Pandemic ponderings

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's public health order regarding coronavirus is scheduled to expire after Friday, more than three years after the pandemic started.

"While we're still seeing COVID cases, our preparedness and collaborative work have helped turn a once-in-a-century public health emergency into a manageable situation," she said earlier this month while also urging elderly and immunocompromised people to get vaccinated or their booster shots.

COVID-19 killed 70 residents of Quay County during the pandemic, caused more than 2,500 infections and disrupted lives and businesses.

Statewide, the virus killed more than 9,000 people. Nationwide, the death toll is more than 1.1 million.

The virus' spread has diminished to a low ebb in recent weeks, though it's not gone. On Friday, the COVID Act Now website raised the community spread risk of the virus for Quay and several surrounding counties from "low" to "medium" because of an increase in hospitalizations.

The Quay County Sun interviewed three local officials who talked about the pandemic's effect on the community and them personally.

The survivor

Tucumcari Mayor Ralph Moya was vocal during city commission meetings in his advocacy for COVID-19 vaccinations. He maintained the vaccine kept him from dying when he contracted a breakthrough case, and he was hospitalized for only 24 hours.

However, Moya said he lives with the regret of accidentally giving the disease to his younger sister, who died of it after 45 days in intensive care.

Moya said he contracted COVID-19 at his Tucumcari counseling office from a patient who didn't believe in the virus.

"Everybody has a right to believe what they want to believe," he said. "And the fact is, I'm the one who slipped on that case. I should have made her put on the mask when she came in to see me. I kept her six feet away, but that still didn't help. I also have to assume responsibility for that.

"I slipped, and it was a one-minute mistake."

Moya's office held a strict mask policy, and he said he remains the only staffer there to contract the virus during the pandemic.

Moya said after consulting with the apparently infected patient, he later visited his sister at her home, and she contracted the virus from him.

"That's not good. That's something I have to deal with," he said.

Moya acknowledged his sister was resistant in obtaining a vaccination, which was available at the time. He said she tried to keep from being infected by sheltering in place and only going to the grocery store.

"She was on the fence because of all the propaganda people said against the vaccine," he said. "She eventually did take the vaccine, but it was the same week she contracted COVID."

Moya said he also lost a friend in Clayton to COVID-19 who resisted the vaccine.

"He refused to take the vaccine because he believed in the propaganda against it," he said.

Moya's friend was in the ICU for a month before succumbing, despite his mistaken belief that ivermectin would shield him from the virus.

"I see his family all the time. I don't dare mention anything about it because his beliefs were so strong," he said.

Moya also said a young nephew contracted the disease and was in hospitals in Santa Rosa and Hobbs for weeks.

"He was young, and it almost took him down," Moya said.

Once a skeptic of the vaccine, he said the nephew now is big believer in that and booster shots.

Meanwhile, another couple he knew who was vaccinated contracted breakthrough cases.

"They were able to pull through, and it wasn't a big deal," he said.

Moya said the lowest part of the pandemic for him was when three people in one block in Tucumcari died of COVID-19 during a one-week span.

"These were people who didn't believe in the shots. It was awful to see," he said.

Moya, 72, said he grew up in an era when a bigger percentage of people believed in the efficacy of vaccines.

"When I was a kid, we used to have a lot of polio, and it's nearly eradicated now," he said.

Moya said it's "a good thing" New Mexico's governor is lifting the health order.

"People now (can take precautions) voluntarily. We have gone through a lesson, and we should do what's right. If you don't want to do it for yourself, do it for the people you're around.

"People still have to take responsibility for our own health. We have to take precautions to make sure we're vaccinated and make sure we're not super-sick."

The administrator

Renee Hayoz, administrator for the Quay County Family Health Center in Tucumcari, said the pandemic was quite an experience.

"It was an eye-opener. You wouldn't think you'd ever live through a pandemic, but here we were, trying to maneuver through it," she said.

