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Speaker 1: All right, well, you know it is Women's History Month.

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Speaker 1: On the way up with Angela Yee and we have

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Speaker 1: a very special guest in the studio with us. Thank you.

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Speaker 1: I'm so excited. I didn't even get to do that's

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Speaker 1: all excited. Kamara Jones is here, acting Assistant Secretary for

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Speaker 1: Public Affairs at the US Department of Health and Human Services. Yes, yes,

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Speaker 1: did I get that right? You've got it. That's a

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Speaker 1: long title. It is a long title, and I can

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Speaker 1: tell you what it means very shortly. I'm the top

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Speaker 1: communicator at the US Department of Health and Human Services.

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Speaker 1: This is the department that is responsible for enhancing the

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Speaker 1: health and well being of all Americans and also strengthening

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Speaker 1: supports for children and families. So we are ninety thousand

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Speaker 1: people strong in terms of employees, and we have a

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Speaker 1: nearly three trillion dollar budget. So and you're the top communicator. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So I lead the Office of the Assistant Secretary for

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Speaker 1: Public Affairs. We have eighty employees. We have several divisions,

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Speaker 1: Broadcast division, Freedom of Information Act Office, obviously Press, social media,

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Speaker 1: speech writing, and we do it all. But we are

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Speaker 1: the the top communications department at the at the department.

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Speaker 1: We oversee all of the communications departments at the agency,

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Speaker 1: so Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and

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Speaker 1: Drug administrat Yeah, okay, and can we ask how did

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Speaker 1: you get into this position? Like what led you here?

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Speaker 1: What path? Yeah, so let's go back to twenty ten.

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Speaker 1: I had just graduated with my Masters in African American

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Speaker 1: Studies from the Ohio State University. I have to get

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Speaker 1: that the in there, and um, you know I have

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Speaker 1: I have a bachelor's in journalism. So I was like,

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Speaker 1: you know, am I going to go back to journalism

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Speaker 1: and am I going to get this PhD? Well, my

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Speaker 1: research was in race medium politics, So I decided, you know,

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Speaker 1: let me go where all these folks I had been

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Speaker 1: reading about for my research. Let me go where they are,

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Speaker 1: which is DC. And quite frankly, I wanted to breathe

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Speaker 1: the same era as the first black president, so you know, right, yeah,

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Speaker 1: so Brack. It was two years into his first term

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Speaker 1: and I was just itching to sort of be in

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Speaker 1: that space. So I literally googled African Americans Policy Internship

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Speaker 1: and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. They have a fellowship

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Speaker 1: that came up. The fellowship was for recent grads of

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Speaker 1: graduate programs. I applied and I got it, and the

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Speaker 1: rest is history. And so my first two fellowship placements,

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Speaker 1: I worked for Congressman Bobby Scott of Virginia, and then

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Speaker 1: I worked for Claire McCaskill, Senator Claire McCaskill, my home

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Speaker 1: state senator. I'm from Missouri. And then my first permanent

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Speaker 1: role on Capitol Hill was Press secretary for Senator Bloomenthal

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Speaker 1: of Connecticut. And then I've been working on and off

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Speaker 1: the Hill for about ten years. So after working for

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Speaker 1: Senator Bloomenthal, I went into the Obama administration. I came

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Speaker 1: out of the administration and I worked for the Congressional

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Speaker 1: Black Caucus, so they have a foundation, but there's also

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Speaker 1: the Legislative Caucus. I worked under Congressman Cedric Richmond when

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Speaker 1: he was chair. He was senior advisor for the for

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Speaker 1: President Biden, so he would share of the caucus. I

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Speaker 1: worked for him then. And then what did I do after?

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Speaker 1: I went to the private sector for a year, and

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Speaker 1: then I came back to the Hill. I worked for

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Speaker 1: the Senate, UH US Congress, actually US Congress Joint Economic Committee,

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Speaker 1: and now I'm back in a democratic administration. I work

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Speaker 1: for the Biden administration. You have been through a lot already.

