Vitalyst Spark

E71: COVID-19 Roundtable Update - 4/12/21

This time out at the roundtable, vaccines are at the core of this episode more than ever before. Specifically, how U.S. vaccination rates are working to slow the spread, if International vaccinations can stem an influx of troubling variants into the U.S., what is going on with vaccine hesitancy, and when might we envision something like meaningful herd immunity. Those topics are far trickier than you might imagine. For example, up until now, herd immunity was a distant goal. Now it is coming into view, and we actually need to wrap our arms around what’s going to be acceptable for us as a country, and ultimately as a worldwide community.

You’ll hear our panelists dig into herd immunity, discuss how we dig out of the tremendous psychological impact that the pandemic has had, and really wrestle with problems like continued inequity, vaccines for kids, and providing the pure convenient access for all Arizonans. It’s still a race between virus mutation and mass vaccination. For the moment it appears the U.S. is ahead of the game, but indications from states like Michigan are making many experts wary.

So let’s get to it. March Madness may have been settled in terms of basketball, but for COVID we’ve transitioned to anxious April. Which means that it’s time to talk effectiveness, exhaustion, hesitancy, mutations, infections, frustrations, and more as of April 12, 2021.

E70: Page and the Pandemic

In this episode we’re headed North – right up to Glen Canyon Dam in fact. Not far from the now Insta-famous Horseshoe Bend lies the city of Page and a unique pandemic-era story with lessons for all of us. This tourism-oriented city didn’t suffer the kind of economic disarray that would have precipitated steep declines in well-being and health. Something else altogether transpired instead in response to COVID, and it happened in contrast to how things played out in other parts of our state. During the days when many Arizonans were still trying to figure out which way was up, and still more of us were deeply engaged in rapid cycle learning about how COVID worked, Page simply got to work.

You’re about to hear from two people who galvanized the business community to act in order to prevent the loss of businesses, jobs, and residents during the pandemic. Page’s behavioral health, physical health, and civic health would all rise and fall on how well the city weathered the COVID storm. 

This is the story of how Page Arizona navigated pandemic waters economically, so that it could continue to support community health and well-being, as of April 5, 2021.

E69: COVID-19 Roundtable Update - 3/29/21

Fingers-crossed, you are about to listen to what might be the last March COVID-19 roundtable ever. We are moving towards the end of this pandemic; however, there are a number of complexities, policy decisions, and community-based issues still in front of us. Oddly, in some ways, this March feels a little like last March: (1) we are transitioning from one public health reality to another, (2) there are enough variables up in the air to make our immediate future more uncertain, and (3) there is a distinct sense that while the virus does not discriminate, COVID’s impact will.

There is still a LOT to sort out. Not the least being how to adapt vaccination strategy, and specifically how to effectively address inequity in distribution. Also, what the heck happens inside each place of business once a governor lifts all mitigation orders and simultaneously nullifies local government orders. Those topics and more are the basis of this conversation.

Just like March Madness is down to the Elite 8, it’s time to narrow our focus on the high seeds and Cinderellas that remain in the fight to beat back variants, avoid another surge like the one taking place in Europe, and navigate to a place of improving public health as of March 29, 2021.

E68: Streets, Spaces, and Vibrancy

The Spark is taking it to the streets! Arizona overall and Tucson in particular had already been engaged in a variety of efforts to re-activate streets in ways that better connect us as people - harmoniously, whether those users are car drivers, transit riders, cyclists or people of various modes and abilities. And then? A little thing known as COVID-19 came a-calling. At first, our streets were nearly deserted. And then they weren’t. All of a sudden we had different needs, while other long neglected needs became urgent. As we transitioned through stages of the pandemic and social change in 2020, public and open spaces became more essential than ever, but in brand new ways.

And that’s what this discussion is all about. How can we utilize streets – which can also be re-considered as perhaps the single largest public real estate investment of any place – in combination with open spaces in order to create community health, well-being and vibrancy?

This conversation picks up where another report left off. Click the link below for "Creating Vibrant Communities," the 113^th Arizona Town Hall Background Report. Throughout the course of last year and 2021, Community Town Halls are convening virtually to discuss the broader question of how to create community vibrancy. This podcast zeroes in on one chapter, the role of streets, transportation and open space. And wow, have things changed since COVID began.

It’s time to talk about streateries, parklets, neighbors connecting in new ways, the realities of a how a downtown business district survives and thrives, how a nonprofit cancels some of its biggest events and does the same, and how a city can best support everyone’s efforts to create community vibrancy, as of March 22, 2021.

Link: Creating Vibrant Communities, the 113th Arizona Town Hall Background Report

E67: COVID-19 Roundtable Update - 3/15/21

This episode marks an anniversary: one year since this podcast’s COVID-19 roundtable began. In those early moments while we were busy sorting out what we were facing it was fairly well understood that the pandemic was not a short-term event, yet this 26^th roundtable discussion seems a little surreal as we all harbor guarded hopes for better days ahead.

The last 12 months have been a terribly rocky road: (1) through politicization of public health interventions that disfigured the U.S. response, (2) through the prism of systemic racism with the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, (3) through rapid cycles of scientific data, healthcare experiences, and vaccine development, and (4) through the reality that American health care resources are not without limits. Many people stayed home. Many others risked their lives in essential roles. We are asked to distance from each other when all we wanted was to be together. We were unable to recognized life milestones in traditional ways. On top of all that, three longstanding American myths - of equality, abundance, and exceptionalism - got shaken to their core.

