Between the remnants of the Covid-19 pandemic, the RSV outbreak among both children and adults, and a strong and early cold & flu season, 
NH+C President and CEO Steve Underdahl said the organization is seeing record numbers of people in both the emergency department and urgent care. In fact, the Emergency Room at Northfield Hospital has had three days of record visitors in the last month. He said it seems like there isn’t a person in the community who hasn’t been affected by one of the viruses.
“These easily transmittable illnesses are really working their way through the community very quickly. If you’ve got little kids in your life, or daycare centers, or schools. It’s just difficult right now. Everybody’s sick.”
The problem, he said, is multifactored. Over the last three years when winter began, people stayed home and wore a mask when they went outside. That has decreased the natural immunity to cold and flu viruses, so they are now even more transferable than normal. Covid remains a factor in the community, and the RSV virus that is especially dangerous to small children is not going away for a while.
Still another problem is what Underdahl characterized as a “chronic and persistent” workforce shortage. As with every other segment of the business community, there are currently more jobs in healthcare than there are people to fill them. And while NH+C is able to maintain their standard level of care, he said nursing homes and other such institutions are really having problems.
“Many of those are really vulnerable, particularly nursing homes. I’ve said a number of times recently that I think we’re going to see, around the state, significant closures in nursing homes because they just can’t find staff, and the math just doesn’t work.”
Underdahl said NH+C runs a nursing home that can accommodate up to 40 people, but they have capped the number of residents at thirty because they ar having trouble finding staff. The nursing home issue is causing problems with the hospital patients as well. There are peple who should be transferred to a nursing home that have to stay in the hospital, he said, because they are unable to find a nursing home bed.
The best way for people to help right now, he said, is to try to stay healthy by doing the things socity has been told to do for three years. Stay away from sick people, stay home if you are sick, wash your hands, and, of course, get vaccinated.
Fossum says legal marijuana creates ‘vacuum in the law’
The 2023 Minnesota Legislature will open in less than a month under Democratic control, as the DFL was able to capture control of the 
Among the items on the DFL agenda is legalization of marijuana. While the idea is a popular one with many segments of the state population, law enforcement has consistently opposed the idea, mainly because of the risks it will create due to impaired driving. Many other states, including Washington, Oregon and Colorado have legalized cannabis, and they have all reported higher traffic incidents and higher impaired driving incidents since legalization took hold
Rice County Attorney John Fossum said the questions are how much THC in a person’s system is enough to cause impaired driving, and how can law enforcement test for it?
As with alcohol, Fossum said the state legislature would have to establish a legal limit, but he does not know what that percentage would be. Moreover, there is not an easy way to test for the amount of THC in a person’s bloodstream. There is no apparatus like a breathalyzer that can measure THC without drawing blood. That, however, is an invasive procedure and a police officer would have to get a warrant if a person does not submit to a blood test voluntarily.
Establishing a legal limit, he said, creates a lot of questions. Alcohol levels have been something that has become easier and easier to deal with because the science of testing for it has been established and refined. He pointed out as we learn more about the effect of alcohol on the brain, the legal limit has been getting smaller and smaller. Not so, however, with THC. The lack of good data, he said, creates a vacuum in the law. And while other states have been wrestling with the same question, there are still no good answers.
“We’ve now had several years with Washington state and Oregon and now even South Dakota for a couple of years, with legalized marijuana. And there certainly could be approaches that people can follow, but I don’t know what they are at the moment.”
The 2023 legislative session will begin on January 3rd.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Rice County Attorney John Fossum can be heard here
Finding the snowflake ornament was a complete Bernarding family effort
Heather Bernarding is a local mom of seven children who moved to Northfield about five years ago with her husband and family. She said she
On Wednesday, she found the Snowflake.
Tim Freeland, the Snowflake Hunt Master, had hidden the ornament around a tree, tucked behind a rabbit guard in Way Park. Bernarding said she had been studying the clues, and suspected Way Park might be the location. When the third clue mentioned sisters and healing, she Googled Way Park and found that the land had been donated by the Way sisters, and that it had once been the site of the Northfield Hospital.
When she and her five kids got to the park, they found they weren’t alone.
“The park was swarmed with people,” she said. “There were so many that some people were leaving.”
She and the kids spread out to join the search, and Bernarding herself was the one who found it.
As the winner, she was presented last night with $1000 in Chamber Bucks. She said that she plans to share the money with her kids, and is looking forward to shopping in Downtown Northfield, and keeping the money in the community.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Heather Bernarding can be found here
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
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