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1.Senior_Affairs_Committee_Meeting_Minutes_12_27_2021_APPROVED1 TO: Members of the Miami Beach Senior Affairs Committee FROM: Luis Callejas, City Liaison DATE: January 24, 2022 SUBJECT: MINUTES OF THE SENIOR AFFAIRS COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON DECEMBER 27, 2021 – VIRTUAL MEETING • Debi Quade: Chair • Oscar Llorente: Vice-Chair • Luis Callejas: City Liaison Members: Gaby Baglietto, Luisa Estrumsa, Carolina Cuadros, Maria Marrero, Natacha Fernandez, Yliana Gonzalez, Enilda Thomas, Magui Benitez, Gladys Navarro, Sandy Ala, Larissa Cajiao The attendees were as follows: Commissioner Rosen-Gonzalez, Commissioner Fernandez, Diana Fontani, Carolina Cuadros, Natacha Fernandez, Cindy Esquivel, Maria Marrero and Magui Benitez, Oscar Llorente, Dr. Crystal Rego, and Luis Callejas. Absentees: Debi Quade 1) Introductions: Welcome and Introductions – The Vice Chair welcomed the group and quorum was established. Vice-Chair introduced Commissioner Rosen-Gonzalez and Commissioner Fernandez. The Vice- Chair welcomed the group and reviewed the agenda. 2) Motion: To adopt the minutes from the previous meeting held in September 2021 as presented and adopt biannual report. Carolina Cuadros made the motion and second by Diana Fontani, motion passed unanimously. 3) Meet and greet: Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez and Commissioner Alex Fernandez greeted the group and introduced themselves. 4) Covid updates provided by Dr. Crystal Rego, Mount Sinai Internal Medicine Physician: Dr. Crystal Rego, I’m happy to be here tonight and answer any questions that you might have, Happy holidays and Happy New Year. In general, as you all are aware there is another spike and another variance, Omicron, has been identified in the community and in United States. We continue taking measures and precautions. The health care providers continue emphasizing on the importance of wearing masks and of course getting the vaccine. Being vaccinated has been the biggest message because it helps to avoid serious complications and illness due to Covid-19. We 2 are seeing cases where vaccinated people are getting infected, however, our goal is for those people not to end up in the hospital on ventilators and die from Covid-19. Being vaccinated avoids that. Prevention is still the key, even if you are vaccinated, we recommend you continue wearing your mask especially indoors, in areas of high transmission. Wash your hands as much as possible, practice social distancing, avoid large gathering and events where people could potentially be at risk of spreading the virus, especially because you don’t know if the person next to you is vaccinated or has traveled. With that being said, we are seeing cases at the clinic where patients are vaccinated and got infected, thankfully their symptoms are very mild and short lived, people are in quarantine and get out after 7 to 10 days without a problem. Of course, not every patient is the same but definitely that is what we are seeing more of now. Does anyone have any questions? Diana Fontani asked: I have two questions: when you mentioned the 7 to 10 days quarantine, I have heard various things on that, can you please go In more detail on that? Dr. Rego responded: Definitely, the CDC guidelines are if you are infected and you have symptoms you are to be in quarantine for 10 days. Once your quarantine has ended you can leave after 10 days. If you want to shorten the quarantine you can get tested at day 7 and if you test negative, then you can end your quarantine earlier. That’s where the gray zone is, the 7 to 10 days. I tend to be more on the conservative side, I tell people if you are asymptomatic, we can do the 7 days, most people feel more comfortable with the 10 days, so we usually use 10 days. We use it as a precaution especially given the high spread, so basically the CDC recommends to end at 7 days if you have no symptoms and test negative, another caveat is that if you have severe illness, the CDC recommends to be in quarantine up to 20 days. A lot of this is to be discussed with your healthcare providers, we use the symptoms as the biggest gage, if someone is still coughing or having fever, they cannot end the quarantine. You have to be at least 24 to 48 hours without symptoms to be able to end quarantine. Just to make a distinction between quarantine and isolation. Quarantine is if you are living in a household and everyone tested positive the entire household is in quarantine, not going