LAURIE CLABO: Good afternoon and welcome to
our monthly campus health committee Townhall. My name is Laurie Clabo I'm the Dean of
the College of nursing here at being state and as the campuses cheap health and wellness
officer. Writing you today to members of the campus health committee who are unsure in to
be very familiar to folks who watch us in on a regular basis. During his first is Doctor
Tina Coprah. She is Professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases here
and wait state and corporate medical director. Her research interests around epidemiology
of healthcare associated infections, infection prevention, enzymatic stewardship and
immunization. Teena Chopra is a very valuable member of the health committee. Up next is
Doctor Ramona Benkert. She for academic and clinical affairs in the College of nursing. She
is a leader in the ministration and management of the campus health centre, has been an
adult nurse practitioner for 30 years. Her research interests around medical mistrust
and again, she is integrally valuable member of the campus health committee. I'm grateful to
both Tina and Ramona for being with us today. To get us started, a lot is changing in the city
of Detroit since the last time we talked and just on campus this week.
We have said all along
the campus health committee and the University leadership monitor a number of metrics in our
local area as well as on campus on a weekly basis. We have published a serious– series of triggered
metrics which reached provides us to take a series of actions and we report those triggered metrics,
our testing rates and positivity rates on the canvas Help Center COVID-19 dashboard every
monthly. Weekly data is published by noonish. This week on Monday, the city of Detroit
reached a positivity rate of 16.1% over the previous seven days and that caused us
to do a deep dive, and make a call to the University leadership to talk about
what the appropriate steps are. While it was at the time, the only trigonometric,
to be triggered it says merits our attention so you saw on Tuesday, a message from President
Wilson to the campus community that is posted on the coronavirus website and the link has
just been provided at the bottom of the screen. Moving some nonessential campus functions to a more remote operation, where it is prudent
and possible.
This is simply a step to try to reduce the volume of people on campus for a
period of time, until city rates stabilize. As of today that ten-day positivity rate in
the city of Detroit has dropped considerably to 12.1%. We are still following cases on campus
which are higher they have been in the past, and the positivity range on campus which is
also higher than it has been in the past. Both things we anticipated, as a result of Thanksgiving
travel, you'll member last time we were all together you can remember that we talked about
the anticipated spike at Thanksgiving and we have seen that. But we are going to keep a
very close eye on that data moving forward. Lots of questions about commencement and I do just
want to emphasize for students who are listening to us today, that the on-site commencement planned
for December, for mid-December, are likely to occur, after this Bob has subsided we inspect
that it will subside long before then, and we have taken a variety of measures to make sure that
those ceremonies are sitting.– Safe.
A little smaller and shorter than usual and a variety of
mitigation methods including making sure that guests attending commencement are vaccinated. We
have every reason to believe that commencement is going to go ahead as planned. We are encouraged
and optimistic that it will happen this plan. So don't be worried about commencement. We know how
important that event is in a student's career. So, we are full of questions today and a lot of them centre around booster
shots. So I'm going to start with you Teena Chopra. In the first question we have
been asked is is there any data on differences in side effects or negative reactions from the
different boosters? DR. TEENA CHOPRA: Thank you for having me today that is a great question. The
side effects from boosters are going to be exactly very similar to what effects you had with your
primary series.
With the first or the second those so you're going to react very similarly to how
you did with the primary series and they are very much limited to pain, fatigue, slight
beavers, chills, which will last for a day or so and then will be back to normal so they are
very similar to the same reactions. LAURIE CLABO: Thank you. I'm going to keep you here. Next one
is related to that. Can I skim my booster? Or should I wait until there's a new booster which
is guaranteed to work against the emerging new variant.
DR. TEENA CHOPRA: Another great
question. I would highly recommend, as an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist
that you get your booster shots because there's evidence that there is waning immunity with the
primary Terry's vaccines over time and we have seen from data from the US, from other countries,
that there is waning immunity. That is why we are seeing the Delta variant here Detroit and in
this particular search, even in vaccinated individuals were more than six months out of
their vaccination, leave vaccinated individuals. So I would highly recommend that you take your
booster, even if we are seeing omicron variant. I was doing at the booster, even if we are not
sure with her about the booster is going to be effective against the variance.
We know that these
boosters and these vaccines are very effective against preventing severe disease and death and
serious syllables– illness and hospitalization from COVID. I would not skip the booster. LAURIE
CLABO: So the next question, we ask you to get your crystal ball and predict the future. Which is
not anyone's favourite activity but do you think it is likely that we are going to need annual
COVID-19 boosters? DR. TEENA CHOPRA: I think the answer to that is yes. Because you know the
fact that globally, there is such a high amount of vaccine inequity and the virus is getting a lot
of chances to adapt and to develop more variance. The adaptation is happening because not all of us
are vaccinated.
