Hello and welcome to PBS.

39 and W Elvers community update on coronavirus.

It's presented by Capital Blue Cross and brought to you with help from our community partner, Lehigh Valley Health Network.

We are coming to you live from the Public Media Center in Bethlehem.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Our guests today include an infectious disease doctor at the forefront of the effort to vaccinate people right here in our region.

Also with us is the leader of the local branch of the American Red Cross.

Our guests will be with us in just a few minutes.

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

The phone number is Fauci four eight two one zero zero zero eight.

We'll answer some of your questions live.

Plus four daily coronavirus updates.

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Now you can do that at our website coronavirus Lehigh Valley Dog.

You can find helpful information in both English and Spanish.

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

Every adult in Pennsylvania will be eligible for Covid-19 vaccines by April 19.

That word came down today from the Wolf Administration as it accelerated the timeline for the phased approach to vaccine delivery.

Police emergency responders and @excuse me, grocery workers are able to set up appointments for shots immediately.

Acting Health Secretary Allison Bean says the faster timeline is possible because the rate of vaccinations has accelerated to nearly 85,000 per day.

And as of today, vaccine providers in Pennsylvania have administered 5.1 million doses more than 1.8 million people are fully vaccinated and another nearly three and a half million have received first doses.

The state today reported 4557 new coronavirus cases and 44 more deaths.

The trend in the 14 day moving average of hospitalized patients is moving upward with nearly 2000 people in people hospitalized from covid-19.

And Pfizer says its vaccine is safe and strongly protective in children as young as 12.

The announcement today marks a step towards possibly beginning to give shots in younger teens before the next school year.

Experts say vaccinating children of all ages will be critical to bringing end to the coronavirus pandemic.

It's time now to meet our guests.

Dr Alex Benjamin is Elvie Jenn's chief infection control and prevention officer.

He's in the field a day on location at the mass clinic just wrapping up at Dorney Park.

Also here is Peter Brown of the American Red Cross, an agency responding to disaster while in the midst of a disastr.

Thank you both so much for joining us today.

Mr Brown will be with you in just a few minutes.

We're going to begin with Dr Benjamin out at Dorney Park.

Great to have you back on the show today, Dr Benjamin.

Doctor, we'll get to how things went out there today.

But I want to ask you first about the news out of Harrisburg.

Of course, the state making all residents eligible for the vaccine by April 19th.

Let's talk about the pros and cons.

If you would kindly start with the pros first.

Well, listen, I think it's a great relief to Pennsylvanians everywhere to know that they are, you know, going to be considered now to be eligible for vaccine.

We've had very successful rollouts here in the Lehigh Valley.

We all feel we want to make that available to everyone in our community.

I think we've gotten we've done a really good job in terms of vaccinating those people who are in phase one.

And we're happy to share that success with the rest of our.

Let's talk about some of the cons here.

Phase one, I didn't go as smoothly as some would hope.

So who's to say that this is going to go smoothly Gamma And I think that's the big challenge in the previous rollout of one.

I think our biggest concern was that the supply of vaccine was not could not match the demand for vaccine, only anything that put a lot of health care providers in retail pharmacies in predicaments in terms of what they could offer.

I think that problem has been smoothed out at this point.

I think we're, of course, now starting to receive larger and larger quantities of vaccine.

At the same time, we're faced with the challenge of not only being able to offer first dose vaccines to people, but keeping up with our continued trend of giving out those second doses as well.

So in a sense, we are doubling our output in terms or having to double our output in order to keep up with the demand.

Sure, the Wolf administration set a deadline for all Phase 1A to be scheduled by today.

Is there any way of really knowing how close we are to meeting that deadline Gamma I think it's really difficult.

I certainly am concerned enough that we are getting to all our 180s because as you can imagine, as our younger younger groups, one being one C start to compete with the Janai% people for vaccines.

Certainly people have already had challenges with accessing technology, getting getting through the phone lines to schedule vaccines not only in our network but statewide.

Those people in one day could get lost very easily.

