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The first Thanksgiving as depicted by artist Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Thanksgiving is fast approaching, and in honor of the holiday, I thought it would be fun to look back on a column about the evolution of the Thanksgiving meal. I enjoyed digging up these facts when I researched it more than 10 years ago.

Several months after its initial publication by Lake County News in 2010, I discovered quite by chance that the column was picked up by a newspaper in Plymouth, Massachusetts. This means what you’re about to read has also been read by those who live near the site of the first Thanksgiving meal.

I’ve kept the recipe I offered when first published, a colonial recipe for pumpkin pie, and have added another, my own pumpkin-apple soup. That way you’ll have recipes to open and close your Thanksgiving dinner.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the column … and most of all, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

In less than two weeks, most of us will be celebrating the quintessential American holiday, Thanksgiving. Roasted turkey with stuffing, bowls of sweet and white potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pies and more will fill our tables.

While we consider this delicious fare traditional for the Thanksgiving feast, the truth is that what we serve on this day has evolved over time. What the Pilgrims and Indians ate in 1621 New England bears little resemblance to what we serve today.

In 1841, more than 200 years after what we now refer to as “the first Thanksgiving,” New England historian Alexander Young discovered a letter from Edward Winslow, one of the original colonists, mentioning the 1621 feast. It was Young that gave that feast the moniker mentioned above.

Winslow describes four hunters killing enough fowl to feed the camp for a week. While turkey was plentiful in North America — and eaten by the colonists and Wampanoag Indians — it’s speculated that the “fowl” mentioned in the letter consisted of seasonal waterfowl such as ducks and geese.

Turkey eventually became the fowl of choice on Thanksgiving menus, but not right away. A menu for a New England Thanksgiving dinner circa 1779 mentions roast turkey, but only as one of the meats offered at the meal, not as the star. Also listed are venison, pork, pigeon, and goose. In contrast, this year more than 240 million turkeys will have been raised as the mainstay of our Thanksgiving dinners.

What about the stuffing? Historians tell us that the practice of stuffing the cavities of fowl and other animals with mixtures of breads, spices, and other items is ancient. Romans and Arabs employed this cooking technique. The terms “stuffing” and “dressing” as they relate to cookery derive from Medieval European culinary practices.

The English settlers and Wampanoag did occasionally stuff birds and fish, but if stuffing was used, it likely consisted of herbs and onions, rather than bread.

Any cranberries served at the harvest celebration were likely only in Wampanoag dishes. They enjoyed them raw or sweetened with maple sugar. It would be 50 years before an Englishman mentioned boiling this New England berry with sugar for a “sauce to be eaten with … meat.” Since sugar was expensive in England in 1621, it’s quite possible that there was not any of this imported sweet in New Plymouth at that time.

Today turkey and cranberries are a much-loved food marriage.

The tradition of serving fruit with meat, particularly citrus fruit with fatty meat, goes back thousands of years, likely originating in the Middle East. Examples are found in many cultures and cuisines. The acid in the fruit cuts the fat in the meat. In the case of lean meats such as turkey and chicken, cranberries add flavor to what is generally considered a bland food.

Other classic meat and fruit combos include pork and applesauce, goose and cherry sauce, fish and lemon, and duck l’orange.

It’s hard to imagine Thanksgiving without mashed potatoes, but the original feast didn’t include them. Potatoes, which originated in South America, had made their way across the Atlantic to Europe, but had not been generally adopted into the English diet. The potato was virtually unknown there in the 17th century. At that point they were not included in the diet of the Wampanoag Indians, either (though they did eat other varieties of local tubers).

Today’s Thanksgiving meals typically include a version of a sweet potato (or yam) dish, but that wouldn’t have been included in the original harvest meal.

The sweet potato, which originated in the Caribbean, had also made its way to Europe, but was rare and available only to the wealthy. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain liked them and had them planted in their court gardens. Their nephew, King Henry VII of England, liked them as well, and considered them to be an aphrodisiac.

Yams are native to Africa and are often confused with sweet potatoes. Most sweet potato dishes — pies included — are just as successfully made with yams.

Like the white potato, neither yams nor sweet potatoes were part of the diet of the Wampanoag Indians or, for the most part, the English at the time of the first feast.

Have you ever wondered why marshmallows are so often paired with sweet potatoes on the Thanksgiving table? During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, marshmallows were very trendy. They were mass produced, plentiful, and very inexpensive, and were aggressively marketed by the companies that manufactured them.

The earliest recipes found pairing marshmallows and sweet potatoes date to the 1920s. There were typically casseroles where marshmallows were layered with the potatoes. To a lesser extent, they were also paired with candied yams.

Often signature dishes from the 1920s were very sweet, and some historians speculate that this is a reaction to Prohibition.

Pumpkin, native to the New World, was likely available as part of the harvest feast, but not in the form of pie. It may have been baked, possibly by placing it in the ashes of a dying fire, then mixed with animal fat, maple syrup, or honey, and made into a soup, a common way of using it by American Indians.

As for our beloved Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, recipes for stewed pumpkin tempered with sugar, spices, and cream wrapped in pastry have roots in Medieval times, when similar pies were made with squash and gourds.

Corn was part of the earliest Thanksgiving feast, though it was hard Indian corn, unlike the corn we know today. American Indians were cooking with corn long before European settlers arrived, and the English colonists learned to grind it for use in breads, pancakes, porridge, and puddings as a substitute for the grains they were used to.

While we don’t know exactly what was served at the first Thanksgiving, historians can be pretty certain about it included at least some of the bounty available to them, such as cultivated parsnips, carrots, collards, turnips, parsley, spinach, cabbage, sage, thyme, onions, and marjoram, as well as native cranberries, pumpkin, nuts, grapes, lobster, oysters, and other seafood.

In the spirit of the colonial U.S., I’ll leave you with a modern interpretation of Abigail Adams’ Pumpkin Pie, courtesy of The Thirteen Colonies Cookbook by Mary Donovan, et al, as well as a more modern recipe, my own “Thanksgiving Pumpkin Soup with Apples and Sage.” Enjoy!

Abigail Adams' pumpkin pie

1 1/2 cups pumpkin
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger root, grated
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup dark rum, or brandy
3 eggs, lightly beaten
Pecans
Whipped cream
10-inch pie shell, unbaked

Mix all ingredients together and pour them into the prepared pastry shell. Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake for 40 minutes more, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Garnish with pecans and whipped cream flavored with rum or brandy.

