November 2020 Newsletter

News from MHCE 

NOVEMBER 2020 EDITION 

Monthly Newsletter 

WWW.MHCE.US 

Biden wins White 

House, vowing 

new direction for 

divided US 

By Jonathan Lemire and Zeke Miller 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Joe 

Biden defeated President Donald Trump 

to become the 46th president of the 

United States on Saturday, positioning 

himself to lead a nation gripped by the 

historic pandemic and a confluence of 

economic and social turmoil. 

His victory came after more than three 

days of uncertainty as election officials 

sorted through a surge of mail-in votes 

that delayed the processing of some ballots. 

Biden crossed 270 Electoral College 

votes with a win in Pennsylvania. 

Biden, 77, staked his candidacy less on 

any distinctive political ideology than 

on galvanizing a broad coalition of voters 

around the notion that Trump posed 

an existential threat to American democracy. 

The strategy proved effective, resulting 

in pivotal victories in Michigan 

and Wisconsin as well as Pennsylvania, 

onetime Democratic bastions that had 

flipped to Trump in 2016. 

Biden was on track to win the national 

popular vote by more than 4 million, a 

margin that could grow as ballots continue 

to be counted. 

Trump seized on delays in processing 

the vote in some states to falsely allege 

voter fraud and argue that his rival was 

trying to seize power — an extraordinary 

charge by a sitting president trying to 

sow doubt about a bedrock democratic 

process. 

As the vote count played out, Biden tried 

to ease tensions and project an image of 

presidential leadership, hitting notes of 

unity that were seemingly aimed at cooling 

the temperature of a heated, divided 

nation. 

“We have to remember the purpose of 

our politics isn’t total unrelenting, unending 

warfare,” Biden said Friday night 

in Delaware. “No, the purpose of our 

politics, the work of our nation, isn’t to 

fan the flames of conflict, but to solve 

problems, to guarantee justice, to give 

everybody a fair shot.” 

Kamala Harris also made history as the 

first Black woman to become vice president, 

an achievement that comes as the 

U.S. faces a reckoning on racial justice. 

The California senator, who is also the 

first person of South Asian descent elected 

to the vice presidency, will become 

the highest-ranking woman ever to serve 

in government, four years after Trump 

defeated Hillary Clinton. 

Trump is the first incumbent president to 

lose reelection since Republican George 

H.W. Bush in 1992. It was unclear 

whether Trump would publicly concede. 

Earlier Saturday Trump left the White 

House for his Virginia golf club dressed 

in golf shoes, a windbreaker and a white 

hat as the results gradually expanded 

Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania. Trump 

repeated his unsupported allegations of 

election fraud and illegal voting on Twitter, 

but they were quickly flagged as potentially 

misleading by the social media 

platform. 

One of his erroneous tweets: “I WON 

THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!” 

The White House did not immediately 

respond to a request for comment. 

Biden was spending Saturday morning 

with family and advisers at home in Wilmington, 

Delaware, his campaign said. 

Americans showed deep interest in the 

presidential race. A record 103 million 

voted early this year, opting to avoid 

waiting in long lines at polling locations 

during a pandemic. With counting continuing 

in some states, Biden had already 

received more than 74 million votes, 

more than any presidential candidate before 

him. 

More than 236,000 Americans have died 

during the coronavirus pandemic, nearly 

10 million have been infected and millions 

of jobs have been lost. The final 

days of the campaign played out against 

the backdrop of a surge in confirmed 

cases in nearly every state, including 

battlegrounds such as Wisconsin that 

swung to Biden. 

The pandemic will soon be Biden’s to 

tame, and he campaigned pledging a 

big government response, akin to what 

Franklin D. Roosevelt oversaw with the 

New Deal during the Depression of the 

1930s. But Senate Republicans fought 

back several Democratic challengers 

and looked to retain a fragile majority 

that could serve as a check on such Biden 

ambition. 

The 2020 campaign was a referendum 

on Trump’s handling of the pandemic, 

which has shuttered schools across the 

nation, disrupted businesses and raised 

questions about the feasibility of family 

gatherings heading into the holidays. 

The fast spread of the coronavirus transformed 

political rallies from standard 

campaign fare to gatherings that were potential 

public health emergencies. It also 

contributed to an unprecedented shift to 

voting early and by mail and prompted 

Biden to dramatically scale back his travel 

and events to comply with restrictions. 

Trump defied calls for caution and 

ultimately contracted the disease himself. 

He was saddled throughout the year 

by negative assessments from the public 

of his handling of the pandemic. 

Biden also drew a sharp contrast to Trump 

through a summer of unrest over 

the police killings of Black Americans 

including Breonna Taylor in Kentucky 

and George Floyd in Minneapolis. 

