Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director Randall Williams Archives

CDC in Missouri Monday to begin landmark COVID-19 study within schools

November 25, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will have boots on the ground in Missouri Monday to begin a first-of-its-kind COVID-19 study within some K-12 schools. Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director Randall Williams says the state pitched the study idea to the CDC.

CDC in Missouri Monday to begin landmark COVID-19 study within schools

He tells Missourinet two groups of students will be tested for COVID-19 over a 30-day period.

“Students who are identified as close contacts at school that are wearing masks. So, if the patient who was identified and the student was identified at school, then in one arm of the study, they can still come to school. Now, they will quarantine when they are at home when they leave school,” says Williams.

The other group being tested are students considered a close contact who are required to quarantine for 14 days, regardless of whether they were wearing a mask.

Teachers will be included in the case and contact investigation.

“The prevailing evidence to date after about eight months is, is that there is a very low risk of catching COVID-19 at school just from proximity if you are wearing a mask,” says Dr. Williams.

Missouri does not have a statewide mask requirement. Earlier this month, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education loosened the guidelines for making students and staff quarantine after exposure to someone with COVID-19, if they were properly wearing masks at school.

Williams did not have information about the number of schools and which schools are involved.

“You need to check a certain number to reach what is called the power to make a conclusion. So, that all is being done by our epidemiologists at the CDC, Washington University, and St. Louis University. They will determine how many people you need to study to make that observation,” Dr. Williams says.

He says the results of the study will be published for the nation’s school systems to see.

Galloway rolls out COVID-19 plan: “A mask requirement is our ticket to freedom”

August 25, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

State Auditor Nicole Galloway has released a plan detailing how she would handle the state’s COVID-19 response if elected as Missouri’s governor. She announced the plan as Missouri closes in on 76,000 positive cases since March, including more than 1,400 coronavirus-related deaths. Galloway is making stops this week in Kansas City, Springfield, St. Louis and Columbia to highlight key points.

State Auditor Nicole Galloway (2019 file photo

In her plan, Galloway says she would call for a statewide mask mandate.

“A mask requirement is our ticket to freedom because it improves our odds that businesses can remain open, schools can return fully to in-person learning, and people can get their jobs back,” she says.

Galloway would have state Health Department data determine the threshold for when K-12 schooling can be fully in-person versus a blended model or 100% online learning. Her plan says a district cannot offer full in-seat learning unless its county case rate is below 10 per 10,000 people.

“Everything depends on the rate of community transmission,” says Galloway. “We can’t get every student back in school until we contain the spread of the virus. Therefore, my strategy on schools is holistic.”

Galloway wants to engage the governors of bordering states and other regional partners to combine purchasing power to boost Missouri’s testing capacity. She cites Maryland, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, and Virginia entering into an interstate compact to buy 3 million rapid antigen tests.

The level of testing Galloway wants to reach is unclear. Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director Randall Williams has said the state has a testing capacity of about 90,000 to 100,000 weekly.

Galloway says she would bring together an “emergency medical task force” with public health experts, hospital administrators and relevant state officials to advise her and offer daily public briefings on COVID-19 and the state’s condition of the virus.

She says the panel would serve as a hub for collecting COVID-19 data, instead of relying on CDC hospitalization data.

“The state should never lose control of its COVID-19 hospitalization data,” she says.

Galloway, a Democrat, faces Republican Governor Mike Parson in November’s election. Parson does not favor a statewide face mask order to help limit the spread of the virus, instead letting that decision fall to local leaders. He points to more than 50% of the cases being in Missouri’s urban areas.

To view Galloway’s full plan, click here.

Missouri leaders brief panel about COVID-19 response efforts

August 12, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

A Missouri House Committee heard Tuesday from state Department of Health and Senior Services Director Randall Williams and K-12 Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven. During a public hearing at the state Capitol in Jefferson City, they briefed lawmakers about the state’s response to COVID-19, its spending of federal coronavirus relief funds, and reopening measures taken by Missouri’s schools.

Missouri Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven

The hearing is the second time the Special Committee on Disease Control and Prevention has met. The first time was in March.

Vandeven says the state’s goal is to get as many school buildings open as possible and as safely as possible. She says students could take a real toll if they miss out on months of in-person learning.

