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

We're in the fall season and of course we're still talking about various COVID viruses still a major issue for health providers, schools, businesses, parents, and everyday people like we all are.

We're joined by the Wood County Department of Health Commissioner, Ben Robinson, to discuss where we stand with COVID and some other health issues that of course never stopped simply because COVID is here.

So Commissioner Robinson, thanks again for joining us on Journal.

- Thanks.

Happy to be here as always.

And as you mentioned, we are still dealing with COVID.

We've been watching our cases pretty closely and from the beginning of August we've seen a consistent increase in cases over the last few weeks.

Over this last week however, we've been seeing a leveling off of cases and we're encouraged by that.

We were at over 400 cases per a hundred thousand we've dropped as of today to just under 400 cases and we find ourselves at a juncture point.

So we don't know if this is going to look like last year's curve where we had a minor decline followed by a time of increase or if this is that Delta curve that we think we could be experiencing, where we have a period of leveling off followed by consistent declining cases.

So at this point, we're in a situation where if you want to see the recovery keep happening, it's time to lean into the curve a bit if you will, take up those precautions that have prevented the spread of the disease and given the other diseases that we're seeing right now, if we have the opportunity to put on a mask, follow some of those precautions, we can reduce those other impacts also.

- Yeah, because I know with the...

Especially with schools, they're dealing daily with whether or not they...

Some schools have gone to a mask mandate, some schools are still going optional.

And I think we talked back in August, it does put the onus for all of this at the local level now completely, but yet with some restrictions.

And I know that in talking with some school superintendents, they say it puts them in a difficult spot because their focus is education, they're trying to do that and yet now they've got this layer of health responsibility that was not typical of that position ever before.

So when you look at the terrain around our area, Wood County specifically, I guess, how do you feel about where we are with masking in schools or not masking that sort of thing?

- So in Wood County right now, the majority of the students that are in Wood County are in a mask required environment.

I think that's a really good thing because it allows us to keep more kids in school in those situations.

We've been looking at our data pretty closely and from the beginning of the school year, there've been about 550 students who are able to stay in school either because they wore a mask or had received their vaccine if they were eligible to be vaccinated.

But more than 1,000 students had to miss in-person instruction because they had not worn a mask or were in an environment where a mask was not a possibility and were a vaccine eligibility, they hadn't been vaccinated.

So we have an opportunity to improve on those metrics.

Our hope is that as students, whether their schools require them or not put on masks, it gives them a chance to stay in the classroom.

And I can tell you that for my own household, I had... One of my children had close contact at school, but because she had worn a mask, she got to stay in school and it was a huge benefit to her and to us as well without having to navigate the challenges of keeping her home over the duration of what otherwise would have been her full quarantine period.

- And it's obvious too what we've learned at least from the educational side of it is that face-to-face class is still the best way to go at least for pre-K through 12.

And as you said, the idea is to keep students in the classroom and you've described the ways that that's possible to do.

Is there anything that you can say in this, I'm putting a lot of pressure on you but we still obviously have people showing up at school board meetings because that's the most local of things people can address this too.

And still bringing out information that say, masks don't work, they're ineffective, they're actually worse for children than better for them.

What can you say to that to try and...

I know that maybe we're beyond the point now of maybe convincing people who don't wanna believe whatever they wanna believe.

But what can you say to that when someone says, "Well, masks are worse for kids "than if they're not wearing one at all "when it comes to this."

- A lot of layers to that question and I'll try to work through them piece by piece.

But what we know is that when we look at the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations, they have said without any qualification that masks for kids two years old and older, unless there is something medically going on are safe for kids to wear.

Even with moderate levels of play, those masks don't interfere with the children's ability to breathe effectively or their ability to be comfortable throughout the day.

And so that's a huge deal for our kids.

Number one.

Number two.

There certainly are some questions about, how important is it to be able to see people's faces.

There are lots of options available to mitigate those challenges.

There are masks you can get that have clear windows, there are clear face masks entirely that can be worn.

And these are definitely situations...

There are definitely situations where educators may need to consider that and use an alternate strategy like those clear panel masks to meet the needs of their students.

But what we're finding is that across the board, the masks we put on are related to reduction and transmission and risk of transmission within the environment.

I can talk about... Just generally speaking in Wood County we've had more than 15,000 cases now.

We are not seeing the spread being driven in places where masks and distancing are in place.

What we saw them driven in are places like family gatherings, get together, sleep over, social events, where people are letting their guard down and they're largely not masked.

