Edhat Staff
By edhat staff
Supervisor Peter Adam attended his last Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday but not without a tense exchange with Public Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg over COVID-19 data.
After joining the Board of Supervisors in 2012 representing the North County’s Fourth District, Adam chose not to seek a third term. He will be replaced by his chief of staff, Bob Nelson, who ran unopposed.
As a fifth-generation farmer and part of the Adam Brothers Family Farm, the supervisor with the distinct mustache was often the minority conservative voice, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. His last meeting was no exception.
While the Public Health Department (PHD) provided its weekly COVID-19 status update to the Board on Tuesday morning, Adam raised questions over the county’s data, specifically regarding false positives.
PHD Director Dr. Van Do-Reynoso stated the most common false positivity range of the PCR test, which is a polymerase chain reaction that detects the virus’s genetic material, is 0.8%-4% with an extreme low of 0% and a rare extreme high of 16.7%. She stated the PCR test is currently the common testing method and is considered the best we currently have.
PHD Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg stepped in to further answer Adam’s question and explained false positives are very rare in our area due to the low percentage of testing positivity rates. He stated if there is a concern that the positive results are inflated due to testing positivity that is not the case. The bigger concern, he said, are false negatives where someone tests negative but is actually positive and may unknowingly spread the virus.
Adam has been a vocal critic of the PHD’s scientific data and presentations while throughout the pandemic has repeated incorrect statements about COVID-19, falsely compared it to the flu, and quoted sections of “The Great Barrington Declaration,” an inaccurate document that numerous medical experts and scientists have called “ridiculous” and “very dangerous.”
“I just can’t stand it when there’s statements sprinkled in like ‘the prevalence of disease in the community has an effect on the false positive rates,’ because that just seems like it shouldn’t work that way and if it works that way I’m questioning why,” Adam said.
Dr. Ansorg then launched into a more detailed explanation of how false negatives and false positives work using specific examples when Adam started to laugh.
“Why are you laughing sir? What is so funny about that?” Dr. Ansorg asked.
“Well it just seems to me if you have a test that works, it works,” Adam responded.
Dr. Ansorg asserted that the test does work, and it works well as Adam says he doesn’t know why he’s reacting in such a way and tells him to relax. Dr. Ansorg explains he doesn’t like being ridiculed when Adam then explains he’s a human being that has reactions he cannot control and if something doesn’t make sense he laughs.
Dr. Ansorg then re-explains that if you have 94 people who are likely negative and you test 100 of them, you’re more likely to pick up false negatives than the likelihood of 5% of them to be positive.
“Ok well I’m just gonna have to accept that, thank you,” said Adam.
The whole event can be viewed here approximately 56 minutes into the meeting.
Following the conclusion of the COVID-19 update, Board of Supervisors Chair Gregg Hart stated he was concerned about the level of inaccurate information creeping into the dialogue and he encouraged everyone to go to the Public Health Department’s website to find accurate and reliable information.
“This is a serious thing, this is not like the flu, like some people say,” Hart said.
Supervisor Das Williams also stated this is a concerning virus that needs to be taken seriously whether one agrees with the protocols or not.
“I hope that regardless of whether you’re on board with 100% of the framework or 0% of the framework or like most people somewhere in between, that you will continue to take the disease seriously, continue to take strategies that either adhere to it or practice harm reduction,” said Williams.
COVID-19 Numbers as of Tuesday
Santa Barbara County reported 207 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday and two additional deaths. Both individuals were 70+ years of age. One resided in Lompoc and one resided in Santa Maria. Neither had underlying health conditions and one death is associated with an outbreak at a congregate living facility.
There have now been 142 deaths within the county.
The grand total of countywide cases is now 13,763. Of those 1,059 are currently infectious with 78 hospitalizations including 20 in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Dr. Do-Reynoso confirmed the county has seen a 129% increase in active cases, a 127% increase in hospitalizations, and a 200% increase in ICU patients within the past two weeks.
The increase is spread throughout the county with Santa Maria seeing the biggest jump, a 76% increase in COVID-19 cases.
The Southern California Region has an ICU capacity of 1.7% while the proposed Central Coast Region has a 35.7% capacity.
The county anticipates 3,900 doses of the Pfizer to arrive within the next few days and 6,600 doses of the Moderna vaccine pending FDA approval. Additionally the county is expected to receive nearly 3,000 more Pfizer doses next week.
More data and information on COVID-19 can be found at publichealthsbc.org.
Good riddance!
I often find myself in sympathy with Adam but sometimes he is just too much Tea Party and Know Nothing for my taste. This is an example of that behavior. The people working to deal with this disease deserve respect, not ridicule.
Don’t take any type of advice from someone with a ridiculous mustache like that. Not well in the head. I’ll listen to the doctors, not the sausage fingered populists.
Excellent! lol
Adam takes a dump on his way out – good one!
Says the guy who advocates staffing ICUs with people who aren’t certified.
@9:55 PM –
You don’t grasp the severity of this pandemic.
Over 3,000 deaths a day.
Young and old are in danger, depending on genetics.
Only fools deny that the restrictions work.
We are so lucky to have someone as competent as Dr. Ansorg leading our public health response, both to the virus itself, and to the ignorant and irresponsible behaviors we are seeing.
