While this coronavirus is novel and the vaccines developed to tame it are new, preparations underway by county public health staff are anything but. “It’s just a different virus than the other ones that we’ve already worked with,” said Michelle Moritz, public health supervisor with Crow Wing County, during a Thursday, Dec. 10 interview. “… Fortunately, it’s something that we have spent the last 20-some years preparing for as we have had people much smarter than me telling us that this was coming. So I know it’s been at least 16 years that I’ve worked on pandemic preparedness and in 20 years of working for public health, it’s something that we’ve talked about since Day One.”