About 1/3rd of the 08/04/2021 Common Council meeting was taken up with an update and discussion about Covid-19.
Interim Health Office Sonja Jensen started out by providing a brief update. There has been a bit of an increase in cases of Covid in the community over the last few weeks. Appleton’s 2-week burden was now in the “High” category, a level it had not been at since April. Appleton’s trajectory was also increasing; it was at 11 total cases a couple weeks ago, then up to 42, and then to 70. She noted that this increase was happening across the state and throughout other parts of the country.
The city also currently has what is considered a “substantial” community transmission rate which the CDC defines as a 7-day total of cases per 100,000 people of between 50 and 99.99. Appleton was at 93.
Mayor Woodford said that they shared an update with the community, the Council, and city employees regarding the city’s plans to respond to the updated guidance from the CDC. The city was affirming the CDC’s recommendations for the use of face coverings in indoor public settings, which meant that, within city facilities, they will be using face coverings while the community is experiencing substantial or high transmission rates. That went into effected 08/05/2021.
He then stated, “Just before we get to questions, I just want to note that it’s frustrating to be back in this place. It’s frustrating to be putting masks on again after a time when we weren’t using these face coverings–we didn’t have these things on our faces. And just like to share that with you all that I share in that frustration, and take no pleasure in where we find ourselves as a community. But I just want to say that I appreciate the fact that as a community we have been through an extremely challenging time, and it is wrenching to find ourselves sort of cast back into that when I think we were all under the impression that we were making our way out. And I remain optimistic; I think there’s a lot of cause for optimism, and we have tools are our disposal that we didn’t before. Our hope is that the hospitalizations don’t follow, that the deaths don’t follow, that those adverse outcomes don’t follow. So, I just wanted to share that with you, that this is challenging and I recognize that, and you’ve heard me say this before but I think it’s important that we continue to be kind to one another and understanding. If we lose that, then I really don’t know what we’ve got.”
He then opened things up for question.
Alderperson Michael Smith (District 10) wanted to know if they would be going back to using Zoom and Microsoft Teams as a requirement instead of an option or request.
Mayor Woodford answered no. As he stated in the message he shared with the alderpersons and city staff, the CDC guidance does not address suspending in person activities in indoor settings but instead simply adds the use of masks in those setting. They will not be changing anything from an internal operating perspective for the city, and the Council already approved an ordinance allowing for remote participation in its meetings, so that option remains available and no changes are required on that front.
Alderperson Smith had a question for Interim Health Officer Jansen. His understanding was that Delta was Covid-19, so he wanted to know, when they were talking about Covid-19, were the talking about the original Covid that we have gone through over the last year or were they talking about Delta separately. How were they looking at this current Covid?
Interim Health Officer Jansen said that was a good question. She then clarified that the virus that causes covid-19 is the SARs-CoV-2 virus. The Delta variant is a variant form of the SARs-CoV-2 virus. Both the Delta variant and the original SARs-CoV-2 virus cause the disease Covid-19. Delta is the predominant form of the virus in Wisconsin right now, per the state lab, and throughout the country.
Alderperson Smith wanted to clarify if the current Covid numbers were related to the Delta variant or were they Covid-19 numbers. [I took him to be wanting to know if the current numbers were due to the Delta variant of if they were caused by the original form of the virus.]
Interim Health Officer Jansen said the numbers were the number of people who tested positive for Covid-19, and according to the state lab, those cases were predominately causes by the Delta variant of the virus that causes Covid-19.
Alderperson Smith said he was still confused because his understanding was that the Delta variant came from Covid and is less dangerous in the grand scheme of things than original Covid-19 was, based on what he heard from listening to the CDC and the administration. It was very confusing to know when people were talking about Covid-19 which we experienced last year and the Delta variant which, they are now saying, if you’ve been vaccinated you don’t have to worry about; it’s the people who are not vaccinated who run the risk.
Mayor Woodford asked Interim Health Officer Jansen to clarify that and thought it was important for people to understand what was happening with the Delta variant and what was being observed about it.
Interim Health Officer Jansen said that the Delta variant of the SARs-CoV-2 virus which causes Covid-19 is a much more contagious form of the virus which is why it’s spreading so rapidly around the state and the country as it did in other parts of the world. She stressed that the Delta variant was the same virus; it has just undergone some changes to make it more efficient because that’s what viruses do. Viruses try to find a way to infect more people, and the Delta variant is the variant that is circulating primarily in the country right now.
Mayor Woodford asked her if, when she said it was more efficient, she meant it spread more quickly, but in terms of illness what were the effects of the virus? Where the health outcomes for the Delta variant any different from previous variants?
She answered that they were always learning and they didn’t know everything about it right now, but the health outcomes for the Delta variant were the same. It still caused Covid-19.
Alderperson Smith said this was a very confusing time. The director of the CDC will tell you if you’ve been vaccinated you don’t have to worry and can go on with your daily life, whereas if you haven’t been vaccinated you have to be cautious and maybe wear a mask and take other precautions. The administration will say one thing and “I mean every day they’re flipping on something, and science is supposed to be science and medicine is supposed to be medicine, but I begin to question what is leading the charge for this because I know Covid. I’ve worked with people that had Covid last year, but if I believe what Delta is, it spreads like the flu and like chickenpox. It’s a very fast spreader, from everything I have heard it’s not–you don’t have the same serious concerns as you would the original Covid-19.” He wanted to know if the statistics would separate out who was infected with the original Covid-19 virus and who was infected with the Delta variant.
