(soft music) - Hello and welcome to The Journal, I'm Steve Kendall.

We last talked to Wood County Health Commissioner, Ben Robison, back in November.

Coronavirus, still of course, dominating the news and it continues from the past year into 2021.

So, Commissioner Robison, welcome to The Journal and to thank you again for taking the time to talk with us about COVID-19 and all of the issues that are revolving around that.

- Thanks, it's a privilege to be back and happy to join you today.

- Yeah, now, could you kind of bring us up to date with Wood County and... And what's... How we are trending or not trending, or what is basically going on?

As far as, the status of our numbers and that sort of thing.

- Well, we've been fortunate.

Coming after the holiday season, we did see an increase in cases.

That's been pretty typical of holidays, that usually in the two to three weeks that follow, we see an increase in cases, often related to people potentially letting their guard down.

What was really encouraging though, both after Thanksgiving and then after the December holidays as well, is that, that rate of increase was not nearly as great as we saw after say Halloween.

And so, I think it was reflective of our community recognizing the risk that there was, a change in their plans and making some revisions to how they celebrate the holidays.

And it gave us the opportunity, although the cases were higher, they didn't spike relative, to the baseline before the holidays in the same way it did, coming after Halloween or other holidays earlier in the year.

What we've seen now is, over the last couple of weeks we've really gotten back down.

And, you know, if I go back two or three weeks our active cases where nearly 500 a day here in wood County, they fallen now under 300 to around, you know, the mid 200s, 270 or so.

- Yeah, well, and that is reassuring because I know we talked, your big concern was that the back to back to back sort of holidays that would hit would really cause a problem.

So it's good to know that that didn't take place.

Of the cases we're now seeing, is there a particular group in terms of demographics, or gender or something like that, that is still struggling more than other groups, or is it basically across the board, the cases that are being reported?

- You know, right now there's not particularly one age group.

What we've noticed is that, even looking at our ZIP Codes.

Our ZIP Codes have been pretty stable across the recent months in terms of which ones are most impacted.

But even those ZIP Codes are showing numbers, now below 100 cases, 100 active cases.

So, that's been encouraging, it was as high as nearly 200 even just a few weeks ago.

So we're encouraged by what we're seeing.

And, as you look ahead, certainly with... With return of our students to school, this creates another layer of complexity for managing the disease investigation.

Now we are working closely with our university partners as well, because, as you can imagine, anytime that any large group of population returns to a single community, it can be a lot for that community.

So, really thankful for the great partnership we have with our universities.

And they've done great planning to make sure that they're getting ahead of it.

A really robust testing plan, and a good procedures for follow-ups.

So, because of that, and I think also just having learned lessons from this year up until now, we've been well-positioned to manage what we're seeing.

- Yeah, and it's good to know that people are, at least aware of the... How to handle this now, probably better than we were at the beginning of the fall, when we had that, you know, same group of students come back, and it was still a little bit new to everybody.

You mentioned, of course, you're talking to the university students.

The governor's talked about, wanting to have, K-12 students, pre-K-12, all back in school to some degree, by March 1st.

Most of Wood County has been there anyway.

But, is that as any concern right now, that you feel that that could be problematic or, are we pretty much trending the right way for that to happen for districts that haven't been, face-to-face in class as much as others?

- Yeah, we're encouraged the... What we've been saying all along is that, with very few exceptions, even with exposures and in school in particular in the classroom.

We have students who are quarantined or staff who are quarantined, but we're not seeing those individuals, those close contacts, become cases most of the time and in terms of identifying them through symptoms or other means.

So, that's really encouraging.

It's my understanding right now that every school district and every private school in the County has committed to being, in person, at least in some fashion by March first.

And so we're preparing right now to provide vaccine to all of our eligible K-12 staff throughout the County.

And, I think the data that we saw, in the first semester is encouraging.

And I think that, because we've had great compliance with this guidelines across all of our schools, that's why we're seeing the success that we are.

And, you know, I like to tell people that, as we talk about prioritizing K-12 staff, we're doing it because of the impacts that we've seen, where staff, because of their presence in the community, we're exposed to COVID.

And as a result, they were not available to support education there in the schools.

The vaccination of staff is not really to protect them from what's happening in the school building itself but rather to protect them from what's going on in the community so they can remain available to the school system.

- Yeah, because I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong.

The concern that came about wasn't necessarily that, that people were getting...

