- From contact tracing to other
trends in the fight against
coronavirus, Dr. Ryan
Westergaard, Wisconsin State
Epidemiologist, monitors
the pulse of what is happening
across the state.
As Wisconsin lurches forward
with reopening, he will play
a pivotal role in Wisconsin's
approach in the coming weeks.
And Dr. Westergaard, thank you
for joining us again this week.
- I'm glad to be back. Thank
you.
- What are the numbers of
positive cases and deaths
trending like right now?
- Well, today -- every
day we report the sort of new
updated numbers that get
reported to us from the
previous day.
Today, there were 512
new positive cases, just over
10,000 new negative case
results and an additional
11 deaths reported.
So these numbers are in line
with what we've been seeing on
average in the past week
and a little bit higher than
they have been compared to,
say, two weeks ago.
- So what explains that because
I know that during a midweek
briefing, you said that with
599 new
positive cases day over day
and then the largest number of
deaths in a single day
at 22 on Wednesday,
you said that there are more
people in the community now
than there were two weeks ago
that had the infection.
Is that a measure of
more testing or something
else?
- Well, it is true that we're
doing more testing overall.
In a given day, we're doing
10,000 new tests.
So the chances that we will
capture much higher proportion
of the people who are infected
is definitely, is definitely
possible.
And it might be just that we're
testing more people.
But there's a couple other
sources of information that are
also slightly
trending in the wrong direction.
The number of hospitalizations
is higher than it was two weeks
ago. And as you mentioned, the
number of deaths overall.
So we, you know, we don't have
perfect information to know the
true status.
But when we look at these-- a
couple different ways of
looking at it, it looks like
the level of community
transmission in Wisconsin is a
little bit higher than it was a
couple of weeks ago.
- So does that mean that
ending the safer-at-home
order has something to do with
this? Is this what is happening
now?
- Well, as you know,
in public health and really all
of science, it's really hard to
say that one
occurrence definitively caused
something else.
When we're talking about
something like an epidemic,
there's many different factors
that determine this:
the size and the speed
of community transmission.
So we can't pin it on any
one thing.
But we do know that the virus
is transmitted from close
contact between people.
So if there's a sort of
a relatively low
level of transmission in the
community, as more people
interact closely
without protections of
social distancing and masks,
the chances are that the risk
of transmission will be higher.
- So what goes through your
head when you see images
like those from Lake Geneva
over the Memorial Day weekend
with people really not social
distancing or
wearing masks and very
tightly crowded?
- Well, goodness, a lot of
things. So I'm from
Lake Geneva. I grew up in
Walworth County.
So when I see those
images, I mostly feel sort of a
sense of purpose and mission.
These are my people
and I feel really challenged
to, you know-- how
to
know are we doing everything
we can? Am I doing everything I
can to help our team in
public health, in our health
care collect the right
information,
communicate information in
the right way that people know
what they need to know to stay
safe.
Because when I see that people
are-- people are living their
lives, people are doing what
all people in the world do,
which is trying to be happy and
live a full life.
And I think we in public health
want to-- that's what our goal
is for people to do that and to
not have to think about us in
public health.
But I think the success is
going to really be how well we
can do those things.
How well can we say that we're
really in this together.
And the health care teams, the
public health teams and the
community, we really all need
to feel aligned and have
the same mission.
And so I feel like, you know,
from sitting in a place where
we're working in public health
is how do we support people to
keep them safe and help them do
the things that they love to
do. That's really our goal.
- So you see those images.
Do you feel as though people
are ignoring the message
that you relay?
Day after day, week
and month after month?
- That's-- it's hard to know.
Yeah, I think people hear the
message that there is
a risk in the community,
but I also think that, that
people are smart enough to see
that the levels are relatively
low and they make, they make
decisions.
The thing that I think is hard
for people to understand
is that the things that we're
doing now in the summer
ideally is going to help us
drive the epidemic to a small
enough level
that when respiratory virus
season picks up, when flu
starts circulating, and when
more people are getting colds,
we really want to feel like
we're in a good position.
That we know where all
the coronavirus cases are and
know how to contain them.
If we don't do that, there's
a-- and the risk is that
Covid-19 spreads in a similar
fashion as corona-- I'm
sorry, as seasonal influenza,
we could really be in pain in
this situation for having a big
surge.
So I think that people
understand, you know, how how
the virus is transmitted.
But I feel like we need to do a
better job communicating
is how important it is
for us to shrink this epidemic
as small as we possibly can
right now to be prepared
for, you know, four to six
months down the road.
- So should there be that
surge in four or six months
down the road,
is Wisconsin better
prepared than we were
when this first started?
- Oh, yes, yes, definitely so.
So the two biggest
tools that I think we have that
we didn't have two months ago
are the ability to test a large
number of people.
Now, it's not as high as -- you
know, it's not -- we're probably
not at the capacity where we
test every single person
who has any symptom
on that list, which can be, you
know, sore throat, headache.
You know, if we really wanted
to test everybody with those
symptoms, we would probably
still have some space to go for
testing. But we've made many,
many strides in getting test
capacity.
The other thing that was really
critically important and
different a couple of months
ago was the shortage of
personal protective equipment.
Our hospitals now feel that
they are not in a crisis
situation with masks.
There's still a shortage.
We're still reusing N95
masks in ways that we didn't
typically.
But we're not necessarily
postponing needed care
because of that.
So we're not exactly where we
want to be, but clearly in a
much better position of being
ready than we were, say, two
months ago.
- All right, we'll leave it
there. Dr. Ryan Westergaard,
thanks very much.
- Glad to be here.