A Quirky Outpost of Isolation Is No Bulwark Against Pandemic
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$2.75 DESIGNATED AREAS HIGHER © 2021 D MONDAY, MAY 10, 2021 latimes.com COVID Battle worsens to flip weight those stigma wary Pandemic sharpens focus on gulf between doctors and advocates of shot for fat acceptance. By Maria L. La Ganga From TikTok ads to canvassers, California Chrystal Bougon cried ups push to persuade after the needle went into her arm. Not because her vaccine skeptics to first dose of the Moderna roll up their sleeves. vaccine hurt. But because, finally, being fat actually By Laura J. Nelson paid off. and Maya Lau The 53-year-old was in- oculated in the parking lot of Photographs by Allen J. Schaben Los Angeles Times Kaiser Permanente in San ARTIST Peter Passalacqua, 51, spins on a pole on the dance floor of his open studio in Slab City. “We don’t Your brother is dying. I Jose on a rainy Friday in wear masks,” he says. “We share the same marijuana pipe. We don’t wash the shot glasses at the local bar.” want you to come visit, and I March, four days after eligi- want you to be vaccinated. bility in California was Until she heard the ur- broadened to include people gent plea from her sister-in- with underlying conditions. law, Anne Block, 72, had Among them, a body mass A quirky outpost of isolation been unmoved by appeals index of 40 or more — 233 from friends and family to pounds for an adult who is 5 get the COVID-19 vaccine. feet 4 inches tall. She had always trusted her Bougon’s medical record strong constitution and pre- at Kaiser shows she is mor- is no bulwark against pandemic ferred getting sick to bidly obese; as an activist, getting the shot — but the she prefers the word “fat.” message from her family Her experience with medical shook her. providers has been one inci- Even ‘last free place in America’ couldn’t stand up to COVID “I had to respect her dent of size stigma after an- request,” said Block, a tour other, she said, like the time operator in Los Angeles. Her By Priscella Vega she went in with a scratched decision to get the Johnson cornea and was told to lose & Johnson shot made her weight. She fears being hos- SLAB CITY, Calif. — The one of millions of once- pitalized with COVID-19 and dusty compound is cluttered skeptical Americans who unable to advocate for her- with rusted school buses changed their minds about self. and wooden shacks. Cacti the COVID-19 vaccine. “For that reason I de- stud the grounds and Like swing voters in an cided, you know what, I’m Christmas lights drape election, those who have yet not going to feel guilty about dried tree stumps. When the to be vaccinated will deter- [being vaccinated]. I’m go- wind blows over the nearby mine the outcome of the ing to do it,” she said. “And Salton Sea, wind chimes ser- United States’ vaccination I’m not going to apologize enade as Slab City slumbers. campaign, including how for it. I’ve been in fear the This Shangri-La of quickly the spread of the whole flipping time, staying desert weirdness has for virus will stall and to what home, avoiding everybody. I years drawn tourists from extent the disease will calcify couldn’t do my job. I’m an around the world. Some into a long-term threat. electrologist. I remove facial would stay in one of the di- President Biden is push- hair. I couldn’t come to work. lapidated RVs rented out by ing to get a first dose to 70% I couldn’t make money.” Rodney “Spyder” Wild. It of Americans by July 4. That That, however, is chang- cost only $30, and guests ambitious goal may be out of ing, thanks to a vial of vac- got breakfast and running reach in many parts of the cine, a very sharp needle and water. country but could still be at- a policy switch that allowed But even the “last free tainable in California, where people like Bougon a chance place in America,” as locals nearly 50% of the population to be inoculated before the call it, didn’t stand a chance has received at least one public — in California, about against COVID-19. dose, vaccine skepticism is a month early. “The people that come lower and the effects of the “It’s not every day that we visit me — Iceland, Russia, pandemic have reached fur- get something for free Japan — stopped coming,” THE FIRST thing tourists see here is Salvation Mountain. It’s not certain ther into everyday life. [See Weight, A10] [See Slab City, A14] whether Slab City has seen a virus case, but the pandemic’s effects are clear. [See Vaccines, A8] Modern vintage now