By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
In the days and weeks ahead, U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who is also a medical doctor said it will be up to communities to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
This is the time for us to put the lid on this pandemic, he said, by staying home if your are sick, limiting contact and washing your hands.
"This is our chance to put a lid on it," Marshall said.
He thought the infection would have already spread more in Kansas, but believes it will likely get worse before it gets better.
Stopping large groups of people from gathering, including massive disruptions to businesses and schools, are necessary to help stop the spread, Marshall said.
"I think we have to. ... If we leave our churches open, we are going to go there and our elders and senior citizens are going to get infected," he said.
Schools and nurseries also contribute to the spread as children often spread illness making the school closures important to mitigating the virus' impact.
"For the sake of protecting those at risk for this ... we need to do everything we can to contain this virus right now," Marshall said.
While communities are working on the front lines of stopping the outbreak, Marshall has supported federal measures to help protect citizens, including increased funding for health care stockpiles, development of vaccines and antivirals and tax credits for small businesses that give employees time off for illness.
"We are expanding food stamps, expanding WIC programs as well as food banks," he said. "We are doing what we can to help small Kansans get through these hard times."
He also praised the response from President Trump.
"He has done an incredible job showing leadership," Marshall said. "I think the president and the administration have done everything humanly possible to protect American lives."
The travel ban on China was the right call, he said, even though it was incredibly unpopular by the national news media, with some going as far as to call the president xenophobic.
"It was absolutely the right decision," Marshall said. "It saved thousands of lives, maybe tens of thousands of American lives, by slowing down the virus."
He said the administration's actions helped to make COVID-19 test kits more available as the president worked with the private sector to get test kits mobilized.
"Today, we have millions of test kits going out throughout the country," Marshall said, and private testing centers have been brought online through the administration's actions as well.
While test kits are now more readily available, he said the CDC's slow rollout was "disappointing."
But locally tests are available — with supply meeting demand.
"So far, everybody in Kansas that has needed a test kit and has met the criteria, has gotten it done," Marshall said.
Overall, he believes we are in a much better position this week over last to deal with the crisis, but there is a lot of uncertainty ahead.
"I'm afraid to say it's going to get worse before it gets better," Marshall said.
The next two weeks are likely to be the defining time of the outbreak, he said but "this will be around for two months at a minimum."
"The hope is it will peak out here, I'm going to say in four to six weeks," Marshall said. "The question is how tall is that peak going to be."
"These next four to five days will have a huge impact on what that number looks like," he said. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Every virus we prevent today is going to prevent dozens of infections in the next couple of weeks, which is going to save lives."
Preventing the spread of the virus will prevent critical situations in rural areas.
"If we can decrease the peak, there will be less people impacted and we won't over-exceed what hospital workers we have got," Marshall said. "I know everyone is worried about respirators and all of those type of things, but really in rural America the shortage is doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists."
Marshall hopes everyone will take the social distancing policies seriously and do their part to protect their community.
He is urging everyone to do what the president has asked.
"If you are sick, stay home. If you are over the age of 60, or you have some type of underlying health condition, stay at home. Otherwise please don't meet in groups of more than 10 people at a time, try to keep 6 feet between you. Wash your hands. About every time you touch somebody else, you should be washing your hands afterwards and, if you are going to touch people, just touch your elbows — and really I think it is socially OK to not shake hands anymore until further notice."
While the situation is serious, and he supports social distancing and school and business closures, he said media has made the situation seem worse than it is.
"I'm so disappointed in the national media," he said.
Even though he talks to the CDC almost everyday, he said, when watching national TV news he is scared by the coverage.
"They make this seem so dire," Marshall said. "We have been through worse things than this in Kansas with all the winter snowstorms and droughts and floods. So many more people die from the seasonal flu every year than from this virus.
"We can choose to live in fear, or we can choose to live in faith," he said.
While speaking with doctors, nurses, politicians and citizens about why the response to this one is so different that others, he puts much of the blame on the outbreak being sensationalized by the national media.
However, he said this virus is more infectious that the seasonal flu and has a higher mortality rate for certain segments of the population.
"So it's not purely apples to apples when compared to the swine flu, or the seasonal flu, but its not exponentially worse," Marshall said. "I think we should put it all in perspective, but do everything we can to protect ourselves and err with an abundance of over-caution."
He pointed out more people will be killed in car accidents and suicides today than will die from this virus, and the seasonal flu will likely kill more people than COVID-19 this year.
While the full economic impact will likely not be known until much later, getting workers back into the workforce soon is more important than any legislation, he said, and will require everyone to do their part.
"The very best thing we can do for this economy right now is to keep American healthy and get us back to work as quickly as possible," Marshall said.