Dr. M. Cameron Hay-Rollins – “Social Circle Disease”

A Replay of the ZOOM Meeting is Here

COVID-19 UPDATE

In keeping with social distancing requirements – our CNO Meetings have transitioned temporarily to a online format using ZOOM.

Club Member Joe Madden was inspired to rewrite The Optimist Creed – so we give you now – The Corona Creed -with apologies to Christian D. Larson, Author of The Optimist Creed.

Welcome Guests!

No Guests this week.

New Member Readings and Inductions

No Readings or Inductions this week.

Zoom Meeting This Week

We had another meeting using Zoom. We will continue our weekly meetings via computer, cell phone or tablet for at least the next several weeks. Please join us and keep inviting guests.

Who can Attend Zoom Meetings?

Any member of any type of Centerville Noon Optimist can attend Zoom meetings. CNO 2.0, St Leonard’s and CNO full members or CNO monthly members can ALL attend.

Guests are also welcome. Please invite guests and introduce them if you like. Just share the Zoom link with them for that week.

Special Announcement

There is no meeting on 6/30/2020. Our next meeting will be 7/7/2020 at noon on Zoom.

Save the Date for a Special Speaker on 7/21/2020

Optimist International President Adrian Elcock will join our Zoom meeting on 7/21/2020 from Barbados.

Announcements

Mike Bevis, chair of the Tom Frazier Tee Off for Youth Golf Event fundraiser, announced that the golf fundraiser for 2020 has been cancelled. This would have been the 29th year of this fundraiser. They are looking forward to holding next year on July 12, 2021. The current situation does not make it possible to guarantee a perfectly healthy and safe event for our 140 golfers and 50 volunteers. It is with great sadness that the committee made the tough decision to cancel this year’s Tee Off for Youth Golf classic.

Tom Novak, flag committee, announced that since Memorial Day there has been an explosion of subscriptions. The flag committee has added 7 new routes to help handle the additional 424 flags. They can use more volunteers to help with delivery and pickup. Volunteer to help with our biggest fundraiser! Also, Mike Brubaker announced that there is a direct URL to the Avenue of Flags sign up page on our website. You can direct people to CentervilleFlags.com. This link will take them to https://centervillenoonoptimist.com/avenue-of-flags/.

Social Event

Beth Duncan announced that the Social distancing committee will have a Zoom event on Thursday, July 9th at 6:30 PM. More details to come.

Happy Birthday Gary DeMarco and Carrie Million

Today was Gary DeMarco’s and Carrie Million’s birthday. The signing was terrible as usual. I thought we could at least rhyme Gary and Carrie, but I was wrong. We wish you two a very happy birthday and thank you for all you do for our club and community.

Dr. M. Cameron Hay-Rollins – Professor of Anthropology, Miami University

Mike Bevis introduced Dr. M. Cameron Hay-Rollins – Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Miami University. She is also the Director of the Global Health Research Innovation Center. Additionally, she is an Associate Research Anthropologist for the Center for Culture and Health, for the Department of Psychiatry at UCLA. She has expertise in both medical and psychological anthropology. She is committed to challenging students to question their own assumptions. Her students call her Dr. Hay. One of her studies had her living for 2 years at the base of a volcano.

View her slide deck here. 

Her presentation was titled, “Can your Social Circle Kill You?”

Medical anthropology is the study of how people understand, experience and cope with disease. Disease doesn’t act alone, it is more complex.

Dr. Hay studies global health. She asks, “Through collaboration, how can we ameliorate health inquires?”

Anthropological data tells us

  • Humans are inherently social beings
  • We need others to learn, survive and reproduce
  • We value getting along with others

The Fore people of Papua New Guinea

In Papua New Guinea, there was a study from 1957-1968 of how the Fore people dealt with constant disease and death.

There was an epidemic of otherwise healthy women and children. There was clearly an epidemic of the disease Kuru. Studying just the reported facts can mislead scientists. They were trying to find out why the Fore were so much more likely to die of Kuru. The Fore people had only at 10% chance of survival while surrounding groups had an 84% chance of survival. Over a decade, there were many hypotheses that didn’t stand.

