Story and photos by Darl DeVault

Recent retiree Rob Walker, 64, wants to share the concept that social distancing is an automatic added benefit of learning to kayak while exploring Oklahoma’s many places to get on the water. He explains that the flow of any river, the currents and the variations in any lake enforces social distancing. >From this, he insists seniors who take up the sport of kayaking are assured a COVID-19 safe recreational outing.
“Social distancing comes with the territory when you’re kayaking because you cannot get that close to each other without intending to get close to each other,” Edmond resident Walker said. “And certainly, if you are on one of Oklahoma’s rivers the current is such a variable that you have to consciously work to get within social distance of someone, making it safe to have a wonderful outing on the water.”
Oklahoma’s 1,231 square miles of water provide new senior paddle sport enthusiasts with plenty of safe opportunities for recreation. Paddle sport insiders say our state’s 78,603 miles of rivers entice senior kayakers to become outdoor enthusiasts.
Although magazine and television ads often portray sea and whitewater kayaking, Oklahoma has none of the former and little of the latter. Flatwater kayaking (also called recreational kayaking) with wide, lightweight plastic touring boats, dominates in Oklahoma.
A new generation of these wider, inexpensive flatwater kayaks with dynamic control and lightweight construction is fueling a paddle sport explosion. With the control and balance provided by these smaller, wider boats, many seniors have been enticed to try the sport.
With the COVID-19 pandemic requiring people to be six feet away from each other even in a recreational setting, safety on the water is now a plus. The need for social distancing means that for seniors kayaking is one of the safest forms of exercise.
Overall safety is also determined by other things that go on each day like the weather and the river flow rate seniors might be on or the conditions in a lake.
“I advise anyone planning to kayak or canoe to first go online to the many web sites detailing flow conditions and weather predictions,” said Larry Floyd, Surrey Hill outdoorsman and hiking book author. “With the demand placed on our rivers by the large number of paddlers in Oklahoma many organizations help us float safe by monitoring flow rates and weather conditions.”
This kayak boom is accompanied by growing scientific analysis of river conditions that make the sport safer than ever. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service data is presented and interpreted on numerous Web sites that give the paddler plenty of information to plan a safe trip. A link to the main site is: https://water.weather.gov/ahps/ The weather service provides this info to help promote its weather awareness activities.
Walker says fellow seniors who bicycle catch on to the effortless balance and the instant feedback provided by the new generation wider kayaks. He says many comment on how similar the two feelings are and yet one can relax more in a kayak when choosing to drift along with the river to admire the scenery.
The 60-mile section of the Illinois River near Tahlequah, where it flows nearly due west for its first 15 miles in Oklahoma until it joins Flint Creek, is a slow-moving place to relax according to Walker. He said you will find people in rubber rafts, canoes and kayaks traversing the river all summer. There the river ranges from 40 to 80 feet in width, with elms, maples, and oaks on the riverbank.
Recent technology has upgraded the quality and lowered the price of boats available to the recreational kayaker, while providing great kayaking opportunities for those of all ages, shapes, abilities, and fitness levels. As newcomers to the sport, many seniors enjoy the stability and ease of boarding these wider recreational boats.
Seniors can easily find out if they enjoy kayaking by renting one for a few hours. Flat Tide Paddleboard Rentals puts you on the water in kayaks and paddleboards at the northeast corner of Lake Overholser near the Route 66 Bridge on the weekends. Nearby RIVERSPORT at Overholser also rents all paddle sport recreational craft.
Seniors can use their kayaks on local lakes, ponds, rivers, or Class II streams. Most kayaks have a variety of uses such as weekend, full week, or longer self-supported river trips.
Many seniors are attracted to these new generation boats ranging from sit-on-tops to open-cockpit tandems. The closed-cockpit singles seen on Oklahoma lakes and rivers are generally shorter and wider (27-30 inches) than the standard expedition-style (20-25 inches). This makes them easy to maneuver and more stable. This feeling of being in control while gliding effortlessly through the water provides even the newbie senior the confidence to take a spin on flat water.
