2020-07-30 - School Board Workshop, Metrics to reopening

0:00 Thank you.

6:29 So, I wanted to give you an opportunity to introduce them as

6:31 well.

6:32 And I’ll just take this off as I’m sitting here for ease of

6:35 talking.

6:36 And did I turn this on, right?

6:38 It’s on.

6:38 Just pull it really close to your mouth, Ms. Stull.

6:41 Okay. All right. Yes, we have John Davis with us. John Davis is

6:46 the Assistant Community Health Director. So he’s here. So

6:49 hopefully with the three of us, one of the three of us can

6:52 answer the questions you have. The few things I wanted to start

6:57 out with, and we’ll go ahead and review what’s actually on the

7:01 daily report. This report that Chris is pulling up is a report

7:06 that is updated about 11 o’clock every day.

7:11 And for the most part, it gives a week to two week trending of

7:14 data. The one thing I wanted to reiterate is our relationship

7:19 with central office is to let everyone know that we are not

7:23 really a local health department.

7:26 The state of Florida does not have local health departments. The

7:29 state of Florida has a state health department of which we are a

7:32 piece of them.

7:35 So primarily how the breakdown is, is the state is the one that

7:38 does all these reports and all these statistics. The state has

7:42 the biostatisticians. They do all that work. We do the groundwork.

7:47 We do all the groundwork. The policies we take from our experts

7:53 in Tallahassee. So what we do in the world of COVID here or in

7:58 the world of all epidemiology investigations is we do the case

8:03 investigations.

8:05 We do the interviews. We do the contact tracing. We look at the

8:09 local data that’s been put out by the state to see what’s

8:13 actually going on. And Barry probably knows what’s going on

8:16 before the report even comes out.

8:20 So the first thing is you look on this report and you see the

8:23 total number of cases. And this probably, some of the stuff I

8:27 might be saying might be yesterday’s data, but the total cases

8:32 today is 5,333 cases.

8:37 Cases themselves don’t mean a whole lot. Because, you know, I’m

8:41 sure if you heard in the media, the more testing you do, the

8:44 more cases you’re going to have. So cases, yes, are important,

8:49 but not as important as looking at positivity rate and some of

8:52 the other things that we have going out there.

8:55 The other thing that’s important is don’t look at one day.

8:59 Because we need to look at trends. The cases that are reported

9:04 out are primarily the labs that are reported out for any given

9:09 day.

9:09 So as the labs are backlogged and then they’re getting caught up

9:14 and they do lab dumps, you may see a huge increase on one day.

9:18 And sometimes we do see that. On Sundays or Mondays, we’ll see

9:22 the huge, what we call a lab dump.

9:24 So that’s why it’s not real super valid to be looking at numbers

9:29 of cases.

9:30 We need to look at trends. But as if you look at that report

9:33 here, it does break it up by Florida residents, Florida non-residents,

9:37 men, women, the medium age range.

9:41 It has, I was just in 716 there on this report, but the number

9:47 of cases reported out per day and it has the median age of the

9:52 cases reported out for that day.

9:54 And then it does break it out into race, ethnicity. Over on the

9:58 right there you’ll see our deaths, we’re at 108 deaths and I can

10:04 tell you about 40% of those deaths are specifically related to

10:09 long term care facilities.

10:11 Our death range right now is between 51 and 103 you said Barry,

10:18 was yesterday 103. So that is our age range and if you see down

10:25 a little bit further you can see there where it’s actually

10:28 broken down by ages for the death right there.

10:31 On the second page of this report it actually has our labs and

10:35 this is the thing that’s important to look at.

10:39 The top line there shows all the labs that got reported out and

10:46 let me explain a little bit is anyone that comes in, if they

10:50 have three positive tests they only get reported once.

10:53 Their first lab gets reported, okay? And we do see that

10:57 sometimes as some businesses return to work, want to have them

11:01 have two negatives which is getting, people are getting away

11:05 from that a little bit.

11:06 But if they come in and have three positives they’re only

11:09 reported here once. It’s the first time they test positive.

11:13 But you can see, and this is a two week trend here, for every

11:18 day how many labs reported out that day and what the positivity

11:22 rate was for that day.

11:24 It also has the number that were actually positive. So you can

11:30 see on 729, which was yesterday, we had 1,255 labs report out at

11:36 a 6.1% and 81 positives.

11:39 What’s important here is not to look at any given data but look

11:43 at the trend. So if you look at our trend over the last two

11:46 weeks, we’re actually doing very well.

11:49 Our low was what, 5.3 and our high was 9.8. But the 9.8 was an

11:58 isolated just one day there. So we do need to look at trends.

12:02 What we’re looking for is to stay in the single digits. So we

12:05 want to stay under 10. If we see ourselves trending up or above

12:09 10, that’s something that we really need to look out a little

12:13 bit.

12:13 And the next part of this report actually shows the hospital

12:20 admissions. Okay? So that shows the trending of the ED visits

12:26 for cough, fever, shortness of breath, cough associated

12:29 admissions, and then the weekly counts on the second part of it.

12:36 So that’s that page that comes out every day. It’s actually

12:41 updated every single day.

12:43 Chris, if you wanted to pull it, can you pull up the pediatric

12:45 report, which is on the main page.

12:49 The pediatric report is only updated once a week.

12:55 And on this pediatric report, you can see it starts out with the

13:00 age range of cases.

13:02 And this is the report that the other report, I think, had a 15

13:06 to 24 age group.

13:08 This report actually shows under 18. So you’re really getting

13:12 the school age population there, anyone up to the age of 18.

13:16 If you scroll down and it’s broken out by county, you can see we

13:23 have had 274 cases.

13:26 We’ve tested a total of 3,613 at a 7.6 positivity rate.

13:32 And that’s an overall. That’s not a one week. That’s overall

13:36 since the very beginning.

13:38 And you can see us in comparison to other counties. I can tell

13:42 you the counties in the region with the overall positivity rate

13:46 were lower.

13:47 We’re lower than any of them. So that breaks that out.

13:52 And then the bottom part of the report shows the multi-inflammatory

13:57 disorder in the pediatric patients.

13:59 And you can see Brevard has no one listed there. Hopefully we

14:03 keep that, but we don’t have anyone listed there.

14:08 So the other thing I wanted to say is right now our labs,

14:13 depending on the lab, we have LabCorp, we have Quest, we have

14:18 some private labs, we have the state lab.

14:21 Primarily it’s taken between 5 and 14 days right now for our

14:26 labs to report out.

14:28 And I can say also for priority testings that we send to the

14:31 state lab, we do get a little faster turnaround.

14:34 And that’s the healthcare workers and the first responders that

14:38 we send to the state lab.

14:40 As I said, it’s the trends we need to look at. Let’s see what

14:45 else I have here. I said that target.

14:49 Okay, I know you’re all concerned about the spread of communicability

14:56 rate.

14:57 What I can say is the only thing I can tell you on there right

15:00 now is the state is calculating it as a state.

15:03 The state, although as I say this, listen the whole thing.

15:09 What we want is we want it to be under one. Okay?

15:13 Less than one shows less chance of spread. Greater than one

15:18 shows a greater chance of spread.

15:19 The state as a whole is 0.93. That’s including our, and as I say

15:26 our top three, our top three are Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm

15:30 Beach.

15:31 They’re included in that. So it’s a 0.93 which is less than one.

15:37 Which is actually good as a state.

15:39 We are definitely in a stable pattern now. The three things we

15:44 need to be looking at are positivity rate, hospital admissions

15:48 and deaths.

15:49 Not hospital admissions, but those in the hospital. Our hospital

15:54 capacity is doing very well.

15:56 There is a state public ACA site that anyone can look at. Chris,

16:02 I can send you that link and you can send it out to everyone.

16:05 But the positivity rate has been running 20 to 25% for both

16:12 hospital and ICU capacity with all of our hospitals as a whole.

16:18 So that’s doing very well. And when you look at the ICU capacity,

16:23 remember the hospitals have the ability to convert regular beds

16:28 to ICU.

16:29 They can do that. And they do that with their internal search.

16:32 So hospitals are doing well. If any of you have been watching

16:36 the reports, you will see our deaths are up.

16:39 Our deaths are up specifically this week. And what I can say is

16:44 deaths, when you see deaths, you have to look back at your cases

16:49 a couple weeks ago.

16:50 And that’s exactly what we’re seeing. We’ve seen an increase of

16:53 cases since July 1st.

16:55 Primarily, a lot of the cases have been in our long-term care

16:58 facilities. And, you know, that’s our most vulnerable of

17:02 vulnerable population.

17:04 And that’s truly what we’re seeing. So, you know, we need to

17:09 definitely, which was in the school district plan, which is

17:13 excellent.

17:14 The first thing is stay home if you’re sick. And that’s for

17:17 anybody, not just our students. But we need to stay home if you’re

17:21 sick.

17:22 You know, we have seen cases come out of somebody that just

17:25 feels they have a little sinus infection.

17:28 Well, guess what? It’s not a little sinus infection. It comes

17:31 out as COVID positive.

17:33 So, really need to stay home if you’re sick. You need to wear

17:38 masks if you can’t maintain social distancing. Masking is very,

17:43 very important.

17:44 The latest advisory from the Surgeon General is for social

17:48 gatherings, avoiding groups greater than 10, and hand hygiene.

17:54 Those are really the big, big mitigation measures, along with

17:58 the cleaning, you know, with the cleaning.

18:02 So, from here, I’m going to hand it over to Barry, who can talk

18:06 a little bit about the actual virus, what we know and what we

18:09 don’t know, and anything else he has to say.

18:12 Can you hear me? Okay. Well, thank you very much for having us

18:17 again. And it’s my pleasure. I always enjoyed working with the

18:21 school board over the years and enjoy working with Chris Moore.

18:24 And there’s a couple of things I want to talk about real quick

18:28 here to add to what Maria’s about the numbers.

18:31 About three or four weeks ago, we had a tremendous spike in our

18:35 cases in the community.

18:37 And that’s what you see sometimes is that tremendous spike. But

18:41 then what you see, as Maria was saying, is two, three, four

18:45 weeks later,

18:46 you’ll start to see an increase in deaths, unfortunately, among

18:50 the among the susceptible, as Maria was saying, with our long

18:54 term care care facilities.

18:56 One thing I want to bring up and I’ll get to COVID in a minute.

18:59 But what really concerns me, as you know, we’re going to be

19:02 moving into the fall.

19:03 And as we know, the flu becomes active during the fall. I can’t

19:07 overemphasize about how important it will be to have a flu

19:12 vaccine available.

19:14 And that people receive the flu vaccine for the children and for

19:21 the your staff, the adults, because we’re going to have a hard

19:26 time differentiating between flu and COVID, you know, if that

19:30 happens.

19:30 So whatever we can do to work together to encourage our children

19:36 and our your staff and whatever to get vaccinated for this, we

19:42 need to try to implement as best we can.

19:43 There may be a test that comes out that can differentiate with

19:47 one swab between the flu and COVID. But we’ve not heard anything

19:53 about that lately.

19:55 So I can’t overemphasize, you know, that that that the flu

19:58 vaccine and there is some evidence, although it’s anecdotal

20:02 right now that those people who take are up on their vaccines

20:06 seem to do somewhat better with COVID.

20:09 Okay, although the information is anecdotal, as I said, and

20:15 about COVID-19, one thing please understand when it gets into a

20:20 family, almost all the family members acquire it, and

20:25 particularly if somebody is symptomatic.

20:27 We have seen that time and time again, you take a large family

20:32 and, you know, the the index case, the first case get acquires

20:38 the requires it, and then everybody acquires it if they’re in a

20:41 small dwelling or what have you, it’s extremely transmissible.

20:43 We do see sometimes people that do not acquire the virus and we’re

20:48 not exactly sure why, but some of those of us who are O type

20:52 blood may have less likely to acquire the virus and recover from

20:57 it maybe a little bit better.

20:59 And now it is an article from the New England Journal Journal of

21:03 Medicine, but we’re still working those things, those things out.

21:07 So when it gets into a family, you can expect that others in the

21:10 family, so if there’s other siblings, that they certainly may

21:13 come down to it with it.

21:15 But of course, they should be quarantined at that time.

21:19 Persons are infectious for about two days before they get ill

21:23 and then up to 10 days, but it depends on how long they’re ill.

21:28 They usually can come back to work or whatever.

21:31 Once they have their symptoms are pretty much resolved in 10

21:35 days and one day of no fever without any medication.

21:39 High, high, high levels of the virus.

21:42 I mean, we’re talking millions and millions and millions are

21:45 found in nasal swabs here.

21:47 So that makes it very transmissible.

21:49 If you remember SARS and MERS, you know, if we go back a little

21:53 bit, that was mostly a lower respiratory infection.

21:57 And since it was a lower respiratory infection, we didn’t have

22:00 the outbreaks that we’re seeing, of course, with this or even

22:03 the pandemic, of course, that we’re dealing with this.

22:06 So that made a huge difference, although both of those are coronaviruses.

22:10 OK, and by the way, there’s many coronaviruses that are out

22:12 there.

22:13 Many of many of us have had these viruses and you get over it

22:18 causes cold like symptoms.

22:19 It’s usually nothing serious.

22:21 You get over it.

22:22 One thing we know and we’re learning is that people getting this

22:25 again is rare, particularly in the next few months after they

22:29 resolve their infection.

22:31 There seems to be some antibody protection for at least two or

22:35 three months in most situations with that.

22:38 But then again, we’re working with the science on this.

22:43 We’re developing the science.

22:45 This is kind of unprecedented.

22:47 I’ve always relied on precedents of the science establishment we

22:51 have through the CDC and, of course, through others.

22:54 But, you know, we’re working through this as we go.

22:56 Incubation period is usually three to six days.

23:00 And what we’ve been seeing is and I know you’ve probably heard

23:03 it’s two to 14 days.

23:05 But in our investigations, we generally see it pretty quick.

23:08 It’s in three or four days in most situations with that.

23:12 With children, I don’t really see any difference.

23:14 And the range is two to 11 days.

23:17 The 14 days is extremely rare to go out that far with it.

23:21 But, you know, we still have to go by the 14 days of being

23:25 quarantined if you’re a contact or whatever with that.

23:28 Vast amounts of transmission occurs indoors than outdoors.

23:34 And, you know, we had hoped and that when the summer came, maybe

23:40 less transmission would occur.

23:43 But, unfortunately, we run indoors for our air conditioning.

23:47 And, unfortunately, air conditioning, of course, may transmit it

23:50 pretty well, particularly if there’s limited air circulations

23:54 with that.

23:55 Also, we’ve had outbreaks, you know, in the long-term care

23:59 facilities, as Maria said.

24:01 But we’ve had them in restaurants and gyms with janitors and

24:05 other environments with that.

24:07 And a lot of that’s because they work closely, extremely closely

24:10 together, but also they may have friendships outside the office

24:15 or wherever they work where transmission occurs.

24:18 Most times when we’ve had these outbreaks, somebody has come to

24:24 work sick.

24:25 Okay.

24:26 So, coming to school sick or whatever you, excuse me, just can’t

24:30 happen.

24:31 And I know it may happen, but that’s got to be instilled that it

24:35 just cannot happen.

24:36 Testing.

24:37 And let me just speak about that because everybody’s getting

24:41 tested.

24:42 And Maria says, you know, as it says, you know, testing is

24:45 important, but it’s not the overwhelming thing.

24:47 The overwhelming thing is to stay home if you’re sick, to stay

24:50 home if you’re sick, because we just see it all too often with

24:53 that.

