Shout out to SJPC note-taker Robert Gonzalez for his work on this piece!
On August 9th, 2022, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors met to discuss the ongoing public health hazard of monkeypox and COVID-19:
The BOS received a report from the Department of Health Services on vaccination rates, Covid cases, inmate Covid cases, and monkeypox cases (monkeypox molecule pictured on the left).
The report (linked here) included the following stats:
Covid-19 cases:
California has had 9,983,370 confirmed cases and 92,889 deaths as of August 2, 2022; the case rate is 40.7 per 100K
Sacramento County has had 332,565 total cases and 3,342 total deaths as of August 3, 2022; the case rate is 27.5 per 100k
Case rates have decreased slightly over the past month
Covid-19 vaccination:
In Sacramento County, 74.1% of the eligible population (6 months and older) has received at least one dose (compared to 79.8% statewide); and 68.4% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated (compared to 71.7% statewide)
59% of those eligible for boosters have received them (compared to 58.4% statewide)
Monkeypox outbreak:
As of August 3, 2022, Sacramento County Public Health has identified 63 monkeypox cases in Sacramento County and CDPH reported 1,135 cases statewide
Vaccine supply is minimal and eligibility is restricted to individuals who meet specific criteria that put them at the greatest risk for acquiring monkeypox at this time
As of August 3, 2022, SCPH has: received 3,198 doses; administered 954 doses; and redistributed 2,205 doses to area medical providers
Public Health Emergency (Monkeypox declaration):
At this meeting, the board of supervisors declared a public health emergency surrounding the threat of monkeypox.
Some observations from the meeting:
The BOS has no concrete plan for how to continue to combat Covid-19 or monkeypox - it seems that they are only listing facts on vaccination rates and booster shots but are not planning for how they would like the future look regarding things like masks, public health, sanitation, etc.
There were many citizens who provided written public comments (set 1, set 2, & set 3 of written public comments) and stated that they do not want the BOS to declare monkeypox a public health emergency because there have been no deaths; in this author's opinion, the BOS did the right thing to declare monkeypox a public health crisis because the fact that there are still 64 cases in the County should sound alarms.
We shouldn’t have to wait for death. We need to be proactive, not reactive.