♪ I remind her of her boyfriend ♪ ♪ She said at 3am ♪ ♪ Lying flat on the floor ♪ ♪ I remind her of her boyfriend ♪ ♪ I didn't know she had ♪ - [1st Announcer] Coming to you from Rochester, Minnesota.

♪ Sitting there in shock ♪ ♪ And trying not to show it ♪ - [1st Announcer] R-Town.

♪ I was pretty happy ♪ ♪ With the way that things were going ♪ ♪ Then everything exploded ♪ - COVID-19 has been a whirlwind for all of us and as we're coming up on the year since the initial shutdown, vaccines are starting to be shared.

With us today is Olmsted County Public Health director, Graham Briggs to tell us about the COVID vaccine and wants to come.

Welcome, Graham.

- Thanks for having me again, Danielle.

It's good to see you.

- It is good to see you again and again.

(Danielle laughing) - We're becoming like buddies now.

- We are and you know what?

We're very grateful for you coming on the show.

Little did you know that you would be making all these appearances related to a pandemic and so your expertise is incredibly valued.

Thank you.

- Thanks for the opportunity.

It's always my pleasure to get some time to hang out with you.

- Cool.

Okay, so let's talk about the vaccine specifically, we had a lot of rigorous restrictions last year for safety measures, masking, physical distancing, hand sanitizing, hand washing, all that good stuff and now we're moving into the next layer of protection which is the vaccine.

Can you share with us the safety guidelines around that and how that's being rolled out from an Olmsted County perspective?

- Right.

I think it's a great place to start talking about all the masking and social distancing and everything that we've all been doing for the last year basically now has been based on the best information that we have as it's evolved and that's changed over time but really, all of those sorts of measures are what I would call, we've been playing defense where we're trying to avoid exposures as best we can with things that we know are not 100% effective, the part of the mask debate involves some complexities on masks, maybe preventing other people, two thirds of the time, it's imperfect sorts of things that we've been trying to do for a year to really try to at best limit transmission and risk in the community to a level that we can manage as far as risk goes.

Vaccine, a phrase that I've been using fairly often here is that a vaccine is what allows us to go on offense, it changes the whole ballgame for us.

So, routinely, when you do infectious disease outbreak responses for something like measles or hepatitis A, the vaccine is the big option that we have that will stop transmission.

That's how we are in reality, with the hepatitis A outbreak, for example.

That's how we stop that outbreak is by using vaccine in populations that may be at risk and so we now are in this beginning of the end here where we still need to wear masks, we still need to be careful, there's virus out there.

We know that a small percentage of the community has had infection even through all this year and all the news and attention it's still 80% plus of our population here in Olmsted County is likely not been exposed.

We know now that with vaccine is that's coming online, we're getting more and more people vaccinated every day but we're still not to a point that it's going to stop transmission locally or anything like and so it becomes important to kind of walk in this grey zone here for a little while where we're wearing masks, we're being careful doing the things that we've all gotten used to even if we don't like doing it, if we keep doing that here as vaccine start to really start impacting transmission here locally, we will see over time as the amount of transmission and the damage that the virus is really causing in the community due to cases and hospital surge and things like that, as that decreases we get closer and closer to that day where we all get to take our masks off and say that, you know the last time we saw COVID case in Olmsted County was a month ago or something like that and so, via process I think everybody's seeing now that's the big thing on the news and that a lot of people are talking about is that we don't have vaccine made for 300 million people right off the bat for this, it's gonna take time in Olmsted County and while we've started, we're still We're working in these highest risk groups, both for exposure and then for risk of severe disease but over the next few months, this vaccine is going to become more and more widely available and as long as it works the way that it looks like it does, now, that's gonna be our ticket out of this pandemic.

- Well, we're gonna talk more about that after the break but I love that comparison of we were on the defense before now we're on the offense, vaccine is the light at the end of the tunnel but we still got to put those layers of other defensive protective mechanisms in place until we get to that point.

So we'll dig in a little bit about the vaccine distribution in details just after this.

(upbeat music) - [1st Announcer] R-Town is brought to you in part by the following amazing people and organizations.

- [2nd Announcer] The Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota - [1st Announcer] And the members of KSMQ Public Television.

Thank you.

- Be sure to stick around we have much more coming your way on R-Town we check in with Nora Anderson with Threshold Arts and Graham Briggs sticks around to continue the discussion around the vaccine.

