The Home Page Network

The Home Page Network had the privilege of meeting with Tioga County Commissioner Roger Bunn, Jim Nobles, President, and CEO of Laurel Health Centers, Doctor Barry Clark, MD Pediatrics and Dr. Edmund Guelig, MD – Family Medicine, Supportive and Palliative Care, for a Q & A regarding COVID-19 and Tioga County, PA.

You can fast-forward to a specific question by using the time codes below.

TIMECODES

• 1:57 What are you doing to prepare for the COVID-19 Virus here in Tioga County, and at this point, do you feel confident that we are ready?
• 3:19 If another area gets hit with COVID-19 and there is an overflow, and they need places to put folks, could we be asked to handle those patients? And, if that’s the case, will it be a problem for you?
• 4:40 Is COVID-19 always accompanied by a fever?
• 5:51 We hear about shortness of breath. Is this because the lungs are filling up with fluid, or is there something else at play?
• 6:43 Both of you mentioned that there is an incubation period before the fever – before the shortness of breath and the different symptoms. Is there something we can be doing on a regular basis to fend us from this disease to begin with?
• 7:58 Let’s say you’re traveling, and you drive out of our area here in Tioga County. You go someplace where there have been known cases. And you come back, and you have some sniffles, but you don’t feel that bad – maybe a runny nose or something like that. You could be an incubation. You don’t know if you have it or not. And you have grandma living with you. What do you do? Just to kind of the tag that – some of the anxiety that we’ve heard is people say, that’s why I need a test now, so I know if I can go home, or do we quarantine grandma in the bedroom or what do we do I don’t know if I’m in incubation or not. What do we do?
• 11:03 Doctors, I’m wondering is there something we can do proactively about our own health. Eating healthy, hydrating, anything like that – that would help our immune system to be stronger in this situation?
• 12:56 The incubation is between two and fourteen days. Do they know why there is that discrepancy? Why is it two to fourteen days? Why wouldn’t the incubation period be more like in five days this is going to happen – why is that?
• 14:11 (For the younger members of our audience) A lot of students my age have this mindset of – I’m young – I’m not vulnerable – what is the danger in that?
• 15:37 Spring break is a huge thing. Students are just going anyways. What are your thoughts on that?
• 18:05 I thing that a lot of students don’t even know if they are carrying this. They are A-symptomatic carriers. What do you think is best for them to do? They’re going to spring break. They’re going to college campuses. What are the best actions for them to take?
• 22:58 If I were to contract COVID-19 and I’m over 70, can I beat it at home, or won’t that be possible?
• 24:13 If you do need medical attention, what do they do where do they go?
• 26:30 How are you protecting your healthcare staff?
• 30:49 Sometimes, people are being frustrated because they can’t get testing. What are your protocols for that?
• 31:53 If you’re in incubation, a test isn’t going to do any good because it’s not going to show up in the test at that point – is that correct Doctor? (Surprising answer)
• 35:03 I received the call today, and then a letter from a lady. She heard somewhere that there’s a company in South Korea, that can produce these test kits, by the millions. And, why aren’t we getting them? Well, I didn’t have a good answer for her, especially being a county commissioner – I don’t procure stuff from overseas. Have either of the doctors heard of the South Korea protocol and their availability of test kits?
• 39:17 Does being anxious or feeling a sense of panic lower our own immune system so that we can’t fight something like this virus?
• 43:50 This next question has to do with point-of-entry. Can COVID-19 enter through a scratch or your teeth or your ear or your eye?
• 44:28 This is one of those questions that’s difficult. This is one of those questions that people think but are afraid to ask. And, the question is – how do you die from COVID-19
• 47:08 If a friend calls you and they say – I have a sore throat today, but they’re going to meet you tomorrow – do you kind of hesitate about that? Because it could be the flu or something else, right? So, do you stop that meeting from happening, or do you go ahead with that meeting? How cautious should you be with something like that?
• 48:10 This next question has to do with areas of surface transmission. Like never letting someone use your phone… when you go to get gas, and you’re holding the gas nozzle… items in stores… like when you go to the grocery store, and you pick stuff off the shelf that someone may have touched – would you address that Doctor?