Spectrum

Dr. James R. Gaskell has been a physician for over 50 years specializing in pediatrics. He also is the Health Commission of Athens City and County in Southeastern Ohio.

When he took that job 20 years ago, he certainly didn’t expect to be fighting a major pandemic from the bottom up—from the grassroots front lines.

He normally does his job in a small Appalachian community and rural county. His major fights concern populations who are impoverished, unemployed, and often opiate addicted.

At the other end of the economic spectrum, his area also is the home of a major residential university…Ohio University, with nearly 19,000 undergraduates, graduate students and medical students from all over the world on the main campus. This adds to the disparate nature of the populations he serves.

As the Coronavirus entered our country early in 2020, his job changed.

His days now consist of making sure testing is available for his people (although it was slow trickling down to the rural areas), preparing local hospitals for potential surges, assuring that nursing homes are as safe as possible, and informing his various populations about the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He also acts as a major liaison with Ohio University to help determine whether students will be back on campus this fall and if so, under what conditions. He consults with the university’s medical team attempting to find the safest way possible to have students congregate again.

In addition, Dr. Gaskell heads the local enforcement team to assure everyone that State Department of Health rules and regulations are being followed in re-opening his state’s economy.

He is part of a law enforcement and licensing team to assure the public that restaurants and bars are functioning with appropriate safeguards and social distancing.

He also spends a great deal of time in teleconferences with state health officials who are working daily with the Governor to keep Ohio as safe as possible while re-opening.

Dr. Gaskell tells us the unvarnished story of what it’s like to be on the front lines battling this virus from the trenches instead of the mountaintop.

Some Memorial Day crowds seemed large and people were not self-distancing. They were jammed in swimming pools, on crowded boardwalks and watching auto racing. Most without masks.

It seems that many want to reopen the economy and break out of isolation regardless of the risks. They are tired of lockdowns and restrictions.

However, recent polling still shows the large majority of Americans are fearful of re-entering into normal daily activities such as work, shopping, hair care, and being around large groups of people. These people also get angry when they see others flaunting rules and regulations promulgated by Health Departments.

Dr. Kenneth Johnson, executive dean of the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio University and a frequent guest of the Spectrum Podcast, reminds us that the dangers of the virus are still present and probably will be until we find therapeutic drugs or a vaccine.

It has not gone away, says Johnson, the chief medical affairs officer at Ohio University and chair of the Ohio Council of Medical School Deans. As we re-open the country, the Coronavirus remains a very real threat.

Opening the economy, in fact, allows more people asymptomatically carrying the virus to mingle with others thereby increasing the possibility of spread.

Many citizens and experts alike are fearing a resurgence of the virus and increased hospitalizations and deaths as more stay-at-home orders are lifted.

Dr. Johnson is a strong proponent of mask wearing to not only protect the wearer but those around him or her. He also advocates for continued social distancing, even as we move to open greater parts of our society.

On this edition of Spectrum, Dr. Johnson talks about the COVID-19 virus and the dangers we still face – especially in the Midwest and in rural areas where numbers of cases are rapidly increasing.

He also warns us that children are not immune from the virus and that this virus appears to be mutating as it spreads. This causes even great alarm among medical experts.

Dr. Johnson gives us some tips on how we can re-emerge into some sense of normalcy while we still maintain some degree of protection.

Colleges and universities and average families are all feeling the financial pinch from the COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts are dramatic.

Dr. Richard Vedder, emeritus distinguished professor of economics at Ohio University, outlines, for the Spectrum Podcast, how these loses will really be felt.

He notes that higher education was already under financial distress before the pandemic arrived. Many universities were facing declining enrollments and rising expenses. Cutbacks were already in the offing.

However, the pandemic added another layer of financial losses on top of a crumbling financial model for many colleges. He notes, that across the country, universities were having to cut staff and administrators even before closing campuses this spring.

Some colleges are even closing their doors—not to be reopened.

Now, with declining state funds along with plummeting enrollments, higher education is making further cuts of staff, administrators and faculty in unprecedented fashion.

At the same time, Vedder says many families now are questioning whether their child should even go to college. He cites the rise in young people following various trades from welding to plumbing and other service professions. He notes that many doing better financially than some college graduates.

Vedder also describes the sudden financial hardships facing the average family. Jobs have been lost and some will not be replaced. Expenses continue while incomes are have suddenly and sharply declined.

This is an environment, he notes, that is reminiscent of the Great Depression.

People don’t know where to turn for help as unemployment rates skyrocket and retail sales figures plummet.

In these times of uncertainty, it is not clear whether students will return or campuses or even come initially. This breeds continual upheaval for universities and makes planning extremely tenuous.

Vedder is a Founding Director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity in Washington, D.C. and a fellow at the Independent Institute.

Almost every aspect of government and certainly the legislative and executive branches are addressing multiple aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic from medical protocols and providing medical supplies to economic devastation.