to the grocery store, not going to restaurants of course and etc. Isolation is when you tested positive and the rest of the family members are negative, then you isolate in your own room, with your own bathroom, own utensils, and separate equipment for that 10-day period. Diana Fontani: Thank you, you answered my two questions. Commissioner Alex Fernandez asked: In regards to the 7 days testing, that will be a PCR test? Dr. Rego: Yes, PCR is preferable because of the accuracy. I know is a challenge to get tested because of the volume of people getting tested, but PCR is more accurate. Commissioner Alex Fernandez asked: The negative PCR is it one negative PCR or a repetitive negative PCR test? Dr. Rego: No, its one PCR negative test. The gage on that is purely based on the fact that if you are negative on PCR and you have no symptoms you are fine, however, I always advise patients that if you are negative and still have symptoms then wait for the 10 day quarantine to be over. Commissioner Alex Fernandez: Wonderful. Thank you for the information. Vice-Chair asked: When is that you are supposed to go the emergency room and see the physician or make an appointment to take the infusion? Dr. Rego: The monoclonal infusion has been offered now under a certain criteria, it’s a wider criteria now versus last year, the conditions to take the infusions are you are not sick enough to be admitted in the hospital, you are having symptoms and the risk of progressing to severe symptoms, the infusion is also for patients with a BMI greater than 25%, so technically they are considered over weight, also patients that have other conditions, like diabetics, pregnant or immune compromised, hyper tension, lung issues, organ transplants, these people are at a higher risk for having mild symptoms that can progress to severe, and the criteria is such because even though is a synthetic monoclonal infusion there is always a risk for everything. Mount Sinai is doing the 3 infusion and what I have done with every patient positive that has contacted me, we set up a Telehealth and we talk about what their symptoms are and where the risks are and if they meet the criteria for monoclonal, if they do, we contact the main hospital, set up an appointment to get the infusion. Once there, the ER will recheck your vital signs, your oxygen, and blood pressure, to make sure you are not sick enough to be admitted. Diana Fontani: I have a friend that tested positive with a home kit, negative with rapid and positive with the PCR, what are your thoughts on the home kit? Is there a particular brand? What do you recommend for the seniors? Dr. Rego: It’s a challenge, availability is a big thing now, if you go and try to get a home kit is difficult. There is no standardized kit or test, there are many companies that produce those test and they are now available in the market and that comes with a problem, there is no standardized test, so we cannot recommend one over the other because we don’t have that data. The home test kit is one those things where if you are symptomatic and have enough virus in your nose to test positive, the likelihood of being infected is pretty high. It’s safe to say that a PCR is a confirmatory test. Luis Callejas: In term of hospitalization numbers, how does that look like for Mount Sinai now? Dr. Rego: I don’t have that specific data, I only do outpatient medicine. I don’t know if Oscar has all those numbers. In my clinic, we are seeing milder cases in the vaccinated unfortunately for the unvaccinated they are struggling and struggling for longer. Oscar: I did receive that data, unfortunately I don’t have it with me today because I’m in California on a Holiday vacation with the family. Luis and Diana, I can send that over to you and you can forward it to everyone. I can tell you that hospitals are doing very well, although we are seeing a higher number of infections, the hospitalizations are down like Dr. Rego has said. I do get a lot of people asking me about the infusion and when they can go and get it. I’m glad Dr. Rego was able to emphasize the protocol to get infusion. Thank you Dr. Rego. 5) Discussion on each senior center: Council Tower South: Natacha Fernandez wished everyone a happy New Year and many blessings, everything is good and safe, many residents are with the family for the holidays, the building is currently under construction and renovation, everything is going well. Thank you so much. Diana Fontani: What happened with the balconies at council tower? Natacha: The balconies are closed