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Speaker 1: I think you know how some people stick to one

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Speaker 1: job for ten years, not this lady. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean politics it's different. Yeah, it's different. But I

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Speaker 1: love that you're there because listen, I feel like it's

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Speaker 1: really important for us to be represented because there has,

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Speaker 1: you know, traditionally been such a lack of diversity. Yes,

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Speaker 1: when it comes to these roles, yes, you know, do

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Speaker 1: you feel like it's it's getting better because even with

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Speaker 1: this latest administration, with Biden's administration, diversity feels like it's

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Speaker 1: something that has been a priority. Yeah, it has been

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Speaker 1: a priority. And I'll say a few things. So let's

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Speaker 1: start with Capitol Hill. Um. You know, I really have

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Speaker 1: to shout out foundations like the Congressional Black Caucus found

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Speaker 1: the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Foundation. Those are the foundations that

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Speaker 1: really helped get UM black staffers like me, staffers of

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Speaker 1: color like me on Capitol Hill. Most black staffers work

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Speaker 1: for black members. Most black chiefs of staff or chiefs

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Speaker 1: of staff are black members. You know, people hire who

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Speaker 1: look like them unfortunately, so we really got to give

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Speaker 1: a lot of credit to those foundations and also the

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Speaker 1: Capital Capitol Hill has added equity equity czars on both

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Speaker 1: sides of Congress, so the Senate has the Equities ARE

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Speaker 1: and the House has Equities ARE to increase equity across

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Speaker 1: Capitol Hill. So let's talk about the administration. So I

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Speaker 1: think it was December as when I first started talking

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Speaker 1: to the Biden Harris administration. I was talking to the

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Speaker 1: transition team at that at that point, so this is

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Speaker 1: December twenty twenty, and they were really frank. They said, look,

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Speaker 1: we really want to do better than the last few

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Speaker 1: administrations when it comes to diversity equity, and they've really

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Speaker 1: done that. They've put a lot of African Americans in

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Speaker 1: top roles. Um you know, Uh, the chief economist at

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Speaker 1: the Department of Labor starting out was African American. I

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Speaker 1: think the new chief economist is African American. Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: Cedric Richmond, my member boss, was a senior advisor. Um

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Speaker 1: you know. There's so many other people I can name

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Speaker 1: Chiquita Brooks la Shore, who's the head of the Center

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Speaker 1: for Medicaid and Medicare Services at HHS, one of the

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Speaker 1: agencies at HHS. So there's so many African Americans I

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Speaker 1: can name, Um that the Biden Harris administration was intentional

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Speaker 1: about putting in in top spots. How do you how

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Speaker 1: do students get get more information or kind of get

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Speaker 1: on track to you know, get fellowships and get into

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Speaker 1: these different have these different opportunities. Yeah, So if you're

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Speaker 1: an African American student, UM, I would say google the

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Speaker 1: Congressional Black Caucus Foundations. That's what you did. Yeah, Like

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Speaker 1: it worked for me, it did, And um uh they

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Speaker 1: have internships too, so they have several internships. They actually

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Speaker 1: have several fellowships. Um. I think that's probably the best way.

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Speaker 1: And um Angel, you probably don't even remember this, but

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Speaker 1: the Congression Black Caucus Foundation they also um uh they

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Speaker 1: planned what they call Black Policy Week in DC. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Congressman Vette, Yes, I saw you walking by one year

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Speaker 1: and so ye and that's actually where I met coach Jesse,

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Speaker 1: who I do all of my detoxes and holistic research with.

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Speaker 1: And when I tell you that week is an amazing

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Speaker 1: week to be there, Amazing DC and DC is special year.

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Speaker 1: It's my favorite way. Yeah. Yeah, And so anybody who

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Speaker 1: can get out there to see this first of all

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Speaker 1: amazing panels that happened, great networking opportunity parties to one

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Speaker 1: and I was gonna say, and congress woman at that

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Speaker 1: Clark had a day party that was like the Caribbean

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Speaker 1: Day Party, which is like angel love that you know

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Speaker 1: the time. Yeah, yeah, the drummer who drums every year

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Speaker 1: is like there every year. So rum punch all of that.

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Speaker 1: But what I was gonna say is not only when

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Speaker 1: you you know, when you do the internship or fellowship

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Speaker 1: with the CBC, you get obviously the Hill experience, but

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Speaker 1: you get this networking experience that you really can't pay for.

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Speaker 1: So my first week in DC, it was September twenty ten,

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Speaker 1: I had just started the fellowship and it was CBC

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Speaker 1: week and they said, we just want you to walk

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Speaker 1: around the convention center and just absorb meet people sitting

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Speaker 1: on the panels. I mean, like I love my job. Well, right,

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Speaker 1: I know, Jesse Jackson's walking by, Sharpton's walking by, like

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Speaker 1: these people I had been reading about in graduate school,

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Speaker 1: where you know, just an arms length away. So it's

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Speaker 1: really a great experience. And you know, I call it's

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Speaker 1: kind of like school days Capitol Hill, right, like you

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Speaker 1: start off, you know, Press assistant, Legislative assistant, Press secretary,

