DUELING DOCS AND TACO TIME
The cures appear to be worse than the diseases.
That bromide popped to mind during the November 12 Inyo County Board of Supervisors meeting held in Independence which featured conflicting medical advice about mandatory mask requirements for those not getting a flu vaccine, with the unvaccinated potentially facing criminal penalties.
Then came the plan by the Inyo County Supervisors to shrink their meeting schedule to a mere two meetings a month which, if they take my suggestion, could result in a full Taco Bar and Portable Cocktail Cart showing up in the county administrative building.
Since flu is in season and flu shots are hitting arms, let’s start with the dueling doctors.
Dr. Mark Robinson, a surgeon at Northern Inyo Hospital, took the almost unheard-of step of criticizing a fellow doctor. During public comment, Robinson said the county should withdraw a Public Health Order issue by Dr. Jim Richardson, the County Health Officer.
The order, issued on Sept. 5, said all Healthcare Personnel should get a flu shot, and those who don’t must wear a high quality mask when working with patients. Any healthcare worker who didn’t get a flu vaccine and doesn’t wear a mask could be charged with a criminal misdemeanor.
The order has upset employees at NIH, and “made our work more difficult and unpleasant,” said Robinson, who noted that the hospital chief of staff knew he was going to address the issue. Robinson pointed out Richardson’s order didn’t mention Covid, which is still around, and for which NIH has a drive-up, in-person testing process, just like in the old days, or Covid vaccines, which are also being shot into arms this fall.
Richardson was the Health Officer during Covid and was vilified by the anti-mask, anti-shutdown, anti-vaccine-contingent. Robinson said he has tried to contact Richardson for two months with calls and letters but has received “no response.”
The flu vaccine has an “efficacy of about 35%,” he noted. Many people and workers don’t take the shot for a variety of reasons that make sense for them. But to mandate a mask order combined with the threat a criminal citation is a tough pill to swallow, so to speak (blame me, not him for that one).
The order is “illogical, counter-productive and harmful,” Robinson concluded. “It needs to be withdrawn.”
The supervisors muttered a bit and quickly handed the whole thing off to Health and Human Services (HHS) Director Anna Scott.
The logic behind holding just two supervisor meetings a month was also a bit hard to swallow. Nate Greenberg, CAO, said the current mandate of a meeting every Tuesday unless there are five Tuesdays in month, can result in the board going up to three weeks without a meeting. That’s because of holidays, travel to conferences and associations, meetings with LADWP, and meetings in Sacramento, for example.
So the answer to alleviating the horror of going three weeks without a meeting is to cut the number of meetings to two a month.
*I’ll be eager to see a Harvard Business School Case Study on why that works.
The reduction in scheduled meetings comes after the board slyly moved to convene about three meetings a month last year instead of the traditional four, even after being lambasted about reducing citizen access to the full board and basically abandoning Independence, the county seat.
Tuesday’s meeting featured about 40 agenda items spelled out in a 250-page agenda packet. At noon, the board had tackled three of the “discussion” items after rubber stamping dozens of “consent” items without discussion. So, fewer meetings, with the same amount of business to take care of means there could be anywhere from 60 to 80 agenda items to consider, with upwards of 500 pages of backup material. A long meeting, in other words.
This is where the Taco Bar enters the chat.
To make sure everyone stays sharp, I suggest a Taco Bar with all the fixings so staff, supervisors and the public can have a lovely lunch and not have to drive to Lone Pine or Independence gas stations for grub. Let’s shoot down the idea of potluck right now. All potlucks always disappoint, with one or two homemade, edible entries and a couple unrecognizable tater-tot-tuna hot dish casseroles and some chili that’s hot enough to melt paint.
When the sun starts setting on the crew, it’s time to wheel out the Portable Cocktail Cart. Load everyone up with some booze and then take on the mushy agenda items, such as supervisor reports (“Oh my God the greatest thing ever happened in Wilkerson … ”), new staff introductions which typically include plenty of gushing about the employee joining the “county family,” the staffer who hired the employee, the employee’s cousin or uncle who used to work for the county, or the reason the employee landed the job. Toss in a little booze and that intro could become a group hug that borders on groping. On video. That, my friends, will go viral on the county Instagram. So a win-win.
Jon Klusmire of Bishop acknowledges that some folks think the fewer times elected officials meet to “do something” the better.
