[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”3924″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1653385745008{margin-top: 50px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”3925″ img_size=”400×400″ alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]When Dr. Nadine Burke Harris received her COVID-19 vaccine in Oakland last month, she internally rejoiced. As California\u2019s surgeon general, the state\u2019s top physician, she was glad to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to show others it was safe. But one of the most critical parts of the pandemic\u2019s vaccine rollout \u2014 reassuring Black and brown communities that the vaccines available are safe \u2014 is an ongoing task.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that I myself probably didn\u2019t realize how … just that level of tension that I was holding, you know, around it,\u201d Burke Harris said in a recent interview. \u201cThe fear of exposure, the fear of getting sick, it wasn\u2019t even conscious for me. It was that awareness, that idea of being protected.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1694536607264{margin-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]I would, of course, want everyone to feel that feeling.\u201d Burke Harris, 45, a Jamaican American pediatrician born in Canada and now based in San Francisco, has so far spent half of her tenure as one of the nation\u2019s most influential public health figures guiding California\u2019s efforts during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Her sweeping charge by Gov. Gavin Newsom to create a governmental office tackling the state\u2019s health problems, including adverse childhood experiences, toxic stress and healthcare inequities, has amplified the need for solutions amid the pandemic. She is the first person to be California surgeon general and is building on her legacy as the first Black person and first woman to have the role. It\u2019s rare to see a Black woman lead in an even rarer position \u2014 only three other states have a surgeon general. \u201cOne of the things that I find most infuriating about health inequities is that they are so endemic that people believe they are insolvable, and that makes me ill,\u201d Burke Harris said. \u201cThat\u2019s intolerable to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of being in the role of state surgeon general is having the opportunity to say, \u2018No, this is not something that\u2019s going to happen.\u2019 We\u2019re going to put our back into it and use our full force and weight to push against these inequities.\u201d But Burke Harris is still learning how to sit in the discomforts of her work amid the \u201cheartbreak on top of heartbreak\u201d in the last year.<\/p>\n
It hurts to know that 60,000 California residents so far have died during the pandemic. It hurts to see people of color dying at disproportionate rates from COVID-19. And it hurts to know there is community healing to be done. Still, Burke Harris\u2019 voice is calm, assuring and, one would dare say, even hopeful. Her days are a flurry of Zoom calls, reading reports and studying new data. But she sticks with a strict morning routine that includes decaffeinated coffee, 20 minutes of meditation and a walk in the Presidio in San Francisco with her husband before getting her four sons ready for school.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hardest part of the job is sitting in proximity to so much harm and suffering, and sitting there long enough to be a difference,\u201d Burke Harris said. Growing up in Palo Alto, with her mother working as a nurse and her father as a biochemist, Burke Harris knew she wanted to be a doctor at 4 years old. She would sometimes make patient house calls with her mom after school. Burke Harris would read mail to elderly patients. A proud \u201csuper hardcore science nerd,\u201d she would help in her father\u2019s lab and in the greenhouse. Her dad would join Burke Harris and her brothers on science experiments around the house, such as adding vinegar to different foods and calculating air resistance when making paper airplanes.<\/p>\n
She completed her undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley, medical school at UC Davis and received her Master of Public Health at Harvard. She did her medical residency at Stanford. In 2007, she became the first medical director for the California Pacific Medical Center Bayview Child Health Center in San Francisco and in 2012 founded the Center for Youth Wellness, a clinic focused on identifying and treating toxic stress in children.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat combination between caregiving and science, for me, I was probably born for it,\u201d Burke Harris said. But there\u2019s been heartache over the years. In August 1993, one of her brothers, who has a mental health disorder, went missing and hasn\u2019t been heard from since. While her family has not lost anyone to COVID-19, Burke Harris\u2019 mom was in the intensive care unit twice last year for non-COVID issues. She said having her own stress management plan and leaning on her support system got her through. \u201cI was working really hard, working on the pandemic, working with my team, and then in the middle of meetings and Zooms and calls, I was on the phone with my mom\u2019s doctors every day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Newsom appointed her to the role in 2019. He had previously appointed Burke Harris to the San Francisco Citizens\u2019 Committee for Community Development while he was mayor. The governor wrote in the surgeon general\u2019s report that adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress could cost California over a trillion dollars in the next decade from \u201cyears of life lost from poor health, disability or early death.\u201d \u201cWe must listen and be advised by the evidence that clearly tells us that cumulative adversity, particularly when experienced early in life, is a root cause of some of the most detrimental, longest lasting and costly health challenges facing our state and nation,\u201d Newsom wrote.<\/p>\n
