Tags: COVID-19
Why are we doing this, anyway?
Peace, man
When I take care of myself, I take care of everyone
Talking about National Immunization Awareness Month
In honor of National Immunization Awareness Month, here’s an interview with our partner Ericha Stewart, Director of the Immunize Wisconsin coalition (IMWI), on whose Advisory Board I serve. On the other side of the interview, I’ve included some resources for NIAM.
The hair on fire next time
Your survey answers about preparing for the next health emergency
Before I say anything else about the survey we fielded this spring and early summer, let me say thank you. We were able to collect 255 responses at last count. Some of those came through online forms, but the vast majority were interviews. The information we collected will help us plan the next phase of the Community Health Program.
Next, let me say thank you again to CHP Field Coordinator Angelica Espinoza. She was responsible for 131 of those interviews, either on her own or with her partner Angela Hicks. Angelica left the rest of us in the dust!
In all, we heard from 181 churches and 72 non-church partners. Of those, roughly 50 were Spanish-speaking respondents, and around 40 were African-American. About half of our responses came from outside the Milwaukee and Madison metro areas.
So we may not have collected a scientific sample, exactly. But I’m happy with the diversity of responses. And I think the results are close enough for horseshoes and hand grenades, as they say.1
About those results: answers tended to cluster in a few different categories. Or so I thought, by my again unscientific review. Let’s look at each of them in turn.
Get Proud, get WISE
988 is a lifesaver
What have we learned from the pandemic? In her July 11th newsletter, Katelyn Jetelina talks about some lessons she’s learned since the start of the COVID pandemic. I want to talk about a few of those points today, because as my colleague Peter Bakken says, they are “relevant to the WCC’s lane.” But do, as they say, “read the whole thing.”…
Be prepared, again
Let’s get coordinated
Want to do some immediate good and help get ready for the next pandemic or public health emergency? Become a VOAD!
Portents of smoke and fire and haze
10 things to think about when air quality is this bad
You may have noticed (how could you not?) the smoky haze covering much of Wisconsin in the last few weeks. Originating with wild fires in northern Québec, it makes for beautiful sunsets and terrible breathing.
Airnow.gov predicts that the pollution will moderate on Thursday, at least in my area. But we will almost certainly face this situation again. With climate change comes more wildfires. Friends on the West Coast will testify to that fact.
It will be good to be prepared, then. The EPA provides some background information and a handy chart of things to think about. I’ve put that in a shareable form here and made a list of suggestions for churches below.
Bingo!
Fun and games and owls to counter misinformation
I’ve written a fair amount on misinformation and disinformation lately. That includes in last week’s newsletter. But at the risk of overdoing it, I’ve come across some approaches that seemed too good not to share. Forthwith:
Trust and positivity
We’ve tried being negative creeps. It isn’t working.
The scholar of democracy and civic life Rachel Kleinfeld suggests that “trust is a society’s immune system, and it enables communities to unite against threats and come together to solve problems.”
This quote comes to mind for what are probably obvious reasons. The health of our civil society is intimately connected to our physical health. Trust in American society has been sliding since the 1990’s. It’s only gotten worse in recent years. The erosion of trust left us unprepared for the COVID pandemic—and the pandemic in turn undermined trust even further.