COVID Vaccines and COVID Response: Creative Program Development

Transcript

Jillene Joseph (00:05):

Alrighty. We’re live. Okay. Welcome everyone. This is our daily native wellness power hour. We are in week 53 already. I can’t believe it. Sunday is our one-year anniversary of, um, providing our power hours. So my name is Jolene Joseph and I am Ani from Fort Belmont, Montana. And I currently live in Oregon with my family and I am also the executive director of the native wellness Institute. So we want to thank everyone for being here. Um, today I have a special guest and she’s a staff member of the native wellness Institute. So we want to welcome Shinoa should know. Do you want to go ahead and introduce yourself?

Chenoa Landry (00:56):

Sure. Hot [inaudible] Asian Shinoa seed stocks. We all above Chad. Hello everyone. Good day. My name is Shinoa and I am PL and I’m also a community health worker with Native Wellness Institute. Thanks for having me.

Jillene Joseph (01:14):

Awesome. So today, uh, the native wellness Institute, you know, we’re based in Oregon and we have a local project that we work on called the future generations collaborative. And since last March, when the pandemic started and went down, uh, we received funding to hire community health workers. We hired Shinoa and we’ve been doing like all kinds of stuff. And so today we want to talk a little bit about vaccines, and then we also wanted to share about our creative program development. So all the things that we have been doing in response to COVID and the main reason we’re doing this is because, um, people have been hearing about, you know, different things that we’re doing, or I’ll share something, you know, online and they’ll say, Oh, wow. You know, how did you do that? Or that’s a great idea. So we just wanted to share ideas because we’re all, you know, we’re all in this together.

Jillene Joseph (02:06):

And it might, you know, spark some other creative thoughts that somebody might want to do in their community. But first we wanted to talk a little bit about vaccine. So Shinoa, like I said, is our community health worker. Um, we joke and she jokes and says, you know, she’s not a doctor, but she plays one on zoom. I always think that’s so funny, but, uh, Shinoa attends like all these medical webinars every week, she stays up on everything. COVID, she’s my go-to personally as well. Um, but Shanoah how about just, you know, provide a little update on the whole vaccine scene out there.

Chenoa Landry (02:46):

Okay. So, um, currently there are three approved in the United States. There’s the, Moderna the Pfizer and the Johnson and Johnson. So the Moderna and the Pfizer are two shots. And, um, the F the Johnson and Johnson is one shot. Um, the Moderna is, uh, 21 days, um, or excuse me, modernists 28 days, uh, you get a booster and then the Pfizer, you have it 21 days after your initial dose. And, um, the Madrona adviser are relatively the same in terms of, um, uh, side effects and efficacy, which is, um, the efficacy is really good. They’re saying, um, 94 to 95% efficacy, which means that, um, out of a hundred people, 94 of them will have at least 94 of them will not have any symptoms at all. Even if they do come in contact or contract, um, COVID that they will be, um, completely asymptomatic.

Chenoa Landry (03:54):

And of the people who are in that smaller percentage, the five or 6%, those people may, um, may get infected and they, um, may have some symptoms, but so far everyone, um, as far as I know, as, as far as every, um, study has shown, even the people who do develop symptoms there, they have been mild symptoms and they have all recovered. And so that is one, one thing I think that, that, uh, we need to be looking out in terms of, um, the, the safety of the vaccines is that, um, a hundred percent of them, um, have been, um, uh, um, useful in keeping people alive. I don’t know if that’s the right way to say it. And then with the Johnson and Johnson, um, even though the efficacy is as a slightly lower percentage, um, I think it’s, I keep hearing different numbers, but it’s still pretty high as 75 or 80%, um, or possibly even higher won’t ever develop symptoms.

Chenoa Landry (04:59):

And again, of those people who do become symptomatic they’re mild symptoms. And so it is still a very effective vaccine. Um, as far as all of the studies have shown, and I’ve seen some discussions about, um, them not being quote unquote, FDA approved. And, um, and there’s a lot of, um, I think there’s a lot of fear around, like, what does that mean? Um, and, and what they, what they have done is the FDA has, has approved them for emergency they’ve authorized them to be used in emergency in an emergency situation because we are in a global pandemic and they end, they are safe. That is what the conclusion has been is that they are safe and there hasn’t been any larger incidents of any, um, any like adverse reactions compared to other. So vaccines are really, really useful. Um, I always think of the, uh, example of smallpox and smallpox has been eradicated as a result of vaccine use. And as many of us know as Indian people, our, um, ancestors, a lot of our relatives died of smallpox because it was used as a biological weapon against us and had we had access to the smallpox vaccine. Um, I believe that we’d be a much stronger in numbers to the state.

Jillene Joseph (06:34):

Yeah, definitely. Awesome. Thank you, Chanel for sharing and thank you all for tuning in and sharing, you know, then the native almost power hours is the native wellness institutes responds to the pandemic, and we knew that an already traumatized people would be retraumatized during this pandemic. So we wanted to do our part and offer our contribution by, um, providing, you know, positive and informative and, um, uplifting programming. And so today, if you’re just tuning in Shanoah and I are just sharing a little bit about vaccines and a little bit about the creative program development, um, that we have been doing. So we have some comments already, um, a comment about some people have died from these vaccinations. Um, can you talk about the correlation between Pfizer and blood clots? I had heard in the news that Europe had banned Pfizer or, or another vaccine. So this, this is another reason why we wanted to do this, right? Like we’re not medical experts or anything like that, but we, but Shinoa in particular stays abreast of everything, attends medical webinars, weekly, several of them actually, um, social Noah, do you want to address those comments? The first one, um, some people have died from these vaccinations. That was the comment. Um, and then the correlation between Pfizer and blood clots.

