In hospital for 64 days, key to overall recovery is now in our own hands, Gregg Garfield says
Published in The Mammoth Times on December 23, 2020
Mono County continued to hold an unenviable spot in the state’s Covid-19 statistics this week, coming in as one of the counties with the highest test positivity rates in the state; as of Dec. 21, Mono County Covid-19 test positivity rate (number of tests taken compared to the number of tests that are positive) reached 28.2 percent, meaning that in the seven days before Dec. 21, about one of every four people tested were positive for the virus.
This positivity rate reflects an ongoing trend, not a blip on the radar screen: on Dec. 17, it was “only” 20 percent. Compare this to the beginning of October, where it rested at a mere 2.2 percent.
As the numbers make evident, the spread of Covid-19 in Mono County has reached an all-time high. The promise of a vaccine does not mitigate the deep-running damage the virus is causing in this present moment, as it spreads more and more rapidly through our community, because there will not be enough vaccine to immunize enough people to slow the spread of the virus until well into the spring and summer, and that is only if vaccine production and distribution efforts go smoothly, county officials said this week.
As of Dec. 23 when the Times went to press, the total number of positive cases in the county had reached 546, meaning that 3.57 percent of people in Mono County have tested positive for the virus since its spread began in February. While this number, which has been averaged over nine months roughly, might not sound alarming to some, tell Gregg Garfield it’s no big deal.
Garfield, the first person in Mono County, and one of the first people in California, to contract Covid, testified at the Dec. 17 Mono County Covid “Community Conversation,” putting a face and a story behind the sometimes sterilized-feeling numbers that reflect the harm Covid has done, and will continue to do, in the nation, the county, and individual lives.
“I’m here to tell you just how real this virus is. We’re having the biggest spike… I’m telling you now, this is for real,” he said.
Garfield contracted the virus in late February, he believes, while on a ski trip in Northern Italy. He began his testimony by explaining that he has always had a “hyper-immune system” that he called “the best of the best,” usually allowing him to recover from sickness in one to two days.
Covid was different.
Garfield described that by early March, once he felt “gurgling in my own lungs,” he went to the hospital, where he ended up staying for 64 whole days.
Having contracted the most critical version of Covid-19, Garfield had to spend 31 days on a ventilator and was told he had a one percent chance of survival.
“Medically speaking, I shouldn’t be here today,” he said. Later describing the significance of that one percent survival chance, Garfield explained: “It’s actually less than that… when you have 40 percent of individuals that are asymptomatic, 12 percent get sent to the hospital.
One percent is critical.”
Within this one percent of critical cases, Garfield was one of the one percent who survived, “which means, most likely, that those (other) individuals would not make it,” he said.
While Garfield was feeling mostly well the day he spoke and was able to get out and ski at the Mountain recently, eight of his fingers and three of his toes are still paralyzed, and he still experiences fatigue, he said.
Garfield tied his testimony together with a call for action to prevent the spread of the virus.
“We are on the last stretch, we’re here at the last hour of this,” he said. “We have to take the responsibility to wear a mask, to stay socially distant, to do what it takes to be responsible as an individual.”
Following Garfield’s testimony were questions and more emotional testimony from community members and second home owners affected by the virus and the shutdowns and regulations it has prompted. Garfield said he understood fully the impacts of the restrictions and harm they have caused the local area.
“I don’t have the answer for this, nobody has the answer for this… we’re all hurting for this,” he said, recognizing the fight against the virus as a universal struggle. But he also reiterated call for people to take individual responsibility for their individual actions.
“The problem is that people are not taking this seriously to get ahead of what responsibility we have as individuals,” he said. “I wish I could have the answer.”
He also recognized larger structural issues (in politics, economic structures and healthcare limits), saying, “By no means am I upset with… anybody that is upset with the whole system. It’s broken.”
After Garfield’s account, the course of the meeting and subsequent questions brought the panel to a discussion of hospital capacity, another number that may not yield the immediate fear and caution it realistically should, according to county experts.
While Mono County, unlike most of the rest of the state, currently has room in its Intensive Care Unit, we rest in a precarious position. Mammoth Hospital’s Dr. Craig Burrows explained that an ICU bed capacity of 0% means that “whether somebody has Covid or any condition that requires the Intensive Care Unit, there’s no place to put you.” he spoke on the danger of our county’s hospitalization rate (currently 4%) rising or getting closer to 12%, California’s current state average. A hospitalization rate of 12% would yield upwards of sixty patients in Mammoth Hospital, which is “not typically equipped to handle that many people.” The county’s high elevation and remote location add an extra danger to this scenario–“this is not a place you want to see people get that sick,” Dr. Burrows said. “What are we going to do with this person? We don’t have a ventilator to put them on? Who gets this one? Those are nightmarish decisions to have to make.”
The lack of an all-encompassing answer – what seems to be the theme that has defined all so many lives since last March – led the panel to further emphasize the importance of taking responsibility for themselves, each other, the county and country.
“We have a responsibility as individuals to get ahead of this thing,” said Garfield.