(warm music) ♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ♪ - Hello, and welcome to another episode of InFocus.

I'm Mark MacDonald.

As we've turned over a new year, there's a new president in the White House.

The Biden administration is already working on sweeping changes to the federal response to coronavirus.

But how will that affect plans and procedures already in place?

Jennifer Fuller talked with Illinois Department of Public Health Director Ngozi Ezike.

- Illinois and the rest of the nation marked one year since the arrival of COVID-19 on this continent just within the last week.

Dr. Ngozi Ezike is the director of Illinois Department of Public Health and has headed up the response to the virus and the attack against it.

Dr. Ezike, thanks for joining us.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- In the one year since COVID-19 arrived in Illinois, you had a message just at the start of this week saying that you didn't want to have another one-year marker where you talked about thousands of lives lost and perhaps another tens of thousands of infections.

Do you think that we're moving in the right direction at this point?

- Of course.

Right now, all the metrics for every single region of the state is moving in the right direction, but that was under intense mitigations.

And so the reward for things moving in the right direction is that we get to loosen some of those mitigations and those restrictions, but as has happened already, as we open up, sometimes we go too far and then we end up back up the path of increasing cases and increasing hospitalizations.

And so I want us to learn from before.

We want to continue to have the ability to do some things that you know, give us joy, but we have to do it responsibly so that we won't have to revert back because of increasing cases, which of course means increased hospitalizations and more deaths.

So we want to do this the right way.

The vaccines are already on the ground.

And although they're not enough, you know, that is helping us get towards the finish line.

But there's action that we have to take and that's masks cannot, not leave our sight, leave our face, it has to stay over our nose and mouth.

- It's probably, I'm sure, a very delicate balance when you decide to move from mitigation back into, say, phase four of the recovery and perhaps having to go back into those mitigations.

Can you talk a little bit about that process?

A lot of people were a little concerned that it perhaps moved too fast over the last week or so.

- The issue is that people have been doing well for a while but because we were up against New Year's and thinking that signaling that things were open right before New Year's might cause superspreader events all throughout the state associated with trying to finally put 2020 in the rear view mirror and ring in 2021.

So we wanted to wait for some time, make sure that, you know, there wasn't any kind of significant resurgence from the holiday, the extended holiday period, and make sure that those gains we saw would be sustained.

And they were two weeks after New Year's.

So we have been on this correct trajectory for a while now.

It's just a matter of not reversing it as we have more activity in our restaurants, as we have activity associated with sports, as we have increased capacity, as new venues are open, casinos, et cetera.

So we just have to guard this very carefully.

I feel like anyone getting sick, you know, at this point is even somehow even more sad when we're just so close.

And so we really have to protect all of our health, all our community's health, by doing these simple things.

And this mask is so underrated, but it's so powerful.

This is the tool we have while we're rolling out this slow trickle of vaccines.

- You mention vaccine, and you mention masks, and that's right where I wanted to go next.

People are still hearing, "Well, I'm gonna go ahead and get this shot.

That means that basically the door's open wide for me."

But you and other experts are saying, "No, you still need to make sure that you're wearing your mask, you're keeping your distance, and you're washing your hands."

Can you talk a little bit about the science behind that?

- Right, so we understand that we are in a disaster situation.

This is an emergency situation.

And so these vaccines, you know, which were monitored for two months, we know definitively that they cut back on disease.

What we don't know and what is still being studied is if you can still be asymptomatic carrying the disease, not being ill, and still pass it on.

And so given that those answers need to be clarified and confirmed, there's a potential that vaccinated, you stay safe and don't get ill, but still could transmit the virus to others who could get sick and much worse.

And so we need to continue with our masking.

We need to do it universally.

We only get the full benefit when everyone is doing it.

So we have to stay true to these masks, wear them even more than ever, especially as we think about these additional new, essentially more dangerous variants that are already in our state and the states around us.

- Can you talk a little bit about those variants?

A lot of people are hearing in the news the UK variant.

We're starting to hear more about a variant coming out of South Africa.

And then of course there are variants that we're identifying here in the United States.

They may be more contagious.

They may cause more serious illness.

What are you most concerned about?

- All of that and then some.