Their deaths sparked the largest racial 

protest movement since the civil rights 

era. Biden responded by acknowledging 

the racism that pervades American life, 

while Trump emphasized his support of 

police and pivoted to a “law and order” 

message that resonated with his largely 

white base. 

The president’s most ardent backers never 

wavered and may remain loyal to 

him and his supporters in Congress after 

Trump has departed the White House. 

The third president to be impeached, 

though acquitted in the Senate, Trump 

will leave office having left an indelible 

imprint in a tenure defined by the shattering 

of White House norms and a dayto-day 

whirlwind of turnover, partisan 

divide and the ever-present threat via his 

Twitter account. 

Biden, born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, 

and raised in Delaware, was one of the 

youngest candidates ever elected to the 

Senate. Before he took office, his wife 

and daughter were killed, and his two 

sons badly injured in a 1972 car crash. 

Commuting every night on a train from 

Washington back to Wilmington, Biden 

fashioned an everyman political persona 

to go along with powerful Senate positions, 

including chairman of the Senate 

Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees. 

Some aspects of his record drew 

critical scrutiny from fellow Democrats, 

including his support for the 1994 crime 

bill, his vote for the 2003 Iraq War and 

his management of the Clarence Thomas’ 

Supreme Court hearings. 

Biden’s 1988 presidential campaign 

was done in by plagiarism allegations, 

and his next bid in 2008 ended quietly. 

But later that year, he was tapped to be 

Barack Obama’s running mate and he 

became an influential vice president, 

steering the administration’s outreach to 

both Capitol Hill and Iraq. 

While his reputation was burnished by 

his time in office and his deep friendship 

with Obama, Biden stood aside for Clinton 

and opted not to run in 2016 after his 

adult son Beau died of brain cancer the 

year before. 

Trump’s tenure pushed Biden to make 

one more run as he declared that “the 

very soul of the nation is at stake.”

2 | MHCE - News www.mhce.us NOVEMBER 2020 EDITION 

experienced people and pick their brains," said Tozier, an Active Duty 

Soldier assigned to the 3rd Medical Command. "The Soldiers who 

have been here for the past year have gained an incredible amount of 

knowledge and they are more than willing to pass that along to their 

counterparts." 

The PAs in attendance agreed. 

"We just got on the ground here a few days ago, so it's important we 

talk to the people who've been here and who have done what we'll be 

expected to do in the next year," said Maj. Todd Kreykes, a PA with 

the 1171st Area Support Medical Company (ASMC). 

Physician Assistants 

By Maj. Bobby Hart 

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq -At any one time, more than 120 physician 

assistants (PAs) are in Iraq performing the full gamut of medical 

services ranging from trauma, acute and primary care, training for 

medics and clinics for Iraqi civilians. 

A group of these physician assistants met in the Oasis Dining Facility 

here as part of Physician Assistant Week which runs from October 

6-12. 

"This was a good opportunity for our PAs to get together and share 

ideas," said Col. Jim Tozier, the Army's senior PA. "We have people 

spread all across Iraq. Even with this group tonight, we are all on the 

same FOB (Forward Operating Base), but this is the first time some 

of us have met." 

Tozier and Maj. Jose G. Mangrobang, the senior Corps PA, organized 

the event to recognize the job PAs do in theater and to give the Soldiers 

an opportunity to mingle and unwind. 

One responsibility of the 1171st is to man the Troop Medical Clinic 

(TMC) on Camp Victory, which Kreykes says provides the unit an 

opportunity to treat a wide range of injuries. 

"Being on post, we see a lot of orthopedic injuries resulting from 

sports-related accidents," Kreykes said. "But we are a Level two 

facility, so we do see trauma victims who we have to stabilize and 

then transport to other facilities." 

Another 1171st PA, Capt. Brian McKeon, said the most common 

ailment coming through the TMC is what Soldiers call the "Baghdad 

Bug" or "Grunge" which keeps the medical facilities full almost every 

day during sick call. 

"This is a very dusty environment so we get a lot of upper respiratory 

ailments," McKeon said. "I think almost everybody here will suffer 

through at least a few days feeling the effects of the environment." 

Tozier said the work being done at the TMC is typical of the high 

tempo action PAs see in Iraq. 

"Our PAs here have an excellent opportunity to see the full realm of 

ailments," Tozier said. "It's a very stressful situation, but the wide 

range of activities gives the PA's a chance to hone their skills they 

couldn't get anywhere else in the world." 

