Q&A: What to know about COVID-19 vaccines for babies and toddlers

S1: A COVID vaccine for kids as young as six months may be just days away.
S2: I know that Ready Children's Hospital is getting prepared to set up their vaccine clinics starting next week.
S1: I'm Maureen CAVANAUGH with M.G. Perez. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Concerns about water safety may close South Bay beaches this summer.
S3: Started seeing closures all the way up to Coronado and that's when I got really worried because I realized how pervasive this is going to be.
S1: San Diego County explores legal action against gun manufacturers. And a new exhibit at San Diego's African-American Museum of Fine Art celebrates the Freedom Riders. That's ahead on Midday Edition. The long wait for parents of very young children is almost over. An FDA advisory panel has given approval for COVID vaccines for kids aged six months to five years. The advisers found Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are effective for this age group when administered in lower but multiple doses. Formal approval must be obtained from the CDC , which meets this weekend. White House officials say COVID vaccines for children six months to five years could be available as early as next week. Joining me is Dr. Mark Sawyer. He's an infectious disease specialist with Rady Children's Hospital and UC San Diego. Dr. Sawyer served on the FDA advisory panel that approved the COVID vaccines. And Dr. Sawyer , welcome back.
S2: It's great to join you.
S1: COVID vaccines for adults have been available for about a year and a half now.
S2: And as a result , we had to be extra careful about the safety to make sure that the risk and benefits still suggested that going ahead with vaccine was a good idea. That , you know , and this is the way most vaccines are developed that are given to both adults and kids. We started in adults and then move to children. So so for both those reasons , it's taken this went this long.
S1: Well , children as young as six months beginning this same vaccine that older children and adults receive.
S2: It's the same composition. The dose is lower , but it's exactly the same in every other way. So and that is another thing that took some time was to find the right dose for the youngest age group.
S1:
S2: The Pfizer vaccine is going to be a three shot regimen and the Moderna vaccine is going to be a two shot regimen , at least at the beginning. I do want people to know that Moderna is exploring whether a third dose will will improve the immune response there. So they they may both end up being three doses , but at the moment , there's a difference between the two.
S1:
S2: So the Moderna vaccine is spaced apart by four weeks and the Pfizer vaccine is spaced apart by three weeks for the first two doses. And then for Pfizer , the dose number three comes two months after the second dose. So it is three weeks and then two months. And then you're done with the Pfizer series. Okay.
S1: Okay. Rather complicated.
S2: It's it's you need a scorecard to keep track of the dose and the interval and whether a third dose is needed or not. So , you know , COVID vaccines in general have become very complicated as we learn more about the vaccine and as new variants of of SARS-CoV-2 emerge , we're having to continuously adjust the vaccine schedule. So I understand why people are sort of fed up with all the changes in there and the rapid rapidity with which those changes are occurring. But it's the best we can do given the science we have.
S1:
S2: That's how the FDA went about deciding that the vaccine should be approved. So we are hoping and assuming that that means they will be as effective in children as they are in adults. But there's not that much data yet until we start to use them widely in children , then we'll really have an accurate assessment of exactly how effective they are. One of the points that we should make sure everyone thinks about here is there are different levels of effectiveness. You can have a vaccine that's effective at preventing all infection. That would be great , but that's not happening now. In the Macron era , people are still getting infected. But the important point for people to remember is even though they may be getting infected , once you're vaccinated , you're not going to get severe disease. You're not going to end up in the hospital or on a ventilator or dying from COVID. And that's the effectiveness. That's the most important.
S1:
S2: So our arms. You may. I'd feel great for a day or two after you're vaccinated. Young children have a little bit of fever associated with the vaccine. All of those are temporary , short term side effects. The good news is , in the clinical trials , no cases of myocarditis have occurred in this young age group , which is something we did see in the adolescent age group. So I am reassured that the safety profile is probably even better in younger children than it was in adolescents and adults.
S1: Now , the White House has said the vaccine could be available as soon as next week.
S2: I know that Ready Children's Hospital is getting prepared to set up their vaccine clinics starting next week. Public health is also rolling out vaccine clinics , so it will be available in a number of places and may even be available in some pharmacies , although not all pharmacies are going to be able to take the youngest age group simply because they're not used to dealing with that young population now.
