“People have a hard time understanding prevention”

Robert Angotti, Lic. Ac., Herbalist

This week I had a few more patients with COVID cases that were hitting closer to home. One patient presented with symptoms that showed a strong likelihood of COVID positivity. Without news of a test, I chose to error on the side of caution and shut the clinic down until I knew more. My apologies to those who were effected.

I spent that afternoon looking ahead and consulting public health. I had a long phone conversation with the MN department of health the assisting nurse explained some of the difficulties that public health officials are facing. For example, one of the most challenging requirements for a sustained slowing of the COVID spread is the quarantining of suspected “first circle” contacts. If you are exposed to someone who shows signs of COVID symptoms and/or tests positive for COVID, you should quarantine for 14 days in order to prevent spread as an asymptomatic carrier. “People have a hard time understanding prevention”, the public health representative said. The importance of prevention is further complicated by strategies such as what the state of North Dakota has implemented. Recently, the ND state COVID management department said you would not need to quarantine if you had been in close contact with someone with COVID-19 but you and the contact had both been wearing a mask. Dr. Michael Osterholm of CIDRAP was stupefied by this suggestion saying there is absolutely no research to support that claim.

React or Over-react

Success with COVID will almost always look like an overreaction. I have probably written this multiple times in prior posts. However, the more time I spend observing our culture struggling to wrap its head around prevention, the more I realize that the ethical orientation that physicians and public health representatives bring into this situation may be uniquely influenced by their profession. Hippocrates’ famous code of ethical orientation for physicians bears repeating. “First, do no harm.” For public health physicians in the midst a pandemic this means doing everything possible to limit unnecessary death. Until death, disease and economic hardship are close enough to effect most Americans directly, corralling this virus through prevention will continue to be a challenge for us.

I bring this up because I am witnessing leaders in our community, and among citizens in our community who have grown suspicious of public health and in some cases have actively advocated for undermining their efforts. To be fair, pubic health has not been free from mistakes. Early in the pandemic the CDC’s website advice for masking was clearly contradictory. Nevertheless, mistakes are inevitable, especially when dealing with an unknown pathogen. We are learning more about COVID every week. However, as a collective body, we are still learning how to work together to prevent its spread. North Dakota and South Dakota are leading the nation in numbers of cases per capita. Minnesota’s Clay county has the 7th highest rate of infections per capita in the state. Cass county has the highest number of active cases in ND.

Changes at the Clinic to Keep us Safe

Due to this increased COVID-19 risk level, I will be making the following modifications at my clinic. I want to continue providing care for as long as possible during this “High Risk” phase in our area.

1. Please email your answer to the following questions when you get your reminder email.
   1. If you have the ability to check, what is your current temperature?
   2. Have you been exposed (within 6ft for 15 minutes or longer) to anyone who has tested positive to COVID-19 in the past two weeks?
   3. Have you been exposed to anyone who has shown symptoms of COVID-19 in the past two weeks?
   4. Are you practicing diligent social distancing?
2. Please sanitize your hands upon arrival at the front door.
3. Please stay six feet from the lobby desk. 
4. Please prepare for contactless payment if possible.

Thank you all for your support during these times. This will be a very challenging winter but we can get through it together! I highly recommend having the COVID Combo on hand for treatment of wither COVID-19 or the standard flu.