Latest / The SHEA Podcast / Collaborating with NFID

Transcript

Collaborating with NFID · The SHEA Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the podcast series.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: We were all in this together: COVID-19 Allies and Infection Prevention, as part of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, Shay's Rapid Response Program.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Sarah Cosgrove.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins University, and I'm a member of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, or NFID, Board of Directors.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: I will serve as your Shay moderator and speaker today.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm also happy to welcome NFID's medical director, William Shaffner, Professor of Preventive Medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, who will serve as the NFID speaker for today's podcast.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Discussion on the podcast does not reflect Shay's or NFID's perspective, but facilitates communication of multiple perspectives and experiences as we go through this challenging time together.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: Today's episode will focus on collaborations and how we as a team can work together to address the most important questions surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get started with our first question.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: So, Dr.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Shaffner, can you describe what NFID is doing to address COVID-19?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Sarah, you don't have to call me Dr.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Shaffner.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we know each other very, very well.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Please call me Bill.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Just so that your listeners know this is a wonderfully incestuous podcast because you're a member of both organizations, as am I.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a longtime SHA member.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: But let's just say a few words about the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is a foundation.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a member organization, as is SHA, but it's a foundation that was established almost 50 years ago with the express purpose of communication of information about clinical aspects and public health aspects about infectious diseases to both professionals and the general public about the diagnosis, treatment, evaluation, and prevention of infectious diseases.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And when I say to the professions, I mean not just infectious disease docs by any means, but physicians of all specialties, pediatrics, family medicine, for example, as well as to nurses, to pharmacists, physicians' assistants, et cetera.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: So we reach out in a collaborative fashion in many of our activities to work together with professional organizations.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And as I also mentioned, we reach out to the general public to provide information about infectious diseases.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we try to provide timely, trustworthy information, in this instance, about the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what sort of things does NFID do?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: For example, we've provided complementary webinars to support healthcare professionals on the frontline response to COVID-19.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Recent webinars have addressed preparedness and response on college campuses, as well as strategies for protecting high-risk older adults.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: We have some upcoming programs that will address adults with chronic health conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like many others or persons and organizations, we try to do real-time monitoring of this changing situation, sharing the latest findings and developments through media outreach, social media, and updates to the NFID website, www.nfid.org, a good source of solid information.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're launching a new campaign to encourage healthcare professionals and consumers.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, get this, we've had a long interest in vaccines of all kinds, but now in this context, to take advantage of vaccines that are currently available, routine vaccines, to protect against diseases beyond COVID-19, because we know that in pediatric and family medicine practice, immunization has fallen off, routine immunization, and we think the same is happening in adult immunizations.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we're trying to encourage consumers, that is, the general population, to take advantage of these immunizations in a safe fashion and encouraging healthcare professionals to provide these immunizations in an easy, safe fashion.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't get outbreaks of measles and we can maintain and enhance influenza immunization, for example, this fall.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to emphasize the point that you just made.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: But this has the potential to bring effects to the healthcare system of people getting illnesses that are vaccine preventable that we really don't want to have on top of COVID-19.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm curious, do you have thoughts about strategies we should use either through our organizations or in healthcare in general about emphasizing how important it is that people come for their vaccines, but also making sure that our healthcare places are actually open for business to provide these vaccines?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm so glad you emphasized that, Sarah, because as you know, vaccines are close to my heart and have been something the NFID has been concerned for promoting vaccines over the years.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: So as I like to quip, it's difficult to immunize people via telemedicine.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be next to a healthcare provider and roll up your sleeve to get your immunizations.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And working in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics and others, they have provided opportunities and suggestions for providers to actually reserve time for moms and dads to bring in youngsters who need immunizations.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we have to, as physicians who care for adults, promote immunizations and to make sure that consumers don't have to be afraid to come in for their immunizations.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if anything, I think that pharmacists may well play an even larger role this coming fall in providing influenza pneumococcal vaccines, for example.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think it will be interesting to see what influenza vaccine uptake is like this fall, whether the specter of COVID-19 makes people want to get their influenza vaccines, which I'm hoping for, or whether we don't see significant changes in influenza vaccine rates.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm wondering what is your prediction in that arena?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my prediction is that we are going to have to collaborate even more to bring all of the organizations that are interested in vaccines together to sing the same song, to speak the same message, to get it out.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Influenza is part of what will happen this fall, where we will have an onslaught, I predict, of respiratory illness, flu, maybe RSV, but also COVID.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Flu is the one where we have vaccines that can prevent many infections and modulate many others, make them less severe.