05.27.20 COVID-19 Briefing Live Stream Transcript

The County of Santa Clara

May 27, 2020

Live Stream - Daily Briefing

10pm PT

David Campos: Good morning, and welcome to live with eh county of Santa Clara. My name is David Campos, and I serve as the public information officer for the county Emergency Operations Center. And today I am here with Dr. Sara Cody, Public health officer for the county of Santa Clara. Uh, we are going to have a brief conversation with Dr. Cody. So, thank you for being here. Uh, before we do that, I do want to give our viewers an update on the number of cases that we have today. Just so you know, before this program started, we actually had face coverings that we took off so that the ASL interpreter could actually read our lips and interoperate what we are saying. Uh, but following the conclusion of this we will be putting our face coverings back on.
But in terms of cases as of yesterday the county of Santa Clara had two thousand six hundred and seventy-five. Twenty-six seventy-five cases of people that tested positive. A hundred and thirty-nine deaths, and of course our hearts go out to the families of those who have died. And luckily no deaths reported in the last 24 hours and that is as of 5:26.

And let me begin with that Dr. Cody. A hundred and thirty-nine deaths in the County of Santa Clara. And you know one death has one death too many. But as we are facing that. The country has close to a hundred thousand deaths right now and you are credited with really leading the effort to shelter in place as a way of saving lives. How does that make you feel knowing that you know you literally save the lives of so many people?

Dr. Sara Cody: Well what I would say is that we have a remarkable community in in our County. And people have really come together. The collective action that everyone has taken has slowed the spread and prevented many deaths. At the same time, I want to acknowledge that this has been hard, really hard. And as we go into, I have lost track of the weeks we have been we have been sheltering in place since the middle of March. We have had some easing; people have been able to. We have people doing construction outside, businesses, outdoor recreation. Really, really, really important but the collective action has prevented many people from becoming ill and prevented many people from dying. And we are grateful to everyone for their collective work in enabling that to happen and in protecting so many people.

DC: And I know that all of us have been making sacrifices. And I think that a lot of people do not know that you know, maybe they do not think about it. But you actually live in this community and you have a family and you and your family are also going through these challenges. Has that been easy for you, for your family?

DSC: I think what I would say is that. This pandemic has not been easy for anyone. And I want us all to remember that we are going through a global crisis. The likes of which we have not seen since World War two. So, many of us have not seen in their lifetime. So, all of us are experiencing this together, and I am too. I live in this community. I too am exhausted, and my family is tired of being at home. My kids are tired of being out of school, and we are all tired. It is not em. And I think what we are trying to do here in our community is trying to find a path forward that is least harmful. That is most health protective, and it is a very difficult course to chart where we are doing our very, very, very, best in a really. really tough time. And again, everyone has hung in there for quite a long time. And it has made a difference.

DC: So, we wanted to take this opportunity Dr. Cody for you to let our viewers know. And I know that you present it yesterday at the board of supervisors, sort of you are thinking. You know in sort of looking at that path forward. How you look at sort of what the next steps are. What do you want people to know in terms of how you look at that? Your approach.

DSC: So, I think there is three things. So, top level we want to prevent infections. We prevent infections to prevent people from becoming hospitalized and prevent people from dying. The second thing is that we want to prevent illness in general. So, we are also mindful of the fact that sheltering in place and the fear of COVID has its own health harms. And we are trying to minimize those as much as we can. And finally. And I think this is really Important and sometimes gets lost. We are trying to keep our economy and our society healthy. And I think that the best way that we can do that is to not just make people feel safe. But to ensure that they are safe, so that the level of virus transmission in our community has been. We have really suppressed it. And we are creating an environment that is safer and safer. So that people can come out and they can participate in the economy. So again, we are trying to make sure that we prevent infections, that we minimize the other health harms from COVID, and from sheltering in place. And that we make it is safe so that when we do come out and gradually ease and get our economy going again. That it is safe. And it will feel safe and that it is.

DC: In explaining that process Dr. Cody. You have talked about the timeline of two to three weeks, which is the incubation period, being the time that you need to take to really understand the consequences of some of the actions that you have taken before. And that you really have to give that time, have that time before you move to the next step. Can you explain that a little bit for our viewers?

