April Dembosky
April Dembosky is the health reporter for The California Report and KQED News. She covers health policy and public health, and has reported extensively on the economics of health care, the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act in California, mental health and end-of-life issues. Her work is regularly rebroadcast on NPR and has been recognized with awards from the Society for Professional Journalists (for sports reporting), and the Association of Health Care Journalists (for a story about pediatric hospice). Her hour-long radio documentary about home funeralswon the Best New Artist award from the Third Coast International Audio Festival in 2009. April occasionally moonlights on the arts beat, covering music and dance. Her story about the first symphony orchestra at Burning Man won the award for Best Use of Sound from the Public Radio News Directors Inc. Before joining KQED in 2013, April covered technology and Silicon Valley for The Financial Times, and freelanced for Marketplace and The New York Times. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Smith College.
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California is battling over getting vaccines to essential farmworkers, who are hard to reach. Prioritizing them could slow overall efforts, but advocates say equity demands they must be prioritized.
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The state has a law strictly regulating nurse-to-patient staffing ratios in hospitals. But the governor recently said hospitals could lift those limits in pandemic times, and nurses are crying foul. -
With hospitals overwhelmed, California has suspended its unique law limiting nurse-to-patient ratios. Nurses are protesting, and worry it could lead to the law being changed or scrapped.
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Could earlier access to the vaccine for some groups, like Native Americans, be a form of reparations for historical injustice? -
California says it wants to consider "historic and contemporary injustices" as a factor in who gets priority after health care workers for a COVID-19 vaccine. Experts warn of legal problems.
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When a Latina woman went to a Bay Area hospital, a doctor was dismissive of her COVID symptoms. Is unconscious bias one reason people of color are disproportionately affected by the coronavirus? -
Research shows that doctors' unconscious bias can hurt patients of color. Some hospitals are trying to train doctors and stop disparate treatment.
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Sex educators and sexologists have some advice for safe coronavirus socializing. Just like in the bedroom, overcommunicate about your needs and seek consent. -
California is paying to train a huge contingent of contact tracers by July. Many of the new recruits are librarians: they're curious, tech savvy, and great at talking to strangers. -
Motor vehicle deaths are typically the biggest source of donor organs nationwide. But as the coronavirus forced most Californians indoors, traffic crashes and other lethal mishaps declined.