Hayoz said it led to a sea change in how the clinic operates. She said it was forced to offer more telephonic and videoconference visits with its patients to lower the risk of the virus being spread.

The clinic also had to conduct more screenings of those who were symptomatic or exposed to the virus. And workers there still are wearing masks three years later.

"The virus was changing constantly, and so there was a change, almost hour to hour, in our protocols," Hayoz said. "We were having to take our own temperatures and having to wear face masks all day."

The situation became more complicated with the arrival of vaccinations by early 2021.

"We were trying to make sure members or our community were vaccinated, and we had limited supplies," Hayoz said. "At first, it was just emergency personnel and high-risk populations.

"After it became available, it was an issue of having enough time getting everyone vaccinated who wanted to while following the protocols in making sure we only had a certain number of personnel in the clinic at one time. A lot of people were getting frustrated, and we were getting frustrated here. We were tired.

"And then you had patients who died of COVID. It was a hard hit realizing that not everyone was safe."

Hayoz said staff also became frustrated with those who didn't want to wear masks at the clinic.

"We also had the naysayers. So we had to deal with that, as well," she said. "We understand; we're open-minded. But, at the same time, there were guidelines set in place for us."

She said some patients became impatient with the clinic's screening rules.

"I had to intervene and say, 'Look, we hate having to ask these questions, too, but we have to. It's protocol. You may not appear to have COVID, but you may be asymptomatic. If you have it, it might infect somebody else,'" she recalled.

She said several clinic staffers had to stay home at times due to infection or exposure, which impeded service to its patients.

"We were very fortunate that we didn't have to close the clinic at all," Hayoz said.

Hayoz said she also felt lucky that no members in her family died from the virus. She contracted COVID-19 in December 2022 and experienced only mild symptoms.

Hayoz theorized COVID-19 vaccinations will become an annual offering, much like seasonal flu shots.

Hayoz said she's aware the governor's health order was set to expire, but she hadn't received guidelines from Presbyterian Medical Services on that development so far.

When asked whether the imminent expiration of the health order was prudent, she let several seconds pass before responding.

"I think everyone's over COVID. It's been a lot, especially for everyone in the medical field," she said.

The county manager

Quay County manager Daniel Zamora had a unique perspective to the pandemic. Before being hired to his current position in April 2021, he was the county's emergency manager.

"I remember hearing news reports about what was going on in China and other countries," he recalled. "I was at a conference, and DOH gave a report about it. That was the moment that it kinda set in. I remember driving home, thinking, 'Oh, man, I think this is something.'"

He said he spent a lot of time trying to acquire personal protective equipment and coordinating efforts with the state and local healthcare providers, then organizing vaccination events once the shots became available.

"It was a wild ride for a little bit," Zamora said.

Zamora also credited the previous county manager, Richard Primose, for his efforts during the early days of the pandemic before he retired.

Asked about his low point of the pandemic, Zamora said: "To me, the low point was it was politicized. Suddenly, people were angry with us for what we were doing to mitigate the pandemic. They didn't want vaccinations; they didn't want to wear masks. We felt like we were doing what needed to be done and were following the science. People were saying we were infringing on their rights somehow."

He said everyone in his family eventually was infected with COVID-19 but suffered no losses.

Zamora said one of the lessons he learned from the pandemic is the need for healthcare access in Quay County.

"If the hospital here doesn't have the capability, then they send you to a higher level of care, whether that be Amarillo or Albuquerque. But during the pandemic, those places weren't taking people," he said. "There was nowhere else to go."

He said when the proposed new Trigg Memorial Hospital was being designed, architects added negative-pressure rooms used for intubating patients. The current Trigg Memorial Hospital facility lacked such rooms.

"I think (a pandemic) will happen again," Zamora said. "Who knows when or what it will be? But making sure we have the capability of taking care of our people here locally will be the upmost importance because if something like this happens again, we won't have anyplace to send them."