S1:
S2: There are a subset of parents who continue to be very concerned about COVID and COVID exposures , so much so that they've isolated their children from all of their regular activities. And this vaccine is going to provide reassurance to those parents that their children are protected from severe disease and hopefully will allow them to feel more comfortable starting to let their kids socialise in an appropriate group settings. You know , there's another subset of parents who have high risk individuals in their larger family or household , and for them this is going to be beneficial so that we can minimize the exposure of those high risk people to COVID in the household.
S1: You know , only about 30% of kids in America , five through 11 , have gotten vaccinated so far , and they've been eligible to receive the vaccine since last year.
S2: You know , the important points that I want those parents to think about as they make that decision is that although COVID is generally not severe in young children , it can be severe. We've had , you know , dozens and dozens of children hospitalized here at Rady Children's Hospital. We've had children on ventilators nationally. Hundreds of children have actually died of COVID , including children who do not have underlying health conditions. So , you know , it's not a totally benign disease in children. And you're weighing that against the vaccine risk. And your assessment of that. When I make that comparison , I come out in favor of the vaccine. But in other words , the risk from the vaccine is lower than the risk of getting COVID. And I'm going to certainly recommend to my three grandchildren who are now going to be eligible that they get vaccinated , that they get vaccinated as soon as possible.
S1: I've been speaking with Dr. Mark Sawyer. He's an infectious disease specialist with Rady Children's Hospital and UC San Diego. Dr. Sawyer , thank you so much.
S2: Thank you , Maureen.
S4: Summer is just about here. But fun in the sun and on the sand could be cut short in Coronado and Imperial Beach. South Bay beaches have seen extensive closures since early May due to elevated water pollution levels. The closures came as the county implemented newer water testing technology meant to give faster and more accurate levels of water contamination. But the closures have many people in the South Bay worried that summer may not be coming at all this year. Here to tell us more about the situation is the mayor of Imperial Beach. Surge to Deena surge. Welcome to Midday Edition.
S3: Thanks for having me.
S4: So the county moved to a new type of water testing early in May.
S3: And I went back and looked at the calendar and by the first weekend , we started seeing closures all the way up to Coronado. And that's when I got really worried because I realized how pervasive this is going to be , how extensive. But more importantly , I was seeing the disconnect between ocean conditions and closures , especially in Coronado , and wondering whether or not the test is as accurate as it should be. And that's when we started reaching out to the county and the city of Cornwall , State Parks and the Navy to really raise the alarm about what would happen all summer.
S4:
S3: This is not from the Tijuana River Valley. It's from what is discharge applies to Tijuana , more than likely illegally , as well as what's called San Antonio. The lowest point out is about four and a half miles south. The border where they're discharging anywhere from 30 to 50 million gallons of sewage a day. Scripps Institution of Oceanography , actually , they track that sewage and shows that it can reach Coronado as well. So we know what's out there and we had a really comprehensive testing program , but this DNA testing obviously changed everything.
S4: Now you note this new type of water testing does not happen for beaches in the city of San Diego. Only four county beaches. That means the results in nearby beaches can be very different. Isn't that right ? Yeah.
S3: And so , you know , I'm first like most surfers and then people who deal with this water quality issue as a professional sort of ocean conservationist. I'm obsessed with , first of all , our sources of pollution , the testing , as well as sort of tracking ocean and surf conditions. And so what we've been seeing as we've been seeing the test results from the city of San Diego for the last three weeks , I've come up with our ocean conditions very clean , but our beaches in Coronado and Imperial Beach closed. And so that's when I think the alarm bells went off just to make sure that the thresholds , the standards are using for the county really do reflect that they're going to close the beach. A public health threat. Or maybe those thresholds need to be fine tuned. That's why we reached out to the EPA and talked to the Martha Guzman , the head of EPA Region Nine , last week about this. And I think they agreed that it was up to the county to get back to the EPA to talk about whether or not these thresholds need to be adjusted. It's my understanding they're other public health experts in San Diego , as well as other agencies who agree with this approach that maybe we need to go back and reevaluate. That should have happened with the county from day one. That didn't happen. And to date , we still haven't had that meeting the county that we're supposed to have it next week. But we're all city of Coronado , Imperial Beach. The Navy and California state parks are raising questions about why didn't that discussion happen much , much earlier.
