Nine months on the front lines

Posted on November 23, 2020
Dr. Brian Miller (pictured), president of the Sangamon County Health Board (Photo courtesy: Dave Dahl/WJBC)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – A panel of doctors on a University of Illinois Springfield looked at the past, present, and future of coronavirus.

Right now, it’s out of control, said Memorial Health System chief medical officer Dr. Raj Govindaiah. “The United States has kind of lost the handle on containment,” he said. “And we really need to rededicate ourselves to that work if we are to flatten and slow the trajectory of this illness.”

Dr. Brian Miller, president of the Sangamon County Health Board, had four tenets from Day One: “We had to communicate. We had to tell the truth as we knew it. It’s better to know the truth, even if you don’t like it. We had to speak with one voice. And they needed to trust us to tell the truth.”

Govindaiah added that despite the preparations, nobody could have expected the size of the pandemic.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]. 

 

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