24:53 The test, particularly the PCR test, polymers chain reaction,

24:57 that actually came out of HIV research, you know, many, many

25:01 years ago.

25:02 And we use it to detect flu, hepatitis C, and many other viruses

25:06 that are out there.

25:08 It’s not a good test to cure, okay?

25:11 It’s a good test for determining if you have it, the virus.

25:15 It’s not a good test to cure.

25:17 So that’s the reason we say if someone has it after 10 days, if

25:21 their symptoms are virtually gone, they have one day of no fever

25:24 without medication,

25:25 they can come back to work.

25:26 And, you know, and that should apply to students too.

25:30 And I want to understand in our investigations too, as we know,

25:35 that there can be upper respiratory symptoms.

25:37 There can be fever.

25:38 There can be cough.

25:39 There can be runny nose.

25:40 There can be congestion and all that.

25:42 Fever occurs actually less than 50% of the time, okay?

25:47 So that can’t be a marker exclusively necessarily to go by.

25:53 One thing too we’re learning about the virus and transmission.

25:57 Self-inoculation is an important component.

26:01 Studies have shown that children in an hour will touch their

26:05 face 23 times.

26:06 And something gets on their hands and, you know, their hands go

26:09 into their face.

26:10 It’s very essentially transmitting.

26:13 So then again, the hand hygiene is extremely, extremely

26:18 important.

26:20 Disinfection.

26:21 Most disinfectants that are out there, even those you get at the

26:24 grocery store, most of them will kill the virus.

26:27 We’ll see you in about a minute.

26:28 The environment is important.

26:30 Don’t get me wrong about that.

26:32 But what the science so far is demonstrating is the person-to-person

26:37 transmission.

26:38 And particularly the droplet, the aerosol, the talking, of

26:43 course, the physical contacts that we have.

26:46 And when we were talking, we may project.

26:48 And if we’re projecting, then more virus gets into the

26:51 environment and transmission may occur.

26:53 And I’m not trying to minimize so far as the environment goes.

26:57 But just to understand, it is a pretty fragile virus.

27:00 It dies pretty quickly, particularly with most disinfectants

27:04 that we have out there.

27:06 And we do find alcohol hand-rinse for soap and water is

27:08 effective, too, obviously.

27:10 But alcohol hand-rinse, you know, after about 30 seconds, does

27:14 an excellent job in destroying this virus.

27:20 And, of course, children and everyone need to give time for

27:24 drying to occur.

27:25 Because drying also reduces virus level in nearly all cases.

27:33 Avoiding groups, I can’t overemphasize that.

27:36 Studies have shown that social distancing, of course, as Maria

27:39 was saying, is important.

27:41 Social distancing, you know, when we go into the community with

27:46 face masks is very effective.

27:48 Very effective in not being exposed to COVID.

27:52 Okay.

27:53 I’ll leave it at that.

27:54 And if there’s questions, concerns.

27:55 Was John speaking as well, or is he just available to answer

28:06 questions?

28:09 Okay.

28:11 Then I will go ahead and open it up to board members for

28:16 questions.

28:17 Anyone have any?

28:20 This probably goes – I’m going to assume that I already know

28:24 the answer to this question.

28:25 But you said the positive – if a person who’s already tested

28:29 positive the first time,

28:31 if they have retests, that’s not going to be included in the

28:34 days count.

28:35 Will their first negative also not be included in the days count?

28:39 Yes.

28:40 It’s only the positive that’s included.

28:41 Okay.

28:42 So whatever first test you get – well, I can take that back.

28:48 Because if you go and get tested once and you’re negative, then

28:51 you go the next week

28:52 and get tested and you’re positive, then that would count?

28:54 Correct.

28:55 You’re right.

28:56 Okay.

28:57 So as a follow-up to that, because I had the same question with

29:01 Campbell.

29:02 If the negatives are counted more than once, doesn’t that skew

29:06 our positivity rate?

29:08 Yes, it can.

29:09 But, you know, like in the nursing home, we have to do that

29:14 because they get tested every

29:16 two weeks.

29:17 And some people in sensitive situations along with that.

29:21 But that’s the state guideline, particularly with their

29:23 employees.

29:24 And many times the residents in the nursing homes are getting

29:28 tested multiple, multiple times.

29:29 And then, of course, we want to pick up that positive to try to

29:33 control an outbreak in whatever

29:34 setting we’re working with.

29:36 Sure.

29:37 So then if I’m hearing you correctly, our positivity rate is

29:42 probably higher than the 6.1 that’s

29:45 showing because there may be multiple tests counted as negatives.

29:51 So that would diminish the percent of positives out of the total

29:56 tests, correct?

29:58 Not necessarily.

29:59 Do you want to?

30:00 No.

30:01 Go ahead, Barry.

30:02 You can take it.

30:03 Well, not necessarily with that.

30:06 The negative tests that are done and all that, to my knowledge,

30:14 are counted, are counted.

30:16 They’re counted again and again with that.

30:19 That might bring the positive, the positivity rate down.

30:23 Okay.

30:24 May bring it down.

30:26 But I’m not a statistician.

30:27 I’m not exactly sure on that.

30:29 I can also say, though, with the numbers of testing that we are

30:33 doing in our county.

30:35 I was going to say, do I have it here?

30:37 In our county, their report’s not there.

30:40 We’ve done over 70,000 tests.

30:45 So what you’re saying may be correct, but we’re running way down.

30:50 And the average, I think, is 6.6% in the last two weeks.

30:55 So with that number, that’s not going to skew it a whole lot.

30:59 Okay.

31:00 Do you have any idea, out of those 70,000 tests that have been

31:03 done, how many have been duplicate

31:04 tests?

31:05 We don’t have that.

31:06 That’s all.

31:07 No, we don’t.

31:08 Okay.

31:09 I apologize, Ms. Campbell.

31:10 I didn’t mean to take the floor from you.

31:12 I just wanted to clarify on that question.

31:13 No, that’s okay.

31:14 That was my only question.

31:16 I just wanted it just to clarify.

31:19 Okay.

31:20 So there would just, there would be certain times when some, it

31:23 doesn’t mean that one person,

31:25 like one person, one test, whatever, but one case.

31:28 Once you’re, once you are a case.

31:31 The positives are a case.

31:32 Right.

31:33 Gotcha.

31:34 Okay.

31:35 Let me speak to something real quick, if you don’t mind.

31:37 Sometimes we see people, they may get exposed to COVID and then

31:41 they run out and get tested.

31:42 Right.

31:43 And maybe negative.

31:44 Okay.

31:45 But then a few days later, they may start showing symptoms.

31:48 Then they go get tested and then, then they get tested positive.

31:53 That happens an awful lot out there.

31:56 There’s no way we can control that, of course, obviously.

31:59 Thank you.

32:00 Ms. Deskovitz, you had questions?

32:01 Yeah.

32:02 The one other thing I wanted to also add too is, you know, you

32:07 hear about the antigen tests,

32:11 which are the rapid tests.

32:12 The rapid tests for a positive are very accurate, but the rapid

32:17 tests for a negative are not.

32:19 So, if someone goes to get a negative, Barry, what’s the false

32:23 rate on the negative test?

32:25 About 50%.

32:27 So, if someone goes to get one of these rapid tests and gets a

32:31 negative, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a negative.

32:34 And it should, especially if they have symptoms, it should be

32:37 followed up with the PCR, which is the one that goes actually to

32:41 the lab.

32:42 And most of our labs in the area who are doing that, they’re

32:45 doing both at the same time, correct?

32:48 Yeah.

32:49 The only ones that are doing the rapid tests right now are some

32:52 of the urgent care walk-in clinics, as well as the hospitals.

32:55 Okay.

32:56 And to my knowledge, yes.

32:57 But all the drive-through collection sites are doing the

33:00 standard PCR.

33:01 The PCR is a state-of-the-art.

33:04 It detects nucleic material, and that’s really telling you, okay,

33:09 well, you have the virus.

33:11 So, that’s a state of that.

33:13 The rapid tests are more of an antibody antigen test.

33:16 So, they’re not quite as specific.

33:19 And it’s the same problem with the flu.

33:21 I’ve seen many people test negative for the flu, and they have

33:24 all the symptoms in the world with that.

33:26 So, that test has its drawbacks.

33:31 Ms. Dostovich.

33:34 Thank you so much.

33:36 I’m super grateful that you guys are here to help us wade

33:40 through these waters.

33:42 So, with everything you just said about the positivity tests and

33:45 the numbers we’re looking at, can we trust the numbers we’re

33:49 looking at, in your professional opinion?

33:52 Yes.

33:54 I don’t think there’s any doubt in the numbers we’re looking at.

33:57 Okay.

33:58 Because I think, and I know, even just hearing the conversation

34:00 we’re just having, it could be counted twice, and a negative,

34:03 and a positive.

34:03 Then I start getting overwhelmed, and thinking, I can’t count on

34:06 these numbers either, to start making decisions.

34:08 But in your opinion, these numbers.

34:10 I think these numbers are right on.

34:12 Okay.

34:13 Thank you very much for that.

34:15 And can we assume that the numbers around the rest of the state

34:18 are, it’s all being done in the same fashion, and all being

34:20 calculated the same way.

34:21 So, if we wanted to compare ourselves to other counties, that’s

34:24 also a reliable metric.

34:26 Yes.

34:27 And I would say 100% absolutely, and that’s the, actually, that’s

34:31 the beauty of having our state health office doing it, because

34:33 they’re doing it the exact same way for all, all the counties.

34:37 And as I said, this report’s not done by us, it’s done by them.

34:41 So, all 67 counties are being calculated exactly the same way.

34:45 Very helpful.

34:46 Okay.

34:47 You said that the last two weeks, we’re doing very well.

34:52 We want to stay under 10.

34:54 Miami-Dade has decided, once they hit 10, and start a downward

34:58 trend from there towards 5, that they’re going to open their

35:01 school district.

35:02 Other documents and resources say you shouldn’t until you’re at

35:06 5 and below 5.

35:08 The American Pediatric Association has also said below 5.

35:12 Can you help me understand why you picked 10?

35:16 Also, in that same question, I’ve just been following it day by

35:20 day for the past few weeks, that intently, and I have never seen

35:24 it go above 10.

35:25 Have we been above 10 at all since this started?

35:28 Maybe one day.

35:29 Okay.

35:30 One day, we might have been like a 10.1 or something like that.

35:32 Okay.

35:33 So, as far as the 5 or the 10, you know, there are, every

35:37 organization may have something different.

35:41 We have to follow what CDC and the state is saying, and they’re

35:45 both pretty consistent with, you know, 10 is the break off.

35:49 And as you talk about Miami-Dade, remember we have three

35:52 counties in our state that are still in phase one, and Miami is

35:56 one of them.

35:57 Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach.

35:59 So, they don’t have the same level of opening as the rest of us

36:04 do right now, unless the governor, you know, looks at their

36:07 statistics and changes that.

36:09 So.

36:10 No, I keep a little chart on my notepad of this because I find

36:13 it fascinating that we’re in a different situation than them.

36:16 And Dade over the past two weeks are 19.8, 18, 19.

36:21 So, we’re definitely different from them.

36:24 But what I’m trying to understand is how much different is the

36:27 data?

36:28 Is this a good, you know, is this good data to look at for the

36:30 decisions we’re making?

36:31 To compare one county to another is the same data.

36:33 Exactly the same.

36:34 Collected the same.

36:35 Analyzed the same.

36:36 Probably analyzed by the same person.

36:38 Okay.

36:39 Sir, you said we should avoid groups greater than 10, and yet we’re

36:46 trying to open our schools.

36:49 Can you help me?

36:51 Well, remember if that’s, you know, groups of 10, and

36:55 particularly if they’re not doing social distancing, they’re not

36:59 wearing masks and those sorts of things.

37:01 I guess I’m somewhat concerned about with the schools is, which

37:04 we have no control over, is what they do before school, what

37:07 they do after school.

37:09 Okay.

37:10 But in the school setting, you can control that.

37:12 And your plan seems to be very, very good from what I’ve seen of

37:15 it with that.

37:16 So it’s, but when they’re, because you don’t want kids getting

37:19 this in the community and bringing it into the school.

37:22 Okay.

37:23 So if they can do everything they can in educating the parents,

37:27 and we’ve been trying to educate as best we can about this, to

37:30 avoid these group settings, the family avoid these group

37:35 settings.

37:35 That will go a long way in helping all of us.

37:38 Thank you.

37:39 And I promise I’m not trying to put either of you on the spot,

37:42 but I’m just so thrilled to have experts here for us to ask

37:44 questions.

37:45 I just want to thoroughly understand before we discuss it as a

37:48 board, some decisions that we’re making.

37:51 I’m looking at the pediatric chart.

37:54 And I think again, you said that we are doing very well and we

38:00 are at 7.6%, which is above that 5% that everybody keeps saying

38:05 we need to be at.

38:06 But when I compare us to the state, every other county, I can

38:10 only find maybe two or three other counties that are below us.

38:15 So when I look at that, I feel good about where we are.

38:20 Is that a fair statement or I think that’s a fair statement.

38:24 The other thing is what we have seen also is the children that

38:29 are being tested so far, at least that we’re seeing are the

38:34 children that are in families who have been in close contact.

38:38 Most parents are not just bringing their children in to be

38:40 tested where some adults are.

38:42 Some adults are just coming in to be tested.

38:44 So, but I think that rate goes along with if you compare our

38:50 county as a whole to other counties.

38:53 Like I said, in our region, we are the lowest in our region.

38:59 What’s classified as our region is from Martin County to Volusia

39:04 on the coast.

39:05 And then inland is Orange Lake Seminole and Osceola.

39:11 So that’s our region.

39:13 So if you ever see calculations by region, that’s our region.

39:16 And we are the lowest positivity rate of our region.

39:21 Yes.

39:22 And from what I’m looking at and correct me if I’m wrong, not

39:24 only are we the lowest positivity rate for children.

39:28 It looks to me overall when I list out all our surrounding

39:31 counties.

39:32 So we have the lowest positivity rate for any surrounding county

39:35 or for our region.

39:36 Is that a true statement?

39:37 Yes.

39:38 Okay.

39:39 My next question is kind of a breakout of the age range of the

39:45 numbers that are being diagnosed.

39:49 And so I’m back on the main dashboard where it has 0 to 4, 5 to

39:53 14, and 15 to 24.

39:56 Should there be different – and it kind of goes with your

40:00 statement, sir, that children will touch their face 23 times?

40:06 I can’t remember what time period that was.

40:08 But –

40:09 In a day.

40:10 In an hour, excuse me.

40:11 In an hour.

40:13 Right.

40:14 And so this question kind of pertains more to masks.

40:17 And I’m not sure if you’re comfortable giving direct advice on

40:20 that today.

40:21 The general statement everywhere from all the medical community

40:25 is masks help.

40:26 But then when we dig into these 0 to 4 numbers or 5 to 14, they’re

40:30 so low in diagnosis on this chart.

40:33 And then combine that with the fact that these young children

40:36 are going to be touching their face 23 times an hour.

40:40 And the data I’ve read is that a lot of this comes in through

40:43 your eyes.

40:44 And so I’m wondering, just by hearing this information, is this

40:48 – is it now worse to have a mask on if you’re touching your

40:54 face 23 times an hour?

40:55 And it’s near your eyes.

40:57 And I could be way off.

40:58 I’m just – you know, you read a lot of things.

41:00 Or is it better for the young ones to have a mask on and

41:03 potentially touching it 23 times an hour?