S4: So we have learned in COVID that closures are not a good thing. How are the beach closures impacting your community economically ? Tourism , you know , summer is coming.
S3: Yeah , well , let's just make clear about we're talking 20% of the coastline in San Diego , over 12 miles of coastline in any given weekend. You know , it's been June gloom , but recently we had summer , summer like conditions , sunny and hot conditions on the beach. There are tens of thousands of people at the Silver Strand , Imperial Beach in Coronado , but they couldn't go in the water. And so this is going to have an impact on people all over the county , because when our beaches are closed , that means they're crowding more in to Ocean Beach , Mission Beach , Pacific Beach , La Hoya , Del Mar , you name it , they'll be there. And so this is a crisis for all of San Diego County. It's a crisis for our cities , our residents. But anyone who loves a beautiful day at the beach and we're talking about the most gorgeous coastline in San Diego from Coronado to I.B. , it's an absolutely amazing , pristine coast. It's marred by this pollution issue that the county needs have been a lot more thoughtful and working with all of us who were affected before they made these decisions about closures and refusing to communicate with us.
S4: I can vouch for Imperial Beach. They seem to have the most beautiful sunsets.
S3: The partnership with California State Parks are now working out and doing junior lifeguard program up at Silverstein Beach on the Bay side because that beach is closed right now as our silver strand junior guards. But the first thing that our city did was start pivoting to talking to the federal government. I just had a meeting with the ambassador of Mexico , the United States , for a meeting. We reached out to officials that work with the governor of Baja California to talk about the need for water reuse , because this beach pollution crisis is caused by sewage that should be reused in agriculture and industry being discharged on the beach south of the border that's now causing our beaches to be to be closed. So there's a solution out there that the EPA wants to pursue , that the government of Mexico wants to pursue , the government of the United States wants to pursue , and Baja California wants to pursue. So we're trying to fast track that so we don't have this go on for years and years.
S4:
S3: We we thought we were you know , I started looking at when I was reaching out to the county , I reached out to the county almost a month ago asking for us to meet , reached out to Coronado , reached out to state parks. We reach out to the Navy today. We still haven't heard back from the county , only that apparently their systems infallible. They will not change anything. It's the federal government's fault that if they meet our task , we have to get permission from the federal government and that they're not willing to sit down. In a meeting with the Navy , Coronado and State Parks and Imperial Beach , which is after 35 years of working with the county as a professional ocean conservationist and mayor , I've never heard of this type of thing happening. It's as if they don't want to be in the room with the stakeholders and just walk us through as equal partners in explaining why this system is is more effective or what we could do to fine tune it.
S4:
S3:
S4: So sewage water pollution issues are nothing new for Imperial Beach , and it's an issue you have been involved in for a long time. Obviously , over the past year or so , there have been announcements of major projects meant to address the problem of water sewage flows from Tijuana.
S3: The International Boundary Water Commission in the Tijuana River Valley has already made significant changes on doing things that would stop sewage flows from reaching the beach. That's a good thing. And what I told the EPA and the IBEW SI is and the government of Baja California , we do the same things that we've done stopping these canyon flows , looking at that illegal discharges on the beaches from playa southward so that that kind of approach needs to be taken there. And what we've always said is little things can make a big difference in stopping these sewage flows and keeping our beaches open. So that sort of comprehensive approach needs to be taken. And that's what should have been discussed by the county with their local stakeholders and the government of Baja California. The minute they knew they were going to implement this new DNA testing model and currently they knew that they were going to have our beaches would be closed potentially permanently. So it was really up to the county to alert to this issue and get us prepared. And they failed to do that. And so Imperial Beach , I was glad , as usual , took the lead on this. But we need more help and that's what has to happen now.
S4: I have been speaking with Imperial Beach mayor surged Medina surge. Thank you for joining us.