Chenoa Landry (08:04):

Um, so I don’t, I don’t know of anyone who has died from the vaccine, from all of the reports that I have read. And again, I’m not a doctor and I am not a medical researcher. I am, I’m not a spokesperson for any vaccine company. I’m not getting paid for any by any of those companies. Um, but I, from what I have read, no one has died as a result of the vaccine. Um, there have been some people, there was one person who, um, developed a blood disorder. He was a doctor. Um, and my understanding is that the incidents of that happening is very, very, very, very [inaudible] percent of the population develops it, and they have not directly related it to the vaccine, but he did have the vaccine two weeks prior. And I think that caused a lot of fear, because what happens is literally millions of people have gotten the, um, that gotten these vaccines by now.

Chenoa Landry (09:19):

Um, I think just in Oregon, we’re past 1 million and, uh, across the U S I don’t even, I’m sorry, I should have looked this up before I was going to, and I forgot, but there are millions and millions of people now who have received the vaccine and, um, these blood disorders. I think that, um, from, from my understanding is that people develop blood disorders. Like we have to remember that while this pandemic is happening, life is also happening. So people also are getting colds. People also are getting flus, people develop blood disorders. People are still unfortunately being diagnosed with cancers. So all of these things are going on. And so, um, because causation is not correlation, um, right. So like, um, it’s just because of correlations, not causation. So just because someone had received it doesn’t mean it’s a cause of the vaccine. And so they have determined the researchers that, um, and the doctors and, um, medical examiners have determined.

Chenoa Landry (10:21):

It was not as a result of the vaccines. And, um, and if you were interested in knowing what is inside of the vaccine, it, it, all of the ingredients are printed on the, um, the FDA, um, the FDA’s website. And also I would strongly encourage anyone who is curious to like, get that and also like get ingredients of all of the medications that you may be taking all of your vaccines. Um, I’ll also look at, um, you know, ingredients of your, um, of our hot Cheetos and soda pops. So, um, we’re always like consuming things that are probably are like strange or different or chemicals and these chemicals that, that we are, that they’re using for the vaccines are safe and effective.

Jillene Joseph (11:13):

Nice. Thank you. Well, that’s another reason why we wanted to do this topic today, right. Is just to let people know, um, more information where they can go for more information. I know, um, I am fully vaccinated. I have both vaccinations, and I think it’s been a month now since I’ve been fully vaccinated. And I got the Pfizer, my first, the first shot, um, you know, we went in, in a state of gratitude, just like being thankful that we were getting it. And we all, we all shared like why we were getting it. You know, I, I dressed up, I wore my ribbon skirt and, you know, just stayed in this state of gratitude. I did not even feel the shot go in, like they were done and I didn’t even realize they even started yet. Like, they were really good. Um, I drank water and I just kept like randomly moving my arm.

Jillene Joseph (12:06):

Um, and I didn’t have any symptoms after the first one, the second one, you know, we did the same. We were in a state of gratitude, um, drank a lot of water and Pedialyte before, and then after continued, you know, to, to drink water and just move my arm, my arm was a little bit sore after the second one for like an hour. And then that was it. I didn’t have any symptoms or anything. And then our whole household got vaccinated and there was just a variety of symptoms from like, you know, starting to feel like you got a cold, you know, to, you know, feeling a little bit tired. And, um, but it was this literally like for a few hours. So that was our experience. Um, what, what, what are you vaccinated Shinola?

Chenoa Landry (12:50):

I am I’m fully vaccinated. Um, my, my experience was a little bit different. Um, I got the Moderna, um, and I, I w went into talk about the vaccine one more time about the safety and efficacy, because as of right now, um, 536,000 plus people have died as a result of COVID. And I will take those odds of getting the vaccine because, um, I wanna, I, I wanna live, I wanna stay out of the hospital. I want to, um, keep my family safe because they are, they are seeing that having the vaccine is, is, um, the, the chance of getting it and spreading to other people is, is expected to be lower than what they originally thought. Um, and so I just, I really want to, that that feels safe to me. That’s what, um, and when I got my vaccine, um, because I do work in the public and I, I work with folks who are, um, potentially symptomatic and potentially positive, et cetera.

Chenoa Landry (14:00):

Um, I, I went in, I waited in a line, which they marked six feet between us, everybody was masked, um, and had, um, and we were all, you know, everything was like, I got it at a hospital. And so they wiped everything down. I initially thought, Oh, I should get it at the hospital. Cause that would feel safer. And then as soon as I walked in, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is where all the sick people are coming now. I’ve just like exposed myself. Um, so that brought in a little bit of anxiety for me. Um, but I felt better know seeing like how safe that everyone was being in, that they kept, um, you know, people who are symptomatic in a separate area. Um, and then I went back, they asked me some questions, um, gave me, um, giving my shot and then I waited 15 minutes and, um, and then I was free to go. I, I did feel like I was having like a tingly feeling in my arm or in my hand and my arm. And I, like, I was like, Oh my gosh, I’m having a reaction. And then I took a deep breath and I said to myself, self, I think this is anxiety.