Thanksgiving pumpkin soup with apples

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter (unsalted preferred)
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced
4 sweet, flavorful apples (such as Fuji), peeled, cored, and diced
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 quart vegetable or chicken broth
1 large (29 ounce) can pure pumpkin
1 cup apple juice (unfiltered preferred)
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup half and half

Heat olive oil and melt butter in a Dutch oven or large stockpot.

Add onions and apples and cook over medium heat until tender and caramelized to a golden brown color, about 15 to 20 minutes, stirring to prevent burning.

Add garlic and cook a minute longer, stirring to prevent burning.

Add about a cup of broth to deglaze pot, stirring to pick up caramelized bits of apple and onion. Add the rest of the broth and the pumpkin and stir to combine.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring to prevent burning. Remove from heat.

Puree the soup in batches in a blender until smooth, being sure not to overfill the blender. (Note: Be sure the blender lid is sealed well and hold it tight with a towel when blending soup. Hot liquids in a blender can cause the lid to blow off.)

Return soup to pot over low heat to keep warm. Add apple juice, nutmeg, and salt and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary.

Just before serving, add half and half and stir to combine.

This makes over two quarts of soup, plenty for six to eight servings.

Recipe by Esther Oertel.

Esther Oertel is a writer and passionate home cook from a family of chefs. She grew up in a restaurant, where she began creating recipes from a young age. She’s taught culinary classes in a variety of venues in Lake County and previously wrote “The Veggie Girl” column for Lake County News. Most recently she’s taught culinary classes at Sur La Table in Santa Rosa. She lives in Middletown, California.
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Large asteroids prevented oxygen buildup in Earth’s atmosphere. Image courtesy of UC Riverside.

Bombardment of Earth’s surface by asteroids six or more miles long likely delayed the accumulation of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere.

New evidence shows the number of ancient, large celestial bodies that crashed into Earth was up to 10 times higher than previously believed. This finding has led a team including a UC Riverside scientist to conclude that these collisions likely shaped the development of Earth’s chemistry early in its history.

The team’s work is detailed in a recent Nature Geoscience article. Impacts by asteroids or comets during the earliest years of Earth’s history likely contributed to the beginnings of life and its early evolution, yet later they delayed the development of more complex life-forms that require oxygen.

“Asteroid impacts can enhance the release of gases from the Earth that consume oxygen,” explained research team member and UCR biogeochemistry professor Tim Lyons.

“In addition, it’s common for meteorites to contain large amounts of iron that can interact with water and generate gases that affect the composition of the atmosphere,” he said. For example, iron can increase the flux of hydrogen and methane, both of which consume oxygen.

The revised understanding of our atmosphere is based on recent discoveries in Earth’s crust that point to a frequency of impacts roughly 2.4 to 3.5 billion years ago that greatly exceeds previous estimates. When large asteroids or comets struck, energy was released and it vaporized rocky materials in the planet’s crust. Small droplets of molten rock in the impact plume condensed, solidified, and fell back to Earth, creating round, sand-sized particles.

These particles, or impact spherules, are markers of ancient collisions. “In recent years, a number of new spherule layers have been identified in drill cores and outcrops, increasing the total number of known impact events during the early Earth,” said Nadja Drabon, a Harvard University professor and research team member.

Wide, fresh crater on an asteroid, surrounded by small particles thrown out during the impact that formed the crater. NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA.

The research team, led by Simone Marchi at Southwest Research Institute, found that the impacts tapered off around 2.4 billion years ago. This reduction coincided with a major shift in surface chemistry triggered by the rise in atmospheric oxygen, dubbed the Great Oxidation Event.

“For eons, there was a dance between the rise and fall of oxygen before it became a permanent feature of our atmosphere,” Lyons said. “Then, finally, the balance tipped for a number of reasons, one of which was the declining frequency of impacts.”

Readers need not be concerned about the re-emergence of an era in which we are again bombarded by giant asteroids. Impacts are far less common over the second half of Earth’s history. And while there are thousands of near-Earth objects today, some with the potential to hit Earth, the vast majority are quite small, and NASA closely monitors the larger ones.

Remarkably, though, impacts played a major role in shaping the history of life on Earth over billions of years. In addition to affecting oxygen, they caused major extinction events and changed the composition of the atmosphere in ways that warmed Earth’s surface and triggered the formation of organic molecules that likely served as the initial building blocks of life.

Impacts were particularly large and frequent in our early history. As the frequency and size of extraterrestrial object impacts declined, their ability to hold back the accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere also declined, contributing to the initial rise of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere roughly 2.4 billion years ago.

“This change,” Lyons said, “set the stage for the complex, oxygen-requiring life that followed, including the first animals more than a billion and a half years later.”

Jules Bernstein is senior public information officer for the University of California, Riverside.
As a result of asteroid or meteorite impact, material that was originally beneath the surface of a planet then rains down onto the newly formed crater, visible here as a yellowish ring. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona.
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Snoopy as a zero gravity indicator. Credit: 2021 Peanuts Worldwide LLC.

For more than 50 years, Snoopy has contributed to the excitement for NASA human spaceflight missions, helping inspire generations to dream big.

NASA has shared an association with Charles M. Schulz and Snoopy since Apollo missions and continues under Artemis with new educational activities. Up next — Snoopy will ride along as the zero gravity indicator on Artemis I.

Artemis I is an uncrewed flight test of the Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket and Orion spacecraft around the Moon launching in early 2022 before missions with astronauts. Zero gravity indicators are small items carried aboard spacecraft that provide a visual indicator when a spacecraft has reached the weightlessness of microgravity.

Without astronauts aboard Orion, Snoopy will help share the journey with the world as he rides along in the cabin with a manikin and two other “passengers.”

Apollo era

Already a well-known household character, Snoopy was used to encourage NASA’s spaceflight safety initiative during the time of Apollo. Schulz created comic strips of Snoopy on the Moon, capturing public excitement about America’s achievements in space.

In May 1969, Apollo 10 astronauts Gene Cernan, John Young and Thomas Stafford traveled all the way to the Moon for one final checkout before the lunar landing attempt.

The mission required the lunar module to skim the Moon's surface to within 50,000 feet and "snoop around" scouting the Apollo 11 landing site, leading the crew to name the lunar module "Snoopy."

The Apollo command module was labeled "Charlie Brown," after Snoopy’s loyal owner. Snoopy’s first flight to space was in 1990 when he was able to catch a ride on the space shuttle Columbia during the STS-32 mission.

The agency’s Silver Snoopy award was created during the Apollo era and remains to this day. It is a high honor awarded to NASA employees and contractors by astronauts, celebrating achievements related to mission success and human flight safety.

