Bill Macfadyen: Santa Barbara Countys Big COVID-19 Error Isnt the Only Hole In Its Reporting – Noozhawk

Viva la Fiesta!

If the absence of Old Spanish Days festivities is not enough to throw you off, Im really going to confuse you with this weeks Best of Bill column. Or maybe confuse you more than I usually do.

Longtime readers know my weekly column is a compilation of and my commentary on Noozhawks Top 5 most-read stories of the previous seven days, as tracked by our Google Analytics. This week, by the way, we had an audience of 165,653 readers, thank you very much.

Our top story is a very cool one, and Im excited to share why. But its our third most-read story that actually is our most important one, given the ongoing catastrophe that is taking such a massive toll on almost every aspect of our lives.

So Im going to invoke the rarely used Publishers Prerogative and start the Top 5 with No. 3 before introducing No. 1. Consider the number crunching a warmup for Major League Baseballs 2020 playoff schedule scheme.

Making sense of Santa Barbara Countys inconsistent, nontransparent and often mystifying reporting of its COVID-19 data has been an enduring frustration in Noozhawks coverage of the coronavirus crisis.

So it really was no surprise to us when Dr. Van Do-Reynoso, director of the county Public Health Department, announced July 31 that her agency had underreported the number of COVID-19 deaths by 28.

Thats right, 28 dead county residents more than two dozen of our neighbors were simply never entered into the system.

As our Josh Molina first reported, the mistake was discovered when the county Vital Records Office noticed a discrepancy between the number of death certificates issued and the deaths reported on the countys own website.

Unfortunately, we have a serious data problem, Second District Supervisor Gregg Hart, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said in an understatement.

For the past month, the Public Health Department has underreported the number of COVID-19 deaths in Santa Barbara County.

Thats not the half of it.

Noozhawks news team keeps a very detailed daily spreadsheet of all the public COVID-19 data were tracking, but its exceedingly difficult to reconcile largely because of the county.

Over the last few months, our editors and reporters have been much more insistent and unyielding with officials about county reporting irregularities. To their credit, senior county officials have been reaching out to our team about ways they can better communicate and deliver what we need to provide you with a complete picture of what our community is up against.

Talk about two steps forward, one step back.

This week, our editors noticed the county had reported an average of 430 COVID-19 tests a day over the last few days, well below the normal total, so they pressed for more details about that specifically. For good measure, they tossed in additional questions to try to get a better sense of how well the testing system is working something they do on a regular basis.

Well let you know when we find out the answers to those simple questions but, at this stage of a pandemic that started more than six months ago, the fact that such basic information is not readily available is as alarming as it is unacceptable.

The county also is withholding the date of the latest coronavirus death, with an absurd explanation that officials are exploring whether such information can even be released under HIPAA regulations.

Let me be clear: There is no reason for the county to be hiding behind the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 over a date of death.

Public agencies release basic death information every single day, as you know from reading our reporting on fatal car crashes. There may be aspects of a death that are caught up in privacy or other issues, but not the fact that a guy died on a Tuesday.

I tell you this to illustrate just how challenging it can be for the news media to do its basic job our constitutional right of keeping you informed, which is your constitutional right to know. This involves you as much as it does Noozhawk.

In the absence of a widespread vaccine, what appears to be the most effective defense against COVID-19 is entirely, and scarily, up to you and me. As I wrote in last weeks Best of Bill column, that means wearing masks responsibly, keeping our distance, washing our hands, and staying home if were compromised or feeling sick.

But if that responsibility is going to fall to us, Santa Barbara Countys erratic hoarding of coronavirus information has got to stop. It needs to start sharing everything it knows so we, the public, can make fully informed decisions on how best to protect ourselves and others.

As with a lifting fog, there have been glimpses of what Santa Barbara County officials can do if they choose to. Sunshine benefits everyone.

To help you better understand the blizzard of numbers and the processes involved with compiling them, Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli put together two useful guides that already have been a big hit with readers:

Noozhawks Guide to Understanding Santa Barbara County Public Health COVID-19 Data

Noozhawk FAQs on the Coronavirus and Santa Barbara Countys Public Health Response

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Each August, the Earth drifts through a debris cloud left behind by the passing Comet Swift-Tuttle. As bits of pebbles and even dust particles some no larger than a grain of sand slam into the atmosphere, they burn up in bright streaks and even fireballs, creating a spectacular display known as the Perseid meteor shower.

As our astronomy columnist, Dennis Mammana, reported Aug. 2, the peak of this years celestial extravaganza will be late Aug. 11 and the early morning hours of Aug. 12 when up to 100 visible meteors per hour are likely to appear weather and light permitting, of course.

