圣克拉拉县发布了一份关于疫情应对的“行动后”报告，该报告分析了该县政府在疫情期间的表现。然而，报告存在诸多不足，包括未解释该县的死亡率为何高于其他湾区县，未提及疫情带来的“绝望死亡”数量，未说明该县为何禁止室内教堂服务以及为何在测试和疫苗接种方面起步缓慢，以及未讨论疫情对当地企业的影响等。

🦠 **死亡率高于其他湾区县：** 报告未解释圣克拉拉县的每 capita 疫情死亡率为何高于其他湾区县，没有提供数据分析和原因解释，缺乏说服力。

😔 **“绝望死亡”问题：** 报告完全忽略了疫情导致的“绝望死亡”，即因疫情封锁而导致的自杀、吸毒或酗酒死亡人数。该问题对于未来疫情应对至关重要，但报告却避而不谈，缺乏对疫情带来的社会影响的关注。

⛪ **教堂禁令争议：** 报告未解释该县禁止室内教堂服务的决定。教堂认为该禁令不公平，因为他们被要求遵守与 Home Depot 或 Costco 等世俗场所不同的标准。美国最高法院在一次不寻常的晚间听证会上推翻了该县对室内宗教活动的禁令。最高法院的介入让圣克拉拉县颜面尽失，成为美国唯一一个因疫情防控措施过于严厉而受到最高法院指责的县。

🧪 **测试和疫苗接种起步缓慢：** 报告未解释该县为何在疫情测试和疫苗接种方面起步缓慢。报告应该假设疫情可能会在未来重复出现，并提出改进测试和疫苗接种系统的措施。但报告中没有任何类似内容，似乎认为他们所做的一切都是正确的，没有改进的必要。

💰 **疫情对企业的影响：** 报告没有讨论当地企业因疫情封锁而遭受的损失。全国范围内，大约三分之一的小型独立企业因被迫关闭而倒闭，尽管没有证据表明它们传播了病毒。报告没有说明该县有多少企业永久关闭，有多少员工失业，以及为何允许全国连锁店营业，却强迫当地独立企业关闭。

💸 **疫情罚款政策：** 报告承认圣克拉拉县在对违反疫情规定的企业处罚方面比其他县更加严厉，近 400 家企业被罚款共计 500 万美元。但报告指出，由于该县的规则经常变化，有时甚至每天都会变化，企业很难遵守规定。因此，即使企业试图遵守法律，也会被罚款。

⚖️ **社会距离规则不一致：** 报告没有解释社会距离规则中的明显不一致。2020 年 5 月和 6 月的乔治·弗洛伊德抗议活动期间，没有执行任何距离规则。然而，与此同时，该县的规定禁止电影院、鲨鱼队比赛、高中体育运动和教堂等场所聚集。报告没有解释这种不一致。

🏫 **学校关闭问题：** 报告将学校关闭的责任推给了州政府。

👤 **责任人未提及：** 报告没有提及任何该县决策者的姓名，因此无法追究个人责任。

💰 **疫情奖金问题：** 该县向所有员工支付了 2500 美元的疫情奖金，即使是完全在家工作的员工也获得了奖金。这笔钱应该用于帮助那些因疫情封锁而受损的企业和个人。

🔍 **独立调查缺失：** 该县应该召集一个公民小组，例如公民大陪审团，对疫情应对进行独立调查。这个小组可以获得预算聘请调查员。

📊 **报告的局限性：** 该报告存在缺陷，因为该县在咨询公司的帮助下评估了自己的工作表现。由于这种缺陷，报告很明显地掩盖了缺点，夸大了成功之处。公众应该得到客观的信息，一份有用且公正的报告将帮助我们应对未来的疫情。

OPINION

BY DAVE PRICE
Daily Post Editor

A year after it was due, Santa Clara County has finally released a state-required “after-action” report that analyzes how well the county government handled the Covid pandemic. 

I guess it’s too much to ask the county to do a straight-forward, honest assessment of its own performance. 

This report comes up short in many ways:

Deaths

• The report didn’t explain why Santa Clara County’s per capita Covid death rate was higher than other Bay Area counties.

Related deaths

• The report was silent about the number of “deaths of desperation,” the number of people who died of suicide, drug addiction or booze because their lives were ruined by the shutdown. If we ever go through a lockdown again, we should know how to avoid these deaths. But this report doesn’t help us.

Church crackdown

• The report doesn’t shed any light on the county’s decision to ban indoor church services. Churches said the ban was unfair because they were being held to a different standard than secular places such as Home Depot or Costco, which were allowed to stay open. The U.S. Supreme Court, in an unusual evening hearing, struck down the county’s ban on indoor worship services. The high court’s intervention in the dispute was an embarrassment for Santa Clara County, the only county in the United States to be rebuked by the high court for its heavy-handed pandemic rules. 

Testing and vaccination

• The report doesn’t address why the county got off to a slow start administering Covid tests or distributing the vaccine. 

The report should have assumed that this pandemic will repeat itself in the future, and county officials could improve the systems for testing and vaccine distribution. But there’s nothing like that in this report. It’s as if everything they did was OK, and there’s no need for improvement.

Impact on business

• There’s no discussion about the shut down of local businesses. 

Nationally, about a third of small, independent businesses were wiped out by forced shutdowns even though there wasn’t any evidence that they were spreading the virus. 

This report didn’t say how many businesses permanently closed in the county, or how many employees lost their jobs.

And the report didn’t answer the question that many local business people were asking — why were the national chains allowed to stay open, but the local independents forced to close? 

Covid fines

• The report was honest in admitting that Santa Clara County was much more aggressive in penalizing businesses for Covid violations than other counties. Nearly 400 businesses were hit with a combined $5 million in fines. But the report, written by an outside consultant, said that it was “challenging” for businesses to follow the county’s rules because they would frequently change, sometimes daily. As a result, businesses were fined even though they were trying to obey the law.

Inconsistency

• The report didn’t address a glaring inconsistency in the social distancing rules. No distancing rules were enforced during the George Floyd protests in May and June 2020. Yet, at the same time, county rules prohibited crowds at movie theaters, Sharks games, high school sports and churches. The report doesn’t explain the inconsistency.

• As for closing schools, the report kicked the blame to the state government.

No names

The report didn’t mention any names of decision-makers in the county, so there’s no way to hold individuals accountable. I guess that’s something you’d expect from a county that paid $2,500 Covid bonuses to all employees, even those who worked entirely from home. That money should have gone to the businesses and individuals who were harmed by the lockdowns.

The county should have convened a panel of citizens — like the civil grand jury — to independently investigate its handling of the pandemic. The panel could have been given a budget to hire an investigator. 

As it stands, this report is flawed and it’s obvious why — the county, with the help of a consultant — was evaluating its own job performance. Given that flaw, it’s obvious that shortcomings would be papered over and successes would be trumpeted. The public deserves objectivity. And a useful, unbiased report would prepare us if we are ever faced with a pandemic again.

Editor Dave Price’s column appears on Mondays in the Daily Post.

To read the report, open this link and go to Item 6. Click “a. Attachment A – OEM COVID-19 AAR.”