Some view the partisan pull about this issue in Washington as a battle between science/medicine and ideologies. However, TIME Washington Correspondent Philip Elliott says that characterization is not quite accurate.

Instead, he claims it is more nuanced.

He says that members of the federal government are traveling paths never trod before. They are trying to find their way and they are trying to overcome major fear factors simultaneously. There is fear in government itself and fear across the nation, he adds.

This pandemic is unprecedented, according to Elliott, and it is having an unprecedented impact on our government and our politics. There is no roadmap to follow to predict next events or next steps.

This pandemic is drawing battle lines between the President and Governors who are on the front lines. It is drawing lines between the medical and scientific communities and economists who demand that we re-open the economy now.

It also is rewriting traditional campaign playbooks and demanding journalists cover politics in a new way.

These battles ensue simultaneously while polls show there is a major fear factor among the population about reopening society too soon and suffering another wave of the virus and deaths.

Elliott talks with Spectrum Podcast about how these factors are impacting the White House and the Presidency, Congress, the judiciary, and the upcoming elections. He touches on all branches of government.

Elliott joined TIME in 2015, after spending almost a decade with the Associated Press covering politics, campaign finance, education and the White House.

He is a frequent guest on the Spectrum Podcast giving us Washington insight from a journalist’s perspective.

Colleges and universities across the country are trying to anticipate how to handle their students this fall.

Will they teach remotely or have students back on campus for in-person instruction? Will there be hybrids of partly remote instruction and partly regular classroom teaching?

Several institutions have already made decisions to have students back while others have chosen to teach primarily remotely. Many other universities are waiting until later in June to make their decisions.

Before academic administrations can make those final calls, they need data and they also need to have criteria to help make those decision.

They need to determine what factors are most important to protect the health and safety of students, faculty and staff at the same time that they provide quality educational opportunities.

In this episode of WOUB’s Spectrum Podcast, Dr. Kenneth Johnson helps us understand some of the criteria being used to make these critical decisions.

Dr. Johnson is the executive dean of the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and chief medical affairs officer at Ohio University. He also is the chair of the Ohio Council of Medical School Deans.

It is important to open universities fully for the economic well-being of the institutions plus the economic well-being of the broader communities in which the universities reside, says Dr. Johnson.

However, it also is imperative to protect the health and safety of the broadly defined university community and its neighbors, he adds.

Data is vital, but data sets are ever-changing, almost on a daily basis, Dr. Johnson notes.

So many universities are waiting until society opens a bit to see whether there is any significant resurgence of COVID-19 cases and whether the dangers increase.

Long-term planning is extremely difficult in an environment of ever-changing facts and projections.

There are valid arguments for opening the country after the COVID-19 shutdowns.

But those actions must be tempered by good medical data and with the safety of people being foremost, says Dr. Todd Fredrick, Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio University.

These decisions to open our businesses and society should be based on good science that minimizes the risk of a resurgence of the virus, Dr. Fredrick adds.

He cautions against having the decisions of when and how to safely reopen society being based on politics. He notes that politics of the extremes on the right and the left often cloud decision making that should be neutral and fact-based.

He also cautions against people looking for “perfect” solutions but instead, Dr. Fredrick suggests that we need to find “acceptable” options knowing there will be some increase in infections with the Coronavirus after states reopen.

He notes that we should not be seeking a “one-size fits all” solution for reopening but instead each state and each region should tailor an approach that maximizes openness while protecting the most vulnerable people in our populations.

Dr. Fredrick has an extensive military background and is a physician deeply knowledgeable about outbreaks such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

He is one of the founders of Media in Medicine, a multi-disciplinary program that assists both students and professionals with science and health related communications using a multimedia approach.

In addition to teaching and doing research, Dr. Fredrick also is the producer of the “Rotations Podcast.” It is a podcast available through Apple Podcasts that looks broadly at medical issues from human interest stories to highlighting the latest in medical research.

Local news outlets are being used more than ever by people during the Coronavirus pandemic. However, these local outlets are struggling for financial survival and many are losing the battle.

For the past month, major news outlets such as The New York Times, Atlantic, The Hill, Fortune and others have been ringing the death knell of local news media.

On April 10, the New York Times reported that 33,000 journalists have either lost their jobs, been furloughed or had their pay cut since the virus hit the United States.

Local advertising dollars have evaporated, according to Andrew Alexander, an award-winning journalist, former Washington Bureau Chief for Cox Newspapers and a former ombudsman at the Washington Post.

Although subscriptions are up, print advertising has hit a steep decline and online advertising is far less lucrative for local news outlets. Besides, digital advertising is dominated by Google and Facebook, Alexander says. This dilemma leaves local news entities in the lurch. Money to produce a local news product is scarce.

Conor Morris is the Associate Editor of the Athens News in Athens, Ohio, which prints a hard copy once a week. He is a journalist in the trenches of the local journalism battle for survival in a small college town in Southeastern Ohio.