Some of these wider for seniors kayaks can be seen online at this link: https://kayakmanual.com/best-kayaks-for-senior-citizens/
Other seniors are buying kayaks for fishing platforms, with many seen seriously fishing from a kayak on Oklahoma water. “Fishing is one of the strongest segments of all of kayaking,” Floyd said. “Recreational kayak fishing is huge in Oklahoma with many different types and styles of fishing kayaks – whether you want sit on top or sit in the kayak.”
With all the major boat builders offering Web sites with tours of their products, one can comparison shop like never before. Shoppers should review the weight and features of many boats before purchasing. Again, stressing safety, everyone should wear a PFD (personal floatation device or lifejacket) on the water.
The Oklahoma River in downtown Oklahoma City is a boon to recreational kayaking. Organizers have created RIVERSPORT at the Chesapeake Boathouse to rent equipment and provide instruction to paddlers interested in kayaking and a wide variety of paddle sports such as stand up paddle boarding, whitewater kayaking and dragon boating.

Dear Savvy Senior, All this horrible coronavirus carnage got me thinking about my own end-of-life decisions if I were to get sick. Can you recommend some good resources that can help me create a living will or advance directive, or other pertinent documents? I’ve put it off long enough. Almost 70

Dear Almost,
Creating a living will (also known as an advance directive) is one of those things most people plan to do, but rarely get around to actually doing. Only about one-third of Americans currently have one. But the cold hard reality of the novel coronavirus may be changing that. Here’s what you should know along with some resources to help you create an advance directive.
Advance Directives
To adequately spell out your wishes regarding your end-of-life medical treatment are two key documents: A “living will” which tells your doctor what kind of care you want to receive if you become incapacitated, and a “health care power of attorney” (or health care proxy), which names a person you authorize to make medical decisions on your behalf if you become unable to.
These two documents are known as an “advance directive,” and will only be utilized if you are too ill to make medical decisions yourself. You can also change or update it whenever you please.
It isn’t necessary to hire a lawyer to prepare an advance directive. There are free or low-cost resources available today to help you create one, and it takes only a few minutes from start to finish.
One that I highly recommend that’s completely free to use is My Directives (MyDirectives.com). This is an online tool and mobile app that will help you create, store and share a detailed, customized digital advance directive. Their easy-to-use platform combines eight thoughtful questions to guide you through the process. If you’re not computer savvy, ask a family member or trusted friend to help you.
The advantage of having a digital advance directive versus a paper document is being able to access it quickly and easily via smartphone, which is crucial in emergency situations when they’re most often needed.
If, however, you’d rather have a paper document, one of the best do-it-yourself options is the Five Wishes advance directive (they offer online forms too). Created by Aging with Dignity, a nonprofit advocacy organization, Five Wishes costs $5, and is available in many languages. To learn more or to receive a copy, visit FiveWishes.org or call 850-681-2010.
Another tool you should know about that will compliment your advance directive is the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment, or POLST (sometimes called Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment, or MOLST). A POLST form translates your end-of-life wishes into medical orders to be honored by your doctors. To learn more about your state’s program or set one up, see POLST.org.
Readers should also know that if you’ve already prepared an advanced directive paper document, a POLST form or the VA advance directive form 10-0137, you can upload, store and share these documents too at MyDirectives.com.
And finally, to ensure your final wishes are followed, make sure to tell your family members, health care proxy and doctors. If you make a digital advance directive or have uploaded your existing forms, you can easily share them electronically to everyone involved. Or, if you make a paper advance directive that isn’t uploaded, you should provide everyone copies to help prevent stress and arguments later.
Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a challenge to everyone. For many, the boredom and loneliness of staying home, away from family, friends and co-workers, has been the worst part. The members of the Edmond Quilt Guild have seen it as an opportunity to help their community.
