By PR County Health Officer Sean Hill
Communicable disease in its nature creeps into a community, infects the susceptible, creating waves of devastation, and at times, death. It will then mutate, so that it infects as many more people creating a world-wide pandemic which as we have seen, has killed thousands.
On September 21, 2020, Powder River County reported a single case of COVID-19. This quickly morphed into our High School, into Health Care workers and now has affected our most vulnerable in our Nursing home.
Powder River County is now at 11 cases, and we will continue to see cases increase, especially given the general lack of compliance with current guidelines. At the moment, COVID-19 will infect approximately 5% of the population. Breaking down the math for Powder River County, this means that with a population of 1,716 (most recent data) approximately 86 people within our community will contract this illness. These numbers are coming from CDC incidence rates, which hover around 5%. Even if only (1) percent of that total has complications or dies, that will mean 8-9 community members will either be put into the hospital or die from this illness.
Over the last week Powder River Health has made hundreds of contact phone calls. They have explained the nature of the call, quarantine requirements, timeframes, durations and testing opportunities. Testing will decrease the numbers of quarantined people however out of the hundreds of calls made, very few accepted the offer of free testing. In fact, Facebook comments have even had community leaders suggesting that individuals NOT get tested. The purpose of not testing was unclear other than to hinder illness investigations, which in turn would require more quarantines and increased levels of illness in our community. Many of the calls were met with open hostility towards the health care workers whom are dedicated to protecting the community. While everyone is feeling the frustration, these hostile actions are not acceptable in a community such as ours. At the same moment we wish to express our sincere appreciations to the individual that sent flowers to the staff on an extremely stressful day.
No one enjoys change. No one enjoys altering daily activities, taking precautions or doing things that may require extra effort. This comes at a time when we are being asked just that. Governor Bullock’s mask mandate does not come from an effort to take away personal rights. It does not come from wanting to control people. It comes from science. Pure and simple masks, any mask works. Some work better than others but they work by decreasing the spit people spray into the air every time they take a breath, every time a person speaks to another, they spit at the people they are talking to. They work by putting a barrier between you and others. There are two other methods by which we can decrease the spread of COVID and many other illnesses. Washing hands and keeping more distance between others to keep the water works away. These are not new concepts. They are time proven methods to keep disease from infecting populations.
While it’s true many people will contract, or be exposed to COVID and not become ill, or even never show a single symptom, however they will be carrying the virus and it will be transferred to others that will not be so lucky.
So COVID-19 has come to Powder River County. It’s here and it will run the course unless the community makes an active effort to decrease the ways it can be spread. The precautions are simple; Keep sick people home, if you have been a contact follow quarantine measures so in the chance you get the disease you do not spread it to someone else. Wash your hands, clean surfaces often. Keep outside of spitting distance from others, a minimum of 6’ if not more. Finally, wear a mask, any mask, some sort of barrier to keep from spitting on anyone or sucking in someone else’s spit.
Powder River Health will continue its efforts at keeping this and other diseases at bay. It’s what we do, it’s the service we provide to the community. While our calls are made in an effort to keep community members from being infected, we appreciate the kindness, the support and the efforts being made to stay healthy. Doing this will hopefully keep those 9 people within our community from a hospital stay or death. This community is small, it’s very likely even a single death will affect all of us.
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