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Stanislaus Mayors! STOP: “It’s still too soon to open up!”

April 26, 2020 By Jim Costello 10 Comments

Ceres resident James Costello is a Pediatric Physician’s Assistant with over 40 years’ experience caring for children. His emphasis is on vaccines and vaccinations.

James Costello
James Costello

As of April 25, Modesto is opening parks and golf courses under specific guidelines. Bathrooms will be cleaned twice a week. Playground equipment cleansing is up to parents. If you feel reassured, you should not be.

The recent Stanislaus County mayors’ letter to Governor Gavin Newsom calling for an, “aggressive strategy for reopening our County for business,” in the midst of this coronavirus pandemic is short-sighted. Why? Most people in our area have not been sick with COVID-19, which means they are at risk for acquiring the virus if exposed. This means that YOU are at risk for serious illness if you or others violate social distancing guidelines, especially if you have serious pre-existing medical conditions.

There seems to be a misunderstanding by the mayors and others about the slow rise in cases of viral infection in our county. That the curve has been kept down reflects a control of viral spread, but that does not mean the virus is going away and that it is safe to relax social distancing measures. In fact, the curve is still rising.

While the letter ostensibly advises adherence to the standard social distancing guidelines, it actually advocates relaxing some of them. Opening parks and other areas where maintaining separation is possible may be feasible, but are you going to touch anything in the restroom? Are your children? Are you going to trust the playground equipment your children will use?

As any mother knows, youngsters routinely touch their hands to their faces and mouths without washing hands first. One Oakdale mother was not worried. Her children could wash their hands when they get home. That is too late to prevent possible exposure and transmission of COVID-19!

Research published by the Cleveland Clinic has shown that the virus can live on surfaces at varying degrees of time:

Glass – 5 days.

Wood – 4 days.

Plastic & stainless-steel – 3 days.

Cardboard – 24 hours.

Copper surfaces – 4 hours.

It is important to note that the virus ultimately dies on such surfaces and that infectivity declines. Read a good discussion here.

The mayors assume that we, in our rural county, are different than a major urban area like Los Angeles, and that control of viral exposure and spread is somehow different here. Their assumption is magical thinking. The virus spreads in the same ways no matter where you live. Admittedly, city crowding enhances viral spread to more people more quickly, but infections will potentially increase here with more exposures under relaxed social behavior or in crowded conditions.

For example, restricting group gatherings to 50 people, as the letter suggests, assumes that each person in that group will religiously adhere to the appropriate protective practices. Good luck with that. As we now know, it can only take one or two asymptomatic, infected people who don’t follow the rules to spread the infection to others who themselves are not following the rules. 

To provide a vivid example of rapid, asymptomatic viral infection before social distancing was firmly in place:

In Washington state, Mount Vernon, a town of almost 38,000 people, the Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church held a choir practice on March 10 before state-wide social distancing was in place. There were no known cases in the area. To its credit, the local health department warned locals to stay at home avoiding any large gatherings. The church did not get the message. This is what happened next:

“Within a few days, at least six members had a fever or reported symptoms. On 16 March, 24 people reported illness, including some members who attended the 10 March rehearsal. One member tested positive for the virus. More cases were confirmed in the following days. 

The group gave a roster to the county’s health department and contacted everyone in the group, regardless whether they attended the practice. Weeks later, health officials believe the rehearsal may have been a “super-spreading” event, with 45 people experiencing Covid-19 symptoms, including 28 confirmed cases. Two members, both in their eighties, have died.” 

To complicate matters, at least four states are ignoring federal guidelines and are opening up their states. And we now have groups of people who feel their First Amendment Constitutional rights are being trampled upon. By God, no government is going to tell them what to do, nor is it going to force them get a vaccination they don’t want, the public health (and their own and their families’ health) be damned!

Covid-19 emerges
Covid-19

Looking to the past, a study of the SARS pandemic of 2003 showed that the virus (also a corona virus) was spread from one infected person to 16 others on one hotel floor in Hong Kong.

