‘Coach’ Mendoza guides us through our fear

I grew up in the era of polio. As a young child, I participated in the original Salk vaccine trials.

I have lived through, personally and professionally, pandemics and epidemics from polio to HIV to COVID to monkeypox. And in 2019, we saw polio re-emerge right here in New York state.

It’s the job of Dr. Michael Mendoza, the commissioner of the Monroe County Department of Public Health, to help reduce our risk of contracting those and other communicable illnesses.

Dr. Bill Valenti, left, and Dr. Michael Mendoza during their conversation at the AIDS Remembrance Garden in Highland Park. Credit: Matt Wittmeyer, Matt Wittmeyer Photography

In the second part of my three-part conversation with Dr. Mendoza, we talk about why it seems we reinvent the wheel each time another threat looms.

“Reinventing the wheel to some degree is inevitable,” Dr. Mendoza says. Some of that is because of the polarization pandemics can cause.

“They are predicated on a novel pathogen, and how people manage uncertainty gets at the core of how people manage fear and the things that are hard to explain. I think it's hard for anybody to make sense out of the unknown without somehow falling into a camp because the way we think about uncertainty is made easier if we can find a pattern to fit our uncertainties and our beliefs into.”

In this episode of my conversation with Dr. Mendoza, he talks about his role as a coach to motivate people and to give them the facts they need to make healthy decisions for themselves and their families.

Click here for more.

Watch the first episode about Dr. Mendoza’s care early in his career for people with HIV/AIDS.