A resident recently asked about how to stay up-to-date on the happenings in town, given the many unsettling issues surrounding us, and Town Administrator Kristine Trierweiler shared this great summary (BTW, today’s emergency SB meeting was done live via Zoom, and will be on You Tube soon – we postponed the town election to May 4 and the annual town meeting postponed to a date TBD):

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This email came this afternoon from the Massachusetts Municipal Association, which contains a link to an absolute trove of links to information on the COVD-19 virus.

BTW, the MMA does not seem to know that Gus is our SB chair – I spent two days at the MMA annual meeting in January with that error on my name tag.

Dear Board of Selectmen Chair Peterson,

I hope that this email finds you and your family safe and in good health. I am writing to share some important resources with you that I hope may be of some use as you work hard to support your community and keep essential services flowing to residents during this uncertain time.

First, please be sure to check out the MMA’s COVID-19 Resource Page. This page is being continuously updated and aggregates information to help municipal leaders respond and continue their critical operations.

I also wanted to call to your attention a recent article written by Stephanie Helm of the MassCyber Center with some guidance for cities and towns on cybersecurity and telework. As Stephanie points out, “as we modify our work practices to operate remotely, cybersecurity must continue to be an important element of municipal safety and security.” Although we unfortunately had to cancel the March MSA meeting dedicated to this topic, we are hard at work on developing a webinar in partnership with the MassCyber Center that we will share more details about in the coming weeks!

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Be well,

Isabelle

Isabelle Nichols

Member Services Coordinator

Massachusetts Municipal Association

One Winthrop Square, Boston, MA 02110

These two items come from Nextdoor.com (my Medfield subscription seems to include people from Dover, Sherborn, and Natick).

The second medical post has lots of links to information.

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Public Information Officer Chris Besse

, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency

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Open Letter from Healthcare Professionals in the Dover -Sherborn Community

March 20, 2020 Dear Friends and Neighbors, Many of us are aching for social contact. Many in the community, particularly our children, are anxious, scared and bored. All we want is a sense of normality, so a play date with a healthy friend or some exercise with classmates/friends seems fine. Unfortunately, it is those very things that seem normal that put our community and each other at risk.

As health professionals living in the Dover-Sherborn community, we want to reinforce the important messages put out by the CDC, Massachusetts State officials and the D-S school system. As hard as it may be to stay home and not have close contact with friends and relatives, the ONLY way to slow the spread of the coronavirus and to protect everyone in the community is to practice excellent hand hygiene and significantly limit close contact with others outside the home. There are some excellent resources shared by the schools and others for helping to cope at home, do projects, manage anxiety for all ages, and use communication tools, such as FaceTime, Skype and Zoom. This will not be forever, but the sooner we can act, the greater the chance we have to make a difference.

COVID-19, the coronavirus pandemic disease, continues to spread throughout Massachusetts, and hospital cases here in metro-Boston are increasing exponentially by the day. The disease can be passed on by people who are infected but have no symptoms. Because of this, young people with mild or no symptoms can spread the disease to older people. This disease is most serious for people over the age of 60 and those with underlying medical conditions, including heart disease, lung disease and diabetes. However, there are also serious cases of patients in their 40s and 50s. The virus spreads easily, and because it is a new disease, LITERALLY NONE of us is immune to it. The ONLY way to slow and eventually stop the spread of this condition is to focus on protecting ourselves and protecting others.

Many of our own community members are working night and day, not seeing their families, to care for patients and get the healthcare system ready. If we don’t slow down the spread, we will not have enough resources (nurses, doctors, beds, masks, ventilators, etc.) to care for the number of people who get seriously ill, and we will lose community members needlessly. As you have likely heard, hospitals are already low on protective equipment. These are not just stories you see on the news; these are your neighbors, friends and parents of your kids’ friends.

YOU CAN HELP. HAVE YOUR FAMILY DO ITS PART.

