February 28, 2020 • 20 mins
It is being called the Noah’s Ark of citrus, The Givaudan Citrus Variety Collection at UC Riverside in California and it has over 1,000 different citrus specimens. But one thing that could destroy it all, is the bacterial infection known as citrus greening which kills trees and produces inedible fruit. Citrus greening has caused over $2 billion in losses in Florida and worries are that it could also ruin things in California. The infection is transmitted by small insects, so the only way to keep them out is to put nets and screens around the trees. Gustavo Arellano, reporter at the LA Times, joins us for the effort to save citrus from greening.
Next, we have the first possible instance of community exposure of COVID-19 in northern California. A woman has been infected and she did not travel to the heart of the outbreak in China, or have contact with anyone that had the virus. It is concerning because it could be a sign that it is spreading in the community and it is tough to track who might have had contact with this woman. President Trump has set up a COVID-19 task force led by Mike Pence to handle the federal response but it continues to seem that coronavirus will continue its spread. Erin Allday, health writer at the San Francisco Chronicle, joins us for what to know about the latest case.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Friday, February. I'm Oscar Ramirez in Los Angeles and
this is the daily dive. It's being called the nose
Ark of Citrus. The Jivadan Citrus Variety collection at u
c Riverside in California, and it has over one thousand
different citrus specimens. But one thing that could destroy it
(00:21):
all is the bacterial infection known as citrus greening, which
kills trees and produces inedible fruit. Citrus greening has caused
over two billion dollars in losses in Florida, and worries
are that it could also ruin things here in California.
The infection is transmitted by small insects, so the only
way to keep them out is to put up nets
and screens around the trees. Gustavo Ariano, reporter at the
(00:44):
l A Times, joins us for the effort to save
citrus from greening. Next, we have the first possible instance
of community exposure of COVID nineteen in northern California. A
woman has been infected and she did not travel to
the heart of the outbreak in China or have contact
with anyone that had the virus. It is concerning because
it could be a sign that it is spreading in
(01:04):
the community, and it's tough to track who might have
had contact with this woman. President Trump has set up
a COVID nineteen task force led by my Pens to
handle the federal response, but it continues to seem that
coronavirus will continue to spread. Aaron all Day, health writer
at the San Francisco Chronicle, joins us for what we
know about the latest case. It's news without the noise.
(01:26):
Let's dive in. What's happening is that they've discovered citrus
greening about two miles away from the citrus collection, So
their caretakers they have to now think of the possibility
that the citrus collection maybe no more, so they have
to take the steps to ensure its future and survive.
Joining us now is Gustavo Ariano, reporter at the l
(01:47):
A Times. Thanks for joining us, Gustavo having me, We're
gonna be talking about what's going on right now at
you see Riverside. They're calling it the Noah's Ark of citrus,
and caretakers are trying to fight off a apocalypse. We've
talked about this on the podcast before in reference to
Florida specifically, there's something going on called citrus greening, and
(02:07):
in Florida specifically, it's caused over two billion dollars in
losses there. There's acres and acres of orange groves and
citrus groves that are just affected with this and it
renders the fruit inedible, you can't eat, it kills the
trees basically, and it's been here in California for some
time now, but they're taking more steps to try to
(02:29):
prevent this from spreading. Gustavo tell us what's going on
at you see Riverside specifically? Right now, you see rivers Bide.
They have something called the Javadon Citrus Variety Collection. It's
one of the largest collections of citrus in the world.
It was literally like a Noah's Ark. We have two
of almost every kind of citrus plant imaginable. It's over
one thou specific specimen that this is a legendary institution
(02:51):
in the world of citrus. This goes back a hundred
and thirteen years. All the citrus growers and orange juice producers,
all of them know about it. And you walk through
it's like heaven. I mean, imagine, here's a lemon. It's
not just one lemon, but like hundreds of types of lemons.
Here's a citrus as the small as your pinky nail.
It's as big as your head, and it's an open laboratory.
So the sizes there have been doing stuff in the
(03:13):
name of citrus for again, over a hundred years, and
for the past decade or so they've been fighting the
citrus screening. And so now though, what's happening is that
they've discovered citrus screening about two miles away from the
citrus collection. So their caretakers they have to now think
of the possibility that the citrus collection maybe no more,
so they have to take the steps to ensure its
(03:35):
future and survival. I've been following this partly because I
am a citrus freak. I love citrus, love orange in
my food and all that. I've been following this, as
I said, in Florida, and you know now here in California.
Tell us about this bacterial infection known as citrus screening.
It's called Wang Long being and it comes from China.
