- [Announcer] Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home and Crematory, a proud supporter of WQPT has been serving Quad City families since 1889.

They now have livestream capabilities for viewing your loved one's funeral or memorial service.

- [Announcer] At IHMVCU, we've always been here for you.

You are, and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial and physical health, and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of WQPT.

- A problem with the holidays.

What will our holiday celebrations mean for COVID infections as we enter the new year and the giving spirit during the holidays, how some hope those in need due to disasters are not forgotten.

Welcome to "The Cities."

(upbeat music) We're starting a new year with an old problem.

COVID rates are reaching new peaks just as the Christmas holidays wind down.

It's a combination of COVID, indoor gatherings and family get-togethers.

The only difference is a vaccine that we thought would make this season different from last year.

We talked with Scott County Health Department Director Amy Thoreson, who is trying to get more people vaccinated and to keep more people healthy, and Amy, let's talk about this holiday season compared to last, 'cause it seems like the situation is just as bad, if not worse, how is that possible?

- Well, I think this year, we're seeing a lot of everything.

So last year at this time, we weren't seeing as much illness.

People were staying home, just in general, the health systems weren't as busy.

Certainly, the COVID cases' numbers were really high, but the severity of illness is much worse this year, and that's where we're seeing problems with the hospitalizations for COVID, but then other illnesses as well.

We also know that the delta variant makes people sicker, and for those individuals who are getting exposed and contracting the delta variant, and haven't yet been vaccinated, they get a lot sicker in many instances.

- And it just does seem that, I mean, 'cause we're hearing it over and over again that almost eight out of 10 ICU patients that have COVID were unvaccinated.

I mean, that's a frightening statistic, but some people who are unvaccinated are just gonna say, "Well, that's just fear-mongering."

- Yeah, and we understand that.

I think our purpose through this whole thing has been to try to educate people and protect the public in general, and so if we're not sharing the information and sharing the facts and what science is showing us, then we're not doing our job because people are gonna need the information to make decisions, and I certainly wish we had a better story to share, but there are stories that you hear from healthcare providers all the time as somebody looking to get vented saying, "Can I get my vaccine?"

And by that point, it's too late.

- We've been hearing so much about the predominant delta variant is what we're seeing in the hospitals right now.

Does that mean that we're not necessarily seeing the original COVID infection?

I mean, it's morphed more into this delta variant.

- Yes, since this summer, we really here in the Scott County area and Iowa in general have seen the delta variant be the primary variant, and you'll remember as we started out, we had the original variant and then we saw more concern about the UK variant and there've been variants all along, but the surveillance is showing right now that delta is the primary variant circling.

- Well, that's why these viruses are so insidious, and this is not out of the ordinary.

I mean, it just kind of morphs, it becomes a variant unto itself over and over and over again, as it tries to find a way to survive.

- Absolutely, and that's been one of the other reasons that we want people to get vaccinated.

Certainly, the primary reason, and the primary design for that vaccine was to keep people from becoming seriously ill and ending up in the hospital, but the other component of that is if more people are protected, then the very instant this virus doesn't have as many places to go, and then it has less places to, to change, and that's what we don't wanna have happen because the variants can change and become worse or they could change and become better.

That would be a lovely gift that we would all appreciate, but as you see, delta has changed to make people more sick.

- There was an interesting point that Dr Katz, who is an infectious disease expert and is also the medical director for the Scott County Health Department, works for the ImpactLife Blood Center as well.

He makes a point that when you're taking a look at these vaccines, vaccines aren't meant to necessarily wipe out the virus, otherwise, you know, you would've wiped out flu long ago, it's to diminish the impact if you get it.

- Absolutely.

The true way that the use of vaccines work are to prevent serious illness and death, and that was what they were tested on, and that was what the goal was as we looked into '21 last year and vaccines being more available, we wanted to see that serious illness end, and that's happened because that has been the biggest tragedy in this COVID pandemic.

