinated, Yolo County has updated their vaccine clinics page and provided some other information. So first, you can check Yolo County dot org slash coronavirus dash vaccine. This week the county is focusing on second doses for law enforcement and ag workers. And first and second doses for homebound residents and those considered in one of a number of high risk categories. The county expects links for public clinics to be posted somewhere around April 2 and April 3. And for all others patients is needed as demand still exceeds supply of the vaccine below are some basic steps to follow, along with some websites to check when trying to schedule your vaccine. And I'm told that regular checking and refreshing are needed as slots tend to open up throughout the day. So first, check county and state websites to verify that you're in an eligible category. Again, that will be shifting dramatically as we move into April. But again, the county site is Yolo County dot org slash coronavirus dash vaccine. And the state site is COVID-19.ca.gov slash vaccines. If you haven't already enroll on the state website, my turn at my turn.ca.gov. Another thing you can do is to check with your healthcare provider and find out what their plans are. You can also check with local pharmacies and I do know a number of people who have been able to get vaccinated by just, you know, picking a day and and checking the pharmacies website throughout the day and grabbing a spot when it comes up. And then finally, check Yolo County public clinics for eligible groups. For patients enrolled in Communicare, Dignity Health, Ellica, Kaiser, Northern Valley Indian Health, Sutter Health, UC Davis Campus Ready, and UC Davis Health, and Winters Healthcare. Check individual websites for eligibility and supply. And again, sign up for my turn at my turn.ca.gov. And there's an important update from the Veterans Administration. The VA Northern California Healthcare System is now offering COVID-19 vaccines to all enrolled veterans, regardless of age and to their registered caregivers. COVID-19 vaccinations are available by appointment only at any of the VA's vaccine clinics. And here's a list of locations. Mather, Martinez, Auburn, Chico, Fairfield, Mare Island, McClellan, Oakland, Reading, Weirica, and Yuba City. Obviously those are Northern California locations and they give a website, northerncalifornia.va.gov slash COVID-19. I think on any of these websites, if you Google Yolo County COVID vaccines or state of California COVID vaccines, etc., you will get there. And hopefully find the information you need to get you vaccinated and keep you safe. All right, let's take a moment for music, and we'll be right back with our interview. It's Women's Hurst Tree Month, and I've spent the past several weeks talking with women whose work serves to inform, inspire, and educate all of us in Yolo County. My guest today is someone known to many through her byline in the local newspaper The Davis Enterprise. And throughout the pandemic, that byline has been a lifeline of sorts as she's connected us to critical and timely information about COVID-19. Ann Turnis Bellamy grew up in San Anselmo, California, where she first started writing for newspapers. She graduated with a degree in journalism from Northwestern University and afterwards headed to Sacramento to work for a legal newspaper covering the state capital and courts. She took a long break from working full-time, about 10 years, to stay home with her kids, though she still freelanced for the enterprise and other publications and spent many years volunteering with Davis schools, which is actually where we first met. Ann has been a full-time reporter at the enterprise for about eight years, covering the county for much of that time and the city for the last four years. And many of you will remember her excellent articles about inspiring youth for the enterprise's next generation page, which was discontinued four years ago. Welcome, Ann, and thanks so much for joining me. I'm so happy to be here, Ann. I want to start with how we met because it's such a Davis story. So you, if memory serves, you were editing the PTA newsletter for virtually an elementary. And I jumped on board to help because writing comes easily. And we had this great email correspondence, sending articles back and forth, but we never actually met. Right. Our mutual friend, Jaina, scheduled a coffee date with me and told me she was bringing me a surprise and you were that surprise. I think it was a surprise for me as well. Yeah, we met. I remember we met at Mocha Joe's and South Davis and these Mocha Joe's great coffee shop of your and it was so great to finally meet you. I'm actually going to tag Jaina on Facebook. So she'll listen to this. So first I want to say, Ann, you've done an absolutely stellar job this past year of reporting on COVID-19 and I want to take a moment here to also recognize the staff of the enterprise in general and Caleb Hampton as well for for his excellent coverage on COVID. I also want to mention we're pre recording this interview because Tuesdays when the show, the show airs is a very busy day for you. Every