Tell us a little bit about it and what we
(03:56):
know so Long Long being or citrus screening, It's transmitted
by an insect called the Asian Citrius silent. So it
was first spotted in the United States and early two
thousands in Florida, as you mentioned, just has it destroyed
the citrus industry there like red povic And it was
first spotted in California in town and twelve. And it's
like the white blockers of Game of Thrones right now,
(04:16):
there is no here. It's slowly spreading around southern California.
There's been over one thousand backyard trees uprooted, and there's
been a quarantine now and a lot of southern California,
over one thousand acres spreading across all the counties. That
keeps seems to grow every couple of months, and so
scientists have not been able to not even solve it,
(04:37):
but even be able to stop it. So it really
is a fruit apocalypse for everyone involved in shore in
southern California. We're backyard lemon tree or orange tree or
lime tree as our birthrights. It's just something the California landscape.
And conceivably, if they don't stop citrius greening, all that
citrus will be gone. It'll be completely gone from the landscape.
You know. I keep bringing Florida up. There's a lot
(04:58):
of major cit as producers that have the resources to replant.
That's really the only thing you can do once a
tree gets infected is clean it out, replanted and hope
that citrus silends don't come back. But a lot of
smaller citrus producers really don't have the resources to do that.
And here in California we just have this wealth of it,
especially at you see Riverside. Obviously, we don't want it
(05:18):
to get infected. So one of the only effective methods
to prevent this is to put up nets and screens
around the trees just so that the little insects don't
get in there, don't get to the tree. Tell us
about how you see Riverside is working with this method
to protect what we have there. You see Riverside scientists
they have of from a couple of bock ups to
(05:39):
back ups, so they have preserved the genetic code of
every single one of their stuff to men. So that's
one right now is run by the U. S Department
of Agriculture. There's a big greenhouse where they're not samplings
of a lot of the trees, but the big stuff
that you see Riverside is going to do. Through their
sponsors VADN which is the Swiss fragrance company. They're to
(06:00):
build a three acre structure of like basically a humongous greenhouse,
but instead of windows or glass, it's gonna be open netting,
and it's if everybody take a lot of precautions to
be able to make sure that the Asian citr silad
doesn't come in. So in those three agres, they're gonna
plant about a thousand of the most important trees in
their collection, and they're probably them on the ground because
(06:21):
you know, citris likes you grew on the ground instead
of in a pie gang or in a pop but
you really wanted to ground. And as a test case,
they're actually monitoring something called the Parrott Washington Naval Orange
This is the very first naval orange street ever planted
in the United States. It's still around, it's a hundred
forty seven years old and it's still producing food tall
so for over a century you could just see someone's
(06:44):
back yard, and then about fifty years ago they planted
it on the corner of Magnolia and Arlington and Riverside
just you could just out and they opened last year.
They put this protective netting around it. As a test
example to make sure that one of the most important
parts of Citters history remains Citters green being free and
so far, so good for my story. I went down there,
and yet it's heavy with fruit. You can see their
(07:05):
fruit through the netting. But kind of a little bit weird.
You know, you're used to see citrus plows out in
the open, and here it's protective. It really looks like
the dystopian future that people always write about. You talk
about his citrus history here in California, and you know,
for a long time there was orange groves all over
the place. There was already some virus born citrus diseases
that took out a bunch of it in the past,
(07:28):
and that the growers they're sold the land and that
kind of lead to southern California as we know it,
basically tell us a little bit about that. So if
you know anything about citrus at all, you know that
they're very temperamental trees. You have to guard against past
to make sure they don't give too much water but
also too little water. And it seems every generation or
(07:48):
so there's this existential threat that destroys all these trees,
and people have to start over again. So over a
century ago there was a bultus that infected the roots
that led to root ryle was called the black Rock.
From the nine nine fifties, there was another thing. This
one was a viral infection and it was called quick decline,
but the better name, the other name that the centrus
(08:08):
groers had for it was to sessa sadness in Spanish.
Like in that case, trees would literally die overnight if
they were infected. So there was such huge die offs
that let's set here in originality, a lot of the
citrus growers they said, you know what, we're not going
to grow anymore. We're just gonna go up to the
Central Valley. We're gonna sell our land here and convert
it into housing. So looking forward to stuff. Uh he
literally probably wouldn't have to southern California we know today.
(08:31):
So the scientists are fighting at you see river Home.
Of course, they don't want the citrus collection to be
infected with citrus screening. They're almost resigned to the fact
that look like this happened every generation, so we're gonna
have to solve it. And then after we solve it,
then something else is probably gonna come up. Even worse
and that it's a back and forth battle. The best
call actually got was one of the scientists there. He said, look,
(08:51):
in the battle of humans versus insects, insects always win,
exactly and even some of the next steps are to
create different variety dles of all this citrus that are
resistant to these diseases. But as you mentioned, something new
pops up. So it is kind of that cycle that
we have to fight. But in the meantime they're at
u c riverside. They really are trying to get a
handle on this citrus greening problem that's happening all over
(09:14):
the place. Gustavo Ariano, reporter at the l A Times,
Thank you very much for joining us. Yes, eight plus
are currently being monitored, with forty nine local jurisdictions doing
(09:36):
those protocols and monitoring as it relates to more traditional
commercial flights that came in from points of concern and
potential points in contact, particularly in age. Joining us now
is Aaron all Day, health writer at the San Francisco Chronicle.
