Posts in Health
Sheriff Miyamoto’s Coronavirus Saga

More than 200 people joined our petition asking the Board of Supervisors to not interfere with Sheriff Paul Miyamoto’s ability to keep jail inmates and the general public safe during the coronavirus pandemic. Our voices were heard and Miyamoto was able to get amendments added to legislation he initially said was “a threat to public safety” because it wouldn’t allow him to add beds to remaining jails upon the closure of an old jail. But why did we have to send letters asking supervisors to let the sheriff do his job in the middle of a pandemic?

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Making Sense of Coronavirus

San Francisco must do all it can to protect our seniors, children, and small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic. We're taking important steps and we can learn from other countries. We must follow Taiwan — not Italy — and heed this quote: “Everything we do before a pandemic will seem alarmist. Everything we do after a pandemic will seem inadequate.”

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HealthJoel Engardio
Calling Out a Silent Killer

Riding a tech bus to Silicon Valley has nothing to do with hepatitis B, but there's a good chance some of the passengers have the virus and don't know it. Why? Major risk factors include being millennial and Asian & Pacific Islander (APIs comprise nearly half of tech jobs and a quarter of the population in the Bay Area). Inaction can lead to death by liver cancer. That's why Arcadi Kolchak and Richard So are fighting to save their generation — and yours.

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Better Death

By Joel P. Engardio -- Baby boomers changed everything because they were never content with the old rules of sex -- or career, or parenting or retirement. Now senior citizens, they are beginning to face a final taboo harder to break than sex ever was. Death has a lot of room for improvement.

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Health, Innovation, TechJoel Engardio
A Court for the 10th Circle of Hell

By Joel P. Engardio -- David Traylor attacked a tourist in a crack-fueled schizophrenic episode. But he isn't psychotic, in jail or dead today thanks to San Francisco's Behavioral Health Court. He is medicated, has a home and a job. Yet homeless and mentally ill people who haven't committed felonies are left to suffer as they scream at commuters and use the sidewalk as a toilet. Why don't we treat people who can't take care of themselves before they become violent?

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Jade Ribbon Campaign speech

Joel Engardio gives a tribute to his late boyfriend Dr. Mark Lim, who died of liver cancer at age 31 caused by Hepatitis B. The speech is part of an event by Stanford University's Asian Liver Center and Jade Ribbon Campaign to raise awareness of the "Silent Epidemic" of Hepatitis B and liver cancer in the Asian American population. Engardio spoke at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco on November 20, 2003.

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Speeches, HealthJoel Engardio