- When you take a look at the statistics statewide for Iowa and statewide for Illinois, they're touting 70% vaccination rates of at least people getting one dose, if not more of the COVID vaccines, and yet we're seeing this problem, it just seems so odd to me that, you know, this time last year, we were all waiting for this vaccine.

Now we're getting it, and we're still in the same boat.

Yeah, it is frustrating for everybody, isn't it?

I think we all thought that 2021 would be so much better than 2020, and there have been some high points, but we're still dealing with this pandemic, and I think while we're looking at overall percentages, having at least received one dose, when I look at the data here for Scott County, we're at 69.8% of those that are eligible, so five and older, but when we start looking at that per age group, we have the older populations.

So if we look at that data where for those 65 and older, we're at 95% having received one dose of vaccine and almost 90% fully vaccinated.

So when you average that out, you're dealing with younger populations that are in the 40s and 50%, and so those are the individuals that are out and about, and have the ability to spread it through school or work or entertainment activities they participate in and then bring it home or take it to family that that may be more vulnerable.

- We have seen, and you have seen it in your statistics as well, is that the older you are, the more susceptible you are to having COVID become fatal.

The older people seem to die.

When you're in your middle age, it has some serious respiratory issues that might be lifelong, but is certainly long-lasting for so many people that I know that have gotten it, and then for the younger children, perhaps it's not as bad.

Although, we do know of more than a dozen children who are hospitalized in Iowa all across the state.

Is that kind of what you're still seeing is that as you get older, the impact of COVID still becomes greater?

- Definitely, we see the impact being in older people, because a lotta times, they have other things going on.

There's very few people who get into their 60s, 70s, 80s without having some underlying condition or just their body doesn't respond as well to vaccine, and so we do see that in the older population, and then we also know there's younger people who have chronic health conditions or maybe undergoing treatment for cancer, things like that, and they can be more susceptible as well.

Your body needs a lot of things to fight off illness, and we just don't all have that our entire lifespan.

- Kids are gonna be on a holiday break.

They return to school in January after being through these family get-togethers, Thanksgiving all the way through Christmas.

Do you have concerns for the upcoming 2022 school year?

- Well, I think we're worried because the numbers we've seen since Thanksgiving are just on a dramatic increase and we haven't started to level off yet, and so we know that that could be the case after the Christmas holiday as well, as we all look to try to spend some time with people we may not have seen as much or to celebrate in a variety of other ways, and so we do have concerns and that's why we're really encouraging people to wear masks when they're indoors.

I know that's not fun.

I don't like it either, but when I'm in indoor settings, to do that, if you're with a group of people that you don't know their vaccine status, that's an area to particularly pay attention to is to wear your mask, consider getting vaccinated, and probably one of the most important ones for all of us to remember is if you're having symptoms or if you've been around somebody who's positive, don't go.

Don't go to the party, don't go to the family gathering, don't go to church.

It's hard, we know, but we don't want you to spread something to someone else.

- One of the few blessings of last year was of course, the flu season being just almost non-existent, not only in the Midwest and in the Quad City area, but nationwide.

What are you seeing so far this flu season?

- We are seeing flu.

We're not seeing huge numbers at this time.

We usually start to see an increase in those cases in January and February, and so we'll see a lotta times, flu, just like we're worried about with COVID, you go visit your family in some other part of the country, which may be having flu outbreaks and you bring it home, and it just continues to spread.

So we anticipate seeing more numbers of flu after the holidays, but we are seeing flu in the community right now.

- And I know you hear that people are tired of hearing about COVID and it's almost ironic because why would you say that to a healthcare worker who has been living it day in and day out for 22 months?

How is your staff doing?

We're hearing that nurses are having such a difficult time.

The healthcare workers inside the hospitals and clinics are having a difficult time.

What about the people on the front row, the ranks of the public health workers?

