Down the Rabbit Hole

A few years ago, I was walking through an exhibit about outbreaks at the Smithsonian Museum. Little did I know that my life (and the whole world) would drastically change because of SARS-CoV-2 (aka COVID-19). Aside from giving birth during the early part of the pandemic (and being indoors most of the time), my career shifted towards public health microbiology . The Smithsonian exhibit about outbreaks featured influenza and how easily it can be transmitted from various animals to humans. A strain called H5N1 is known as avian flu because it is found typically in domestic poultry in Asia. According to the exhibit, this strain is not known to be spread from person to person. Instead, humans usually get it from exposure to sick or dead birds. Epidemiologists are most concerned about H5N1 (or any other strain of avian flu) infecting another animal AND a flu strain from a human infecting the same animal. The flu strains' genetic material may recombine and become a brand-new strain that...

Anna, Donan, and I watched  Fleet Week  from Fort Baker last year . Since we enjoyed our experience, we organised a trip to see it again from the same point this year. After Mass and lunch, we drove to Sausalito, intending to take the exit that would have taken us to Fort Baker. However, the queue for that exit was close to two miles long; we missed the exit because I had thought that the queue wasn't for that exit just yet. And so, as we passed by our supposed exit, I quickly decided that we were going to watch the Blue Angels from an even better area: Crissy Field ! The Blue Angels whizzed past us as we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge . Anna and Donan had a great time watching them fly by as I tried to concentrate on watching the road. Some pedestrians on the bridge stopped to take videos of the aerial presentation. As I entered Crissy Field, I realised there was an even worse traffic jam because cars were parked on the road (the drivers and passengers just hopped out to watc...

As a public health microbiologist trainee last year, I learned a mnemonic:  D irty  F ingers  B ring  S higella . The first letter in each word helps me remember the different groups of  Shigella , which coincide  with the species names: Shigella d ysenteriae (Group A), S. f lexneri (Group B), S. b oydii (Group C), and S. s onnei (Group D). S. sonnei accounts for a significant proportion of cases in the USA.  This mnemonic came to mind while listening to a presentation on extensively drug-resistant (XDR)  Shigella during the California Association of Public Health Laboratory Directors (CAPHLD) Annual Institute. This bacteria is a big concern for public health professionals in the United States because it is easily spread (mainly) by consuming contaminated food (it only takes 1–100 Shigella cells to get sick with it). It causes both domestically acquired and travel-associated acute inflammatory diarrhoea. Infections with XDR strains are made w...

Yan ang tanong sa akin ng mga magulang ko pag napapansin nilang may lakad ang mga kapatid ko kasama ang kanilang mga kabarkada. Si Biboy may mga kaibigang mahilig mag-capoeira. Si Anna naman may mga nakabarkada na na kapwa Pilipinong bagong salta sa California at mga ibang lahi na naging katrabaho o kaklase.  E ako: Ang taong bahay na laging ang anak ang bitbit sa pasyalan. Ang aking mga kaibigan dito sa USA nasa Southern California o sa East Coast karamihan. Walang nakatira sa Bay Area. Kaya naman nung pumunta kami sa San Diego, sinigurado kong kausapin ang aking mga kaibigan sa Southern California upang malaman kung pwede kaming magkita. Dahil biglaan ang pagbyahe naming pamilya, dalawa sa tatlo kong kaibigan galing UPRHS ay nasa ibang lugar. Si Noah, nagkataon na walang lakad o pasok, kaya nakipagkita sa amin sa Chino. Nakakatuwa ang pagkikitang yun kasi ang tagal na naming di nagkita. Huli ata kaming nagkita ay 2019 pa; pareho kaming nasa Los Banos . Kaya ang kwentuhan namin a...

Our trip to San Diego wouldn't be complete without a visit to one of the places on my bucket list: the San Diego Zoo (I've always wanted to visit since I was in grade school). Initially, I planned for us to be there all day on our second day in the city. However, Mommy and Daddy wanted to listen to the organ recital in Balboa Park, so we scheduled the zoo trip right after visiting the USS Midway . Visiting in the afternoon was a good idea because the crowd was smaller, the bus queues were shorter (yes, there are buses in the zoo!), and the gondola lifts were much shorter. We saw elephants playing, lions and tigers napping, koalas hanging around, giraffes munching, camels people-watching, and flamingoes walking about.  We even saw an artificial tar pit with a few bones, which Donan enjoyed staring at.  We saw most of the zoo on the bus tour and the gondola lift (for a bird' s-eye view); however, we didn't visit the animals whose enclosures were away from the tour's ...