S3: Thank you so much.
S1: This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen CAVANAUGH with M.G. Perez in for Jade Hyneman. The Fat Leonard Navy bribery scandal is about to wrap up in San Diego. A partial verdict was reached today , but the jury has asked for more time and will come back next week , even as this long legal battle comes to a close. KPBS military reporter Steve Walsh says the Navy has been slow to change despite the publicity.
S2: It was a corruption scandal of epic proportions. Malaysian defense contractor Leonard Francis used U.S. Navy officers to steer ships to his ports in the Western Pacific. Greasing the wheels with gifts , sex workers and lavish parties with scantily clad women. Vice Admiral Craig Faller attended at least one party as a ship's captain. Senator Elizabeth Warren pressed him about it during a confirmation hearing in 2018.
S1:
S2: The Navy cleared Faller and other officers of wrongdoing. Francis pleaded guilty in 2015 to defrauding the Navy of at least $35 million. Dan Grazer is with the Project on Government Oversight. He says hundreds of officers watch Francis , widely known as Fat Leonard , for his size , lay out the red carpet.
S3: It just became kind of the way business was done within the Seventh Fleet. You know , the longer it went on , the more people got involved in it and the more normalized that behavior became. And so we ended up with a massive scandal that we we have among.
S2: The Navy officials on Francis's payrolls was an agent for the Navy's criminal service who pleaded guilty to taking bribes to keep Francis up to date on the Navy's own investigations. Still , Senator Warren's exchange is one of only a handful of times. The so-called Fat Leonard case has come up on Capitol Hill during the decade long probe. Again , Dan Grazer.
S3: And it's shocking how little people , even today in Washington , really even know about Fat Leonard.
S2: It really makes the news here. Once the scandal broke , the Navy took away some of the authority. Officers have to decide which ports to use , though the Navy tightened up the paperwork. It hasn't taken a hard look at the underlying culture which allowed officers to condone the party atmosphere. Pauline James Carrion teaches ethics at the Naval War College.
S3: It's not something.
S1: Police in my circles of the.
S3: Navy is talking a lot. About.
S1: About. And so I'm not sure that we've learned the lessons or have thought about what this means for Navy culture.
S2: Francis was arrested in San Diego in 2013. But Pauline Shanks , Catherine , says the War College still hasn't incorporated a case study about the massive bribery scandal into its ethics curriculum.
S1: One senior leader said to me , Listen , I know people who are involved and I've heard from other senior leaders things like , well , I had a.
S3: Friend , a good friend whose career was.
S1: Ruined because of. Those.
S3: Those. And people don't want to talk about it.
S2: When students talk about it in class , they talk about different spanks for different ranks. The notion that higher ranking officers were treated differently. Ron Carr , a retired Navy captain , says the case casts a long shadow over everyone who served in the Pacific during the 2000s and early 20 tens.
S3: It really has put mud for all of us who were not involved with this because there's always that assumption that potentially maybe we just didn't get caught.
S2: Carr was the logistics officer on board the USS Blue Ridge as the flagship for the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The Blue Ridge was at the center of the federal indictments. Given the size of the problem , Carr is disappointed that the Fat Leonard case didn't shine a brighter light on Navy corruption.
S3: I think the challenge from a publicity point of view is that it just dragged out for so long. Here we are having this conversation when he was arrested for nine years ago , and we're still having a trial today , nine years later. I think it lost its its bang and lost its pop.
S2: Nearly a decade later , as the Fat Leonard case draws to a close , it's still unclear how much the scandal has changed the Navy culture. Steve Walsh , KPBS News.
S1: Joining me is KPBS military and veterans reporter Steve Walsh. Steve , welcome.
S2: Hi , Maureen.
S1: To the point that the retired captain made. Why has this case taken so long ? It seems that at least here in San Diego , we've been hearing about Fat Leonard for a very long time.