41:07 Well, from the studies that they have shown, you know, from

41:11 other countries.

41:12 You know, we’re starting to get some data, you know, in our

41:15 country now on all that.

41:16 That the masks do reduce the aerosol and the organism into close

41:24 proximity of someone.

41:27 So masks do assist.

41:29 Now, the mask that I’m wearing now keeps things inside.

41:35 There are other masks that kind of keep things from coming in,

41:38 okay?

41:39 Like the N95 is better at keeping things from coming in.

41:42 The surgical mask is better at keeping things from coming out.

41:45 And that’s our goal.

41:47 It’s not so much that – because when we go out, because we

41:51 could be asymptomatic or what we call pre-symptomatic.

41:54 You’re going to get – going to get ill in the next few days,

41:56 you know.

41:57 And that’s – and there’s a lot of shedding of the virus at that

41:59 point.

42:00 But masks really add to it.

42:05 And where you’ve seen it in communities where they have actually,

42:09 you know, have a high rate of the people in the community when

42:13 they go in public wearing masks,

42:14 you have a lower incidence of this disease.

42:17 Okay?

42:18 So I’m just speaking from what science we have right now.

42:21 Understood.

42:22 But is it different for especially the zero to four range?

42:25 Because we do have VPK students.

42:27 And I, you know, I went around to a couple of our preschools in

42:30 my area and the children are not wearing masks.

42:33 And they haven’t had any cases so far, just in my little

42:37 community where I live.

42:39 And so I’m wondering about the zero to four.

42:41 Is it more beneficial?

42:42 Because I think from what I’ve seen, there’s very little

42:45 research and data right now on COVID-19 and masks.

42:48 But –

42:49 I’ll say the zero to two – zero to two should never wear a mask.

42:53 Yeah.

42:54 I think everybody’s –

42:55 And the reason for that is the risk of strangulation.

42:58 So the zero to two should not – so, you know, we’re really

43:00 talking that three to four.

43:02 And I know those young children, it’s going to be hard to get

43:05 them to keep a mask on.

43:07 Right.

43:08 I agree with you.

43:09 I mean, anybody that’s had children has children or has had

43:11 children understands that.

43:13 I’m trying to weigh risk versus value at this point.

43:17 And is it – are they potentially introducing even more?

43:20 But you’re saying it’s good for blocking, but it’s okay that

43:22 they’re –

43:23 Well, it’s actually the mask is going to be to go out.

43:25 Got it.

43:26 Okay.

43:27 You know, so theoretically, if everyone wore a mask, then the

43:29 transmission’s not going for me to go.

43:31 Right.

43:32 So let me hover over this zero to four number.

43:36 So in Brevard, we’ve had since – when did we start tracking

43:39 this?

43:39 Was it March?

43:40 March.

43:41 Yeah.

43:42 So since March, we’ve had 52 cases total of zero to four and 133

43:50 even all the way up to age 14.

43:51 And I happened to chat with the Arnold Palmer infectious disease

43:55 specialist the other day.

43:57 And she said of the children that they’ve seen that the impact

44:01 is minimal.

44:02 I think that was her exact quote.

44:04 So I want – I guess I want to understand the significance at

44:11 such few cases.

44:13 From what I’ve read, the transmission seems to be less in the

44:17 younger children.

44:18 And with the cases that the specialists here have seen in

44:21 children have been minimal to impact,

44:24 and they’ve recovered quickly and fine, she said, should we –

44:28 is it necessary for the younger ones?

44:31 Yes.

44:32 And remember, they – and it is true what she said.

44:35 Most children, most children will do fine.

44:38 We have had five children deaths in the state of Florida.

44:41 Can you get a little closer to the microphone?

44:43 Oh, I’ll take this off.

44:44 I’m sorry.

44:45 I can’t hear you.

44:46 That’s right.

44:47 We have – as I said, what she said is absolutely correct.

44:50 Most children are going to have more minor illnesses.

44:53 However, there have been five deaths in the state of Florida,

44:56 and that is five deaths.

44:58 None in this county, thank goodness.

45:00 But the other thing to consider is we don’t know the longer term,

45:05 you know, the inflammatory disorders

45:08 that we’re seeing developing in some, you know, some adults and

45:11 some children.

45:12 And that’s what that multi-inflammatory disorder is that you’ve

45:16 seen.

45:17 And that’s showing, you know, two months, two months, three

45:21 months after they’ve been a case.

45:24 And the other thing, you know, like I said, is a lot of children

45:27 aren’t getting tested.

45:29 So some of the multi-inflammatory disorders have been found when

45:34 they do the antibody test,

45:35 and they find they had antibodies.

45:37 So they actually had it, but were never tested to have it.

45:41 But now, yeah, they have it.

45:42 Now they have the inflammatory disorder.

45:44 Rates are low.

45:46 Risk is low.

45:47 Yes.

45:48 Thank you.

45:49 One more question.

45:50 And that is about mask quality.

45:54 If we are going to move forward – we’re already, you know, even

45:57 if we didn’t change it,

45:58 we’re at expected, which means we expect every student to show

46:00 up with one and let’s expect that they’re going to wear it.

46:04 Do you have any advice?

46:06 I have a recent email from a doctor that kind of talks about the

46:08 different masks and what’s better and what’s not.

46:11 If people want to make a better choice when choosing a mask, do

46:15 you have any advice or input?

46:18 I was going to say, well, the first thing I’ll say is any mask

46:21 is better than no mask.

46:22 Yes.

46:23 But I’ll let Perry take it from there.

46:25 Well, the differences in the mask, and I think I explained that

46:30 a little bit, you know, previously, they have the N95 mask that

46:36 is maybe, you know, probably more for healthcare workers because

46:39 they’re getting exposed.

46:40 And that mask leaks somewhat less than it’s recommended, of

46:45 course, you get fit tested for that.

46:49 And the surgical mask is, I think, a good mask.

46:54 It works very well.

46:56 You don’t need to be fit test, maybe fit checked for that, with

47:00 that.

47:01 And then you have, of course, the cloth masks that are out there.

47:05 And to me, that would kind of be the level.

47:09 But remember, the masks are different.

47:11 The surgical kind of keeps things in.

47:13 The N95 is better at things from coming in, okay, to your face

47:19 with that.

47:20 So –

47:21 The cloth masks that you see out there, and some of them are

47:26 made of nylon and some other things.

47:30 They’re just more like the surgical mask, and they kind of keep

47:34 things from coming out with that.

47:36 So if we had a high-risk employee that really wanted to get back

47:40 into the classroom, would you recommend the N95 or the surgical,

47:43 or do they need like –

47:44 When I went and saw the infectious disease doctor, she had on

47:47 several different masks.

47:48 And she said, this one does this, this one does that.

47:51 What advice could we give our employees, or what could we

47:54 purchase for them to help them be most protected if they really

47:58 wanted to go back in the classroom?

47:59 Well, then again, if you’re concerned about what you’re going to

48:03 be exposed to, the N95 mask is more appropriate.

48:07 Okay.

48:08 But that – are you saying that doesn’t help –

48:11 Well, it does help in shedding it some, but not as good – not

48:15 as well as some of the other masks that we mentioned.

48:18 So is there no, like, one-size-fits-all for keeping in and not

48:22 expressing?

48:23 Well, the other thing you can do is wear a face shield, because

48:27 a face shield will add to that.

48:29 And in an article, I have it right here, is that they’re talking

48:31 that even face shields work well.

48:33 But, you know, in many of our long-term care facilities, you

48:36 have to wear – you have to wear a mask, the N95 mask, and a

48:41 face shield when you go in there.

48:43 So somebody who’s very concerned about their health, they’re

48:47 older, they have comorbidities and things like that, that may be

48:50 a good idea to maybe do both.

48:52 Okay. That’s helpful. Thank you.

48:54 You’re welcome.

48:55 One more question that I haven’t seen anywhere answered, and I’m

48:57 very curious about.

48:58 So we’re all recommended to wear masks.

49:00 What do these numbers look like when we can stop wearing masks?

49:05 We can stop wearing masks?

49:07 I don’t think that’s going to happen until we get a vaccine or a

49:10 very good medication.

49:11 Yeah, I think we would have to reach the point of herd immunity.

49:14 Yeah, herd immunity.

49:15 Which herd immunity is going to be a percentage of our

49:18 population that has immunity either through vaccine or disease.

49:22 Can you explain that a little bit more?

49:24 Because we’ve had some public comments in our last couple of

49:27 meetings about herd immunity, and we’ve all been asked if we

49:29 believe

49:29 in herd immunity, and so as an expert, can you give us a little

49:33 more information on what that is?

49:35 Well, that’s basically where you have the community that has

49:41 been vaccinated, or they’ve had the disease, and therefore they

49:47 have protection.

49:48 So what happens is, if you have a community that has a good many

49:53 people, like let’s say for measles, most of us have, I’m at the

49:58 age that I had two,

49:58 but most of us have had the MMR, measles, mumps, and rubella

50:02 vaccine, okay?

50:04 So most of us have had that.

50:05 When measles comes into the community, it has generally a pretty

50:09 difficult time finding a susceptible host, right?

50:13 Because it’s running, it’s bumping in to all these folks who

50:17 have been either vaccinated or they’ve ever had it in the past.

50:20 Okay, with that.

50:21 I think most experts would say it would take up to a 70% herd

50:26 sort of immunity to get to the point that maybe you’re

50:30 discussing.

50:30 So the only way we stop wearing masks is if a vaccine comes out

50:35 and 70% of the people get it, or 70% of the people are exposed

50:40 and have antibodies to it.

50:42 Am I understanding that correctly?

50:43 That’s somewhat my understanding.

50:45 So it’s, I know I was asked by a friend, am I going to have to

50:49 wear a mask the rest of my life?

50:51 And that’s a very good question.

50:53 And I said, I don’t know.

50:54 I certainly hope not.

50:55 I think there is real hope for medications and there’s real hope

50:58 for vaccines that will get to that point.

51:01 But that’s going to take time.

51:03 Okay.

51:04 And the other thing is, is I will add, is what we’re saying

51:07 today is only as good as today.

51:09 Understood.

51:10 Because we know this is a new changing virus and tomorrow could

51:13 be something different.

51:14 Next week could be something different as they learn more and

51:17 more about the vaccines.

51:18 So.

51:19 Thank you both very much.

51:20 Thank you for Ms. Bell for giving me all of that time.

51:22 Absolutely.

51:23 Ms. Bell, are you still with us?

51:26 I am still here.

51:30 I had to unmute myself.

51:31 Sorry.

51:32 That’s all right.

51:33 Did you have questions?

51:34 I just first want to thank you very much, the health department,

51:37 for sharing all this information.

51:39 And I just want to just double check with, so right now our

51:43 positivity rate, if I understood correctly, I’ve been taking

51:46 notes, is 7.6.

51:47 And we definitely want to keep under 10.

51:50 Correct?

51:51 We want to keep the trend under 10.

51:53 Yes.

51:54 And it’s the pediatric positivity rate that’s the 7.6.

51:58 Our overall positivity rate, well today was 6.6 I believe

52:03 without looking at it.

52:05 But we have ranged in the last two weeks from about five to nine,

52:11 and the nine was only one day.

52:14 So our average, I know our average over the last week was 6.6.

52:19 Okay.

52:21 And so, I don’t think I have any other questions because Ms. Deskovich

52:25 asked a whole bunch, and she covered a lot of things I had in

52:28 mind.

52:29 So, like I said, thank you very much for taking the time.

52:33 Thanks, Ms. McDougall.

52:34 Ms. Campbell, I think you were trying to get a question in there.

52:36 Yeah.

52:37 Just to tag on to the last thing that Ms. Deskovich asked, when

52:40 you talk about when we get to that place where maybe we can

52:44 start getting back to normal, dare I say that.

52:48 Where do treatments fit into that?

52:51 I mean, if we, you know, we have diseases that we don’t

52:57 necessarily have the whole entire public do mitigation measures

53:02 because we have treatments for them.

53:04 Where does that fit into, along with the herd immunity, you know,

53:07 if we come up with something that is, you know, something where

53:10 we can treat quickly and it, you know, is not affecting people

53:15 like it is now.

53:16 How does that fit into the equation?

53:17 I know that may be, you know, not your area of specialty, but

53:20 what do you think on that?

53:22 Well, I’ve been trying to keep up with, you know, what

53:26 medications or therapeutics may be, you know, may be coming

53:30 forward and all that.

53:31 But if you have a, you know, a medication that comes out that

53:35 has a high cure rate, you know, let’s say 90, 95 percent, then I

53:40 think that would start to change things

53:43 because, and it’s got to be pill form or liquid form.

53:46 It can’t be.

53:47 There is a medication now that they use.

53:48 You go to the hospital, remdesivir, but that’s more for severe

53:52 cases and all that.

53:53 Okay.

53:54 There is hope for medications.

53:56 This virus is, like we said, or maybe I didn’t say, it’s an RNA

53:59 virus.

54:00 We’re DNA.

54:02 And, you know, they’ve made therapeutics for RNA viruses like

54:06 HIV and hepatitis C.

54:07 And hepatitis C, they figured out a way to basically keep the

54:11 virus from replicating so we can cure hepatitis C in 8 to 12

54:15 weeks.

54:15 We’re going to need something that, you know, along those lines.

54:18 And the hep C medications, at least two of them seem to be

54:21 fairly, in studies done in other countries, somewhat effective

54:25 in controlling.

54:27 So I think there’s hope.

54:28 There may be more hope for therapeutics than there is a vaccine

54:31 in the near future.

54:32 Right.

54:33 You know, like in the fall or whatever.

54:34 But if you had a high cure rate and things like that, that could

54:38 change things a lot.

54:39 And that reduces your death rate an awful lot and all that

54:42 hospitalizations, then that could change the game somewhat.

54:46 Okay.

54:47 Thank you.

54:48 Mr. Susan, you have a question?

54:50 Yeah.

54:51 Thank you again, you guys, for taking time out of your busy day

54:53 to be here to help us out.

54:54 This means a lot to us.

54:55 So thank you for that.

54:57 Just had a quick couple of – actually, I’m not going to be

54:59 quick.

55:00 I’m going to be like Ms. Escovitch and just ask a couple of

55:02 questions.

55:03 When did our official testing start?

55:05 When was that start date?

55:07 You said March, did I hear you say?

55:09 I would say – I don’t have the exact date, but it was the

55:11 beginning of March.

55:12 Okay.

55:13 And you know, the testing started out slow and expanded.

55:17 Yeah.

55:18 And now we have so much testing, you know, going on right now.

55:21 I don’t know.

55:22 It started out pretty, pretty little.

55:26 Little is that the right grammar there, I’m not sure.

55:30 But you know, we started out where if it was a suspect case, the

55:33 Epidemiology Department

55:34 would go out to the home and do their testing.

55:36 And that was late February, early March, which has expanded as

55:41 more tests became available.

55:44 You know, in the very beginning, there was a shortage of tests.

55:47 No, I remember.

55:48 Yeah.

55:49 I was just trying to pinpoint, because there’s been talk inside

55:52 various circles that the virus

55:53 may have been here prior to our testing time.

55:56 Mm-hmm.

55:57 And that it may have been here prior to the beginning of the

55:59 year, based on some models.

56:01 Do you guys have any kind of indication on that at all?

56:05 We have the same information you have.

56:07 Okay.

56:08 But it would not surprise me that it wasn’t.

56:11 I think probably all of us can identify somebody that was pretty

56:16 sick in January or February that potentially could have been.

56:20 Sure.

