And another good Monday morning, one and all. Your President of Positivity misses seeing all the people she used to regularly run into pre-pandemic, but she’s getting pretty good with this Zoom thing so at least she can check in with folks while reducing the risk of transmission. For example, she was able to convince new Eureka City Manager Miles Slattery to drop in for a hello because why not! What a time to be alive!

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

Wildberries employees posing for a photo in June.

Wildberries Marketplace is the latest Arcata business to be hit with an outbreak of COVID-19.

The business announced on Friday that four of its employees recently tested positive for the virus and said that more positive cases are likely.

“Despite rigorous compliance to recommended CDC and Humboldt County Public Health protocols and frequent communication with health officials, this insidious infection has found its way into our workforce,” Wildberries President Phil Ricord stated on social media. “With over 100 staff and given the current rate of infection regionally, it was simply a matter of time.”

Unlike many of the Arcata restaurants that have seen COVID outbreaks in the last month, Wildberries says that it will remain open. However, the store is now closing two hours early each night to perform a “deep clean sanitization” of all contact surfaces.

“A thorough listing of our COVID safety protocols will be available upon request for the public,” Ricord said. “Wildberries cares, we’ve proven it and will continue to prove it.”

Read the company’s full statement in the Facebook post embedded below.

Amy Bohner is Holding Up

Subscribe to Humboldt Holding Up on iTunes!

Though most of our alcohol consumption happens at home these days, it turns out that people do still drink during a pandemic (who knew?) and Alchemy Distillery — producer of Boldt whiskey, bourbon and gin — has been as busy as ever distributing its products to help make pandemic life a little more bearable. It also turns out that during a pandemic alcohol serves an even greater purpose than getting us sauced! Which is why earlier this year Alchemy temporarily shifted all its efforts to producing thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer to donate to local medical staff and other essential workers.

Bohner does a barrel tasting

On this week’s episode of Humboldt Holding Up, co-owner of Alchemy Distiller Amy Bohner shares the story of how the business stepped up when sanitizer was in low supply and what else Alchemy has been up to during COVID.

Other topics discussed with Bohner include:

• Genever style gin? What’s that?
• The other family business, Alchemy Construction
  
• What’s the story with this whiskey made out of bagels?
• Bohner’s latest crazy whiskey project 
• Her great relationship with husband and business partner Steve and how his beard brought them together
  

So pour yourself a glass of your favorite spirit, and click the audio player above to hear Bohner’s chat with LoCO’s Andrew Goff and Stephanie McGeary and/ or scroll through past guests below. Please listen responsibly.

• 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

It feels bizarre to be writing about face masks nearly a year into the pandemic, but there’s plenty of evidence that not everyone takes masks seriously. With nearly 14 million cases and 270,000 deaths from Covid19 in the US alone, I’m still reading and hearing about people unwilling to wear masks in social situations, especially indoors and where it’s hard to maintain that nominal six feet spacing. As I understand it, the anti-maskers claim there’s no evidence that masks slow down the spread of the virus, while personal freedom trumps any other considerations.

When we talk about “evidence,” the truth is, it’s virtually impossible to come up with iron-clad proof that masks work. For instance, consider the ethics involved in getting 20,000 people to wear masks for a month while asking another 20,000 go without, subsequently reviewing the results in terms of who got infected. (Although, with a limited number of masks available in the whole country, a Danish researcher in Guinea-Bissau is attempting to do just that type of randomized trial.)

So we’re left with post hoc observational and epidemiological studies, such as the following:

• The well-publicized case of the two asymptomatic hair stylists in Missouri who infected their household members, but not any of the 67 clients of theirs who were subsequently tested. They both wore a double-layered cotton face covering or surgical mask while working.
• An outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt—a particularly bad environment for “social distancing”—where researchers estimated that the use of face coverings reduced the risk of infection by 70%.
• Mongolia, where facemasks have been in general use since January, has experienced zero Covid deaths to date (November 30).
• In Thailand, contact-tracing investigators found a 70% reduced risk in people who reported that they always wore a mask in high-risk exposures.

And on and on. You can find details of these and many more circumstantial examples of evidence here. And here’s the latest from the CDC.

Then there’s laboratory evidence. The tiny virus (about 0.1 micron diameter, compared, say, with human hair, about 80 microns) can’t normally exit our bodies on its own, so a mask doesn’t need to filter down to that size. Instead the virus particles hitch a ride on either fine aerosols (typically 6-20 microns) or droplets (larger than 20 microns). Not only do cloth masks block almost all large droplets, but also most aerosol particles don’t get through. Watch this four-minute video for a convincing demonstration. One study in The Lancet estimates that surgical and comparable cloth masks are 67% effective.

As I’ve written before, wearing a mask both protects you, the wearer, and those around you. No mask is 100% effective, of course. On the other hand, your mask:

• Reduces your own vulnerability to the virus when in risky situations (especially indoors, around other people who aren’t wearing a mask).
• Reduces your viral load (the number of virus particles you inhale) when you are in a virus-laden environment. There’s increasing evidence that the lower the dose, the milder the infection — and less chance you’ll end up in ICU with a ventilator down your throat.
• Reduces the chance that you’re infecting others around you, remembering that some 50% of us won’t know when we’re infected.

If none of the above convinces you, can you anyway just accept that the potential benefits of wearing a mask far outweigh any possible downsides? Please: wear a fucking mask!

Postscript: I was happy to see that, finally, YouTube has banned One America News Network (OANN) from posting fake “COVID-19 Cure” videos. AND they’ve removed Colleen (Kelley) Victory M.D.’s videos—she’s a non-practicing doctor (since 2008), not an infectious disease expert—who downplays the seriousness of Covid, including claiming that wearing a mask does more harm than good. Details here.

