Key points from today’s guests:
Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer, The University of Kansas Health System and executive vice chancellor, The University of Kansas Medical Center
- We've gathered six chief medical officers and infectious disease specialists from across the metro and throughout Kansas, including myself and Dr. Dana Hawkinson.
- It's been seven months since we've had a status report on COVID, so we'll take a look at that, plus see what you can expect from influenza, RSV, and other things as we head into the fall.
- According to this COVID data track from the CDC, test positivity is up, emergency department visits are up, and hospitalizations are up.
- Nationally, the wastewater viral activity level is currently very high. Wastewater monitoring may provide an early warning that levels of infections are increasing even when people don't have symptoms.
- We've been following wastewater testing for years, and when we isolate the Midwest trend, we can see that that level in the Midwest is rising just like the rest of the country.
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director, Infection Prevention & Control, The University of Kansas Health System
- Unfortunately, our latest numbers taken last evening show that we have 21 COVID inpatients, so our numbers have gone up slightly. We were hoping for an overall decrease in the numbers.
- Remember, there are other respiratory viruses like influenza and RSV, and I think increased reporting is the best thing so that we can collect that data to understand what are trends around the nation, what are trends in the regions, and what are trends locally.
- The FDA just approved two new COVID vaccines, not just boosters. We have to understand they're not called boosters because they are just like influenza vaccine – they really are going to be recommended yearly from this point on.
- The newest COVID vaccines should be out of the warehouses and making their ways to the health systems and clinical pharmacies as well our commercial pharmacies.
Dr. Bill Gilbirds, CMO, Saint Luke’s Health System
- We have four Metro hospitals and four critical access hospitals. Currently, across those eight hospitals, we have 21 inpatients that tested positive for COVID.
- Of those patients, four are in the ICU, and one is on a ventilator.
- We also still monitor for flu and RSV, but we have no flu or RSV cases that are hospitalized currently across the system.
- The CDC recommends everyone ages 75 and older receive the RSV vaccine, and people ages 60 to 74 who at increased risk of severe RSV get the vaccine, which provides an added layer of protection.
- I'm still getting a ton of pushback from patients on getting a COVID vaccine, and it's not based in science. It seems like I can't convince them otherwise and that's very frustrating.
Dr. Mark Steele, executive chief clinical officer, University Health
- This morning, we have a total of seven patients that are in isolation due to COVID.
- This is actually a little down from last week, when we are up to as high as 14. We have none in the ICU, so that's a good thing.
- Our test positivity for COVID last week peaked at about 25 percent and this week now we're down to 12 percent, so I'm hoping that that may be a good sign that we're seeing a little bit less covid circulating.
- We certainly have seen an uptick in cases of COVID with our employee workforce for about the last six weeks or so.
- Those who are vaccinated are less prone to getting long COVID than those who are not.
- All these updated vaccines have been shown to reduce serious illness, deaths, and long COVID. And so, the evidence is pretty overwhelming that this is the right thing to do.
Dr. Chakshu Gupta, CMO, Liberty Hospital
- Our inpatient numbers that are sick with COVID have also gone up for the past several months. It is now about four percent of our inpatient census.
- And since the rates are going up in the community, we also see some of our employees who are getting sick with COVID and having to excuse themselves from work.
- We very strongly encourage vaccination, both in our communities and, of course, for our health care staff. Vaccination is a wonderful way to prevent severe covid.
- The idea of getting vaccinated is not to “prevent COVID” – it is to prevent severe infection with COVID.
- Of course, the more people that get vaccinated, the more protected you are. So there is a sense of community protection as well.
- Please do not get swayed by the all the misinformation out there. Vaccinations save lives, if you should you care about yourself, your family and your community, I think you should take these vaccines.
Dr. Sri Donepudi, CMO, The University of Kansas Health System, St. Francis
- We saw about 50 percent COVD test positivity in the month of August.
- We did have a pretty quick uptick in our number of inpatients.
- The current rate and the number of admissions that we're seeing related to COVID are on par with what we had back in January of 2024, so relative to that winter spike.
- We're also not seeing any flu or RSV in our testing or in the hospital.
- We have initially seen more flu A, and they're now starting to see more flu B, but no hospitalizations.
Tuesday, Sept. 4 at 8 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. We kick off Prostate Cancer Awareness Month with a story of survival. Hear about the options given to one patient and the treatment he chose. Plus, why Black men in particular need to show up for one another.
ATTENTION MEDIA: Please note access is with Microsoft Teams:
Join on your computer or mobile app
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 235 659 792 451
Passcode: 6CSfGE
Download Teams | Join on the web
Or call in (audio only)
+1 913-318-8863,566341546# United States, Kansas City
TVU Grid link: UoK_Health_SDI
Restream links: Facebook.com/kuhospital
YouTube.com/kuhospital
Send advance questions to medicalnewsnetwork@kumc.edu.