While the CDC allowed everyone to breathe a healthy sigh of relief by reporting vaccinated Americans can forego face masking in many regards, and Michigan’s governor followed suit in lifting the face mask mandate to coincide with federal guidance, local Berrien County healthcare officials today took time out to remind folks that you probably shouldn’t totally ditch your masks just yet due to some mitigating circumstances.
In a Facebook Live update from both the Berrien County Health Department and Spectrum Health Lakeland, officials remind that there are workplace conditions dictated by MIOSHA that will keep face masks in the limelight for at least a while longer.
Spectrum Health Lakeland boss Dr. Loren Hamel admitted lots of folks, including himself, are happy to see the changes, saying, “We’ve been longing for the time where enough folks have been vaccinated that we knew it was effective, that the prevalence of disease within our communities and the number of admissions we had in our hospitals was low enough and safe enough to say we can start returning a little bit more to where life used to be and those conditions are now appearing to occur in most places.” He adds, “The CDC has said if you’re fully vaccinated you no longer need to wear a mask indoors or outdoors and social distancing, in most places is less important. Now, there are a couple of cautions, there are still many workplaces that are indoors and are governed by — controlled by if you will — MIOSHA regulations in the state of Michigan. So it doesn’t mean everywhere, indoors, you can rip your mask off, it depends on where you work, and it depends on what you do. But, it’s really good news that we move toward a little more freedom when it comes to masks and social distancing for those that are vaccinated.”
Turning to the other part of the population, Hamel had this to say, “Now, for those that aren’t vaccinated and you’re outdoors, it appears the risk of catching something outdoors — according to the most recent evidence — says that it’s okay to go without a mask and I expect folks have been doing some of that, anyway, I don’t imagine that’s changed everybody’s behavior as we move to a bit of an honor system. Those of us that are vaccinated don’t have a “V’ stamped on our foreheads and those that are not vaccinated don’t have a sign that says I chose not to have a vaccination.”
Berrien County Health Officer Nickie Britten calls the current state of affairs, “That messy middle that we’ve been talking about in predicting what was going to come this spring and we’re smack dab in the middle of it,” adding, “So, the governor did announce last Friday morning that there would be changes in Michigan epidemic orders in order to reflect the CDC guidance based on the research that Dr. Hamel was describing.” She reports, “Their epidemic orders came out over the weekend that did have the adjustment and there are some exceptions we need to endure,” explaining, “With mask requirements, particularly for fully vaccinated people, there definitely are other rules at play — like MIOSHA — wherein some businesses might have their own plan in some parts of the state, and in parts of the country there are local laws governing mask mandates. We do not have any local requirements for masking or public health orders for masking in Berrien County, but there are some other rules.”
Britten notes, “I personally have seen a lot of businesses that have said, ‘You know what, during this time we still would just like everybody to wear a mask,’ and some of it is that it’s easier for the people who have not been vaccinated to continue to comply with that when there’s just a culture of mask-wearing.”
Britten adds, “There are also some suggestions for families with school-age children or those under the age of 12 that either are not yet eligible for vaccination or the kids just haven’t been vaccinated for whatever reason that the parents of those families, when going out on a family outing, want to still wear masks to, to continue to create that model in that culture of, it’s okay for us to wear our masks, we’re going to continue doing this. So that’s part of the messy middle.”
Britten suggests that a lot of businesses right now, based on some of the technical assistance requests and questions they’re getting at the Health Department, shows that a lot of employers are really just trying to figure out what it all means. She reminds everyone that MIOSHA is still in the process of updating their regulations to align with the current epidemic order, and says, “So right now, MIOSHA still requires employers to require all people to wear masks, leaving us in this place where there’s a little bit of incongruence. I expect over the next few days that will be resolved. There have been statements showing that, as long as folks are showing a good faith effort to comply with the epidemic orders there should not be any violations or hits from MIOSHA, but there are still some of the rules that need to catch up to the recommendation from the CDC that came out last Thursday, and it is in the works.”
