I have read the interview with Dr. Matyas in the Vallejo Times-Herald. He has not presented evidence-based studies to back up his stance on not masking in indoor public places.
Solano County has the highest rate of COVID of all Bay Area counties. All other counties have mandated indoor masking. Some counties have seen their rate of COVID decrease.
Evidence-based medicine is the standard for decision-making. A lengthy evidence review of face mask use during COVID-19 in the proceedings of the United States National Academy of Science on Jan. 26 concludes: “Near universal adoption of non-medical masks when out in public in combination with complementary public health measures could reduce the spread of COVID-19.”
I agree that we can not control COVID-19, but only mitigate it, We have learned to accept multiple mandates that only mitigate against death or significant injury: Seat belts, helmets for motorcycles and bicycles in children, and many more.
Masks have been documented by history to mitigate pandemics, like the 1910 Manchurian Plague.
The Solano County Department of Health is responsible to protect our citizens. People often ask for second opinions for grave illnesses. I ask that the Solano County Board of Supervisors asks for a second opinion on a mask mandate from the infectious disease heads of Kaiser and Sutter in Solano County and also consultation with either UC Davis or UC San Francisco.
Detailed COVID data for Solano County, does not drill down to Solano cities
CovidActNow has been around since March 2020, but it’s new to me.
It’s an excellent resource for current data on the pandemic with a variety of good charts, and it’s updated more frequently than the Solano County Coronavirus Dashboard. Trustworthy scientific credentials: partnering with Georgetown, Stanford and Harvard. Easier to read than Johns Hopkins.
DEATHS: 3 new deaths were reported today, a total of 10 this week. Today’s deaths included one of us age 18-49 and two 65+. Today’s deaths included one Black person one White and one Multirace. Total Solano deaths over the course of the pandemic rose to 276.
CASES: The County reported 517 new COVID cases in the last two days, 259 per day, still in the range of last winter’s surge.
COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen 2,238 new cases, FIVE TIMES the CDC’s definition of a HIGH rate of transmission. Based on Solano County population of 449,432, the CDC would rate us in “SUBSTANTIAL” transmission with only 225 cases over the last 7 days. Double that, or 450 cases in the last 7 days would rank us in “HIGH” transmission. And we are at 2,238 cases as of today! [Reference:CDC’s level for “High Community Transmission”.]
YOUTH CASES: Case numbers also show a startling increase in the percentage of new cases among young persons age 0-17, increasing another tenth of a percent today to a new high of 13.8% of total cases. That doesn’t sound like much until you consider that the percentage of youth cases increased very, very slowly over the course of the pandemic, starting below 6%, and only gradually reaching 12% in mid-April of 2021. The percentage of youth cases has jumped a full 0.8% since mid-August.
ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 1,151 ACTIVE cases is up from Wednesday’s 1,056, and alarmingly up from 212 on July 2, and in the range we experienced during the deadly surge last winter.
POSITIVE TEST RATE: Our 7-day average percent positivity rate was 13.9% today, up slightly from 13.8% on Wednesday, and nearly 4 times today’s California rate of 3.6% and over 1.25 times today’s U.S. rate of 10.5%. [Source: Johns Hopkins]WARNING:The Delta Variant is here in Solano County and spreading fast. Time to mask up again – watch out and take care!
HOSPITALIZATIONS:
CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 127 to 123 persons, but still in the range we saw during the winter surge.
ICU Bed Availability showed only 20% of ICU beds available today, in the yellow danger zone. This was up from Wednesday’s 16%, but we’ve not seen rates this low since January 2021.
Ventilator Availability was down today from 51% to 44%, our lowest level since January 28, 2021 and the first time we’ve tipped below 50% since Jan. 29.
TOTAL hospitalizations The County’s Monday-Friday dashboard shows an intake/discharge total of CURRENTLY hospitalized cases (above), but never reports on the TOTAL hospitalized over the course of the pandemic. That total must be independently discovered in the County’s occasional update of the Hospitalizations by Age Group chart. The County did not update its Hospitalizations charts today, so our TOTAL hospitalized since the outbreak started at 2,107.
FACE MASKS… Good News in Benicia
GOOD NEWS! Last week, Benicia City Council passed a citywide indoors mask mandate. The Council heard opposition from Dr. Bela Matyas, and support from Dr. Bonnie Hamilton. The public spoke almost entirely in favor of a mandate and included a number of medical professionals. Councilmembers debated on various finer points, and passed the resolution on a 5-0 vote. The mandatewent into effect immediately. Everyone 4 years old and up must now wear a mask indoors in public places, even those of us who are vaccinated. The mask resolution, press release, and a flyer now appear on the City website.
Benicia was the first Solano city to take action despite the County’s lack of strong guidance on masks. Benicia was joined by Vallejo on August 31. In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against even RECOMMENDING masks in public indoors spaces. Hopefully, Dr. Matyas will learn from Benicia and Vallejo, and make the necessary difficult decisions, but all reports are that he intends not to do so.
Please mask indoors in public places now, and maybe even indoors in crowded gatherings at home with vaccinated family and friends! PLEASE talk to anyone you know who isn’t vaccinated. This thing ain’t over yet!
