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Veterans Commission homes continue to fight coronavirus, 109 veterans dead since Sept. 1

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St. Louis Veterans Home

The Missouri Veterans Commission’s Veterans Homes continue to fight COVID-19, and according to spokesman Jamie Melchert, they are continuing daily testing using PCR and antigen testing; training on the proper use of PPE and enhanced PPE; cleaning and disinfecting and enhanced training in these areas; infection control inspections and additional training; additional supervision, including from central office leadership.  The commission’s homes are also using medical staffing from the VA and Missouri Disaster Medical Assistance Team (MO DMAT-1).

Nursing homes in the Midwest have seen dramatic increases in cases and deaths in past two weeks.

 

 

A total of 109 veterans in seven MVC homes have died due to COVID-19 from September through Nov. 18, as nursing homes across the Midwest have seen dramatic increases in cases and deaths in the past two weeks. About two-thirds of the COVID-19 deaths in Missouri’s nursing homes have happened in the same time frame. The St. Louis Post reported that as of Nov. 8, the virus has killed 1,680 residents, 263 more than just the previous two weeks.

Armstrong Teasdale corporate law firm began conducting an independent investigation of Missouri’s Veterans Homes on Oct. 12, at the request of Governor Mike Parson.  A final report has not been released, but according to Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, who oversees the commission, air flow systems were part of the challenge.

Kehoe emphasized that the state’s veterans homes suffer some of the same challenges that other long-term care facilities do.

“It’s a vulnerable population,” Kehoe said. “You have employees and vendors in those homes that actually go out and maybe have another job, or go out to their families and could contract the virus and bring it back in.”

Veteran deaths by facility between Sept. 1 and Nov. 18, 2020:

  • Cameron 37
  • Cape Girardeau 29
  • Mexico 5
  • Mt. Vernon 9
  • St. James 22
  • St. Louis 1
  • Warrensburg 7

 

 

Missouri issues public health warning for local governments to implement, plus travel advisory

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compiled by Brian Hauswirth and Ashley Byrd

Missouri’s governor has issued a statewide public health warning because of the continued increase in new COVID cases statewide. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) says there have been 27,358 new COVID cases in Missouri in the past week, which is an average of 3,908 new COVID cases per day.

The DHSS new COVID-19 advisory provides expectations for communities, with three action plans for counties based on positivity rates. Counties with a PCR 7-day positivity rate of 15 percent or above are advised to limit social group sizes to ten or less, and masks are advised in all offices and businesses where social distancing isn’t possible. In counties with a PCR 7-day positivity rate of 10 to 14 percent, counties are advised to limit social group sizes to 25 or less, and that offices and businesses with more than ten people should have masks. For counties with a PCR 7-day positivity rate of five to nine percent, social groups should maintain six feet of social distance.

READ 11-19-2020 Public Health Advisory

The advisory is simply that, however, a set of recommendations to counties and not an order, Missourinet confirmed with DHSS. The consequences of not complying are, as the White House Coronavirus Task Force describes, the exponential spread of the virus and the overburdening of health care systems.

Parson explained that this puts restrictions in the hands of mayors and counties instead of his office because he believes in local control, with “citizen input.”

“Government’s not going to mandate everything you need to do in your lives, nor do I want government to mandate, you don’t need that right now. You just need to take it upon ourselves to make tough decisions, wise decisions, and to slow the spread,” the governor said Thursday. “We don’t want to be like these other states around us. To be able to protect our economy, to be able to protect our lifestyle, we have to take action.”

The Parson administration has also issued a travel advisory for Thanksgiving, urging Missourians to minimize travel outside of the state and to wear a mask and practice social distancing.

 

Gov. Parson COVID-19 briefing Nov. 19 : A new public health warning is coming for the entire state of Missouri (VIDEO)

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Governor Mike Parson announced he will be issuing new COVID-19 guidance to local governments, “a public health warning for the entire state of Missouri. He says it will stress the importance of wearing a mask. Instead of a issuing a statewide mandate, he and the state health director are leaving the choice to city and county governments “to encourage them to take some sort of action to make this curb [in COVID-19 numbers] happen.”

“But at the end of the day, I’m going to stress to you again, as many people out there would like to say it’s government’s responsibility — it’s not,” Parson added.

White House Coronavirus Task Force: The spread in Missouri is exponential and unyielding

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The latest report from the White House Coronavirus Taskforce says Missouri is in the red zone for test positivity, indicating a rate at or above 10.1 percent, with the 7th highest rate in the country. Among their Nov. 15 recommendations:

“The spread in Missouri is exponential and unyielding with hospitalizations increasing week over week. Increases from the past two weeks correlate with Halloween and related activities. With Thanksgiving and upcoming holidays, Missourians must understand the COVID-19 situation statewide.

