Avocado Curry!

On our last day of class, Dr. Ric offered people produce from his farm; we had to go and pick it up. He had a half dozen winter melons and said he had a bunch of avocados. Today I emailed Dr. Ric asking when would be a good time to come by and get some avocados. He said today after 4, so I did! He gave me 10 medium to large sized avocados. I also got to meet Bean! She was busy trying to catch the free-range chickens.

Since I had so many wonderful avocados I made avocado curry tonight; even though I didn't have green curry or any chicken to throw in with the avocados. It was still good; I ate it over cauliflower rice. After dinner The Potential Most Favorite Roommate gave me some grilled chicken breasts that he had from lunch yesterday that he did not eat; I added it to the leftovers and will have it for lunch tomorrow.


I took Dr. Ric a pint of Coffee Gelato from Via Gelato; I also picked up a pint of Fierce Chocolate for The Roommates. I picked up a pint each of Magic Chocolate & Magic Pistachio for me; these are their sugarless gelatos. Because they are sugarless you have to microwave them for 15 seconds to soften them up for eating.

Blogger is being frustrating again; I had trouble staying in the "legacy" view to create this post. It kept adding and deleting new tabs so text was shifting back and forth. It was doing it so fast, like every second or so, I was getting a headache! Aue! So I switched to the new view to finish this post. And it wiped out all my photos! It took me forever to finish this, but I had to leave out a lot of photos. I posted it with the 09/08 date because that's when I got  all the info.

One of the key differences in the contact tracer training that I received was that there was much more emphasis on the social determinants of health and the disparate affect that COVID-19 has on certain vulnerable populations. The Johns Hopkins training and the ASTHO training does not go in depth in to these areas. We had guest speakers who specifically taught about how COVID-19 is affecting Pacific Islander and Filipino communities here. I read an article that looks a way for medical doctors to communicate with social services for what additional non-medical interventions a patient might need through the use of Z codes in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). The Z codes allow for coding such as difficulty affording nutritious foods (Z59.4) or absence of a family member due to military deployment (Z63.31). Perhaps if all medical providers did this we could start to get a handle on this. 

 

Another article I read was about how exercise during the pandemic could affect athletes under sustained endurance training. Apparently strenuous exercise for 2 to 3 hours decreases your immune function. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't exercise, they also found that "physically active people have a 40-50% reduction in the number of days they’re ill with acute respiratory infections.” So its a matter of exercising in moderation, they recommend limiting "sustained exercise (greater than 60% effort, which means 60% of your max heart rate) to no more than 60 minutes at a time." So I think I will stick with my 35 minutes per day walking routine.

 

Speaking of athletes and exercise, it appears that if you have COVID-19 you should skip the exercise while you are ill, even with only a mild case. Because COVID-19 can cause heart problems you should also wait at least 6 months after recovery before starting up again. The author of the study recommended a cardiac M?RI; at the very least, you should check with your doctor before restarting your exercise program.

Also speaking of athletes and exercise, Olympic runner Usain Bolt tested positive for COVID-19 on August 22nd. Which means he would have been released from isolation on September 2nd; I haven't heard anything so I am assuming he recovered. He apparently went to a large gathering; it was a surprise birthday party for him. And apparently very few masks were being worn. Interestingly, he says he was asymptomatic but decided to get a test because of being in the large crowd. Since he got tested the day after the party it sounds like he might have been infected prior to the party since the incubation period is 2 to 14 days.

Another of the Microbial Instincts articles that I read was about how scientists had been warning about the possibility of a pandemic since 2007 XXX. After the SARS epidemic in 2003 a lot of research was done with over 4000 papers being published; a review in 2007 noted that they had already found 2 previously unknown coronaviruses were already causing mild-to-moderate illness in people and at least 36 more SARS-related coronaviruses were identified. They said, “The possibility of the re-emergence of SARS and other novel viruses… should not be ignored.” And guess what? People in power ignored it! So here we are.

Today Mayor Caldwell held a press conference and  the stay-at-home order extended has been extended to September 23rd. There are some things that have been relaxed in order to do a "cautious reopening", like beaches, parks, and trails, but only, "Individuals may engage in any lawful activity (e.g., walking, running, biking, sitting, fishing, etc.), but only by oneself. No group use or group activities are allowed." In the earlier stay-at-home order, no one was allowed on beaches, trails, and parks; a lot of people were upset with that.


This has prompted some humorous signs such as the one at Hawaiian Rent-Alls. Some hiking groups have said it is unsafe to hike alone, which can be true. However, the Mayor's reason for limiting it to 1 person is because law enforcement was having difficulty with trying to determine which groups of people were in a household. Limiting it to 1 person makes determining whether a violation is occurring much clearer and easier to enforce. Sometimes you just can't make everyone happy.


The main companies that are currently testing their vaccines for safety, have made a pledge to not release any vaccine until trials have been completed and their are shown to be safe & effective. I think they know what's up with Trump's declarations of something being available by election day. I also think they know if people lose faith in vaccines it will be a big blow to their bottom line. Whatever the reason, thnaks for taking a stand against releasing a vaccine based on someone else's wishes and before all safety & efficacy trials have been completed!


The department of education said today that 2 staff & 1 student at Dole Middle School have tested positive for COVID-19. They said department of health was following up with contact tracing. At one time DOE had said they were hiring their own contact tracers; a number of other large organizations have said the same. If they are all coordinated with DOH contact tracing efforts that would be great; if there is no or poor coordination that would be a big mess.


With today's new cases we have reached a dubious milestone of over 10,000 known COVID-19 cases; there were 66 new cases bringing us to 10,025 known cases. There were 2 more deaths bringing that number up to 88.   

 

Hauʻoli lā Hoʻomanaʻo e Joan & Gary!