HomeMy WebLinkAbout04.24.20 Email from Warren Groves - RE_ Reopening Butte County
From:Bennett, Robin
To:Snyder, Ashley
Cc:McCracken, Shari;Schuman, Amy
Subject:RE: BOS correspondence
Date:Friday, April 24, 2020 3:29:31 PM
Attachments:Reopening Butte County.msg
Hello,
Pleasefindattached,foryourrecord,anemailletterfromWarrenGroves
assenttotheBoardofSupervisors.
Sincerely,
Executive Assistant
Office: 530-762-2186 Cell: 530-990-2678
Email: rbennett@buttecounty.net Email: dteeter@buttecounty.net
Supervisor Doug Teeter, District 5
Butte County Board of Supervisors
6585 Clark Rd, Suite 200
Paradise, CA 95969
From:Warren Groves
To:Lucero, Debra;Teeter, Doug;BOS District 4;Ritter, Tami;Connelly, Bill
Subject:Reopening Butte County
Date:Friday, April 24, 2020 2:15:46 PM
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Dear Board of Supervisors for Butte County,
The following is a submission that I would like to submit when you discuss the reopening of
Butte County during the time of theChief Administrative Officer's remarks on 28 April.
First of all thank you for your compassion, your respect, your wisdom and your courage
demonstrated for the people of Butte County during this crisis.
Compassion demonstrated by allowing people to be outside in places like parks like
Bidwell instead of arresting or fining our citizens like in other parts of the country.
Respect for us as adults and our rights demonstrated by giving us the information of the
risk and what we can do to mitigate it while allowing us to be responsible adults to
make choices about the risks we are willing to takewithout putting the vulnerable part
of our population at risk.
Wisdom demonstrated by understanding that thecitizens of your county need healthy
immune systems to fight this and any virus. To keep it healthy we need plenty of fresh
air, exercise, sunshine and relief from the stress of fear and hysteria. You have allowed
us to be outside to do that.
Courage demonstrated by challenging the over reach ofpower when theGovernor
closed the Lake.
Thank you as well for being proactive for our county in writing to the Governor and working
closely with state health officials to move towards the reopening of our county.Hopefully,
common sense willprevail and your appeal will be allowed. If, however, our county is not
allowed to make movement towards reopening this next week as hoped, please consider the
following appeal.
At the beginning of this crisis, the reason given for the lockdown was not to keep people from
getting the virus, but to slow its spread so that we could care for those who need the medical
help, i.e.we were told thepurpose was to flatten the curve. In other words, the samenumber of
people would eventually get the virus in the end, but hospitals wouldn’t be overwhelmed so
we would have a better chance ofhelping those who did have a life threatening response to the
virus.At this point, it is obvious that the models were flawed, that local ourhospitals have not
been over run, and that the federal government has theability to help areas that are
overwhelmed and has pledged to do so. So although, there may be more than our current 16
confirmed cases ahead of us, we have the capability to handle a spike and the federal
governments promise to help us if we become a hotspot.
Regarding what we know now regarding the model that we have been following versus real
data. Professor Johan Giescke of Sweden who is one of the world’s leadingepidemiologists,
has advised the Swedish government during COVID-19, was the first Chief Scientist of the
European Centrefor disease prevention and Control, and an advisor to the director general of
WHO makes the following points regarding why a lockdown is the wrong policy (You can
find the interview by googling Johan Giescke: Why Lockdowns Are The Wrong Policy)
Lockdowns that havehappened haven’t been evidence based but based on a flawed
model from a poorly supported Imperial College paper that was not peer reviewed or
ever published.
Such a model is dubious to base public policy on.
The flattening of the curve is due to the most vulnerable dying as much as the
lockdown.
When we examine the statistics a year from now, the statistics will be the same for those
wholocked down andthose who didn’t.
COVID-19 is a“milddisease” but a horrible way to die, it’s similar to the flu but the
novelty of the disease has been used to scare people
The actual fatality rate is in the region of .1% (Stanford studies are finding the same)
When widespread testing happens, we will findtheabout 50% of the population has had
COVID-19.
It seems that we are avoiding looking at this failed scenario presented by Professor Giescke by
changing the narrative from flattening to the curve to having to continue this lockdown to save
one life. Lives andlivelihoods are be lost as a result of the lockdown - increased suicides,
substance abuse, in talking to social workers more trauma to children because of at risk
families having children home all day, etc. This is not saving lives versus saving the economy.
Saving the economy will also save lives.
The other narrative being utilized often is that you don’t won’t to be responsible for someone
getting COVID-19 even ifyou aren’t affected by it. The same reasoning could be used to
shame and call people irresponsible for driving. This year, we know that the statistics show
that close to 40,000 people will lose their lives and another 4.5 million will be hospitalized
with about 50% ofthose cases resulting in a permanentdisability from car accidents. Yet we
all continue to drive knowing that we might be the cause of an accident through a momentary
lapse of attention or judgment that might kill or disable others. In the case of driving, we could
add even more claim to the irresponsibility of driving because we don’t know who is at risk of
being run into so it’s hard to avoid. Whereas with COVID-19, we do know who is at risk so
that we can protect them and the rest of us get back towork and our lives with proper
precautions, of course.
Our governor, according to a response sent to me by Supervisor Lucero, in response to appeals
toreopen from San Luis Obispo,Ventura, Riverside, and Stanislaus counties as well the city
of Placerville is telling ruralcommunities like ours that there is a danger if they reopen, but to
myknowledge, he hasn’t substantiated that statement.You, as a board,alreadyhave
experience with making appeals. You were told when you appealed that closing the Lake was
an over reach of the governor to let your assemblyman know that you were upset. End of
story. Itdoesn’t have to be the end of the story with the reopening of our county.
Hopefully, your current appeals will make a difference, but if not, time is of the essence to
save the lives andlivelihoods of the people of Butte County.In light of all this, if your appeals
to the governor have no effect, we don’t have time to continue thenormalprocess of appeals.
What we need then is bold and decisive action to save the lives andlivelihoods of your
constituents in Butte County.
So as a Board of Butte County Supervisors, I appeal to you to take that bold and decisive
action. It appears that you have two choices before you. Go along with the Governor's dictates,
or to do what is needed for our county. My appeal to you is
To continue your compassion by reopening the county in the prescribed way thus
protecting both the vulnerable part of our population as well as the lives andlivelihood
that will be lost should this lock downremain,
To continue your wisdom by looking at the current evidence and data, not flawed
models andpredictions, and through your discussions with our health care official, to
make your own informed decisions that will both reopen our county and keep it safe
(these two things are not mutually exclusive),
To continue your respect for the community by letting us as adults make our decisions
about the risks that we are willing to take while being respectful of others to not put
them at risk, and
To continue your courage by making the bold move to reopen our county in the
prescribed.
Thank you for your consideration of my comments.
Warren Groves
(530) 713-6647
jwarrengroves1@mac.com