Hello and welcome to PBS39 WLVT Arts Community Update on coronavirus It's brought you with help from our community partner Lehigh Valley Health Network.

We're coming to you live from PPE Public Media Center in Bethlehem.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Our guests today include a frontline health care worker whose job puts him right in the middle of the coronavirus crisis.

We also have the head of the Allentown Health Bureau, an agency juggling so many responsibilities.

And now more with the arrival of vaccines.

We'll be meeting with them in just a moment.

If you have a question, you can give us a call.

The phone number is 4 8 4 8 2 1 0 0 0 8.

Our guests will answer some of your questions live.

Plus, our daily coronavirus updates.

Be sure to sign up for our newsletter.

You can do that at our website, coronavirus Lehigh Valley .org.

You can find helpful information in English and Spanish.

Now let's get a look at today's top headlines.

Lehigh Valley surpassed 40,000 Carone virus cases today, a total of more than 22,000 in Lehigh County and 18,000 in Northampton County.

Nearly 1000 people have died from Covid-19 in the two counties combined.

Statewide, Pennsylvania reported 9474 more cases and 368 more deaths today.

That brings the state total now to 683,000 389 cases and nearly 17 thousand deaths.

Covid-19 testing and Lehigh County remains in high demand a temporary drive through site at Coca-Cola Park and Allentown open to this week.

It's shut down early today and on Monday and Tuesday because it reached its capacity of 450 patients per day.

The free testing begins at 9am and continues on a first come basis through Friday.

The Allentown Health Bureau and Lehigh County are hosting the sites in partnership with the State Department of Health.

Bethlehem Mayor Bob Donchez says today announced the launch of the My Bethlehem PA app.

It provides information on Covid-19 Teen Lehigh and Northampton County's crisis intervention and parking and more.

The app is available free for download on Apple and Android products.

Now let's meet our guests.

Kenny Miller is a respiratory therapist at Lehigh Valley Hospital, Cedar Crest Campus Covid-19 has brought jobs like his into the national spotlight.

He also was among the very first people in the country to receive a Covid-19 vaccine.

He participated in Pfizer's vaccine clinical trial prior to the FDA emergency use use authorization.

Also with us today.

Is Vicki Kessler.

She leads the Allentown Health Bureau as the city's director of health.

For months now, the pandemic has strained public health resources at a time they are needed the most.

We'll discuss that in just a couple of minutes.

Thank you both so much for joining us today.

Vicki.

We will have you back in just a few minutes and speak with you.

Then I'd like to start with Kenny.

I want to ask you about the vaccine and your participation in the trial.

But before we get to that, I'm curious about your job.

You've worked as a respiratory therapist for 40 plus years during that time.

I can't imagine you faced anything quite like you have during this past year.

Can you share with us with a little bit about what this has all been like?

Yeah, you're exactly correct.

45 years I've worked with one never seen such a magnitude of sick patients and to unfortunately, I've not seen such a large amount of patients who have died.

It's been extremely stressful for the bedside conditions.

Given the ice you use or especially throughout the whole hospital, all respiratory therapist, nurses, providers, physical therapists, etc Everybody at the bedside has worked tremendously hard and it's been a non-stop continuous night once it's been, you know, quite, quite exhausted at the bedside.

You know, our health network continues to give, you know, the highest level of care and we continue work as hard as we can to, you know, optimize these patient outcomes.

But I got to be very honest with you.

I've never seen a magnitude of very, very critically sick patients and the magnitude that's associated with it.

We have a lot technology we utilize, you know, are our health network has a best conditions, the highest level expertise and technology and to be honest with you, we've been very humbled by this disease process.

I can't imagine.

Kenny, can you just explain a little bit about exactly what a respiratory therapist does?

I imagine you play a big role in fighting this coronavirus Sellersville respiratory therapy as a profession is what's considered to be a cradle to grave profession steps that we take care the smallest, smallest babies, you know, the premier, you get your babies are Nikki Haley therapies to a phenomenal job at the beginning of life and then we take care of patients at all age groups.

