The first five frontline workers at UofL Health to get the COVID-19 vaccine three weeks ago received their second dose Monday.
Now, they're protected after getting that second vaccine booster.
"It says a lot when health care workers are ready to roll up their sleeves in thousands around the world to get this vaccine because we've seen what it does," said Dr. Valerie Briones-Pryor.
Dr. Val says she is seeing hope in frontline workers. While they'll still be wearing PPE and social distancing, the light is growing larger.
"I'm really looking forward to having some end to this because we see the sickest of the sick with Covid," said Dr. Mohamed Saad
So far UofL has administered just under 2,000 doses of the vaccine. The state just gave an additional 5,000 doses to the healthcare system to be given out in the next couple of weeks.
"We have sent out right around 71-hundred invitations," said Dr. Jason Smith. Of those, Dr. Smith says 195 people have declined to get vaccinated. As of right now, UofL has no repercussions against those deciding against vaccination.
Dr. Smith says those who have declined are mostly doing so because of pregnancy concerns. "The other ones were people that had covid to be honest with you and they simply said just put me at the end of the line, I've had Covid, I'll get the vaccine later, give it to someone else," said Dr. Smith.
"The first five at UofL Health to get fully vaccinated all say that they are feeling fine and don't expect any adverse symptoms. The aim for UofL is to get everyone vaccinated by the end of January.
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But neighboring South Dakota, which had vied with North Dakota for the worst-in-the-nation per capita metrics for much of October and November, has experienced a similarly remarkable turnaround, and without any significant state-level intervention.
With both Dakotas on the mend after taking divergent policy approaches at their worst moments of the fall surge, South Dakota's COVID-19 curve has become the subject of regional debate, emerging as a kind of Rorschach test for the effectiveness of mask mandates: Opponents of mandates have pointed to South Dakota's decline as proof that the North Dakota policy was an unnecessary overreach, while advocates cite differing rates of decline between the two states as evidence of the opposite.
"Rather than following the pack and mandating harsh rules, South Dakota provides our residents with information about what is happening on the ground in our state the science, facts and data," said South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem in her legislative budget address in early December, heralding her states commitment to its laissez-faire pandemic response and going on to trumpet its newly downward trends.
Right-wing conservatives across the state line have also held up South Dakota as a smoking gun in their arguments against government action. Rep. Rick Becker, R-Bismarck, who has been one of the most visible opponents of government intervention in North Dakota, argued that the downward trend in South Dakota validates his long-held position. "Thank goodness South Dakota didn't institute a mask mandate, he said. Otherwise it'd be virtually impossible to prove the point or have the evidence for the argument which I was making prior to our mask mandate that our curve was about to go down.
But to Dr. Paul Carson, an infectious disease specialist at North Dakota State University, these kinds of pat answers are the Rorschach test at work. "People want to see into it what they want to see into it, he said. But thats a simplistic way of looking at it. I think the question is more nuanced than that.
For Carson, the sudden divergence between the Dakotas presents a rare scientific opportunity, a natural experiment that has played out before our eyes. He noted that many similarities between North Dakota and South Dakota including similar population sizes, ethnic makeups and urban-rural mixes, as well as a pair of Republican governors both averse to direct intervention for much of the pandemic lend the states to obvious comparison. In fact, the Dakotas' mask mandate split has become such a topic of interest in the academic sphere, Carson said, that hes already assembling a research team to formally study it for himself.
While Carson emphasized that low virus testing in South Dakota leaves observers with an incomplete picture of its outbreak, he also said that a few different metrics suggest that North Dakota is recovering from its virus surge faster than South Dakota, a trend he attributed to Burgum's statewide mandate.
Hospitalizations, Carson noted, offer a more objective measure that gets around the testing disparity. South Dakota hit a higher hospitalization climax than North Dakota, both in its seven-day rolling average and adjusted per capita figures, and has fallen "much slower" than North Dakota since then. North Dakota's seven-day average hospitalization numbers crested at 406 cases per day on Nov. 16, earlier than South Dakota's peak of 581 hospitalizations per day on Nov. 23. The kicker, Carson noted, is in their margins of decline since then. By Dec. 19, North Dakota had fallen more than 50% from its average hospitalizations high. By contrast, South Dakota had dropped just 29% over the same interval and still had not cleared the 50% threshold as of Dec. 30.
