Contra Costa Herald

I680/SR4-Interchange. Photo: CCTA

Region receives 20 percent of statewide awards, $18 million for Contra Costa project

Bay Area highway, transit and goods-movement projects this week earned more than $400 million in new funding as the California Transportation Commission (CTC) finalized a new round of awards through a trio of competitive statewide programs established by the Senate Bill 1 transportation investment package signed into law in 2017.

MTC will work with Caltrans, BART and county transportation agencies to deliver 11 crucial projects around the Bay Area, which together earned about 20 percent of the total $2.046 billion awarded by the CTC through the Solutions for Congested Corridors, Trade Corridor Enhancement and Local Partnership programs.

“SB 1 money is essential to keeping the California economy moving, not just through the current crisis, but into the post-pandemic future,” said MTC Chairman and Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty. “The Bay Area’s success in the stiff competition for these dollars reflects the clear need to modernize our freeways, transit systems and freight corridors to maintain the Bay Area’s position as an engine for economic growth throughout the state.”

Among the allocations approved through the Trade Corridor Enhancement Program are:

• $18 million for the final design of further improvements to the Interstate 680/State Route 4 Interchange in Contra Costa County.
• $123 million to complete a $275 million funding package for construction to begin in 2021 on 18 miles of Express Lanes along Interstate 80 through the heart of Solano County, providing travelers a reliable trip through this vital artery connecting the Bay Area to Sacramento. The express lanes will also support express buses in the corridor and encourage carpooling as an alternative to single-occupant vehicles.
• $55 million to complete a $101 million funding package for transforming the outdated two-lane connector between U.S. 101 and State Route 25 in southern Santa Clara Countyto a new four-lane connector with shoulders and bike lanes. The project, set to begin construction in 2022, will improve traffic flow and decrease backups on U.S. 101.
• $24 million to complete final design for a new Cordelia Truck Scales facility along westbound I-80 in Solano County.

SB 1 funds awarded through the Local Partnership Program include:

• $25 million to complete the Interstate 680 Southbound Express Lanes project in Alameda County.
• $25 million for improvements to the U.S. 101/De La Cruz/Trimble interchange just north of the Mineta San Jose International Airport in Santa Clara County.
• $9 million for San Francisco’s Mission/Geneva Safety Improvements project.
• $3 million to Sonoma Countyfor the Windsor River Road/Windsor Road Intersection Improvements and Pathway project.

The largest of the CTC’s new allocations to Bay Area projects through the Solutions for Congested Corridors program is $60 million to enable BART to begin construction next year on its $1 billion Train Control Modernization Project, part of the agency’s Transbay Core Capacity Program to increase the number of trains able to travel through the Transbay Tube between San Francisco and Oakland.

The CTC allocated $40 million through the Solutions for Congested Corridors program to close the final gap (known as segment B7) in the long-running US-101 Marin-Sonoma Narrows project by constructing a carpool lane between Novato and Petaluma. The SB1 dollars will supplement over $90 million from other sources and allow for construction on this final segment to begin as early as 2021.

The CTC’s third Bay Area allocation through the Solutions for Congested Corridors program is $25 million to complete a $64 million funding package and begin construction next year of a double roundabout at the Soscol Junction of State Routes 29 and 221 south of Napa. The improvements will relieve a traffic bottleneck that has long bedeviled residents, workers and tourists to Napa’s famous wine region, and will also deliver important safety and active transportation benefits to the area.

Related: California Transportation Commission (CTC), Gasoline — Taxation, Senate Bill 1 (SB 1)

By Susan Shiu, Director, Contra Costa County Office of Communications and Media

Supervisor Diane Burgis. Herald file photo

The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors held a swearing-in ceremony for Supervisor Diane Burgis as Board Chair and Supervisor Federal Glover as Vice Chair at its January 5, 2021 Board meeting.

District 3 Supervisor Diane Burgis, who has served Contra Costa County since she was first elected in 2016, including serving the prior year as Vice Chair, takes the leadership role from outgoing Chair, Supervisor Candace Andersen of District 2.

