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Our county’s lost Health Officer, on a backdrop of growing OC hospitalizations and ICU rates.
May the Lord have mercy on this drooling County. Two months after the scientist, Dr. David Souleles, who was supposed to lead our vitally important Covid testing program, left “to spend more time with his family,” Dr. Nichole Quick, our head health officer, has quit her post, hounded out of office by a mob of raving anti-mask fanatics, aided and abetted by a couple of conspicuously unsupportive Supervisors. (Don Wagner & Michelle Steel.)
The mob in question had worked itself into a hysterical lather over the last two weeks since Dr. Quick issued a “strong recommendation” for OC folks to wear masks in public whenever they are less than six feet from each other. The mob managed to convince each other, sometimes to the point of tears and hysteria, that masks were going to kill them, and that Dr. Quick was thus a murderer. “We have the FACTS on our side, we have the SCIENCE,” these unhinged autodidacts slobbered.
One particularly psychotic anti-masker, a Costa Mesa “human rights attorney” named Leigh Taylor Dundas, broadcast Dr. Quick’s home address to the world a couple meetings ago, and threatened to bring a crowd over to do calisthenics on her front porch wearing masks until they all die of “hypoxia,” and then have Nichole charged with murder. A few days later, a crowd of protesters DID show up in Nichole’s front yard, with signs depicting her with a Hitler mustache.
Dr. Quick has three small children.
But of course, the Board of Supervisors, who hired her, had her back, right? Not so much. You know how they say, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with a passionate intensity”? That describes the feeble, mumbling support Dr. Quick got from Supervisors Chaffee, Do and Bartlett, versus the fervent, crusading know-nothingism of Supervisor Don Wagner. (Backed by Steel whenever she could form a sentence.)
You may remember that two weeks ago Don expressed his strong dissapointment that “Just as the Governor is allowing us to move FORWARD by opening up businesses, Dr. Quick is trying to move us BACKWARD to wearing masks!” He strove to outdo that brilliance the following week, repeatedly demanding to know what Dr. Quick had “learned” from listening to the anti-maskers’ raving, as she tried her damnedest to be polite.
He badgered her over WHY we have to have the same onerous “strong mask recommendation” that Los Angeles and San Diego Counties have, when “We are MUCH MORE SIMILAR to Riverside and San Bernardino Counties?!” Quick was no doubt puzzled, and nobody asked in what way the OC resembles the Inland Empire more than our populous beachside neighbors. I think Wagner’s answer would be that WE ARE FREEDOM-LOVING REPUBLICANS and DON’T TRUST THE GOVERNMENT and NOBODY TELLS US WHAT TO DO!
Some of the anti-maskers had complained in their speeches about being “shamed” for their masklessness, and some of those claimed to have special conditions that made masks unsuitable for them, and so Supervisor Bartlett puzzled aloud, “Is there some way that folks who can’t wear masks can let others know?” Wagner, sensing an opening for a quick NAZI CRACK, flipped on his mike and sneered, “Yeah, how about ARMBANDS? That’s worked at other times in history!” (Maybe he was inspired by thoughts of Dr. Quick with the Hitler mustache?)
At one point Wagner puzzled aloud over the Board’s options in the face of such an unreasonable order, and snuck in a veiled threat, “apart from firing Dr Quick or Dr Chau, and that’s not on the table right now.” Smooth. “Nice health agency you have here, shame if something happened to it.” Finally he left Dr Quick with a stern homework assignment: You had better explain to all of us CLEARLY next week EXACTLY why this mask order is necessary – in a way we ALL can understand. No surprise, Nichole has now responded with a loud clear “Fuck this noise.”
Its down to CHAU now!
Now we’re left with Clayton Chau (left) as the remaining voice of scientific reason. I’m pleased to report he seems tough as nails and sardonic as necessary.
Fellow Asian-American immigrant Michelle Steel really seems to HATE Clayton Chau, have you noticed? It seems like the deep abiding hatred that an ignorant unaccomplished trophy wife who’s been elevated to way above her competence level feels toward an accomplished, successful fellow immigrant.
I’d list my observations backing that, but I’m all snarked out and ready for bed.
Godspeed Dr. Quick, and may God have mercy on our STOOPID County.
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Supervisor Steel is South Korean, not Chinese. Or do they all just look alike to you?
Yeah I know that, I was just tired. It’s fixed. Since you’re so smart do you know where Chau immigrated from? There’s something especially tense between those two.
Fixed?
Being “tired” makes you assign false races to people for the purposes of insulting them and crafting a narrative? That doesn’t make any sense. If you “knew that” why did you write it that way in the first place? If you were not called out I doubt you would have fixed it.
When I went to bed I remembered she’s Korean-American, I’m not sure what country he’s from. If you have observed her with him, you must have seen she has this special disdain and resentment for him that she doesn’t show to Quick. (Attacks on Quick were left to Wagner.)
