 to sister power. You know our episode we're just going to have a continuation and our theme for today is some folks just don't get it. So we're going to have plain talk about mental health, self-care and vaccine with Dr. Teresa Jacobs and Dr. Deborah Mosley Heath and we're just going to jump right in and talk about these pertinent information. So Dr. Heath, U.S. could see as many as over 32,000 hospitalizations per day by September 13th according to the COVID-19 Forest Hub at UMass Ampers which is used by the CDC. The low end of the forecast is 9,000 per day. So Dr. Heath takes this opportunity to speak to the health care workers about mental health care and self-care. Thank you and Aloha and thanks for having me back. When we're talking about them going into these hospitals and other places of that are medical it's very rough for them because a person that is actually a caring person and they're all taking care of others constantly because that is really ingrained in a person that is really a service worker and they feel like they have to put themselves aside so that they can take care of the others. I just got to push through and power through and do this and with all the numbers rising it's important for them still and I'm going to say this directly to the health care workers it's still very important for you to take care of yourself. I've always told everyone that I work with if you don't take care of yourself you cannot take care of anyone else. So it's important for you to actually maintain good self-care and that is actually getting that exercise still like it says doing something just for you. Keeping a journal writing those feelings down and what it means to actually get that stuff out. Don't hold it because when you get home from your long day it's you have to let some of that stay there. You want to make sure that when you hit that door or when you know get home that you are actually saying wait let me relax and I need to relate just to myself to who's in my home if it's just you take the time to just sit let you know you may process that day but then let it go and say okay now I'm going to take care of me that bubble bath some type of massage possibly doing some yoga some mindfulness just to let that day go because it's so important for you to do that because you'll get burnout and burnout is real and we all can get burned out even with the healthiest people of saying I'm going to care for everybody and do all of this you still want to make sure you take care of yourself because you will burn out okay yeah. Dr. Jake if you want to weigh in on this before you you know move on absolutely thanks again for having me it's just such a wonderful pleasure and I just want to just as Dr. Heath is saying it's okay to guard your own personal downtime there's always going to be somebody that's going to well try to catch you at 6 a.m. or 5 30 before you get up and get out but if that's your meditation time your prayer time I walk two miles every single morning I tell everyone no I'm going to walk and no I don't want to walk and talk I want to unless I'm talking to the Lord or if I'm praying or meditating that's my time it's taking friends and relatives understand that I have some downtime that I take every single day now so every morning that's my downtime beware of those that call you 9 10 11 o'clock at night and they're bringing something to you to dump in your lap because they want you to hear their problems you have to guard your own personal downtime and it's okay to do that because if you don't you will burn out so guard your downtime it's yours and whatever it is that you do pray meditate yoga whatever it is do it routinely on a regular basis. All right healthcare workers do you and take care of yourself we need you you're our heroes right now you know for quite some time you know my girlfriend I was telling you earlier is an ER physician and and she came out of retirement she sent me this text that said face masks don't always work well neither do parachutes but if I ever jump out of a plane I still want one there it is and that's the truth I want my face mouth and I want my parachute but Dr. Jacobs breakthrough COVID infections show the unvaccinated are now putting the vaccinated at risk when can I get a COVID vaccine booster. Yeah so right now the FDA and CDC have decided that it's those that are what we call immuno-depress or compromise so those are those folks that have had organ transplants and are on immunosuppressive therapy in the midst of that transition those folks that are on chemo active chemotherapy right now those folks that are steroid dependent and they're on steroids or high dose steroids so those are the folks whose immune systems are depressed which makes them unfortunately more apt to get infected with COVID and the goal is here not that they get infected with COVID but we don't want them to have the moderate to severe disease where they're actually hospitalized so right now immunocompromised folks we're encouraging you if you've had Pfizer or Moderna 28 days after that second dose you can now get a booster shot at this time everyone else September 20th this year go day. Wow that's soon and that's good news for us who believe in science and you know Dr. Keith I really feel for the parents who have to who are sending their children back to school should kids in school wear masks even if vaccinated? My belief is that everyone should mask up everyone when they're going back to school they're going to have already have some anxieties and concerns about going back in to school because they've been home many of them I won't say all of them because some have actually gone through the whole year by going on to school but most of them have been home and doing some type of homeschooling or home non-schooling one way or the other and they're already going to have these anxieties of oh this year I've missed you know and and maybe falling behind and they're not remembering the things that they were taught we already see that in the summertime when we have kids off in the summer so when they come back to school they've forgotten a lot of what it's been going you know what they've done that previous school year and so it's important for us to start talking to our kids before they get back into the school before they start because if we don't that anxiety is going to rise because they've already they know about people that are dying they know about people that are sick and they have may have had some people in their own families to to have the disease and so it's important for us to start talking to our kids now before they actually get into a school building. Well if kids get infected with Delta are they at risk for serious illness Dr. Jacobs? Yeah well the Delta variant unfortunately is affecting the young and unvaccinated primarily now so those folks under the age of 40 they are that are unvaccinated that we are seeing them in the ICU on vents two-year-olds we're seeing 12, 13, 14-year-olds now