A message from our President > Don Gaede, MD
3 reasons why this is a great time to be president of FMMS 1. We are in the middle of a pandemic
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Don Gaede, MD is board certified in Internal Medicine and fellowship trained in vascular medicine. He is a varicose vein specialist with extensive training and years of experience practicing vascular medicine. Dr. Gaede earned his medical degree from Loma Linda University School of Medicine. His residency was completed at University of California, San Francisco, Fresno and his fellowship at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
Spring 2021
Our medical society came into being to help address crises just like this one. In the late 1800s, small pox was still a world-wide scourge. And yes, there was vaccination hesitancy then too. FMMS stepped up to create a community-wide small pox vaccination program. Fast forward to 2021: one of the primary goals of our medical society is encouraging everyone in our Valley to “take their best shot”—get vaccinated. I don’t recall ever feeling more enthused about our medical society than when working with our Vaccine Acceptance Committee as we collaborate with the Fresno County Public Health Department to promote COVID-19 vaccination. We’ve developed several vaccination PSAs, and recruited people like Jerry Dyer (Fresno mayor), DJ Criner (prominent Fresno black minister), John Binaski, Fire Chief City of Clovis (English) to “star” in them. We also have PSAs in multiple languages including Juan G. Bautista, MD (English and Spanish), Jose L. Bautista, MD (English and Spanish), Oscar Sablan, MD (English), Alexander Sanborn (American Sign Language), Tou Mouanoutoua, MD (Hmong), Pao Yang, CEO of Fresno Center (Hmong), and Sukhjit Dhillon, MD (Punjabi). Keep an eye out for these PSAs—they’re coming soon to a TV screen near you! PSAs help, but we physicians are our patients’ best source of information about the vaccine. In speaking to my patients about it, I’ve learned that sometimes you have to bite your tongue and listen before you start sermonizing. Recently, I was winding up a follow-up visit of my 50-ish male patient: “Hey by the way, do you have any questions about the COVID-19 vaccine?” He paused. “Well, my wife and I have been talking about it and we’re not sure we’re going to get it.”
CENTRAL VALLEY PHYSICIANS 5
