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>> TOM: Good morning.
Welcome to the Covid-19 
briefing.
I'm Tom Kohley, with me is 
Dr. Bill George, public health 
officer for the County.
Hello Bill.
>> DR. GEORGE: Hello. 
>> TOM: Also with us today not 
on the screen is Sherry Weamer, 
executive director of the Red 
Lodge area chamber of commerce.
Welcome, we're on Facebook live, 
can you submit questions on 
physical book, submit them as 
early as possible so we can get 
to them during the time.
Kathy Robson who does our closed 
captioning has had an emergency 
in the family and is not able to 
do the closed captioning today.
She has to help her family 
through difficult times.
We will be resuming closed 
captioning in the future.
The agenda for today's briefing, 
Dr. George is going to give us 
an update currently, some of the 
current trends.
Then Sherry is going to jump in 
and talk about the business 
successes.
Dr. George, I'll turn it over to 
you.
>> DR. GEORGE: Thanks, Tom.
Good morning.
This is timely to do, timely 
time to discuss this.
Because it's been remarkable 
what's happened in the last two 
weeks.
Many of you stay well informed.
Most of you know what's been 
happening nationally, 
regionally, in Montana and 
Carbon County.
I'll go over those things, talk 
about what numbers I look at.
They do help us make decisions 
as an IMT group and me as a 
public health officer how we'll 
continue to manage this epidemic 
here, pandemic worldwide.
So when I get up in the morning 
and hopefully nobody obsesses 
about it as much as I do.
I do look at the national 
picture then I look at regional 
picture, then I dial down to 
what's happening in our County.
As you know, most of you know I 
think, it's very sad what's 
happening nationally right now.
The pandemic, the illnesses have 
shifted from that area around 
New York city, Washington state, 
and those regional areas around 
there to the south and the west.
And the number of cases have 
grown so much, and the effect 
from these cases and the 
illnesses that some states are 
struggling significantly now.
Hospitals are being overwhelmed, 
and economies are being caused 
or rolled back.
Just give you an example, 
Arizona is probably in the worst 
shape right now.
As of last night, one out of 
every three people just about, 
30%, one out of every just under 
three people, who had a Covid 
test and a lot of people are 
getting tested, were testing 
positive for the illness.
That means in that state, 
especially in the high populated 
areas, there's a huge viral 
reservoir.
It is affecting their hospitals, 
there is committees I've watched 
in the last couple of days being 
set up in large hospitals trying 
to decide who gets an intensive 
care bed at this time.
That's called crisis standard of 
care.
We are all so worried about that 
in February and March, it never 
really materialized out here 
before.
There was some scrambling in 
New York city.
Plenty of ventilators.
But the care was not what it 
should be as beds became scarce.
What's happened in ads 
recently -- happened recently 
bars closing in Florida, Texas, 
businesses are closing and 
rolling back.
So it's been -- that is very 
sad.
Because the first 2 1/2, 3 
months of this problem when 
everything shut down we were 
supposed to start back up again 
and then suppress the virus in 
order for the economy to begin 
again.
I'll talk a little bit about 
that.
Now many of these states are 
worse off than they ever were 
because of the way things 
started up and it's very sad.
It's almost as if that time was 
wasted.
It was a time where a lot of 
people suffered economically.
I look at the Montana picture, 
so Montana as you can see from 
this slide here, I'm going to 
just give you an idea what's 
happened in the last two weeks.
In two weeks we had a 600 total 
cases historically in Montana 
and at that time on June 15 we 
had 80 active cases.
Two weeks later, we're up to 
1,016 cases and 336 active 
cases.
That's an over 300% increase in 
active cases in two weeks.
So I think we have a graph a 
little bit about -- so this 
shows it pretty clear on cases 
on a daily and seven-day 
average.
This is in Montana.
We had the initial bump earlier 
right before we closed our 
borders, now we're on at the 
end -- the beginning of July 
we're at this rapid increase in 
cases in Montana.
I think today there were 50 new 
cases.
Before June 15, right around -- 
right before that and back, we 
had very few active, zero, 
single active cases, new cases 
in a day.
We had zero to three 
hospitalizations.
We're up to 14 hospitalizations 
now, and that is climbing.
Montana is seeing what Arizona, 
Texas, Florida, Georgia, South 
Carolina, some of these places 
are seeing.
However we're starting at a 
level with much less virus.
It's not too late for us.
There is good news in this grim 
data I'm going to talk about.
So Yellowstone, we're in between 
Yellowstone County and Gallatin 
County, look at that data 
carefully, and then we loose 
look at what's happening in 
Carbon County.
Carbon County, we have had a 
rapid rise in cases here.
But our numbers are still very 
close.
For so long we had a maximum of 
six cases, we had it early and 
it stayed there.
Then on June -- from June 16 to 
now, the next two weeks, we've 
gone up to 25 cases total.
I think active cases now, we 
have 11 active cases.
Here's the distribution of where 
those cases happened.
It's important for us to look as 
we look at this data on why are 
these cases happening, what type 
of cases are happening.
That helps us get on top of it 
with quarantine and to help 
mitigate certain actions and 
certain jobs, certain employment 
areas.
