AnonymousSource: Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
A civilian staff member, who was tested in the community after becoming symptomatic, has been found to be COVID-19 positive. The staff member last worked on Monday, August 17, 2020 in a position that does not have contact with inmates. The staff member consistently wore PPE while at work, became symptomatic on Tuesday, August 18, 2020 and was tested that day in the community. The staff member did not return to work after becoming symptomatic and received the positive test result yesterday.
This brings the total number of Sheriff’s Office employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 to 39, with 36 having recovered and returned to work and 3 civilian staff recovering at home.
Is it really necessary to share this information? There are about 50 -70 positive tests per day in the County (with a population of 450,000). I get there was an outbreak in the Sheriff’s office, but this seem irrelevant to me. The PHD needs to address localized outbreaks (which they are). But, posting a story about a single case doesn’t add any value to the public. This pandemic is a numbers game. It’s about the aggregate and how we’re managing as a community and healthcare system. A single case (regardless of where it came from) does nothing to show us how we’re doing. COVID is not going away, we need the public to step back and look at the big picture and understand how it’s being managed. In my opinion, highlighting individual cases in the media takes away from the big picture and makes some people think they’re more at risk than they really are.