56:21 I mean, one of our coworkers, we say the same thing.

56:23 Yeah.

56:24 Yeah, she was sick.

56:26 And they couldn’t determine what it was.

56:28 Well, maybe it was, right?

56:30 Okay.

56:31 But, yeah.

56:32 It could have been.

56:33 And then I was – the next question I had was the Herdman

56:37 immunity.

56:38 I was doing some research in Sweden, because they’re the ones

56:41 that were looking at that as their model.

56:43 And I think they were saying once the population reaches between

56:46 60 and 70 percent is when that is achieved.

56:49 Is that kind of what you guys are thinking also?

56:51 Yes.

56:52 Mm-hmm.

56:53 Okay.

56:54 And then when I look at the statistics of how we’re doing the

56:58 testing, it really – I don’t know.

57:00 Maybe – and this is what I was going to ask you is, is to me it

57:04 feels like when we do a positive test,

57:07 it should be indicated towards the total population of the

57:10 county, not just how many people are testing that day.

57:14 Because the – how many that day is an anomaly to me that can be

57:18 changed based upon all of a sudden,

57:20 a group of people say that they have to go get tested.

57:22 Can you talk to me about the science?

57:25 Because I’m sure that people who made that decision had, you

57:29 know, that that’s backed up for a reason.

57:32 Why is it that we’re just testing how many people to how many

57:35 tested as opposed to how many people were actually in our

57:38 population?

57:39 Does that make sense?

57:40 Why is that the model that we’re using?

57:42 Well, I think they do that, like, you know, per 100,000

57:46 population, that’s what you’re talking about?

57:48 Yes, sir.

57:49 Like a rate?

57:50 Yes, sir.

57:51 Okay.

57:52 I think they’re – that could be done.

57:54 There’s no – that’s nothing complicated to do.

57:58 I think they have those particular rates.

58:00 But, you know, they put it in this particular format, I think,

58:05 so people can –

58:05 because a lot of people don’t understand rates per 100,000, you

58:08 know, with this.

58:09 And I don’t even know the rate per 100,000, but it’s easy to

58:12 calculate, you know, with that.

58:14 Sure.

58:15 So they just decided to put it in this particular format so

58:18 people can understand it maybe a little easier.

58:20 And I think the rates per 100,000, that’s going to be more

58:23 longer-term epidemiology, not the short-term day-by-day that we

58:27 need to look at.

58:28 And I think we will see that.

58:30 Mm-hmm.

58:31 But it’ll be down the road a little bit.

58:33 Yeah, because I’m trying to look at how many people are actually

58:37 infected in our society at any given time, right?

58:39 And doing a percentage of how many people tested as opposed to

58:43 turning positive is one way of looking at it.

58:45 And then the other is, is that when we look and we say, okay, if

58:49 there’s an average of 130 people testing positive over a 14-day

58:53 period,

58:53 there’s probably the average of how many people around you have

58:56 the COVID within the population of Brevard.

58:59 When I was looking at us, and I thank you for telling us about

59:03 how we are the lowest in the area,

59:06 I did the statistical analysis against the actual general

59:10 population of the counties that reside against the total number

59:14 of cases.

59:15 Brevard has 5,333 according to the website today.

59:19 We have a population of 601,942, which brings us to a percentage

59:25 point of .008, so less than 1%.

59:28 And then when I look all the way around all of our other

59:31 counties, they are extremely higher as far as a percentage

59:35 towards their population.

59:37 Volusia County is 1.2%, Seminole County is 1.4%, Indian River is

59:43 1.4%, Osceola is 2.2%, and Orange County is 2%.

59:49 I did a statistical analysis to say if we were the same as Volusia,

59:53 how many we would have based upon their positive test rates,

59:57 and we would have to have 12,038 positive test rates to be the

1:00:01 same as, which is 7,000 more, which is over double what we would

1:00:06 normally have now.

1:00:07 So I wanted to just, when I was looking at that as a statistic,

1:00:11 I wanted to see where we were compared to the others based on

1:00:13 population,

1:00:14 because to me that kind of tells us our herd mentality and where

1:00:17 we’re at with some of that stuff.

1:00:19 Getting into the next piece was, I was going to ask, is there a

1:00:23 way to, you guys do it by zip code, do you guys have the

1:00:32 positive tests by addresses by any chance?

1:00:35 Does that actually happen? Or is that kind of hit and miss?

1:00:39 We do internally, yes, we do internally, but that’s not anything

1:00:43 that would ever be publicized because it’s identifying cases in

1:00:47 the community, right?

1:00:47 Right.

1:00:48 Because everybody would know.

1:00:49 But the only thing that’s published is city and zip code.

1:00:53 Absolutely.

1:00:54 And I wouldn’t be going towards asking for that information.

1:00:57 I just wanted to see if you guys had it.

1:00:59 And the reason being is, is that in your professional opinion,

1:01:03 do you feel that there’s pockets of society or areas where

1:01:07 people just are not testing because of the availability of

1:01:10 transportation or anything like that?

1:01:11 And would our number be higher because of that or are you seeing

1:01:15 trends inside of your testing and inside of your data that would

1:01:19 be more consistent with a consistent testing for everybody?

1:01:23 What I can say is one of our strategies has been over the last,

1:01:27 at least month, month and a half, is we’re taking one to two

1:01:30 days a week and we’re going out into the more vulnerable

1:01:32 communities.

1:01:33 We’re going to some –

1:01:35 Ma’am, can you speak up?

1:01:36 For some reason I –

1:01:37 Am I on?

1:01:38 I’m sorry.

1:01:39 Can you say all that again?

1:01:40 I was trying to follow you.

1:01:41 Am I on?

1:01:42 Yeah.

1:01:43 Can you hear me now?

1:01:44 Okay, I’m sorry.

1:01:45 Perfect.

1:01:46 I can say one of our strategies have been over the last month,

1:01:48 month and a half, has been to going out into the vulnerable

1:01:50 communities.

1:01:51 Okay.

1:01:52 I can say up in the North County Parish is actually taking their

1:01:56 mobile van and going out into the vulnerable communities up in

1:02:00 the North County area.

1:02:02 In the Central County area we’ve had Brevard Health Alliance

1:02:05 take their mobile van out to vulnerable communities.

1:02:08 And we have actually gone out to several Spanish churches and

1:02:13 several other more low income vulnerable community centers and

1:02:17 churches that we’ve gone out to.

1:02:19 In the North and – I’m sorry – in the Central and South County.

1:02:23 So, yes, what you’re saying potentially could happen and we’re

1:02:27 trying to mitigate that by actually going out to them.

1:02:30 Is – do you have statistics on those testing mobile vans as

1:02:35 opposed to the others internally to where you know that, hey, we’re

1:02:39 looking at this and we’re seeing a high antibody rate of

1:02:45 students that may – or young kids or people or whoever that

1:02:48 have this prior?

1:02:49 Does that make sense?

1:02:50 Is that aggregated out somehow?

1:02:51 Well, in all the testing I’m talking about, it’s not antibody

1:02:53 testing.

1:02:54 Okay.

1:02:55 It’s just –

1:02:56 We’re not doing the antibody testing.

1:02:57 It’s the regular PCR collection that we’re doing.

1:03:00 So there –

1:03:01 And we do – we have identified some pockets of our community.

1:03:04 And I can tell you we identify the pockets, we do the testing

1:03:07 and they recover and then we don’t see those pockets anymore.

1:03:11 Okay.

1:03:12 So that’s primarily – Barry, do you have anything to add to

1:03:14 that?

1:03:15 Well, I just – I will say this.

1:03:18 Some of the pockets that Maria is talking about where, you know,

1:03:23 like we said, our health department folks have gone out and done

1:03:27 testing and all that.

1:03:29 And first off, anybody who wants to get a test should be able to

1:03:33 get a test right now.

1:03:34 It’s very amenable to everyone if they want to get a test.

1:03:39 And remember, it’s free.

1:03:40 I don’t remember any time having free tests at any time.

1:03:45 And I’ve been doing this for over 40 years with that.

1:03:48 But one thing we have seen is that, you know, in some of these

1:03:52 pockets, they get the virus.

1:03:54 But remember, they get the antibodies.

1:03:56 And then we don’t see much of the virus there.

1:03:59 You know, I mean, that could come back around.

1:04:01 That’s what we’ll have to be careful of.

1:04:03 With that.

1:04:04 So we have – we have seen that.

1:04:06 So I just want to add that to it.

1:04:07 Yes, sir.

1:04:08 So can you speak to the antibody test?

1:04:13 And I’m sorry, Ms. Moore, you came to the podium.

1:04:16 I think you wanted to say something before I keep going.

1:04:19 Yeah, I just wanted to – I’m going to take this off.

1:04:21 I just wanted to say that we did have a principal call us up and

1:04:24 say she had a concern that there was a pocket in her community

1:04:28 that maybe perhaps were not getting tested.

1:04:30 We worked with the health department, specifically Patty Siebert.

1:04:33 We had a mobile site ready to go out.

1:04:35 We had – we worked with a community member who set up the space

1:04:38 for us to do that.

1:04:39 And then as we investigated further, it turned out to be a very,

1:04:43 very isolated contained pocket.

1:04:45 But that’s kind of the work between the partnership of the

1:04:48 school board and the Department of Health is that if we identify

1:04:52 a group or an area or a pocket that perhaps are not seeking out

1:04:55 the testing for whatever reason they have, they were ready to

1:04:59 mobilize that unit for us that week.

1:05:02 And I wanted to say something behind that.

1:05:05 I am – I am absolutely – I can’t tell you how hard our staff

1:05:12 is working with our children right now.

1:05:15 I have seen our – some of our staff and some of our principals

1:05:19 moving through the communities down where I’m at.

1:05:23 And, you know, it’s an amazing thing to see their involvement

1:05:27 inside of those kids’ communities outside the school.

1:05:31 So thank you so much, Ms. Moore, for making that happen and

1:05:33 working on that.

1:05:34 And thank you for the DOE for making that.

1:05:36 You had a follow-up.

1:05:37 I’m sorry.

1:05:38 Well, I was just going to say, we’ve pretty much reserved one

1:05:41 day a week, Thursdays, to be our outreach.

1:05:43 So as we identify or anyone comes forward that they feel an

1:05:48 outreach needs to be done in an area – we do our testing in our

1:05:53 Vieira Clinic Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday.

1:05:55 And Thursday is our – pretty much our outreach day.

1:06:00 So I don’t know – would you all – I mean, I can run through

1:06:04 all the testing that’s going through in our county and where

1:06:07 they are.

1:06:07 If anyone needs that information, do you want me to go through

1:06:11 that at all?

1:06:12 I don’t want you to do extra work.

1:06:13 You’re real busy.

1:06:14 But if my other board members do, I just had questions just

1:06:16 trying to figure out the flow of how this whole thing – this

1:06:19 operation is working.

1:06:21 Okay.

1:06:22 Can I keep going?

1:06:23 Okay.

1:06:24 Let me ask you this.

1:06:26 So we’re not testing for the antibodies.

1:06:28 We’re testing for the actual positive rate, right?

1:06:31 We – we.

1:06:32 Yes, ma’am.

1:06:33 There are – there is antibody testing going on out there.

1:06:35 There is.

1:06:36 And that antibody testing, as opposed to the positive testing,

1:06:40 that’s being done by the private clinics, not the DOH.

1:06:43 Correct.

1:06:44 Okay.

1:06:45 Some private – some private clinics are doing antibody testing.

1:06:47 Yes.

1:06:48 And if – if I am – and this is just from my knowledge, I’m

1:06:50 just – if I – if I have COVID, then I get over it or I’m

1:06:55 asymptomatic, what is the percentage of people that show the

1:06:58 antibodies inside their system?

1:06:59 Is it a hundred?

1:07:01 Or is it a lower amount?

1:07:02 Does that make sense?

1:07:03 Is the – can we assume to test that if a person has the

1:07:06 antibodies in their system that they – they are – that they’ve

1:07:09 had it?

1:07:10 Or could there be people that don’t have the antibodies that

1:07:13 actually tested positive for COVID?

1:07:16 Well, it could be – could be both.

1:07:19 But so far as the antibody testing and all that, my

1:07:22 understanding, the percentage is low.

1:07:25 You know, it’s two, three percent or something along those lines.

1:07:28 The other thing I want to caution us about is the antibody

1:07:32 testing that we – that’s been done.

1:07:35 The – the science behind the antibody and all that is not at a

1:07:39 level that many experts feel comfortable with at this point.

1:07:44 But what I said is, you know, what we are seeing, like I said,

1:07:47 in the communities I just mentioned and in families and all that,

1:07:51 we’re not seeing people acquire this again.

1:07:53 Because let’s say you’re in a family of eight and you are the

1:07:56 initial person where it bounces through, you know, every week or

1:07:59 so.

1:07:59 Yes, sir.

1:08:00 It seems like you could get reinfected from the – from the –

1:08:05 the – the last cases or two that were in your family.

1:08:07 We’re not seeing that.

1:08:08 There was an article in the paper, I believe it was yesterday,

1:08:12 that’s saying, you know, acquiring this again is unlikely.

1:08:14 You can’t always lab test yourself out of something, okay?

1:08:18 Lab tests are a tool.

1:08:21 You know, you need to look at symptoms people have, the risks

1:08:24 that they have.

1:08:25 You have to look at all that together.

1:08:27 So, some – some tests are very specific.

1:08:30 Like we said, the PCR is a great test and whatever.

1:08:33 Some of these other tests, we have to sit back and let the

1:08:36 science evolve a little better, you know, on that.

1:08:39 So, antibody testing is not at a level we need it to be at this

1:08:42 point.

1:08:43 Okay. Thank you so much.

1:08:44 And if you wanted to see the antibody tests, Chris, on that main

1:08:49 page there is – and you may have seen it – there’s a link that

1:08:52 says serology testing.

1:08:54 The serology testing, again, is broken down, and that’s updated

1:09:03 once a week also.

1:09:06 Right there.

1:09:07 Total antibody results for Florida.

1:09:09 Don’t do the – yeah, do that one.

1:09:11 And that one does break it down by county also.

1:09:16 Can we – can he flip to your screen right now?

1:09:19 Can the – can the computer – the – the man in the back –

1:09:23 Mr. Francisco, can you show us the screen that Ms. Moore is

1:09:25 displaying on our monitors?

1:09:25 Mr. Francisco, can you show her screen on her computer right now?

1:09:27 There we go.

1:09:28 Thank you.

1:09:29 Okay.

1:09:30 I’m looking for the county report.

1:09:31 I think – keep going down, Chris.

1:09:33 It’s below that, I think.

1:09:34 Okay.

1:09:35 So, there’s a place that they can go to get those.

1:09:37 All right.

1:09:38 Next question is –

1:09:39 Yeah, there it is right there.

1:09:40 Perfect.

1:09:41 Okay.

1:09:42 So, yeah, you can see Brevard of the antibody tests that have

1:09:47 done, 3% are showing positive.

1:09:50 Okay.

1:09:51 The next –

1:09:54 Is there – I’ve seen in other areas that the amount of asymptomatic

1:10:04 individuals based upon is somewhere in the range of 40% to 50%.

1:10:11 Is that what you guys also see when we’re trying to judge how

1:10:14 many asymptomatic people may be out there based upon the

1:10:17 population that we have or no?

1:10:19 Or is that just an anomaly that we don’t have any – you don’t

1:10:22 have any statistics to even think about?

1:10:24 I don’t know that we have the data on that.

1:10:30 I don’t think we have – our percentage – and the science has

1:10:35 kind of said anywhere from 5% to 35%.