Chenoa Landry (15:16):

Okay. Like, am I actually having a symptom or am I, am I just like, like even talking about it makes me feel like a little bit nervous. This is, this is my, my body’s reaction to say, look out, watch out everything is, um, you know, out of, out of whack. And then, and then I did the same thing, you know, I was like, you know what, this is so much better than getting exposed. And so then I was like, Oh my gosh, I’m so thankful. And then I started thinking about, there are literally over 100 countries. So millions of people who have zero access to this vaccine, like they can’t even get on a list. They can’t get on a wait list. They can’t travel anywhere. And then I was just filled with so much gratitude that we live in a country where we do have access.

Jillene Joseph (16:14):

Definitely. Well, I think it’s great that, you know, you are able to like work through the anxiety part with like being grateful that you’ve got the vaccine, you know, and I know a lot of people are feeling anxious about it and still are questioning whether they want to get it or not. You know, we have comments even in here about, well, what do you mean by what is safe or whatever, you know? And so we’re here trying to share our story and experience. Of course, we’re also here to encourage you, you know, Shannon and I both have, you know, family members, our friends that have passed away from COVID, you know, or friends, his friends, family, you know, that have passed away from COVID. And so we know because of our historical, the historical context of our people, right. About what other, um, diseases and pandemics have done epidemics have done to our people.

Jillene Joseph (17:08):

Right? Yeah. Excuse me. As I have a little cough. Um, and so we know that, um, this is a part of the solution. And the other day I was in a meeting and this elder, he opened up the meeting in a good way. He’s saying a prayer song. And he talked about this dream that he had, where someone in his dream came to him and said, you need, you need these two plants, like to keep you safe from, from COVID. And they were like plants from his homelands where he’s from. Um, and so he, he woke up from his dream and he actually went online and he ordered these plants online. And so what the dream told him was that these plans would help his spiritual protection from COVID. And what he says, what he said was our people were scientists, are people believed in science.

Jillene Joseph (18:03):

He goes, and I believe in science as well. So I also got the vaccine he said, and that will protect me physically. So his, his cultural belief systems will help protect him spiritually and science will help to protect him physically. And I thought that was really awesome. And then he went on to say, you know, lots of people. And he talked about his own family members, even our, um, you know, believing in these conspiracy theories that are out there. Right. And he said, when we’re spiritually grounded, that will help us not to go down these rabbit holes of the conspiracy theories. Right. If, if we’re spiritually grounded. So for the people watching today, or that might be watching later, you know, there’s lots of efforts out there to cause disinformation, right. And we know that has already been found. People from other countries are like intentionally doing these campaigns here in the us, um, to make us not believe in the vaccine.

Jillene Joseph (19:09):

So we just have to like pause a little bit. If we start, you know, getting anxious or nervous or scared or fearful and all of this and just pause, you know, take a deep breath and then really seek out information to help us better understand, um, the information. So, you know, again, thank you all for, um, just listening we know, but everybody does not believe in vaccines. Um, and we know that for all of us to move through this pandemic and in a better way where more of us are going to have to get vaccinated to reach herd immunity. Right. And if we want to get back to going to the movies and going to powwows and all of this kind of stuff where we’re going to have to reach that, right. So of course we’re, we’re encouraging, um, vaccines today. So the other thing, um, that we have been doing in response, of course, we’ve been, you know, helping families that are impacted with COVID, um, including family members, you know, that have lost other family members. We’ve been doing, responding to helping the community with, you know, mental, mental wellbeing through this. And so we wanted to share a little bit about what we’re calling our creative, uh, program development. So Shanola, do you want to tell, just share a little bit about some of the stuff that you have been involved with in doing

Chenoa Landry (20:36):

Sure? So, um, yeah, working as a community health worker, I think is really been my, my calling, uh, I’ve had a lot of different, um, career careers over the years. And, um, most of them have involved working with people. So when the pandemic hit, I was like, how am I ever going to work with people if we can’t see each other? And so, um, one thing that, uh, NWI and the under the umbrella of the future generations collaborative is we started the, um, um, uh, support circles. I was going to say self care, um, all of those things where we talk about self care and we talk about, um, sometimes the support circles, I think when people care, um, support circles, people kind of like some, some people tend to like go inward and say, I don’t want to go and share my problems, but we, we really made our support circles, like an uplifting place.

Chenoa Landry (21:34):

And, um, activity-based and so one of the cool things that we were able to do was, um, reach out. And we, we, um, we got some funding to be able to actually purchase supplies. So we’ve done, um, things, everything from like cooking, like cooking together. So we drop off the, we get all the groceries and drop them off at people’s doors. And then we cook together. Um, some of the groups have done beating together. Um, some of the, uh, the youth support circles I’ve been in the women’s support circles. I’ve been doing painting together. So again, we just get all the supplies and then drop them off. And that’s a lot of fun. Um, I really enjoy, um, facilitating, I feel like, um, that’s like that, that’s one of the, one of the many highlights, um, just because it’s really good to have that personal connection. And one of the comments that, that I, or some of the feedback that I got was that it was, it’s almost like getting together because we have something tangible that we’ve all, um, we’re all doing that together, um, alone together. I, I keep thinking of that

Jillene Joseph (22:45):

Alone together. Yeah. That was been one of the themes that we say, well, one of the, um, I guess one of the teachings, if you will, behind the activity based support circles. So we offer, uh, five support circles a week. We have a youth one, we have a parent one, we have a two-spirit non-binary one, we have a women’s one and we have a men’s one. And, um, the, the reason that we sought funding to make them activity-based is because we know when we’re busy with our hands, right. Cooking or beading or sewing, or doing some kind of craft that the traditional teaching behind that is that we’re putting our good thoughts into it. Right. We’re putting our love and our good intentions into it. Um, especially if we’re going to gift it to someone or feed it to someone or whatever. So thereby, you know, we’re keeping good thoughts in our heads, right?

