By Judy Bruce
(Editor’s note: Dr. Levin conceded that he used “imprecise language” which could lead to misunderstanding and that there are not mandatory relocations/separations of people. Please see the reader comment below from “Citizen Reporter”.)
I emailed the 5 Ventura County supervisors calling for a denunciation of Robert Levin’s remarks on testing, tracking and quarantining people. Also pictured is how to reach each supervisor.
Stop this insanity now — do your thing, people. Use whatever you want from the text below. Victory.
Dear Ventura County Supervisors Bennett, Parks, Long, Huber and Zaragoza,
Video of Dr. Robert Levin’s remarks last night (May 4) are spreading fast through social media. My name is Joel Kilpatrick. I’m a Columbia University-trained journalist and writer who has lived in Thousand Oaks for 19 years. I am outraged by the county’s and state’s plans to isolate and quarantine people forcibly, and to track down those who have been in contact with these people, also for quarantining. This behavior is unimaginable in the United States of America and is an egregious violation of the Bill of Rights and constitutional law.
I made a transcript (see below) of Dr. Levin’s remarks and am posting them this evening on social media, along with the video already posted today of the same press conference. I and many others call on you to publicly denounce these remarks and any plans to test and quarantine the people of Ventura County or to track down those who have been in contact with them.
Several of us have friends who serve in the White House, and we are alerting them to this flagrantly tyrannical approach to public health. We also are alerting our friends in the national news media.
You may call or email me, but on principle, don’t come to my house, if you are able to find my address. I look forward to your response and, more importantly, your public denunciation of these plans.
Partial transcript of remarks by Dr. Robert Levin, Ventura County press conference
May 4, 2020: YouTube video: https://youtu.be/0Kf_gWrBio4
(transcript starts at 3:19})
“We are beginning a program today, and it’s a pilot program which will certainly grow into something larger and larger, and that is a community contact tracing program. We’ve done contact tracing all along. A ‘contact’ is a person who has been exposed to someone that we document to have the COVID infection. When we find someone who has a COVID infection, those people are immediately isolated, but we also work with them to figure out who their contacts were.
“Luckily, because you have been doing such a great job of cooperating and staying indoors, staying isolated, it used to be there were ten contacts, at least, of every patient that we would find. Now it looks like there are only two or three or four contacts, not surprisingly. Because most people have been staying away from others. And that’s good news.
“But the purpose of this program is to bring on people — we’re going to start with ten people; we may bring on up to fifty or even more as the program grows and we see the needs for it. As we do more testing, we will find more and more people who have COVID-19, and again, we will isolate every one of them and we will find every one of their contacts, and we will make sure that they stay quarantined, and we will check, in with them every day.
“In other words, what this program means is that we are going to do a more complete job, and we’re going to do a more meticulous job of making it less and less possible for others in the county to run into someone with COVID-19 infection.
“It’s not just our county that’s bringing more people on. There are going to be thousands of people hired who will be these contact investigators throughout the state. And this is occurring in many, many other states as well — perhaps all the states in our country. We will be giving intensive training to these people, training not only for identifying and finding contacts but also in terms of how to be sensitive about doing it.
“We also realize that as we find more contacts, some of the people we find are going to have trouble being isolated. For instance, if they live in a home where there’s only one bathroom, and there are three or four other people living there, and those people don’t have COVID infection, we’re not going to be able to keep the person in that home. Every person who we’re isolating, for instance, needs to have their own bathroom. So we’ll be moving people like this into other kinds of housing that we have available.
“They’ll also have other needs, perhaps — food, whatever it’s going to be — the county will be there to back them up and to support them.”