Were contracting COVID, from being in school.

It was people coming... Students coming from their communities or their homes, things like that.

So, being able to protect that population, yeah, It became a community thing versus just because they're in school.

That wasn't necessarily the target point, or the point of contraction, I guess, would be the way to... One way to say it, I guess.

- Yes, yes, that's correct.

And I think that now with the governor's commitment to prioritizing the K-12 staff.

Because that's just one more tool to help to keep those staff available.

And, at least this way, we're not going to have to be keeping kids home on the other side of building that immunity.

Because the staff were not available because of something that happened, because of community spread of COVID.

- Yeah, and I guess to you , and you do believe you're going to be prepared, be able to deliver on that for K-12 staff and teachers then with that March 1st deadline in place.

- Yeah, that's correct.

So we've been working for weeks with our school partners as well as many other partners here in the community.

We've been saying all along that many hands make light work.

And, so we're recruiting people to assist, both volunteers and other service agencies, as well as private partners.

And so we're really encouraged by the great amount of turnout we've had, the interest that people have shown in helping to move vaccine here in Wood County.

Here at Wood County Health Department, from the beginning of our very first shipment of vaccine, we have administered, every dose that we received each week, to those that were interested in receiving it.

And we're going to keep that up as you move forward.

So, we expect that there may be as many as 3000 eligible staff, in our K-12 schools here in Wood County, and we're prepared to administer vaccine, should we receive all of it in one week.

We expect that we should hear soon, when we will be getting vaccine for them.

And, we're making just the final touch up to our plan, so that everything is as smooth as it can be, once it's our turn to go.

- Okay, great.

Yeah.

Now when we come back, let's talk about, the vaccine program and the schedules and, all of the protocols that revolve around that.

Who's eligible?

How this works?

The easiest way for people to get in touch and get themselves scheduled for the vaccine.

We can talk about that when we come back.

Back in just a moment with, Wood County Health Commissioner, Ben Robison.

Here on The Journal, on WBGU-PBS.

Thank you for staying with us here on, The Journal.

Our guest is Wood County Health Commissioner, Ben Robison.

We talked at the end of that segment, you mentioned vaccinations.

Let's go through that whole situation, because, as we know, people are hearing lots of different things from lots of different places.

You know, is there a vaccine available?

Is there not?

That sort of thing, so, maybe kind of start at the basics and say, here's how it's working in Wood County.

Here's who's eligible, here's the easiest way.

Here's how this whole thing works.

And I'm sure you can sum that up in just a short amount of time.

No, take... Take all the time you want to explain that for us, Commissioner Robison?

- Sure, so, the way that the vaccines gets to us, and that's probably where we begin is, sometime in the middle of the week usually, we're alerted by the Ohio department of health, what our anticipated allotment of vaccine will be, across the County.

So that gives us a chance to begin to plan for appointments and to identify, how we're gonna serve the broad population that is eligible.

It's worth noting that we have a number of people who are interested in being vaccinated right now.

And unfortunately, we don't have the vaccine to keep up.

And so I would just encourage people, I want to thank people already for being patient, as we continue to work through the demand that exists.

But what happens is, is once we're alerted to those shipments, we eventually get the confirmation notice.

And once we have that confirmation notice, that's enough for us to begin to schedule appointments for the next week.

And so here in Wood County, we are generally opening appointments for the following week, on Friday afternoon, right around noon.

For all the providers that we're scheduling with.

But there are some other providers, who have their own timeline, and some are doing rolling appointments.

Some may open a little bit later than Friday.

And so it's important for you to continue to check back.

The best place for you to check is at the Wood County Health Department website.

That website is www.woodcountyhealth.org.

And if you go to that landing page, you're going to see two big buttons.

And one of those buttons is COVID-19 vaccine.

And if you click on that button, it will take you to a page, where you'll see a series of dropdown menus.

And one of those menus will say, " Who has vaccine available? "

So if you click on that, you'll see all the appointments that we know, are still available.

As we're alerted, those appointments are all taken.

We do update our webpage, so that you're not going to a dead end.

and there are, most of them two ways of schedule, both by phone, and then also by either our internet option or potentially an app option, which is what we're doing as well.

So, once you get your appointment scheduled, you're set to go.

We do want you to follow those eligibility guidelines.

And so right now, we're beginning to schedule appointments for those who are 75 and older, moving into this next week.

We're currently still working through those who are 80 and older.

