Brenton Davis announced to the Erie Times-News on Thursday his intention to scrap a variety of precautions put in place to slow the spread of COVID. From the article:
“Davis, 38, said he has no plans to continue with a countywide mask mandate for schools unless there is a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases.”
Meanwhile – right now – our county is still trying to come down off the highest 7-day average case count since this whole damn thing started.
Our incoming county executive needs to see a sharp rise from the highest spike we’ve had before returning to masks? Keep in mind the CDC “continues to recommend wearing a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high community transmission, regardless of vaccination status.” This is because, again – according to the CDC – “Masks offer protection against all variants.”
Maybe Davis has talked to some local expert that recommended this? Heh, no.
“[Davis] has not talked with Erie County Department of Health officials since meeting with them over the summer.”
Why not?
“It was made clear to myself and the transition team, the requests for direct outreach were not acceptable to the current [county executive].”
Brenton Davis
Wait. Current executive Kathy Dahlkemper is cutting Davis’ people off from talking to the public health officials? Really?
Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper and county Health Department Director Melissa Lyon both said they welcome any discussions between Davis and county Health Department leaders.
“In fact, all my department heads have been wanting to meet with the county executive-elect,” Dahlkemper said. “Frankly, they are concerned why they are not meeting with him.”
“We are very open to having a discussion with Brenton Davis or members of his transition team,” said Lyon…. “We want there to be no surprises.”
Surprise! Your incoming boss is ghosting you, publicly ignoring your professional advice, and blaming you for the lack of communication.
If at this point you’re wondering, “Did Brenton Davis have anything dumb to say about vaccination?” Yes.
“His method of dealing with COVID-19 would be to expand beyond the “get vaccinated, get vaccinated” mantra Davis said currently dominates conversation.”
Oh dear God. Let’s go back to the CDC: “Vaccines remain the best public health measure to protect people from COVID-19, slow transmission, and reduce the likelihood of new variants emerging. COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalizations, and death.”
But wait, there’s more! Davis doesn’t want kids exposed to COVID-19 to quarantine while awaiting their test results. Why the f*** not?
The problem is that it often takes two-to-three days to get COVID-19 test results. A positive student could spread COVID-19 to other students and staff while waiting for test results, especially if they aren’t wearing face masks.
“But less than 1% of (COVID-infected) children are dying from it,” Davis said.
Now, thank God, Davis pulled this 1% number directly from his ass. Nowhere near 1% of COVID-positive children are dying. Could you imagine! The Erie School District alone has 11,000 children, of which 1% would be 110 dead kids.
Davis almost certainly wouldn’t find that acceptable…if he had bothered to do the math. The much likelier scenario is that he has not bothered to do the math.
So, here is the math: Brenton Davis will be our county executive in a few weeks. He is in the newspaper contradicting everything the CDC says about COVID. He has not spoken to county public health officials since the summer, and may have lied about why that is. All of this simply because “[w]e have to find a way to return to some sense of normalcy.”
Add it all up and it sounds like we’re being asked to accept more disease and death around here. Does that sound like “normalcy” to you?
Idiotville 