He says that his local newspaper is definitely feeling the advertising pinch. They do the best they can in producing news but can’t do nearly as much as they once did. His hours even have been cut back to just 30 hours a week.

He adds that his newspaper has even resorted to asking people who read their free online content to give a donation to keep the local news coming. Morris equates the online donations to a “tip-jar” in a retail establishment.

Alexander notes that researchers had found that even before the virus struck that we had over 1,300 “news deserts” across the country – locations that have little to no local news available. Now that number is growing rapidly.

Researchers have also found that the lack of local news has a devasting impact on civic engagement. People pay less attention to the functions of local and school governance and even vote at lower rates.

Although the future looks dim for the resuscitation of local news, Alexander and Morris look to the possibility of grant funding, some non-profit models and governmental assistance to keep this vital part of our democracy alive.

While most of the focus, during this time of crisis, has been on our major metropolitan areas and big-city hospitals, state public health officials and local county health commissioners have been working overtime to make sure we are as safe as possible.

State Public Health doctors, like Dr. Amy Acton in Ohio and others have led the way in advising governors and assuring the public of up-to-date information and warnings, says Dr. Kenneth Johnson, executive dean of the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and medical affairs officer at Ohio University.

Public Health professionals have been the leaders in social distancing and other mitigation steps that have helped to blunt the curve of new COVID-19 cases.

Normally, public health doctors seldom gain any notoriety, but this health crisis has put many into the spotlight.

We have been able to see a system working that is mostly invisible to us in normal times, Dr. Johnson says. This includes the local county health commissioner who do the bulk of the “contact tracing” of infectious diseases.

If a person is diagnosed with COVID-19, the local health department must trace all people the infected person has come in contact with over a designated period of time. That potentially infected person is alerted and isolated to help dampen the spread of the disease.

Dr. Johnson announced that this week approximately 250 Heritage College third-year medical students will deploy to local health agencies where they will gain valuable clinical experience as they assist in containing the outbreak and supporting the hardworking public health teams that are directly addressing the pandemic. They also will help with contact tracing at local levels.

Dr. Johnson also is the chairperson of the Ohio Council of Medical School Deans and discusses in this edition of Spectrum how various medical schools are attempting to help the public health forces around the country battle this pandemic.

In any type of crisis, disaster or peril, trust is the most important element in successful crisis communications to the public.

This is according to John Born, who has had more than 30 years of experience in crisis communication.

Born served as the director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety for Gov. John Kasich and was on board during the Ebola crisis. He also previously served as colonel and superintendent of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, capping a 26-year career in law enforcement.

Although he admits that there are many different crisis communication styles among leaders, there are some fundamentals that are basic to all good communication. Born says that the spokesperson must be “truthful, consistent and trustworthy” in his/her messaging if he/she is to be believed by the public.

He also says that it is imperative that the messages presented by public officials be based on good science and be grounded in strong underlying facts.

He also adds that in today’s social media age, not only do crisis communicators need to talk directly to the public but they also must be able to counter erroneous narratives that breed on social media. It is necessary, according to Born, to do this immediately before a false narrative can spread.

Born also says that good crisis communication must be specific in what the public is being asked to do – for example, social distancing. The message must be repeated over and over repeating both the request and the underlying reasons for the request.

Born acknowledges that, although today many people get their news from biased sources at both ends of the political spectrum, that the public will eventually gravitate to the true facts and jettison political bias.

Born currently is working with the Scripps College of Communication and the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs at Ohio University.

While we concentrate on medical pandemic experts and public health officials for prognostications about the Coronavirus pandemic, primary care physicians are often on the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19.

They frequently go unnoticed by the pundits and the policymakers.

They are the “unsung heroes” of this fight, says Dr. Kenneth H. Johnson, the Executive Dean of the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and the chief medical affairs officer at Ohio University.

Often, the primary care doctor is the first to determine whether a patient needs tested for the Coronavirus and handles the initial care of a patient.

More often, today, these initial decisions about care are made through telemedicine techniques including internet conversations and phone conferences, according to Dr. Johnson. This is a major change from the old method of going into an office to see a doctor.

The primary care physician routinely is in charge of a patient’s care before and after any hospitalization.

The frontline doctor also may be making choices about prescribing drugs for “compassionate use” to help patients in desperate need for relief, noted Dr. Johnson. This is a huge responsibility that is often placed on the primary care provider because the drugs may be originally designed and intended for a different use.

Dr. Johnson also describes how medical education is changing because of the pandemic.

He tells how medical schools have pulled their students from clinical situations for their safety. This does not apply to interns or resident doctors.

Medical school curricula also have converted to remote and online learning in lieu of being physically present for experiential learning. Medical students also are receiving a healthy dose of education about this particular virus and its evolving nature.

Dr. Johnson is the current chair of the Ohio Council of Medical School Deans.