Each silver pin given with this award, depicting astronaut Snoopy, was flown in space. Continuing the tradition, Artemis I will also carry a package of silver snoopy pins for future recognitions.

The Silver Snoopy pin. Credit: NASA.

Apollo 50th anniversary

In 2019, NASA and Peanuts Worldwide celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the launch of Apollo 10 and the history of their partnership in NASA’s safety and human space flight awareness program.

Leading up to the anniversary, NASA and Peanuts collaborated on STEM activities, a mini-documentary and other new products that share the excitement of science, technology, engineering and math with the next generation of explorers.

The collaboration, formalized through a Space Act Agreement, provided an opportunity to update Snoopy’s spacesuit and introduce new space-themed programming with content about NASA’s deep space exploration missions, 50 years after the initial collaboration began during the Apollo era.

Under the anniversary collaboration, NASA provided support for a number of new Peanuts programs that focused on modern-day astronaut Snoopy and space themes, including a STEM-based curriculum for students in kindergarten through fifth grade about America’s deep space exploration objectives.

NASA centers across the nation joined the celebration as well with local exhibits or STEM activities capitalizing on the Apollo 10 mission’s unique call sign for the Lunar Lander of Snoopy. Snoopy also participated in the celebration on the National Mall in Washington to celebrate the 50th Apollo 11 Moon landing, which also took place in 1969.

NASA participated in other Apollo anniversary collaborations with Peanuts and its partners. Peanuts partnered with McDonalds for a "Discover Space with Snoopy" Happy Meal featuring Snoopy in his persona as the "world famous astronaut" and "the first beagle on the Moon," as well as STEM-focused books, activities, and toys.

Peanuts and its partner company WildBrain also premiered the first season of “Snoopy in Space,” on Apple TV+ in 2019. NASA supported Peanuts and its partners with reviews of STEM content and NASA mission information.

Astronaut Snoopy was featured as a balloon in the 2019 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and as a plush doll floating aboard the International Space Station. During coverage of the holiday celebration, NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch delivered a message alongside Snoopy from aboard the space station, highlighting the partnership along with the 20th anniversary of continuous human presence on station, which is helping prepare future exploration with Artemis.

Astronaut Snoopy launched to the station aboard a Cygnus spacecraft on Northrop Grumman’s 12th cargo resupply mission. In the parade and on the space station, Snoopy sported a spacesuit modeled after NASA's Orion Crew Survival System, which is worn by astronauts while inside the Orion spacecraft on Artemis missions to the Moon. The Astronaut Snoopy balloon will appear again in the 2021 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Snoopy, Artemis generation

Today, the partnership continues. For Snoopy’s flight on the Artemis I mission, he will be outfitted in a custom orange flight suit complete with gloves, boots, and a NASA patch. Peanuts is releasing a new suite of curriculum and short videos with its partner, GoNoodle, to encourage kids to learn about gravity, teamwork, and space exploration while they follow Snoopy along on his Artemis I journey.

In addition to the doll and Silver Snoopy pins, a pen nib from Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts studio will make the trek on Artemis I wrapped in a space themed comic strip as part of a collection of mementos selected by NASA to fly aboard the Orion spacecraft.

A new season of “Snoopy in Space” will also be released on Apple TV+ that explores the planets and what conditions are necessary to find life in the universe. NASA supported Peanuts with the series through reviews of STEM content and NASA mission information.

Under Artemis, NASA is working to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon and lead the next steps of human exploration for future missions to Mars. Artemis I will pave the way for a series of increasingly complex missions to establish a long-term presence at the Moon.

Learn more about Artemis at https://www.nasa.gov/artemis.

NASA astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, lunar module pilot of the Apollo 10 prime crew, is seen at a press conference held on April 26, 1969, at the Manned Spacecraft Center (now NASA's Johnson Space Center) in Houston. Credit: NASA.
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Top row, left to right, Hands Up Lake County Small Business “Mini” Competition finalists Jennifer Gayda, Anahi Silva, Catherine Reese, Valeri Stallings and Ashley Garrigus; bottom row, Brianna Thomas, alternate.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Hands Up Lake County Small Business “Mini” Competition announced it has narrowed selected its finalists in this year’s event.

The event’s board also offered congratulations to the competitors in this year’s event, noting that each of the 17 participants deserve notice and appreciation.

All are working to make a living in, and be a part of, the local small business economy that is so vital to Lake County.

Five winners selected by a team of judges will now advance to the final competition on Dec. 12: BottleRock Candle Studio, Jennifer Marie Gayda, Cobb; Party Ideas, Anahi Maria Silva, Clearlake; Reese Ranch Retreat, Catherine Ann Reese, Witter Springs; Send Rover on Over, Valeri Ann Stallings, Lakeport; and Wild Hope Bakery, Ashley Ruth Garrigus, Middletown.

Brianna Elisabeth Thomas was selected as the alternate. Thomas’ business, Red Feather Leather, is in Lakeport. She will prepare alongside the five finalists and step in should there be a cancellation.

In its second year, the small business competition drew 50 applicants; 20 were selected to go to phase two, a one-day workshop and training on business planning and digital marketing.

Nineteen attended the training and 17 participated in the next phase, a mini competition which took place on a recent rainy Saturday at the Konocti Vista Casino, Resort & Marina event center in Lakeport.

Judges for the mini competition had a very tough decision — to select the five businesses (and one alternate) who would advance to the final competition and the chance to win one of five cash awards totaling $50,000.

Dennis Darling, owner of Foods Etc. was judging the event for the second time. He believes in the mission of and need for the small business competition.

“Without the businesses and services available locally, buyers go elsewhere to nearby counties for their shopping,” Darling said. “By giving our local entrepreneurs a boost to help with their inventory, equipment, distribution, and other expenses while also investing in their training and development, we can help solve the problem of people taking their business outside the County. This benefits all of us.”

An early supporter of the small business competition, Darling has contributed his time and made a generous donation to the effort. He will be one of several donors who will present the cash awards at the final competition.

The presenters were required to hit key points — a business plan with financial projections, a compelling story about their start in business, a marketing plan and understanding of market ups and downs, among other factors.

Tasked with judging the outcomes Bobby Dutcher, president of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, said he wished they could award every presenter with the $20,000 1st prize.

“I appreciated being asked to judge the competition, and enjoyed the experience, though I have to say I wasn’t expecting the decision to be so challenging,” he said. “The organizers did a very good job preparing the competitors.”