Thanks for joining us. Aaron, Hi, thanks for having me.
We have a new case of coronavirus COVID nineteen in
(09:59):
northern calif Fornia. This one is different in the fact
that it could be the first instance of community exposure.
The person infected there, we don't know where she contracted
it from. She was not in Wuhan, China. She didn't
have contact with anybody that came from the region or
had it already. So this is the big mystery. And
(10:20):
this is caused for concern only because if she caught
it from some random patient zero who we don't know
who it is, there could potentially be other people that
could come down with this. Aaron, what do we know
about this new case? So you summed it up nicely.
This woman we know was in her community for some
time not feeling well, so I think a few days
(10:40):
um as the word we're getting. She had flu like
symptoms and took herself to a local hospital in the
city of Vaucaville in Filano County, And this was just
a small local hospital. She kind of walked in. They
admitted her, they treated her, she was intimated and put
on a ventilator when her condition suddenly worsened, and at
that point she was transferred to another hospital facility, UC
(11:01):
Davis Medical Center, where she was in very serious condition
and the doctors they're sort of immediately were concerned that
she had this very serious illness and that they weren't
able to find the source of illness, which made them
think that this could be coronavirus, even though she didn't
have any of the other criteria. So the point is
that she was in her community and treated at the
small hospital for several days, maybe a week, before anybody
(11:22):
knew or suspected that she could have coronavirus. I know,
health workers are obviously always taking care of themselves, wearing
the proper protection masks, whatever they need to. But if
they weren't suspecting that it could have been coronavirus at first,
they did put her on her ventilator and all that,
is it possible that those health workers could have also
been exposed to this. Yeah, for sure, that's definitely a
(11:43):
concern at this point. And in fact, healthcare workers at
that hospital have been sent home and are self quarantining
for presumably for the incubation period. They haven't said how long,
but they're at home and they're monitoring themselves for symptoms.
Because yeah, I mean, people do take standard care. There
is standard precautions you take, but there is a whole
level up from that that people are taking with coronavirus patients,
(12:03):
and presumably these healthcare workers would not have been doing
that if they had no reason to think this person
had the virus. There's also a lot of questions about
the timeline that happened with this. The patient arrived at
u C. Davis on Wednesday, February. It wasn't until four
days later, on Sunday, February, they were tested for coronavirus
and then the results came back on Wednesday. What happened?
(12:25):
Why did they wait so long to test this person?
Basically the way time was because the CDC has, since
the start of this, had very strict protocols on who
gets tested, and that was basically you had to have
not only symptoms, but have either recently traveled to China
or had a known exposure to somebody who had already
been diagnosed with the coronavirus. So if you didn't meet
(12:46):
those criteria, then they just weren't going to test you.
And I think there was some sort of flexibility in
there if you had maybe been in contact with somebody
who would recently traveled of China. I think that they
could have conversations. But in this case, this woman admitt
no carry at all. There was just nothing about her
to make them think coronavirus, even though her doctors were concerned.
The question is what made them finally be convinced to
(13:07):
test her, And I think that was probably just because
they knew this woman had a viral infection and nothing
was turning up positive, so it turned out that they
needed to test. But yeah, I mean, that's definitely one
of the big questions here is have we reached a
point now where those protocols don't work anymore? If this
thing is in the community, then we probably should be
testing more people based on other criteria besides just a
travel history and exposure to know. In cases right now,
(13:29):
the hunt is on I guess or whoever the patient
zero would be. And it's tough, I mean, especially if
this patient right now is on a ventilator. You know,
who knows how bad her condition really is. But they
have to trace her steps back to see where she
possibly contracted it, and that's tough. But it's also important
because he needs to know the trajectory of how the
virus is moving. Yeah, I mean, it's both how you
(13:50):
need to know where she might have been exposed so
they need to trace her whereabouts, but also who she
may have been interacted with. So it's sort of, you know,
on both ends of the spectrum. They need to really
figure that out. But you're right, she's an event leadership.