But where the masks are used we do see a reduction in transmission.

The other thing to say too is, by comparison 100%, the cloth masks that you and I wear day to day in our lives are not the same as the masks that your doctor wears when they're treating someone in the hospital for instance.

But even though the virus is smaller than the cloth mask itself, the virus is trapped by a droplet and that droplet is caught by the mask.

And so just like soap holds onto dirt and water holds onto soap and takes off your hands in the same way the droplet holds onto the virus and the mask captures the droplet.

And that's why we see reduction in transmission when people wear masks.

And certainly the greatest reduction, the (indistinct) estimates between 40 to 60% reduction when the case themselves is mask and a 20 to 30% reduction when the contact is mask.

Taken together a 60 to 90% reduction is possible when everyone is wearing masks and it's even further improved by things like distancing and sanitizing and hand-washing that are these additional layers of protection.

- Right.

And as we sit here today and obviously each of us are in an environment where we aren't near other people, we're completely social distanced.

If we were in the studio, we would be close enough where we'd have to figure out some way to wear masks or not wear masks but I find and again my own personal thing and I know that everyone's different sometimes I'll forget I have...

I'll go into my office where we're allowed to take our masks off and I'll forget I have it on and work for 20, 30 minutes and realize, "Oh, I didn't take my mask off "when I came back out of a common area into my office."

So I get it.

Not everybody can get that level of ease with it, but as you just described, the bottom line is they are effective in a number of ways and the data shows that.

The data show that we actually are mask effective if we treat it correctly.

When we come back, can we talk a little bit about what the future looks like?

You touched on a little bit as well, but at some point when will we...

If we get down...

Sit down and talk again sometime in the future, COVID won't be the first thing we talk about for seven or eight minutes.

So when we come back let's kind of speculate the future a little bit and see hopefully where we're gonna be or when we can quit talking about COVID.

Back in just a moment with the Commissioner of the Wood County Health Department, Ben Robinson here on The Journal.

Thanks for staying with us here on The Journal.

Our guest has Ben Robinson, the Commissioner of the Wood County Health Department.

And we've talked over the past year now, it seems like every periodically about this.

And of course our focus has been COVID almost religiously because of that's the most important thing on the top of people's minds right now.

Will there come a time... Is there a possibility...

I guess, bottom line, when will we get out of this?

Will we ever get out of the COVID situation?

Because it just seems like we talk about it and I know that... First started, people said, "Oh, a few weeks we'll be done," et cetera, et cetera, here we are more than a year and a half later.

And I just wonder what does that look like?

We know we're in unchartered territory there a little bit, but what's your thought on that?

When will I be able to ask you a question that to open a program and not it be COVID be the first thing I ask you about.

- Well, that's a little bit of an uncertain answer to be honest with you.

We're seeing a number of national and international organizations begin to weigh in on this and what we're basically hearing is that maybe by March, we might be able to put this pandemic behind us in a different way than we've been able to consistently up until now.

So what they're looking at is probably a combination of factors.

One of them is the rate of vaccination and certainly when we're talking about a pandemic, we're interested in getting people vaccinated here locally and in the state and in our nation as well but internationally also.

So some of those projections are based on international access to vaccine and that's gonna be an important factor.

Because anytime that it's spreading, it can spread pretty quickly as we've seen to other places.

The other side to it too, is recovery from COVID.

We know that it's pretty rare for someone to get sick from COVID recover and get sick again.

We do see it, but there is a durable immunity that comes from natural immunity.

In many cases, what's hard about natural immunity is that we don't always know what contributes to somebody not getting that strong immune response that others get.

And so...

But that being said, we know that when we look at our case curves, if you look at some of the states that have been particularly impacted by COVID recently, they have a sharp increase, a leveling off period, and a sharp decrease.

And what's happening is that the virus is running out of people to infect.

It has a largely exhausted population that it can affect who are now protected either due to recovery or due to vaccination or the combination there of.

So our hope is that that combination gives us a reduced population that is vulnerable and when you take that together with just the warming temperatures that come with the spring as well as increased vaccine access, we may be able to put this behind us.

The other thing to note too is that probably by the spring, every age group who would wanna be vaccinated finally could be.

As you know, we've only been able to vaccinate those who are 12 and older, but we expect that the rest of the school aged kids should be eligible maybe later on this fall as long as the data is good and supports that sort of authorization.

And we're looking at the younger ages even beyond that.

So once we get in a place where that immunity is largely built, what we expect is that...

When Delta... Like the Delta variant emerges...