week there's kind of a cycle with how news gets updated from the various public health entities. So, could you tell us a little bit about some of the sources you're monitoring and where you're getting info every week. Can you tell us through how the pandemic has has changed your workflow. Sure. So, you know, back at the beginning of the pandemic, there was a lot of information every day. You'll recall the governor had a daily news conference at noon every day and then also Jenny Tan, the public information officer for the county was doing a daily 10am briefing and now she's moved to twice a week. So, I was monitoring those every day. And then there was always, you know, different press releases coming from the county from the city, from the federal government from the CDC there was, it's just been a relentless stream of information from the start. And now it's kind of Tuesdays are the day where the state now updates the tier system and that affects Yolo County more often than not. So, I would say the information stream has slowed a bit although it's still as far as the vaccine goes there's constantly new information coming out all the time. So it's really just a matter of, you know, paying attention all the time. Yeah, I do remember those early days. That was, that was crazy and I don't know about you but I felt this this kind of franticness to okay I have to give you the info and I have to, you know, make sure I'm sharing out good information and you know I wanted to, I wanted to help people by getting that information out there. You know this year you said you had covered the county before but for me this year has been a revelation as to just how much information and how much money gets routed through the county. Honestly, that before. Yes. Yeah, are you covering do you attend the county supervisors meetings as well. I do yeah of course all virtually. It's usually every Tuesday. Yeah, and every meeting now has a has a COVID update from Dr. Susan and previously Dr. Chapman. Yeah, and there's always a lot of good information coming out of that. I will say the county is really good at providing information. And you know as you said there's like a pressure because there's a real hunger for that information in the community people want to know what's going on. So yeah there is a pressure like you mentioned to just keep getting that information out to people. Right I mean I think people have been really scared through this and you know one of the antidotes to that is getting good knowledge and good information. Yeah. So, but I'm going to go out on a limb here I experienced or not. I don't think there's anything that could have prepared journalists for this year covering the pandemic. And one thing I want to ask you is there have been moments in this year that have just been so heavy. How have you kind of, you know, pushed through that because you have your own worries and concerns right how have you pushed through that to keep reporting. In a way that the job is a blessing because I've had to just keep doing what I'm doing get the information and put it out. I don't know that I've really processed personally everything that's happened in the last year and I've been very fortunate, you know everyone in my circle my friends and family have stayed healthy. But it was interesting just a couple weeks ago on the anniversary of the shutdown in California my daughter and I were watching some news clips of these vacant streets and and how quiet everything had gone. And I said I almost wish I could go back there for a minute just to experience it on a personal level because I was just always looking at looking at it as a reporter and you know explaining what was happening but not really processing it I guess. Yeah, I think I'm in the same boat I suspect it'll come later for us. Right. Yeah, you know one of the things I always loved about reporting is that I got to go out into the community and talk to people and I got to move around and wasn't chained to a desk but of course, as you said you're attending all these meetings virtually so you're spending long, long hours on the computer long hours on zoom. What your strangest experience has been this past year covering public meetings where you've privy to some of the early zoom bombing and things like that. Nothing nothing will compare to that first Davis City Council zoom meeting that was. That was something else. Fortunately, and then it's just the typical, you know you could you could have a bingo game of how many times someone says can you hear me can you see me or are you there. But I would say all in all it's really quite smooth. Yeah, so. Yeah, the early days were rocky that we do all seem to have mostly gotten a handle on that I do. I do one of my favorite memes from this pandemic time has been likening zoom meetings to say on this, you know, Steve, are you there. Is there anyone else with you. Can you hear us. I like you I don't think I've ever worked so hard to connect so many people while being relatively isolated I mean I also unfortunate I have my family I haven't been alone during this time but not a crazy time. So, of course, this year wasn't