(transcript ends at 6:40)
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal
Judy Bruce is a Simi Valley Resident
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[…] Public outrage led Dr. Levin to retract his public statement and apologize, claiming his isolation plan was misunderstood. […]
[…] Public outrage led Dr. Levin to retract his public statement and apologize, claiming his isolation plan was misunderstood. […]
[…] Public outrage led Dr. Levin to retract his public statement and apologize, claiming his isolation plan was misunderstood. […]
[…] Public outrage led Dr. Levin to retract his public statement and apologize, claiming his isolation plan was misunderstood. […]
[…] Public outrage led Dr. Levin to retract his public statement and apologize, claiming his isolation plan was misunderstood. […]
[…] Public outrage led Dr. Levin to retract his public statement and apologize, claiming his isolation plan was misunderstood. […]
Folks, private property is private property. The 5th Amendment protects this right. You don’t have to let anyone step on your lawn or enter your house unless you want them there. If an unwanted person, for example, a Contact Tracer, attempts to violate this right, you say, “Get off my lawn or I’ll call 911.” If the person doesn’t back down, say, “I’m calling 911 now to have you arrested for trespassing.” You then call 911.
Now, it helps to have a “No Trespassing” sign on your front lawn so that when the police arrive they can see that the Contact Tracer willfully violated your rights. It can also be good to put a “No Solicitors” sign on or near your front door or in a front window. However, it is not necessary to have any signs. Sign or no, private property is private property.
For people who live in an apartment, condo or place where management doesn’t allow signs, simply don’t answer the door. You are not obligated to answer the door to anyone who violates your rights or privacy.
Yes, you can call the local police on so-called “government survey workers.” For one things, such people are not really employed by the government. They are contractors employed by private companies, generally. The government uses private contractors extensively. I learned about this when the American Community Survey was being sent out to people to try and collect ultra-personal data (this odd document is about 40-pages-long, no joke). Many people who refused to mail in this “survey,” (which was addressed to the “Resident” of a particular address, and never to a specific name) were harassed by “field workers” who’d show up and literally camp out on their front porches or, as a method of intimidation, knock at their more private back doors. Recipients of the survey who chose not to participate could and did call police on the harassers.
You can and should look up the legal definition of trespassing for your state. This is easy to do. It’s on the internet. It’s good to have this printed out and on hand.
Think about how one more commonly encounters “survey-takers” in public spheres, on public sidewalks. When I lived in Atlanta, I used to come across survey-takers most often in downtown Decatur, a walkable shopping area with lots of public sidewalks. I was approached numerous times by the Sierra Club, ladies who wanted to ask me if I was registered to vote, and one time by a group (can’t remember their name) who wanted to ask my opinions on LGBTQ. The reason those survey-takers post themselves in public places is because they’ve been told by their organizations to stay in the public areas, where it’s legal to do surveys.
As for this dreadful Dr. Levin’s comment about moving people out of their homes to other quarters, no one can move you against your will out of your home. Nor can they move you against your will into a vehicle for transport to another location against your will. Why? There is this little thing called kidnapping, a felony charge that carries hard time, that’s why. The legal definition of kidnapping for your state is also easily accessed online.
In my years on Earth, I’ve concluded if someone is trying to scare you through intimidation, threats, etc., it’s a power play. Don’t let them “play” you. Stand your ground.
With his inappropriate comments, certainly Dr. Levin has proven himself unfit for his job.
Bizarre days, indeed.
Dr. Levin immediately clarified his statement to assure that no one was forced to do anything, except one crazy guy removed from the river bottom. Comments such as yours will make it even less likely for any forced removals
This exact same proposal was also made on camera by Dr. Michael Ryan, high official from the W.H.O. Most atrocities in history occur gradually, through a step-by-step attempt to remove people’s basic rights. The dictator in charge of Germany in 1938 certainly was not honest and upfront with his victims, and did not tell them the truth as to where they were going to be sent to, when he lined them up to board the trains headed to the death camps. Already almost all of our basic American rights have been placed under severe attack during this virus scare. Lockdowns and bans on assembly and church are massive violations of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Can you imagine how the founding fathers would respond to this level of tyranny? It is time for all Americans to recognize how evil and tyrannical this agenda is, and organize for peaceful protest and resistance.
[…] Denouncing Dr. Levin’s contact tracing | Big Brother is Coming to Ventura Country! […]
I can’t believe this is happening in our community! I’m sure these leaders are in a tough spot trying to decipher what to do with the mandates handed down by , in my own opinion, the worst Governor in our history ( or in my lifetime) . Our leaders, who I have no disrespect for ( yet) , are just people Making decisions for we the people of our community, good, and or, bad … We need to voice our opinions and be heard because we are not just stupid sheep that need to be led!