With all counties in the red zone and over 50% of nursing homes with at least one positive staff member, mitigation and messaging needs to be further strengthened as other states have done. Effective practices to decrease transmission in public spaces include limiting restaurant indoor capacity to less than 25% and limiting bar hours until cases and test positivity decrease to the yellow zone.”

Review Missouri Nov. 15 report  obtained by The Center for Public Integrity

Missouri Senate postpones session; House postpones new member bus tour

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The Missouri Senate portion of a special legislative session is postponed. Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden announced this first on Monday morning via Twitter:

Rowden said the decision “was not made lightly.”

Missourinet confirmed with Senate President Pro Tem that there are members and staff with COVID-19.

Some senators were also busy over the past week with official gatherings and other rallies, including a pro-President Trump gathering inside the Capitol. 

House freshman will have to wait to take their statewide bus tour.

Missouri House Speaker Designee Rob Vescovo’s statement about this component of the new House member orientation:

“Out of an abundance of caution and in an effort to protect the health and well-being of members, staff and the general public, we have decided to postpone the two-week statewide bus tour for newly-elected House members. The tour is an incredibly important learning opportunity that gives new members first-hand experiences with many of the programs and facilities around the state that are impacted by their decisions in Jefferson City. I am committed to ensuring our new members will be able to benefit from this incredible educational experience at a future date when we can conduct the tour in a safe and responsible fashion that doesn’t risk further spread of COVID-19.”

The Missouri House will still hold its scheduled three-day orientation for new members this week in the State Capitol building, with plans to follow CDC guidelines and screenings.

 

 

 

Pfizer V.P. in Missouri optimistic about new vaccine, says “science is winning”

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Pfizer labs in Chesterfield, Missouri are ready to mass-produce a new COVID-19 vaccine as soon as the FDA approves its success rate and safety data.  Pfizer and BioNtech have teamed up to develop a successful mRNA-based vaccine and have reached a 90 percent success rate in its studies so far.

At a press conference with Missouri Gov. Mike Parson Thursday, Vice President of Biotherapeutics Pharmaceutical Science Christine Smith, the site manager for the Chesterfield facility said there is more work to do. Their industry-leading study continues until they get to 164 confirmed cases of the vaccine’s success. The company must provide safety data for the FDA 60 days after giving a second injection to test subjects.

Pfizer V.P. Christine Smith updates media Nov. 12, 2020

Smith said the safety step is critical for the candidate vaccine.

“We’ve not seen any serious safety concerns, I cannot underscore the importance of knowing more about the safety profile of our candidate. We’ll know more about these results in the coming weeks before we submit the file for emergency use authorization. And we are preparing the necessary manufacturing data to submit to the FDA to demonstrate the safety and quality of the vaccine product produced,” she said.

With approval, she says they can start distributing the vaccine by the end of the year, “because we — Pfizer and BioNtech — have already started to make it.”

Missourians would get the vaccine from the Chesterfield facility, which would reduce travel and handling of shipments that must be stored at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit. Read related story.

Smith thanked the 43-thousand participants who enrolled across the world, including “many Missourians.”

“We are one step closer, science is winning,” she said.

 

 

Mizzou classes, exams going online after Thanksgiving

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-from university press releases

Missouri cases through Nov. 8, 2020

The University of Missouri is temporarily shifting most of its in-person undergraduate and graduate courses to remote learning for the last three weeks of instruction, including final exams, following Thanksgiving break.

The move is to help the region manage a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Mun Choi, MU chancellor and UM System president said in a press release, “While our experts say that MU students have not presented a direct burden to the local hospitals because they have not needed hospitalization, we are all are members of the broader community. And as the community strives to gain control of the virus, a temporary thinning of the student population is helpful.”

Boone County alone added 1,101 cases in the past seven days, as compared to having 8,040 total since the pandemic began.

“Having capacity at our area medical facilities, including our hospitals, is an important piece of our plans to ensure student health and safety,” Choi said. “This temporary shift will ultimately support our community and help ensure the right resources are available to support our students.”

The university also announced it will share resources as they are available to support the community’s needs, including contact tracers, case investigators and medical professionals.

Officials plan to open the 2021 spring semester on Jan. 19 with face-to-face instruction.

 

Missouri schools relax COVID-19 quarantine rules based on exposure

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Governor Mike Parson and state education director Margie Vandeven have loosened the guidelines for making students and staff quarantine after exposure to someone with COVID-19, if both people were properly wearing masks.

