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CHICAGO
Carlos Millan recently had a conversation with a man worried about the COVID-19 vaccine.
The man had read it could have an effect on his sperm, so he was reluctant to be vaccinated. After their conversation, recalled Millan, who completed the city health departments Vaccine Ambassador Course training, he feels a lot better.
Outreach to communities hesitant to get the vaccine, or those with less access to it, will be a major focus this summer and fall as the city moves forward through this pandemic.
The University of Illinois at Chicago was recently selected by the National Institutes of Health as the main site for a multicenter collaboration to research and create outreach to communities disproportionality affected by COVID-19. The group aims to improve access to testing, treatment and clinical trial opportunities. UIC will receive a $1.4 million grant to increase vaccine confidence.
Black and Latino communities have been heavily affected by the pandemic. Meanwhile, state data shows Black and Hispanic people in Illinois have been vaccinated at half the rate of white residents.
UICs Dr. Molly Martin, associate professor of pediatrics at the College of Medicine and principal investigator on the NIH grant, said researchers hope to use their understanding of access to the vaccine and information sharing through communities to go beyond COVID-19. For example, Black women face major health disparities, and what researchers find out about connecting with communities of color could help approach those issues, too.
Martins team hopes to encourage vaccine confidence in Black and Latino neighborhoods. It includes researchers from Loyola University, Northwestern University, Rush University Medical Center and the University of Chicago, as well as groups such as Sinai Urban Health Institute and Equal Hope, a nonprofit working to eliminate health disparities.
Already, Martin said, theres been an enormous amount of partnership among health care systems in Chicago. They hope to begin by evaluating different programs and efforts around vaccines to learn what works and where gaps might exist.
Looking ahead to the fall, when schools will reopen, getting information to families and vaccines for children will be important, she said. She is also monitoring whether or when people might need boosters, another moment when information will be key. People might question whether the vaccine was effective if they need boosters, even as health experts have said this is a likely possibility.
Lack of vaccination does not only reflect hesitancy, she said.
There are fears and there are concerns about vaccination but also sheer access issues, Martin said. The solution is not simple. It really has to come from that level of understanding.
To boost confidence in the vaccine, the city created the Vaccine Ambassador Course, which provides free online training to help teach people about the vaccine and to share that with their communities. Offered in English and Spanish, the training teaches participants about the background of COVID-19, the history of mistrust and causes of vaccine hesitancy.
When talking to people, Millan shares he has been vaccinated and I dont have another head growing out of me, he said. It helps when I told them my mother was also reluctant. She took her time to get vaccinated. You dont pressure people into now, now, now.
The man who was worried about the vaccine affecting his sperm, for example, seemed to hear what Millan said when Millan was patient and curious, he said.
He added, I think its better if it comes from someone that looks like him, or someone that lives in the community, than a stranger with a medical degree, even though we trust medical doctors.
Sitting behind a computer screen all day can strain your eyes, but do glasses that claim to block blue light really help?
Dr. Muriel Schornack, a Mayo Clinic optometrist, says the macula is the area of the retina in your eye that is responsible for processing your clear central vision. The macula can be sensitive to blue light, which is a part of the visible light spectrum and is emitted from electronic devices such as cellphones, computer monitors and TVs. But most blue light that people are exposed to comes from the sun.
There is a theory that if you are exposed to high levels of blue light, the macula could be damaged, Schornack said. The second theory is that blue light tends to be excitatory for the central nervous system. So if you are exposed to blue light immediately before you try to go to sleep, your central nervous system has just been told that it should wake up by that blue light.
A recent study on eyeglasses that filter out blue light did not find any evidence to support those theories. Schornack said some people may feel more comfortable wearing glasses that block blue light, but she doesnt actively recommend them to her patients.
They may be very useful for some people. And Im certainly not decrying their use in folks who find them to be helpful, says Schornack said.
But I would also assure people that, as of yet, there is not strong evidence that blue light-filtering glasses are necessary to preserve macular health, nor do they have a significant effect on your circadian rhythm or sleep-wake cycles.
Q: There has been a lot of talk here of “happiness=reality-expectations.” Where is the line between plans and expectations?
Having a concrete plan makes it seem reasonable to expect that it will happen. And because there was a concrete plan, I might be even more disappointed when it doesn’t.
I know the reality is that not every plan will come to fruition, so should I go into every plan without an expectation of its actually happening? Or is it that concrete plans are just different because expectations usually go unspoken?
—Overthinking!
A: Ha.