Obviously, we know that just the variants that we're familiar with here, you know, has caused the nearly 19,000 deaths that we've seen and still logging, unfortunately, more names to that list every single day.

And so if the current variance has a competitor that wants to do more, i.e.

infect more individuals and have those individuals that get sick have a worse outcome, that is bad news.

So we're fighting against that.

And the same tools that we've been talking about now, you know, for a year, are the same ones that will protect us against any of these variants that are out there, and it's this masking.

But it needs to be all-in community efforts and all-in Illinois efforts, every single person wearing it to protect themselves and others.

And I don't know how much clearer to say it, but this is going to be the key thing that every individual can do, and for the most part we have been.

But if we can raise that level up more than where we are, we will be able to stay ahead of this variant hopefully for as long as possible and allow more of our our businesses and our economy to stay open.

But if we don't, we know what works, you know?

We know that having mitigations slows the process down, but it can also be contained and maintained with the mask.

And I would rather do it with the masking than having to revert back to tighter restrictions.

- Dr. Ngozi Ezike is the director of Illinois Department of Public Health.

Dr. Ezike, thanks so much.

- Schools across the nation have had to make changes to how they operate because of COVID-19.

As the new year begins, some are making additional updates.

Benjy Jeffords has more.

- [Benjy] Harrisburg West Side School principal Eric Witges says incorporating guidelines for in-person learning took a little getting used to at first.

- I think the biggest change at all for all of us was just getting used to the new norm that existed within our schools, whether it was the temperature taking, the distancing as much as you could, the mask wearing, and that kind of thing, you know, there was just that apprehension that existed at first.

But once that first week came and we saw the students come back into our building, we realized exactly why we were there and why we came into the profession was for our kids.

And so that made all the difference in the world.

- [Benjy] In Carbondale, the school year started out in full remote and changed to hybrid in October.

But then the positivity cases started to increase, forcing them to switch back to full remote in November.

- This year has been a year unlike any other that we've ever had in the history of education.

No one in education right now has ever educated through a global pandemic.

- [Benjy] Superintendent Daniel Booth says they are preparing to return to the hybrid model next month.

- And we were happy with what we learned in October.

We were in for about four weeks in October before Thanksgiving, before the rates started to skyrocket in our county again, and the Health Department suggested that we close down again.

But those rates are back down and we've got teachers getting vaccinated right now.

And we're planning to come back February 1st and hopefully the stay in it that time.

- [Benjy] One of the first hiccups both districts experienced was how to get everyone connected remotely.

- We're a pretty rural community, and so connectivity was an issue.

We've reached out to parents and guardians trying to offer them hotspots.

But even with those hotspots, we still had connectivity issues with those kids not able to connect to the internet, therefore having issues with Chromebook connection to our platforms.

And so that was probably the biggest challenge with e-learning in our community was the connectivity portion of it.

- [Benjy] Booth says says connectivity also caused problems for students in Carbondale - We do have conversation with parents if their students have been struggling online remotely.

And a lot of times the reason that some kids struggle online remotely, it could be a technology issue.

They could have internet but not great internet.

There is a difference between the two.

It's not just everyone having internet, it's having good internet.

- [Benjy] Slow internet or no internet has caused some students to fall behind, and Witges says they're helping students every way they can.

- We've discussed numerous avenues.

You know, we're doing a tutoring session in the afternoon for identifying kids who are at risk, bringing them back into school, or keeping them at school for extended tutoring hours and some interventions to put in play for help them.

- [Benjy] While in full remote, struggling students in Carbondale meet in smaller groups or one-on-one for extra instruction in the afternoon.

- And that smaller group work is where you can't hide.

You know, you can't hide when it's just three people on the screen and everybody's got to answer a question, or we're round robining, or I'm asking everyone to read, I'm asking everyone to do a math problem.

- [Benjy] Booth says the pandemic has taken a toll on more than the schools.

Parents are struggling, too.

- How many families have had to quit a job, have had to reduce hours, have had to make a decision on, you know, can I work as many hours as I can, or do I need to focus on my kid learning how to read?

Those are tough decisions to make, but the pandemic has let those things rise to the top.

- [Benjy] Both leaders hope things can go back to normal next year.

- But at the end of the day, everybody also wants to get back to normal in some way, shape, or form.

And the one thing that we do realize is that COVID will always be here.