Supervisor Burgis expressed her thanks to Supervisor Andersen as well as her readiness to tackle our County’s issues. “I appreciate Supervisor Andersen’s unwavering commitment to keeping our residents safe and keeping the County moving forward while addressing the impacts of COVID-19. As Chair, I intend to work with my colleagues to support our county health officer to get the coronavirus under control, move the County toward economic recovery for all residents and businesses, enhance mental health crisis response, reform our juvenile justice system, address racial justice and inequality, protect the Delta and proactively fight climate change, and at long last, provide sustainable fire protection services to all areas of the County.  I’m excited about the year ahead and ready to get to work,” said Supervisor Burgis.

District 5 Supervisor Federal Glover will serve as Vice Chair in 2021. He has served on the Board of Supervisors since 2000, representing a district that includes the County’s northern waterfront.

Supervisor Burgis is in her second term, and Supervisor Glover is serving his sixth term. They will lead the five-member elected body that sets the direction of county government and oversees its $3.98 billion budget to serve this large and diverse East Bay County.

For more information about Contra Costa County and its Board of Supervisors, visit the County’s website at www.contracosta.ca.gov or the webpage: www.contracosta.ca.gov/7283/Board-of-Supervisors.

By Jimmy Lee, Director of Public Affairs, Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff

On Sunday, January 3, 2021, at about 7:02 PM, Bay Station Deputy Sheriffs were dispatched to a home on the 1700 block of Lettia Road in the Montalvin Manor neighborhood for a medical-police call.

A resident reported that her injured son was unresponsive. Deputies arrived and started CPR on the victim. Other deputies conducted a protective sweep of the residence.

An ambulance arrived on scene and later pronounced the victim deceased. He is identified as 42-year-old Edward Mosqueda of Concord.

During the investigation, the brother of the victim was identified as the suspect. He was located by deputies several blocks away. He was arrested without incident. He is identified as 39-year-old Jason Mosqueda of Richmond. He was interviewed by homicide detectives and later booked into the Martinez Detention Facility.

Mosqueda is being held on the following charges: murder and violation of a protective order. In addition, he had arrest warrants for domestic violence, elder abuse, stalking, and violation of a protective order. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with any information on this incident is asked to contact the Sheriff’s Office Investigation Division at (925) 313-2600 or through Sheriff’s Office dispatch at (925) 646-2441. For any tips, email: tips@so.cccounty.us or call (866) 846-3592 to leave an anonymous voice message.

Graphic: BART

As we expand parking at Antioch Station, we will be making some modifications to the existing parking lot to increase permit parking. Effective January 11, 2021, Lot B, which is the parking area directly in front of Antioch Station, will be converted to all permit parking. The only exceptions are that the ADA stalls will remain fee parking and the motorcycle stalls will remain free. These modifications require adjustments in signage and pavement markings.

All parking stalls that are to be closed temporarily for construction will be signed at least 72 hours in advance. Please look out for barricades and signage to guide you around the work areas during this time.

Please see the attached map of work areas and the final parking lot configuration. Be advised that the final configuration will require customers parking in the solar panel covered lot (Lot B) to display a BART parking permit, available from Select-a-Spot.com. Fee parkers may park in the adjacent parking lots. Additional fee parking (roughly 850 parking stalls) will also be available Spring 2021.

We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your patience during this construction.

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, some BART projects, including Antioch Station Parking Expansion Project, have been designated as essential. For this reason, construction activities on the Antioch Station Parking Expansion Project will continue for the time being. BART and Contractors will ensure that workers comply with all CDC guidelines including the social distancing requirement. BART and Contractors will make adjustments as updates to the current situation are provided.

Photo: MTC

Monthly invoices to supplement FasTrak^®, replace individual notices

SAN FRANCISCO – The Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) announced Monday that the start of 2021 will also herald the launch of a new all-electronic toll collection system at the Antioch, Benicia-Martinez, Carquinez, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael, San Francisco-Oakland Bay and San Mateo-Hayward bridges. While bridge customers who pay their tolls with a FasTrak^® toll tag or a License Plate Account will see no difference in their statements, patrons who are not enrolled in one of these programs will receive a monthly invoice for all toll bridge crossings made after midnight on New Year’s Eve. Following the suspension of cash toll collection in March of this year, these customers have received individual toll notices for each crossing.