So most of our cases right now 
were work related, mean many 
driving in vans going to their 
workplace or back from their 
workplace, then people going 
into their families and 
infecting their families.
That's been the majority of our 
cases.
We still have not said, and I 
imagine this is going to change 
eventually, that we have 
community spread in our County.
Yellowstone County has community 
spread, Gallatin, other counties 
in Montana.
That means when you get ill, 
when our public health nurse 
calls you and tells you that and 
tries to figure out where you 
got it, you say I have no idea 
where I got it.
I have just been in Red Lodge, 
Carbon County this entire time.
That would be classified as 
community spread.
That brings us to a whole 
different level.
If we can't track where it came 
from.
>> TOM: Bill can I jump N the 
map on the screen, there's two 
numbers reflected in each of 
those commissioner districts.
That's how we summarize the data 
right now.
The first number on the left is 
the total number of active 
cases.
In Bridger there's 3, Joliet 5, 
Red Lodge 3.
On the number behind the slash 
is the number of cumulative 
cases since the day we started 
tracking.
>> DR. GEORGE: So another number 
we look at is positivity rate.
A lot of people say aren't we 
having a lot of cases because 
we're testing more people.
That is part of it.
The more you test the more cases 
you will find.
However the percent positive -- 
percent positive cases you have 
in your testing pool really 
speaks to how fast and prevalent 
the virus is.
Montana is still in good shape.
It's difficult to fully rely on 
this data because it's 2 to 3 
weeks old because of the nature 
of this infection.
You get infected after a 
five-day -- you start having 
symptoms five to nine days 
later, and you get tested, then 
you have a wait for the test 
results.
These are the numbers that you 
see.
The people when you see new 
cases you have to remember it's 
been two to three weeks since 
that person became infected.
That's why it's so important to 
stay ahead of this.
But a percent positivity, 
anything over 5% is very 
worrisome and becomes difficult 
to control especially as it 
approaches 10%.
In our country right now, it's 
about 7.1% as of this morning.
So all tests done, 7% of tests, 
all tests done in the United 
States right now are coming back 
positive.
That is alarming.
Right now, our country has the 
highest number of cases daily, 
the highest number of states 
struggling since this pandemic 
began.
Montana still has a less than 2% 
positivity rate.
That is good.
That means we probably don't 
have a huge viral reservoir in 
Montana yet.
But we do see how things change 
week-to-week with these numbers.
We do see this increase, the 
steep rise here in our County 
and Montana, which is why this 
is such an important time to be 
discussing this.
People say to me all the time, 
it's true, we knew the virus 
would come when we opened our 
borders, especially.
That was I think the mitigation 
effort that our governor did, 
Montana did, to keep us 
contained away from this virus.
We're no longer in that 
containment phase.
We're in a suppression phase.
We knew cases would rise, we're 
okay with cases rising, we want 
linear growth of cases and not 
exponential growth of cases.
That's called the suppression 
phase right now.
So our goals for managing this 
virus and our suppressive phase 
are clear, are very clear and 
consistent with the goals 
nationally and worldwide.
The first goal in managing this 
is to protect our vulnerable 
populations.
Those are, our nursing homes, 
assisted living, group homes, 
jails, folks at lower 
socioeconomic status have a 
struggle with this, and our 
healthcare workers.
Some of those populations are 
around the virus a lot and some 
of them don't do well when they 
get ill.
There's over, I said this the 
other night, over 600 doctors, 
nurses, first responders that 
have been killed by this virus 
so far.
The second after vulnerable 
populations is our healthcare 
capacity and public health 
capacity.
Is your community allowing this 
virus to strain your hospital, 
your emergency room, and your 
ability to do public health.
We'll talk about why that's 
important in a little bit.
That's the nature of this.
A lot of people speak to herd 
immunity, let's just let it go, 
all get over this.
We saw what happened across the 
world when even we were trying 
to slow it down and too late to 
do it in New York, Italy, in 
China, in Brazil now, India.
Healthcare systems get 
overwhelmed, death counts 
skyrocket, and it becomes a very 
dangerous situation.
It's very difficult to run a 
community in the city when 
people can't go there for help 
for all kinds of reasons.
Delivering a baby, car accident, 
heart attack, et cetera.
Second, is those two things.
The third, public health, the 
public health goal is we need to 
be able to do contact tracing.
We need to be able to manage 
people in quarantine.
That's why it's so important 
that we have the staff, the 
personnel to do that.
The last -- I'm going to say 
this, I'm trying to put it in 
order but there isn't really an 
order, they're all very 
important.
Another goal for us is to 
prevent super spreader events.
That's something that I always 
think about in our community of 
Red Lodge especially.
Super-spreader event is an event 
where one person or two people 
infect a lot of people all at 
once.
So immediately we are 
overwhelmed in our hospital and 
public health to try to get 
contact tracing for all these 
people, try to manage them.
It becomes overwhelming.
You can imagine in our small 
community it doesn't take much 
to do that.
Super-spreader events.
Nationally they've been 
happening in bars a lot, they've 
been happening in choir 
practice, I could go on, salons, 
those things.
In the last part of our goal, is 
to protect our economy.
We cannot stop our economy 
again.
We cannot roll back our economy.
We need people's livelihood is 
so important, have been so 
damaged by in a time that we 
shut down our economy.
