Vaccine Outreach & Education

Today I volunteered with the Public Health Nurses doing outreach & education about the COVID-19 vaccine in Nānākuli. Gloria, who was also the clinic coordinator at the LCC vaccine POD where I was running the Data Entry Center, is also leading this effort. We worked in one of the communities that have a lower rate of vaccination.

I was on Team F.

My partner & I did this portion of the 1st area.

Today Gwen was my outreach partner, she is a PHN. Over a 5&1/2 hour period we went to 63 houses, but only found people at home at 9. Of those 9, we found 3 households where everyone who was eligible was vaccinated & 1 household who we might have made a difference in moving them closer to getting vaccinated. Two of the other 5 took some information about emergency preparedness but declined to talk about vaccines, the last 3 totally refused to talk to us. I guess that's in keeping with the name of the community; one of the meanings of nānākuli is "to ignore". I walked 3.43 miles today. I really need a foot massage.

Gwen & I did the top right row of houses.

Gwen & I started at bottom right & walked around cul-de-sac & few houses up the next street.

We were only actively moving for 86 minutes.

The proothie this morning was made with the now-thawed blanched & frozen lau ʻuala. Aesthetically it looked terrible; the fresh leaves are much more appealing. But taste-wise there was no difference. After I finish using the nā lau that I processed, I will return to using fresh nā lau; it is less time consuming to use them fresh. We had so much the last time because we were clearing nā lau out from around other plants we were working on.

Getting in to Kalanianaʻole Beach Park was a little tricky. The light at the intersection was not working well. It would let everyone else turn, except us. After sitting there for 3 light change cycles the State car in front of me ran the red light when it was safe to do; I did it also on the next cycle. The truck behind me did it on the following cycle. Fortunately, by lunch the problem was fixed.

This was the cycle just before the car in front ran the red light.

Like all good biologists, I made a pit stop before starting the 1st leg of our outreach today. On the way to the bathrooms I walked past some artwork the community has created. I think the inscription below translates to something along the lines of "The homestead lands of Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole remain forever." Which makes sense; the area we were in today is part of the Hawaiian Home Lands that are held for native Hawaiian people.

Like at LCC, lunch was provided for the people helping with the outreach & education. Today I had a Cold Cut Combo which had turkey along with cold cuts. I shared a table with Jean; I met her in April when she was  one of the Post Vax supervisors at the LCC Vax POD. We had a great time catching up & talking about the current health situation.

My view during lunch; I chose to look at the mountains today.

At our mid-afternoon break I had a bottle of Orange Mango Body Armor Super Drink & a snack bag size of Baked Crunchy Cheese Cheetos. I liked the flavor of the Body Armor, it wasn't too sweet; but after reading the label I think I will just stick with 100% coconut water instead. In spite of not tasting sweet it had a lot of added sugar.

In the afternoon, as we were talking to a couple of residents, my phone started buzzing; it was someone from Staffing Solutions, the temp agency who the LCC Data Entry Center staff had to be hired through. I called back after we were done with the outreach & education event; it was Louise. She was calling about a data entry job; she said she also sent me an email with the details. I told her I wasn't interested in this job but if they were going to staff another vaccine clinic data entry center I would be interested. They must  be desperate for people, since I was not planning on continuing employment with them after the vax POD I did not follow through with what they said I needed to do to remain eligible for future work.

The traffic on the drive back was not bad until I passed Kaiser Moanalua, then it stopped. It creeped along until just before the Punahou exit, which is the normal place where it opens up again. It took me an hour to get home; in the morning it took me 45 minutes to get to the park, but about 15 minutes of that was waiting at the last turn for the signal light to change.

For dinner I had what was left of the Zucchini Pasta Bake and Mushroom & Artichoke Salad that I picked up from Kokua Market on Tuesday.

While I was eating dinner I heard a Kōlea calling. This is not the 1st one I have heard this season; I heard one 2 nights ago but was not able to get my camera out quick enough to get a photo. This time I did. They usually return from their Arctic breeding grounds in late August through early September. I think this is the one which claims the Hue's front yard diagonally across the street from us as part of its winter feeding territory. (It does not come to our yard, we have the wrong type of grass for it.)

Kōlea standing on the neighbor's roof.

Today Star's puppy behavior came out. This evening Lori sent us a photo of the results of Star being left alone in the back yard when Jenny was out running errands.

(Photo by Lori)

The cough drops that Suzanne sent me arrived today. I will have to try them before my next day of First Contact Calls.

In response to my text letting her know that the cough drops arrived, Suzanne sent me photos of her moʻopuna kāne Kaleo. He is now in marching band & tonight was his first marching band performance! Hulō e Kaleo! Looking good!

(Photo by Suzanne)

(Photo by Suzanne)

(Photo by Suzanne)

My Duolingo streak is now 490 days long! The only 'reward' you get on Duolingo for having a streak of days you have practiced is for 365 consecutive days, nothing else. I think I shall acknowledge when I get to 500 days & maybe every 25 days after that.