We also check in with the owners of MegaWatt to discuss how their business has fared during the pandemic but at first we check in with Vangie Castro to hear about her immigration story in this week's "Our Culture" segment.

(upbeat music) - I'm Vangie Castro.

I am a community organizer and civil rights activist, I've worked with the Diversity Council for about over seven years here in Rochester, Minnesota.

I'm an immigrant to the United States, naturalized citizen, I originally grew up in California but I was born in the Philippines in the southern central part, which is called Zamboanga City and the dialect that is spoken there is of a sion, we came to the United States about 1978.

So yeah, I was about four years old at the time and my father was a Certified Public Accountant in the Philippines and during that time, the president was Ferdinand Marco Marcos and it was not a really great time for folks who were not friendly to the government or to the President because at that time, I think martial law was in place, a lot of people were either being taken or murdered, if they were political.

Not necessarily, if they were against the government, I mean, even if you just, my sister, who have told me a little bit about the story.

that because she's 10 years older than me, so she knows a little bit more, she remembers coming over and so my dad worked in a bank and the bank bombed and so if we did not come to the United States for political asylum, I don't think my father would have lived.

So my father went ahead came to the United States.

My mom was 40 when she had me and so she was about 44, when she came to the United States and I imagine what it's like to move to an entirely different country, not know the language very well, if at all and then try to make a whole new life and with four young children and so, when I look at the refugee population and the immigrant population that are coming here to provide a better life for their young people, for their children, you do not want to leave your home, I would imagine unless you're forced out and I think the narrative that immigrants are coming here to take away people's jobs and things like that, I think is false and we come here because we have to, at the end of the day, I am American and that's what I tell people when they ask me what am I, I'm American but if you really wanna know where I was born, (Vangie laughing) ask that question, what's my ethnicity Versus where are you from?

Well I'm from here and that's Rochester, Minnesota, that's where I'm from.

I actually embrace my immigrant status.

I think it is more of a badge of honor to be able to come to this country and make a life for myself and for my family and I think and especially for my parents, I think it was a huge blessing and an honor for them to be here in the United States and be able to make a make a life and provide a better life and a safer life for their children.

- [1st Announcer] For more information about this story and other R-Town features connect with us on Facebook, Twitter at KSMQ#RTown or www.ksmq.org/rtown.

(upbeat music) - Hello, I'm Daniel Teal, your moderator for R-Town the show about Rochester with a brand new segment called "Our Spotlight" for KSMQ Public Television.

We'd like to thank 125 live for hosting.

They're so amazing.

We have Brian Wattier from MegaWatt Entertainment with us today, we're gonna have conversation of what is MegaWatt Entertainment and how is it benefiting the community?

So Brian, welcome.

- Thank you.

- We're so glad to have you on the show.

So if you could give us a little bit of background about yourself and what is MegaWatt Entertainment?

- Sure.

So I've lived in Rochester for about 22 years now and I came to town with MegaWatt in 2018.

That's a few years ago here, MegaWatt is actually an entertainment business.

We provide mobile video game playing for families and so we bring people together with that we do other events as well and some things at schools, we have a 30 foot long trailer and it's very easy.

People call us up and we just throw the whole birthday party.

It's amazing.

- So you're literally a mobile entity that you just go from one place to the other and then anybody that is really into gaming and that sort of thing.

can utilize it.

So what kind of options are there for entertainment then in regards to the games?

- Oh, yeah, so we have all sorts of different consoles.

So we have Xbox, we have PS, PlayStation, Nintendo.

- You have Nintendo?

- We have Nintendo.

- Does it have Zelda?

- Yes, I have Zelda.

(Danielle laughing) - Okay, that is my favorite game.

- Very popular and we have some of the old emulators.

So we have, from the old not Nintendo Entertainment System all the way up to the Switch.

So we we cater to a lot of variety of ages and we've even had parties for individuals turning 40 and 50.

A lot of different people are gamers.

So it really appeals to a lot of different people.

So the vintage feel of it, we definitely have that and it brings people together.

- That's really cool.

So speaking of bringing people together, how are you abiding by this the COVID-19 restrictions to make that happen safely?

- That's a very good question.

So it's been a real challenge this year, we basically had to shut down.

So our MegaWatt Entertainment team, we had about 85 parties throughout the whole year.

We were really busy.

When 2020 hit, I think we probably did under 10 parties.

So the space is enclosed in the trailer, so there isn't a whole lot of room to move around.