Please note that in Dr. Levin’s official “clarification,” he apologizes if he misspoke.
But then he goes on to lay out the EXACT same threat in the next breath! Check out this Fox news article:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-ventura-county-coronavirus-forcibly-removed-homes-quarantine
And I quote: “… We’re going to increase by 10, 20, maybe 50 people to help us locate people and make sure they’re in quarantine, and make sure they’re in isolation. If you don’t have the illness but you were exposed to someone who did, we want to watch you for the period of incubation… That’s called quarantine. we’re looking to not only isolate everyone, but we’re looking to quarantine the contacts of the isolates we have who have COVID disease. Now we’re going to get… more and more meticulous in our ability to do this.”
Mind you, this is in his APOLOGY and CLARIFICATION because he previously said they were going to remove people from their homes.
If that was an accident, why does he follow up by saying “We’re going to make SURE they are in isolation! What does “MAKE SURE” mean if no force will be involved??
And what does “WE WANT TO WATCH YOU DURING THE PERIOD OF INCUBATION” if no Big Brother surveillance is involved?
And worst of all, how is that the Health Director of Ventura County totally missed the boat on how drastically NEGATIVE are the immune system effects of the lockdown he’s so proud of: Mask-wearing (recycling exhaled viruses, inhaling old CO2); safer-at-home (no immunity-activating germs, no vitamin D, limited exercise access); social isolation from close friends and relatives; increased depression, addiction, and suicide/homicide; increased stress from financial devastation of unemployment and business loss?
Not only did he not notice he is repeating the very thing he just apologized for. He also has no clue about a healthy, empowered immune system– which has always been the best defense against this and any other virus.
I heard what he said that people are not adding. He said that they have trained their personnel to be sensitive when people don’t want to leave their home and get angry. Does anyone not remember that part? I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. Resist.
Fight this with every fiber of your being. Do not cooperate with these people! Demand they leave your homes. Do not let them in.
Dr Levine needs to be removed from his position and fired from public office. His handling of Ventura County is more stringent than LA and beyond the State and Federal guidelines. He made Ventura County a national embarrassment on the news.
Sarcasm, right?
No sarcasm, this is serious!
County of Ventura shared a post.
Doctor Levin’s recent comments have gone viral and he wants to set the record straight. The County of Ventura is not removing people from their homes. We have alternative options if needed. Here’s a statement from Doctor Levin.
“What I would like to say to those people who interpreted what I said as forcibly pulling people from their homes if they become COVID positive is that if I conveyed that, it was a mistake on my part and I apologize for that. I am sensitive to that as well. We have no intention of taking people from the environments they feel safe and comfortable in. To demonstrate our past actions, because they speak louder than words, we have managed over 600 people in our county with COVID-19 and we have not forcibly removed anyone from their home or wherever they wanted to be. We have removed about 7 of our seniors who were living in Long Term Care Facilities (LTCF) and had them admitted to one of our hospitals. This was to protect the other seniors and to observe those hospitalized for worsening of their symptoms. If COVID establishes itself in a LTCF (a nursing home), it can kill dozens as it did in Washington State. We also placed two homeless people who were COVID positive in a motel because they wanted to return to a crowded camp in the river bottom. Virtually everyone wants to stay in their home. It is safest when such a person can have their own room and bathroom but many of our COVID cases have not been so fortunate. When that is the case, our Communicable Disease nurses find ways of keeping them in their home such that it is still safe for the others who are there.” – Doctor Robert Levin, Public Health Officer County of Ventura.
https://vcportal.ventura.org/covid19/docs/VCMC_Ambulatory_Instructions_COVID_Diagnosis.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2t-kZBmwHtQG2TK_7Dcjb4Z6c6vJ1U_BL7PkZYMlQ20rws1F2ZBx-yJUQ
“We have no intention of taking people from the environments they feel safe and comfortable in.”
“We also placed two homeless people who were COVID positive in a motel because they wanted to return to a crowded camp in the river bottom.”
So which is it? Letting people stay in the environments that they feel safe and comfortable in or placing people in a motel room where YOU feel they are safe and comfortable? Dr. Levin, You stated your own self that the homeless people wanted to return to their crowded camp in the river bottom, but you did not allow that.
