Pine Island COVID-19 Task Force bracing for peak
The Pine Island COVID-19 Task Force met again Monday, April 6, determined to increase the community’s awareness of the help, resources and information available regarding the coronavirus.
Nancy Buthman, who agreed to reach out to the local Health Department, reported speaking with people at the state department and also in Lee County, who told her testing for the coronavirus is currently being handled through clinics and that symptomatic travelers or first responders are only being tested if they are over the age of 60. Buthman said the news on this is fluid and will likely change in the next week.
University of Michigan Epidemiology Professor Emeritus Dr. Jim Koopman said he is surprised by the CDC’s timidity thus far in handling the situation, saying that now is the time for high levels of testing. Koopman, who has studied and labored in the field of infectious disease, said right now face masks are likely the most important topic of discussion.
“There has been a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding on this issue,” said Koopman, “there’s been a huge change from last week to this week in our understanding of what the problem is.”
Koopman went on to explain the prolific nature of a virus carried via aerosol one to three days before symptom presentation even begins. Aerosol generation, through the simple actions of breathing and talking, he said, make an especially contagious virus even more viable to an unsuspecting target.
“These are aerosols that stay in the air for a long time,” Koopman said. “That’s the reason large gatherings can be particularly dangerous. If you have just one person, who is in a pre-symptomatic, highly transmissible state, it can affect a great number of people.”
He explained that the reason face masks are so important now is that they help create a barrier between what’s distributed to everyone from the aerosols in someone’s lungs, carried on their breath. The face mask, he said, is not to protect the person wearing it, but to protect society from the virus the person wearing the mask may not know they have. He said from the data gathered so far regarding the coronavirus, it’s clear there are many super-spreaders.
Koopman revealed having taken part in a symposium, sources for which he says cannot be divulged to the public at this time. In a study completed by some of his colleagues based on data from China, he said, different clusters of people can be organized. From that data, it was concluded that a-symptomatic people as well as those that were still in a pre-clinical state, were transmitting more than 50% of all new infections. Koopman reminded the group that a recent published article revealed CT scans done on a-symptomatic people showed the virus within their lungs before having any indications of disease whatsoever.
“The germ had to get down there and start the infection,” said Koopman. “And only aerosols can do that. Droplets can’t do that, they can’t get down into your lungs.”
Mary Lewis Sheehan, RN, agreed with Koopman about previous findings that the coronavirus could only be transmitted by droplets via surfaces and not spread contagions person to person via aerosol, through the acts of coughing and sneezing.
“It’s true that what they were saying about the viral aerosols up until now,” said Sheehan, “was that the way they are released is though an invasive procedure and not through general coughing or sneezing.”
“They are released by breathing,” said Koopman emphatically. “Every time you breathe.”
Koopman said it’s important to get the word out that there’s been a real change in the message from just a week ago as to how this organism is transmissible. He went on to name the moment of intubation as the most dangerous, as in that moment the virus is brought up from the lungs and present to everyone in the surrounding area.
Isabel Francis, RN, and founder of the Face Mask Crew, asked Koopman for clarification on the current findings for transmission of the virus, asking if it is a fair statement that the aerosolized virus can be transmitted by a-symptomatic people through talking, breathing, coughing, etc.
Koopman agreed that this was, in fact, a fair statement.
Francis then confirmed this is the most important information for people to digest and use as a guide. Sheehan stressed the importance of educating the community on the difference between an aerosolized and droplet virus. She asked that the community check the Pine Island Pandemic – Community Action Facebook page for continuous updates and information regarding COVID-19.
Koopman insisted that the only way to know how the island is faring in all of this is to set up surveys around the island inquiring as to antibody positivity results, as he explained the antibody test has become more readily available than the test for the virus itself.
The overwhelming conclusion is that without testing for confirmation of COVID-19, the precise number of cases and deaths caused by the virus continues to be inaccurate and, in fact, is currently unknown.
Sheehan submitted the idea that organizations likely need to come forward with a plan to act as a support, if and when hospitals become overwhelmed and aging islanders find themselves isolated and afraid in times of sickness.
Pine Island COVID-19 Task Force Leader and Pastor Eric McCrea confirmed that he has and continues to educate and encourage Pine Island Methodist Church members to seek accurate information and employ prudent guidelines put forth from reliable sources.
Beacon of Hope Director Nancy Buthman suggested islanders who have the time and know-how to make face masks, wear them in public,and leave them in a sanitized storage bin for people to take and use who may not have the means to get any.
Koopman reiterated his outrage that testing has not become more widely available, calling it out as an atrocity.
Francis reminded everyone that the time to go to the ER is if you have an uncontrollable fever, such as 103, or if you are unable to breathe. Sheehan reiterated that the Pine Island Pandemic Facebook page as a resource for these emergency type situations as well.
“We have to do the organizing,” said Koopman. “We can take on those responsibilities with the Health Department. We did not have the understanding that we have now at the beginning of this. We did not have this understanding until very recently.”
The Pine Island COVID-19 Task Force asks that islanders, “Wear a mask and, if possible, make a mask for someone else.”
As islanders have always found a way to care for one another, at this time everyone can all do his or her part to contain the coronavirus by protecting those around them by shielding their breath and keeping their distance.