I imagine that will complicate that process. California Governor Gavin
Newsom spoke about what the state is doing. He said
they're working with the Center for Disease Control, obviously, but
(14:12):
he said also said that they're monitoring like some eight
thousand people possibly, but we only have about two hundred
or so test kits in the state. That doesn't necessarily
point to a big state of readiness. It seems like,
I mean yes and no, I will say, when they
say they're monitoring eight thousand, I think it's or something
like that. Those are people who every single person who
(14:33):
has returned to California from China in since February sewod
is asked to self quarantine for two weeks, So that
eight thousand is simply every single person who has recently
flown back from China. The vast majority of people are
not going to have coronavirus, and there's certainly is a
reason to say that now is not the time to
be testing every single one of those people, especially because
(14:54):
my understanding is we still don't know exactly when the
right time to test people is. They're sort of is
a window of when people are going to test positive
for it, and they're still kind of doing studies to
figure out exactly when that appropriate time is. So in
the meantime, it's not really logical to test every single
one of those people. But that being said, now that
we have this community case, presumably there is talk that
we really need to be doing surveillance of this disease
(15:17):
and not just diagnosing individuals, but sort of more widespread
testing to just figure out if there are cases in
the community that we're not catching. President Trump had a
news conference on Wednesday and said that we as a
country are very, very ready for something like this. He
said that Vice President Mike Pence is going to lead
the administration's responsors, like a COVID nineteen task force that
(15:37):
they're setting up so they can keep seeing what's going on.
There is a lot of hysteria around this, rightly, so
maybe overblown, maybe it's maybe a little bit of both.
It is spreading all over parts of the world, But
help us calm down a little bit about this, the
COVID nineteen. From my understanding about people who do contract it,
(15:57):
it is mild symptoms. It's not a bad, and it's
a lot fewer instances where people really do get very
sick and die from this. That's all correct, And you know,
you raise the really important point, which is it's very
hard to strike that balance between telling people this is
something you should be aware of and concerned about, but
it's also not something you should be panicking about. And
I think you focus on the eight percent are mild,
(16:19):
and that's really important for people to remember, and that's
important to note. I think the concern and the reason
why we want to follow this is because if this
thing were to explode like it has in China, which
presumably it could, it obviously has that capability as virus does.
Ye eight percent of people are probably going to be fine.
Of a large denominator of a large population of sick
people would be a pretty hefty strain on our health systems.
(16:41):
And the fatality rate right now is about two percent,
and we'd rather not have that two percent die. So
if we can keep it from getting in here, from
getting traction, from spreading widely, that's where these really aggressive
public health efforts are coming from. It's tough to really
sift through all of this. Obviously, the media is going
crazy with it because it is new, right, the novel coronavirus,
that's what it's called, and people are very unfamiliar with it,
(17:02):
and they're worried that it could be much worse. But
as I said, compared to other ones like Stars and Mirrors,
it's not necessarily that bad just yet. And we don't
know much about this. There's a lot yet to be done.
I know there's already been some possible vaccines submitted for
testing and trials, but still those are months and months
away from actually, I mean they're saying like a year
(17:22):
to a year and a half for a vaccine, yeah, exactly,
And that's tough for a lot of people to really understand.
And I know a lot of people are asking a
lot of questions about wearing face masks and things like that.
So there's just a lot that people have to digest
with all of this. It's true, it's a lot of
information and it's hard for people to see that. You know,
we're quarantining people at Air Force Bass and we're asking
eight thousand people in California a loan to isolate at home.
(17:44):
I mean, we're taking these really aggressive public health stances
and at the same time keep saying, oh, but the
risk is low. I mean, I think that it is
a hard thing. And I mean both of those messages
are correct. I mean, all of that is true. But
it's hard for people to grasp what to do with
that information. And I get that. I think that we
just kind of have to keep putting it out there.
So the last question I just have on all this.
The President had requested two point five billion dollars to
(18:06):
help with a federal response to this. I know the
CDC says they're on top of this. Is there any
reason why we shouldn't trust that they are on top this?
Because lawmakers are asking are saying, you know, we need
more money to throw at this, and local cities are
issuing declarations of emergency so that they can get more
funding for this. Is the response at the right level
right now? I think? So it's hard to say, you
(18:27):
know what the right level is. That this thing is
constantly shifting. It seems to me that they're kind of
striking the right attack on this. I will say the
one thing, and Gavin Newsom at the press conference this morning,
he also said that the money is one thing he's
not worried about. That they have money. They're going to
pour whatever money they need into this, that that's not
a concern. I think one thing that I know is
the case of local public health departments at the county
(18:48):
level are really responsible for a lot of the work
of monitoring these cases in the community, of identifying them,
doing the kind of case tracking, and the CDC is
weighing in, other people are helping. But the counties, a
lot of them are very small. They don't have really
large staffs, and a lot of them don't have a
big staff for doing this kind of work. And I
think that they're prepared to do that on sort of
(19:09):
emergency basis. They can, you know, come in and do
these things for weeks at a time, but if this
thing really takes off for a long period of time,
you know, I think that's one of the big questions
people have is do we have the public health infrastructure,
especially at the local level, to keep on top of
this thing if it goes on for months at a time.
