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October 2, 2023

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News COVID-19

UMMS Survey: Majority of Marylanders Plan To Get COVID-19 Vaccine, Many Not Changing Thanksgiving Plans

November 25, 2020 by Spy Desk

Surging coronavirus and Thanksgiving holiday convergence could create ‘perfect storm’

A new survey commissioned by the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) found that more than 4 in 10 Marylanders are unwilling to change their in-person Thanksgiving or other holiday plans.

On a positive note, the survey also found that the nearly two-thirds of Marylanders plan to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, when available.

The online survey found that 44% will not change their in-person Thanksgiving or other holiday plans due to COVID-19. The survey found that 65% of Marylanders are very or somewhat likely to get a COVID-19 vaccination when the vaccine is available.

The survey, conducted November 16-23, polled 525 Marylanders throughout central and southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore, where UMMS operates a network of 13 hospitals, ambulatory centers and urgent care facilities.

“No question about it, these survey results are concerning, as our statewide mission to slow the spread of COVID-19 and stop the current surge relies on people heeding the advice of the CDC and Governor Hogan to not travel and refrain from holding large family events during Thanksgiving,” Dr. David Marcozzi, UMMS COVID-19 incident commander, said in a statement. “This could be setting up a perfect storm, with COVID cases on the rise throughout the state and multiple super-spreader events, it could cause a significant strain on the state’s healthcare system.”

The survey found respondents in southern Maryland and Eastern Shore are less likely to say they have canceled in-person holiday plans than those in other regions of the state. Women, older adults and those with higher education levels are more likely to have changed holiday plans.

The 65% of Marylanders saying they would take a COVID-19 vaccine, once available, is a positive finding, but is still below what state and federal health officials advise for the elimination of the pandemic in the United States.

“While we’re encouraged that nearly two-thirds of Marylanders would take a COVID vaccine, this survey points out that we have more work to do to educate the public about the necessity to vaccinate and alleviate fears and concerns about the vaccines that will become available,” Dr. Mohan Suntha, MBA, president and chief executive officer of UMMS, said in a statement. “UMMS will be working tirelessly to make the vaccine available to as many Marylanders as possible, at the appropriate time, and ease concerns by communicating the facts.”

Those saying they are likely to take the vaccine include white men (76%), men age 45+ (78%) and people over age 65 (76%), the survey found. Those groups with higher levels saying they are not likely to take the vaccine include Black women (49%), women in general (43%), those with a high school education or less (49%), and people age 18-34 (42%). Regionally, people in the Baltimore metro area were more likely to say they would take the vaccine (70%), while those in southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore (55%) and Prince George’s County (62%) report lower levels of likelihood.

About the Survey

The survey, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and commissioned by the University of Maryland Medical System, was conducted from November 16-23, 2020, among 525 adults 18+ living in the UMMS’ expanded service area, which includes all counties statewide except Allegany, Garrett, Montgomery, and Washington. The survey has a credibility interval of ±4.88%.

About the University of Maryland Medical System

The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) is a university-based regional health care system focused on serving the health care needs of Maryland, bringing innovation, discovery and research to the care we provide and educating the state’s future physician and health care professionals through our partnership with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the UM Schools of Nursing, Pharmacy, Social Work and Dentistry in Baltimore.

As one of the largest private employers in the state, the health system’s 28,000 employees and 4,000 affiliated physicians provide primary and specialty care in more than 150 locations and at 13 hospitals. UMMS’ flagship academic campus, the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore is partnered with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and is recognized regionally and nationally for excellence and innovation in specialized care. Our acute care and specialty rehabilitation hospitals serve urban, suburban and rural communities and are located in 13 counties across the state. For more information, visit www.umms.org.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: COVID-19 Tagged With: coronavirus, Covid-19, Education, Health Care, Survey, Thanksgiving, umms, vaccine

Food Friday: Home-baked Goodness

December 6, 2019 by Jean Sanders

FF Home baked goodness

After a joyous and fattening Thanksgiving I have waddled back into the kitchen to confront the next round of holidays which are headed toward us at an alarming pace. Our neighbors seemed to have put up their Christmas lights while still gnawing on turkey legs. I have not been quite so swift, but I have purchased a pungent evergreen wreath from a local civic group, decorated it with sprigs of holly and some spangly gold star ribbon, and hung it on the front door. I have also moved the unsightly, out-of-season-overnight mums to the back yard where I will transplant them if the weather cooperates this weekend.

Looking at the calendar is sobering. Hanukkah starts on the twenty-second, and Christmas arrives just three days later. I’ve got to start thinking about the annual rite of cookie baking. It seems early to contemplate holiday baking – especially when I am still eating leftover Thanksgiving turkey for lunch every day. But there is no denying facts; in three weeks we will be wondering how the time flew by so fast.

I am thinking about the cookies I need to mail to our far-flung friends and family, and even more to take around to the neighbors, not to mention those for personal consumption. I like to send cookies that will evoke memories, like Proust’s madeleines. Just before Thanksgiving I sent my brother a box of home-baked gingersnaps, which remind us of our mother. Store-bought gingersnaps are never as poignant, or as crisp and deelish. He said he sat down, poured a big glass of cold milk, and immediately scarfed down three cookies. When was the last time that you ate three cookies without guilt? Childhood, when calories were never considered. And as long as Mom kept pulling sheets of warm cookies out of the oven on cold winter afternoons, we would continue eating gingersnaps. Not delicate little ladylike nibbles. Full-throated, passionate chomps of warm molasses-infused, sugar-crusted, pliant discs of deliciousness. Dinosaur-sized bites. Yumsters.

Baltimore has its own Proustian trigger: the Berger cookie. I have included links to several recipes and histories of the Berger cookie. You need to work out the size and heft and the proportions for yourself, but I don’t care for the bitsy Oreo-sized versions. I am baking English muffin-sized Bergers. They will be epic and Brobdingnagian. The ratio of chocolate frosting to the cake-like cookie will be impressive. These are cookies we ate when we were college students. When a whole row of Oreos could be consumed in one sitting. When we laughed at calories. It is the time of the year to revisit our misspent youth.

So it that spirit – use the heavy cream, and not sour cream. Eschew the corn syrup. Layer on the chocolate, accept your plangent wisps of nostalgia, and bake some new, giddy memories. (And do not cheat and buy Bergers from Amazon. You have to have some standards!)

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-berger-cookie-is-baltimores-gift-to-the-chocolate-world-6918029/

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/berger-cookie-baltimore-health-regulations

https://sweetlittlebluebird.com/copycat-recipe-baltimores-famous-berger_20/

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/copycat-berger-cookies/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/voraciously/wp/2019/12/02/if-a-brownie-and-a-sugar-cookie-had-a-baby-it-would-be-this-berger-cookie/

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/baltimore-berger-cookies-recipe

Peppermint variation: https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/chocolate-peppermint-cookies/10391/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/19/proust-madeleine-cakes-started-as-toast-in-search-of-lost-time-manuscripts-reveal

“I cannot go any further without mentioning my favourite biscuit of all time, now sadly, tragically, extinct. The oaty, crumbly, demerara notes of the long-forgotten Abbey Crunch will remain forever on my lips. I loved the biscuit as much as anything I have ever eaten, and often, in moments of solitude, I still think about its warm, buttery, sugary self.”
― Nigel Slater

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The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Food Friday, Spy Top Story Tagged With: local news, Thanksgiving, The Talbot Spy

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