S2: Well , you're not wrong. This has gone on for a very long time , I think longer than the Navy really imagined that it would. It's actually one reason why they used federal prosecutors is they don't rotate in and out the way Navy prosecutors typically do. So they can stay on task. Untangling all of these relationships. You know , keep in mind , all this activity happened in the western Pacific , not in the United States. And it was also really widespread. Hundreds of officers were looked at as part of this probe. So it takes a long time. You know , I think there was a feeling that a lot of these officers would end up just pleading guilty once they saw the evidence. That often happens in federal court. And many did. In fact , former Lieutenant Commander Steve Shad and retired captain Donald Hornbeck each pleaded guilty in the weeks leading up to this trial. So , you know , it has gone on for a very long time and then COVID was baked into it. So that probably added a year or two to all of this.
S1: And basically , if I understand this correctly , the essence of the fraud Leonard Francis has pleaded guilty to is that when Navy ships were steered to ports run by Francis , he overcharged the Navy for services like security and trash removal , and he made millions from that.
S2: At one point , a logistics officer questioned why Francis , his company , was overcharging to remove more sewage than the ship could actually hold. You know , one port visit by the USS Ronald Reagan and this came out in court. It cost over $1,000,000 at a port controlled by Francis when it cost less than $350,000 elsewhere in the Pacific. And Francis was serving hundreds of Navy ships. You know , it does have to be pointed out that one reason why this kept going for so long is , by all accounts , Francis actually did a pretty good job. He provided the sort of services that the Navy needed while other smaller contractors faltered.
S1: And this latest trial is to determine if five high ranking naval officers accepted a number of different kinds of bribes to steer ships to Leonard's ports.
S2: You know , we know much less about how the cases that prosecutors relayed back to the Navy , how they were handled. We know there were two courts marshals. I believe several officers were censured , but the main case was handled by prosecutors for the Southern District of California. And , you know , it's here because Francis was lured to San Diego by federal agents. They promised him meetings with top admirals to discuss future business with the U.S. Navy. You know , Francis had a contact within the Navy's criminal investigative service. You know , investigators knew there was there was a mole. So they put out some info saying that they had closed all the investigation into Francis and his companies. Francis had met many top admirals in the U.S. Navy. He had pictures with taken with Admiral Mike Mullen , who became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. So he felt very comfortable coming to San Diego , and that's where he was arrested and that's why he's being tried here.
S1: You know , on the face of it. This doesn't sound like a terribly complicated case. You know , you have overcharging , you have bribes. But I know that it has been a very complicated case.
S2: But , you know , the complications really are in that there were so many different people involved. Now , you know , Francis did not hide his desire to make connections with top Navy officers. At one point , he had a party boat that pulled up next to the USS Blue Ridge while it was in port. Prosecutors had hundreds of pages of emails and other documents to go to. They had to determine who should be held criminally liable for their actions. You know , when the five five men came to trial , there was a frantic effort to locate some of the sex workers in Manila. Now , you know , this is now conduct that happened 10 to 15 years ago. So no one was really eager to come to the U.S. Defense attorneys actually pushed the idea that offering money for them to fly to San Diego and compensate them for lost wages was actually amounting to paying for their testimony. So , you know , some of this is it's been going on for so long. Some of this is just the amount of documents out there. And some of it is just there are so many Navy officers caught up in this.
S1: Now , according to your report , there's been an effort to keep a lid on this scandal within the Navy itself.
S2: Some of this echoes the 1991 Tailhook scandal , where a number of naval aviators were sanctioned for harassing female pilots and subordinates at a convention. The women involved , in fact , Leonard , they were people of color and they were not in the Navy. It seems like they're there should have been a very similar reckoning to Tailhook , but that , you know , there really hasn't been as much of an outcry. Some of this may be just of the rather racist notion that this is just the way business is done in the Western Pacific. Officer promotions were held up. There was criticism that the Navy was hamstrung. Song by Fat Leonard , accusations that tragedies like the USS Fitzgerald and McCain crashes and even the fire that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego could have been avoided if just there was better leadership who could have taken charge in these cases. But you can also make the case that the Fort Leonard scandal was just one more case of bad leadership in the U.S. Navy.
S1: I've been speaking with KPBS military and veterans reporter Steve Walsh. Steve , thank you.
S2: Thanks , Maureen.