And I think the mandate to have all of those scheduled appointments available is is noble.

And I think we have to think about as a network how we ensure that we don't lose some of those people in Janai.

Sure.

Are you still hearing from the one group where people are not being able to get appointments or has that kind of been alleviated Gamma I think we've been able to offer enough appointments for Janai people to get their get to allow them to be vaccinated.

Dr Benjamin, as we mentioned, you are right now out at the mass clinic at Dorney Park.

Let's talk about how things are going out there today.

Well, a little drier than last week for certain and temperatures not as bad, not as hot.

No one's getting sunburned.

Thankfully, but another 4000 doses of first doses of Moderna.

We were able to administer today.

And again, just another another testament to how the system works.

Our flu campaigns have prepared us really for this type of rollout.

And I think it's been successful to the point that we can do this on a regular basis in different locations.

Know last week we did we were able to do more doses at Northampton County Community College, which was very successful.

Our first time there, same principles in effect and very successful and the week before we were able to do Pocono Raceway.

So I'm really excited about how these are rolling out.

Tomorrow will be our first campaign at Dorney Park to do a second dose and follow doses of Fizer vaccines.

And we're very excited for those people to be in that number increase the number of fully vaccinated people, which I think right now stands at about 2002 million Pennsylvanians.

And Dr Benjamin, I actually saw you out there earlier today.

I was really shocked at how efficient I shouldn't be shocked.

But I was really impressed at how efficient and fast it was to move through that line, get the vaccination.

And then, of course, you wait on the other side just to make sure for the 15 minutes make sure that there's no side effects.

But it was really smooth.

Is it like that every single time?

Does it seem to be going smoothly during these mass clinics?

Well, I hope so.

I think, you know, for the number of doses we've given out at this point, that's exactly what we expect.

And if there are challenges, people having no lightheaded, palpitations or mild reactions, dizziness, you know, anything I think even even before you get to the observation, we're prepared to assess people and make sure that they're safe to get vaccine, answer their questions.

As you can imagine, there's a lot of anxiety out there as well, mixed in with all the gratitude and we want to make sure people are feeling comfortable about getting the vaccine.

We know that they have waited shopped for vaccines, really stressed, stress themselves to make that they're protecting themselves and others.

And so we want to try to alleviate some of that fear and make sure that they're safe in the process.

Absolutely.

And I'll say first hand, it was super easy and I was in and out through that clinic even at lunchtime.

I want to ask you, there is a viewer question coming in right now.

This is from Mike in Lehigh.

County and he wants to know how he has code like symptoms.

He tested negative for Covid, but he wants to know is it OK to keep his vaccine appointments Gamma Yeah, I think part of that answer depends on how soon the vaccine is to be in and how you're feeling that, you know, we certainly recommend that anybody who has any type of illness where they have fevers are not feeling their best, that they postpone their vaccination.

I know that's sometimes hard for people to hear, but if you're immune system, as I like to say, is already a game in trying to help you fight off another type of respiratory infection, whether it's, you know, a common cold or something else that may not be the best time for you to receive a vaccine.

And we want to make sure that you are from an health, from a health standpoint, fully optimized to receive the benefits of the vaccine.

Dr Benjamin, along the same lines is or any groups who should not get the vaccine.

Any preexisting conditions are that kind of thing.

Maybe if you're not feeling well, you don't go that day.

But is there anything stopping people from getting the vaccine completely?

Yeah, I think just a few things clearly, if you had a severe allergy or anaphylaxis reaction to the vaccine or components of the vaccine and those can be found in the emergency use authorization, which is available online for both Pfizer and Moderna, then we.

All right.

It looks like we're having some connectivity issues with Dr Benjamin.

We'll come back to him in just a few minutes.

In the meantime, we're going to continue this community update on coronavirus on PBS.

39, you can hear the rebroadcast on the radio tonight at nine 30 on 91 three WHO VR.

Let's bring in our next guest.

Peter Brown is executive director of the branch of the American Red Cross that covers the Lehigh Valley.

