MDH Commissioner Jan Malcolm on the state of COVID in Minnesota

Minnesota is in the midst of a second COVID-19 winter and infection rates are skyrocketing. More than 10,000 Minnesotans have died of COVID. Since the pandemic began, hospital workers are exhausted and there is continued stubborn resistance to COVID vaccinations.

Leading the state's response since the beginning has been state Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm. Cathy checked in with the commissioner on the state of the pandemic as we enter 2022.

Below is a transcript of their conversation. The transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Listen to their full conversation by clicking the audio player above.

When the state hit 10,000 deaths due to COVID before Christmas, it was mentioned in the media, but it felt as though most of us barely noticed. How did you take the news?

These numbers have been growing, growing, growing, and we talk about them often. But I do think the significance of the numbers have been lost on a lot of folks. Ten thousand deaths from COVID-19 is just a stunning number over these last two years. And as we know with most infectious diseases, this is preventable if we take all the precautions that we know work, like vaccination and some of the other strategies that we've been using.

So it's heartbreaking, honestly. And when all the data come in, it will definitely be in the top two or three or four causes of death in our state for these last couple of years.

Take me back to March 6, 2020. That was the first confirmed case of COVID in Minnesota. What were you thinking at the time?

When the first cases started coming, we frankly had no idea how significant this would be globally or here in Minnesota. We had hoped early on that this might be like the last novel virus we had seen, which was H1N1. And that turned out not to be the case.

This was a far greater impact, much larger numbers, much more sustained waves that built on each other rather than being smaller than the original. So this turned out to be very, very different and a challenge at a level that very few of us foresaw. It took a little while for it to really sink in, the degree to which this was going to be a challenge unlike any that we had seen in our lifetimes.

And since that time, nearly every decision you've made has been met with some pushback. Now, that's going to happen in public life, and I know you know that. But what's been the biggest surprise over the past two years relating to the opposition to public health efforts?

That has been one of the the unique parts of the challenge. You're right: Public health issues often come with some kind of a controversy, or a tug and pull between what's good for the community and how individual choices might be impacted by trying to protect the community at large. So that's not new in and of itself.

But I think what's been really surprising has been the degree of disbelief, counter-programming — even in some cases around data, whether the numbers are credible, whether COVID is really that severe, are we making up the numbers and exaggerating them for some purpose. That's been a surprise for sure. We may differ on the solutions, but we normally have more of an agreed fact base.

Roughly 66 percent of Minnesotans are fully vaccinated, and about 30 percent are boosted. Do those numbers give you concern heading into this most recent omicron wave?

We'd love to see those numbers be higher. Among some of the populations who are at highest risk are older groups. We've got a very, very high percentage of people over 65 fully vaccinated. And interestingly, we ranked number one in the country for the percentage of our 65-year-olds who have received their booster — we're in the 80 percent range for that group. So that's really good. Definitely some of the younger populations that have not had as long a period of time they've been eligible for [vaccination against COVID-19], we're working really hard to get those rates up. Among the the newest group, the 5 to 11 group, almost 32 percent of that group has at least one shot, and they're now getting their second shots.

But we’re really working hard on each separate segment of the population, whether that's by age, or geography, or some of the populations who maybe have not been as well served by the health care, testing infrastructures and so forth that we've had. So getting things like vaccinations deeper into communities and working with organizations that really serve those communities best continues to be an important strategy.

Every public health person I've talked to over the past few years keeps talking about masking, of course. And it's spotty, depending upon where you are in the state of Minnesota. I just saw that Grand Forks was giving N95 masks to its residents. Does Minnesota have any plan to get free N95 masks into the hands of residents, along with testing supplies?

There is always an ongoing conversation about, what is the supply of important equipment — personal protective equipment, specifically — and is there a role for the state to play in that? I think, at present, we've been relying on the supply chains — which have been much healthier in recent months — to make those things available. If you can't get an N95 or KN95, double-masking is also quite effective, wearing literally two layers of masks. We want people to know there are options in addition to some of those higher-grade masks.

I've covered you as a journalist for many years, and I've noticed you fully engage in whatever you're doing. And obviously, you've been immersed in the COVID response for two years. But many people don't know you lost your partner right before the pandemic started, and you really haven't had any time to grieve. Have you given thought to just chucking this whole thing? Leaving office and taking care of yourself?

Thank you for that. That personal acknowledgement. I think for many of us in public health, this is the hardest thing we've ever done, but also, in some ways, the most important or the most urgent in terms of really trying to step up to an unprecedented challenge. So yes, it's exhausting, but it's also incredibly rewarding, to be doing our best to serve the state at such an important time. I really have been taking it one step at a time. Where are we in the pandemic? What do we need to do next?

I think we all probably need to get a little bit better at taking care of ourselves. I had a little, nice break from work over the holiday season, and that certainly helped a lot in terms of mental focus and taking care of other things in life. I guess that's not much of an answer to your question, other than I'm just really focused on each week as it comes, but I appreciate that acknowledgment. I know I have some work ahead of me on other dimensions of my life as well.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

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