One of the places we  had to see while we were in San Diego was the USS Midway Museum because Donan has been interested in fighter jets since we saw the  Blue Angels  last year. I wanted to show him different aircraft types (the FA-18s aren't the only aeroplanes in the sky), and  a museum was the best place to see such a variety of aircraft. Et voila!  The USS Midway is an aircraft carrier on active duty from 1945 to 1992 (yes, that's from World War II to Desert Storm). Currently moored at the Navy Pier in San Diego, it is one of the largest museums I have ever visited. Just see how big the ship's island (tower) is from the dock! We had to take a ramp and an elevator to reach the red, white, and blue banner on the lower right of the photo! However, we only stayed in the hangar for a quick rest for Mommy because Donan wasn't comfortable in the big, dark space. We skipped the exhibit about the Battle of Midway, a major battle in the Pacific Theatre of World War I...

We drove for about three or four hours (~250 miles) en route to San Diego when we decided to take a stretch and snack break. We happened to be close to San Luis Obispo, so we searched for any familiar coffee shop franchise with vacant parking spots. After driving around the downtown area and not finding a suitable place to stop, we headed back towards Highway 101 and discovered the House of Bread Bakery and Cafe. The interiors smelled delicious! Just outside the open kitchen area, there was a good selection of freshly baked breads and pastries. The staff had us try several of their bread samples, which were so yummy! I ended up buying the chocolate zucchini bread. It contains unbleached flour, zucchini, and cocoa. Donan had no qualms about eating the bread despite the presence of zucchini because of the rich chocolate flavour. The texture was soft, chewy, and easy on the palate after a long drive. Mommy, on the other hand, got a prairie bread. It contains a wheat and rye flour blend, h...

I've been watching period productions recently, and one that made quite an impression on me was "North and South." It's a story about the contrasts between the industrial north (where the cotton mill owned by John Thorton was located) and the rural south (where Margaret Hale grew up as a pastor's daughter). It also contrasts the points of view between employer and employee.  What caught my attention early on was that Margaret was not a typical 1800s heroine. She wasn't knitting or painting while waiting for guests to arrive at her house (just like many heroines from Jane Austen's novels). Instead, she was looking for a home she and her parents could stay in when they moved to the fictional town of Milton in northern England. Moving to the North was quite an adjustment for her; nevertheless, she befriended a family whose source of income was tied closely to the cotton mills.  John, on the other hand, was not a typical rich man. He had risen from humble begi...

I have attended conferences where climate change was discussed from a food security angle. Increasing temperatures, drought, excess rain, and flooding would lead to food shortages. Therefore,  climate-smart  food sources must be incorporated into planetary health diets  so that people get their nutritional needs while keeping their impact on the planet at a minimum. During Solano County's Public Health Division-Wide Meeting this year, Mr Jerry Huber (Director, Department of Health and Social Services) and Dr Bela Matyas (Public Health Officer and Deputy Director, Department of Health and Social Services) highlighted the need to talk about climate instability from a public health perspective. This encompasses the associations between public health and clean water, public health and **exotic** disease-bearing vectors, and public health and wildfires, among others. Zooming out of these specific links to public health reveals that climate instability is the underlying common ...

We didn't have anything planned for Memorial Day weekend this year. Donan has swimming lessons on the weekend, so we couldn't really go farther than where a four-hour drive can take us. This limitation narrowed our options. We agreed to go on a day trip to Lake Tahoe since we have not visited the area in spring. I have been there three times in winter , with two of those trips for snowboarding . Mommy and Daddy have been there several times as well. It's Donan's first time to visit. Our route (I-680, I-80, US-50) led us to the Eldorado National Forest's breathtaking vistas, cold mountain rivers, and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. Our first glimpse of Lake Tahoe was at Echo Summit Pass (the highest point of our journey at ~7300 feet ASL). We drove under the shadows of snow-capped mountains and had a great view of Lover’s Leap as I navigated the zigzagging road. The route also took us through the remnants of a community burned to the ground during the 2021 Cald...

I was invited to assist in laboratory activities in the Mycology unit of the Public Health Microbiologist Training Program (PHM). I'm excited to pay it forward because I know how challenging the program is. The trainers were hoping that I could help the current cohort while they figure out the best way to study concepts in Mycology. I am no subject-matter expert (i.e., my graduate degree was on something else). However, I retained many concepts for about two decades because the foundational courses at UPLB helped me understand how to study instead of just memorising key points. Also, my instructor in PPTH 104 (Introduction to Mycology) is one of the best mycologists in the Philippines, Dr Teresita Dalisay. After some thought, I list some tips for studying for a Mycology exam: Tip #1: Draw as many observations as you can Don't limit yourself to circles. Try to draw your observations as accurately as possible. I do this by shading my drawings to add texture and dimension. I'm...

