State public health continues to push Montanans to listen amid pandemic

Public health officials and experts again encouraged Montanans to take it upon themselves to slow the spread of COVID-19 in a press conference held by Gov. Steve Bullock Tuesday, as well as providing updates on the situation in Montana.

Montana’s Lead Communicable Disease Epidemiologist Stacy Anderson said Montana is now closing in on 30,000 cases in total with 4,000 new cases in just the last week, representing a 17 percent increase over the previous week.

The 4,000 is almost as many people as live in Glendive, she said.

She said that, in the last three weeks, 13,000 cases have been reported, which is about the size of the population of Big Horn County.

“These are all Montanans,” she said, “they are part of our community who have been affected.”

She said people in the state need to observe the kinds of public health precautions that have been recommended by health experts for months: washing hands thoroughly and frequently, social distancing, wearing masks, not going to large events or holding them, etc.

State Medical Officer Greg Holzman said this crisis needs to be thought about from the perspective of the whole population despite the cultural importance placed on individual freedoms.

“As a county and as a state, people believe strongly in individualism, and I respect that,” he said. “But I am a community health doctor, and I want to look at the population as a community. And as we look at our communities now, across this nation, we have some that are fairly sick. And in order to respond to those communities, we need to respond as a community.”

Holzman said the nature of society necessitates that the COVID-19 situation be dealt with as a community-wide effort, and not just as individuals.

“We cannot treat this outbreak one person at a time for many reasons,” he said. “We cannot cocoon the vulnerable, we are an interdependent society.”

Holzman said that while data shows that the young and healthy tend to be safer from having bad outcomes with COVID-19, plenty of people exist for whom that is not the case.

He also said people with underlying conditions cannot be expected to simply close themselves off from the rest of society.

“A lot of the time what you hear is, ‘Well, the individuals need to protect themselves,’ and we don’t talk about it from a community perspective,” he said. “Well, what if a young person has type-1 diabetes, or lupus, how do they stay safe within the community? Sure, they can make sure they don’t go to high-risk congregated areas, bars or a concert. But what about their job, what about their schooling, what about taking care of their family members or their own health? These are things that need to happen and if we keep the virus down in the community, we can allow people to continue to work and continue to move their lives forward.”

He also said the possibility of young people spreading the disease to others is high and cited an article by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which looked at hotspots of confirmed cases in 20-29 year-olds, and found that shortly after these hotspots appeared, they saw spikes among older age groups.

“Respiratory diseases like these do not stay in one age cohort,” Holzman said. “They will pass from one group to another because we all interact.”

He said this can be seen in prisons, hospitals and nursing homes even if these facilities are doing everything right, especially when the virus is rampant through the community. He said the more prevalent the virus is in a community, the more likely it will show up in these facilities, especially through people who are asymptomatic.

He said the spread is contributing to limited resources around the state, with hospital capacity and human capital becoming a serious concern as more and more people need to be quarantined.

Holzman said emergency medical services are already strained statewide even as cold and flu season has barely begun.

He said the fact that the U.S. finds itself doing worse than so many other nations is proof enough that more can be done.

“No one wants to hurt an innocent bystander,” he said. “However, if we let the virus spread widely within our communities, some individual will pay the ultimate price. … We have over 225,000 COVID-related deaths in the Unites States, and over 300 here in Montana. Every death may not have been avoidable, but we know we could do much better. Just looking at other industrialized nations and their responses, they haven’t stopped the spread of the virus they have not stopped all deaths, but they have been much better at minimizing suffering and death in their communities.”

Communicable Disease Control and Prevention Bureau Chief Jim Murphy provided an update on the state’s recent usage of a website to collect complaints regarding businesses or institutions not following the guidelines set forth by local and state governments.

He said 1,300 concerns have been submitted, 1,000 of which were about mask usage and social distancing and disinfecting. Of the concerns, 90 percent have come from the state’s largest counties with the most cases, and 40 counties have at least one.

Murphy said he was encouraged by the fact that not a single submitted complaint was vitriolic towards the business.

“Most of the comments were very constructive,” he said, “They were expressing concerns about their own health, the health of the customers, the health of the workers. … It was encouraging to see that level of concern expressed.”

He said the complaints have been sent to the lead public health official and the sanitarian within the counties the institutions are operating in and they determine what is actionable.

Murphy said the state will be reviewing trends and providing assistance when needed.

“Most businesses want to do the right thing of their customers and their workers, and we’re confident that they understand that that’s in everyone’s best interest,” he said.

However, he said, despite this many cases are directly related to workplaces, with transmission between co-workers being most common, but customers also being infected.

Murphy said following current directives will be essential and most of these problems can be addressed fairly easily by doing so.

Bullock gave an update on the Montana National Guard’s recent activities.

He said Guard members are supporting testing facilities in the state including tribal communities and have been testing new arrivals in Montana for symptoms.

They have also helped immensely with staffing in long-term care facilities, he said, and they will be providing staffing support at Montana State Prison in the next two weeks.

Bullock said 67 soldiers are participating and are being screened before each shift.

He said precautions will be taken, including limiting exposure and using PPE as they assist with testing and mitigation efforts.

Bullock said schools opening their doors to in-person learning has resulted in 1,200 new cases, but he said he’s encouraged by steps being taken by these institutions.

“We always knew that we’d see positive cases in our schools, but schools are acting quickly, taking steps to minimize the spread,” he said.

He said the state has made CARES Act money available to schools and state officials have recently reached out to them to see if they needed additional funds using the $5.5 million left unallocated.

Bullock said he wants to make sure this CARES Act money gets spent by the Dec. 31 deadline if the need exists. Though, he said, it’s become clear that funds will be needed past that date, a fact which he expressed worry about.

He said Montana is ninth in the country in terms of getting CARES Act funds spent, with 97 percent allocated and more than 60 percent spent.

Bullock, however, said the current trends in the state are alarming and the incubation period of the virus suggests that hospitals will only continue to be stretched thin, even with flu season just beginning.

“It’s clear this virus will continue down this path unless we all work together to stop it,” he said.

He suggesed people find a place to get their flu vaccine at https://vaccinefinder.org and said the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services will begin a mask-up campaign and will launch a flu shot PSA in conjunction with it soon.

Bullock also provided an update on the five Flathead businesses against which legal action is being taken in response to repeated violations of COVID-19 restrictions.

He said one or more have been talking about settling, and he’s hoping the others will follow suit and begin complying with the directives.

Bullock said no plans exist on the state level for further mandates.

Holzman said that, while the virus is not a political issue, people must be willing to talk to each other about it honestly and request others follow the science.

“People say don’t talk about politics and religion, and that may be true, but I think with our friends and our family we have to talk about this virus. We have to be telling people around us, ‘Can you please put that mask on,’” he said, “ … We need to have those frank conversations with people we know so we can build the group that follows the guidance and hopefully controlling this virus.”