The all-electronic toll collection system being introduced at the Bay Area’s seven state-owned toll bridges is similar to the system used at the Golden Gate Bridge, which adopted all-electronic tolling in 2013. Automated, high-speed cameras will capture images of customers’ license plates, and the FasTrak customer service center will process the images and then mail an invoice each month to the address at which the vehicle is registered with the DMV.

FasTrak customers account for nearly three-quarters of all crossings at the Bay Area’s state-owned toll bridges. BATA encourages customers who do not already have FasTrak to open accounts online at www.bayareafastrak.org or by phone at 1-877-229-8655 (BAY-TOLL). Customers also may obtain FasTrak tags at select Costco and Walgreens stores. A map of retail locations at which FasTrak toll tags are available may be found at https://www.bayareafastrak.org/en/howitworks/retailmap.html. FasTrak tags purchased at Costco or Walgreens must be registered online. A $20 deposit per tag will apply if the account is not funded with a credit card. Drivers who would rather replenish their FasTrak accounts with cash can do so at more than 100 Cash Payment Network locations. A map of these locations may be found at https://www.bayareafastrak.org/en/tolls/cashLocationsMap.html.

Drivers also may open a License Plate Account, which links a license plate to a credit card and charges that card whenever the vehicle crosses a toll bridge; or make a one-time payment, which allows the customer to pay a toll online up to 30 days in advance of a bridge crossing or within 48 hours afterwards. There are no fees for either of these services. More information about License Plate Accounts and one-time payments is available at www.bayareafastrak.org.

The debut of all-electronic tolling and monthly invoicing at the seven state-owned toll bridges also will mark the return of toll payment rules that were temporarily suspended when the COVID-19 pandemic prompted BATA and Caltrans to eliminate cash toll collection on March 21.

Customers who do not have FasTrak or a License Plate Account – and who do not use the online one-time payment option – will be required to return invoices with payment within 30 days. Customers who neglect to return payment within 30 days will receive a “Notice of Toll Evasion” with a $25 penalty for each toll crossing. Customers who do not return invoices with payment after 60 days will receive a “Second Notice of Delinquent Toll Evasion” with a violation penalty of $70 per crossing. Customers who do not return payment after a second notice may have a hold put on their vehicle registration by the DMV and/or have the amount owed referred to a collection agency.

BATA administers all toll revenues from the region’s seven state-owned toll bridges.

In addition to charges filed by Contra Costa DA

Shawn Jamison Prichard. Photo: CCDA

OAKLAND –Shawn Jamison Prichard was charged in a criminal complaint with possession of child pornography announced United States Attorney David L. Anderson and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge Tatum King.

That’s in addition to the charges filed against him by the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office on December 10th. (See related article) (See related article)

According to the complaint filed December 22, 2020, and unsealed this morning, Prichard, 41, of Antioch, allegedly possessed at least one image of child pornography involving the use of a prepubescent minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  Prichard is a licensed nurse in California.  The criminal investigation in this case began with a tip from a social media company based on defendant’s use of a messaging service to send images of child pornography. Prichard is charged with possession of child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252.

Prichard made his initial federal court appearance in federal court this morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen.  His next appearance is a detention hearing scheduled for December 29, 2020, at 10:30 a.m., before U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler.

A criminal complaint merely alleges that crimes have been committed, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.  If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum sentence of 10 years (20 years if the images depict pre-pubescent children), and a fine of $250,000, plus restitution, if appropriate.  However, any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan U. Lee is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Jessica Rodriguez Gonzalez and Kathleen Turner.  The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and HSI.

Allen Payton contributed to this report.

Following domestic dispute and high speed chase

By Scott Alonso, Public Information Officer, Office of the District Attorney, Contra Costa County

The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office concludes that use of deadly force in the 2018 officer involved shooting (OIS) of Salvador Morales, by Officer Kyle Baker, Sgt. Gabriel Palma, Sgt. William Hatcher, Sgt. Charles Blazer and Corporal Alex McCray was a lawful response, and was legally justified. The DA’s Office released a public report about the shooting today, Monday, Dec. 28.