Judge Sabrina Andrus, owner of three small businesses in Kelseyville — A + H General Store, maker and paper & poppy, said, “What I saw during the competition was a remarkable expression of determination, enthusiasm and dedication — many of the attributes needed to make it in a tough business environment. The diversity of ideas was impressive, our task was incredibly daunting.”

Nic and Mayra Lam, owners of Lam Printing in Clearlake and last year’s first place winners, will be on hand at the Dec. 12 final competition.

“We’ll be there to support small businesses and the dream team who put this all together,” they said.

The Lams also said they wanted to encourage small businesses to apply next year because in the end, all businesses benefit from the opportunity to hone their business plans, polish their ideas and presentation skills, and expand their business networks.

“The publicity on social, online and print media all participating businesses receive is icing on the cake,” they said.

Monica Rosenthal of “R” Vineyards, one of last year’s judges and a recent addition to the 1Team 1Dream Board said, “Getting into the final competition and winning one of the cash prizes is, of course, important. But more than that, the project is helping to build a network of entrepreneurs and startup businesses who now better understand how to develop or enhance their business models for long term sustainability. Too often, we see small businesses close their doors, sometimes in their first year. The idea is to build resiliency. We want to support small businesses for the benefit of the entire County.”

Hands Up Lake County is the signature project of the 1Team 1Dream nonprofit formed to support small businesses who are dedicated to making a home and raising their families in Lake County.

“We believe small businesses are essential to our rural economy and that with a hand up, ideas can become realities,” said founder and major sponsor, Maryann Schmid, who along with her husband, Peter, owns The Lodge at Blue Lakes. “We raised $50,000 for cash prizes this year, up from $28,400 in our first year. For our third annual competition, we’re setting a much higher fundraising goal so we can increase our support for small businesses.”

“The public is invited to support the small businesses and alternate selected for the final competition by voting for the Fan Favorite,” said 1Team 1Dream Board Chair Olga Steele.

From Nov. 17 to Dec. 11 voting will take place on the 1Team 1Dream Facebook page. The winner (and award) will be announced at the final competition.

The Dec. 12 event will be livestreamed, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., also on Facebook.

To sponsor the event or for more information contact Olga Steele at 916-849-8170 and visit www.1team1dream.net.



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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Officials said Friday that dropping cyanotoxin levels have led to the lifting of a health advisory for individuals who have household intakes in the Lower and Oaks Arms of Clear Lake.

High cyanotoxin levels in September prompted the advisory for individual household intakes, not public water systems.

With the generous help and support of Golden State and Mt. Konocti Mutual Water companies, alternative water filling stations were established to provide safe drinking water for affected residents. County officials said this likely helped prevent acute health issues for many.

The most recent Clear Lake cyanotoxin sampling, conducted Oct. 26, showed one shoreline site is at the danger level for cyanotoxins, five sites are at the warning level and two sites are at the caution level.

The highest microcystin level, at Redbud Park in Clearlake, was 25.11 µg/L and there were no detections of anatoxin-a. View the most recent data here.

Now that microcystin and anatoxin levels in the lake are significantly reduced, the drinking water health advisory is being lifted.

Alternative water-fill stations will remain in place until the end of the year, to give people time to service their systems as recommended below. Recreational water advisory signs are also being updated.

Officials cautioned that the fact Clear Lake cyanotoxin levels have improved does not ensure it is safe to drink water from individual privately managed water systems. Earlier testing showed other contaminants may also be present in these systems. People using these private water systems must make sure they are regularly maintained and tested; for cyanotoxins, and also coliform and nitrates.

As high cyanotoxin levels subside, officials urge residents not on public water systems to flush their water treatment systems before starting to use the water for drinking, cooking, and other uses. Filters may be contaminated with algal — or cyanobacterial — matter that can release toxins, so it’s recommended that treatment system filters be replaced.

Toxins can also remain in holding tanks and pipes, so holding tanks should be drained and indoor spigots run for five to 10 minutes. Consult the company that services your treatment system for instructions or assistance specific to your system.

Find helpful guidance — issued by the Thurston County Public Health and Social Services Department in Washington state — for purging household plumbing after a cyanobacteria bloom here.

Remember: If you are getting water from a public water system, your drinking water is being monitored and treated for cyanotoxins, and meets state and federal standards. These precautions are listed only for people drawing water directly from the lake for their individual household use. Boiling and bleach will not reduce cyanotoxins, and may make the problem worse.

“Now that we have seen drought and climate change are bringing about historically high cyanobacteria toxin levels, we need to prepare for the coming season,” the Lake County Health Services and Water Resources departments and Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians said in a joint statement.

People who have their own water systems should consider alternative water sources or more robust treatment with frequent testing and monitoring.

Public Health and local water districts are planning community forums in the coming months to explore potential solutions.
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A cappella caroling group My Divas will perform at this year’s Dickens Fair and Christmas Market in Lakeport, California. Photo courtesy of the Lakeport Main Street Association.

LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Lakeport Main Street Association is planning to kick off the holiday season with its Dickens Fair and Christmas Market later this month.

The fourth annual Dickens Fair takes place from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 27, in downtown Lakeport.

In 2016 the Lakeport Main Street Association was asked to bring back the Dickens Fair to downtown Lakeport and the group reports that it is pleased that the event has been growing each year since.

The association’s aim is that the Dickens Fair becomes a “must attend event'' for not only Lake County residents, but for visitors that seek out this small town as a holiday destination.

The fair has grown over the years with the addition of a sledding hill and many activities for young and old.

A highlight is the lighting of the holiday tree in Museum Park, where dozens were gathered singing holiday favorites and awaiting the countdown to light it up.

In 2021 organizers are looking forward to presenting a Dickens Fair that has lots of activities for “kids” of all ages.

They will offer the sledding hill, cookie decorating, kids crafts, kids games, a snow globe for cute family pictures, a pet parade, costume contest, an ugly sweater contest, strolling carolers, craft vendors, food vendors, beverages for sale, dance performances, doughnut walk, photos with Santa and music all day.

There will be plenty of shopping available with vendors and downtown businesses.

The tree lighting will take place at 5:30 p.m. with none other than Santa himself.

For more information, contact the Lakeport Main Street Association at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 707-263-8843.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has added more new dogs, including two puppies, to the canines available for adoption this week.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of American bulldog, American Staffordshire terrier, border collie, Doberman, German shepherd, Great Pyrenees, hound, husky, Labrador retriever, mastiff, pit bull and Rottweiler.

Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control website not listed are still “on hold”).

Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm for information on visiting or adopting.