Big, radical, wild ideas. On this week’s episode of the EcoNews Report, Gang Green shares their big ideas for how to save the planet.

Geothermal power could be the low-carbon energy source of the future, utilizing the planet’s hot core to turn turbines.

Green hydrogen could replace fossil fuels to power airplanes and to store excess energy produced by wind farms and other renewable energy sources when there isn’t a grid demand.

Direct air capture to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas levels back to a sustainable level.

What are your big ideas to save the planet? Share them to tom@wildcalifornia.org and maybe we will feature them on a future show!

AUDIO:

“The EcoNews Report,” Dec. 5, 2020.

LINKS:

• “Geothermal Energy is Poised for a Big Breakout,” Vox
• “Green Hydrogen: Could It Be Key to a Carbon-Free Economy?” Yale Environment 360
• “Can Carbon-Dioxide Removal Save the World?” The New Yorker

Steven Hadley, Eureka High senior, recently scored a place at the University of Chicago and a full four-year academic scholarship via the nonprofit group QuestBridge. Woot!

Steven Hadley.

He was logged onto his English Zoom class Tuesday when he got the news. “It was kind of up in the air, I was checking [the application portal] every five seconds,” Hadley told the Outpost this afternoon. When he got the update notification, he shut off his camera. “I knew I was gonna have an extreme reaction, whether it be good or bad.”

It was good, y’all! Hadley said his family was overjoyed with the news. He has plans to study math, and maybe computer science, at UChicago, which is known for its superb academics and castle-esque, ivy-strewn campus. The university is consistently ranked pretty high up there (like, top 20) in evaluations of top private universities in the nation.

Over his time at EHS, Hadley built an extensive social and academic resume. He tutored high school and middle school students, served as a student government representative, and led the Science Bowl Team, which is a Jeopardy-style club that made it to semifinals at the Northern California regional competition last year.

Eureka High is thrilled with Hadley’s accomplishment.

“Steven is truly a Renaissance man!” Savannah Polizzi, a former AP US History teacher of Hadley’s, told the Outpost in an email. “Beyond his academic talents (which are many), he is an outstanding human who puts others’ needs before his own. Last year, he attended AP “Boot Camp” tutoring at every opportunity - not because he needed help, but because he was willing and able to help his peers with essay revision.”

Rebecca Baugh, EHS science teacher, shared an excerpt from the letter of recommendation she wrote for Hadley. “Steven lights up a room with his personality,” it reads. “As a member and enthusiastic leader of the Eureka High School Science Bowl Team he leads his peers in science competition, while weaving together humor and comradery in the pursuit of science and mathematics. Steven’s intellect, kindness and curiosity make him one of the most inspiring students that I have had the pleasure to know.”

His academic counselor, Delores Haskamp, said in a press release that Hadley is the first Eureka High student to earn a QuestBridge scholarship.

QuestBridge is a Palo Alto-based nonprofit with a mission to connect “the nation’s brightest students from low-income backgrounds with leading institutions of higher education and further opportunities,” according to their website. This year, the organization awarded 1,464 full-ride scholarships, selected from a pool of nearly 18,500 applicants.

After selecting scholarship recipients, QuestBridge sticks with those students and forms chapters at each university, which is something Hadley is excited about. “It’s a group of other people who’ve had the same experience as I have. You can do internships and stuff through there, and if you can’t go home for Thanksgiving they have a meal that they host,” he said. “So all that’s really nice. I’m looking forward to that.”

Congrats, Steven!

George Peck Jr. passed away peacefully on November 18. He was born in Hydesville on March 7, 1925 and lived in the Fortuna area for his entire life, except for a brief move to Santa Cruz as a child and his time in the Navy.

He joined the Navy as soon as he graduated from Fortuna High School and spent his tour of duty during WWII in the South Pacific on an aircraft refueling ship. He began his work as a carpenter with Greer Construction who built most of the track housing off Newburg Road in Fortuna. He started Eel River Construction with Bollie Olson and Tony Mendes and they worked together for many years until George started his own construction company.

George was responsible for many home builds and remodels in the area. Upon his retirement he still did many jobs and worked for the Eureka Inn, building the carousel for Christmas, and an early renovation of the Rathskeller; as well as work on the Gingerbread Mansion in Ferndale.

An avid outdoorsman, he loved to hunt and fish and spent many autumns hunting on Rainbow Ranch near Honeydew and in Hayfork. He enjoyed ocean fishing with his nephew and went out several times a year. The fishing wasn’t always great but the company and scenery were.

George married Helen Dusina in 1947. They were together for 72 years until Helen’s death in 2019. He was a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Fortuna. George and Helen both loved their dogs and could be seen around town walking their many Schnauzers. He was a master gardener and spent many hours plowing, planting, and harvesting countless varieties of fruits and vegetables. George had a beautiful yard which he tended with Helen and decorated with bird houses he built in his shop.

George is preceded in death by parents Rachel and George Peck, his sister Barbara and her husband Willard Iversen, brothers and sister in laws, Norma and Frank Berti and Alice and Hector Senestraro. He was the last of the generation.

He is survived by his son Dennis (Susan) Peck, grandchildren Erin (Steve) Barr, and Jordan (Casey) Peck and his great-granddaughter Juniper Peck. He is also survived by many nieces and nephews. At George’s request there will be no services. Donations can be made to Humboldt Historical Society or Hospice of Humboldt.

As George would always say, “I’ll see you when the wind shifts,” and we hope he now has fair winds and calm seas.