The largest healthcare provider in Berkshire County has reinstituted mandatory masking for employees and visitors starting Wednesday. Berkshire Health Systems cites a spike in respiratory illness in the community. Wastewater tracking data shows that COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Massachusetts again this winter, contributing to a high threat level for indoor activity in combination with other airborne diseases like the flu and RSV. The surge comes amid dismal rates for the latest COVID vaccine in Massachusetts, leaving many residents vulnerable to the disease that’s killed over a million in the United States since the 2020 outbreak. The CDC recorded a 10% spike in such deaths in late December, and an almost 17% increase in hospitalizations.
WAMC spoke with BHS spokesperson Michael Leary:
LEARY: Since the holiday season began and heading into the new year, we have seen a significant increase in the incidence of respiratory diseases spreading locally. That includes COVID-19, which as you know, since 2020, never really left us, and has had surges at periodic times, especially during the holiday season. But this also includes the fact that we're seeing increases in RSV, influenza, and the other cold and flu type respiratory illnesses that regularly spread during the winter season. We haven't had a winter season like this in a couple of years because people were masking and getting vaccinated within the past few years. So, the number of incidences has been relatively low since that time, but we're now seeing kind of what we would consider a regular winter season where all kinds of respiratory illnesses are spreading around the community. And adding to that is, of course, COVID-19.
WAMC: So, what does this mandate look like for employees of BHS?
All employees are required to mask while they are in any of our facilities. We have done this in past years as well. As you recall, we had masking mandates during the height of COVID. We have also mandated flu vaccine and COVID vaccine for our staff, and unfortunately, that has not caused in the drop in the incidence that we're seeing in the community, because many people in the community have stopped masking. The vaccination rate that we're seeing across the county is much lower than we saw within the last few years. I think people are hitting vaccine fatigue, but we're doing this to enhance the safety of our patients in the hospital, our staff in the hospital, as well as the community.
Is there a wider message to the community, not just inside BHS campuses and facilities, about ways that they can similarly stem the flow of these respiratory illnesses?
Well, you know, the vaccines for COVID- The latest updated COVID vaccine, as well as the flu vaccine and the RSV vaccine, are out there in the community. They're freely available at pharmacies across the county, and we're hoping that people take that to heart and get vaccinated. Even if the vaccine does not fully stop a virus from entering your body, we have seen clinically that it certainly does lessen the severity of illness if you get RSV or flu or COVID 19. So, we're hoping people will get to the pharmacies and get their vaccines updated. In the meantime, though, as we're seeing the numbers that we're seeing here at the hospitals, we do need to take precautions to protect the community.
So, you're essentially saying that masking seems to be something that really works and produces results in high stakes environments like a hospital.
I think- For proof of the pudding, if you look back at 2020 and 2021, even into 2022, when there were masking mandates across the country, you saw a winter a couple of seasons ago and even last season that had a relatively small flu season. The number of flu cases was much lower than we've seen in many recent years. The COVID cases were lower, except during certain times when there are parties going on during the holiday season- Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years. All of that put together a lot of people get together and are not masked. But I think we've seen the proof in past years that when a lot of people were taking masking seriously and using it and also using social distancing, staying six feet away from other people if you're in line at a supermarket or at a store, we saw the numbers were dramatically lower. And so, I think masking has been proven to work.
And how long do you expect the mandate to be in place for?
I really can't say. This is all dependent on the data. As we keep an eye on the data across the county and as the state keeps an eye on the respiratory illness measures across the state- If the numbers stay high, this will continue. If the numbers start to drop, we will reevaluate and see what we can do at that time.