It kept us safe, but if we shut 
down the economy again, Sherry, 
we were visiting about this 
earlier, there's some businesses 
that won't be able to come back.
What tools do we have?
We do have tools.
There's more tools, I'm not 
going to go into the new 
medicines, Monday on clonal 
antibodies, the serums, I'd be 
happy to take questions about 
that.
The real tools are prevention on 
this.
Our tools are used, again, to 
suppress the virus so we can 
live with it in this community.
The main tool is the three Ws 
that we talk about.
Wash your hands, wear your mask, 
and watch your distance of six 
feet.
We'll talk a little bit about 
especially about the masks.
The second big tool I mentioned 
already is that contact tracing.
The work that our public health 
nurses do.
That is crucial in order to 
suppress the virus.
The faster it's done and the 
better it's done the more 
success you have.
Faster meaning as soon as a 
positive case comes in, contact 
that person.
That person tells you who they 
have been less than six feet 
away from for 10 minutes 
total -- not total time but 
continuous time.
Then those people are contacted.
They're tested immediately.
Everybody is quarantined and 
then we're managing their 
quarantine.
That takes a staff who are 
skilled, know what they're 
doing, knows their community, 
knows how to find people and 
talk to people.
In major cities that is falling 
off.
Even in billings they're having 
a difficult time, there's so 
many people to trace.
So my public health nurse told 
me and I checked into this, so 
many cities are doing this by 
ROBO calls.
You get an automatic call saying 
you've been infected by -- 
you're a positive case, and give 
names.
Can you imagine.
Here, our public health nurse 
calls somebody, if they're not 
home she thinks I'll call that 
person's mother or neighbor, I 
know where they work, I'll call 
their employer, I'll track it 
down.
They're relentless.
It's done very, very quick.
I think that's one of the 
reasons we have low numbers in 
Carbon County even though we're 
flanked by these -- the most 
prevalent areas of Gallatin and 
Yellowstone County.
>> TOM: I want to mention the 
state has been helpful in this 
regard.
They are providing additional 
nursing staff and Army national 
guardsmen to do some of that 
Covid happening or contact 
tracing.
We will be seeing some incoming 
resources from the state in the 
coming week.
>> DR. GEORGE: That's great.
We're always looking ahead to 
see what we need for resources.
Volunteers have stepped up 
asking if they can contact 
trace.
We have a lot of skilled people 
in this community.
The last tool we have is to 
pause, to shrink our social 
circles like we did before.
To stop our economy, close 
businesses like they're doing in 
many states right now, or to 
roll back our reopenings.
That is not something we want to 
do at all.
That is a last result.
I want to talk about masks, we 
have had a lot of questions 
about masks.
So part of the problem as you 
know very few people in our 
community and our County and our 
state and the United States wear 
masks.
The places that they do are the 
places that have been really 
affected by the virus itself.
Early on we had mixed evidence, 
mixed advice from the world 
health organization and the CDC.
They said look, only wear mask 
if you're symptomatic, if you're 
coughing, sneezing, runny nose, 
et cetera.
They questioned the efficacy of 
the mask.
They were saying masks aren't as 
effective as hand washing.
I said that early on.
Some of the early studies really 
stressed how you can touch 
something, touch your mouth, and 
get the virus.
That was one of the main ways 
that this was transmitted.
Well, evidence it's merging that 
that's not true.
Two problems have emerged.
Maybe 40% of people spread this 
before they have any symptoms at 
all.
That's the key to mask wearing.
And the other -- the other 
thing, this virus seems to 
travel more aerosoly than by 
touching things.
It's important not to touch your 
face, you can still acquire the 
infection that way, but talking, 
singing, shouting, being close 
to some one for at least 10 or 
15 minutes especially without a 
mask is high risk, indoor 
environment is high risk for 
transmitting the virus.
There are many people that still 
are resisting.
Is it really effective.
How about the dangers.
Don't they get bacteria, doesn't 
it cause you to touch your face, 
all of these things.
How about our liberty, how can 
some one force us to wear a 
mask.
I don't like the way it looks, I 
don't like the way it feels.
We all have heard them all.
I guess I want to speak to that.
I think about in medicine a 
little bit about how we study 
things, how we study a medicine 
for example, a drug for high 
blood pressure.
We used to be obsessed what this 
drug did to your blood pressure.
Then we told people, years ago, 
this drug is good for you 
because it brings your blood 
pressure down.
No one asked does that medicine 
save your life, does it lengthen 
your life, does it decrease 
heart attacks.
That's end data.
There are a lot of medicines 
that bring your cholesterol 
down, blood pressure down, but 
only certain medicines have the 
effect you're looking for.
That's called end data.
That's what is coming in across 
the world.
What actually do masks do.
That evidence is out there.
It keeps economies open.
It decreases viral spread.
It decreases case counts.
This is why, one of the main 
reasons why so many countries 
that have a culture of mask 
wearing during pandemics and 
epidemics, why they have moved 
on.
They are moved on.
They're inviting people into 
their borders.
European union, people can fly 
there but we can't fly there 
because we're still struggling 
here after all these months.
Some of the -- that's what I 
look at.