"One of the important things that came out of this was the chance 

for some of the people who just got into country to meet some of the

WWW.MHCE.US Monthly Newsletter | 3 

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Corona Positives Are 

Automatically Requires To 

Go Into Quarantine 

Press release of the city of Wiesbaden, 06 NOV 2020 

Courtesy Translation: Lena Stange, Public Affairs Specialist 

WIESBADEN, Germany -- The administrative staff met again on 

Friday, Nov. 6, and discussed the current situation of the corona 

pandemic. 

The health authority expressly points out to citizens that a 14-day 

quarantine is mandatory for people who receive a positive result 

(starting with the day of the test). This obligation to quarantine also 

applies automatically to all household members. This was regulated 

in the 1st Ordinance to Combat the Pandemic of the State of Hessen. 

This also applies without a written quarantine order from the health 

authority. 

The administrative staff did not decide on any further measures in its 

meeting, but reserves the right to do so if the number of infections in 

Wiesbaden continues to rise unabatedly. "The measures currently in 

force are necessary to slow down the spread of the corona pandemic, to 

protect people from risk groups and to ensure that sufficient treatment 

capacities are still available in clinics," say Lord Mayor Gert-Uwe 

Mende and Mayor and Head of the Health Department Dr. Oliver 

Franz. "We ask all Wiesbaden residents for their understanding and 

urge them to adhere to the measures and to wear a mouth and nose 

covering and to avoid contacts that are not absolutely necessary." 

Details of all regulations so far can be found in the substantiated versions 

of the general regulations. These can be downloaded from wiesbaden. 

de/coronavirus under “Pressemeldungen und Verordnungen”. 

VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT MHCE.US


The VA Is Now Offering 

Transition Services Specially 

Tailored for Female Veterans 

By Jim Absher 

The Department of Veterans Affairs is teaming up with the Department 

of Defense to offer Women's Health Transition Training (WHTT) for 

female service members who are transitioning to civilian life. 

The voluntary training program is in addition to the normal Transition 

Assistance Program (TAP) that all separating military members are 

required to attend, and is not a substitute for TAP training. This training 

is only available to female service members and will be led by a 

woman veteran who actually uses VA health care. 

The training began as a pilot program in 2018 in response to reports 

that female veterans were not using their VA benefits as much as male 

veterans did, mainly because they didn't know what programs were 

available to them. Due to the great success of the pilot program, a 

joint VA/DoD Executive Committee voted to make this program a 

permanent offering by the VA. 

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, this year's remaining training sessions 

will be offered online only. Sessions will be held twice daily 

through Dec. 21, 2020. All women are encouraged to attend to learn 

more about the special benefits for which they may be eligible. 

Some of the subjects that will be discussed in WHTT include: 

• Female specific health care including reproductive services, maternity 

care, mental health services, newborn care, and gynecological 

care and musculoskeletal care. 

• Resources available for servicewomen during the military to civilian 

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• Special programs available through the 

VA for women veterans. 

• Services available through the Center for 

Women Veterans 

According to the VA, a great number of women 

veterans do not apply for healthcare and 

other benefits they may be eligible for due to a 

lack of knowledge of these programs. In fact, 

since the WHTT program began as a pilot in 

2018, women who attended the training sessions 

applied for VA benefits at a rate 114% 

higher than in previous years, and they did so 

quicker, 

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The VA says that women veterans have a higher 

prevalence of chronic pain, obesity, musculoskeletal 

issues and depression than their 

male counterparts. Further, since 2001, rates 

of suicide among women veterans has increased 

by 85.2%, versus 30.5% among men 

among the youngest age groups. 

Women veterans with a mental health diagnosis 

who do seek VA care often do it later than 

their male counterparts. VA hopes this new 

training will let women veterans know what 

benefits they have available to them and to 

enroll for care and other benefits as soon as 

possible. 

The program is intended to complement TAP 

and to provide all servicewomen with specific 

women's health information that will aid their 

transition to civilian life. The goal of the program 

is that participants leave the course feeling 

empowered to proactively manage their 

health care and to be comforted by their new 

support system at VA who can guide them 

through the military transition process and 

help them. 

There will be two four-hour long sessions 

daily Monday through Friday through Dec. 

21. Sessions will be held at various times to 

allow those stationed across the globe to attend 

at a convenient hour. 

VISIT OUR WEBSITE 

AT MHCE.US


One reason is because elections officials 

were not allowed to process mail-in ballots 

until Election Day under state law. It’s a form 

of voting that has skewed heavily in Biden’s 

favor after Trump spent months claiming 

without proof that voting by mail would lead 

to widespread voter fraud. 

Biden ‘Time to Heal’ in First 

Speech as President-Elect 

Biden spent Thursday trying to ease tensions 

and project a more traditional image of 

presidential leadership. After participating in 

a coronavirus briefing, he declared that “each 

ballot must be counted.” 

