by Joseph Back Are you skeptical and prefer to do your own research? Just tend to be curious? If either of these describes you, then be sure to check out a new series of video testimonials of the impact COVID-19 has had locally, put out by a coalition of local people that have been around and/or through the gauntlet.

Just to be clear, that includes Pierce County Public Health Officer AZ Snyder, listed with a star below as among those who have recovered from COVID-19 and with firsthand experience from both sides of the crisis.

The group effort entitled “Let’s Do Our Part, River Falls,” represents a community coalition of those touched firsthand with the fallout from coronavirus. The series of nine video testimonials began running Tuesday, Dec. 16, and Links to the video testimonials can be found by going to the River Falls website at www.rfcity.org, hovering over “Government” and then going to the bottom of the City Services column under “Let’s Do Our Part River Falls.” It can also be reached at present by going to www.rfcity.org/LetsDoOurPart.

'The three to four minute videos will be released one at a time via social media and other online platforms over the next several weeks,' coalition member Mary Zimmermann said as communications manager for the City of River Falls. Zimmermann said the testimonials feature community members sharing honest, personal, and compelling stories about the impact the virus has had on them and the people and organizations they serve. They also urge community members to help contain the spread and save lives by taking simple virus prevention measures and adhering to public health guidelines. Starting the week of 2019, Dr. Ben Morgan heads up the video releases as an internist affiliated with River Falls Area Hospital and Vibrant Health Family Clinics. Here is come of what Dr. Morgan has to say on COVID-19: “One word I’d probably use is just exhausting,” Morgan says in the video released December 16. “There’s just a certain amount of psychological exhaustion…and there’s a certain amount of just emotional and physical fatigue.” Noting the disease’s unpredictable nature and comparing it to a video game being played at “moderate” level that someone switches to superhard from the back, Dr. Morgan says that the COVID19 virus means you “have to do it that much better, that much quicker, more efficiently to kind of get to the same aim.” Calling it “humbling” to know just how quickly patients can decline, Morgan says that, “it’s hard when it’s unexpected, and it’s hard to have those conversations with family,” reeling from the unexpected blow to their loved one’s health.

“What keeps me up at night is not as much a preoccupation of an overwhelming mortality from COVID-19 directly,” Dr. Morgan said. “What worries me about COVID-19 is that you’re having enough patients being admitted, both here and in our tertiary care facilities that those other routine emergencies like heart attacks, strokes, and trauma that come in, I worry will quickly be at a point that I am not going to be able to transfer those patients routinely to those usual areas,” he said.

“We’ve been at ICU capacity in the metro facilities for weeks,” he says, saying that he had to transfer patients to La Crosse recently because they were the only ICU beds available.

“I think everyone is different in how they assess disease and risk,” Morgan said of local response, adding that the community need was more prominent than the individual one, and that he empathized with those who were affected in different ways. “This is not about you or me, this is about us collectively.” Alongside Dr. Morgan, other community members to be featured in the videos will include: Kristi Erickson____________ Emergency room nurse, River Falls Area Hospital Rev. Gerald Harris_____ Pastor, St. Bridget Catholic Church *Gary Kelsey______________ Nonprofit consultant; board member, St. Croix County Foundation *Russ Korpela____________ Ex. Director, River Falls Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau Dr. Rita Raverty_________ Family doctor, Allina Health River Falls Clinic *AZ Snyder________________ Public Health Director/Health Officer, Pierce County Public Health Becky Tomasek_________ Public health nurse/contact tracer, Pierce County Public Health *Anna Zalusky___________ Fourth grade teacher, Rocky Branch Elementary, River Falls *Have recovered from COVID-19.

Created in August 2020 to develop a unified message around COVID-19 prevention as well share each organization’s efforts to stop the virus’ spread, members of the “Let’s Do Our Part, River Falls” coalition now includes:

• Chippewa Valley Technical College

• City of River Falls

•. Pierce County Public Health

•. River Falls Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau

•. River Falls Area Hospital (Allina Health)

•. School District of River Falls

• St. Croix County Public Health

• University of Wisconsin – River Falls

•_Vibrant Health Family Clinics (Fairview Health Services) “The view of coalition members is that one (united) voice is stronger than our individual voices,” said Zimmermann, “and resources and responsibilities can be shared to realize the group’s goals more quickly and efficiently.” Zimmermann said that the coalition’s next initiative will focus on encouraging all residents to get vaccinated.