San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
DR. WOOTEN IS SAN DIEGAN OF THE YEAR
As in past years, The San Diego Union-tribune Editorial Board began discussing candidates for its 2020 San Diegan of the Year well before the year ended. We debated potential choices over multiple Zoom meetings, and we asked members of a weary public for suggestions in recent weeks.
Each time, we kept discussing the same person. As in past years, the choice was clear.
In 2017, we honored the 20 people who died in the local hepatitis A crisis, whom county officials declined to identify. In 2018, we celebrated U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw for his role in getting the federal government to treat immigrants more fairly and humanely. In 2019, we awarded San Diego Assemblymember Shirley Weber for her historic victory in changing the law to limit when California police can use lethal force.
In 2020, our San Diegan of the Year is Dr. Wilma J. Wooten, San Diego County’s public health officer since 2007. At a time when paranoia, populism and public apathy have made the response to the coronavirus pandemic a nightmare in much of the nation, Wooten has stood firm in advocating for best practices. Wearing masks. Washing hands. Staying six feet apart. Avoiding being indoors with non-household members. Limiting travel.
And she has done so in the wake of the same public criticism — and worse — that led some public health leaders to abruptly quit across America. In June, Dr. Nicole Quick, Orange County’s chief health officer, resigned after a death threat and after a resident disgruntled over mask rules imposed by Quick read her home address aloud at a Board of Supervisors meeting. At a San Diego County Board of Supervisors meeting that same month, a local resident upset about county rules criticized Wooten’s appearance and read her home address aloud twice. To the county’s credit, it redacted Wooten’s address from the video of the board meeting, and to Wooten’s credit, she just kept doing her job: trying to keep everyone in San Diego County, including her critics, safe. This intimidation tactic, known as “doxing,” and verbal and social media abuse didn’t deter Wooten.
Attempts to undercut Wooten don’t just come from the public. County Supervisor Jim Desmond has continually questioned county decisions and characterized county messaging as “hysteria.” He once even discounted all but six of the region’s first 190 COVID-19 deaths because patients had underlying conditions by referring to the six as “pure, solely coronavirus deaths.” Not one to get sidetracked, Wooten criticized Desmond with diplomacy, saying, “Their life is no less valuable than someone’s life who does not have underlying medical conditions.” Underlying medical conditions, by the way, can include such common conditions as hypertension, diabetes and obesity.
Here’s how a recent tweet from a local TV station described Wooten’s call for public caution as infection numbers surged: “Wooten said it is your fault for not ‘adhering to the orders’” — a juvenile shading of her straightforward message. She has repeatedly declined to engage with critics or comment on threats she may have received, saying, “Our focus is to do the right thing and help to protect the public’s health.”
No one is perfect, including Wooten, a 64-yearold, Alabama-born 1986 graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. This editorial board and many civic, political and health leaders faulted the city and the county for their slow response to the 2017 hepatitis A epidemic in Downtown San Diego. The board wrote this August that county officials’ refusal to specify where pandemic outbreaks were occurring “denies residents basic health-risk information that can shape their decision-making.”
But her rationale was reasonable even if we came down strongly on the side of disclosure. And within San Diego’s public health establishment, Wooten wins praise for staying on message, coordinating private, local, state and federal responses, resisting pressure to quickly end restrictions imposed March 19 by the state, taking decisive action to limit new infections at Halloween parties held by San Diego State University students off-campus and working long hours.
Her judgment has been consistently strong. In May, when the state began considering its move to relax restrictions in the summer, she warned the pandemic would roar back if the public ignored safety basics. She was proven right in the fall, leading to a dramatic Oct. 16 news conference in which she declared, “We are sounding the alarm. ... COVID-19 is everywhere.” Now the pandemic is worse than ever, with fatigue and denial fueling the worst outbreaks and the fullest hospitals yet.
But that’s not Wooten’s fault. She had the most difficult job in San Diego County in 2020. And she rose to the occasion. Day in and day out.
The Editorial Board also wishes to acknowledge many groups for their courageous efforts to keep our community functioning — and also helping San Diegans keep their spirits up.
Our list: frontline health care workers and first responders who rescued so many while being at direct risk. Clerks at grocery, drug and convenience stores who kept us supplied with life’s basics while being at direct risk. All other health care workers and those who play key roles in the supply chain, including farm workers. The teachers who went above and beyond in trying to make the most of online education to help struggling students. Local racial justice groups such as Community Advocates for Just and Moral Governance and Black Lives Matter San Diego fighting the good fight against inequity. Mental health therapists. Whoever leaked the locations of the county’s outbreaks to KPBS this month.
And also offering help, Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and members of the San Diego Padres who brought joy to so many as the team made the playoffs for the first time since 2006.
We also recognize La Jolla cardiologist Dr. Eric Topol, the founder and director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute. He has been one of the smartest, most authoritative voices pushing back on social and conventional media against a year of dangerous, bizarre remarks from President Donald Trump and his aides downplaying the pandemic, making grossly misleading claims and touting virus “cures” that weren’t.
This was a terrible year for so many, and it could have been better. Imagine an America where Dr. Wooten and Dr. Topol led the pandemic response — or where Dr. Anthony Fauci hadn’t been shunted aside by Trump. Still, it could also have been worse. San Diegans have much to be thankful for at year’s end — starting with Dr. Wooten and all those cited above. Adversity doesn’t just build character. It reveals it.