You can always have those the 
arguments about this study shows 
that this mask does this or 
doesn't do this.
But what is the end data?
Is it helpful?
Yes, it's helpful.
How about that liberty issue, or 
rights issue?
We're talking about a health 
behavior.
We're not talking about taking 
your rights away from you.
So it's -- I would be happy to 
talk more about that during the 
questions.
Before I hand it off to Sherry 
to get going with our questions, 
just want to say something, 
Sherry is a perfect example.
Our communities, our County is 
full of people like Sherry and 
Tim Weamer is back there.
They love this place.
They're devoted to this place.
They're concerned about their 
families, their own livelihood, 
but I know them for years, they 
and many people like that are 
thinking about how to keep our 
community strong, how to keep 
our economies open, and what can 
they do to help.
That's a huge deal.
One of the best -- things I love 
about this place, we are always, 
we're leaning into things, 
always.
We have excellent services, 
excellent recreation.
You have to travel a long way in 
Montana to find a rural hospital 
like our hospital.
You really do.
You need to travel a long way to 
find a rodeo like ours.
Or a fair like ours.
Or a ski area like ours.
Or a downtown like ours.
That's because people care about 
this place.
That's why I know especially now 
with our positivity rate low, 
even though there's a sharp 
rise, we can manage this.
We can suppress it in a way that 
our economy continues.
It is going to take sacrifice.
It's going to take people doing 
things they don't want to do.
It works.
Everything works together.
Washing, wearing a mask, 
watching your distance, they all 
work together.
That's all I have to say right 
now until the questions.
Sherry?
>> SHERRY: Hi, everyone, I am 
Sherry for those I haven't met, 
from the Red Lodge area chamber 
of commerce.
I'm here today to talk about how 
Red Lodge can and needs to come 
together even more than we 
already have to show the rest of 
the state how staying safe, 
staying open, and slowing the 
spread can be done.
As a state medical director 
said, it's not about healthcare 
or the economy, it's about 
healthcare and the economy.
Healthcare in the business 
sector need to work together to 
solve this.
We need to be on the same team.
So to do this to stop the 
spread, we really are at the 
point where we need to wear 
masks.
No one is asking us to wear them 
all the time.
We don't to have wear them while 
we're outside walking our dogs 
or hiking.
But when you're inside getting a 
coffee, going to the grocery 
store, the post office, in that 
situation where you're around 
people let's wear them.
Let's be that community that 
protects itself and protects our 
businesses.
Masks are proven to work as 
Dr. George said.
It's such a small sacrifice, 
such a minute sacrifice of 
personal freedom.
In reality as we all know 
about -- it's about others as it 
is about ourselves.
I haven't been as prudent as I 
should have been because I think 
many of us felt like we were 
here in that safe Red Lodge 
bubble.
The point is we didn't feel that 
way any more.
Let's not get to the point of a 
mandate, let's be the area that 
sees the big picture.
Let's be the community that 
solves this before it becomes 
mandated.
Before we get closed down again.
Because if we do get shut down, 
there are many businesses that 
simply won't be able to open 
back up.
This is reality.
So how do we move forward?
Stores can offer discounts for 
mask wearers, no shirt, no 
shoes, no masks, I just heard 
equals no service, that's a 
great one.
I will be tackling trying to get 
a supply of masks to start being 
able to give them away.
The messaging to wear a mask 
will be included in all of the 
chamber press.
And I have these great signs 
that are on the board there.
I'd love to share them with 
anybody.
Just come by the chamber and 
ask, call me and I'll bring them 
to you.
This weekend our street closing 
for the 4th can become a great 
example of moving activities 
outdoors for distancing.
It's so important for us to 
think out of the box now, get 
creative with our beautiful 
outdoor downtown area.
We're hoping this weekend is the 
first of many throughout the 
summer and the fall.
I'm available, call me with 
ideas for more of these ways to 
social distance.
And I'd love to visit with 
anyone and everyone.
Final point, if we want to help 
our businesses survive long 
term, we need to change our 
culture.
We need to get onboard with 
wearing masks.
Thank you.
>> DR. GEORGE: Thanks, Sherry.
>> Ready for questions?
>> DR. GEORGE: Sure am.
>> Okay, I'll try to group them 
together in sort of maybe a few 
at once if you can address them.
The first questions have to do 
about restrictions.
So we have had questions about 
as you mentioned lots of people 
are not wearing masks.
We are encouraging people to 
wear more masks.
Is it possible that either the 
state and/or Carbon County will 
mandate the wearing of masks in 
public places or in other 
places?
>> DR. GEORGE: I think that's 
very possible.
It is very possible.
I had a meeting with all of the 
public health officers across 
the state last night, and the 
governor's medical director, the 
topic was talked about 
constantly.
It is difficult because when -- 
you want a successful mask 
policy, if we just take our 
community for example of Red 
Lodge, you want a successful 
mask policy.
What's happened is because it's 
become such a politicized issue 
linking liberty and all of these 
nonmedical issues to mask 
wearing that people have become 
entrenched and people become 
angry and they can be disruptive 
for an ongoing mask wearing in 
our community.
So we need stakeholders.
We need buy-in.
We need to change the culture if 
we're going to be successful.
It's going to go on for a long 
time.