1:10:38 Okay.

1:10:39 You know, so it could vary greatly.

1:10:42 Okay.

1:10:43 And then can you – so part of what I’ve been trying to get at

1:10:51 is, like, can you give me what your recommendations would be for

1:10:55 our schools if you could say this is what we would like you to

1:11:00 do as a school district from the DOH?

1:11:02 What would that look like from you?

1:11:04 Well, what I can say is the plan that it was developed by the

1:11:08 district is a very solid plan.

1:11:10 We’ve had Patty and Maureen that were sitting on the plan, and

1:11:15 then Barry and I reviewed the final plan.

1:11:17 I think your plan, the district’s plan, is very solid.

1:11:21 I think everything – everything is covered.

1:11:23 As I say that, I don’t think anyone can expect schools to open

1:11:29 and not have any cases.

1:11:31 I think we are going to – no matter what we do, we’re going to

1:11:34 have cases.

1:11:35 And it’s not because of anything that’s being done in the

1:11:37 schools.

1:11:38 It’s being what’s going on in the community.

1:11:40 So the children are social – Barry said, everyone’s social

1:11:44 distancing here at school.

1:11:46 They’re wearing masks here, but what happens when they leave?

1:11:49 So I don’t know if there’s a whole lot that can be done to

1:11:54 prevent that outside of the whole community education.

1:12:00 But your plan is very solid.

1:12:03 I can’t – you know, we can’t give a recommendation.

1:12:06 We can explain data to you.

1:12:08 But what I can say, and I don’t know whose email it was, if it

1:12:11 was Tina’s or Misty’s that I sent,

1:12:14 is I feel very comfortable with the school district’s plan on

1:12:17 opening that everything is being done that can be done.

1:12:22 When I was doing the study – when I was looking at the studies

1:12:25 to try to figure out, you know,

1:12:27 the amount of individuals that are inside the community that

1:12:29 have been – like you said,

1:12:31 when they go home, they’re with all their friends.

1:12:33 So if you go to a lot of the homes, the same kids that were

1:12:36 hanging out over the summer are there.

1:12:37 I looked in Japan in 2009 through 2012, had some studies that

1:12:43 came out based upon their school closures

1:12:46 and positivity rates when they closed down and they reopened.

1:12:50 And one of the things that they had said through a lot of those

1:12:54 research articles was that the children

1:12:56 over the school closures and over the summers were all together.

1:12:59 So those had already worked their way through just like you said,

1:13:03 sir, the friends, the families, everybody else.

1:13:05 When the schools came back and they started in cases where there

1:13:10 were no social distancing guidelines

1:13:11 and stuff like that was where they saw the rises because now you

1:13:16 are taking those groups

1:13:17 and putting them together and intermingling.

1:13:19 So I did want to say that I was looking at that and that’s what

1:13:21 I found out.

1:13:22 But I guess I’m looking at – I guess I’ll let Misty go and then

1:13:28 I’ll – I have some follow-up eventually.

1:13:32 So go ahead.

1:13:33 Okay.

1:13:34 Ms. McDougall, you indicated you had a follow-up question before

1:13:37 I go.

1:13:37 Yes.

1:13:38 Thank you.

1:13:39 I just wanted to ask the question.

1:13:41 Okay.

1:13:42 So we were talking about a family.

1:13:44 Let’s say a student initially is the contact person and he recovers.

1:13:48 But then it goes through the whole family.

1:13:50 Can the student then come back if he has AIDS symptoms after he’s

1:13:54 gone through no symptoms

1:13:55 after his 10 days and no fever?

1:13:57 Is he then allowed to come back to school even though it’s going

1:14:01 around in his whole family?

1:14:02 I’m just curious because I can see that happening.

1:14:05 Well, that’s why we recommend the 14-day quarantine.

1:14:09 So the close contacts of a case should be quarantined for 14

1:14:12 days.

1:14:13 Okay.

1:14:14 So if, say, there was a brother or a sister that was a case,

1:14:19 then everybody should stay home for 14 days.

1:14:23 Did that answer?

1:14:25 Well, okay.

1:14:26 So I’m child A and I get it first.

1:14:33 And then I’m okay.

1:14:35 And then it goes to my brothers or my mother and father.

1:14:38 But I don’t have any symptoms after my 14 days.

1:14:41 But everybody else is still sick.

1:14:43 I can still come back.

1:14:44 Yes, they can come back.

1:14:46 Yes.

1:14:47 Okay.

1:14:48 Because you’re past the incubation.

1:14:50 They’re going to have some antibody protection to protect them.

1:14:55 Yes.

1:14:56 And remember, they may be safer than a lot of your other kids in

1:14:59 the school because, you know,

1:15:01 they’ve got some antibody protection.

1:15:03 But is there a chance that they’re going to pass it on to their

1:15:06 peers or their teachers?

1:15:07 Like, are they –

1:15:08 No.

1:15:09 Not if they – you know, if they’ve reached that – when they

1:15:12 become non-infectious after 10 days,

1:15:15 their symptoms are virtually gone and one day of no fever

1:15:18 without medication.

1:15:19 They’re good to go.

1:15:20 Okay.

1:15:21 Thank you.

1:15:22 Is that it, Ms. McDougall?

1:15:23 Yes.

1:15:24 Thank you.

1:15:25 Okay.

1:15:26 So I, too, have a huge list of questions.

1:15:28 I cannot thank you all enough for being here.

1:15:30 I think I can probably speak for all of us on the board when we

1:15:33 say that this has been an incredibly

1:15:40 challenging situation because none of us are medical experts.

1:15:44 And we’ve been doing our best to gather as much information and

1:15:47 make the best decisions

1:15:48 possible.

1:15:49 But we’re so appreciative of you all being willing to be here

1:15:51 and be our partners through

1:15:53 this and help to give us guidance.

1:15:54 So thank you.

1:15:57 One of – my first question, I guess, that hasn’t been addressed

1:16:01 yet, or it has been, but

1:16:03 I need some clarification, was, Maria, I think it was you that

1:16:08 said that the Surgeon General

1:16:10 recommends groups of no more than 10.

1:16:13 His public health advisory, yes.

1:16:15 He didn’t say groups no less than 10.

1:16:17 He said social gatherings no less – social gatherings and

1:16:20 recreational no less than 10.

1:16:23 Or no greater than 10.

1:16:24 I’m sorry.

1:16:25 No greater than 10.

1:16:26 And so is that – is that to say that groups of 10 or less are

1:16:35 – don’t need to worry about

1:16:37 social distancing?

1:16:38 No.

1:16:39 Or can you clarify that for me?

1:16:42 Yes.

1:16:43 I would say everyone, even if it’s groups of two or three, need

1:16:47 to be social distancing and

1:16:48 trying to wear a mask.

1:16:50 Where – and Barry can probably relate to this a little bit

1:16:55 better – is the bigger groups

1:16:57 you have, the more risk there is.

1:17:02 Which is why – and it was groups of 50 just a couple weeks ago.

1:17:07 His latest advisory brought it down to groups of 10.

1:17:11 So Barry, can you add to that?

1:17:14 Well, we just know that – and because of the – those who may

1:17:20 be infected and all that,

1:17:24 although our percentages are low or whatever, it’s likely to be

1:17:28 transmitted when you start

1:17:30 to get over 10.

1:17:31 You start to see more interaction and more possibility that you

1:17:36 have contact with somebody,

1:17:37 you know, who has the virus.

1:17:39 So it’s just a numbers game.

1:17:41 And then as the numbers go up, you’re in larger and larger

1:17:44 groups, more likely you’re going

1:17:45 to be exposed to someone who has the virus.

1:17:48 Smaller, less likely.

1:17:50 Got it.

1:17:52 This one actually is probably for Ms. Moore.

1:17:58 I’ve heard repeatedly the importance of individuals getting the

1:18:02 flu vaccine this year to help us

1:18:05 differentiate between COVID, flu, although we know – but –

1:18:09 never mind.

1:18:11 The recommendation for the flu vaccine.

1:18:13 Do we have any plans to make it easy for our employees or our

1:18:19 students to access the flu vaccine

1:18:21 through our schools this year to encourage that?

1:18:24 Yeah, that’s really – I’m going to – I’m going to punt to Mark

1:18:27 Langdorf on that.

1:18:27 Because he normally sets it up through our wellness clinics.

1:18:31 So I really don’t have an answer.

1:18:33 I don’t know if Ms. Thetty does.

1:18:35 Dr. Thetty.

1:18:36 We have typically always offered flu vaccines to all of our

1:18:40 staff every single year.

1:18:41 And I would see no difference this year.

1:18:43 It’s at schools.

1:18:44 And they’re actually going into the schools to provide those.

1:18:47 I’m going to say I believe so.

1:18:48 But I will get that answer from Mr. Langdorf.

1:18:50 Okay.

1:18:51 Super.

1:18:52 Thank you.

1:18:53 Barry, you mentioned that the virus is very transmissible

1:18:59 because there are high levels of the virus and the nasal swabs

1:19:04 that we’re seeing.

1:19:06 Is there any difference – I read some studies that suggest that

1:19:08 children under 10 don’t have as many of the receptors that COVID

1:19:08 is binding to, the ACE5, I think, receptors.

1:19:08 That COVID is binding to in their nasal tissues.

1:19:18 Are you all seeing any difference in the viral load between

1:19:23 adults and children in those swabs?

1:19:26 Well, first off, we don’t get a viral load count.

1:19:34 We don’t know that.

1:19:35 This is just from the research that they’ve done, you know, in

1:19:40 the other countries.

1:19:42 And so that’s what I was referring to.

1:19:45 Okay.

1:19:46 And there’s not been any evidence that there’s a difference

1:19:49 between children and adults that you’ve seen?

1:19:52 Well, children seem, you know, of course, less likely to acquire

1:19:56 it.

1:19:56 And the smaller children – I know John, if I could speak to

1:19:59 this – you know, children in transmitting tuberculosis are not

1:20:02 real likely.

1:20:03 Right, John?

1:20:04 Yeah.

1:20:06 Yeah, they don’t have the anatomy to expel.

1:20:09 That’s a bacteria.

1:20:10 That – they don’t have the anatomy to expel that.

1:20:13 And so it may be that children – okay, when I talk and speak

1:20:17 and cough and sneeze, it’s going to be a lot more dramatic than

1:20:21 a three-year-old.

1:20:21 Generally with that.

1:20:22 So they have – we have more acceleration than what a child may

1:20:26 have.

1:20:27 Okay.

1:20:28 So are you – from your knowledge, is there any difference in

1:20:36 the frequency with which children actually acquire the virus or

1:20:43 their ability to transmit the virus to others compared to adults?

1:20:47 Well, we haven’t had much experience with that with COVID right

1:20:51 now.

1:20:52 Now, with the flu, though, we do know they can transmit it

1:20:56 pretty well.

1:20:57 Now, part of that is due to the fact of their lack of, you know,

1:21:02 particularly the younger children, lack of hygiene manners and

1:21:09 whatever, because they haven’t developed that yet.

1:21:12 And they don’t know to do respiratory etiquette.

1:21:15 Hand-washing is a challenge and things along those lines.

1:21:18 But with COVID, we don’t particularly know per se right yet.

1:21:22 The one study you’re alluding to said that, you know, children

1:21:25 under the age of 10 were less likely to transmit it over that,

1:21:29 where they were just as likely to transmit it in that one study.

1:21:31 Well, one thing you have to be careful about, if I’ve learned

1:21:34 over my 40 years, there could be one study.

1:21:37 That’s one study.

1:21:38 Okay.

1:21:39 And what we like to do is a meta-analysis.

1:21:41 We like to look at a lot of studies, and then you get your

1:21:44 experts to come in and say, okay, this is a good science here,

1:21:48 and these are the recommendations that we make from that.

1:21:50 So we’ll, I’ll be honest, as we said coming in, we’re learning

1:21:55 with this virus, and so it’ll be somewhat, you know, somewhat

1:22:01 later that we learn more about it.

1:22:03 Okay.

1:22:04 And another one for you, Barry.

1:22:07 You said that there’s been a vast amount of transmission indoors,

1:22:13 and that air conditioning seems to transmit the virus if there’s

1:22:19 limited air circulation.

1:22:22 So does that mean that in our, in our classrooms and in our

1:22:27 schools, we need to take extra precautions beyond?

1:22:33 So I guess what I’m getting at is, is being six foot apart in a

1:22:38 room like this safe to go mask lists, or should we all be

1:22:44 wearing masks while sitting in this room?

1:22:47 Well, we should always wear masks whenever we can when we’re

1:22:51 around other people, or whatever.

1:22:54 Well, what I was alluding to is that, so far as when, you know,

1:22:58 if we’re outside, and particularly in Florida, it’s so hot and

1:23:02 humid and whatever, we’re going to run inside.

1:23:04 Because we’re perspiring, you know, and things like that, and so

1:23:10 we run inside, and then when we run inside, more people run

1:23:13 inside, and so more likelihood that you transmit the virus.

1:23:17 than being outside, which we know, UV lighting kills the virus.

1:23:21 Okay, wind and all that will separate the virus better, and what

1:23:25 have you.

1:23:26 So, and the heat, you know, also deteriorates the virus a good

1:23:30 bit.

1:23:31 So, but inside, you don’t necessarily have that, and

1:23:34 particularly if you don’t have good air exchanges and all that,

1:23:37 which I’m sure you do, you know, in the classroom setting.

1:23:41 I think you have six to ten air exchanges per hour or whatever,

1:23:44 somewhere along in there, that, that, that, that’s, that, that’s

1:23:48 what you want to have happen.

1:23:50 You know, I’ll add to that a little bit, Misty, to say, masks

1:23:53 aren’t the end-all answer, social distancing’s not the end-all

1:23:57 answer, crowd control’s not the end-all answer, it’s all the end-all

1:24:01 answer.

1:24:02 So, three is better than one, two is better than one, but it’s

1:24:07 really everything that’s going to decrease the probability.

1:24:12 And, and, and as Maria said, you know, for us to believe we’re

1:24:15 not going to have cases in school, whatever, where they’re going

1:24:19 to happen.

1:24:20 But what we’re trying to do, as we do in public health, is try

1:24:23 to limit, limit the numbers as best we can.

1:24:26 Thank you, Barry.

1:24:28 So I’m, I’m curious on one of the recommendations as far as

1:24:35 return to school.

1:24:38 You indicated that if they are one day without fever, without

1:24:41 medication to keep it down, that they are then safe to return to

1:24:46 school.

1:24:47 But I had made a note that fever is one of the symptoms less

1:24:52 than 50% of the time.

1:24:55 So if less than 50% of the people have a fever, should we be basing

1:25:01 our return to school on other symptoms instead of fever?

1:25:05 Oh yeah, I think, I think we said that.

1:25:07 You’ve got to go 10 days.

1:25:08 It’s also 10 days from the start.

1:25:10 Yeah, from the start.

1:25:12 So 10 days from their first onset of symptoms of any kind.

1:25:16 Or test.

1:25:20 And it’s not an or, it’s an and.

1:25:22 Okay.

1:25:23 And 24 hour, it has to have decreasing symptoms, but 24 hours of

1:25:28 no fever with no fever reducing medication.

1:25:31 Okay.

1:25:32 Thank you for that clarification.

1:25:37 In, following up on Ms. Deskovich’s question about the 10% that

1:25:43 you mentioned, you said that

1:25:46 you follow the CDC and the state.

1:25:49 Is there a different, like Florida, we don’t have our own CDC.

