MINNEAPOLIS — While the COVID Emergency may be over the threat of a similar pandemic is still a realistic possibility. That is the message we’re getting from leading Minnesota Health experts.
“And my best science says that this wasn’t the big one, the big one has yet to come. Dr. Michael Osterholm doesn’t mind if you call him a doomsayer. As the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, he wants to talk about preparedness,
“The real challenge we have in terms of responding to the pandemic is we have just cut back so much in terms of our health care resources,” said Osterholm. “We’ve eliminated over 40% of the pediatric beds in the state in the last five years.”
Osterholm also believes that the trust in public health and its messaging during a health crisis is shattered. Perhaps fittingly, Minnesota state health officials point to communication and particularly persuasive communication as their top challenge for the next pandemic
“What we were learning about the virus was changing so rapidly and so the guidance we were receiving was changing and it’s hard to communicate that rapidly to the public,” MDH’s Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response Cheryl Petersen-Kroeber said. At the time guidance called for lockdowns, mask mandates, and closures of schools and businesses to minimize the spread.
“The decisions that were made did save lives, I truly believe that.” Said Petersen-Kroeber, who thinks In a future pandemic, “everything will be looked at as on the table again.”
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One big difference would be that currently in 2024 Minnesota has a warehouse full of PPE ready to go in case of emergency.
“It will be to make sure that we don’t see a collapse in the health care systems.
Dawn Remaliah has her own small-scale version of a PPE supply. COVID changed the way she thinks about life when the virus put her brother Chris in the hospital for more than 200 days in 2020. Chris died last year at 53-years-old. His quality of life never returned after his bout with COVID.
“When he first got out, he really couldn’t move at all 180 degrees from what he was prior to COVID,” said Remaliah. So Dawn says she can’t take any virus lightly and would closely follow future pandemic precautions.
“I don’t really live in fear but I think I’m just cognizant being really thoughtful of the risk that’s out there now,” said Remaliah. “Which I never really considered before.”
If the challenges going forward are communication and resources like hospital capacity and staffing, experts say the medical response to COVID was as good as can be expected.
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“It was simply amazing that we did have the vaccines we did within a year,” said Osterholm. “And that is a remarkable accomplishment.
State health officials say you can plan, you can drill, but none of that can ever be more than just a framework.
“We’ve had staff who during preparedness time are like, “Oh my gosh, I want it to be cut and dry and black and white.” Petersen-Kroeber explained. “You’re not going to get that in this discipline.”
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