Five years after announcing the national health emergency on Kovide 19, local health experts say lessons and changes during pandemic disease are still related.
“I think Cavio 19 showed how the public health system was not properly supported.” Dr. Philip HuangDirector and Health Authority of Dallas County Health and Human Services. “But we are not in the same situation as we were at the beginning.”
Modernizing data, improving monitoring
Health agencies such as Dallas County Health and Human Services need daily infections or diseases, hospitals and detect deaths, especially on weak communities, designing strategies to reduce the spread and effects of Covade 19.
Huang said, “From a point of view of data and information, we were of one kind of ancient times, literally inserting paper faxes, lab reports and medical students in this figure.” “I argued that trillions of dollars worth of policy decisions are being made on the timely and accuracy of our data.” Huang added that these decisions also include whether bars like bars have to be closed and masked or not needed.
Huang developed a data system led by DHHS that could handle large quantities of information from hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and other health care facilities. Calling the disease monitoring and investigative system, it helped track and understand how the virus was spreading, making it easier for public health workers to do their job.
In 2023DCHHS won the Healthcare Information and Management System Society Davis Award of Excellence for the development of the data system. It is a success that Huang is proud of and who believes that Dallas County determines the infectious diseases in the future with the infrastructure of public health, whether in the pathogenesis or any other way.
County’s Public Health Director Matt Richardson said improving the method of detecting public health workers in Denton County was also a top priority.
“We worked with an engineer’s shopkeeper, from the ground -up, a system that will collect cases, track the results of the lab, identify our Links link to detect contact. [and] Richardson said link it to other matters and then chart it over time. He added that these figures were made on a website and provided information about issues, hospitals and deaths through age and race, and data was provided and data such as vaccinated vaccines, such as data.
Huang said that in real time, keeping track of the Kovide 19 cases made it clear that waiting for people’s positive tests was not enough to overcome its spread. It said It highlights the need for early warning systems such as wastewater monitoring, which people can detect virus marks in the drainage before displaying signs of the disease. By examining wastewater, public health officials can soon see the spread, which makes them an important start to respond to new waves of infection.
“We’re doing something like this three times a week,” Huang said about the test. ” “The wastewater does not depend on those who are going for them [COVID-19] Test and report it.
Vaccine, an inevitable healthcare device
The Kovide -19 vaccine changed the path of pandemic disease. In the first six months after the introduction of the vaccine in the United States, in December 2020, there were 8 million less certified cases, which were enrolled in less than 120,000 deaths and 700,000 less hospitals, According to a study of 2023.
When we had no toll, [when] Huang said, “We did not have a vaccine or treatment, the only thing we could do was some non -pharmaceutical intervention, like preventing people from gathered in large crowds.”
“But then when a year later, we got the vaccine, I remember that was in Fair Park [which became a mass vaccination site in January 2021]Some people were in tears saying, ‘Thank you very much for this. I couldn’t see my grandchildren in a year, now I have the freedom to go out and see people safely. ‘
Between the vaccine hesitant and Anti -vaccine feelingsHuang hopes that people will not forget the vaccine role in eliminating pandemic disease.
“Now we have achieved this pleasure because [COVID-19] Huang said, “There is not such a big problem.” People have been dropped and protected and we do not see that much. [the virus] And they once again ask, ‘Why do we need this thing?’
Richardson shared Huang’s concerns about public opinion about the vaccine. Texas Motor Speedwee served as a vaccination mega -hub for Dentin County during pandemic disease and more than 370,000 vaccines were delivered there, from 2020 to the spring of 2021, Even with people Richardson said coming out of the state.
“Success is what I think, maybe five years later, may have been less.” Said “This vaccine was the most effective and safest ever. It stopped entering hospitals and preventing deaths, really on a astronomical scale … I think science has equipped vaccine technology that we can take advantage of faster and faster. With a healthy and capable of public health infrastructure, and with our technology being more developed than five years ago, will it be public confidence and use? I think it’s unknown.
The epidemic disease exposed the need for a clear health message about vaccines, which not only explained their effectiveness but also prepared them in the changing nature of the virus. Since new forms emerged and individual protection against Kovide 19 has moved, conversation about the vaccine had to be prepared to prevent confusion and doubt. Diana SurvintsAn associate professor of population and community health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center.
“We want to make sure to understand people, just like a flu vaccine, you will not get a flu vaccine and will never get the flu,” said the surveys. “It’s going to help reduce your chances of getting sick … I think that if people think it like this, it may have helped something.”
Building community partnership
Studies have found In the United States, this black, Spanish and local American people have a higher the Kovide 19 infections, the hospital being hospitalized and the death rate is higher than the white people.
A Dallas Morning News Analysis from May 2020 Some zip code found was related to the higher the Kovide 19 infection than others. For example, 75215, located in the south of the Interstate 30 and the east of the river Trinity, and 33 % with poverty level, had 7.7 Kovide 19 cases for every thousand residents, which was more than the double Dallas county rate.
Huang said setting up a partnership with the backward or backward classes with the outreach groups is to ensure that resources and public health messaging have reached the needy.
Huang said, “We had great partners of the community.” Black churches were really a great partner, and some extremely alert … promoting masks and vaccines. We had many community partners who helped us and worked together for our fair park vaccination efforts. We had about a million people in our waiting list, but we were able to prefer these invitations and send the very weak zipid codes and people living in these areas.
Richardson said that Denton County’s Public Health Workers also talked about providing Quid -19 testing and vaccine at the time, and worked hard to eliminate the difference.
“We’ll catch [COVID-19] He said, and we just examine the incidents at the health department, and we did not do so. “We went to African American churches, churches primarily at various geographical locations in the county … We went to schools and stadium parking lots. We really tried to make the test accessible and then we created a copy with the vaccination clinic.
It is difficult to say whether Kovide -19 has properly prepared health workers for the next pandemic disease. But Huang, Surveyors and Richardson believe that the lesson learned will prove to be valuable.
“Whoever has been in the public health and works in the health department for a long time, knows that your biggest asset is about to become a relationship with your community,” Survents said. “When something happens, measles outbreak or Covid 19, you may be able to contact people in society … When I think of being hopeful, I think that’s what I think.”
Mary Fawzia is a science reporting fellow at Dallas Morning News. Its fellowship has been supported by the University of Texas in Dallas. The news makes all editorial decisions.