And each week we're going to add five more people, or five more years, I should say, to the age eligibility.

And then also some groups may come online.

So, this week also begins when we're also going to be serving those with a particular medical conditions who are eligible.

Next week begins the first time when, K-12 staff will be eligible.

And then the next week, indicates when all of 1-B, we'll be able to get vaccine.

We have had a number of questions, people say, " well I'm watching your calendar.

I know my week of eligibility.

So I wanna be sure that I'm not breaking the rules. "

And so we've had people who have scheduled appointments for Monday or Tuesday at the end of the week, because, that corresponds to the week that their age group becomes available.

So, totally makes sense, right?

Except the challenge is that our administration timeline actually runs, from Wednesday to Tuesday.

And the reason for that is that, vaccine actually doesn't arrive until Tuesday usually.

And so we begin to do the administration of that the next day on Wednesday.

So, we want to be sure that as, these additional groups expand, that we give everyone a full seven days to be served.

And so we do a whole week, that begins on Wednesday ends on Tuesday.

And so if you're looking for the week that you're eligible, wait until that Friday, to really look for additional appointments.

Go to our webpage and see who has vaccine available.

It may change from week to week.

So that's why it's important to check back.

And if you are a person who is not eligible but you have a family member or a friend or a neighbor who is, maybe a member of your congregation that you want to help.

Reach out to them and make sure they know how to be connected to the vaccine.

And you can be part of the process and helping them to find an appointment and to be served when it's their turn.

- Yeah, well, and that's a good point to make because the idea is to get people in those eligible groups, there in that week.

Because, obviously you want them to stay, basically, in the protocol, in the cycle, so that you're not ending up, vaccinating people who are 75, the week you're really trying to help everybody who's 70, and that sort of thing, and make that all work.

As you look at how this has rolled out, so far, it's been... As you said the main thing has been, just having vaccine available.

Has that been the real holdup?

If there has been one - It really has been, and as I mentioned, we've moved every dose we've received every week.

And we continue to do that, and I'm really encouraged.

We've got great partnerships across the board.

Not only are we supported with vaccinators, but we also have support from our, Wood County Committee On Aging.

We have support from a number of service organizations.

Certainly our schools are helping us to raise awareness of the need for volunteers.

Our EMS has been a huge partner, our County Board of Developmental Disabilities.

And there are many many many others.

So, you know, I think what we recognize is that this is not going to be something we overcome on our own as a health department, not only on the vaccine front, but also on the coordination front.

And so we are reaching out to anyone who wants to join this campaign.

And there is a role for individuals, as well as organizations and businesses and others, to be involved and help us to have the most effective campaign we can.

- Yeah, and as you said, the main, if just to make it perfectly clear.

The best way to go about finding this information is to go to the Wood County Health Department website.

That's where you'll get the clearest, most concise, official information for people who reside in Wood County, correct.

- That's correct.

And if you're a person who doesn't use the internet much.

And you, you know, you may not be likely to navigate to our website.

You can also call our main phone number, which is, 419-352-8402.

And if you listen to those options, it will get you connected to some opportunities for support.

Big thank you to 211, who is helping us, not only to schedule appointments but also to, connect people to other opportunities, through other providers that are providing vaccine from week to week.

So, whether you visit our website, woodcountyhealth.org, or call our number, you can get connected to opportunities for vaccine.

And it's our goal that we take up every appointment, every single week.

And, that those who want to be vaccinated are connections to those locations where vaccine is available.

- Now, are there, is there anything... Are there any criteria in terms of, let's say I want to come in for a vaccine, is there any preliminary things I should do?

Let's say that I, if I'm symptomatic, does create an issue?

How are you handling that?

If I, suddenly the day that my appointment schedules, I'm feeling like maybe I have contracted COVID.

What would happen in that situation?

Just for the sake of argument.

- Yeah, so, if a person is showing signs or symptoms of illness consistent with COVID, really signs or symptoms of any illness, we're going to ask you, how you feeling today?

And if a person is not feeling well, that shows that they are getting sick, we're going to defer vaccination.

Because, your body needs to build an immune response.

And if your immune system is already taken up, fighting another virus or bacteria.

That's gonna not produce the results we want, it could overwhelm your system.

So we're going to wait on that.

The other thing that could happen too is, if you've had a vaccine within the last two weeks, we also have to wait to vaccinate you.

