Interesting statement from San Mateo County Health Officer Dr. Scott Morrow about the virus and economic conditions related to the spread released today. I think it expresses the absolute frustration most have with the inability to get control of this virus and the lack of a federal response. This is just part of his statement, but I thought it worth a read.
Health Officer Statements
2. Fundamental structural failures of the US economy are being laid bare by the pandemic. These structural issues seem to be a major cause of the transmission we’re now seeing, at least in San Mateo County. Many elements of the US economy can be viewed as illogical, even immoral in my opinion, in that so many people are forced to live lives of economic desperation, live pay check to pay check, are not paid a living wage, live with no workplace safety nets, like healthcare, like paid sick leave, or other wage protection programs. While these structural issues are illogical in good times, they are downright inexplicable in times of a pandemic. These structural problems are at such a massive scale, they can not be ignored. A majority of people we are seeing infected now are front line workers (people who allow the rest of us to eat, and have electricity, and have our garbage picked up, etc), live in crowded multigenerational conditions, live with lack of trust in, and in fact have downright fear of, government. Remember to stem the spread of this very transmissible virus, people who are infected need to be separated from others (isolation and quarantine), not go out in public, and not go to work while they are infectious. Try getting compliance with isolation and quarantine when the infected person is the breadwinner for the family and the family will be out on the street if they don’t go to work. And when they go to work they will, perhaps, interact at that job with you. There is not enough enforcement capacity in the world to stop this from happening. The implication of this is that the current business focused restrictions will do little to stem the spread of the virus when the spread is exacerbated by these conditions. This requires rapid policy and systems changes at every level of both public and private sectors, from the feds on down, and from the largest corporations to the smallest business. We need to see much more work in this area, and we need to have less reliance on business sector closures and restrictions, beyond getting businesses to do the basic transmission control measures. Failure to fix some of these issues will prolong our collective pain.