Vandeven explained at a press conference Thursday:

Missouri Commissioner of Education Dr. Margie Vandeven briefs Capitol reporters in Jefferson (file photo)

“Under the updated guidance, proper mask-wearing may now prevent individuals from being identified as close contacts in K-12 schools that have implemented a mask mandate. This means that if both individuals at school – the person diagnosed with COVID-19 and the person exposed to the positive case – have masks on and are wearing them correctly, the individual exposed does not need to quarantine.”

The governor says this will reduce the strain on school staffing — and keep students in classes. He added that this should ease the burden on parents who work in healthcare.

Governor Parson also brought in a pediatric specialist who support the decision. Dr. Rachel Orscheln, Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Washington University and St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

“Given the high rates of COVID-19 in our communities, it is inevitable that some children and adolescents will test positive,” Dr. Orscheln said. “We also know that some of these children will likely, at some point in their illness, be at school. However, we have learned that in schools where students and staff are always wearing masks and practicing physical distancing, this virus does not spread as easily as it does in other places where these strategies are not always used.”

To view the updated K-12 school guidance, click here.

“Missouri is fully prepared to start vaccinating people in December,” DHSS promises, including transporting long-term care patients

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The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director told Missouri legislators that the state is “fully prepared to start vaccinating people in December” if the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19 is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Randal Williams updated the House Special Committee on Disease Control and Prevention on how a vaccine would arrive and be administered in phase 1 of the plan, which could reach 250,000 of the most vulnerable citizens.

Pfizer is a frontrunner to get Emergency Use Authorization in the novel virus vaccine development and would be distributing the product from its Chesterfield, Missouri facility. That improves the shelf-life of the vaccine, which must be kept chilled at -94F and can only be removed from that temperature four times.  The vaccine will be sent in batches every seven days.

“We’re incredibly thankful it’s in Chesterfield,” Williams told the panel. “I’m very hopeful that we can move through phase one with the Pfizer vaccine alone pretty efficiently.”

Phase one delivers the vaccine to the most vulnerable in the population and those that care for them:

Williams said he is has been speaking with Gen. Gustave Perna, the chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed who is also overseeing the vaccine’s logistics and that he is pleased with the state’s plan.

The department has identified five hospital sites to administer the vaccine but has not yet announced the names as of this posting.

“We’re working with them to see how exactly they would administer to people who are coming in, for instance from long-term care facilities, to receive their vaccination,” Williams said.

Committee Chairman Jonathan Patterson asked, “We’ll have to bus in people from long-term care facilities to get the vaccine?”

“They will have to transport them, we will get them there to get it, yes,” Williams said.

 

Blunt: There are at least four companies with a vaccine — and distribution needs to be funded (AUDIO)

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A COVID-19 vaccine could be approved soon, says Missouri’s senior U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, who has been involved in fast-tracking the process.

“There are about four that are looking good right now and others being developed. Washington University is looking at a vaccine and talking to some partners. It would actually be a nasal spray vaccine similar to the nasal flu shot except in this case putting that vaccine in the part of the body where you’re going to likely absorb the virus,” Blunt told Missourinet.

Blunt says Americans may not have a choice about which vaccine they are offered, but front-line workers and nursing home patients, and the most vulnerable are slated to get it first.

“I’m not sure that every vaccine will be free, it may be true for our state …but everyone who needs a vaccine will get one and people who don’t have coverage will be able to get one for free,” Blunt said.

The vaccines are not actually free as the federal government is buying the vaccines at a low individual rate from the companies it has already partnered with in early research or is contracting with once a drug is approved.

The question now is whether the federal government has the infrastructure and funding it needs to distribute the vaccines.

Blunt, who oversees how HHS gets or allocates vaccine distribution funding, says that $6 billion is “the right number” for national distribution of the drugs and is the figure he’s included in several Senate relief bills so far. He blames Congress for not coming up with the money as vaccine approval nears.

Missourinet asked state health director Randall Williams what it needs to do to pay for distribution across Missouri. He cited federal Health and Human Services Director Alex Azar that it would not cost that much.

Blunt disagrees: “The secretary of Health and Human Services seems to have some sense that there is already enough money out there. That’s not what anybody else has thought. Certainly, if there is no money appropriated to do this, we’re going to find the money and whether that’s money the states already have or money the Department of HHS will have to reposition with the approval of me and other appropriators.”

Blunt says money may be taken away from other federal programs to fund this massive effort.

 

Excerpt of interview with Sen. Blunt and Ashley Byrd