Community members in San Luis Obispo are facing a new COVID-19 challenge: the vaccine rollout. When Lauryn Luescher and I heard about a Cal Poly student who has been helping with COVID-19 relief efforts since the beginning of the pandemic, we knew we wanted to highlight her story.
“As a full time student myself, it was wild to see a fourth year Cal Poly student dedicate this much time and effort to support COVID-19 relief right from the start. While so many of us were concerned with how to get our lives back on track Emma was out there administering tests and volunteering at the vaccine clinic,” Reporter Lauryn Luescher said.
When the pandemic hit the United States, Cal Poly biology major Emma Witkin grasped the opportunity to put what she has learned at Cal Poly to the ultimate test. Witkin has her EMT license, which has allowed her to administer COVID-19 tests, and more recently, Witkin has been assisting with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Additionally, Witkin has already received her COVID-19 vaccine because of her position as a volunteer, which is something that most Cal Poly students can only dream of at the moment.
We set up an interview with Emma Witkin, brainstormed some questions and headed out to her apartment in San Luis Obispo.
Witkin has an open backyard, which functioned perfectly for a socially-distant interview set-up. We chatted to Witkin for over fifteen minutes, discussing the hardships and challenges she faces everyday as a COVID-19 volunteer.
“I think Cal Poly students will be impressed by Witkin’s story,” reporter Lauren Brown said, “She selflessly volunteers her time to serve the San Luis Obispo community, and even puts herself at risk for contracting COVID-19.”
Something that really stood out to us during the interview was the various community groups that Witkin has worked with. In particular, Witkin discussed the difficulties of testing senior citizens in nursing homes.
“Some of the patients have dementia or Alzheimser’s disease, and they don’t totally understand what we’re doing,” Witkin said, “I just always try to go really slowly, and explain ahead of time what I’m going to do, and keep the primary caregiver that the person is comfortable with by their side while I’m doing the procedure.”
At first, we struggled to choose a primary “focus” for our profile Q&A. Witkin had so many incredible anecdotes from her time working in the field, so it was hard to choose just one for the lede. In our profile, we ended up introducing the story by describing the risks Witkin faces everyday as a volunteer. We described the lengthy procedures she has to take to get ready for work everyday, and we thought this anecdote provided a small glimpse into what it is like to volunteer during a global health pandemic.
We originally wanted to include data about how many Cal Poly students have received their COVID-19 vaccines, so we reached out to the County of San Luis Obispo Public Health Department and the Cal Poly Health Department. However, the organizations were unable to provide us with these details. Instead, we highlighted the total amount of COVID-19 vaccines that have been administered in San Luis Obispo County based on data collected by the County of San Luis Obispo Public Health Department.
For the interactive components, we wanted to highlight the broader implications of COVID-19 vaccinations in San Luis Obispo County, so we analyzed data distributed by the San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department to provide insight into the current vaccine situation. For our video, it was particularly difficult to find b-roll because we were not able to film Witkin with patients due to HIPAA guidelines. Instead, Witkin was able to provide us with photos that reflect what it is like to work as a volunteer during a pandemic.
To distribute our content, we plan to post the video on Facebook and Twitter, and create an IGTV story to distribute the video on Instagram. We hope to create buzz by featuring a static post about Witkin on the Instagram feed. Finally, we are planning to do a yes/no Instagram poll with the question: have you volunteered with the COVID-19 response in the San Luis Obispo community or your local community? We hope these interactive components will prompt Cal Poly students and San Luis Obispo community members to engage with the story.