- State epidemiologist Dr. Ryan
Westergaard is helping lead
Wisconsin's response to the
pandemic.
Dr. Westergaard, thanks a lot
for joining us again this week.
- Happy to be here.
- So what is the situation
report in Wisconsin now in
terms of spikes in
cases?
- Well, like many areas of the
country, we're seeing a surge
or an increase in cases
statewide.
Compared to this time about
two weeks ago, our daily case
counts are about twice what
they were. So 500 to
600 new cases
per day during
this past week.
- How alarming is that?
- Well, I think the big picture
is quite alarming.
As I'm sure everyone's aware,
there are areas of the country
that are seeing large, large
surges. You know, the southern
states, Florida, Arizona
and Texas are seeing pretty
dramatic,
pretty dramatic increases.
Our curve
is going in the same bad
direction.
And it seems to be driven by
some of the same factors which
are increase in close
contact and social gatherings,
particularly indoors.
We've learned a lot that a lot
of the clusters that we're
detecting in various areas
of the state are driven by
close contact and social
gatherings in restaurants
and bars and so forth.
- How concerning is that,
considering that
UW-Madison, for example,
is poised to
reopen in some fashion to
in-person learning?
- Well, given what we've learned
about what the epidemic can
do, what the virus can do in a
population, I would say
it's very concerning that we
are on clearly the wrong
track.
If the virus continues to
spread, if the level of-- the
level of new cases continues
at the pace that it's on and
starts to reflect some of the
other areas of the country that
are are really burning quite
hot in terms of new cases,
we're going to-- it's going to
translate to a lot of cases and
a lot of hospital-- a lot of
burden on our hospitals.
I think the good news or the
reason for optimism is that the
other things we've learned is
that this is a relatively short
lived infection.
When people become infected,
they don't stay infected for
a long time, within a couple of
weeks. So that tells us we do
have the ability to turn the
corner, to shut down these
transmission chains.
And there's clearly evidence
now shows that there's things
that we can do.
So physical distancing and
wearing masks in public.
If we did this at a high level,
we can really turn the corner
on this relatively quickly.
- People might wonder why
Wisconsin does
not impose
mandate for people
to wear masks as other states
have done?
- Well, it's a great question.
The evidence
has become quite strong.
And this is a change from just
a few months ago where we
were we were-- said with a lot
of confidence that masks
prevent transmission in health
care settings. We've known that
for years.
We didn't know with a lot of
certainty that mask wearing
by the general public would
really have an impact on
transmission in the community.
We now know that it does.
In fact some recent studies
with large numbers of patients
and a large number of countries
have led us to to have quite
a bit of certainty that wearing
masks both protect people from
becoming infected and from
spreading the infection to
other people.
So that's pretty clear.
Now, this is a little
bit in my personal perspective,
is it's not clear to me that
rules and laws are the best
way to encourage people to
wear masks.
As we've seen, there's a lot of
polarization about opinions
related to mask wearing.
So my view as a public
health expert and someone who
who cares about improving
health behavior for the sake of
public health and not really in
the arena of government
and laws, is that what we
really need to lean into is
educating people that now the
science is in.
That masks are one of the most
effective ways to
prevent the spread of
transmission.
And people should wear a mask
not because they're concerned
they're going to get a ticket
or get arrested if they don't,
but because this is one of the
most important things we can do
to stay safe and to keep our
families safe.
- It seems that virtually
everyone now from public
health on up even to
national political
figures and officials
are saying to
wear a mask.
And yet it is so common still
to see people not wearing
masks when they're out and
about.
And I mean, as as the
public health official in the
state of Wisconsin, do you ever
feel like going up to those
people and wagging your finger
at them and telling them how
important you believe that is?
- No, I think that's exactly
the wrong approach.
I think that I think the
approach is to educate and
empower.
And I think we've got science
on our side.
We now know we can we
we have hard evidence that
the risk of transmission goes
down dramatically when people
wear masks.
So I'm very optimistic.
I think it's a matter of time
where that, you know, that
knowledge will be seen
as a source of strength and is
a positive thing.
I think people wagging their
fingers at each other is
entirely the wrong approach.
But the fact that we have
science on our side gives me a
lot of hope that we're going to
continue to have a trend toward
wider adoption of masks.
And I encourage people to
share that same view when
you're communicating with with
colleagues and friends and
family members about masks.
It's like, it's not right or
wrong. It's just it's
objectively a really effective
way to keep ourselves safe.
- We touched on this a little
bit, but as businesses
and schools reopen
or prepare to reopen,
a lot of people have
trepidation about that.
Should they?
- Yeah, I think there's there's
again, a lot of things we've
learned about how to do our
essential activities safely
and sending kids to school is
an essential activity. Just
as we've talked about, going to
get food and grocery is an
essential activity.
It's more challenging because
if schools involve a lot of
children, a lot of people in
close, close contact.
So the challenges are a
little-- it's a little more
difficult to do this safely.
But again, the data that, the
science that we've that we're
that we're seeing about the
effectiveness of mask
wearing and the importance
of distancing-- six, you
know, two meters, one meter,
even three to six feet, seems
to have cut a cut down
transmission quite a bit.
So I think we're you know,
we're benefiting from having
some time.
A lot of science being
generated on how to do these
essential things safely.
And again, frankly, I'm
optimistic that we're going to
be able to do school
and gathering's safely in the
fall. We just have to adhere
to these these evidence-based
prevention strategies that
we're learning about.
- Meanwhile, we're coming into
a very busy holiday weekend.
What is your message to people
in Wisconsin?
- The message is to is to stay
safe. And that means keep
yourself safe and keep others
in your community safe.
And as we've said, there's
simple, everyday
activities that people can do
to stay safe.
If we're going to get together,
if we're going to gather,
outside is better than inside.
In all settings, physical
distance of at least six feet
is critically important at
blocking transmission chains.
And we can wear masks.
They're simple to take on and
off.
You can talk and breathe just
fine with them.
The closer we can get to
mask wearing in public places
being the new normal, I think
we're going to have
a lot of beneficial effects
down into the fall
when respiratory viruses start
spreading a little more
quickly.
- All right, Dr. Ryan
Westergaard. Thanks very much
for checking in with us.
We look forward to checking
with you again.
- Great. Nice talking to you.