'American Chess Day'

American Chess Day, celebrated on September 1st each year, is a special occasion for chess fans across the United States.

It marks a day of recognition for chess, highlighting its significance and appeal as a beloved board game that has captured the imagination of people worldwide for centuries.

This day encourages people to engage with the game, whether by playing it, learning its strategies, or simply appreciating its rich history and cultural significance​​.

Did you know playing chess sharpens your mind and improves memory? This game encourages you to strategize, planning several moves ahead while adapting to your opponent’s tactics. It boosts problem-solving skills, teaches patience, and enhances concentration.

Chess also fosters creativity as you explore new strategies and attack or defend against your opponent. Engaging in this ancient game can even improve your real-life decision-making skills by helping you evaluate choices and anticipate consequences.

So, diving into the world of chess entertains and offers valuable life lessons and mental benefits. Studies suggest playing chess can improve memory and creative thinking, making it a recommended activity to help prevent dementia.



This makes American Chess Day not only a celebration of a popular pastime but also a nod to the game’s role in mental development and health​​.

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Dr. Lakin is using ZOOM,

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for a 'Telehealth' visit if needed.

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

September 1, 2024

*NEW COVID VACCINE IS NOW IN PHARMACIES. IT IS A GOOD MATCH FOR THE CURRENT COVID VIRUS IN ARIZONA AND USA!

THE CURRENT COVID STRAINS ARE VERY CONTAGIOUS AND PRESENT THROUGHOUT ARIZONA… WE ARE SEEING SEVERAL EACH WEEK, MOST DUE TO TRAVEL OR LARGE EVENT ATTENDANCE.

IF YOU GET SICK AFTER TRAVEL OR ATTENDING A BIG GATHERING… DO A COVID TEST. ALL STANDARD COVID TESTS WORK TO IDENTIFY THE CURRENT STRAINS.

ALL DOING WELL.  BE PROACTIVE TO PREVENT NEED FOR HOSPITALIZATION. PROTECTION IS UP TO YOU AND NOW IS A PERSONAL DECISION. DO WHAT MAKES YOU COMFORTABLE.

DATA 100% SHOWS THAT GOOD MASKS MAKE A DIFFERENCE. THEY ARE NOT PERFECT, BUT THEY DO REDUCE RISK OF EXPOSURE AND INFECTION.

• I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH… IF YOU DON’T WANT COVID FROM TRAVEL… WEAR A MASK IN THE AIRPORT CROWDS AND ON THE AIRPLANE (UNTIL 10,000 FEET)… THIS IS NOT AS ESSENTIAL AS IT WAS WHEN COVID WAS MORE SEVERE… BUT IF YOU WANT TO AVOID INFECTIONS IN GENERAL DURING TRAVEL... IT’S A RECOMMENDATION.

• EVEN SELECTIVE MASK USE WORKS WELL… SUCH AS ONLY IN CROWDED SPACES IN THE AIRPORT, AND DURING TRAVEL ‘TO’ YOUR DESTINATION, SO THAT YOU ARE NOT ILL DURING YOU VACATION/TRAVEL TIME.  LESS IMPORTANT WHEN YOU RETURN FROM VACATION.

• GET BOOSTED IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO…PARTICULARLY OVER AGE 65 WITH HEALTH ISSUES OR OVER 75 WITHOUT HEALTH ISSUES.  EVERY 6 MONTHS IS THE RECOMMENDATION FOR THIS GROUP. 

• IF YOU WERE BOOSTED IN MARCH/APRIL… MAXIMUM PROTECTION IS TO GET ANOTHER SHOT IN SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER WHEN THE NEWEST/UPDATED VERSION IS AVAILABLE

• FLU SEASON IS BEGINNING… FLU SHOTS IN SEPTEMBER FOR OUR NEXT, UPCOMING FLU SEASON

• VERY LITTLE RSV IN THE VALLEY. IF YOU HAVE HAD AN RSV VACCINE, CURRENT RECOMMENDATION IS THAT YOU DON’T NEED ANOTHER FOR TWO YEARS.

IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE A COLD OR RESPIRATORY INFECTION RIGHT NOW…. YOU MAY WELL HAVE COVID. PLEASE DO A COVID TEST TO CHECK AT HOME.  

ALMOST ALL DOING WELL, BUT WE ARE SEEING A FEW PEOPLE NEED THE HOSPITAL TO RECOVER. 

THE CURRENT COVID VACCINE IS AVAILABLE.

  IT IS KEEPING PEOPLE FROM HAVING A MORE DIFFICULT TIME WITH INFECTION AND KEEPING PEOPLE OUT OF THE HOSPITAL.

I RECOMMEND THE COVID BOOSTER GENERALLY FOR THOSE OVER 65. BUT…

• I HIGHLY RECOMMEND A BOOSTER FOR THOSE 80 & OLDER.

• I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE BOOSTER FOR THOSE OVER 65 WITH HEART FAILURE, SIGNIFICANT LUNG CONDITIONS, AND DIABETES.

CONSIDER BOOSTING WITH THE NEW COVID VACCINE TO REDUCE RISK OF COVID AND TO REDUCE COVID SYMPTOM SEVERITY. NEW COVID VACCINE AVAILABLE IN SEPTEMBER

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 Podcast

August 23, 2024

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

'Covid Vaccine Update'

In this addendum to Episode 164, Dr. Osterholm and Chris Dall discuss the approval of the 2024-2025 mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.

According to Dr. Osterholm……

•  GET YOUR LATEST AVAILABLE BOOSTER IF YOU HAVE NOT HAD COVID OR IT’S BEEN LONGER THAN 4 MONTHS SINCE YOU HAD COVID YOURSELF

•  A GOOD MASK, N95 OF KN95, DOES HELP REDUCE TRANSMISSION…. USE IT AT HIGH-RISK LOCATIONS

• 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

• 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 IT…BUT USE IT.

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

As a summer marked by yet another COVID-19 surge draws to a close, newly updated COVID vaccines are becoming available for the fall and winter months, a time of year when respiratory illnesses can overwhelm hospitals.

The new shots target a SARS-CoV-2 strain called KP.2, and they are expected to provide protection against severe illness, hospitalization, and death related to COVID.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone ages 6 months and older get one of the updated vaccines. Pfizer’s and Moderna’s updated mRNA vaccines are fully approved for everyone ages 12 and older, and each has a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) emergency use authorization (EUA) for infants and children ages 6 months through 11 years.

The FDA has approved an updated COVID vaccine from Novavax that will target another strain—JN.1. The previous Novavax COVID Vaccine remains authorized but is no longer available in the United States, since all doses have expired.

The new vaccines come at a time when a collection of closely related SARS-CoV-2 strains are circulating in the United States. All of them are descendants of the Omicron strain. JN.1 was the dominant strain in May but was surpassed in June by a collection of other Omicron virus strains, including KP.2. (By late August, KP.2 and JN.1 only accounted for a minimal number of cases, but the new vaccines are expected to protect against new related variants.)

Scott Roberts, MD, a Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist, recommends the updated vaccines as the best way to protect against COVID infection and severe outcomes, including hospitalization and death. “COVID will never go away, and I am certain we are going to see an increase in cases in our communities this winter,” he says. “We’ve continued to see patients get admitted to the hospital with COVID, the majority of whom are unvaccinated.”

 The Biden administration this week relaunched the website where Americans can once again order free at-home COVID tests.

The website had been shut down since June but came back online just as updated COVID vaccines rolled out across the country.

Here's how to order the tests and why you should not throw out old ones.

How to order free COVID test kits through USPS

Visit COVID.gov/tests and you will see instructions directing you to a website run by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to order a kit that comes with four tests.

You don't have to pay for shipping. Just provide your name and address to place the order.

If there is one time of year to break out the bug spray, it’s Labor Day weekend.

“This is the prime time — the last week of August and the first week of September — when West Nile usually peaks nationally,” said Dr. Erin Staples, a mosquito expert and medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “People need to be using their insect repellent right now.”

Mosquito-borne viruses are making their rounds across the country, sometimes with devastating effects. According to the CDC, 289 cases of West Nile virus have been logged so far in 2024. A majority of those patients, 195, developed severe neurological problems like inflammation of the brain or paralysis. At least 18 died.

