Marinscope
A Bay Area chief health officer penned a scathing letter criticizing Gov. Gavin Newsom for essentially listening to bad advice that unnecessarily punishes small-businesses who are not contributing to the spread of the virus.
“I wish to apologize to all the businesses that were closed this week,” Dr. Scott Morrow of San Mateo County wrote. “I am not supportive of these actions and, for San Mateo County, I believe they are misdirected and will cause more harm than good. This action is a bit like looking for your lost keys under a streetlight even though you lost them miles away.”
The letter was dated on Aug. 6 and remains on the county health department’s website.
“I feel the state has made the wrong ‘diagnosis’ and therefore is prescribing the wrong ‘treatment.”
Morrow praised Gov. Newsom personally, who he said has “shown great leadership,” but, “the governor isn’t being given good advice.”
The criticism was the harshest issued by a Bay Area health official so far during the pandemic, although Marin County health officials embarrassed state health officials when it was the first to report gross inconsistencies in the counting of COVID-19 numbers by the state.
The mis-counting by as many as 300,000 statewide resulted in the resignation of public health officer Dr. Sonia Angell. (See related opinion column on page A5.)
On the Marin Health Department website, the coronavirus stats from mid July to now includes the disclaimer: “Incomplete data due to state’s CalREDIE system.” That’s the system that was supposed to be counting coronavirus cases statewide and pushing data back to the local health departments. It also was the system that informed the state on which counties could proceed with reopening and which counties could not.
Here is more of Dr. Morrow’s letter:
“I watch the news and I certainly get alarmed by some of what’s going on in the country, and even in our state. But I have to make the best decisions and recommendations based on our data which reflects the situation in our community. Our numbers indicate we are in a relatively stable state in regards to the spread of the virus.
“Over the last few weeks, our hospitalizations are stable and/or decreasing. Recently, our deaths have been low. Even with the current data meltdown at the State related to the counting of new cases, I remain of the same opinion.
“We also have a good idea of what’s causing the spread and it’s not primarily from barber shops, nail salons, or the other businesses that were targeted in this most recent closure.
“While it’s certainly a theoretical possibility that some transmission can occur in the businesses/operations that were just closed by the State, there is no evidence that I have, and no evidence the State has provided to me, that leads me to believe the spread is higher in these businesses than those businesses/operations that are allowed to operate. I have made our situation very clear to the State health leadership and have given them a good understanding of the full context of our situation.
“The brand new, arbitrary and constantly changing framework that the State has set up to put counties on the watch list and to determine closures (beyond the State “floor”) is fundamentally flawed in several ways. This wouldn’t matter so much, and I wouldn’t pay that close attention to it, if there weren’t so much economic and societal damage at stake, economic and societal damage without a concomitant reduction in spread. To me it feels like some newly created bureaucratic box is just itching to be checked.”
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