Enforcement of virus health orders sparse in county

As Kern County heads toward another major surge of COVID-19 cases, the enforcement of state rules and guidelines, meant to protect public health and stop transmission of the virus, appears to be sparse at best locally.

One Kern County supervisor went so far as to promise business owners last week the county would not enforce certain state mandates that recently took effect.

“If you’re a restaurant and you want to operate inside, the county is not going to make you not do that,” said 3rd District Supervisor Mike Maggard, addressing a group of restaurant owners who were protesting restrictions on indoor dining. Kern was moved into the state’s most restrictive purple reopening tier nearly two weeks ago, which permits only outdoor dining at restaurants.

The county also won’t inform the state of businesses it knows to be violating mandates and rules, Maggard said.

Local pediatrician Dr. Namisha Amin said she didn’t agree with Maggard’s statements and hoped leaders and business owners understand that actions that contribute to the spread of the virus have a wider impact than some might realize.

“I just hope our community will do what needs to be done in order to get our numbers back down,” said Amin, who is especially concerned about the impact of the pandemic on children who can’t attend school. “Tens of thousands of children here have yet to see their classrooms and our behavior now is what will determine their educational outcome for the rest of the academic year.”

In a Facebook video last week, one of many she’s done offering advice and scientific information on the pandemic, she said: “We’re losing more Americans at a rate of 1,100 to 1,300 a day (to COVID-19). So when we talk about how we love this country so much, what I don’t understand is why we are not all trying to take care of our fellow countrymen, because we will all have to do that if we want to change the trajectory of this pandemic.”

Their different views raise the question of how to balance competing approaches to the pandemic amid a second spike in cases in Kern. For months now, some businesses and restaurants in Kern have continued to operate in the open in violation of the state’s orders without repercussion. But it was one thing for that to happen when cases had fallen to a low point in recent months and another as cases now climb dramatically.

New cases of the virus in Kern are averaging around 300 a day in the past week and are only expected to increase more. Hospitalizations have increased 127 percent in the past two weeks, from 63 COVID-19 patients to 143, according to the most recent state and county data.

According to a California Department of Public Health model that forecasts the disease’s trajectory by county, cases in Kern are increasing at a rate where local hospital capacity will be overwhelmed in four weeks, on Dec. 25, with more than 300 hospitalized COVID-19 patients. More than 75 county residents are expected to die between now and Christmas.

With that in mind, is it right for the government to tell people what they can and can’t do? Should our public health institutions and local law enforcement play an active role in trying to stop the spread of the disease? Do Americans have a duty to protect each other by voluntarily restricting their own activities? Is it more important to help businesses or get kids back to school?

Larger institutions are wrestling with the same questions, as well. Just as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week in favor of religious groups challenging pandemic restrictions issued by the state of New York, Pope Francis penned a column in the opinion section of The New York Times last week chiding those who place personal freedoms above the well-being of others.

“With some exceptions, governments have made great efforts to put the well-being of their people first, acting decisively to protect health and to save lives ...,” the pope wrote. “Yet some groups protested, refusing to keep their distance, marching against travel restrictions — as if measures that governments must impose for the good of their people constitute some kind of political assault on autonomy or personal freedom! Looking to the common good is much more than the sum of what is good for individuals. It means having a regard for all citizens and seeking to respond effectively to the needs of the least fortunate.”

On Wednesday, the day after the protests by restaurant owners, Maggard elaborated on his comments about state restrictions, saying he felt that individuals have to make decisions for themselves.

“Can the governor tell you you can’t worship, can the governor tell you to make a decision that will bankrupt your business and can the governor tell you you can’t meet in your home with your family?” he asked. “I think individuals need to make their own decision. I’m being prudent in my life but I’m not the governor’s police force and I’m not going to act as the police force.”

His opinion resonates with many.

Sheriff Donny Youngblood had said early on he would not enforce regulations limiting church services or requiring them to take place outdoors, and Youngblood recently said deputies would not respond to complaints of groups of people gathering or violating a statewide curfew. Across the state, many sheriffs have made similar announcements.

Maggard said it was local officials’ responsibility only to remind people what the edicts are.

“Frankly, after that, the response is up to the individual and the business owner,” Maggard said. He also noted that the Board of Supervisors had gone to great lengths to ensure hospital capacity is available, authorizing $12 million to pay for extra staffing if needed.

But Amin noted in the video posted on her Facebook page that relying on hospitals and medical workers is a false sense of security because they are likely to become overwhelmed in the face of unabated growth in cases. Speaking of the many advancements that have been made to treat coronavirus patients and

have effectively brought down mortality rates, she said: “But we have to remember our mortality rate is only as good as our access to a well functioning and non-overwhelmed health care system. So if we start pushing the limits, all these wonderful treatments become completely irrelevant if we can’t access them. That’s why these actions are so important right now.”

As recently as August, she noted, local hospitals had trouble staffing hospital beds. And in some places in the United States right now, she said, nurses who are COVID-19 positive but asymptomatic are being asked to work with COVID-19 patients because health care systems have been so overwhelmed.

Kern County Public Health Services Director Matt Constantine acknowledged that the county’s understanding of its own role in the pandemic has “evolved over time.”

“As we understand what the state can do and what we can do, we’ve found some approaches were more productive than others,” Constantine said.

Early on the county set up a call center to field questions about what is and isn’t permitted under the state’s orders. A good deal of time has been spent working with businesses to understand what restrictions apply and what is considered essential. His office has worked with schools and businesses and even the county’s election department to advise on proper procedures to prevent the virus from spreading.

But the public health department is not actively checking if businesses or other groups and establishments are complying, nor is it investigating when it receives a complaint, he said.

And a map on the department’s website where the public could report businesses that weren’t complying with state orders has been taken down.

The county previously forwarded a list of those businesses for which it had received complaints onto the state, which does deploy enforcement strike teams throughout the state, but the county is no longer forwarding that list, Constantine said. Communication with the state has been challenging throughout the pandemic, he said.

The protocol in response to complaints from the public now is simply to send an initial letter to the business making it aware of current restrictions.

Constantine further noted that his office does not have the authority to cite or fine people or businesses; only law enforcement can.

But other counties are enforcing state orders, particularly on businesses that refuse to adhere to state guidelines on COVID-19.

San Diego County leaders recently announced they would begin to fine businesses violating orders. Los Angeles County is doing the same. Even the small community of Firebaugh, in Fresno County, is using code enforcement officers to check whether restaurants are complying with state regulations, according to a recent report on Valley Public Radio, KVPR.

Joe Alindajao, a city councilman and mayor pro tem in Delano, said he had proposed a mask mandate early on in the pandemic, an experience he felt highlighted the problem with enforcement. The proposal received pushback from other council members and city staff, he said, and ultimately failed to pass.

City staff and the police department were concerned about fining people and businesses that were already struggling financially and were also concerned about the confrontations that could result from enforcing a mask mandate.

He’s now convinced the best approach is for the city to partner with churches and community groups to do education and outreach.

“It’s a sensitive issue. It’s not as clear as using a seat belt or not using a cellphone when driving. We can see the clear implications of practicing that kind of behavior,” he said.