In Depth: Sheriff Villanueva on vaccines, wage theft, DA Gascón

LOS ANGELES - Segment One –

Hal is joined by L.A County Sheriff Alex Villanueva to discuss the Sheriff’s department new program that brings the vaccine to county residents who are mentally or physically disabled.

The sheriff says there are about 200 licensed EMT’S in the department, and they are being impressed into service to help those who have trouble getting the vaccine. People can go to the website LASD.org to sign up and they will be put on the list to have a representative come to their house to give them a vaccination.

The sheriff says they are only limited by the number of vaccines they have available to them, but they’re using the Johnson and Johnson vaccine so they only have to give one shot. Villanueva says that next on the list will be outreach to the homeless population.

Segment Two- 

Sheriff Villanueva is back to talk about the new Wage Theft Task Force created by the sheriff’s department. He says wage theft is the biggest type of theft going on right now. He says that about 1.5 billion dollars is stolen from workers every year. The task force involves patrol officers and the human trafficking investigators. There is a tab on the website LASD.ORG that lets victims report wage theft.

Villanueva weighs in on the new district attorney’s first 100 days in office.  He says George Gascon should be recalled and gives him an "F" for his first 100 days.
 
Segment Three–     

Dr. William Wang, the chief medical officer for Dignity Health, Glendale talks to Hal about the latest information on COVID-19 vaccines. Wang says there is a percentage of those vaccinated who do not return for their second shot- whether they forget or are afraid of having a negative reaction. Wang says it’s worth the risk of having a few days of discomfort rather than taking that chance of dying.

The doctor says the medical profession still doesn’t know how long the antibodies of the vaccine last, but they assume it will be something where people have to have a booster shot every year.

Wang says the new Astrazeneca vaccine has had reports of some side effects, and countries in Europe are doing the right thing by halting use until there is more information available.He also says that despite the fact that the approval process was moved forward, the testing of the vaccines was done the same way as any other vaccine, and therefore the COVID vaccines are as safe as any other vaccine.

Segment Four- 

Hal promotes his podcast, and  we present a video created by a group of doctors to encourage vaccination, that is a riff on the musical "Hamilton."