Burke Harris has made adverse childhood experiences and the health effects of stress some of her main focuses. Research has found that varying forms of abuse, neglect and a child\u2019s household experience can lead to long-term health problems such as heart disease, stroke and cancer.<\/p>\n
In 2014, she gave a 16-minute speech with TEDMED on the importance of finding ways to identify and treat people who have experienced childhood trauma. The speech has more than 8.5 million views. The lowest point of the pandemic for Burke Harris was last spring, when she and her colleagues in the state operations center watched then-President Trump talk on television about how beautiful it would be to have packed churches and an open economy by Easter.<\/p>\n
She and other public health officials were working on contact tracing, COVID-19 tests, getting supplies, and various data projections. Reopening by Easter was impossible. \u201cI went into the bathroom, and I sobbed,\u201d Burke Harris said. \u201cI felt like we were all working so incredibly hard, and then there was this other narrative out there that just didn\u2019t have any foundation or science or data, and it only was making our job harder. That was a moment that I broke down, I would say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burke Harris\u2019 role amid the pandemic has included overseeing the state\u2019s Community Vaccine Advisory Committee and planning how the vaccine will be equitably distributed to vulnerable populations. It also includes helping community leaders talk to people unsure about the vaccine and combating misinformation. Her office released a playbook on stress relief, urging people to make a stress management plan that includes exercising, sleeping and maintaining nutrition. California officials have faced criticism during the pandemic, particularly when vaccine access codes meant for Black and Latino communities were being misused by people who were not yet eligible. Burke<\/p>\n
Harris said building trust is an ongoing process. \u201cI think maybe one of my favorite parts of working in government, especially in this pandemic, is to witness the way that my colleagues in government continue to show up and recommit and try to fix our mistakes and try to solve some big problems,\u201d she said. Burke Harris has touted the state\u2019s success with its ACEs Aware initiative, in partnership with the Department of Health Care Services, which has trained 17,115 health providers to screen for adverse childhood experiences, recognize toxic stress and respond with trauma-informed care. Kiran Savage-Sangwan, executive director of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, recalled Burke Harris saying in their first meeting that she was \u201cdeadly serious about addressing health disparities.\u201d<\/p>\n
She has witnessed Burke Harris leading discussions on how the COVID-19 vaccines would be distributed statewide with the Community Vaccine Advisory Committee. Savage-Sangwan said these are tough conversations, as multiple groups vied to have the communities, they serve prioritized. Burke Harris is charged with \u201cmarshaling the resources of state government to address these real long-standing problems and even addressing equity … it\u2019s not something government has always been good at or engaged in,\u201d Savage-Sangwan said. \u201cBeing in the position to move the giant bureaucracy of the state of California to address health equity is a huge challenge.\u201d Burke Harris is looking ahead to how the state will help people heal. She wants to \u201ccut ACEs and toxic stress in half in one generation\u201d and work across education, law enforcement and the workforce to heal and recover from the pandemic, according to her surgeon general report. Earlier in April, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, declared racism a serious public health threat. Burke Harris said the decision on whether California will make the declaration is ultimately up to the governor. \u201cI think without a doubt it\u2019s clear that racism harms the health and well-being of Californians,\u201d Burke Harris said, \u201cand whether that is a declaration and what the specifics [are] of how we address that, I think that\u2019s what we are all still figuring out.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”3928″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Woforo Dua Pa A<\/strong> [vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”3924″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1653385745008{margin-top: 50px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”3925″ img_size=”400×400″ alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]When Dr. Nadine Burke Harris received her COVID-19 vaccine in Oakland last month, she internally rejoiced. As California\u2019s surgeon general, the state\u2019s top physician, she was glad to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to show others it was safe. But one of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3918,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ventrymedia.co\/ichoose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3923"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ventrymedia.co\/ichoose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ventrymedia.co\/ichoose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ventrymedia.co\/ichoose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ventrymedia.co\/ichoose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3923"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ventrymedia.co\/ichoose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4042,"href":"https:\/\/ventrymedia.co\/ichoose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3923\/revisions\/4042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ventrymedia.co\/ichoose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ventrymedia.co\/ichoose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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