Fighting the Delta variant and California’s drought

Andy Slavitt, President Biden’s former COVID advisor, is urging Americans to get vaccinated and keep wearing masks. “Playing politics is a luxury of wealthy nations with abundant vaccines, but it's not a luxury we can afford when COVID heats up,” he says.

He also describes the highly contagious Delta variant: “[It’s] like one of those forest fires that burns quickly until there’s no more brush, then starts to die out just as quickly.”

Later in this episode, KCRW looks at the state’s drought, and journalist Dan Walters says agriculture is the biggest user of the dwindling water supply, and farmers’ water rights are key to overcoming the drought.

Newsha Ajami is with Stanford University’s Water in the West program, which focuses on sustainable water management. She adds, “There is more water allocated to multiple landowners than there is water.”