CONTENTS 5/5/2020
iPads & Phones Donations
Early Covid Treatment
Explanation Of Simulation Model Construction
Valve Mask Warning
Fl!p’s Pix
Support The Pickford
Cascadia International Women’s Film Festival.
Whatcom Arts Project
Columbia & More
The Re Store Has An Online Store
Mallard Ice Cream Update
Restaurants: Delivery Issues
Bellingham Plant Share
Yard Worker Wanted
Rental Wanted
Short Term Rental Wanted
Editor’s Corner
Tech Help Needed
One Heart At A Time
IPADS & PHONES DONATIONS
The Palliative Care team at St. Joes is looking for used ipads, tablets or phones. We have been using them at the hospital to help connect patients and their friends and families. During this time when the hospital and nursing homes are only able to allow visitors for the very end of life, the devices have made a huge difference both for patients and their worried family and friends when they aren’t able to have visitors. We can leave the devices in patients’ rooms so they can connect with their family more often by themselves or with the help of a nurse or CNA or chaplain. Some have travelled with patients to the nursing home where visitors are also limited and that’s been a huge benefit as well.
We have a drop off box at Mt. Baker Care Center (2905 Connelly Ave.) in Fairhaven. Please reset your device to factory settings, include a charger if available, place it in a ziplock and drop it in the box in their foyer between 8 AM and 4 PM Mondays-Fridays. Please include your name and address so we can recognize you. If we collect more than we need at the hospital, we will spread them out to nursing homes, assisted living facilities, group homes and elder apartments. Can’t tell you how much we appreciate them!
Thank you! ~ Lori Sherman, Elizabeth St.
EXCERPT FROM EARLY COVID TREATMENT INTERVIEW
Levitan: So, late last night, I got an e-mail from an emergency physician in Northern Italy. And he explained to me, we are seeing earlier cases of illness, and we`re doing much better. And so I immediately asked him, so, why is that? He says, well, the patients are no longer scared to come in. And so they diagnosed 250 patients with COVID in the emergency department. They sent every one of them home with a tiny little device, a portable, just consumer-grade pulse oximeter. So they sent people home with this tiny little device. One out 20, 5 percent, came back as their oxygen levels started to go down, and they were hospitalized and treated. None of those 250 patients died. If we move this whole management of this disease to earlier identification of who has it, better pulse oximetry monitoring in COVID-positive patients, as well as those at greatest risk for serious illness, I think we can dramatically influence how this country faces this problem, how we deal with it economically, how we deal with it just societally and globally.
Sreenivasan: You`re advocating for the use of a pulse oximeter almost like a thermometer that we have at home.
Levitan: Yes, I think we would do much better as a country if, in the medicine cabinet of every American was a pulse oximeter and a thermometer. And, ideally, a phone call away is the physician who you can talk to about how you`re feeling and, hey, these are my numbers. If you are extraordinarily wealthy, and you have a concierge physician, this is not a radical concept. This is being done. This has been done with all of these people. And people say, well, that`s going to cause a rush on these, and you`re going to — it`s going to cause a shortage. Well, in the hospital, we use a different one. In the hospital, what we`re using the hospital-grade. But I don`t control the supply of these devices. People on Twitter have said to me, oh, the people who need them aren’t going to get them. Well, I don`t control the world supply. But if I did, what I would say is, overnight, tomorrow, let’s make sure that every assisted living community, every nursing home is checking the elderly with pulse oximetry early and continuously. If we did that, we would identify the elderly, who can`t communicate with us often as well with what`s going on with them. So, if we first did all of the elderly, and then we did every COVID-positive patient with pulse oximetry, I think we would have a dramatic impact on this disease.
Read the whole article here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/why-covid-19-patients-should-be-going-to-hospitals-sooner/
EXPLANATION OF SIMULATION MODEL CONSTRUCTION
Very interesting site.
https://ncase.me/covid-19/
VALVE MASK WARNING
Valves expel your unfiltered exhalations, like putting your thumb over the end of a garden hose. More dangerous for those around you than no mask at all. I wear my mask to protect you, and you wear yours to protect me. So tape over the inside of any valves. Write “Blocked” on the outside in big letters. (Goods, on NW Avenue has been carrying homemade masks.)
https://www.fastcompany.com/90496717/what-is-a-mask-valve-and-why-are-cities-banning-them
FL!P’S PIX
SUPPORT THE PICKFORD
When Give Big comes around this Tues and Weds (May 5-6), consider making a donation to the Pickford Film Center. Bellingham is very fortunate to have an independent theater – with 3 screens – right in our downtown Arts district. The theater has a small paid staff, but depends on the many dedicated community volunteers. I am one of those. The documentaries, feature films, foreign films, children’s films and special series educate and enrich our community. As a local, independent theater, the Pickford does not have a national chain to support it. It’s existence depends on financial support from the community it serves – that’s US! Donate what you can. I look forward to seeing you at a show in the future. https://www.givebigwa.org/pickfordfilmcenter ~ Lynne Pendleton, Williams St
CASCADIA INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S FILM FESTIVAL
will present its 2020 Festival online this year from May 14 through 17. www.cascadiafilmfest.org
WHATCOM ARTS PROJECT
As a gift to the community, during Washington State’s Stay Home – Stay Safe Order, Bellingham and Whatcom County artists, musicians, actors, storytellers, dancers, filmmakers, performers and arts supporters, including museums and libraries have come together to create the Whatcom Arts Project. Free, daily online content is available through this campaign to uplift, educate, and inspire during these difficult times, while we socially distance to slow the spread of COVID-19. It’s worth keeping your eye on this website!