Aaron all Day, health writer at the San Francisco Chronicle.
(19:30):
Thanks for joining us. Thank you so much. That's it
for today. Join us on social media at Daily Dive
Pod on both Twitter and Instagram. Leave us a comment,
give us a rating, and tell us the stories that
you're interested in. Follow us and I Heard Radio, or
(19:51):
subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode of The
Daily Dive is produced by Victor Wright and engineered by
Tony Sargantina. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this was her Daily
Dive
It's Friday, February. I'm Oscar Ramirez in Los Angeles and
this is the daily dive. It's being called the nose
Ark of Citrus. The Jivadan Citrus Variety collection at u
c Riverside in California, and it has over one thousand
different citrus specimens. But one thing that could destroy it
(00:21):
all is the bacterial infection known as citrus greening, which
kills trees and produces inedible fruit. Citrus greening has caused
over two billion dollars in losses in Florida, and worries
are that it could also ruin things here in California.
The infection is transmitted by small insects, so the only
way to keep them out is to put up nets
and screens around the trees. Gustavo Ariano, reporter at the
(00:44):
l A Times, joins us for the effort to save
citrus from greening. Next, we have the first possible instance
of community exposure of COVID nineteen in northern California. A
woman has been infected and she did not travel to
the heart of the outbreak in China or have contact
with anyone that had the virus. It is concerning because
it could be a sign that it is spreading in
(01:04):
the community, and it's tough to track who might have
had contact with this woman. President Trump has set up
a COVID nineteen task force led by my Pens to
handle the federal response, but it continues to seem that
coronavirus will continue to spread. Aaron all Day, health writer
at the San Francisco Chronicle, joins us for what we
know about the latest case. It's news without the noise.
(01:26):
Let's dive in. What's happening is that they've discovered citrus
greening about two miles away from the citrus collection, So
their caretakers they have to now think of the possibility
that the citrus collection maybe no more, so they have
to take the steps to ensure its future and survive.
Joining us now is Gustavo Ariano, reporter at the l
(01:47):
A Times. Thanks for joining us, Gustavo having me, We're
gonna be talking about what's going on right now at
you see Riverside. They're calling it the Noah's Ark of citrus,
and caretakers are trying to fight off a apocalypse. We've
talked about this on the podcast before in reference to
Florida specifically, there's something going on called citrus greening, and
(02:07):
in Florida specifically, it's caused over two billion dollars in
losses there. There's acres and acres of orange groves and
citrus groves that are just affected with this and it
renders the fruit inedible, you can't eat, it kills the
trees basically, and it's been here in California for some
time now, but they're taking more steps to try to
(02:29):
prevent this from spreading. Gustavo tell us what's going on
at you see Riverside specifically? Right now, you see rivers Bide.
They have something called the Javadon Citrus Variety Collection. It's
one of the largest collections of citrus in the world.
It was literally like a Noah's Ark. We have two
of almost every kind of citrus plant imaginable. It's over
one thou specific specimen that this is a legendary institution
(02:51):
in the world of citrus. This goes back a hundred
and thirteen years. All the citrus growers and orange juice producers,
all of them know about it. And you walk through
it's like heaven. I mean, imagine, here's a lemon. It's
not just one lemon, but like hundreds of types of lemons.
Here's a citrus as the small as your pinky nail.
It's as big as your head, and it's an open laboratory.
So the sizes there have been doing stuff in the
(03:13):
name of citrus for again, over a hundred years, and
for the past decade or so they've been fighting the
citrus screening. And so now though, what's happening is that
they've discovered citrus screening about two miles away from the
citrus collection. So their caretakers they have to now think
of the possibility that the citrus collection maybe no more,
so they have to take the steps to ensure its
(03:35):
future and survival. I've been following this partly because I
am a citrus freak. I love citrus, love orange in
my food and all that. I've been following this, as
I said, in Florida, and you know now here in California.
Tell us about this bacterial infection known as citrus screening.
It's called Wang Long being and it comes from China.
Tell us a little bit about it and what we
(03:56):
know so Long Long being or citrus screening, It's transmitted
by an insect called the Asian Citrius silent. So it
was first spotted in the United States and early two
thousands in Florida, as you mentioned, just has it destroyed
the citrus industry there like red povic And it was
first spotted in California in town and twelve. And it's
like the white blockers of Game of Thrones right now,
(04:16):
there is no here. It's slowly spreading around southern California.
There's been over one thousand backyard trees uprooted, and there's
been a quarantine now and a lot of southern California,
over one thousand acres spreading across all the counties. That
keeps seems to grow every couple of months, and so
scientists have not been able to not even solve it,
(04:37):
but even be able to stop it. So it really
is a fruit apocalypse for everyone involved in shore in
southern California. We're backyard lemon tree or orange tree or
lime tree as our birthrights. It's just something the California landscape.