That's the nature of viruses.

There will be no day where COVID is not here.

It's really about how we live with it rather than trying to wait for it to leave us.

- [Benjy] For InFocus, I'm Benjy Jeffords.

- Vaccinating, hundreds of millions of Americans will take time and patience, but the process is rolling out in an orderly way.

Illinois is divided into regions, and each region has a hospital that serves as the distribution center.

In Springfield and the 18 surrounding counties, that center is HSHS St. John's Hospital.

HSHS St. John's Hospital was selected as one of the distribution centers.

when the vaccine became available.

And Brandi Strader, as pharmacy director, you've got a lot dumped in your lap.

You and your staff and your team got a lot dumped in your lap all of a sudden, didn't you?

- Yeah.

I think as a hospital as a whole, we took that responsibility on.

We thought that that's what was best for our patients and our colleagues here.

So we were happy to take that responsibility.

- How did that happen?

How did St John's become the distribution center for this region?

- We have always been the emergency distribution center for those counties that we serve.

And so as that county, we also took that responsibility on just like we would for any natural disaster in the way that Illinois is broken down into those regions.

- Oh, okay.

So you're a regional center anyway.

It had nothing to do with the vaccine, you already served that purpose.

- We already, yes, mm-hm.

- Okay.

Gotcha.

We're in this room for a reason.

When you receive the vaccine, it comes in from a loading dock through this door here.

What do you do here?

- So, we prep this area in advance, make sure it's clean and ready to go.

As that vaccine comes in from the dock, depending how that vaccine comes in, it can come in multiple ways.

It can come in as a refrigerated temperature, frozen, or ultra frozen.

So as we receive that, depending on which state that it's already in, then we would receive it in that manner.

So this area is where we would take it out of that packaging, count it.

We would make sure the count is correct when we receive it.

And then we report that back to whatever agency in which we received it from, and how that is determined is based on how we receive it as well.

And we'll make sure everything is at the correct temperature.

So we do have to record that temperature as we bring it in and then record the temperature we're putting it into to make sure that that cold chain continues throughout the life of the vaccine.

- There are two vaccines, one Pfizer which has to be very cold, right?

And then there's the Moderna, which is, it's not that critical.

Right, so the Pfizer brand first, so let's talk about that.

The Pfizer brand can come in multiple ways.

It can come in ultra frozen, so that negative 70 to negative 60 temperature.

If it comes in ultra frozen, our ideal, as we have a ultra freezer, we wanna receive it as that ultra frozen state and put it right into our ultra freezer.

That way it is good for up to that six-month period.

It can also come in refrigerated.

If it comes in the refrigerated temperature, it's only good for five days.

And so we have to administer it to patients or colleagues in five days to decrease any waste.

We have been very successful in that, so if we would have received it refrigerated, we were able to get that to arms as quick as possible.

So if we receive it refrigerated, we put it directly into the refrigerator and it's good for five days.

We will mark all those with dates and times to make sure that everybody is aware of when that vaccine would expire.

- Can you take us to the freezers and show us where it's done?

- Sure, absolutely.

- Okay, let's do it.

Brandy, this is quite a machine right here.

Did this come with the first vaccine?

- No, this is a property of IEMA, so this came prior to us receiving the vaccines.

- What's this called?

- This is an ultra freezer.

- Okay.

And so this is for the Pfizer?

- This is for the Pfizer only.

- Which has to stay very cold.

- Yeah, so it'll range between negative 70 and negative 60 degrees Celsius.

- [Mark] Celsius.

Okay.

Now, I asked you earlier if you could open it for us and we could take a look and you said, "I can only open it twice a day."

- [Brandi] I can only open it twice a day.

- "And I can't do it for you today."

I said, "Okay."

(Brandi laughing) I will explain that what it looks like, if you want me, to inside.

- Would you?

Yeah, please.

- Yeah, absolutely, so when you open this door, there's actually three compartments inside.

So they're about this far apart inside, then each compartment will open and then that way if you're opening, you won't expose everything in the freezer to the outside temperature, so it's each section so we can keep other things colder.

It does a great job of retaining that temperature.

We can only open it twice a day, and mainly that is just to make sure we keep that cold temperature of that Pfizer vaccine.