Judy Elliott, EQG’s president, first received a request for cloth masks from a local hospital on March 20th. In early April, EQG board members shared instructions for face masks on the Guild’s website and spread an appeal via social media and emails to their members. By April 6th, they produced and distributed 266 masks to 6 different groups. By April 13, 1462 masks had been donated to 15 organizations. On May 3rd, the total was 2895. On May 17th, the count was up to 4225.
EQG has donated face masks to 22 organizations – mostly in Oklahoma but as far away as Texas and New York. They were donated to hospitals – OK Heart, OU, Mercy, St Anthony’s, and VA. They went to Edmond Fire and Police departments and Edmond Public Schools. Some masks went to churches, doctors’ offices, home health agencies, a Masonic Lodge, nursing homes, and the OKC Zoo Primate House.
Donated masks worn by staff at Bradford Village.
The masks were made by 66 members and 9 non-members. One member commented that making masks was like eating peanuts – Once you start, it’s hard to stop. Many noted that they had plenty of time and fabric and were happy to contribute both to the effort.
For more information about EQG and their community efforts – please see http://www.edmondquiltguild.us/

Photography and Text by Terry “Travels with Terry” Zinn t4z@aol.com

While at press time we are under travel and destination restrictions, I find it comforting to revisit past travel and dining experiences, like this one in South Florida.
Often the best part of visiting a destination is splurging for an upscale gourmet meal, or two. This is the case in Miami Florida where the ambiance, service and ultimate perfect meal comes together with the BLT Prime at the National Doral Resort Hotel and dinning at the infamous South Beach Gianni Versace Villa.
Sometimes the simplest of menu items, if prepared to perfection, can be the memory you take away from a destination city. The BLT Prime at the National Doral Resort’s Filet Mignon is a prime example. Despite the Miami August heat dining outside overlooking the Big Monster golf course can be elegant for sipping your pre dinner cocktail, but soon you may want to move in to the elegant dining room with a more comfortable temperature. Sometimes the mind over thinks the body’s own thermostat and you have to concede to air condition comfort.
You might think a good prime filet with accompanying sides, is not a complicated gourmet challenge, but when prepared with skill it can be an over the top savory satisfaction. This is the case at the BLT Prime.
On another upscale over the top luxury experience, book a dinner or two at the exclusive, but accessible Villa Versace in the middle of popular South Beach. There are two dining areas in this infamous home of fashion and style designer Gianni Versace. If you are staying at any of the affordable South Beach icon Art Deco hotels, it is a pleasant stroll down Ocean Drive, either on the less traveled Eastern ocean park side, or if you prefer to dodge dinners at the many outside bumped out tables on the Western side. Needless to say Ocean Drive is always a traffic lover’s delight, and in the evening even more so where many come just to drive by the pastel colored lights illuminating classic art décor architecture.
The mansion was officially named Casa Casuarina for more than a decade, where it first operated as a private club and then as a boutique hotel. It reopened in 2013 under new management. Locals still refer to it as ‘the Versace mansion’.
It is reported that Versace bought a neglected three-story, Mediterranean-style home, originally built in 1930 by Standard Oil heir Alden Freeman, and a dilapidated hotel next door in 1992 and spent $33m on renovations.
To add to the villa’s notoriety Versace was shot dead on its front steps by serial killer Andrew Cunanan in 1997. The 10-suite Villa by Barton G boasts a 54-foot ‘thousand mosaic’ swimming pool lined in 24-carat gold, which was designed by Versace.
You will be met by the guard at the street side gate and then you may announce yourself to your hostess coming out of the main entrance. You will be invited to sit in the patio area, a formality even though you have previously made your dining reservations which are strictly required. You will be told no cameras are allowed and so you are instructed to check such at the reception desk. Cel phone cameras are currently allowed although standard cameras are not. In time you are escorted to your table, past an elaborate interior courtyard with fountain and past the intimate cocktail bar. By now you know you are somewhere special.
