Hello and welcome to PBS39.

And WLVT Hours community update on coronavirus.

It's brought you with help from our community partner Lehigh Valley Health Network.

We're coming to you coming to you live from the PPE Public Media Center in Bethlehem.

I'm Ben Stemrich.

Joining us today is a public health advocate involved in outreach to the Lehigh Valley Communities of color.

We're also joined by State Representative Mike Schlossberg.

They'll be with us in just a moment.

Now, if you have a question, you can give us a call.

The number is 4 8 4 8 2 1 0 0 0 8.

Our guests will answer some of your questions live.

Plus, four daily coronavirus updates.

Be sure to sign up for our newsletter.

You can do that at our website coronavirus Lehigh Valley.

.Org.

You can find helpful information in English and in Spanish.

Now let's take a look at today's top headlines.

The number of coronavirus cases in Pennsylvania continue their downward trend.

The state reported just under 4000 new infections today and 900 or I'm sorry.

99 deaths statewide.

2500 people are hospitalized with Covid-19, a number well below its peak of over 6000 early this year.

Altogether.

Pennsylvania has nearly 890,000 cases and 23,000 deaths.

A call centers set up this week to help Lehigh County seniors register for vaccines was overwhelmed with calls from all over.

Organizers stress the hotline is only for Lehigh County residents who are 65 or older and have had difficulty scheduling an appointment online.

The number is 6 108 9 0 7 0 6 9.

The call center is open for seniors Monday through Friday from 9am to 6 pm.

That number again is 6 108 9 0 7 0 6 9.

The city urges patients in trying to get through.

Meanwhile, the Bethlehem Health Bureau is adding Covid-19 vaccine appointments to its clinic schedules.

On Friday, Mayor Bob Dodge's says the clinics will be updated on the city website every Friday.

Officials say the best way to make an appointment is online, but senior citizens and others without computer access can call the health bureau at 6:00 No.

8 6 5 7 0 8 3.

The number of appointments is contingent on the health bureau's vaccine allocation for the week and students are back at Lehigh University.

But battling an outbreak of Covid-19 infections as the semester gets under way, the university's Covid-19 dashboard shows 293 active cases among students.

101 living in on-campus resident halls.

192 off campus.

The university has restricted gatherings to no more than five people, closed recreation areas and allowed takeout out only from dining halls.

Now let's meet our guests.

Carmen Guzman McLachlin is administrator for Lehigh Valley Health Networks Department of Community Health.

It focuses social causes that affect health and access to care.

Also here is State Representative Mike Schlossberg, a Democratic lawmaker from Allentown.

Thank you guys both for being with us today.

And Representative Schlossberg, we'll be with you in just a few minutes.

We want to begin with Miss Guzman McGlaughlin.

Thanks again for joining us.

Greatly appreciate it.

When Covid-19 vaccines were approved, we heard about some uncertainty and skepticism in underserved populations like the black and Latino communities.

For many, there is a distrust of the health care system.

Why is that Gamma Thank you for bringing this important topic to your show today.

And the reality is well positioned to train to do no harm.

There are documented uses of people of color in the name of advancing science common knowledge examples are Tuskegee experiments with African-American males through the 1930s and 1970s by the US public Health Service and CDC.

There has been mass sterilization of women and this is very heavily a core part of medical history in the island of Puerto Rico.

And so we have to acknowledge as we engage our members, our community members of color that this is real context for them.

Many of whom have grandparents or great grandparents that continue to pass these narratives down.

And so we have to acknowledge that context when we engage our patients.

You mentioned grandparents passing this knowledge down is this something that the mistrust is that lessening generation to generation?

I don't think so.

I really don't.

I think that as people become more in touch with their history and as consumers get health, get more educated about how to navigate these systems.

They're much more forthcoming in terms those kinds of questions.

And it's part of our mission and commitment to work and meet people where they are.

And so we welcome those questions in that dialog.

And that is much of the work that is under way with our community partners.

Talk to me a little bit more about that work.

Where does your department and Lehigh Valley Health Network come in?

Sure.

I served with the administrator @for the department Movie House and we look at our department serving as a bridge between the clinical interface and public health efforts in the community.

And so that includes working with community based organizations, faith based organization, better addressing social service issues that burdening our community.

And so, for example, we have programs such as the street medicine.

We've worked with food and nutrition, Second Fruit Harvest, the Kellum Foundation to be able to leverage SNAP benefits with food vouchers given the heavy burden and exacerbation, the nutrition experience with Covid.

And so we are working very, very closely with our community partners in a tangible way and are looking to explore how do we open up that dialog.

So we continue to learn about what are those questions that may not have surface Gamma How do we improve not just our community communication processes, but how do we make it easy or to meet patients where they are Gamma And you mentioned the technology component.

It is a challenge for some of our seniors, but not just our seniors or communities.