- And then there are others that are just kept cold, not ultra frozen, and that's another cooler.

- Another, yep.

- Can we take a look at that one, too?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Okay.

After you.

Okay, now this looks more like a standard freezer that we've all seen before.

- That's correct, yeah.

So this would be your standard temperature freezer.

It is a medical grade freezer, obviously, but it works the same way as a regular freezer, monitoring that temperature.

All of our freezers, ultra freezers, refrigerators, are all monitored 24 hours a day to make sure we're always keeping in the right temperature for whatever medication we have in those areas.

- And then you have some, this is some of the vaccine here, is it not?

- Yeah, so basically as something would come out of the ultra freezer or the freezer, we would put it into the refrigerator.

We only move it out as we're gonna have a clinic, or if we're gonna vaccinate colleagues.

We make sure that we have the correct amount in the refrigerator at a time, keeping most of it in the freezer or the ultra freezer to make sure we reserve it as much as we can.

- Yeah, now you have most of your employees, I guess, that wanna be vaccinated.

They've already gotten at least one dose, right?

- Yes, yep.

So all of our 1A colleagues have been offered the vaccine at this point.

- And for the health departments in your region and for the hospitals in your region, are you still the lone distribution point for them, or are they getting their own vaccine now?

- At this point, some of those, especially your hospitals, will start receiving direct shipments, as we have started receiving some direct shipments as well.

Some of the smaller areas may still get that distribution model from like a central hub as a county or a region.

But right now we're starting to see as production ramps up and things change, you'll start getting direct shipments, which is more ideal, especially for facilities our size because as we receive it direct, it can come in that ultra frozen or frozen temperature.

- There's a lot of coordination involved here because you have to make sure that the vaccine is available twice to people.

So you really do have to look ahead and make sure you're doubled up on what you have so that everybody can get their second dose.

- Correct.

But the state helps us with that.

So as, for example, if we were to receive, let's say a hundred doses on January 1st and we vaccinate a hundred people, 21 days later the state would ship us exactly those same hundred doses so that we can vaccinate those people.

- Do you know when they're coming?

Do you get much of a heads up?

Or does the vaccine just arrive?

Or do you get a day or two notice?

Or how does that work?

- We do get notified through a system called I-CARE through the State of Illinois.

It will tell us if the order's getting ready to be sent, get shipped.

And then as it gets closer, an actual tracking number, if it's getting direct if we're getting it another avenue.

- Well, Brandi, thank you so much for letting us come back behind the scenes here.

I know that you've got a lot going on and- - It was a busy time.

- Yeah, it was a busy time.

Thanks very much.

(inquisitive music) As Illinois moves into a new phase of vaccine distribution, some people are still wary of the new COVID vaccine because of its quick development.

Steph Whiteside looked into why the vaccine was able to get to market so quickly.

(inquisitive music) - [Steph] The COVID-19 vaccine is a big step toward ending the pandemic and everyone getting to leave their houses again.

(mouse button clicks) But how did the vaccine get developed so fast and what makes it different than other vaccines of the past?

Thanks to the pandemic, scientists working on the COVID vaccine had a huge amount of money from governments and pharmaceutical companies working to fund their research.

The extent of the pandemic also let scientists test the vaccine on more people in a short timeframe.

Instead of having just a handful of trial sites like most scientific trials, the COVID vaccine was tested at hundreds of sites around the globe.

And because the pandemic is so widespread, there was a virtually endless pool of people who could take part, unlike other trials where patients have to meet very specific criteria.

Combined, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were tested on more than 70,000 people.

It also meant that scientists could assume a certain number of participants were exposed to COVID during the study so they could tell if the vaccine was working.

They didn't need to wait months or years to see if people might come into contact with the disease.

While 2020 seemed like a pretty unlucky year overall, scientists did get one lucky break when it came to vaccine development.

Research into mRNA vaccines had been in the works for years, and the first two COVID vaccine use that technology.

mRNA, or messenger RNA, works kind of like a translator in your body.

It takes information from DNA and carries it to cells that produce proteins.

The COVID vaccine uses mRNA to tell the body to create a specific protein unique to COVID to help train the immune system to respond.

It's kind of like a wanted poster, letting the immune cells knows what to attack.