DSC: That's right. So, the way that we are working here as well as in much of the bay area is a phased gradual reopening. And that is because after we make a change, and we, and an activity picks up we want to ensure that we are not creating harm. And that we are not putting people at risk. So, we take an action such as bringing construction back online and then it takes at least two weeks sometimes three to really understand what the impact is. We are looking at how many new cases have we identified. And how many new people required hospitalization. Then when we see that we have things fairly stable. Then we can ease again and go to the next phase. So, it is gradual, and it is phased, and it is safe now

DC: One thing that you have said is that moving too soon could actually leave us. I think you said blind. what do you mean by that?

DSC: What I mean is that if we make a change and then we do not pause and wait to see what the impact has been then we are blind. We cannot see what our next action may do. We know that this is like. COVID very much behaves like a fire and fire season. And so, we have dry tinder everywhere, and we do not want to have a large fire. Again, we know that we are going to have little spot fires. We are now much better resourced in terms of testing and contact tracing to be able to address those spot fires. But what we do not want is a fire burning out of control that we can see. So that is why we are going to move slowly. We are going to look and see. Put out our spot fires. And not be blind to a larger fire that might be burning.

DC: One thing that I have heard some people say is you know. Well we have enough beds in our hospitals to take care of people if they get sick. Why not just open up? Because those beds are there.

DSC: I think something that is really, really, really important to understand, is that COVID-19 has unmasked some very severe pre-existing inequities in our community. If we let the virus just go and do not stay on top of it. The people that are going to be hurt the most are people who are living in places where they are working low wage jobs. They live in crowded households. They may have less access to care, barriers to accessing care. And they say these are frequently poor communities and frequently communities of color. And we cannot just let the virus go and forget that the people that are going to be disproportionately impacted or people, are living in those communities. That is the group of people that will be disproportionately in the hospital. And that will see disproportionate numbers of deaths. And that is not acceptable. So, we are going to keep at it we are going to suppress the level of transmission to the lowest levels that we can with every ounce of our energy, and we are going to stay at it. We are going to go slow and we are going to be safe and we are going to protect the people that most need to be protected.

DC: Dr. Cody I know that since I started this role you have been very clear. That it is important for us to communicate with our diverse communities in different languages. We have Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Chinese. I know that speaking for myself the Latinx community has been hit hard by this pandemic. In Santa Clara as you know even though Latinx folks make up about 27% of the popular, they are about 39 maybe higher percent of the cases. Any thoughts that you want to convey to that community? I know that you have a long history of working in that community and that that is a real concern for you. Anything that you want to say to them?

DSC: I think, what I want. What, I want to say but more importantly. What I want us all to do, it is about action. Is this is a shared responsibility, the county has a part. The city has a part. The community has a part. I want the community to be loud and to speak up. This is where we need to be in community, listening to community, ensuring that people are getting tested. And also, this is really important. That just because someone learns that they are positive. And just because we advise, hey you need to. You know, you are you need to stay home. Or you are a contact and you might get sick; you need to stay at home. We all need to come together with every resource that we have to ensure that people can safely isolate, that they can safely quarantine, that their families are protected. And this is so important because if we want our social fabric to recover. If we want our economy to recover. People have to feel safe and they have to be safe. And that is really, really, really important. Especially in our most vulnerable neighborhoods and communities

DC: Dr. Cody I know that it can be confusing for folks at times because we have our local health order. We are working with the other counties and jurisdictions in the Bay Area. But you also have the state order. And so, there is a local and a state framework. How does that work in terms of your thinking? Where there is a state and what it is doing to fit into how we as a county will move forward.

DSC: So, a couple things around the state order and the county order. The first thing to know is, whichever order is most restrictive is the one that controls. So, as a county we can be more strict in the state order but we cannot be looser than a state order. And this was pretty straightforward until early May when the state published its resiliency road map. And the state has been opening things up at a pretty brisk clip. So for the most part now many of the parts of our County order are more restrictive. This has been challenging. Both to communicate to the public what is allowed and what is not allowed. And it has also been challenging in that it Is difficult. It is difficult to articulate the why. Because the state is opening things at a very brisk clip. Not waiting to see what the impact is. And so that has been challenging as well. But as far as what we can do in the county. It is basically like looking at a buffet. So, the state may lay out a buffet you can pick from these things, but you cannot yet pick from those things. And then we as the county can go to the buffet and say this is what we think is most health-protective at large for our community. And then we adopt those and make them clear in our County order. What I also want to say about going slow and how we are, what we may be doing differently here in the county. Is that when we make a change and we open a sector so for example. When we open curbside retail logistics and manufacturing, we had very clear social distancing protocols. And we gave businesses some time to read them and to implement them. Because when we have our community, our businesses open we want the workers to be safe and to be protected. And we want the customers to be safe and to be protected so they can feel good about shopping and do so safely. And it takes a little bit of time to put those details into place.

