Service Award - Christopher A. Ohl, MD, FACP, FIDSA

Christopher A. Ohl

I've always been really, really interested in science, since I was a little tyke, and I enjoy people and being with people. And anytime I can try to help people, I do, and medicine just brings it all together. My first opportunity was in Eastern Carolina, Hurricane Floyd, and it was a big public health emergency for us. And people were worried, people were scared, they didn't know what to do, power, water, sort of those fundamental things.

Kevin P. High

Well, I've known Dr. Ohl for over 20 years. We were fortunate enough to recruit Chris from ECU many years ago. His service locally has been going on long before the COVID pandemic. He's run our travel medicine clinic for many, many years, and he would run classes for missionary trips.

Christopher A. Ohl

The pandemic kind of came out of the blue in a way. There was a lot of media reaching out. They wanted the local story. "What are we seeing here? How is the pandemic affecting us in the region and the state?" And I had that information, because emerging infections is one of my subspecialties in ID. And I work with the public and the state health department a lot.

Kevin Daniels

There was so much uncertainty going on, that he was really this calming force for everybody, and he was where we got our facts. And he's how we were able to get across to our viewer, which is what we're supposed to do.

Speaker 4

Just about every Thursday, since the pandemic started. Dr. Chris Ohl updating the local...

Christopher A. Ohl

I had a lot of help getting through this. One is I had to distill tons of information quickly and the numbers of papers that were coming out, so where did I reach out to first? Man, our medical students, and they were pulling information. And then, we would meet at the end of the day. We all learned a lot that way.

Kevin Daniels

It was so vital to the people that we serve here at FOX8, that they knew what was going on, and he was able to get that across in such a great calming way. He became part of their everyday routine and basically part of their family, and he really kept that trust throughout the entire pandemic.

Christopher A. Ohl

There really were two aspects. One of it was information and letting people know what the real deal was about the media, because people were hearing all sorts of different things. And it didn't always align, and I think I was able to distill it down in and explain it in a way that people could understand and made sense.

Kevin P. High

He's able to pick through this vast amount of information and then, relate the really critical things that people need and want to know, in a short enough timeframe that they can now understand it, but not get overwhelmed.

Christopher A. Ohl

The two areas that probably were the most meaningful to me, one was working with Wake Forest University and with the School of Medicine to keep functioning, and we got everyone back. We did it safely. We had very few COVID problems actually through vaccination testing and a great student health response, and that probably, in my entire career, my entire professional career, is my biggest heartwarming event that I was able to help Wake Forest. And that goes for the School of Medicine too.

Kevin P. High

I think his opinion is really important, because his opinion is formed from years and years of understanding of the way infections are transmitted, how they affect people, how some people are symptomatic, and some people aren't, and some people are so symptomatic they end up in the hospital, in the ICU. It is knowing the facts, but it's being able to integrate those facts into a coherent opinion that people trust.

Christopher A. Ohl

Lastly is working with the school systems, that schools were tough, and it was because parents were scared, teachers were scared. The default seemed to be that you kept everyone home, and I realized that that's not good for the kids. We were getting data very early on that our kids needed to get back to school.

Tricia McManus

I don't think that, as a system, we would've gotten through all that we did and all the decisions we had to make without Dr. Ohl. He was such a steady, just a steady presence and a steady voice in talking about the research, but also, keeping us, keeping myself and really our community, as calm as possible around what was a very challenging time.

Christopher A. Ohl

When Tricia McManus came on as our superintendent here in Forsyth County, we figured out a way to do it, and we got our kids back in school. And we did it a lot earlier than a lot of the other parts of the country did, and we did it safely. I think we learned a lot from it. I think, in the future, just to default to close their schools for contagion may not be the right thing to do.

Tricia McManus

Having him work alongside the school district through that time and be someone that I could pick up the phone and call in a moment, on the weekend, that is the way we got through the most trying time that I know in my career as an education professional.

Kevin P. High

So the example that Chris set as an impact for the community, I think, is invaluable. It's always, "What's the best information do we have at this time that we can give to keep our community safe?" That's his real gift.

Christopher A. Ohl

Everyone, I think, especially for those of us in Madison, this is really important, is to look back over the last three years, what have we learned about how to respond to a pandemic? What can I do to help shore up and work together as a partner with public health? Because our public health is important and needs our attention. It's not something that just somebody does on the side, so that I don't have to do it, but we all need to be a partner with them. And then, came the bobblehead.

Kevin P. High

How many people do you know have their own bobblehead?

Kevin Daniels

Is everyone aware that he has a bobblehead that he got, I think, at the dash or something like that?

Kevin P. High

Chris is the only one I know that's ever been given that honor.