The mRNA in the shot disappear shortly after it delivers its message, kind of like Snapchat for the immune system.

But while the instructions to make the protein are gone, the antibodies to fight COVID remain.

On top of that, the protein created is just one of many that are produced by the actual coronavirus, so there's no chance of getting sick from the vaccine.

Finally, both vaccines still had to meet the same safety standards as any other immunization approved by the FDA.

- Face masks are an important part of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Back in July, you may remember, some healthcare organizations were still having trouble keeping them stocked.

The Tuskegee NEXT Foundation and the Will Group decided to lend a helping hand.

Benjy Jeffords takes us to the Southern Illinois airport.

(plane rumbling) - [Benjy] The Tuskegee NEXT Foundation and the Will Group decided to lend a helping hand in our region.

(plane rumbling) Tuskegee NEXT honors the Tuskegee Airmen by guiding at-risk kids toward career in aviation.

Board member Rona Fourte says the organization has led dozens of people to a career in aviation.

- The Tuskegee NEXT Foundation was founded on the premise of really working with the inner city communities to identify those that have a desire to be a part of the aviation industry, either by way of being a pilot or in the technical operation space.

- In July, representatives from Tuskegee NEXT and the Will Group flew into the Southern Illinois Airport to deliver the first shipment of 10,000 N95 face masks to SIH.

The pilots are part of the Tuskegee NEXT program working on completing their flight hours.

Fourte says part of their mission is to fill the predicted shortage in the aviation industry over the next 20 years.

- As we move forward, we know we're gonna have a shortage and we also wanna make sure that we help to diversify the pilot base, bringing more women in, bringing more people of color into the aviation space.

- [Benjy] Dr. Linda Baker with the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute worked with Fourte on a healthcare task force.

When Tuskegee NEXT was looking for a partner to donate face masks to, Dr. Baker had someone in mind.

- Rona called and she said, "We would like to give back to Southern Illinois.

We'd like to do something in terms of providing PPE to individuals in Southern Illinois."

And she called me at the Simon Institute and asked if I could assist her with that.

And we thought there was no better group to work with than SIH.

- [Benjy] With the number of COVID-19 cases on the rise, Dr. Baker knew Southern Illinois healthcare organizations could use the help.

- The goal this event really is this organization really wanted to give back to Southern Illinois, the Southern Illinois region.

And we know that wearing masks, we've seen the literature, the science, shows that wearing masks actually helps to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

- [Benjy] Vice president and chief development officer for SIH, Woody Thorne, says this gift came at the right time.

There is a shortage of masks, they're not coming in as rapidly as we might be able to order them.

And so that's why a gift like this is really, really important to a healthcare organization like ours.

- [Benjy] Thorne says SIH will keep 5,000 masks for employees and distribute the rest throughout Southern Illinois in August.

- Our organization has around 3,800 employees, and a subset of them are interacting with patients who either have COVID or suspected COVID on an ongoing basis.

So those sorts of mass are very valuable in terms of, you know, preventing the spread of that disease within the healthcare environment.

- [Benjy] Dr. Baker says Tuskegee NEXT also had a surprise for SIH.

- They brought down 10,000 masks, but they also brought down 10,000 bottles of hand sanitizer as well.

So these products will go a long way in terms of helping this community.

- [Benjy] Thorne says the masks and the sanitizer will go straight to the front lines.

- It'll be our direct staff that are working in COVID units or in testing sites, that'll be using the masks.

So it's a very much appreciated gift.

- [Benjy] Dr. Baker feels this donation will make Southern Illinois safer considering the rise of COVID-19 cases in the region.

- These are N95 masks, and we know that getting these in the hands of people in communities as schools start to get back in session, and as individuals come back to campus, and people are walking around the community, having access to protective equipment is important.

Fourte says Tuskegee NEXT has a connection with SIU.

- We do have many cadets that go to Southern Illinois University and become a part of our program, so we wanted to make sure that not only are we getting those students from Southern Illinois University, but we're giving back to Southern Illinois University by way of this donation today.

- [Benjy] For WSIU, I'm Benjy Jeffords.

- Tuskegee NEXT has been helping at-risk kids for over 40 years.

Thanks for watching this episode of InFocus.

I'm Mark McDonald.

We'll see you next time.

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