When future variants emerge they won't cause the same impact-- - Fewer people for them to basically (indistinct) have not been...

The pool that they can attack will be smaller I guess, they put it in really bad layman's terms.

- And at that point, the impacts on medical facilities will be reduced, the impacts on case search will be reduced and that'll be the ability for... Give us the ability then to say, "We're finally on the other side of this," and we can begin to let COVID fall to the background.

- Now, another question, obviously we're in flu vaccination season now and that is extremely important, it always has been.

It sometimes gets layered over as a lot of things have by COVID.

For people who are thinking about or planning to get a flu shot, is there any reason for them to be at all concerned in most cases by the fact that they've had one of the COVID vaccinations and now they're getting flu vaccination, any concern about interaction in a negative way because of that.

And is that a concern that maybe some people will shy away from a flu vaccine now because of the discussions we've had about the COVID vaccine?

- Well, the first thing to note is that flu protects you against flu and the COVID vaccine protects you against COVID.

They do not provide cross protection.

So if you wanna be protected against both it's important to get both vaccines.

Number one.

Number two.

Our federal health authorities have looked at this very issue and they have determined that you can actually co-administer them, in the same visit in fact.

So if you are still looking to get your COVID vaccine and wanna get your flu shot, you can safely do that.

And like you said, there may be a few exceptions to that that person may have to navigate with their healthcare provider.

But for the vast majority of people within the population, you can confidently go to get your flu shot and even your COVID shot without concern for how far apart they may have been.

So if you're thinking about you're right now eligible for a booster and you wanna get your flu shot too, you can do that safely and that's something they've looked at specifically.

So the other thing about flu is not only does it protect you against influenza which does lead to hospitalizations and deaths every year that we have a flu season.

Last year was unusual because we had such a good protection against flu with the masks and the distancing, there was very little flu.

This year we're seeing that data disease research.

So not only does the flu vaccine protect you against those outcomes, but flu looks like COVID.

And so if you get your flu vaccine, you have one less thing that can look like COVID.

COVID can be incredibly disruptive.

I know for our family, when we have sniffles and coughs, everything comes to a standstill and we have to wait, engage our doctor, get the testing done to identify what the cause of those symptoms is.

And while we're waiting for that, our family is just on hold as we wanna be responsible and not potentially expose others to COVID.

So by getting your flu shot, you reduce that burden of disease and it helps to alleviate some complications that you and your family may otherwise experience.

- That's a good point too because if you get the flu vaccine, as you said, you now have eliminated all those different... All those variables that say, okay, look I'm vaccinated against the flu.

If you start to see symptoms you can at least cross flu off the list and say, okay, these are other things I need to look at more closely.

So that's a very good point.

And there probably would be certain medications people might be on or certain other vaccines that maybe aren't compatible with the COVID vaccine or the flu vaccine.

But as you said, that's when you have to be real close with your medical provider to say, wait a minute, this isn't a compatible thing, let's not do that.

So you have to rely on their expertise in that situation.

- That's right.

And this is what our doctors are paid to do and they're great at it.

So having a provider who knows your medical history is hugely important.

If you don't have a primary care physician, that is one of the best things you can do for your own health is to find one quickly.

And there are a number of options here in Wood County, including our community health center here at the health department.

So there are lots of opportunities to get a primary care physician and if you have questions about it, they can answer them.

Nationwide, we know that more than 95% of every physician has taken the COVID vaccine, so they can answer from a position of experience, what is good for your health and likely also what your experience might be getting that vaccine.

- Good.

When we come back, can we touch a little bit on... Of course, now we're talking about the COVID booster and the discussions have started about that.

And then any other issues that I think... 'Cause obviously we tend to focus on COVID a lot and there are other things too going on that people always need to be aware of with their health at any given time of the year.

So we can touch on those when we come back.

We'll be back in just a moment with the Commissioner of the Wood County Health Department, Ben Robinson here on The Journal.

You're with us here on The Journal.

Our guest is the Commissioner of the Wood County Health Department, Ben Robinson.

We've talked about COVID too and I guess one of the things that is now under discussion is of course boosters are now available.

And of course there is a lot of discussion on, do we need a booster?

Do we not need a booster?

But they're out there now.

So what's the status of that?

How should people view that?

And what are the plans in Wood County for that?

- So the first thing to notice who the eligible population is and the eligible population are first and foremost, Pfizer recipients.

So if you got Moderna or Johnson Johnson as of today, there is no booster recommended for you generally speaking.

