Our speaker on October 7th was Dr. Kermit Jones, a candidate for the 4th Congressional district. He is an internal medicine physician and also a lawyer. He was deployed as a flight surgeon for the Navy in Iraq, and was a FDA regulatory attorney and White House fellow during the Obama administration. He has served on the front line of the COVID pandemic for 18 months and will concentrate his talk on health issues and the pandemic. 
 
Dr. Kermit told us of his youth on a small farm in Michigan and the inspiration that his mother provided in going to nursing school and becoming a nurse.  A major reason that he is running for Congress is that he believes that our healthcare system is a mess because Healthcare executives and members of Congress are not doing their jobs.  We don't need a healthcare systems where CEOs are making $18M per year.  But he is not in favor of the government taking over healthcare systems.  Since over 70% of new doctors become specialists, he believes that we need to provide incentives for med students to take up general practice and to serve in a rural area for at least 7 years to receive their incentive.
 
A club member asked how would he or should we convince people to take one of the COVID vaccines.  He said we should ask "Who in their lives do they care about? Do it to protect them." If they worry that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are based on medical technoloogy that is too new, tell them that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is based on 25-year-old technology.
 
Another member asked about the illegal immigration problem at the southern border.  Dr. Kermit mentioned that he worked next to migrant workers on his family farm when growing up.  His thoughts on this issue included: 1) we do need a hard border and that we need to understand who is coming across the border for security reasons, 2) we can't deport 12M undocumented people, we need a pathway to work privileges; and 3) we need a Congress who takes the problem seriously, noting that both Obama's and Trump's administration, even when they controlled both houses of Congress, failed to act on the issue.
 
Dr. Kermit was an engaging speaker, and President Mike is working on getting Congressman Tom McClintock to speak to us, whether in person or on Zoom.