The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Wednesday, September 16, 2020 — 5
Six months later: what treating COVID-19 looks like
Thursday marks six months since
the first positive COVID-19 tests
were detected in Michigan. Since
then, health care professionals at
Michigan Medicine adapted to an
unprecedented public health crisis
that has tested the strength of the
hospital’s resources and employees.
During the first three months of
the pandemic, cases in Michigan
skyrocketed, reaching a peak of
around 1,000 cases on March 30.
Health care workers experienced
great personal tragedy and loss as
a result of the pandemic and said
they made it through thanks to the
support of colleagues.
For many health care systems
across
the
country,
the
last
six months have also resulted
in extreme financial losses —
Michigan Medicine is no exception.
In May, Marschall Runge, chief
executive
officer
of
Michigan
Medicine, announced the hospital
would begin layoffs and furloughs
affecting around 1,400 full-time
employees in order to promote the
hospital’s economic recovery.
The Daily spoke with five
physicians from Michigan Medicine
to discuss progress made in treating
the disease and the hardships faced
by health care professionals over the
past six months.
‘Nobody
knew
just
how
contagious this was or how risky it
was’
According to Robert Dickson,
assistant professor in the Medical
School
who
specializes
in
pulmonary and critical care, nobody
knew the best way to tackle the
impending crisis when it first began.
“A lot of that initial speculation I
think was driven by uncertainty and
a lack of experience,” Dickson said.
“Early on in the COVID crisis we
just didn’t have data, we didn’t even
have observational cohorts to tell
us what we were seeing. So in the
absence of that, all you have to go on
is personal experience and expert
opinion.”
Physicians said the lack of clear
evidence and tested treatments
created confusion when attempting
to help their patients recover from
COVID-19. Many said they were
working outside of their areas of
expertise to treat the disease.
Hallie Prescott, a pulmonary
and critical care physician working
in
Michigan
Medicine’s
main
Intensive Care Unit and the Ann
Arbor Veterans Affairs Medical
Center, said a six-month learning
curve gradually eased their fears
about the virus, and gave time for
doctors to determine effective
treatments.
“In the beginning, nobody knew
just how contagious this was or how
risky it was to be working in these
ICUs, so there was a high level of
fear about people contracting the
virus and among people working
outside of their normal scope,”
Prescott said. “As we learned more,
we increasingly realized that the
normal ways that we take care of
people in terms of life support were
appropriate.”
Since March, physicians around
the world have learned about the
best ways to treat patients with
COVID-19.
Various
treatments
fell in and out of use, including
hydroxychloroquine,
remdesivir
and most recently, corticosteroids.
Dickson
said
some
of
the
practices he and other critical care
physicians used six months ago are
no longer used to combat the virus.
“I think we’re smarter about
some of the therapies we offer —
there are some things that we were
doing back in March and April
that had no data to support them,”
Dickson said. “One lesson we’ve
learned is that nothing competes
with the standard, evidence-based
practices.”
‘There’s no precexdent in my or
anyone else’s experience’
Several health care providers
expressed pride in their responses to
the massive demand for care. Robert
Hyzy, medical director of Michigan
Medicine’s critical care unit, said
neither he nor any of his colleagues
anticipated or even fathomed an
event like the COVID-19 pandemic.
HANNAH MACKAY
Daily Staff Reporter
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
After four years of negotiations,
local officials have come to a
proposed agreement on a cleanup
plan for the Gelman dioxane plume
on Aug. 31.
The plume’s history goes back
to 1958, when the late Charles
Gelman
began
manufacturing
micro-porous filters in the local
Ann Arbor area. A chemical called
1,4-dioxane was used during the
process, and eventually seeped into
soil, polluting groundwater at the
company’s Scio Township plant.
Over
decades,
the
dioxane
spread into a large plume of
underground
contamination
in
northwest Ann Arbor. Dioxane was
deemed a probable carcinogen and
has been found to cause kidney and
liver damage as well as respiratory
problems.
