Stronger county leadership needed in COVID-19 crisis

The COVID-19 virus is here. It will spread, and we need to be ready when it does. Many local individuals, businesses and agencies have stepped up to the challenges ahead.

Sadly, Shawano County missed many opportunities as they waited for a case to be confirmed here before taking on a leadership role in planning for the local impact of the pandemic.

The go-slow approach may have been intended to keep residents calm, but the effect has been a lack of sense of urgency that may mask the actual threat.

Residents travel. Relatives visit. There is no magic shield to protect us from the COVID-19 virus, and when case numbers start to multiply—as they certainly will—we may have fewer resources to care for patients here than are available in urban areas.

The understanding that the impact here will be delayed, not avoided, allows us to prepare for the unique challenges that residents of a rural area will face.

While we initially seemed spared as counties around us reported COVID-19 cases, even the Shawano-Menominee Health Department reported that they knew cases were in the area. Lack of testing and the timetable for test results meant that cases were not confirmed, but experts, including the local health department, knew they would be.

Even without these results, the health department could have helped local people understand the threat with frequent updates on how and when local testing is performed; why rural areas need to be concerned—even in lightly populated areas—or what self-insured or uninsured rural families should do if they feel they are sick.

Links to credible state and national sites are helpful, but so is advice from the people we know and trust.

While Shawano County has maintained an informal system of emergency planning, the overall philosophy plan, outlined earlier by Shawano County Emergency Management Director James Davel, is based on the need to stay calm and look to the state of Wisconsin for help.

When asked about the local approach, Davel’s response has been that COVID-19 is a health emergency, and therefore the domain of the health department.

That’s like saying that a tornado disaster in Pella should be handled by the National Weather Service. The experts can help provide the science upon which to make good, reasoned decisions, but they are unlikely to understand the needs of residents that go beyond their areas of expertise.

We need our health department to be able to focus on health issues, and not worry about making sure residents have access to transportation, basic groceries and connecting to basic county services.

The notion that this is a health emergency driven by the state DHS also ignores the enormous impact that this has, far beyond the reach of a strapped health department. The most telling example is the disconnect between the notion that the internet is not a concern of emergency management.

“No one uses the internet to call 911,” Davel noted.

At the same time, the Shawano County administrator was outlining how county services would depend on the internet to continue to safely serve residents. County and other government functions — from courthouse services to teleconferences for mental health groups — have become telephone- and internet-based.

Individuals who are sheltering in place need the internet to order food and medicine, reach out to family for support and in some cases, because they may fear they have the virus, use telemedicine.

In a business-as-usual environment, rural people get used to walking out into the backyard to get a phone signal and asking neighbors to use their more robust internet. In a pandemic when we are asked to not leave our homes, what is the plan to make sure that rural people can talk to their doctors, or order groceries, or just check in with loved ones?

This lack of connectivity isn’t limited to the poor coverage of many internet plans in rural areas of Shawano and Menominee counties. It underscores a lack of connectivity between county government leadership and people who are hungry for guidance in very difficult times.

County officials have said that they are planning daily, and we can have confidence that our county is prepared. We hope so, but so far, telling us to trust the informal local network, and hoping the state is there to meet our needs does not inspire confidence.

The good news is, it is never too late to plan for tomorrow.

Carol Ryczek is editor-in-chief of NEW Media. cryczek@newmedia-wi.com