This is to be considered separate and apart from the third dose that was recommended for the mRNA vaccines like the Moderna vaccine if you have an immuno-compromising condition.

But setting those aside, those third doses are considered part of the normal series.

A booster by contrast doesn't try to get you to do an initial threshold, but tries to get you back to someplace you were previously.

And so that's (indistinct) between a booster and a third dose.

But if we look at those that are looking to get that booster, it's just Pfizer recipients first and foremost and there are two groups that the (indistinct) department of health says should get a booster shot if they're interested in having one.

The first group is any individual who is 65 years old or older as well as long-term care facility residents regardless of their age.

The second group are individuals who are 50 to 64 with certain underlying health conditions that can make them at risk for more severe outcomes.

And then there's another group, the 18 to 49 year old group who may either have those same underlying conditions or has an occupation that puts them at greater risk.

They may receive a booster.

The word is different there.

So for the first two groups, they should receive one for the last group they may receive one.

And I think we'll see people assessing their own consideration for whether or not they should be vaccinated.

Hopefully, they have that discussion with their healthcare provider.

That is the place to start is to ask that question if you're not in one of those first two groups, but if you're 18 to 49 and are curious, talk to your doctor and see what they say.

I know for me, I am not in one of the occupations that has higher COVID exposure.

I don't have those underlying conditions.

So for me, I'm not planning to seek a booster, even though I received Pfizer.

Others may have questions and should consult their doctors to navigate them if they do.

- And as far as Wood County is concerned, if I am in one of those groups that should get the booster and I'm a Pfizer person, what is the plan in Wood County?

How is that going to roll out?

What's the plan for that?

- Well, we announced earlier this week that we're gonna be contacting our 65-year-olds that we previously served to identify for them opportunities to be vaccinated and it gives them a chance to schedule in advance.

That will help us to address the most vulnerable of the groups that were identified for booster shots.

We also, as of tomorrow on Friday, are gonna be releasing our schedule county-wide, that's open to anyone.

Anyone of those... Any of those other age groups that would like to be... Like to receive a booster or just a first dose we're open to that too at any of our locations.

And so just like we've done up until now, you can schedule in advance, you also can walk in and get a dose.

And our schedule is being released for the entire month of October beginning with Monday of next week.

So we wanna make it as accessible as we can, but to this point, we're not the only provider in town.

So if you find that the options we have for you either are completely taken or not conducive for your schedule, you can go to a pharmacy, you can go to a doctor's office, a hospital, a number of other places have vaccine and that's what's different now from before.

When we did this back in February, March, we were one of just a few providers.

Now there are dozens of providers in Wood County.

There's a lot of opportunities and even some traveling clinics that go to our schools, that go to locations within our community.

And I think you'll see that in our release of our broad schedule, there are a number of options we have available and there are many, many options even beyond Wood County Health Department as well.

- And that's a good point.

And because initially of course, supply was a question, accessibility was a question, those aren't issues now that anybody should have to be concerned about.

You should be able to find the booster or whatever at a convenient location and at a time convenient you as well and I think that's important for people to know too.

And I know in my experience, I went to the Wood County Health Department over on Napoleon Road and just walked in both times which probably complicates it for the people working there.

But it was simple, straightforward.

I waited just a few minutes and that was back when things we're pretty busy.

So saying, "Gee, it's not convenient for me."

Or, "It's not close enough."

Or, "Accessibility is an issue."

Really isn't an issue of people...

If look and they can go to the Wood County Health Department website and see where these traveling clinics are.

So it isn't an issue of accessibility this time around which is a benefit for people.

When you look at this overall picture and I know you talked about this a little bit too that we're talking in March, is... Other than the things that we've already talked about, we're pretty much doing now everything we can do to mitigate the continuation of COVID-19.

And I think you've done a very good job of explaining in very good terms, why things work the way they do, why these are effective.

Is there a concern that we'll get a little more... We'll get too relaxed again and give this thing an opportunity to get traction once again in the population?

- Let me say first and foremost, the best thing that anyone can do, if they're old enough to get a vaccine is to be vaccinated.

Right now about three in five, a little more than three in five of all people in Wood County, 12 years old and older have completed their vaccine series.

And so when we look at our cases we would expect that the vaccine weren't working about three in five of our cases would be among people who completed a series, but they're not.

They're actually only about one in five of our cases are among people who've completed their vaccine series.

So big benefit there.

