The University of Kansas Health System reports a slight rise in the number of COVID-19 patients today. 11 people with the active virus are being treated, up from 10 Friday. Of those patients, five are in the ICU, the same as Friday. Four of those patients are on ventilators, up from three Friday. 11 other patients are still hospitalized because of COVID-19 but are out of the acute infection phase, up from eight Friday. That’s a total of 22 patients, up from 18 Friday. HaysMed reports a total of two COVID-19 patients today, both in the recovery phase, down from four Friday.
On today’s Morning Media Update, Missouri U.S. Congressman Emanuel Cleaver joined to talk about how the pandemic has affected both Washington, D.C., and Missouri.
Congressman Cleaver says the climate in the U.S. Capital is not as healthy as he believes the American people would prefer. He says on Capitol Hill, it looks more like a military fortress around the main buildings but believes it will get back to the point where people will be able to walk in and conduct business as before. Mask mandates are taken very seriously in the capitol building and those without one are escorted out. He says procedures to see the president have changed, with visitors having to pass a COVID-19 test three hours before and he showed the special mask all must wear in the Oval Office. He says telehealth will benefit many people, and Congress is looking at ways to keep state lines from becoming barriers to that technology. He feels vaccine hesitancy is dangerous and will leave a substantial amount of the population unprotected. He thinks vaccines have become too politicized, and he pays attention to Dr. Fauci and other scientists when it comes to mask wearing, social distancing and vaccines and believes the science that shows they all work. He warned that we must be extremely careful about relaxing mask wearing and large gatherings and he says there’s a danger in underestimating the potency of the virus. He talked about how wonderful it was to be able to hug his niece, since they’ve both been vaccinated. He says, “We will win this by example,” and urges everyone, especially those in the public eye, to push for vaccination. In his words, “We’ve got to get this plague under control.”
Dana Hawkinson, MD, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control at The University of Kansas Health System, said nine or ten months ago, it was easy to say there was no data on the effectiveness of mask wearing, but not any more, with many publications showing their effectiveness. He feels the overwhelming data shows vaccinations, mask wearing, distancing and hand hygiene will stop the virus from spreading. He believes booster shots in the fall or winter will include protection from the variants, and he discussed summer camps for kids, who have not been vaccinated yet. He reminded us vaccines are the way out of the pandemic and pointed out there are now plenty available.
Steve Stites, MD, chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Health System, is worried that the pause in the J & J vaccine, which has now been lifted, may add to vaccine hesitancy. He says while blood clots may be a concern, they are extremely rare, less than one in a million, and doctors know how to recognize and treat them. He says skipping your second shot is a bad idea, as there’s a “pretty significant jump” between 80 and 95 percent effectiveness if you want to be the most safe you can be. He adds the second shot makes your immunity last a lot longer. He says it’s all about trying to keep each other safe and urges us to listen to good, reasonable health experts, without a vested interest, trying to do the right thing to keep us safe.
Tuesday, April 24 at 8:00 a.m. is the next Morning Media Update. KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman is back to update vaccinations and infection rates. He will be joined by Dr. Catherine Satterwhite, regional health administrator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr, Satterwhite will share messaging that might prove helpful to folks from different walks of life who are on the fence about getting the vaccine.
ATTENTION: media procedure for calling in:
The meeting is available by Zoom, both video and by phone. To join the Zoom Meeting by video, click https://kumc-ois.zoom.us/j/7828978628
Telephone dial-in Participants: For those without Zoom, call 1-312-626-6799, meeting ID: 782 897 8628.
The feed is also available via TVU grid. The TVU source is UoK_Health and is being made available to all.
Feel free to send questions in advance to medicalnewsnetwork@kumc.edu.
