Tag: public health

Long COVID causes confusion, anxiety

The lack of information and help frustrate local patients
by Natalie Hanson | Posted February 17, 2023

Kathryn Robinson, who was formerly a classical music director at Northstate Public Radio, said her music has brought her great comfort.

Kathryn Robinson never expected that when she contracted COVID-19 in 2021, she would face life-altering symptoms for more than 15 months.

The Chico resident was fully vaccinated when she experienced a mild case of the Delta variant in August 2021. Three days into her symptoms, Robinson lost all sense of taste and smell. Like many COVID patients, she did not get those senses back for several months.

After recovering, Robinson said she awoke months later on Thanksgiving Day smelling what seemed like “sewage” all around her. She said chicken prepared for the holiday dinner tasted like “something rotten dipped in cleaning fluid.” It was then that she realized her sense of taste and smell were altered, a state she learned is called a combination of “parosmia” and “dysgeusia” -– altered smell and taste. read more

Medical experts warn against complacency as new COVID variant appears

Counties like Butte most at risk for a surge
by Natalie Hanson | Posted April 16, 2022
Enloe Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Marcia Nelson

Public health experts are urging people to stay vigilant and get vaccination boosters as the new COVID-19 variant BA.2 becomes the dominant strain of coronavirus.

Experts worry that as the new variant spreads, in counties like Butte where vaccination rates and community masking are low, communities will be particularly vulnerable.

Butte County Public Health data reports that as of April 11, the population is 55.8% fully vaccinated, 5.76% partially vaccinated and 38.35% unvaccinated. Yet, statewide, 75% of people 5 and older are fully vaccinated and 9% are partially vaccinated.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, by April 2, BA.2 had become the dominant strain in the United States. However, in Butte County, omicron still appeared in 84.6% of the county’s cases while BA.2 was responsible for 15.4% of cases in March. read more

Dismissing public health metrics, Gallagher says open up

Reporter's Mlog: lawmaker's district torn over path forward
by Leslie Layton | Posted October 3, 2020

photo by Karen Laslo
Assemblyman James Gallagher, who represents most of Butte County and much of the Northern Sacramento Valley, preaches civil disobedience.

Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) preached civil disobedience Thursday in front of the Chico Council Chambers, suggesting to unmasked constituents at an “Open Butte County” rally that opening up for business can be a necessary act of protest.

Speaking to almost 200 people, many of whom waved American flags or “Recall Newsom” signs, some sporting MAGA caps or Reopen T-shirts, the 3rd district assemblyman again said, as he has before, that shops and schools can consider reopening as acts of civil disobedience if they’re in violation of public health regulation.

“If laws are unjust … if we’re under an autocracy which it sure looks it is right now, then we are left with nothing left but civil disobedience,” Gallagher told his cheering crowd. read more