Bonny Specker, an epidemiologist at South Dakota State University, similarly pointed to a steeper pace of per capita case decline in North Dakota as evidence of its faster recovery. At the time North Dakota announced its mandate, both Dakotas were hitting their case number highs, she noted, with North Dakota peaking above South Dakota in its reported case numbers. "But the drop in ND cases has been quite a bit more dramatic than what we have seen for SD," wrote Specker, a sign of faster recovery that she also attributed to Burgum's mask mandate.
But even with the many commonalities between the two states, experts warned against drawing firm conclusions at this point. Any parallel must come with the major caveat that South Dakota tests for the virus far less than North Dakota (North Dakota has consistently ranked in the top three states nationally in per capita testing, while South Dakota currently falls in the bottom 10), at levels so starkly different that Grace Njau, an epidemiologist with the North Dakota Department of Health, said it is very hard to do "an apples to apples" comparison between the Dakotas.
Further muddying the waters, Njau countered the narrative, pushed in some anti-mask circles, that South Dakota is a clean example of a state that did nothing to head off its outbreak. Even though Noem eschewed state-level action, masking compliance seems to have climbed steadily in South Dakota this fall, and the state's own patchwork of local mask mandates may have helped to turn the state around, Njau argued.
To me, it does tell me that they are doing something. It just may not be as visible or as pronounced as what North Dakota may be doing, she said.
Specker similarly pointed to a mask mandate in the city of Brookings, S.D., from back in September as one example of local intervention in her state that may have helped to reverse the statewide trend. Of South Dakota's 10 most populous cities, Brookings has emerged from the fall surge with the fewest cumulative cases per capita, a phenomenon that Specker said can likely be explained in part by its local mandate.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (left) appears with Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, during a news conference Oct. 26 at Bismarck State College. Kyle Martin / The Forum
But given the across-the-board similarities between North Dakota and South Dakota, Burgum's statewide mask mandate is one of few significantly different variables at play.
"The statewide mandate works very well in complimenting local mandates," Njau said of its North Dakota impact.
"Behavior may change because of policies, but we dont know that for sure," noted Carson. Expounding by email, he added, "I have to surmise (North Dakota's) more rapid decline in cases and hospitalizations is being expedited by the policy measures implemented by the Governor."
As Carson watches the pandemic ebb and flow around the country, he said hes still developing his own theories on how exactly this virus spreads and which tactics are most effective at slowing it down. Pain and suffering seem to play a powerful role, he said, and widespread exposure to the virus does seem to have woken up more people to its reality in the Dakotas, helping to shift behavior.
The infectious disease professor said hes been kicking around another theory, too. It may be that the virus strikes in clusters, infecting the groups most inclined to defy precautions first, similar to a fire steadily igniting separate stacks of wood all sitting at varying distances from the central flame.
You may burn through the most risk-taking susceptible groups early, he said. This phenomenon does not get a population near true herd immunity, but it could explain why the virus has stopped spreading among nearly as many residents in the Dakotas. You no longer have tinder to burn.
These are theories, and no hypothesis is perfect, Carson stressed. But with limited information, he said he favors more precaution than less, especially with vaccines rolling out and a potential end on the horizon. Carson argued that there's no easy explanation for why some states succeed and others flounder, and it's too soon to settle on neat answers to complex questions.
We will be studying this for the next 10 years, he said.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Adam Willis, a Report for America corps member, at awillis@forumcomm.com.
An employee working the Christmas shift at Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center has died after falling ill with COVID-19. The person was one of at least 43 staff members who tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days, an outbreak possibly linked to an employee who wore an inflatable holiday costume to lift spirits.
The staff member who appeared briefly in the emergency department on Christmas Day wore an air-powered, holiday-themed costume, according to a hospital executive. KNTV-TV, the San Jose NBC station that first reported the outbreak, reported that the costume was an inflatable Christmas tree.
Inflatable costumes are typically battery-powered and use a fan to keep the costume puffed up. Such a fan can propel virus particles in a room.
The person who wore the costume subsequently tested positive for the coronavirus, the hospital confirmed Monday.
KNTV-TV reported that the person who died was a woman who worked as a registration clerk in the emergency department.
Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by this terrible loss. We are providing support to our employees during this difficult time, said a statement issued by the hospital late Sunday.
In a statement Saturday, Irene Chavez, senior vice president and area manager of Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center, said officials were investigating whether the costume contributed to the outbreak.
