LAKEPORT— Emphasizing the need for everyone to work together, Dr. Evan Bloom told the Lake County Board of Supervisors at Tuesday’s meeting that the reality at Adventist Hospital Clearlake and Sutter Health in Lakeport are of “very significant concern.” Bloom is an emergency physician and the Chief Medical Officer at Adventist Hospital Clearlake.
“This morning, we had seven COVID patients in one of two critical access hospitals and only 50 beds in the county,” Bloom said. “This puts an enormous pressure on the hospitals. We are able to give care but it’s becoming more difficult to do so. If you come to ER, you may have to wait.”
Bloom said that if people have an emergency they may need to be transferred to hospitals outside the county but other hospitals also are facing the same challenges. “We’re not alone,” he noted.
The county’s former Public Health Officer, Dr. Gary Pace added, “Hospitals are full. It’s hard to transfer patients to Sonoma where there are 70 COVID patients and 17 in ICU. The hospital situation is worrisome.” Pace attended the BOS meeting to provide an update on the pandemic.
Bloom reiterated the recurring message from public health officials that more people need to get vaccinated. “Vaccination is the best strategy,” he noted. “The COVID patients I’ve seen in ER have all been unvaccinated. I am unlikely to meet you in ER if you are vaccinated.”
“The data is clear,” Pace said. “The vaccinated tend not to be hospitalized and are eight times less likely to get infected. There were 19 cases in the county last week. The numbers continue to rise. We will not reach herd immunity in the near future.”
Pace shared with the BOS that the county is now seeing some 100 vaccinations per day, up a month ago. “We have 29,400 fully vaccinated, but still 20,000 eligible people who are not vaccinated.” He added that the testing rate is going up and so is the testing positivity rate in the county. “We have a 17.6% testing positivity rate.” He projects that “things will be bad in the fall and winter and will get complicated because of the Delta variant.”
Agreeing that the county needs to do more to get more people vaccinated, the supervisors offered different ideas such as having vaccination booths at outdoor concerts and at the upcoming county fair in Lakeport. “We’re working with local partners to bring vaccines to events,” said Denise Pomeroy, the county’s Public Health Director.
“We need to move with a sense of urgency,” said Board Chair, Bruno Sabatier. “Let’s see how we can work more efficiently. We lack proactive measures. Waiting does not get us best outcome.”
Both Districts 4 and 5 Supervisors Tina Scott and Jessica Pyska proposed adding incentives at the selected venues. District 1 Supervisor Moke Simon encouraged partnerships with businesses, saying, “We’re all in this together.”
Public comment from a number of attendees, just like in previous BOS meetings, came from anti-vaccine proponents. One Zoom speaker warned against believing in the number of reported deaths without first investigating. Another called for conducting research outside of the mainstream media and examining information from other sources.