The newly proposed settlement
with polluter Gelman Science Inc.
details a thorough plan for a cleanup
protocol, which includes expanding
prohibition zones and increasing
well installments to monitor the
plume’s migration through Ann
Arbor area’s groundwater systems.
The
settlement’s
executive
summary states there will be
“a significant increase in the
obligations imposed on Gelman
to
investigate
and
remediate
1,4-dioxane contamination at and
migrating away from the Gelman
site.”
Prohibition
zones
were
also redefined in the proposed
settlement. These zones prohibit
the use of groundwater in particular
areas due to the heightened levels
of dioxane. Additionally, the state’s
dioxane assessment for drinking
water saw a significant decrease
from 85 parts per billion to 7.2
parts per billion. Areas within the
prohibition zone show levels of
dioxane greater than 7.2 parts per
billion.
Ann Arbor City Councilmember
Ali Ramwali, D-Ward 5, said
this agreement is the result of
years of negotiations, going back
long before he assumed office
in 2018. Regardless, Ramwali
acknowledged that this proposal is
not perfect.
“I think it ultimately is the best
agreement the intervenors’ and the
polluters’ attorneys can come up
to,” Ramwali said. “And ultimately,
this agreement is the summation
in the totality of improvements
that we can make on the current
situation. Does it satisfy all our
concerns? No, it does not.”
In 2016, the city officially filed
a lawsuit against Gelman and has
been negotiating since then. The
proposed
settlement,
however,
has drawn criticism from local
residents who wish to see the
federal government intervene.
Dan Bicknell, an environmental
remediation
professional
and
former Environmental Protection
Agency Superfund enforcement
officer, discovered the Gelman
plume when he was completing
research at the University of
Michigan in 1984. He is now the
president of Global Environment
Alliance LLC and an Ann Arbor
resident.
“The state government has
failed us for almost 40 years now
on this project,” Bicknell said. “And
the idea that a local government,
who has no expertise whatsoever,
can do a better job at compelling
this very, again, resistant polluter
to do the right thing is not logical.”
Larry Lemke, a hydrogeologist
and professor at Central Michigan
University, was hired as an expert
for the Ann Arbor, Scio Township,
Washtenaw County and Huron
River Watershed Council’s lawsuit
against Gelman. In a series of
videos, Lemke gave a thorough
rundown of the proposal, saying
that the contamination will likely
remain in the groundwater system
in the future.
“Although concentrations have
decreased over time, we can expect
dioxane to stay in the groundwater
and continue to spread for many
years to come,” Lemke said.
Ramwali clarified that cleanup
of the plume will never result in
completely pristine water levels,
regardless of who is in charge of it.
“The way that the dioxane in
the natural world, the complexities
of
our
underground
aquifer
system, the geology and again,
the way the dioxane behaves in
these conditions, we will never
get to pristine levels ever in our
lifetime,” Ramlawi said. “It’s just
scientifically,
technologically
impossible at this point in history
to get those underground aquifers
back to pristine levels.”
Bicknell said the community
is not asking for pristine water
levels, but rather reverting the
groundwater to drinking water
state. He also noted that a Gelman
feasibility study found that it was
not an impossible feat.
Chants from picket lines echo
from campus building to campus
building. But step off campus —
where most students are tuning
into remote classes — and that
echo quickly fades.
Graduate
students
at
the
University of Michigan are on
strike, demanding more stringent
COVID-19 precautions in the
fall semester reopening plan and
reforms in policing on campus.
Many
of
those
striking
are
Graduate Student Instructors who
lead and assist with undergraduate
classes.
The
Graduate
Employees’
Organization,
the
union
representing
graduate
student
instructors and graduate student
staff
assistants,
has
asked
undergraduate students to observe
the picket line in solidarity with
the strike, meaning they should
not attend class. Central Student
Government
also
encouraged
students not to cross the picket
line in a resolution passed Tuesday
night.
When LSA sophomore Lindsay
Adams heard this call-to-action,
skipping class was a no brainer.
“I’m fortunate enough that I’m
in a position where I can do that
without sabotaging myself,” she
said. “I think this is a really, really
important cause so I’m planning
on standing behind the strike
members.”