And what we do is, you know, we take our patients with respiratory Despoja's will administer medications to help patients breed better.

We use a lot of different devices.

You know, we administer oxygen, we place patients on mechanical ventilation for our patients that have difficultly maintain their own breathing during the coronavirus.

We've rarely really had to use a lot of mechanical ventilation.

What are my major jobs in the network is to maintain daily log of the ventilator patients throughout the network and then stratify one what ventilator device on their own and those that are Covid positive and those are other type of life Maule or prone position to show you our role in this.

Covid has been really maintaining the patient high level of oxygen trying to prevent the going to the next level.

Kangal lates.

And once they're on mechanical ventilation, trying to stabilize them, maintain and hopefully get them better.

And then we lost the ventilator.

It's been extremely a challenge.

Again, you know, we work very closely with our nursing colleagues and we're providers who as a team we work together all the time trying to optimize the outcomes of these patients.

Sure.

I'm sure that the sheer volume of patients that you've seen in the past year has just grown exponentially this year due to years passed.

Is there any way to kind of compare that to a normal year?

Oh, yeah.

I think that there's still easy compares.

One, you're exactly correct.

The volume of Mechanicsville, but only patients is a good 25 to 30% higher than normally.

But the other problem is when a Covid patient gets on the ventilator and if they do survive they stay on the ventilator for weeks.

The typical mechanically ventilate patient might be on the vent for maybe two days or days some longer, but the majority of come off the ventilator and we Dolf in that short time period.

But with the Covid patients, the ones that do survive, a lot of them are on the ventilator for weeks and weeks.

So not only do you have to manage patient for long periods of time, you tie your ventilators for a long period of time too.

So the big difference has been, yes, I'm a larger volume, but that it patient.

But I think more and more instrumental has been the duration of the McAdoo is going to leave patients.

Sure.

And I'm sure that long term use of these ventilators and that kind of thing has kind of had you seeing these patients for a longer period of time.

How is your relationship with patients changed during this coronavirus pandemic?

Well, you know, it's kind of heart wrenching.

It's ways.

You know, again, the best notion is that Venus, you know, like I don't live for 12 hours a day.

I come in and expertise and I want those that are at the best light for 12 hours have really been now stretched to the highest level.

Understand that, you know, since these patients don't have the ability to have their loved ones at the bedside, that's a huge difference because, you know, doing whole you know, very you know, doing the whole kind of the kind of thing in the ICU visitation is not that loud.

So did the staff.

People had to act as just caregivers, but also, you know, moral support for these patients.

I think one of the hardes thing is you following the progress of the progression of this disease, you'll see a patient who comes in there, you know, they're somewhat stable.

But then all of the sudden they have to have escalated therapy and they become start becoming unstable.

And then I had patients say to me, oh, my God, you're going to put me on a ventilator.

It's their choice.

You know, that's what we need to put on a battle ending or.

You know, I'm going to die on just machine.

And unfortunately, a lot of them do.

So we know we develop some very close relationship with patients because of the lack of The team themselves is always very passionate and passionate.

The bedside.

You know, we use pastoral care and things like that.

In those departments.

But I think it's been a different type of relationship because we've had to act as not only caregivers at the bedside, but also, you know, a temporary family where a a B surrogate family with these individuals.

And you have to take care of our own people, too.

We've you know, we've unfortunately lost some high quality individuals and high quality, you know, caregivers or we end up losing to some of our own.

That's extremely difficult to deal with.

And then we know, unfortunately, it's been a pattern where you can see that certain patients when they start going, you know, going we call the slippery slope.

There is no point of return.

And it's really it's hard to deal with, especially if you've had a relationship with some of these patients prior being put on the ventilator ones on a ventilator.

They can't really speak to you when they're on their heavy station and things like that.

I can't even imagine what the volume of people.

So physical exhaustion there.

But then that emotional exhaustion.

What are some ways that you and your co-workers, the nurses, the doctors, what have you figured out?