just about the coven 19 pandemic there were all kinds of other things going on. Over the years you and I have sent each other encouraging notes during election seasons. Work with candidates, and it can really, you know for those who who don't produce some kind of election coverage or cover the races it can be a really long slog over many months. The November election was a real doozy on the local front because we had the advent of district elections. How that change affected. If it did how it affected how you were covering the races. The main thing about the district elections was it was all these separate little races. So you had to cover each district separately and doing it during a pandemic. You know so you, it was all these zoom debates and I never met with candidates face to face which was really strange I've, I've always met with candidates face to face for profiles. And then covering you know the returns. It was just more little races that I had to cover but fortunately I didn't have to cover the school district Jeff, Jeff Hudson was doing that. Right. But I did feel, because of everything else I had to do that. I didn't cover it as well as I would have liked to. Well, I think you know from the outside looking in I think you you covered it as well as you you could have. Thank you. You know journalism as as a whole this is no everyone knows this and the whole fourth estate, the, the trust we place in that and the necessity of it sure took a beating during the Trump years, but local newspapers have been struggling for years and you know you've been at the enterprise for at least said eight years right so you've seen a lot of changes that time. Do you have optimism for the survival of local journalism. That's a big question that I want to have this discussion. I think I have optimism. I think it's going to depend on the community. You know, I feel like Davis is supportive of local media, both, you know, Davis media access and, and the enterprise and I think other communities that may be even more challenging. But overall I feel like there hasn't nobody's really come up with a solution for how to make this work how to make enough money to keep going. You know in this during the course the pandemic, every coven article any of us have has written was free, you know the paywall was down for that. But everything else was still generally behind a paywall. A lot of people don't like that they want it for free and I understand that but we nobody's come up with a model for how to do that successfully. Yeah, at a local level. Yeah, and I'm tempted to say, you know, to ask how can the community best support I think a few years ago I remember asking this of Debbie Davis and even maybe last year of current editor Sebastian on your day. The answer a few years ago might have been subscribe. And that's important subscriptions are important advertising is important but of course we have businesses that have you know the bottom has dropped out for many of them. I think it goes beyond that, and I'm starting to see during the pandemic, some awareness and some discussion about the predicament that you know local media is in as a whole I've been writing about this for years about media and the information about the internet about all the changes that have brought but I think it's going to have to be addressed at a, at a much higher and and systemic level, you know, the question is, is journalism important. Yes, I think we've seen just how important it is in this last election cycle. And if so, you know, what, what do we do with it. What would your advice be to a young person who's considering, you know, pursuing journalism these days. Well, I think if it's it's something they want to do by all means, you know, it's very rewarding. And there are still opportunities we've had a couple of terrific interns come out of Davis High School out of Kelly Wilkerson's journalism program. Browning is now with the New York Times. Megan Boparowski is at the San Francisco Chronicle right now. Benji Eagle is at the B. So, you know, there are still opportunities out there. And I would say go for it. I mean if you if you come out of college with a degree in journalism. There's still a lot of other things you can do if those media jobs you want aren't there. Right. Yeah, I would, I'm still optimistic. And in that sense I would say, you know, follow your passion and do what you want to do. This is the only thing I ever wanted to do I started when I was a teenager and I will be sad to leave it if I have to leave it. Yeah, we hope that doesn't happen. It's an interesting experience and encounter with a reporter from KGO television station out of the Bay Area. A couple years ago, he came to do a story on KDRT, the radio station, and he showed up with a big van full of equipment. And so, you know, we were kind of geeking out about just how much equipment he had packed into this van and and he said well this is the face of journalism today. I'm expected not only to get the story, but I'm expected to edit the story and upload the story and so hey can I hang out in your parking lot for the next four hours while I do. You know, we're