When I logged on Marc Baker was in a conversation with President John Olson about one of our former Rotary exchange students, Daniel Nielsen.  Daniel was with our club during the 2012 - 2013 year where he attended Everett High School.  He recently graduated from the University of Edinburgh, as did his girlfriend that he met here in Everett. Daniel’s focus at the University was in International Studies and Conflict Resolution and he is about to start an internship with the United Nations.  Because of COVID his girlfriend is back home with her parents and will join Daniel once we are all free to “move about the cabin”.

 

As more people joined in, the discussion turned to rental cabins at Cama Beach on Camano where you can’t cook inside the cabins and where some cabins didn’t have bathrooms, questions arose, and President John thought it best to start the meeting..

 

 

President John, began his 22^nd meeting precisely at noon and with over 40 Rotarians and guests “present” (the attendance swelled to over 60 as the ZOOMERS continued to log on).  This was our 38^th virtual meeting and our 5,376^th meeting of the Rotary Club of Everett.

 

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by President John and at the conclusion our meeting officially began. 

 

Zak Parpia provided the following Thought of the Day:  We have all been isolated for so long we can hardly wait to get out and be “normal” again  With a vaccine(s) on the horizon, please double down on your “quarantining” and control the desire to be out and about until we can get vaccinated and it is safe to be normal” again.

 

 

Tina Gilson introduced her guest Lori Kloes the Chief Development Officer for Providence General Foundation and a member of the South Everett/Mukilteo Rotary Club.

 

Greg Lineberry introduced Dr. Jay Cook the Chief Medical Officer for Providence Regional Medical Center, Everett and our guest speaker for today’s program.

 

Kelly Shepherd gave us an update on our Local Impact Committee. The focus of the Committee will be on youth and racial equity. A total of $15,000.00 will be distributed by the Committee in two forms of grants. There will be Emergent Impact Grants for $2,000.00 and Accelerated Impact Grants for $4,000.00. Check your email for grant applications that Theresa will be forwarding (the website will be updated soon) and share with organizations you are connected with that may be interested in applying.

 

President John provided a Board update concerning the following:

The Board passed two motions; one regarding use of excess reserve funds in the Foundation and the club, and the other establishes a formal stewardship process for donor recognition and appreciation.

The second motion established a stewardship program to more formally and consistently acknowledge our donors.  This will include timely thank-you letters, calls, and other donor appreciation activity.

There will not be a meeting on December 29th.

 

Kari Petrasek is organizing a virtual happy hour scheduled for December 10^th at 5:30 PM.  All participants are encouraged to wear their “ugly sweaters and/or vests”.  A zoom invitation will be sent out by the middle of next week.

 

 

Zak Parpia was happy that his son and daughter-in-law had a baby girl on November 25^th.  She is Zak’s first grandchild and he and his wife are so happy that they contributed $1,000.00 that is to go to Polio Plus. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is currently donating $2.00 to every dollar donated to Polio Plus so Zak’s gift today becomes a $3,000.00 donation for Rotary.

 

Jim Hoover donated $100.00 for his closer to “60 than 50” birthday.

 

Michael Kvistad was $25.00 happy to celebrate a small relaxing Thanksgiving dinner at home and for their 7 and 9-year-old children who will be going to private home school classes two days a week.  They will be able to socially distance but still interact with other kids and Michael can get back to work.

 

Ed Petersen had $28.00 in thank you bucks for everyone in the club because of our 100% participation in contributions to the Rotary Foundation this year.

 

Paul Pitre commended Ed Petersen on his role in our club’s presence in the Dominican Republic and our involvement in the garden project.  Paul was especially happy that one his WSU colleagues and faculty member Dr. Jose Luis Garcia Pabon, who was originally from Bolivia, was involved in the project and how he could relate to the people and knew how appreciative they were for the volunteers from our club who came to help them.  Dr. Pabon had told Paul that while volunteering in this and other countries take time to “Embrace the culture and also take time to learn and grow from the richness the communities we visit can provide us.”  Unfortunately, Dr. Pabon recently passed away but fortunately he through Paul left us his message.  (As Rotarians we not only are here to help but we need to be here to understand and learn from other cultures too so we can provide our assistance even better.  I think the Rotarians who have been to this project site feel in their hearts that they followed Dr. Pabon’s message. EDITOR) Paul also thanked Past President Amy Norman for her work in getting wheelchairs to the Dominican Republic and to Haiti and how important and meaningful that was for the recipients and their families.

 

Greg Lineberry has spent the last 25 Thanksgivings at the end of the diner line. Because of COVID, at this year’s small gathering for Thanksgiving Greg was finally able to score a turkey leg. He was $20.00 happy for that.

 

Wick Temple provided the entertainment as he “handed” out gifts to 3 lucky winners of the raffle.  Here is who won and what they won and from an assortment of “Wick’s Favorite Things”

 

Winner No. 1 - Mike Holcomb, An electric wine opener, (which won’t be needed) for a screw top bottle of Pinot Gris, Cookies, a Christmas head band that lights up, a collectors COVID mask and a “new” car!

