Dr. Kevin Young has seen the positive effects of COVID-19 vaccinations first-hand.
As a specialist in internal and geriatric medicine working at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care, Young provided frontline medical care when the facility’s Horizon Unit experienced a major outbreak earlier this year.
All totalled, the outbreak at the Penetanguishene facility’s Horizon Program that was linked to a COVID-19 variant of concern included seven deaths as well 10 confirmed positive patient and 15 positive staff cases.
Young said the arrival of the vaccination served as a real turning point in the fight against COVID-19 on the unit that's home to geriatric patients.
“It changed the direction of the outbreak,” said Young, who also provided education in the management of several patients and staff with COVID-19 and helped plan and co-ordinate the vaccination program for all patients and staff during the outbreak.
“The vaccine really helped bring it to an end. We were having a lot of patients becoming positive and they were getting extremely sick from the variants," he said. “Once the vaccination started to kick in, we noticed that we had far fewer patients who were becoming positive.
"And we also noticed that the ones that did become positive, were having a very mild illness instead of one that was much more significant," Young added.
Young joins Dr. Colin Lee, Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit associate medical officer of health, and moderator Keith Rose, a retired doctor, for Thursday’s latest Our Health panel discussion, titled 'COVID-19 Vaccination, Saving Lives'.
“Most of the people that have been vaccinated to date have been either health-care workers or residents of primary care settings like long-term care and retirement homes,” said Young, who serves as Waypoint’s medical director of integrated care and is also co-medical director for the provincial geriatrics leadership office.
“We’re happy to have the vaccines. It’s been incredibly effective in reducing the number of deaths and reducing the number of hospitalizations and we're extremely pleased by how well the vaccines are working," he added.
But Young said that even though the Horizon outbreak ended earlier this month, it has left an indelible mark at Waypoint.
“It was so incredibly difficult for all of the staff,” he said. “Many of the patients have been here for years and they were like family. Watching them suffer with COVID was very hard. We did everything that we could to keep people sort of comfortable, but there were huge losses.”
And while all Waypoint patients and many staff have now been immunized, Young said that throughout the outbreak, some front-line staff were sequestered in local hotels before and after work so they weren’t able to go home to their families.
“We had innumerable staff that had to stay in a hotel in order to keep from spreading the variants to the community,” Young noted. “They had to stay in separate areas.”
But the outbreaks and restrictions at both Waypoint and local long-term care homes have also taken a mental and emotional toll on residents, who are unable to see family members and/or close friends and enjoy the same type of programming they previously enjoyed.
“They don’t have the same access that they would have normally enjoyed pre-COVID,” he said. “For them, it’s really not nearly as good.”
Young said Thursday’s discussion is important for many because while the most vulnerable demographic has now been immunized, it’s essential that other members of the community follow suit and also get the vaccine.
“Getting vaccinated is going to be an important measure to getting back some normalcy of life and being able to control COVID and to save lives,” he said.
“It's important that people have a true understanding of how well the vaccines work in order for them to make informed decisions for themselves. We just want people to have really good quality, firsthand information and not just sort of feed into some of the stuff that's going around on social media," Young added.
And as the province now finds itself in the pandemic’s third wave, Young has a response for those questioning whether to wear masks or get the vaccine,
“As we look at controlling COVID, I think it's really important to also recognize the many people making so many sacrifices to try to keep people safe from this. I think as a community, we all have to do our part as well and try to get vaccinated and keep it from spreading.”
The live event will be broadcast on all Rogers TV Simcoe County area channels. For those with smartphones, tablets or computers with a wifi connection, it can be viewed online.
Prior to and during the event we encourage you to send us your questions, stories and resilience building tips. After the event your feedback is welcomed. Please send all correspondence to [email protected].
