By Susan True and A. Marm Kilpatrick
Do you remember Choose Your Own Adventure books? Readers became the hero of their own story by making choices that determined the main character’s actions and the plot’s outcome. When COVID-19 hit Santa Cruz County in mid-March, we had multiple storylines ahead of us. The shelter-in-place order was issued, the Community Foundation launched the COVID-19 Response Fund, and the County quietly rented a cold storage facility should the local morgues reach capacity.
Four months later, Santa Cruz County, while facing rising infection rates, is doing comparatively well thanks to our diligence, generosity and care.
Behavior and smart choices got us to this chapter. Now 80% of our state’s population lives in counties that have had to close additional business sectors because of sharply increasing cases and hospitalizations. But despite this week’s large case increase, we’ve done better by helping each other. Overall, the state’s test positivity rate is 7.2%. Our County’s test positivity rate on July 16 was 4%. We’ve had only three COVID-19 related deaths. And, the Community Foundation’s COVID-19 fund has granted more than $2 million in relief aid with 100% of gifts going directly to ensure our neighbors stay fed, housed and safe as they face profound economic insecurity.
Today we face a new chapter. We’re seeing a startling upwards trajectory of cases in the last two weeks that may force us to close additional businesses and challenge our safe reopening of schools. But our story is still in our control.
Almost all infections in our county have been linked to social activities. Specifically, people having close indoor contact without masks with members of other households, sometimes at work (chatting with coworkers in the break room), but mostly at home or at social gatherings like visiting family for celebrations and having parties with friends.
If you are going to meet a person you don’t live with, it’s safer to meet them outside, and if you can, keep 6 feet between you, if you can’t, wear a mask. If you have to meet someone indoors, keep it very brief (under 10 minutes) and wear a mask. If possible, keep at least 6 feet between you. Open a window or make sure there is plenty of ventilation. We know that some of your interactions may be longer, so please make sure that the other three precautions are in place. If you have to be inside, please make sure you do the other three.
More simply:
Meet outside. Give space. Wear a mask.
This is what it will take to keep us safe, reduce our infection rate, and keep us off the state watch list.
If we don’t, we will lose more jobs and our health. The only way we can stop the epidemic is to take control ourselves, and the sacrifice isn’t that big.
We are a country built on the principles of self-determination and individual decisions. We are also a country that is beautifully interconnected and our personal choices have wide reaching effects on others.
Now the choice is up to you. Up to all of us. Please help flatten our curve again.
We’ve gotten through hard times before. We used to say, “Where were you on October 17 in 1989 when the earthquake struck?” Someday, we’ll tell this story. We will sit, unmasked, around the kitchen table with friends and family and we will say, “Oh…the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020? We cared for each other. We survived it, together.”
Susan True is the CEO of Community Foundation Santa Cruz County. Dr. A. Marm Kilpatrick is an infectious disease specialist and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz.
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July 19, 2020 at 07:01PM
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Guest Commentary | The choice is ours during COVID-19 - Santa Cruz Sentinel
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