The interior dining room is almost oppressive with its intricate walls of rock and tile mosaics. The mood is brooding and your fellow room diners explode your imagination when you conger up what might be their history. The outside terrace overlooking the Roman villa styled pool and cabana area is the delight of South Beach. You almost hate to order your meal in anticipation of its finish and your need to leave. Again a perfect beef filet is an exquisite choice. If you are offered a dinner salad to start off, be warned the size is gigantic and so is the variety of greens.
A Martini toast to Gianni and this Villa is a must, to pay tribute to a man of means and his open to the dining public of his South Beach Villa. While an upscale dining experience may not be in your travel budget, but is there a price for an over the top memory you recall year after year? Our own grand dining memories are a comfort in this time of restrictions.
For more information and updates visit: http://vmmiamibeach.com/

Mr. Terry Zinn – Travel Editor
Past President: International Food Wine and Travel Writers Association
3110 N.W. 15 Street – Oklahoma City, OK 73107
https://realtraveladventures.com/?s=terry+zinn
https://realtraveladventures.com/?s=zinn
http://new.okveterannews.com/?s=TERRY+ZINN
www.martinitravels.com

Diane Martinez is the picture of a resilient journey through difficulties to success. As a Creek Indian and member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, her traditions are very important to her. She attends the Weoguf-kee (Muddy Waters) Ceremonial Grounds in Hanna, Oklahoma. Diane has learned some of her native Mvskoke language through classes at the College of the Muscogee Nation and tries to teach her grandchildren. She has survived many challenges and found a place where she can thrive. As a participant in the National Indian Council on Aging’s Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), Diane now works 20 – 30 hours per week to supplement her company retirement income. She has found a place with NICOA SCSEP to grow and learn additional employment skills.
Life was not always rosy for Diane. In 2014 at the age of 57, Diane resigned from her job. As time drifted forward, she felt more and more useless. The lumbering days lacked purpose. Being without a regular wage, she felt aimless and soon struggled financially. What seemed like a good idea, soon began to impact Diane’s goals and dreams. Emotionally, the lack of purpose and financial security was taking a toll on her wellbeing.
Diane states went through a period of being homeless and living in a shelter. She felt depressed and without hope. About this period, she states, “I knew and believed there was no hope for me.” She declares that she felt like meaningful employment was beyond her – “having gray hair and no teeth and being an older person.”
Working three different jobs over a four-year period and trying to live on a small pension, as well as income from baking goods and making jewelry, Diane moved to different places and stayed with different people. She lived with many relatives, but she kept a desire to have a stable income and to get into her own place. Diane suffers with back problems and arthritis. So, doing the physical work of the past was not very conducive to good bodily or mental health. Her decision to resign from a job she performed for 27 years was turning into a terribly difficult journey.
In 2019 Diane heard about the SCSEP program through a friend who was in the program in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Her decision to apply for SCSEP has led her to definite changes. “When I called NICOA to see what they were all about I had no clue. I now know that NICOA SCSEP helps me to plan, have guidance, set goals, and believe in myself.” Working in the NICOA Central Region office as a receptionist trainee, Diane is gaining valuable skills that impact her opportunities for future unsubsidized employment.
“I am still able to work, and now I am becoming independent with more knowledge and wisdom. Through this program, I learned to be mindful and to help others like I was helped.” Through the SCSEP on-the-job training Diane states that she has “been spared and given an opportunity.” As a result of her own hard work, she has gained what she so often desired in her heart, a home and the skills to take care of herself financially, physically, and mentally. “I am grateful, and I appreciate this program.”
Diane’s goals and interests for her future include both employment and traditional aspirations. She has in mind to return to work fulltime in a clerical position. She wants to work five to ten more years and to continue to be independent. Diane hopes to stay connected to family, being surrounded by her grandkids. As important as these goals are, she hopes equally to continue to be connected to her Mvskoke-Muscogee culture through language learning, dances and traditional ceremonies. To her this will be a sound life and a demonstration to her family of how to age well as an elder. NICOA SCSEP is contributing as a valuable resource along this part of her journey.

