Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right.

So first on the agenda, we had um review and approval of minutes.

So we had the minutes from uh June 9th, uh which were revised.

Um did anybody have a chance to review that?

Any additions or changes to suggest, any uh moving to approve.

I reviewed, but I didn't I didn't look for it for the revisions, but uh from my perspective, it was fun.

Yeah, the revisions were certainly certainly done.

Yep.

So I move to uh approve.

Okay.

Great.

And then um review of the board of minutes uh Board of Health minutes from September 15th.

Any additions, changes to that document.

I just had one typo, otherwise, I would move to approve.

Move to approve of the correction of type one second.

All right, so just a few comments.

We um organizational issues.

Um Dave, what is your last month?

I'm not sure.

Okay.

Either next month or with what we're doing.

I knew it was coming fairly soon.

Okay, before the end of the year.

All right, and um we do have two potential candidates that uh Maggie has told me about, and I'll be contacting them this week.

Um so we do have um some people who are interested.

Um, we already do.

Yeah, two candidates is a good thing.

Um so just uh quick comment.

I don't want to go too much into this because we have a pretty full agenda.

Um that it um as far as the for the month, I think most people know that October is very importantly breast cancer awareness month.

Um it's also domestic violence month.

Um so Dave wanted to turn it over to you for a communicable disease update.

Um it becomes progressively more challenging for the using because of the level of information.

It becomes progressively more difficult for me to do this because the the level of information that we have and the quality of information that we have is absolutely deteriorated, but I would make a a couple of quick um uh comments and then I'd like to uh read something for the for the in into the minutes for the the board.

So the quick comments are if you haven't gotten your flu vaccine and you don't have an uh a contradiction to getting your flu vaccine, now is the time.

Uh yesterday was the time.

There is not a lot of activity evident yet, except in Japan, there's a raging outbreak, and therefore it's coming here.

So it's time to get your flu vaccine.

Uh it is very hard to give um coherent information about the COVID vaccine because there are so many different factors that each individual needs to take into account in making that decision, and it is nearly impossible at this point to cat to calculate uh case fatality ratios, remembering that the vaccine is highly effective in at-risk individuals at preventing hospitalizations and deaths, uh, but it is not terribly effective.

It has some effectiveness in preventing disease at all, so that in the absence of an understanding of what the the risk for severe disease and death is, it is hard to give any broad sweeping um recommendations, remembering also that it is not a seasonal uh uh infection.

We did just come out of a summer bump.

We've had summer bumps every year since the beginning.

It's uh it's pretty much disappeared, and the the duration of protection is four to six months, depending on the robustness of your immune system.

So that's really a personal decision that needs to be made with the assistance of your health care provider.

Um I would strongly recommend for older and frailer folks that you understand where you stand with regard to your NUMAVAX.

I shouldn't say NUMAVAX, that's a brand name, pneumococcal vaccine.

Uh, if you've if you've never had a shot, you should get two of the new shots.

If you've had a uh 13 or 15 valent, you should get one of the new shots.

But again, this should be discussed with your with your health care provider.

Um with regard to RSV, uh it is uh not yet active, and um that's also kind of a personal decision if you have very little risk of exposure to young folks or exposing young folks.

It's a personal decision.

If you're around your grandchildren, uh there is a two-way risk there, and it is recommended for uh people above a certain age who have risk to uh to get the RSV.

And that's pretty much all I have that's new for you on the avian flu front.

It does appear that there's a an uptick in activity.

It is nearly impossible to know because the reporting is not only not robust the way it was, it is actually now uh appears to be being suppressed.

Uh so there's really just not good information on avian flu.

Uh but it feels to me like the thing that I could do that is most helpful to the um the public in general as my uh I guess it's eight years total of uh on on this board wind down is to read for you a letter that was written in the form of an op-ed in the Washington Post by the by six prior surgeons general uh uh appointed by Clinton, George W.

Bush, Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden.