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Beaumont Health officials spoke about whether Michigan needs another COVID shutdown and many other topics, while painting a dire picture of hospitals filling up with COVID-19 patients.
Dr. Nick Gilpin, the medical director of infection prevention, and chief nurse Susan Grant spoke about Zoom, breaking the dire situation and calling on Michiganders to help stop the spread of the virus.
You can watch the full press conference in the video above
Here are the critical facts and takeaways from the press conference.
While about a quarter of Michigan’s population has been vaccinated, that’s a long way from what it takes to achieve herd immunity.
“It takes six weeks for the vaccine to be fully effective,” said Gilpin. For example, someone who gets the Moderna vaccine – which requires two shots 28 days apart – won’t have the full benefit for six weeks.
“If you also look back on our previous peaks, what was the difference?” Gilpin asked. “The difference from the first wave we experienced is that there were community constraints to limit the size of the collections and indoor activities, which we know are very effective ways of transmitting coronavirus. We saw it in March and April last year. We saw it in the fall and winter months in Michigan, and both peaks, I think, have warped in part due to active restraints. “
Gilpin said he believes Michigan needs more restrictions to combat this wave. – “I think we do need to have a degree of commitment to limit some of those activities in the community.”
“At a time like this, right now, in Southeast Michigan and Michigan in general, I think we need to be a little bit more normative at this point,” Gilpin said.
Gilpin said Whitmer currently has an incredibly difficult task balancing the virus with the “radioactive political environment.”
Beaumont is sticking to the line “as much as possible” in terms of necessary surgical procedures. Gilpin said if someone undergoes surgery to remove cancer, those surgeries will not be delayed.
“But at the same time, we need to look at certain surgical procedures that are performed on a more choice-free basis and that may not be of an urgent issue that we could potentially delay at this point,” Gilpin said.
Many hospitals in Beaumont postpone these elective surgeries because they are overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients. Someone with a planned elective knee replacement that will require him to stay in the hospital for days at a time may need to be delayed.
Non-COVID surgery is considered on a case-by-case basis, requiring resources, but it’s the best way to approach it, Gilpin said.
This is the third COVID-19 rise for Southeast Michigan and the fourth rise for the United States as a whole. The three peaks in Michigan were March / April 2020, November through January and now.
During the second wave (November 2020 to January 2021), Beaumont cared for more than 700 COVID-19 patients in its eight-hospital system.
Gilpin said the third wave “is just a runaway path right now.”
There are currently more than 800 patients with COVID-19 in Beaumont’s eight hospitals.
Most of the hospitals in Beaumont operate very close to their capacity. Beaumont hospitals are expected to hit their capacity ceiling soon.
Grant said that as of Thursday morning (April 15), most hospitals in Beaumont have between 90% and 95% capacity.
“It’s tight,” Gilpin said. “Every day, all of our sites come together very actively to see what they can do to create space.”
Until now, the hospitals in Beaumont have not had to create extra space or relocate patients to the lawn.
Another factor that contributed to the hospital’s capacity increase during this rise: many people avoided the hospital with non-COVID problems last year because they were afraid of going in with so many COVID patients. Hospitals were almost exclusively COVID hospitals. That is not the case during this wave.
“If we keep seeing the number of COVID numbers increasing, we’ll have to make some accommodations, open some extra beds, but again, the challenge here and the theme of the day is where do we get that staff from?” Gilpin said.
The strategy for Beaumont right now to get through this wave is to get as many people vaccinated as possible.
About 40% of Michigan residents over the age of 16 have received at least one dose of the vaccine and about 25% have been fully vaccinated.
“We generally see younger patients in our hospitals – a slightly younger target audience,” Gilpin said. “That makes sense when you think about it, because we’ve done a really good job vaccinating some of the older people over 65.”
As the demographics most vulnerable to getting COVID-19 shift to a younger group, Beaumont doesn’t see as many severe cases of illness overall. But there are still incredibly sick patients.
The mean age of patients in hospitals during the first two peaks was in the 60s. For this increase, the mean age is around the low 50s.
Younger patients with COVID-19 appear to be less seriously ill in terms of hospital stay and IC capacity. However, there is a segment of younger patients with very serious cases of COVID-19, including children.
The rise is largely driven by a younger, unvaccinated demographic doing more things in the community that will spread the virus.
People gather in large groups, spend more time indoors, and visit bars and restaurants. – “We know all of these things will power the transmission,” Gilpin said.
There are virus-specific variables, such as the B117 variant from the UK, that are even more transmissible.
Weather is also a variable. Although Michigan currently has warmer weather, it is still conducive to more indoor activities than outdoor activities, Gilpin said. Florida’s warmer climate, on the other hand, makes it easier for people to do outdoor activities.
The cooler weather and drier air make it easier for the virus to move.
“When you look at all those variables, I think it’s a bit of a perfect storm to explain why Michigan is where they are now,” Gilpin said.
Beaumont has plenty of personal protective equipment and fans, but this wave has put a huge strain on staff. – “We are tense from a staffing perspective,” said Gilpin.
“At this time last year, none of us could have imagined that, during that extraordinarily difficult time, we would be back this year, at the same time,” said Grant. “That we would work and see so many patients infected with the corona virus. Hundreds and hundreds of them come through our emergency rooms. “
Grant said hospital workers, after doing this for over a year now, are tired and exhausted both physically and mentally. – “They want this to go away.”
“That emotional exhaustion is a result of experiencing and being present the tremendous toll this virus has taken on patients, families and their own personal lives,” said Grant. “They have experienced many deaths in the last year, and now they are experiencing and seeing younger people who are in our ICU beds, who are very sick, who are in the emergency room and in our hospital beds who are very sick. sick, and some who are dying. “
Nurses told Grant that the hardest part of this wave is younger people with COVID-19 entering the hospitals. They are heartbroken by the loss and the toll it continues to take on young people and families.
Beaumont has reached out to outside agencies to hire additional personnel to assist with vaccination clinics and resolve the spate of cases.
“It’s literally all hands on deck, and people are willing to get up and do whatever they need to do, but we need help,” Grant said.
With hospital volumes increasing, Beaumont is in contact with other health systems when it comes to potential transfers and managing how full certain hospitals become.
Grant was asked if she is worried about nurses leaving the profession because of the pandemic’s demands on them. – “We worry about it every day, and unfortunately we already see it. It is very worrying. “
Some nurses who may have been considering retirement in the coming years have retired early because of the tensions in caring for COVID-19 patients, Grant said.
The public can start to slow the spread of the virus by doing simple things like wearing a mask, staying home when they are sick, and getting tested when they are sick.
Most importantly, Michiganders should be vaccinated as soon as possible – as soon as they qualify.
“We all know people in our lives who have doubts, or who don’t feel that coronavirus is a serious disease, or that the consequences may not be serious, especially when we are young,” Gilpin said. “I think we need to rewrite that thought because, frankly, I’ve had the unfortunate chance of caring for some very young patients with no significant medical conditions struggling with COVID.”
“I’m just worried that we are so upset in terms of our thinking about this that it would be better to get COVID than to get a COVID vaccine, and I think that’s just completely the wrong way to to address this, ‘Gilpin said.
Gilpin said people should have conversations with people close to them who have doubts about the vaccine and encourage them to get vaccinated. – “The vaccine absolutely works.”
“Don’t leave us now,” said Grant. ‘Stay with us. Keep doing your part. Keep wearing your mask. Get your vaccine if you are able to. Maintain that social distance, wash hands – all those things we’ve all learned so much about over the past year that we know will work, so we can flatten this curve. “
Beaumont is structured to deliver monoclonal antibodies to patients.
It’s a complicated process with many logistical considerations, but Beaumont uses resources and has a team on that front.
“It’s a delicate balance between supply and demand,” Gilpin said. When monoclonal antibodies were first available, demand was high and supply small, so Beaumont couldn’t accommodate everyone.
Beaumont has two clinics that focus on monoclonal antibody treatments, but it is very resource intensive.