The entire globe is not vaccinated and since the virus is adapting, we also have
to adapt and our adaptation is getting the vaccination. So, to answer your question. Yes, we
may require an annual COVID-19 shot. Which will also, maybe, a newer shop will be developed
with other variance in it that may happen. We are already hearing that from (indiscernible).
And it may be required or it may be present, because of the variance it may be very useful
for us as a society to move on with life. LAURIE CLABO: I'm sorry. It would be a meeting
if somebody didn't do it so today is me. One of the questions is one about teenagers who
are vaccinated last spring. And he thought that they will need to get a boosters in? DR. TEENA
CHOPRA: That is another great question. I would wait for CDC recommendations and more data on that
age group.
As of now, according to CDC adults more than 18 years of age if you're more than six
months out of your original vaccination, they recommend a booster because there's emerging data
on waning immunity in those age groups as well as the ages of concern as an epidemiologist I would
say yes, they may required eventually, but we don't have that recommendation as of yet from
CDC because we also need more data to back that recommendation. LAURIE CLABO: And when we talk
about the duration of immunity and the time since initial vaccination, I think we often forget about
the J&J. And CDC recommends now for adults 18 and older, that they get a booster two months after
the single dose of JJ. So two months after JJ at six months after one of the MRNA vaccine.
DR.
TEENA CHOPRA: That is correct and that you are bringing that up because some of us have had the
J&J vaccine so for us the recommended duration is two months and those that have had the mRNA
six months after so you are absolutely correct. LAURIE CLABO: Next question, I will take
this on. About the new omicron variant. Is it this or Delta that is occurring– pushing this
current Bob in Detroit right now or is this search worse than others we have had so far? What
we know about what is happening on campus is that we are seeing the circulating variant
is almost 100% Delta variant. You're not seeing not detected the presence of omicron on campus
but there is every reason to suspect that now that this variance is in the United States, it
will eventually make its way to Michigan and very likely make its way to our campus.
But there
is no indication at the moment, that omicron causes more serious disease and, in fact, some
early demon that suggests symptoms are even less severe than those who have become sick as a result
of the Delta variant. Anything I missed it not? Ramon? Tina? JADA JACKSON: The only thing
to mention is that we do know that omicron is highly contagious and transmits much easier
as compared to Delta. Again, this new variant, I would highly recommend that we get our boosters
also the patient has been diagnosed with omicron in California have received the two shots
of the vaccine but not the booster. So it can escape immunity as well.
So it is very
important that we get our booster. LAURIE CLABO: Great. Next question is will the new variant
show up on our PCR test? And the answer to that is yes. We do variance analysis on subsample
of all of the PCR tests that we do on campus and that would be the same in any other location
where someone would have PCR variant analysis and the married analysis will
detach the omicron variant. Doctor Benkert. People are thinking
about holidays and travel how scared should we be this holiday season that we
appear to be in the middle of fourth wave RAMONA BENKERT:
My guess is that is on the mind of many people in the audience right now. And also
this volatility and uncertainty that creates fear and anxiety in everyone, but I think arming
yourself with accurate information is really the first step to help reduce anxiety and fear,
particularly driving the holidays and any plans you might have with friends or family.
As
Doctor Chopra already mentioned, viruses mutate. Knowing mass and how this virus is acting
is really no different than other viruses. And I think that we can still continue to do many
of the things that we did in prepping for the Thanksgiving holiday. Wearing masks, getting the
booster as we have said loud and clear already, and making sure… If you are ill or maybe you feel
you are coming down with a cold think it is a cold to really stay away from family gatherings until
those symptoms abate.
So I think we take those smart measures, we can safely perceived with
holiday plans.– Proceed. LAURIE CLABO: And a big difference from holiday season last year that
we have those vaccines available. We are largely vaccinated community here on campus and that
gives us one additional measure of confidence. But you know, I think we have all talked about
the fact that we are all tired of wearing masks and that we are starting to see signs
of mask fatigue and people choosing not to work best in public settings and then, we
often– underestimate even with all of our rapid scientific advancements, the importance
of masking and reducing the transmission of her sorcery– inspiratory born illnesses.
I know that you've been a big proponent of mastering as an adjutants to best bring. DR. TEENA
CHOPRA: I totally agree with Ramon on this point that despite the fact that we are vaccinating and
also to continue testing.
If we are sick we should definitely go and get tested so that we can
get traction for others around us. LAURIE CLABO: Will put in the plug for the campus
Help Center on the people that for members of the Wayne State community there is
no cost for testing at the campus health testing– campus Health Center. If you
think you have the sniffles for allergies, is a good idea to get tested. Schedule an
appointment for a test and also remember that we are testing for the presence of influence
as well at the same time, when we do our PCR test at the campus Help Center.
