While KISAR’s normal meeting and training schedules have been suspended during the current coronavirus crisis, we can still stay abreast of the most current and relevant information facing our community and mission. There is plenty of news out there and much of it is highly stress inducing.  But real, objective knowledge can be empowering and a means to ground yourself in the midst of what can otherwise feel like information chaos.

To this end I would recommend the following lecture on the novel coronavirus and the resulting pathology, called COVID-19. The epidemiology (the first third of the video) and virology/pathology (second third) are very instructive for those of us who have enjoyed and benefited from Deb Ajango’s wilderness first aid classes and her explainers at the whiteboard. The final third (laboratory/clinical analysis) is rich with medical jargon and somewhat outside the normal scope of most of our training, but nonetheless very interesting.

Youtube: Coronavirus: Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, Diagnostics

Closer to home, I would also like to recommend watching Dr Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer, update Alaskans on the statewide COVID-19 situation as part of Governor Dunleavy’s weekday press conferences. Her contributions are incredibly smart, accessible, direct, information rich, utterly topical, plainly and succinctly delivered, and filled with humility and empathy.

State of Alaska Vimeo (click “watch again”): daily COVID-19 Press Briefing