COVID-19 is a real risk, doctors say

Positive COVID-19 cases in Wyandotte County were up by 34 cases from 1 p.m. Tuesday to 1 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Unified Government’s COVID-19 webpage. (UG COVID-19 page)

Doctors at the University of Kansas Health System repeated at Wednesday’s news conference that COVID-19 is not a hoax.

In answer to a viewer’s question, Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the KU Health System, said that there have been more than 100,000 deaths in the United States from COVID-19, including 24 deaths at KU Health System.

If those 24 persons were alive today, they would tell you it’s not a hoax, Dr. Stites said.

Densely populated areas, such as New York, where people used a lot of mass transit and were indoors a lot, suffered worse from COVID-19, he said. Some communities where people spent more time outside than inside were not as affected, he added. The severity has depended upon how long a person was exposed to the virus, and how much of the virus they got at the time of exposure, he said.

Nursing homes, with a large number of vulnerable people, also had a high mortality rate, he said.

“It is most definitely not a hoax,” he said. He added that doctors from here who went to help in New York can tell them that, as well as doctors in other countries.

“Don’t believe that (statement that it is a hoax). That will only lead to your own challenges, because if you think it’s a hoax and you go out and act like life is normal, life will humble you,” Dr. Stites said.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at KU Health System, noted a critical care doctor from KU Health System went to New York to help and saw the devastation first-hand. New York has had over 30,000 total COVID-19 deaths. “Look what has happened to our economy, and our world economy and our local economy,” he said. “That is not anything anybody would want.”

Influenza usually takes about 20,000 lives a year, and COVID-19 took more than 100,000 lives in about three months, Dr. Stites said.

Dr. Hawkinson reported 18 COVID-19 patients at KU Health System on Wednesday morning, a decrease of one from Tuesday. Six were in the intensive care unit and also were on ventilators. The number of COVID-19 ICU patients was down one from Tuesday and the number on ventilators was up one from Tuesday.

Wyandotte County recorded 34 new positive cases of COVID-19 as of 1 p.m. June 17, as compared to 1 p.m. June 16, according to the Unified Government’s COVID-19 website.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported 11,681 total cumulative COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, June 17. It was an increase of 262 cases since Monday. There were 247 total cumulative deaths, an increase of two deaths since Monday.

According to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center, there were 445,993 cumulative total COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday in the world, and 8.2 million total confirmed cases. The United States had 2.15 million cumulative total COVID-19 cases, according to the website.

Dr. Hawkinson discussed news out of England that lower doses of a steroid medication, dexamethasone, has reduced the rate of deaths by about one-third among seriously ill hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Earlier, studies found that high-dose steroids were causing more mortality, he said. Now it has been found that low-dose steroids can help critically ill patients, reducing deaths by about one-third.

Dr. Hawkinson said KU Health System has had steroids as part of its treatment for some COVID-19 patients who qualify since it first started treating them. Steroids have tamped down inflammatory processes in general, he said. It’s important for doctors to know what drugs are given, how much, and when in the disease process the patient receives them.

COVID-19 has affected the homeless population in Greater Kansas City.

Bryan Meyer, founder and chief executive officer of the Veterans Community Project (https://www.veteranscommunityproject.org/), which has built 49 tiny transitional houses in Kansas City, Missouri, for homeless veterans, said it was difficult for some veterans to self-isolate in group shelter settings or in homeless camps in the woods. That adds more risk for them to catch COVID-19.

Meyer said one of the problems with testing the homeless is they may have a lot of underlying conditions. Health care workers aren’t always able to tell if the person is running a temperature for a different condition, or if it’s a new development, he said. It’s sometimes hard to locate a person after a test has been given, he added.

His organization has worked with Kansas City, Missouri, to secure hotel rooms for homeless persons with symptoms, until the test results come in, he said.

Dr. Nicole Yedlinksy, assistant professor with the KU Medical School Department of Family Medicine, who works with veterans, said there is now a delay between testing and results, and in the population of homeless persons it can be very difficult to determine the disease’s prevalence.

Dr. Stites said it is a challenge to figure out how many people are homeless and whether they have already had COVID-19. Some health departments have made an effort to test the homeless, he added.

Dr. Hawkinson said an easier, accurate and faster test for COVID-19 could help.

Dr. Yedlinsky said one of the struggles for the organizations that provide services for veterans is that they rely on social connections, and during the COVID-19 pandemic they can’t meet in person any more. Some veterans organizations don’t have access to technology and have had difficulty reaching veterans where they are, she said. In addition, a high number of veterans are unhoused and are unable to distance themselves, she added.

About half the population of veterans are 65 or older, and are at risk for complications to COVID-19, according to Dr. Yedlinsky.

“We can’t neglect the medical effects on our veteran population,” she said.

To view the KU doctors’ news conference, visit https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/290481152143034/

The state’s COVID-19 test page is at https://www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov/280/COVID-19-Testing

The UG’s COVID-19 information page is at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information.


Wyandotte County is currently under Phase 3. See covid.ks.gov.

The state plan’s frequently asked questions page is at https://covid.ks.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Reopening-FAQ_5.19.2020_Final.pdf.


Test sites are listed on the Wyandotte County website at https://wyandotte-county-covid-19-hub-unifiedgov.hub.arcgis.com/pages/what-to-do-if-you-think-you-have-covid-19

The CDC’s COVID-19 web page is at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html.