Pandemic still affecting Mason County

Mason Health has adapted to ‘new normal’

Matt Baide | Jul 07, 20220

Most of the pandemic restrictions are gone and people have gone back to “normal” life, but COVID-19 is still prominent in the country and Mason County.

Mason General Hospital and Mason Health still deal with the virus daily.

So, what is the state of COVID in Mason County?

“Alive and well,” Mason Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Dean Gushee said. “It’s certainly still out there. Case counts have gone up. What’s a little harder now is at one time we were tracking cases, which are test positivity, and that is no longer useful because most testing now is done at home and doesn’t get reported necessarily. A better look is looking at things like hospitalization rates. …We haven’t seen quite the surge we’ve seen with delta or the original omicron, but it’s out there.”

Director of Acute Care Services Rob Bennington said they are seeing a bump in hospitalizations right now because there was a time in early April when no one was hospitalized with COVID.

Infection Prevention, Employee Health and Safety Program Manager Kimberly Cooper said staffing at Mason Health has been affected because of children coming home from school with COVID and giving it to staff members.

“We have seen a general increase over June in general just out in the community as well as in our employees,” Cooper told the Journal. “We’re working closely with Mason County Public Health; they’re also seeing that across the board. We’re not seeing as many people who are as ill as they were back in January and December, but we are seeing a steady increase in that number.”

Gushee said they are also seeing more people who have gotten COVID twice, including a staff member who got COVID again within a month. The good news with COVID at the moment is they aren’t seeing patients with COVID with as severe symptoms as before. Gushee said they are seeing staff members with mild or no symptoms, including Gushee himself, who said he had an asymptomatic case of COVID.

“It’s out there and it’s probably out there in very large numbers, but the severity is so much lower right now for a variety of reasons,” Gushee said.

Gushee said he’s seen estimates that at least 80% of the population has been vaccinated or has caught COVID at some point so “there’s probably a fair degree of resistance and immunity out there just as a result of all of that,” which is one reason for milder cases. He said the current circulating virus is not as virulent as earlier strains of COVID.

“Does that mean it’s going to stay that way and this thing just becomes a common cold again?

Because of course, coronaviruses are a cause of the common cold,” Gushee said. “Maybe, but there are other circulating variants out there in the world and it wouldn’t take much, presumably, for there to be a genetic change and to have it come back with a vengeance so I think the jury is out.”

Cooper said staff members who have tested positive for COVID said they thought they had a common cold.

“They may just have had a runny nose and then they tested positive for COVID and they’re shocked and surprised by that,” Cooper said. “I think we are seeing that become less virulent, which is good news, and hopefully it stays that way.”

Staffing levels depend on COVID numbers for the day. Bennington said with more COVID patients, they have to increase staff, sometimes using travel nurses to have enough staff to take care of patients safely.

Cooper said safety protocols are the same as when the pandemic began, ensuring everyone in healthcare settings wear masks.

There was a lot of talk at the beginning of the pandemic about reaching herd immunity, meaning once enough people were vaccinated and the virus had infected enough people, COVID would diminish.

Gushee said a lot of people who were originally talking about herd immunity are no longer talking about it.

“I think that once you get to these sort of levels, what happens is that the cases you see in the community tend to be milder, regardless of the disease and that’s because that’s some degree of immunity,” Gushee said. “It’s always partial because we do see patients, a lot of patients, who have been vaccinated who then get COVID, but in the mildest way so are we at herd immunity? Maybe, I don’t know. I’m not sure it’s a useful term anymore to use.”

As of June 30, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend people in 15 Washington counties wear masks in public, including Thurston, Pierce, Lewis and Grays Harbor counties. While Mason Health staff must mask inside the facilities, some of them admit they don’t always wear one out in public.

“For me, my risk level is very low from the standpoint of I don’t have any reason to believe that I would have a severe infection and I’ve been vaccinated,” Gushee said. “Indeed, I did test positive for COVID but I was one of those completely asymptomatic ones. I guess I’m hopefully relying on that as my safety margin, that’s what I would expect again in the future. However, I would suggest that anyone who’s got comorbidities should certainly be masking up in the current environment because it’s certainly still out there and they’re the ones at risk of severe illness.

“I also think there’s no chance the government would ever go back to recommending masking again. I just don’t think people would tolerate it, even if it were the right medical decision.”

Cooper said she has some immunocompromisations so she wears a mask almost everywhere she goes unless she’s outside within her small group that she knows hasn’t been exposed and maintains social distancing.

“When I go into Walmart or the grocery store, I still do wear my mask,” Cooper said. “Anywhere I’m in a confined space indoors, I still do, but that’s a personal choice that people have to make for themselves at this point.”

Bennington said he doesn’t always wear his mask when he’s in public, but he understands there is a level or risk that he is taking. He says he’s in good enough health to be confident enough to not wear it in certain situations.

“I’m watching things every day just to see,” Bennington said. “At some point, it may be prudent to go ahead and start masking again and it will be a personal choice.”

There was always some hope that COVID would come to an end in some form, but Gushee said he believes COVID will always be with us at this point.

“I think it’s likely we’re going to see some multi-valent vaccines become available, meaning vaccines that cover multiple different strains and that those vaccines become kind of a yearly shot that you take just like you do influenza now,” Gushee said. “I think that’s probably what’s going to happen with it. Now, it could certainly mutate into a less severe form like SARS, that was the same family of virus and that one mutated away into a much less lethal version that we don’t even talk about anymore so we can all hope it goes that direction. My guess is that’s what we’ll be seeing from now on.”

Cooper said Pfeizer is working on a booster that is more in line to cover the omicron variant.

The vaccine was just approved for children under 5. Cooper said they are seeing some children come in to get vaccinated, but she thinks that as parents are reading that and it is made more available, they’ll be seeing an increase in child vaccination.

The county vaccination rate has slowly climbed in recent months, sitting 59.5% as of Tuesday. Mason Health used to host mass vaccination clinics,, but is no longer hosting them, because “everybody who wants a vaccine has gotten a vaccine for the most part,” according to Gushee. He said it is hugely disappointing that about only 60% of the county is interested in getting vaccinated.

“I think people are making personal choices, but not recognizing the greater good,” Gushee said. “Not getting vaccinated not only puts yourself at risk, but it puts others at risk and for whatever reason, that seems to be acceptable, which is eye-opening and deeply troubling for me.”

Chief Development and Communications Officer Jennifer Capps said they are still going to promote vaccines and put it out there for people who want to get it or change their mind about getting vaccinated.

“All we can do is offer it to them and educate, education is a huge part of it and our providers and the clinics are doing a great job of answering questions,” Cooper said.

Mason Health and Mason General Hospital has adapted to its “new normal” for work in the healthcare industry.

“Now that we’ve had two years of familiarity with this disease, as Kim has described, the protocols, how you go about taking care of the folks with this disease, is now much more rock solid in terms of the science and so it’s just one more thing they’re able to handle from a medical point of view,” Gushee said.

As for life outside of their jobs, Gushee, Cooper and Bennington said they are all used to their lives with COVID.

“How can you not be?” Cooper proclaimed.