A trying past year for everyone, but certainly for the groups and volunteers responding to natural disasters and emergencies in our own neighborhoods.

That's, of course, the Red Cross.

Mr Brown, again, welcome.

Thank you so much for being here.

Today.

Thank you.

It's a pleasure to be asked.

Let's start there.

What's it been like this past year for people of the American Red Cross?

Both volunteers and those who work for the American Red Cross Gamma It's been a very challenging year for the Red Cross as it has been for so many around the country.

You know, we rely on volunteers to run our programs.

90% of our workforce are volunteer.

So last April, when the pandemic started to affect things in the Lehigh Valley, we closed our chapter of office.

But we have continued uninterrupted availability of disaster response services, disaster recovery and over the last six or eight months have also resumed a lot of our training.

We have created ways to deliver our preparedness training virtually not only training has has changed, but the way you fundraise.

Of course, a nonprofit, it needs money to continue to operate.

How has it been financially for the Red Cross trying to fundraise and hold fundraisers throughout the pandemic?

So it's been a unique environment for sure.

I think all of us have learned things about using Zoom and teams and some the other tools that we probably had very little experience with for us.

It's obviously had an impact on sort of the day to day fundraising.

A lot of the businesses and local organizations in the Lehigh Valley that have a long history of supporting the Red Cross have been really challenging years we have learned and we are we actually have our annual Kaveri cuisine.

That event, which has over a 20 year history in the valley, was canceled last year.

We postponed it from last April to last October and then ultimately had to cancel it.

So I am very excited to tell you that our very first virtual cabaret and cuisine is coming up on April 15th and you can go to Red Cross Doggie Cabaret for information.

It's going to be a one hour virtual event.

We're hoping to generate funds that will stay here in the Lehigh Valley and our new Pennsylvania Rivers chapter and support local Red Cross mission delivery.

Mr Brown, you mentioned training.

I want to talk a little bit about that, about recruiting people for the Red Cross and even deploying people out to emergency situations.

How has that all changed in the past 14 months?

So we immediately had to figure out ways to do our local disaster response.

We respond in the Lehigh Valley to over 100 home fires a year across our chapter footprint.

The numbers 200 to 250.

So our normal model is disaster volunteers go on scene, meet with the families face to face.

Comfort and care is a big part of what we deliver.

In addition to the financial assistance.

So we had to train our volunteers on how to do the casework interviews, virtual to use new online tools that we've developed to be able to track the information so all those volunteers who typically would be going out to the fire scenes are responding online through tools just like this one to build those initial relationships, assess the needs plans to deliver red Cross financial assistance.

We've been using a drop system where we have designated volunteers.

We're comfortable going out a% little bit.

They would have a supply of the cards we used for financial assistance.

Find out where the client is going to be, whether that was going to be at a hotel or relative and then time of delivery so that we would do a hands free, socially distant drop off of the card.

Client picks it up.

We tell them what they need to do.

They sign the receipt for the card, leave it there are volunteer picks it up.

So it took us a little while to get the hang of this.

We were able to do that very quickly and it's really a testament to our volunteers.

They've been willing to embrace technology.

They've had to do a lot of additional training this year to get used to using the new tools.

I'm very pleased and proud to tell you that our client satisfaction surveys, which we do on a regular basis, are as strong as they've always been.

We have a consistently high record for client satisfaction and that's really important to us because we want the community to know that even with Covid, the Red Cross is going to be able to respond.

Wonderful.

Peter, it sounds like you've really been able to adapt over this past year and still bring people that comfort that the Red Cross is known for.

We're going to have you hang on for just one moment.

We have Dr Benjamin back.

We're going to switch over to him.

I have a few more questions for Peter in a few minutes.

But Dr Benjamin, do we have you back.

Unfortunately, we still can't hear Dr Benjamin, so hopefully we can work on that.

We're going to go back to Peter Brown now.

Peter, I know you mentioned a lot of your a lot of the things you do for the Red Cross have been changed over to virtual, but you can't do that in every case.

The American Red Cross goes to disasters throughout the country, one recent one being that snowstorm in Texas.

