Anonymous
By Dr. Henning Ansorg, M.D., FACP, Health Officer County of Santa Barbara, Department of Public Health
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department has consistently advised you to wear masks, stay six feet apart and avoid gatherings if not with household members. But what does a gathering consist of? Are we allowed to gather with people that live inside our house? And what about family that lives elsewhere?
According to the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department, members of the same household ARE permitted to gather both indoors and outdoors. A household is defined as people who live together under the same roof, whether it be family, friends, or roommates. A household only changes when a member permanently moves out, not on a day to day basis.
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department prohibits any gathering of people from different households. A gathering is anytime people get together in any place and for any reason, such as to eat, shop, work, meet, play, or pray. This includes hosting visitors in your home, having sleepovers or play dates, backyard barbecuing with friends, shopping with others, visiting with family or friends not from your household, and going to work in a non-essential capacity. It is important to understand that any in-person gathering of those not in your household is considered non-essential, and is not permitted at this time, whether it is inside or outside.
Again, the only people that are legally permitted to gather are those who live with you on a day to day basis.
These guidelines from the County Public Health Department are not merely suggestions, but legal requirements that must be followed. Please remember to social distance and wear masks in public, when you are around others, and while at essential locations, such as the grocery store or pharmacy. Following these guidelines will help us all stay safe and slow the spread of COVID-19.
However, there are still fun ways to hang out at home and stay connected to others! You can eat dinner at home, play in your yard, have a family game night or movie marathon, go for a drive, go on a family hike, walk the dog, video chat friends and family, or go to the beach (at a social distance from others).
To learn more about what the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department is doing to serve and protect our community through the coronavirus, visit: www.publichealthsbc.org.
Dr. Henning Ansorg, M.D., FACP is a graduate of Justus-Liebig-University Medical School Giessen, Germany. He completed Residency training in Munich, Germany and Tucson, AZ and is board certified in Family Practice (Germany) and Internal Medicine (USA). Dr. Ansorg is a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and is on the Medical Staff at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara. He has many years of experience in different clinical settings including 10 years of Private Practice and Urgent Care in Munich, Germany as well as 11 years of Internal Medicine/Geriatrics in Arizona as well as 4 years at the Santa Barbara County Health Care Center. Dr. Ansorg has served as Public Health Officer for Santa Barbara County since April 2019.
Wait, I thought we’re permitted to have up to 3 households together for the holidays? Newsom has repeatedly said that. Is SB County now being more restrictive? Will they be policing Thanksgiving dinners?
No, no and absolutely not. Even during a pandemic the CPHD can not tell me who I can and can not have in my home. What is more disturbing than these bureaucrats and politicians drunk on power is how fear of a virus that 99.97% of people will survive (and improving) has caused so many to willingly give up their basic rights and freedoms. Even if you agree with the measures, what happens next time when you’re not so willing to give up your basic rights? We have nearly a year experience with this virus, AT BEST these restrictions slow the spread, they will not and can not “beat” the virus. Why aren’t they doing a cost/benefit analysis on our overall wellbeing with these heavy handed restrictions? Shouldn’t we have some evidence at this point that the measures taken are not only effective but worth the cost? How can science tell us Disneyworld is safe to open but not Disneyland? How does the “Equity Metric” have anything to do with covid? Why is there no state in the US (or country in the world) that has shown a reduction in cases after mask mandates went into effect? Why have there been so many huge spikes after mask mandates went into effect? Why did 85% of covid patients in a CDC study always (70%) or often (15%) wear a mask, yet still go covid? If they’re “always” wearing a mask wouldn’t they be avoiding non-mask wearers and in general being safer? Why are there heavily restricted states still spiking? Why are states without restrictions like Florida and countries like Sweden, now doing better than states and countries with heavy restrictions? Even if Florida is only slightly worse, why have these society destroying restrictions for only a nominal benefit? Why are we still not questioning authority and rational behind these decisions? Why are our schools still closed when schools throughout the US/world have been open for months (some never closed) and no evidence schools were vectors for the virus? If your at-risk, stay home and stay safe. If not, stay safe and lets get on without lives and livelihoods, we do not need the government to tell us what to do, we can manage this within our own community based on what works best for us (not blanket rules for entire state or nation).
Not that I care or would ever do what king Newsom says but he is now “allowing” 3 households to gather. Not sure where assborg gets the idea that any of these are actual laws because they aren’t.
ANDREA – yeah, I seriously doubt they’d enforce this and I won’t be obeying it, either. My family and in-laws have all been careful about sticking to our small pods and will be eating outdoors anyway, so not sure this would even apply. I just find it a little heavy handed to “warn” us against having more than 1 household in our homes. Most responsible adults are capable of safely holding small gatherings. Sad thing is, so many in our society are not responsible or cautious.
SACJON – I sincerely hope you’re not planning on playing any woodwind instruments…. or chanting. That would be bad.
Ignorant attitudes like those on display here are why the pandemic will last longer and kill more people.
Thank you for this post. The CEO of Disneyland was/is sitting on the California Covid Task Force walked out on the talks a few weeks ago, because they were stalling on letting Disneyland reopen. Not sure why he was an expert on dealing with the problem. In Australia, months ago, they were reporting 10 suicides for every Covid ‘death’. No such metric has been reported here, but I hear the calls out on the scanner… pretty significant.
