Friday Morning Medical Update: Former Chiefs Player Turned Doctor

The number of active COVID patients is lower today at The University of Kansas Health System. 46 patients with the active virus are being treated, down from 50 yesterday. Only seven of those 46 are vaccinated. 18 patients are in the ICU, up from 16 yesterday, and only three are vaccinated. Nine are on ventilators, the same as yesterday. 46 other patients are still hospitalized because of COVID but are out of the acute infection phase, down from 50 yesterday. That’s a total of 92 patients, down from 100 yesterday. HaysMed has 14 patients, up from 13 yesterday.
On today’s Morning Medical Update, a former Chiefs player turned Chiefs team physician. Dr. J.P. Darche, joined us to talk about playing with the Chiefs, returning as a team doctor and his close connection to physician and Chiefs offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif.
Dr. Darche was an NFL long-snapper, playing six years with the Seattle Seahawks and two years with the Chiefs. He played in the 2005 Super Bowl with the Seahawks, though they lost. He admits the Chiefs teams of 2007 and 2008 weren’t very good but says he wouldn’t trade his playing days for anything. When he retired, he turned his attention to medical school, and became a doctor, just like fellow Canadian and current Chiefs lineman, Dr. Laurent Duvernay-Tardif. The two are good friends, and often speak French together in the Chiefs locker room, where Darche is now one of the team doctors. He’s also a primary care and sports medicine physician at the health system. He says being a former player gives him a unique perspective when treating patients, especially in sports medicine. He’s glad to see that pro football players, and many pro athletes in general, have a high COVID vaccination rate. There have not been reports of big outbreaks on teams like last year before vaccinations. He says of his health system patients who have been vaccinated, none have been hospitalized with COVID. He also says there’s a lot of misinformation among patients who were hesitant to get vaccinated, which he notes is common among those without medical training. Typical reasons he hears are “it was rushed” or “it’s experimental.” He believes nobody has ever changed their mind about getting vaccinated after being talked down to or shamed, so he spends extra time listening to their concerns and answering their questions. He finds he’s been pretty successful at convincing them to get vaccinated. To use a baseball analogy, “I’m not batting a thousand, but batting high enough to make the All Star team.” He’s worried about school kids, especially in districts where masks are not required. As for the Chiefs, he says the biggest difference he and the players are looking forward to will be fans in the stands, but he says those attending the games still need to take precautions, get vaccinated and wear a mask if they are not vaccinated.
Dana Hawkinson, MD, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control at The University of Kansas Health System, discussed the Mu variant, saying there will always be COVID variants, which we are able to track, but he doesn’t feel there is any imminent danger from that one. He says there have been no known deaths from the vaccine, and the rate of people who developed blood clots in their brain is no higher than those unvaccinated who developed those clots. He also reported being on a phone call with the CDC in which the new recommendation was made that it’s OK to get a flu shot and a COVID shot at the same time. He hopes everyone can get their flu shot by the end of October. To those who argue that “If flu shots are not mandated why should COVID shots be mandated?” he says many businesses and schools already require flu shots, and COVID is a whole lot worse than the flu. He advises parents not to send their kids to school if they are sick, even if they test negative for COVID, and wait 24 hours after their kids are symptom-free to have them return. He also says not to worry if you got your first COVID shot, not knowing you had the virus. It will not lessen the vaccine’s effectiveness.
Monday, September 13 at 8:00 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. Vice Chancellor and Director of The University of Kansas Cancer Center, Dr. Roy Jensen answers questions about vaccines and a third shot for Cancer patients, and we bury a time capsule to mark a milestone.

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