Brattleboro and VT COVID-19 Regional Dashboard Summary – March 2024

Here’s the March 2024 dashboard summary. We continue semi-regular COVID-19 dashboard numbers from the Vermont Department of Health, and MA and NH counties that surround Brattleboro, as long as they continue providing them. Scroll down the new comments for the latest.

VT, NH and MA do weekly updates, near the end of the week, so we update on Fridays usually. All three have changed their dashboards since the start, so it is now tough to easily compare how things have changed. Variant updates are every two weeks.


Pro Life Means Women Suffer and Die

For 50 years our country gave women the right to control their bodies when it came to the decision to terminate a pregnancy. The Supreme Court took that away in June of 2022. The result of their ruling is that states now have the ability to ban abortions and at least 24 states have done so with a variety of time restrictions.

Many voters will still have this issue in mind in November and it is important for all of us to find out where candidates stand on this issue. Some states, like Vermont, quickly passed legislation to give a woman the right to choose and that means that women at least can try to go to states without abortion bans when they need the procedure.


Workers’ Center Hosts Health Justice Jam

Have you been cut off of Medicaid?
Are you at risk of losing it?
Is your healthcare unaffordable?
Are you dealing with medical debt?
Are you unable to access the care you need?

Join local members of the Vermont Workers’ Center at a Health Justice Jam from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Feb. 21 in the Centre Congregational Church parlor. There will be opportunities for people to share their experiences with the healthcare system and to participate in a discussion about how we can work for a system in which everyone is able to enjoy the human right to healthcare. We’ll have information about current legislation that proposes to expand access to Medicaid and Medicare Savings Programs.


The Perils of For-Profit Health Care

Luckily, Vermont is mostly protected from the inhumane harm that can be done when for-profit health care entities decide to leave a community because they can’t make enough money. Sadly, there is another story playing out in Massachusetts in a way that may do a lot of harm to a lot of people.

Steward Health Care operates nine hospitals in Massachusetts. Many of them are hospitals that have served their local community for a long time. If they close because of current financial troubles, it would create hardship for thousands of people and leave them scrambling to find health care providers as well as having to drive long distances to get to emergency rooms and doctors’ offices.

This country has embraced the notion that health care should be just another commodity from which profit should be extracted. After all, it would be unamerican for a business not to be able to extract profit while trying to manipulate market forces to its advantage. That is the American way.


Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz

We often hear advice, ward off dementia by staying mentally active. Learn a language, pick up a new instrument, take up a puzzle routine. Having recently lost a family member to that disease, and now being much more aware of its prevalence, (seemingly more and more-so) I’ve come to question that prescription. Not that mental engagement isn’t worthwhile for many other reasons, but as deterrent to the mysterious disintegration of the mind in these diseases I have my doubts.

Off the top of my head, a quick look at some well known people who were brilliant in life and succumbed to dementia. Saul Bellow- Nobel winning novelist (and part-time Brattleboro resident), Terry Jones- Monty Python director/writer/actor, Gene Wilder- writer of books, Young Frankenstein, and actor in many classic films, Ronald Reagan, Joanne Woodward, Bruce Willis, Rosa Parks, Robin Williams…the list goes on.


Brattleboro and VT COVID-19 Regional Dashboard Summary – February 2024

Here’s the February 2024 dashboard summary. We continue semi-regular COVID-19 dashboard numbers from the Vermont Department of Health, and MA and NH counties that surround Brattleboro, as long as they continue providing them. Scroll down the new comments for the latest.

VT, NH and MA do weekly updates, near the end of the week, so we update on Fridays usually. All three have changed their dashboards since the start, so it is now tough to easily compare how things have changed. Variant updates are every two weeks.


Medicaid & Health Resource Drop-in Hours

Have you been cut off of Medicaid, or are you concerned that you may become ineligible? Are you on Medicare and unable to afford a supplement? Are you concerned about going into medical debt?