Jillene Joseph (23:41):

And so we know that in the pandemic, you know, our thoughts have been all over the, you know, am I going to get it or, you know, all of this kind of stuff. And so we’re trying to help and uplift and support people’s mental wellbeing. And so, um, what have, well, the men, we are, our family is hunters. And so we always save our hides. And one of the first activities, the men’s support circle did was we dug out all of our hides on FOD them, cut them into pieces, and the guys scrape their own hides and they made their own hand drums. They made their own drumsticks. So that was pretty awesome. That was one of my favorite activities for them, for, for the guys. Shanoah what have been some of your favorite activities with the women’s support circle?

Chenoa Landry (24:27):

Um, I really enjoyed the cooking. Um, Oh, we did a, uh, planting one in the, um, in the, uh, spirit of the spring and bringing in new growth. I thought that was really exciting, especially as we’re coming upon a year of our, um, isolation and, um, the painting I really enjoyed. I think I’ve enjoyed EV and the poetry. We did a poetry together, which we didn’t have. We didn’t even need any supplies for that. That was just really fun to, um, share some, uh, emotions and laughter. Um, I think the support circles have like brought me so much laughter lately that like, you know, it’s just really good to like joke around and just be, and not, and be on a zoom and not be in a meeting. Um, so that’s been really cool. Um, yeah. And I think, I think the youth ones, they, they really like cooking and painting.

Jillene Joseph (25:25):

Yeah. The youth ones. Well, the, the other thing that we did was we hired people in the community that lost work because of the pandemic and we paid them to be the delivery people. Right. So we pay them to come and do all the deliveries. So that has been awesome. And then, because we know like food scarcity is real and has been another big part of the pandemic, like all of the groups have really enjoyed the cooking, you know, I think for the women’s at one point we were up to like 50 women, um, that were, you know, th that were joining. So the cooking ones have been my favorite. We’ve tried to like do recipes like that are our favorite things or whatever, just trying new things. One of my other favorites, um, we get feedback from the women like, well, what do you, you know, what do you want to do next?

Jillene Joseph (26:13):

And so one of the women wanted to do a spa night. So we did a, we did a spa where we had, um, in the bag, we put a fate, you know, a face mask stuff, we put a candle, we put some tea, some chocolate, some fingernail, Polish, um, some essential oils with, uh, those, this diffuser, you know, to put the essential oils in like that was their awesome gift. And so it was so funny cause all on zoom and we all have these, you know, blue or yellow face masks and the women that came in late, they came in to like, Whoa, our faces are all blue. Or so that was, that was one of my favorite ones I liked, I liked that one, but actually two, I liked all of them. Like it’s good for my mental wellbeing every Friday night we meet and you know, it’s awesome. Um, we’ve also done a baby shower on zoom. So do you want to share a little bit about that? Shinoa yes,

Chenoa Landry (27:11):

That was, that was a lot of fun. And we did, I think there were 20, 24 babies registered. Um, and we, uh, so we asked ahead of time. Do you have, if you’re expecting or no one who knows someone who’s expecting, um, uh, give us a call and we’ll get them on the list. We set up a time and we did the same thing. We, um, did a, um, delivery out ahead of time and, you know, it was just like the, the usual baby gear, like, um, diapers and, um, essential needs, et cetera. And then some, um, uh, parents, self care stuff. And then, um, we also did those, um, Pennelton, uh, or, well, the swings. Um, and so that was, that was really cool. Um, and then we delivered them all ahead of time and then all of the families opened them up together.

Chenoa Landry (28:12):

And, um, so some, some babies had already, um, been born and some parents were still, um, so pregnant at the time. So it’s been fun now to see people starting to, uh, deliver their babies and how their babies are growing and stuff. And, um, there was a parent who, who came and hadn’t delivered yet and then she’s delivered and, and now, um, like showed her baby in the support circles that we’re all like, ah, it was just, it was just really magical and uplifting and um, you know, especially for people who are first-time parents during the quarantine, I’ve been praying a lot for them. Cause I know, um, I know how challenging it can be as a, as a first time when you’re first become a parent. And um, so I’ve been praying for them and I think it was helpful for some of them to even just be around other people and knowing that they’re not in this alone and that we have a, like, we can’t all babysit for each other right now, but at least we can drop each other, um, food or

Jillene Joseph (29:24):

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Well, and we wanted to do the baby shower because, um, you know, in the time of COVID of course we’re not able to gather people are, are alone, even delivering their babies. And you know, so again, we just wanted to uplift the women. We dropped off, um, like baby shower, decorations and snacks for them. So they would have their own food, you know, like we would, if, if we were together, we had, um, special guests come on and seeing that traditional baby lullabies, you know, we, we played games and you know, so it, it was really fun. We made it as fun as possible. So that was exciting. So we’ve just been like super creative, um, like, like everyone else. So we’re just sharing, you know, some of our ideas that we’re doing. So I know what the youth we’re, we’re actually getting ready for the youth one right now.