The Aix weather app forecast drizzles with no accumulation in Honolulu before lunch followed by partly cloudy skies; we ended up with just partly cloudy skies, no drizzles. For Kapaʻau Aix forecast rain with accumulation for the entire day; Big Island News did not agree saying it would be mostly cloudy but with only a 50% chance of rain. Big Island News appeared to be more accurate. For Marysville, Aix forecast partly cloudy all day with no rain; it might have been right.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 7:33 a.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 7:34 a.m.

Matysville looking southerly at 7:34 a.m. HST.

Nā Koʻolau at 8:31 a.m.

I have found that Big Island Now has a nice surf report; although it is geared for Hawaiʻi Island it will provide a general idea of how the surf will be on all the islands. It looks like the south shore will provide the best conditions for the holiday weekend.

Chun's Reef (N) at 7:34 a.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 7:35 a.m.

The Hawaiʻi Paroling Authority will be requiring parolees to be vaccinated prior to release. Sounds like a good thing since the correctional centers have been an incubator like the cruise ships. There will be exemptions granted for medical or religious reasons; if granted the parolee will be required to provide a negative COVID-19 test on a weekly basis to their parole officer. 

As seen in yesterday's COVID-19 statistics, the Delta variant now accounts for almost 100% of samples in the genome testing. Two weeks earlier it had accounted for 93% of cases. The state subsamples 15% to 20% of all test samples collected for genome testing to determine what variants are present.

There were 1068 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 65,025. There were also 4 new deaths reported, increasing the death toll to 606; currently 11,225 cases are considered active. As of yesterday 1,877,187 doses of vaccine were administered providing 63.6% of the population with full vaccination; 71.9% have had at least 1 dose. According to the latest information 437 COVID-positive patients have been hospitalize with 101 in the ICU and 86 on ventilators. The 7-day new case average on Oʻahu is 633 with a positivity rate of 8.4%.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Dean, Sandra, & Steve!

One of My Heroes

I had the privilege today of speaking to a woman who is one of the heroes of this pandemic; she is a traveling nurse with FEMA who goes to various states to provide relief to overworked local medical personnel. She is a respiratory therapist, the ones who help severely ill COVID-19 patients to continue breathing. She thinks she became infected with SARS-CoV2 while she was traveling from her previous assignment to her home state for a brief rest before being deployed here. She said as she was walking off the plane here she started feeling unwell so she immediately went to her hotel room, isolated herself, contacted her supervisor, & got herself set up for a test. Fortunately she is vaccinated so she is not as sick as she might be & should be able to get back on the front line as soon as her 10-day isolation period is complete. Mahalo nui loa to all the wonderful people who are doing this admirable work all over the country!

Just before lunch I got an email from Gloria about helping the Public Health Nurses with the vaccine outreach & education event in Nānākuli tomorrow.

I was let out for lunch right at 12 noon; that made it difficult to find an unoccupied table. I ended up sitting at one of the tables in the smoking section of the lanai. There did not seem to be any smokers nearby, however, the remnants of their nicotine habit did make it a little smelly during lunch.

Yum! 😋

Yuk! 🤢

 

The dog that showed up at Curtis & Lori's house on Saturday has since come into their yard; because it is a relatively short-legged dog & the retaining wall is high it is now staying in their backyard. Jenny is the only one able to get close to it because she feeds it. One of the other neighbor's has been calling it Star, so that is now it's name. Anita is hoping that her dog Henry will accept her, if so, she will adopt Star.

Star. (Photo by Lori)

My friend Charlie sent me an article and photos of some cute owlets.

The Aix weather app forecast drizzle in Honolulu in the morning; there was none of that while I was outdoors. For Kapaʻau it forecast rain all day; the Honomū web cam showed partly cloudy skies & weather station recorded no precipitation. The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope web cam also showed no clouds over Kohala Mountain. For Marysville it showed partly cloudy skies all day; that seemed accurate.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 8:03 a.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 8:04 a.m.

Marysville looking southerly at 8:04 a.m. HST.

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope looking northwesterly at 8:05 a.m.

Nā Koʻolau at 8:34 a.m.

It looks like the south shore will have the best surf for the next few days.

Chunʻs Reef (N) at 8:10 a.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 8:05 a.m.

As it turns out, when I signed up to get what I thought was the USGS emails about the Hawaiʻi Volcano Observatory notices about Kīlauea's status, what I actually signed up for was to get all USGS notices about all volcanoes. In all parts of the world, not just the US. Here's what I got today that tipped me off on what was happening.

There were 455 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 63,957; this is a partial count due to a lab reporting glitch. There were also 13 new deaths reported, increasing the death toll to 602; currently there are 10,911 cases considered active. As of yesterday, there were 1,869,996 doses of vaccine administered, providing 63.4% of the population with full vaccination & 71.6% with at least one dose. There are 438 COVID-19 patients who are hospitalized with 96 in the ICU & 77 on ventilators. The 7-day new case average on Oʻahu is 612 with a positivity rate of 8.8%.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Mary,  Justin, & Troy Jr.! A me ka Hauʻoli lā Hoʻomanaʻo makahiki kanahā kumamāwalu e Mike & Marilyn! A me ka Hauʻoli Hoʻomanaʻo makahiki ʻumi kumamāhā e Dave & Sheila!