Some
students
who
aren’t
strongly opinionated about the
strike, such as LSA sophomore
Lorenzo
Luna,
were
left
to
decide whether or not to stand
in solidarity with the GSIs by
skipping classes.
“I feel like I don’t really have
a place in (the strike), because I
myself am not a GSI,” Luna said.
“Me skipping class won’t really
do much to give the GSIs more
leverage in their negotiations.”
Engineering senior Hannah
Lowenthal said she’d be willing to
skip class, but only if her classes’
GSIs ask her to do so.
“If my GSI expressed to me that,
‘I am part of this movement and I
don’t feel comfortable attending
classes,’
I
would
be
totally
supportive of that,” Lowenthal
said. “I would go with whatever he
wants.”
Students who have decided to
join the strike must navigate a
question few have faced before:
Where does the picket line stop
when classes are taught online?
LSA
sophomore
Renee
Boudreau said it would be harder
for students to ignore the strike if
classes were in-person.
“The lines are really blurred
with everything being online,” she
said. “If you were to be going into
class, you wouldn’t want to cross
the picket line.”
LSA junior Alyssa Thomas is
an active supporter of the GEO.
She attended the union’s die-in
protest of the University’s fall
reopening protocols, boycotted
her synchronous classes this week
in solidarity with the strike and
expressed support for Residential
Staff — of which she is a member
—voting to strike alongside GEO
as well.
Thomas
said
attending
asynchronous
lectures
and
completing assigned class material
does not take away from the strike.
“Because I don’t have an
attendance responsibility, it would
be pointless for me to not go to
those asynchronous lectures,” she
said. “If we are to get a University
response by the end of the week,
I would still be responsible for
obtaining all the information. It’s
basically a matter of ‘do I want
to do it now, or do I want to do it
later?’”
LSA junior Andie Gardiner
decided to do her asynchronous
classes and homework outside of
the GEO’s official picket hours.
“Even if it’s asynchronous and
the lectures are pre-recorded, I
would like to just show my support
by doing that outside of when the
strike line is visible,” Gardiner
said.
Lowenthal said she’d be more
likely to boycott if her classes
weren’t online.
“There is some discomfort
walking solo past a big crowd of
people protesting for something,”
she said. “At that point, I probably
wouldn’t go to class.”
GEO Secretary Amir Fleishman
said undergraduate support is a
vital component of this strike’s
success. He said undergraduates
have attended picketing events
and spoken at GEO events.
“Undergraduate
support
is
so, so important for us because
we’re out there for everybody,”
Fleishman
said.
“Inadequate
testing impacts undergrads too. It
impacts the entire community far
beyond this campus. So we really
love to see undergrads come out in
support of us.”
Some students who said they
were initially unaware of the
significance of crossing a picket
line eventually decided to skip
classes in solidarity.
Boudreau attended classes on
the first day of the strike. It wasn’t
until Tuesday evening that she
decided to boycott her classes for
the remainder of the week.
“I think it was questioning my
privilege,” Boudreau said. “I kind
of just had to consider that my
performance in class is very, very
much less important than other
people’s safety in their lives as they
interact with people on campus.”
With graduate students strikes,
undergrads debate attending class
A virtual picket line, asynchronous classes, mixed support from faculty creates
less clear cut options for students, forcing them to consider several factors
RYAN LITTLE/Daily
Members of the University of Michigan’s Graduate Employee Organization protest the re-opening of the University, among other causes, outside of Angell Hall Thursday morning.
Plume cleanup
proposal release
sparks criticism
from residents
Dioxane contamination removal plan
arrives 40 years after its discovery
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
IULIA DOBRIN &
JOHN GRIEVE
Daily Staff ReporterS
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
Health care professionals discuss struggles in seeing coronavirus patients, reflect on beginning of pandemic at Michigan Medicine
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
It has been six months since the first COVID-19 case was detected in Michigan.
KRISTINA ZHENG
Daily Staff Reporter