National Daughters Day
From the moment they are born, a tiny and delicate daughter can capture the hearts of her mother and father.
And as she grows, their love for her grows as well. National Daughters Day is set aside to pay special attention to the love for and appreciation of daughters.
Read more here. . . .
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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)
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ATTN PATIENTS:
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
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September 25, 2022
NO CHANGES IN COVID STATUS
COVID REMAINS WIDESPREAD AT THIS TIME, AS DR. OSTERHOLM SAYS WE ARE ON THE ‘HIGH PLATEAU’….…BUT IT CONTINUES TO DECLINE…. WELL BELOW MAXIMUM LEVELS. WE WILL CONTINUE TO SEE HIGH CASE LEVELS FOR SOME TIME.
BOOSTER COVID VACCINATIONS:
THE NEW COVID VACCINE WILL BE BIVALENT…. THIS MEANS IT WILL CONTAIN THE ORIGINAL VACCINE COVERAGE…. PLUS, COVERAGE MORE SPECIFICALLY FOR BA4 & BA5 FORMS OF COVID.
GIVEN THE SAFETY OF THE VACCINE, IT IS REASONABLE FOR EVERY ADULT TO CONSIDER THIS BOOSTER…BUT….
I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THE BOOSTER VACCINE IF:
YOU HAVE NOT HAD COVID AND ARE OVER 80 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 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 5TH VACCINE IS NOT AS ESSENTIAL, BUT IT WILL PROVIDE ADDITIONAL PROTECTION AND IS WORTH 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.
GET YOUR COVID BOOSTER IN SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER AND THE FLU SHOT AT THE END SEPTEMBER OR DURING OCTOBER.
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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
September 15, 2022
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/podcasts-webinars/episode-113
(Same Podcast as last week....There will be a new one next week!)
'Time for Learning, Not Forgetting'
In this episode, Dr. Osterholm and Chris Dall discuss the state of the pandemic in the U.S. and around the world, the impact of COVID on the economy, and the new BA4/BA5 boosters. Dr. Osterholm also provides updates on monkeypox and polio and shares a beautiful place from one of our listeners.
According to Dr. Osterholm……
- ALL IS GOING WELL WITH THE PANDEMIC AT THIS TIME. HOSPITALIZATIONS ARE AT THE LOWEST WE HAVE SEEN DURING THE PANDEMIC
- THERE IS A LOT OF COVID ACROSS THE USA. PEOPLE ARE DOING MUCH BETTER, IT IS MUCH LESS SEVERE.
- BA 4 AND BA5 ARE RISING AND MAY CAUSE INCREASE HOSPITALIZATIONS SLIGHTLY COMPARED TO MORE RECENT VARIANTS.
- CHINA WILL BE EXPERIENCING MAJOR COVID OUTBREAKS AS TIME GOES ON. OMICRON IS LIKE THE WIND…YOU CAN’T STOP IT, BUT YOU CAN TRY TO CONTROL IT. THE ZERO COVID POLICY OF CHINA IS UNSUSTAINABLE.
- COVID IS SHOWING MINOR SURGES IN THE NORTHEAST.
- 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 VACCINE REGIMEN IS PARTICULARLY EFFECTIVE AGAINST SERIOUS ILLNESS AND HOSPITALIZATION. DEATHS AMONG THE VACCINATED ARE MASSIVELY REDUCED.
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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.
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Less Than 2% Of Eligible People Have Gotten Updated Covid Booster Shots, 3 Weeks Into The Rollout
The CDC recommends that everyone over 12 get an updated booster as long as at least two months have passed since their last Covid shot.
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At least 4.4 million people have received an updated Covid booster since the start of the month, according to data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number represents around 1.5% of people currently eligible to receive the shots in the U.S.
The data does not include people who received updated Pfizer-BioNTech boosters in Idaho and Texas, the CDC said, so it is likely an underestimate.
The White House estimates the number to be closer to 5 million doses of the new booster, The Associated Press reported.
The CDC signed off on updated versions of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s booster shots on Sept. 1, and pharmacies and other vaccination sites began administering the new shots around Labor Day weekend. The bivalent shots target both the original coronavirus strain and the currently circulating omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.
Dr. Scott Roberts, a Yale Medicine infectious disease specialist, said the relatively low booster uptake was “demoralizing.”
“I would expect a much higher proportion of Americans to have gotten the booster by this point,” he said.
Roberts said a lack of public awareness about the shots or the prevailing narrative that the pandemic is ending might have hindered the vaccine rollout.
Read more here.....
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After you received your COVID vaccinations, please let us know!
We would like to document this information into your chart.
BUT FIRST.......
PLEASE COMPLETE THE INFORMATION ON THE CARD BEFORE YOU SEND IT TO US!
What we need:
- Your name
- Date vaccination received
- Brand name
- Lot number if available
- Which dose you have received
**Email your COVID vaccine completed info HERE
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The Covid-19 Emergency May End, But There’s No Rule To Say When The Pandemic Is Over | |
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President Joe Biden lit a firestorm of controversy this week when he said in an interview that “the pandemic is over”: Is it really over? How do we know? Who gets to decide?
Pandemics don’t have hard edges. Knowing where they start or stop is a judgment call, and there isn’t a clear authority that gets to make that decision.
Epidemiologists recognize a pandemic as a disease outbreak that happens in many countries at the same time and affects more people than an epidemic.
Pandemics are often caused by new viruses or a strain of a virus that hasn’t circulated among humans in a long time. These events are impactful, often leading to large numbers of deaths, social disruptions and economic hardship.
“I think we were all a little bit shocked when President Biden said what he said on ’60 Minutes,’ but I also think that in many ways, he was reflecting what many Americans already think and feel,” said J. Alex Navarro, assistant director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School.
But because a pandemic is a global event, no single country or leader can decide it’s over, he said.
“Declaring a pandemic over is a little different than declaring a local epidemic over,” Navarro said. “To declare a pandemic over, you need to have various regions of the world having their epidemics over. So it looks a little bit different, I think.”
The world will probably have to reach an consensus, and that’s something that may come as a kind of acknowledgment from the World Health Organization – or it might not.
“There’s not an official designation-holder,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health Security. “WHO will acknowledge that we’re in a pandemic, but it’s not as if somebody calls it a pandemic and then says the pandemic is over.”
Read more here.....
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| Question: How do you feel about the COVID 'pandemic'? | | | |
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.
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We Are Here to Take Care of Your Healthcare Needs.
We Are Here to Serve!
Our office is using all techniques to reduce exposure to a minimum during your visit. These include:
· Temperature checks of all patients and staff.
· Masks for all people in the office.
· Cleansing of hands and surfaces repeatedly.
· Multiple Super-HEPA filters to filter out potential virus and particles in the office.
· High Level UV light air cleansing in the office to eliminate bacteria and viruses in the air.
OUR OFFICE SCHEDULE
DOORS OPEN
7AM - 4PM Monday through Thursday
7AM - 11AM Friday
IN OFFICE
APPOINTMENTS: MONDAY – THURSDAY
7AM – 11:15AM & 1PM – 3:30PM
APPOINTMENTS: FRIDAY
7AM – 10:30 AM
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Dr. Lakin's Info For COVID-19 Kit &
Recommended Treatments
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'Father Of The Bride'
Steve Martin turns in a heartwarming and hilarious performance as George Banks, a befuddled father who has a hard time letting go of his young daughter when she unexpectedly announces her plans to wed.
Diane Keaton shines as George's patient, levelheaded wife, while funnyman Martin Short lights up the screen as the off-the-wall wedding consultant.
Father Of The Bride vows to deliver fun for the entire family!
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