(Photo by Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
PHOENIX – Arizona would not currently be the country’s worst COVID-19 hotspot if state officials did a better job of enforcing mitigation rules, according to public health expert Dr. Will Humble.
“Businesses have acknowledged – especially bars, restaurants and nightclubs – that they could escape deception and will not be punished,” said Humble, president of the Arizona Public Health Association and former director of the Department of Health Services. from Arizona. KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show Tuesday.
Humble said it has worsened so much that the only significant step to save lives the state could make at the moment would be to close bars and limit restaurants to dining services.
He said that although thousands of companies are subject to the mitigation rules adopted by the state during the summer, the health department has made only 15 enforcement actions.
“Are you telling me that there is a significant application of mitigation measures? “I can’t say it clearly enough: if we had made a better application in those indoor environments, then I wouldn’t be here talking on the radio about closing those businesses,” he said.
Humble acknowledged that closing down businesses could hurt the economy and create additional public health problems, but noted that they helped turn the first wave of the pandemic into July.
He said the government could not mandate anything to combat the spread of coronavirus that occurs during private house meetings, but that is no reason not to do anything more about mitigation.
“From the way I look at it, what political levers do you actually have to make a real difference?” he said.
Humble suggested that Gov. Doug Ducey could use federal aid funds to offset the economic impact of the closures.
“But he will have the courage to make that call, recognizing that safety net dollars are there,” he said. “It saves money from the CARES Act. He’s sitting on the bench. “
Humble wondered if Ducey and health director Dr. Cara Christ were concerned about slowing the spread of COVID-19 at this stage.
“I think their attitude was, ‘Look, we’re not going to try to alleviate this, we’re going to try to get vaccinated to get out of it,'” he said.
On Tuesday, the health department said about 100,000 of Arizona’s 7 million people received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. The low-consumption supply is proportional to the priority groups.
Meanwhile, Arizona has the highest per capita coronavirus transmission rate and the seventh highest COVID-19 mortality rate in seven days, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.
State hospitals have a record number of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients and are set to worsen due to inaction in November and December, Humble said.
“It’s not the cases themselves that bother me,” he said. “It’s that 7% of them will be hospitalized in about seven, eight, nine days,” he said.
“So much time passes after you were diagnosed with the disease before you got sick enough to be hospitalized and there is no … room in the inn. For me, this is worrying. “