Placer County’s leaders didn’t take delta seriously. Omicron threatens to take more lives
A friend of mine visiting his brother in Loomis for the holidays texted me a few days into his stay. “Placer County is nuts,” he said. “No masks anywhere.”
Indeed, despite a summertime surge of COVID cases exacerbated by the delta variant and the gathering threat of omicron, much of Placer County has gone unmasked since California lifted its statewide mask mandate on June 15. Now, with COVID cases again on the rise and a new statewide indoor mask mandate effective until Jan. 15, omicron has failed to alter the county’s do-nothing approach.
More lives in my home county will soon be lost to COVID as a result. And I’m running out of ways to say Placer County leaders should care about the lives of their neighbors.
By yet again downplaying the serious short- and long-term health risks posed by COVID, politicizing public health guidelines and refusing to enforce the state’s mask mandate, the continued indifference exhibited by Placer County leaders, public health officials, parents and residents will only worsen the latest surge of this fatal virus.
The day before California’s new indoor mask mandate took effect on Dec. 15, Placer County’s interim health officer, Dr. Rob Oldham, said the county was not likely to enforce the mandate. The Placer County Sheriff’s Office has also said it would not enforce the order. The people taxpayers pay to protect them apparently do not think enforcing such simple and effective safeguards is worth their time or your money.
Oldham’s continued refusal to implement a countywide mask mandate is likely to cost lives based partly on his previously acknowledged impression that such a requirement would not be popular with influential politicians in Placer. Oldham is following the lead of Placer County Board of Supervisors Chair Robert Weygandt, who baselessly claimed that masking “has health downsides.”
The health officer’s predecessor resigned because of the same political meddling that’s clearly influencing Oldham. The county needs a health officer who is unbiased and guided by science and data. Instead, we have one making decisions based on public and political opinion.
An effective mask mandate would limit the spread of the omicron variant, which we still have much to learn about, not only as vulnerable groups get boosted but also as children get their first vaccine doses. Placer County’s top education officials, however, are still determined to overhaul the state’s classroom mask mandate, a fixation based on personal opinions rather than, say, the best interests, health and well-being of students. They fail to recognize that schools without mask requirements have been found to be over three times more likely to experience a COVID outbreak than schools enforcing mask requirements.
The Rocklin Unified school board voted 4-1 this month for a resolution requesting that Gov. Gavin Newsom grant the board local decision-making authority on COVID health and safety protocols. The board also asked for a “reconsideration of the governor’s proposed vaccination mandate.”
The vote is just the latest in a series of misguided decisions by district leaders to appease a minority of the public and promote their political agendas to the detriment of the students and families they were elected to serve.
It’s frustrating, disheartening and disillusioning to watch Placer County officials continue to make dangerous, illogical choices that will help sicken and kill their constituents. We’re two years into a pandemic that has taken the lives of over 800,000 Americans and nearly 500 Placer County residents. Yet there seems to be no statistic, no tragedy, no study that will change the hearts and minds of those in local leadership positions.
This virus isn’t slowing down. It’s mutating and finding new ways to infect us. Unfortunately, Placer County insists on continuing to do its best to ensure that happens.