Health official: People should be prepared for changes

COVID-19 is something we will have to learn to live with for years as medical professionals work to eliminate the virus from the population.
That was the message of Dr. W.S. “Chip” Riggins Jr., Regional Medical Director for the Bayou and River areas of the Region 3 Office of Public Health during an interview with The Daily Review Wednesday.
He said that citizens’ ability to expect and adapt to change as those in the medical field learn more about the virus will lead to more success.
“We may change the messaging to be more effective,” Riggins said.
Riggins said right now there is a concern among hospitals about medical personnel who have been impacted by the community spread and are in isolation if infected or in quarantine if exposed to someone who has the virus.
“They’re not coming to work right now, so that has our health care facilities vulnerable, worried about a surge, because they don’t have their normal staffing,” Riggins said.
Also, overwhelming hospitals could lead to additional issues, such as those in the community who are essential workers not wanting to leave their homes and go to work, meaning those essential services are affected.
Citizens can help in this effort by getting their flu shot this year, especially those who are students or healthy adults, Riggins said.
He said keeping a flu outbreak in check will be key to fighting COVID.
“The two together could be terrible,” Riggins said.
As for schools reopening, Riggins said that he think schools will reopen and need to. However, he said it would be much easier for them to function as normal as possible in Phase 3 as opposed to Phase 2, which the state is in right now.
“If we’re not seeing cases climbing and hospitals not full up, then Phase 3 happens before school starts and it makes it hugely easier for the school to open safely,” Riggins said. “If we fall backwards and our cases keep going up this summer and we have to go back to Phase 1, then it’s immensely harder for the schools to fully reopen. They want to reopen to all students. They want to be able to have everybody in class, with no one having to be remotely taught, but if we’re not in Phase 2 or 3, that’s going to be very, very difficult.”
Riggins message to parents is that while people are doing their best to prevent the spread of the virus, it is still going to reach class rooms and nursing homes.
“A third of the people have no symptoms, and when a disease is that sneaky, you can’t prevent it from coming in here today or into the schools,” he said. “It’s going to happen, so the question is when it does happen, are we going to be understanding with each other or are we going to allow our frustration to get the better of us, because it’s not going to be the fault of the schools. It’s the virus.”
He said parents can help by keeping their children home when they are ill.
As for sports, Riggins said, “It’s going to be a challenge, because there’s lots of droplets being spread in contact sports, so that’s going to be a challenge.”
He said the stands are just as concerning if people are not social distancing and wearing masks.
Regarding testing, Riggins said the state is working to ensure that duplicate positive tests are not counted twice, but it’s still a possibility.
“The computer systems to detect that aren’t perfect,” he said.
However, he said the bigger concern should be how many people are not getting tested that are symptomatic, something he said is large. Or even how many are in the 35% who are asymptomatic.
“The fact of the matter is the numbers for St. Mary Parish are an underestimate of what the parish has had overall, and we know it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Riggins said. “What those numbers represent is the tip of the total iceberg of COVID infection in the community.”
In order to reach herd immunity, Riggins said it would probably take 60% of the population having the COVID 19 vaccine.
“Every year in Louisiana about 30% of adults take the flu shot, so we need to do twice as good with COVID vaccine to get to some level of herd immunity,” Riggins said.
One positive is the death rate is not rising like it did earlier, hospital stays are shorter and those being hospitalized are younger.
“So it’s younger people needing hospitalization, but they’re not needing to stay in the hospital as long.”