THESE TIMES

Welcome to COVID season, again

Kirk Ericson | Sep 14, 20230

Remember in spring 2020 when we started hearing the phrase “a novel coronavirus?” We don’t hear that phrase much now. This particular coronavirus has lost all its novelty.

COVID-19 infection rates, and hospitalizations and deaths, have been rising around the country for the past couple of months. Some of the symptoms have evolved, but the disease remains. The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved the latest dose to treat the current strain that’s going around, and those doses could be available by this week.

That vaccine news is good news, despite what Florida man says. Some more good news: Mason County has lower infection rates than most of the nation.

“We have not seen an increase in critically ill COVID patients at all,” said Melissa Strong, chief nursing officer at Mason Health.

I talked with some folks at Mason Health on Monday about the current state of COVID, and if you take anything away from this column, remember just one noun and one verb: “Paxlovid” and “test.” Paxlovid is a drug that can blunt the infection — if it’s caught early — and taking a COVID test is the only way to know whether you’ll need Paxlovid.

Paxlovid, Paxlovid, Paxlovid. It’s pronounced “PACKS-luh-vid.” The emphasis is on the first syllable. Ask for it by name.

Free tests are at the Mason County Health Department at 415 N. 6th Street.

One final note on matters of health — physical and mental: Make a habit of asking people you love this question: “How are you doing?” Take a quiet moment to hold the person in a loving gaze and give them the silence to respond. Put down the newspaper and do it now. After you do that, please finish reading the column and the rest of the newspaper.

Welcome back.

Here’s a Q&A with Dean Gushee, chief medical officer at Mason Health. Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Question: What can you tell us about the current state of COVID transmission in Mason County?

Gushee: Transmission is still considered to be low. The CDC website that I just reviewed today does a county-by-county analysis of that and they consider us in the “green” which is low transmission at present. There are certainly areas around us — I didn’t look at those in detail — not just us but around the country, where transmission rates are up. But so far, Mason County is an island unto ourself.

Q: What’s the trend?

Gushee: Numbers overall are up, and that certainly is the trend across the country. So the numbers are up with what probably is a new variant circulating. Numbers are generally higher, but again not for Mason County. Around the country, there’s an increased rate of hospitalization and there’s an increase in the rate of deaths.

Q: What sort of symptoms are people showing up with when they come to the hospital with COVID?

Gushee: COVID symptoms tend to be relatively mild and I can speak from personal experience because I had it last week. I would have described it as a cold pre-pandemic. I would not have seen it as anything different than that. And that’s largely what people are presenting with, so it’s the usual sort of stuff, there’s cough, low-grade fevers, muscle aches. A lot of people describe a tremendous sort of fatigue that goes with it. It’s variable. The weird symptoms that we were seeing earlier like loss of taste and smell are not as prominent now. … It occurs more in the unvaccinated folks. They’re likely going to have significantly increased symptoms and that is the group that’s at risk of hospitalization and death for sure across the country.

Q: Can you talk about the effectiveness of Paxlovid?

Gushee: I can speak from personal experience there. When I got it last week, I started myself on Paxlovid less than 24 hours after the onset. I started having symptoms in the middle of the night. The following morning, I tested myself. I was positive and I started it that day. I had typical respiratory symptoms. I had a cough, I had a low-grade fever, I had a lot of sinus congestion, a little bit of fatigue maybe, but I thought I had a cold and I tested myself and sure enough, it was positive. So I started the Paxlovid. The key with Paxlovid is you have to take it early. It’s a mixture of two different drugs that act together and the key, like any antiviral, is you have to get it really early. The recommendation is to get it within 24 to 48 hours, but the earlier the better. What people describe is a fairly rapid resolution of their major symptoms. What we know about Paxlovid is that it definitely reduces the likelihood of hospitalization and death. No question about it. … It is a bit of a game-changer for the high-risk population.

Q: How do you get Paxlovid?

Gushee: Get a doctor to prescribe it. (Note: Go to an emergency room or an urgent care if you don’t have a doctor.)

Q: Where can people get the new COVID dose? Will they be free?

Gushee: What we’re expecting is that the free part of that is going away, so it will probably be available at places wherever you get a vaccine, whether it’s Walmart or you name it. My guess is it will be covered by insurance for the most part … I don’t know what’s going to happen with the commercial pharmacies on whether they’ll charge for it. (Note: The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is “working with health departments, clinics and certain pharmacies to temporarily provide free shots” for the uninsured or underinsured.)

Q: What’s your response to what Florida’s surgeon general said last week urging people not to get the updated vaccine? Specifically, his statement that we need to “Listen inside to what makes sense, what feels right, you know, what feels like truth.”

Gushee: We have different feelings, but we don’t have different facts and different science, and that’s what you have to lean on. The FDA, when they look at vaccines or drugs generally, looks at efficacy and data based on randomized-controlled trials or population-controlled trials so it’s not like a random thing about feelings. Feelings don’t enter into it. It has to do with efficacy and safety. So that’s a fairly ludicrous comment by somebody who should know better.

Q: Are you running into people in your hospital who would believe that man?

Gushee: We do. Every day. We try to take a dispassionate kind of approach. We present the information as we know it. I think health care providers have been seen as purveyors of science and truth … unfortunately, there is a segment of the population that goes a different route in where they get their information and it’s not something we’re going to get into an argument about.