“Luna” is a 3-year-old female German shepherd-Great Pyrenees mix in kennel No. 2, ID No. LCAC-A-1906. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Luna’

“Luna” is a 3-year-old female German shepherd-Great Pyrenees mix with a white coat.

She is in kennel No. 2, ID No. LCAC-A-1906.

“Lucy” is a female German shepherd-Great Pyrenees mix puppy in kennel No. 3, ID No. LCAC-A-1909. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Lucy’

“Lucy” is a female German shepherd-Great Pyrenees mix puppy with a white coat.

She is in kennel No. 3, ID No. LCAC-A-1909.

“George” is a 1-year-old male American bulldog mix in kennel No. 4, ID No. LCAC-A-1430. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘George’

“George” is a 1-year-old male American bulldog mix with a short gray coat.

He is in kennel No. 4, ID No. LCAC-A-1430.

This 1-year-old male German shepherd is in kennel No. 6, ID No. LCAC-A-1892. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Male German shepherd

This 1-year-old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 6, ID No. LCAC-A-1892.

This female shepherd-husky is in kennel No. 9, ID No. LCAC-A-1745. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Female shepherd-husky

This female shepherd-husky has a short tan coat with black markings and blue eyes.

She is in kennel No. 9, ID No. LCAC-A-1745.

This 1-year-old female shepherd-husky mix is in kennel No. 10, ID No. LCAC-A-1746. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Female shepherd-husky

This 1-year-old female shepherd-husky mix has a short tricolor coat and blue eyes.

She’s in kennel No. 10, ID No. LCAC-A-1746.

This 7-year-old female American Staffordshire terrier is in kennel No. 11, ID No. LCAC-A-1890. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Female American Staffordshire terrier

This 7-year-old female American Staffordshire terrier has a short gray coat and white markings.

She is in kennel No. 11, ID No. LCAC-A-1890.

“Einstine” is a young Labrador retriever-pit bull mix in kennel No. 12, ID No. LCAC-A-1860. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Einstine’

“Einstine” is a young Labrador retriever-pit bull mix with s short black coat with white markings.

He is in kennel No. 12, ID No. LCAC-A-1860.

This 5-year-old female chocolate Labrador retriever-pit bull mix is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-1769. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Labrador-pit bull mix

This 5-year-old female chocolate Labrador retriever-pit bull mix has a short chocolate-colored coat.

She is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-1769.

This 3-year-old female mastiff is in kennel No. 15, ID No. LCAC-A-1868. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Female mastiff

This 3-year-old female mastiff has a short brindle coat.

She is in kennel No. 15, ID No. LCAC-A-1868.

This male German shepherd mix puppy is in kennel No. 17b, ID No. LCAC-A-1849. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

German shepherd mix pup

This male German shepherd mix puppy has a short tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 17b, ID No. LCAC-A-1849.

This male German shepherd mix puppy is in kennel No. 17c, ID No. LCAC-A-1850. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

German shepherd mix pup

This male German shepherd mix puppy has a short black and tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 17c, ID No. LCAC-A-1850.

“Cynthia” is a 1-year-old female Doberman pinscher-hound mix in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-1891. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Cynthia’

“Cynthia” is a 1-year-old female Doberman pinscher-hound mix.

She is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-1891.

This 5-year-old female Rottweiler is in kennel No. 20, ID No. LCAC-A-1833. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Female Rottweiler

This 5-year-old female Rottweiler has a short black and tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 20, ID No. LCAC-A-1833.

This 2-year-old male mastiff in kennel No. 21, ID No. LCAC-A-1869. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Male mastiff

This 2-year-old male mastiff has a short tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 21, ID No. LCAC-A-1869.

This 2-year-old male mastiff in kennel No. 21, ID No. LCAC-A-1869. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Female American Staffordshire mix

This 3-year-old female American Staffordshire mix has a short black coat with white markings.

She is in kennel No. 23, ID No. LCAC-A-1727.

This 2-year-old male German shepherd is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-1903. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Male German shepherd

This 2-year-old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-1903.

This 2-year-old male shepherd mix is in kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-1743. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Male shepherd mix

This 2-year-old male shepherd mix has a short black and tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-1743.

This 12-year-old male Labrador retriever-border collie mix is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-2101. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Labrador-border collie mix

This 12-year-old male Labrador retriever-border collie mix has a short black and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-2101.

This 12-year-old female border collie is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-2100. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Female border collie

This 12-year-old female border collie has a long black and white coat.

She is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-2100.

“Canela” is a 1-year-old male husky mix in kennel No. 32, ID No. LCAC-A-1855. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Canela’

“Canela” is a 1-year-old male husky mix with a tricolor coat.

He is in kennel No. 32, ID No. LCAC-A-1855.

This 3-year-old male pit bull mix is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-2119. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Male pit bull mix

This 3-year-old male pit bull mix has a short tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-2119.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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The California Highway Patrol is determined to help drivers age 65 and older maintain their driving independence through the support of a yearlong federal grant, Keeping Everyone Safe, or KEYS, XIII.

The CHP will continue to offer this in-person and virtual traffic safety program emphasizing roadway safety and mobility for California’s senior drivers.

The Age Well, Drive Smart class is an education program specifically designed to help seniors tune up their driving skills, refresh their knowledge of the rules of the road, and discuss normal age-related physical changes and how they affect driving ability.

Since 2015, the CHP has conducted over 1,800 senior driver traffic safety presentations, reaching more than 100,000 people.

“The CHP is committed to helping seniors drive safer,” said CHP Commissioner Amanda Ray. “This course is designed to assist the state’s most experienced drivers in refreshing their driving skills and ultimately saving lives.”

The CHP invites California’s older drivers to attend a free two-hour Age Well, Drive Smart class that provides senior drivers the tools to drive safer and drive longer.

The class is offered at local CHP Area offices as well as many community centers. It is a great way for seniors to educate themselves, evaluate their driving abilities, and improve their driving skills.

To attend a class, either in person or virtually, contact a CHP Area office near you for available dates and times.

The CHP’s Clear Lake Area office can be reached at 707-279-0103.

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County’s property sales have continued to show increases in prices and in listings, while the number of sales is down compared to last year.

Each month, as we consider Lake County’s real estate sales, we look at last year’s statistics compared to this year with an overview of changes from the previous month. This helps to see how the market is trending month over month and changes from last year at this time.

Countywide changes from August to September show that sales were down, from 93 to 70; the median price was up, from $335,000 to $372,000; active listings rose from 228 to 251; median days on the market went from 13 to 17; the sales to list price dropped slightly, from 100% to 99.7%; and price reductions were up from 33.3% to 43%

Sales numbers range across communities

Countywide, existing single-family residential sales were at 70 in September, which is down from 93 in August and down 38.6% from last year, showing an overall slowing of home sales.