The Vermont Workers’ Center is hosting drop-in informational hours on Feb. 6 from 3:00-5:30 PM in the Brooks Memorial Library Community Meeting Room, 224 Main St, Brattleboro. All are welcome to stop in to get updated about Medicaid, Medicare Savings Programs, and other health care resources. You can find out about your rights in this process and review any communications you have received about Medicaid or other health insurance.


Brattleboro Covid Vaccination Clinic at Senior Center

The Brattleboro Recreation and Parks Senior Center would like to announce that they will be partnering with the VT Department of Health to offer a free Covid Vaccination clinic on Tuesday, January 16th from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Brattleboro Senior  Center.  Appointments can be made by calling Sarah at 802-257-7570.  Walk-ins are also welcome. 


Brattleboro and VT COVID-19 Regional Dashboard Summary – January 2024

Here’s the January 2024 dashboard summary. We continue semi-regular COVID-19 dashboard numbers from the Vermont Department of Health, and MA and NH counties that surround Brattleboro, as long as they continue providing them. Scroll down the new comments for the latest.

VT, NH and MA do weekly updates, near the end of the week, so we update on Fridays usually. All three have changed their dashboards since the start, so it is now tough to easily compare how things have changed. Variant updates are every two weeks.


Are You Prepared?

According to a report recently released by the Windham Aging group 14,015 people or 31% of the Windham County area is over the age of 60 and that number is projected to increase while the numbers for lower age groups is projected to decrease. The numbers are similar for the state as well as the rest of the country. The bottom line is that the average age of our population is growing and there will be a lot of older people in the years to come.

Our society currently doesn’t have the capacity to deal with the elderly population that we have. There are not enough home care providers and nursing homes and it is almost impossible for someone to stay at home as they age and become infirm unless they have an unlimited amount of financial resources.

We have never had a national discussion about how our government should support the aging population. Most other developed countries around the world provide more support for the elderly but the United States has left matters to be solved by chance. If you have enough money you may be able to age gracefully, but most of us do not have those kind of resources. It is rare for people to make concrete plans for life after 60.


Brattleboro and VT COVID-19 Regional Dashboard Summary – December 2023

Here’s the December 2023 dashboard summary. We continue semi-regular COVID-19 dashboard numbers from the Vermont Department of Health, and MA and NH counties that surround Brattleboro, as long as they continue providing them. Scroll down the new comments for the latest.

VT, NH and MA seem to be doing weekly updates, near the end of the week. All three have changed their dashboards since the start, so it is now tough to easily compare how things have changed. Variant updates are every two weeks.


Time To Reconsider GMO’S

A number of years ago there was controversy over the use of food that had been modified by genetic engineering. People believed we were heading into unknown territory and that if we manipulated the genes of the food we eat we might have to deal with dangerous unintended consequences. As a result, some states required the labelling of food that might be considered to be Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s).

I have been making a self-guided educational effort to understand the current revolution of genetic engineering for the past four years. There have been monumental scientific breakthroughs in genetic engineering and they revolve around something called CRISPR, an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. The CRISPR technology allows scientists to alter the genetic makeup of cells. It is a complex process, but the bottom line is that CRISPR has the potential to change our ability to fight disease in plants, animals and humans among other processes.


How To Preserve Your Sanity in 2023

Anyone who is even marginally engaged with today’s world cannot help but feel some degree of anxiety watching local and world events unfold. A lot of people have decided to either ration their contact with all forms of media or shut themselves off completely from the near-constant barrage of murder, mayhem and demeaning and hostile rhetoric.

The human species has the potential for creating a peaceful, humane and loving world but most of the activity we see does the opposite. That does not mean that there are not a lot of people who work hard to cultivate what is best in the human spirit, but their efforts are too often Sisyphean.


Kitchen Table Conversation on Act 39 (Medical Aid in Dying)

Please join us for an informal yet informative discussion on the changes to Act 39, Medical Aid in Dying. With passage of H. 190, removing the residency requirement from Act 39 on May 2, 2023, qualifying non-Vermont residents gained access to Medical Aid in Dying in Vermont. We will have the opportunity to discuss this change and the special challenges it may create, as well as talk about Act 39 in general.

