PetPlace Chat: TikTok Vet Dr. Adam Christman
Bennett Glace
Like many professionals, Dr. Adam Christman saw his work life totally transformed by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. Despite enforced social distancing, Dr. Christman managed to connect with hundreds of thousands of pet owners throughout 2020 thanks to his skills on social media. Sharing expertise, singing the praises of pet care products, and even telling the occasional dad joke, Dr. Christman has built a following of more than 200,000 on TikTok. As the “TikTok vet,” he’s taken his career in an exciting new digital direction and made pandemic pet parenthood a little less stressful for people everywhere.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli reported that childhood vaccinations had plummeted, largely thanks to a temporary ban on elective procedures at the onset of the health crisis.
That decline apparently did not translate to pets in the Garden State, specifically with regard to rabies vaccinations, as DOH statistics showed no change in the number of rabies cases in domestic animals from 2019 to 2020.
Dr. Adam Christman, chief veterinary officer of Fetch DVM360 and treasurer of the New Jersey Veterinary Medical Association, said the sustained vigilance of pet owners over the last year has surprised even those in his profession.
NJ kids (non-COVID) vaccinations may be lagging, but not pets 943thepoint.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from 943thepoint.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Leticia Aguilar poses for a portrait holding a picture of her grandmother Betty Ann Sigala in her home in Elk Grove.
(Salgu Wissmath/USA Today)
For years, Betty Sigala spoke to her family about her death: she didn’t want to be put on a machine and she didn’t want to die alone.
When she was admitted in June to the COVID-19 care ward at her local hospital, her family refused a ventilator. One of her grandsons convinced the nurses to ignore the no visitors rule and let him in.
He set up an iPad so the family could speak with her, then held her hand as she died.
Native American leaders across California said COVID-19 deaths are a shadow on their communities, yet state figures show few American Indian people have died here compared with other states. Leaders and experts fear their community s deaths have been undercounted because of a long history of Native Americans being racially misclassified. And data shows they may be correct.
This unacceptable and damaging practice can bar Native people from getting the help and resources they actually need, they said.
California has the largest number of American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States and the largest number of American Indians and Alaska Natives living in urban centers. They are often declared white, Latino or Black on official forms by uninformed hospital workers, according to community leaders and various studies. Sometimes they are simply listed as other.