Lakeport’s sales were at 13, which is up by three over August and up by 8.3% over September of last year.

Kelseyville’s sales totaled were at 12, that’s down 50% from last month and down 63.6% from the previous September.

In Clearlake, sales totaled 13, up only one from August and down 7.1% from September of 2020.

Hidden Valley Lake’s sales were at 14, down by one in August and down 36.4% from September last year.

Median price continues to increase

Lake County’s median price for existing single family residences totaled $372,000 in September, compared to August’s $335,000 and up 21% in a year-over comparison.

By community, the median prices for September broke down this way:

• Lakeport: median price, $435,000, up from $389,000 in August, up 12.3% from September 2020.
• Kelseyville: median price, $360,000, up from $353,000 in August and up 9.6% from the previous September.
• Clearlake: median price, $255,000, up from August’s $223,000, and up 32.5% from September 2020.
• Hidden Valley Lake: median price, $377,000, up from $355,000 in August and up 14.1% in a year-over comparison.

Active listings up

Countywide, active listings were at 251, which is up over August’s 228 and up 55.9% over September of last year.

By community, listings for September were as follows:

• Lakeport: active listings, 45, up two from August; up 125% over September 2020.
• Kelseyville: active listings, 56, up five from August; up 55.6% over last September.
• Clearlake: active listings, 31, up two over August; down 6.1% from September 2020.
• Hidden Valley Lake: active listings, 31, up three from August; up 34.8% in a year-over comparison.

Days on market

Across Lake County, the median days on the market was 17, sales to list price was 99.7%, and 43% of active listings had reduced prices.

Lakeport’s median days on the market was 13, sales to list price was 99.5% and 53.3% of active listings had reduced prices.

Kelseyville’s median days on the market was 11, sales to list price was 100% and 50% of active listings had price reductions.

Clearlake’s median days on the market was 14, sales to list price was 100% and 41.9% of active listings had price reductions.

Tama Prokopowich is president-elect of the Lake County Association of Realtors.
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Nearly 80% of high school students struggle to verify the credibility of a source, a 2016 study found. Hill Street Studios/DigitalVision Collection via Getty Images

School librarians hear the question all the time: Why do we need school libraries and school librarians when students have the internet?

The perception is that a computer and Wi-Fi are all students need for their informational and recreational needs.

Meanwhile, the number of school librarians in the U.S. has dropped about 20% over the past decade, according to a July 2021 study funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Many states, including Arizona, Texas and Pennsylvania, do not fund or mandate school librarian positions. And an analysis from the National Center for Education Statistics revealed that Hispanic, nonwhite and nonnative English speakers are the students most affected by the decline in librarian positions.

“Access to school librarians has become a major educational equity issue,” says Keith Curry Lance, who with Debra Kachel led the IMLS study. In a recent email he told me, “School districts losing librarians tend to be ones that can least afford the loss in a society characterized by increasing economic inequality.”

As a former school librarian who researches school library issues and trains future school librarians, I know that decades of research demonstrate that K-12 school librarians have a significant impact on student achievement.

Here are four functions that school librarians carry out that I believe make their role more important now than ever.

1. Foster digital literacy

As bestselling author Neil Gaiman put it, “Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one.”

Recently, there has been an alarming rise in misinformation and disinformation. This is bad news for democracy. A 2016 Stanford University study found that nearly 80% of high school students struggle to verify the credibility of a source.

A 2012 Pew Research study revealed that 83% of K-12 teachers think the amount of information available online today is “overwhelming for most students.” Over 70% believe that today’s digital technologies “discourage students from finding and using a wide range of sources for their research.”

School librarians are information literacy experts trained to teach students how to access and navigate the tsunami of digital information available to them, and how to determine the authenticity of that information.

Smiling girl in school uniform holds stack of books on her head
School librarians help students develop a lifelong love of reading. Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision Collection via Getty Images


2. Champion the joy of reading

School librarians collect and curate high-quality print and digital materials that help students develop a lifelong love of reading. Take, for example, Tamara Cox, librarian at Wren High School in Piedmont, South Carolina, and winner of the American Library Association’s I Love My Librarian Award in 2018. Cox partnered with the county election commission to bring in voting machines for a book award contest to creatively encourage both reading and civic education.

Findings from studies such as the 2014 South Carolina Association of School Librarians’ impact study affirm that students who attend schools with full-time certified school librarians score higher on standardized reading tests.

3. Help teachers enhance their lessons

School librarians collaborate with classroom teachers to locate resources that enhance and support authentic classroom instruction. For example, Cindy Symonds, the librarian at Round Top Elementary School in Blythewood, South Carolina, collaborated with fourth-grade teachers to have students use databases to research a historic weather event, such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 or the Joplin Tornado in 2011. Then, with the help of a technology instructor, the students filmed themselves using a green screen to create a weather report.

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School librarians also work to ensure that students are taught issues of intellectual freedom. They collaborate with teachers to help students understand the ethical use of ideas and information. These include lessons about acknowledging authorship, properly citing content and developing an understanding of how to correctly use and reproduce others’ work.

4. Seek out creative, diverse materials

School librarians select inclusive materials that represent diverse points of views. This ensures that students have materials that reflect their own experiences as well as the experiences of others.

Librarians often provide innovative and creative programs that promote active learning spaces where students share ideas, equipment and knowledge while they work on projects. For example, during Hispanic Heritage month, the students at James Simons Montessori School in Charleston, South Carolina, read books by Latino authors and researched the authors’ countries of origin. They also made artifacts, such as national flags and maps with landmarks and used Makey Makey invention kits to code and present their facts on interactive displays. The project combined research, literacy, coding, circuitry, self-expression and creativity.

Rosie Herold, who oversaw the project, says observers might be “taken aback by my library’s apparent disorder, the lack of desks, the constant movement of students, cardboard everywhere, the constant chatter and the energy level.”

“But,” Herold adds, “spend more than a cursory look, more than a quick investigation and you will find the future of education.”The Conversation

Karen W. Gavigan, Professor of Information Science, University of South Carolina

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The yelloweye rockfish, Sebastes ruberrimus, dwells in deep waters along the California coast and lives upward of 140 years. Photo courtesy of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center ROV dive team.

BERKELEY — Rockfish is on the menu around the Pacific Rim, for the most part with little regard for the fish’s origin or which of the 137 species is on the plate — it’s typically identified simply as rockfish or, incorrectly, as rock cod or red snapper.

