Logo for: Rotary Old Saybrook

OS Rotary Meeting 07/25/18

Pledge: Pres. Sam Fulginiti
Prayer: Tara Winch
Song: Bill McLaughlin
Brents Card Game Winner: Bill McLaughlin

Sargeants Report: Joe Arcari
Raffle Winners: Brent, Bill M, Matt Sagnelli
Happy Bucks: Lots for just being here, the Arts & Crafts Festival, our speaker, Bill O doing well on the cardiac front!

Announcements: This weekend, the club will host a food tent at the Chamber Arts & Crafts Festival on the town green. Please volunteer to help fill the time slots and keep the hot dogs, water and snow cones moving! Brent, will lead the charge starting Friday evening to set up and ending Sunday around 4PM. John G is picking up the tent and Brent will be at Marty's business location to pick up the coolers and other supplies in the rental van.

Jan is leading a meeting of the "Time/Location" committee following the regular meeting.

Ken Roche talked about the Lighthouse Tour, Wed Aug. 8 at 10am. Let Ken know if you plan on attending. If 20 people sign up, the price goes from $30pp to $22.50. Be at the New London Ferry by 9:30am.

Meals on Wheels: Bill McLaughlin

Program: Brian DeBlasiis introduced our speaker, 2nd year UCONN medical student Matt Sagnelli

     Before going to medical school, Matt attended Daniel Hand High School and did his undergraduate studies at Central Connecticut State University where he majored in Microbiology. Matt's main topic was the disease Polio, at one time a much more widespread than today. Thanks to efforts of organizations like the Bill Gates Foundation and Rotary International (Polio Plus), Polio is almost erradicated from the planet. Poliomyelitis is the most common form of Polio. The symptoms can run the spectrum from muscle weakness to paralysis. If the paralysis affects the diaphragm, breathing stops necessitating external aids to assist in breathing. We've all seen pictures of people living in an "iron lung" machine to live. In 1955 Jonas Salk developed the vaccine for Polio. It consisted of live virus with parts missing that allowed our bodies to develop antigens to fight off the virus. The attenuated virus does not have the ability to attack musle tissue so you don't get sick from the vaccine. Thanks to the vaccine and efforts to deploy it, today there are only 3 countries where the disease still exists vs. 125 countries in 1988. The effectiveness depends on a "herd" immunity strategy where 80-90% of a population must be immunized which in effect protects the others who for whatever reason, don't get vaccinated. The vaccine works by boosting Memory B cells in our blood which work with macrophages, to engulf the virus and destroy it.
     Matt talked about the controversy of vaccines. Thanks to a flawed and later discredited study in 1998 in the prestigous journal Lancet, some people refuse to vaccinate their children for fear of autism. Mercury was said to be the culprit. In reality, Thimerasol, a preservative to protect the vaccine from bacterial and viral contamination, is a compound that has a mercury compound in it. Mercury by itself is indeed dangerous but is safe when it is bonded to another molecule. Just the same, Thimerasol has been phased out due to the sensationalized and false information. Today, aluminum and formaldehyde compounds are used instead. Another problem noted is the rise of measles in this country from the anti-vaccine movement.
If you have any questions, you can contact Matt: sagnelli@uchc.edu

 

md