I’ll frame it in party terms (too soon?): You want to have people over. So you plan. You pick a date, choose the people, plan a menu, prepare everything you want to serve. This is a concrete plan and—honest RSVPs and global pandemics willing—it’s reasonable to expect your party will happen.
Where expectations aren’t reasonable or useful is with visions of how your party will turn out—how people will behave, how the food and drink you offer will be received, what room they all gather in (spoiler alert: it’s your kitchen, not your perfectly appointed living room), how much fun you will have. These blanks are best left unfilled-in by your imagination and freed of expectations because the reality of what occurs will depend on more factors than you can reasonably control.
And what actually happens might be so much more interesting and memorable than what you had in mind—which you risk missing completely if you’re busy being disappointed that things didn’t go exactly as you’d hoped.
Does that help?
Q: I’m single mom, three kids. I’m freaking out that my handling of the pandemic crises will fully shape their adult lives, and I erfed it up by not listening enough or too much or ... well, the list goes on.
Is there a way to help them be healthy future adults who can cope with stuff?
—Mom
A: You are human, you were there with your kids, you tried and are still trying.
Please see these as three things you want your kids to take with them into adulthood:
1. People make mistakes.
2. They are loved.
3. You are showing up.
Readers’ thoughts:
- Your handling of the crisis will affect their adult lives. It will not fully shape their adult lives. You and your actions are important influences on them but FAR from the only influences.
- As a parent of two twentysomething-year-olds, I admitted (and still do) when I did something wrong, like I should have been more patient, didn’t realize how important something was to them, etc. I also admitted when we were going into new territory and I wasn’t really sure how we’d do something, except that we’d figure it out together.
And we did. Making changes along the way. It was this fine balancing act—they wanted reassurance that I knew what I was doing (I didn’t always), but they also wanted to be heard. I learned more from them than I think I taught them. They are awesome people now who I would want as friends if they weren’t my kids.
Email Carolyn at tellme@washpost.com, follow her on Facebook at or chat with her online at 11 a.m. each Friday at .
Planning a trip overseas these days requires more than the usual hunt for cheap flights and a sweet hotel. Travelers need to know when they can reasonably go, which countries are ready to accept them, what will be open, what entry requirements their destination might demand and, if they care about such things, which hotels have implemented extra germ-busting protocols.
To help navigate the tricky world of changing rules and newly unfurled welcome mats, more would-be travelers are turning to travel agents.
A study by Sandals Resorts and the American Society of Travel Advisors released last month found 44% of travelers who rarely or sometimes used a travel agent before the pandemic are likely to turn to one now. Thats higher than the 27% who always or often used such a professional before COVID-19 altered the travel landscape.
The pandemic has revitalized interest in travel agents, said Scott Mayerowitz, executive editorial director at travel website The Points Guy.
Minneapolis-based Knowmad Adventures endured nearly a year of collapsed sales. But once people saw a vaccine on the horizon, business began to rise. Since December, we have seen a ton of momentum, said owner Jordan Harvey.
We have a number of new clients that are booking with us, and part of the reason is that it is so complex today to know where you can travel to, and it changes by the day, said Robert Herman, owner of Riverdale Travel in Coon Rapids, Minnesota.
Harvey has heard from people who had booked trips themselves before the pandemic hit, merging reservations from a variety of platforms to create appealing vacations.
But the folks who did that ended up with cancellations and postponements and going through that process was tough, he said. I have had clients say it was a disaster.
Riverdale Travel agents worked the phones for months last spring; one was on hold for six hours before talking to a vendor about a cancellation.
Mayerowitz says that kind of service is one reason people are returning to travel agents.
It was a major challenge for many folks. Those who used travel agents had an easier time, he said. It opened peoples eyes up to how powerful a travel agent could be.
Travelers are also rethinking what is important, Mayerowitz said. Months at home fueled a fresh appreciation for travel, and he believes people are seeking out travel agents now to ensure vacations run smooth.
In a world of online travel agencies such as Kayak and Expedia, people had gotten used to shopping for deals and booking themselves.
We forgot the value of a travel agent, Mayerowitz said. Theyve walked through the hotels and around the neighborhoods. They know which places have good amenities for kids and which places just say they do.
Many also have special relationships that can lead to discounts that offset any fees they might charge. They also have firsthand knowledge of the new rigors travel can bring.
Herman just returned from the Dominican Republic on a research trip to understand the experience of travel in the pandemic era, including the need for a negative COVID-19 test to re-enter the United States.
Travel agents also understand such fundamentals as how much time fliers need in a specific airport to make a connecting flight. They can also nab upgrades or other perks.
No computer search can provide those insider perks and information, Mayerowitz said.
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