Happy Birthday to our co-Publisher, Hayley Mattson! Thank you so much for being a guiding light for us through this challenging time.
Hometown News Since 1889
Good News Real News Making Communities Better Through Print.™ VOL. CXXX, NO. XLVII
WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2020
PHASE ONE
LIFE, Liberty
Wine Tasting is Included in Phase One The County addressed concerns and questions regarding reopening of the community
and the
Pursuit of Happiness
By NICHOLAS MATTSON nic@pasoroblespress.com SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY — Following the State’s press conference on Monday, in which Governor Gavin Newsom illuminated partial details of the plan to reopen California, the County of San Luis Obispo presented local information at the regularly scheduled briefing. SLO County Public Health Officer Dr. Penny Borenstein presented the current statistics for the county and provided clarification on the information released in the SLO County START Guide. Over the weekend, including a single case reported Monday, there were a total of 14 new cases in SLO County. Two of the seven hospitalizations were discharged, leaving five in the hospital, including three in the ICU. Of the 202 total cases confirmed since testing began, 156 are deemed fully recovered. As of last week, the parameters for “fully recovered” were extended from seven days with no symptoms to 10 days — which effectively slows the reporting of recovered cases. Currently, 40 cases are recovering from home. As testing increases, and positive case counts increase, the metric of health that the county officials will focus on is hospitalizations and critical care. “We are hopeful that we will retain the low number we have in our critical care and our hospitals,” Borenstein said. Monday, the two new testing sites began — Paso Robles and Grover Beach — delivering up to 264 tests daily during 12 hours of operation. The increase in testing is expected to produce an increase in positive case counts. “Because we are expanding CONTINUED ON PAGE A14
LOCAL NEWS
pasoroblespress.com • $1.00 • WEEKLY
By NICHOLAS MATTSON nic@pasoroblespress.com
S
tarting 2020, whispers of an epidemiological nightmare vibrated out of the other side of the world. When I was growing up, I was told if you dig straight down, you’ll end up in China. The statement always conjured up images of burrowing out of the dirt in China like Bugs Bunny, upside down. Well, the world certainly turned upside down quickly as COVID-19 spread outward from China. In California, we’ll know it as Friday the 13th — the second week of March — when the roar came from local institutions and government agencies. “Shut it down! Shut it down! Coronavirus is here!” SHELTERING We did shut it down. We didn’t know enough about the disease to argue. What we did know had too many holes to push back. Did it affect the healthy? Did it infect the young? Was it worse than the flu? Would it be more deadly? We just didn’t know enough to know anything, and either did the experts. Our response was fear. We did as we were asked. We sheltered. We washed our hands and stayed home, wondering with every randomly scratchy breath if we had somehow become infected by some novel disease. We were afraid but didn’t really know what we were afraid of. Just 50 days later, we know more. We have mountains of data. Much of it needs to be parsed and presented, and many early models are equivalent to shooting from the hip instead of making data relevant to the variety of circumstances needed for knowledgable application. What the data says in respect to Italy’s new normal is irrelevant to what the data says in reference to New York’s new normal, and irrelevant to what the data says regarding SLO County. A national shortage in PPE was never the same thing as a shortage of PPE in SLO County. The disease impacted acute groups around the planet very differently, and national strategies all employed some form
of “lockdown.” Even Sweden, despite many assumptions, placed gradually expanding restrictions. Some countries employed strict lockdowns. The United States acted moderately in comparison. Each society acted according to its laws and traditions. The U.S. acted according to its Constitution, and the 50-day shelter orders presented a clash of interpretations that remain unresolved. We all voluntarily sheltered, and patience ran out more quickly for some than others. Some began receiving unemployment benefits that exceeded what they were making in a 40-hour workweek. Some went from gainfully employed to no income. Some watched their 401K sink by 30 percent. The economy tanked as we paused. We waited for real news. Nationally, we got antics, performances, and melodrama. Locally, our County health and administration officers faced the music and did their jobs. Compared to other places, even in California, our officials put on a worldclass performance in dealing with a global pandemic on San Luis Obispo County soil. Reports from experts around the world continue to conflict, trying to provide clarity on a global level about a virus that impacts communities very differently is an exercise in futility, and breeds local discord as people argue irrelevant points in ongoing confirmation bias. So, data isn’t going to solve our prob-
expert knows exactly what that means. So, without knowledge, we return to fear. Some models project millions of deaths, just as was predicted by now at the beginning. Those projections lend to stoking fears and division. Facts bring us back together. THE COLD NUMBERS As of today, there are recorded 255,000 COVID-19 deaths worldwide since Wuhan’s December breakout. Worldwide, without COVID-19, there are almost 160,000 daily deaths of all causes. COVID-19 is credited for 1.3 percent of the daily death toll around the world. In the U.S. where we have 2.8 million deaths per year, COVID-19 now accounts for 2.5 percent of the annual death toll. It’s significant. This is a pandemic, and we have taken it seriously, but in the United States, poverty was credited for 4.5 percent of deaths in 2019. There was no national emergency for poverty, no executive orders — in fact, in fear of coronavirus, the nation opted to bet on poverty as the lesser of two evils. The results of that bet are not yet known. The dice are still rolling. Ironically, COVID-19 disproportionately threatens poverty-stricken communities. It may seem morbid or coldly analytical to begin to run this pandemic by the numbers, but it is actually the way that governments are making decisions. It is the way governments always make decisions. Did you fill out your 2020 Census survey?
LOCAL BUSINESS
Happy Heart Hunt Campaign A message of hope and inspiration By NICHOLAS MATTSON nic@pasoroblespress.com PASO ROBLES, CA – Paso Robles residents will soon see new hearts popping up in neighborhoods, around town, and on vehicles as the Happy Heart Hunt campaign gets underway. Drawing inspiration from what is already happening organically, as well as a national campaign, the City of Paso Robles, is encouraging residents and business owners to make, decorate, and display hearts that offer inspiration and hope to the community. To jumpstart the campaign, several large hearts will be displayed downtown, and city vehicles will have heart magnets with the #PasoStrong message. “We’ve already seen many hearts appearing throughout the Paso community with messages of hope and inspiration. In these tough times, it is even more crucial that we show what Paso pride can accomplish,” said City Manager Tom Frutchey. “The Happy Heart campaign is a wonderful way for us to demonstrate the resilience of Paso Robles, the strong connection that our community members have with each other, and our justifiable Paso pride.” CONTINUED ON PAGE A14
THE UPS AND DOWNS AND UPS The world has been affected by COVID-19, and we will continue this journey together. In the first days of shelter, we all knew businessas-usual was over. The optimism of 2020 was whisked away like the smog over Los Angeles after a week of shelter. Based on the data we had, we accepted that we were voluntarily plunging the world economy into an unprecedented crisis to save as many lives as we could. We knew we were sacrificing the economy. We did it anyway. I don’t know that
We were caught between two things we love — enjoying our freedom and enterprise, and protecting the lives of those we love.
SPORTS
lems with COVID-19, even as it presents a pathway to reopening. Sure, we don’t know everything about the disease. But we know enough. We will be living with it, not exterminating it. Just how we live with it will be an ongoing debate, we just don’t know for how long. Some expect a resurgence. Not a single
OPINION
AGRICULTURE
CONTINUED ON PAGE A14
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34 ACTIVITIES Californians CHECK IN With local voices SIERRA VISTA Celebrates release of COVID-19 patient can participate in while still and discover shared opinions with celebratory parade | A2 observing quarantine | A4 on current events | A5
SLO SAFE RIDE Donates Talley Farms boxes to healthcare workers | A12
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