https://www.bellingham.org/whatcom-arts-project/
COLUMBIA & BEYOND
THE RE STORE HAS AN ONLINE STORE
The RE Store is excited to announce that they now have an online store. Visit shop.re-store.org to see their online listings. They’re listing new items each day, so check back often. After your purchase has been completed, our staff will work with you to schedule a contact free curbside pickup.
MALLARD ICE CREAM UPDATE
https://www.westernfrontonline.com/2020/05/04/mallard-provides-more-than-ice-cream-during-lock-down/
RESTAURANTS OPEN FOR TAKE-OUT & DELIVERY ISSUES
Please order directly from the restaurants. I’m hearing reports of national order and delivery services taking a huge bite out of restaurants’ pay. Here’s an example: https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-coronavirus-resturants-delivery-app-fees/6151276/
And here’s the local list of restaurants:
https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241240791.html#storylink=featured
BELLINGHAM PLANT SHARE
Cat started a Bellingham Plant Share IG page yesterday. The idea is that we can share any plant related things (seeds, starts, plants, cuttings, produce) among this community. I know I always have lots of extra seeds and starts, as well as a ton of fruit from our trees that I’d love to loosely trade or give. ~ Cat Armstrong Soule, Henry Street
https://instagram.com/bellingham_plant_share?igshid=7zf7z69dfesz
REPOSTING MISSING CAT
Our short-haired all-black Kie has been gone a couple days longer than normal. He is accustomed to being gone a day or two but we are wondering if anyone happened to take him in? Distinguishing feature is a wound on his right front leg that he went to the vet last week for and received antibiotics…it was healing well but probably still missing hair in that spot. ~ Kate Newell, 2400 block of Jaeger, 360-961-0264
https://bellingham.craigslist.org/laf/d/bellingham-lost-black-cat/7118849250.html
[I don’t know if Kie is chipped. But I do know that every vet in town will check a found pet for a chip for free. And the Humane Society provides low-cost chipping. Phone before you go in these days. Love/Fl!p]
YARD WORKER WANTED
I am looking for someone to mow my lawn at 1305 W. Illinois Street. ~ Pat Brown, pattisuejb@yahoo.com, (360)671-5788
RENTAL WANTED
Medical professional looking for clean, safe, quiet, drug-free, separate space. Up to $1,000. I have no pets. I have lived in the neighborhood for years. ~ Sharon Casey <s2casey@att.net>
SHORT TERM RENTAL WANTED
Our family has lived in a lovely rental on South Hill for the past two years. Our landlord has informed us that she will be moving in at the end of our lease in June and we need to find something by July 1st. This is an interesting time to be moving and so we are hoping to limit exposing ourselves and others by using virtual community resources to narrow our search. The Columbia Neighborhood has always been a dream of ours. Our plan was to move to Europe this fall for a work opportunity but that is not going to happen right now. We are looking for a 6 month rental (July-Dec), a month to month rental (beginning July 1), or perhaps a rent to own if the place is perfect and we can return home for summers after we eventually move back to Europe. If you, or anyone you know, may be open to speaking with us, we would love to talk more. We don’t need much space. We are used to living in cultures that live “smaller” than much of the USA. We just need a place we can safely wait this out. We are so thankful we have found beautiful Bellingham and we appreciate your time reading our message. ~ Colleen Mariotti, cemariotti@gmail.com, 425-691-0041
EDITOR’S CORNER
TECH HELP NEEDED
I’m still hunting for someone to take over web and email management. I think I can even find some money to support this. It turns out to be a biggish deal because the list is over 3000 people. It crossed several thresholds and stopped being simple. Does anyone know somebody with that skillset on a pretty deep level?
ONE HEART AT A TIME
When someone is holding tightly to an irrational position, you will never be able to talk them out of that. There is no piece of information you can give, because their mind is unable to open to consider that information. But there is just a chance, with caring, respect, commitment and thoughtfulness, that you might be able to LISTEN them out of it. But it’s scary to listen to people proclaiming upsetting ideas. What if listening to them changed us? But what if their position has some kernel of important truth? Don’t we want to get it right? What if a “demonstration” became hundreds or thousands of people hitting the streets to listen to all comers? Listen thoroughly and caringly. We might even hear the fear under the stranger’s words, and use it not as a weapon, not with contempt, but to connect and reassure the deeper fear? And so I wrote this song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHRxgjoobX0