From there, “Those guests carried the disease to Toronto, Singapore, and Hanoi, or they entered hospitals in Hong Kong.”

The race to halt the disease was on. Yet, this disease was controlled over a 4-month period. Why? Because the World Health Organization (WHO) led an international, well-coordinated effort between nations to control it. This is the same organization that our president wants to defund.

According to WHO,

“By July 2003, 29 countries had reported a total of 8,437 probable cases, including 813 deaths from November 1, 2002.  In the final reports…there were 18 areas in 6 countries that experienced local transmission of SARS, with the first reported chain transmission starting on November 16, 2002, in Guangdong Province, China.”

Compare this to now, where in the western world many countries were not ready, especially the U.S. and Europe (Germany was an exception). As of April 26, there were 2,973,073 cases and 203,545 deaths worldwide. In the U.S. there have been 936,616 cases and 53,934 deaths. What should have been an immediate, coordinated effort led by our federal government has been bungled and foisted upon the states and continues to be so, mired at the federal level by gross incompetence on the part of some of our political leaders.

Wearing an N95 mask, I recently visited a big box, home and garden store in our county. Signs were dutifully posted urging customers to stay six feet away from each other. Floors were marked at the checkout registers with tape indicating the appropriate distance. Announcements were frequently made about social distancing. Quite a few people were wearing masks and distancing but many were not masked. Surprisingly, many of the employees were not wearing masks. Some were closely conversing with each other and laughing. Obviously, they were not worried.

These measures will help bring this serious disease under control:

  • Extensive, reliable testing
  • Isolation of people testing positive, with intensive medical care available if needed (including ventilators, dialysis machines, adequate Personal Protective Equipment: PPE for first responders and medical personnel)
  • Contact tracing and isolation of the exposed but asymptomatic
  • Valid immune response measurement of those people who have recovered
  • An effective vaccine.

Have you noticed that most of these measures are not effectively in place depending upon where you live?

Note: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) just issued a new list of COVID-19 symptoms. These may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus:

  • Fever
  • Cough
  • Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
  • Chills
  • Repeated shaking with chills
  • Muscle pain
  • Headache
  • Sore throat
  • New loss of taste or smell

Find excellent information and advice at the Centers for Disease Control. Find local advisories from the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency here.

 

Filed Under: History

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Keith A Ensminger says

    April 27, 2020 at 8:05 am

    A petri dish in the making with our health and life on the line. Wisconsin is seeing an uptick in COVID 19 since Republicans forced them to choose between the right to vote “in person” and their health.

    Reply
  2. Bruce Frohman says

    April 27, 2020 at 8:28 am

    We live in a selfish society. Me first and everyone else has to fend for himself. By citizens resuming normal life prematurely, the virus will be able to continue spreading and infecting. Instead of disappearing, the virus will be able to continue killing the vulnerable.
    While the selfish are resuming the normal life now, they are keeping the rest of us in quarantine longer than would have otherwise been necessary.
    Lack of intelligence is another way “natural selection” eliminates humans.

    Reply
  3. Duane Nelson says

    April 27, 2020 at 4:32 pm

    Right on. Too bad that the Republican mayors based their opinion on politics, rather than science or medicine. They make our County look like bumpkins.

    Reply
    • Daniel says

      April 28, 2020 at 9:45 am

      The exact opposite is true. The Dems will have you believe that it is not safe to golf by yourself, go to the park by yourself etc. but it is ok to stand in line to get into a store, go shopping, volunteer etc. So if you cant go to work because they say you are not needed it is fine to volunteer and expose yourself to many more people you would never see during your normal day. Limit the amount of people coming into a store by making you stand in close proximity to people in line outside of the store. This virus is bullshit, far less deadly than the FLU which is a proven fact now. It is more infectious but far less deadly. The best thing to do is for anyone who is immune compromised and elderly should shelter in place and or take extra precautions such as wearing a mask and sanitizing. Everyone else should go about their day.

