Health department: 'Pandemic is gravest disaster for humanity since World War II'

Although the omicron variant has not yet been detected in Chippewa County, local health officials said it is most likely circulating in the population.

The Chippewa County Health Department is currently reporting the highest numbers its ever seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Omicron has not been detected yet in Chippewa County, however, it certainly is circulating here,” Dr. Catherine Wilkerson, public health medical director at the health department, said in an email. “Only a small fraction of specimens sent for PCR testing undergo genome sequencing and the few that do take a week or more for results. The Chippewa County Health Department's plan is to do everything feasible to protect the public from the COVID-19 virus, including omicron. Public health measures that reduce transmission and lessen disease and death remain the cornerstone of our efforts.”

Wilkerson said the health department is expected to receive thousands of N95/KN95 masks next week and will begin giving them to the public as soon as possible. When everyone wears a well-fitting mask, the spread of the virus reduces and fewer people get infected. Although universal masking is most effective in slowing spread, Wilkerson said it is good to know that well-fitting high filtration masks are superior in protecting wearers from infection.

People vaccinated with all recommended doses are less likely to become infected, to transmit the virus to others, to become severely ill, to require hospitalization and mechanical ventilation and to die than those who are not fully vaccinated, Wilkerson said.

At this time, 54% of eligible county residents have completed their primary vaccination series and about a third of those have been boosted. The Chippewa County Health Department recommends that everyone 12 years of age and older receive a booster as soon as eligible. People 18 years of age or older should get a booster five months after completing their primary series of Pfizer or Moderna or two months after Janssen. Boosters are readily available in Chippewa County and information is regularly posted on its website.

“Starting Jan. 15, home tests will be covered by insurance without a prescription,” Wilkerson said in an email. “Later this month, home tests will start being provided for free to all Americans. Rapid testing helps people find out after exposure or when sick or before work, school or social gathering if they are infected. It helps us all be less likely to give the virus to someone who could get severe COVID and also to seek prompt treatment.”

Wilkerson added that recently authorized oral antiviral medications promise to decrease hospitalization and death, but only to those that meet strict criteria. For those eligible, they can be life-saving. As supply increases, the criteria will become less strict.

Another mitigation strategy is air purifiers with HEPA filters, which can reduce viruses by up to 65%. Wilkerson said the health department, many schools, care homes and other entities have installed those systems. For those who can’t afford commercially produced air purifiers, there are homemade versions that have been shown to work efficiently. This is particularly important to decrease the amount of omicron because of its epidemiologic characteristics, Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson believes that the biggest crisis is the risk of collapse of health care services. Hospitalizations are the highest of the pandemic and all over Michigan and the country, hospital emergency rooms, inpatient wings and intensive care units are overflowing.

“There are critical staff and bed shortages, there is a critical deficiency of the nation’s blood supply, nurses, doctors, and all health care workers are strained to, in many cases, beyond the breaking point,” said Wilkerson. “Every one of us is endangered by this potential catastrophe. I see this as our number one and most urgent challenge. But we are far from helpless to avert this catastrophe.”

Since the health department is under the health care system, it is under “tremendous strain” as well. Wilkerson said the Chippewa County Health Department is short-staffed and has to cut back on other services for individual and community health. The health department is responsible for the health and safety of the environment, food and water, emergency preparedness, sexually transmitted and other communicable disease control, harm reduction from the opioid crisis, reproductive health care, routine vaccinations, maternal and child health and the WIC program. Wilkerson said that it is “utterly impossible” with the resources the health department has to deal with all these responsibilities in an optimal manner.

The Chippewa County Health Department is asking everyone to notify their close contacts as soon as possible after testing positive for COVID-19. The health department has prepared new flyers explaining the latest isolation and quarantine guidelines, which all testing entities are being asked to distribute on the spot to people who have a positive rapid test. The flyers will emphasize what you should do when you test positive, including notification of contacts. What close contacts need to know in terms of quarantine and testing is on the Chippewa County Health Department website at www.chippewahd.com.

If all those who test positive follow the recommendations, notify their close contacts and if those contacts follow recommendations that apply to them, Wilkerson said this will speed up the process of contact tracing. Because omicron is so contagious and so fast-spreading, it will greatly reduce the time that those contacts who have caught the virus are unknowingly spreading it.

“This pandemic will end sooner or later and if we can keep the health care system afloat until omicron finishes raging through, that will be an immense victory,” said Wilkerson in an email. “If we can lower transmission by all the measures at our disposal, not only here, but worldwide, there will be less chance of another variant that evades immunity. And we can rebuild, strengthen our public health infrastructure and prevent something this terrible from happening again.”

When asked about the possibility of the health department issuing a county-wide mask mandate, Wilkerson said she “absolutely supports” workable ways to achieve universal masking indoors.

“I consider the global pandemic to be the gravest disaster for humanity since World War II,” said Wilkerson in an email. “Millions dead, impoverished and traumatized, drastic rises in malnutrition and hunger, especially among children, education disrupted all over the world, decades of progress in combating such diseases as malaria, tuberculosis, measles and many others reversed, societies ripped apart, lessons from prior pandemics ignored, no global coordination. So much of this was preventable. What is needed is to never forget the lessons of the COVID pandemic. And to truly act as though, to use a cliché, we are all in this together.”

For the latest information on COVID-19, visit www.michigan.gov/coronavirus or www.cdc.gov/coronavirus​​. For local updates, visit www.chippewahd.com or www.warmemorialhospital.org.

— Contact News Reporter Taylor Worsham at tworsham@sooeveningnews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Health department: 'Pandemic is gravest disaster for humanity since World War II'