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Speaker 1: you know, you know, legislative advisor, and then you just

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Speaker 1: there's a clear path to sort of promotion and you know,

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Speaker 1: you know, excellence, and so the sky's the limit basically

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Speaker 1: once you're in that circle. And I think it's important

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Speaker 1: to encourage people. And I always say this, to run

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Speaker 1: for office who you think would be good, or for

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Speaker 1: yourself to say, you know what, it doesn't have to

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Speaker 1: be the President of the United States. There's so many

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Speaker 1: roles that are important. There's local positions that are really

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Speaker 1: important as far as making change and caring about people,

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Speaker 1: because that's what it's supposed to be about. Now, I

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Speaker 1: gotta ask you, oh cool, Yeah, when the pandemic started,

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Speaker 1: what role were you in at that time? Gosh? Where

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Speaker 1: was it? So I was at the US Congress to

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Speaker 1: Joint Economic Committee, and I have such a crazy story.

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Speaker 1: We were just starting to hear about COVID and I

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Speaker 1: went to the Democratic Caucus meeting and the members were

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Speaker 1: just sort of hearing the facts, like you know, it's

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Speaker 1: it transmits, you know, when you're in close contact and

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Speaker 1: the people most at risks or people who are out

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Speaker 1: in public spaces, and the members were saying, well, we're

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Speaker 1: those people, we're out in public space. We're sorry kissing babies,

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Speaker 1: we're hugging people and so um. And I think nobody

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Speaker 1: really at that time thought we were really going to

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Speaker 1: close down. But the chief of staff of the chairman

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Speaker 1: of the US congress Joint Economic Committee, she had a

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Speaker 1: military background, and she was hearing from you know, folks

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Speaker 1: that she knows in the military, like, no, this thing

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Speaker 1: is coming and it's going to shut us down, and

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Speaker 1: we just sort of didn't believe it because you don't

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Speaker 1: ever think Capitol Hill will shut down. I mean, you

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Speaker 1: don't ever think that you're going to be working from

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Speaker 1: home and you know, working for a member, because you

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Speaker 1: just don't do that. I mean, it's such an imperson job,

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Speaker 1: you know, working on Capitol Hill. But sure enough, no,

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Speaker 1: sooner a few days after that, Democratic Caucus, meaning the

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Speaker 1: Hills shut down, and so we were all home supporting

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Speaker 1: members of Congress, trying to figure out how votes would

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Speaker 1: take place, since you know, it was a risk to

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Speaker 1: be in person, but you know, we all had on

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Speaker 1: on our masks. So that's where I was. I was

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Speaker 1: working for the US Congress, joining the Economic Committee. I

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Speaker 1: was in my chair for two weeks because I had

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Speaker 1: started late February and then for the rest of the

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Speaker 1: time I was there, I was at home now at

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Speaker 1: the Department of Health and Human Services right now, right, yeah,

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Speaker 1: what is going on? Are we still in a pandemic

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Speaker 1: because some people say we are. I feel like COVID

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Speaker 1: is no longer a concern. So COVID is not disrupting

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Speaker 1: our lives the way it was, and that's because the

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Speaker 1: Biden Harris administration has made a concertive, concerted effort to

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Speaker 1: make sure of vaccines, tests and treatments are widely available,

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Speaker 1: including and underserved communities, so we can live our daily lives. Now.

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Speaker 1: Is COVID still with us? Yes? About it? I think

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Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty people die a day. So it's

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Speaker 1: still important to get the COVID vaccine to stay up

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Speaker 1: to date on your vaccine. So if you haven't gotten

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Speaker 1: the updated vaccine, please go get it. You know how

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Speaker 1: you know being vaccinated is you know, safer than sort

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Speaker 1: of safer than being unvaccinated. You don't want to go

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Speaker 1: it alone with COVID, you know, why not have that

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Speaker 1: extra layer of protection, and so you still need to

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Speaker 1: get vaccinated. Now, I think what you're referring to is

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Speaker 1: the public health emergency. So at May eleventh, that will end,

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Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean that COVID still won't be a

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Speaker 1: priority for the administration and for the US Department of

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Speaker 1: Health and Human Services. What's going on with this variant,

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Speaker 1: the latest variant? Yeah, what's variants happening? And then and

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Speaker 1: then with these variants that keep on changing, some people

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Speaker 1: will be like, oh, I'm glad I never got the

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Speaker 1: vaccination because now it's different. And then they're saying this

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Speaker 1: is not effective against this. I just want you to

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Speaker 1: break all of that down, like Jasmine said, but the

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Speaker 1: new variant. But then also as that happens, then there's

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Speaker 1: also new vaccinations that come and they're like, this one's outdated.