1:25:54 Do we?

1:25:55 Is it, is it the.

1:25:56 CDC is a federal agency.

1:25:57 The Department of Health guidelines come from the CDC guidelines.

1:26:01 Okay.

1:26:02 So our Department of Health here at the state has recommended

1:26:05 that our target number is 10%.

1:26:07 Yeah.

1:26:08 And that’s probably not in writing.

1:26:10 That’s what Governor DeSantis is saying.

1:26:12 The single digits.

1:26:13 He feels any county that is in single digits is doing well.

1:26:18 Okay.

1:26:19 One of the, one of the comments that you all made was that you

1:26:26 are concerned about what the

1:26:30 kids bring into the school.

1:26:33 In reference to, you know, what, who they’re associating with

1:26:37 outside the school, what their

1:26:38 level of risk is in the decisions that they’re making.

1:26:43 Several of the experts have recently been talking about the

1:26:50 importance of getting our positivity

1:26:53 rates and number of cases down in our community because of that

1:26:57 concern, indicating that those

1:26:59 countries that have opened successfully have had much lower

1:27:03 community transmission levels.

1:27:05 So is that, are you suggesting that the 10%, anything under the

1:27:11 10% mark is sufficient to reduce

1:27:15 our concern around that?

1:27:18 No.

1:27:19 I don’t think that’s, that’s a much bigger question.

1:27:24 I think even in our state, you know, that’s, that’s a federal,

1:27:28 federal question.

1:27:30 Okay.

1:27:31 I can, I can say, I think, you know, is don’t get as focused on

1:27:35 numbers as, as you are on

1:27:38 trends.

1:27:39 That’s what I was saying.

1:27:40 We need to look at trends.

1:27:41 Right.

1:27:42 So, you know, if we see ourselves going up and up and up and up

1:27:45 and up, then that’s a danger

1:27:47 signal.

1:27:48 You know, that’s like, whoa, what’s going on here?

1:27:51 But I wouldn’t be as focused on numbers per se, but the holistic

1:27:56 trends.

1:27:57 And I can say the only thing that we really are a little bit

1:28:00 high on right now is the deaths.

1:28:02 But I think it’s related to the increase of, in fact, I know it’s

1:28:05 related to the increase

1:28:07 of cases that we saw two, three weeks ago.

1:28:10 Okay.

1:28:12 So, how do we, we’ve, we talked a little bit about how Brevard

1:28:16 County compares to the

1:28:18 other surrounding counties, the counties in our region, that

1:28:21 sort of thing.

1:28:22 How do we compare to the rest of the United States?

1:28:27 Brevard County to the rest of the United States?

1:28:31 Yeah.

1:28:32 That’s kind of difficult because there’s a 67,000 counties in

1:28:36 the, in the nation.

1:28:37 So, I don’t know.

1:28:38 I don’t have an answer for that.

1:28:39 Yeah.

1:28:40 If you’re going to compare to United States, I think you got to

1:28:42 compare the state of Florida

1:28:44 to United States because, you know, we don’t have breakdown of

1:28:47 individual counties within

1:28:49 individual states.

1:28:50 I know I’m originally from Buffalo, which is Erie County, which

1:28:54 had nowhere near the cases

1:28:56 that New York City had.

1:28:57 So, that’s, I don’t think that’s anything that, that we can

1:29:02 compare.

1:29:03 It’s a state, state to state that needs to be looked at.

1:29:06 Yeah.

1:29:07 Okay.

1:29:08 And kind of related to that, is there any, does the trend in our

1:29:15 surrounding counties have

1:29:18 any impact on us locally?

1:29:20 So, should we be concerned if we, you know, Brevard’s a long

1:29:23 county.

1:29:24 We’ve got several counties that surround us.

1:29:27 People are back and forth between those counties in Brevard.

1:29:30 Should we be looking at the trend of the counties around us?

1:29:34 I think it’s always good to look at the counties around us.

1:29:37 I can say early on, several months ago, we were seeing college

1:29:41 kids coming over from Orlando,

1:29:44 partying on the beach.

1:29:46 You know?

1:29:47 I mean, that was something that’s happening and might still be

1:29:49 happening and then going back.

1:29:51 But I think it’s also vice versa.

1:29:53 I think it’s our residents going to Orlando to doing some fun

1:29:56 stuff in Orlando and coming back.

1:29:58 So, there’s something, yes, yes, to always look at.

1:30:02 I think one of the advantages, and this is my opinion here, I’m

1:30:07 not saying anything officially, but we have a long county.

1:30:10 We have a county 72 miles long, and we don’t have the urban

1:30:14 areas like in Orlando or like in Osceola County.

1:30:19 I mean, we have the Melbournes, we have the Palm Bays, but they’re

1:30:22 not that magnitude of the city.

1:30:24 So, the other thing is our mass transportation, which, you know,

1:30:29 other counties have, you know, is related to some of their mass

1:30:31 transportation.

1:30:32 Yes, we have space coast area transit, but we all know that is

1:30:36 not to the magnitude of New York City subways, you know?

1:30:41 So, we’re just, we’re more rural, we’re more spread out.

1:30:46 Okay.

1:30:47 But yes, we always have, that’s why we do do comparisons with

1:30:51 neighboring counties.

1:30:53 You mentioned that we should keep an eye on the death rate and

1:30:56 the hospitalization.

1:30:58 Do those, are those two numbers significant because they’re

1:31:04 indicative of, maybe, level of infection in the community?

1:31:11 Or are they more important as far as capacity of our hospitals?

1:31:16 Well, both.

1:31:17 Both, yeah.

1:31:18 Yeah, both.

1:31:19 I think the level of the severity of what’s going on in your

1:31:23 community is definitely going to measure by what’s going on in

1:31:26 your hospitals.

1:31:27 Because the first thing that’s going to happen is the severe,

1:31:30 severe patients are going into the hospital.

1:31:32 The second thing that’s going to happen is those that are really

1:31:35 severe in the hospital might, might die.

1:31:37 So, that’s why we do look at the, at the death.

1:31:41 We look at the hospitals.

1:31:42 We look at the cases.

1:31:43 We don’t look at any one thing.

1:31:44 We look at it all.

1:31:45 Got it.

1:31:46 Um, do you all identify, and there was, there was mentioned

1:31:53 earlier of identifying by zip code.

1:31:57 Um, do you all identify number of cases per zip code or do you,

1:32:04 do you identify percent positive in various zip codes?

1:32:08 It’s a number of cases and it’s on the report that comes out

1:32:11 every day.

1:32:12 Okay.

1:32:13 Actually, Florida Today reports it very well too, every single

1:32:17 day.

1:32:18 Um, is there anywhere that we can track test response time?

1:32:25 I know we’ve had some conversations and you guys have been

1:32:27 gracious enough to share with us kind of what that lead time is,

1:32:31 is looking like.

1:32:32 But is there any place that, that we can regularly track that?

1:32:36 No, no, but we could, we could definitely keep Chris, um,

1:32:40 updated on that.

1:32:42 And it varies.

1:32:43 Um, you know, and it varies and it varies by lab.

1:32:47 Um, I can say right now we’re running about a five to seven day.

1:32:53 A couple of weeks ago, we were running more of a seven to 10 day.

1:32:57 Um, it does vary.

1:32:59 Um, and like I said, it varies by lab too.

1:33:02 It varies by symptoms.

1:33:03 It varies by lab.

1:33:05 Um, but we can certainly keep Chris, um, abreast and she can let

1:33:09 you all know, um, what our current, current legs.

1:33:13 Um, and that’s only the labs that we work with that we know.

1:33:16 Um, I know quest has given us notice that they’re running about

1:33:20 a 14 day right now.

1:33:22 Our state lab runs two to three.

1:33:24 I think lab core is running about seven to 10.

1:33:28 Um, another lab that we use is MDL is more like five to seven.

1:33:32 So it varies.

1:33:33 And to be honest, it is problematic for all of us that it varies

1:33:38 because as Barry can tell

1:33:40 you, sometimes we’ll get a positive case and they’re already

1:33:43 past their incubation period.

1:33:45 You know, so, um, and as you hear on the national media, that is

1:33:50 the problem with the slowness, slowness of the labs.

1:33:55 But, um, it’s just due to the quantity that’s out there right

1:33:58 now.

1:33:59 Okay.

1:34:00 Thank you.

1:34:01 Um, is, is there any indication that, um, I think it was Mr.

1:34:12 Susan that asked about the asymptomatic percentage.

1:34:15 Um, is there indication that children are more likely to be

1:34:20 asymptomatic and positive than adults?

1:34:24 Uh, I believe so.

1:34:26 Um, I talked to a pediatrician the other day and, and, uh, they

1:34:29 probably are more likely to be asymptomatic.

1:34:32 Now, their ability to transmit, that’s, if they’re asymptomatic,

1:34:37 truly asymptomatic, uh, is questionable.

1:34:40 It’s questionable at this point.

1:34:42 Are they symptomatic?

1:34:43 Certainly.

1:34:44 If they’re asymptomatic, uh, are they, uh, as likely to transmit,

1:34:48 transmit it?

1:34:49 My thinking, my opinion is, and just because I’ve worked with

1:34:52 this, you know, infectious diseases for a long time, I don’t

1:34:55 think they’re near as likely.

1:34:57 Because, you know, the things we talked about before, uh, their

1:35:01 anatomy, uh, they can’t expel the virus as well, uh, as an adult

1:35:05 can.

1:35:06 Ms. Belford, if I, could I interrupt for just one second?

1:35:11 Um, because I watched a panel of doctors from the Children’s

1:35:15 Hospital in Lee County, and because you just said that,

1:35:18 um, their statement was that children under either nine or ten,

1:35:22 I can’t remember the age, um, the way in their opinion of what

1:35:27 they’ve seen that it’s transmitted is not through, I just, I

1:35:31 didn’t even write this down, I just remembered, was not through,

1:35:34 um.

1:35:36 Respiratory?

1:35:37 Thank you.

1:35:38 But through, yeah, through feces, basically.

1:35:40 Yeah.

1:35:41 Poor hand hygiene.

1:35:42 Yeah.

1:35:43 Uh, so, uh, you know, another doctor, another opinion.

1:35:46 But that was a panel of, of experts with children.

1:35:48 No, that’s, no, I’d agree, I would agree with that.

1:35:50 That’s, that’s how they transmit it.

1:35:52 But, you know, do they transmit it as well as an adult or

1:35:55 whatever in a setting, particularly respiratory?

1:35:58 I don’t think so, but that’s just my opinion.

1:36:00 Yeah, and to reiterate all communicable diseases, hand washing

1:36:03 is so important.

1:36:04 Yeah, I can’t.

1:36:05 You know.

1:36:06 We can’t overemphasize that.

1:36:07 We’re getting a time, I think, hand washing, hand washing, hand

1:36:11 washing.

1:36:12 So, if what Ms. Deskovich just referenced is true, and, um,

1:36:19 transmission in children under

1:36:22 10 is more likely to come from, um, fecal matter poor hand

1:36:27 washing.

1:36:28 Um, does that decrease the, um, importance of social distancing

1:36:38 and masks in that age group?

1:36:41 No.

1:36:44 And I would say the first thing is fecal matter doesn’t have

1:36:45 anything to do with this virus.

1:36:47 Um, it does other viruses.

1:36:48 It does other illnesses.

1:36:49 Um, but, um, no, I would say masks, hand washing, social

1:36:55 distancing, those are paramount.

1:36:59 You know, we just need to keep doing that.

1:37:01 And I, uh, and I appreciate the point that was, that was brought

1:37:04 up.

1:37:04 The hand washing is, uh, you know, is extremely important,

1:37:08 particularly in schools.

1:37:10 If I can go back a little bit in history, me and Maria

1:37:12 remembered this.

1:37:13 We had some Shigala problems in the school system.

1:37:16 Okay.

1:37:17 And what got us through that, of course, there’s kids not coming

1:37:21 to school with diarrhea helps

1:37:23 a lot.

1:37:24 Um, but also the hand washing, uh, program that we implemented

1:37:28 back then that helped us to

1:37:30 have to turn the tide on that because what we had in the late

1:37:33 nineties was, was pretty impressive.

1:37:36 Some of the outbreaks that we had, uh, with that.

1:37:38 So I can’t overemphasize that.

1:37:41 That’s extremely important as it always is.

1:37:44 So on that point, you mentioned a hand washing program.

1:37:48 Um, obviously we are encouraging that people wash their hands on

1:37:52 a regular basis after they’ve

1:37:54 touched their face, remove their mask, whatever.

1:37:57 Um, is there a recommendation for a specific hand washing

1:38:02 frequency?

1:38:03 Like the other day I was in the classroom and the teacher said

1:38:05 we wash our hands every hour.

1:38:07 Um.

1:38:08 My, my philosophy, if you’re, if you’re doing nothing, go wash

1:38:12 your hands.

1:38:13 If you’re standing around, whatever, go wash your hands.

1:38:16 Use the alcohol hand rinse, you know, or, you know, use soap and

1:38:18 water.

1:38:19 I mean, uh, we can’t, and particularly if you’re in a group

1:38:22 setting, you’re in the hospital,

1:38:25 you’re in a nursing home, you’re in a school or whatever, you

1:38:28 know, uh, use the alcohol hand rinse.

1:38:29 Okay.

1:38:30 Get up from your desk.

1:38:31 You’re going to do something.

1:38:32 Use the, you know, use the sanitizer.

1:38:33 Wash your hands.

1:38:34 Okay.

1:38:35 Um, I think that might be all of the questions that I have for

1:38:45 you right now.

1:38:48 Thank you so much.

1:38:49 I appreciate you.

1:38:50 Uh, Mr. Susan, you.

1:38:51 I don’t know if you need to go to them first.

1:38:53 Ms. Duskiewicz, do you have a follow up?

1:38:54 No.

1:38:55 Just a few.

1:38:56 Uh, you recommended, and so did the American, the latest letter

1:39:00 from the American Academy of Pediatrics,

1:39:01 the flu shot for all students.

1:39:03 And maybe Ms. Moore, this might be a little bit more for you.

1:39:05 Sorry, you just, you’re about to walk away.

1:39:07 What, um, are we able to provide, uh, the potential for parents

1:39:14 if they choose to have their students, um, get the flu shot?

1:39:18 Are we able to do that on our campuses in any capacity?

1:39:21 I’d have to work with the Department of Health to determine if

1:39:25 that was going to, if we would be able to do that through the

1:39:29 clinic for students.

1:39:30 I haven’t had that conversation yet.

1:39:32 Um, so it’s a conversation we can have.

1:39:35 And there are private organizations out there, um, that, that

1:39:39 can come into the schools and do, um, and do flu shots.

1:39:44 So absolutely there is, um, and we can work with Chris on that.

1:39:47 With parental permission, right?

1:39:48 I don’t want, I don’t want anyone watching this to think we are

1:39:51 going to be forced flu shotting students.

1:39:53 Yes.

1:39:54 Always, always, always with parental permission.

1:39:56 Yeah.

1:39:57 Thank you.

1:39:58 Ms. Tescovich, in response to the earlier question about flu

1:40:00 shots for employees, we do have planned again this year to have

1:40:04 flu shots available in our schools across the district for

1:40:06 employees.

1:40:07 Yes.

1:40:08 Okay.

1:40:08 So we do provide in our schools flu shots for employees at no

1:40:11 cost.

1:40:12 Yes.

1:40:13 At no cost.

1:40:14 Correct.

1:40:15 At no cost.

1:40:16 Thank you, sir.

