 Hi folks, my name is Dr. Jared Williams. I'm your city council representative in District 6, and today we're going to have a conversation about COVID-19. You know we're currently seeing rise in COVID-19 cases all across the city, the county, and even the country. And so I wanted to take some time to have a conversation with my friend Brandon Bennett, who is the city of Fort Worth's health director. And so today we're going to be talking about COVID-19, where we are as a city, and then what you can do to help do your part to make sure that we're keeping our neighbors and one another safe. So Brandon, can you give us, you know, kind of a snapshot of where we are right now with COVID-19? We're at a bad spot. Actually, we're probably in a spot that is far worse than where we were back over the holidays, where we had the last big wave. While we haven't reached the total number of infected, what's happening is that people that are becoming infected and are becoming seriously ill and hospitalized is running two to three times higher over a shorter period of time. And what that's done is it has filled up our hospitals. And even more importantly, it has filled up the pediatric hospitals that in a conversation with Cook's children's and other children's hospitals, what we've learned is that they have had more children admitted to their hospital in the last three weeks than they have over the entire pandemic. And it's this Delta variant, which is more transmissible and tends to have a greater impact on all of us, vaccinated or not, and certainly those that are otherwise healthy. We learned early on that if you're over 65 and you're unhealthy, that you're at risk. Well, even healthy people are at risk now with this variant. That's good. Can you describe for the folks tuning in, who are we seeing being impacted in contracting COVID-19? So consistently, if you're looking at from a high level, and then I can make it real simple from there, it's the people that are impacted the most right now are 18 to 49. They're people that don't always have access to regular health care. And they're people that generally are working class, moving down to the poverty line, that those are the folks. And then, of course, there's those that have different ideologies, whether it be religious, political, and you don't have to meet all that criteria. It's just that's what we see. And at the end of the day, really, the people that we physically see in the hospital that are being treated is about 98% are unvaccinated. So that means, if you're vaccinated, you have a really good chance you're not going to be so sick that you're hospitalized. And then the even more compelling number is we're still at about 99.5% of the fatalities are unvaccinated people. And that's why it's just very important for people to get vaccinated. But at the same time, we know that the vaccines that we have don't protect you 100%. And that's one of the reasons with this Delta variant and the spread we have now that we are telling people that you should still wear a mask indoors and that you should socially separate and avoid large gatherings. Right. And I know we're, you know, right on the precipice and in the midst of back to school time. And I know that you've met with the Cook Children Hospital. Can you, you know, describe what the impact has been on children, you know, of late? Yeah, absolutely. So yesterday afternoon, we got a briefing that all of the children's hospitals in the entire Dallas, Fort Worth area, their ICU beds were at capacity. And in fact, some of the hospitals up in Dallas were transporting pediatric patients to Oklahoma for treatment because they didn't have the staffing or bed resource to take care of them here. You know, our nurses have been at this for over, you know, well over a year now and they're just wore out. Right. And so while we're working with the state of Texas to bring in some supplemental nursing, but even at that, I think it's going to continue to be a challenge that the best thing we can do for ourselves, for our children, is get vaccinated, wear a mask, socially distance and avoid large gatherings that it's everything that we had to do before, except we're not having to do all the mitigation strategies now because people are vaccinated. So we're not seeing a need to change occupancy levels or to close down restaurants and bars or things like that. We're really just that individual protection by wearing a mask and socially distancing. Right. And our medical frontline workers have certainly been, you know, really working hard at this. And I personally am grateful for the work that I do. I know it's not easy and they're working around the clock during this pandemic. And so it's really good to know that, you know, we're thinking about staffing in our hospitals as well. And, you know, I look forward to us being able to work with the state to really leverage resources to kind of get more help in our hospitals to really meet the the need right now in this current spike. So that's good to hear. You know, pivoting just a little bit. I just, you know, there's also things that you can do knowing where we are in the pandemic and knowing that, you know, we need you and the folks around you to be safe, to be healthy and to be well. And so some of the things that, you know, I personally encourage you in the city of Fort Worth is encourage you to do or one, wear your mask when you're out in public. I think the second thing we want to encourage you to do is, you know, consult your doctor and get vaccinated. There are a lot of resources all across the state and all across the county and especially here in the city for free vaccinations. And so we want you to be safe by getting vaccinated. And then lastly, do your part in socially separating and distancing from one another in public gatherings at the restaurants at the grocery store. Just being mindful of your interactions with folks during this current rise. Brandon, would you like to add some more context to things that folks at home can do? You are absolutely right that it's, you know, and it's about leadership. It's about self-leadership. It's about head of household leadership that, you know, if you go to a store and people aren't wearing their masks, don't go to that store. Go to a different store, right? Go to hours when there's not a lot of people there. I mean, we still have to buy groceries and things like that, that you, particularly if you have children, that you really got to think about your children first. And when we wear a mask or when they wear a mask, it provides us a little bit of protection. Actually, the wearing a mask actually protects other people from us. If either you or I had COVID virus right now and we were could actively spread it, you and I, because of our separation right now and because we're both wearing a mask are relatively safe, not foolproof, but relatively safe. But if you take your mask off and I leave my mask on and you have COVID, now I'm at risk even though I'm wearing a mask and we need people to understand that that it really wearing a mask is thinking about others first, right? And yourself second, right? And it's not that much to ask that after everything else we've been through a few more weeks of wearing a mask to get the rest of the population vaccinated. And then we can get over this hump and get back to some sense of normalcy, right? Well, folks, y'all have heard it first here. You know, we really are encouraging you that we're all in this together. I firmly believe that neighbors help neighbors. And I certainly want all of us and all of you to help one another as we navigate through this current spike in the COVID-19 infection rates. And, you know, I have hope and I faith that together, we will come out on the other side, you know, even more united and just more healthy than ever. And so please, please, please join us, join the city and the city's leaders in doing your part to keep your family, your loved ones, your neighborhood, your community and our city safe and healthy. Thank y'all for joining us and tuning in.