Compton working as interim health officer as COVID-19 cases rise

When people have questions about COVID-19 and the vaccines that are available to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Ty Compton wants to make sure that people get the answers they need — even though more than a year into the pandemic, there are still some unknowns

about the virus.

“The thing about COVID-19 is that it’s not mathematical,” said Compton, who currently serves as Jackson County’s interim health officer at the NEK Multi-County Health office in Holton. “The questions aren’t as easy as ‘What’s two and two?’ For one thing, it’s hard to know, because there’s not a lot of information.”

That applies to the delta variant, which has caused a surge in new COVID-19 cases in Kansas and around the country where vaccination numbers are low, Compton said. He pointed to a “wildfire” of new cases in southwestern Missouri where the majority of deaths from COVID-19 involved people who were not vaccinated against it.

Compton’s also concerned about people who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in Jackson County, and while he admits that convincing them to get vaccinated is a near-impossible task, he and his fellow health care providers in the county will be here for them if and when they come around.

“That has to be an internal decision,” he said. “Honestly, if you let people who are very adamant against the vaccine make that decision and you don’t point out the negatives, they don’t have to save face, so to speak.”

For more on this story, please log in to your holtonrecorder.net account and select the July 14, 2021 edition.

 

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109 W. Fourth St.
Holton, KS 66436
Phone: 785-364-3141
 

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