As cases climb, compassion is a must

I
 am so glad everyone is finally being conscientious about washing his or her hands! I am what some people might call a hypochondriac, but the truth of the matter is that I have health conditions that compromise my immunity. For instance, you get strep throat and your throat hurts. I get strep throat and I’m barely able to swallow, to talk, and possibly ill for a few weeks. Once it put me in the hospital in a very dangerous state. You get the flu and you might have body aches and a runny nose. I get the flu and I am dizzy, bed-ridden, have breathing difficulties, get pneumonia and a sinus infection.
Although everyone wants to compare COVID-19 to the flu, it is not a strain of influenza. It is a new strain of coronavirus, and has proven worldwide to be much deadlier than the flu. In its 2019-2020 Influenza Report, the Wyoming Department of Health stated that during the influenza season of October to May there were 16 pneumonia and influenza mortality reports certified. To date, there have been 114 COVID deaths in Wyoming — and this is as we are just beginning to see a rise in cases of COVID in our little corner of the world. 
For months, I have sent hugs and condolences from afar as friends in other parts of the country have seen their loved ones ill and sometimes taken from them by this virus. And I have known that this little bubble in northeast Wyoming would someday be hit — it was just a matter of time.
On Oct. 31, Lori Bickford, the Weston County Public Health Nurse, announced on Facebook that Wyoming had been named as the sixth highest rate of new COVID-19 cases in the nation, and the positivity rate and new cases put Weston County in a category as a red zone. She urged the public to wash their hands, maintain six-foot distances, and to wear a mask when that distance could not be maintained. 
In response, someone commented that the red zone was only because of the outbreak of cases at the Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp north of town. This is pretty much the attitude I have seen and heard in the last several months.
“It’s just like the flu, no big deal.”
“If you get it, you get it.”
“It’s a hoax.”
Kim Vrana, an Upton resident, responded to Bickford’s post by stating, “Numbers and statistics mean NOTHING when you have lost loved ones. NOTHING. So far for us gone are two family members and a very dear friend. The family members were older — but previously healthy. The friend was NOT older and was strong and healthy. Nevertheless, from the day of his positive reading to his death was only two weeks. This is not the flu, folks …”
On Nov. 3 Kristen Kohlbrand, a member of the Local Emergency Planning Committee in Weston County, posted to the Weston County COVID-19 Community Information Facebook page: “PLEASE stay home if you are sick. You don’t have to wait for quarantine orders from the state. With the large spike recently I’ve heard sooooo (sic) much about personal responsibility this whole time, so now’s the time to use it. I can completely understand the asymptomatic ones not feeling the need to stay home, but those who are sick please don’t go out in public unless absolutely necessary. This isn’t just during COVID, it should be for all illnesses, but it doesn’t happen. The culture in the country isn’t one to stay home when we are sick, people want to be tough and not leave their coworkers in a bind. People also can’t afford to stay home from work, but the more that go in sick, the more people there will be out of work.”
This is so true. We don’t want to stay home. We don’t want to lose our jobs, or our paycheck. But we also don’t want to watch as friends and family are taken ill — especially if that illness ends in death. I don’t want to be hospitalized, and with my comorbidities and those of my family members I am at risk for that. A rise in COVID hospitalizations — whether they end in death or not — tax the abilities of local hospitals to care for others. 
On Nov. 8, Dr. Mark Dowell of Rocky Mountain Infectious Diseases in Casper, Wyo., posted a video update to Facebook. He said that at the time of his video, there were 56 hospitalized COVID-19 infected patients at Wyoming Medical Center. He described a patient, a 29-year-old, in severe respiratory failure with staph infection in her blood. She was well until three days prior. Staff members are infected as well, he stated, and he blamed social gatherings as one of the reasons for the spread. 
Dr. Dowell said, “It’s a mess. I think social distancing out there is lousy. The hospital is getting overwhelmed.” 
He stressed that when staff are dealing with time-intensive COVID patients, they may not be able to handle emergencies like heart attacks and strokes. “We need to step up to the plate … we predicted this last spring,” Dr. Dowell said.