“I ask everyone to stay calm. The process 

is working,” Biden said. “It is the will of 

the voters. No one, not anyone else who 

chooses the president of the United States of 

America.” 

Biden’s victories in the upper Midwest put 

him in a strong position, but Trump showed 

no sign of giving up. He was back on Twitter 

around 2:30 a.m. Friday, insisting the “U.S. 

Supreme Court should decide!” 

Trump’s campaign engaged in a flurry 

of legal activity to try to improve the 

Republican president’s chances, requesting a 

recount in Wisconsin and filing lawsuits in 

Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia. 

Judges in Georgia and Michigan quickly 

dismissed Trump campaign lawsuits there on 

Thursday. 

Trump held a small edge in Georgia, 

though Biden was gaining on him as votes 

continued to be counted. The same was true 

in Pennsylvania, where Trump’s lead had 

slipped to about 22,000 votes — and the race 

is destined to get tighter. 

Mail ballots from across the state were 

overwhelmingly breaking in Biden’s 

direction. A final vote total may not be clear 

for days because the use of mail-in ballots, 

which take more time to process, has surged 

as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Trump campaign said it was confident 

the president would ultimately pull out a 

victory in Arizona, where votes were also 

still being counted, including in Maricopa 

County, the state’s most populous area. The 

AP has declared Biden the winner in Arizona 

and said Thursday that it was monitoring the 

vote count as it proceeded. 

“The Associated Press continues to watch 

and analyze vote count results from Arizona 

as they come in,” said Sally Buzbee, AP’s 

executive editor. “We will follow the facts in 

all cases.” 

Trump's campaign was lodging legal 

challenges in several states, though he faced 

long odds. He would have to win multiple 

suits in multiple states in order to stop 

vote counts, since more than one state was 

undeclared. 

It could take several more days for the vote 

count to conclude and a clear winner to 

emerge. With millions of ballots yet to be 

tabulated, Biden already had received more 

than 73 million votes, the most in history. 

Trump’s erroneous claims about the integrity 

of the election challenged Republicans now 

faced with the choice of whether to break 

with a president who, though his grip on his 

office grew tenuous, commanded sky-high 

approval ratings from rank-and-file members 

of the GOP. 

Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, a potential 

2024 presidential hopeful who has often 

criticized Trump, said unequivocally: “There 

is no defense for the President’s comments 

tonight undermining our Democratic process. 

America is counting the votes, and we must 

respect the results as we always have before.” 

But others who are rumored to be considering 

a White House run of their own in four years 

aligned themselves with the incumbent, 

including Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who 

tweeted support for Trump’s claims, writing 

that “If last 24 hours have made anything 

clear, it’s that we need new election integrity 

laws NOW.”


Some of the Trump team's lawsuits only demand better 

access for campaign observers to locations where 

ballots are being processed and counted. A judge in 

Georgia dismissed the campaign’s suit there less than 

12 hours after it was filed. And a Michigan judge 

dismissed a Trump lawsuit over whether enough GOP 

challengers had access to handling of absentee ballots 

Biden attorney Bob Bauer said the suits were legally 

“meritless.” Their only purpose, he said “is to create an 

opportunity for them to message falsely about what’s 

taking place in the electoral process.” 

Weissert reported from Wilmington, Delaware. 

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Colleen Long 

and Alexandra Jaffe in Washington contributed to this 

report. 

This article was from The Canadian Press tight contests 

in some key battleground states. 

With his pathway to re-election appearing to shrink, 

Trump on Thursday advanced unsupported accusations 

of voter fraud to falsely argue that his rival was trying 

to seize power. It amounted to an extraordinary effort 

by a sitting American president to sow doubt about the 

democratic process. 

“This is a case when they are trying to steal an election, 

they are trying to rig an election,” Trump said from the 

podium of the White House briefing room. 

The president's remarks deepened a sense of anxiety in 

the U.S. as Americans enter their third full day after the 

election without knowing who would serve as president 

for the next four years. His statements also prompted 

a rebuke from some Republicans, particularly those 

looking to steer the party in a different direction in a 

post-Trump era. 

Neither candidate has reached the 270 Electoral 

College votes needed to win the White House. But 

Biden eclipsed Trump in Wisconsin and Michigan, two 

crucial Midwestern battleground states, overtook the 

president in Georgia and was inching closer to doing 

the same in Pennsylvania, where votes were still be 

counted. 