Of color.

We saw in the education space how difficult it was in the beginning as sister school systems had to switch from traditional classroom settings to take the use of virtual classrooms.

we are working with the community partners that service trusted men, messengers in our extended members of the of our team, if you will, to help get that information out, empower them to make an informed decision like any medical decision.

It is a very personal one.

And so we want to be able to educate and empower with accurate information about the vaccine, whether it's through those groups or personal experience one on one.

What are some of the myths that you're finding that you need to dispel?

There is a lot of confusion.

The information around Covid, as we know, it's hard to believe we lived in a Covid world.

Now with this pandemic for a year and the information at Berks was changing day to day.

We were still learning about the disease, but did it mean.

Why did we have to mask Gamma And so some of those myths are does it really matter Gamma William Haws when I get vaccinated, it's going to make me sick.

It may calls fertility issues, which was a reason personal learning for me and talking to someone in a community.

And it's a question that's being fielded by providers, by both men and women.

And so those are some of that questions.

And we have a great resource on our website and a lot of information in English and in Spanish that as we get these kinds of questions and these conversations begin to percolate, we're doing our best to quickly provide a frequently asked question around Covid on our website to capture some of that.

We're also using developing videos in English and Spanish to debunk these myths around Covid.

And so that those are just a few examples of the myths that we know we need to address in the community.

How are you working with your partners in the community, the groups that you spoke about earlier to get that message through to these people that may not believe that this is safe right.

So it's a tiered process, right?

We're doing some of the traditional channels such as television and radio, but we're also working with our churches and linking our providers.

We're planning setting for a forum thanks to pass the bill and passed a brand called Courageous Conversations.

Well, we'll be engaging parishioners to come forth with those questions and have a dialog to educate and get informed about the vaccine and its efficacy.

If somebody comes across somebody that does have these reservations in a one on one conversation, what can that person say to help convince them that they should be getting the vaccine Gamma It's a great question.

We'll say we want to have organizations that those individuals who are slow to a yes.

And we know that those kinds of conversations happen at the kitchen table on the front stoop.

And so when they're being asked what we're Hoby, we want to bring those questions in conversations for.

And so in terms of what can we say, it's safe and I will use myself as an example.

As a member of the community, even within my own family, there was a lot of conversation and hesitancy and so have learned a lot in terms of getting the facts to our community is critically important.

And the efficacy of the vaccine, the process by which it was brought to market, that is part of the underlying distrust.

How did they come up with this vaccine so fast when usually drugs take years to get through a study to ensure its safety?

And so informing and sharing that information in our community I think facilitates decision making and builds confidence that this is a good decision for individuals in our community.

Communities of color have adversely been hit.

So have seniors.

You mentioned seniors earlier.

When you have senior citizens living in these communities, they might not be too tech savvy.

How do you deal with that Gamma We do have a phone number that patients who call again, even if we don't have the vaccine today, we encourage people to go to the portal.

But there is number 1 8 8 4 0 2 LVHN and you will find that there is a call center within our hospital that then helps people schedule their appointments.

How do we get through to those people who may be homebound, but still have these mistrust issues?

Aren't willing to reach out, don't have the technology savvy?

How do you get to those?

The tougher nuts to crack Nexavar That's the heavy lift in this work, right.

And so our mantra has been in this work in community is we have two people where they are.

And so we're looking to identify sites.

We're working community partners that as a big thing becomes available beyond the magno vaccine sites such as Gordon, which was incredibly successful at vaccinating over a thousand members in the community.

But we recognize transportation.

That's an issue.

So if you don't have a car, Dorning heart may not be the greatest access point for someone who usually walks to their doctor's appointment.

And so we are looking at where are those locations that go into those neighborhoods where we know there's been a high incidence of Covid so that we can make easy for our members, for our members to access the vaccine.

Have you heard from anybody that maybe was nervous going into the vaccine, but then got it and I heard from them since?

Sure.

In most instances, the stories in conversations I've had, the first shot wasn't too bad.

It's a little sore.

Just like you were when you got your flu shot.

The second shot that feedback aching US the soreness and that on occasion a little bit of nausea, but that it's gone within 24 to 48 hours.

And so that has been the overwhelming feedback that I've heard or we've heard for those patients that have received the vaccine.

OK, well, thank you for your time.

Carmen, we greatly appreciate it.

Thank you.

Now we continue this community update on coronavirus on PBS39.

You can hear the rebroadcast on the radio tonight at 9:30 on WLVT News 91.3 FM Now let's bring in our next guest.

Mike Schlossberg is a state representative in his ninth year representing Allentown's hundred and 30 second House district representative Schlossberg.

Welcome.

Thanks then.

Very good to be here.

Thanks for having me.

Of course not.

Now the state's vaccine rollout has fallen well short of demand and it's led to a lot of frustration.

