Mayor Clarkson presses County Health Officer: “there’s a lot of feeling among residents that the goalposts got moved on us”

SAN RAMON – During San Ramon Mayor Bill Clarkson’s May 15th “Mayor’s Breakfast,” he hosted Contra Costa Health Officer Dr. Christopher Farnitano to discuss residents’ questions about the ongoing health order.

During the meeting, Dr. Farnitano provided an update on his department’s efforts to recruit volunteers for contact tracing, a key component of the county’s criteria for reopening. “We’re really in the second inning of a nine-inning baseball game,” Dr. Franitano said when describing the progress.

Dr. Farnitano said the county has achieved two of the indicators for re-opening (hospital capacity and hospitalizations) but the other three indicators (PPE supply, contact tracing, and testing) have not yet been satisfied.

Mayor Clarkson shared concerns he heard from residents about the county’s use of indicators as criteria for reopening, He explained the two indicators that have been achieved, limited hospitalizations and adequate hospital capacity, were the original motivation for the health order and have fulfilled the threshold by a large margin. “Several months ago we were asked to flatten the curve… there’s a lot of feeling among residents that the goalposts got moved on us.”

The mayor also addressed negative effects of the ongoing health order, saying the impacts on domestic violence, mental health and employment have been devastating. “We have played our part, we’ve flattened the curve… so there’s a lot of anger and frustration out there, I know it, you know it,” Mayor Clarkson said to Dr. Farnitano. “We think those variables should play a larger role.”

Mental health, particularly in adolescents, was a reoccurring topic during the meeting. Mayor Clarkson cautioned Dr. Farnitano to ensure the rhetoric from county health officials does not scare residents, particularly those with children who could be psychologically impacted by fear. Dr. Farnitano responded by saying although no person younger than 50-years-old has died from COVID-19 in Contra Costa County, there are rare cases reported in other parts of the country.

Dr. Farnitano also addressed a question submitted by a resident who asked why residents who aren’t considered high-risk for contracting COVID-19 were still being told to stay at home under the health order. He explained that if the county opened everything, there would be a surge similar to New York. He described images he saw earlier this year, “I was watching pictures on the news… of trenches where they were piling coffins up… because they could not keep up with the number of bodies.”

Mayor Clarkson also shared that his great grandfather passed away in the second wave of the 1918 Pandemic (often called the Spanish flu). “This is still a very serious illness, so I’m not dismissing that,” Mayor Clarkson added.

As Dr. Farnitano answered a resident’s question about when specific businesses would be allowed to open, Mayor Clarkson shared his disagreement with how health officials are defining which businesses can open. “It is my opinion that the state and county should not pick and choose the economic winners and losers,” Mayor Clarkson said. He shared that the community may be better served if officials outlined criteria that businesses need to meet in order to open instead of deciding which specific businesses they think should open. Mayor Clarkson added officials already have an enforcement mechanism in place should a business fail to meet outlined criteria.

Dr. Farnitano responded to the suggestion by saying the county has moved away from defining essential and non-essential businesses. “When we are more deeply into Phase Three, most of the businesses are going to be allowed to open as long as they follow those criteria.”

The “Mayor’s Breakfast” is hosted weekly on the City of San Ramon YouTube page.