So important that we
find out whether you have a cold, flu or COVID-19. Ramona, is at home testing reliable enough
to get together with family and friends. RAMONA BENKERT: The rapid testing does not imply–
amplify the testing of the virus. It is less sensitive so if you are deciding to take one of
those one of the things you need to be aware of is that early phase of infection, like it is
the first day that you are feeling sniffles or rhinos it may not be as effective as the
PCR and you get a false negative. There's a difference between the type of testing. Some might
be more accurate than others but roughly they are about 85% sensitive as compared to PCR
which is much higher. I would say if you're getting together with unvaccinated
family and friends, I think it is important particularly if you have symptoms or if the
individuals are unvaccinated that they get tested and preferably a day or so before, and preferably
the PCR versus the rapid testing.
So that would be my recommendation. Use the buy next them for
our indigent testing at the campus Help Center and their mixed sensitivity. It is useful, it is
available and is easy to get over the counter, however I think it is not as sensitive stop
so PCR is your best. Her. LAURIE CLABO: Teena anything to add? DR. TEENA CHOPRA: I totally
agree with Ramona. Some are better than others but the time it was you test is extremely important
and also you know, if you don't have symptoms and you are testing just to make sure that you are
okay, even that may not be variable fight like Ramona mention. LAURIE CLABO: Really really
good you guys. Thank you both. Doctor Benkert will booster shots become part of Wayne's COVID-19
mandate? RAMONA BENKERT: At this time the campus health committee and upper administration have
discussed it and there is no plans at this point to mandate the booster but as you know, just like
what happened this week, we really watched the data very carefully and should the data change,
should CDC or the WHO or any scientific bodies recommended, we need change that but this point
notice not a mandate for the winter semester. LAURIE CLABO: When certain logical question for those of us who have had our first series
is if a blister is available and we have seen the evidence of what a booster dust in
terms of immunity, they choose to skip? Why wouldn't antique it advantage of the
opportunity of is made available.
RAMONA BENKERT: I noticed talked earlier in the community some
people are having challenges finding the booster appointments but you can clearly get
one from Bee Campus hosted for free. Just like the testing and I know that we are
going to take and put the link you can see on the screen shop or on the screen but you can
get the booster at the campus Help Center. There is a link there that you can sign up for an
appointment or you can call vaccine hotline which is 577, 5105 and get an appointment. We are also
going to be offering three booster clinics– free booster clinics. Some people get their boosters
before the holidays so we're just trying to make it clear to the whole campus population
that if you have been vaccinated a booster is a really good idea. I'm getting mine on Monday
at the campus Help Center.
LAURIE CLABO: And getting your booster is a
good time to get your flu shot as well. We talked about that last time, and it is
safe and effective to get both of them together. Let's see.… This is a campus procedure busted. We'll fall
semester finals be held in person or online? Our direction to you is if you are a
student, consult with your faculty member. Some faculty beavers have elected to move some
of their final exams from what was planned as on-campus to an online option and they will be
the best source of information so I would say for every class you are taking, consult with
your faculty member individually to make sure that you note the modality for final exams. And
a related question is about as winter semester. Are we anticipating that campus is going
to have normal operations in January for the winter semester? And the answer is yes.
The
expectation is that winter semester will proceed in the way that academic schedule was posted. So if you are posted to have an impersonal class
it is expected that will begin in person class, and as we have done since the pandemic
began, we will continue to monitor data on campus and the city admitting changes you will
hear large broadcast messages, but we have reason to be optimistic.
So there is an expectation
that whatever modality you signed up for, for January, is the modality that you will have.
Anything to add to that either Ramona or Teena? Will the mask mandate likely be extended
into the January , the winters semester. It's probably pretty likely. We will continue to
watch the data, the word to the ministration is as long as we remain where the CDC is recommending
masks in public spaces and there we know that about three weeks ago the state of Michigan
is issued a mask advisory for public spaces, encouraging folks to wear masks while in public
settings, indoors, we will continue to monitor the data, and transmission drops below substantial
in our region we will recommend that we probably mask mandate as well but we will get there. We
are not there yet. Spring is a very hopeful time. Someone asked about what of the tipping
point metrics about campus focuses on. Those are public and their publicly available
on Wayne.edu/coronavirus. And you can look the metrics they indicate what we do at each level
of tipping point metrics. They are largely about the number of cases in the city, on-campus,
positivity rates in the city, on-campus, compliance with mitigation measures, like the mask
mandate.
And bed capacity. Availability embeds, hospital beds should people need them. That campus
health committee looks at the weekly metrics every Monday, we do follow metrics on a daily
basis but we publish and we look and publish metrics as of Saturday at midnight and we
publish them Monday morning on the campus health Center website. See you can see them there.
