Tennessee Commissioner of Health Dr.Lisa Piercey speaks about Covid-19 concerns at Rotary Club
JACKSON, TN (WNBJ)-
The Jackson Rotary club’s weekly meeting featured state commissioner of health Dr. Lisa Piercey who spoke about how the state has handled the pandemic and the current situation.”
“I’m from rural west Tennessee and I worked here at Jackson General for almost ten years and so still on the medical staff I’m very interested in what’s happening here on the ground. and you know these are my friends, this is my community, so I wanted to come here and hear what’s going on as well as offer any support that I can," says Dr.Piercey
At the event, Dr. Piercy spoke about how the state of Tennessee was a national leader in Covid testing, rolled out the vaccine quickly, and used the military and pop-up medical units to aid health care workers. She also spoke about the current overcrowding of hospitals and the strain that the pandemic is putting on health care workers,
“I want the community to know we need to give some grace to our health care workers. they are doing absolutely everything they can and they’re still drowning due to the volume of patients, so my word to medical providers and healthcare personal is to be encouraged. your work is incredibly impactful and it's so very important. keep your strength up.”
The Rotary club invited Dr. Piercy to speak because of her local connection and the relevancy of her topic .Russ McKelvey the president of the Rotary club spoke about why he believes it was important to have Dr.Piercy come.
He said, “ Just to get an update on where the state is, what their approach is. it’s really refreshing because as we’ve all unfortunately experienced there’s a lot of misinformation out there. a lot of ideas coming from different directions, so to get an update straight from the state I think gives us confidence that they're doing everything they can to keep us safe and to take care of Tennesseans.”
Dr. Piercey said that the vaccine is the best tool that we have for fighting the virus. She also noted that Jackson General hospital currently has the most covid patients in any hospital in the state of Tennessee,