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Speaker 1: So the latest vaccine is the updated COVID vaccine. You

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Speaker 1: may hear it referred to as the bivalent vaccine or

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Speaker 1: the bivalent booster. We call it the updated COVID vaccine

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Speaker 1: that will give you the highest level of protection against

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Speaker 1: the latest variants. We're still monitoring COVID to see what,

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Speaker 1: if any new variants we need to be worried about.

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Speaker 1: But right now, as long as you have that updated

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Speaker 1: COVID vaccine, you're gonna greatly reduce your risk of severe illness, hospitalization,

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Speaker 1: and death. And among those who get COVID, if you're vaccinated,

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Speaker 1: you're less likely to get the symptoms related to long COVID.

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Speaker 1: So this is after long COVID goes away, some people

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Speaker 1: still have a shortness of breath, loss of memory, loss

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Speaker 1: of taste and smell, And so if you're vaccinated and

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Speaker 1: you're up to date on your vaccinations, um you're less

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Speaker 1: likely to have those lingering symptoms. Sometimes I don't know

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Speaker 1: if my luss and breath and lusts and memory is

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Speaker 1: from COVID or from you know, from yeah when no,

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Speaker 1: seriously that yeah, Now I'll be thirty eight this year

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Speaker 1: and I'm running around, you know, so much with my job.

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Speaker 1: That yeah, I definitely heard dirty. It's not old. What

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Speaker 1: should we still be wearing um our masks or what?

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Speaker 1: What do you think? So healthcare professionals they have to

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Speaker 1: wear their masks, or there's some other groups too, but

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Speaker 1: in general, for most folks, it's your choice. Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: but it depends on where you are. I was like,

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Speaker 1: should I give her a hug because I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I still hug, I still shake hands, I still do

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Speaker 1: all of that, but I always asked. I asked um

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Speaker 1: Dan here if he was okay to shake hands, and

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Speaker 1: he said okay, So well, yeah, he's nasty. She asked

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Speaker 1: for consents. Yeah, sometimes you do this with people, and

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Speaker 1: I also like to I like to fist bump sometimes. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but then I make other people uncomfortable. YEA, go ahead

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Speaker 1: and just and you know, now it is come into

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Speaker 1: a close of Women's History Month, so I want to

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Speaker 1: make sure we do celebrate. And I know you have

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Speaker 1: some women that you want to make sure that you honor. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And I have to back up a bit, so I

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Speaker 1: told you I lead the Office of the Assistant Secretary

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Speaker 1: for Public Affairs at the US Department of Health and

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Speaker 1: Human Services. A mouthful. We have a lot of components

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Speaker 1: of that of that office, and one of them is

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Speaker 1: are we can do this COVID nineteen public education campaign.

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Speaker 1: Before I go further, let me shout out the website,

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Speaker 1: so it's we can do this dot HHS dot gov.

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Speaker 1: And so in the beginning of COVID um, you know,

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Speaker 1: right when the vaccines were becoming a reality, the federal

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Speaker 1: government decided we have to get the word out about

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Speaker 1: these vaccines. We need a public education campaign so people

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Speaker 1: know that the vaccines are safe and effective and they

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Speaker 1: know where to get them. And so the we can

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Speaker 1: do this UH public education COVID nineteen Public education campaign

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Speaker 1: rerun ads. We do earned media, so interviews like this,

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Speaker 1: press conferences. We partner with groups across the country. So

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Speaker 1: we've partnered with HBCUs, NBA teams, historically Black fraternities and sororities, NASCAR.

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Speaker 1: We were at NASCAR recently. I just looked at some

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Speaker 1: creative for a partnership with WrestleMania and yeah, so we

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Speaker 1: partner with every lots of touch points, these lots of

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Speaker 1: touch points, and we're trying to reach folks where they are,

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Speaker 1: and we're trying to reach underserved communities, so rural communities,

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Speaker 1: communities of color, and we're trying to reach them with

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Speaker 1: messengers that they trust. So we use a lot of influencers.

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Speaker 1: We engage a lot of doctors, a lot of pastors, etc.

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Speaker 1: And so it is Women's History month, as you says,

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Speaker 1: so let me answer you a question and we run.