 

Winner No. 2 - Will McMahon, A live, love and laugh candle set, matching Christmas socks and a Christmas necklace that lights up (wear this to Kari’s virtual happy hour on the 10^th),a collectors COVID mask, Ghirardelli peppermint bark, a bottle of Merlot and a “new” car!

 

Winner No. 3 - Joe Gaffney, A Starbuck’s gift card, a collectors COVID mask, cookies, a candle, waterproof pouches for skiing or hiking, a bottle of Acrobat red wine and a “new” car!

 

Contact Wick for the prizes and the keys to the “new” cars.

 

 

Tina Gilson introduced Dr. Jay Cook, Chief Medical Officer for Providence Regional Medical Center - Everett. Dr. Cook is a vascular surgeon educated at the University of Utah School of Medicine and at the University of Arkansas Vascular Surgery Fellowship Program.  He is formally with the Everett Clinic and Radia, he was the Chief of The Division of Surgery at PRMC-Everett and has been the Chief Medical Officer at PRMC- Everett since 2017.  Dr. Cook also holds an MBA from Seattle University.

 

COVID 19 - The big picture

 

To date there have been 64,000,000 cases in the world resulting in 1,490,000 deaths. In the United States there have been 14,000,000 cases resulting in 275,0000 deaths.The Unite d States is number 1 in the world in the number of cases per 100,000 population

 

In the last 30 days there has been a terrible spike (upward) in cases especially in the mid-west and the southwest area of Texas. Nationwide hospitalizations have greatly increased. In Washington State we have had 175,000 cases resulting in 3,000 deaths. In Snohomish County we have had over 16,000 cases resulting in 300 deaths. At the start of this pandemic we were seeing an average of about 130 cases per 100,000 population. In the last month we are seeing an average of 300 cases per 100,000 population.

 

In June their inpatient census (COVID patients) averaged 20 per day. These last several weeks the inpatient census (COVID patients) has averaged 60 per day.

 

Masks work to control the spread. A study between two counties in Kansas one that mandated the wearing of masks several months ago and one that still hasn’t mandated the wearing of masks.  The county that has mandated the wearing of masks has clearly showed a significant drop in COVID cases.

Vaccines on the horizon.

                                           

      

As Zak said in his Thought of the Day, continue to hang in there.

There are three major vaccines in the works and two of them could go to the FDA for emergency approval very shortly (December 14^th).

 

Pfizer, 2 injections required, 3 weeks apart, $20.00 per dose, 95% effective, needs to be stored at - 80 Celsius. If authorized by the FDA there will be two more layers of safety reviews that will each take 24-48 hours. Shipments of this vaccine could be starting around the 21^st of December if approved.    

 

Moderna, 2 injections required, 4 weeks apart, $35.00 per dose, 90% effective, needs to be stored at - 20 Celsius. If authorized by the FDA there will be two more layers of safety reviews that will each take 24-48 hours. Shipments of this vaccine could be starting around the 21^st of December if approved.    

 

AstraZenia, 2 injections required, 4 weeks apart, $3.00/$4.00 per dose, no data on effectiveness yet, can be stored within standard refrigeration. (Not yet ready for emergency approval by the FDA) There will be a hierarchy of who can get vaccinated fist.  That hierarchy is outlined in 4 Phases, Phase 1 being the highest risk population to the lowest risk population in Phase 4.

 

Fred Safstrom asked why the State of Washington has the third highest RT rate in the nation? Dr. Cook speculated that the high rate points to Eastern Washington where some areas haven’t fully embraced the protection measures.  Western Washington is now seeing increases too in the last month. It only takes a few people to blow this up, the virus spreads easily and quickly.

 

Sean Kelly asked if Vitamin D helps? If you have a Vitamin D deficiency it could help. It probably does not help those that have normal vitamin D levels.

 

Marc Baker asked why Pfizer’s vaccine needs to be stored at -80 C? He also asked if the vaccine is made with a live virus? Dr. Cook doesn’t know why this vaccine needs to be stored at -80 C.  He did say that the vaccine is genetically engineered and that is why it is so affective.

 

Zak Parpia asked how can we overcome the skeptics who have a lack of trust with the system and may not want to be vaccinated? Dr. Cook said that with FDA approval and the two other approval steps after them the medical profession, who will be the first to be vaccinated, should indicate to the public that being vaccinated will be safe.  His profession is inquisitive, cautious and skeptical themselves so when they elect to get vaccinated, they have confidence in the outcome.  He also said that the risk of getting COVID 19 likely outweighs the risk associated with the vaccine.

 

Paul Pitre asked if a third spike is likely like there was with the Spanish Flu? Dr. Cook thinks that if the vaccine comes out soon that hopefully a third spike does not occur.

 

Tom Koenig asked if someone has already “survived” COVID are they safe? Do they need the vaccine? If one had a documented case of COVID in the past they likely will not need the vaccine but until data is all in, he is not totally sure.

 

We ran out of time.

 

 

President John adjourned the meeting at 1:03 pm

     

Respectfully Submitted,

            -  

Photography Submitted,

 

Next Program:  “CASA - Snohomish County”, Katherine Hayes will be the presenter; introduced by Kari Petrasek