Hospital leader expresses appreciation

By Nate Blackford, Mosaic Medical Center – Maryville president

On Wednesday evening, we hosted an event at the Raymond J. Courter Pavilion on the campus of Northwest to celebrate and recognize all those that helped with one or more of our 15 community vaccination events. Between staff from Mosaic, Northwest Missouri State, Nodaway County Health and Nodaway County Ambulance, along with student and adult volunteers from across the community, more than 150 individuals gave of their time and talents to assist with the events.

The evening featured food and fellowship, along with stories from the clinics. It was an enjoyable way to wrap up our five months of administering nearly 10,000 doses of the vaccine to community members.

Although we have concluded our mass vaccine clinics, we continue to recommend and encourage all who are eligible to get the vaccine. As a matter of fact, the Pfizer vaccine has recently been extended to include individuals 12 years of age and up. If you are interested in receiving the vaccine, please call 660.562.2525 to schedule an appointment at Mosaic Medical Center – Maryville or visit your local pharmacy.

So now what? For well over a year, I have been anxiously awaiting the day I could send the “all clear” message to our caregivers and community regarding COVID. Unfortunately, now is still not the time. We continue to see positive cases reported in our region nearly daily and patients hospitalized. Although volumes are down considerably since our highs in November and December, the virus is still around including variants of the original.

Please know I am not trying to introduce fear, but I think it’s important to share facts. We are likely not done with the impacts of COVID. As a matter of fact, two northwest Missouri counties made the national news this week.

ABCnews.com released an article entitled, “Why these two Missouri counties’ COVID-19 surges are among worst in the country.” According to the article, Linn and Livingston counties have been hit hard by COVID in the recent weeks. Both county health directors are quoted as saying, essentially, they thought they were already through the worst of it after the winter months.

In Livingston County, cases were nearly zero before seeing a spike in May. In Linn County, the county’s medical director, Dr. Kendal Geno, “attributes the spike in the counties to a ‘perfect storm’ of laissez-faire attitudes around mitigation measures and quarantining, the spread of more transmissible COVID-19 variants and low vaccination rates among younger populations.”

I’m genuinely hopeful we can avoid a second surge. Preventative measures and the vaccine remain our greatest weapons.

With wishes for a happy and healthy summer for all.