Contributed

At a press conference before a speech to the Medical Committee for Human Rights in 1966, two years before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. noted, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhumane because it often results in physical death.”

When I heard the doorbell ring that Saturday afternoon, I did something I had never done before. I bought something from a door-to-door salesperson. It was a pest control representative who was canvassing the neighborhood for new business. The logo on his bright green golf shirt matched his truck in the driveway. He introduced himself and said, “I see you have a vole problem. Have you tried anything?”

Mysterious, unsolicited packets of seeds possibly from China are arriving in some Southern California mailboxes, prompting state officials to urge recipients to refrain from planting them. The California Department of Agriculture is aware of the packets and has been in contact with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to determine what action, if any, is necessary for shipments arriving in California, spokesman Steve Lyle said Monday.

Wearing a face covering will slow the spread from asymptomatic carriers. Results of a COVID-19 antibody testing study indicate the virus may have infected more than 100,000 Riverside County residents. This finding underscores the need to wear face coverings as people may have the virus without any symptoms, then easily spread it to others when not wearing a mask or keeping six feet of distance.

Riverside County health officials are reminding residents to seek emergency care when they have potentially serious symptoms such as chest pains, shortness of breath or signs of a stroke, and not wait to call 9-1-1 out of fear of catching coronavirus.