Shirley Lindenbaum, a medical anthropologist, and her team finally figured out that the disease was spreading through cannibalism. Cannibalism was outlawed, but the men of the Fore ate almost all the animal meat. Mothers knew while pregnant that they needed the added nutrition of meat for themselves and young children and they resorted to cannibalism.

Cultural Assumptions and Infant Mortality Rates

Anthropology uses empirical evidence to examine our cultural assumptions about the way the world works. Assumptions are important to humans as they enable us to quickly figure out how to act in the world.

Many might first assume that the genetics of race is why black babies are twice as likely to die as white babies. Ohio’s black infant mortality rate is among the highest in the U.S. In Ohio’s Butler county, the infant mortality rate of African American babies is consistently at least twice as high as other groups. Genetics and race have nothing to do with the difference. The difference is the amount of health care expectant mothers receive.

The main reason given by non-white women for not going to their health care providers is that they do not trust health care workers. When they do choose to get health care, they struggle just to make it to an appointment.

Cameron showed us a video produced by several mothers with struggles asking what people are assuming based on how they look. Nearly everyone has a struggle. There is often some unknown that explains why choices are made that are not ideal. A young high school student can have a 4.0 GPA but end up not going to college because they had to help their parents provide for the family. They worry that they will be judged poorly because their insurance provider is Medicaid. They do not choose to be in the situations. They want to be good mothers and they make good health choices.

Mothers want you to see them as mothers who want to do the right thing. They ask us not to make assumptions based on the color of their skin or the insurance type they have.

How Emerging Adults Interpret Sensations During an Epidemic

Salient Symptoms are often not understood by everyone, but especially young adults.

When deciding if they have a fever, young adults will make the wrong call either way. They will go to the health center because they think 99 is a fever because, “my normal temperature is low”. Or they will have a fever and say, “I haven’t had a fever or anything serious.”. Or they might say, “I didn’t have a fever, I like had a 99.8”.

Students will go to the health center when they, “felt like crap”. When they are run down and basically cannot function, they will do self-care. They may in fact be sick, but they cannot tell the difference. Students are used to not getting enough sleep to get projects done. They believe they are invincible. Their mothers tell them to get enough sleep and to drink plenty of liquids even when they feel fine, but many do not listen. Parenting experience tells us that telling someone to do something does not necessarily result in the desired behavior.

COVID-19 Death Rates

The demographics of an area affects the death rate for COVID-19. The rate varies by country and even counties in a U.S. state. The age and habits of people affect the outcome. Italy’s death rate is 14% of those that get the virus, while in the U.S. it is 5%. Italy’s population is much older, and there are a lot more smokers. Italy’s health care system is not as good as the U.S. system.

Knowledge does NOT always equal action. Humans are social. Many social aspects affect the spread of this disease. People will be weighing what they should do against what matters to them. This year people still gathered for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day even though it has been recommended to reduce gatherings. Some will wear masks and social distance. Dr. Hay asks, “How far will they social distance?”

Dr. Hay’s Summary

Whether we are talking about Kuru disease, infant mortality or coronavirus, the ways we think and what we value and what we trust influences our outcomes.

The answer to, “Can your social circle kill you?”, is, “Yes.”

As social beings, our social circle also gives our lives meaning and thus saves us.

Thank You Notes sent to CNO

No Thank You Notes this week.

CNO Donations 2013 through May 2020

Click this link to see a summary of the donations our club has made.

Over 50 years, we have donated close to $2,000,000 to our youth community. In the past 6 years, we have donated nearly $753,000.

Birthdays

Member Birthday
Carrie Million June 23
Gary DeMarco June 23
Dick Lee June 23
Cherie Gentry June 24
Jay McAlpine June 24
Paulette Novak June 25
Charlie Goodwin June 26
Wayne Christie June 26
Robby Johnson June 27
Valorie Huff June 28
Frank DePalma June 29

Membership Anniversaries

No Membership Anniversaries this week.

 Sergeants at Arms

No Sergeants this week. 

Happy Bucks

No Happy Bucks this week.

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