“This is the time of year when cases of West Nile virus rapidly increase,” Staples said. While it’s too early in the season to compare this year with others, she said, “some areas like Texas and New York City are seeing a lot of activity.”

Another virus spread by mosquitoes, Eastern equine encephalitis, is less widespread but deadlier. This month, a 41-year-old New Hampshire man without any underlying medical problems died of EEE. “It doesn’t matter how old you are,” Staples said. EEE “can, unfortunately, kill.” A handful of other cases of EEE have been detected in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont and Wisconsin.

Among people with severe symptoms related to EEE, nearly a third will die. The mortality rate among people with similarly serious West Nile virus disease hovers at about 10%.

After you received your COVID or any other vaccination outside our office, please let us know!

We would like to document this information into your chart.



What we need:

1. Your name
2. Name & date of vaccination received
3. Brand name
4. Lot number if available
5. Which dose you have received

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today confirmed another H5N1 avian flu outbreak in a dairy herd in New Mexico, the state’s first since the middle of April.

The outbreak pushes the nation's total confirmed outbreaks in dairy facilities to 194 in 13 states.

Though the pace of H5N1 outbreaks on dairy farms has slowed over the summer months, federal officials said at a briefing earlier this month that it was too soon to say if the virus was ebbing in cattle. They noted that cattle movement between states, which played a role in initial spread, picks back up in the fall due to greater demand for milk, partly due to schools resuming.

Suspected outbreaks in Central Valley

The California Department of Food and Agriculture yesterday announced that it is investigating the possible introduction of the virus into three dairy farms in the state’s Central Valley. It said samples have been sent for testing to California Animal Health and Food Safety laboratory. If positive, they will be considered "presumptive" and submitted to the USDA for confirmation.

In early June, WastewaterSCAN launched an H5 wastewater dashboard to help track undetected H5 spread, and, since then, traces of the virus have been found in nine states, seven of which have reported H5N1 outbreaks in dairy cows. California and Arkansas were the only two states with positive H5 wastewater findings that hadn't reported recent outbreaks on dairy or poultry farms.

California is the nation's top milk production state and accounts for one fifth of the nation's supply. The state has about 1,100 dairy farms, and herds in Tulare, Merced, and Stanislaus counties make up just more than half of the state's milk output.

We Are Here to Take Care of Your Healthcare Needs.

We Are Here to Serve!

Our office is using techniques to reduce exposure to a minimum during your visit. These include: 

• 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

DR. LAKIN WILL CONTINUE ‘TELEHEALTH’ VISITS WITH FaceTime, WhatsApp or ZOOM WHEN NEEDED.

Dr. Lakin's Info For COVID-19 Kit &

Recommended Treatments

SUMMARY OF A COVID KIT & CHECK LIST:

This is what you should have at home to prepare for possible COVID, to monitor yourself if you were to get infected:

DIGITAL ORAL THERMOMETER: MANY BRANDS ARE FINE…HERE IS ONE EXAMPLE:

PULSE OXIMETER:  TO CHECK OXYGEN LEVELS. MANY BRANDS ARE FINE...HERE IS ONE EXAMPLE:

OTHER ITEMS FROM THE HOME MEDICAL KIT:

• TYLENOL, ADVIL, OR ALEVE
• Sudafed 30mg tablets
• Chlorpheniramine 4mg tablets
• Robitussin DM syrup
• Imodium AD

'The Queen's Gambit'

And the student becomes the master. Watch the nail-biting final scene and chess match of The Queen's Gambit, starring the inimitable Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon.

Warning: Spoilers! When winning takes everything, what are you left with? It's the show everyone's obsessed with: The Queen’s Gambit follows a young chess prodigy’s rise from an orphanage to the world stage. But genius comes with a cost.

A riveting adaptation of Walter Tevis’ groundbreaking novel is streaming on Netflix now, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Harry Melling and Marcin Dorociński.

“'Life is like a game of chess, in which there are an infinite number of complex moves possible.'.

Stay Safe!