So we did a lot of outdoor events, opened up the trailer kept it well aerated but for the most part, it was families that would book us, so we held within those guidelines.

- Okay.

So it's within the family dynamics and then they're all together and that abides by the restrictions too.

How can the community come to help support your business?

- Well, thanks.

Yeah.

So I think 2021 is gonna be a great year.

We are ready to book parties at any time.

I have ads out on Facebook and in different places, sharing ads is great so that people know, I think seeing the game trailer is a way to believe like what it is actually.

It's hard to imagine a big long trailer.

- We'll have to show a photo of that.

So please share that.

- Absolutely.

So yeah, watch for us.

We do events when we can and we're out in the community.

- Perfect.

Thank you so much, Brian and thank you all for listening.

We appreciate you so much for supporting R-Town Spotlight.

This is Danielle Teal, your moderator with KSMQ Public Television.

Again, huge thanks to 125 Live for hosting, Amarachi our intern is learning the ropes.

So give a shout out for her, she's amazing and Annie, she does the production really grateful for her.

You can also catch up with us at Facebook or Twitter at KSMQ R-Town.

(upbeat music) - This is Amarachi Orakwue with R-Town Walkabout, here at Threshold Arts on Broadway, Downtown Rochester.

Hello, Nora, could you tell us a little bit about Threshold Arts?

- Yeah, absolutely, Threshold Arts is a nonprofit arts organization, we founded in 2018 and our mission is really to connect artists with the community and find ways to support them through providing space for them to make work, sell it, show their work and perform if they're performing artists as well - And then as we walk around, we can see how beautiful it is and very welcoming.

- We've got the work of over 30 different local artists and makers.

So everything in here is made by an artist or artisan here in the community.

Everything from photography and painting, to fiber arts, we've got some food with things like honey and teas and that selection is growing as well.

So it's a partnership with the Rochester Makers Market, in that several artists that they had in their online marketplace and several of our member artists, we brought all together under this one retail space so that those artists who maybe don't have an opportunity to sell in a brick and mortar space of their own can sell here in this collaborative space.

Everything is also available online.

There's no pressure to buy when you walk in the door, we want you to come in we want you to learn about the artists who share information about each of them with their work.

(upbeat music) What we're really about is making those connections and finding ways for community members and visitors alike to find local artists and maybe bring home a piece of something special to this community and I was blown away by the amount of support that we have from the community.

We didn't know that that existed.

(upbeat music) - This is Amarachi with R-Town Walkabout and thank you so much Nora Anderson for showing us Threshold Arts.

- Thank you.

♪ Was unintentional ♪ ♪ But it don't hurt any less ♪ ♪ To know that there's somebody where I wanna be ♪ ♪ Brought to light so casually ♪ ♪ An inadvertent enemy ♪ - All right, Graham, thanks for for being here.

You had mentioned about the comparison of the defense where we have to make face masks, we physically distance, hand sanitation, and hand washing and now the vaccine is in play.

We're in the offense aspect of of this.

Here.

Let's get into the details of that.

How is the process going with disseminating the vaccine?

Who gets it?

And does it cost any money?

- The last one is first the vaccine, the way that it's been produced and allocated through the federal government is free for everyone.

So we don't have to worry about any cost or anything like that.

After we get past that, that's where there's still a very fluid situation happening.

There's federal entities involved state entities and here, ultimately local entities that are actually putting shots into arms and so people may have heard, in other places, this is the largest logistical project in the history of public health in this country and I can say firsthand on the ground, that is a true statement.

There's just a lot of gears turning a lot of minutiae in taking a vaccine from it being produced in a facility somewhere else and getting that into somebody's arm, you're at the local level was is much more complicated than you think it would be to (indistinct) when you hear about that process but knowing the vaccine is limited that the biggest issue I think that we have right here in Olmsted County right now is that kind of opposite to what there's a lot of talk about previously in uptake and concern that people won't want it.

We've got a great demand in this community, we've got a lot of people emailing the health department every day are calling the doctors asking about when they can get vaccine and the challenge there is knowing we don't necessarily know how many doses of vaccine we're gonna have in two weeks or four weeks or six weeks, we have confidence that the vaccine is working well and for those priority groups that are getting access here that we can do this and in this community, we can actually do with the vaccines available 1000s of doses a day and get the entire population of Olmsted County vaccinated pretty quickly.

- Graham, who's given the direction of how its distributed?

It's the federal government and then it drums down to the state and then you hear word on who you can vaccinate from there.

- Yeah, good example of the logistics.