in the ICUs so children's hospitals around the nation are starting to fill up with our children and our children many of them are under the age of 12 and they can't protect themselves and that's our job I'm not understanding why there are so many in society that don't want to protect those that can't protect themselves and those children that under the age of 12 we don't know who's going to be admitted we don't know who's going to be you know intubated and in the ICU we don't know who's going to die but we know that if they're exposed to that Delta variant unfortunately they're likely to get pretty sick even if they're at home and you have to take care of a sick kid at home that's difficult that is very difficult and it's pretty scary for a kid if they're having some issues about breathing so that Delta variant is more infectious and then unfortunately our children those and all together those under the age of 40 are just that are not vaccinated are the folks that are the new victims now that are in those hospitals now filling up those ERs and the ICUs well when doctor he's speak directly to the parents who are there they're so you know anxious now and and we need to talk to the parents about their mental health and self-care not only just their mental health and self-care but their their actual anxieties that they have for the kids going back and children feed off of what their parents are doing and then it becomes so politicized and they're looking at okay which way is my are my parents going and are my guardian and I have to follow what they're doing because they mimic adults and so when they see this and we have the the other effect of teachers and school personnel and others in there also with some concerns and so they're anxious so just they're just a big ball of anxiety in there and we want to make sure that we're we're helping our parents like I said to talk to your kids first talk to the school talk to the teachers make sure that you're going to those meetings and the PTOs and PTAs and talking to them about the concerns and how are they going to actually protect the children they're the most vulnerable they're going to walk in and maybe they'll take a mask off not wearing a mask and you have to help them understand maybe even have small groups ahead of time and talk to them in these small groups about how they can even help each other lift up and and connect with one another and they see a you know another student that they have pulled their mask down even a student should say to them remember we have to wear a mask you know empower them to talk to others about that and that gives our parents even more power to let them know it's okay for you to take that instruction from someone it's okay for us to help our neighbors you know we always used to say don't talk to my kids but we're in a stage right now that we all need to help one another yeah you know people if you're just joining in this the sister power some folks just don't get it and we're talking about mental health self-care and vaccines so Dr. Jacobs who can ask about your vaccine status well it kind of depends on what states you're in you know there are some states that unfortunately and it's law that you cannot ban folks from going into different venues or restaurants and even schools if they're not vaccinated or if they're not wearing masks there are other states in these united states that requires you to have a vaccine passport that you have to have proof of a negative test you have to have a proof of that vaccine and so it just really depends on where you are now law though says that employers can require you to be vaccinated uh or you have to have some reasonable reason why you can't if you have have allergies to it or some medical condition that will allow you to be vaccinated so employers in the united states can mandate a COVID vaccine as a for uh as a condition of employment and should i should i laminate my vaccine card should i laminate my card no they don't want you to do that a lot a lot of folks went out and got them laminated they prefer for you not to do it because what they like to do is add on the booster shot now because if it's laminated now it's going to be difficult to write on a laminated card so they prefer for you not to but if you did laminate it then you'll just have to get a new card and they can actually update the card for you but they prefer for you not to laminate it that's good information but i did speak to a few people who said i you know because people are who really believe in science they take this very serious they take their vaccinations very serious that i applaud them for that but you heard it here first people do not get your your um cars laminated um so dr heat how to do a mental health check how do we do a mental health check well what we could do is actually you can do a self-care check yourself how am i feeling is this interfering with my daily functioning am i sleeping too much am i eating too much am i not eating enough am i not sleeping those are things and tips that can give you an idea of if you're at a state of not well because that's what mental health is is a state of well-being and so if you're in that state of well-being you're getting enough sleep you're exercising you're talking it out you're working through any issues that come up but if you're not in that well state it's interfering with your daily functioning maybe it's very hard for you to get up in the morning we may find that a lot with our children in fact as they start to school it may be they are not able to get up because they have all those fears and anxieties that they're holding and they're not talking about and it's difficult for them to even get up and go to school it's the same with with people that have to get up and go to work it may be very difficult for them to actually go to a work site because everyone is a master everyone's not vaccinated and they feel that they may be at risk i see people every day that are talking about i'm just not ready to go back in yet i'm not ready to go i have to wait but then there's the variant and there's this but our job is pushing us back and it's like stop take take note of what you're feeling how's you know heart rate and dr jacob's will be able to talk more about that part but blood pressure heart rate pulse all those different things they can give you an idea of where you are as far as making sure that you are in a safe and good place with yourself please elaborate on that dr jacob that's that's vital yeah it really is and if you're anxious or you're having some anxiety a lot of times it will raise that blood pressure so if you someone that suffers from high blood pressure or hypertension should be checking that blood pressure on a at least a week on a weekly basis if you're anxious and have anxiety as well it does raise up your blood sugars as well so if you're diabetic or if you're borderline diabetic that's something you probably should be talking to your doctor about if you