Tag Archives: Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Mandatory face coverings, San Francisco Bay Area, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas

Benicia physician cites data on mask mandates

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.

See also:
Benicia CA, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Elizabeth Patterson, Mandatory face coverings, Solano County Board of Supervisors, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas

Former Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson asks hard questions about Solano County health policies

Elizabeth Patterson: The real masking question

Vallejo Times-Herald Letters, September 2, 2021
Elizabeth Patterson, former Mayor of Benicia

The most important question asked the evening that Dr. Matyas, Solano County Public Health Officer, testified at the Benicia City Council was: “Where does the COVID virus come from that is spreading in all the homes and family gatherings, and parties?” The reason this question is critical is because Dr. Matyas claimed he was a scientist and not a politician, and that the “evidence” was clear COVID was surging in Solano County because of family gatherings and parties. And therefore, “masking up where the public gathered” such as in-door restaurants was not necessary.

This question — “Where does the virus come from that is spread at family gatherings? — is key to understanding that outside of spontaneous virus eruptions at family gatherings, the virus is caught someplace. The suggestion that it is just circulating among family and friends independent of exposure in stores or gyms is not scientific and lacks credibility.

Why then do we as a county not have masking requirements? At that same Benicia meeting and a subsequent press interview, Dr. Matyas explained that Benicia and Vallejo are more “Bay Area-like” and up county is more “Central Valley-like.” He went on to say this meant progressive against conservative ideological bases. And that is a reason he does not recommend the Solano County Board of Supervisors require masking.

Is this “let them get infected” rather than adopt the best strategy proven which is vaccinations, masking and avoiding long-term contact indoors? Does this mean that “fake COVID” cry scares officials? I’ve seen the meetings where the supervisors have endured anger and vitriol. In my experience, the way to deal with bullies is to do the right thing. The right thing is to reduce the spread of COVID by adopting proven strategies.

I like Dr. Matyas and understand his stated struggle communicating. That is his problem. Our problem is that we don’t have the best public health policies. That is the supervisors’ duty.

— Elizabeth Patterson/Former Benicia Mayor

See also:
Coronavirus, Covid 19, Mandatory face coverings, misinformation, Solano County Board of Supervisors, Solano County Health Department, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas

Dixon author Kelly James: Enough with COVID misinformation

The county public health department — specifically Bela Matyas — has been feeding the community misinformation…When will the county administration stop being complicit?

Fairfield Reporter Letters, by Kelly James, September 1, 2021
Dr. Bela Matyas, Deputy Director of Health and Social Services, Solano County Health Officer

When is enough, enough?

Over 2,000 new COVID-19 infections in the last couple weeks — primarily due to people going to parties, playing beer pong, and sharing cigarettes? So the infection and subsequent COVID death of the individual in the care facility was the result of their participation in summer parties and frat games? How about all the recent infections among the under 18 age group?

From the onset of the pandemic, the county public health department — specifically Bela Matyas — has been feeding the community misinformation. It began with his assurance to parents that kids were basically immune, continued with his social media video stating that masks weren’t necessary and the virus wouldn’t spread in confined spaces as long as you had a partition to protect you, and now, once again, he is making comments that are misleading and contradicting himself constantly in his public statements.

Until very recently he was still informing the public that COVID was primarily transmitted through droplets expelled by an infected person who coughed or sneezed or by someone touching a surface on which these droplets had settled and then touching their face and so forth. This despite the fact that in recent months the CDC and every other major medical association in the United States and the world had changed their assessment of the modes of transmission (based on lengthy, verifiable medical studies and research) to infections primarily occurring through microparticles which stay suspended in the air when people breath, talk, etc., as well as large droplets expelled when coughing and so forth. These studies are what fueled the initial spring and summer mask advisories made by the CDC. These are the “new information” which Dr. Matyas refuses to acknowledge as it validates the obvious need for indoor masking and contradicts his advisements to the public.

All of this absurdity is laughable from a distance, but for many of us living in Solano County, it’s a nightmare. When is the Solano County Board of Supervisors going to step in and do something? Do they or does anyone for that matter truly believe that every other medical professional, public health department, and health agency in the state is wrong and ours is right?

Solano County has been consistently the last in the state to be proactive and as a result, people have and are dying. We will get shut down again if basic precautions continue to go unheeded or enforced. When will the county administration stop being complicit?

— Kelly James/Dixon

See also:
Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas, Vaccine

Solano Health Officer inaction proving wrong – cases climbing, hospital beds nearing capacity

Solano County reaches grim COVID-19 milestone, still no regional mask mandate

(Graphic by Solano NewsNet)

SolanoNews.net, by Matthew Keys, August 30, 2021

Solano County’s top health officer is still resisting calls for a region-wide indoor mask mandate and other proactive steps toward combatting the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, even as new data shows the rate of infection, hospitalization and deaths attributed to the virus continues to climb.

New information released this week showed more than 40,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Solano County, with an additional 677 cases confirmed between last Friday evening and Monday afternoon.

The actual rate of positive cases is likely higher, since data is reported on a delay due to the methods used by officials in Solano County and elsewhere to confirm new cases.

For weeks, Solano County Public Health Officer Dr. Bela Matyas has resisted calls for a mandate that would force customers and others in indoor public spaces to wear face masks. That lack of action prompted city officials in Benicia to implement an indoor mask mandate of their own; officials in Vallejo is debating a similar requirement this week.  [Vallejo order approved – see update.]

Local hospitals are feeling the crunch of this inaction: Federal data cited by KCRA-TV (Channel 3) revealed NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield is quickly running out of available hospital bed space, including in its intensive care unit. Similar situations are playing out at hospitals operated by Kaiser Permanente, the television station reported.

In local media interviews, Dr. Matyas claims an indoor mask mandate would do little to curb the spread of the coronavirus, including the more-contagious “Delta variant.” Without citing specific evidence, Dr. Matyas claims the majority of people who become infected with COVID-19 are exposed at private gatherings, not in public, and those calling for an indoor mask mandate are doing so for political reasons.

But in other Bay Area counties, the week-over-week rate of infection slowed and, in some cases, even dropped once indoor mask mandates were rolled out, according to data published by the New York Times and reviewed by Solano NewsNet. San Francisco and Marin counties have seen a sharp decline in new infections since implementing an indoor mask mandate in early August. Solano County, on the other hand, has the highest seven-day average of new cases, with well over 100 new cases reported each day, the data shows.

This week, Solano County officials reported four new deaths attributed to COVID-19 infections. Those four cases included two individuals who had received a COVID-19 vaccine, which does not prevent infection.

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