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HomeMy WebLinkAbout121622 KPTZ Listener Questions for Monday December 19_ 2022 BOCC Update________________________________ ALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them. ________________________________ County Commissioners, Dr Allison Berry, and Willie Bence, Please note: I have added KPTZ listener questions for the December 19, 2022 BOCC Update onto a forwarded email for the brief health update on December 12, 2022. Dr Berry was unable to address the listener questions on December 12th due to time constraints so all the accumulated KPTZ listener questions, 1 through 14 are combined in this addendum email. The KPTZ listener questions listed in this addendum were submitted to the station between December 9th and December 16th for the December 19th health update. I will number the later questions from # 11 onward. Thank you, Lynn Sorensen KPTZ Virus Watch Team Questions for Dr Allison Berry: (See questions 1-10 in the original email below in this addendum) 11. We have a niece, a fully vaccinated elementary school teacher but in a state where few wear masks or are vaccinated, flying in for the holidays. Our plan is to have her test for two days before we interact with her. Our questions is, is this enough time? Or do we need to ask her to do a third day of testing before we share hugs? We are in our early 70s and early 80s, in relatively good health, want to stay that way. 12. Please discuss when people with flu and RSV are contagious, and, when they are no longer contagious after being sick. Do all symptoms need to be gone? If they are coughing are they spreading the illness? What is the main ways these other respiratory illness are transmitted? I have gotten so educated on Covid I've forgotten how more regular illness can be avoided. Is being outside unmasked with people outside my household reasonably safe for all the respiratory illness we are currently seeing? I am grateful for all your advice and information. Staying well, thanks to you. 13. Since Covid arrived, we’ve been told that its transmission is much less likely outdoors than indoors. Is that true also for RSV and influenza? Further, the precautions regarding contact surfaces that we followed early in the Covid pandemic have been deemed less essential. Are RSV and influenza different in that regard? Should we return to disinfecting surfaces? 14. Thank you for these important updates. One concern I have is mask access. No stores except Don’s pharmacy are carrying them for sale and the kn95 masks are $ 4 each. We learned that wetness renders them ineffective. Is there funding or another way or place of distribution to access affordable masks? With only 45% of population accessing Omicron booster, I believe our best success with accessing vaccines was through the heroic efforts of drive up / drive by clinics. Again those without computers can not easily get on the schedule. There is an internet access and financial disparity. As of Thursday, 12/15, the Port Hadlock Tri Area pharmacy was running low on flu vaccine and will likely be out by Friday, 12/16. Please elaborate on flu vaccine availability.and any remedies to the shortages and access issues above. We can not anticipate community vaccine access to succeed, without a streamlined delivery and accessibility solution. I do not seek to discount the fatigue and sheer strain upon health care systems and volunteers. Indeed I applaud and am grateful to all. This has been so very taxing! I do not want to hear more awful news that children are dying due to lack of available beds. And I am concerned about the lack of participation in the mitigation efforts to impact the surge predicted in January. Thank you for your time. I will be tuning in as usual on Monday. Begin forwarded message: From: Lynn Sorensen <passages2007@yahoo.com <mailto:passages2007@yahoo.com> > Subject: KPTZ Listener Questions for Monday December 12, 2022 BOCC Update Date: December 9, 2022 at 7:24:01 AM PST To: ABerry@co.jefferson.wa.us <mailto:ABerry@co.jefferson.wa.us> , allison.berry@clallamcountywa.gov <mailto:allison.berry@clallamcountywa.gov> , Willie Bence <wbence@co.jefferson.wa.us <mailto:wbence@co.jefferson.wa.us> >, gbrotherton@co.jefferson.wa.us <mailto:gbrotherton@co.jefferson.wa.us> , kdean@co.jefferson.wa.us <mailto:kdean@co.jefferson.wa.us> , heisenhour@co.jefferson.wa .us <mailto:heisenhour@co.jefferson.wa.us> , jeffbocc@co.jefferson.wa.us <mailto:jeffbocc@co.jefferson.wa.us> , KPTZ VTeam <vteam@kptz.org <mailto:vteam@kptz.org> > County Commissioners, Dr Allison Berry, and Willie Bence, Please see the KPTZ listener questions listed below for the BOCC Update on Monday, December 12, 2022. Questions 1 through 9 are from the same listener sent into KPTZ November 27th through December 2nd. Rather than try to consolidate the similar questions from one listener, I thought it best to leave them intact for Dr Berry to answer, addressing the repeated concerns regarding Covid 19 testing, masking, and exposure risk. I am sending this email early on Friday, December 9th, for the newly added brief update now scheduled for December 12th. Any questions unaddressed will be posted for the previously scheduled health update on December 19, 2023. Thank you, Lynn Sorensen