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Category: Health

  • Ongoing safety problems with Pacifico

    The following email was sent to the City Council on late Tuesday evening and is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

    Hello Mayor Partida, Council Members Lee, Frerichs, Carson, and Arnold, City Manager Webb and Assistant City Manager Feeney,

    My comment to the City Council regarding Pacifico didn't make it through tonight. Nevertheless, I briefly want to remind all of you of the situation in our South Davis neighborhood.

    The acts of crime and intimidation are continuous and not getting better. In fact, random hostile acts of intimidation have increased in number and the act of crime itself has increased in severity.

    The most recent incidents that have compromise safety and well-being include:

    • attempted rape
    • prostitution in the parking lot
    • theft and intimidation to Pacifico residents by Pacifico residents
    • loitering combined with heavy consumption of alcohol on the bike path and near homes
    • drug deals and coercion in the parking lot
    • bb rifle shooting on the green belt by a known violent and dangerous criminal who frequents Pacifico
    • a dumpster fire that was suffocating and threatened my family and home.

    Those who currently have their safety and well being compromised due to the Use at Pacifico include:

    • my family and visiting family and friends
    • neighbors, families, and friends in homes (Oakshade West Neighborhood Association and beyond)
    • neighbors, families, and students in apartments/duplexes (Octave and Sharp and Flats, Avalon, Brisa)
    • neighbors and Pacifico residents, including disadvantaged women, children and elders – some of our most vulnerable.

    These dangers affect everyone in this neighborhood. Many horrible things have happened and continue to happen.

    I respectfully request that a plan for Pacifico be of top priority and the subject be put on the long range calendar. Thank you.

    Gratefully yours,

    Tracy De Wit

  • Valley Clean Energy donates face masks to RISE Inc.

    Mask donation

    Angel Barajas, a member of the Valley Clean Energy board of directors, left; and Tessa Tobar, center, program and community engagement specialist for VCE; present some of the 500 washable face masks to Tico Zendejas, executive director of RISE Inc.

    (From press release) Valley Clean Energy (VCE), the local electricity provider for Yolo County and the cities of Woodland and Davis, is doing its part to keep local residents safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    VCE purchased 500 high-quality, washable and U.S.-made face masks and donated them to RISE Inc., a nonprofit organization that serves the Latinx community and has organized the delivery of social services to western Yolo County for more than 30 years.

    Woodland City Councilman Angel Barajas, a member of the VCE board of directors, said RISE was chosen to receive the gift because it “does an incredible job servicing residents in the rural Yolo County region.”

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  • Sutter Davis Hospital Farmers Market celebrates the big 1-0

    Fruitful-partnership(From press release) Call it a decade of deliciousness or a tradition of nutrition. The Sutter Davis Hospital Farmers Market celebrates 10 years of bringing farm-fresh produce and local foods to employees and visitors on Thursday, Aug. 6, as the nation celebrates National Farmers Market Week.

    “Fruit and vegetables are foundational to healthy living – and when they’re farm-fresh and locally grown? That’s good for everyone,” said Rachael McKinney, CEO of Sutter Davis Hospital. “In our simplest form, Sutter Health is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to health and wellbeing – both inside and outside the walls of our hospitals. The weekly market at Sutter Davis has easily become one of my favorite days of the week, where I can stock up on fresh produce and local items for my family, as well as interact with the community, our employees and patients. We are proud of this partnership and the benefit to the community it provides.”

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  • Looking for leadership to do the right thing this time around

    COVID-19 is all about concentration

    Png-clipart-crowd-cartoon-characters-illustrationBy Roberta Millstein

    We were flattening the curve.  We were staying at home.  We were doing the right thing.  Then our leaders – county, state, and federal – blinked.  They caved to pressure from the business community to “open up.”  And they opened up even where it made no sense to open up: bars, restaurants, churches, movie theaters. Now the prevalence of COVID-19 is far worse in our region than it ever was.

    Here is what our leaders should have said to the business community:  “If we open up, cases will spike and we will have to shut down again.  Not only will it be costly to ramp up only to have to close down again (especially for restaurants), but also, it will delay an economic recovery even further.” In other words, they should have led.

    Instead, they somehow expected that families and friends from different households wouldn’t get together even though people were getting together in bars.  And now they blame citizens instead of blaming themselves for putting out a mixed and inconsistent message.

    There are some sensible ways to open up, but they require paying attention to “The Six C’s” (Note: I have modified this from others):

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  • Responsibility in the age of Covid-19

    County's decision shifts the responsibility from government to individuals

    Yolo-dashboard-5-26-2020By Robin Rainwater

    I've been contemplating the rapidly shifting landscape in Yolo County heavily this week. Not just Yolo County, but in California as a whole. Over the last several months, the Covid-19 pandemic brings me to my data roots and plagues my change management heart. I've spent time using data to influence healthcare policy and over the last few months, I have immersed myself in the data on many levels. I have been helping people in my community understand the data and data trends so that they can make informed decisions for themselves, their families, and communities. I've felt an increasing need to inform more people as I've watched things beginning to unravel because of the balance between economy and preservation of life. A balance that is precariously tipping in a direction that frightens me.

