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Press release from Providence St. Joseph:

CNN health analyst Amy Compton-Phillips, MD, President and Chief Clinical Officer, Providence, will be a featured guest at a live, virtual forum for the entire community, Thursday, February 25, at 6 p.m.

Dr. Compton-Phillips will be interviewed by Roberta Luskin-Hawk, MD, Chief Executive, Providence St. Joseph Hospital and Redwood Memorial Hospital, as the two discuss the science and safety behind the COVID-19 vaccines, their efficacy, the local COVID-19 response, and take questions from the community.

Hear the latest information from two prominent women in medicine; Dr. Compton-Phillips, who led treatment of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S., and Dr. Luskin-Hawk, an infectious disease physician and researcher who brought clinical trials to Humboldt County for the first drug approved (Remdesivir) to treat the virus.

“The Providence family of organizations has been responding to the COVID-19 crisis since admitting the first known US patient in January of last year,” said Compton-Phillips, MD. “The communities we serve in Humboldt County were among the earliest to experience the pandemic’s devastating toll. I’m excited about the recovery ahead, but in our marathon we’re at the base of heartbreak hill, not the peak.”

The 90-minute online event is sponsored by Women for Wellness, a philanthropic group of local women advancing the cause of quality health care at Providence St. Joseph and Redwood Memorial Hospitals.

Community members may participate by emailing Rebekah.Harmon@stjoe.org to RSVP, receive the event link, and submit questions in advance. Questions may also be entered through online chat during the event.

Amy Compton-Phillips, M.D., is an internationally respected health care executive, innovator, speaker and author serving as President and Chief Clinical Officer for Providence. She is responsible for improving health, care, and value outcomes delivered by the 51 hospitals, 800+ clinics, and 120,000 caregivers of the $25 billion health system. In January 2020, Dr. Compton-Phillips oversaw care at the hospital at which the first COVID positive patient was admitted in the U.S.

A CNN medical analyst, Dr. Compton-Phillips is a vocal advocate for equity and innovation in healthcare. She has been instrumental in Providence’s early adoption and scaling of technology including telehealth, data analytics and artificial intelligence solutions that are critical to the system’s pandemic response and the future of healthcare.

Roberta Luskin-Hawk, M.D., serves as Chief Executive, Providence — St. Joseph and Redwood Memorial Hospitals. Prior to her current role, Dr. Luskin-Hawk served as Regional President & CEO for Presence Saint Joseph Hospital – Chicago and Presence Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston.

An infectious disease physician with extensive clinical research experience, including working with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci during the AIDS epidemic, Dr. Luskin-Hawk secured Providence St. Joseph Hospital’s participation in two national clinical trials of the anti-viral drug Remdesivir for the treatment of moderate and severe COVID-19.

Video of the slide taken Friday by Joe Gregorio of Cal-Ore life flight.

After days of persistent landslides, Caltrans is ready to reopen Highway 101 at Last Chance Grade for a limited time.

The department announced this morning that the highway is expected to be reopened to one-way traffic control at 10 a.m.

“This plan is subject to change because of the nature of this dynamic slide area,” Caltrans said. “Our plan, for now, is that the Last Chance Grade area will be open during daylight hours from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today unless slide activity resumes.”

Drivers can expect one-hour delays in the area.

Michaele is craving crustacean! Yes, this week, Humboldt’s President of Positivity is feeling the good kind of crabby and her insatiable hunger leads her to a bayside sandwich at Gill’s by the Bay in King Salmon. That’s it! Sometimes life is that simple. Crab Bella!

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Perhaps You’d Like to Explore Previous Mondays With Michaele For Some Reason!

A 40-year old woman was flown to the hospital by helicopter this morning after suffering a serious leg injury while hiking the Lost Coast Trail.

U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Joe Castro told the Outpost that a Sector Humboldt Bay helicopter crew landed on the beach near Shipman Creek and picked up the injured hiker at approximately 9:03 a.m.

The woman was flown directly to St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka for medical treatment.

UPDATE, 4:30 p.m.:

Highway 101 will not reopen at last chance grade today.

Caltrans announced at 4 p.m. that the slide remains active in the area.

“Additional rockfall and debris were constant,” Caltrans said in the social media announcement. “We will continue working as long as possible into the night.

The roadway will be reassessed tomorrow morning and an estimated time for reopening will reportedly be provided at 9 a.m. 

Footage of the slide site taken today by Caltrans.

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Caltrans announced minutes ago that Highway 101 will remain closed until at least this evening as the hillside continues to dump debris into the roadway.

“The slide was very active yesterday and hampered clean up efforts,” Caltrans stated on social media. “Crews are working on removing the large volume of rocks and trees as new material is still coming down.”

Caltrans may provided an estimated time for reopening the highway when it reassesses the slide at 4 p.m. today.

“This is a very dynamic slide,” Caltrans stated. “The plan is subject to change and is dependent on no additional slide activity.”

Alegria Sita is Holding Up

We’ve all had to come to terms with canceling some of our big plans over the last year and some folks had to cancel, or drastically change, what might be one of the biggest plans of their life — their wedding. How do you plan your nuptials when, as wedding planner Alegria Sita puts it, “we’re navigating the deepest, darkest form of uncertainty imaginable”?

Sita wants to safely get ya hitched

On this week’s episode of Humboldt Holding Up, Sita — owner of Gala Events and Weddings — discusses how she’s helped couples adapt their wedding plans, so they can safely get hitched during the pandemic while still making the day special. Topics discussed with Sita include:

• Current public health recommendations for outdoor, masked ceremonies
  
• Her stance against large weddings
  
• Getting creative, including moving weddings to the virtual platform
  
• What weddings and events might look like this summer 
• Weddings on the Zoo’s Redwood Sky Walk? Yes!