If some one just immediately 
mandates this, it's going to be 
difficult.
Enforcement is difficult and 
there's ways that people can 
really disrupt.
We do have a plan for this, I am 
very hopeful if our positivity 
rate was a lot higher, if our 
communities were right now at 
significant risk right now we 
wouldn't even be talking about 
this.
We would be taking every tool 
that we have.
I really feel that people can 
learn about this and do the 
right thing.
I really feel that way.
I'm hopeful of that.
I think that will make a more 
successful endeavor with masks 
going forward.
>> Along the lines of mandate, 
is there a possibility that, 
again, either the state or the 
County will roll back some of 
the phase 2 directives to phase 
1 directives and close some 
facilities especially things 
like bars, or is it possible 
that the state will possibly 
roll back to require a 
quarantine on visitors?
>> DR. GEORGE: That's why I look 
at the national data.
Usually daily.
To find out how many states are 
doing this.
Why are they doing this.
What position did they get into 
that's forcing them to do this.
These now we're dealing with, 
because it's been -- it has been 
politicized, these are 
conservative states, 
conservative governors, 
conservative senators now that 
have stopped their economy and 
stopped a lot of parts of their 
economy and are mandating masks.
I try to figure out, what kind 
of case numbers, positivity 
rates, what's happened to their 
communities and their 
hospitalizations that has caused 
them to do this.
So of course that we may have to 
use that lever or that tool.
But there's no need for it.
We started early on this, we're 
in a good place right now.
If we continue to suppress this 
we can live with this virus.
It can be linear growth, growth 
comes up, cases come in daily 
and the hospitals are okay and 
everybody is functioning well 
and it's out of the nursing 
homes and everything is okay.
If it gets away from us, then, 
yes, that will likely happen.
I say that because it's 
happening everywhere right now.
But it doesn't need to happen 
here.
>> Okay, with regard to masking, 
some businesses have already 
shelled out a lot of money for 
PPE, cleaning supplies and other 
things.
If it goes to mandatory masking 
or other mandatory efforts can 
businesses ask for masks to hand 
out to customers from the 
County?
They can a apply for state 
grants but businesses are 
waiting for bills to add up and 
submit them.
Also worried about risking the 
grant money will dry up before 
those requests are submitted.
>> DR. GEORGE: I think that's a 
fair question.
The other issue is supply.
Early on we didn't have 
supplies.
We still don't have supplies for 
testing, we can talk about that 
later.
But I think what's going to 
happen in this country, there's 
going to be a huge run on masks.
It is nice that we can make our 
own masks and use cloth masks 
and they seem to be as 
effective.
N95s are the most effective.
Even homemade masks are very, 
very effective on cutting down 
spread.
Yes, the money went out, I think 
that $5,000 or $10,000 per 
business to help mitigate and 
buy masks and signage and 
cleaning supplies.
I hope there's more money in the 
pipeline.
Our County has some masks, Tom?
>> TOM: We have masks, we've 
been receiving shipments of 
masks and other PPE.
It was primarily designated for 
first responders, courts, 
schools.
We have not received any 
supplies for private businesses 
to date.
Again, all I can do is recommend 
that people track their 
expenses, if that opens up in 
terms of grant funding.
Sherry, you want to comment on 
the statement you made?
>> SHERRY: We're going to make 
it a focus, the rest of the day 
is going to be spent going after 
whatever we can get to folks in 
town.
I'll keep everyone updated 
through our E-news on all of 
these issues.
>> DR. GEORGE: Bighorn County as 
you know is the only County in 
Montana that has mandated masks.
We talked to their health 
official last night, they found 
$22,000, there's places around 
where we can kind of visit with 
other counties and find out how 
they're getting it done.
It's interesting.
This the problem that counties 
and areas of Montana, we don't 
like to be told what to do, 
we're very independent, we're 
about our County and our 
communities.
There's many County attorneys 
and there's enforcement agencies 
in the counties that are 
refusing to enforce and they're 
not supporting this effort.
That was the case in bighorn 
County.
But still the community changed 
their culture.
90% of people are wearing masks.
The numbers are coming down.
They're doing much better at 
this time.
I think we're fortunate in that 
we have support.
We do have support of our County 
attorney.
We do have support from the 
leaders in the communities about 
this effort.
I'm meeting with them this 
afternoon.
>> TOM: One last comment, I 
spoke to a business owner in Red 
Lodge yesterday, who does 
provide customers with surgical 
masks.
She said she distributed between 
20 and 30 one day.
I know the cost of an average 
surgical mask is about 75 cents.
>> DR. GEORGE: That's a lot.
>> TOM: It is a lot, it is a 
burden to our businesses.
First one who develops a coin 
operated mask dispensing 
system --
[Chuckling]
>> DR. GEORGE: Hopefully as 
culture changes people will have 
masks in their pocket.
When people come to Red Lodge 
they'll know this community is 
having a surge of cases, they're 
vulnerable, hopefully people 
bring masks with them.
It's happening across the 
country, I think we will to have 
give out masks less as time goes 
on.
>> Okay.
Moving away from masks to 
testing.
Can you talk to the -- a few 
things within testing.
You have seen it, there are 
false positives.
Is there also possible false 
negatives?