What are some ways that you're coping with this and coping mechanisms?

How do you go home and come back the very next day and do it all again?

You know, I think everybody has different way of coping with it.

One of the you one of the stressors with this movement, it's just like a continuous marathon.

And, you know, he just hasn't stopped.

It hasn't slowed down.

So the exhaustion is kind of like Dublin.

But you know, as a team, we work together.

We try to support ourselves.

You know, the community was really great by providing food for us.

You don't treat people outside the community, pro-Reagan in cars early on and doing things.

That was a tremendous way.

You know, gave us tremendous amount of energy and really Kushner spruce up days.

I remember Muhlenberg candidates that we were getting crushed over there and all this started.

You know, someone saw that there was a bunch of food from the community and we've all got a chance to at least sit down and eat, you know, a little bit.

And that just was so slow and steady and just gave us a shot of energy that I could say.

But I know I myself very fortunate.

You know, I like to exercise.

So I continue to kind of exercise even Jim Thorpe Bowmanstown.

I'm fortunate to have a very loving wife.

And you know, make sure I spend at least one day a week, you know, You know, good quality time with her.

But I think, again, you know, the ice sheet teens especially have always relied on other.

You know, we're not we don't work inside nurse nurses, not just the nurse and our rest wait there.

This is not just respiratory therapist or provide virus.

We're all a team together and we all lean on each another and we all support another.

And do we all reach another thrill?

And you know, little things like, you know, just, you know, having secrets.

Odds are grief and committee did that or you know, again, someone bringing in, you know, some Dan Scavino, we've got a bunch of gift cards from a sixth grade teacher where her students, Greenblatt's Christmas cards, they give us little things like that.

Just give us a tremendous amount of energy.

Well, I just want thank you for everything that all of you have been doing.

What do you say to the people who don't think this is Syria, who maybe don't take this serious enough for they think, you know, this will pass?

What do you say to those people?

Well, you know, I'd say spend one day in the ice.

You're going to one day spend one hour day Ivyland.

You'll change your mind dramatically.

I get it.

If it hasn't impacted directly, you might be questionable ideas.

But all you have to look at the statistics.

I mean, you know, when you started this show, you those numbers are astounding.

OK. We're Luzerne more people from this disease than we lose, you know, from wars and things like that.

So I get it.

And this is the vaccine.

I get a lot of people question about the vaccine.

But all I know the vaccine might have some unknown questions.

But Covid has concrete answers.

I know the harm that Covid can do and we all know that.

So to worry about what may happen with vaccine when you know can happen with Covid I have trouble understanding.

Sure.

And let's talk a little bit about that vaccine.

You were in that clinical trial.

How did you get into that clinical trial?

What made you decide to do that and what was that like?

If you could talk a little bit about that?

So I was fortunate to know individuals, my research team and they mentioned to me that the network may be a trial site for the Pfizer vaccine.

And then I heard that I thought to myself, well, the least I could do is try to get in this trial and maybe help me or help end this terrible pandemic.

And I had seen the horrors that were turned on a daily basis and I thought I could get in your trial and I don't take this vaccine.

Maybe I could help move the vaccine forward and maybe you help end this.

Yes.

Yes.

You know, terrible, terrible.

Situation we were in.

So I thought that was interesting.

I contacted late August and the first week of September I get the inclusion criteria.

You know, a young man.

I'll be 66 next week.

And I had some pre-existing problems.

I have some now.

I have hypertension.

You know, I you know, I'm not terrific at any rate, health wise.

But I was able to be weak inclusion criteria.

And then on September 4th, I got the first injection and then September 21st or 27, I got the second Josh Siegel.

Now again, I don't I did not know at that time did I get the placebo or did you actually get the vaccine?

Just last week we were on we wer unblinded and fortunately I was ecstatic that I actually got the vaccine.

So I had the vaccine on board for almost four months.

So one thing I would say individuals to you know, they're worried about the long term effect of the vaccine.

Sure.

Tell you more than almost four months.

