BROADCASTS.com

August 27, 2021\nBy Alicia Bales\n\nToday, as the surge in Covid 19 infections has filled our hospitals to capacity, and reports of deaths from the virus are becoming a daily occurrence, dozens of local doctors and medical providers have signed a letter addressed to the community of Mendocino County asking for help. The letter describes the dire conditions healthcare providers are seeing at work every day: emergency departments overflowing, full ICUs, and a surge of sick young patients with covid-19. The doctors are urging Mendocino County residents to stem the tide of new infections by getting vaccinated.\n\nDr. Erica Valdovinos and Dr. Drew Colfax are two of the doctors who signed on to the letter.\n\nHere is the Text of the Letter:\n\nDear Mendocino County Community,\n\nWe are a group of doctors and medical providers living and working in Mendocino County. We need your help. Like all of you, we are heartbroken at the number of lives and livelihoods the COVID-19 pandemic has taken. COVID-19 has proven difficult to control, and this pandemic feels unrelenting to all of us, as healthcare providers and as members of the community. \n\nWe work in the emergency departments at Ukiah Valley, Howard Memorial and Mendocino Coast Hospitals, in the inpatient units, the intensive care units, and the clinics in the community. Every day, we take care of more and more patients who are sick with COVID-19. The great majority of hospitalized patients are unvaccinated. Our emergency departments are overflowing. Our hospitals are full. Our ICUs are full. We struggle to find hospital beds even for the patients who are coming to the emergency department with strokes, heart attacks, or appendicitis. When patients need services that our hospitals cannot provide, we struggle to transfer them, and have become used to hearing the phrase \u201cthere are no hospital beds in all of Northern California.\u201d We repeat this sentence to our patients, to their worried family members. Never before have we seen such a surge of sick, young patients with COVID-19, and never before has our medical system faced such a challenge. We can all do our part in this dire situation by getting vaccinated.\n\nWe will keep coming to work every day and taking care of everyone who walks through our doors -- taking care of those in need is what we do and we can\u2019t imagine working anywhere else. But we need your help to prevent hospitalizations and deaths. \n\nRumors and misinformation are circulating about the vaccine. Please talk with us, or your primary care provider, about the COVID-19 vaccine. The data and the science are clear: the vaccine is safe and highly effective in preventing severe COVID-19 illness and COVID-related deaths. We are vaccinated. Getting vaccinated will not only protect you, but will also keep your loved ones and your community safe and out of the hospital.\n\nIf you would like to get vaccinated for FREE, please visit:\n\u200b\u200bhttps://www.mendocinocounty.org/community/novel-coronavirus/covid-19-vaccinations/vaccination-clinics \n\nErica Valdovinos, MD\nGeorgina Calderon, MD MPH\nJ. Drew Colfax, MD JD\nMike Hausberger, DO \nMartha Montgomery, MD MS\nGigi Lee, MD\nCarolyn Boley, NP\nDebbie Marks, MD \nGary Fausone, MD\nJennifer Zernec, DO\nKatie Hatch, MD\nJorge A Allende, MD\nLisa Gamble, PA-C\nMark Luoto, MD\nDuncan Johnston, MD\nTod Imperato, FNP\nJodi Parungao, MD\nBrian Gould, DO\nHayley Rousek, MD\nCharles Baugh, MD\nGerry V. Lazzareschi, MD\nAngela Mapanao, DO\nGretchen Duran, PA\nNoah Chutz, PA-C\nMarvin Trotter, MD\nMary Newkirk, MD\nSara Martin, MD\nBrandon Begley, DO\nCindy Novella, FNP\nBarry Sheppard, MD \nJames Dolan, MD\nChloe Nicolaisen, MD \nJohn Rochat MD\nMeghan McCurry, DO\nElaine Yang, MD \nTimothy Burger, MD\nAndrea McCullough MD\nE. Xavier Ortiz, MD\nMichael Mian, MD\nCameron MacInnis, MD\nCara Eberhardt, MD\nMark Apfel, MD\nCasey Johnston, MD\nDavid Streeter, MD \nRobin Serrahn, MD\nKirsten Q. Juliet, MD\nAnne Martin-Ko, MD\nIlan Kolkowitz, MD\nPaul Hupp, PA-C\nLinda K James, MD\nSharon Paltin, MD\nSnehal Raisoni, MD\nHengbing Wang, MD\nLawrence Goldyn, MD\nElizabeth Whipkey-Olson, DO\nAngus Matheson, MD\nD. Mills Matheson, MD\nZiad Hanna, DO\nZoe Berna, MD