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I would hope that we would start messaging very imperatively all of the organizations working together in collaboration to promote flu immunization so that we're more successful than we've ever been in the past in getting people motivated to get both children and adults vaccinated against flu.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a practice run in the event that we have a COVID-19 vaccine, which would be a fantastic development.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: You bet.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: So what have uh been some of the challenges that NFID has faced around responding to COVID-19 and how has NFID handled it to date?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think the biggest challenge, as with all of us, has been keeping up to date with the avalanche of new information that keeps coming in, and then focusing that, molding that information into deliverable, valuable education tools, and doing it with our own constrained resources.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: For example, at the NFID, we have weekly COVID-19 staff meetings so that information can be shared and we can brainstorm solutions if we see gaps in the information that's going out to the public and to the professions.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: We have an all hands-on-deck approach.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's pitching in.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: The media interviews that the requests that come to the NFID are primarily done by myself as the medical director, but we have tried to encourage other board members to participate, but they're so busy in their own institutions, it's difficult for them to do that.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, in addition to the good information that's out there, there's unfortunately a proliferation of misinformation, conspiracy theories that need to be addressed via both the traditional media and social media.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: So all of those things together have been uh challenges for us.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: But as I say, the all-hands approach is working pretty well.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's uh working hard, and we're all focused on what's important now: providing coherent, sustained, trustworthy information.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: In my interaction with the media, there's a thirst for that coherence and putting things into perspective, doing explainers.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's very important.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: Can you comment a little further?
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think that most of us in the field recognize what you have brought with all of your media appearances, and because we've gotten to know you on CNN and all the other uh channels.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Did you come into the field thinking I want to be a major infectious disease media spokesperson?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Or did that evolve over time?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And what recommendations do you have for both NFID board members and Shea board members and other members about how to do media successfully?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: How do you find your contacts?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: How do you do your messaging?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it started a long time ago with HIV AIDS locally.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I regard appearances in the media, although very uh distinctive and constrained, you have to learn what the ground rules are, as an educational opportunity.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And here I am representing uh several educational institutions.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: My own university, of course, is an educational institution.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's what NFID does.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is an educational function.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And Shay does that also.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this is just, it's not bedside teaching, it's not teaching from a podium, it's teaching the general public in a different way.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to learn how to function within the ground rules of the media, which is not always so easy.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't think of doing this personally, but as a representative of the infectious disease community trying to get out good, coherent information.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I try to uh pour a little oil on the troubled waters and uh and just take every opportunity to get some good information out.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: It takes a little doing.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can get some help perhaps from your the news office in an institution that you're you're part of, and uh we could talk a little bit about media training, but I always say before you do an interview, think about what your SACO is going to be, your single overriding communications objective.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: What is it I really want to say?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: What's my educational message?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then with a little bit of training and a little bit of experience, yes, you'll fall off the bike occasionally, but get back on, you will be able to respond with your message no matter what it is that the reporter asks.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a pop quiz.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can take control of the opportunity to get out good information, and that's just what I try to do.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think that from the Shay perspective, our organization has always benefited from a fantastic group of members, an incredibly large proportion of members who volunteer their time to you know move our education and and research missions forward.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: But that very same group of individuals was immediately called to the front lines of COVID.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that was quite challenging, and I give a lot of credit to our staff at SHA for continuing forward with our mission, despite the fact that many of the SHA volunteers were working 24-7 responding to the initial events of COVID.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: But that is challenging, and I think truthfully, it's not something that we might have had in our plan of things we needed to worry about.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: Retrospectively, of course, we we did need to have that in our plan, but I think we always thought there'll be people to help with all of this, and and there of course have been many Shay members who have helped, but I know it has been challenging to dig yourself out of your own institutional weeds to come up for water and think about you know what are the major educational issues that we need to promote within our organizations and and what are those media messages that we want to make sure that we are leading rather than people who don't have the same expertise as uh NFID or SHA.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Sarah, I I just wanted to reinforce how important Shea has been.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: I I think it has been enormously important and wonderfully responsible in creating guidelines that take the general recommendations that are up here, as I like to say, at 10,000 feet, and bring them down to the ground of everyday infection control practice.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Among other things, uh, in addition to those guidelines, every morning one of the first things I do is go to the Shea Listserv and I read the correspondence that's going on between colleagues as they address an array of issues, always in a very thoughtful, mutually helpful fashion.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's the sort of thing that we try to do with the NFID as an organization that communicates good information to the professions and to the general public.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we're all doing those sorts of things.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we think providing a real uh stabilization to infection control and how it is that hospitals and other healthcare facilities can manage all the myriad questions that come up regarding COVID.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think are strategies that organizations like NFID and SHA can use to ensure that when expertise in the area of infection prevention is needed, that people come to us where we have track records of expertise in this area?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think that SHA, of course, has traditionally focused on healthcare epidemiology, but there's such an enormous need, it seems, at this point in time for principles of infection control to be understood and practiced almost everywhere across the world.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I speak for both of our organizations in saying that we'd really like to be viewed as the infection control experts in these areas.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: And what are strategies you think that our organization should take to make sure people recognize that we are these great sources of expertise?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm smiling ear to ear because we're doing it.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're collaborating with each other and with other organizations because, as you say, the huge issue before us today in response to COVID is infection control.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: How do we diminish the risk of spread of this virus from person to person in a variety of circumstances?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Home, professional, recreational, wherever we are.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing global infection control at the moment.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: So working with organizations and then reaching out in part to the public is an important thing to do.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I think when there are important messages and you have good spokespersons, you can actually help to establish relationships with media outlets.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can reach out to them, provide people who are available, and provide some media training to those people so that they can feel comfortable in engaging in those venues.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's not at the bedside, it's certainly not at the podium, but using those media outlets, understanding the ground rules about how the media, whether it's the print or social media or TV or radio, work, because it's not always exactly the same, you can adapt those messages you have to those particular outlets, but you need spokespersons who can do that.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: And just watching the television, for example, there are a lot of docs out there, some of whom are indeed uh Shea members who are doing a good job.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: We need to recruit more of us, don't we?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of public health like politics is said to be local.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, certainly that's where it starts.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so having Shea members in communities all over the country and indeed beyond in uh other parts of the world, because we do have international members, being active on their local channels and their local radio, going to the local rotary club and giving a talk, uh, those are very, very important things and provide a sense of real confidence in the local community, particularly its leaders, in the expertise that's available locally.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: I find that that's very important.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody doesn't have to be on CNN.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you do it locally, uh, well, as the environmentalists have taught us, think globally but act locally.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's such an important point because CNN can sometimes sound daunting, but just reaching out to our local communities can make such a difference.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Can you tell us a little bit about how NFID has had to make changes to how it does its everyday business?
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Haven't we all made changes?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, but just for example, we've gone virtual.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we're we're shifting from live meetings, uh, our annual conference on vaccinology research, to a virtual environment.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, that's presented technical challenges for us and has required some creative approaches.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, for example, we give some awards at that annual conference.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: How is it?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And what we've done is create a virtual environment where those recipients of the awards can be recognized and can make their presentations.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then we have to publicize that so it gets a good audience.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know that we have an annual awards dinner, very fancy.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's a gala.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: I put on my tuxedo, and they present awards at that occasion, these kind of Oscars of infectious diseases, and we've had to postpone that meeting, and we're not entirely sure we'll be able to have an in-person meeting.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's now going to be in December.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: We hope by then things have calmed down and we can do that, but we're not sure.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we're making contingency plans.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we also have uh very prominently an annual influenza pneumocakel news conference.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: It ushers in the annual influenza.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Influenza immunization season and the media uh wait for it.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we usually have a keynote speaker, whether the CDC director or the secretary of health and human services or someone of that ilk.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're not sure whether it's going to be held in person, virtually, or in some hybrid format.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: So we're staying kind of loose about it, flexible, and planning almost weekly as we go.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: So all of those have presented the challenges for us.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: But as institutions all over the country are responding, the NFID is also.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think that unfortunately the COVID pandemic occurred in 2020, which was the time that SHA and its partners were scheduled to have the decennial conference.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: I suppose there's a little irony there that a conference that's meant to understand what has happened over the past 10 years and plan for infection prevention and hospital epidemiology issues for the following 10 years fell right at the time that it did.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: So we've certainly had some real life introductions into what we need to be thinking about for the next 10 years.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, because of the of that timing, we were not able to have the Deathennial be an online conference.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: But I find it kind of fascinating how societies and others have kind of embraced the electronic distance learning, if you will.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it speaks to our ability as humans to be uh to be flexible and to have an open mind about new ways of learning.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: My understanding is that the Shay offerings that have been out there, including uh COVID-19 town halls and this podcast series, have had uh way more traffic than our our usual Shay offerings.