But this seemingly anonymous fish — among the longest-lived vertebrates on Earth — holds clues to the genes that determine life span and the pluses and minuses of living longer.

In a study appearing this week in the journal Science, biologists at the University of California, Berkeley, compare the genomes of nearly two-thirds of the known species of rockfish that inhabit coastal waters around the Pacific Ocean and uncover some of the genetic differences that underlie their widely varying life spans.

Some rockfish, like the colorful calico rockfish (Sebastes dallii), live for little more than a decade, while the most long-lived of the genus Sebastes — the rougheye rockfish (Sebastes aleutianus), which can be found from Japan to the Aleutian Islands — can hang out on the seabed in cold, deep coastal waters for more than 200 years.

Their wide range of life spans, not to mention differences in size, lifestyle and ecological niche, which scientists call their phenotypes, evolved over a mere 10 million years — one of the most rapid radiations among all fishes.

To uncover the genetic determinants of life span in rockfish, the researchers obtained tissue samples — and occasionally tasting samples — from 88 species and sequenced their complete genomes with a state-of-the-art technique known as Pacbio, or SMRT, sequencing.

They found a variety of genes associated with longer life span, though some of these genes involve adaptations to living at greater depth and growing larger, both of which are associated with increased life span. Among mammals, for example, elephants live longer than rats.

The findings also highlight the trade-offs of a long life span, which include smaller populations — something also seen in mammals, with short-lived rats vastly outnumbering long-lived elephants.

"In this study, we identified both the genetic causes and consequences of adaptation to extreme life span," said senior author Peter Sudmant, UC Berkeley assistant professor of integrative biology. "It's very exciting to be able to look at a group of species and see how their phenotype has been shaped through time and the genetic changes that drive that phenotype, and simultaneously, how that phenotype then feeds back and influences the genetic diversity of that population."

Sudmant acknowledges that many of the biological pathways he and his team found to be associated with life span have been identified before in genetic studies of variation within a single animal species, though this study does implicate several new genes in these pathways. Nevertheless, the natural variation within this one genus of fish that has radiated throughout the Pacific Ocean uniquely encapsulates most of the many genetic factors that influence life span.

"You could think of rockfish as sort of the perfect storm. in some ways, both on an individual level — having individual fish able to live for a really long time because of size and depth adaptations — but also just having all these different species that are showing these different trends," he said. "They're a perfect set of individuals to look at, where other people just had a single species to look at."

The study also has implications for understanding human life span. Sudmant and his colleagues found that longer-lived species had more immune modulating genes — in particular, a group called butyrophilins — than shorter-lived species. Because the immune system is involved in regulating inflammation, and increased inflammation has been implicated in human aging, the findings point to genes that could be targets of therapeutics to slow age-related damage in the body.

"There is an opportunity here to look in nature and see how natural adaptations have shaped life span and to think about how those same sorts of genes are acting in our own bodies," he said.

Size and habitat explain a lot of life span variation in fishes

The researchers looked for DNA variations that were more common in fish with longer lives and found 137 longevity-associated gene variations.

Not all of these have a direct effect on life span, however. The researchers took care to separate out the genetic variations that allowed rockfish to adapt to deeper depths and grow to larger size, since those adaptations themselves have the side-effect of increasing life span. Deeper, cooler waters slow metabolism, for example, which is associated with a longer life span in many animals.

"We can explain 60% of the variation in life span just by looking at the size at maturity and the depth at which a fish lives," Sudmant said. "So, you can predict life span with pretty high accuracy just from these factors. This allowed us to identify the genes that allow them to do those things."

The remainder of the longevity-associated variation primarily involved three types of genes: an enrichment in the number of genes for repairing DNA; variations in many genes that regulate insulin, which has long been known to influence life span; and an enrichment for genes that modulate the immune system. More DNA repair genes could help protect against cancer, while more immune genes could help ward off infections, as well as cancer.

"Six different members of the insulin signaling pathway are under selection in these fish," Sudmant said. "If you look at the textbooks, there's about nine or 10 core members of the pathway, so the majority of them are under selection in rockfish."

Essentially, Sudmant said, some rockfish species extended their life span simply by adapting to live in deeper, colder waters and increasing their size. The longest-lived species, however, boosted their life span even further by tweaking their DNA repair, insulin signaling and immune-modulation genes.

From the 88 rockfish genomes, the researchers also were able to infer what the ancestral rockfish genome looked like and how species evolved from that common ancestor 10 million years ago.

With increased life span, they found, also came decreased population levels. Some of the longest-lived species survive today in small numbers that rely on very old, but very fertile, females to replenish the population.

These big, old, fat, fecund female fish, or BOFFFF, as they are known in fish conservation circles, produce the majority of offspring — sometimes in the millions per year, though with a low survival rate — that seed the next generation.

"In these rockfish, we can actually watch this evolution happening over this 10-million-year time period, and we observe that when some species evolve a short life span, their population sizes expand, and when they evolve a long life span, their population sizes contract," he said. "We can see a signature of that in their genomes, in the genetic variation that exists in these species. So, there is a consequence to adapting to long and short life."

One intriguing finding, he said, is that long-lived species have an excess of certain kinds of DNA mutations — specifically, the conversion of the nucleotide pair CG (cytosine-guanine) to TG (thymine-guanine) — known to accumulate in tumors with aging. Because the oldest females of these long-lived species produce most of the offspring, these unusual genetic alterations are passed along to the rest of the long-lived population.

Sudmant and his lab colleagues are currently involved in similar genome comparisons among bats, primates and other organisms, looking at the genes correlated with life span, aging, stress and other phenotypic differences. But the rockfish project was something special, he said.

"Often, in genetics, we're derided for doing experiments that are fishing expeditions," he said. "This was both literally and figuratively a fishing expedition."

UC Berkeley postdoctoral researchers Sree Rohit Raj Kolora and Gregory Owens, now at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, are co-first authors of the paper. Other co-authors are Juan Manuel Vazquez, Alexander Stubbs, Kamalakar Chatla and professor Doris Bachtrog of UC Berkeley; Conner Jainese, Katelin Seeto, Merit McCrea and Milton Love of UC Santa Barbara; Michael Sandel of the University of West Alabama; Juliana Vianna of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; and Katherine Maslenikov and James Orr of the University of Washington. The work was funded by an award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (R35GM142916).