Any exposure, if it occurred, would have been completely innocent and quite accidental, as the individual [wearing the costume] had no COVID symptoms and only sought to lift the spirits of those around them during what is a very stressful time, Chavez said. If anything, this should serve as a very real reminder that the virus is widespread, and often without symptoms, and we must all be vigilant.
Chavez said the hospital would no longer allow air-powered costumes at its facilities and was taking steps to reinforce safety precautions among staff, including no gatherings in break rooms, no sharing of food and beverages and the wearing of masks at all times.
The highly contagious coronavirus usually spreads through droplets sprayed from a persons mouth and nose, such as through breathing, talking, coughing or sneezing, and usually land six feet or so from a person before falling to the ground. People can be highly contagious with the virus without showing signs of illness.
Strong drafts of air can help the coronavirus infect others. In one such case in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, a pre-symptomatic person who had just returned from Wuhan the first hotbed of the global pandemic was eating lunch at a restaurant. Scientists concluded that the person infected two other families sitting at neighboring tables about three feet away; they suspect that infected droplets from the index patient hitched a ride on air flows powered by an air-conditioning system.
In the heart of Silicon Valley, San Jose is the largest city in Santa Clara County, Northern Californias most populous county, which has hospitals dealing with severe overcrowding in its worst surge of the pandemic. On New Years Day, 97% of Santa Clara Countys available ICU beds were occupied.
Santa Clara, home to nearly 2 million people, had the worst rate of coronavirus cases and COVID-19 deaths in the last week of any county in the Bay Area, according to a Times analysis. It recorded more than 74,000 cases and 740 deaths.
Last week, county officials said hospitals were stretched to the limit, with 50 to 60 patients each day stuck in emergency rooms waiting for beds.
Often, the only time a patient can be moved into an ICU bed is after a COVID-19 patient has died, said Dr. Marco Randazzo, an emergency room physician at OConnor Hospital in San Jose and St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy.
Every ICU bed at St. Louise Regional Hospital was full, and patients were in so-called surge beds, Chief Operating Officer Gloria de la Merced said last week. This level of hospitalizations has never happened during my career, she said. If we go beyond the surge capacity, everyone will be affected more people in our community will know someone who died.
Across Santa Clara County, the daily coronavirus case rate is more than 10 times what it was Oct. 30. What we are seeing now is not normal, Dr. Ahmad Kamal, director of health preparedness for Santa Clara County, said last week.
This has been the state of the pandemic for the last several weeks, he added, and it is showing no signs of letting up.
Kamal pleaded with the public to continue to wear masks, stay socially distant and cancel gatherings.
The number of people with silent, undiagnosed brain aneurysms is unknown, though the rate has been estimated to be as high as 1 in 50, Albani said. Heredity seems to increase the risk both of having an aneurysm and an eventual rupture, so physicians recommend a brain scan for patients with a history of the condition in more than one close relative. Heavy drinking, cigarette smoking, and high blood pressure also can increase the risk of rupture.
Airport takes step to address passenger spread; TSA installs barriers
by: David Charns
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) Las Vegas McCarran International Airport ranks among the top in the United States where Transportation Security Administration screeners and employees have been infected with COVID-19, new data the I-Team obtained shows.
Out of nearly 300 airports in the country with confirmed COVID-19 cases, McCarran ranks tenth for the number of TSA employees and screening contractors who have gotten sick with the virus.
As of Monday, there were 117 recorded cases of COVID-19 in TSA at McCarran since the agency began tracking the number. Four employees who do not screen passengers had also been infected, data said.
McCarran is among the nations busiest airports, ranking No. 9 for passenger volume in 2018, according to FAA data.
The nations busiest airport, Atlantas Hartsfield-Jackson International, reported 151 cases. The airport with the most recorded cases as of Monday was Los Angeles International, with 310 confirmed cases.
TSA screeners are required to wear masks and gloves, as well as some sort of eye protectant.
More than 850 TSA employees across the country were actively infected with COVID-19 as of Monday, the TSA reported. Thirteen TSA employees across the country and one screening contractor have died from the virus.
All passengers are required to wear a mask in the airport. Officials at McCarran have also taken steps to disinfect high-traffic areas, provide hand sanitizer and limit capacity on shuttle buses.
Santa Clara County hospitals have been hit so hard with so many COVID-19 cases, ambulances have had to wait outside -- with patients -- for hours in some cases before those patients can be admitted. And those hospitals say they're expecting another, post New Year's surge.