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm hopeful that we're almost teaching people a new way to stay informed and a new way to uh communicate with colleagues, even when we can't be in the same conference rooms together.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're moving into the new normal, and I think that even when and if COVID abates, I think many of the things we've learned about virtual learning and virtual communication will remain with us.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to be moving into a hybrid world, and I think there'll be fewer airplane trips in my future because of that.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think the opportunities continue to be there for us to do what NFID has just done.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's part of our DNA, is to work together with other organizations, to join with them in one strong voice, as it is, to identify problems, create calls to action, and in other ways to actually work together to present uh good educational information to our co-professionals, whatever their professional role is, as well as to the members of SHA, and of course, NFID has a special interest also in reaching out to the general public.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: Infectious diseases are going to be with us.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: As Tom Frieden, the former director of the CDC, likes to say, there will be another pandemic.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: We can't tell you when or what the pathogen will be, but we can predict with certainty there will be one.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, there are many endemic problems that remain.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Antimicrobial resistance, I think you're familiar with that, is certainly with us and needs interventions.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: And for many of those interventions, we need not only professional collaboration, but we need to reach out and kind of ask for public understanding, and with public understanding, collaboration with the public.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: I could not agree more.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I also hope that we capitalize on the notion that people are more interested in prevention of infectious diseases, improvement in public health approaches.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: COVID is very tragic, but we should always think about what we can learn and what how we can change and make improvements as a result of a terrible tragedy.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm hopeful that we might have more interest from everyone, from the public in disease prevention, in healthcare delivery that might come from this.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I hope that both NFID and Shay can participate in that because I think both of our organizations have really made it a priority to try to improve the world for the better, to make patients safer and to make the general public safer with regard to avoiding exposures to infection and avoiding antibiotic resistance and many other areas.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Amen to that.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked a bit about how uh NFID and Shea can collaborate, and we certainly have very similar missions.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: How else should we be thinking about working together?
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in the new what I hope is the near-term future, there'll be a vaccine against COVID.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there are going to be wonderful opportunities for collaboration as we think about how to distribute vaccines.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think we will think first to healthcare providers on the front lines of all kinds, those in the intensive care unit and first responders, for example.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll have to deliver the vaccine effectively to all those personnel.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then there will be opening up as more vaccine becomes available in phase two and phase three.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the extension of the vaccine's availability to people in a prioritized fashion.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we in the NFID will be working with SHA and with other organizations to inform uh the public who should be in line next for the vaccine, where to get it, how effective the vaccine is, what the public can expect, what sort of adverse events, if any, are associated with the vaccine, and the implementation of that prevention modality, which we hope is in the near-term future, I think will be our next grand opportunity to all work together.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm interested in your thoughts about the role of NFID and SHA in messaging to the public about the importance of investigation of clusters of cases of COVID.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I bring this up because neither of our organizations are necessarily primarily public health organizations, but it seems as though we need to think about what are ways we support, you know, really uh doing effective surveillance and management across the population for COVID-19.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: And this is a little bit, I think, of a change for Americans.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: We're very used to our privacy and used to not having public health authorities in our daily business.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I think this may have to change a little bit because we do need to have a public that is accepting of the fact that they may be called, that they might be exposed, that they may have to quarantine.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: And what do you think we can do to effectively message that that's a it's a very important strategy and that people should work closely if this issue comes to them?
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think in brief, anything we can do and we should do on every occasion is to support our public health colleagues.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean indeed I've often characterized uh healthcare epidemiology as intra-institutional uh public health.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing that same function that public health does in the larger community.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: And as you well know, uh over the years, community-based public health has taken a greater interest in healthcare epidemiology, particularly in antimicrobial resistance, because the intra-institutional and extra-institutional communities are so linked in that regard.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I think once again, just the theme of opening up lines of communication and supporting each other, working together, reinforcing the same or very similar messages are important.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: I want to thank you so much, Bill, for joining us today and sharing your perspectives and experiences and giving us, I would say, a call to arms in particular that we need to not be afraid of the media and make sure that our voices are heard in that environment.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: It makes a difference.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'd also like to give a sincere thank you from Shay to all healthcare personnel for all that you're doing to respond to COVID-19.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: This podcast can be accessed on Shay's online education center, Learning CE, under the Rapid Response Program.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: You will also find additional resources such as the recorded webinars, healthcare facility outbreak preparedness, and the SHAY COVID-19 town halls, as well as the additional podcast series, COVID-19 updates, what we know now, which is released every Thursday.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: This concludes this episode of the COVID-19 Allies and Infection Prevention Podcast series.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for tuning in.