Watch how to sign ‘covid’ in American Sign Language
Note to DMC Consumers: DMC has a mask policy always in effect at our location. If you are coming in for an appointment, we ask that you adhere to our protocol of wearing a KN95 or N95 mask. If you do not have one, you will be provided one upon arrival. DMC is a peer-based organization of people with disabilities and older adults and we take great care of making sure our Team, consumers, and the community we serve remains healthy and safe.
Thank you in advance for respecting our policy!
Important Update for the 2025 Respiratory Surge Season: The Quad-demic is an illness season combining COVID, RSV, Influenza (which are part of the triple-demic respiratory season) with the fourth Norovirus (stomach/gastrointestinal). Learn more about Norovirus here: Norovirus https://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/prevention/index.html
There are no vaccinations for Norovirus. But COVID boosters still exist and are available.
Please see the below important information and links to keep our highest at-risk community of people with disabilities and older adults educated and informed. These boosters cover the JN.1 Omicron and KP variants which are actively surging.
Planning ahead for your booster, if you haven’t already, contact your local health care provider for your most immediate and available resource. You can also go to your local pharmacy and get your vaccine: Walgreens CVS and Rite Aid Locations have boosters. Call ahead if you need specific information or go to their websites to schedule.
For those of you sticking with your brand of Pfizer or Moderna – call before you go to see which one the location carries as not all vaccination locations will have both.
FREE Testing: https://testinglocator.cdc.gov/
FREE At-Home COVID Tests are still available ASPR COVID-19 Testing
COVID Testing Information: https://www.cdc.gov/covid/testing/
GET Your Booster Shot: My Turn – California Vaccine Scheduling & Information
Monitor U.S. COVID Variant Surges Weekly:
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/strain.surv/viz/Variant_Proportions_Biweekly/RegionsDashboard
Need to know more about COVID in the workplace? CLICK HERE
COVID Wastewater Data is your friend. Since not everyone is doing continuous COVID testing – we have very limited data these days as to gauging our COVID surge solely from hospitalizations, ER visits and those who proactively take COVID tests alone.
Do you want to know surges as they happen across the State of California week to week? Check out the links below.
COVID, RSV and Influenza Wastewater Data
Here is the Current Wastewater Data for COVID in California:
https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/COVID19-statetrend.html?stateval=California
Here is the Current Wastewater Data for RSV in California:
https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/RSV-statetrend.html?stateval=California
Here is the Current Wastewater Data for Influenza A:
https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/InfluenzaA-statetrend.html?stateval=California
Air Quality Data for respiratory seasonal surges: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/6a6a058a177440fdac6be881d41d4c2c/?id=3d51b5d2fc8d42d9af8c04f3c00f88d3
See COVID Data Tracker here: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklydeaths_7dayeddiagnosed_06
Learn more about the COVID + Influenza respiratory illness combination here (You can ‘interact’ with it to monitor California) : https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/data/index.html
Seek Respiratory Virus Guidance: https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/guidance/index.html
For Influenza information during respiratory COVID + Influenza virus season, you can learn about updated guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO)
Learn more about RSV here: https://www.ochealthinfo.com/rsv
2024-2025 Updates to Testing, Vaccines and Treatments:
For current OC’s COVID Resources: CLICK HERE
For California Department of Public Health Influenza and COVID information go HERE
TIPS for Staying Healthy (English)
TIPS for Staying Healthy (Spanish)
In 2021, Long COVID was recognized as a disability and is recognized under the protection of the Americans with Disabilities Act. There are 500,000 people living in Orange County who are disabled (which accounts for a portion of that number who do not realize Long COVID is a disability). The COVID-19 pandemic grew the disability community with the number of positive cases at the end of 2023 YTD positive cases exceeding 800,344 cases in total (which continues to grow) but are not being tracked YTD in 2024-2025, many individuals in this data are those whom now live with Long-COVID
This number continues to grow weekly, despite several rounds of vaccinations being made available to the public. This is due to the fact people with disabilities, those with pre-existing conditions and older adults are the highest risk, as are those with underlying illnesses, those most vulnerable with recent injury/surgery recovery, immunocompromised individuals, those who have had COVID before experiencing complications and many others. For numerous members of the community – there has to be a new way of living life due to this risk, and those who are new members of the disability community.
The Dayle McIntosh Center (DMC) is a non-profit organization that focuses on core services and serves as hub organization with many referral resources, programs, and partners.
We believe information is power and are sharing the below vital resources available:
Communication Resources
COVID RESOURCES FOR THE DEAF
Resources in American Sign Language (ASL):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?app=desktop&list=PLvrp9iOILTQatwnqm61jqFrsfUB4RKh6J
- ASL Resources for COVID
- National Association for the Deaf
COVID-19: Medical Communication Access for Deaf and Hard of Hearing
https://www.nad.org/covid19-communication-medical-access-for-deaf-hard-of-hearing/
https://www.nad.org/2020/03/12/coronavirus/