December 25, 2022, Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Every year on December 25, we celebrate Christmas, a day for spending time with family, observing an important Christian holiday, partaking in lighthearted traditions, or just spreading some holiday cheer!

Christmas has evolved over several millennia into a worldwide celebration that’s both religious and secular and chock full of fun-filled, family activities.

Read more here. . . .

Your Weekly COVID-19 Updates

Paradise Valley Medical Clinic,

Douglas M. Lakin, M.D.

Kaitlin A. Kraemer, M.S., PA-C

9977 N 90th Street, Suite 180, Scottsdale, AZ 85258

480.614.5800 (phone), 480.614.6322 (Fax)

Visit our Website

ATTN PATIENTS:

Dr. Lakin is using FaceTime ,

WhatsApp and Zoom to connect with you

for a 'Telehealth' visit. You can connect using your iPad, iPhone, Android phone, a laptop, or a PC with a camera.

Please watch these videos so you can be prepared and know how to connect with Dr. Lakin for a 'Telehealth' visit.

CLICK ON THE PICTURES

FROM THE DOC

December 25, 2022

FOR THE NEXT 4-8 WEEKS WHILE COVID & FLU & RSV ARE HIGH……… CONSIDER WEARING A GOOD MASK (KN95 OR N95) SELECTIVELY AT BUSY LOCATIONS TO STAY HEALTHY FOR THE HOLIDAYS.

CONTINUE TO LIVE YOUR LIFE AND GO OUT AND ABOUT AS YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE…… AND YOU SHOULD FEEL COMFORTABLE DOING SO.

GET YOUR FLU SHOT AND GET YOUR COVID BOOSTER TO REDUCE RISKS OF INFECTION IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO YET. THE DATA IS IN THAT THIS MAKES A DIFFERENCE.

COVID REMAINS VERY COMMON.…. OUR PATIENTS ARE DOING WELL.

FLU REMAIN HIGH IN AZ….…WE HAVE SEEN MULTIPLE CASES IN OUR OFFICE.

RSV REMAINS HIGH IN AZ…. WE HAVE SEEN A FAIR BIT OF UPPER RESPIRATORY INFECTION THAT IS NOT FLU AND NOT COVID…THIS IS LIKELY RSV. 5 CASES OF RSV SEEN FOR EVERY 1 CASE OF FLU.

HOW TO MANAGE AT THIS TIME FOR HOLIDAY GATHERINGS:

PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE COMFORTABLE GETTING TOGETHER AND THEY SHOULD GET TOGETHER.

TO REDUCE RISK....HERE ARE SOME IDEAS TO CONSIDER:

GET YOUR COVID BOOSTER AND GET YOUR FLU SHOT

DO NOT ATTEND GATHERINGS IF YOU ARE NOT FEELING WELL. ASK OTHERS NOT TO ATTEND IF THEY ARE NOT FEELING WELL.

KEEP AIR MOVING IN GATHERING AREAS. VENTILATION...BY NATURAL MEANS OUTDOORS OR WITH FANS, CAN BE HELPFUL.

CONSIDER HAVING GUESTS DO COVID TESTING PRIOR TO GETTING TOGETHER. THIS IS NOT PERFECT, BUT IT CAN REDUCE RISK SOMEWHAT. IT’S WORTH CONSIDERING.

WEARING A HIGH QUALITY MASK AT GATHERINGS IS GOOD IF YOU ARE TRAVELING AND WISH TO AVOID INFECTION FOR THE HOLIDAYS. IT IS IMPERATIVE FOR THOSE WITH TRULY REDUCED IMMUNITY...THOSE RECEIVING CHEMOTHERAPY, THOSE WITH SEVERE LUNG DISEASE, AND THOSE RECOVERING FROM RECENT HOSPITALIZATION.

GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS:

WEAR N-95 OR KN95 MASKS IN SITUATIONS THAT YOU FEEL ARE HIGHER EXPOSURE IF YOU WISH TO REDUCE YOUR RISK

WHEN GOING OUT TO ACTIVITIES…. SELECT OPTIONS THAT ALLOW FOR BETTER VENTILATION INSIDE, OR CHOOSE OUTSIDE OPTIONS

IF YOU GET SICK YOU NEED TO TEST FOR COVID. CONSIDER COMING INTO THE OFFICE PARKING LOT FOR FLU TESTING AS WELL

TREATMENT FOR COVID AND FOR FLU IS AVAILABLE AND WORTHWHILE IN MANY INSTANCES.

TREATMENT FOR RSV IS PURELY SYMPTOMATIC…. WE TREAT THE SYMPTOMS AS THERE IS NO ANTIVIRAL FOR RSV

COVID IS UNDER CONTROL ON A BROAD BASIS

RISKS OF COMPLICATIONS ARE LOW FOR THE MULTI-VAXXED

BOOSTER COVID VACCINATIONS:

THE NEW COVID VACCINE IS BIVALENT…. THIS MEANS IT CONTAINS THE ORIGINAL VACCINE COVERAGE…. PLUS, COVERAGE MORE SPECIFICALLY FOR BA5 FORMS OF COVID.