That follows an April 2019 Coroner’s Inquest Jury determination that Morales died at the hands of another person, other than by accident. (See related article)

On October 22, 2018, Morales took his wife and baby son hostage. A family member attempted to intervene in the situation, but Morales drew a handgun and shot him. Morales then fled the scene and kidnapped his wife and baby son at gunpoint. Pittsburg Police officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop on his car, however, Morales refused to stop and led the officers on a 27-minute high speed chase.

Morales eventually arrived at his residence and Pittsburg Police officers negotiated with Morales for over two hours in an effort to get him to surrender. Twice he walked out of the home pointing a handgun at his head. When he refused to comply with the officer’s orders to surrender, (name the officer) fired a non-lethal, beanbag round at him in the hope of getting Morales to surrender without using deadly force. Unfortunately, the beanbag round did not stop Morales. After he was hit with the beanbag round, Morales raised his firearm and fired one bullet towards the responding officers. In turn, officers returned fire and ultimately Morales succumbed to his gunshot wounds.

The release of this report is the first under a new policy for any officer-involved shooting that results in a fatality if the DA’s Office does not file criminal charges against an officer. The DA’s Office has never consistently released reports about fatal law enforcement incidents and has never released a comprehensive report of this kind.

A criminal prosecution of the involved officers would require proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers were not justified in using deadly force. The DA’s Office’s conclusion that under the circumstances presented to these officers in this case, a reasonable juror would not make such a finding.

The DA’s Office and every law enforcement agency in Contra Costa County has adopted the Law Enforcement Involved Fatal Incidents Protocol (“the Protocol”) to investigate incidents when officers or civilians are shot or die during an encounter with law enforcement.

Under the Protocol, the DA’s Office investigates all officer-involved shootings in Contra Costa County for the purpose of making an independent determination of criminal liability. The sole purpose of the District Attorney investigation is to determine if there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that a law enforcement official committed a crime in connection with the shooting.

The OIS public report is available on our website.

Allen Payton contributed to this report.

Photos by San Pablo Police Department.

Two suspects from San Pablo, one from Richmond

Photo: SPPD

By San Pablo Police Department

On December 22, 2020, at 10:11 p.m., officers responded to a ShotSpotter activation of reported gunshots in the 1400 block of 23rd Street in San Pablo. Officers arrived and found two adult victims suffering from gunshot wounds. Both victims were transported to nearby hospitals for their injuries and are expected to survive. It was reported this was a drive-by shooting and the suspects had fled the scene.

SPPD Detectives responded to assume the investigation. With the assistance of the San Pablo Public Safety Cameras, Detectives were able to quickly identify the suspects as Darius Markel Buie (20-years old) of San Pablo, Thomas Angelo Trevino (20-years old) of San Pablo and Brian Michael Banuelos (18-years old) of Richmond. It is believed the suspects knew the victims as there was an ongoing dispute surrounding a dating relationship with another party.

On Wednesday, December 23, at 2:47 p.m., Buie was arrested in the area of Shasta Avenue at Yuba Avenue in San Pablo. Later at 3:38 p.m., Trevino and Banuelos were arrested in the 1300 block of Esmond Avenue in Richmond. Investigators impounded the vehicle used during the crime; a 1994 Burgundy Buick Park Avenue. The firearm suspected to have been used during the commission of the crime, a fully automatic 9mm handgun with a high-capacity magazine, was also recovered during the operation.

All three suspects were subsequently booked into Martinez Detention Facility on charges of conspiracy, and attempted murder with special circumstances (drive-by shooting). Banuelos had the additional charge of an illegal weapons possession for the automatic firearm. The case will be presented to the Contra Costa Office of the District Attorney for review and formal charging.

The San Pablo Investigations Unit is investigating this incident. Anyone with information in this case is encouraged to contact the San Pablo Police Department at 510-215-3150. All callers can remain anonymous.

