On Wednesday, Del Norte County Public Health released guidelines about Quarantining for Covid-19 in Del Norte. The new guidelines say that if you’ve been exposed and are unvaccinated or eligible for the booster shot and don’t have it, you must quarantine for 10 days after last contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19 and take a test within 5 to 7 days of last contact. If you have your booster shot or are not eligible for the booster, you only have to quarantine if you experience symptoms of Covid-19. These guidelines are more strict than the recent guidelines released by the Centers for Disease Control 

KFUG contacted Del Norte County Public Health for clarification on the guidelines, we spoke with program manager, Melody Cannon-Cutts. According to Cannon-Cutts, Public Health is continuing the 10 day quarantine period previously directed by the CDC instead of the recently implemented 5 day quarantine period. According to Del Norte Public Health, this is because of concerns over rising Covid cases in Del Norte and Surrounding areas and because of concern that the 5 day quarantine isn’t long enough to protect Public Health in Del Norte County. According to Public Health, this is a County wide mandate. However it may conflict with the Del Norte Unified School District, which currently has a less restrictive policy. (We have to be clear that Public Health didn’t say it would conflict with DNUSD. I think this minor rewrite takes care of that).

As a DNUSD High School student, I have been told that the high school’s policy is that they would only require students to quarantine if they had been exposed and hadn’t been vaccinated or were experiencing symptoms, and while the Public Health Guidelines are similar, they are more restrictive than the school district’s. Public Health’s requirement of those exposed and eligible for the booster shot who have not received one is to quarantine for 10 days which could require most juniors and seniors to quarantine when they didn’t need to before. KFUG contacted the DNUSD office to check if they were changing their requirements to match those issued by Public Health on Wednesday afternoon, but we received no response by the time of recording.

In a related story, the Humboldt-Del Norte League (HDNL) has imposed a temporary mandate not allowing spectators at all HDNL athletic events beginning on January 7th until January 23rd. HDNL Commissioner, Jack Lakin, stated that this is because they are seeing rising Covid case numbers and this is likely the beginning of another surge. By taking this action, they want to help prevent more cases of Covid-19 in our area.

Since the original publication, we have found the Del Norte Unified School District’s updated Covid quarantine guidelines. The guidelines now require students to quarantine if they’ve been exposed to someone and had their vaccine more than 6 months ago without receiving a booster.

On this Health Matters, we sit down to talk about something that’s not such a big deal for the rational person yet a politically hot topic: Vaccine Mandates. PA Lynn Szabo sits with Paul & Mike to talk about what they actually mean, how they’re being done here, and to just… get vaccinated. If you want to do all the things you want to do, you gotta get vaccinated.

What’s a vaccine mandate? Although it’s a requirement that says you must be vaccinated to do certain things, an individual cannot be forced to receive a vaccine. (Think of it as “Vaccination Mandatory to attain entry.”) Of course, this means there are still consequences as you can be prevented from doing something you may want to do, which is well within the rights of those putting up restrictions. Vaccine mandates have been a common part of our lives long, long before COVID-19, such as school vaccination requirements or travel vaccination requirements.

The Federal Mandate for COVID-19 Vaccinations… The current federal mandate declares that all employers with more than 100 employees must be either COVID Vaccinated or the employee must get weekly COVID-19 testing. This is enforced on the federal level by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

States and cities can require vaccine mandates, which is legally supported by a rather strong Supreme Court decision in 1905—a 7-2 decision based on the idea that an individual’s right to liberty cannot deprive others of their right to liberty. What this boils down to is everyone has some restraints that exist for the common good.

Exemptions exist to maintain compliance with the ADA. Religious exemptions follow complicated rules, including:

• Beliefs must be sincere
• People must be informed that they have this option
• Religious exemptions are judged on an individual basis
• Health exemptions need verification from a health care provider and cannot legally include details. 

What’s a law abiding Del Norter to do?

• Get vaccinated -or- submit to weekly testing.
• Have your documentation in order if you believe you qualify for an exemption.
• Remember that yelling, drama, and anger isn’t a solution.

Health Matters is live every Tuesday at 11am on KFUG Community Radio 101.1 FM and streaming online at kfugradio.org!

On this week’s Health Matters, KFUG Community Radio’s show about all things health with local PA Lynn Szabo, we sit down to talk about the thing you’ve already heard about: COVID-19’s Omicron variant.

Very little medical information is present as this remains an unfolding story. The first cases reported came from South Africa, November 24th, 2021 (with those particular cases initially being reported November 9th, 2021.) The Omicron variant itself has approximately 50 of its own mutations at the time of reporting, 30 of which are on the spike protein.

In short: we don’t a know whole lot just yet. The effectiveness of current vaccines against Omicron is yet to be determined, but the response from scientist has been a matter of weeks instead of months like previously, with Moderna and Pfizer looking at the vaccine response to this variant.

All this being said—what’s a concerned Del Norter to do? It’s back to the basics, or continuing for those who have listened:

• Get your third dose. (Talk to your provider or pharmacist about what’s available)
• Wear your mask, correctly. (The nose is part of the respiratory system too.)
• Isolate and distance. (While you don’t need to confine yourself to a dungeon, don’t start rushing into groups of strangers.)
• Wash your hands. (Come on. Don’t be gross.)
• Don’t touch your face. (Might be tempting but if you skipped that last step, you’re really gonna want to listen.)

For the full talk with PA Lynn Szabo, you can listen to the full episode of Health Matters below!

Health Matters is on live every Tuesday at 11am on KFUG Community Radio 101.1 FM and streaming online at kfugradio.org!