Incoming college freshmen, fresh people, first years, plebes or whatever name you give yourselves, let me say I’m as nervous as you are.
But for entirely different reasons.
You anguish over the possibility that your first semester, perhaps your first year, of college will be conducted virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Rather than hanging out in dorm rooms, meeting new friends and walking with those friends to lecture halls filled with fellow students, you’ll be forced to sit, alone, in your childhood bedrooms, watching professors drone on about American literature, African history and God knows what from God knows where.
Not exactly the college experience you were hoping for, correct? Raise your hand if you want to pledge a virtual sorority and attend an online keg party?
While some schools are determined to open this fall — so far, it’s full speed ahead for the University of Iowa — other schools are wavering. California State University, the nation’s largest four-year, public university system, announced all 23 of its campuses would remain empty for the start of the 2020 term.
On a more alarming note, Harvard Medical School has made the same decision. This fall first year students in its medical, dental and graduate programs will be learning the basics of their crafts virtually. Which is precisely why I’m so nervous.
Wouldn’t you be? Knowing your future heart surgeon, orthopedist or endodontist may have acquired his or her, uh, skills, via Zoom?
As I write this column, I hearken back to my first year at Northwestern University, where I learned the rudimentary skills of journalism, including how to correctly use words like “hearken” and “rudimentary.” The adrenaline rush I felt as a class full of budding journalists pounded out story after story in hopes our work would be finished before our professor yelled, “TIME!” provided a taste of the deadline pressures I faced daily in my first newspaper job. When my editor screamed, “Schwem, I needed that copy five minutes ago,” from across the newsroom, I knew he was serious.
Were that same editor to scream at me from a small window on a computer screen, I probably would have clicked “mute” and kept writing, oblivious to time constraints.
Now imagine undergoing an operation and seeing not a team of medical personnel, but a lone physician staring down at you.
While trying to connect to a Zoom meeting.
I hope the anesthesia kicks in quickly, so I don’t have to hear the following dialogue:
“Hello everybody. Dr. Linden here. We are set to perform bypass surgery on male patient Schwem. I’m excited to be working with all of you. I just realized we all went to Harvard. How cool! Is everybody on? Nurse O’Malley?”
“I’m here.”
“Nurse, turn your phone horizontally so you get a wider view of the patient’s heart. There you go. Is the surgical tech on?”
“I’m here. Hang on, let me shut my office door so my dog doesn’t interrupt.”
“Please hurry. We’ve already started the anesthesia. Maybe I should have initiated the meeting first. My bad.”
“Doctor, can you move closer to your computer’s microphone? I didn’t hear the last part of that sentence.”
“I said, ‘My bad.’”
“What? What’s bad.”
“Never mind. OK, I’m going to make the first incision. Can everybody see?”
“You need to screen share, Doctor.”
“Stand by. Better?”
“Much.”
“Doctor, I’m looking at the monitor behind you. It appears the patient’s heart rhythm is falling.”
“No, I just checked. It’s fine. Maybe you need to adjust your screen resolution.”
“Stand by.”
“Doctor, from what I’m seeing, it seems the patient is losing a large amount of blood.”
“I concur. But I’ve got it under control. We all learned about blood transfusions at Harvard, right? Well, we learned it virtually but at least we learned it.”
“Virtual blood transfusions. Awesome class!”
“Oh no, I’ve lost him.”
“Who? The patient?”
“No, the surgical tech. Can you ping him and get him to dial back in?”
“Stand by.”
(Greg Schwem is a corporate stand-up comedian and author of two books: “Text Me If You’re Breathing: Observations, Frustrations and Life Lessons From a Low-Tech Dad” and the recently released “The Road To Success Goes Through the Salad Bar: A Pile of BS From a Corporate Comedian,” available at Amazon.com. Visit Greg on the web at www.gregschwem.com.)