Click on the audio player above to hear Sita’s chat with the Outpost’s Andrew Goff and Stephanie McGeary and/or scroll through past guests below!

PREVIOUS HUMBOLDT HOLDING UP GUESTS:

• Food For People Executive Director Anne Holcomb
  
• AHHA President Nezzie Wade
• Performance Artist Noël August/Tucker Noir
• Eureka Mayor Susan Seaman
• Eagle House Owner Jennifer Metz
• Absynth Quartet Drummer Mike “Tofu” Schwartz
• HACHR Executive Director Lasara Firefox Allen
• Alchemy Distiller Owner Amy Bohner
• Eureka City Councilmember Kati Moulton
• Eureka City Councilmember Scott Bauer
• Ungraceful Ager Barry Evans
• Arcata City Councilmember Sofia Pereira
• HumBrews Music Booker Laurel Weston
• Eureka City Councilmember Kim Bergel
• Film Commission’s Cassandra Hesseltine and Nate Adams
• Marble Maker Topher Reynolds
• Arcata Playhouse Director Jacqueline Dandeneau
• Humboldt Political Junkie Eric Kirk
• Rio Dell Mayor Debra Garnes
• Second District Supervisor Estelle Fennell
• Arcata Food Aficionado Jada Calypso Brotman
• Body Piercer Jackie Silva
• Dick Taylor Chocolate’s Adam Dick
• FUHS Teachers Mark Thom and Inma Thompson
• Eureka City Manager Miles Slattery
• Savage Henry Co-Founder Chris Durant
• Eureka Street Art Festival Organizer Jenna Catsos
• SCRAP Humboldt Founder Tibora Bea
• Gym Owner Tyler Parr
• Six Rivers Brewery Co-Owner Meredith Maier
• Multicultural Skincare Therapist Levia Love
• Annie’s Cambodian Server and Social Worker Joshua Coppock
• Eureka City Councilmember Austin Allison
• HSU Professor Deidre Pike 
• Pastor Bethany Cseh
• Singer/Songwriter Chris Parreira
• Eureka City Councilmember Leslie Castellano
• Arcata City Councilmember Paul Pitino

You may NOT leave your room for solo outdoor exercise…

— UC Berkeley notice to students living in the residence halls, Feb. 8, 2021

…students are required to self-sequester. This precludes leaving your residence hall for a walk.

— UMass Amherst notice to students, Feb. 9, 2021

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The approach taken by UC Berkeley and UMass Amherst has been called “coronavirus absolutism.” Stay home, don’t exercise, don’t go outside. I call it over-reacting. Is this a peculiarly American/Puritan all-or-nothing approach to problems? Nancy Reagan’s DARE “Just say no to drugs” campaign; abstinence-only sex education; telling gays to avoid all sex (not just condom-protected sex) during the AIDS epidemic. As David Leonhardt wrote in the New York Times last week, “The demonization of sex during the AIDS crisis contributed to more unsafe sex. If all sex is bad, why focus on safe sex?”

A 2009 analysis of 20 controlled studies on enrollment in one of the most popular “Just Say No” programs, DARE, showed no effect on drug use. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, via Wikimedia.

We’re good at taking risks, daily: we drive, we cross the street, we eat sugary food and drink wine and beer. Some us climb mountains, ski, kayak in the ocean. Practice unsafe sex. Smoke weed. Especially during these Covid times, our humanness comes to the fore. We’re not robots, we crave connection and intimacy; we want to be in nature, we need to work our lungs and muscles and give ourselves a break from the craziness.

So just how great is the risk of walking or running outside, on your own, without a mask? Some expert opinions:

The small number of cases where outdoor transmission might have occurred were associated with close interactions, particularly extended duration… (Dr. Muge Cevik, infectious-disease specialist, University of St. Andrews, Scotland here)

…the probability of airborne transmission due to respiratory aerosol is very low in outdoor conditions… (Peer-reviewed Italian study published by NIH, 12/8/20)

When you’re outside, fresh air is constantly moving, dispersing these droplets. So you’re less likely to breathe in enough of the respiratory droplets containing the virus that causes COVID-19 to become infected. (Mayo Clinic)

When the authorities tell us to wear masks in situations where it makes little or no sense—outdoors, solitary walking and running, for instance—it’s worse than useless, it’s counterproductive. Turns out, we’re not that great at wearing them indoors, but at least relaxing the rules outside makes the indoor restrictions more bearable. As Leonhardt noted, “Banning college students from outdoor walks won’t make them stay inside their dorm rooms for weeks on end. But it probably will increase the chances that they surreptitiously gather indoors.”

Having said that, I’m still extra-cautious. Because I’m 78 and suffered a perforated lung last year, I wear a mask outside on streets when people are around, dodge no-maskers, and hold my breath when all else fails. But out in nature with no one around, I just breathe, appreciating the euphoria of inhaling deeply with no mask between my nose and fresh air.

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UPDATE: Following up on last week, Perseverance is safe and sound on Mars, having landed in one of the most difficult areas—but also one of the most interesting scientifically. In the image, red represents rocky and potentially disastrous landing areas. Blue, where Perseverance touched down, is safe and relatively flat (she is now sitting with less than a two-degree lean). Fun fact: her last course maneuver took place two months ago, yet was able to land within a mile of the center of her target.