An open letter to the Mendocino County Community
Dear Mendocino County Community,
We 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.
We 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 “there are no hospital beds in all of Northern California.” 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.
We 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’t imagine working anywhere else. But we need your help to prevent hospitalizations and deaths.
Rumors 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.
If you would like to get vaccinated for FREE, please visit:
Erica Valdovinos, MD
Georgina Calderon, MD MPH
J. Drew Colfax, MD JD
Mike Hausberger, DO
Martha Montgomery, MD MS
Gigi Lee, MD
Carolyn Boley, NP
Debbie Marks, MD
Gary Fausone, MD
Jennifer Zernec, DO
Katie Hatch, MD
Jorge A Allende, MD
Lisa Gamble, PA-C
Mark Luoto, MD
Duncan Johnston, MD
Tod Imperato, FNP
Jodi Parungao, MD
Brian Gould, DO
Hayley Rousek, MD
Charles Baugh, MD
Gerry V. Lazzareschi, MD
Angela Mapanao, DO
Gretchen Duran, PA
Noah Chutz, PA-C
Marvin Trotter, MD
Mary Newkirk, MD
Sara Martin, MD
Brandon Begley, DO
Cindy Novella, FNP
Barry Sheppard, MD
James Dolan, MD
Chloe Nicolaisen, MD
John Rochat MD
Meghan McCurry, DO
Elaine Yang, MD
Timothy Burger, MD
Andrea McCullough MD
E. Xavier Ortiz, MD
Michael Mian, MD
Cameron MacInnis, MD
Cara Eberhardt, MD
Mark Apfel, MD
Casey Johnston, MD
David Streeter, MD
Robin Serrahn, MD
Kirsten Q. Juliet, MD
Anne Martin-Ko, MD
Ilan Kolkowitz, MD
Paul Hupp, PA-C
Linda K James, MD
Sharon Paltin, MD
Snehal Raisoni, MD
Hengbing Wang, MD
Lawrence Goldyn, MD
Elizabeth Whipkey-Olson, DO
Angus Matheson, MD
D. Mills Matheson, MD
Ziad Hanna, DO
Zoe Berna, MD
Scott Gherini, MD
Jason Ullyott, PA
John Lee, MD
Marisa Zuluaga, MD
Faith Simon, FNP
Jeremy Clay, MD MPH
Cynthia Mockel, FNP
Scott Loeliger, MD, MS
Cayo Alba, CNM
Chris Ayeko, FNP
Ali Kanat, CNM
Talitha Marty, PA
