Author: John Troidl

Dear Friends,

Good afternoon!  I grabbed this information from the eventbrite site that supported my enrollment in the UC Davis 2021 Mini-Medical School.  

The last session, described below, is this coming Saturday

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Saturday, March 13, 2021

Healthy Aging in a Digital World—A co-presentation by Thomas S. Nesbitt, M.D., M.P.H, Emeritus Associate Vice Chancellor and Heather M. Young, PhD, RN, FAAN, Dean Emerita

The Mini Medical School concludes on Saturday morning, 3/13/2021, with a joint presentation on “Healthy Aging in a Digital World” by two esteemed faculty emeriti, Dr. Thomas Nesbitt and Dr. Heather Young. Dr. Nesbitt spent most of his career researching and implementing telehealth programs so that the reach of specialty medical care could be extended into rural and other underserved communities. Dr. Nesbitt is the Founding Director of the Center for Health and Technology, and the Emeritus Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategic Technologies and Alliances at UC Davis. Dr. Young is the Founding Dean of the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing and has dedicated her clinical and research career to improving health care for the elderly. Drs. Nesbitt and Young are friends and colleagues who previously delivered a presentation on this topic. I viewed it and it was wonderful! They are delving more deeply into this topic for the Mini Medical School class of 2021, so we can count on an engaging and inspirational closing presentation!

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In case you were wondering, here are the names of the wonderful speakers for the entire series this Winter/Spring:

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Dear Friends,

Heard this VERY interesting news segment recently which described an 8 week research project in three counties in California regarding transmission of COVID-19 in elementary schools.

The study is funded by a foundation and is located in three counties in California:  Merced, Los Angeles, and San Mateo in the Bay Area.

The idea is to test students and staff twice a week to see if there is an arrival and spread of the coronavirus.  Really good community-based public health!

See more below, including an interview with a prominent physician.

https://abc7news.com/covid-19-coronavirus-testing-schools/10374077/ 

This is the kind of public health work which is done to keep STAFF and students healthy.

Have a great week!

John

Dear Folks,

Thought you might like to hear this clip, it is really a gold nugget.  Dr. Wilkes (the guy with BOTH a medical degree and a doctorate in public health) answers questions and shares tips about what is and is not safe to do sports wise at this stage of the pandemic.  The topic is "Youth Sports"…..

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LRd7llDnwvDtJb1ess0LYqHGaUIc7dd5/view?usp=drivesdk

Cheers!

John

PS  Did you hear the UCD Mini-Medical school talks yesterday?  They were great!  Just register and you can hear all previous talks, as they are recorded.

Dear Friends,

Oh my, yes, we are pretty much all stressed by this long term pandemic.  There is a saying that you should be nice to people because you do not know what burdens they are carrying…… a message that is twice as important during this public health crisis.

What to do?

Well, one thing you can do is to tune in to the UC Davis Mini-Medical School each Saturday.  This is such a special gift from the University to the public, it cannot be overstated how wonderful it is!  

Over the years, I have attended a couple of times and am back at it this year.  Next Saturday, Dr. Yellowlees, a psychiatrist is going to talk about mental health during a pandemic.  I'm confident it will be an excellent talk.

Below you can see the schedule for the whole series.  The sessions given have been recorded and are available.  Upcoming ones will be recorded as well.  They start at 9 a.m. Saturday morning and go to about 11:15. You have to sign up on line to join the class, the class is free, and you can ZOOM from the comfort of your home (or wherever).  

I STRONGLY recommend you check these out.  And thanks again to UC Davis for offering this wonderful resource to the community!

Best regards,

John

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Dear Friends,

Dr. Haydee Dabritz, a UC Davis graduate with a PhD in Epidemiology has recently left Yolo County Health Department after 8 years to work for the California Department of Public Health.  

Yolo County's loss is California's gain as Dr. Dabritz is a well regarded epidemiologist/scientist with a practical bent for data and pragmatic program design and evaluation.

Dr. Dabritz was the lead epidemiologist in helping Yolo County respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

She will be missed (although if you look at her LINKEDIN page she is being congratulated by a number of people)….. 

Below is a description of the work of the PhD in Epidemiology that you may find useful…. schools and programs of public health are experiencing a HUGE increase in applications as an educational response to the Pandemic.  Brown University's School of Public Health has experienced a 75% increase applications in one year!

Regards,

John

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Dear Friends,

LOTS of good news!  

What is the headline?  

SACRAMENTO COUNTY NETS $60 MILLION WINDFALL FROM FEDS. HOW IT WILL HELP FIGHT COVID-19.

Sacramento County nets $60 million windfall from feds. How it will help fight COVID-19

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article249136850.html?ac_cid=DM382849&ac_bid=-588765852

But what about Yolo County?  And why wasn't Yolo in the headline (See Davis Enterprise, not Sacramento Bee).  We get $10.4 Million!!!!

That quickly brings up a question… what is Yolo County going to do with it?  Well, let's ask the experts, ok?

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Dear Friends,

Supervisor Provenza ran on a ticket of BOTH fighting COVID and supporting local businesses.  And…. he is following through on his campaign promises!

Please see the press release below for details …. TODAY is the first day that restaurants can apply for this help.

Meanwhile, everybody, to the extent that you are able, please personally support local restaurants and markets…… get some healthy take out and LEAVE A TIP!  That is what I do on a regular basis.

Take care, be safe, and hang together.

John

Yolo County Announces Restaurant Fee Waiver

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Dear Friends,

Today is Dr. Michael Wilkes last official day as a member of the Yolo County Health Council. ***  A celebrated physician and public health expert, Dr. Wilkes is board certified in Internal Medicine and has both a Masters in Public Health (Columbia) and a PhD in Public Health (UCLA) which made him the most highly educated member of the Yolo County Health Council and because of this dual training, one with particular expertise in the COVID pandemic.

On the UC Davis School of Medicine web site, Dr. Wilkes clinical expertise is described like this:

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Dear Friends,

On Saturday, based on more widespread testing, Stanford University picked up an uptick in cases of Coronavirus among students at their campus in virus plagued Santa Clara County and changed the decision on bringing first and second year students back to campus this week.

"In a message to the campus community dated Saturday, Stanford leaders cited a recent tenfold increase in coronavirus cases per 100,000 county residents as a major reason for the change in plans. In addition, as of Friday, 43 Stanford students had tested positive for COVID-19 since Jan. 2, according to the university."

This announcement makes clear the benefits of more testing….. more data produces more information and ALLOWS individuals, families, communities and institutions to make better decisions.  

Kudos to those who are participating in the testing of residents across the state including Yolo County residents….. but we are still way too low in terms of testing in Yolo County.  As of a look a few minutes ago to the Yolo County Coronavirus Dashboards we have had 80,862 people have been tested AT ANY TIME during the pandemic.  That is less than half of the Yolo County population of ~ 220,000 has ever been tested.  

For the Stanford decision, please see this article in the SF Chronicle:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Stanford-cancels-plan-to-bring-undergraduates-15860193.php?utm_campaign=CHL%3A%20Daily%20Edition&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=106090768&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_Rp27TahNnmJaPYqnv_2g8xfti7RA9b64Bn03N_TQEcwtfyc3euJJpHyD5BD1EV0ebnmyzjlhB2ygrTVtWp_3svu7HZg&utm_content=106090768&utm_source=hs_email

Regards,

John

Dear Friends:

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