As a result of the conflicting messages, Britten suggests, “It’s probably a good rule of thumb for folks wondering, take your mask with you and have it handy. Make sure you’re bringing it with you in the car, taking it to work, wherever you’re running errands.”
At Spectrum Health Lakeland Hamel reports, “We’re still wearing masks in the health care center setting and we’re requiring masks of visitors in the healthcare setting. We’re working to be a little more liberal with visitation throughout this as well, but still have masking needs for now.” He adds, They’re going to remain important to healthcare, and it’s probably useful for more than just COVID, as we’ve had one of the lightest flu seasons in history and everybody’s bringing masks in the healthcare setting where we’re up close and personal, we’re taking care of people who are sick and immuno-compromised using an abundance of caution makes sense, so certainly for now we’ll continue wearing masks and we’re awaiting the MIOSHA guidance and additional data related to healthcare.”
So, folks, the bottom line is masks are not gone forever, and it’s still a good rule of thumb to bring one with you, wherever you’re going.
Regarding case counts in Berrien County, Britten says, “We’re continuing to see really, really encouraging data. Case rates are continuing to decline. We are now at an average of below 20 cases per day being reported to us, which is just phenomenal. These are levels we haven’t seen since early March or last September when we were starting to see levels at about this rate, so I’m really grateful. We definitely made it through that March and April surge that the rest of the state went through, and we have continued to decline at the same time that the state is declining and continue to be grateful that our peak was nowhere near as high as the state’s peak, we came out of that relatively unscathed.”
Britten also reports that Berrien County is also seeing the percent positivity rate decline “as you would expect with declining cases,” adding, “Percent positivity is declining, and we’re seeing that really important decrease in hospitalizations too. It looks like it’s a sustained decrease for now. We’re definitely going to be watching, but there’s a lot of science that’s on our side saying that not wearing masks outdoors and vaccinated people going on without a mask is certainly okay and should not have a huge impact on our cases, but we definitely want all the more to encourage people who might be symptomatic to make sure you’re staying home. If you’re unvaccinated, continue to wear your mask so that we can continue to have this data driving in the direction we want it to be.”
Meanwhile, at Spectrum Health Lakeland, Dr. Hamel reports, “We have an inpatient census of COVID-positive patients dropping to just below 20. Our case positivity rate is running around seven-and-a-half percent. So we’re going to continue with numbers around probably the high teens here, over the next several weeks and that is really encouraging.” Hamel goes on to say, “I would just like to remind people that the overall mortality of folks sick enough to be admitted to a hospital is still running a bit over 10-percent and is a serious number, so if I have 20 in the hospital I expect two of those not to go home to their family and of course, that’s serious and sad.”
Looking at vaccination rates, Hamel says, “We’re grateful that about 46-percent of our population has been vaccinated, but there’s still a lot of vulnerable folks. I assume that most of us — maybe nearly all of us — but most of us over the course of time will either have a vaccine or get the antibodies by getting sick. So while it’s much better, it’s not over and it’s still lethal.”
Hamel urges those on the fence regarding vaccination to reconsider, saying, “If you have not decided to have a vaccine, please talk with us about any concerns that you have. We’re happy to do that with you. Anytime…Health Department…your physician…call Lakeland, we’ll put you in touch with somebody that will have that conversation. If you’ve had the vaccine you can’t shame and blame your way into changing somebody’s mind or heart. You can do that with information, with love and respect, and with kindness by listening and doing the best to influence those around you to help nudge them into the behaviors that we think are the life-saving things that are going to keep them safer and others safer around them. So if you can be helpful with that, we’d really appreciate it.”
Britten closed out the session saying, “Just remember our mitigation measure dials. Right now, we’re really enjoying the fact that there’s more opportunity to not have to think about social distancing and masking in every single setting, and that is a great thing as we’re getting into warmer weather, but just know, there could be a time where maybe we’ll need to dial it up again for a brief period of time. We hope that doesn’t happen. We hope that things continue in the right direction, but let’s enjoy what we have right now.”
