Until two years ago, California never had a state surgeon general. That changed when Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Dr. Nadine Burke Harris.

Little did anyone know we would soon face a global pandemic that would claim more than 65,000 California lives and begin to tackle persistent health care inequities that have had substantial societal costs.

In an interview for "LA Times Today," Burke Harris joined host Lisa McRee to talk about where we are now and the future of health care in the state.  

What You Need To Know

  • Until two years ago, California never had a state surgeon general. 

  • That changed when Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Dr. Nadine Burke Harris

  • 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’s most influential public health figures guiding California’s efforts during the pandemic

  • California officials had faced criticism during the pandemic, mainly when vaccine access codes meant for Black and Latino communities were being misused by people who were not yet eligible

The Los Angeles teachers union is calling for mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for all eligible students. Burke Harris said she agrees with the proposal.

"Well, I think it's important to recognize that a requirement for children to be vaccinated before they go to school has been a longstanding public health practice. So this is not new to COVID. As most parents know, I'm a mom of four boys. Before enrolling my kids in school, I got to send in their vaccination cards and make sure that they are up to date on their immunizations. And so I think that when it comes to COVID, particularly now, we see the very strong data around safety and efficacy," Burke Harris said.  

Overall, Burke Harris said her most significant focus is to get as many Californians protected from COVID-19 as possible.

"According to CDC data, California is now up to 80% of Californians with at least one dose. So we are on our way there. We're leading the pack, especially among large states. So when it comes to the politics, I'll leave that to the politicians in my role as surgeon general; my role is really to help Californians understand the risks and to understand how to protect their health and well-being," Burke Harris said.

There has been an uptick in the hospitalization of Latino Californians. Burke Harris said several factors contribute, and they're still learning about all of the different pieces at play.

"California has made an incredibly concerted effort toward advancing vaccine equity. We have looked at our data around which of our communities are leading and which of our communities really need to be more aggressive in our efforts to make sure that people have access and know where they can go and make sure that they're getting care in language and having their concerns addressed and explained. So we're very excited to see that some of those efforts have made progress with our African-American community, and we will continue to drive toward equality for all Californians," Burke Harris said.  

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Newsom created the surgeon general position to address the longstanding health concerns in California. One of the priorities is to address health care inequities that were uncovered by the pandemic.

"One of the first steps in addressing health inequities is the data. And one of the challenges that we see here in California is that we are still not getting complete data in many places. And so we're working very hard to collect that data. But we also need to help folks understand how we can drive towards equity. These unequal outcomes are not inevitable," Burke Harris added.

Another thing Burke Harris wants to address has to do with adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress.

"Adverse childhood experiences — the term actually refers to stressful or traumatic events in childhood that the CDC and Kaiser Permanente determined to have a profound impact on lifelong health. So there was a landmark study conducted over two decades ago that shows that there is what we call a dose-response relationship between adverse childhood experiences. That can be things like witnessing domestic violence in childhood, being raised by a mentally ill parent, or experiencing abuse or neglect. We now understand that experiencing these challenges can lead to prolonged activation of our biological stress response, which is known as the toxic stress response. That is why we see the increased risk of things like heart disease, stroke, cancer, autoimmune disease, and mental and behavioral health conditions like depression and anxiety," Burke Harris said.

Even though COVID stress impacts many people, Harris Burke said there are healthy ways to manage that stress.

"So one of my favorites is that safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and environments are healing. And, for the parents out there, that means there's a lot that we can do; we have tremendous power to protect our kids from the harmful impact of the stress that we're all experiencing right now. But to be able to do that, we have to put our own oxygen masks on. So that means regular exercise, good nutrition, and getting healthy sleep. Also, things like spending time in nature, experiencing greenspace and nature help to regulate our biological stress response and keep us healthy in the long term," she said.

Watch "LA Times Today" at 7 and 10 p.m. Monday through Friday on Spectrum News 1 and the Spectrum News app.