It was unclear when a national winner would be 

determined after a long, bitter campaign dominated by 

the coronavirus and its effects on Americans and the 

national economy. The U.S. on Wednesday set another 

record for daily confirmed cases as several states 

posted all-time highs. The pandemic has killed more 

than 233,000 people in the United States. 



The Harbert College of Business ranked among the 

top 30 public business schools in the nation 

By EETV Web Team 

AUBURN, Ala. (EETV) -The U.S. News & World Report has ranked 

Auburn Univesity's Harbert College of Business as one of the top 30 

public schools in the nation. 

“The Harbert College of Business is keenly focused on delivering 

quality graduate programs that prepare our students to step into 

leadership roles at corporations of their choosing and influence sound 

decision-making,” said Associate Dean of Graduate and International 

Programs Stan Harris. 

starting salaries, to recruiters' assessments. This is the third year in a 

row The Harbert School of Business has been ranked. 

“Our Full-Time MBA draws talented students from across the country 

due to its robust curriculum, talented and engaged faculty, and 

outstanding return on investment,” said Executive Director of Full- 

Time and Online MBA Programs Jim Parrish. “When you consider 

that we provide students a firm foundation in advanced business theory 

and practical training in leadership and career development, the value 

of our program becomes obvious.” 

The ranking was based on a survey of Full-Time MBA programs. 

The survey took into account a wide range of criteria from graduates 

AUBURN, Ala. (WRBL) – Auburn University’s Harbert College of 

Business has partnered with Radiance Technologies to provide the 

companie’s employees with the ability to pursue higher edcuation 

with an online MBA. 

Radiance has employees across 12 states who will be eligible to earn 

an Auburn Online MBA beginning in the fall 2020 semester. The 

release from the university says Radiance is paying 100 percent of 

the tuition and fees in order “to build the next generation of leaders.” 

“We hope employee-owners take advantage of this opportunity as 

Radiance is committed to promoting professional development and 

higher education,” said Radiance CEO Bill Bailey. 



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Experienced Nurses Needed as Nurse Educators 

By EETV Web Team 

At a certain point in their clinical practice careers, 

many longtime nurses -- even those who have 

sacrificed much to care for patients -- come to ask 

themselves, "Is this all there is?" 

Leaders in nursing say the answer is an emphatic 

no. Nurses who have suffered the slings and arrows 

of the managed-care environment while helping to 

bring thousands of patients back to health over the 

years do have a noble alternative: Teaching. 

"The most wonderful reason to become a faculty 

member is that you get to shape the profession," 

says Geraldine Bednash, executive director of 

the American Association of Colleges of Nursing 

(AACN). "Anyone with lots of clinical experience 

has got some very important perspectives that new 

graduates need to have." 

RNs with master's or doctorate degrees are in great 

demand as faculty at nursing schools. Indeed, 

the current nursing-faculty shortage, which the 

AACN reports at 7.6 percent nationally for the 

2008-09 academic year, is a major contributor to 

the mushrooming shortage of all types of nurses. 

Nursing schools turned away nealy 28,000 qualified 

applicants in 2008 due to a shortage of faculty and 

resources, according to the AACN. 

And the shortage of nursing-school professors is 

expected to worsen in coming years as many faculty 

retire. According to AACN survey data released 

in March 2005, 65 percent of the nearly 11,000 

faculty members teaching in the nation's bachelor's 

and graduate nursing programs were older than 50. 

Education for Nurses Who Teach 

The current emphasis on clinical experience as a 

key element of nursing education means nurses 

who teach don't have to give up patient contact. 

"People can have the joys of being an educator 

while continuing to do their practice," says Janet 

Allan, dean of the University of Maryland's School 

of Nursing in Baltimore. 

Teaching in a nursing baccalaureate program does 

mean earning an advanced degree. About one-third 

of faculty positions require a master's degree, and 

two-thirds require a doctorate. Many nurses find 

ways to earn an advanced degree without entirely 

giving up their clinical practice income. 

Online programs enable nurses to fit graduate study 

into their busy lives. For example, the University of 

Maryland's nursing education certificate program is 

offered both in the classroom and in cyberspace. 

"The whole program -- all 12 credits -- can be done 

online," Allan says. 

Financial Aid: Needed and Available 

Tuition for a graduate nursing degree is likely to run 

into tens of thousands of dollars, but nurses can get 

help paying tuition and related costs. 

Financial aid for nurses attending graduate school 

is available from many sources, including the 

federal and state governments, hospitals and other 

healthcare employers, nursing associations and 

nursing schools, as detailed in AACN's financial aid 

directory. 