Watch a meeting and you’ll see what I mean. Maybe you can explain it better. Or maybe you just love Michelle Steel.
“Steve,” are you telling us that you “think” that “Chinese” and “Korean” are “races”?
Don’t get too anonymously comfortable here.
*We knew a JAP once……Jewish American Princess! Does that count? But just to be Politically Correct: Black Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans! OK….have you got it now? There are not Guatamalan Americans, Ecudorian Americans or Argentinian Americans. There are also no Nevadan Americans or Montana Americans….not Louisiana Americans or Alabamian Americans…..either! Finally, there are no European Americans or Russian Americans either. Get it?
*What and you thought we forgot?: “Blanco Americanos” too!
This has nothing to do with what I think of Supervisor Steel and everything to do with your apparent racism and misogyny. You didn’t even know his ethnic background when you referred to him as “Chinese?”??
Plus, Supervisor Steel is a “trophy wife”? And “Uneducated”? Maybe check your hatred, Vern.
Norberto provides some details I didn’t have: https://voiceofoc.org/2020/06/orange-county-public-health-officer-abruptly-resigns-under-pressure-over-mask-order/
“Protesters also gave out Quick’s home address at a public meeting and eventually showed up at her house with large banner that had photos of Quick, featuring a Hitler-style mustache. [giving special context to Wagner’s “armbands” crack – V]
“County Supervisors’ Chairwoman Michelle Steel, who acts as presiding officer over thew weekly supervisor meetings, gave protestors unusual leeway on public cheers and jeers, courtesies not granted to any other group in recent memory…
“No supervisors have effectively defended Quick publicly from the dais. [That includes mealy-mouthed Chaffee, Do and Bartlett – V]
“To make matters worse, Quick also faced horrible public information rollouts for just about every one of the health orders she issued during her short tenure as Public Health Officer during the pandemic.
“The public information efforts – something called out as vital in both federal and local pandemic disaster plans – have been so bad that just about every order the Quick has written has had to be rewritten shortly after being released.
“That’s all about trying to play politics not craft policy… [exactly a point Chau alluded to last week, earning a furious rebuke from Steel – V]
“Ironically, Quick’s departure will likely open up the likelihood that supervisors will now place a friendly face in the slot – as they did with openings at the county health insurance plan for the poor and elderly, known as CalOptima, and the auditor controller office.
“Almost certainly, we will appoint an interim,” Wagner said.”
The over reactions to the Corona Virus by such health experts as Dr. Quick have essentially destroyed our economy, creating millions of unemployed.
It is true justice that Dr, Quick may now join the ranks of the unemployed.
I fail to see in what world a recommendation of wearing a face covering is an overreaction.
Right now they have ONE HUNDRED speakers, these anti-maskers are feeling very empowered and are now going for the head of Clayton Chau. Supervisor Chaffee told the Register that the BoS has been getting e-mails ten-to-one in favor of masks & social distancing; but we sane people don’t show up to speak in person so they only hear the crazies. WE REALLY SHOULD! Starting next Tuesday.
If one were to be fair and objective, you might look at the science of mask protection. It is as volatile as creationism vs. Evolution. This is NOT anyi-vax stuff.
The biggest obstacles to opening the county is the anti-maskers themselves.
Businesses won’t open until they can get enough people to come inside.
People won’t come inside because they rightfully believe that masks and social distance are important, and they don’t want to be victims of someone else’s idiocy.
Anti-maskers trumpet the very idiocy that keeps people at home.
But a few anti-mask businesses and churches may have great success – until their clientele starts getting too sick.
P.S. Just looked at our hospitalization/ICU rates, they broke the 300 mark Monday and are at an all-time high of 306 hospitalizations, 146 ICU as of yesterday.
Orange County residents no longer have to wear masks in public, officials announced Thursday — an abrupt shift in health orders following weeks of debate over the use of face coverings to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
Masks will go from being required to being strongly recommended in public settings under a revised order from new Orange County Health Care Agency Director Dr. Clayton Chau.
Poor Vern 🙁
Yeah I watched that, I’m writing a story about it now. I hope it was the right decision, not made under too much duress.
Why poor me? I don’t like wearing a mask everywhere any more than anyone, but I will in public if I’m less than six feet from people.
Poor us, if it turns out to be a bad call and we have to close up businesses again, and more people die.
Oh and those anti-mask extremists are still psychos. And deadbeats.
Narrator Voice: “It was made under more than too much duress.”
OC’s anti-maskers achieve international fame! (Obviously compiled Tuesday or Wednesday.)
What a collection of whatnots.
To say the least.
*They Started “Mask Optional” two days ago!
Yeah I wrote about that too when it happened. You gotta keep up with your OJB.