We want to recognize the men and women of our Investigations Division for yet another example of exceptional police work! #WeAreSanPablo

Social media post asking for county residents to contact John Muir Health executives over the firing of Dr. deBoisblanc. Source: anonymous (Information redacted by the Herald)

See doctors’ letter to Dr. Chris Farnitano and Contra Costa County Supervisors; effort now challenges compensation of John Muir executives

Dr. Michael deBoisblanc. Photo: BASS Medical Group

By Allen Payton

Last Friday, Dec. 18, Dr. Michael deBoisblanc was fired as the Medical Director of Trauma and Regional Services for John Muir Health. One of the partners in his private practice, the Bay Area Surgical Specialists (BASS) Medical Group, Dr. Pete Mazolewski, who also works at John Muir, confirmed the firing and said it was done, “without explanation.”

However, according to an NBC Bay Area news report, deBoisblanc “was reassigned after questioning COVID-19 restrictions” and “in a phone call…the doctor said, ‘clearly the interpretation of my letter to the county … they felt the need to separate themselves and remove me from my position.’”

A phone call to John Muir Health’s Director of Corporate Communications, Ben Drew, on Friday, Dec. 18 was never responded to.

That Dec. 10th letter (see below), by deBoisblanc, Mazolewski and Dr. Brian Hopkins, also a member of the BASS Medical Group who works at their John Muir, was sent to Contra Costa Health Officer, Dr. Chris Farnitano and county supervisors. It questioned the impacts of the health orders on the mental health, and the need for it when ICU beds are impacted every winter, as well as the impacts on businesses.

In response, a letter writing campaign was begun through social media to question both Cal Knight, John Muir’s President and CEO, and Jane Willemsen, the Executive Vice President and President of Hospital Operations for both John Muir’s Walnut Creek and Concord Campuses, as well as John Muir Behavioral Health.

Resident’s Letter to John Muir CEO & EVP

Calvin Knight, CEO & President, John Muir Health. Photo: JohnMuirHealth.com

As part of the campaign, the following letter was sent to Knight and Willemsen, and provided to the Herald anonymously:

“Dear Mr. Knight and Ms. Willemsen,

I am writing you as a very concerned Contra Costa County resident in order to address the recent news of what appears to be a retaliatory termination and/or reprimands directed towards three doctors at John Muir relating to a letter addressed to Contra County Health official – Dr. Chris Farnitano.  As has been reported on NBC Bay Area, KTVU, The California Globe and several other news agencies, it is incredibly concerning that it appears as if John
Muir took retaliatory measures against those doctors for what seems to be a very thoughtful and respectful letter addressed to Dr. Farnitano (California Globe posted the letter in its article).  Additionally, it does not appear as if any of the doctors listed any association with John Muir, or inferred that they were speaking on its behalf in the letter.  As a lifetime California and a 21+ year Contra Costa County resident I am very concerned that John Muir’s actions seem more focused on intimidation and retaliation rather than what is in the best interest of the hospital and our community. Please see three of my specific concerns below:

1. This is a global pandemic and there are countless well respected views that differ on best practices and treatment.  These differing views are widely articulated by county health officials, mayors, governors, state politicians, research institutions, doctors, nurses, etc.  Based on the doctors letter, I (and many others) feel it was a very thoughtful, well written and respectful letter in both tone and content. The tone was in no way disrespectful nor was there any mention of John Muir.  Additionally, it did not seem in any way out of line with medical questions/comments made daily by many, many well respected health leaders across the country on how to best respond to the virus taking into consideration both short term and long term impacts.
   

   Jane A Willemsen, Executive VP, John Muir Health. Photo: JohnMuirHealth.com

2. Recently there have been many doctors in print and on TV from Stanford, UCSF, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and many other well respected institutions who have very publicly voiced conflicting points of views/opinions and openly included the names of their institutions (not just that they were doctors).  Stanford even recently posted that they supported some of their doctors conflicting views given the amount unknowns regarding the virus.  I have not heard of any retaliatory actions taken on any of those individuals.
3. Most concerning of all is that John Muir’s actions appears to be retaliatory/intimidating in nature and could seriously compromise staff at the hospital from speaking up in the future. If there is a culture of “don’t say anything or you risk termination”, then no one will ever speak up even when there are serious concerns regarding patient care, best practices or worse outright illegal/harmful activity. As a result, John Muir’s institutional credibility will significantly suffer even more over time and ultimately patient care will be compromised. This is not the type of environment that gives the community confidence in its hospital or its leadership.
   I fully understand that there are many differing points of view regarding best practices, treatment and long term impacts on all actions taken to address the pandemic.  That being said, based on all of the reporting and posted letter that I have seen it does not appear as if the doctors did anything wrong or disrespectful relating to their relationship with John Muir, the community and more importantly their Hippocratic oaths. To be honest, it really feels like the type of thoughtfulness and concern that you would encourage from everyone at the John Muir, including its administrators and executives.”