So how do you respond to something like that?

have to respond in person Gamma So if you recall starting last June, first with the start of hurricane season, we had the largest number of named storms over the last hurricane season, which for us is June 1st through the end of November in the country over the last 30 or 40 years.

So we had an unending string of disasters around the country that required red Cross support.

We also had an unprecedented wildfire season in Colorado, California, the Pacific Northwest.

So we want to develop hybrid models for our deployments.

We had the boots on the ground that we needed.

The other big part, what we normally do in response to a snow storm or hurricane is we do what we call Kongregate sheltering where you could have a community recreation center that might have 1,500 people in cots living together.

You can't do that in a Covid environment.

So we were able to make arrangements with our partners in the hospitality industry in California where I had an opportunity to deploy.

We had probably 50 or 60 hotels who housed red Cross clients.

So we did everything virtually that we could.

We had one or two volunteers at each of the hotel locations to interact with the clients, but the clients were safe and separate.

Families were put together and spaces and we did everything we could do to minimize the potential for exposure.

It required us to change a lot of what we do.

But we had many local Red Cross volunteer physically deployed to Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Colorado, California, But we have an even larger number who virtually deployed.

I had the opportunity last October to virtually deploy to support the Northern California wildfires.

I literally worked from my basement office, switched my life to Pacific Coast Time and led a team that was helping coordinate local resources, work with local media, develop local partnerships.

And our team was able to do a lot of this work virtually.

I had a group of about 20 people working with me and seven of them were on the ground and the rest of us were working virtually from all over the country.

So we found ways to make it work.

It's not ideal, but it can be done.

And it's really a lot of work went in the front end to try to figure out what roles would work and not work.

I think we've learned some lessons we'll be able to carry forward and we were able to maintain a consistently high record of delivering the disaster assistance where and when it was needed across the country and maintain our local service delivery.

The Red Cross provided for one point million, 1.4 million shelters last year, which is the highest we've ever done.

And we were able to do it in a Covid of mostly virtual Yeah, it was a wild year even outside of Covid it was a while.

Do you think some of these practices will stay in place as we move kind out of this pandemic?

I don't know how long that'll be, but do you think some of those virtual practices will stay or do you think the face to face in person is just really the way the Red Cross operates at its fullest Gamma So I think one of the things that I know about the Red Cross and I've been a part of the organization now as a volunteer and as an employee for over 20 years, we are constantly adapting to changing new ways to deliver services.

A big part of our mandate is to really tightly manage our operating expenses so that donors know that 90 cents of every dollar spent is developed is used for our programing.

So I think there are a lot of things that we've learned to do with virtual tools that will help us continue to operate with less travel expenses, more things being done virtually.

But I think there is always going to be a significant part of our operation, particularly for disaster response and recovery that's going to be face to face virtual works.

And it's effective, but it's not the same as a hug from a Red Cross volunteer who is very, very happy that they're able to help your family during a very, very difficult time, that's for sure.

And I know so many people are ready to get back to hugging and General, you know, your friends, your family, even a Red Cross worker as well.

Of course, natural disaster there, something that the Red Cross handles, but also blood drives are a big thing for the American Red Cross and some of the protocols there have changed as well.

Can you tell us about that?

Yeah, so obviously that was a very immediate concern.

And we saw really the first six or eight weeks of the Covid pandemic, a huge drop off in blood donations.

Two of the largest groups that we work with to collect blood or colleges, universities, high schools and then large corporate sponsors where there might be a thousand people at a work site and all of those locations were closed.

So we had an extended period where a lot of drives had to be canceled.

We immediately started working on ways to change our protocols so that it was going to be a safe donating environment and we were able to reduce the number of appointments we schedule at each drive.

We spaced things out in the space, in the work areas.

So fewer collection tables, fewer staff, volunteers that were socially distance and maps at all times.

And the donor base has responded tremendously.

People know the need for blood doesn't change because of a Covid pandemic.

