Health Expert Speaks To M2M Group RE: COVID

By NICK YAMASHITA

The Progress

The Mesquite to Moapa Democrats organization hosted a special guest at its meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 20th held over an online platform. Dr. Brian Labus, Assistant Professor of the School of Public Health at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, spoke to the group about COVID-19 and the state’s response to it.

Labus is an expert on infectious diseases. Before joining UNLV, Labus was a senior investigator for the Southern Nevada Health District. Last March, Labus was selected by Governor Steve Sislak to serve on a statewide COVID task force.

Labus gave an update on the current status of the pandemic in Nevada. “Within the last six weeks, we saw a steady increase in cases,” Labus said. “In the middle of December, we saw a plateau of cases which held it at a maximum. Currently, the cases are no longer increasing.”

Labus said that the number of COVID deaths being reported may be misleading. That number trails by about a month because it takes time after being infected for people to die from the disease, he said.

“Currently, we are at 20 percent positive in COVID testing, which is still way higher than the goal of 5 percent,” Labus said. “The vaccine will not affect the numbers right away. It will take time for the vaccinations to start influencing the stats.”

Labus went over the 3 phases of vaccines given. The first phase is health workers, first responders, and those in nursing homes. The second phase is those within the economic infrastructure, such as governmental leaders, teachers, administrators, social workers, and more. The third phase is the general population.

Everyone will get vaccinated eventually, but it will take a while,” Labus said. “At the moment, the vaccination is not FDA approved, so kids can’t get vaccinated yet. It has been approved by emergency and is still in testing stages.”.

Meeting attendees had the opportunity to ask questions. Roswitha Moertl had detailed questions about the two vaccinations now available in the U.S. including Moderna and Pfizer. She expressed concerns about Moderna because some of the contracted companies helping in its development had restrictions due to violations on their records or problems with production cleanliness. In addition, she spoke about the Pfizer vaccine’s temperature storage requirement. The Pfizer vaccine must be stored at -80 degrees F, while the Moderna does not need such cold storage.

Labus responded that the state is just distributing whatever vaccine is sent to it by the federal government.

“We don’t have much choice in what the Feds are allocating to us,” he said. “We have to rely on them to do their job, and it is still in early testing phases, so we are learning as we go.”

Allergy concerns were another issue brought up in the meeting.
“Sometimes reactions happen, and it is rare,” Labus responded. “But sometimes they are clustered together. That is why we have 15-30 minutes after the injection for observation before release.”
P2P member Elaine Hurd asked about President Joe Biden’s objective of vaccinating 100 million people during his first 100 days in office. She asked if Labus felt this could be met.

“The Biden administration is doing everything they can, but I do not know what they are doing to increase the logistics of getting vaccinated quicker,” Labus said. “I do know the companies have contracts to have so many done by a set deadline. But there is still a lot we are learning in how to efficiently and successfully increase vaccinations to the public.”

Labus concluded by emphasizing that there is still much to learn about the COVID vaccinations. “It will take time and experience to get truly efficient in getting everyone vaccinated,” he said. “COVID will not be gone this year. It will take time.”