1:40:17 And at our district offices.

1:40:18 I got mine last year in training room seven, eight.

1:40:20 Yeah.

1:40:21 They’ve been doing it for years.

1:40:22 Yeah.

1:40:23 Thank you very much.

1:40:24 Um, I have a question that maybe you can’t answer, but I want to

1:40:28 ask it.

1:40:29 Why, uh, you know, why do you think the surgeon general

1:40:33 recommends groups of 10 for statewide when there’s such vast

1:40:38 differences in the rates between some counties and others?

1:40:43 Why, why would Brevard be being treated the same as Miami at

1:40:46 this point?

1:40:47 Well, I guess I can’t read the surgeon general’s mind.

1:40:50 I understand.

1:40:51 But, um, what I would state is, you know, all Florida counties

1:40:55 are connected.

1:40:56 You know, we’re all, you can’t really, can you say Volusia

1:41:00 County is this way and Brevard County’s this way and Seminole

1:41:04 County’s this way.

1:41:05 So you really do have to develop somewhat of a standard.

1:41:08 We are lower than the rest, but yet we’re in it.

1:41:11 We’re in it just like everybody else.

1:41:13 So the distinction has more been between the phase one counties

1:41:17 and the phase two counties.

1:41:19 Um, but things were increasing a little bit statewide.

1:41:23 Um, and even the beginning of July, our cases were increasing

1:41:26 too.

1:41:27 So I think it just went along with, you know, just like Governor

1:41:31 DeSantis opened the bars and closed the bars.

1:41:33 Um, and boy, did we see a surge.

1:41:36 I think that beginning surge in the beginning of July was

1:41:39 related to the bars opening up in, what was it, mid June?

1:41:42 I mean, we were definitely seeing statewide was so I guess, like

1:41:48 I said, I can’t read his mind, but, um, it’s, yeah, the crowds

1:41:53 need to stay down.

1:41:54 Yeah.

1:41:55 If I could give you an example, kind of in June, we were running

1:41:58 maybe 30, 40 cases a week.

1:42:00 Uh, and then we got to the end of June, 1st of July and went to

1:42:04 a 1200 cases, 1200 cases.

1:42:07 So that’s going to change.

1:42:09 You know, that’s going to change your recommendations.

1:42:12 Uh, and that’s just for our county, of course, I’m seeing, I’m

1:42:14 seeing.

1:42:15 So, uh, 12, I think we have to be clear on what you’re just

1:42:18 saying because we only have 5,312 positive residents.

1:42:22 Yeah, we had 1,200.

1:42:23 Yes, we did.

1:42:24 So we’re having 1,200 a week?

1:42:26 No, 1,200 in one week.

1:42:28 Okay.

1:42:29 Since, since then we’ve had about, uh, seven or 800 cases a week.

1:42:34 So.

1:42:35 So, see, we see about.

1:42:36 It’s trending down.

1:42:37 Yeah.

1:42:38 We have somewhat or leveling off at about.

1:42:39 We’re leveling off.

1:42:40 It’s leveling off at around 800 or so.

1:42:42 Okay.

1:42:43 Thank you.

1:42:44 Okay.

1:42:45 Now I’m going to push a little bit here because I feel strongly

1:42:49 that there’s a distinction from everything that I’ve read.

1:42:51 Between children and adults.

1:42:54 And as I was even sitting here, I, I even drew more of a

1:42:57 distinction.

1:42:58 So, um, I have two studies that I have seen, um, you know, one

1:43:03 from Germany, one from France that say that the research and

1:43:08 this one was with 2,000 children shows that children are not

1:43:12 spreading it.

1:43:12 And I, I think it’s probably partially if I had to guess,

1:43:14 because you’re saying they can’t project it the way and

1:43:17 partially because of the doctors in the south that said it’s

1:43:20 being transmitted.

1:43:20 It’s being transmitted through different avenues.

1:43:23 Um, and so I just want to reiterate that, you know, I’ve been

1:43:27 harping on the zero to four with hardly any cases and the five

1:43:32 to 14 with still very few cases.

1:43:35 Then the next level on our chart or on the states, um, the

1:43:38 dashboard from the department of health is 15 to 24.

1:43:42 And at first I thought that meant our teenagers were not doing

1:43:46 what they were supposed to and they had bad behavior and that’s

1:43:51 why it was spreading.

1:43:53 But then I just broke out the numbers because when we look at

1:43:56 the pediatric report, it said there’s only 274 cases.

1:44:00 And so if we take out the zero through 14, um, and then subtract

1:44:05 that from the, the, the number of 15 to the 24, which was 986.

1:44:09 If you guys aren’t following me, I can reiterate this short

1:44:12 answer is the 15 to 18 year olds.

1:44:15 There’s only 89 of them.

1:44:16 So our teenagers aren’t acting irresponsibly at this moment.

1:44:21 Um, I just think it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a little, um, confusing

1:44:25 to look at 15 to 24 and think of, I was in my mind, I was

1:44:29 thinking high schoolers.

1:44:30 Oh, that’s high schoolers.

1:44:31 But then when I pulled out 19 to 24, it turns out there was only

1:44:35 89 of them since March that have been tested, tested positive in

1:44:39 all of Brevard County.

1:44:40 So I, it’s not really a question for you.

1:44:42 That was more of a statement for, I would ditto what you’re

1:44:44 saying.

1:44:45 Um, and it’s like what I said, we have seen a surge in college.

1:44:51 Um, you know, some of our cases are college age students that

1:44:57 live in Orlando, which, you know, the case gets counted by where

1:45:01 their home zip code is.

1:45:04 So we have definitely seen, which would be in that 15 to 24 age

1:45:08 group.

1:45:09 That would make sense.

1:45:10 And if it might not even be in Brevard, but they’re getting

1:45:13 counted in the Brevard.

1:45:14 Correct.

1:45:15 Well, they, they, they, their, their home residence is Brevard.

1:45:19 You don’t know when they’re coming home, but.

1:45:21 Well, similar.

1:45:22 So if they get tested in Brevard and they’re a positive case, it’s

1:45:25 getting tracked back.

1:45:26 So our teenagers aren’t naughty.

1:45:28 Our college kids are the ones that aren’t being responsible.

1:45:31 Yes.

1:45:32 And that’s probably.

1:45:33 Or they’re in more, they’re in locations where there’s more

1:45:35 spread.

1:45:36 Correct?

1:45:37 Yes.

1:45:38 Uh, and what we were saying, cause I was interviewing some of

1:45:41 those, uh, college students and they were

1:45:43 around the UCF area.

1:45:44 Um, so when things, when the bars opened up, they were going to

1:45:47 the bars and whatever.

1:45:48 And remember the, you know, they live in a, an apartment and

1:45:52 they may have three or four roommates

1:45:53 or whatever.

1:45:54 And if one of them gets it, then the others are very likely to

1:45:56 acquire to that, that point.

1:45:58 But yeah, definitely it’s the 20 to 24.

1:46:01 That’s where the bulk of the numbers were coming from.

1:46:03 Yeah.

1:46:04 And you know what?

1:46:05 And that’s to reiterate, the cases get counted by home zip code.

1:46:08 Yeah.

1:46:09 Thank you very much.

1:46:10 That’s all I have.

1:46:11 Ms. Belford.

1:46:12 Ms. Campbell, did you have any follow up?

1:46:13 No.

1:46:14 About that.

1:46:15 Ms. McDougall, any follow up questions?

1:46:17 No, I’m good.

1:46:18 Thank you.

1:46:19 Mr. Susan, follow up questions?

1:46:20 Yeah.

1:46:21 I wanted to speak to the viral load.

1:46:23 There’s countless studies that show that students have based on

1:46:25 their age, have less viral loads

1:46:30 all over like, uh, European models and American models.

1:46:34 There’s a bunch of them out there.

1:46:35 Um, asymptomatics.

1:46:37 Um, and there’s a lot of studies on that too, about whether they

1:46:40 can spread or not.

1:46:41 So that’s easy to find.

1:46:43 Um, here’s one for you.

1:46:45 So what could our school district do?

1:46:48 Because right now we’re talking about testing and back end and

1:46:51 prevention.

1:46:52 One of the other things we’re not talking about is what our

1:46:54 school district could be doing

1:46:55 to build immunity, to build, um, those kinds of things.

1:46:58 Do you guys have recommendations coming out for that kind of

1:47:00 stuff?

1:47:01 Meaning that right now we’re testing, we’re looking at that.

1:47:03 You had said, sir, that you had made some, uh, you had worked on

1:47:07 something about hand washing

1:47:08 and stuff like that back in the day.

1:47:09 Do you guys have anything for our staff that would be, hey, you

1:47:13 guys, if you’re doing these steps,

1:47:15 you could reduce the amount of time that you’re sick or anything

1:47:18 like that?

1:47:19 Is that, do you guys have any recommendations in that?

1:47:21 It’s the same old recommendations we’re talking about because

1:47:24 right now, like Barry said,

1:47:26 there’s no treatment, there’s no vaccine.

1:47:29 So your main recommendations are going to be masks, hand washing,

1:47:35 social distancing, avoiding crowds,

1:47:39 um, and staying home if you’re sick, you know, to minimizing the

1:47:42 spread.

1:47:43 So that’s, um, to say, um, what can you do?

1:47:49 I think the big thing is to encourage employees to stay home

1:47:52 sick,

1:47:53 encourage parents to keep their children home if they’re sick.

1:47:56 And I know that’s very difficult.

1:47:59 I was a school nurse myself in Buffalo back in, I don’t even

1:48:03 know when it was.

1:48:04 I think it was the eighties.

1:48:06 I moved here in 94 and it’s no different now than it was then.

1:48:11 You know, the parents have to work.

1:48:13 The parents aren’t getting paid if they’re home sick.

1:48:16 So they’re sending their children, not all the time, but

1:48:19 sometimes sending their children to school sick.

1:48:21 And, um, that’s, that’s a problem.

1:48:25 No, I, I, I totally understand that piece of it.

1:48:27 What I, where I was going at is, is that there’s a lot of

1:48:30 individuals that are out there, um,

1:48:33 that are trying to become more healthy, do take more types of,

1:48:37 um, vitamin C’s and all that other stuff.

1:48:39 And, and I think that in some cases there’s some individuals, um,

1:48:42 I had asked before for our wellness,

1:48:44 because that’s kind of what our wellness centers should be set

1:48:47 up for,

1:48:47 is to set up for the wellness of our community and our, our, our

1:48:50 employees.

1:48:51 Um, so I had asked for that as far as a deliverable so that we

1:48:55 could have some sort of a playbook

1:48:57 for our, our, our teachers that may not be, you know what I mean,

1:49:01 educated on those kind of processes.

1:49:03 Um, and I just didn’t know if the DOH had anything that was out

1:49:06 there that you guys were giving out

1:49:07 that was along those lines to try to assist in that.

1:49:09 That’s all for the recovery, right?

1:49:11 Okay.

1:49:12 Um, uh, so my grandmother tested positive and then everybody

1:49:18 freaked out, went and got tested

1:49:20 and then she tested negative, negative.

1:49:22 Can you tell me how that gets recorded?

1:49:24 So she was tested positive.

1:49:26 And then like four days later, she took her two days later, she

1:49:29 took another test.

1:49:30 It was negative, another test, negative.

1:49:32 She showed no signs.

1:49:33 Um, how does that get recorded inside?

1:49:35 Is there a double negative cancels out the positive or are they

1:49:38 all recorded?

1:49:39 No, no, they’re recorded.

1:49:40 Okay.

1:49:41 All right.

1:49:42 And then, um, um, I, I have a question and it’s going to kind of

1:49:48 go to the next one.

1:49:49 But you had said that if I am, if I have some kind of symptoms,

1:49:53 I’m out for 10 days until

1:49:55 the, and then 24 hours with no fever, without the medications.

1:49:59 Is there, uh, another way that in between their individuals or

1:50:04 employees inside that 10 days,

1:50:06 do not exhibit a temperature can go get a rapid test and then

1:50:09 return back?

1:50:10 Or are you guys making it say, Hey, look, you’re out for 10 days,

1:50:12 no matter what?

1:50:13 If you’re a case, if you’re a case, it, it doesn’t really matter.

1:50:19 Remember what we said with the rapid tests, a negative doesn’t

1:50:22 mean it’s a negative.

1:50:23 It’s a 50% false rate.

1:50:25 So if you’re a positive case, you need to stay home for 10 days.

1:50:32 And, and actually the recommendation changed in the last couple

1:50:34 of weeks, but, um, it is

1:50:38 10 days from the date of your test or the date of the start of

1:50:42 symptoms and 24 hours post fever

1:50:46 with no medications.

1:50:47 Sure.

1:50:48 For the non positive case individuals, is there a scenario that

1:50:55 they are sent home for 10 days

1:50:57 upon being an associate of the family member of all of that?

1:51:02 Right.

1:51:03 What needs to be determined is who’s an essential employee and

1:51:05 who’s a non-essential employee.

1:51:07 Okay.

1:51:08 The recommendation for an, and that’s something that you will

1:51:12 all have to do.

1:51:13 I know from my agency who’s essential employees.

1:51:16 So an essential employee being exposed, yes, can come to back to

1:51:21 work with mandatory masks

1:51:23 and daily symptom temperature checks.

1:51:26 Um, non-essential employees need to stay home for 14 days.

1:51:33 Okay.

1:51:34 And we differentiated that by if it’s a live in contact or just

1:51:38 a close contact.

1:51:39 If it’s a live in contact, we, we follow the 14 day rule.

1:51:43 If it’s a mom and a son or a husband and a wife, we follow the

1:51:46 14 day rule.

1:51:47 If it’s a, a contact that, um, you spent more than 15 minutes

1:51:52 within six feet and just in, in the way we’re, uh, following the

1:51:56 plan.

1:51:56 Um, and you’re an essential worker, you come back with the face

1:51:59 mask and the health check.

1:52:01 Yeah, that’s, that’s where I, cause I, I, I did some, I, I

1:52:05 called around to some of my friends that are first responders

1:52:09 and asked them how their processes are working both with

1:52:11 firefighters, with ambulatory workers, with hospital workers and

1:52:14 everything else.

1:52:15 And it was following more of what you were just saying rather

1:52:18 than what some of the stuff we were.

1:52:20 Uh, can you, can you speak to, um, cause this is part of where I

1:52:24 was going to go with that question?

1:52:26 Um, sheriffs, firefighters, ambulatories, hospitals.

1:52:30 Are you aware of some of their plans and can you give us any

1:52:33 kind of light like firefighters in the area?

1:52:36 Um, one of them was telling me that if there’s a positive COVID

1:52:39 case from an individual or a possible one, that person is sent

1:52:42 home no matter what.

1:52:43 If you, do you have any kind of knowledge of some of the stuff

1:52:45 that’s going on out there?

1:52:46 I can tell you the hospitals are following the essential worker

1:52:49 rule.

1:52:50 Barry probably can tell better on the first responders.

1:52:54 Um, they’re, they’re, they’re following the essential rules.

1:52:58 I, I know we’ve had, uh, cause sometimes the, the, um, um, the

1:53:03 fire stations you have, they have a limited number.

1:53:05 Yes, sir.

1:53:06 And, and if you sent everybody’s contact home where there’d be

1:53:09 no fire station open.

1:53:10 Yep.

1:53:11 So, so they’re essential.

1:53:12 So, um, but, uh, and you know, they, they live together for the

1:53:15 three days or whatever that they do, you know, uh, while they’re

1:53:19 on duty, uh, for that.