Which is why it seemed like the right time to spend this roundtable separating the wheat from the chafe. What, and who, and how did we lose? What did we learn? If anything, what did we gain? How, as of this moment anyway, might we go forward? For that matter, what do the next one, three, or six months look like?

These are the questions we’ll approach on our one-year anniversary of the Vitalyst Spark COVID-19 Roundtable. With apologies to Clint Eastwood, it’s time to take a look back AND a look forward at the good, the bad, and the ugly of COVID-19, as of March 15, 2021.

E66: Trauma Sensitive Schools in Arizona

In this episode we’re introducing you to a report and a concept that could make all the difference when it comes to improving educational outcomes in Arizona. The work of Trauma Sensitive Schools sits firmly at the intersection of both education and health. It’s nearly impossible to separate the two. They are interwoven when it comes to a young child’s capacity to show up ready to learn. They are intertwined when it comes to strong educational outcomes that are the basis of economic opportunity. And they are inseparable as key factors for a long and healthy life. As you’ll hear our guests remark repeatedly, everything starts with a true relational connection for our kiddos, and that’s what Trauma Sensitive Schools are all about.

This episode is packed with paradigm shifting insights, so let’s get right to it. It’s time to talk about applying neurobiological insights to the very present and daunting tasks of improving health and educational outcomes in Arizona, as of March 8, 2021.

Report Link - Creating Trauma Sensitive Arizona Schools: Building Resilience to Lessen the Effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences

E65: COVID-19 Roundtable Update - 3/1/21

Our roundtable is back. We’ve got a mixed bag of good news and bad news, along with some longer-term implications that we can’t totally be sure about yet. Regardless, it is important that we continue to have our experts share what they know and what they don’t, as well as project what may happen in the future. At times, they’re processing, sorting and adapting in real-time – kind of like we all have been since this pandemic first began challenging our daily lives at just about this time a year ago.

Today, you’ll hear us processing the latest news on how the decline in cases and deaths has turned into a plateau, and possibly a newly unsettling trend of increase. Plus we’ll get more into how our healthcare system is doing, how statewide vaccinations are progressing, how new vaccines could help, and how what happens worldwide makes the difference for us in the U.S. and in Arizona too.

There’s a lot to learn about in this episode, so let’s get right to it. It’s time to talk about what’s going on with Arizona’s rates of infections, hospitalizations, deaths, vaccinations, and more as of March 1, 2021.

Link: Death, Through a Nurse's Eyes (New York Times video of Valleywise COVID ICU)

E64: 2021 Legislative Session Update

In the three years since this podcast originally launched, we’ve talked consistently about the need for policy change, yet we’ve never produced an episode focused on an Arizona Legislative Session. But that all changes today.

In this, our 64^th episode (cue the Beatles When I’m 64), we’ve got some policy champs on the line to talk about what’s going on related to health care, housing and food during this 2021 Legislative Session. The big question, of course, is “how does the pandemic shape what’s happening down there” – and we’re going to get right into that big time in this episode.

It’s time to talk about what’s going on with food systems, housing and health care at the 2021 Arizona Legislative Session, as of February 22, 2021.

Links:

• Arizona Food Systems Network Legislative Advocacy and Priorities
• Arizona Housing Coalition Instant Advocacy
• Vitalyst Legislative Priorities
• Arizona Housing Coalition Legislative Priorities

E63: COVID-19 Roundtable Update - 02/15

This week we’ve got a brand-new panelist and we’re digging into what everybody wants to know about: what’s going on with vaccines?!? It’s clear that Arizona as a state is staking its future on two strategies for COVID. The first relies on individuals being asked to do the right things regarding mitigation. The second relies on vaccinations. We’ll talk about where the numbers are today and what they tell us about mitigation, and then we will shift to all aspects of vaccination, including systematic successes, operational shortcomings, and racial and income inequities – as well as the need for approval of more vaccines to address all of the above.

There’s a lot to learn about in this episode, so let’s get to it. It’s time to talk about the Arizona’s improving numbers, plus all things vaccination-related, as of February 15, 2021.

E62: COVID-19 Global View

This week we’re zooming out from Arizona to gain a more global view of COVID-19. You’re about to meet a complexity science physicist, an epidemiologist at the heart of a successful national COVD strategy, and an independent health care analyst who bridges international and U.S. perspectives. You’ve heard a lot on this podcast about policies and systems for mitigation. Today, the topic shifts to the strategy of elimination: how other countries achieved it while the United States did not, along with thoughts as to why and what can be done next.

There’s a whole new perspective learn about in this episode, so let’s get to it. It’s time to talk about the international picture of the pandemic: what we’ve seen in the world, and what can be learned from different countries’ actions, as of February 8, 2021.

Links:

• endcoronavirus.org
• BMJ Article "Elimination Could Be the Optimal Response Strategy for COVID-19 and Other Emerging Pandemic Diseases," co-authored by Michael Baker
• Guardian Op-Ed "All Countries Should Pursue a COVID-19 Elimination Strategy: Here Are 16 Reasons Why," co-authored by Michael Baker
• Pre-Print: "A Proactive Approach to Fight SARS-CoV-2 in Germany and Europe"