The number of COVID-19 patients at The University of Kansas Health System continues to rise today. 25 people with the active virus are being treated, up from 17 on Friday. Of those patients, seven are in the ICU, down from nine Friday. Six of those patients are on ventilators, up from three Friday. 13 other patients are still hospitalized because of COVID-19 but are out of the acute infection phase, down from 14 Friday. That’s a total of 38 patients, up from 31 on Friday. HaysMed has one active patient, down from three Friday.
On today’s Morning Media Update, COVID-19 has been especially tough on mental health. May is devoted to mental health awareness, and Moira Mulhern, PhD, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Turning Point, joined to help us get our happy back by better understanding our happiness set point.
Dr. Mulhern said at the time the pandemic hit last year, Turning Point was helping 10,000 people a year with 800 programs. That all stopped, but the organization pivoted and began offering its programs virtually and has returned to the same level, and she said the participants love it. Turning Point is for anyone with a serious or chronic physical illness, such as cancer, diabetes, autoimmune disease or even arthritis, and their caregivers. There is no charge for any of the programs or services since the organization is supported by philanthropy. She explained, using many of the tools found in the Resilience Toolbox on the Turning Point web site, how each of us can find our own happiness setpoint. She says we all have a threshold of what we can handle before we start showing symptoms of anxiety, distress or depression, emotions many have felt during the pandemic. She says we get into trouble when we don’t have the skills to come back down from that threshold. That can lead us to imploding with self-destructive behavior or exploding with violence or aggressive behavior. When we’re able to use the resilience tools to quiet our minds and bodies and take good care of ourselves both mentally and physically, we’re going to be much happier. She reminds us we’re all human and we all have our ups and downs, but we can use the tools of resilience to reach a level of well-being and happiness.
Dana Hawkinson, MD, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control at The University of Kansas Health System, noted that while COVID-19 testing is down, the number of hospitalizations is rising, especially with younger patients, which may be due to variants and a drop off in vaccinations. He says of the current patients in the health system, only one has been vaccinated, and that one patient had only the first of two shots. He says the current belief is we’ll have a robust immune system from the vaccine for 12 months. He discussed ways to make travel safer, especially to significant tourist destinations. He also says the current data is to wait two weeks between getting one kind of vaccine, like for shingles, and the COVID-19 vaccine. He added there are current studies looking at whether you might need just one shot if you’ve already had COVID-19, but for now the recommendation is get both.
Steve Stites, MD, chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Health System, said we need to be very careful, especially in Johnson County where the mask mandate went away, because the virus and its variants are still out there. That’s why the rise in numbers concerns him. He commented on a Texas hospital that’s made vaccinations mandatory for all employees and said the health system doesn’t do that because the vaccines are still under emergency use authorization. But he says once they are fully approved by the FDA, which could come this fall, the health system may have to reconsider that position, as will all other hospitals. He’s encouraged to hear from a lot of people who want to get the J & J vaccine, despite the recent pause to look at extremely rare instances of blood clots. He calls all of the vaccines “extraordinarily safe,” and says they will help us establish our new normal and find our way home.
Tuesday, May 4 at 8:00 a.m. is the next Morning Media Update. Dr. Carrie Wieneke, chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology, will talk about issues related to COVID-19 and expectant moms. Plus, details of newer research coming out around benefits of vaccination for unborn and newborn babies.
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.