Jillene Joseph (30:18):

Um, it’s this afternoon, but the youth at first it was intended for, um, like middle school and high school students. And then sometimes their siblings would, you know, see what’s going on and jump on. And so now we have like all, all ages and a solid group of like 15 young people that come every single week. And we’ve heard from them, we’ve heard from parents that say, you know, my kids are asking, is that Wednesday yet? Because they know they’re going to have their youth support circle. Like that’s, that’s their highlight of the week, right. Is, is coming together. Um, and we know that cooking has been huge. And so in part, yes, it’s addressing food scarcity, but it’s also helping with like life skills, right. Like teaching them how to cook. And of course we try to do meals where there’s not a lot of like knives or, you know, cutting and things like that.

Jillene Joseph (31:10):

If, if they’re too young and we of course asked for their, for their parents to come in. Um, but before we go with more examples on the creative program, developing, we have some people that are still talking about the vaccines. And so that are asking questions. I just want to jump back there real quick. So we have some people, um, why am I so afraid to get the vaccine for me and my special needs son and someone else you are not alone. I too am afraid to get the vaccine. Um, I am terrified to get the vaccine, but I know I will have to sooner or later I’m learning, I’m leaning more towards the Johnson and Johnson. Um, so can you just offer, um, Oh, somebody else Sandy says pray on it for those afraid I was at first, but with all that has happened, we need to protect each other. So Chanel, do you just have some, some, um, words of encouragement for the people that are afraid to get the vaccine?

Chenoa Landry (32:09):

Yeah. Um, I mean, I’m not gonna lie. I was afraid I trust it, but I still have that like internal, like mama bear instinct, like okay. Danger had. And, um, and so I, yeah, I did the same thing of what Sandy was saying. I, I prayed about it and, and I thought, you know, um, there wasn’t any, um, I know there’ve been some other comments on social media about, um, big pharma and government and rich white men, et cetera, et cetera. And, um, those, those concerns are valid. And I understand that. And I also know that, um, because of the pandemic, um, like the, the vaccines are being provided to us citizens or people in the U S I don’t even think you have to be a citizen, um, at, at free. And that isn’t, to me, like in my, in my logical brain, I was like, nobody’s.

Chenoa Landry (33:08):

And as far as, like, I think I saw some other comments about like microchips or whatever, and I’m like, there’s a microchip in our cell phones and like theaters we’re using like where we’re already in the grid. So, um, to me that was like a mood thing. Like, I, that’s not even a concern, there’s no, there’s no microchips, et cetera. Um, and I, and I felt like, um, yeah, I just kind of, after I, there, I got the first lot, then I was worried about getting like side effects from the second dose. Cause that’s where a lot of people are saying that they felt, you know, I have the favors in the chosen and all of these things. And I was like, yeah, this might happen. And, and it might have been if I were ever to get COVID. And so the cool thing with the vaccine is that those side effects are side effects and they resolve, and we know that they’ll resolve within a day or two.

Chenoa Landry (34:07):

And for those folks who, who have gotten like the COVID arm, that it will resolve on its own. And with the COVID infection, there are people today who got infected and got sick with COVID in March of last year who are still sick. And that was like, you know what, I I’m in the age category, they’re saying, uh, women in their thirties and forties are more likely to, to have that what they’re calling long COVID now. And we don’t know. And, um, my prayers are up for anyone who has experienced that. And so when I thought about it in those terms, I was like, you know what, even if, even if it doesn’t take me out or whatever, I at least know what the vaccine that I will be protected against something that could be, because I feel like we’re not talking about that enough as people who are having long-term effects from having open infections. So that to me provided a lot of range reassure.

Jillene Joseph (35:11):

Yeah, for sure. Well, and we, you know, we know because of health disparities and all of that, our people have been, you know, greatly impacted by COVID right. Um, and number of cases, the longterm effects as you’re describing. So, um, Vicky, thank you for your question. She says, what if you live with someone that had COVID, but you never yourself got sick. Is it possible then that you are not susceptible to get COVID?

Chenoa Landry (35:42):

I, I feel like I don’t, I don’t know the answer. I don’t think anyone knows the answer to that. And I also fell like it’s, I mean, it’s a gamble. Um, I know people who got really sick with COVID and then they got reinfected later and they didn’t have any symptoms. And I know the opposite. I know people who got it and were asymptomatic and then got reinfected and were very sick. Um, I know of people who lived with someone who got COVID and never got it. I know people who got it and they were, were very high risk and then they recovered and they were fine. And it just, it is just such an unpredictable virus. Um, and that could be some people are less susceptible, but we don’t know that answer for sure. And I feel like by getting the vaccine that is helping me to protect the people around me for those are, there are people who are unable to get the vaccine because of allergies because they’re getting chemo or because of their immune system being compromised or, or whatever, their, their reasons or whatever, their reasons like medical reasons are for not being able to get it.

Chenoa Landry (36:58):

Um, that’s why I also got the vaccine is too for, because there will be people who can’t get it and right now our children can’t get it and aren’t able to get the vaccine. And so my prayer is that enough of us adults get it, get the vaccine so that our children will be less likely to become infected.

Jillene Joseph (37:21):

[inaudible] definitely. Yeah. So Chanel, what are some, you mentioned the FDA going to their website to look at the actual, you know, what the, um, vaccines are made up, but what are some other sites that people can go to for more information about COVID or more information about vaccines?

