HJBR Sep/Oct 2021

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE  I  SEP / OCT 2021 23 Some say mainstream media reporting on COVID-19 deaths is sensationalism at its worst. If you would play armchair quarter- back for a moment, according to the CDC, no Louisiana, Mississippi or Arkansas kids, 0-17 have died from COVID-19. Look- ing back on it now, do you think the stress or disruption in their lives is a bit out of proportion? That’s false. We have had individuals younger than 18 die of COVID. In fact, I treated one myself in the hospital. We’ve had nine people die of COVID who are between the ages of zero and 17. I don’t know what’s listed on the CDC site, but it is listed on the Louisiana Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard. One viral expert I spoke to said he and his colleagues are convinced that the SARS- CoV-2 is a man-made virus because of its ferocity and the ability to attack so many body parts so effectively. Do you agree? Oh, I don’t know. The origins of how the virus came to be are very much under investigation, and I think there are strong theories out there. There are clearly theo- ries that it emerged naturally, perhaps from some path, or other theories that it was the result of some leak in a lab, whether that was intentional or not. I don’t know, and we might never know. Let’s be honest. We might never know, but that doesn’t change one bit what we have to do now to protect ourselves. The PCR test used to diagnose infections of the virus is said to be as high as 98% false positives for infectiousness. And they’re being discontinued by the CDC at the end of the year. Do you know how many of those tests were given out in Louisiana? And do you have an estimate of the false positives or negative rates our testing in Louisiana has had? The ability of a test to have a false posi- tive is a reality for really any test, of any- thing, including PCR tests for COVID, but it’s nowhere near that number much — much, much less, typically 5%, if that. PCR tests are highly, highly specific. So, it tends to be much less for PCR tests as well. What the CDC did is in February 2020, when there was no testing available here for COVID- 19, the CDC developed protocols for a test so that state labs could begin testing and pub- lished those protocols. It was the first test that people could use in the United States, and it took a long time to get. Even though they did it in record time, it still was being developed as COVID was actively spread- ing, particularly in Louisiana. Since that time, many, many other PCR tests have been developed, now being put out there by private companies, not through the CDC. Ayear and a half later, there is less need for this initially developed CDC test that is not really being used now. Now, most people use PCR tests that are being fashioned by private companies, so in recognition of that, the CDC asked the FDA to withdraw the approval. The authorization for that initial test doesn’t affect at all every other PCR tests that remains on the mar- ket. In fact, it doesn’t nearly affect the way that anyone’s getting tested, because almost no one is using that initial CDC test right now. So, the availability of PCR testing, the authorization approval of PCR testing for COVID-19 remains 100% in effect and avail- able, and it says nothing as to the accuracy of those tests, it just speaks to now there are other tests available on the market. These PCR tests remain highly, highly sensitive and very, very specific. We think we have good visibility on the spread of COVID. We don’t think that we have a problemwith the available tests out there right now. What do you think the end game of this pandemic looks like in your best guess that it’s behind us? I don’t know when it happens, but I really think the only end game for us is get- ting more people to feel comfortable get- ting vaccinated. I think we’re going to con- tinue to have spikes, unfortunately, until we can get a larger number of our friends and neighbors vaccinated. I think that’s unfortu- nate, because it’s no longer an issue of how much vaccine is available; we have plenty of vaccine. Until we can build a level of com- munity protection, we leave ourselves vul- nerable, and we’re experiencing that right now with this Delta surge. n “… if somebody still would feel more comfortable receiving the more traditional type of vaccine, the J&J vaccine is a more traditional vaccine platform that’s based on the adenovirus, a very common type of vaccine platform that does not employ messenger RNA technology.”