S4: In the wake of constant mass shootings across the nation. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors took a critical vote earlier this week. The board voted to find policy recommendations that would allow the county to sue gun makers for deaths caused by their firearms. A divided board voted 3 to 2 after hearing impassioned public comments from people on both sides of the issue. Joining me now with more is KPBS North County multimedia producer Alex Nguyen. Alex , welcome.
S5: Thanks , Mark. It's great to be here.
S4: Alex , tell us about these recommendations that the board voted for.
S5: Well , there are two prongs to this policy. The first is for the county's chief administrative officer. That's Helen Robbins Myers , to come up with a plan to get data from the sheriff's department and other law enforcement agencies in the county on gun seizures. Now , these are guns taken from people who shouldn't have them , such as convicted felons. Then she will come back to the board of Supervisors with options for suing gun makers. So in short , the policy allows the county to pursue litigations against gun makers , though it doesn't mean the county will start suing.
S4:
S5: The city is suing gun ghost gun makers polymer 80. Now , according to the LAPD , about 80 I'm sorry , about 40% of guns seized were ghost guns. And these this numbers are from 2021 , I believe. And for the L.A. Sheriff's Department , that number is about 50%. Now , ghost guns for those who don't know are guns that are 3D printed or assembled from plastic kits designed to be untraceable. And of course , according to the ATF , that's the Alcohol , Tobacco and Firearms Explosives Bureau. Polymers AIDS kits include including non assemble parts are considered firearms so they are subject to federal gun laws , regulations such as background checks. Now , L.A. is suing polymer 80 because the city says the company is skirting California's law by not conducting background checks and by selling kits without serial numbers. So you can see the parallels from the policy that was passed by the county Tuesday to what happened in L.A.. Now , as for how likely the county will hold gunmakers accountable , it all depends on the legal strategies the county lawyers will come up with. The county could either join other jurisdictions in suing gun makers like Los Angeles or shared resources and say and share resources with other jurisdictions. Or they can go after gun makers in separate suits. But one thing for sure , though , one legal expert told me gun makers are not known to back down from legal fights. So either way , it will be a long and expensive fight.
S4: Alex The vote was split 3 to 2.
S5: Now , both say they are both say they are in support of stemming gun violence. But Desmond said the root cause of mass shootings is mental health. He wants the county to focus on mount on more mental health care and enforcing existing gun laws. Now , it's important to note that the majority of gun violence is not committed by people with mental illness. People with mental illness are more likely to self-harm than harm others.
S4:
S5: Fletcher said in Calif that California gun laws , which are among the toughest in the nation , they do work. And the proof of this is that California has the seventh lowest gun deaths in the nation. He says this policy would put pressure on gun makers to be more responsible. The sentiment that gun makers shouldn't sit idly by while mass shootings continue to be a public health crisis is also shared by Lawson Reimer. She said that it's time the county hold gun makers accountable for evading laws and marketing their products to children. Of course , she is referring to Illinois Space. We won tackles J.R 15 or junior 15. The company says in their own marketing that it is designed to be a smaller , safer and lighter version of the air 15 just like , quote , mom and dad's gun. And of course , the gun has a skull and crossbones with a pacifier on it. And if you remember , back in February , Governor Newsom called the junior 15 vile.
S4: So speaking of children , there were students who spoke in favor of the measure.
S5: One student , Lucy Young , told me that when she saw. At high school , her family sat her down with her older brother to come up with an evacuation plan. Should a school shooting happen , she said that shouldn't be the norm. She shouldn't be afraid to go to school. The other student , Talia Fish , says that , you know , she is afraid of going to malls , going to schools , going to shopping's shopping centers , grocery stores and be shot at. So both says this is not the norm , this shouldn't be the norm , and that it's time that lawmakers and voters put an end to gun violence and stand up to gun makers.
S4: Gun owners , of course , are on the other side of this debate.
S5: The chairman of the San Diego County Gun Owners PAC , Michael Schwartz , told me that it's akin to suing carmakers for drunken driving. He says the policy does not pass the sniff test and would be struck down by the court.
