YNHH: Pandemic Pepper Sprays Inadvisable

A top Yale New Haven Health official cautioned that, from a public health perspective, it is ​“probably not” a good idea for police departments to use pepper spray at a time when coughing and sneezing can exacerbate the spread of Covid-19.

YNHH administrators and clinicians also praised local racial justice protesters for overwhelmingly wearing masks as they have filled the streets over the past two weeks to rally against police brutality.

YNHH higher-ups shared those insights Thursday during the regional hospital system’s latest coronavirus-related virtual town hall, held online via the Zoom videoconference app and on Facebook Live.

YNHH President and CEO Marna Borgstrom, YNHH Chief Clinical Officer Thomas Balcezak, and Yale New Haven Hospital Chief Operating Officer Keith Churchwell all applauded local Black Lives Matter supporters for doing their best to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus even as they’ve turned out by the thousands to protest in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

“There is a recognition by protesters that they are very much living in two worlds,” said Churchwell (pictured).

One requires sustained public demands for ​“improving social justice.” The other is the inescapable reality that New Haven is still very much in the grips of a pandemic caused by a highly infectious and dangerous respiratory disease.

Balcezak said ​“almost no one was not wearing a mask” at local protests, based on what he has seen in pictures and videos from the rallies.

He praised the roughly 300 YNHH and Yale School of Medicine ​“white coats” who kneeled in support of the protesters as well.

He lauded local doctors and residents and medical school students who turned out to the rally to distribute free protective masks.

“It’s probably too early to tell” whether or not the protests will lead to a spike in Covid-19 infections, said YNHH CEO and President Marna Borgrstrom (pictured). ​“We have not seen that [spike] yet.”

“There’s a tradeoff in everything,” she continued. She said the hospital must ​“make sure that our values are revealed in every appropriate way, in every action we take. That includes standing up against injustices that we think cannot continue, and it also includes our responsibility to demonstrate ways to do that safely.”

Balcezak said that protests could turn out to be ​“spreader” events—but, he said, so could any other type of large gathering. He pointed out that one of the state’s most notorious super-spreader events took place early in the pandemic at a birthday party in lower Fairfield County.

“I think there are plenty of ways for people to exercise their rights and peacefully protest and still stay safe,” Balcezak said. He said the same public health tips that YNHH has been urging for months still hold true today, even as businesses begin to reopen and protests fill the street.

He urged people to continue to practice social distancing, hand hygiene, and mask wearing.

He was asked about what top hospital officials think of police departments using pepper spray to disperse protesters—as New Haven’s department did two weekends ago as protesters tried to enter 1 Union Ave. —considering that that chemical irritant causes coughing and sneezing.

“Is pepper spray in this particular environment a good idea?” Churchwell replied. ​“Probably not at this particular point.”

So far, he said, ​“the protests have been peaceful, and that need for aggressive crowd control has not been necessary. We hope that continues to be so.”

(Click here to read an essay published in the Atlantic Thursday and co-written by New Haven resident and Yale epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves about the public health calculus of protesting racism during a pandemic.)

Inpatient Numbers Plummet

Borgstrom, Churchwell, and Balcezak (pictured) also said that the number of Covid-positive inpatients in New Haven and statewide has plummeted since the peak of the pandemic in late April.

Borgstrom said that, systemwide, YNHH has only 105 such inpatients as of Thursday. That number was closer to 800 in late April.

Churchwell said that New Haven’s York Street and St. Raphael’s campuses currently have only 62 Covid-positive inpatients, 33 of whom are in intensive care units (ICUs). On April 21, he said, Yale New Haven Hospital had a peak of 447 coronavirus inpatients.

Despite this good news, Balcezak and Churchwell said, New Haveners should still practice social distancing, hand hygience, and mask wearing as best they can.

“Now is not a time to let up on doing that,” said Balcezak. He said that there will likely not be a vaccine for Covid-19 until, at the very earliest, the first months of 2021.

“We are by no means through it,” he said. ​“The virus has not burned itself out.”

“We will be in this [pandemic] in some form or fashion in the summer and through the fall,” added Churchwell. He said social distancing, handwashing, and use of masks will have a ​“huge impact” on whether or not there is a surge of new infections, hospitalizations, and deaths as states around the country begin to reopen their economies.

Both referenced the current swell of Covid-19 cases in the American Southwest, particularly in Arizona.

“If we are not vigilant, there can be an uptick in cases” here too, Balcezak said.

YNHH’s Long Wharf Testing Site Closed; Strong School Site Opening In July

Balcezak said that YNHH as a system is currently conducting around 2,000 novel coronavirus tests a day, and still plans to ramp up to 10,000 a day by early July.

He and YNHH Senior Vice President, Public Affairs Vin Petrini said that the hospital recently closed its drive-through testing site at 150 Sargent Dr. on Long Wharf because of low demand at that particular location.

They said that that testing operation has moved over to the St. Raphael’s Campus on Chapel Street instead, where people interested in getting tested still need a doctor’s note in order to receive such a test.

Balcezak and Petrini (pictured) said that YNHH plans to open in July a new walk-up testing site at the former Strong School on Orchard Street. Petrini said that the delays in opening that site are due to ​“some work that needed to be done on the site with curb cuts and the like.”

Balcezak said the primary limitation on the number of tests YNHH can perform each day is ​“the availability of test kits.”

He said there are six manufacturers of machines that can do the Covid-19 testing. ​“So there are six different supply chains for the cartridges needed to do that kind of testing.”

“We’ve got the logistics to do” 10,000 a day by early July, he said. And YNHH has the ​“ability to report,” as well. ​“We’ll be limited by the supply chains.”