If we have another surge on top of that, it's going to be devastating, said James Williams from Santa Clara County Council. "Sometimes that has occurred sporadically in the past, but this is happening at an increasing frequency, across the board, across all the hospitals."
The Regional Medical Center of San Jose has been especially busy.
"We make sure that everyone who is critical is seen and seen right away, but there are waits for some, said Sarah Sherwood, Regional Medical Center spokesperson. Fearing that the post Christmas and New Year's rush is days away.
"We're bracing for a huge onslaught of patients, said Sherwood. We're prepared for this, and we know how to deal with this, we're trained for this, but it is very difficult, our staff is tired."
Meanwhile, there is a triage system in place to do its best to divert an ambulance on its way to a hospital that's too crowded. Instead, sending that ambulance to a different hospital nearby that has a bed open.
AUSTIN - Governor Greg Abbott today announced that the Texas Division Of Emergency Management (TDEM) has established a COVID-19 therapeutic infusion center in Austin to treat outpatient cases of COVID-19. The infusion center, which will begin accepting patients on Wednesday, has been provided with Regeneron to treat patients, who meet certain criteria, with a referral from a hospital or doctor. This infusion center has been established through a partnership between TDEM, Travis County, the City of Austin, and the Capital Area Trauma Regional Advisory Council.
South Carolina approached 300,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus on Monday.
The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control reported Saturday's data on Monday, a recurring delay caused by the holiday.
Over the past few weeks, the state has continued to log high numbers of new COVID-19 cases each day, now regularly surpassing 3,000.
The percentage of tests returning a positive result for the virus has also increased, indicating widespread community transmission of COVID-19. For Saturday's numbers, out of 10,481 tests, 33.3 percent were positive for the coronavirus.
The increasing case numbers have spurred some branches of the Charleston County Public Library to suspend in-person services and return to curbside only.
Library staff said on Monday the Main Library at 68 Calhoun St., the Mount Pleasant Regional branch at 1133 Mathis Ferry Road and the Wando Mount Pleasant branch at 1400 Carolina Park Blvd. are open only for curbside services.
The change comes due to the recent rise in COVID-19 numbers and the related closures those three branches have experienced due to exposure, executive director Angela Craig said in a news release.
New cases reported:3,492, which is 2,110 percent higher than the 158 tallied on March 31, the day Gov. Henry McMaster ordered nonessential businesses to close.
Total cases in S.C.:299,685, plus 25,787 probable cases
New deaths reported:15
Total deaths in S.C.:5,056 confirmed, 428 probable
Total tests in S.C.:3,797,802
Hospitalized patients:2,155
Percent of positive tests, seven-day average:31 percent. Five percent of tests or fewer returning positive results is a good sign the virus spread is slowing, researchers say.
The top South Carolina counties for new coronavirus cases as of Saturday were Greenville, 555; Spartanburg, 370; and Richland, 289.
For Saturday's report, Charleston County had 140 new cases; Berkeley, 74; and Dorchester, 42.
Of the 15 new deaths reported as of Saturday, one was a patient aged 18 to 34, three were patients aged 35 to 64, and the rest were aged 65 and older.
They lived in Aiken, Barnwell, Beaufort, Chesterfield, Greenville, Lancaster, Lexington, Orangeburg and Spartanburg counties.
Of the 2,155 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Monday, 419 were in intensive care and 215 were on ventilators.
Authorities continue to urge South Carolinians to take precautions, such as wearing masks or other face coverings, social distancing and frequently washing hands.
They also urge anyone who believes theyve been exposed to the virus or who is developing symptoms to get tested. Those out in the community or not able to socially distance should get tested monthly, DHEC advised.
Go toscdhec.gov/findatestto find a testing site in your area.
Reach Fleming Smith at 843-937-5591. Follow her on Twitter at @MFlemingSmith.
Across the NBA, team officials tasked with enforcing and managing the league's day-to-day health and safety protocols say they're exhausted and struggling to balance those roles along with their typical team duties, many of which are focused on player health.
Further, several of these officials say they have found themselves so busy with protocols that their ability to work with individual players on a hands-on basis -- in areas that include treatment, recovery, training -- has been sacrificed, leading to concerns about reduced care for players.
"I've actually told my peers on these trips that we've been on -- it's very, very difficult for me to get my hands on [players]," said one Western Conference head athletic trainer, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because they aren't authorized to speak publicly. One Eastern Conference head athletic trainer independently echoed this point and said it's shared league-wide among peers.
