Team 56 launches coronavirus awareness campaign

A grassroots effort aimed at killing the coronavirus with kindness and neighborly care is gearing up in Lincoln County.

Team 56 spun out of conversations between local health workers and elected leaders across the county in the summer as the pandemic ramped back up in Montana. In response to the medical community’s concerns, local lawmakers encouraged them to launch a public awareness campaign.

At the time, the county’s active COVID-19 case count was dipping from a then high of 35. As of Oct. 24, the county was home to 81 cases.

Team 56 posters have been since distributed across town, urging residents to follow pandemic related recommendations, namely regularly washing hands, wearing a face mask when out in public and maintaining social distancing. Susie Rice, who along with her husband, Dr. Greg Rice, is spearheading the effort, said the flyers were just the start.

The group’s nascent campaign includes efforts by the students at the county’s three high schools. Flyers asking people to help save the teenagers’ senior year are going up around the towns. Also in the works are banners urging folks to spread kindness, not COVID-19.

Adding a dash of lighthearted fun to the situation, the group plans to roll out a competition to name that masked man. Inspired by “The Lone Ranger,” the contest will feature photographs of local residents wearing face masks and challenge participants to guess their identity.

The photographs will be published in all of the major Lincoln County newspapers and posted on Facebook. Participants in each of the county’s communities stand to win $100 cash prize for correctly identifying the individuals.

“We thought there needed to be levity in the struggle we’re all going through in being isolated and in having our lives turned upside down,” said Susie Rice. “It’s kind of like ‘The Lone Ranger:’ Who is this masked man?”

Susie Rice said the group has geared its efforts in a way that does not come across as “pushy.” Instead, the aim is to gently encourage people to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines.

“It’s a message that some people feel like they’ve been hit over the head,” she said. “But we wouldn’t be having the spike right now if we were truly doing those things.”

And that spike has her husband and longtime Libby doctor, Greg Rice, concerned.

“We’re in a situation right now where everything matters,” he said. “All the pieces of the puzzle make a difference.”

Greg Rice said the measures needed to combat virus spread are well known. They’re low tech and time tested, he said.

But he admits they are no longer politically palatable.

Greg Rice said the playbook includes locking down the community for at least two weeks. With all but essential businesses closed, officials would launch a massive surveillance testing effort. Those sickened should be isolated — and required to remain isolated. A simultaneous contact tracing effort would be mounted.

He likened it to what Libby’s health officer did during a 1920 outbreak of scarlet fever. Back then, medical officials ordered the schools closed and the town’s children sent home under penalty of arrest.

“What’s frustrating for us as physicians is that the playbook for stopping a surge is very straightforward. It’s not complicated,” he said.

But Greg Rice does not foresee anyone proposing — let alone enforcing — another shutdown before the general election. Surveillance testing, which was undertaken in the early months of the pandemic, is no longer available. To date, no one has been penalized for ignoring isolation orders locally.

Given the lack of political will, Greg Rice said a grassroots effort like Team 56 still can promote the remaining pieces of the puzzle: emphasizing personal hygiene, social distancing and mask wearing.

Susie Rice said the community has a long history of stepping up and looking out for one another. She pointed to past efforts to raise money for sick residents and ailing children. That is the spirit Team 56 is trying to tap into, she said.

“We’re trying to go at it from a positive standpoint: You protect your neighbor and you protect yourself,” she said. “That’s what Libby has always been about.”