But in four months, you know, some of the things we would have gotten the vaccine didn't happen.

I did grow new hair in my head.

I didn't get a super power.

Let's the same token, other than a slower arm and maybe a little tired just a day after the vaccine.

I seem to be doing OK. Good to hear, Will.

Kenny Miller, respiratory therapist for LVHN.

Thank you so much.

For sharing your experiences with us today.

We really appreciate it and all of your hard work over at H&M.

Absolutely.

We continue this community update on coronavirus on PBS39.

You can watch the rebroadcasts on the radio.

Excuse me?

You can listen to them on the radio.

WLVT News 91 three FM Let's bring in Vicki Kessler.

She's of the Allentown Health Bureau.

Again, thank you so much for joining us today, Vicki.

Thank you for having me.

Well, Allentown has a Covid-19 dashboard that shows the city has been hit hard by the coronavirus.

Nearly 10,000 cases or almost half of Lehigh County's total case count.

Let's start with this.

Why do we think the numbers are so high?

Basically, we're not surprised that we have a significant portion of the Lehigh County cases.

We have folks who live in very tight quarters where the metropolitan area of the county.

So we have a higher patient population density.

We have a lot of folks who live in smaller housing making it harder to separate or to social distance.

And we also have a significant number of our workforce who the city and warehousing and service related jobs who were at higher risk early on and continue to remain at higher risk.

Sure.

Vickie, let's talk about Allentown populate.

They have a significant minority population.

Is there evidence that black and Latino residents are disproportionately affected by this virus in Allentown?

I know there were some findings of this early on in the pandemic.

What are we finding now?

I think basically nationwide the data is in two state that members of minority communities are black and brown citizens are definitely disproportionately affected by this virus.

There are many speculations and there's much fact.

I think around this data that talks about access to health care prior to Covid and also the lack sometimes of the availability of preventative health care to these groups.

So I do think that we are seeing clear evidence that much more work needs to be done to create better health equity among our communities nationwide.

And I think Covid has really brought this into the highlight.

Absolutely.

Is there anything being done in Allentown to bridge that gap?

We are trying our best to reinforce the messages and we understand very clearly how hard those messages are to follow.

It is incredibly difficult for some social distance.

It isn't economically feasible to move out when you have a positive household member if you can't afford to move out citizens work in are doing their best to put distance between people and to provide PPE.

But it's a less than ideal situation.

So we are using trusted social messengers.

We are trying to do as much outreach as we possibly can and we are encouraging people to utilize the health networks not just for Covid treatment but to keep up to date on routine immunizations to get their mammograms to follow through on colon cancer screening to make sure that they see their primary care provider.

And you know, we know that many people are fearful of doing that right now, but it's privately important that people keep their diabetes under control and that they see their primary care provider and don't let that health care slip.

Absolutely.

Vickie, let's talk about the Allentown Health Bureau as a whole.

How has this pandemi impacted the day to day there?

You know, you're responsible for testing contact tracing.

Now the vaccine, how has it been trying to keep up with all of that?

Well, to use a famous saying, it's the best of times and it's the worst of times.

Obviously, it's the worst of times that we have so many citizens that are affected by this virus.

And I want to piggyback on what Kenny has said there.

Clear evidence.

There is extreme loss.

There are families that have lost multiple loved ones.

This is not something to take lightly in the same, we have seen heroes emerge.

We have seen people fight like heck to recover.

And they have.

We have seen people helping other neighbors and reaching out to each other.

So we are seeing our health care partners rise to the occasion and time after time after time pull those extra shifts, work that extra mile and not just our hospital based health care providers, our nursing home workers, our frontline workers, our first responders and our economic leaders are restauranteurs have reinvented themselves, are many, many of our employers have quickly responded to work from home.

So we are seeing people use technology more than ever and we are seeing people access telehealth, which could be fantastic for all of our @communities.

So there is some good but at the health bureau it has been a tremendous undertaking to try to keep up with case investigation and contact tracing at the same time, as throwing up our vaccination clinics we are vaccinating.

