The number of COVID-19 patients at The University of Kansas Health System continues to hold steady today. 12 patients with the active virus are being treated, down from 13 yesterday. Five of those patients are in the ICU, same as yesterday, with four of those patients on ventilators, also 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 19 patients, down from 21 yesterday. HaysMed has one patient today, down from two yesterday.
On today’s Morning Media Update, the 325th episode, Stephanie Evergreen, PhD, joined the panel. She is a self-proclaimed data-nerd who takes complicated data and makes it simple to understand. That has never been more important than during this pandemic. She shared some of her favorite examples.
Before getting into today’s topic, doctors discussed news of another vaccine, Novavax, which is proving to be about 90 percent effective against the virus, the same as the others. It’s based on an older platform and doctors explained the difference, but are excited by a new weapon against COVID-19. They are not excited about what’s happening in Missouri with the big surge in cases, especially from the Delta variant. The state’s governor is urging everyone to get vaccinated, especially in smaller communities, which have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country. The fear is when hospitals such as Springfield’s try to transfer some of their many COVID-19 patients, hospitals around the Metro won’t have room because most are full of regular patients.
Dr. Stephanie Evergreen specializes in making graphics that take a lot of data, like what we’re getting during this pandemic, and making it simple to understand. She believes visuals help change how people feel. She described a study that showed people who looked at a graphic illustrating how well masks prevent the spread of COVID-19 were much more likely to wear a mask than those who just looked at the data explaining the same thing. She explained how she herself loves data, but grew bored by simply crunching numbers and writing reports. She looked for ways to make those numbers more exciting for people and made that the focus of her doctoral thesis. She believes conveying the right message will help people make better decisions about their lives, and spends her days teaching others how to communicate their data effectively. She gave several examples of her work for the New York City Health Department, including the number of adults who have avoided healthcare during the pandemic, the financial stress it’s caused, and the overall level of anxiety. She even showed one chart which was used in the brand new Novavax study, just published in the New England Journal of Medicine. She also talked about some of the other work she’s done, including for the Obama White House and the Kauffman Foundation here in Kansas City. She feels a campaign with compelling graphics might help more people understand the need to get vaccinated.
Dana Hawkinson, MD, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control at The University of Kansas Health System, noted Kansas City’s numbers are trending back up, but are nothing like the surge in Springfield, Missouri, which he calls a preventable tragedy, as hardly any of those hospitalized patients have been vaccinated. He has a hard time understanding those who still think the vaccine is experimental or think there will be long term side effects. He stresses the evidence is overwhelming that the vaccines are safe and proven effective and says those who don’t believe it are obstinate and simply searching for narratives that will support their firmly held beliefs.
Steve Stites, MD, chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System, says his biggest concern going into the holiday weekend is not enough people getting vaccinated. He points to places like Los Angeles county, Great Britain and Israel which are going back to more restrictive modes because of the surge in new cases. He says, “There’s just not a lot of defense against not getting vaccinated, except, I’m going to say it, paranoia.” He adds, “At some point, you have to ask yourself, are you really safer not getting vaccinated when over two billion doses of vaccine have been administered throughout the world, and people have not died from the vaccine?” He says we’ve learned a lot over the past 325 episodes and remembers that magic moment when the vaccines first became available and we were able to, as he put it, “Move from playing defense to offense.” He says now it’s just a matter of everyone taking advantage of this tremendous weapon against COVID-19 and all of its variants.
Friday, July 2 at 8:00 a.m. is the next Morning Media Update. It's follow up Friday and we are going to answer community and media questions, including one that many have asked lately, and that's "What is the future of this show?"
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.