Sean Penn’s Oakland covid-19 testing program during the pandemic saved lives

Sean Penn’s Oakland covid-19 testing program during the pandemic saved lives

By Lynda Carson - May 17, 2023

Oakland - The covid-19 state of emergency ended recently on May 11, 2023, in Alameda County, and the State of California.

It’s been a horrific experience for the community I reside in to live through a pandemic that has killed so many loved ones. In Alameda County there have been 364,000 confirmed covid-19 cases, with 109,056 confirmed covid-19 cases in Oakland.

Additionally, there have been around 23,142 covid-19 probable deaths in Alameda County, and around 8,076 covid-19 probable deaths in Oakland.

There have been around 1,127,928 covid-19 deaths in the U.S., and around 2,216 covid-19 deaths across the nation in the past week.

Death has been all around us, wether we realize it, or not.

There may have been many more deaths in Oakland if the actor and activist Sean Penn did not set up a covid-19 testing program in Oakland to help out our community.

Sean Penn and Community Organized Relief Effort’ (CORE a.k.a. CORE Response):

In 2020, during the covid-19 pandemic, thanks to actor Sean Penn’s nonprofit organization that he co-founded called the ‘Community Organized Relief Effort’ (CORE a.k.a. CORE Response), they opened a Covid-19 testing site in Oakland to help people find out if they have been infected with the covid-19 virus. A test program that helped thousands of people to find out if they have the covid-19 virus, which may have helped them to avoid infecting others with the deadly disease.

Reportedly, “As of August 2020, CORE has administered more than 1.3 million free COVID-19 tests. The organization has implemented guidelines called "The Core 8" to combat the virus, which includes "delivering test results within 48 hours, a government-supported contact tracing system, food and hygiene kits along with financial aid for households with positive case results. Site locations included Los Angeles, Oakland, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, New York, North Carolina, Navajo Nation, Napa, Bakersfield, and a "super-site" at Dodger Stadium, where up to 6,000 people are tested daily.”

Hopefully, people have not forgotten that the covid-19 virus is still all around us, and that they should be cautious to avoid getting the virus, and spreading it around to their friends, neighbors, and loved ones.

Special thanks to my longtime friend and local filmmaker Rob Nilsson who provided a memorable evening on October 12, 2001, at the Mill Valley Film Festival, during the world premiere of his film called Scheme C6.

In the photo above, among those in the photo, that’s Rob Nilsson sitting in the center in a black leather jacket, including Sean Penn, Monica Cortez, and myself (Lynda Carson with red hair and glasses). The photo above was taken at the Broken Drum in San Rafael where we all were celebrating the world premiere of the film called Scheme C6. Years ago, I spent a number of years as a member in Rob’s Tenderloin yGroup.

Lynda Carson may be reached at newzland2 [at] gmail.com

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