I realise that real-life forensics laboratories differ depending on the expertise available, the facilities in place, and the most practical set of tests that forensics scientists can do feasibly (what tests can be performed over a long time rather than what is trendy). I also know that crime TV shows like Crime Scene Investigators (CSI) and its different variants (for example, CSI: NY and CSI: Miami) have forever shaped what I imagined a forensic laboratory would look like: dramatic lighting, gleaming glassware, and giant LCD screens. Reality set in when I visited a county forensics laboratory. Friendly chemists (not the socially awkward ones typecast in TV shows) welcomed me and other visitors on a facility tour. Pieces of fancy equipment were not in shortage, as we were shown mass spectrometers attached to gas or liquid chromatography instruments. Old-school chemistry tests showing colour reactions for positives and negatives were demonstrated, just like the ones shown on TV sans t...

On a fine Sunday afternoon when the weather was warm, we drove to Cupertino to visit one of the places I have always wanted to visit since I bought my first iPod: the Apple headquarters. Little did I know that the headquarters I wanted to see (the Apple Campus) has now been replaced by Apple Park (aka Apple Campus 2). Nevertheless, I wanted to see how the minimalist aesthetic of Apple products translates to the company headquarters.  What I saw did not disappoint. It actually wowed me. I was surprised that the campus was found in a suburban neighbourhood. It felt so peaceful to be there on a weekend. I'm sure the pace is more rapid on weekdays, with people rushing to work, but assuming that people living in the adjacent neighbourhood are Apple employees, the commute (or the walk) won't be too bad. I learned that visitors are not allowed on the campus but are welcome to tour the Apple Park Visitor Centre. The garden surrounding the visitor centre is lined with olive trees and n...

  I had an exam in the City in mid-March and brought my meal-prepped lunch. So I hopped into a lift that brought me to Salesforce Park (for the first time). It is a garden 70 feet above ground, suspended over three or four city blocks in the East Cut neighbourhood. It is a sight for sore eyes after being on the BART and walking on San Francisco's concrete trails under the shadow of the tall buildings of the Financial District. Salesforce Park reopened in July 2019, a few months after I finished studying in the City . In fact, the construction site for the Transbay Transit Centre (on which the park is found) was under construction while I was a student at UC Berkeley's SF campus. And that is why I didn't get a chance to see it earlier. Walking along the paved path in Salesforce Park reminded me of my visit to Singapore's Flower Dome . The park is rich in greenery, with the path lined with plants and grass-covered hillocks. Since it was (literally) the last day of winter,...

Donan has recently become fascinated with dinosaurs. He has been asking many questions about the differences among various groups of dinosaurs, what they ate, and where they lived. Because of this interest, I thought it would be an excellent idea for him to see the dinosaur exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences.  When we reached the front door, an enormous dinosaur appeared and freaked us out. Donan didn't want to see the rest of the exhibit anymore.  In contrast, I didn't see the same fear and worry when Donan and I went to the animal exhibit in the Blackhawk Museum. He was enthralled by the dinosaur skull and paused to see the videos of ankylosaurs. 

Alcatraz Island is one of the more difficult National Parks to visit.  Tickets to the island sell out fast, especially on weekends (a very popular tourist destination) The only way to get there from Embarcadero is by boat (15-min trip) The road on the island is uneven and difficult to walk on because of the terrain (wear super comfortable shoes) After watching Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery's The Rock, I always wanted to visit Alcatraz. Val and I took a  cruise  around the island once; we didn't land there, though. This is why I was excited when I snagged a day tour slot when I was in San Francisco. Finally, after years of finding an opportune time!  The highlight of the island tour was the audio-guided tour of the federal penitentiary, which used to be a maximum-security prison (and is famous because of it). Before it became a federal penitentiary, however, Alcatraz Island was home to a military fortress designated to protect the West Coast from foreign invaders (d...

Solano County's Health and Social Services (H&SS) has a committee preparing for the Public Health Day sometime in May. I attended the first of its meetings, and I found the committee organisers to be very friendly. It did help that they prepared a check-in activity to make everyone at ease: "loteria". When they first mentioned it, I thought we would play the lotto. However, I learned that Loteria is similar to Bingo. We were each given one card with several drawings and Spanish words. We were also given a handful of beans. One had to put one bean to each drawing on the card to win the game. Players would place the beans on their cards as the game master mentioned the word or showed the photo he/she had drawn from a deck of photo cards.   My Spanish is limited to numbers and a few objects... I am not able to string words into a sentence just yet. And so, I heavily relied on the photos that the game master showed to the group. It was a fun activity, albeit short (about ...