Why is supplies so limited and why can't the state get more to its providers?

Fundamentally, at the end of the day, we're at the mercy of the federal government.

The federal government has established a vaccine prioritization schedule.

They're getting vaccine out as fast as possible.

But everybody I think is upset and quite frankly should be upset at the relatively slow rollout.

The one bright spot.

I will say is it does seem like the vaccines supply is increasing.

I know that we got substantially more substantially larger vaccine allotment this week than we did the previous can.

We got a larger allotment.

The week before.

So things seem to be moving in the right direction.

But at the end of the day, the state's job isn't to create vaccine to distribute it.

We can only distribute what we have.

This afternoon, the acting health secretary issued orders requiring providers administer to administer 80% of their doses within 70 days of receipt.

Those that aren't efficient may have their next doses scaled down.

What can you say to me about that?

I get what they're trying to do and I get why they're trying to do it.

My only concern to a very limited extent with that order is the possibility of having vaccine slowed down because of things that don't deal directly with care.

And let me explain what I mean.

First of all, the order states that if somebody if a provider gets vaccine, they need to get it and somebody is Palmerton seven days absolutely makes all the sense in the world.

They have to have a phone line for somebody to call so they can get an appointment if they don't have technological access.

Again, make perfect sense.

Absolutely.

There's also requirements that the data from that be entered within 24 hours.

I do have some concerns about that because while data entry is important, that's something that we need to do.

I wouldn't want there to be less of an effort paid for injecting the vaccine into somebody's arms at the expense data entry.

That's not something we should do.

We should be concentrating on patient safety and on getting the vaccine in people's arms festive possible.

Again, I get exactly what they're trying to do.

I just don't want to distract from the overall mission, which is inject people with vaccine and get people healthy and safe that has that been a big problem with providers so far?

The problem the bigger problem for providers in the conversations I've had is they're saying we have the capacity, we have the manpower, they've got the manpower geared a certain way.

And then if you start talking about, OK, we time more people for data entry.

Well, that's an added expense.

Where does the money come from?

It's just an added complication.

It's an added distraction.

Every provider that I've talked to said we have the capacity, we have more capacity, but we don't have the vaccine.

We need the vaccine now.

We have our providers and our health systems.

But what about the overall system?

Would.

Would a state centralized system or registration be better?

The argument against the state centralized system is that because the state is so big, it would be too complicated and too unwieldy to manage.

I sort of understand what they're saying.

I'd be happier.

I think what the state centralized system.

However, if the state system is too big where I'd rather see us go instead of county or regional registration systems that makes a lot more sense.

Now, again, that's not a shot.

Lehigh.

Northampton, Allentown.

Or anybody else.

That's a massive undertaking and it's something we can't really do on your own without state support.

But in a dream world, what I'd like to have a state central system.

Yeah, I would.

I had mentioned the phone line phone lines earlier yesterday.

Governor Tom Wolf was asked about state phone lines and online resources intended to help senior citizens.

But that seems to have only really added to the irritation in trying to get help.

Here it is.

We have a lot of work to do to improve the too many people who call can't get on, can't get anyone answer websites that are clogged up.

We need to do a better job so we are doing and we're constantly changing just made some major changes to the website yesterday and we'll continue to look for ways to to improve that.

I think we have to do a much better job.

Keep in mind that the chief constraint right now is the supply right now in the one a category we have, as I said, over 4 million people and if you assume that each one at this point for the Johnson and Johnson vaccine comes out, they need two doses.

That's 8 million doses, over 8 million doses.

We need to be able to administer so far.

Pennsylvania has received a little over 2 million doses.

So even if we were doing a perfect job and again, we are not and you point out one of the problems right now is that just a lot more demand and there is supply.

But even if we were doing a perfect job, you'd still be left holding that main constraint that three quarters of the people who right now, three quarters of the vaccines are needed right now in Pennsylvania this minute.

Right now we don't have.

So Mike, why did Pennsylvania expand the first phase of vaccine delivery?

It was up to 4 million people when there was such a limited supply.

Has that maybe contributed to this frenzy?

To an extent, yes.

But a couple things to keep in mind when it comes to vaccine supply.

First of all, that was actually a change that originated the federal government.

They expanded one A to include people who were aged 16 to 64, had pre-existing medical conditions that opened the floodgates.

I think in an instance like that, a state registration system could potentially help because rather than kind of first come first over.

Let me let me call everybody that I know that might be able to get me online.

They could potentially set up a system where it's OK, you're 80 years old and a cancer survivor.

You get in line maybe before a 19-year-old who's obese or something like that would make sense.

I think that everything the governor said.

I agree with.

I mean, he's right at the end of the day, this comes down to a supply problem.

But even if we had all the supply that we needed, we don't have the system in place that perfectly allows for people to get vaccinated by priority.