“We’re hearing about an increase in suicides,” says Vandeven. “We’re hearing about just what this long-term social and emotional development, particularly for our youngest learners, the impact that we could see decades from now.”

Representative Lane Roberts, a Republican from Joplin and a former Missouri Public Safety Director, says not all students will be safe at home if they are doing online classes.

“When they’re out doing other things, they’re engaging in activities that in my opinion, based on some experience, that those activities generate more injury and death than they would suffer from the virus,” says Roberts.

Vandeven says parents and school leaders should consider both sides of the risk.

“If you go back to any kind of time frame when they are out of school, you do see increases in some of the activities that you are talking about,” she says.

According to Vandeven, the state has distributed as much federal coronavirus aid to Missouri schools as it can at this time. She says Missouri’s local governments can also use their own federal aid to support school-related health measures.

State Representative Kip Kendrick, D-Columbia, passionately encouraged all Missouri school leaders to require students and staff to wear masks.
“For the life of me, I cannot understand why it’s not 10%,” says Kendrick. “If we want to do in-seat, if we want to do this correctly, why is it not 100%.”

Vandeven says the state left the decision up to local leaders to make.

“We’ve certainly provided guidance that talks about the importance of wearing masks,” says Vandeven. “But particularly, if you’re within six feet, we’ve certainly emphasized the importance of that. But those are local decisions.”

“With all due respect, should this be a local decision on masks?” asks Kendrick.

Missouri Health and Senior Services Department Director Randall Williams

“Well, I’ll ask you all that because this is Missouri and we’ve typically always prided ourselves in being a local control state. I would have to say that we see our role as providing the best guidance that we possibly can and trusting that our local authorities know the best for their communities to make those decisions,” says Vandeven.

A German study shows about 20% of COVID-19 patients surveyed have developed heart problems, including some middle-aged adults with mild cases of the virus. Long after recovering, some patients have reported persistent symptoms like shortness of breath, fatigue, coughing and headaches. Some athletes have chosen to sit out the season out of fear of developing such health complications.

Dr. Williams says science is showing that COVID-19 can target the kidneys, the lungs and heart.

“That’s one thing that just makes me so sensitive to this idea why ‘I’m 25 years old, I’ll just get COVID-19 and go on.’ I don’t believe that’s true. I believe the that sequela of that, whether it’s to your point, two months from now you still have difficulty breathing or muscle aches, or that you give it to someone else. I just think we don’t want anybody to get COVID-19 because I don’t think we know enough about it even at this juncture, eight months into it, to give any assurance to a young person that ‘you are just going to get it and get over it.’ I don’t know that we know that to be true,” says Williams.

MSBA’s Susan Goldammer

Due to the potential long-term health problems, Representative Matt Sain, D-Kansas City, suggested that school leaders shift to online learning until a vaccination is available and there’s more data about the disease.

Susan Goldammer with the Missouri School Boards’ Association testified before the committee. The group represents about 400 school districts around the state.

She says staffing during the pandemic is a prominent question schools are asking her organization about. She says some teachers are retiring early due to COVID-19. Missouri has had a persistent teacher shortage and could even have a shortage of substitute teachers and bus drivers this fall.

Coronavirus hits Missouri hog farm

May 20, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Thirteen hog farm employees in Audrain County have tested positive for the coronavirus. Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director Randall Williams says the cases impact the overall food chain. Some Missouri meat processing plants have closed or reduced their output due to coronavirus outbreaks, including in Moniteau and Saline Counties.

Coronavirus hits Missouri hog farm

“We think we have to get into our about 15 food processing plants going forward and doing sentinel testing and repeat testing and just very quickly try to identify cases there before they multiply into the 13 cases you’re seeing at this hog farm and obviously the 400 plus cases you saw up at Triumph Foods in Buchanan County,” says Williams.

Williams says the farm, which has about 60 employees, is experiencing a trend that is happening at the national level.

“You take Saline County which has a high case ratio compared to the population,” says Williams. “When you look at that, they tend to be very closely-affiliated with our food processors. You look at Buchanan, and Moniteau and Saline County.”

Saline County has 253 coronavirus cases.