1:53:21 So they take special precautions.

1:53:23 They take temperatures.

1:53:24 Uh, we’re, we recommend like, uh, every four, four to six hours,

1:53:28 take their temperature, uh, and monitor for any kind of signs

1:53:31 and symptoms.

1:53:32 And if they become ill, then of course they’ll get tested.

1:53:35 And usually we do the testing for them at the health department.

1:53:38 And those are individuals that had tested positive or had been

1:53:41 around somebody that was an essential worker that had come back

1:53:44 and they were doing the four to six, or is that every four to

1:53:47 six hours they’re being tested?

1:53:48 No, no, no, that that’s for someone that they had that was

1:53:51 positive in, in their fire station.

1:53:53 Got it.

1:53:54 And can you walk through that one more time?

1:53:56 Because I think that’s very interesting to me, how you have your

1:53:59 essential workers working.

1:54:01 You have, they test positive and then walk me through how they

1:54:05 can come back.

1:54:06 What is that?

1:54:07 Again, I’m sorry.

1:54:08 I’m sorry.

1:54:09 Well, they, um, um, the, the, how the worker could come back?

1:54:13 Yes, sir.

1:54:14 So I’m in a firehouse.

1:54:15 I test positive.

1:54:16 Um, is there an opportunity besides waiting the 10 days we had

1:54:19 just said?

1:54:20 No, no, no, no, no, not on a positive.

1:54:22 Okay.

1:54:23 Not on a positive.

1:54:24 The positive is the positive is home.

1:54:25 Gotcha.

1:54:26 Positive.

1:54:27 So it’s the context of the positive.

1:54:28 It’s a contact.

1:54:29 Yeah.

1:54:30 And then the contact is a positive.

1:54:31 How does that work for the essential workers?

1:54:33 One more time.

1:54:34 Well, then they’re.

1:54:35 Then they’re a case.

1:54:36 They’re a positive.

1:54:37 No, I don’t think that’s what he’s saying.

1:54:39 Is that what you’re saying?

1:54:40 No, ma’am.

1:54:41 If, if I don’t test positive, but somebody that I am within the,

1:54:44 the scope of.

1:54:45 They’re a contact.

1:54:47 What is that process and how do they come back?

1:54:49 Okay.

1:54:50 In the fire station.

1:54:51 Yes, sir.

1:54:52 Then what they’ll do is they’ll monitor them very closely for

1:54:54 any signs and symptoms.

1:54:55 If they develop any signs and symptoms, they’ll be sent to be

1:54:57 tested.

1:54:58 They’ll wear their mask.

1:55:00 They wear their mask and those sort of things.

1:55:02 They practice good hygiene and all that, and they do this for

1:55:05 the 14 day period.

1:55:07 I see what you’re saying.

1:55:08 So they’re.

1:55:09 So they’re deemed under some kind of a probationary period where

1:55:13 they’re being checked and monitored

1:55:15 and all that for that 14 day period because they’re essential

1:55:18 and they may not have been infected and they’re doing that.

1:55:21 Okay.

1:55:22 Right.

1:55:23 Okay.

1:55:24 And mandatory masks.

1:55:25 Yes.

1:55:26 Mandatory masks.

1:55:27 No, I know.

1:55:28 And that’s, that’s the next question that I had.

1:55:30 Um, both sheriffs that are being, that are making contact with

1:55:34 other people, firefighters who are making contact with other

1:55:39 people, ambulatory individuals that are making contact with

1:55:44 other people and hospitals that are making contact with any

1:55:47 people.

1:55:47 Those are all mandatory masks as we speak, right?

1:55:49 Yes.

1:55:51 Yeah.

1:55:52 Okay.

1:55:53 All right.

1:55:54 Um, and I was gonna say some of that, um, is mandatory by the

1:56:02 agency because you know, we don’t have a countywide mask mandate.

1:56:08 Um, no, I know, I know, I know, I know, I do know the ones that

1:56:13 I checked in with, which are in my area are the ones that follow

1:56:18 what you just said.

1:56:18 So that’s that.

1:56:19 And then, um, uh, okay.

1:56:23 I’m good.

1:56:24 I had some stuff from us more later, but that’s not for them.

1:56:27 Thank you.

1:56:28 Any, Ms. Duskiewicz, you look like you have a follow up perhaps?

1:56:32 Yes.

1:56:33 Just one more.

1:56:34 It’s about overall opening and closing.

1:56:40 I feel like you’ve given us great information about, um, opening

1:56:44 compared to other districts, the 10% positivity rate, the

1:56:49 trajectory, trajectory.

1:56:51 Um, at what point would we not want to, um, let’s see, is it

1:57:04 once we get, uh, over 10% and climb, then we need to consider as

1:57:09 an organization, um,

1:57:09 sending everybody back home to e-learning.

1:57:12 I don’t know how to put that more eloquently, but in my mind, I

1:57:16 want to know, okay.

1:57:19 It seems like we’re in the range to open now with all, with the

1:57:22 plan that you said is, is a good solid plan.

1:57:25 But at what point do we look as a community and go, uh, oh, we

1:57:28 are in the wrong direction.

1:57:30 This is not going well and we need to meet and re-discuss this

1:57:33 situation.

1:57:34 I feel it’s the trending, the definite, am I off again?

1:57:39 Just, you’ve gotta, I mean, you gotta have it like an inch from

1:57:41 your mouth.

1:57:41 I have to just hold it.

1:57:42 Okay.

1:57:43 Definitely the trending, you know, like I said, not the, cause

1:57:47 you, we might have a blip that we might be 11% one day and then

1:57:51 drop down to six the next day.

1:57:53 So, it’s definitely the trending, um, it’s definitely, you know,

1:57:59 communicating with, let’s see what’s going on in the schools.

1:58:03 You know, are we seeing cases in the schools?

1:58:07 I mean, that might be an indicator right there.

1:58:11 Um, if we’re seeing multiple, especially multiple, unrelated

1:58:15 cases in the schools.

1:58:16 You know, if it’s ones that are known contacts or same classroom,

1:58:21 that’s different than sporadic different schools and, and a

1:58:25 bunch going on.

1:58:26 So, I think that’s something to look at.

1:58:29 And then, as always, if we see something going on, we are in

1:58:32 communication with epidemiology in Tallahassee and, you know,

1:58:37 saying, hey, what do you guys think here?

1:58:39 You know?

1:58:40 So, but it’s the overall trending and what’s going on.

1:58:43 And I’m not sure we can give a black and white answer there.

1:58:46 It’s really what’s going on, but we are definitely here for you

1:58:50 guys.

1:58:51 So, I mean, it’s not, I mean, we just all need to work together

1:58:55 on this.

1:58:56 We, how many times do we talk with, with Chris and Beth on a

1:59:00 daily basis is multitude.

1:59:02 So, um, I know we’re here for you, but I don’t think it’s a

1:59:05 black and white answer.

1:59:06 It’s really what’s going on in the community, what’s going on in

1:59:08 the schools.

1:59:09 Thank you.

1:59:10 Well, I just want to say, if I can talk about other infectious

1:59:13 diseases for a minute.

1:59:14 We see blips like this all the time.

1:59:17 And I’m always very cautious to, okay, okay, what does that mean?

1:59:21 Okay, if we see the blip that goes above the percentage or ratio

1:59:25 or whatever, what does that mean?

1:59:27 And many times we’re, we’re cautious to see what happens, of

1:59:31 course, with the trend over time.

1:59:34 Sometimes that blip happens for, for whatever reason.

1:59:37 Sometimes are we testing more that day?

1:59:40 Um, was there some event or something like that?

1:59:42 And then it happens out one day and then it drops down.

1:59:45 So, no, we got to look at the trend.

1:59:47 And just as Maria said, and all the other aspects of what’s

1:59:50 going on.

1:59:51 Did it happen in one classroom?

1:59:53 Was there some event or something that occurred?

1:59:55 We look at all that.

1:59:56 And then we can make a more, a better evaluation.

1:59:59 Thank you.

2:00:00 What’s that, Ms. Belfort?

2:00:01 Ms. Cameron, any follow-up?

2:00:02 No.

2:00:03 I appreciate the, the candid nature of what you’re answering our

2:00:08 questions.

2:00:08 I think that’s transparency, especially right now where, you

2:00:11 know, people are worried that you guys are being told to, you

2:00:19 know, shut up and don’t say anything.

2:00:21 And you have been very, I’ve communicated, you have been a part

2:00:23 of the plan, an integral part of the plan.

2:00:25 You’re sharing with us today.

2:00:26 I know that Ms. Moore is on regular, you know, speed dial with

2:00:30 all of you guys to get, as we’ve had cases come up and had to

2:00:34 deal with them in our schools.

2:00:35 And you’re, you know, you’re giving us all the precautions and

2:00:38 guidance.

2:00:39 And so I just very much appreciate your answers today and your

2:00:43 presence through the whole process.

2:00:46 And that you’re not done being with us through the process.

2:00:50 We’ll never be done here with you.

2:00:51 No, never.

2:00:52 We’re here for the entire community and the school district is a

2:00:56 huge part of our entire community.

2:00:58 So, we are here.

2:01:00 Thank you.

2:01:01 Mr. Susan, any additional follow-up?

2:01:04 Yes.

2:01:05 Can we, is there, and I asked this before, and I don’t know if I

2:01:10 got a, the, can we do address back check?

2:01:14 Meaning that somebody tests positive in your department of

2:01:18 health.

2:01:19 Is there a way for us?

2:01:20 I know HIPAA violations and everything else to send that address

2:01:24 or that information to the school district on the back end.

2:01:27 So that we know prior to that family trying to bring those

2:01:30 children to the school.

2:01:31 Does that make sense to you?

2:01:33 It’s a way of, another line of defense.

2:01:35 Yeah.

2:01:36 It makes sense.

2:01:37 But I don’t think we can do that.

2:01:38 And would that be because of the state’s barriers or is that a.

2:01:43 It’s all part of HIPAA, it would be part of a HIPAA violation

2:01:45 because it would be identifiable information.

2:01:48 So, we would not be able to do that.

2:01:53 I got you.

2:01:54 Okay.

2:01:55 And then have you seen, because you’re the Department of Health

2:02:00 and it just came to me, have you seen any other anomalies due to

2:02:06 the environment of COVID besides the positive tests of COVID?

2:02:09 Have you seen other things inside the Department of Health that

2:02:12 you guys monitor that are up or down because of it, social,

2:02:15 emotional, any in that realm, any of that kind of stuff?

2:02:22 Are you asking us personally or in that realm?

2:02:25 I can definitely tell you amongst our employees, I can’t speak

2:02:30 of the community at large.

2:02:32 Okay.

2:02:33 Because we really just do, we do the case investigations and

2:02:36 contact investigations.

2:02:37 However, we’re not the medical providers.

2:02:40 Okay.

2:02:41 We’re not the one.

2:02:42 But I can tell you our employees.

2:02:44 Absolutely.

2:02:46 It’s affecting them.

2:02:47 Okay.

2:02:48 Thank you.

2:02:49 Ms. McDougall, any follow up?

2:02:51 No, I just want to thank you all very much.

2:02:55 It’s been very helpful information.

2:02:56 I really like how you clearly outline the importance of the

2:03:00 guidelines and steps we need to take to mitigate the spread.

2:03:04 Thank you.

2:03:05 Thank you, Ms. McDougall.

2:03:07 I just have one quick follow up.

2:03:09 I promise quick this time.

2:03:11 There was mention of hospital capacity.

2:03:14 And I think you indicated that there was, I’m looking on your

2:03:18 dashboard and I’m not seeing the hospital capacity information

2:03:20 there.

2:03:20 But I think you indicated there was some place that we could

2:03:22 access that.

2:03:23 Yes.

2:03:24 And the hospitals are regulated by ACA, which is the Agency for

2:03:28 Healthcare Administration.

2:03:30 And the reports for the hospitals come out from them.

2:03:33 So I will definitely send their public ACA link to Chris and she

2:03:37 can send it out.

2:03:39 But that’s also updated daily.

2:03:46 And it’s, you could see all the, all the hospitals in the whole

2:03:48 state on that, but you can break it down to Brevard County.

2:03:50 You could break it down the individual hospitals and it will

2:03:54 tell you hospital and ICU capacity, you know, for all of our

2:03:58 hospitals and then what the census is in the hospitals.

2:04:01 So do we have any individual hospitals in Brevard County that

2:04:04 are currently stretched for capacity?

2:04:07 I was going to say not stretched for capacity.

2:04:09 They’re all busy.

2:04:12 They all have capacity on any given day, one or two of the

2:04:15 hospitals, um, reach their ICU census.

2:04:18 Um, but as I say, they can convert other rooms.

2:04:24 So there’s been capacity all along at all of the hospitals.

2:04:29 Um, so how many of them would you suggest are reaching their

2:04:35 census and having to expand capacity?

2:04:37 Is that tracked or are we just, it’s, you could see it by

2:04:40 hospital, by the bed capacity and the ICU capacity.

2:04:44 Um, remember Health First is a huge network.

2:04:47 at work.

2:04:47 their capacity is within you know there for hospitals for

2:04:51 hospitals yeah for

2:04:53 hospitals parishes a little more singular and a little smaller

2:04:56 so they

2:04:57 they may reach capacity a little sooner but you know there’s

2:05:02 there’s a surge

2:05:03 plan for the hospitals within emergency management in ourselves

2:05:09 and the first

2:05:09 surge the first step of the surge plan is that hospitals amongst

2:05:14 themselves look

2:05:16 at isolation units in different rooms within their own hospital

2:05:20 the second

2:05:21 part of the surge plan which we’ve not had to go to would be

2:05:24 other hospitals

2:05:26 helping out so say Parrish didn’t have capacity but Rockledge

2:05:30 did then then it

2:05:32 would be worked out you know and we have hospital calls twice a

2:05:35 week so we do talk

2:05:37 about this all the time the third part of the surge plan is

2:05:40 actually an alternate

2:05:42 hospital site which you’ve seen happen in Miami and New York

2:05:46 were far far far from

2:05:48 there but that would be the third part of the surge plan but

2:05:52 each hospital system

2:05:54 although they’re singular we all work together all right I’ll do

2:06:00 one last call

2:06:01 for any additional questions for our awesome partners from

2:06:04 department of health all right thank you so

2:06:08 much for helping us through all of this we appreciate it all

2:06:11 right they promised us two hours and I think

2:06:14 I think it is two hours in one minute on the dock we did it good

2:06:19 time

2:06:21 board members I would like to request that we take a brief

2:06:25 recess for restroom

2:06:28 breaks make sure we address our hydration that sort of thing

2:06:31 before we get into

2:06:32 the discussion of our metrics and masks if you guys are okay

2:06:35 with that also

2:06:37 Ms. Belfer I just found the ACA website and I just sent you guys

2:06:40 the link to the

2:06:41 hospital capacity surveillance so you can take a look at that

2:06:44 thank you Ms. Campbell

2:06:45 all right we’re gonna go ahead and take about a five minute

2:06:47 recess and then we will

2:06:48 Come back.

2:18:48 I did a lot of research on my own.

2:19:48 I am satisfied.

2:20:18 I did a lot of research on my own.

2:21:18 I did a lot of my own.

2:21:48 I did a lot of research on my own.

2:22:18 I did a lot of my own.

2:22:48 I did a lot of research on my own.

2:23:18 I did a lot of my own.

2:23:48 I did a lot of research on my own.

2:24:18 I did a lot of my own.

2:24:48 I did a lot of research on my own.

2:25:48 I did a lot of things.