And just to kind of go on to something you were talking in the last segment.

I deeply worry about seniors who are technologically savvy as minority communities.

They don't have access to the same way that a technologically savvy white person does.

We'll go from the health system to another system that the people may be more tech savvy here in the Allentown School District.

The students haven't been in all year.

What can you tell us about steps that the district is taking or is not taking as far as remote learning goes?

So a remote learning in the Allentown school district is something I am painfully familiar with because while I sit my basement and do my work, I go upstairs and I see my wife teaching grade grade English class Harrison Mortons.

First of all, we can't lose sight of a basic fact.

HST had to go virtual because completely virtual unlike every other school district around us because of some systemic issues that surround the city that and that's around the school district.

So again, I'll go back to my wife.

My wife teaches at Harrison Morgan Middle School, which was Construct in 1871 when the Civil War was known as the thing that just ended where as students in my Parkland School District go to elementary school across elementary, which was renovated a couple years ago, and got high school at Parkland High School, which was built in the 1990s and shaped like a Millennium Falcon, Harrison Morton was in no way able to socially distance.

They don't have functioning heat or air conditioning.

A good part of the time you've got classroom for the windows open Allentown had to go virtual because they couldn't safely house their students in their school district.

Now the good news is part of the federal data that has come through is it will enable school districts to be better prepared and will allow them to by air filtration systems and air purifiers, things like that.

And that's good.

And that might be able to get us to a position where they can reopen at least on a hybrid basis in the fourth quarter.

That's something that has to happen.

If it's safe to happen, I think you can go to school safely as long as there's ways to properly social distance to sanitize the district.

And as long as you don't have runaway Covid rates in surrounding communities.

That's the part that a lot of people forget sometimes and now that, you know, we are starting to think about people getting vaccinated more.

We're thinking of what careers are and teachers come up often.

Do you feel that teachers should be in that one a category of the vaccine delivery?

Yes, School is such a fundamentally important part of our society.

Teachers are going to be understandably nervous if they have to go back to school and are unvaccinated.

That's the safest way.

Reopen our schools and reopening our schools is about the kids.

But it's also about the surrounding communities.

Economic development is hindered when you have to say, well, gee, I don't know if I can go to work today, get that promotion or take a new job that can be a little bit more if I don't have child care because I can't get my kid into a school building and they have to sit in the living and attend third grade school.

So fundamentally important.

I think it warrants pushing up teachers, but I don't want to lose sight.

Education about much more than teachers.

It's also about paraprofessionals, administrative staff, support staff and janitorial staff.

Every one of them needs to be vaccinated for us to be open.

Schuylkill safe.

Now we have a couple more minutes.

I want to shift topics again to the Lehigh County Jail.

Hundreds of cases and two deaths from Covid.

What's going on there?

So this is an issue that obviously I've been following myself.

Representive Swier County executive Armstrong and Jeff Berks recently contacted Department of Corrections Desk for additional support in terms of testing supplies PPE and the funding to reopen a wing.

Jills, like any Kongregate facility, are inherently dangerous.

You have people that are potentially close to each other and it's not as if you can, you know, a jail home.

So there's real risk to the corrections staff as well.

We need to be able to better staff sanitize and space out the inmates who are in the jail right now.

What I think this is also fundamentally an argument to send less people to jail right now if you have non-violent offenders that aren't flight risk and that aren't a risk to the community, don't put them in the jail.

They'll be at risk to themselves and to others.

There are people who are in jail right now on parole violations or on technical violations that probably shouldn't.

And we need to make sure that the only people in jail are a threat to society.

And just recently the governor has endorsed bail reform.

What are your thoughts?

Are any plans on doing something with that legislatively?

I'd like to see bail reform done.

I think frankly, I think we should take a serious look at ending cash bail.

Bail should be done on the basis of risk to society, not how much money a defendant has in their pocket.

I think Covid it is a good reason and a great time to do it, but that's something we need to do broader.

If there's any positive development in public policy that I've seen over the past few years.

It's the fact we are no longer looking at jails or simply warehouses.

Jails are places where people need to go to either rehabilitate or because they are too much of a threat to society.

If somebody doesn't have to be in a jail, they shouldn't.

All right.

Well, I want to thank both of our guests for being with us today.

And we want to thank you for joining us for community update on Carone virus.

We'll be here at 4pm each Monday, Wednesday and Friday on PBS39.

And on the radio at 9:30.

Those same nights on WLVT News.

And we're off Monday, but we will be back next Wednesday at 4:00 with guests from LVHN and Berks Community Health Center.

Now, if you have a question, you can leave it at our website, PBS39.

.Org or our social media is or you can also give us a call and leave it there.

The number is 3 4 8 2 1 0 0 0 8 4 PBS39 and WLVT News.

I'm Ben Stemrich.

Thank you for watching and have great weekend.