OC fights health inequalities and fights state restrictions

California’s most popular amusement park is the focus of the battle for the best way to contain COVID-19 while maintaining its economy.

Democratic leaders in California have linked Disneyland’s fate, “the happiest place on earth,” to the health of the people living around it, which was hit hard by the virus. However, conservative Orange County officials say that the economic health of all residents depends on it and want to relax the restrictions to allow the reopening of favorable tourist attractions.

According to state regulations, large theme parks, even with limited capacity, cannot be opened until less than one new case occurs per 100,000 inhabitants of the county per day. The state also demands that the county reduce infection rates in the poorest areas to near average levels across the county. In Orange County The rest of the state, Latin Americans The brunt of COVID cases and death..

Under these requirements, another large county amusement park, Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, is likely to remain closed until next summer or later, is the director of the Orange County Healthcare Agency. Dr. Clayton Chau said.

Orange County supervisors are unable to quickly address socio-economic factors that increase COVID-positive rates in some communities, such as poverty and crowded housing, which punishes the entire county. Insists that it should not be.

“If there is an unfavorable community that has been significantly damaged by the virus due to living conditions or other circumstances, why should we face the pain of blockade and closure of children in other communities? At last month’s meeting, the less successful Anaheim Hills, Irvine, and Orange prosperity supervisor Donald Wagner asked.

The county has invested additional resources to fight COVID-19 in Santa Ana and Anaheim, the majority of Latin Americans, but the best way to help them is to “part of normal life” throughout the county. Is to return and generate income. Wagner said he needed to help those at a disadvantage.

However, public health experts say that the key to a strong economy is a healthy population, and that the most densely populated counties in Southern California are not ready to reopen their parks.

Bernadette Bowden Alvara, Head of Public Health Program at the University of California, Irvine, said: “I’m the biggest Disney fan in the world.” But we’re in the flu season and we can’t get this virus. “

“How can you become a strong county when your low-income area is devastated by this pandemic and is very vulnerable to being the victim of another pandemic or another wave?” Dr. Bracho America, CEO of Latino Health Access, a non-profit group used by the county to lead the Health Equity Initiative for Latino, said.

In part, the conflict over what the state calls “health inequalities indicators” reflects changes in Orange County’s politics. Orange County includes communities with high numbers of poor Latin immigrants, such as Disneyland’s hometown of Anaheim and Tony Newport Beach. Four of the five members of the oversight committee are Republicans. However, the county as a whole tends to be Democratic. In 2016, he voted for the Democratic president for the first time in 80 years, with Vice President Joe Biden winning 54% of this year’s vote in the first result. The most democratic areas of the county tend to be the areas most hit by COVID-19.

Walt Disney Co. is the largest employer in the county and 3.6% of all jobsAccording to a 2019 analysis by the Woods Economic Analysis and Forecasting Center at California State University, Fullerton. According to the report, Disney had about 30,000 employees, and about 27,000 other jobs in Southern California depended on the resort. Estimated 10,000 Disneyland Resorts on November 1st Worker received furlough notice..

There is consensus among local politicians, management, trade unions, and many workers that Disneyland should reopen as soon as possible.

Union representatives said Disneyland workers had health concerns but wanted to return to work, and that the $ 600 weekly unemployment allowance under federal CARES law expired in July.

Disney says it knows how to safely reopen the park. The outbreak of COVID has not been associated with it since Walt Disney World began gradual reopening in Florida in July, said Kent Donahue, a spokesman for the Health Department in Orange County, Florida.

Disneyland proposes to reopen with a number of safety measures, including mandatory face covers for staff and guests, more hand-washing stations, physical barriers, temperature screening, and capacity reduction.

Chow, the public health leader of Orange County, wants to allow the state to open theme parks once the county reaches Orange Tier. This is the second best status of the state’s four-tier color-coded system that tracks counties by case and infection. Positive rate. The orange layer allows for up to 3.9 official case rates per 100,000 people. The county is currently in the second worst red layer, with a test positive rate of 3.6%, at a rate of 6 per 100,000. In the poorest areas, the positive rate is 5.7%, but the Laguna Woods zip code is as low as 0.9%.

Under a gradual system after the state-wide surge in cases and mortality in June and July, the state demanded that the county achieve a low number of cases and a positive test rate, after which. Keep them for at least 2 weeks This gives the company more flexibility to restart before moving on to the less restrictive hierarchy.

Other counties including Riverside And 12 local counties in the northIs also challenging a rigorous hierarchical system that has helped control infections, but has tired residents and threatened widespread business closures.

Orange County supervisors claim the system is unscientific, but the State Department of Health points out: the study It says Emphasize importance Gradual mitigation of COVID lockdown.States like New York And Massachusetts In addition, the restart schedule is set in stages.

“We are in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic that hasn’t been seen since 1918,” said Dr. George Rutherford, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who advised the state on that approach. “We need to give the state a little forgiveness in order to find the best way to do this.”

Viral hotspots spill over far beyond their original boundaries, and failure to ensure fair health for the poor puts everyone at risk.

“Suddenly, we’re dealing with Mini Wisconsin in downtown Santa Ana. It sows the rest of the county, the rest of Southern California, and the rest of the state.”

Throughout the pandemic, a minority of Orange County residents’ voices have been angry and protesting Mask’s obligations and business closures.The threat of murder is very intense They urged the county’s highest public health authorities to resign In June.

Nonetheless, county health officials have worked hard to help the affected areas, said Bracho of Latino Health Access.

She has a county COVID rate Sort by zip code In May, her group signed a contract to work with Latin Americans most affected by the virus through testing, education, contact tracing, and other services.

The positive rates for Santa Ana and Anaheim Approaching 30% In early July, it has fallen to less than 10% since late August. It’s a dramatic advance, but it’s not enough to meet the county’s health fairness metrics.

Case numbers are slowly increasing again throughout Orange County and Southern California, and public health experts are concerned that it may be the beginning of a third wave of infection.

Chau, who believes Disneyland can safely reopen, has demonstrated a commitment to health fairness. This includes the creation of a new director position for population health and equity efforts.

Still, the lack of solidarity between the old and new Orange County representatives is disappointing, says Dr. Jose Mayorga, Secretary-General of the UCI Family Health Center, which treats predominantly low-income Latin Americans in Santa Ana and Anaheim. Said.

At work, Mayorga provides patients with a COVID diagnosis. The patient cries in the news and is afraid that he has already exposed his loved one to the virus. Many of the people he meets are maskless when he mainly visits white towns like Newport Beach and San Clemente where he lives and his daughter attends school.

It breaks his heart, Mayorga said. “People act so that nothing happens.”

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. This is an editorial independent program. Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation It is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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