Page 13 - WCMS4Q21

Interview with Sandro Cinti
Richard E. Burney, MD
The Bulletin: How did the COVID-19 Work Group come together in March 2020?
Cinti: As you know we had convened WCMS task
forces to deal with 2009 influenza and Ebola. This same structure was set up for COVID-19. Unfortunately, we could not meet in person as we had in the past (you
may remember the dinners at the Ann Arbor City Club). Zoom conferencing seemed to work well, though, and we had excellent turn out in the early days of COVID-19. We wanted to include our executive council members
as we had in the past in addition to representation from Public Health, all the hospitals (including the VA), EMS, Law enforcement. Our hope was to keep each other up to date and weigh in where decisions needed to be made at the county, and state level. We wanted this to be a place where all the expert voices could be heard and where tough questions could be asked.
Jim (Szocik), Gabrielle (Szlenkier), and I worked on bringing the group back together.
The Bulletin: In what ways did the work of the 2020 group differ from that of past groups?
Cinti: I think we turned out to be more an information sharing group this time around than an action-oriented group. During the 2009 pandemic we put out several position statements and we went against the CDC requirement for N95 masks which was unreasonable
and undoable (the CDC eventually agreed). I do wonder whether the zoom environment made us a little more passive, although it did allow us to meet more frequently.
The makeup of the 2009 Pandemic group was hospital leadership and experts from all hospitals, EMS, Police, the University, Public Health. During the 2009 pandemic we put out several combined messages with logos from the different hospitals and the health dept. We did not do that this time around, which may have been due to the expectation that this was an informational meeting.
Having Marissa (Eisenberg) and Emily (Martin) presenting the state and national epidemiologic data was one of the greatest benefits of this meeting. Also, •the agenda was mostly updates and not action items.
Volume 73 • Number 3 Washtenaw County Medical Society BULLETIN 13