And conceivably, if they don't stop citrius greening, all that
citrus will be gone. It'll be completely gone from the landscape.
You know. I keep bringing Florida up. There's a lot
(04:58):
of major cit as producers that have the resources to replant.
That's really the only thing you can do once a
tree gets infected is clean it out, replanted and hope
that citrus silends don't come back. But a lot of
smaller citrus producers really don't have the resources to do that.
And here in California we just have this wealth of it,
especially at you see Riverside. Obviously, we don't want it
(05:18):
to get infected. So one of the only effective methods
to prevent this is to put up nets and screens
around the trees just so that the little insects don't
get in there, don't get to the tree. Tell us
about how you see Riverside is working with this method
to protect what we have there. You see Riverside scientists
they have of from a couple of bock ups to
(05:39):
back ups, so they have preserved the genetic code of
every single one of their stuff to men. So that's
one right now is run by the U. S Department
of Agriculture. There's a big greenhouse where they're not samplings
of a lot of the trees, but the big stuff
that you see Riverside is going to do. Through their
sponsors VADN which is the Swiss fragrance company. They're to
(06:00):
build a three acre structure of like basically a humongous greenhouse,
but instead of windows or glass, it's gonna be open netting,
and it's if everybody take a lot of precautions to
be able to make sure that the Asian citr silad
doesn't come in. So in those three agres, they're gonna
plant about a thousand of the most important trees in
their collection, and they're probably them on the ground because
(06:21):
you know, citris likes you grew on the ground instead
of in a pie gang or in a pop but
you really wanted to ground. And as a test case,
they're actually monitoring something called the Parrott Washington Naval Orange
This is the very first naval orange street ever planted
in the United States. It's still around, it's a hundred
forty seven years old and it's still producing food tall
so for over a century you could just see someone's
(06:44):
back yard, and then about fifty years ago they planted
it on the corner of Magnolia and Arlington and Riverside
just you could just out and they opened last year.
They put this protective netting around it. As a test
example to make sure that one of the most important
parts of Citters history remains Citters green being free and
so far, so good for my story. I went down there,
and yet it's heavy with fruit. You can see their
(07:05):
fruit through the netting. But kind of a little bit weird.
You know, you're used to see citrus plows out in
the open, and here it's protective. It really looks like
the dystopian future that people always write about. You talk
about his citrus history here in California, and you know,
for a long time there was orange groves all over
the place. There was already some virus born citrus diseases
that took out a bunch of it in the past,
(07:28):
and that the growers they're sold the land and that
kind of lead to southern California as we know it,
basically tell us a little bit about that. So if
you know anything about citrus at all, you know that
they're very temperamental trees. You have to guard against past
to make sure they don't give too much water but
also too little water. And it seems every generation or
(07:48):
so there's this existential threat that destroys all these trees,
and people have to start over again. So over a
century ago there was a bultus that infected the roots
that led to root ryle was called the black Rock.
From the nine nine fifties, there was another thing. This
one was a viral infection and it was called quick decline,
but the better name, the other name that the centrus
(08:08):
groers had for it was to sessa sadness in Spanish.
Like in that case, trees would literally die overnight if
they were infected. So there was such huge die offs
that let's set here in originality, a lot of the
citrus growers they said, you know what, we're not going
to grow anymore. We're just gonna go up to the
Central Valley. We're gonna sell our land here and convert
it into housing. So looking forward to stuff. Uh he
literally probably wouldn't have to southern California we know today.
(08:31):
So the scientists are fighting at you see river Home.
Of course, they don't want the citrus collection to be
infected with citrus screening. They're almost resigned to the fact
that look like this happened every generation, so we're gonna
have to solve it. And then after we solve it,
then something else is probably gonna come up. Even worse
and that it's a back and forth battle. The best
call actually got was one of the scientists there. He said, look,
(08:51):
in the battle of humans versus insects, insects always win,
exactly and even some of the next steps are to
create different variety dles of all this citrus that are
resistant to these diseases. But as you mentioned, something new
pops up. So it is kind of that cycle that
we have to fight. But in the meantime they're at
u c riverside. They really are trying to get a
handle on this citrus greening problem that's happening all over
(09:14):
the place. Gustavo Ariano, reporter at the l A Times,
Thank you very much for joining us. Yes, eight plus
are currently being monitored, with forty nine local jurisdictions doing
(09:36):
those protocols and monitoring as it relates to more traditional
commercial flights that came in from points of concern and
potential points in contact, particularly in age. Joining us now
is Aaron all Day, health writer at the San Francisco Chronicle.
Thanks for joining us. Aaron, Hi, thanks for having me.
