Speaker numbers apply only to this recording. Names come from transcript evidence. “Possibly” marks uncertain attribution.
The meeting started with the Board of Health, where Health Officer Dr. Gednert answered follow-up questions from an April 14 presentation. The Board then adjourned, and the County Council convened for FY2027 budget presentations from the Departments of Health, Aging and Disabilities, Police, Animal Services, Fire, Sheriff, Detention Facilities, and Emergency Management.
Good morning. The May 12th, 2026 meeting of the Anne Rundle County Board of Health is called to order. Please ensure all phones and electronic devices are set to silent. Dr. Geddon. Good morning. Good to see you all again. And as we are doing this slightly different than previous Mays, we presented in April on April 14th. And today are here to answer some of the questions that you all submitted to us in between these meetings. And so I'm going to jump right into those questions. Thank you for those of you who were able to submit these. The supply matching the demand. The machines themselves are one-time cost and relatively inexpensive, but making sure that the materials that we're using, many of which are coming via the state and other grants, will continue in those ways. That was one of our questions for what we're looking at. But we're we continue to track those machines and hope that this is a useful effort for the community. There was a question around mumps, and the increase that we're seeing was primarily in adults. Do we know if those individuals were vaccinated or unvaccinated? So we don't know specifically for the cases that have been in Maryland. The Department of Health has not released that information on those 43 cases to tell us whether or not those individuals are vaccinated. What we know from studies is that typically individuals who are vaccinated are about 80 to 90% protected. Meaning if one in 10 were to come into contact with the virus, one to two of those individuals who are vaccinated may actually end up with mumps. But we know that, like with many other vaccines, the severity of the illness, hospitalization is also lessened by having the vaccines. And so we don't have the specific data from the health department on those exact cases, but we do know how effective the vaccine is from other studies that we've been able to take a look at. We had a couple of questions about school health. So I'm actually going to go back to those slides. Thank you for referencing the actual slide. That always helps. Around our what we're doing with the school-based health centers. And so the first question was what is a student only model, and what are the other models that exist? And so there are ways that you could create a school-based health center that could serve people other than students of that school. You could serve the broader community, you could serve additional families, you could serve the teachers in those schools. But in order to do that, you typically have to have an external exit and entryway, right? Most schools are not open to the public to just come and go. And in deciding how to really start with a pilot and one school-based health center in partnership with AACPS, we really decided it was best to figure out how to serve the students first, as they are the primary objective in the school-based health centers. But there are models where you could see them doing both, but it usually requires new build, and you're really thinking about that and wanting that and a much larger clinic also to serve adults and