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  • Missing my DAM workouts and my DAM teammates

    DAM-lanemates

    Taking a break between sets. That's me with the water bottle.

    By Roberta Millstein

    I started swimming with Davis Aquatic Masters, better known as DAM, shortly after I moved to Davis in 2007.  I was thrilled to have coach-led sets and a group of people to train with – so much more fun, and ultimately much more productive, than trying to swim on one’s own. 

    I quickly fell into a routine and decided that, rather than constantly reciting to myself all the many physical and psychological benefits of swimming, I would just understand that swimming three times a week was A Thing That I Would Do.  Period.  Only the most serious of reasons would cause me to miss a workout.  And I stuck with that.  Travel, serious illness, a grad student’s exam that couldn’t be scheduled at any other time – those were about the only things that would cause me to miss a workout.

    Until, of course, we finally started to realize the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic.  On March 16, DAM strongly recommended that seniors stop going to workouts.  I watched several people leave sadly.  It was an eerie, surreal practice.  I remember I went home and said to my partner sadly, “I think that might have been my last DAM workout for a while.”[1]  And indeed, by the end of the day, DAM had sent out an email cancelling workouts for everyone.  Even though the County and State official stay-at-home orders wouldn’t come for a few more days, that was really the beginning for me.

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  • Why the Bakersfield Doctors Should Not Be Believed

    Screen Shot 2020-04-28 at 1.28.07 PMBy Robert Canning

             Two physician-entrepreneurs who own a string of urgent care clinics in Bakersfield claim the data they have collected from testing for coronavirus proves that the current “stay-at-home” and physical distancing orders need to end and that COVID-19 is “just like the flu.” Their YouTube video interview from last week has been viewed more than five million times. It has garnered attention from the likes of Elon Musk who tweeted “Docs make good points” and Fox News host Laura Ingraham who played excerpts Monday night. But their claims have sparked wide controversy from experts in academia who say their assumptions are flawed, their sample biased, and their extrapolations “implausible.” The Kern County health office has stated it does not agree with their claims. And yesterday their original video was removed for what YouTube says are violations of its “community guidelines.”

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  • Blow, Virus! Blow!

    Redefining the home as a workplace and school environment 

    Battle_of_Yavin_2

    The following was sent earlier this week to Dr. Ron Chapman, Yolo County Health Officer,  and the Yolo County Board of Supervisors:

    “Dear Dr. Chapman and Supervisors,

    This is a follow-up to my early queries and comments about advice on HVAC systems and ventilation of residences and more recently links I sent with evidence on how SARS-CoV-2 particles might be distributed even through normal respiration. It’s excerpted from what’s here.

    Lately, many store workers in California have tested positive for COVID-19. There's now CDC guidance for essential workers that says to "… increase air exchange in the building.". The EPA also just sent out guidance on safety in school environments, which is still useful even though our schools are closed. It reminds schools to maintain their HVAC system. ASHRAE provides a link to an earlier version of the above-mentioned guidance from the CDC. Finally, there's also OSHA guidance on preparing workplaces for COVID-19. It's summarized here and says that the Engineering Control process includes "installing high-efficiency air filters" and "increasing ventilation rates in the work environment."

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  • Lessons from past plagues

    10plaguesBy Alan Hirsch

    The news cycle dominated by Trump and the virus plague will be interrupted midweek in some Davis homes by the Jewish holiday of Passover.

    This is a recitation of the story of earlier plagues that lead up to the exodus from Egyptian slavery. Wednesday and Thursday nights are the first nights of Passover.

    The 3,000-year-old Passover home ritual acts will seem strangely relevant this year. The ritual name “Passover” is to literally ask the plague to pass over our homes as we shelter in place.

    We are asked to wash our hands twice. To dip our food in salt water. And to get over the plagues we’re asked to take two tablets — of the 10 Commandments. And go to Mt. Sinai — the real mountain not the hospital.

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  • Davis Farmers Market remains essential

    Davisfarmersmarket(From press release) During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Davis Farmers Market remains open as an essential grocery provider.

    A few community members have expressed concern, but Executive Director Randii MacNear reminds patrons that “this is not Picnic in the Park.” County and state health officials are clear that Certified Farmers Markets are vital to community food security. The market ­– open from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesdays and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays in Central Park – is a place to grab fresh food straight from the producer.

    “We are grateful for the many customers who have commented by email, phone or social media posts, thanking us for keeping the market open, and for providing a safe marketplace,” MacNear said.

    The market has reorganized vendor booth setups and added spacing between sellers. There are lots of signs requesting social distancing, and extra hand-washing stations. MacNear encourages shoppers to come alone to ease crowds.

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