We have a new case of coronavirus COVID nineteen in
(09:59):
northern calif Fornia. This one is different in the fact
that it could be the first instance of community exposure.
The person infected there, we don't know where she contracted
it from. She was not in Wuhan, China. She didn't
have contact with anybody that came from the region or
had it already. So this is the big mystery. And
(10:20):
this is caused for concern only because if she caught
it from some random patient zero who we don't know
who it is, there could potentially be other people that
could come down with this. Aaron, what do we know
about this new case? So you summed it up nicely.
This woman we know was in her community for some
time not feeling well, so I think a few days
(10:40):
um as the word we're getting. She had flu like
symptoms and took herself to a local hospital in the
city of Vaucaville in Filano County, And this was just
a small local hospital. She kind of walked in. They
admitted her, they treated her, she was intimated and put
on a ventilator when her condition suddenly worsened, and at
that point she was transferred to another hospital facility, UC
(11:01):
Davis Medical Center, where she was in very serious condition
and the doctors they're sort of immediately were concerned that
she had this very serious illness and that they weren't
able to find the source of illness, which made them
think that this could be coronavirus, even though she didn't
have any of the other criteria. So the point is
that she was in her community and treated at the
small hospital for several days, maybe a week, before anybody
(11:22):
knew or suspected that she could have coronavirus. I know,
health workers are obviously always taking care of themselves, wearing
the proper protection masks, whatever they need to. But if
they weren't suspecting that it could have been coronavirus at first,
they did put her on her ventilator and all that,
is it possible that those health workers could have also
been exposed to this. Yeah, for sure, that's definitely a
(11:43):
concern at this point. And in fact, healthcare workers at
that hospital have been sent home and are self quarantining
for presumably for the incubation period. They haven't said how long,
but they're at home and they're monitoring themselves for symptoms.
Because yeah, I mean, people do take standard care. There
is standard precautions you take, but there is a whole
level up from that that people are taking with coronavirus patients,
(12:03):
and presumably these healthcare workers would not have been doing
that if they had no reason to think this person
had the virus. There's also a lot of questions about
the timeline that happened with this. The patient arrived at
u C. Davis on Wednesday, February. It wasn't until four
days later, on Sunday, February, they were tested for coronavirus
and then the results came back on Wednesday. What happened?
(12:25):
Why did they wait so long to test this person?
Basically the way time was because the CDC has, since
the start of this, had very strict protocols on who
gets tested, and that was basically you had to have
not only symptoms, but have either recently traveled to China
or had a known exposure to somebody who had already
been diagnosed with the coronavirus. So if you didn't meet
(12:46):
those criteria, then they just weren't going to test you.
And I think there was some sort of flexibility in
there if you had maybe been in contact with somebody
who would recently traveled of China. I think that they
could have conversations. But in this case, this woman admitt
no carry at all. There was just nothing about her
to make them think coronavirus, even though her doctors were concerned.
The question is what made them finally be convinced to
(13:07):
test her, And I think that was probably just because
they knew this woman had a viral infection and nothing
was turning up positive, so it turned out that they
needed to test. But yeah, I mean, that's definitely one
of the big questions here is have we reached a
point now where those protocols don't work anymore? If this
thing is in the community, then we probably should be
testing more people based on other criteria besides just a
travel history and exposure to know. In cases right now,
(13:29):
the hunt is on I guess or whoever the patient
zero would be. And it's tough, I mean, especially if
this patient right now is on a ventilator. You know,
who knows how bad her condition really is. But they
have to trace her steps back to see where she
possibly contracted it, and that's tough. But it's also important
because he needs to know the trajectory of how the
virus is moving. Yeah, I mean, it's both how you
(13:50):
need to know where she might have been exposed so
they need to trace her whereabouts, but also who she
may have been interacted with. So it's sort of, you know,
on both ends of the spectrum. They need to really
figure that out. But you're right, she's an event leadership.
I imagine that will complicate that process. California Governor Gavin
Newsom spoke about what the state is doing. He said
they're working with the Center for Disease Control, obviously, but
(14:12):
he said also said that they're monitoring like some eight
thousand people possibly, but we only have about two hundred
or so test kits in the state. That doesn't necessarily
point to a big state of readiness. It seems like,
I mean yes and no, I will say, when they
say they're monitoring eight thousand, I think it's or something
like that. Those are people who every single person who
(14:33):
has returned to California from China in since February sewod
is asked to self quarantine for two weeks, So that
eight thousand is simply every single person who has recently
flown back from China. The vast majority of people are
not going to have coronavirus, and there's certainly is a
reason to say that now is not the time to
be testing every single one of those people, especially because
(14:54):
my understanding is we still don't know exactly when the
right time to test people is. They're sort of is
a window of when people are going to test positive
for it, and they're still kind of doing studies to
figure out exactly when that appropriate time is. So in
the meantime, it's not really logical to test every single
one of those people. But that being said, now that
we have this community case, presumably there is talk that
we really need to be doing surveillance of this disease
(15:17):
and not just diagnosing individuals, but sort of more widespread
testing to just figure out if there are cases in
the community that we're not catching. President Trump had a
news conference on Wednesday and said that we as a
country are very, very ready for something like this. He
said that Vice President Mike Pence is going to lead
the administration's responsors, like a COVID nineteen task force that
(15:37):
they're setting up so they can keep seeing what's going on.
