By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Recent antibody testing in Buchanan County discloses a low number of county residents have had COVID-19.
While that is good news, it also discloses the county is far from herd immunity.
Mosaic Life Care Chief Quality Officer, Dr. Edward Kammerer, says without herd immunity, area residents need to follow current practices.
“There are some core aspects that are necessary to continue to control this pandemic,” Kammerer says. “It goes back to the same basics that we started with which have been proven over time. It’s hand hygiene. It is wearing a mask and it is social distancing that are going to make a difference.”
Antibody testing of more than 2,300 Buchanan County residents disclosed only three percent had had COVID-19. That number could rise due to the recent increase in new COVID-19 cases, especially those cases which have landed more residents in the hospital.
Mosaic reported this morning it is currently treating 31 COVID-19 patients in the St. Joseph hospital, up a bit from the weekend, though off the high set last week of 36. Mosaic has tested 30,571 area residents with 2,080 testing positive.
Kammerer says it takes a rate of at least 60% of a community to reach herd immunity. He says without reaching that threshold, the best shot the county has to hold down the spread of the virus is development of a vaccine.
“So, the vaccine becomes a significant aspect, especially for our community where we have a low penetrance,” Kammerer says. “Moving forward, until that vaccine comes up, it is essential, and I applaud the mayor for putting in a mandatory mask mandate. This is essential for us to get back to doing what we can do in order to keep our community safe and keep that penetrance low until we get the vaccine and we have herd immunity.”
COVID-19 remains a very real threat in Buchanan County, according to Kammerer, but the seriousness of the virus depends on where it attacks the body. Kammerer says most who contract the coronavirus won’t have to seek hospital care.
“All these other symptoms that you here about, they are interesting, they are fascinating to me; the loss of smell, loss of taste, you get headaches, you get sore throats, so get fevers, you get body aches. None of those land you in the hospital,” according to Kammerer. “You can’t taste, you don’t end up in the hospital. But what does land you in the hospital, is when you get it down in your lungs.”