PORT ANGELES — Sparse information about COVID-19, RSV, flu and other respiratory diseases doesn’t mean risks are diminished. It just means less data is being collected than was the case during the pandemic years.
Cutbacks in the state Department of Health have hurt public health measures on the North Olympic Peninsula, according to Dr. Allison Berry, public health officer for Clallam and Jefferson counties.
“Cutbacks at the state affect our ability to conduct statewide disease surveillance — that’s a big part of why you see less COVID/flu data this year,” Berry said last week.
“These cuts prevent us from being able to conduct an organized equitable vaccine rollout like we did during the pandemic. They will also affect our ability to deliver free healthcare services like testing and treatment for COVID-19,” she continued, adding that she has heard that the caravan used to deliver vaccine services to the most rural parts of the Peninsula may also be cut.
“Part of the cuts have been to data infrastructure, so we don’t have access to that … we just are less able to see it,” Berry said.
Reports on evolving variants of COVID-19 used to come out weekly.
“Now it comes out monthly, and by the time we know we have a variant, it’s too late,” Berry said.
COVID-19, RSV and flu are still infecting people and putting many at risk of severe disease, Berry said, although there is no longer the fear of straining hospital facilities.
“It’s important to do everything we can,” she said, yet, “The worry is we’re seeing this nationally and at the state level this push to return to levels of staffing we had before the pandemic,” while the pandemic made it clear that “we have not been adequately staffing and funding public health in this country for decades, and that’s what it made it so incredibly difficult to respond to this pandemic and hindered our response.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. didn’t have the lab capacity and surveillance capacity of other countries, Berry said.
“We spend a little over 2 percent of all health care expenditures on public health in this country,” she said, adding that an 80 percent increase was needed in 2021 to meet basic public health needs.
The cut in state Department of Health staffing is in addition to states throughout the country dumping personal protection equipment (PPE). The Associated Press reported in December that more than 18 million masks, 22 million gowns and 500,000 gloves went into the trash nationwide.
Washington state sent hundreds of thousands of supplies to the Marshall Islands last year, yet ended up throwing out millions more items.
“People say the pandemic is over so we don’t need as much, but we worry we won’t be able to meet the needs of our community and to respond to a new pandemic,” Berry said.
State officials said items had expired. How do masks and gowns expire? Berry was asked.
“They do have expiration dates on them,” she said, but added, “they don’t really expire. The only thing that can happen is if the loops stretch out.
“This is concerning to have a return to a time when we don’t keep supplies on hand,” Berry said.
COVID-19, RSV and flu will be with Peninsula communities in the future, she said, emphasizing the importance of getting vaccinated against these viruses.
COVID-19 is out of the pandemic phase, but it’s “still hurting people; there are still people at high risk,” Berry said.
Public health agencies no longer track COVID-19 case rates, but they do track hospital and emergency department visits.
RSV is especially of concern now “because we don’t have enough for kids and have rising rates of hospitalization and ER visits in very young children, 0 to 4,” Berry said.
“If there is an infant in your life, have guests wear masks when they see the new kiddo,” Berry advised, adding that, by spring, the RSV threat should calm down.
One of the state staffers let go was a manager for vaccine rollout, providing reports on availability of vaccines, Berry said.
“Now that doesn’t happen,” Berry said. “We don’t know where vaccine is going, who has it. … We’re telling people to get vaccinated, but we can’t tell them where to go.”
So county public health workers are calling health care providers to see who has vaccine.
“We’ve been able to get RSV vaccine in (Olympic Medical Center) and Forks Community Hospital, and we’re working on Jefferson Healthcare,” Berry added.
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Executive Editor Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3530 or at leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