- I think for public health workers, our most stressful time was probably this time last year as we were continuing to do contact tracing and beginning to plan for all the vaccine efforts.

So that definitely was a very different, stressful time.

I think right now, we're just frustrated because we know that this topic of COVID has become so controversial and we just want to protect our community, and, you know, we talk with our healthcare partners every week and we listened to the struggles that they're going through and we try to figure out how can we help them?

Where else could we get test kits?

How could we be promoting messaging?

And so we're just trying everything that we can, and so I think that frustration is really hard and then we're backlogged.

So there's a lot of work that wasn't happening.

Now, as everything opens back up, we're backlogged, and we're trying to get to that, so it's definitely not a setting like the hospital workers who are being asked to care for people that they don't normally care for in a whole different setting, but it's still a challenging time, and we keep getting new messages and meetings to get brought back into discussions, and so it's back to the uncertainty and that was really hard for all of us last year.

- Amy Thoreson, the director of the Scott County Health Department.

In a moment, what to do after disaster strikes, but first, Laura Adams has ideas for you during your Christmas holiday as you take time to go out and about.

- [Laura] Happy New Year.

This is Out and About for January 1st through January 6th.

On New Year's Day, catch the Harlem Globetrotters at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline at 3:00, or be in the audience for The Moonlighters QC concert, New Year's Day, or take a trek to the Wildcat Den First Day Hike in Muscatine.

Hikers meet at 1:00 pm at the upper picnic area shelter for a 1.3 mile hike led by park staff.

The Bereskin Gallery and Art Academy in Bettendorf is offering a number of classes for all ages, including Chess World for kids in order to improve their chess skills.

Enjoy an art exhibition with photography by Craig Miller at the Smith Studio and Gallery in Geneseo and the visual art exhibition by Elaine Miller at the Quad City Arts Gallery in Rock Island.

Both exhibitions run through the end of January.

Come and join your friends for some exercise at an adaptive tumbling clinic at Hand in Hand in Bettendorf.

Be sure to register beforehand.

Chamber Music Quad Cities will perform a concert in the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Great Hall in Davenport on January 2nd at 2:00, and it's the beginning of January, so get ready for Bald Eagle Days, January 7th through 9th at the QCCA Expo Center in Rock Island.

For more information visit wqpt.org.

(upbeat music) - Thank you, Laura.

Mo Carter calls herself a charismatic troubadour, and who's to argue?

She's a Davenport musician who loves bluesy soulful music.

She came to the Black Box Theater to perform one of her originals for us.

Here's Mo Carter with "Crumbled."

(soulful guitar music) ♪ Your brilliance ♪ ♪ In every way ♪ ♪ A constant reminder ♪ ♪ As it's always on display ♪ ♪ Thinking if I try harder ♪ ♪ I could be simply better ♪ ♪ But that's not the case for me ♪ ♪ So I crumbled ♪ ♪ Just like you knew I would ♪ ♪ And I crumbled ♪ ♪ So beautifully, and I crumble ♪ ♪ Into the sea, and I crumble ♪ ♪ Oh, ooh whoa, ooh whoa ♪ ♪ It's so easy, oh ♪ ♪ Every time not even trying ♪ ♪ Create a beautiful rhyme ♪ ♪ If I had ♪ ♪ A sliver of what you possess ♪ ♪ Would it be easier ♪ ♪ For me to confess ♪ ♪ That I crumbled ♪ ♪ Oh, just like you knew I would ♪ ♪ And I crumbled ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, so silently ♪ ♪ And I crumbled ♪ ♪ Whoa, oh, into the sea ♪ ♪ And I crumbled, no ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ I'm twisting at every turn, honey ♪ ♪ Your shadow lurks, and I burn ♪ ♪ With nothing left, I guess I'll accept ♪ ♪ That I'll continue to be nothing at all ♪ ♪ Only me ♪ ♪ Nothing better ♪ ♪ Only me, oh ♪ ♪ Nothing better ♪ ♪ Only me, oh, oh ♪ ♪ And I crumbled ♪ ♪ Oh, just like you knew I would ♪ ♪ And I crumbled ♪ ♪ Oh, so foolishly ♪ ♪ And I crumbled ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, into the sea ♪ ♪ And I crumbled ♪ ♪ Oh, oh ♪ - Mo Carter with "Crumbled."

