White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx made a stop in Lincoln today to speak with state leaders about Nebraska's handling of COVID-19.
Birx recently pointed to Omaha as one of the country’s most concerning areas for cases of COVID-19. Birx said Omaha was in the list because “they were going to a very high peak.” Friday’s stop in Nebraska was her second stop on a tour through the Midwest after a visit to Iowa yesterday.
On Monday, Governor Pete Ricketts that Omaha was in the list because the White House didn’t have accurate COVID-19 data about Nebraska, but Birx stressed during her visit Friday that the White House data was the same data the state reports to the CDC. “We pull our information from the CDC who gets the information from the state department of public health and your laboratories, and you have a very organized system here,” she said.
Birx said the White House task force doesn’t classify counties in rural areas with less than 10 cases so that it doesn’t “overestimate an alert system for very low populated counties.” She said the task force looks at Omaha and Council Bluffs as one area, and that they’re seeing a decline in cases and positive tests there over the last 10 days.
She said the decline reinforces the need for mask mandates and enforced social distancing, especially at restaurants and bars. “I want to really say this to every Nebraskan: You can’t tell who’s infected. And your family members who haven’t been with you could be infected. And so, we really need to treat each of us with that kind of mutual respect. And so, if you’ve been out and about, don’t go visit grandma without a mask. And make sure that you’re socially distant.”
She said that she sees how Nebraskans are making a change that shows a path forward through the pandemic.
She talked about the three phases that have occurred during the pandemic, noting that Nebraska was saved from Phase 1, which was concentrated in major metropolitan areas and bedroom communities. But Omaha was not spared Phase 2, which consisted of isolated outbreaks affecting nursing homes, meatpacking plants, prisons, and so forth. “Phase 3 is much more about community spread that starts with young people and then expands, silently, because most young people are asymptomatic,” Birx said.
“What we were seeing in Omaha was a very rapid rise in cases... but it looks like they’ve reached their peak,” she said, which means what Omaha is doing is starting to work. She said that Saturday’s data show Nebraska cases being at 10% positivity, which was taken from rolling seven-day data. In the next governor’s report, those numbers look like they will be closer to 9%, she said.
Ricketts emphasizes hospitalizations as the hallmark of success in Nebraska’s efforts to contain COVID-19. Birx said that protecting the hospital capacity is the goal, but that the early-alert signals to virus spread in the community is test-positivity.
In Iowa and Nebraska, she said, COVID-19 testing may not be happening at the same rate in the rural areas as in the metro areas. That makes positivity rates a tricky measurement for rural areas, she said. “What this trip has taught us is we need to really create kind of rural indicators, particularly for rural areas with very low populations to figure out what that early alert is for that asymptomatic community spread before it gets to the hospitals,” Birx said.
In rural areas, she said, they’re not as critical as social distancing is occurring fairly consistently. “I think where you have cases, it’s critical — absolutely critical — to have a mask mandate,” she said, “...but it has to be adapted to the community you’re serving.”
Birx said mixed messaging, particularly at the start of the pandemic, was a factor in making face mask mandates controversial. “Since then, we’ve gotten really clear physics on the importance of masks and what that does,” she said. “So we have now scientific evidence about face coverings do.”
She said there have been multiple examples of success with face mask mandates, such as in Arizona, along with closing bars and gyms, which is she said is now headed to the “green zone.”
“So to all of those who think that masks may not be important, we have a very strong evidence base that they are,” Birx said.