With the emergence of convalescent plasma as a potential resource in recovery, the demand for that went up significantly and Red Cross donors stepped up so I am very happy to tell you that in Pennsylvania we've not had a single incident incidence of Covid transmission at a Red Cross blood drive either with volunteer staff or donors.

So we've done a really good job of making it a safe environment.

I want to encourage everyone that's out there who's eligible to donate blood.

But you're really seriously consider that and look to make an appointment with the local Red Cross or even in the Lehigh Valley with Miller Keystone blood is blood and people need it.

And don't be afraid because of Covid that it's not going to be a safe situation for you.

Sure, sure.

Protocols are in place.

I want to move on and talk about how the Red Cross is helping military families, families stay connected.

Both veterans with their friends and their families through virtual means, that kind of thing.

So we've been engaged with the military since the creation of the Red Cross in 1981.

And even before Clarabelle Martin was the angel of the battlefield in the Civil War.

And it was her compassion for military that really led her to found the American Red Cross.

So we provide emergency communications to military members and their families.

24 seven three 65.

So what that means is if a military member is stationed in the Far East and our grandmother passes away or a family member has an illness, we help convey that message through the chain of command with the military, verify the information here on the ground and help facilitate that military member coming home.

Part of that process is also checking in with the family to see if there are any additional unmet needs.

And we have caseworkers who do follow up to make sure that military member has been able to successfully return home, accomplished what they needed to accomplish and be there for their family and then safely return.

So this has been a part of our organization for a long time.

We are seeing increased need with a lot of the challenges Covid there are more situations where we're providing temporary financial assistance.

A lot of what we do is in partnership with other agencies.

We have a call center and we make referrals on a regular basis to other service providers all across the Lehigh Valley, across the country who have access to the resources that are specif to that person's needs.

So we really and we run almost all that operation with volunteers.

There's just so much that the American Red Cross does if people want to help, whether they want to make a monetary donation or even volunteer their time, how can they get involved Gamma So the easiest way to do that is to go to red Cross Dog when we talk about donating, we talk about people donating time, talent and you can do all of those through the website.

You can if you want to volunteer, there's a link.

You fill out a short online profile.

Then a Red Cross volunteer will call you and talk with you about your specific areas of interest and then match you up with the local staff member depending on where you live and what you're interested in doing.

Frequently people know what they want to do and they start with that right away, but probably also very often they're not quite sure what they want to do and we help them match the donating piece is very easy to do online.

It's Red Cross.

Morgus last donate.

And as I mentioned, we also have our cabaret and cuisine event coming up on April 15th.

That is Red Cross 20 or Cabaret.

2021 gives .com.

It's free to attend virtually and you're going to see a great show.

You're going to have some fun.

It's a Roaring Twenties theme and you're also going to learn a lot about what's been happening with the Red Cross over the last year.

Wonderful that sounds like a great event.

And Peter, I just wanted to ask you, you know, over the last year, everyone's life has changed.

Everyone, you're in the business of helping people.

But how has this impacted your life?

You personally?

It's been a real challenge.

I have.

So I have two sisters and a brother.

We're very close.

We live a long way apart.

We haven't I saw my sister last weekend for the first time in over a year.

My family, fortunately, has come through in very good shape.

We haven't had any one contract Covid but we've certainly had more extended relatives and friends of all of us.

I've had some very good friends who've been very seriously ill and I've had friends who've lost loved ones to Covid so that longer term process of grieving and just being forced to work in a different way every day is taking a significant I've been trying to focus more recently on just doing a little bit better job with self care, trying to find a better balance between work and home and work at home or in the same space.

It's very easy to get sucked in.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Well, Peter, thank you for everything you've been doing.

Peter Brown from the American Red Cross, thanks for joining us today.

And we want to thank Dr Benjamin as well from Elvie Chen for joining us.

And you, of course, for watching community update on coronavirus will be here each Monday, Wednesday and Friday at four pm on PBS.

39 and on the radio at nine 30.

Those same nights on WHO Lev Parnas for PBS39 WL VR.

I'm Sweeney Stacey.