GIVEN THE SAFETY OF THE VACCINE, IT IS BEST FOR EVERY ADULT TO CONSIDER THIS BOOSTER…BUT….

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THE BOOSTER VACCINE IF:

YOU HAVE NOT HAD COVID AND ARE OVER 70 YEARS OLD

YOU HAVE NOT HAD COVID AND HAVE HEALTH ISSUES THAT MAKE YOU MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO COVID COMPLICATIONS SUCH AS…. EMPHYSEMA, SIGNIFICANT DIABETES, HEART FAILURE, OR ARE ON IMMUNE SUPPRESSING MEDICATION.

IF YOU HAVE HAD A COVID INFECTION FROM 2020 UNTIL NOVEMBER 2021, THEN YOU HAVE A 30+% PROTECTION FROM THE CURRENT BA-5 STRAIN.

IF YOU HAD COVID AT XMAS OR LATER, THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE AN 80% PROTECTION FROM THE CURRENT BA-5 STRAIN.

IF YOU HAD COVID YOU CAN STILL BENEFIT FROM ANOTHER BOOSTER, BUT IT IS NOT AS ESSENTIAL, AS YOUR PREVIOUS COVID INFECTION DOES HELP BOOST YOUR IMMUNITY THROUGH NATURAL MEANS.

IF YOU HAVE HAD 4 COVID VACCINES, THE 5^TH VACCINE IS NOT AS ESSENTIAL, BUT IT WILL PROVIDE ADDITIONAL PROTECTION AND IS WORTH STRONGLY CONSIDERING.

REMEMBER, IF YOU GET COVID WE CAN ALWAYS TREAT YOU WITH PAXLOVID PILLS, THEY ARE VERY EFFECTIVE.

IT IS PROVEN SAFE TO GET THE FLU SHOT AND THE COVID SHOT AT THE SAME TIME…… …BUT I RECOMMEND YOU SEPARATE THEM IF POSSIBLE SO YOU DON’T HAVE A STRONGER REACTION TO THE COMBINATION.

**Read Dr. Lakin's Full December 25th,

Comments. . . CLICK HERE

TOP PODCAST DONE WEEKLY

BY DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM

(UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA)

He is a world-renowned epidemiologist who was credited with first elucidating TOXIC SHOCK SYNDROME in the 1980’s.

He provides comprehensive and understandable/actionable ideas related to COVID.

Dr. Osterholm Update: COVID-19

December 15, 2022

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/entering-phase-5

( Same as last week's... New Podcast next week!)

'Entering Phase 5'

In this episode, Dr. Osterholm and Chris Dall discuss China's new COVID mitigation strategy, a COVID query about KN95s, and the fifth phase of the pandemic that we have recently entered.

According to Dr. Osterholm……

CHINA WILL BE DEVASTATED BY THE COVID OUTBREAK THAT IS ABOUT TO DEVELOP AS THEY OPEN UP. COVID OMICRON SUBVARIANT S ARE LIKE THE WIND…YOU CAN’T STOP IT, BUT YOU CAN TRY TO CONTROL IT. THE ZERO COVID POLICY OF CHINA WAS UNSUSTAINABLE AND IS OVER.
BA5 IS AND THE SUBVARIANTS OF BA5 ARE INCREASING WORLDWIDE
USE MASKS IN SETTINGS OF CONCERN. YOUR MASK MUST BE KN95 OR N95
GOOD VENTILATION IN ROOMS/HOME/BUSINESSES IS A GREAT WAY TO PREVENT TRANSMISSION
VACCINE, VACCINE, VACCINE…THIS IS OUR PROTECTION. ALL VACCINES ARE EFFECTIVE AND WITH TIME WE ARE SEEING THAT THE J&J VACCINE IS PICKING UP STEAM AND GIVES SOLID LONG-TERM PROTECTION.
BOOST, BOOST, BOOST…THIS WILL BE NECESSARY TO PREVENT RECURRING SURGE AND TO RAISE ANTIBODY LEVELS IN THOSE ALREADY SET WITH THE PRIMARY COVID VACCINE SERIES.
ANTIGEN TESTING IS USEFUL, BUT OF LIMITED VALUE. DON’T DEPEND ON THIS TEST IF YOU HAVE CLASSIC COVID SYMPTOMS.
MASKS OF THE KN95 AND N95 VARIETY CAN BE HELPFUL. CLOTH MASKS AND SURGICAL MASKS ARE CURRENTLY NOT AS EFFECTIVE WITH DELTA VARIANT
THE THREE/FOUR/FIVE VACCINE REGIMEN IS PARTICULARLY EFFECTIVE AGAINST SERIOUS ILLNESS AND HOSPITALIZATION. DEATHS AMONG THE VACCINATED ARE MASSIVELY REDUCED.
GET YOUR BOOSTERS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Know that unvaccinated remain a source of potential infection. Avoiding unvaccinated persons will reduce your risk of COVID.

