All right, lots of changes to
the pandemic in this Lance.
The landscape in this pandemic.
I should say this week I want
to get to your questions.
Let's bring in Doctor David,
winner from Baylor,
Scott and White health, good morning.
Good to see you.
Good morning, good to be with you.
So Doctor Winner we know this
week the CDC changed its mask,
guidance new data out this week
shows that vaccinated Americans
are able to transmit COVID-19.
So first of all,
for those of us who are
vaccinated as new cases continue
to rise across North Texas.
Really all around us,
what should we do if we're
exposed to the virus?
Yes, so if you're exposed someone who
has the virus and you have no symptoms,
you should quarantine.
We know you can actually spread it.
You should quarantine for 10 days
now testing early on in the disease.
That is not very accurate.
So if you think that you
were exposed but you're OK,
have no symptoms today, 3/4 or five,
you could get a test and if
that test is negative then you
could stop the quarantine,
but realize that we can spread it even
though were vaccinated new rules.
You need to quarantine if you're exposed.
So with
all this happening, how do you still
make the case to unvaccinated people?
To get the vaccine because we're
hearing about more of these
breakthrough cases, you know,
people who've been fully vaccinated,
but they are still getting infected.
Yeah, it's a very important question
'cause if you've been vaccinated
you might get the illness and
I've had a lot dozen folks this
last week have come down with it.
They've all been vaccinated
and they have mild symptoms.
They act like they have a common cold.
So if you've been vaccinated,
you're guaranteed you're not going to die.
Not going to get really sick.
Won't have to go in the hospital
if you're unvaccinated though,
the rules are off.
That's the case for the fact that
you should get vaccinated.
OK, so let's say you are
unvaccinated and you're exposed.
I've heard the first thing to do.
After testing positive is ask your
provider for monoclonal antibodies.
So at what point should you do that?
Let's break that down.
Sort of like what are monoclonal antibodies.
How do they work?
Yeah, they're a protein made in
laboratories Sonya that worked
to augment your immune system.
So if you get sick with kovid,
your mean system ramps up.
This comes from the other direction,
like 2 armies biting,
fighting one battle against an enemy,
so it does help quite a bit. Now.
Not everyone qualifies for that,
and it does take like an hour to get
this in a hospital or emergency rooms.
We commonly get that.
So if you're over age 65 are if you're
between age 12 and 65 and have diabetes,
high blood pressure,
heart kidney, liver disease.
Are immunocompromised or
overweight all those qualify you
to get a monoclonal antibody?
OK, and so they're pretty hard to get.
You mentioned getting them at a hospital.
Is the process just talk to your doctor?
Yes, most major emergency
rooms have this available.
You have to have an appointment there,
so call your doctor,
get an appointment or go to
the emergency room and tell
them that you've been exposed.
Sometimes that works.
Also understand it takes about
an hour to get the infusion.
It's an Ivy and then about an
hour to watch for side effects.
I've sent lots of folks over.
So far they seem to have
a good response to this,
and I've seen no significant side effects.
So if you qualify for this
I would recommend it.
So where do we
stand? Doctor Winter when it comes
to research around treatment.
Options for COVID-19.
Yeah, if you've got COVID monoclonal
antibodies is for outpatient use.
If you're in the hospital,
they've got some antiviral drugs.
Those work, but for outpatient folks,
if you don't qualify for monoclonal
antibodies, you're still sick.
We treat him like a common cold.
You can take cough medicine,
Anna histamines if you're
congested acetaminophen.
It works well for aches
and pains and fatigue.
All those things do have some benefit,
but no other good drugs have come out yet.
Other things in the works.
Hopefully,
we'll find some other possible
treatments down the road.
You know,
one of the symptoms that we've all
heard about and read about some
people who contract. COVID report.
Memory issues difficulty concentrating.
This brain fog type of a feeling.
Are these symptoms likely to lead
to any sort of long term issue?
Dementia, Alzheimer's?
Boy, that's a really good question.
We know that if you get the symptoms
of the brain fog or have trouble with
your memory trouble concentrating
while you're sick with COVID,
that means that the virus is
affecting your brain that does
it cause long term side effects,
we don't know that yet.
It's a concern though.
Another reason you might want to stay
away from the COVID-19 virus and get
a vaccine if you hadn't wear a mask.
Now if you've been vaccinated,
even because we know that we can
still spread it from person to
person even with the vaccine,
the news that came out
this week, doctor winter real quickly.
I'm asking you to take out
your crystal ball here, but.
A lot of other doctors I've talked
to this week said look, I think the
worst of the pandemic is behind us.
We're about to start the school year.
I've seen some projections for
early fall into the winter months.
We've seen how the Delta
variant behaved in India,
which was a largely unvaccinated
population with other issues.
But here at home,
do you think it's going to get
worse before it gets better?
Well, I hope that those
optimistic projections are true.
I can tell you we had a report this morning
at Baylor University Medical Center.
They say cases have continued to go up.
We have 40 more cases that were new
from yesterday from the day before,
we've tripled the number of admissions
we've had over the past couple of weeks,
so we're seeing this spike go up like this.
I don't know if it's going
to turn around soon or not,
but I'm a little concerned right now.
We're in the thick of this,
we're already trying to staff up
and hire more nurses and open up
new beds. Getting ready for the surge.
Yeah, and I've heard a lot about
staff shortages too, and concerns
about that moving forward across.
Here, really Doctor David winter.
Thank you so much for your time today,
really appreciate it.
Thank you Sonya and y'all at home.
Look, we know these guidelines
are constantly changing.
Schools are updating their rules.
There's a lot happening.
We are staying on top of all of it for you.
So for the latest updates just
head to wfaa.com/coronavirus.