>> DR. GEORGE: So certainly 
there is.
Some of the rapid machines, the 
Abbott test in particular, we 
were so excited about that, the 
President had it sitting there 
on his evening briefing, 
thousands of them went across 
the country, now they're sitting 
in closets in the state 
departments.
We were offered one the other 
day from Helena.
But we all know that the false 
negative rate, meaning some one 
may have the virus and come out 
negative, is over 20% sometimes.
So you can't send someone back 
to work at a nursing home or 
store or visit family members 
and assure them they don't have 
the virus.
That's been frustrating.
Our tests that we do through the 
state, PCR molecular testing, 
are very good test.
Very sensitive and very specific 
with a very low false positive 
or false negative rate.
Then the other lab that we use 
in Montana is quest, that's used 
for people without symptoms.
It's a huge delay nationally, 
the largest lab in the country 
now, many of us have seen these 
four mile lines in cities of 
people waiting and waiting to 
get tested.
Then they wait up to two weeks 
to get test results back.
Very difficult to have a 
surveillance program of 
asymptomatic people when you 
have that delay.
The other problem is there's 
tests in the middle that take 
about 45 minutes to an hour to 
run.
There's machines in billings 
clinic, at the state, scattered 
in hospitals across the state.
The problem is reagents.
There isn't enough reagents to 
run these, they just use them in 
emergency purposes or screen 
somebody before they have 
surgery.
There wasn't much hope last 
night that supplies of rea 
little was going to be improved 
soon.
We're in a sad place for testing 
in the United States.
Montana has some of the best 
turnaround time using our state 
lab in Helena.
That's where all of our tests go 
from Red Lodge, Carbon County, 
they go to the state.
If you have some symptoms or one 
symptom.
You don't need much.
WE're trying to encourage people 
to get tested.
We want our test numbers to go 
up in Carbon County.
Why do we want that?
We can track, trace, isolate and 
suppress the virus.
The more people that get tested 
the more virus Weiss can find 
before they get sick, the less 
they spread it and the more we 
suppress it.
Go to our website, the CDC 
website, look at the symptoms.
Fatigue, how many of us are 
tired.
Muscle aches and pains, sore 
throat, runny nose, a cough, a 
fever, all you need is one 
symptom and a curious mind 
whether you have Covid and you 
need to make a phone call and 
say I want to be tested because 
I have this.
You will drive up to the 
hospital or to clinic in Joliet 
and Bridger, and get your Covid 
test.
I can't afford it.
It's free.
If the insurance doesn't pay for 
it, the state government through 
Federal funding pays for those 
tests.
That's not a barrier.
>> Will there be more testing 
events in Red Lodge or in Carbon 
County?
>> DR. GEORGE: I think they're 
helpful to get a picture of 
community spread.
But they're only helpful if we 
have a good turnaround time.
I'm hopeful but I'm not going to 
run one until they request tell 
me yes we can get results back 
in 4 to 5 days.
>> Okay.
General questions about health 
right now.
There are frequently people 
smoking along Broadway, they 
aren't wearing masks.
The sidewalk is wide enough to 
keep a six-foot distance only if 
everyone is single file and 
coming from the opposite 
direction.
When the smoker exhales, others 
from the sidewalk can see and 
smell the smoke.
Should we be concerned?
>> DR. GEORGE: We used to think 
you should be concerned, even 
passing somebody being on a 
trail.
But as more data comes in you 
need to be next to somebody, 
less than six feet, without 
masks for at least 10 to 15 
minutes.
Usually in an indoor area.
You can get this virus, there's 
a lot of cases of 
super-spreading events outdoors.
But these are areas that are 
tight with people who are 
unmasked.
And it's an exception and not 
the rule.
Walking by a cigarette smoker, a 
short visit with somebody on the 
street is very unlikely to 
transmit the virus.
You need a certain viral load in 
order for you to become 
infected.
>> For those of us would have 
family flying from out of state 
to visit us for the holiday how 
risky is it to continue business 
as if we aren't distancing 
ourselves from them when they 
arrive?
Should we be working from home 
and living and shopping for the 
next few weeks?
>> DR. GEORGE: So that's why 
it's important to look to see 
nationally and regionally what's 
happening.
If you know one out of three 
people that get tested from 
Arizona and your family is 
coming from Arizona which they 
shouldn't be, or Florida right 
now, or several states right 
now, it's a good idea they 
quarantine that, they get tested 
before they come, that they 
drive and don't fly, and then 
quarantine when they get here.
If do you that you can continue 
with your usual activities.
We can help what that means, 
quarantine in a home, how to be 
careful with some one in your 
home so you don't spread it.
Public health can help with 
that.
>> Okay.
Moving to events.
What are your thoughts on 
continuing planning for outdoor 
events that might be held next 
month?
Or indoor events for that 
matter.
>> DR. GEORGE: So like I've said 
before, our team provided a 
service early on, very few 
counties are doing, where we 
review any events of a certain 
size which we're using over 50 
at this time.
And we give them I'd guidelines 
on things to make it easy to see 
if they fit into phase 2 
recommendations for that event.
And those are good 
recommendations, and they're 
safe recommendations.
