The Chief Medical Officer at Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System is also the region’s leading infectious disease specialist. Dr. Allen Radner says he believes the people in Monterey county need to move cautiously (towards re-opening), so as to avoid a dangerous increase in the number of cases of Covid-19. He says the current pandemic, much like many past challenges, has been replete with misinformation and blame…..which is not helpful in trying to dispassionately figure out an appropriate way forward. One of the things that people may be misunderstanding is that the modeling wasn’t necessarily wrong about the number of cases expected in California, those cases just didn’t materialize because we sheltered in place more quickly than some states, and did a good job of it (at least for the first several weeks). He went on to say that social distancing has effectively allowed workers in the healthcare system to prepare to care for many more cases of the virus….which is good because the numbers of people infected in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties appears to still be on the increase. Getting more PPE, increasing the testing capacity, and hiring and training contact tracers are all still things both counties continue to work on. Doctor Radner went on to say that “despite these observations it is natural to seek to relax current restrictions. Understandably, we need to balance the negative economic, educational, and medical consequences of Stay-At-Home, with what will likely be an increased number of infections as we open society. Maintaining social distancing, masking, and contact tracing/quarantine will be more critical than ever.