We strongly support the following practices and implore our amazing community to do the same:

1. Follow updates from the CDC COVID-19 update website. There is excellent information here on all aspects of the illness and the response.
2. Protect Yourself
   1. • Wash your hands often (if no sink or soap is available, use hand sanitizer with > 60% alcohol) – especially after being in public places or sneezing, coughing, etc.
   2. • Do NOT touch your face with unwashed hands
   3. • Everyone should avoid close contact with people outside of your own household. This means keeping at least SIX feet apart and only for short periods of time.
3. Protect Others
   1. • Stay home if you are sick
   2. • Cover mouth and nose for sneezing and coughing with your elbow or a tissue, then throw the tissue away and thoroughly wash your hands
   3. • Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces daily, including tables, door knobs, counters, refrigerator handles, etc.
   4. • Avoid close contact with others. Social distancing means deliberately staying at least SIX feet away from others.

 

Resources: If you need help managing anxiety and/or how you can manage or make the most of having your children home, here are some helpful resources.

CDC: Manage Anxiety & Stress https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prepare/managing-stress-anxiety.html

Mass General Hospital Clay Center https://www.massgeneral.org/news/coronavirus/coronavirus-latest-updates

Boston Children’s Hospital http://www.childrenshospital.org/conditions-and-treatments/conditions/c/coronavirus

NESCA (Neuropsychology & Education Services for Children & Adolescents) Blog Resources for Families: https://nesca-newton.com/coronavirus/

Child Mind Institute https://childmind.org/coping-during-covid-19-resources-for-parents/

Thank you very much,

Michelle Gurvitz, MD MS Adult Congenital Cardiologist Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital Alexy Arauz Boudreau MD, MPH, FAAP MGHfC Medical Director for Primary Care & Population Health Management Massachusetts General Hospital Geetanjali Kulkarni MD Carney hospital Department of radiology Heather Lee, ScD, Chief Department of public health research The CnT Lab Sarah Teele Department of Cardiology Cardiac Intensive Care Unit Boston Children’s Hospital Katie Wakeley MD Gynecologic Oncology DFCI/South Shore Hospital Kevin M. Ban, MD CMO, Walgreens Imad H Khan, MD Franklin Pediatrics and Adolescent Care Mohini Daya, MD Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Brigham and Women’s Hospital, soon to be Newton Wellesley Hospital on 4/1/2020. Dan Murphy EMT/Firefighter Dover Fire Department Lisa Slotnick RN, BSN School Nurse Sam Kim, MD Emergency Medicine Nashoba Valley Medical Center and Morton Hospital Jen Dearden, MD Pediatric Anesthesiologist Boston Children’s Hospital Treasurer, Medical Staff Organization Avi Patel, MD Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine Lahey Hospital & Medical Center Sarah Tindall, RN Habit OPCO Methadone Clinics Lynn and Brockton Kathryn Grannatt, MD Chief of Orthopedic Surgery Beth Israel Needham Hospital Gerald Ross Marx M.D. Associate Professor Pediatrics Harvard School of Medicine Senior Associate Cardiology Boston Children’s Hospital Josh Salvin MD Department of Cardiology Cardiac Intensive Care Unit Boston Children’s Hospital Douglas Atkinson MD Associate Cardiac Anesthesia and Intensive Care Boston Children’s Hospital Margaret Parsons, RN Dover-Sherborn Middle School Nurse Allyson Solorzano, CPNP Needham Pediatrics Parul Desai MD Needham Wellesley Family Medicine Dept of Family Medicine Newton Wellesley Hospital Al Sepehr, MD Dermatopathologist & Laboratory Director Northeast Dermatology President and Founder Beacon Pathology Jennifer James, MHA Ted James, MD, FACS Alissa Saunders, MD Goli Sepehr, MD Department of Pathology Atrius Health Heather Coldebella, MS, CGC Genetic Counselor

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a virus (more specifically, a coronavirus) identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China.

CDC.GOV