Chenoa Landry (37:40):

Yeah, the, um, there’s actually quite a bit, there’s the CDC and the FDA, and then there’s also, um, a lot of the reputable, um, news organizations like, um, the Washington post, the New York times, um, has a whole section on everything COVID related and it includes the, um, and includes the, um, vaccine updates, how they work and how they, um, um, how their, uh, what do you call it? Um, how, how they’re going with the vaccine rates, et cetera, et cetera. They have a, I mean, it’s like a ton of, I mean, there it’s like a public health effort having that. Um, there also, you can also look at, um, your, your own tribal IHS clinic. Like I go on to, um, pal tribal health authorities website. I go on to, um, the, um, Seattle Indian health board has a really great, um, information. Um, I’m trying to think of like, yeah, most of the urban Indian health centers, um, will have their own websites.

Chenoa Landry (38:50):

Um, the tribal health clinics will have their own websites, which are really sharing a lot of great information and that are, that are tribally specific. I know that there was some other weird, there was one weird article that came out about Johnson and it was an opinion piece about Johnson and Johnson. And that has been totally it’s. It’s been like it’s safe for native people, Johnson and Johnson. So when it, and the, the moral of the story is when a vaccine becomes available, whichever one is available to you in that time. Go ahead and go for it.

Jillene Joseph (39:28):

Yes. Nice, nice. Awesome. Okay. Um, so a little bit more about the creative, uh, program development, um, stuff that we have been doing. So, and in the excuse me and the men support circle. So they have been doing like these longer projects that take more than, you know, a week. I have this tickle in my throat. Um, so they did the drums and then they did, um, they made these Cedar boxes like that. That was a really cool, like carved these Cedar boxes. And then they made flutes. And under the, under the guidance of gene tag, a band who is one of our board members and facilitators, and he’s also, you know, a flute player. Um, so he taught them how to make these flutes. So they all got to make their own flute and then practice it. And while they were doing that in the, in the women’s support circle, we were doing like poetry writing and stuff. And so then we had a community event, um, where we all came together. I think there was like close to 40 of us that attended this community event, which was, you know, good for zoom. And we shared poetry and songs and jokes and, you know, all kinds of stuff. So that was, that was pretty awesome. And I know we’re such a, you know, a relational people I’m Chanel. Do you want to tell about the event that is tomorrow?

Chenoa Landry (40:53):

Yes. I hope you all can. Um, I hope you all can join us if you are in the Portland greater area in our West coast, um, uh, six o’clock West coast time, we’re going to be gathering via zoom and just sharing all of the things that, that we have done and learned or cleaned or organized or made during COVID, um, uh, during our isolation. So it’s called our Corrine versary celebration. Um, I thought at the beginning of this, like, I kind of had this like, um, like, like a, what do you call it? Um, prediction, I guess you could say. I was like, cause you know, everything’s shut down for like two weeks and, and I was like, the, this doesn’t make any sense. It’s going to take longer than two weeks. We might have at least six, seven months. Right. And, and so I was like, man, I have all this time, I’m going to have a fully beaded outfit at the end of this. That is why it happened. Um, so, um, anyway, uh, anything that people have made, um, if you haven’t, um, if you haven’t already posted it or even if you’ve posted it, um, you’re invited to share, so that’s, that’s kind of what we’re, we’re doing. I’m going to share my, my organized room or a counter. I don’t even know what I’m going to.

Jillene Joseph (42:16):

I know I gotta get mine together too. So speaking of the organizing, that was another, um, effort that we did, um, to, with our community engagement, as we did a decluttering and organizing workshop. So, um, we just, we have a community member, like that’s her business. She has an organizing business. It’s pretty, it’s pretty awesome. So she came on and like she had this PowerPoint and she just taught people different strategies and things to do, how to like declutter our homes. Um, and you know, coming from like a trauma lens, we know that, you know, people that have experienced trauma or currently experienced trauma sometimes, you know, we like to collect things. Other people might call it hoarding, but a softer kind of word to use is collecting. And some of us collect a lot of stuff. And so we thought, what better ways during this pandemic, when we have this time as to start decluttering.

Jillene Joseph (43:16):

So, um, when then we had some check-ins and then from that, like someone said, well, why don’t we start this Facebook page? And so we started this, you know, in the spirit of generosity page where people about declutter and they want to get rid of stuff, that’s, you know, good that some might be useful to someone else. They can put it on there. So we’ve, we started that page. We have other community members with trucks that, you know, pick up couches or bikes or, you know, all kinds of stuff and, and help help each other out. So that has been, you know, pretty awesome. Yeah. Yeah. That’s been good. So now back to the, um, vaccines, we’re still have questions coming in. We’re just kinda going back and forth here. Um, but Canada is, Hey, Candice, Candice wants to know, can you share about the vaccine and information available for families who are breastfeeding or currently pregnant?

Chenoa Landry (44:09):

Yeah. Um, so I, I did hear, I read an article, which is really cool and I can’t remember exactly where I found it. So, um, you can always check the CDC and there, you know, they talk about it’s a personal choice, et cetera. But this article that I read is some early, early research. It’s not peer reviewed yet, but it’s, um, it is that the antibodies, which the antibodies are good. So antibodies are what, um, your body produces when your body’s fighting off infections. And they are finding that the antibodies for COVID are actually being shared in breast milk. So there, um, so some early, early studies are showing that it’s actually probably beneficial for your newborns, um, to, to have, um, if a parent is, is able to, um, breastfeed that it could benefit the newborn. Um, yeah, that’s all I was going to say, but I definitely take the, I let’s see, I think I have a website I can share. And I, I also saw a comment about the information for tomorrow. I, I don’t know how to post a flyer in the comments. So, um, let’s see here. I will try to, um, try to figure that out. Maybe we can share it on the NWI website.