“Some people will not comply with [wearing masks], I understand that, but if you appeal to the common good, as citizens of our state, and doing the American duty that they should do, people should mask,” he said. “You are endangering everyone around you. Is this a lecture? No. Is this alarmist? No. I’m in the trenches, I’m seeing it, I’m living it. We’ve got to step to the plate now,” he said. “I’m appealing to you to step up to the plate and do it. No more excuses; it’s not political, this is health, this is a health emergency. We need to do it yesterday.”
COVID-19 has hit Wyoming, and it has hit it hard. We are now seeing the surge in cases many of us predicted months ago. Our wide-open spaces and our small populations do not protect us from it — it is a virus, and it doesn’t care who you are, where you are from, what your politics are, or how old you are.
Hand washing is important — now and always. Distancing is important. And masks are also important. But so is contact tracing. It is a fact that you can contract COVID and be asymptomatic. You can be in contact with someone who is positive and not have any symptoms or know that you have it. This is why contact tracing is done, and quarantines are suggested.
On Nov. 6, a Wyoming Department of Health release stated: “Contact tracing involves calling people who have tested positive to find out about their activities and also sometimes potential close contacts so they can take action to help prevent further spread of the virus.
‘With this pandemic and with other diseases, we consider contract tracing to be one of our most important strategies to slow and limit the progress of a virus,’ said Dr. Alexia Harrist, state health officer and state epidemiologist with WDH. ‘Overall, it can help protect you and your family and friends from illness and can support your community’s efforts to keep schools and businesses operating.’”
The release continued: “Recent dramatic increases in Wyoming’s case counts have made it challenging for state and county public health representatives to handle the volume of contact tracing calls and related activities as quickly as they were able to at earlier points.
‘To make the most of our available resources we will focus now on following up in a timely manner with residents who have tested positive. Close contacts may also receive calls at times from public health representatives, but only in certain priority situations and settings,’ Harrist said. ‘Because not everyone who is identified as a close contact should expect a call from a public health representative for now, we have worked to offer easy-to-understand information available to help people know what to expect and what they should do,” Harrist said.”
According to a post by Kohlbrand, Weston County Public Health cannot keep up with contact tracing notifications. So, she tells us, it is up to us as individuals who care about our community to do our own contact notifications. This is unfortunate but I know it’s nearly impossible for Public Health to keep up with the rising rates of infection here, without more staff. 
This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, people. Out in public, whether it’s in Newcastle or our nearby communities in South Dakota where positive COVID cases are also hitting all-time highs, I rarely see anyone wearing masks or social distancing. 
Look, I don’t want to lose my brother, who’s had part of a lung removed due to cancer, or my mother, who is elderly, just because other people don’t have the courtesy to do something as simple as wear a mask or keep distant. I don’t want to unknowingly contract COVID because someone in the community thinks it’s not real and I bring it home.
It’s not a political statement; it is simply caring for others in your
community.
Throughout the last decade and a half that I have been in Weston County I’ve seen how this community takes care of each other with benefits, charities and outreach. You are the first to step up to give money for someone struggling with cancer bills. You are the first to provide food for those less fortunate. You are the first to lend a hand to help community seniors. You are the first to offer help — so why not do the same when it comes to our health?
When you wear a mask, it’s not so much that you are protecting yourself, you are protecting me, you are protecting your friends, your neighbors, the person in line behind you who is going home to their loved one who may have immunity issues. 
If you get COVID-19 will you just have the sniffles? Will you just have flu-like symptoms? Possibly. Can it kill you? Can it kill your loved one? Yes, it could. Why not do what we can to prevent it, so we don’t have to find out which one it will be.
It’s not about living in fear. It’s about living responsibly. It’s about doing what you can to help yourself and others. You are the first to step up when helping your neighbors, why not be the first to keep the numbers from rising in our community. It’s here, folks. This is not a myth or something that happens in other places. It’s here. Let’s do what we can now.
I ask everyone, remember to social distance. Wear the mask if you can’t. And please, please, now and always, remember to wash your hands!