Letter From Three Doctors

Following is the text of the letter sent by the three John Muir doctors:

“December 10, 2020

Dr Farnitano and Contra Costa County supervisors,
We are writing to you with deep concern regarding more lockdown measures for our county. We feel the science is clear that more lockdowns lead to much more non covid morbidity and mortality as supported by the CDC.
We are confused as to why this is happening as we are often overcapacity in our hospitals and ICUs every winter and we have never done this previously. We also run our ICUs normally at a high rate of occupancy as this is most cost effective.
Here are the issues in a nutshell:
1. Excessive PCR testing is leading to numerous false positive results.  The specificity of PCR testing is really unknown but I have seen many authorities claim it is no higher than the low 90% range because of the attempt to be 100% sensitive using cycle threshold standards of 40. (sensitivity is inversely related to specificity)
2. For the sake of illustration, I will assume a 97-98% specificity which is likely far too high. Back in March when the county could only perform 300-400 tests per day, a 98% specificity would only lead to 6-8 false positive tests. Now we have reached up to 8000 tests per day. With a 98% specificity, that would lead to 160 false positive cases a day in our county. With a population of 1.1 million that would put us at 14.5 positive cases per 100,000 population and we would find ourselves in the worst possible tier based solely on false positive tests!!! This is absolutely a fact of epidemiology/science.
3. Again we have normal ICU and hospital winter surges that happen every winter and we never had any county lockdowns.  Our county figures on your website show essentially a stable ICU occupancy from July 1st to today. In addition on your website, we only have a minimal surge in hospitalized patients as compared to last year.
4. When you test like this for everyone that comes into your hospital, ‘hospital covid patient” numbers will rise simply because you are capturing more asymptomatic disease in patients who otherwise are visiting the hospital for other reasons.
5. Public policy is being based on these erroneous numbers and assumptions.
6. Public policy with shutdowns (various closures) leads to excessive non covid related deaths. Please see attached CDC article which shows clearly that these excessive deaths are most pronounced in the 25-44 year old age range with numerous weeks during this year that 40-50% excessive deaths are seen in this age group. When you measure in terms of life-years lost as compared to life-years lost with actual covid deaths, it is not even close. We are harming more people in our community who do not have nor are at risk of having significant covid disease with senseless closures of businesses and schools. This is data supported.
7. The CDC and pediatric societies across America have voiced their support of opening all schools. School age children are not significant vectors of the disease.
With this information above, can you answer the following questions:
1. How do you account for these high numbers of false positives with the county tiering system? Do you throw these numbers out so that only true positives are counted?
2. Why did you not intervene with any type of community closure in the past winters when our hospitals were at overcapacity? What is different now?
3. What data do you have that supports closures of businesses like gyms and outdoor dining while keeping other businesses open like walmart? What data do you have that supports that we stay indoors as opposed to outdoors? (all the science that we have reviewed supports a predominantly 99% indoor vehicle of transmission).
4. Why have you gone against the medical experts in not recommending the opening of our schools?
5. What about our county’s ICU figures caused you to trigger a closure? As you can see on Contra Costa County website, ICU occupancy has been stable between 75 and 80% since July 1st despite changing covid admissions. Please be specific here. When we run normally at 75% occupancy, why is 85% so terrible? We handle these surges every winter. It is expected.
We look forward to your reply.
Sincerely
Pete Mazolewski, MD, FACS, USAR
Brian Hopkins, MD,
Mike deBoisblanc, MD, FACS, USAR”

John Muir Responds to Letter

In what appears to be a response to the doctors’ letter, on Dec. 11, John Muir Health issued the following statement regarding Stay-at-Home Order and COVID-19 response

“John Muir Health continues to work closely with the Contra Costa County Public Health Officer and Contra Costa County Health Services in support of their efforts to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. We fully support the health orders, including the most recent Stay-at-Home order, implemented by County Health Services to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We have great trust in the County Health Department and appreciate all they have done to support the safety of our community under very difficult circumstances.