Wow. I’m blown away by the comments I’ve just read here to our public health recommendations. Take a look at VOR’s response. I gave up reading after a few minutes. Voice of reason? That’s an emotional rant if I’ve ever seen one. Look, I’m no Newsome fan at all. I think he’s really screwed us in California. But the common sense approach to thanksgiving is exactly what Dr. Ansorg is laying out here. In this case we’re talking about a ONE DAY holiday of sacrifice for the greater good. We’re not dealing with people’s livelihood and childrens’ educations like we have been since March. Come on people. If we give the rules the finger and say ‘hey screw you guys we know better we’re getting together on turkey day like usual’ (Andrea), well, I think that’s how we keep this shutdown going even longer. ONE DAY. Big friggin’ deal. Do the right thing.
Mountainman – haha no, leaving my sax at home and we have a strict no chanting policy! Eating and congregating outdoors should be safe though!
ONE DAY? Did you mean Easter, Mother’s Day, Fathr’s Day, or 4th of July, or Halloween, or Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day, ? Pick a holiday. We’ve sacrificed them all.
Exactly. Every day, until there is a robust vaccine that is widely deployed, should be a day without nonessential interactions. Trying to characterize social gatherings as essential is nonsense.
I like this phrase: ” If not, stay safe and lets get on without lives and livelihoods, …”
How do you figure 7:35? It’s now November and I’ve still not known anyone to have covid nor have I. Please explain my contribution. I’ll wait.
As of today, we’re up to 150,000 cases a day, and 1,400 deaths a day. I would think that one must remain living to have a livelihood.
I don’t know anyone who has died in a car crash, therefore why should anyone wear seatbelts. Don’t you think before spouting garbage like that?
So what was your actual point 10:11? You didn’t answer my question. What is my contribution?
3:55 has an agenda to uphold. Facts that get in the way are discarded on ideological grounds.
if EVERYONE agreed, we wouldnt still be in this pandemic……..the restrictions here and ALL OTHER STATES are based on Science, you sir are just regurgitating a ghost of presidents past………….
If you want to be out of this pandemic, if you want the restrictions to end. Stay home, stay away from people and wear a mask. anyone wanna argue it. try wearing the mask and social distancing for longer than 30 seconds. do whats recommended by doctors and people that went to school for this. and JUST FOLLOW THE RULES. we will be out of this a lot sooner if you monkeys did that.
It’s always nice to have an armchair expert opinion. It helps you recognize other examples of bogus data.
Celebrate with the people you normally have over for Thanksgiving. What has been demonstrated in the data I’ve looked at is that surges/spikes/outbreaks/super-spreaders only occur when strangers get together, such in protests. All other familial holidays have not registered a tick. Fact.
So Gavin Newsom is out there partying with his friends while SB is trying to tell us we can’t see our own family for Thanksgiving? (Laughing emoji)
Chemical–exactly! Superspreader events like Trump rallies are the damn problem!
Seriously! $350/plate dinner with 12 other people (more than 10 is a no-no) from several different households. At least Pelosi stays inside with her $10,000 a piece twin deep freezes stocked with $20/pint ice cream.
Alex: Those Trump rallies certainly were big, bigger than Biden’s, but they were completely dwarfed in size by all those peaceful protests involving looting, arson, assaults and murders. You can look at any website that shows case rates and see the massive spike in cases that began at the end of May and continued until the end of September. Remind me. What happened around May 25th?
“What if?” scenarios are not how we need to be thinking at a time like this VOR. “Voice of Reason”? Maybe you should come up with a new name.
* It’s OK, though, to gather at posh restaurants like The French Laundry and send your kids to private school where they enjoy in-person instruction.
One set of rules for the rich. Another set of rules for the plebs.
Actually Pelosi is hosting a huge dinner for freshman congressmembers tonight… indoors… at “distanced” tables. What a joke.
@8:15, and what if a robust vaccine can’t be made and deployed? How many years must we wait in hiding until those that understand the risks are allowed to get on with their lives?
Completely disagree Nostra. Back in March EVERYONE agreed to shutdown and stay home, even into April. That is exactly how we will survive any new catastrophe thrown at us. The restrictions currently imposed on Californian’s are not based on science but control and politics and not necessary for our survival.
GREEMO – good point about churches. Restaurants and bars are open now as well. Why is that less risky than eating with family, even if from different homes? I am 100% for restrictions on certain things, but this one makes no sense. I’ll be ignoring this one as we eat outdoors on Thanksgiving!
Let’s do some math, all data pulled from the CDC website.
CA – heavy restrictions vs. FL – no restrictions.
Cases/100k last 7 days: CA – 16.1, FL – 24.2 = CA heavy restrictions led to 8.1/100k less covid cases.
CA population of 40M /100k x 8.1 = 3,240 additional cases over past 7 days if we didn’t have any restrictions.
Assuming those over 70 stay safe at home, the average IFR for those 69 and under is 0.234% (and dropping).
.00234 x 3,240 additional cases last 7 days = 7.6 additional deaths in CA had we not had restrictions in place.
This is where our state has failed us. In order to save those 7.6 lives how many out of the states 40,000,000 are we sacrificing with the restrictions? There are approximately 12,000 deaths in CA per year from OD’s, suicide, and homicide = 230 per week. If CA’s restrictions increase the risk of just these three factors by a mere 3.3% (7.6/230) the restrictions did not save lives.
Let’s also add in hours / years of life lost. How much shorter overall will our populations lives be due to missed/postponed medical appointments, less healthy lifestyles, poverty, malnutrition, mental health, less education? All these factors have very real impacts on our collective life spans. So collectively how many years of Californian’s lives are we also sacrificing? These are tough decisions but ones that true leaders are able to make, and ones our current state and local leaders refuse to address, they hide behind preventing Covid deaths while ignoring all others.
Covid is serious and measures need to be taken. We are well past the point in the pandemic where the decision on what measures should be taken is made within our own communities, based on what is occurring in our community, and what is best for our community. It should NOT be mandated at the state or federal level. The job of the state and federal governments is to support our community, not control it.