the height of teens’ back-to-school fashion les Unified School District — come something of a test By Sonja Sharp teens are redefining back- case for how that future to-school wardrobe, shed- might look. If quarantine Like many L.A. teens, 17- ding their remote-learning was a cocoon, what would year-old Sheccid Vazquez loungewear and constrict- emerge? A butterfly or a spent the last year in paja- ing before-times ensembles moth? mas. in favor of innovative and The answer, if this “During quarantine, I eye-catching new looks. spring’s back-to-school sea- would wake up and stay in “I definitely had a lot of son is any indication, may be my pajamas until the end of time on my hands, so I went a little bit of both. school,” said the Ramona deeper into fashion,” Shec- “I’m seeing a splintering Convent Secondary School cid said. “I wanted to have a of what’s considered per- senior. “I wouldn’t change whole aesthetic for what I formative fashion on social because teachers gave us the wear. For the return, I want media and what is actually option not to turn our cam- to make the best of it.” conducive to post-pandemic eras on.” Experts have been pre- life,” said Raissa Bretaña, a But with high school dicting a post-pandemic fashion historian and a pro- campuses reopening across style shift since at least April fessor at the Fashion Insti- L.A. County — including late 2020. But this spring’s back- tute of Technology in New last month at the Los Ange- to-school season has be- [See School fashion, A8] Samuel López Amézquita For The Times IN MEXICO CITY, Bryan Osvaldo Hernández Tapia, 10, looks at the altar for his brother Brandon Giovanni Hernández Tapia, 12, who was killed in a Metro crash. Derby winner tests positive Trainer Bob Baffert’s A mother’s heartbreak, rage Medina Spirit could be stripped of Kentucky title over anti-inflam- Her son took doomed train to buy a gift for her matory drug. SPORTS, D1 McCarthy backs block dwellings in this vast Line 12. “I have a surprise for By Patrick J. capital’s gritty southeast you!” demoting Cheney McDonnell borough of Tláhuac. Periférico was only three Top House Republican and Cecilia Sánchez Though he didn’t say so, stops from the Nopalera sta- publicly endorses Marisol Tapia knew that her tion, where the pair would Trump loyalist Elise MEXICO CITY — On son had another, secret mo- exit. Stefanik as the next May 3, Brandon Giovanni tivation: He wanted to buy “Dinner is ready,” his No. 3 leader. NATION, A6 decided to accompany his her a gift for Mother’s Day. mother told him. “I’m going Weather stepfather on the Metro to “Mamá, we’re headed to to the store quickly to get Some sunshine. Alex Gallardo Associated Press his evening shift in a restau- the Periférico station,” an something to drink.” L.A. Basin: 73/58. B6 rant downtown. For the sev- animated Brandon Gio- Her son responded: GIVE THE ANGELS A HAND enth-grader, it was a break vanni replied when his “Mamá, buy me some cook- from the cramped family flat mother called on his cell- ies!” The Angels’ Raisel Iglesias, right, celebrates in Colonia Zapotitla, a phone about 10:15 p.m., as he It was the final time she with catcher Drew Butera after the team’s 2-1 sprawling neighborhood of and his stepfather were would speak with her boy. victory over the Dodgers. SPORTS, D1 unpaved roads and cinder- headed home on the Metro [See Mexico, A4] BUSINESS INSIDE: For a fleeting moment, California achieves 95% clean electricity. A11 A2 MONDAY, MAY 10, 2021 LATIMES.COM PERSPECTIVES Massive turnout drove Biden’s 2020 victory 2016 and 77% in 2008, when Voters of color and President Obama won his first term. college-educated Much of the drop among whites were key to his white voters came from those without college de- win, new data show. grees. Because the popu- larity of college has grown a By David Lauter lot in recent decades, the non-college-educated popu- WASHINGTON — High lation skews older, especially turnout among voters of among white Americans. In color, increased support 2008, non-college-educated among white voters with col- white voters made up just lege degrees, and a stop — or over half the electorate, but a least a pause — in declining by 2020, they had declined to support for Democrats just over 4 in 10. among white voters without In 2016, Trump was able degrees: President Biden to eke out a victory by boost- needed all of that for his vic- ing the Republican share of tory in November and he, or those non-college white vot- some other Democrat, will ers.