By Jamie Lynn Connors
Over 100 days in quarantine have come and gone for New Jerseyans. Yet COVID-19 is rising among young people. Is this worth worrying over?
“Stay alert, not anxious,” advised Dr. Mikhail “Mike” Varshavski of Chatham Family Medicine, in a virtual interview hosted Thursday by the Atlantic Health System, parent organization of Morristown Medical Center.
During his half-hour talk, titled Community Conversations: Why COVID-19 Is Increasing Among Young Adults, Varshavski credited an increase in COVID cases to the increased availability of testing.
During a COVID briefing earlier this month, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichelli said New Jersey has seen a 10 percent increase in coronavirus infections in the 18-29 age group since April. Persichelli attributed this to partying.
While acknowledging partying has had an effect, Varshavski said there are “multi-variables why young folks are getting this.”
One reason for the increase, he said, is that more young people are getting tested.
When the pandemic began, “we really urged people to save testing for those who really need it because we were short on supplies.”
Now, testing is available to a broader audience, allowing those who are showing mild or no symptoms to get tested “for curiosity [or] to make sure they’re keeping their family members safe,” said Varshavski, a member of the Atlantic Medical Group.
‘ISOLATION…IS TOXIC’
Since this increase in cases should not be seen as a red flag, according to Varshavski, “we absolutely need to return back to normal, but we need to do it smart.
“If we just keep America shut down completely, we are now increasing the harms and really getting limited benefit return on that,” he said. “Isolation for the human mind is toxic.”
As the total days in quarantine are stacking up, “young folks,” a demographic excluding children and those over 40, are experiencing caution fatigue.
“We actually have something similar to that in the healthcare space called ‘Alarm Fatigue,’” he said.
“If you have a monitor that’s constantly beeping, giving off alarms…when it’s doing it too much, our brains stop paying attention to it and that’s dangerous.”
Therefore, it is imperative for individuals to return back to their routines. Safely, that is.
“The main thing that causes anxiety with this pandemic is the break up of our routine,”
Varshavski said,.
He suggested getting people back to work and reopening schools.
“Does that mean there’s a one-size-fits-all solution?” he asked. “Absolutely not.”
Varshavski suggests constantly analyzing data from schools to monitor the potential spread of the virus and ensure that it is limited.
At the same time, he said it’s still vital that people avoid high-risk activities, especially young people.
“Asymptomatic or presymptomatic,” which describes those not yet showing symptoms, “can be spreading this virus rapidly,” Varshavski said.
“As a young person, you could be the super spreader that gets your grandparents sick, your family members sick, the people around you at your job sick, who may not have a great immune system.”
In the meantime, before everything reopens, he said it is important to stay in contact with family and friends. While following social distancing guidelines, of course.
If you are communicating with loved ones virtually during this time, Varshavski continued, it also is wise to recognize the dangers of spreading misinformation on social media.
When viewing a misleading graph posted on Instagram or a fake quote shared on Facebook, you should “pause and take care before you share,” Varshavski said.
Sometimes, he said, sharing unreliable social media content will cause more anxiety and damage.
Barry, thanks for making some sense on this topic instead of spreading the hysteria.
The average age in Morristown has dropped to 53.3, with 19 new cases in Town since the 1st of July, according to the most recent reports,
You can apply the staggering of start times and end times to middle school and high school as well. Helps limit massive amounts of people walking in close proximity.
80% of the people that died from H1N1 were 65 years of age and younger. The CDC estimated that up to 80 million people contracted H1N1. We never shut down the schools, sports or other extracurricular activities even though it was much more dangerous to young people.
We should take a closer look at a country such as Denmark that finished the year with children in school this past spring. They never wore masks, but were adamant about hand washing. They had zero outbreak in the school systems with classrooms that were comparable to the size of ours and no deaths among the children or staff workers.
It might be wise to take a look into what other countries are doing and to keep an eye on the death rate. As it continues to drop, we must assume that the rewards far outweigh the risks, of which, we take part in everyday of our lives.
In my opinion, schooling should be staggered. 4th and 5th are in at 730am. 2nd and 3rd are in at 830am and k and 1st are 930am. Each release from school gives an hour for parents and children alike to maintain better distancing. Lunch could be done in the classrooms for 2/3 and the other 1/3 gets to use the cafeteria. Rotate this out and sanitation is easy as you are using sections of the cafeteria for each grade. Play time on the playground is restricted to your own groups within the class itself. This is part of the model that Denmark used to control any spread by having children always stay in a group of 5, rather than 10 or 20.
If 1 child from that group of 5 gets sick, you quarantine the group of 5 to home schooling and/or, you have an area where the children that were exposed can use until they’re in the clear, such as the library since that will not be in use as much or at all.