for protection. Four freedom: No Report Federation: Magui Benitez, our building is still under construction and remodeling and we have some Covid cases and the office is taking care of that. The office is only with appointments and we continue wearing our masks. Rebecca Tower: No Report Stella Maris: No Report Unidad: No Report Black Stone: Maria Marrero, the building is under construction and renovation. The seniors are wearing their masks and we do have some Covid cases but is more with the younger crowd. As you know we had a shooting last week, I believe they are trying to evict the people from that apartment, it’s only one apartment that is really bad. Other than that, everything is better, I see the building much cleaner, maintenance is doing their job. 4 6) Introduce a new city staff liaison, Luis Callejas: Luis Callejas with Commissioner David Richardson’s Office: I have been with the Commissioner for 5 years now, since he was the State Representative for Miami Beach. Then we launched the campaign for Congress, it was unsuccessful and then we took some months off, then he invited me back to help him out with the campaign for Miami Beach commissioner. Commissioner Richardson got elected in 2019 so he has been a commissioner for 2 years, so we are half way through our term. Through the years I have got to know the community pretty well, like Oscar said, we did a lot of work during the pandemic, we got really busy to make sure nobody in Miami Beach went hungry and I think we accomplished that mission. We continue with those efforts; we see a lot of seniors at our food distribution. I’m excited about this position, thanks Diana for showing me the ropes and showing me how it is done and setting a good example and look forward to work with whomever gets appointed. I think the Mayor and the Commissioners will be making the decision as to who will be on Committees hopefully sometime in January at the Commission meeting. So, we are excited to take this on and hopefully I get to meet everyone in the committee. I’ll try to meet with everybody individually before our meeting in late January. Diana Fontani: Thank each and every one of you. It’s been a pleasure working on this committee, as you know seniors are super dear to my heart and Commissioner Gongora. It really was a pleasure working with the seniors centers and its representatives. I know Luis will do an amazing job. Thank you, Debi, Oscar, and committee members. 7) New business: Oscar Llorente: Does anyone have new business? Carolina Cuadros: There is a festival with Commissioner Richardson, on January 6th. Luis if you want to send the flyer or I’ll send it. Luis Callejas: Yes. Commissioner Richardson is having a Three Kings Day Extravaganza, we will have Vallenato music, Melina will be the headliner, the event will be on January 6 from 1pm to 5pm in Collins Park, so please wear a mask, social distancing etc. We will have music, food and everyone is welcomed. We are also planning a pop-up vaccine site, so seniors or anyone from the public can get the vaccine that day. Cindy Esquivel: Thanks Diana for all the great work. I want to congratulate Luis, like Oscar said you have big shoes to fill. Oscar if you can follow up in the new year with transportation, we were able to tackle half of the issues. A lot of the seniors that get their daily lunch at Unidad take the 115, and the 115 is being eliminated by Higgins. I had a lot conversations with Luis, and David has done a lot of outreach and I hope we can continue the conversation to come up with a reasonable alternative. That’s the only way to get the only meal a day. This is also the way to get to Mount Sinai. I spoke with Commissioner Fernandez and the people in his area also use the 115. Just wanted to make sure that this stays in the radar. Oscar Llorente: Thank you Cindy, I did see Luis writing down the comments, I’m sure he will put it on his agenda. Does anyone have any other comment? Any new business? 8) Closing remarks: Diana Fontani: The next meeting will be, January 31, 2022, if you decide to continue meeting the last Monday of the month. Luis will get that on the calendar if that is the date that you want stick to. 5 Oscar Llorente: Board, Friends and Colleagues thank you so much and I really appreciate your time and the effort you all put making this committee work for the seniors of Miami Beach and we look forward to the new year with less Covid and we will see you all on the 31st. The next meeting will be set for January 31, 2022. 9) Meeting adjourned: 10:15 AM