KPTZ Virus Watch Team Questions for Dr Allison Berry: 1. If one has had close contact with someone the day before she was exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID, and that person has gotten through the first 5 days with "negative tests," does she need to continue masking for 5 more days? As I read it, this is the protocol according to the Jefferson County flow chart. The problem I'm having is that many people I know (even my dearest friends), think if they are negative, have had no symptoms and it's more than a few days since exposure, they are "fine." I tend to think otherwise, and have had to insist they wear a mask around me. I always feel the "odd man out" on COVID these days, because I feel safest when I follow the flow chart. But I am missing out on holiday gatherings, church, eating out, etc because I'm following the protocol. Can you confirm: what is the risk to me, if others aren't masking long enough after exposure? 2. If most transmission of COVID occurs during the 1-2 days before and the 2-3 days after symptoms begin, why do guidelines say we should maks for 10 days after exposure to someone with COVID? (Especially if we ourselves have no symptoms and several negative tests in the first 3-5 days?) 3. Everything I have read says that, if one is exposed to someone with positive COVID test, but without symptoms, she doesn't need to quarantine, but SHOULD WEAR A MASK FOR THE FULL 10 DAYS AFTER EXPOSURE. I have had several friends were in this situation and did not see it as necessary to mask for the full 10 days. I had to ask them to please honor the 10 days in regards to myself, because I wanted to follow the CDC and Jeff County Health Department guidelines to that effect. ( I am a health care provider and my first thought is to "do no harm.") I did not want myself or others to become ill during that 10 days) I feel this disagreement on the rule has created some ill feelings amongst friends. Can you please speak to this and make it perfectly clear: is the 10 days of masking after exposure (without any symptoms) what is still recommended? And if so, why is that? 4. The CDC guidelines say that, if you tested positive for COVID, and had symptoms, and you tested negative after 5 days, you your symptoms are improving you may end isolations. It says that after you end isolation, and you are feeling better, you must 1) wear a mask for 10 Days OR 2) you may remove your mask sooner than day 10 if you have had two sequential negative test 48 hours apart. This seems in contradiction and less confining than for people who were only exposed to COVID (with no symptoms and negative tests.) CDC says, for those exposed with negative test: must continue to wear a mask for up to 10 days. Please help me to understand these guidelines. 5. I understand that one is considered to have been "exposed" to COVID if we have had "close contact" with someone who has tested positive, for more than 15 minutes (total) in a day. Unfortunately, I find the definition for "close contact" varies greatly. The CDC and other sites I found say it is being 1) within 6 feet or less with a person who is showing symptoms or a positive person with no symptoms 2) for 15 minutes or more (in a day). Jefferson County Public Health Dept website defines "close contact" as 1) "sharing a space indoors with someone infected for 2) 15 minutes or more (in a day. As you can see, these definitions are quite different. If I am in a building (church, restaurant, etc), i.e. "sharing a space" with someone who is positive, that is very different from being 6 feet away or less. PLEASE CLEAR UP THIS CONFUSION. Thank you! 6. Here is another question I can't find an answer to: If someone was positive, but after 10 days tested negative; and reentered the public and then found out a day later they were testing positive again (he did take medication the first time), does that mean anyone who was around that person, the second time, has to consider himself "exposed" and then take precautions? 7. Is the likelihood of transmission of Corona virus after "rebound" the same as the likelihood of transmission after initial infection? In other words, do those in close contact with someone with "rebound" required to mask for 10 days, and test after 5 days, to see if they develop the illness? 8. If I go into a room, and I am the only one wearing a mask, I am not protected from COVID, right? (I am only protecting the others?) So for me to be protected, the others have to be wearing a mask? 9. They say if I have been in close contact with someone with a positive test for COVID, it doesn't matter if I had a mask on or not. I still need to take all the same precautions as someone without a mask (wear a mask for 10 days.) Why is that? Then, what is the point of the mask? 10. I was invited to sing in the choir for an indoor performance of some Christmas carols at a church - two hours of rehearsal and one hour of singing in front of an unmasked audience. I'll be visiting my elderly parents for Christmas a few days after the scheduled performance. I recall that a choir rehearsal caused a lot of sickness and death at the beginning of the pandemic and I haven't sung in a choir since. Would it now be safe for me and my elderly loved ones to sing in this indoor choir event?