S4:
S5: And we will see from there. And , you know , this wouldn't be like something that happens next month that could be six months down the road , because she still has to come with that plan to gather data from the sheriff's department and other law enforcement agencies and then come up with a legal strategy.
S4: I've been speaking to KPBS North County multimedia producer Alex Nguyen. Alex , thanks for talking with us.
S5: It's great to be here.
S1: Since the closure of the San Onofre power plant in 2012. The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant has been the only active nuclear plant in California and the state's single largest source of electricity. It's been set for decommissioning over the next three years. But recently , Governor Newsom has discussed delaying its closure to help offset possible energy shortages predicted in the next few years. For the California report , Benjamin Perper looked in on multiple gatherings this week to shed light on the range of views on the closure.
S3: The American Nuclear Society gathered in Anaheim on Monday morning to show support for Diablo Canyon continued operation. The organization's president , Steve Nesbitt , directed the crowd for a photo op as they held signs saying Keep Diablo Canyon running and nuclear energy equals clean energy. What I think we want to do is get folks to sort of line up. And the plant is the largest source of carbon free energy in California , accounting for about 9% of the state's total energy portfolio. Nesbitt says because of that and anticipated energy shortages. His group feels utility is planned. Decommissioning would come way too soon. We can't predict the future , but I do know this based on what we know today in 2024 and 2025 , shutting down Diablo Canyon is a really , really bad idea. Nesbitt acknowledges Diablo Canyon may not need to stay open in the very long term , as there are environmental impacts associated with things like disposing of spent nuclear fuel. Eventually , he says , other energy sources like solar and wind will take over Diablo's energy output. But that will take some time. All these things are there in the future , but for now it's essential. We keep our plants running for a while. But in a Wednesday Zoom panel , the San Luis Obispo Group Mothers for Peace convened to discuss their safety concerns around the plant. They also worry the plant is crowding out other renewable energy sources that could be cheaper if nuclear wasn't there. Organizations like the American Nuclear Society point to federal and independent evaluations showing the plant is safe from things like earthquakes , tsunamis and floods. But Linda Seeley , with SLO Mothers for Peace , doesn't trust that given the plant's decades of operation.
S1: It's like a.
S3: Huge ball.
S1: Of accumulating terror for us here who live near Diablo Canyon.
S3: Heather Hoff is with a difference , though county nuclear activism group Mothers for Nuclear. She's a Diablo Canyon employee in charge of the plant's emergency operating procedures. And while she made clear she wasn't speaking on behalf of Jeanie , she does want to reassure people about the plant's safety. There's a lot of things.
S1: That sounds.
S3: Scary about nuclear. You know , the public chose these words and they're scared. So how do we combat that with Governor Newsom's request for federal funds for Diablo Canyon still in process ? It's not clear yet if decommissioning could be delayed. But with California aiming for net zero emissions by 2045 , the plant's fate will play a major part in the state's energy future.
S1: That was Benjamin Pepper reporting for the California Report.
S4: You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Meg Perez with Maureen CAVANAUGH. Sunday is Juneteenth , the commemoration of the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. The federal holiday follows on Monday and on the eve of the historic holiday , there is a new exhibit presented by the San Diego African-American Museum of Fine Art at the Courtyard. The exhibit marks the 60th anniversary of the Freedom Riders , a group of activists who took bus trips across the South to protest segregation laws. The Buses Are Coming opens today and includes historic photographs , interactive interviews and live musical performances. Joining me now to tell us more is the museum's executive director , Katy Finney. Guide. Welcome to Midday.
S3: Well , thank you for having me. Appreciate you doing this for us. This is an important exhibit for us. Thank you so much.
S4: Take us back in history.