I'm going to ask all of us to take a crack at this last question because I think it looks the
way that a lot of people have been thinking. So it went to gives all a chance to talk
about our perspectives on this one. Someone submitted a question that said "I'm feeling a bit
to beaded. What optimism do you have those of us who followed the rules during this pandemic, we
got vaccinated, we practice social distancing, we are still wearing masks. When
are things going to get better?". I think that is really good and
honest question and I really glad that someone asked it.
Going to take
a crack at what gives me optimism and that I'm going to ask my colleagues who are
swearing that me, what gives them optimism. But, for me, I think there are a couple of things.
The first is that boosters are available and that we are seeing that people have significant
immune response to a booster vaccine. The second is the wide availability, now, a vaccine
for children. Who were previously ineligible and so, at this year's holiday tables are
going to be a lot more vaccinated kids that there would have been at summer events
even.
And I think that is a reason for optimism. In the third, for me, I think is that
we are seeing the development of water very promising therapeutics that will help us
move COVID-19 from pandemic to endemic states. Both Merk and Pfizer have requested emergency
use, and they been granted for Merk first. In these home, available pills, to take home
which have substantial impact on, again, reducing hospitalization and mortality in people
with COVID-19, remind me a little bit of and is not a perfect analogy but, influenza and
(indiscernible) as we learn to be a– manage with full therapeutics we believe over time COVID-19
is going to be a less threatening illness in every instance.
There will still be people who
have severe negative effects from COVID-19, the same way that people have severe negative
effects from influenza, but I think that there are many sort converging developments, that give
us real optimism about what the future looks like. So I will ask my colleagues. Teena,? DR.
TEENA CHOPRA: I totally agree with you Lori. I will enter this question philosopher
… With my philosophy I feel positive that all of you are getting your boosters
and masking and talking about getting your boosters and being so mindful and aware
of the campus guidelines as well as the campus… The think that you have put in the campus
health committee is really a thing that gives me optimism. Secondly the scientifically speaking,
what Dean Clabo mentioned, this is not March 2020. This is not, compared to last year's march,
we are in a much better position. More population is vaccinated. A lot of us have travelled
already and have been safe. In addition to that, we have invented therapeutics like the Dean had
mentioned. We have a lot of tools in our toolbox to fight this virus and a lot of tools to prevent
the virus, and on top of that, a lot of funding to do more research and surveillance about these
variants and that's why you note about the variance before it has come to our country.
And
all of these things, I think, are giving us a lot of hope and optimism for the future. LAURIE CLABO:
Thank you. Ramona? You feeling to defeat it? RAMONA BENKERT:
No I'm feeling a lot more optimistic this holiday season than
last year. Last year at Thanksgiving and at the holiday time, my family cancelled everything. We
sort of cites other on Facebook, or excuse me on zoom and did soon but this year at Thanksgiving we
talked with each other about okay who is boosted? Who is getting tested? Who is not and we all are
able to eat together at Thanksgiving, safely, no one has gotten ill and be all had our doses and
even small children were there who were retested and are getting their vaccine soon. So I'm hoping
that this holiday, in December, I will be able to see them all again so it's more of a personal
example, I just feel so much better being close to them having that opportunity.
LAURIE CLABO:
Some at least from a three bus cannot reason to be optimistic. This has been a longer slog
that I think all of us anticipated in March. But we have also, it's astounding we think about
the scientific developments that have occurred, as Teena said and an incredibly short time that
both effective vaccines were developed gold items, administered and now effective therapeutics
beginning to be made more widely available. It is longer than we thought the progress
has been pretty steep curve and there is much to be optimistic about. And I think I'm
actually a point that Teena is set. The safety of this campus has been a result of everyone,
faculty, staff, students doing the right thing. Following mitigation efforts, wearing your
masks, being careful, getting tested, before and after travel, before gatherings. Avoiding
some of those really jampacked public events, and again, plans for investments that are a
little different than they were in the past, but we will be allowed to be in person, safely,
to celebrate our graduates accomplishments. There's lots to be hopeful about. RAMONA BENKERT:
Can I just add I know that we really really want people to get vaccinated that I will say, since
I help with the campus daily strainer, I really feel positive about all those who have made, for
whatever reasons, decision not to vaccinated.
They are being careful. People are wearing masks, they
are protecting themselves with the family so I think everyone is trying to do the best that they
could do in this unfortunate situation we are all in. LAURIE CLABO: I think that is a really good
point. Thank you. I note that we are out of time so I would think Doctor Chopra, Doctor bankers,
thank you all of us for joining us today and continue to submit questions to health committee
and Wayne.edu. Keep your eyes on the coronavirus page on the University website where we list
daily conditions and steely strategies required on campus. We are all in much better
place than we were this time last year and we hope that you and your families have a
safe and wonderful holiday season.
Good luck at the end of the semester to our students,
faculty, staff, happy holidays from all of us..