Cases by City on Friday, September 3:
Beniciaadded 26 new cases today, a total of 1,345 cases since the outbreak began. Benicia is nearly 4 times the CDC’s definition of HIGH community transmission level (based on Benicia population).For details see Benicia far exceeding CDC’s measure of HIGH TRANSMISSION of COVID-19. [Note that Solano County itself is rated in high transmission, and Solano’s 6 other cities are likely also individually experiencing high transmission.]
Dixon added 27 new cases today, total of 2,337 cases.
Fairfield added 156 new cases today, total of 11,382 cases.
Rio Vista added 8 new cases today, total of 526 cases.
Suisun Cityadded 34 new cases today, total of 2,955 cases.
Vacaville added 131 new cases today, a total of 11,023 cases.
Vallejoadded 133 new cases today, a total of 12,337 cases.
Unincorporatedadded 2 new cases today, a total of 133 cases (population figures not available).
Solano Public Health Director opposes mask mandates
By Richard Fleming, MD, September 2, 2021
[BenIndy Editor: Dr. Fleming slightly modified his analysis here from the piece that appeared in today’s Vallejo Times-Herald. This updated version is published here with permission. – R.S.]
Richard Fleming, M.D., Benicia CA
The Vallejo Times-Herald carried an interview with County Public Health Director Bela Matyas on August 29. In it, he explained why he opposes a county mask mandate for indoor public settings and why he feels the recent decision by the Benicia City Council to establish a mask mandate was “unnecessary.”
Dr. Matyas indicated he was looking at three factors – politics, community consensus, and science. He stated there is no consensus on masking in the county so, “My decision is purely based on science.” Yet in that interview, Dr. Matyas offered no scientific data.
These comments echo comments he made before the Benicia City Council on August 24. At that meeting, Matyas said there is no evidence mask mandates work. According to him, if they did, then the disease curve in Solano County would look different than in the eight other Bay Area counties, all of which have recently re-established mask mandates. He said the curves are the same in all the Bay Area counties.
However, the curves are not the same. On every measure of the covid-19 pandemic, case rates, hospitalization rates, and mortality rates, Solano County is far higher than our peer Bay Area counties. Not only that, the rate of increase for Solano is significantly higher than for the rest of the Bay Area.
When Mayor Steve Young pointed these facts out to Matyas, the health director pivoted and said that Solano County is not like the rest of the Bay Area, that we are in between the Bay Area and the Central Valley. Yet if one looks at the pandemic numbers in the Central Valley counties, there are quite a few doing better than we are.
There are also studies from various parts of the country showing the effectiveness of masks. A very informative one from Kansas was published in June 2021 in JAMA Network Open. It compared 15 counties which imposed mask mandates to 68 counties that did not. After ten months, the counties with mandates were doing far better on every measure. There are also excellent studies looking at school districts where teachers were mandated to wear masks, and the spread of the virus in those districts was much less than in districts without such mandates.
At the Benicia City Council meeting, Matyas said that in Solano County, “Our data clearly shows that indoor public spaces are not where the disease spreads.” He said spread results from private gatherings, so a mask mandate would not help. When I heard him say this, what came to mind is, “Where’s the beef?” He did not present any evidence publicly to support his statement.
There is no doubt that private gatherings are a big problem. But the odds are high that the virus behaves similarly in our county as elsewhere. There is no infectious disease expert in the country who says that indoor public gatherings are insignificant and can be ignored as a source of viral spread.
Solano County is a great place to live, but that does not mean covid-19 spreads differently here than in the rest of the U.S. During my 30 years practicing internal medicine in Solano County, I was never advised to treat infectious diseases here differently than the way doctors treat them in Kansas, Florida, or New York.
Matyas said he is relying on science to decide against mask mandates. Yet science confirms that mask mandates work. Of course other factors help as well, especially vaccinations. Sadly, our county has the lowest vaccination rate in the Bay Area. And lower than some Central Valley counties.
Matyas says mask mandates can backfire, because people will wonder why they got vaccinated if masks are still needed. He suggests that people in the northern parts of our county are not disposed towards masking. These are valid concerns. And there are two ways our county’s top health officer can address them.
He can say, “I understand why you feel that way, so I won’t rock your boats.”
Or he can say, “I understand why you feel that way, but I want you to understand some things. Vaccinated people are very protected against serious illness, but can still spread the virus. That’s why you still need to wear a mask. And there is very good evidence that wearing masks in indoor public settings will protect our community’s health and help our economy.”
Bela Matyas has chosen the first option. He appears to feel we are somehow incapable of performing as well as our peers in the rest of the Bay Area.
In times of crisis, leaders need to step up and lead. Every other Bay Area county public health director has followed the second option, and the data shows clearly we are falling behind. Thankfully, the city leadership of both Benicia and Vallejo decided we should rise to this challenge, follow the science, and try to protect our communities. They are not willing to say we have to settle for less than our neighbors in Contra Costa, or Napa, or Marin.
But we still have a lot to do to improve our vaccination rate.
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