Some nurses bridge the financial gap by working 

while they study. That was the path taken by Lisa 

Lowery, who is simultaneously studying for the 

University of Maryland's nurse-educator certificate 

and a doctorate of pharmacology, which she hopes 

will enable her to become a nursing school's director 

of pharmacology. "I work 12-hour shifts on Saturday 

and Sunday as an agency nurse in emergency 

rooms," she says. 

Earning Potential Drops, Then Rises 

Perhaps the most difficult obstacle for nurses aspiring 

to be professors is the salary cut they're likely to 

experience at the start of their academic careers. 

The average salary of an emergency room nurse 

practitioner with a master's degree was more than 

$95,000 versus about $68,600 for a nurse professor 

with the same academic training, according to a 

2007 survey by Advance for Nurse Practitioners 

magazine. 

But "over the longer term, as they move up the 

professorial ranks, faculty members with doctoral 

degrees earn well into six figures," Bednash says. 

Other nurses who become teachers are satisfied 

with the lower salary range and personal benefits 

associated with working an academic year in a 

secure teaching position.


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Expert: Most Private Physicians Untrained to Handle 

Vets' Issues 

By Jon O'Connell 

Most veterans get some health care from 

private doctors. 

But most doctors outside the Veterans Affairs 

system aren't trained to identify servicerelated 

illness, according to a physician 

working to educate clinicians on the issues. 

"While everybody seems to be mostly 

focused on the health care that veterans are 

getting at the VA, it sort of went unnoticed 

that 80 percent of veterans get most of their 

health care from civilian providers," said 

Jeffrey L. Brown, M.D., a clinical professor 

of pediatrics at New York Medical College 

who also teaches at Weill Cornell Medicine. 

While about 40 percent of veterans get some 

health care from the VA, only about 20 

percent of all veterans rely totally on the VA, 

according to a 2015 government survey of 

health and health care use. 

Dr. Brown, a pediatrician and retired U.S. 

Armymedic, carried a .45 pistol and treated 

wounded and sick soldiers and, at times, local 

children in Vietnam. Late in his post-military 

private practice career, a New York Times 

article alerted him that anyone who served in 

Vietnam should consider themselves exposed 

to Agent Orange, a carcinogenic defoliant 

used to kill thick plant growth and expose 

hiding Vietnamese fighters. Those veterans 

risked serious illness like cancer, diabetes 

and heart disease. 

He learned of the risk from a newspaper, not 

his doctor, which he thinks is a big problem. 

The revelation prompted a new quest to 

educate physicians about service-specific 

ailments. 

"The biggest deficiency: Most health care 

providers don't ask patients as they come 

through the door if they've ever served in the 

military," he said. 

Dr. Brown, whose early opinion on the matter 

appeared in a 2012 edition of the Journal of 

the American Medical Association, will speak 

during a symposium at the Commonwealth 

Medical College from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 

Saturday. 

Service-related issues also could affect 

women's health, especially when it comes to 

bearing and delivering children, Dr. Brown 

said. 

Pediatricians also seldom are trained to 

identify psychological and learning problems 

among veterans' children related to their 

parents' service or the effects after returning 

from deployment, he said. 

About 800,000 veterans live in Pennsylvania, 

according to 2015 data from the U.S. Census 

Bureau. And on average, they get only 

29 percent of their care through the VA, 

according to the administration's survey. The 

rest comes from outside providers. 

More often, veterans get private insurance 

either through work or a spouse's job, or 

they're on Medicare or Medicaid. Traveling 

to a non-military practitioner often is easier 

than to a VA facility. 

"Unless you speak up and say you are a 

veteran or your spouse is a veteran, the issue


might not even come to light," said Richard 

R. Silbert, M.D. , a psychiatrist and senior 

medical director for the Community Care 

Behavioral Health Organization. 

Dr. Silbert also will be speaking at Saturday's 

symposium along with other mental health 

and VA clinicians. 

"There's just so many other things that they're 

(asking) in a doctor's office. 'Do you drink? 

Do you smoke? How's your diet?'" he said. 

"Everything's kind of competing." 

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Effort at Fort Detrick Leads to 

Approval for COVID-19 Treatment 

By Greg Swatek 

Sometimes, the days and weeks just aren't 

long enough for Col. Ryan Eckmeier and his 

team at Fort Detrick. 

The last 10, almost 11 months, have been 

a seemingly endless stream of phone calls, 

emails and virtual conferences, trying to get 

the right piece of information in front of the 

right person at the right time to help corral 

the novel coronavirus. 

"White space on the calendar is something 

that you used to have," Eckmeier said in a 

phone interview this week. 

However, the payoff, or a form of it, arrived 

late last week when the Food and Drug 

Administration approved the broad-range 

antiviral drug remdesivir as the first drug to 

treat COVID-19. 