What is a Kitchen Table Conversation? When you think about some of your most engaging and interesting conversations, didn’t many of them happen around a kitchen table? Staff and volunteers with knowledge and experience on this subject will be sitting around the table with you, and together we will talk in a supportive and congenial atmosphere.


False Hope

People who have to deal with the burden of an incurable disease often hold out hope that there will be a cure before the disease takes their lives. Diseases such as ALS, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, Type 1 diabetes and many types of cancer as well as a host of other diseases may have treatments to alleviate symptoms but the disease still moves in often relentless and unpredictable ways.

Hoping for a cure borders on delusional thinking partly because of the time it takes to develop treatments and also because of the cost of any curative regimen. A recent news item about sickle cell anemia drives this point home all too clearly.

A few years ago Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier received the Nobel prize for their work with the gene editing technology called CRISPR. CRISPR is an acronym for clustered regularly interspersed palindromic repeats. It is a process that allows scientists to change the structure of genes.


Brattleboro and VT COVID-19 Regional Dashboard Summary – November 2023

Here’s the November 2023 dashboard summary. We continue semi-regular COVID-19 dashboard numbers from the Vermont Department of Health, and MA and NH counties that surround Brattleboro, as long as they continue providing them. Scroll down the new comments for the latest.

VT, NH and MA seem to be doing weekly updates, near the end of the week. All three have changed their dashboards since the start, so it is now tough to easily compare where we stand. Variant updates are every two weeks.


The Yearly Medicare Advantage Media Blitz

The annual fall Medicare Advantage media blitz is in full swing. Private insurance companies are raking in billions of dollars on the backs of unwitting seniors who think they are getting a good deal but in fact are being robbed of not only benefits but money.

Here’s the quick rundown. In 2003 it was decided that the private insurance industry should share in the profits of the government’s Medicare program. It was a calculated political move to privatize Medicare and eventually turn it into an entirely private insurance product.

Keep in mind that Medicare’s administrative expenses run at about 2 percent while private insurance company administrative costs run as high as 20 percent or more.


Brattleboro and VT COVID-19 Regional Dashboard Summary – October 2023

Here’s the October 2023 dashboard summary. We continue semi-regular COVID-19 dashboard numbers from the Vermont Department of Health, and MA and NH counties that surround Brattleboro, as long as they continue providing them. Scroll down the new comments for the latest.

VT, NH and MA seem to be doing weekly updates, near the end of the week. All three have changed their dashboards since the start, so it is now tough to easily compare where we stand. Variant updates are every two weeks.


COVID Update Are We Too Complacent?

COVID will always be with us and most of us have learned to live with it. Unfortunately, people continue to die from the disease at a rate of 255 deaths per day in the U.S. Hospitalizations for the disease are up 8.7% and the death rate has increased by 4.5%. The U.S. full vaccination rate is 68%.

Mask-wearing continues to be rare, but it seems to me that a few more people are starting to mask up again and I am even considering if it makes sense to wear a mask in crowded public places now that a new variant is on the scene.

Many health care policy experts who also serve as talking heads tend to operate in the political realm as well. Too many of them are minimizing the threat of COVID and they are doing a disservice to the public by not urging more active prevention measures. The fact that the federal government has declared an end to the public health emergency doesn’t help.


Brattleboro and VT COVID-19 Regional Dashboard Summary – September 2023

Here’s the September 2023 dashboard summary. We continue semi-regular COVID-19 dashboard numbers from the Vermont Department of Health, and MA and NH counties that surround Brattleboro, as long as they continue providing them.  Scroll down the new comments for the latest.

VT and MA seem to be doing weekly updates, near the end of the week. Variant updates and NH updates are every two weeks now.

Note that MA stats are the only dashboard that has remained steady and unchanged.  Most reliable of the three, in my humble opinion.