This is our first week of vaccinating at a satellite site to have enough space to social distance people on the way in and on the observation area on the way out.

We're hoping to continue to grow.

We are soon going to be enlisting our volunteer medical Reserve Corps and our community partners in the hopes that we can vaccinate even more, even faster.

So it is although it is daunting, we cheer at every vaccine we give and we congratulate every person who takes one because hopefully that's one more step toward the end of the nightmare.

Sure.

I want to talk more about vaccinating in a minute.

But first, let's go back to the contact tracing.

In November, positive cases were coming in faster than health bureau staff could keep up with that contact tracing.

Patients were asked to help by notifying close contacts themselves.

Earlier this week, State Health Secretary Dr Rachel Levine was asked about the challenges of contact tracing and case investigations.

Let's take listen at what she had to say.

All right.

Unfortunately, we didn't have everything that she had said.

But Vickie, let's talk about Health Bureau now able to do contact tracing?

Have you run into any roadblocks or people who just aren't cooperative?

Basically in the beginning of this epidemic, we had folks terrified and very open about their travel, their contacts, their personal partners, their work partners.

And people were cooperative for the most part.

I believe that many want to do the right thing and they want to have their partners and their contacts identified.

Now it's a bit of a different Majella because people understand very clearly what happens to a household contact and what happens to a casual contact.

So there's a hesitancy.

There's hesitancy because people are reluctant in some fashion to say that my significant other now has to remain in quarantine with me for my 10 days plus 14 more.

So we have seen a dramatic change in the level of cooperation that comes from those folks who are infected.

That being said, we also have a huge caseload right now and we've divided our staff in half, half to start the vaccination process and have to keep up with case investigation and contact tracing.

So we can't spend time making five phone calls to a house begging them to cooperate.

We have to call them hope that they will return our call and work with them as quickly as possible.

So we are encouraging people who do not receive a call from us because testing is still issue.

We do not have widespread available testing for the asymptomatic and the symptomatic population to the degree that we would like as you started in the beginning.

We have maxed out of the state sponsor testing site every day was offered here.

So we do need more testing availability and in the meantime it takes a while for the test results to get to us.

So we still ask our citizens to notify everyone of their household and personal and workplace contacts the minute they become ill and say that we're awaiting on a test result and that when that test result comes positive to isolate as quickly as possible and to stay away and protect others, some great information.

Vicky, let's go back to the vaccine.

I understand the health bureau has received shipments of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine.

So who's getting vaccinated at this time?

I know you said there's a large facility equipped for social distancing, but who is getting the vaccines at this time and when can the general public when do you foresee that happening?

The general public coming in, getting vaccinated?

We are strictly adhering to the Pennsylvania State Department of Health vaccination plan.

So who is getting vaccinated right now?

Is Category 1 A and who is included in Category 1 A?

Are health care workers.

First priority is health care workers with face to face contact with individuals who are likely to be infected with Covid.

That includes hospitals, nursing homes, frontline.

Workers across the spectrum, emergency medical technicians, anyone who has that face to face contact.

It also includes anyone who is I handling contaminated laundry from that populate or is an ancillary professional working directly with that population.

So that is who is welcome to register.

It is also open to health care workers who are not necessarily in the ER or the ICU.

So it is open to physicians, dentists and their staff, eye doctors, podiatrist people who are affiliated in health care but may not be necessary.

Who you think of when you think of hospital medicine.

So those individuals we're sending to our website at W W W dot Allentown p of where we have a survey monkey with a link and you can book yourself if you fit that criteria into one of our clinics and as soon as this geographic area can prove to the Pennsylvania State Department of Health that we have exhausted the number of health care workers that fit that criteria, then the Pennsylvania State Department of Health will give us direction to move to category one.

All right.

Vicky, I hate to cut you off.

That's all the time we have today.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

We want to thank you for watching community update on coronavirus.

Join us again on Friday for PBS39.

I'm Brittany Sweeney Stacy.