By George Miller
Local officials are worried about worsening COVID19 official statistics and are looking for ways to slow the spread of the virus. Notes from last night’s Oxnard City Council meeting:
From Agenda Item G-1-COVID Update (Presented by City Mgr Alex Nguyen)
Only 5% ICU bed county availability, record “cases”, 12% of positives are hospitalized, 1-2% of those reach ICU or die. Particularly bad in Oxnard, with 10,000 cases. Oxnard has 38% of county cases.
HE THREATENED Fines for unpermitted sports, large group gatherings, water shut-off for non-compliant businesses and presumably for individuals (after multiple warnings or citations).
Nguyen said that vaccines are starting to come out. Best remedies-are mask, distance, no gatherings.
Councilman Perello blamed no masks for deaths. Said deaths are 302,000 vs all of WWII 400,000+ deaths and Oxnard (population 220,000?).
Mayor Zaragoza, City Mgr. Nguyen, Councilman Perello, all appealed for compliance, as did Councilwoman Lopez. She wanted to know if there is a neighborhood breakdown of info. Zaragoza said to ask County Health Director 805-654-2613. Outgoing Mayor ProTem Ramirez says it’s not just Ventura County. Only 100 ICU beds left in LA County. You can get sick or carry it to someone else. We are experiencing a Thanksgiving spike and are now endangered by a possible Christmas spike. Zaragoza- we need to work together to stop COVID.
Some have told us that the legality of shutting off water, an “essential” resource, for something other than non-payment, is highly legally questionable, but we have not seen an applicable legal opinion. Closures/restrictions are also under legal attack, with some success in some quarters, such as NY, LA and elsewhere.
On the other hand, officials are looking for ways to slow the spread of the virus. An email we received from the county recently indicated that home gatherings seem to be a bigger problem than businesses, which are far more careful.
There is even the question about whether we are legally in a pandemic. Opponents say no. A search for the legal definition of a pandemic gives some surprisingly divergent answers. And if we are in a pandemic, what restrictions may violate the Constitution and under what circumstances. I extracted this definition from the CDC website, from here: “Pandemic refers to an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people.” That of course forces one to look up epidemic: “Epidemic refers to an increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in that population in that area.” A little vague huh? No quantification. It sets a real low bar, too. Past pandemics for H1N1, SARS, Hong Kong Flue, were all worse, yet no lockdown hysteria.
Although reported cases have increased, the death rate is slowing. Citizens Journal has sought data from the county on how ICU occupation rates and capacity are calculated. We also requested information on determination of COVID19 mortality, especially on how declarations are made when comorbidies are present. We also requested a comparison of overall mortality for this year and last year. We are particularly perplexed about comorbidies such as traffic accidents and drug overdose victims being included in the COVID death statistics. To date, only 5 COVID19 deaths with no comorbidities have been reported in the county. COVID19 may or may not have been a major factor in some some of the other deaths, but county stats and lack of response to our questions shed no light on the answers.
Our Editor received this response to her third request for information:
Ms. Tash, Please be advised that due to the COVID-19 emergency it has been determined that the public interest is not served by diverting staff and resources away from emergency response to immediately respond to this request. (Gov. Code, § 6255.).
Ashley Bautista
Public Information Officer
Office of the CEO
County of Ventura |Hall of Administration
800 South Victoria Avenue | 4th Floor
Ventura, CA 93009-0001 (805) 654-2640
George Miller is Publisher/Co-Founder of CitizensJournal.us and a “retired” operations management consultant residing in Oxnard.
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You don’t lead by threatening people when your hands are very dirty too.
Try being honest and maybe ALL the info you put out may be better received.
Remember Cry Wolf!?
“Do As I Say” didn’t go over too well, with Dr. Levin….when he and other leaders break all the orders.
Bruce….a rope, really?
What a bunch of fascists. Get a rope!
On page <3 of 7> https://www.venturacountyrecovers.org/ is a graph showing the number of active cases and the cumulative number of cases, deaths and recoveries.
The number of deaths on Dec 7 was 203. On Dec 16 the number was 204, although 3 deaths were reported on the 16th. And there have been other deaths between Dec 7 and Dec 16.
Sweden’s Pandemic approach was hailed as the way to go by many. Now, not so much. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55347021 check out how Australia and New Zealand have handled it.
…So how do you know if the virus is active? You do the PCR. If the virus is found in the person (PCR TRUE POSITIVE), that virus is injected into a culture cell. If by injecting that virus into culture cells, the virus is not able to reproduce in the cells, that virus cannot infect anybody any longer. This means that even if you are a PCR positive, you are no longer contagious, that is, the virus in you is no longer active….. testing must be enhanced….
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/pcr-positives-what-do-they-mean/
Oxnard’s (and California’s) over-reaction to covid is a total fraud. I know countless “normal” deaths that were claimed to be covid. CA’s (and NV’s to a lesser extent) idiotic approach has been comparable to shooting a shotgun inside their house to kill a housefly. Yes, you will ultimately get the fly, but your house is needlessly destroyed.