Can you go over 50 but you need 
to be able to show that you're 
planning on doing things 
correctly and enforcing your 
event to make sure people are 
safe and our community is safe 
after that event.
So, yes, things can happen, life 
goes on here, that makes this 
place special.
We aren't at that place where 
we're shutting down all events.
As you know many communities, 
cities, states have gone to that 
level.
We aren't at that level yet.
We might be at that level if we 
don't continue to suppress this 
virus.
Again, each event is taken 
individually.
A lot of people scratch their 
head and wonder why are they 
allowing for example the 
Beartooth rally to happen.
I hear that all the time.
First off we don't allow or 
disallow, that's not our role 
and we can't do it legally.
We can say to some one if their 
event isn't consistent with 
guidelines.
If something is flagrantly 
dangerous, I have the ability to 
shut a business down and we did 
do that in phase 1 and I hope we 
never have to do that again.
So our community has been great, 
in changing these events or 
unfortunately postponing them or 
cancelling them to help this 
effort.
And the Beartooth rally we 
cannot help motorcycles, can't 
stop motorcycles from driving 
into town, we have limited 
capacity, should have limited 
capacity at the bars and 
restaurants.
Not allowing street dances to 
happen because you can't make 
that consistent with phase 2 
guidelines.
But we do think the event at the 
rodeo can happen safely because 
there just is not that many 
people compared to our fourth of 
july rodeo.
But, again, once people are up 
there, they need to think about 
their own individual 
responsibility.
>> Okay.
This may be directed toward 
Sherry, first off we have a 
bunch of suggestions about 
places to get masks, we'll pass 
that on.
>> SHERRY: Excellent, I'll take 
them all.
>> So with the number of other 
events that have closed, 
sacrificing sports and other 
events, why is Red Lodge having 
a block party?
>> SHERRY: The idea was to take 
the people that we know are 
going to be coming anyway and 
giving them that opportunity to 
social distance.
If the stores move their 
products outside, if the 
restaurants can have outside 
seating, this is a safety 
measure.
And a good thing for all of our 
businesses and retail outlets to 
be able to do.
That was the idea.
It isn't promoting a party, it's 
giving us the opportunity to 
actually function and stay safe 
within that open outdoor area.
>> Is that kind of space 
something that can be done at 
other times in the summer, or is 
this just the fourth of july?
>> SHERRY: I think that's a 
fabulous idea.
I'd like to see this done more 
and more.
It's quite a mask to take on.
We have spent the last two weeks 
from morning to night planning 
for this and making sure things 
will go safely.
It's hard to close a street 
down.
But we felt it was worthwhile 
for this big event, and this can 
set the bar, see how it goes and 
move forward and do this a lot.
If not even closing down main 
street in other ways.
Take this model and use it again 
and again.
>> Could the incident management 
team work with the chamber to 
acknowledge and identify local 
businesses that are meeting and 
exceeding public health 
standards?
This person would love to reward 
those businesses with their 
money, and serve as incentive 
for noncompliant businesses to 
up their game.
>> SHERRY: Wow.
I don't know if I want to get 
into this type of enforcing.
I think we send a message out, 
this is what we'd like, this is 
how we want to handle this.
But that's not really my 
mission.
>> I think this was somebody 
wanting to incentivize people 
that are inclined, not saying we 
need to even force.
>> SHERRY: Love the idea of 
incentivizing.
We can have more discussion 
about that.
>> There have been some 
questions about frying to put 
signs or some other information 
up around town to encourage 
people to wear their masks.
Is that something that could 
happen?
>> SHERRY: We've got the signage 
that's on the screen.
Under careful it says practice 
six feet social distancing.
Then under that, wear cloth 
masks in confined spaces.
We can certainly push that 
harder.
These are made to be updated at 
any time.
We'd love to spread that message 
even in a more forceful manner, 
you bet.
>> Okay.
With regard to enforcement, 
there have been some concerns 
about why bars are still open 
and potentially why things have 
not been enforced.
Can you, Dr. George or Tom 
Kohley talk about enforcement.
>> DR. GEORGE: I would be happy 
to talk about that.
So phase 2 regulations have been 
in place for some time.
Since June 1, now -- 
>> TOM: 14th.
>> DR. GEORGE: June 14?
So it's been, they've been in 
place for some time.
Before that we had phase 1 
recommendations of 50% 
occupancy.
Earlier on, April, may, it 
became very clear to me and to 
others that we were not going to 
have exponential growth for a 
surge because our borders were 
closed and the governor started 
this whole process so early 
before the virus came here.
You're right, we did not go from 
bar to bar and even force and 
hand out tickets and close 
establishments unless it was an 
egregious offense and dangerous.
We focused on other things that 
we needed to focus at that time.
Public health, preparing 
supplies, working with the 
police departments, our first 
responders.
We had lists of things that 
continued to do and also started 
working on our surveillance 
testing of asymptomatic people.
Now that the virus counts are 
increasing we have to keep an 
eye out for these super-spreader 
events.
That is going to take 
enforcement of phase 2 
recommendations.
I just was talking to our great 
bar owners, and they are 
struggling how do you make sure 
for example everybody sits down 
at a table in a bar and gets 
served a drink and they don't 
get up to visit with the next 
table of 10 people.
That's in phase 2.