Robert Sanders works for the UC Berkeley News Center.
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The best way to stop a contagious virus like COVID-19 is through a worldwide vaccination program. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Now that kids ages 5 to 11 are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination and the number of fully vaccinated people in the U.S. is rising, many people may be wondering what the endgame is for COVID-19.

Early on in the pandemic, it wasn’t unreasonable to expect that SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) might just go away, since historically some pandemic viruses have simply disappeared.

For instance, SARS-CoV, the coronavirus responsible for the first SARS pandemic in 2003, spread to 29 countries and regions, infecting more than 8,000 people from November 2002 to July 2003. But thanks to quick and effective public health interventions, SARS-CoV hasn’t been observed in humans in almost 20 years and is now considered extinct.

On the other hand, pandemic viruses may also gradually settle into a relatively stable rate of occurrence, maintaining a constant pool of infected hosts capable of spreading the virus to others. These viruses are said to be “endemic.”

Examples of endemic viruses in the United States include those that cause the common cold and the seasonal flu that appear year after year. Much like these, the virus that causes COVID-19 likely won’t die out, and most experts now expect it to become endemic.

We are a team of virologists and immunologists from the University of Colorado Boulder studying animal viruses that infect humans. An essential focus of our research is to identify and describe the key adaptations that animal viruses require to persist in the human population.

What determines which viruses become endemic?

So why did the first SARS virus from 2003 (SARS-CoV) go extinct while this one (SARS-CoV-2) may become endemic?

The ultimate fate of a virus depends on how well it maintains its transmission. Generally speaking, viruses that are highly contagious, meaning that they spread really well from one person to the next, may never die out on their own because they are so good at finding new people to infect.

When a virus first enters a population with no immunity, its contagiousness is defined by scientists using a simple mathematical term, called R0, which is pronounced “R-naught.” This is also referred to as the reproduction number. The reproduction number of a virus represents how many people, on average, are infected by each infected person. For example, the first SARS-CoV had an R0 of about 2, meaning that each infected person passes the virus to two people on average. For the delta variant strain of SARS-CoV-2, the R0 is between 6 and 7.

The goal for public health authorities is to slow the rate by which viruses spread. Universal masking, social distancing, contact tracing and quarantines are all effective tools to reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. Since SARS-CoV was poorly transmissible, it just took a little bit of public health intervention to drive the virus to extinction. Given the highly transmissible nature of the delta variant, the challenge for eliminating the virus will be much greater, meaning that the virus is more likely to become endemic.

Unmasked motorcyclists crowd together.
In August 2020, about 500,000 motorcyclists rode the streets of Sturgis, South Dakota, at the city’s annual motorcycle rally. Masks were encouraged but not required. COVID-19 cases throughout the state increased. Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images


Is COVID-19 ever going away?

It’s clear that SARS-CoV-2 is very successful at finding new people to infect, and that people can get infected after vaccination. For these reasons, the transmission of this virus is not expected to end. It’s important that we consider why SARS-CoV-2 moves so easily from one person to the next, and how human behavior plays into that virus transmission.

SARS-CoV-2 is a respiratory virus that is spread through the air and is efficiently transmitted when people congregate. Critical public health interventions, like mask use and social distancing, have been key in slowing the spread of disease. However, any lapse in these public health measures can have dire consequences. For instance, a 2020 motorcycle rally brought together nearly 500,000 people in Sturgis, South Dakota, during the early phases of the pandemic. Most of the attendees were unmasked and not practicing social distancing. That event was directly responsible for an increase in COVID-19 cases in the state of South Dakota and nationwide. This shows how easily the virus can spread when people let their guard down.

The virus that causes COVID-19 is often associated with superspreading events, in which many people are infected all at once, typically by a single infected individual. In fact, our own work has shown that just 2% of the people infected with COVID-19 carry 90% of the virus that is circulating in a community. These important “supercarriers” have a disproportionately large impact on infecting others, and if they aren’t tracked down before they spread the virus to the next person, they will continue to sustain the epidemic. We currently don’t have a nationwide screening program geared toward identifying these individuals.

Finally, asymptomatically infected people account for roughly half of all infections of COVID-19. This, when coupled with a broad range of time in which people can be infectious – two days before and 10 days after symptoms appear – affords many opportunities for virus transmission, since people who don’t know they are sick generally take few measures to isolate from others.

The contagious nature of SARS-CoV-2 and our highly interconnected society constitute a perfect storm that will likely contribute to sustained virus spread.

An elderly woman wearing a mask receives a shot.
An elderly woman receives a Pfizer COVID-19 booster shot at a clinic in San Rafael, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News via Getty Images


What will our future with COVID-19 look like?

Given the considerations discussed above and what we know about COVID-19 so far, many scientists believe that the virus that causes COVID-19 will likely settle into endemic patterns of transmission. But our inability to eradicate the virus does not mean that all hope is lost.

Our post-pandemic future will heavily depend on how the virus evolves over the coming years. SARS-CoV-2 is a completely new human virus that is still adapting to its new host. Over time, we may see the virus become less pathogenic, similar to the four coronaviruses that cause the common cold, which represent little more than a seasonal nuisance.

Global vaccination programs will have the greatest impact on curbing new cases of the disease. However, the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine campaign so far has touched only a small percentage of people on the planet. In addition, breakthrough infections in vaccinated people still occur because no vaccine is 100% effective. This means that booster shots will likely be needed to maximize vaccine-induced protection against infection.

With global virus surveillance and the speed at which safe and effective vaccines have been developed, we are well poised to tackle the ever-evolving target that is SARS-CoV-2. Influenza is endemic and evolves quickly, but seasonal vaccination enables life to go on as normal. We can expect the same for SARS-CoV-2 – eventually.

How will we know if and when SARS-CoV-2 becomes endemic?

Four seasonal coronaviruses circulate in humans endemically already. They tend to recur annually, usually during the winter months, and affect children more than adults. The virus that causes COVID-19 has not yet settled down into these predictable patterns and instead is flaring up unpredictably around the globe in ways that are sometimes difficult to predict.

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Once rates of SARS-CoV-2 stabilize, we can call it endemic. But this transition may look different based on where you are in the world. For instance, countries with high vaccine coverage and plentiful boosters may soon settle into predictable spikes of COVID-19 during the winter months when the environmental conditions are more favorable to virus transmission. In contrast, unpredictable epidemics may persist in regions with lower vaccination rates.The Conversation

Sara Sawyer, Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado Boulder; Arturo Barbachano-Guerrero, Postdoctoral Researcher in Virology, University of Colorado Boulder, and Cody Warren, Postdoctoral Fellow in Virology and Immunology, University of Colorado Boulder

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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