SAN DIEGO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: HASD&IC President & CEO Dimitrios Alexiou joined health care leaders from UCSD, Scripps Health, and Sharp HealthCare at the Aug. 31 meeting to provide testimony (starts at 3:22) in support of the proposal to declare health misinformation a public health crisis. After more than 15 hours of debate and more than 250 public speakers who spoke in opposition, the board voted 3-2 to approve the measure. Board Chair Nathan Fletcher said the action makes San Diego County the first in the nation to call medical misinformation a public health crisis. This meeting came on the heels of the Aug. 17 Board of Supervisors meeting in which the board was met with public outcry when hundreds protested the COVID-19 guidelines released by the county and health officials. More than 100 speakers addressed the supervisors during public comment to express their opposition to recommendations that call for people to wear masks indoors and for businesses to require employee vaccinations or regular COVID-19 testing.
CALL FOR MASK, VACCINE MANDATE: Last week, HASD&IC and the San Diego County Medical Society submitted a letter to County of San Diego Public Health Officer Wilma Wooten, MD, and the Board of Supervisors, asking for masking and vaccination mandates to address the rise in hospitalizations and protect the health of the community. Specifically, the letter calls for the county to require indoor masking for all people regardless of vaccination status. It also asked county leaders to further safeguard the community by requiring vaccination for indoor dining, bars, gyms, and entertainment venues.
VACCINE CAMPAIGN: The Latino Coalition for a Healthy California (LCHC) has partnered with AltaMed Health Services to launch ¡Ándale! ¿Qué esperas?, a statewide, multi-generational COVID-19 vaccine campaign reaching 4.45 million Latinos through public education and 2.25 million Latinos through direct community outreach efforts in California. In partnership with San Ysidro Health in San Diego County, Clinica de la Raza in Oakland, Latino Health Access in Orange County, Golden Valley Health Centers in the Central Valley, the My Community, My Health Coalition in Los Angeles County, LCHC, and AltaMed Health Services have launched this important joint effort to get the most vulnerable Californians vaccinated.
ALL-HAZARD PLAN: The San Diego County Health Service Capacity Task Force has escalated the All-Hazard Plan to Level 1 given the continued health system strain, high transfers of care times between ambulances/emergency medical services and hospital emergency departments (EDs), and record ED volumes.
STATE PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICER ORDER: The California Department of Public Health has posted revised FAQs on the Public Health Order on Requirements for Visitors in Acute Health Care and Long-Term Care Settings. As of Aug. 30, the FAQs were amended to clarify that county child welfare emergency response social workers are not visitors and not covered under the visitation order.
