Dr. Lee Vogel gave a speech at the 12/09/2020 Board of Health meeting. This isn’t the first speech of hers that I’ve posted and it probably won’t be the last. I post this one because I think it demonstrates a big disconnect between our public health officials and the needs of the people in the community. One, it’s ridiculous to me that she seems to be drawing a distinction between the public health sector and the economic sector when economics plays a huge role in the accessibility of healthcare and people’s financial wellbeing and sense of personal security greatly influences the state of their health.
In the first half of the year overdose deaths in Appleton alone were twice what the police would expect to see in a normal year. I find it difficult to imagine those rates will decrease the longer people are forbidden to return to normal. Mayor Woodford has plainly stated that more than half of our small businesses will need consumer spending to return to pre-COVID-19 levels by the end of 2020 in order to stay in business. Additionally, in this very Board of Health meeting, Health Officer Eggebrecht said that the public was going to need to temper their expectations for a vaccine because there was going to be a very limited supply for quite a while. Given those circumstances, it seems very disconnected to tell people to put aside their pain and worry, do what the health experts advise, and place their trust in a vaccine that is not going to be readily available for months even though they’re looking at personal ruin within 4 weeks.
Lee Vogel: “The, one other thing that I want to bring up, just because I think it’s so easy for polarization between medical and public health advisors on the one hand and the rest of our community on the other hand, um, is, is, is, just acknowledging that we know it’s still really very difficult for our businesses and our economic sector, um, and we’re–you know–we’re mindful of that. I think the best way to be able to reopen schools and reopen businesses is to really–you know–to really squelch the virus and so that’s why I think there’s, there’s always an opportunity for people to look at public health decisions and the difficult decisions that Kurt and his staff and our epidemiologists in our state and infectious disease experts locally and physicians everybody’s making, or and our school systems, and it’s never fast enough. Um, and it’s always seems like it’s going in the wrong direction ’cause it feels so restrictive when we’re kind of at breaking points, but the truth is that’s how we’re gonna get through this is, is, is the more we have these temporary but thoughtful restrictions as we have the hope of a vi–and promise of a vaccine.”
View video here: https://www.facebook.com/100336338479466/posts/173796177800148/
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