By S.T. Hoyt
Nonlocals, including second-home owners, do contribute to the Mad River Valley. At this unprecedented time, they can make their most significant contribution by exhibiting their sincere care for Valley neighbors, medical workers and others by making the decision to stay safe in their primary residence homes while we are trying to deal with our pressing problems here in Vermont during the COVID-19 crisis. It is time for nonresidents, as they speak of their love for Vermont and her Mad River Valley, to please thoughtfully walk their talk.
To be frank, this is beyond how much money and time one spends in an away-from-home community. This is literally about life (and death), far more precious. I have been in conversation with three resident medical workers, so what I have to say is fact and science-based. On this subject, I feel that the weight of what our frontline medical workers say weighs somewhat heavier than that of the media. Often they don’t speak up for themselves because, frankly, they are exhausted and distressed.
LOW POPULATION
Vermont is a low-population state. That means that we have a limited medical resource capacity that is based on our relatively small primary resident population. We cannot bear the burden of an influx of additional population of those who have homes to shelter in elsewhere. We can all, in fact, be safe in our homes, in our primary resident states.
Vermont medical resource officials have been preparing night and day for the real possibility of being overwhelmed by COVID-19 infections of our own primary resident population. Though social distancing is of help, Michael Pieciak, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation, said, “It also tells us that they (Vermonters) need to keep up those sacrifices and in fact double down on them ... because we know that the worst is still ahead of us.”
Vermont has fewer hospital beds per capita than most other states (VT Digger, 3/23/20). A local medical worker told me that the hospital she works at was bursting at the seams before the pandemic arrived. With the help of our National Guard, some efforts to build overflow centers for our medical patients are underway, but we do not have enough staff to serve them. This was explained to me by a respiratory therapist in Rutland.
MULTIPLE PLEAS
The state of Vermont has put out multiple pleas for more medical workers, even accepting those whose medical licenses have lapsed. This is compounded by the fact that a number of health care workers are now infected with the virus: more than 40 doctors and nurses, reported by VPR (livescience.com, as of 4/10/20). A rural health care taskforce report from January found that the state had 3,900 nursing job vacancies. As well, the state does not have enough volunteer emergency services personnel or enough Medical Reserve Corps volunteers, according to a Vermont Department of Health Scorecard.
Our medical workers have been reusing medical masks/PPE for almost a month. Vermont has 211 ventilators. Vermont has 194 ICU rooms. Again, medical resource calculations are based on our low population. We have a limited number of ambulances and great distances to travel to and from hospitals compared to more populated areas. The hospital workers I have been in contact with (an ER doctor, an RN and a respiratory therapist) explain that they are feeling stretched to the max and feel mentally drained.
As of a few days back, the modeling and forecasting was somewhat encouraging, for now. There is constant updating with new data and new assumptions. We are reminded that “forecasting is much less predictable the further out you model” (Vermont Department of Health).
UNNECESSARY LUXURY
But coming to Vermont at this unsteady and difficult time is an unnecessary luxury that does further burden Vermonters and our medical resources. When this is over, nonresidents can come and rest here if they would like. We will, in our usual warm and friendly way, welcome them when we can. When we say we are all in this together, it means that we do, in fact, think of each other and stay in our own homes, in our home states. We all have homes. Please. It is unnecessary to ask for more.
My precious Vermont-born and -bred adult child made the difficult decision to stay put in Massachusetts.
The impulse to help others is a good one. This is a time for nonresidents to please actively help their away-from-home community of Vermont friends, medical workers, store workers and others by staying safe in their primary resident homes.
We do care about our nonresident friends. In urgent times, do full-time residents of our little state need to be afraid to express our thoughts, state facts and reveal our feelings and needs to nonresidents because our community needs the revenue that they provide when they are here? Is that what some want? Our fear and our compliance to their wishes? At a time like this? That is a lot to ask.
Heartfelt thanks to the many nonresidents who made the carefully considered decision to stay at home in their primary residence states. Their kind words of support and gratitude on social and local media are profoundly appreciated.
Be well, everyone. Be smart.
Please mindfully social distance.
Hoyt lives in Waitsfield.