So the federal government has an advisory panel of experts in immunization and vaccinology that provide basic guidance like health care workers, should be a priority group.

At the state level, the state then can sub categorize and Minnesota is doing that.

So they're saying, within health care workers, we should prioritize people that have direct access to COVID patients.

So emergency department staff and ICU staff and things like that, then when we get to the local level public health is working with local providers like Home State Medical Center and Mayo on making sure that vaccine is available for those groups and that we're going through these groups as a community and at times, potentially balancing, something that we're doing in public health is ambulance crews, for example and we're doing that in parallel to OMC.

Taking care of their emergency department, staff and Mayo taking care of their staff as well and so the way that we're doing it to is a little bit unique because we have a higher proportion of healthcare workers in this community, so we're vaccinating a lot of health care workers while we're trying to get through that basic federal guidance, we're really trying to work on the details of how to get teachers vaccinated, for example, - Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because I know that that has been brought up quite a bit in the community.

What about the teachers?

What about the other essential employees out there and in the public, how is that being determined then to ensure that they are vaccinated in a timely fashion, those that are in long term care, I just saw that they're starting to get their vaccinations?

- Yeah, ideally, in a perfect world with something like measles, everybody gets an MMR shot when they turn five, in practice, during a pandemic, when you need to vaccinate 300 plus million people in a country, we know that we can only produce so much at a certain time.

So I'd love to vaccinate all 160,000 people tomorrow.

Unfortunately, that's not the reality.

So we're trying to balance in Minnesota, the risk of transmission the risk for local businesses and the risk for mortality or fatal outcomes in populations and so you kind of mix all this together at the state level, and then again, at the local level to really try to prioritize who needs this dose the most and so, in Minnesota, we've got at the state level some good guidance overall on trying to identify what order we should do this and we do see some variability county to county as different counties are getting through these populations at different times.

So we're seeing some places are able to start doing school teachers that maybe don't have as many medical personnel that live in that community but it is nice to have a coordinated approach to saying that, in Minnesota, people working in education, just beyond the school teachers too, everybody else that's working in a school, for example, is in Priority group and we all recognize that that as a state and see that that is one of those groups right there with firefighters and law enforcement and some of these groups that happen to be non healthcare but our priority to get our community back to some sense of normalcy here with kids back in school and cops being safe out there doing their job and all of those sorts of things.

So I'll have to go into this equation.

- I know a lot of people are very eager to get some semblance of normalcy back, getting the students back into schools and things like that, from an educational perspective so that people understand the eligibility for vaccine.

One question that keeps popping up that I think it's really important to cover very quickly is, if you were previously diagnosed for COVID, should someone still received the vaccine?

Is there a timeline for that?

- Right, if you've been diagnosed or if you've tested positive for COVID in the 90 days previous, then we do believe that you at least have short term immunity and so those individuals don't need to receive vaccine right now and should be protected.

However, while we think that there may be some durable or longer lasting immunity, we just really don't know yet.

We don't have the data and the science to say firmly that we can see that you have immunity for three or five years because we've only known this fires for a year and so it's gonna take some time to figure out how long lasting that natural immunity is.

So the current recommendation is as long as you haven't had infection in the last three months, you should be vaccinated.

So somebody read it in March.

Yep.

There they should be in that queue with everybody else just to make sure we're safe.

- Oh, good stuff.

Any last parting words that you wanna share?

Graham.

- I'm glad to have the chance to chat and hope we're getting some good information out there to the public.

- Perfect, I definitely believe that people will find this helpful.

Thank you so much for sharing your expertise and perspective from Olmsted County.

- Good to see you Danielle.

- Thank you Graham for being on the show.

Be well everyone and stay safe.

We'll see you next time at R-Town the show about Rochester.

(upbeat music) ♪ I remind her of her boyfriend ♪ ♪ I think she meant it as a compliment ♪ ♪ But all I hear is that I never even had a shot ♪ ♪ Never getting what I want ♪ ♪ Her heart's in the hands ♪ ♪ Of the man that she gave a chance ♪ ♪ And it's not his fault but I hate him ♪ ♪ And I can't blame her for me falling so hard ♪ ♪ But she's breaking my heart ♪ ♪ And I don't even know if she knows it ♪ ♪ I remind her of her boyfriend ♪ ♪ Yeah she's all that I want ♪ ♪ And there's nothing that I can do about it ♪ ♪ I remind her of her boyfriend ♪ (upbeat music)