Interim Health Officer Jansen said they were the same virus; Delta was just a variant or new mutation of the original virus. She agreed that it could be very confusing, but it was causing the same illness. The only difference that they know of right now is that the Delta variant of the virus was more contagious and was spreading more rapidly.
Alderperson Kristin Alfheim (District 11) wanted to know of the 112 cases Appleton had had over the previous two weeks how many were in people who were partially vaccinated, fully vaccinated, or not vaccinated at all.
Interim Health Officer Jansen said that, unfortunately they do not have that data at the local level, but the state does collect it.
Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) asked what the city’s current vaccination rate was and was told that 52.1% of Appleton’s residents were fully vaccinated and 54.8% were at least partially vaccinated.
He wanted to know where people could go to get tested and said he had been asked about that but wasn’t sure how many testing sites were left.
Interim Health Officer Jansen said there were a number of testing sites throughout the community. People could get tested at their primary care provider, and many pharmacies also provided testing. She said the health department usually directed people to go on the Wisconsin Department of Health Services which has a website that tells users all of the different sites they can get tested at.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) wanted to know, since Appleton had substantial community spread, where they again working with community business leaders, the school district, faith communities, and health organizations, to have a coordinated response.
Interim Health Officer Jansen answered that they continue to work with their community partners, including the school districts and businesses, giving them guidance, letting them know the current burden and transmission rates in the community, and just being there as a resource for any questions they might have.
Alderperson Joe Martin (District 4) disagreed with the information Interim Health Officer Jansen had given regarding locations to be tested. He had talked over the phone earlier that day with multiple locations. Although he would be able to get tested the next day at his family clinic, there were no drug stores doing Covid-19 testing at this time. They might change, but currently they were not conducting testing.
Neither the mayor nor Interim Health Officer Jensen had heard about that, but the health officer said that was something they could check into to make sure that there are enough resources in the community for people to get tested.
Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2) wanted to know, in light of the fact that the emergency operations team was no longer operating, what impact that would have on how the health department was preparing for the next couple of months.
Mayor Woodford said that they were working with an internal team and in fact had just had a meeting earlier that day to ensure coordination across all departments. They’re continuing to evaluate the situation. If they need to reactivate an emergency operation center, they won’t hesitate to do that, but at this time the city is operating within its existing structures as an organization (as opposed to having an emergency operations team), and they are still able to respond appropriately to what’s happening in the community and to what the needs are on the ground.
He reiterated that they wouldn’t hesitate to reactivate the emergency operations team if needed. An emergency operation center could facilitate greater efficiency in deployment of resources, but at this time the city was operating normally.
Alderperson Meltzer said that with the Delta variant in different parts of the country, some hospitals are becoming overwhelmed again. It was somewhat confusing trying to follow whether it was just unvaccinated people being hospitalized because it seemed like there were also breakthrough infections of vaccinated people that were also resulting in hospitalizations. Given the vaccination rate in the Appleton community, could we expect things to play out differently that they have in some of those other communities or did we need to brace ourselves and focus on our hospital resources?
Interim Health Officer Jansen said they are looking at that and get updates from the hospital and health systems in the area. Over the previous week there had been a bit of an uptick in people being hospitalized, but from what she had heard both in the Fox Valley area and across the state anywhere from 97-98% of people who are hospitalized are not fully vaccinated.
She said they continue to work together with public health and all the health care systems in the area to see where they are with bed and ICU capacity so that they will hopefully have some early indication if we will experience what some of the areas in the south of the United States have been experiencing. She noted that we do have a little higher rate of vaccination than some of the states that are experiencing high hospitalizations, but she thought we needed to get those rates higher.
Alderperson Alfheim had already asked about infection rates in fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated, and unvaccinated, and Alderperson Smith said he too wanted to know that.
Interim Health Officer Jansen said she could get that information but it would take a little time.
Alderperson Smith also wondered if there were any statistics regarding which vaccinations seemed to be doing a better job in the long run.
Interim Health Officer Jansen said that, so far, what they had heard is that all of the vaccines available in the US are effective against all the variants of the virus that have circulated thus far, including the Delta variant. But being effective didn’t mean that a vaccinated person was 100% guaranteed to not get infected, but it mean that the vaccines prevent more of the serious hospitalization or death that can occur from the virus. She was aware that studies were being conducted on all three of the vaccines—Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson—to see how effective they are, but she didn’t think those studies were completed yet.
With full FDA approval of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines coming up soon, Alderperson Meltzer wondered if there was any comparison between the two and also whether that said anything about the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. For the public’s benefit, the alderperson also asked the health officer to give an explanation of what FDA approval of the vaccines means vs. the emergency use authorization that the vaccines currently have.
Interim Health Officer Jansen said that her understanding was that the path for full FDA approval, as opposed to emergency use authorization, was more a more complete and thoroughly studied approval process. That was not to say that the FDA didn’t thoroughly study everything when they granted the emergency use authorization, but there is a whole process that a vaccine goes through to have full FDA approval and it takes time, often years. She had heard that for Pfizer, and maybe for Moderna as well, they were hoping to have them fully authorized by the end of September if not before which she said would be very good new. She didn’t know the status of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine and where that was at regarding FDA approval.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=873331&GUID=05E94B95-E8A1-4761-82D5-5668A4FB8932&Options=info|&Search=
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