Wealthy Californians come from affluent enclaves to take vaccine shots meant for at-risk frontline workers. In the same state but a world away, Californians haven’t heard that a safe, effective COVID-19 vaccine exists because the news hasn’t yet reached them in their language.

Unequal access to quality health care allowed the virus to cut a path of devastation through communities of color over the past year. Like the murder of George Floyd and acts of violence that sparked a national reckoning on race last year, inequalities in health care are rooted in a set of rules stacked against Black and brown communities.

To heal, we must rewrite the rules. One big place to start is Medi-Cal.

To continue reading, visit the Sacramento Bee, which published this op-ed today.

Sandra R. Hernández

Sandra R. Hernández, MD, is president and CEO of the California Health Care Foundation. Prior to joining CHCF, Sandra was CEO of The San Francisco Foundation. She previously served as director of public health for the City and County of San Francisco. Read More

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Jessica Brandi Lifland is a freelance photographer, instructor of journalism at City College of San Francisco, and mother. Her work with publications and nonprofits such as Operation Smile, Tostan, and the California Health Care Foundation has taken her all over the world, including West Africa, the Middle East, Kosovo, Burma, Haiti, and South America. Read More