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Speaker 1: We're running a campaign right now featuring women health professionals

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Speaker 1: who played a key role during the pandemic. And one

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Speaker 1: of them is a New York City nurse. Her name

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Speaker 1: is Sandra Lindsay. She was the first person, after the

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Speaker 1: clinical trials to get the COVID vaccine here in New

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Speaker 1: York City. She's in conversation, so we have an ad

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Speaker 1: with her and doctor Kizmikia Corbett. And doctor Kizmikia Corbett,

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Speaker 1: she's at Harvard now, but she was at the National

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Speaker 1: Institute of Health. Have you talked to her before? I

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Speaker 1: feel I've seen her on the news. Yeah, and doctor

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Speaker 1: Fauci talks about her a lot. So you know, there

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Speaker 1: was some hesitancy and several communities when it came to

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Speaker 1: the vaccines, including the black community. And one of the

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Speaker 1: things we were telling people, which is true, is a

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Speaker 1: black person helped create the vaccine. And the person we

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Speaker 1: were talking about is doctor Kizmikia Corbett. So she's in

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Speaker 1: an ad. We also have doctor Aida Stewart, who's a

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Speaker 1: family physician. She's actually the chair of the American Academy,

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Speaker 1: a family physician. She didn't get her medical degree until

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Speaker 1: she was forty. Wow. That and she talks about Yeah,

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Speaker 1: she talks about, you know, the kids that she was

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Speaker 1: working with as a resident. She's now they're a doctor

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Speaker 1: now that they're in their teens, and she's really about

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Speaker 1: closing gaps in her community. We also have doctor Moira Salagi.

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Speaker 1: She's a pediatrician. She thought she was going to be

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Speaker 1: an intercrinologist, but she was talking to a kid one

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Speaker 1: day and it made her realize that her true calling

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Speaker 1: was to be a pediatrician. And then, last but not

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Speaker 1: leads another one of our very own is um doctor

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Speaker 1: um Naman Bumpus, who's the Chief Scientist UM at the

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Speaker 1: US Food and Drug Administration. She's the second black person

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Speaker 1: in the role. She had her own lab at Johns

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Speaker 1: Hopkins nice Um. And so we have a lot of

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Speaker 1: glass ceiling breakers in this campaign that we're running. And

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Speaker 1: I told you our slogan is we can do this.

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Speaker 1: So our slogan for this particular campaign is women can

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Speaker 1: do this. So all right, love and I love the

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Speaker 1: fact that. By the way, I just want to point

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Speaker 1: out that Camara Jones did not need not one note

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Speaker 1: to what she was talking. I wonder when she rememorized,

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Speaker 1: you are good and this is impressive. No, that's why

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Speaker 1: she's worth That's why you are who you are. I

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Speaker 1: wanted to be on point for a way up. Don't

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Speaker 1: give her a high five and still love high five.

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Speaker 1: She's always high five and it annoys Angela. Now I'll

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Speaker 1: do it more. But honestly, we want to thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for coming through and giving us this valuable information,

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Speaker 1: and we want to make sure that we honor you

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Speaker 1: as well. You know, as Women's Ustory a month and

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Speaker 1: the work that you're doing is so important and you're

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Speaker 1: uplifting other women as you climb to thank you, and

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Speaker 1: so that's important to us as well. On way up

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Speaker 1: with Angela Yee. Closing words, Get stay up to date

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Speaker 1: on your COVID vaccines and other vaccines. If you want

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Speaker 1: to know where to find a vaccine, go to vaccines

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Speaker 1: dot gov. Don't go it alone with COVID. Get that

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Speaker 1: extra layer of protection. Your immunity weighs and so this

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Speaker 1: will ensure the updated vaccine will ensure that your immunity

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Speaker 1: is restored. I feel like what really tour this country

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Speaker 1: your part during this was people who were not wanting

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Speaker 1: to get vaccinated and people who did. And let me

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Speaker 1: tell you something, as soon as I could get vaccinated,

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Speaker 1: I was right there and got my booster. And so

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Speaker 1: I just want to make sure I can't miss a

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Speaker 1: day of work, right, I know that it's just us.

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Speaker 1: I'm so glad you mentioned that. I said about two

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty people are dying a day usually or

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Speaker 1: typically those folks are either unvaccinated or under vaccinated, so

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Speaker 1: they're not up to date. So all right, don't play

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Speaker 1: no games with your health. Okay, it's way up with

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Speaker 1: angela Ye. Kamara Jones, thank you so much. Where can

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Speaker 1: people find you? Oh? Gosh, HHUS dot gov um, Oh

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Speaker 1: actually I'm on Twitter, um, HHS Underscore spokes spo x

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Speaker 1: so Q picture too. I thank you and the Pearls

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Speaker 1: we see you all right always the Pearls. Kamara Jones,

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Speaker 1: Way up with angela Ye. Happy Women's History Month,