Dennis lives in the stargazing-advantageous Anza-Borrego Desert in the San Diego County backcountry, but Santa Barbara County is not that far behind when it comes to dark skies. And no special equipment or skills are needed; just look up.

While Dennis has always been one of Noozhawks most popular columnists, the traffic on his Aug. 2 column was out of this world. Its already claimed the No. 2 spot in our 2020 most-read analytics with 66,000-plus reads and counting.

Although the Perseids come around just once a year, you can read Dennis astronomical insights each week when we post a new column on Sunday afternoons. And dont worry, theres plenty of space for what hes writing about.

My friend, Brian Goebel, is not an epidemiologist, or a physician or a public health official. But he is a public policy professional with a passion for data analysis.

Noozhawk readers have come to trust him as hes consistently written correctly, accurately and matter-of-factly about coronavirus trends and tendencies. Hes done that by focusing on a few key data points, running the modeling and explaining his work. In the old days, I think that was called SCIENCE.

Brians Aug. 2 column outlined how California had again flattened the hospitalization curve after an extended spike in cases. But he made three bonus points that merit more consideration if were going to move forward with our lives and livelihoods.

Most important, sensible public health measures i.e. masks and social distancing and precision-based business closures all work. Theyre also preferable to a threatened second statewide stay-at-home order, which would be increasingly problematic and far less likely to be followed six months into the pandemics sweeping upheaval.

Second, based on the latest run of data, which essentially covered June and July, the numbers indicate that much greater economic activity is possible as we learn to co-exist with the ever-present contagion.

Finally, its time to re-evaluate and revise testing protocols to more precisely measure COVID-19s community spread.

According to the state Department of Public Health, the current protocols were developed to facilitate medical evaluation of persons with symptoms of COVID-19 as well as efforts by public health agencies and essential employers to prevent and control the spread.

Brian argues that there should be more testing of a larger cross-section of the statewide population, not less, because the current limited testing data are not as accurate a measure of community transmission. He goes deeper into the details than Im going to here, but please do read his column for more information.

The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department reported 215 new coronavirus infections on Aug. 1, a significant increase after a week of steady declines.

Our Tom Bolton reported that local COVID-19 hospitalizations rose to 87 from 85 that day, but the number of intensive-care unit patients decreased to 26 from 28.

As of Aug. 6, the number of confirmed cases in the county stood at 6,652 with 68 deaths, a 98.97 percent survivability rate.

In a development rich in irony, a Florida cannabis corporation that is publicly traded on the Canadian stock exchange has acquired a controlling interest in one of Santa Barbaras three retail marijuana dispensaries.

As our Josh Molina reported Aug. 2, Boca Raton, Florida-based Jushi bought the multimillion-dollar controlling interest in the operating license from Golden State Greens, which itself is headquartered in San Diego. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Jushi is moving full speed ahead on building out the new Beyond / Hello dispensary at 3516 State St., across from Loreto Plaza. A late September opening is expected.

Santa Barbara is a perfect example of what we are looking for in acquisition in the California market, Michael Perlman, executive vice president of investor relations & treasury, told Josh. The population is affluent.

He seemed to imply that Santa Barbaras other two dispensaries locally owned Coastal Dispensary and Farmacy target tourists.

We want to be known in the Santa Barbara market as the company that is focused on the local people, giving them a differentiated shopping experience both online and in stores, Perlman said.

Time will tell but Im with City Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon, who found out from Josh that the hard-fought license issued by the City of Santa Barbara had changed ownership.

Its really important that the integrity of the scoring process is impartial and it favors local vendors, she said. I am not a fan of the expansion of this industry. It is important that we prioritize local vendors.

This was not my expectation.

What was our most-read story this time last year? Young Girl Injured by Horse During Santa Barbaras Fiesta Parade.

This video is surreal: Lebanese Bride Still Shaken after Beirut Blast Cuts Short Wedding Video.

@kyles_kitchen was my big outing this past week in my Instagram feed. Officially, I was there to help come up with a fall game plan for Noozhawks partnership with the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table, but the Spicy Chicken Avo Burger made my highlight reel. And, yes, its a #bestofbillrecommendation.

While browsing in an antique shop, Noozhawk reader Steve Baker stumbled on old Kodachrome footage of Santa Barbaras Fiesta Parade. Since we have no El Desfile Histrico this year, enjoy his cleaned-up version from the mid-1940s. HT to Charley Pavlosky.

(Steve Baker video)

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Bill Macfadyen is Noozhawks founder and publisher. Contact him at [emailprotected], follow him on Twitter: @noozhawk and Instagram: @bill.macfadyen, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.

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Bill Macfadyen: Santa Barbara Countys Big COVID-19 Error Isnt the Only Hole In Its Reporting - Noozhawk