I’m so glad he’s gone. This exchange exemplifies how unfit for his position he was. Contrary to what he stated in defending his childish reaction, reasonable, mature adults can and do know how to control their reactions, that’s part of what separates us from children and morons. It also exemplifies how ignorant he is when he admitted that the experts response made no sense to him.
It is a fact Pit. If someone dies and they tested positive recently (or post-mortem) they count that as a covid death, regardless of cause of death. Each week about 60,000 people in the US die (all causes). If everyone got the vaccine this week, 60,000 people will still die next week, and if they classify vaccine deaths the same as covid deaths, that’s 60,000 vaccine deaths. Not saying covid isn’t dangerous or that the vaccine is, just that numbers are being throw around by politicians and the media with out context. For example, I saw several headlines and Newsom himself talk about ordering 5,000 body bags. Really? About 750 people die each day in California normally, 140+/- now from(with) covid, and we’re going to print and talk about the Newsome having to special order what is the equivalent of a 5 or 6 day supply of “extra” body bags. Here is a recent article about how two GUNSHOT victims we counted as coivd deaths. We are actively being deceived by our government! https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/12/15/grand-county-covid-deaths/
Good riddance to Peter Adam. If our political system, especially the local GOP, wasn’t so incompetent and screwed up I would Have thought Mr. Adam was a spoof character like Borat. I understand and agree with many conservative viewpoints. But I have no respect for obstructionist do-nothings like Supervisor Adam who have nothing to contribute other than their uninformed laziness. Hopefully he can have a good retirement posting on Qanon forums and dropping deuces on his crops. Buh-bye.
VOR, my understanding is that initially they were undercounting Covid deaths by listing pneumonia as the cause instead of Covid causing pneumonia causing death. If you want to eliminate attribution mistakes from the data, why not focus on excess deaths? Last time I looked, excess deaths compared with this time last year were running about 100,000+ Covid deaths ahead of deaths last year. What do you attribute these excess deaths to? Quarantinis?
VOR- just stop with your BS non-sense. Just listen to the ICU physicians who are giving first hand accounts of what’s going on in the hospitals. NPR interviewed a Pulmonologist who’s on staff at an LA area hospital treating COVID patients in the ICU. He stated that typically they have and average of 3-4 “Code Blues” per week where patients don’t survive. Currently it’s averaging 4 EVERY SINGLE DAY from COVID. 3-4 vs 28 per week is a huge uptick in deaths! This doctor was talking about how the nurses are being stretched to the breaking point. He stands to gain nothing by making any of this up. What possible agenda can you possibly conjure up in your narrow mind? Give the conspiracy theories a rest already. I think the rational folks are all stocked up on this crap.
I tested negative for the antibodies 3 months after I had 7 out of 10 symptoms. My sisters and their husbands tested negative for antibodies after they had numerous symptoms. My grand nephew and his wife tested negative for Covid while they were really sick and had known exposure to a coworker who was positive and refused to wear a mask.
Whole lot of negativity going on.
He should stick to things he knows about, like the spread of food-borne diseases from his farm.
SBGAL: 4 every single day??? Those are terrible numbers for LA!!! We are so fortunate that SB is not LA. Since this new surge in cases, beginning around November 1, SB County has recorded 17 deaths. That’s 17 deaths in 45 days, which is 0.4 deaths/day if you generously round up. That’s a full order of magnitude difference! Again, we’re so fortunate that SB is not LA.
Adam and his White Entitlement issues are a poor contrast to the 1700 U.S. health care workers who have died in the last 9 months trying to do their job to save lives.
Like covid Liberalism is a disease!
Good riddance to Peter Adam. This incident is just another reflection of his libertarian disdain for the rule of law. As he departs from the Board, he takes with him his arrogance and ill-preparedness. Adam brought nothing to the BOS, just more of the Andy Caldwell/COLAB divisiveness. He operated with a big fat chip on his shoulder, like the rest of his No. County conservatives. Whine, whine, whine about the ‘elites’ etc. He could say ‘no’ lots of times but rarely, if ever, did he bring constructive ideas. That’s because he didn’t read the reports and had his lackey Bob Nelson do all the work and all the writing. The numbers in the No. County are changing and soon these conservatives will lose their grip. It can’t happen soon enough. Adios Peter. PS. I don’t think Janet Wolf ever really ‘liked’ you……..
Your governor wants that too mac-two day training for ICU! I bet you’re all for it now. All heil the king!
Calling this a fact is why your posts are dismissed so often. At least put a smiley face on your jokes so we know they are ironic.
Chemical- since VOR was on a tired rant about Newsom and downplaying the broader idea of deaths in the US and California not being out of the ordinary I was simply relaying the facts as I heard which illustrate that deaths are absolutely way out of the ordinary. For those who advocate that things are all open in SB when they are shut down in LA where the numbers are sky high we are inviting the devil to the dance. I hate that I can’t go out to restaurants for outdoor dining, that my good friend who owns a hair salon had to close yet again, that so many people are suffering, but there is no easy answer to this. More than anything I hate that we’ve had to lose 300,000 Americans to this virus in just 9 months. If anyone wants to complain about leadership it should be directed out the outgoing administration who mishandling if this from day one is absolutely inexcusable. Just think if he’d rallied his followers from the beginning to wear masks and social distance as a sign of patriotism and allegiance to him?? Can you imagine where we’d be?