You’ve enjoyed reading, and laughing at, Greg Schwem’s monthly humor columns in Senior Living News. But did you know Greg is also a nationally touring stand-up comedian? And he loves to make audiences laugh about the joys, and frustrations, of growing older. Watch the clip and, if you’d like Greg to perform at your senior center or senior event, contact him through his website at www.gregschwem.com)

Gerald Jaquith lived a frugal, unassuming life. A math teacher who’d retired from Ringwood High School, he was still driving the Ford truck he’d bought in 1986 when he died last summer in an accident on his Waynoka farm at the age of 78.
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation officials were recently surprised to learn that Jaquith, who’d given OMRF approximately $7,500 over a period of 33 years, had made the Oklahoma City nonprofit the sole beneficiary of his estate. They were stunned when they discovered the estate totaled more than $2 million in assets.
Jaquith never told John Meinders, his long-time attorney, why he chose OMRF as his beneficiary, but the Woodward lawyer suspects it stems from his client’s loss of his brother and parents to heart disease.
“Gerald was a man with vision and a strict set of values. He always wanted to help other people,” said Meinders.
Jaquith grew up in rural Woods County, on land that his family settled around the time of the Land Run. Jaquith helpied his father tend nearly 1,000 acres of land, where the family grew wheat and raised cattle.
After college, Jaquith made his way to Texas and New Mexico, teaching high school math in both places. But when his father and brother passed away, he returned to western Oklahoma in 1984 to help his mother run the farm.
Jaquith continued teaching math in the Shattuck and Ringwood schools, encouraging his charges to head to college and expand their horizons, much as he had.
Mark Dickinson, a friend who helped Jaquith tend his farm for many years, described Jaquith as “a good-natured, everyday kind of person, the type of guy who would stop to help someone broken down on the side of the road.”
Dickinson said he wasn’t surprised when he learned his friend had left his estate to charity. “He was kind-hearted about everything he did.”
After Jaquith’s passing, OMRF Senior Director of Development Sonny Wilkinson visited Jaquith’s farm.
There, Wilkinson found the remains of a life lived simply and frugally: Tinkerbell, the dwarf cow with a crippled leg Jaquith had chosen to keep as a pet; a cache of family photos; a collection of farm equipment he used to tend the land that had been in his family for generations.
Atop a stack of documents and a neatly folded pair of new overalls on the kitchen table, Wilkinson also discovered a copy of OMRF’s 2015 annual report.
Meinders sold Jaquith’s farm to a neighbor and is still in the process of liquidating the remainder of his assets, which also included savings accounts and bonds. When the process is complete, Meinders estimates OMRF will receive more than $2 million from the estate.
Because Jaquith did not designate the gift to any particular type of research, the donation can be used to fund areas of OMRF research where they’re needed most. OMRF scientists work on projects affecting a wide range of illnesses, including cancer, Alzheimer’s and heart disease.
“We’ll never know exactly why Mr. Jaquith decided to help OMRF, but we’re extremely grateful he did,” said Wilkinson. “I only wish I’d had a chance to meet him and to say thank you.”

On a wall in her home, Deborrah Winters hung a sign that perfectly captures her journey with cancer: This girl won’t stop.
Winters indeed has not stopped. A patient for nearly three years at Stephenson Cancer Center at OU Medicine, Winters has experienced numerous highs and lows. Her original tumor was successfully treated, only to return in a different part of her body. Through it all, she remains determined to fight cancer alongside the healthcare providers that she considers her teammates in the effort.
“I wouldn’t be here without the Stephenson Cancer Center,” said Winters, a Midwest City resident. “They fight WITH me. You don’t take this journey on your own. They go the extra mile – they don’t just treat what’s going on in your body, but they treat your body, mind and spirit. Nobody has given up on me.”