But when we dug into the numbers a little bit more, we tried to understand, well, how does the incidence rate or the percentage of the population that gets sick, who completed a vaccine series compared to the incidence rate or the percentage of the population who gets sick who didn't complete a vaccine series.

And over the last two weeks, we found that those incidents rates for those who had not completed that series were between six and seven times higher.

- [Steve] Wow.

- Than the population that had completed the series.

So when you dig into the numbers, it's even a much more significant benefit when you begin to say, "Yes, we are actually seeing the benefit of vaccination."

So we're hearing about the reduction in its ability to prevent disease and that certainly is something that we're experiencing, but still the vast majority of experiences that the vaccine works and reduces risk.

So 100% best thing you can do get your vaccine if you're eligible to do so.

The second thing is just make decisions based on where you want to be, sort of like you say, dress for the job that you want not the job that you have.

So right now we want to have an experience where COVID does not define what our context is.

So make a couple of decisions that just reduce the risk.

So put on a mask when you're out in public, when you're in spaces that you can't keep your distance maintain distance as much as possible, be smart about your gatherings.

I'm not saying be a hermit.

I can't do that myself anymore.

I think we all did that for a while and we're ready to get out back with our friends and family.

So choose different types of venues, meet outside we've got great weather, we've got great parks in Wood County so utilize them.

Go and do those things.

Make some decisions about how you maintain your surfaces, wash your hands and most importantly, if you have symptoms that could be from COVID or if you've been exposed to someone who had COVID stay home, don't run the risk of potentially spreading that disease.

Whether it's COVID or not getting sick can complicate people's lives, people don't feel well when they're sick.

And so take the time to be home when those things happen.

If we employ these strategies, even if we're not employing them exactly as we did in June of last year let's say, we're gonna reduce our cases and that reduction is gonna help us to mitigate the impact of the disease and certainly help to get us to where we wanna be much more quickly.

- Right, yeah.

Fewer people that are accessible to the...

I mean, in terms of contracting it the better off we are because as you said, it gives a chance to get over the hump on this thing and start to deal with other issues or not have to worry about COVID as much.

Is there anything else...

I know the health department with its wide array of responsibilities, anything else going on that we should know about that people should be aware of besides COVID and flu and vaccinations that you'd like to talk about?

- Well, there's a lot happening here.

One of the things that we've been talking about regularly at our board meetings is as a planned expansion of our community health center, we're gonna be creating some additional space to provide patient visits.

And we are constantly looking at the way to expand our services.

So right now... Every year at our community health center we have annual patient targets and we are currently running about 20% above those targets as we continue to serve more and more people.

So my hat is off to the team that's over there, just an exceptional passionate group of people who really want to provide great services to the community here in Wood County and really anyone who is trying to seek care.

So that is something that I just wanna highlight is all of their good work.

We are still doing things with women and infants and children program which provides supplemental nutrition.

We provide services on nutritional education for folks who may need some additional nutrition support as well as breastfeeding services and others that can really help to give kids a great start.

What we know is that that education is related to great outcomes for kids and kids who are on WIC even though they have access to more nutrition, tend to be less obese than kids who are not.

And that's a testimony again to the great commitment of that team.

So that's where we are and of course we are anxious like everyone else is to get out of COVID.

I think there's signs of misconception that the health department loves this and we don't, we are as excited as everyone to be done and we're looking forward to that day.

So I think between now and then what I would say is really think about your neighbor, find ways to encourage them to be a support to them, wherever you find yourself in life there is an opportunity to encourage someone around you because we will get through this better if we do it together.

And the more that we allow ourselves to silo and to fracture the harder it's gonna be for us to row in the same direction and the harder it's gonna be for us to really feel recovered even after COVID is out of the picture.

So that's where I'd leave your viewers with is let's take up the charge to be the best neighbor we can be and to think about those around us and not just ourselves as we really think about ways to make Wood County the community that we have grown to love.

- Great words.

And yeah, great, great description and great message for people too because together we'll get through this a lot better than if we... As you said, if we fracture.

Ben Robinson, Commissioner of Wood County Health Department, thank you so much for being here.

And we'll have you back on in the future again to talk about maybe some other things too besides COVID, hopefully that will be the case, but we appreciate all the work you do and of course, as you said, your entire team over there and all the people that are involved in dealing with this pandemic.

So appreciate you taking time to be with us today.

- [Ben] Thanks, appreciate it as always.

- And you can check us out at wbgu.org and of course watch The Journal every week on Thursday night at 8:00 P.M. here on WBGU-PBS.

We will be with you again, next time.

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