special report

Public health starts with the concept that improving the health of the community’s most vulnerable residents improves the physical, economic and civic health of the community as a whole. Less suffering and greater well-being for the community makes people’s individual lives better. Next, public health practices change as scientific understanding evolves, putting into practice what […]

When the novel coronavirus reached Nevada County in March 2020, the telephones at the Public Health Department got even busier than usual. Often, Health Technician Lisa Richardson was the one who answered. “There were tons of phone calls,” Richardson recalled. “So many people were so scared and so worried. They just wanted to have contact […]

It was late June 2020. COVID-19 cases were starting to double in Nevada County, Californians had been ordered to stay home, and protests against community health measures were growing more strident. Amid the alarm bells, County Public Health Department Director Jill Blake received a letter. “Thank you,” the sender wrote. The sender was a local […]

As a public health nurse for Nevada County, Charlene Weiss-Wenzl works with local mothers and their children – especially those who lack the resources to get health care on their own. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Weiss-Wenzl has seen how her clients, both parents and youngsters, have struggled as schools shut down, childcare […]

When Jennifer Tamo was asked to take the lead in setting up a COVID-19 vaccination clinic for Nevada County early this year, the task seemed overwhelming. But by working as a team with many people who saw the urgency, keeping her eye on the goal and having a sense of grace toward others amid the […]

In fall 2019, Kim Blix had been leading the emergency preparedness program for Nevada County’s Public Health Department only a few weeks when a string of power shut-offs began. High winds had raised the risk of wildfires, so Pacific Gas and Electric Co. repeatedly turned off electricity for days at a time to nearly a […]

Jill Blake has many responsibilities in leading the Public Health Department of Nevada County. Her team of 36 people has a budget of $10 million for the 2020-21 fiscal year. They work from the basic idea that the health of individual residents shapes the health of the whole community. So, they work with new mothers, […]

In the past 20 years, Nevada County’s deputy public health officer has seen several pandemics and national public health emergencies. But when COVID-19 exploded in early 2020, Dr. Glennah Trochet for the first time saw a federal response that she characterized as incompetent and at odds with standard practices proven to reduce disease. As a […]

Cynthia Wilson remembers learning of Nevada County’s first death from the novel coronavirus, reported on April 3, 2020. In that moment, the county director of public health nursing recalled thinking, “This is bad.” Until then, most local cases of COVID-19 had been in people who had picked up the virus overseas and came down sick […]

As Nevada County and the world ground into our second pandemic year, YubaNet reached out to people working with the county Public Health Department to ask for their insights into their front-lines fight to keep this community as safe as they can from the novel coronavirus. “It’s been a transformative year,” said Nevada County Public […]