'Tripledemic' viruses still spreading. What science shows about being contagious.

How can we stop the winter "tripledemic" of respiratory viruses from wrecking upcoming holiday travel and family gatherings?

People know when they have Covid symptoms, but do minor sniffles at the end of a coronavirus infection, for example, mean they’re still contagious?

So many Covid questions!

It’s a good time to brush up on what scientists know, and still don’t know, about how long people remain infectious with viral diseases — Covid, influenza, RSV — that are spreading across the U.S.

How long am I contagious with Covid?

If you’ve been exposed to someone who has tested positive for Covid, symptoms from any of the omicron subvariants generally appear two to four days later.

How contagious you are is connected to how much of the virus, known as the viral load, is in your body. Your viral load will likely peak soon after the start of symptoms, according to Dr. Chanu Rhee, an infectious disease physician and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

This means you are likely most contagious a day or so before symptoms appear and during at least the first two or three days after.

A COVID-19 'Senior Wave' Is Driving Up Hospitalizations

When Linda Stewart felt a tickle in her throat a few weeks ago, she got worried.

She’s a 76-year-old woman, and she was well aware of the risks posed to her and her husband’s health by Covid-19, flu and other colds that are sweeping the United States amid a rough respiratory virus season.

“I don’t want to take any chances with my health,” she said.

So far this winter, the rise in Covid-19 appears to be relatively mild – hospitalizations are ticking up in most states, although the overall rate is still just a fraction of what it was during other surges.

But for older adults like Stewart, the situation is much more severe. Hospitalizations among seniors are nearing the peak from the Delta surge and rising fast.

And the age gap has never been wider. Since October, the Covid-19 hospitalization rate among seniors has been at least four times higher than average. Even during the first winter surge in 2020, when Covid-19 took a devastating sweep through nursing homes, there was never more than a three-fold difference.

Throughout the pandemic, a positive Covid-19 test for a senior has carried an extra heavy weight. Only about 13% of all reported cases in the US have been among people 65 and older, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But about half of all hospitalizations and three-quarters of all deaths have been in this age group.

The places where COVID-19 cases have increased the most, least in the last two weeks

Case numbers for the previous two weeks are compared to the two weeks before.

For More information.....CLICK HERE

Mask Policy in Our Office

At our office, we are continuing to follow CDC guidelines and will strive for ways to keep our patients and staff safe.

We recommend that all unvaccinated and vaccinated patients and visitors entering our office cover their nose and mouth at all times.

To prevent further spread of the Delta & Omicron variants, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its mask guidance on March 21, 2022, to recommend that fully vaccinated people wear masks when in areas with “substantial” and “high” transmission of Covid-19.

We have a limited supply of paper masks and will make these available to patients while they last, however, we encourage you to bring your own facial covering.

New York and L.A. Meet CDC Criteria For Masking In Public.

How Much Will Masks Help This Winter?

With Covid spreading at high levels in New York and Los Angeles, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends that people in those areas wear masks indoors and on public transportation.

The CDC recommendation is based on three metrics: new Covid cases, hospital capacity and hospital admissions. Both New York City and Los Angeles County recorded around 3,200 daily cases on Thursday, and hospital inpatient beds in their respective states are more than 80% full, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services.

Some cities are also calling for masks in schools in anticipation of cases surging this winter.

Why Can't Some People Smell Months After Catching COVID?

Their Immune Response Could Be The Answer. . . .

For some, Covid knocked out their sense of smell for months with no precise scientific explanation of why and no therapeutic drugs specifically designed to restore it.

A research group led by Duke Health could be nearing some answers.

The researchers took biopsies deep inside the nasal cavities of patients struggling to regain their smell months after coming down with Covid. They found evidence of continued inflammation and an immune response that persisted after the virus was long gone, according to a small study published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Millions of people around the world lost their smell for at least six months after contracting Covid. This new research could help develop drugs specifically to address the problem in the toughest cases, and it also could help scientists better understand how long Covid affects other organ systems.

“I think that answers the question ‘What’s different about these people? What is damaged and how we might go about fixing that?’” said Dr. Bradley Goldstein, an author of the paper and an associate professor in Duke University’s department of head and neck surgery and communication sciences. “We clearly see a persistent unresolved local immune response.”

'Miracle on 34th Street'

When a nice old man, employed as a department store Santa Claus, is institutionalized as insane, a young lawyer decides to defend him by arguing in court that he is the real thing.

It's a timeless classic....... Enjoy!