pretty gobsmacked that, you know, for us, we're in Davis he's from San Francisco and there's a big difference there, but it was so interesting to talk with him and kind of think about the digital evolution of journalism and how, how, so they I don't know before long they might put a camera in your hand and get you to start reporting and recording and uploading your own info. But we're already at that point are, you know, we are having three staff photographers to a couple of people who do other things and also take photos. And so I'm often taking photos or video with my cell phone. Right. And I never had to do that before because I mean, I'm not a photographer. Right, we all have our strengths. All right, so we have just a couple minutes left. Yeah, I know you're covering certain things these days do you get a lot of public comment on your articles to get people writing to you asking you to cover things I, I have a sense that reporters in a small town or public personalities and you know very accessible so what do you actually hear from the community. But I love, I get a lot of tips, you know, from email or message Facebook message. And during COVID a lot, a lot of questions, especially as the vaccines were rolling out and older residents didn't know what they were supposed to do to get them and, and they would, you know, email me with their list of questions and then I would go to the county and try to get answers. I would, I would say, lately yeah it's a lot of questions, a lot of concerns and people looking for information, but then again a lot of, you know, good tips someone will email me and say hey there's something going on in community park and all the police are there. You know that kind of thing. Yeah. A little bit of, you know, there's always criticism, not a lot of it, but you know people early in the pandemic that we're very upset about having to wear a mask, you know would be sending me all these articles about how masks don't work that sort of thing. And you know, I just read it and I thank them for sending it. Move on. Well on that note, I know I know your email is frequently in the paper but if someone did want to give you a tip or get in touch with you. What's your enterprise email address. It is a turn is ATER and us at Davis enterprise dot net. I want to thank you so much. I know you're a busy person, especially these days and I appreciate you making the time to give us a glimpse into the work you've done and on behalf of Davis, I want to say thank you for all that work this year. You've been, you've been a mainstay for many. Oh thank you and autumn you have as well with all of your code reports. Yeah, we've kind of been a little parallel tracks here this this year I've actually thought of you a great deal as as we've been moving through this experience so I've used your reports I've quoted from them so likewise it's been really nice to have, you know, more voices out on Wendy Weitzel and Heidi Kelsen and all of these people who are just providing that information. Yeah, as as we're wrapping up women's her stream month here let's let's take a minute there to thank you for mentioning them both Wendy Weitzel's column comings and goings and the Davis enterprise has been phenomenal. She has a whole spreadsheet of businesses that are are are open clothes their changes and all of that and then you know Heidi Kelsen is a community member who started a blog called downtown NorCal two years ago. And you know she does this, it's just a labor of love for her, and she's really pivoted and retooled this year to highlight businesses so I feel like Davis really has it going on with with women at the helm reporting on local issues and and we're very fortunate so big thanks to Wendy and Heidi as well. Yes, absolutely. All right, and thanks again so much for your work and thanks for joining us today on KDR T. Thank you. KDR T and the California Department of Public Health would like to remind our listeners of five easy steps you can take to protect yourself and your community from the novel coronavirus COVID 2019. One, wash your hands for at least 20 seconds regularly to wear a mask at all times when leaving your home. Three, disinfect surfaces for stay home when you are sick. Five, if you're a resident or working Davis, you can get quick free weekly tests by registering at healthy Davis together.org or call 530-754-T EST that's 530-754-T EST. You can also learn more at YoloCounty.org slash coronavirus. KDR T FM is a community radio station broadcasting from Davis, California. Community Radio relies entirely on donations from listeners like you to fund our ongoing operational costs. Your support keeps us on the air. If you appreciate local community radio, the unique voices and programming that KDR provides, please consider contributing at whatever level you can. It's easy. Just visit katert.org. That's kdrt.org and click the support button. You'll find a range of options, ways that you can help keep the programming that you love broadcasting at 95.7 FM on your radio dial and live streaming all around the world on kdrt.org. Thanks for your support and thanks for listening to Katert.