By J. Thomas Roland Jr., MD
My family, friends and I have enjoyed the Mad River Valley for more than 30 years and for the past 13 years we have had a home just up the hill from Warren Village. We have participated in all the activities that The Valley has to offer and have contributed to many important causes over the years, especially in times of need. This is truly a remarkable place with amazing people.
Vermont and The Valley have done very well with COVID-19 and Vermont is a great model for other states. I am very impressed with the innovation and resilience that is displayed as well as public safety initiatives. Stores and restaurants are practicing and enforcing very safe concepts which encourage business and activity while adhering to important health-related issues. Large gatherings are strongly discouraged and even the Saturday farmers’ market is uniquely and thoughtfully organized.
As a physician at a large academic and public medical center in New York City, I witnessed the worst devastation and impact on human life. Our hospital alone was fully filled with very sick patients. Elective surgery came to a halt which resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars lost and put health care facilities in precarious financial situations. Many hospitals reported death rates as high as 80% if one came in very sick. Some of our faculty and trainees witnessed as many as five or more deaths a day.
One can imagine the fear and anxiety that this disease caused among the health care workers. Many members of my Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery Department were redeployed to ICUs and COVID wards and we participated in an “early” tracheostomy project that saved many lives, moving the death rate to less than 10%. My specialty is considered one of the highest risk specialties as we are always looking in the noses and throats with special scopes and can potentially get sprayed with virus-containing water droplets. Going into a patient’s room to stop life-threatening bleeding from an airway, scoping and suctioning the lungs so someone can breathe easier and examining a patient’s oral cavity were considered high risk (super spreader events) to doctors and nurses and technicians.
I guess you have the picture. Well, the good news is that the by wearing the appropriate personal protective equipment and exercising social distancing and hand washing, not one trainee or faculty member got sick with the virus from patient care. The number of faculty and staff that did get infected with COVID 19 became infected from personal social encounters while not wearing masks and using common sense. This is a true testament that masks work to prevent spread of the disease.
I was truly upset that three members of the Waitsfield Select Board voted against mandating mask wearing in public places of business and where people might be close together. One board member was reported as equating this extremely vital safety issue to communism. It is well proven with numerous scientific studies, and is it obvious by what we see going on in other states, that masks work to prevent the spread of the disease. Just this morning I saw an article that reports a $12 billion health care cost as a direct result of the Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota. Hundreds of thousands of humans were infected directly or indirectly from that event where masks were discouraged.
I only hope that the people of this Valley understand that we can protect ourselves and especially protect others with the simple act of mask wearing. We can get ahead of this disease and get back to normalcy by being safe and smart.
Roland lives in Warren and the Bronx.
