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Baystate Health CEO: 'It Certainly Feels Like A Surge'

Springfield, Massachusetts, Health and Human Services Commissioner Helen Caulton-Harris addresses reporters at the city's weekly COVID-19 briefing.
File photo / Don Treeger
/
The Republican / masslive.com
Springfield, Massachusetts, Health and Human Services Commissioner Helen Caulton-Harris addresses reporters at the city's weekly COVID-19 briefing.

An increasing number communities in western Massachusetts are now categorized as “red,” the state’s highest risk level for COVID-19. There's been a bump in cases statewide, too.

Dr. Mark Keroack, president and CEO at Baystate Health, said a few weeks ago he was concerned the region was on the verge of another surge as the state further loosened economic restrictions. Now, in an interview Tuesday, Keroack said "it certainly feels like a surge" to him.

Mark Keroack, president and CEO, Baystate Health: We've had more than a doubling of inpatients over the last two to three weeks. Although the rate of increase has slowed down over the last week, that's a significant bump.

Adam Frenier, NEPM: We've been hearing a lot about variants in the news lately. Massachusetts has the sixth most cases of the U.K. variant in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I know in the past you've said there wasn't a need to do anything differently in terms of treatment because of the variants. But what would you tell people that are concerned about them?

Well, they certainly are here. They now constitute more than half of the viruses that are typed in various labs, like in Worcester and Boston. And I would stick by my original recommendation that the same things that work against the original virus work against the U.K. variant in terms of masking and social distancing, getting yourself vaccinated, avoiding crowds, etc.

It's worth noting that we do have more variants and we're having more cases. But there are other states in the country that are having just as many variants but are actually seeing a decline in cases. And I assume that's related to their being more aggressive about vaccination or following the public health guidelines.

Not every positive sample is tested for a variant. Is there value in increasing those tests?

Well, I think it's always better to know what's going on, although it is extremely costly to do this kind of typing. There is a way, using some of the initial testing, to sort of have a sense as to whether or not a variant is present, so that you can then go ahead and confirm it. But I do think we as a country are doing less looking for variants than some others are.

According to the latest report from the state, Hamden County trails the other Massachusetts counties in people who are fully vaccinated, at only 15%. And the percentage of people of color in the county with one shot also lags well behind their white counterparts. What needs to be done to increase these numbers?

Well, I think that there has been reluctance among communities of color to consider the vaccine. We've seen it certainly in our own employees. I think that most of the reluctance comes from people having lingering questions about the side effects of the vaccine or how quickly it's come to market.

And so we have embarked on a public information campaign — initially with our own employees, but we're going to be launching one in a couple of weeks when the vaccine becomes available to everyone just so people will have access to all the information they want. And also that they hear it from trusted voices.

I know in Springfield, for instance, they've been trying to set up a neighborhood vaccination clinics. What do you think of that approach?

Oh, I think you need you need to make it easy, for sure. People who are on the fence — or a little bit reluctant — if you make it difficult or make them have to travel a long ways to get the vaccine, that may well make it such that they are going to avoid it altogether.

So making it easy and making sure that people who have gotten the vaccine are willing to speak to their friends and family about the effect on them and how it's enabled them to get back to more routine kinds of activities, I think is going to be our way out of this problem.

Do you believe that, as more people become vaccinated, people who are currently hesitant might go ahead and change their minds?

We are already seeing that in our employees. We've made a lot of effort to set up forums where people could ask questions, post testimonials online of people who have gotten vaccine. And each week we see more and more people getting rid of their misgivings and being willing to come forward.

Adam joined NEPM as a freelance reporter and fill-in operations assistant during the summer of 2011. For more than 15 years, Adam has had a number stops throughout his broadcast career, including as a news reporter and anchor, sports host and play-by-play announcer as well as a producer and technician.
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