A slight rise in the number of COVID-19 patients at The University of Kansas Health System today. Five patients with the active virus are being treated, up from two yesterday. Of those patients, one is in the ICU, the same as yesterday. Seven other patients are still hospitalized because of COVID-19 but are out of the acute infection phase, down from eight yesterday. That’s a total of 12 patients, up from ten yesterday. The health system has not had an inpatient death since May 23. HaysMed has two active patients, the same as yesterday.
On today’s Morning Media Update, KCK Mayor and CEO of the Unified Government David Alvey returned to update the progress in the city and Wyandotte County regarding the infection and vaccination rates as well as the mask mandate that expired right before the holiday weekend.
Mayor Alvey believes the recent CDC guidelines loosening mask mandates sent the wrong message and undermined a lot of local efforts to keep doing what needed to be done in Wyandotte County, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the state. He said it was hard to maintain the mask mandate in light of the new guidance, and calls the lack of consistency from the federal to the local level “unfortunate.” He says it would have been better to “come together to craft a common response that I feel would have been much better and much more effective.” He also believes it’s difficult because, “You know what’s happened at the state legislature in Kansas, really discouraging local governments and continuing to drive away from local governments the authority to do something.” He goes on to say, “I think, in a way, we’ve been hamstrung by what’s happened at the state legislature.” But he says efforts to reach out for vaccinations, especially to large vulnerable populations in the county, have increased. He vows that he and the county will continue to fight to protect its citizens, and he says, “I can’t get up in front of people and say, ‘I’m okay if a certain percentage of you die from this.’ I just can’t do that. I really feel as if, with that in mind, this is what the virus is. Let’s not politicize it, let’s just get this and kill it.” He noted that the county’s economy shows signs of rebounding, with the Legends shopping area up six percent from 2019 levels. He says it’s a good sign that people want to get out and get engaged. He reminds us that some businesses will still require a mask and urges all to respect that. Most importantly, he stresses how important it is that everyone get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Dana Hawkinson, MD, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control, says we’re seeing better data on the vaccination immunity toward the variants and it looks like those vaccinated will have immunity for eight months to a year before needing a booster. He calls the vaccine safety “unheralded,” especially considering the expedited process that it took to make it. He also discussed the World Health Organization’s new policy of changing the names of the variants to Greek letters, trying to get away from regional names, such as the South African variant. While he applauds the idea of trying not to stigmatize a whole country, he jokes that he’ll definitely need a chart to keep track of them.
Steve Stites, MD, chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System, stressed the importance of vaccination. He said we don’t know how long natural immunity from the virus lasts, especially against the variants. He said despite the loosening of mask guidelines, we’re still in a pandemic, and it’s wrong for people to act like it’s over. “There are still a lot of new cases, and it wouldn’t take much for it to light fire again, especially if we don’t reduce the rate of community transmission, because that’s how you get rid of the variants and that’s how you really get free of the pandemic, which means you have to be vaccinated.”
Thursday, June 3 at 8:00 a.m. is the next Morning Media Update. Our executive director of Mental and Behavioral Health, Lauren Lucht, joins us. She'll help explain how and why people not prone to anxiety and depression might be feeling both during this pandemic. Everyone is feeling the effects, some more than others, and she'll help break that down for us.
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