Studying Long COVID | Debate on California’s Wild Horses | Pacific Standard Jazz Orchestra

What UC Davis Post-COVID Clinic has learned about ‘long covid.’ The migration of a herd of wild horses in eastern California has reignited a decades-long controversy over their growing population. Pacific Standard Jazz Orchestra debuts this weekend.  

Studying Long COVID

In the public eye, the pandemic feels more and more like past tense. This week Governor Gavin Newsom said California’s COVID “state of emergency” will come to an end in February, which will mark three years since our way of life was uprooted and dismantled with stay-at-home orders and shutdowns in the spirit of public health. This follows President Biden, telling 60 Minutes last month that “the pandemic is over” while also cautioning that “COVID is still a problem.” But people are still getting COVID; hundreds are still dying each day in the U.S., and for some who recover, they face a “grey area” of perplexing lingering symptoms that can last for weeks or months from what we’ve come to call “long covid.” This week, in an interview with the Guardian, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned of prematurely declaring the pandemic over because of long covid, calling it “a very insidious beneath-the-radar-screen public health emergency.” Although still mysterious in many ways, researchers do know more now. UC Davis Health is one of the select university hospitals across the country that created a Post COVID-Clinic back in 2020. With the perspective of two years of treating patients, we’ve invited Dr. Bradley Sanville, a pulmonary and critical care physician, to discuss what they’ve learned.   

California's wild horses

They're an iconic (and beloved) symbol of the American West: wild horses. According to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), over 64,000 wild horses roam the western United States, with roughly 75% of them galloping throughout most of Nevada and portions of California. The most recent migration, a herd, moving from Northern Nevada to Mono County in the Eastern Sierra, is reigniting a decades-long debate between protecting these symbolic creatures and the sustainability of the landscape. Over the years, these horses have dominated public lands to the point where some consider them a destructive nuisance. However, others believe they are a vital aspect of the ecosystem, and more needs to be done to increase their numbers. To tell us more about wild horses and the complicated issues surrounding them, Insight invited Dr. Amanda Gearhart, a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, to join the program, she's a rangeland scientist who focuses on restoring Nevada rangelands and formerly a wild horse and burro specialist with the BLM.

Pacific Standard Jazz Orchestra

Think of the perfect jazz partnership of Louie Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald and combine it with the big band style of Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra. That is the inspiration for a new ensemble in Sacramento. The Pacific Standard Jazz Orchestra is a mixed jazz ensemble that celebrates what they call “The Great American Songbook,” a compilation of great musical works from the early 20th century. But they’re approaching these classics with a modern twist. Elizabeth Unpingco and Levi Saelua are the co-directors of the orchestra and joined Insight to discuss their debut live performance this weekend at the Delta King on Saturday, Oct. 22, along the Sacramento Waterfront.