Winters’ battle against cancer began in October 2017, when she was experiencing abnormal bleeding. She was quickly referred to Stephenson Cancer Center, where she was diagnosed with stage four uterine cancer and learned that a tumor the size of a baby’s head had begun bleeding. She started treatment immediately but soon faced another hurdle — a stroke. After being hospitalized, she recovered.
However, her initial treatment for cancer wasn’t working, so she was switched to another treatment, which was successful beyond anyone’s expectations.
“It was just supposed to shrink my tumor enough to give me a longer life and better quality of life. But my tumor shrank and shrank until it floated away to nothingness,” she said. “It was awesome.”
But the good news didn’t last. During a regular CT scan last summer, doctors found that the cancer had returned, but in a different area – her intestinal tract. That’s when she was enrolled in a phase 1 clinical trial and began taking a targeted therapy matched to her tumor profile, said Kathleen Moore, M.D., director of the Oklahoma TSET Phase 1 Program and Associate Director for Clinical Research at Stephenson Cancer Center. Winters’ cancer has had a complete response to the therapy and she remains on the trial, Moore said.
Receiving treatment on a clinical trial has not only controlled her cancer, but it has given Winters an opportunity to play a role in the advancement of cancer care. That’s something she takes seriously.
“I’ve told the clinical trial team that I want them to do all the tests they need to do to learn about my cancer and the treatment I’m receiving,” Winters said. “I want them to understand what’s working with me so that it can work on other people with cancer.”
Winters still faces a future in which her cancer could recur, perhaps in another part of her body. She said she views it not as a fight that she finishes, but one that she continues. And as the sign on her wall reminds her, “This girl won’t stop.”
“So many people have been on this journey with me – my family, my church family, people I don’t even know who are praying for me. And, of course, Stephenson Cancer Center,” she said. “They have talked me through everything – every test they’ve done and every drug I’ve taken. They go the extra mile to make sure I understand everything that is going on. They go above and beyond to make sure they are taking good care of me.”

It seems like every year around this time, a new insect-borne virus comes along. Fortunately, at this time, experts say no data exists to suggest Covid-19 can be transmitted by either mosquitoes or ticks.
“Although highly contagious, Covid-19 does not appear to be spread through blood like some other communicable illnesses,” said Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation immunologist Eliza Chakravarty, M.D. “And it’s the blood-borne transmission that allows insects to transmit diseases like West Nile and Lyme.”
Covid-19 and other coronaviruses like SARS and MERS are spread from person to person through tiny viral droplets, which pass from one person to another through mucus or saliva.
The virus also survives on some surfaces for significant periods, “which means you can infect yourself by touching an object and then putting your hand in your nose, mouth or eyes,” said OMRF President Stephen Prescott, M.D.
While much still remains unknown about Covid-19, said Prescott, there is no biological reason to suggest transmission through insects is a threat.
“That’s good news, but it’s not a ‘get out of jail free’ card,” said Chakravarty. “Other diseases spread by mosquitoes and ticks are still dangerous. They didn’t go away just because Covid-19 is dominating the news cycle.”
In Oklahoma, the most common insect-borne diseases are West Nile virus, which is spread by mosquitoes, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which ticks pass from animals to humans. The Oklahoma Department of Health also reports that tick-borne Lyme disease may be present in the state.
“Oklahoma has a quite a few insect-borne diseases, and others like dengue and chikungunya could be on the way,” said Prescott. “These can result in serious damage to health, so it’s important we guard against them as temperatures warm and insect populations surge.”
If you’re practicing social distancing by gardening, walking the dog or reading a book on the patio, the best defense is to keep insects off your skin by wearing long sleeves and pants. Limit outdoor activities around dusk and dawn or walking though tall grass, and avoid excess standing water that collects in flower pots, gutters and drains.
Chakravarty also recommends applying an insect repellant that contains DEET.
“And, no, using DEET is not the threat some make it out to be,” said Chakravarty. “The amounts used in regular application pose no proven health issues. The real risk is getting bitten by an infected insect, because one bad bug bite can change your life.”