Peabody Health Director Preaches Patience While Awaiting Vaccine

PEABODY, MA — The job of a local public health director in the age of the coronavirus health crisis is often to advise with the best intentions without having all the answers. The goal is to do what's right for the greater good of the community while understanding the frustration that comes amid a pandemic with no definitive end.

Peabody Public Health Director Sharon Cameron told Patch on Tuesday that is the reason behind continually asking residents to do anything they can to minimize their own exposure to the virus as North Shore hospitals are near capacity, community spread remains high and vaccines are still highly promising with no promise as to when they will be available for the general population.

"The topic of the moment is vaccination," she told Patch. "Some people think we have refrigerators full of vaccines and we haven't gotten it out to the public yet. That's now how the vaccine works.

"The (state) parcels out the vaccine to us and tells us which people we can get it out to and who we can't. People are asking us for information, and we can't give it to them, not because we don't care about those people getting the vaccine, but because we literally don't know when we will be able to vaccinate those groups.

"The last thing we want to do is put out a date, have people put it on their calendar, and then the vaccine is not available to us, and 1,500 people are upset."

In the meantime, local officials like Cameron are left to urge residents to be patient and vigilant of virus protocols closing in on a year after the start of the pandemic.

"We need to continue to do all those things we've been told to do," she said, referencing hand-washing, mask-wearing, socially distancing and limiting indoor social gatherings with those outside of your immediate household. "People see the vaccine on the horizon, and there is hope on the horizon, but we're not there yet. We are a community where the risk is still really high. We've had 265 residents of Peabody die of the virus. It is serious.

"Maybe you know of someone who had a mild case of it. But there are our friends and neighbors here who have really suffered."

(How To Volunteer To Help North Shore Vaccine Distribution)

With vaccinations of health care workers, residents and staff of long-term senior living facilities and first responders are well underway — with those living and working in congregate settings such as group homes, shelters and prisons set to begin this week — Cameron mentioned grocery store workers as one group of essential workers susceptible of contracting the virus, not necessarily knowing they have it because of their average age and relative risk for adverse symptoms, who can then pass it along to those more vulnerable through no fault of their own.

"We have a responsibility to them as well," she said. "It's all of our responsibility."

While Cameron declined to address whether additional restrictions are necessary while coronavirus rates remain high and the percentage of residents vaccinated is still low, she advised: "Our message is to be thoughtful when you go out in the community. Think about: 'What things do I have to do and what things do I want to do?' It's about managing your risk level."

Part of Cameron's job is also to lead the contact tracing efforts in the city when a positive case is identified. Peabody Mayor Ted Bettencourt urged cooperation with contact tracers in a letter to the community last week.

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"I think people feel that if somebody tells them they have to be in quarantine (because of being a close contact to someone testing positive) that's something significant on them," she said. "People can't go to work. People can't go to school. People are reluctant to put their friends in that position.

"But the state has really worked to identify the peak times for transmission, and what is the infectious period, and has tried to relax those requirements as much as possible. They have used the data to make the length of (quarantine) as less onerous as possible.

"We know it creates a hardship. But it's one of the best tools we have when we don't have a full handle on transmission. It's critically important to have that information."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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