STACEE SEVERINO, you need to ***STOP***! You are a loose cannon. I’ve researched and located you on Facebook and around the web. You are spreading so much misinformation and/or flat-out lies. You’re irrational fear of the government ripping people from their homes (and for anyone else reading this, Levin has since clarified that he was referring to helping to isolate the elderly that are at high risk of infection and getting rooms for the homeless. They’ve already been doing this, and it’s all voluntary for the person they’re assisting. They have never, and will not ever, force anybody like what is claimed) are even causing you to distort the written facts right in front of you. You quite literally just. Neither Levin nor the article ever stated that they “did not allow that.”
You need to put yourself in check and stop spreading these lies. They’re really, seriously, damaging our country. And right now, you’re a large contributor to that damage. Please stop. Please.
To Jason: The government is already in violation of almost every part of the First Amendment to the Constitution. They are in violation of our freedom to peacefully assemble, our freedom to gather petitions addressing grievances, our right to freely exercise our religion, and recently, with a statement regulating the way we are allowed to sing on our own property or in our own homes, this is a violation of our freedom of speech. If you are suggesting that what the government is doing is NOT unConstitution, and are NOT illegal, then it is you, Jason, who would be really, seriously, damaging our country. And right now, you’re a large contributor to that damage. Please stop. Please.
I think we should gather up all the right wing extremist Conspiracy theoriests And all those who are so offended by their civil rights being violated by public health officials who are trying to keep them alive, and put them all in a big stadium where they can all gripe and complain to one another. Leave them in there for a couple of weeks and then see how many come out. Now that’s my idea of social distancing!
That would be called a “concentration camp” that you’re advocating. So thank you for exposing who the real fascists were all along. Most of us knew already but I bet you never thought you’d look in the mirror and see Hitler staring back at you.
Ummm, yeah, Mark McNulty is right about what you just described… And this is an article that falsely claims that people are being into places against their will. That’s like the worst comment someone can post… Are you really that naive or are you just a damned troll?
[…] “We also realize that as we find more contacts, some of the people we find are going to have trouble being isolated. For instance, if they live in a home where there’s only one bathroom, and there are three or four other people living there, and those people don’t have COVID infection, we’re not going to be able to keep the person in that home. Every person who we’re isolating, for instance, needs to have their own bathroom. So we’ll be moving people like this into other kinds of housing that we have available. — Dr. Levin’s contact tracing | Big Brother is Coming to Ventura Country! | Citizens Journal | C… […]
Dollars to donuts this guy is a Democrat.
Could you provide a better plan so as to stop the spread of a deadly virus. A rebuttal of the doctor’s words would be helpful if you provide other options. Just criticizing doesn’t help stop people from dying. What is YOUR plan, please? I would really like to know. That’s way, the county board of supervisors can act accordingly. And saying that you have a degree in journalism doesn’t actually give you an honorary degree in medicine. Please include in your advise of a better solution the research you have taken the time to accumulate that shows there’s a better way of addressing this pandemic.
I have a better plan, Patricia. 1) Don’t trust the government without doing your own detailed research. Why are doctors and scientists who disagree with the government about this so-called “emergency” being censored and blacked out by all the major media and major social media platforms? 2) Don’t trust the mainstream media. Avoid them, and seek out other sources such as independent media. 3) Allow the people to freely and voluntarily choose which, if any, precautions, they want to take to protect themselves and their children. This was once a free country. There are huge numbers of people killed in auto accidents every year, but the government does not prohibit everyone from driving. Freedom works. A nationwide lockdown of the general population is not only unprecidented in human history, but also even the W.H.O. now admits that lockdowns create far more harm than good.
Did this genus really think there wasn’t going to be pushback on his irrational quarantine policy? You folks can try and defend this creep, but anyone who would even think of implementing such an idea as this is not sensitive to my rights or anyone else’s. Mr. Levin should step down immediately and quarantine his own rear-end for his own safety.
