Idaho can’t wait and see: Boise area health district should approve new restrictions

“It’s going to be a very dark couple of weeks.”

That’s according to Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, in an Associated Press article about the looming crisis in health care because of spiking cases of COVID-19.

The White House Coronavirus Task Force issued a similar dark warning.

“We are in a very dangerous place due to the current, extremely high COVID baseline and limited hospital capacity,” according to the latest report released Sunday. “A further post-Thanksgiving surge will compromise COVID patient care, as well as medical care overall.”

Dr. Ted Epperly, a Central District Health board member, sounded the alarm locally.

“We have an absolute imminent crisis right now,” Epperly said during a Central District Health board meeting Tuesday to discuss a new order for the four counties covered by his district. “If we do not do this (order), we will lose the hospitals. Hear me when I say that. We will lose the hospitals.”

CDH board members are scheduled to vote on the new order Friday evening.

According to details of the order released Wednesday evening, some of the restrictions include:

• Gatherings of 10 or more people, both public and private, are hereby prohibited (with exceptions for political and religious gatherings).
• Every person is required to wear a face covering that completely covers the person’s nose and mouth when physical distancing of 6 feet cannot be maintained from others who are not members of the same household, both indoors and outdoors.
• Working from home when possible.
• Visits to long-term care facilities, jails and state correctional facilities are prohibited.
• Delivery and curbside restaurant service when possible.
• Organized youth and adult sports and activities in which physical distancing of 6 feet is not possible are prohibited.
• Restrictions on restaurants, breweries, taprooms, wineries and distilleries.
• Gyms and other fitness or group exercise facilities/studios must limit capacity to not more than 50%.

Perhaps most important is that the new order states violation of or failure to comply could constitute a misdemeanor punishable by fine, imprisonment or both, as spelled out in Idaho code. In other words, this includes enforcement, not just “education,” “peer pressure” or “suggestions.” Which clearly are not working.

We support the new order and encourage board members to approve it.

We recognize some people may feel that Central District Health should impose even stricter shutdown measures in the face of a crisis. The new order does appear to be a compromise, perhaps to try to avoid triggering those who are opposed to any kind of order at all. Still, we are hopeful this middle ground works in controlling the spread — if more people follow guidelines and do their part to slow the spread. Otherwise, we’re sure to see far worse shutdown orders, which is where we’re headed if we don’t control the spread.

Central District Health, which includes Ada, Elmore, Valley and Boise counties, can’t wait to see how things turn out in a couple of weeks. By then, it will be too late. Hospitals will be overrun, intensive care units will be filled up, health care workers will be depleted.

Nor can Central District Health wait to see what Gov. Brad Little might do. We crossed that bridge long ago, with the governor pushing decisions down to the seven health districts in Idaho. Well, it’s decision time for the health districts, and we support those board members who do the right thing.

Even though Little said at his last press conference that he needs to do a better job of communicating the need to wear a mask and take measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus, he has not held a press conference since Nov. 13, and none is scheduled for this week.

That’s unacceptable in the face of a looming crisis.

Let us repeat that the measures being considered by Central District Health are meant not just to protect COVID-19 patients. These measures are meant to help those who might find themselves in need of non-COVID-related medical care due to such things as heart attacks, strokes, car crashes and other medical emergencies. Some of these people already are being diverted.

We know that there’s a lag in cases of COVID-19, as the coronavirus has a longer incubation period. With so many people gathering for Thanksgiving and continuing to travel for the holidays, the concern is that in the coming two weeks, Idaho and the United States will see an even bigger spike than we’ve been seeing in recent weeks.

The United States is rapidly approaching 300,000 deaths from COVID-19.

On Tuesday alone, 2,610 people died from COVID-19 in the United States. To put that in perspective, there are 366 passengers on a 747 airliner. The number of COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday was the equivalent of seven of those planess crashing and killing everyone aboard — in just one day. Imagine if seven 747’s crashed on Tuesday and killed 2,600 people.

Here’s another way to think about Tuesday’s death toll: It’s nearly as many as the 2,977 people who died in the terrorist attacks on 9/11 — and these people died from a virus so many people still refuse to take seriously.

We echo Central District Health board member Diana Lachiondo’s sentiments regarding the difficult decision facing board members.

Following Tuesday night’s CDH board meeting, Lachiondo, an Ada County commissioner, tweeted:

“If your first reaction upon listening to the CDH meeting (and messaging me) is that your kids might miss out on basketball .... and not that we are out of ICU beds.... well, to quote Dr. (Anthony) Fauci, ‘I don’t know how to explain to you that you should care about other people.’”

This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 6:07 PM.