One league health official who is close to the matter added, "What scares me -- and I know it's happening -- is that their normal job of doing health care on players [is impaired]. I've had some trainers tell me, 'I haven't touched a player in two weeks because I've been so busy doing all this logistics and testing and all that.' That's concerning. That's definitely what I don't want to happen."
A second Western Conference head athletic trainer agreed with the above sentiment.
"There will be some decline in player health care," that head athletic trainer said. "But I think the larger part will be the overload of the care providers."
As the NBA tries to hold a season outside a bubble during the coronavirus pandemic, team health officials and others filling protocol roles are essentially the NBA's front-line workers. Roles that have been largely delegated to team health officials, as outlined in the NBA's 158-page protocols, include testing officer, contact tracing officer, facemask enforcement officer, facility hygiene officer, health education and awareness officer and travel safety officer, among others. Some team health officials hold more than one of those roles, along with their original roles.
"We're responsible for the logistics of all of the staff, PCR testing, and all of the player rapid testing, and the compliance with the timelines that go into that every day, whether it's an off day, whether it's a game day," said the second Western Conference head athletic trainer. "So the workload has increased dramatically. [And] there's not been a decrease in any of the other workload."
Said one Eastern Conference basketball operations official who is working to handle their team's contract tracing program, "It's just frustrating because with all these things they are making us do it's been hard to find time to do our actual jobs. People are going to be exhausted and sick after this year with everything we are forced to do."
For all their duties, no team official who spoke with ESPN blamed the NBA or its protocols. Rather, there was an understanding that this is an extraordinary situation with understandably high demands. There is hope that staffers can find a rhythm as the season goes on, but several team health officials also noted that the situation continually evolves, with more memos and conference calls from the league in which new protocols are introduced or changes are made. There are also continually evolving city and state restrictions that affect team markets differently.
"Emails are coming fast and furious at all times," said the Eastern Conference head athletic trainer. "And they're not a one-page memo; these are 15 pages, sometimes. They come through daily almost. And so, yeah, we have an obligation to stay current on stuff and it's time-consuming."
A Western Conference GM added, "There's just not enough hours in the day to read the memos, the nuances, compliance, testing, the things that quickly change." The Western Conference GM continued, "You have constant scenarios happening where the memos don't cover that particular situation...That's no one's fault. It's just where we're at."
If their own physical and mental health is failing under the weight of added duties, as several team officials independently say is already happening, then what about the health of players? Several of these officials voiced concerns about not only a decline in players' health care but in the fragility of a non-bubble season, given the constant potential for outbreaks if there's slippage in protocols, vigilance, diligence or compliance.
"Normally, if you can get a 90% compliance rate in a lot of things, that's really good," said the second Western Conference head athletic trainer. "In some ways, a 90% compliance rate here might as well be zero."
Some team health officials reported weeks ago, as training camp was gearing up in early December, that they were already far busier than they had ever been in their careers, with the Western Conference head athletic trainer saying that the workload was at least double if not three times what it was before. For some, looking ahead to the coming months is daunting.
"Every waking hour seems to be committed to [the protocols]," said the Eastern Conference head athletic training official. "But you look down the pike here, and... you wonder, 'God, I barely got through today, how am I going to do this another 100-something times?'"
Said one Eastern Conference general manager, "There's a lot of people that are exhausted. I think their mental weight is as heavy as the physical weight. It wears on you, especially when you're traveling, especially on the road. There's so many moving parts."
Sleep loss is another factor in a league that has struggled with that very issue for years.
"It's extremely difficult," said the first Western Conference head athletic trainer. "The days become longer when you thought they were as long as they could be. If you get a phone call at 2 or 3 in the morning about a possible positive [test] that ends up being a false positive, you're trying to deal with that up until the team is starting to come in the facility at 8 or 9 just to make sure you're complying with everything and then go through your shootaround and then you have a game [and if you] get to bed at midnight, you're lucky to get three or four hours."
The Western Conference GM said his team's health and athletic training staff is robust but still struggling.
"The reality is, these people are really working hard to keep us all safe," said the Western Conference GM. "And like the front-line health care workers, we probably haven't put enough time and thought into their physical and emotional state."
That GM added, "I can't say thank you enough to my guys because you can feel it on them. It's really emotionally exhausting the health performance staff."
For it to be within minutes of each other was shocking and surreal, said Vanessa Lee, who lost both her grandfathers.