Annie T. and others said it all! I am old, but not so old that I can still recall how leaders led back in the 50s. (probably the era when my brain started to mature in the arena of critical thinking) I remember Machiavellian was required reading way back when. Power we learned was eminent for the good of the people, however attained in what works. Where is sight fixed today? On the people? (the people being synonymous with freedom) I hardly think so. I see misguided faux good-will, lies, animosities and hard core evil that actually kill, fueled by the need for “self-serving” power. In that context, we’re living in a pandemic world–our youth misled, swallowed up and hooked. In defense of freedom, let’s re-focus and choose our candidates carefully and mindfully.
Whats happening to our constitutional rights here? Big brother California is taking over. Beware of the covid mis guidance:
https://youtu.be/0Kf_gWrBio4
Dr. Levin appears to be delirious with his newfound power.WE THE PEOPLE ARE losing the right to make our own decisions. This has to be dealtwith immediately even if it means this M.D. being replaced. I have lost any confidence in him or how he is controlling the county.
Well for one I have never seen Dr Levin,s name on a ballot! Secondly the only country I am aware of utilizing forcible quarantines is China!
It is apparent that Dr Levin has no clue as to what our Constitution and the Bill of Rights therein means! It’s time for a new health director whatever that is!
[email protected]
this is his email to send him a message on how HE is infecting the public with his agenda…does HE not know that citizens are not to be invaded in their own homes. Compliance is what they are doing by even staying at home, so that is enough. No need to remove anybody! WE, the people, Have a choice to stay home…but also, we will see more sickness because people have stayed away from each other…and the only way to build immunity to anything is after exposure. So, even staying at home is a bad idea. Ventura County wake up and do NOT let this invade the sanctity of your homestead and your domain.
Hey Citizen Reporter,
That sounds like BS to me. Did he provide a public retraction?
He told me that in an interview last night. It’s in here too: https://www.citizensjournal.us/vc-health-officer-facing-biggest-challenge-of-career-with-covid-19-speaks-with-citizens-journal/
However, this has caused concern to some: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB262
Dr. Levin made it extremely clear to me last night and in a press conference on Wednesday that it is not and has not been mandatory to relocate.
Watch the Wednesday press conference for yourself (starting at 7:50) instead of bloviating on our pages and whining to Rush Limbaugh, whose work I follow.
A person who truly respected our constitutional rights would not have made such a verbal slip. We are right to be suspicious. On a different topic, but one related to Dr. Levin’s thinking, it seems to me Dr. Levin is getting his haircut. I have watched the videos of him at supervisor meetings and impress conferences. His hair looks a lot better than mine, and I have not had a haircut in two months. Is he having a family member cut his hair? If someone outside of his family is cutting it then he is open to criticism. I think it would be helpful for him to announce who is cutting his hair. We have a right to know whether a hypocrite is making the rules that we have to follow.
Masks were highly recommended too — before they became mandatory.
Thank you Dr. Levin for trying to prevent more deaths!
Don’t ever give up your guns, USA!
This is some serious Gestapo bulls$#@
Did you not see the post just before yours from Citizen Reporter? Jesus, quit making drama from nothing. He issued a correction. It’s over. Get over it.
We should NOT get over it! A top doctor from the W.H.O. proposed the same thing in a statement in late March, 2020. If they have both made these tyrannical proposals on T.V., it matters not that Dr. Levin retracted his statement the next day. The main point is that Americans needs to understand how deluded and misguided these public health “officials” are to even THINK of such proposals, let alone utter them on T.V.
I just talked to Dr. Levin. He said “I regret my imprecise language.” He said they will offer a hotel room in situations where it is not likely that household quarantine will work. He said it is NOT mandatory, but some household layouts.density simply will not support an effective quarantine. He says that social distancing protocols, plus a separate room and bathroom are highly recommended.
He is very aware and sensitive to rights issues and also the need to get business reopened as fast as safely possible.
I will publish an article on my highly interesting interview tonight with him.
IMPRESSES LANGUAGE, MY ASS. Levin just got caught telling the truth; OOP’s.
This is creepy. Has any “expert” mentioned anything about human waste spreading the virus? If so, Frisco must be an open caouldron of virus.
There was a lady that took the contact tracer training for Ca (not just ventura). The training material said relocation was voluntary, but if people did not comply with voluntary relocation, then police force would be used. I think they just redefined voluntary.