There is a lot of hysteria around this, rightly, so
maybe overblown, maybe it's maybe a little bit of both.
It is spreading all over parts of the world, But
help us calm down a little bit about this, the
COVID nineteen. From my understanding about people who do contract it,
(15:57):
it is mild symptoms. It's not a bad, and it's
a lot fewer instances where people really do get very
sick and die from this. That's all correct, And you know,
you raise the really important point, which is it's very
hard to strike that balance between telling people this is
something you should be aware of and concerned about, but
it's also not something you should be panicking about. And
I think you focus on the eight percent are mild,
(16:19):
and that's really important for people to remember, and that's
important to note. I think the concern and the reason
why we want to follow this is because if this
thing were to explode like it has in China, which
presumably it could, it obviously has that capability as virus does.
Ye eight percent of people are probably going to be fine.
Of a large denominator of a large population of sick
people would be a pretty hefty strain on our health systems.
(16:41):
And the fatality rate right now is about two percent,
and we'd rather not have that two percent die. So
if we can keep it from getting in here, from
getting traction, from spreading widely, that's where these really aggressive
public health efforts are coming from. It's tough to really
sift through all of this. Obviously, the media is going
crazy with it because it is new, right, the novel coronavirus,
that's what it's called, and people are very unfamiliar with it,
(17:02):
and they're worried that it could be much worse. But
as I said, compared to other ones like Stars and Mirrors,
it's not necessarily that bad just yet. And we don't
know much about this. There's a lot yet to be done.
I know there's already been some possible vaccines submitted for
testing and trials, but still those are months and months
away from actually, I mean they're saying like a year
(17:22):
to a year and a half for a vaccine, yeah, exactly,
And that's tough for a lot of people to really understand.
And I know a lot of people are asking a
lot of questions about wearing face masks and things like that.
So there's just a lot that people have to digest
with all of this. It's true, it's a lot of
information and it's hard for people to see that. You know,
we're quarantining people at Air Force Bass and we're asking
eight thousand people in California a loan to isolate at home.
(17:44):
I mean, we're taking these really aggressive public health stances
and at the same time keep saying, oh, but the
risk is low. I mean, I think that it is
a hard thing. And I mean both of those messages
are correct. I mean, all of that is true. But
it's hard for people to grasp what to do with
that information. And I get that. I think that we
just kind of have to keep putting it out there.
So the last question I just have on all this.
The President had requested two point five billion dollars to
(18:06):
help with a federal response to this. I know the
CDC says they're on top of this. Is there any
reason why we shouldn't trust that they are on top this?
Because lawmakers are asking are saying, you know, we need
more money to throw at this, and local cities are
issuing declarations of emergency so that they can get more
funding for this. Is the response at the right level
right now? I think? So it's hard to say, you
(18:27):
know what the right level is. That this thing is
constantly shifting. It seems to me that they're kind of
striking the right attack on this. I will say the
one thing, and Gavin Newsom at the press conference this morning,
he also said that the money is one thing he's
not worried about. That they have money. They're going to
pour whatever money they need into this, that that's not
a concern. I think one thing that I know is
the case of local public health departments at the county
(18:48):
level are really responsible for a lot of the work
of monitoring these cases in the community, of identifying them,
doing the kind of case tracking, and the CDC is
weighing in, other people are helping. But the counties, a
lot of them are very small. They don't have really
large staffs, and a lot of them don't have a
big staff for doing this kind of work. And I
think that they're prepared to do that on sort of
(19:09):
emergency basis. They can, you know, come in and do
these things for weeks at a time, but if this
thing really takes off for a long period of time,
you know, I think that's one of the big questions
people have is do we have the public health infrastructure,
especially at the local level, to keep on top of
this thing if it goes on for months at a time.
Aaron all Day, health writer at the San Francisco Chronicle.
(19:30):
Thanks for joining us. Thank you so much. That's it
for today. Join us on social media at Daily Dive
Pod on both Twitter and Instagram. Leave us a comment,
give us a rating, and tell us the stories that
you're interested in. Follow us and I Heard Radio, or
(19:51):
subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode of The
Daily Dive is produced by Victor Wright and engineered by
Tony Sargantina. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this was her Daily
Dive
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