Ahead of Memorial Day, doctors in KC region say: Don’t throw caution to the wind
Dr. Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, has not worried this much about a weekend since Easter.
Ahead of Memorial Day weekend, as people around the region planned parties with relatives of all ages, Norman was among public health officials who cautioned against spreading the new coronavirus.
“The virus is still out there,” Norman told reporters. “We can’t throw caution to the wind now.”
He noted there is still no cure or vaccine for COVID-19.
As stay-at-home orders are relaxed, doctors at the University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, Kansas, have been glad to not see a surge of patients during the last week or so. But they also said Wednesday it would be another seven to 10 days before they had a better idea of whether infections would rise or not.
“By around June 1, we’ll be a lot smarter than we are today,” Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the health system, said as he continued to advise people to wash their hands and not gather in groups of more than 10 people. “Remember, there still is no place like home.”
Stites credited the Kansas City metro with helping bend the curve of cases. He called on citizens to not let the number of illnesses increase because they want to “go out and party too much.”
He told people to remember the rules of defensive driving as they navigate life during the pandemic: check your surroundings, think of the big picture and give yourself an out.
“Don’t short change yourself for a decision that you make today that could have big repercussions tomorrow,” Stites said.
As an example, officials have pointed to Lake Perry in northeast Kansas, where one or more recent group events have been linked to the infections of at least 10 people from multiple counties and two states. At least two other people were then infected when they came in contact with those who gathered at the lake.
The Shawnee County Health Department found a link between some of the infected people and a recruit officer for the Topeka Police Department academy who did not participate in the events. The police academy closed temporarily, placing all of its recruits in quarantine.
“This is a strong reminder of how easy it is to be infected by this virus,” said Dr. Gianfranco Pezzino, the county’s health officer.
Norman was not pleased by what he called people’s “lousy judgment.” He said he and Pezzino were “both venting and blowing off steam with each other” about the incident.
The risk of exposure people were willing to take “befuddled” him, he said.
Norman said he worried about the things people think they know as they navigate their daily lives: What if someone gets into an empty elevator, thinking there is little risk of infection, when another person just got off of it coughing and sneezing?
He thinks doctors are getting an indication that “maybe these particles hang in the air a little bit longer than what we’d originally thought.”
Asked about a false sense of security people might have while gathering outside, Norman said people have been hugging and shaking hands. “As much as we want that to come back, it should not come back,” he said.
Stites, of the University of Kansas Health System, said residents have to be cautious of “super spreader events” this weekend. The biggest risk factors for such events include confined space and a lack of good airflow.
People may want to get together to have hot dogs and beers, but that could lead to violating social distancing rules.
“Pretty soon a lot of hugs and handshakes,” Stites said Thursday, “and pretty soon, a lot of COVID.”
Kansas City
Health officials have also cautioned against reopening certain things past the weekend.
The National WWI Museum and Memorial said Wednesday it will reopen in June with measures in place to protect visitors and staff from COVID-19.
But the Kansas City Health Department had “many concerns” about each reopening, saying people are everywhere without masks and “already acting like COVID-19 is a thing of the past.”
“It is not,” said Dr. Rex Archer, director of health at the department, adding in a tongue-in-cheek comment: “If it were up to us, we’d open the National WWI Museum only to those who fought in WWI (1914-1918) and keep everyone else away from that vulnerable population.”
Some doctors have said maintaining more than the recommended six feet from others, if possible, is best. The farther apart a person is from others, the lower the risk of transmission.
“Droplets and (viruses) don’t necessarily follow our mental constructs for rules,” Dr. David Wild, vice president of performance improvement at the University of Kansas Health System, said Tuesday during a news briefing. “That at six feet, the droplets are going to magically drop to the ground in every circumstance or that those droplets won’t contain virus to be infectious.”
The decision to go to stores or return to work depends on how much risk each person is willing to take and what their health conditions are. Residents should discuss their level of safety with their physicians who know them best, doctors advised.
“You have to be individually vigilant about minimizing your risk,” said Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at the health system.
In an interview Wednesday, Hawkinson noted some parts of the community have opened while others have not.
“We won’t know the full extent of the implications of that opening up for a few weeks,” he said. “It is going to be upon all of us to continue to do the smart things to try and reduce our risk of infection from this.”
This story was originally published May 22, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