We realize there are a number of opinions on the Stay-At-Home order, including within our medical staff, but these views do not represent the views of John Muir Health. This is not a normal winter season. We have significantly expanded our ICU capacity to care for more COVID and non-COVID patients. Every day, we see the devastating effects of COVID-19 on patients and urge our community to wear a mask, not to gather with people outside their home and to limit any non-essential activities.

We will get through this pandemic, and it will take all of us working together. If you need health care, please do not delay seeking care. We are here to safely care for our patients and the community. Our courageous medical teams, who have displayed tremendous resiliency and compassion in the face of unrelenting challenges, appreciate the community’s support.”

Executive Compensation

In addition, the effort is also, now challenging the compensation of the non-profit healthcare organizations executives. According to John Muir Health’s 2018 tax return, Knight was paid nearly $4 million and Willemsen earns almost $1.9 million. (See page 85).

Pages from John Muir Health’s 2018 tax return.

No Response Yet from County Health Officer or Supervisors

As of Thursday, Dec. 24, 2020 the doctors have yet to receive a response to their letter. Efforts to reach Farnitano, county health communications staff and the five members of the Board of Supervisors, Thursday afternoon, were unsuccessful.

12/24/20 6:17 PM UPDATE: However, according to Kim McCarl, Communications Officer for Contra Costa Health Services, following “is the statement that the department released on Dec. 11.”

“Contra Costa County and all of California are in the grip of a deadly pandemic. The number of COVID-19 patients in our county’s hospitals has more than tripled in the past 30 days. The number of intensive care unit beds occupied by COVID-19 patients during the same period has more than doubled – and we do not believe the full effect of local transmission during the Thanksgiving holiday has reached our hospitals at this point. Also, flu season, which sends many people to the hospital, hasn’t peaked yet.

This wave is neither seasonal nor is it normal. It’s illogical to look at what happened at hospitals in prior years to predict what we can expect now. In years past, we weren’t dealing with a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic.

We cannot afford to wait until our hospitals are actually full to make policy changes to reduce the spread of this deadly virus.

It would be irresponsible to suggest that universally accepted, proven-effective public health prevention measures to promote physical distancing are not in order at this time.

It would be dangerous at this moment to promote unfounded, unsupported theories about the efficacy of the standard test used to detect COVID-19, or to deny the reality that hospitals across California are rapidly filling with people who are very ill because of this virus.

We are now nearly a year into this pandemic. We have learned a few things along the way. We know from experience that stay-at-home orders, as challenging as they are for everyone, flatten the curve and save lives.”

Yet, when asked if the county staff had sent that letter to the three doctors, one of the three, Dr. Hopkins, replied, “No. They did not respond.”

“I saw this but it wasn’t sent to us directly,” he continued. “Lots of problems with this.  It all ‘sounds’ good and appeals to those not trained in science or medicine or statistics . They still haven’t been able to show that the ICU and/ or hospital numbers are different from prior years. Also “case” numbers are up compared to Spring, but the numbers don’t translate to the same numbers of deaths proportionally as the Spring wave for a ton of reasons.”

“Additionally, the data shows lockdowns have not been effective anywhere in the world at stopping the spread in areas where the virus is established,” Hopkins explained. “Finally, they missed the boat entirely on our message:  that the lockdowns are more destructive than the virus itself. This is an epidemiologic disaster from the standpoint of suicides, missed medical appointments and cancer screenings, depression, drug overdoses, etc.”

“So, they actually didn’t address anything in our letter. This response looks like it was written by a junior high school student.  Pathetic,” he concluded. “We are right about this just like we were in April and May when we said kids need to be back in school. Now, that is undisputed. The data backed that up back then, as well.”

“Ian Miller has some very nice graphics on lockdowns, mask mandates, and their lack of relationship to case numbers and deaths. See: https://rationalground.com/mask-charts/ or his Twitter feed is even better: Twitter@ianmSC,” Hopkins added.

From rationalground.com