Because he makes so darn much sense!
Here is what he posted on the Yolo Community COVID-19 FB page a little while ago. Please take a look and don't forget to vote for "public health savvy" electeds like Jim Provenza!
Regards,
John
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Dear Friends,
You may decide that the next two weeks are an ideal time to learn more about the coronavirus. Face it, we are all stuck with this virus and its impact for a while (read: months!). You can choose to ignore, to do basic coping, or dig in and learn some more.
I chose to dig in and learn some more. Johns Hopkins University, home of the world famous School of Public Health, has been a pioneer in online education in public health for decades. They have created some high quality, very accessible online courses on the coronavirus which are designed for lay people.
Yes, that's you, the non-public health expert who is nonetheless smart enough to take an online course on this super important topic. For sure, you can take this course if you have no intention of becoming a Contact Tracer for the Yolo County Health Department. You can take this course to learn more about CV to help you and your family understand how and why to protect yourselves.
(From press release) The Davis Farmers Market will offer additional vendors for its Wednesday, Dec. 23 market, with last-minute shopping for holiday meals and gifts.
That market will have regular Wednesday hours – 3 to 6 p.m. – in Central Park, 301 C St., Davis. As is tradition for the Wednesday market between Christmas and New Year’s Day, the Dec. 30 market will be closed. The Saturday markets on Dec. 26 and Jan. 2 will be open with regular hours – 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The Davis Farmers is filled with farm-fresh products like citrus and pomegranates, poinsettias, nuts and nut butters, juices and veggies. There’s also table décor, meats, cheeses, olive oil, nuts, dried fruits, honey and wine. Several bakeries will have fresh-baked items like pies, breads, stuffing mixes and cookies.
There is no Gift Basket Central this year. However, there are pre-packaged gift bags of market merchandise, and baskets shoppers may buy to create their own collections from market goods such as honey, jams, nuts, wine, oils, lotions, soaps, salts, masks, Kettlepop, coffee beans and bakery treats.
Year-round, rain or shine, the Davis Farmers Market is open from 3 to 6 p.m. on Wednesdays, and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, visit https://davisfarmersmarket.org or visit it on Facebook or Instagram.
Pastor William H. Lamar
Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church
1518 M Street NW
Washington DC 20005
Rev. Dr. Ianther M. Mills
Asbury United Methodist Church
926 11th Street
Washington DC 20001
Dear Pastor Lamar and Rev. Dr. Mills,
The Celebration of Abraham is an interfaith group in Davis California. We write to offer our condolences and express our outrage over the December 12th, violent attacks on your congregations. As people of faith, we believe that the religious freedom and free speech rights of your congregations were trampled on by the perpetrators of these attacks. The obvious racism of the actions violates the universal tenet embedded in all our faiths that the dignity of each individual is sacred. Your public statements of hope and healing reminds us that we can get through this and build a better, more loving future.
We will keep you and your congregants in our prayers and hearts.
Sincerely,
Helen Roland Cramer, Chair
Celebration of Abraham
By Wendy Weitzel
Artists need their work to be seen and heard. But a statewide arts advocate says the arts industry is being overlooked in the pandemic.
Julie Baker, executive director of California Arts Advocates and for the statewide nonprofit Californians for the Arts, told some 25 participants at a Dec. 9 Arts Alliance Davis video meeting that their organizations need to demonstrate how essential they are.
“We want to be seen. We want to be part of the solution,” Baker said from her Nevada City base. “We’re an industry. We’re not a cause. We can support California socially and emotionally. We know that’s what the arts can bring.”
California Arts Advocates is the only statewide group that works to protect arts funding for the whole arts community. Baker said arts are 8 percent of the state’s economy, yet artists are often not seen as essential – or even recognized as workers. Two-thirds of artists are self-employed and don’t qualify for traditional unemployment. Some are truly starving artists.
Dear Folks:
Below is the agenda item for the Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting related to COVID-19. The meeting starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday, December 15th. (tomorrow).