S3: And in the south , they didn't do it. They just left them like that and left people just segregated. And so the people of the Freedom Riders , it was organized by the Congress of Racial Equality to have people go down there and they train them in nonviolent protest. The first 13 of them went down there traveling from D.C. , going to New Orleans. But when they got to Anniston in Alabama , the Klu Klux Klan , the FBI and the governor all said , you have 15 minutes to kill , maim , hurt , whatever you want to do to those people and nobody stop you. So they did they beat them up , firebombed the bus and all of that. And then when these people got out of the hospital , they decided to keep going and they decided to keep going. But they had other people coming down behind them. Right. So this was a very , very dangerous thing for people to do. They risked their lives. They signed their last will and testament before they went down that they thought they might be killed , but they went anyway to make these changes. And what happened was , as the buses kept coming , there were some 300 or so people came down on these buses from May to September , and they put them in jail in parchment prison in Mississippi , one of the worst prisons in the world. And when they got there before they put them in prison , they took mug shots. And the mug shots are the basis for this exhibit. So all 300 year old mug shots are in the exhibit. And we surrounded the exhibit with actual other images from the era. When you think about the war that's going on now in the Ukraine , for instance , and those people who are ex-pats going back to fight and risk their lives is very similar. In other words , it's not a war , but these people went there risking their lives to be maimed , hurt or killed to make a change in the United States. And they were successful.
S4: To follow in that thought. You have said that in a way the writers were like the diverse protesters who took to the streets back in 2020.
S3: These people during COVID , they got in crowds of people and protested. Right. Doing Colbert when they could actually have been killed by Colbert is similar in that they said enough is enough and they're all 25 you know , and the average is 21 to 25. In 1961 , they were young people from all over the United States , from New York , from Connecticut , Minnesota , California , everywhere , going down there to make a change. And yes , they were like the people in 2020 when they were protesting George Floyd and all that. And so this happened way before. And it's really I feel these are teachable moments for all people involved to understand when there are things that happen that you just have to do something about to make a change.
S4: So tell us about the exhibit.
S3: And oddly enough , the civil rights , the Freedom Riders , the music that was being produced on Broadway was written and produced by to San Diego. And so we had a CBGBs party , and they asked us to help with that back in , I think it was December , early December , and it was so powerful. Everybody who was at that release were riveted. They didn't move out of their seats. It was amazing to see people just riveted to the screen and listening to this musical. Well , at the end of that release party , the two guys from San Diego who produced the video asked if they could open our exhibit with the musical , and I said , Yes , let's do that and whatever it costs to figured out. So we raised the money to bring them here. So at the opening of our exhibit , the Freedom Riders , the musical will be here and done at the exhibit at the courtyard.
S4: This is. Really living history. You mentioned that some of the actual freedom writers will be there.
S3: And as we try to work , as we worked on our project , I also contacted the Freedom Writers Museum in Mississippi. The New York contingent was putting together the national exhibit of the Freedom Writers. Lou Zuckerman and I started to touch base with all of them. And lo and behold , because of COVID , they decided not to have the big exhibit in New York. And I said to them , Why don't we have it here in San Diego ? And their answer was , Sure , we will come. And then I started contacting because they had a big list of all the people that I remember now. They were 25 years old , potentially in 1961. So then not a lot of the freedom writers left. I think just some 60 left. Many of them cannot travel. But we were able to get around seven of them to come here because , you know , they don't see each other that often either. And I doubt there'll be another celebration in ten years. So this might be the last time for a big celebration of its kind for the Freedom Riders. But I just asked them individually if they could come , and some said yes and some said they couldn't. But we got a few and we interviewed quite a few as well.
S4:
S3: We have to have teachable moments with what's going on. And that , I think , is where the connection is. I mean , nonviolence as a means of protest , you know , from Gandhi on has been successful in the sixties , but in the eighties and nineties , a lot of people didn't want to go that route. Still , the idea of protest to make the change is still in place. You see it with the abortion rights people now. You see it in other areas of our lives. So protesting for the wrongs in the world is something that connects all of us. So I think that's the connection.
S4: The buses are coming has a connotation that maybe help is on the way.
S3: I mean , this this idea of the buses are coming and what would you ride for is the question that we pose. And so the answer is , there could be something in your life and your lifetime with the young people who may face something in the future or old people who remember what has happened in the past. It might be a time where you want to ride for something. And so we ask that question as part of the exhibit and it is going to I hopefully people will respond to that question in whatever way that they want and understand. Yes , it can be times when we'll need you to potentially ride a bus or protest or something.
S4: Thanks for joining us.
S3: You're very welcome. Thank you.