And so we've heard some people that have gotten pneumonia shots or shingles vaccines, or other things, flu vaccines.

Now we're gonna wait until that 15th day.

So we're going to be a full two weeks later, before you can be vaccinated.

And lastly, if you know that you have any allergies to components of the vaccine, then that's something that would also lead to us deferring your vaccine.

So, if you have any questions about that, These are certainly the things you can cover with your provider.

We encourage you to reach out.

There can be... for people who've recovered from COVID.

If they were sick and at home and just recovered at home, you're certainly eligible to be vaccinated as soon as you are on the other side of that disease.

But if you find yourself hospitalized, we'd encourage you to talk to your provider first.

Because, some therapies you can get in the hospital, may lead you to have to wait some period of time, after recovery, before you can be vaccinated.

But if you've recovered at home, and you had relatively, self-managed bout of the disease, then you are eligible to be vaccinated, as soon as you are disease free.

- Okay, great, good to clear that up.

And I know you're absolutely right.

My family practice doctor got a vaccine for flu while I was there and said, and she was very clear about the fact, " Don't go in for a COVID vaccination before... two weeks before you do it. "

And so that message is out there and, hopefully everybody is getting that message as well.

We'll be back in just a moment, with more with The Health Commissioner from Wood County, Ben Robison.

Here on The Journal on WBGU.

Thanks for staying with us, here on The Journal.

Our guest is, Wood County Health Commissioner, Ben Robison.

We talked about, how people can get their appointments scheduled, the easiest way to do that, the simplest way.

And we talked about, what you have to be aware of too, as you, arrive for that.

Once I'm there, kind of walk me through, what's going to happen, obviously, you are gonna ask me some questions.

But, talk about, what's going to happen, Once I walk in for my scheduled appointment, how long I'm going to be there, things of things of that nature.

- Yeah, thanks, so, each provider who's giving you vaccine, may have a slightly different process for getting you set up for your appointment.

So, don't be surprised if you hear about a friend coming to Wood County Health Department, and it being done one way, and, someone else going to the Wood County Hospital, or Mercy Hospital in Perrysburg, and having it done another way, and then Kroger doing it another way as well.

So, all those things may be happening slightly differently.

But once you get there, we're gonna do a screening and we're gonna make sure that there are no contraindications, like the ones we talked about previously.

And, then we're going to give you your dose.

Built into this process is no less than a 15 minute waiting period.

And so, that's because you want to be sure that, if you are going to have a reaction that we captured that right away.

Because the more quickly we intervene, the less concerned we are about what the outcomes may be.

I do want to say that the possibility for reaction is exceedingly rare.

We do do know that it happens very infrequently.

But we want to be prepared for it, because we just don't know when it could happen.

And so, we take that extra step of the 15 minute waiting periods, for everybody.

And for those, who've had a history of allergies or severe allergic reactions, We'll ask you to wait a full 30 minutes.

So, if I were you I would budget, no less than 30 minutes for an appointment, if you're going to do the 15 minute waiting period.

And maybe 45 minutes to even as much as an hour, depending on how long it takes you to get through and the onboarding, and just moving from, you know, from your car to the facility, into the waiting area and then back of your vehicle.

So, I think if you go in with a little bit of expectation of being there for a little bit, you going to be surprised and take the time away out of your schedule just, you know, sit back, get your vaccine and let the process unfold.

- Now, and you mentioned a possible reactions, and not to drill down too deeply because we don't want to worry people.

But, what would be a possibility, if I was going to have a reaction and I know everybody's going to be a little different.

But what would be a common reaction, if there is such a thing?

- Yeah, so the reactions that we're watching for in that waiting period are the really rare ones, that could be serious.

That's what very few people are going to experience.

What many people could experience though are things that are going to trigger an immune response within your body.

So, you should not be surprised if you have a sore arm, where you got the vaccine, a headache, some fatigue, some people may run a low grade fever.

There are a variety of things that could happen on the other side of that dose.

That is not something to be discouraged about or a reason to avoid it.

That is a sign, your body's building immunity.

And what our statistics tell us is, only about one in 50, will have a reaction that's significant enough to interfere with your daily life.

So most people may have a slight headache, or may have that soreness.

But, those who experienced that are going to be able to go about their lives as if it was no big deal.

For about one in 50, they may choose to stay in bed for that day and recover a little bit.

But again, that reaction is evidence your body is building immunity.