In a way, we dodged a bullet earlier this month, when a rare December derecho barreled through our area.

It hits some areas hard, but not anything like the tornado outbreak at the start of the month, that devastated parts of Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky, but what happens after that first outpouring of help occurs?

What happens next?

We talked with Trish Burnett, head of the Red Cross of the Quad Cities about the long-term needs Of those effected by natural disasters.

What's needed right now?

- You know, the needs right now are for financial donations to make sure that we can get what is needed by individual families, the communities and people.

People are very generous in sending things, but again, it's so hard to cope with that, and you have just a lot of extra work because of that, and every family has different needs right now.

You know, some may need a vehicle to get somewhere, some may need meals, some may need whatever, and it's really more individualized attention to make sure we're fulfilling the right needs and getting people what they need.

- I apologize for interrupting, but there's also always two big things, and I wanna talk about the mental health in just a moment, but the first thing is, I mean, sometimes people go, "I don't wanna send cash.

I'm not sure where the cash is gonna go," and I know that agencies such as yours like to point out that not only do you have to rebuild neighborhoods and families, you have to rebuild businesses as well.

- Right, and the other thing, when you give financial donations, we try to purchase as much and do as much business as we can in that location, because it is important to keep that economy going and to get people back to work and to keep that piece of the puzzle up and running as much as possible, and we are very careful stewards with the money because it's important that people trust us and know that we are gonna do the very best job with the financial donations that they entrust with us, and so we make sure it's put to really good use.

- In the entire Quad City region.

I know that you have got volunteers that basically have their suitcases packed at any moment's notice.

Who is down there in Kentucky, Tennessee, and perhaps Southern Illinois right now?

- You know, we have, I believe it's about 25 volunteers now.

It changes by the hour literally right now, but one in particular that struck me, I just wanted to share with you, her name is Kim and she's from Port Byron.

She's been down there since almost immediately after it happened and in her volunteer profiles, she says she's a homemaker and she enjoys knitting and et cetera, and yet, she is in the throes of really the worst area right now, helping with damage assessment, helping with sheltering.

It just struck me when I looked at her volunteer profile, how she kind of pictures herself as this person, but she's doing this incredible work on the very frontline of a disaster, and just she'll be there through the holidays.

Didn't even, you know, hesitate to go.

Those are just everyday people in our community who really become superheroes during times of disaster.

- Well, that's a perfect way to describe them as well, but the other thing that you do provide that seems to be just so vitally important is that mental health relief.

I mean, just the ability for some of these storm victims to talk to people, and let's be honest, when you're sending Red Cross people there or Salvation Army people there.

These are people that have been to disasters before.

So you hate to say that it may not have impacted them personally, but they've been through this all before and certainly know what they're talking about.

- They do, and the mental health volunteers that help on scene are licensed mental health workers that volunteer with the Red Cross or with the Salvation Army.

So many different agencies helping, but when you think about not just the loss of possessions, the holidays, COVID, and then the tremendous loss of lives, and so many of those were in small towns where everybody knew somebody that passed away.

All of those things are just triggering a huge mental health need in that area, and to really make sure that the people are getting that kinda support that they need right now, because especially in a large-scale disaster, everybody's impacted to a degree, and so there's really nobody left within that community that can comfort you.

I mean, you need that outside person and that trained person to really help you and to recognize if you need additional help.

So those people are so key in a disaster.

- You have seen it time and again, the television cameras leave the area and the newspaper photographers are no longer there.

