Tag: covid-19

Cohesive Mitigation School Strategies as Protective Factors Against the Increase of COVID-19 Cases

Cohesive Mitigation School Strategies as Protective Factors Against the Increase of COVID-19 Cases

The Marin Independent Journal picked up an article published in Cureus about cohesive mitigation school strategies as protective factors against the increase of COVID-19 cases. 

By KERI BRENNER | kbrenner@marinij.com | Marin Independent Journal

PUBLISHED: December 6, 2021 at 4:17 p.m.

COVID-19 infections declined in Marin as schools in the county reopened for in-person learning last year, according to a new study.

The study, published last month in the peer-reviewed national medical journal Cureus, tracked attendance at 77 transitional kindergarten through eighth-grade Marin schools from Sept. 8, 2020, to Jan. 21.

Researchers found a correlation between having more students in class in person and lower COVID-19 rates in the community. That was in contrast to school breaks — such as Halloween and holiday time off in December — when cases spiked, said study co-author Dr. Michaela George, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at Dominican University of California in San Rafael.

“It shows that when schools follow the advice of their local public health officials and there is a good collaboration with local educators, kids can stay safe in the classroom,” George said…

Read the full article from the Marin Independent Journal here. 
Read the Cureus article here.

Wear a Damn Mask, PLEASE!

Wear a Damn Mask, PLEASE!

When Covid first appeared in the US, several Asian physician friends had simple advice for me, “Wear a mask.” Having dealt with various coronaviruses for over a decade, this was the fundamental lesson taken from dealing with and controlling these respiratory viruses. Now, I may only be a dumb neurosurgeon, (said with humility, irony and in jest), but I know a thing or two about masks, having spent 30 years of life wearing them, sometimes for 12 or more hours at a time. There is nothing pleasurable about wearing a mask, but I have experienced first-hand how masks can protect patients and physicians from illness. More broadly I have seen how masks can protect healthcare workers from the worst of infectious diseases, even giving them supernatural-like protection when they must enter the belly of the beast while caring for highly contagious and fatal illnesses like Ebola. Meanwhile, each and every day, healthcare workers all over the world, including my own family members are able to avoid infection while caring for hospitalized Covid patients who are often spewing the virus everywhere. It’s incontrovertible – masks truly work!; they prevent Covid infections.

Continue reading “Wear a Damn Mask, PLEASE!” →