Clinical trials have shown it to be effective in 

reducing recovery time from 15 to 10 days. 

The drug can be administered to adult and 

pediatric patients who require hospitalization 

and are at least 12 years old and weigh a 

minimum of 88 pounds. 

"It tips the balance of power to the body as 

opposed to the virus. It allows the immune 

system to catch up," Dr. John Dye, chief 

of viral immunology at the U.S. Army of 

Medical Research Institute of Infectious 

Diseases (USAMRIID) on Fort Detrick, said 

of remdesivir. 

"When an infection occurs, it really comes 

down to the immune system fighting the 

virus. Whoever gets the upper hand is going 

to win." 

As a joint project manager for The Joint 

Project Manager for Chemical, Biological, 

Radiological and Nuclear Medical (JPM- 

CBRN) on Fort Detrick, Eckmeier and his 

team helped set up the elaborate, almost 

spider-web-like network of connections that 

pushed remdesivir across the finish line as a 

COVID-19 treatment. 

A process that often takes several years was 

completed in a matter of months, and much 

of the work that was required to earn FDA 

approval occurred in the labs and offices on 

Fort Detrick. 

"It's satisfying," Eckmeier said. "We know 

there is more work to be done. For the team 

here at Fort Detrick, it's just been an absolute 

and unbelievable amount of work behind the 

scenes. Most folks will never know about it, 

and that's fine." 

The phone call that initiated the process 

arrived in January, almost two months before 

the World Health Organization officially 

declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic. 

"We got a call from our headquarters basically 

telling us, 'Hey, there is this coronavirus like 

thing that's showing up in China'," Eckmeier 

said. "They had released the genomic 

sequence [of the virus], I mean, kind of open 

source...We got a call [from headquarters]. 

They said, 'Hey, what do we have that could 

potentially combat this disease if it was to 

turn into a global pandemic or if it was to end 

up on our shores.'"


Remdesivir was originally created in 2009 

by Gilead Sciences, a large American 

biopharmaceutical company, to combat 

hepatitis C and respiratory syncytial virus 

(RSV), but it proved to be ineffective against 

both. 

With the help of the Defense Threat 

Reduction Agency's Joint Science and 

Technology Office in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, 

and USAMRIID on Fort Detrick, remdesivir 

was repurposed for use against other viruses, 

such as Ebola and Marburg. 

In 2015, preclinical trials at USAMRIID 

showed that remdesivir blocked Ebola 

in Rhesus monkeys, paving the way for 

it to eventually be used in human trials. 

Remdesivir was used to help curb the Ebola 

outbreak in West Africa in 2016. 

Doctors, scientists and lab technicians at 

Fort Detrick continued to study the possible 

effects of remdesivir against a family of 

related viruses, known as filoviruses. 

When the call arrived in early 2020 about 

the novel coronavirus, they sprang into 

action, poring over 500-plus pages of highly 

technical medical papers in search of ways to 

combat it. 

"It was daunting," Eckmeier said. "I think 

that's the right word for it." 

The digging produced a previously published 

entry in an academic journal that showed 

remdesivir had some in-vitro effectiveness 

against other coronaviruses. 

Word of the discovery quickly spread through 

other government agencies, such as the 

National Institutes of Health, and eventually 

made its way back to Gilead. 

"Gilead was already moving in that direction," 

Eckmeier said. "It was their product. So, they 

knew about the academic journal [entry]. 

They were watching the unfolding events as 

the rest of the world was." 

With a long-term partnership already 

established, the U.S. government and Gilead 

began working frenetically to get remdesivir 

approved to help fight COVID-19. 

"Just absolute huge amounts of work to get 

this effort [approved]," Eckmeier said. "It 

was a lot of facilitation and linking folks up, 

making sure the right people were talking 

to the right people to move this forward 

quickly. It was a frenzy, and a lot of the effort 

is still ongoing. The fact that we have agile 

acquisition systems and vehicles through 

multiple partnerships allows us to go out and 

do these things much quicker." 

The speed doesn't have much precedent. 

"Normally it takes 10-15 years and a billion 

dollars or more to develop vaccines or drugs 

all the way to licensing," Eckmeier said. "For 

one thing, it's hard." 

With the onset of COVID-19, the government 

has put a lot of the development and approval 

processes on parallel instead of successive 

tracks, which has enabled the process to 

move faster, according to Dr. Dye. 

"It's been impressive, the speed at which 

things are happening while keeping in mind 

the safety component," he said. "We are 

doing this in a compacted time frame with 

no less of an emphasis on safety and efficacy. 

Those standards are being maintained." 

Prior to receiving full approval last week, 

remdesivir was approved for emergency use 

in severely ill coronavirus patients back in 

May. In August, the approval was expanded 

to treat mild to severe cases. 

