By Clay Schuldt

Staff Writer

MINNESOTA — DFL congressional candidate Dan Feehan hosted a virtual town hall to discuss ongoing healthcare implications of COVID-19.

The town hall included Rochester area specialists Dr. Priya Sampathkumar, MD of Infectious Diseases; Dr. Christopher McCoy, Doctor of Internal Medicine; Dr. Rozalina McCoy, Doctor of Community Internal Medicine; and Liz Boldon, board-certified registered nurse and a nursing educator supervisor.

Feehan said the town hall was intended to provide information on the virus from experts in the field and daily practitioners in public health. He said the best way to fight the crisis was with good information.

The first question for the panel was how their understanding of COVID had changed in the last two months.

Dr. Sampathkumar said infection specialists have learned COVID presents in multiple ways, resulting in different symptoms. Some people have nausea or vomiting. Others have a fever, and others have no fever. It is known a person can be asymptomatic.

“The amount of virus that people without symptoms carry is the same or even higher than in people who have symptoms of the infection,” Sampathkumar said. “This makes it very easy to spread to people. If you only wear a mask when you are feeling unwell, you are not doing enough for people around you.”

Sampathkumar said some treatment methods have been found. Changing the position of COVID patients helps distribute oxygen better in the lungs. Some antivirals have been licensed for use against COVID, but these are expensive and are IV only, meaning these drugs must be administered at hospitals. Some anti-inflammatories are being studied as options, including steroids.

Dr. Rozalina McCoy said because of the wide variety of symptoms, no one is safe from the infection. For this reason, she advised everyone to be vigilant and wear a mask.

“Wearing a mask is not comfortable and not fun, but the alternative to not wearing a mask is much worse,” McCoy said. “If we don’t wear a mask, we’re going to have to shut everything down.”

Boldon said two months ago it was clear this was going to be a difficult time, but it now clear this is going to be an ongoing condition.

The upcoming school year was a topic of concern. Feehan asked the panel what concerns parents should or shouldn’t have about whether students return to school.

Sampathkumar said there is a small risk to kids, who can develop an inflammatory condition. She said the biggest risk was to teachers because the students could have an asymptomatic infection and pass it on to the teacher. Students could also contract COVID at the school and bring it home to their parents, who could have complications.

Sampathkumar said there were ways to mitigate the risk of sending students back to school, but it would require huge investments from the community. Schools would need to have smaller classroom sizes with additional teachers and paraprofessionals.

The risk of keeping students out of the schools is how to handle childcare for the youngest students. How do parents manage young children and continue to work?

Dr. Rozalina McCoy said the only way distance learning will work again is if businesses shut down again. Sending kids to daycare is not solving the problem because it is still placing a child in a situation where the infection is possible but without an educational background.

Boldon said there are no good answers to this and agreed it was a failure of leadership that each district needed to figure this out independently.

Boldon said the only hope of having schools open in the fall was for everyone to wear a mask.

The medical professionals’ consensus was any mask that covers the nose and mouth would be better than nothing.

Sampathkumar said cloth masks have proven to be more effective than originally thought.

“They are not as effective as medical masks but they are significantly better than nothing,” she said.

Dr. Christopher McCoy said we need to work on normalizing wearing a mask. He believed it was difficult for Americans to acknowledge the possibility they could be sick and potentially vulnerable.

“We have to recognize that this is keeping our loved ones safe and everyone safe,” Dr. Christopher McCoy said. He believed reinforcing the importance of masks could change the tides.

Dr. Rozalina McCoy said one person wearing a mask might not have a big impact, but if everyone wears a mask it will help.

She rejected herd immunity as an option because it would require millions of people to die, but if the herd wore masks this could stop the spread.

Dr. Rozalina McCoy said there were fear and political concerns around wearing a mask, but it is not political–it is common sense.

“We wash our hands after using the bathroom,” she said. “Why are masks different?”

The last question for the panel was what do healthcare professionals need from policymakers and political leaders.

Sampathkumar said an early failure of COVID was the inability to stockpile personal protection equipment, but cases are rising and the PPE shortage is starting again.

“We should never have been in this situation but to continue dealing with the shortage is not excusable,” she said. Sampathkumar called for policies to guide the sharing of resources, national policies on testing and giving people the right information.

Boldon said greater leadership is needed. Leaving each state to figure out the virus does not work because the virus does not abide by borders.

“A national strategy for testing and contact tracing would be very important,” she said. Boldon also believes a statewide and possible nationwide masking policy is needed because people are not doing that on their own.

The panel also advised people not to put off routine medical care. Dr. Rozalina McCoy said patients were putting off care and coming in too late.

Sampathkumar agreed it was important to seek care for routine medical issues, but said many do not have any health insurance or access to healthcare and are putting off treatment or testing for COVID

Feehan said there were 5.4 million fewer Americans with healthcare insurance than a few months ago, and that problem is rising.

Feehan closed by saying this crisis would need to be handled collectively.