When Clare Shanahan was working on an undergraduate degree in biology at Fairfield University in Connecticut, a microbiology project jolted her into her eventual career path.
“We had to swab a surface on campus. We were in our classroom learning how to grow cultures and process them all the way through, and identifying what we found,” said Shanahan, 29, a Marblehead native.
“I was horrified at what I found. That class, and that project, got me thinking about public health. I got to thinking that every surface is dirty, that we had no idea what was out there that would make us sick.
“That was my turning point,” said Shanahan, whose father, Mike Shanahan, is the CEO of Essex Media Group, which owns The Item. “That’s how I came to public health. When you think about it, you’re touching these ATM keys, elevator keys, and everyone thinks that if you can’t see it, it can’t harm them.”
But, as Shanahan says, events in the past year have proved us wrong. That is why she earned a Master’s Degree in epidemiology at the University of Michigan, and why she now works in a major Detroit hospital with doctors and nurses who are devising effective protocols to keep contagious diseases from spreading among the patients and staff.
And that’s what thrust her into the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic at a time when the virus was careening out of control.
While Gov. Charlie Baker talks about lifting some mask protocols in Massachusetts, Michigan is still having a tough time keeping a lid on the coronavirus.
“We’ve seen the numbers increase in the last month, month and a half,” she said. “We’ve kind of gone back to the mindset and the protocols we were doing during the height of COVID last year.”
After a period of relative dormancy through January and February, cases started to climb in March. On April 12, according to statistics provided by the state, there were 10,066 new cases — the apex of the latest spike. As of last Saturday, that number was cut in half to 5,052.
When the pandemic first started spreading across the United States, Shanahan hadn’t even been working as an epidemiologist at the hospital for a year.
“When COVID first hit, everything that wasn’t related to it stopped,” she said. “Over the last summer, we were able to resume some normal activities. But now they are being put on the back burner again, and doctors and nurses are preoccupied with putting their energies on the virus. Our role, where I am, is to figure out how to support them. It’s different now than it was last year.”
Her function at the hospital is to contain all contagious diseases from spreading throughout the grounds — whether it’s staph, MRSA, tuberculosis, or COVID. Shanahan and her department devise isolation protocols and educate the hospital staff on issues like hand hygiene, which is something she stresses to everyone.
“You’d think people would know to wash their hands,” she said. “I’m constantly telling people they have to wash their hands. There are days when I feel like I’m repeating myself.
“But they’re fatigued,” she said. “They’re distracted. A lot of what I’m telling them is stuff they overlook. But that’s what my job is — to support them with the tools they need.”
The epidemiologists also track the infections.
“We do surveillance via statistics,” she said. “We have software to warn us of potential infections.”
Another thing Shanahan’s department does is identify the proper disinfectants to clean common areas and deep-clean rooms after patients leave — regardless of whether they’ve had COVID.
“We rely on environmental services to do the actual cleaning,” she said. “But we give them the research for them to make an informed decision on what to do.
“I don’t know how we would have survived the pandemic without those people. If it wasn’t for our environmental team, we’d be in a very different place.”
Michigan came into the national spotlight last year thanks to demonstrations at the Statehouse by crowds opposed to mask mandates and other COVID protocol issues. Shanahan said she was aware of it, but didn’t obsess over it. She couldn’t.
“I thought about the politics a few times,” she said. “I realize I’m in a bit of a bubble. I was here more than I was home. I was here six days a week, 12 hours a day. You’re surrounded by people who know what stress is being put on the health system. You’re seeing that side of it. You understand the gravity of it.
“Unfortunately, though, when people are stuck at home, they see it and hear about it, but unless they know someone who is going through it, it’s easier not to understand it.
“All my friends from school know the importance of quarantining, staying home, wearing masks, washing your hands,” Shanahan said. “It wasn’t as if I had people in my life who were adamantly against any of this. Seeing the people who were fighting against the shutdowns, I could shrug it off and roll my eyes. If they only knew what I see every day.”
Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].