      Reply
      • James David Costello says

        April 28, 2020 at 7:21 pm

        This is a good video that explains why Flu and the corona virus are different. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVIGhz3uwuQ

        Reply
  4. Sarah Howard says

    April 27, 2020 at 7:09 pm

    Agreed. We look stupid for opening up some of the places that we say are going to be careful with people—it’s not a funny thing and it’s a very serious medical situation! If we listened to our medical experts in our area—we may look
    a little bit more intelligent than we look right now!

    Reply
  5. Daniel says

    April 28, 2020 at 9:35 am

    No, By resuming life people will be able to actually survive. This Virus has been blown way out of proportion and the death rate is being falsely inflated for some reason. Look at South Dakota which never locked down and Sweden which is also not locked down. They are doing just fine. Hospitals are empty across the US, Nurses and other staff are being laid off due to lack of work, we are increasing the national debt for zero reason aside from the Dems wanting to undo the progress Trump has made over the last 4 years.

    The Dems have been trying everything they can to undo the progress made and have stated on numerous occasions they hoped the economy tanked so they could get Trump out. Now Democrat states are forcing extended closures knowing that the Feds will end up giving the states bail outs and hoping they can get enough traction to push the worst candidate in history Biden into office.

    Reply
    • Mary says

      April 29, 2020 at 10:35 am

      Sweden’s case rate has been higher than the rest of the EU and so has their date rate.

      Hospitals are empty because non essential surgeries and procedures have been postponed. Visitors are not allowed. That is why the parking lots look empty. Doctor and nurses that aren’t specifically trained to deal with ER cases and infectious respiratory diseases are the ones being laid off.

      Also, many hospitals and doctors practices are now owned by hedge funds which are only interested in $$$ , . Pre- COVID, these hedge funds were keeping bare minimum staff so as to not cut into profits. And if you end up in the hospital, those nasty “ surprise Billings” come directly from hedge funds trying to gouge you.

      Look up Marketwatch , there is an article (4/28) about Germany’s success in eliminating COVID19. They started a phasing in of re-opening and now they’re getting a spike in new cases of COVID19.

      I am a Dem and I don’t want the economy to tank.. I don’t know anyone who wants the economy to tank. I have a good notion of who feeds you this nonsense. Instead of working on getting out of this mess, they just want to hurl blame. Get out of your box and realize that we’re all in this together.

      Reply
  6. Mary says

    April 29, 2020 at 10:57 am

    Our govt could do something that would save the economy and lives: they could order a suspension of all loans, mortgages , bills etc. No penalties , no fees, no balloon payments, no foreclosures. The govt, if there were enough of them with integrity and morals could provide a back stop. I don’t believe this is pie in the sky, there just isn’t political will to do this. There is big money to be made in debt.

    Reply
  7. Theresa A Grieshaber says

    May 22, 2020 at 2:32 pm

    I just LOVE people who think that people with immune system challenges and the elderly should just stay home while everybody else just goes about their lives.

    I’m over 65 and I have asthma. I’ll be toast if I catch the virus. This means I’ll be virtually imprisoned in my home until there is either a reliable treatment or a vaccine.

    I spent years in a public service job, the last 19 of them in Stanislaus County in direct, face to face contact with the general public. I was a librarian at a public high school and at the county library. Together with all the other people who still work at the library, I changed lives. I helped people to do school assignments, protect their legal rights, find careers, do financial planning, get health care information, and much, much more.

    I mention these things because IT’S PAYBACK TIME! I speak for everybody whoever has worked in a face to face job. Because I helped the general public, it’s time for the general public to help me.

    When you practice social distancing, wear a mask, sanitize your hands, and follow what Dr
    Fauci, the CDC, and Gov. Newsom are saying, you are lessening the spread of the virus. You are making it safer for me to go out it public when I need to. You are giving me back my freedom and my peace of mind.

    When you carelessly congregate in public, you are setting off successive waves of the pandemic. You
    are prolonging my confinement, and potentially killing me.

    How DARE you think that your Starbucks run, your beach volleyball game, your bar hopping is more important than my life! I made your life possible.. Now you make my life possible! It’s payback time.

    Reply

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