And so when that reaction happens, you know, the silver lining is, at least you know that the vaccine is working.

And so, you're starting to protect yourself against COVID.

- Yeah.

And that's good to know.

So if someone does say, " Oh, gee, I really... " Cause, occasionally you hear people say, " I didn't feel that well the next day, but that is... " As you said, a sign that actually the vaccination is working and you're building the immunity.

So yeah, not to be concerned about that.

That's a good sign and in a way, so good.

Anything else that we need to talk about with regard to the vaccination process is that, pretty much cover what you're concerned that people should know about and their expectations.

- Just a couple more things to say, number one.

This is a two shot series.

- Okay.

- And so, after your first shot, it'll start to build immunity, up to about 50%, is what we understand.

That 95% efficacy, is really after about a week or two, following the second dose.

And so, people are going to have to continue to maintain those guidelines for the foreseeable future, but not only, after the second dose, but even well beyond that.

And the reason why is that, vaccinations really are intended to work best at a population level.

So even though you are protected as an individual, until we as a community are protected, there still is a risk that the disease could spread.

So, we're asking you to maintain your mask, maintain your distancing, keep washing your hands, and all the other things that we've encouraged you to do throughout this pandemic.

And then as we build more and more immunity, at some point we expect to hit a tipping point, where we can begin to scale back those guidelines.

As our cases drop, as our vaccination rates go up.

And as we see that we're able to control this disease without some of those more traditional guidelines.

- Now, I hesitate to ask this, cause I know you're...

It's an open-ended question.

When we're talking about the second, in this series of vaccinations, the second one.

Is there a timeframe for that?

In terms of when you think that will start to happen.

Or is there a time that it has to start to happen?

To make the first part as effective as it should be.

- Yeah.

Great question.

So, what the recommendation is, is that, if you receive Pfizer for your first dose, they want you to come back in 21 days.

- Okay.

- And if you receive Moderna for your first dose, they want you to come back in 28 days.

There is a small window before and after, that you can also be vaccinated.

So if you miss it by a day or two, nothing to be concerned about.

But you're going to have your provider oftentimes schedule you for your second dose, right When you get your first dose.

And, they don't they may be planning to follow up with you and get you on the calendar so that you can be certain that, you'll get that dose in as close to the recommended timeline as you can to get the most benefit of this vaccine series.

- Yeah.

Great.

And, and once again, we've just got a short time here.

Go through the simplest way for people to get in contact with you, at Wood County Health Department.

To schedule this and get in the system.

And again, talk about how your week runs, Wednesday through Tuesday, not Sunday through Saturday.

But, talk just a little bit about that, so people are clear, that they do call or or go onto the website, at the right time to get in the correct week.

And keep everybody in sequence and make it easier for everybody.

- Yap, so the Friday before a new group becomes eligible, Wood County Health Department is updating our website to identify new appointments.

As I mentioned, some providers do appointments on a rolling basis, but, the ones that are scheduling along with us, we'll do them on Friday, right around noon.

Those appointments will be for the next week, beginning on Wednesday, because the vaccine arrives Tuesday.

And they'll complete till the next Tuesday, so that every group has a full seven days to be served.

- Yeah, Great.

- If you're looking for those appointments, best places to go, are to call The Wood County Health Department phone number at, 419-352-8402.

If you listen to the options, they will connect you to, the ability to either, schedule with The Wood County Health Department, or to be connected to 211, to hear about other options for vaccine that is available within the community.

And the other option you have, if you go to your website you could visit us, at www.woodcountyhealth.org.

Click the big button on our homepage for COVID-19 vaccine.

And then go to the dropdown menu that says, " Who has vaccine available? "

Both 211, who's helping us with scheduling, and then, you as a visitor to our website, will be able to see the places where the appointments are taken.

And so, we're gonna try to connect you to the places that still have vaccines.

So you're not pursuing a dead end, once we know that the vaccine is no longer available at a particular site.

- Okay, great.

Thank you very much.

That I think takes care of it.

And we'll of course, get back in touch with you again to keep us up to date on, how this is progressing and how we're dealing with COVID-19.

And hopefully the vaccination process continues to roll out satisfactorily for everyone.

So, Commissioner Ben Roberson, excuse me, Robison, of The Wood County Health Commission.

Thank you so much for being here.

You can check us out at, WBGU.org.

And watch us every Thursday night at eight, here on WBGU-PBS.

We'll see you again next time.

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