PORTLAND, Ore. It could be months before the general population gets access to the COVID-19 vaccine. In the meantime, one family is hoping we all continue to keep each other safe.
They lost both of their grandfathers, Jim Ledbetter and Don Lee, to COVID-19-related complications in the same day, roughly 15 minutes apart. And it was on the night before Thanksgiving.
Jim Ledbetters family described him as a man of peace. His daughter, Karen Lee, said he grew up during the Great Depression, moved from Tennessee to California, was the first one in his family to go to college, and became an American Baptist minister.
He graduated from Linfield College in 51 and met my mom there, said Karen.
She said he was active, loved to play handball, and ran in the Portland Marathon as well as the Boston Marathon.
She said her father-in-law, Don Lee, was a survivor.
He survived the communist takeover of China in the '50s and they escaped, Karen said.
She said Don and his son, her husband, moved to the United States in 1969. Her husband was 16 years old at the time.
Karen said once in the U.S., Don worked at The Pagoda Restaurant in Portlands Hollywood District for a time, then went to the Hilton as a bartender, and retired from the Arlington Club in Southwest Portland, where he was well liked.
Both Don and Jim lived full lives. They both loved watching sports, eating good food, the outdoors, and most of all they loved their family.
They went the whole year, clear until the end of October with no virus at all, said Karen.
But in November things changed. Karen said her father, Jim, came down with COVID-19 at the beginning of November, along with her mother.
Karen said she knew when they were first diagnosed with COVID-19 that she would likely lose at least one of her parents.
Im a nurse. My heart just sank, Karen said.
She said both her parents had come out of quarantine, but still had not completely recovered due to fallout from the virus.
He stopped eating and he didnt have any taste or smell, Karen said of her father.
She said the COVID-19 cases popped up quickly at her fathers care facility.
It went from no cases, to 16 cases, and eventually, like 37," she said. "And that was over half of the place and the employees."
As for Don, family members said he had shown symptoms a week prior to his death. But he got a test showing he was not infected with COVID-19.
On the Monday before Thanksgiving, Jim was admitted to hospice. Then, two days later, he tested positive for COVID-19 and was sent to the hospital.
That night Karen left her father's facility to grab a quick meal when she got the call about Don.
My husband called and said that his dad had just passed away, said Karen.
She broke the news to her kids about their grandpa Don. Then, the unthinkable happened. She found out within minutes her own father died.
Within 15 minutes I had gotten a call from my mom that my other grandfather had passed away, said Karens daughter, Vanessa Lee. For it to be within minutes of each other was shocking and surreal.
Meanwhile on the East Coast in Boston, Karens son Cameron had just finished telling his family about grandpa Don: My wife was talking to the kids and I was like The other grandpa just died too.'
Karen said three days before her dad Jim passed away, family members saw him on a Zoom video call.
Everybody started crying because he had lost so much weight and we were like, Oh man, Dad, your not gonna make it. So, that was really hard, said Karen.
Days later, he was gone. Jims surviving wife, Karen's mom, is 90 years old and suffers from dementia. Karen made sure her mom got a chance to say goodbye, even if she didnt know it.
I had her give him a hug and kiss on the cheek," Karen said, "and she had no idea that he had already passed.
Were it not for COVID-19, its possible both Don and Jim would still be around.
What makes it hard is, it sort of accelerated the rate of which so many people have lost fragile loved ones, said Cameron about COVID-19.
Cameron said he and his family canceled a holiday trip back to Portland after his grandfathers deaths.
I didnt want to be the start of a chain reaction that would impact someone elses family, he said.
At this point, family members are coping as best they can.
Both my dad and Don both loved dim sum, and Chinese food, and buffets," Karen said. "That was our big thing, that when they died, they mustve had to get to the big buffet in the sky somewhere and they didnt want each one to beat them there."
Now, after losing the two men roughly 15 minutes apart, just as the holidays were getting underway, Karen said she hopes other families will be spared similar heartache.
It doesnt hurt you to wear a mask," she said. "It does not hurt.
You kind of have to chip in and try to protect them by breaking the chains of transmission, said Cameron.
Its not political," Vanessa said. "These are peoples lives."
Karen said no one really knows how Jim and Don contracted COVID-19, though the timing was right after Halloween.
She said she wants people to know that those who are elderly, vulnerable, or veterans have put their lives on hold many times for our collective benefit, whether its to raise families or fight a war, and we owe it to them to keep them safe by slowing the spread of COVID-19.