No standing in groups and 
visiting.
Not going from table-to-table 
and visiting.
Everyone needs a seat.
It affects their bottom line, 
they need help to patrol it, 
they get angry customers, they 
get disbelievers that this is 
even a problem at all.
Depending on the space they 
have, the demographic they 
serve, they have huge, huge 
challenges.
I just finished talking to a 
representative of the Tavern 
Association about this.
Yesterday we delivered kind of a 
summary to each business in 
town.
We hand delivered a summary to 
each business, especially the 
bars and restaurants, especially 
with the fourth of july coming 
up and other events coming in.
Many people feel it's not 
possible, that's why Florida 
shut their bars, that's why 
Texas shut all their bars.
I don't believe. 
That I believe you can have a 
safe experience if people follow 
these guidelines.
They are not -- unfortunately 
it's difficult for restaurants 
and bars to thrive because they 
can't pack these places in.
They can survive I believe.
It is going to take work and 
take cost and take more 
personnel and take all of our 
support.
It is important that we don't 
shame people, that we don't call 
people out publicly, that is 
important.
There's so few people here in 
our communities that don't want 
to do the right thing.
But are struggling for a lot of 
reasons.
Leave it at that.
>> Should people with breathing 
problems wear masks?
>> DR. GEORGE: Yes.
I mean, the mandated mask 
policies usually make room for 
people who are on oxygen or have 
severe respiratory problems, 
they get a note from their 
physician.
Most of these masks, I've been 
wearing them my whole career, 
doctors and nurses wear them any 
time we have some one in 
infectious in the hospital and 
in surgery.
Usually they don't impede 
breathing unless you have a 
significant respiratory problem 
and then you can have an 
exception.
>> Okay.
If some one believes that some 
one who should be quarantined or 
tested positive is not following 
the quarantine measures what 
should they do?
>> DR. GEORGE: Then a phone call 
should be made to public health.
If you know of some one who is 
not quarantining and should be, 
the phone call should be made to 
public health.
This is not a confidentiality 
issue, it's not, you know, you 
can even, I imagine the way our 
nurses work, you could do it 
anonymously, give a name, we'll 
follow up.
That's important.
I'm going to say one more thing 
I want to make sure I say about 
masks and about quarantine that 
reminded me.
So if a worker for example in a 
restaurant becomes infected and 
is positive, that nurse will 
call that person and ask who 
have they been with, less than 
six feet apart, for 10 
consecutive minutes.
Then they'll write that name 
down.
If that worker, restaurant 
worker and the other restaurant 
worker have masks on, there's no 
call.
That's not even a chance of 
infectivity.
It's such a low chance we don't 
chase it down.
IF the person does not have a 
mask on and they say I was 
standing next to this person 
while working for ten minutes 
and neither of us had a mask on, 
that person they're standing 
next to is out of work for two 
weeks.
If they have a mask on they need 
to either develop symptoms or 
have a positive test in order to 
leave work.
So that's why effective masks 
are, because nationally it's 
used in helping us quarantine 
and trace contacts on this.
Another good reason why every 
restaurant worker, especially 
bar workers should have masks 
on, so they're not quarantined 
if they're exposed.
We're all going to start to get 
exposed to people that have this 
virus.
Hope I made that clear.
>> Okay.
Checking for more.
So concerning masking again, can 
local police and I would say 
other county leadership, help by 
setting an example with 
patrolling the streets for the 
weekend by wearing masks and 
encouraging folks to do the 
same.
>> DR. GEORGE: I'm meeting with 
all mayors of all of our 
communities and police and 
sheriffs this afternoon.
We're going to talk about masks.
And setting examples.
>> Okay.
Regarding masks in addition to 
encouraging people to wear 
masks, there is a suggestion to 
also encourage people to bring 
their own.
And then in terms of group 
buying power, a suggestion of 
maybe coordinating something 
where we can buy in bulk and 
then distribute to businesses 
that might like that.
We may be able to get more for 
less money.
Okay, I was going to wait just a 
few seconds to make sure we have 
all of the questions that have 
come in.
Just because there is a lag and 
there are lots of comments and 
we'll try to get this summarized 
to everybody later.
Okay, very much appreciate 
everyone joining in.
I'm not seeing any new questions 
although you can always ask 
those questions through all of 
our contacts available at 
CarbonAlert.org and you can 
contact Sherry Weamer at the 
chamber if you have any 
questions for the chamber or 
businesses.
And we will let you guys know in 
our next update, when it will 
be.
Right now they're scheduled for 
every two weeks or as needed.
Any other questions?
>> DR. GEORGE: I want to thank 
everybody for tuning in.
And I want to thank, there's a 
lot of individuals out there, 
and businesses, but a lot of 
individuals on social media who 
call our IMT team, public 
health, the hospital workers, 
that are kind of trying to find 
out what they can do to pitch in 
with this effort.
Whether it's buying masks, 
making masks, reaching out for 
isolated people with food needs, 
et cetera.
It's just been so inspiring.
And we are going to need more of 
that to happen.
It does need to be an effort, a 
community effort, and County 
effort for us to continue to 
keep our economy open and 
keeping us all safe.
>> All right, we will sign off.
Thank you everyone for joining 
in.






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