The URL for the meeting is here: https://www.yolocounty.org/general-government/board-of-supervisors/board-meetings/board-of-supervisors-meeting-agendas-minutes
Please note: When it comes to pandemics, "the buck stops" with the Supervisors.
Please consider attending this meeting online tomorrow and see what your local government is doing to keep you safe. There will be a presentation by the Yolo County Health Officer, Dr. Aimee Sisson, MD, MPH.
Regards,
John
Dear Friends:
Sometimes it seems like it! I do a lot of regular walking in both Davis and in the Bay Area and since "Winter" hit, it appears that there are far fewer walkers outside than before.
Maybe people are not really wimpy, maybe it is that they are confused by the requirements of the Health Order from our Yolo County Health Officer, Dr. Aimee Sisson, MD, MPH.
So, I wanted to make sure it was ok to go out walking because in general following the Health Order is a good idea! With that in mind, I went to the Yolo County Dashboard this morning and clicked on:
By Roberta Millstein, Pam Gunnell, Nancy Price, Alan Pryor, and Colin Walsh
Measure B – the measure that proposed a 200-acre business park and housing development outside of the Mace Curve – failed at the polls. The defeat comes with official Yolo County returns showing that 16,458 people, or 52% of voters, said “no” to the project. In Mace Ranch and Wildhorse, 60% of voters opposed the project.
This is a remarkable result considering that the No on B campaign was outspent by over 14 to 1. As of October 28, Yes on B had spent $258,919 between when B was put on the ballot in July and the election in November, while No on B had spent $18,149. The No on B campaign, composed solely of volunteer Davis citizens, created its own literature, designed its own sign and other graphics, was active on social media, and, to the extent possible during COVID, pounded the pavement distributing flyers to let Davisites know about the negative impacts that this project would bring. It was a true grassroots effort. There were no paid designers, no paid consultants, no multiple glossy mailers, and no push-polls to gather information on what messages would sell. Opponents also could not table at the Farmers Market due to COVID restrictions, normally the bread and butter of a campaign lacking deep pocket donors to finance getting its message out.
By comparison, Yes on B hired a PR Firm and other consultants more than a year in advance of the vote to help contrive and package its message and run the campaign.
The fact that Measure B was nonetheless defeated in the face of long odds and unusual circumstances shows that DISC was a bad project for Davis from the outset. It was too big, chewing up prime farmland and habitat. The promise of on-site housing for DISC employees could not be guaranteed, making the development car-and commuter- oriented with extensive parking areas. Poor public transportation options exacerbated this problem. The DISC development would have massively increased Davis greenhouse gas emissions and made it impossible for Davis to meet its carbon neutrality goals. We are in a climate emergency, as Yolo County and other counties have recognized; Davis needs to shoulder its share of responsibility for climate impacts, including but not limited to wildfire impacts and extreme weather events locally and globally.
Dear Folks:
Quick but very exciting note from the news in the Bay Area.
In Santa Clara County, East San Jose has had a lot of cases of coronavirus during this pandemic. This is a heavily Latino population (muy buena gente!) who live in crowded settings due to EXTREMELY expensive housing, do a lot of front-line work, etc. This population has greater exposure and greater incidence of coronavirus.
So, the Santa Clara County Director of Testing and Tracing, Dr. Fenstersheib (MD, MPH), reached into his bag of tricks and has directed his staff to go door to door in East San Jose and provide residents with test kits which they return to the Public Health Outreach Worker on the spot. Results come back quickly.
This door to door direct service is a new thing in the US, but Public Health Departments in Mexico have been doing this kind of outreach for years via health department employees (often nurses) who provide vaccinations door to door in many parts of Mexico. This results in a much higher pediatric vaccination rate than in the US.
Bravo to Santa Clara County for borrowing this public health methodology from Mexico and applying it here in the US. It is very promising!
Regards,
John
PS CBS News coverage of this new program: https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/12/10/santa-clara-county-to-send-teams-door-to-door-to-administer-covid-tests/
Davisite 