DC: just a follow-up question on that because I think that a lot of businesses may have questions on. And why is it important to give them that guidance? I know that you have made a point of doing that.

DSC: Right. Well there is still so much that is unknown about coronavirus. And there is so much that is unknown about the risks, and people need guidance that is specific. You know how many people can be in a space? How long can they be together? What do they need to do? How can they interact? You know what kind of face covering they need to wear? etc. etc. etc. And so, the more specific that we can be in our guidance, are actually our orders to businesses or our protocols that they need to adopt. I think the easier it is for people to follow along. So, it both takes time to develop the guidance as well as takes time for businesses to put their plans into place to implement it.

DC: A couple of more questions. One area that I know is really important to parents and members of our community is the schools. And I know that you have worked very closely, continued to work closely with the superintendent of schools. So, can you tell folks a little bit about what you are, what we are doing with respect to the  prospect of opening schools? How we are approaching that effort?

DSC: Yeah, so schools are incredibly, incredibly important. I would say vital fabric and ours in our society. And I think that the distance learning has been enormously challenging. Challenging for kids, challenging for parents, and certainly challenging for teachers. So we at our Emergency Operations Center and our public health workforce have been working closely with the County Office of Education, both in the steps that ultimately resulted in closure of schools but also in the planning for how can we reopen schools. And we actually have new staff on board in the public health department who are solely dedicated to working with schools, to work through all of those different tradeoffs. And think about how might we most safely get kids back to school and resume something resembling a normal educational experience for them.

DC: Well thank you I know that a lot of parents will appreciate hearing that one. Last question about the heat. And we were talking earlier as we were walking over to the studio that it is hot. And I know that you have been very concerned about making sure that there are options for people. We notify cities that the public health order allows cooling centers to be open. Anything you want to say about that? I know that for a lot of folks that is a challenge because it gets so hot in Santa Clara County.

DSC: Yeah. So, we are experiencing a heatwave and we know that many, many homes and residences in our County do not have air-conditioning. And you cannot stay and bake in your home. And you need to get some relief, and you need to go to a cooling center. So, this is all about trade-offs and balancing harms. But during a heatwave, it is important to get to a cooling center if you do not have another way to cool off. And we have opened cooling centers. There's nice detailed guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about how to do so safely, and how to maintain social distancing within a cooling center. So, it is hot, and we do encourage people to seek relief at a cooling center if they do not have a way to do so in their home.

DC: last question related to that and I know that the state order does not allow for that right now. But pools, public pools. I know that we are trying to get more information from the state. We are. So again, one of the challenges of the state order is that some things are not on the menu. So, for example, pools at the moment are not on the menu of things that were allowed to pick. We are anxious, especially when it is hot. And also, is a form of exercise. Many people cannot exercise, need to exercise for physical health and for mental health. And a pool is a great way to do that. So, we have a lot of ideas about how we could reopen pool safely at the moment. To the best of our knowledge as of this morning they are still not allowed under the state order, but we are going to work hard. See what we might be able to do.

DC: Well Dr. Cody thank you for taking the time to have this conversation with us. I know that there is a lot of questions that people have, which is why you wanted to have this and give this opportunity. Any parting words to the residents of the county and people that are out there watching?

DSC: What I. what I want to say to everyone who lives in our County is. Really thank you. And I know that this has been extraordinarily hard. There is no one that has been untouched. Some people, it has been much harder for some than for others. But it has been hard for everyone. And for the most part, people have hung in there to protect their families and their communities. And it is pretty amazing, what our county has accomplished. So, I look forward to being able to gradually reopen. And for Santa Clara County to be a safe place.

DC: Thank you Dr. Cody. Thank you to everyone for watching us. Please stay safe. Stay cool out there. Thank you very much