Keep Ortiz on duty

To the Editor:

Despite elements of local resistance, our County Health Officer, Dr Liza Ortiz, has kept doing all she can to identify and isolate outbreaks, maintain consistent advocacy for sensible policies to slow the transmission of the virus, limit the opening of businesses in ways designed to reduce risks of transmission, and kept the focus on science and public health, rather than Twitter. While we have now have had several dozen county residents hospitalized with COVID-19, we still have not suffered a county COVID death, while nearly 150,000 U.S. residents have died, and several million have been infected.

Though Dr Ortiz would likely be the first to state that this effort requires the whole community, it does help to have calm and methodical leadership, like our own local Dr Fauci. What can we do to keep Dr. Ortiz on duty at least through the pandemic? Kenneth Renwick, MD

Soulsbyville