don't have a glucometer or machine to check out the house also migraines a lot of folks because anxiety and being anxious will kick off those migraines so you have to be mindful digestive problems you get bloating and gas swings and bouts of constipation and diarrhea neck pain joint issues all can stem from being anxious having some sort of anxiety and also as doctor he said you know and if you don't sleep well at night unfortunately that just can just mess up your entire day uh you really we all need to get about seven or eight hours of sleep i know many of us function on a lot less but we really really do need about seven or eight hours of sleep in order to function well on a daily basis well you know people need to fear the virus and not the vaccine and i was reading that i don't know who needs to hear this but polio is smallpox never reached natural herd immunity they were eradicated by vaccines and you know let's even move even further or or about why um either one can answer this dr jacob or dr keith black americans african americans are very suspicious about the medical the medical society and and and please educate people about this tuskegee study i think people are holding that they're still holding on to that study mm-hmm yeah so i well i'll mention the tuskegee study and then i'll let dr he take it over from there but uh so so what was it it was uh a uh they injected syphilis into a number of uh black males and instead of giving them treatment they watched the disease take its natural course so that they can write down and document what the signs and symptoms and what were the effects of syphilis and so they so they didn't treat them they had treatment but they didn't give them anything they didn't give them penicillin they didn't give them give them any kind of medication they just basically watched uh these folks die and so that's the tuskegee uh uh uh study which was absolutely horrible uh to to give someone a disease and then watch it just take over someone and watch them die and so there are a number of safeguards now that have been put in place down through the years where they no longer allow folks to be guinea pigs like that and that's the mindset a lot of folks think well i don't want to be a guinea pig this is a you know this doesn't even have FDA approval so why would i want to get this vaccine but i i tell people at this particular point you look at the science behind it and there's over 600 million folks that have gotten vaccinated now you don't see anyone dying as a result of this there's good studies there's good um and what i like about it is that it's been replicated throughout the entire world so not just here in the united states but these studies uh uh when it comes to these vaccines have been studied all over the world and uh has been proven to be safe for all of us and so uh and the fact that has been validated throughout the world that's something that we should grab hold to and understand and and just to i'll reiterate again uh on at maderna there is a black epidemiologist that actually worked on the the vaccine and she's out talking saying that there's no way in the world she would have suggested a vaccine that was not safe for her parents her grandparents for her relatives for herself she worked on it and she validates that it was it's just good medicine at this particular point and as i'm ending there are a lot of other things that are not FDA approved but we take every day vitamin herbs and supplements we take them every day and they have not gone through any type of FDA approval and we can make a combination out of them that we concoct and we're like oh we know what's good for our body and we haven't even tested to see if our blood work is saying that it's okay for us i mean we've heard the other things that we need to take and we're we're not even looking at the science behind what happens with vitamins but it's also important just where you were talking about the tuskegee experiment if we go back a little further and i love the article that you sent to us miss yaro with um talking about how that was actually developed in um africa that eradicated uh smallpox you know and that came from what we consider a motherland so and they brought it over and they were able to tell people how to vaccinate folks and to get things inoculations and that's where it all started and then the other point is that when people are babies and unless there's some serious religion or reasons that they don't get them every last one of our kids have a vaccination card that they started when they were younger and they had no say and every one of us have taken some type of vaccinations through the years and we're still here and we're still functioning and we're still doing well and it hasn't caused us harm so that's where we have to look at if you get your vaccination card ask a parent ask somebody that you know when you were younger how many vaccines did i have you're going to know that you had quite a few first when you was what three months six months two weeks and you kept getting them all the way up until you were 12 and most of the young folks even here and now have even had the hpv that vaccination and so that's why i'm saying that you don't have to fear the vaccine you can actually take it and you'll be even better off for it you know yeah people need to we were iterated again people need to fear the virus and not the vaccine ladies dr he dr jake is when will we get back to normal i've been looking at it as a new normal because sometimes we have to learn to live with things we get aches and pains or we break a leg or or have something happen and we learn how to live with it and so we have to learn how to live with this virus that's out there and part of it is one getting vaccinated to wearing a mask three social distancing you know those things we know work so if you get those things it can really help and if you get sick quarantine you know stay away from others don't still go out to the stores or go they'll never know don't do that you're hurting others as well as yourself too well thank you close us out dr jake that's well i'll agree totally with dr he there's a new normal uh if we now have telehealth telemedicine uh that is here to stay as a result of this pandemic so that's something good actually that has come out of this i would suggest folks that you fear that virus and not the vaccine it has been proven to be safe get out there encourage your children grandmothers encourage your grandchildren encourage them to go out there and get vaccinated so we can get back to our new normal so fear the virus not the vaccine exactly this is definitely an episode that should be shared with family and friends so you know send this out via email everyone facebook wherever you want to share it dr jake and dr ke thank you so much for you know sharing your wisdom and your knowledge to the sister power viewers i'm sharing thomas yarbrough host of sister power and president of citizen power in hawaii aloha