It is no longer in the headlines, and that could be, you know, within three weeks of a major disaster like this, what happens from that point?

What does an organization like yours do on the ground for people who are still hurting, even though they're not still getting this national or regional attention.

- It's a great question when I appreciate your asking that 'cause it does happen, and it's just the way it goes, but what we work with, because as I said, every disaster requires a lot of partners at the table to do that and to make sure people are taken care of.

So our goal is really that immediate emergency care, but then we become the convener within those communities where we bring together partners, because we've figured out what the exact needs are in that community.

We bring together other partners and we work together on some long-term recovery options to help them find sustainable housing, to get back on their feet, and this one, we're particularly worried because with the holidays, there's a lotta places that are closed down or people are traveling.

So we do expect that to even take a little bit longer than normal with this particular disaster.

- One, let's be honest, also it's a rural area, and so the it's more widespread damage and people that, let's be honest, people who live in rural areas believe that they can take care of themselves better, and sometimes they misunderstand the disaster.

I mean, they need.

- Right.

- They need help, they need a safety net as well.

- Well, and the other thing we're seeing in this situation, because of some of the fears still with COVID, that a lot of the people are trying to stay in these very badly damaged homes instead of coming to a shelter.

So we're really out in the community with other partners doing outreach, going out into the neighborhoods door to door, and really trying to talk to people and figure out their needs and encourage them to come in and seek shelter where it's safer and we can help them better, but yeah, every community's a little different in how they recover and how they work through a disaster.

So it's important that all the partners at the table really listen to the community and help them with their specific needs.

- Trish, earlier, you were talking about the supermen and superwomen who are your volunteers, your core people that you call, what about the person who's watching right now or listening right now that wants to get involved in some way in the long-term?

I mean, how do you become a volunteer?

How do you get to that point?

Do you need some special background?

- You know, we have jobs available for every background and we have really good training because as you can imagine, when you're feeding, sheltering people, you do have to be trained to be able to handle those situations, but we have all that training.

We also have virtual opportunities that you can volunteer from your own home if you're most comfortable with that.

We have local opportunities and we have deployment opportunities.

So you can go to redcross.org.

It'll give you some ideas of some of the jobs, but then we'll start you on that path, and again, it's that one-to-one care of what are you interested in doing?

And we'll find that right opportunity, or you'll have a little fun, but you'll do some really incredible meaningful work.

- We always seem to talk to you after a big disaster, but let's be honest.

There's a lotta little disasters out there, and that is the fires that we see in people's homes, the Red Cross providing assistance.

I know you had a multiplex in Keokuk that you had to deal with.

I believe there were 30 apartments that you had to find relocation and help those people.

How is your budget locally as far as helping families that have suffered fire and very personal damage?

- You know, we always need, as you know, as you can imagine, we always need additional funding because you never know when a Keokuk is going to happen.

We've had an uptick in fires.

It happens with the holidays.

So donations are really important, and I think Keokuk's a perfect example that some people needed eye glasses replaced.

It happened in the middle of the night.

Others needed clothing, some lost their car keys or their cell phones, or, you know, just those basic needs to be able to even start the path to recovery.

So we help them with those needs to make sure that they're getting what they need and that takes money and that takes people, and that's what we're trained to do, and we appreciate the support of people helping us make sure our mission remains vibrant.

- Our thanks to Trish Burnett of the American Red Cross in the Quad Cities.

Both the Red Cross and the Salvation Army have websites that you can turn to if you'd like to contribute to their disaster relief efforts.

On the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device and streaming on your computer, thanks for taking some time to join us during the holiday season as we talk about the issues on "The Cities."

(uplifting music) - [Announcer] Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home and Crematory, a proud supporter of WQPT has been serving Quad City families since 1889.

They now have livestream capabilities for viewing your loved one's funeral or memorial service.

- [Announcer] At IHMVCU, we've always been here for you.

You are, and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial and physical health, and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of WQPT.