Jillene Joseph (45:32):

Yeah, we can do that. So we’ll put the flyer on our website for the corn, corn versary that is tomorrow.

Chenoa Landry (45:40):

And I just come in and listen. And, um, I contacted, or I had contact with the youth. Who’s wanting to share a song. She’s a song upcoming songwriter and a musician. And so I’m really excited about that. Um, and so if you want to just come and listen, observe that’s, that’s totally awesome.

Jillene Joseph (46:02):

Nice. And thank you, Jessica Antonio as well for commenting on, um, just the, more of the vaccine stuff. That’s awesome. Thank you for sharing. You know, the, all of the staff and board of the native wellness Institute have all been vaccinated. So we’re, we’re super excited and happy about that. All of our events probably for the rest of this year are going to remain online. And just because of the time it’s going to take for everyone to get vaccinated, um, and keeping our community safe. Someone had a question earlier about what, what does that mean? So for us, what, what safety means and why we’re choosing to stay online through the end of the year, um, is because of how hard COVID has hit our people. And then the deaths that have happened in our communities. And we don’t want to have any kind of gathering where someone could come and unload, only bring it.

Jillene Joseph (47:03):

And then someone, you know, who may not get sick themselves, but they may be carriers and take it home and get someone else sick, and someone else might die. So in order to be safe and to prevent that, that’s why we’re choosing not to have any, you know, gatherings through the rest of this year. Um, and that’s also why we chose to get vaccinated. So, you know, again, there’s all kinds of on vaccinations, um, because we are, you know, deal with health and wellness and healing. Um, we believe in support science and we want it to be a part of the solution. That’s some of the reasons why we chose all to get vaccinated, the staff and the board, um, again, to be a part of the solution and keep being, not only ourselves safe, but our, our families and our communities safe as well by not getting, um, COVID. So that’s kind of what we mean by, you know, staying safe. And we,

Chenoa Landry (48:04):

I personally feel like it’s a little bit early to predict, you know, it’s going to be gone by summer. And I feel like that’s really premature given the nature of these, these new variants seem to be shedding more virus, which means that they’re more contagious. Um, and so for folks, and yeah, it just feels like there’s, there’s like a lot of variables. And so to me, um, being safe as like, just being more cautious, cause we, we just don’t know. And especially with the more that kids are, um, I just, I feel really like concerned that, um, I don’t want our kids to continue to get sick. Cause I have, I do know of children who have gotten sick from it and I would rather play it safe.

Jillene Joseph (49:00):

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So the native wellness Institute, like I said, we’re coming up on our year anniversary. I dislike, remember it vividly, we had a training over in Florida. Um, I traveled over on March 9th and I came back on March 12th. And while we were gone as like when the country started shutting down and once we got on the airplane, like there was people sitting behind us that had just left Germany, their work called them at 3:00 AM and said, pack your bags. You put your on the six o’clock flight. And it was just like, Whoa, like this is getting real. And so, um, we had a staff meeting on Friday the 13th. We had a board meeting on that following Monday on the 16th. And by that next Saturday, the 21st is when we started our native wellness power hours. So this Sunday we’re actually doing an anniversary power hour on Sunday at noon.

Jillene Joseph (49:55):

And it’s going to, it’s kind of going to be like a wellness extravaganza power hour. So we’re going to have just like five minute little presentations of songs and, you know, messaging and, you know, stuff like that. So please remember to tune in on Sunday where we’ll have a flyer out today, actually just helping to promote that. But we just want to celebrate our year anniversary. I mean, really for all of us, right. We’re, we’re, we’ve all been in this for a year now and yes, there has, it’s been challenging and, you know, yes, we’ve struggles, but we’ve also had a lot of blessings. And so one of the things that I have tried to do all throughout COVID is like point out those blessings and, and to even say, this is a blessing of COVID right. This is a blessing of COVID. This is a blessing of COVID. So Shanoah what, what has been a blessing of COVID for you that you have experienced?

Chenoa Landry (50:50):

I think, um, connecting with people in new and different ways for one. Um, and hi. Hi Debbie. Hi. I see like a lot of people on here. Hi, Sheila. I see, uh, all these. Hi everybody. Um, I’m just now seeing some of the comments, sorry. Um, but I th I think that we have a lot of blessings and I, I, um, I was talking with a mentor the other day actually, and he was talking about, um, like we’ve been talking about how this is, like this time of isolation has been prophesized by a lot of native people, a lot of indigenous people. And this is like a, for lack of a better word, a test, I guess, to see how our, um, how we react and what we do. And I feel like, um, some of the blessings I’ve had is just spending more, more time with my, um, with my family and, and really, um, some of it is challenging and we get in each other’s hair and all of that good stuff, but also, um, spending some time and self-reflection, and like, um, you know, I’ve, I think I’ve shared this before is that I, I, I manage my anxiety.