"It's a great first step," Dye said. "It's not a 

cure, not a fix-all. But it gets us one more step 

closer to winning this battle. There are more 

steps to get there and more battles along the 

way. But it's a great first step." 


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Effort at Fort Detrick Leads to 

Approval for COVID-19 Treatment 

By By U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran and 

Secretary of the Army Ryan D. 

McCarthy 

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 

hero of the Second World War and 

Kansas' favorite son, established 

Veterans Day in 1954 to allow "a 

grateful nation (to) pay appropriate 

homage to the veterans of all its wars 

who have contributed so much to the 

preservation of this Nation." 

As the chairman of the U.S. Senate 

Committee on Veterans' Affairs and 

secretary of the Army, we seek to 

fulfill Eisenhower's vision as we 

support the needs of our military 

and veterans. This Veterans Day, 

we are particularly mindful of vets 

dealing with the challenges of 

the COVID-19 pandemic. During 

the past eight months, some have 

suffered unimaginable loss and 

others significant hardship, but one 

thing we have all experienced is the 

feeling of isolation. 

Thanking someone you know, or 

even complete strangers, for their 

service on Veterans Day is an 

American tradition, but this year 

will be different. Veterans Day 

parades are canceled, gatherings at 

local veterans halls are discouraged, 

and schools will not host vets for 

assemblies. The vet handing out red 

poppy pins for donations to the local 

veteran service organization might 

instead spend this Veterans Day 

alone. Unfortunately, this portrait 

of a lonely veteran is more common 

than we might think. 

The statistics on veteran suicide are 

chilling. As of 2017, an average of 

20 veterans and service members die 

by suicide every day. This represents 

a 7% increase in the rate of suicide 

among veterans in just over a decade. 

Some reports indicate that suicides 

among service members have 

increased as much as 20% this year, 

when compared to previous years. 

Let's put those numbers into 

perspective: Every day, we lose 

nearly the same number of veterans 

and service members to suicide as 

we did soldiers to enemy action 

during Operation Gothic Serpent, the 

mission made famous by the book 

and movie "Black Hawk Down." 

Every week, veteran and service 

member suicides are equivalent to the 

number of soldiers that constituted 

the original "Easy Company," 

memorialized in the HBO series 

"Band of Brothers." Moreover, every 

month, we lose more veterans and 

service members to suicide than we 

did in our worst year of fighting in 

Afghanistan. 

The stress of the unknown has been 

felt at every level in the U.S. Army; 

from the newest recruits on their way 

to basic training to the highest levels 

of leadership. Just because American 

soldiers can carry the weight, doesn't 

mean that it isn't heavy. This year has 

strengthened the Army's resolve to 

take rapid, positive and meaningful 

steps to safeguard every American 

soldier by listening, learning and 

taking action. 

Army leaders are developing deep, 

interpersonal connections at every 

level so they better know their 

teammates. When those connections 

exist, someone will likely know if a 

teammate is struggling. To assist our 

leaders and frontline soldiers, we 

are fielding better leader visibility 

tools and new awareness materials. 

These initiatives are integral to equip 

leaders at all levels with creative, 

effective tools for building resilient 

soldiers and cohesive teams. 

There is no single explanation for 

suicide, but the loss of even one 

veteran or soldier to suicide is too 

great. 

This past year, the Senate Veterans' 

Affairs Committee made significant 

strides for veterans with an 

aggressive agenda, including the 

passage of the Commander John 

Scott Hannon Veterans Mental 

Health Care Improvement Act. This 

landmark veteran mental health 

care legislation, signed into law last 

month, will improve care and services 

for our veterans and bolster outreach 

by establishing a grant program for 

community organizations already 

serving vets across the country. 

It will also direct the Department 

of Veterans Affairs to pioneer new 

research on mental health to better 

diagnose and treat our vets; improve 

rural veterans' access to life-saving 

mental health care through a 

telehealth expansion; and will hold 

the VA accountable for its mental 

health care and suicide prevention 

efforts. 

This Veterans Day, we challenge 

you to help us make certain veterans 

across our county do not feel alone. 

This pandemic continues to impact 

the mental and physical health of 

communities across the country, and 

our veterans depend on us to reach 

out and provide support during this 

challenging time. 

Americans have battled fiercer 

enemies before, but the military 

community can confirm that it takes 

all of us to win. 

If you or someone you know is 

struggling with suicidal thoughts 

or ideations, please contact the 

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 

and Veterans Crisis Line at (800) 

273-8255, and then press 1, or via 

text at 838255.

November 2020 Newsletter

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