Your health board failed you
The Panhandle Health District Board of Health has received an outpouring of opposition to the repeal of the mask mandate on 10/22/20.
Your health board failed you. Your words of shock, anger and outrage mirror our own. The board failed to do our job outlined in Idaho Code “to do all things” required for the preservation and protection of public health and preventative health.
This failure happened while our school board is pleading for assistance in their desperate attempt to keep kids in school and three high schools show an increasing COVID infection risk level. While Idaho has one of the highest positivity rates in the nation, at greater than 34%. (Positivity rate is the percentage of positive tests indicating how widespread the infection rate is in the area.) While Kootenai County’s rate is 15% positivity — doubling in the past few weeks and placing us in the red or substantial zone and at the highest level of risk.
Leadership in a pandemic requires courageous and steadfast efforts to suppress transmission of the virus and primarily, to decrease illness and save lives. Personal convictions and feelings cannot be a motivating factor in a health board decision. Data-driven decisions are essential.
The data in our recent meeting was the most compelling of any meeting we’ve attended. The professionalism, knowledge, dedication to patient care and the overwhelming statistics presented by epidemiologists Jeff Lee and Karen Yao (PHD) and by Kootenai Health’s Jon Ness, Jeremy Evans and specifically, by Dr. Hoopman and Dr. Scoggins, ICU pulmonologist and intensivist, were alarming and grim.
Dr. Hoopman and Dr. Scoggins provided specific examples of COVID patients fearing they were taking their last breath and those who did. They spoke of the (and still largely unknown) long-term health consequences for survivors of COVID. They discussed the postponement of surgical procedures due to having no capacity at Kootenai Health. They discussed the collateral damage and excess deaths due to current fears of going to a hospital for care. And sadly, we heard of three more recent deaths and grieving families.
Jon Ness began the presentation by stating; “We’re in trouble …” Undeniably, we are in trouble. Information was presented regarding Kootenai Health diverting admissions as well as two other regional hospitals diverting with the remainder of area facilities having very few beds along with little capacity in Portland and Seattle. Based on our current trajectory, it won’t be long until we are setting up a field hospital.
Studies have shown that mask mandates work. In Colorado this spring, after a mandate, there was a 20% increase in mask-wearing (without law enforcement) and a decrease in rates of spread in areas with a mask order.
In a recent article in the Washington Post, data from coronavirus statistics compiled by Carnegie Mellon provided a “strikingly tight” correlation between states with greater mask-wearing and a corresponding decrease in COVID symptoms. In short, areas with more masks had less COVID.
The genesis for the vote on the mask mandate stemmed from a letter from members of the Idaho legislature requesting a repeal of the order. The legislators described the Kootenai County mask mandate as “highly upsetting” and “counterproductive.” (However, statistics correlate a reduction of viral spread directly after the mask mandate was in place.)
The letter was written a few days after our September board meeting when a presentation on the data showed an increasing trend line and a less than one percentage point from moving to the orange or moderate level for risk. The letter didn’t acknowledge the swelling data and as noted, we have since escalated to the red, substantial risk level.
It was the legislature who bestowed health boards with the legal authority to mandate a mask order, quarantine or isolation order in Idaho Code. County government does not have this authority although the cities do, as well as the Governor. Therefore, we would urge you to continue to reach out to the Board of Health but also local mayors and city council members as well as Governor Little with your concerns.
While the Board of Health has failed our community, the Panhandle Health Director, Lora Whalen, and her hard-working team continue to provide guidance, support and healthcare to North Idaho. They deserve our praise and gratitude.
During a health crisis, it would be reassuring to have a Health Board doing “all things” to preserve and protect public health and it is our deep regret that this is not the case. Worst of all, we failed our frontline healthcare workers. Healthcare workers who will don scrubs for their next shift, grab their stethoscopes and be there to care for us, our loved ones and our community. We must support them. They are the champions of this health crisis; they are our heroes. Heroes who deserve and need our support.
Surrendering to the inevitability of the virus is not a defensible plan. It’s not a plan at all, it’s defeat. We are not powerless in this virulent attack. We have a fierce, nonpharmacological weapon against an airborne pathogen; a face mask.
Masks are a safe defense strategy to reduce the risk of airborne transmission. Wearing a mask isn’t just about preventing illness and death, it’s about protecting hospital capacity, it’s about minimizing health complications and reducing the overall health impacts to the community and local economy.
It’s about respecting each other’s health. In Idaho, we share a sense of stoic independence — this is how and why we are Idahoans. This stoic independence is contrasted with our strong sense of community. In this pandemic, whichever of these factors prevails will determine our outcome.
Perhaps we can move to an alternative narrative; support each other, our teachers and our healthcare heroes. If this pandemic has shaken you to your core values and if those core values are love for your neighbor, compassion and decency, as well as caring deeply about the suffering and fatigue in our community, then channel those values.
Most importantly, use those ideals when making your decision about wearing a face mask. We’re not safe until we’re all safe.
• • •
Jai Nelson, RN and Dr. Dick McLandress are Panhandle Health District Board Members. Email: boardofhealth@phd1.idaho.gov