Chenoa Landry (52:02):

I’ve had anxiety for many, many years, and I think perhaps creator gave me that gift of anxiety to help me prepare for this time and like knowing how to self regulate and manage those. So, yeah. Being able to, um, Oh, I see someone, um, talking about their learning their language online, a lot more online learning. Um, I’ve connected a lot with my, um, my, my language relatives, uh, shout out to PO tribal language department and relatives, et cetera. Um, so that’s been really cool. Um, I could probably go on about the many blessings. Um, I feel like that’s the only way that I’ve been able to, um, survive is to,

Jillene Joseph (52:49):

Wow, that’s awesome. Um, I too have been able to attend language classes because, because of zoom, you know, I’ve attended a funeral on zoom and, and, and that was a blessing I was grateful for, for zoom that allowed me to do that. I attended a play on zoom. Um, and that was, that was amazing. Um, so there’s been, there has been all kinds of, of blessings and I, I wanted to bring that up because I think that helps to balance out, you know, the challenges and things like that, that, that we’ve been, you know, experiencing through this, there, there have been blessings as well. So there’s always that flip side to everything. So even in the, even in the chat, if you can share, you know, what, what are some of the blessings that you have experienced, um, during this pandemic? And then, you know, Jessica is she, she keeps dropping some great knowledge here in the chat, reminding us that even when we get vaccinated, um, we still have to be vigilant right about wearing masks and using hand sanitizer and infecting spate, you know, spaces and counters and, you know, all of that kind of stuff.

Jillene Joseph (54:01):

Right. So thank you. Thank you for that reminder. And then Shinoa also mentioned the variance and we have to, we have to stay up on the variance. So, you know, just like the flu, the regular flu, there’s different strains of the regular flu. There’s different variants, if you will, right. And this is what’s happening, the same thing is happening with COVID. And in fact, here in Oregon, there’s like there, they’re calling it the eat for short, because of all the letters and numbers. That is the real name of it, but there’s a, there’s an Oregon variant. Um, that was just discovered last week, actually. And they’re saying that it’s kinda more like the Brazil and the South African variant, which is like a little bit more aggressive variant. So time will tell about how that’s gonna, you know, continue to move forward. And so if we’re not testing for variants, we’re not going to find them. Right. So it’s because, you know, the Oregon health sciences university is like studying, studying these. And so that’s just another reason that we have to, you know, move forward with caution, um, and, and to protect ourselves and our, our families and our communities. So we have like a one minute left or so, do you have any final thoughts that you would like to share with our viewers today?

Chenoa Landry (55:25):

First of all, I want to thank you all for watching. And we have a lot of regulars that check in every day. Hi mom.

Jillene Joseph (55:32):

No.

Chenoa Landry (55:36):

And also, um, yeah, just, I, I really appreciate everyone sharing their, um, their concerns and anxieties, and, um, also getting through that and, and, and pushing forward and keeping each other safe, but, you know, doing our public health practices, wearing our mask. And hand-washing so thank you for this really good reminders and if we have access to the vaccine, um, and I, and I also want to, um, I want to say it too, that I feel like people get, there’s a lot of emotion around it. And, um, and I understand people’s fear and anxiety around it. And I also don’t want people to feel like I am telling you what to do. Um, and I, that sometimes people feel like that, or, or, you know, I felt like, you know, we each are responsible for our own body and our own self and our own health.

Chenoa Landry (56:31):

And so if, if you really, really feel strongly that, um, that this isn’t a safe choice for you, then I would encourage you to, you know, talk with your provider and, um, and, you know, and say, um, you know, talk about those things and keep an open mind and, um, on the, on the safety and then, and it’s not in any judgment. So I, I also want to just recognize that I’m not, I’m not judging anyone. Um, I just want you all to be safe cause we, we all love you and we want you to be here for our future generations.

Jillene Joseph (57:06):

Yes, definitely. Yeah, no judging for sure. We’re in, we’re encouraging. Right. And so my, I just want to thank everyone as well for tuning in. I want to thank you Shinoa for coming and sharing your knowledge. Um, we hope that some of the examples that we shared may inspire you to like, Oh, I, I want to try that in my community or something like that. We want to invite you to come on Sunday for our one-year anniversary of our power hours. And we’re going to have an awesome wellness extravaganza power hour with music and inspiring words and things like that. That will be on Sunday at noon, Pacific time on the native wellness institutes, Facebook page. Um, we also want to remind you, I’m wearing my, get your well on shirts. We have lots of different shirts. Um, healing, people heal, people shift happens, grandma up, uh, healing as a verb.

Jillene Joseph (58:04):

Uh, I forget some of the other ones. So these are on sale online. They help us fund actually our power hours we offer. We also have a sweater. I meant to bring it down, but I forgot. And it says, um, I am worthy, but, but it’s backwards. And tell you, look in a mirror, then you can see that it says I am worthy. And then on the back, it says we are worthy. So we have hoodies and I’m crew, neck sweatshirts. Those are also on our website, native wellness.com. Um, you can go, you can go check those out. So we want to encourage everyone, um, to get vaccinated. If you haven’t learned more, if you still have fear or questions about it. Um, and then we hope to see you tomorrow. And the next day, and next week, we don’t know how long we’re going with the power hours. We just started them because we’ve never been in a pandemic. We didn’t know how long they were going to go. Um, but, but we just keep doing them. And we’re grateful to the noise foundation for their financial support and helping us bring this to you each day.

Chenoa Landry (59:07):

Oh yeah.

Jillene Joseph (59:11):

You all take care. We’ll see you next time.