Letters to the editor | Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020: Modesto superintendent questions COVID data
Stanislaus County COVID data doesn’t add up
As the superintendent of Modesto City Schools, I am focused on the health and safety of our students and staff. And while I am very eager to reopen schools to welcome our students for in-person learning, I also want to ensure we are doing so in a safe, responsible manner.
However, I’m concerned with the conflicting data that has been reported surrounding the COVID cases per 100,000 population. Even the real-time State of California COVID-19 data dashboard shows that, over the past 14 days, more than 3,600 positive cases were reported for Stanislaus County. Given this data, when you compute the per 100,000 figure, it exceeds 600+ cases. However, another California Department of Public Health dashboard states that Stanislaus County is at 287.9 cases per 100,000 population (as of Aug. 21). I am an educator, a math teacher specifically, and the numbers simply do not add up.
We are trusting our public health experts with the data, and I feel it is very important for the public to receive a detailed explanation behind the calculation of this data and the difference between the numbers. I am responsible for leading the largest school district in Stanislaus County, where we are entrusted with the health and safety of 30,000+ students and 4,800+ staff. This is a responsibility that I take very seriously, and I am committed to working with the Modesto City Schools Board of Education and our union partners in making an informed decision once we have verified the accuracy of the data.
Sara Noguchi, superintendent, Modesto City Schools
Supervisors ignoring COVID reality
My mother was born in Slovakia and I remember my brother and I teasing her about coming from a backward country. It turns out Slovakia may not be so backward after all, as its government is effectively handling the coronavirus pandemic. It starts with a president who listens to scientists and actively promotes handwashing and social distancing. She even makes wearing a mask seem cool. Slovakia has a population of 5.4 million but only 2,801 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 31 deaths; far less than the 11,953 cases and 187 deaths registered in Stanislaus County.
Need a comparison that’s a little closer to home? Consider that Alameda, Santa Clara and Sacramento counties all have fewer COVID-19 cases on a per capita basis than Stanislaus. Contra Costa County, with a population about twice the size of ours, has fewer cases and deaths than we do in terms of actual numbers. Yet, according to a recent Bee editorial, the Stanislaus Board of Supervisors – the same group that refused to enforce California’s shut-down orders – now wants to put more lives at risk by “sitting on their enforcement hands if schools decide to open.”
Makes you wonder who’s really backward.
Terry Gray, Modesto
Democracy requires selflessness and empathy
Some Americans live in a nightmare. This is what it looks like to me: One branch of the human race declared itself superior to all other branches. They chose violence to force the other branches to succumb to the notion they were superior and the other branches unworthy. Turning their backs on what is good, they gave allegiance to evil. Of course, not everyone participated in the violence, but between the Civil War and the killing of George Floyd by a policeman in Minnesota, few have had the will to condemn it.
The principle that all (persons) are created equal launched a political revolution leading to the establishment of American democracy. No one can be more equal than anybody else. America would escape the tyranny of King George but we overlooked the tyranny in our own lives.
Now we need human revolution. We need an inner transformation in the depths of individual lives to overcome the egoism and selfishness that gives birth to the subjugation and mistreatment of others. We don’t have democracy without empathy and regard for others. Rugged individualism may be the death of us all.
Penny Williams, Patterson
How to save the Postal Service
After nearly 250 years of delivering the mail, throughout the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War I and World War II, numerous hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, flu pandemics and now, under President (cough) Trump, there’s a problem delivering the mail. How does that demonstrate a competence to garner re-election?
Charge businesses the highest price to mail ads, commonly known as junk mail, not the lowest rate. It might make them think about other ways to spend advertising dollars and reduce waste in landfills. Sell advertising on stamps. Let Ford and Audi pay to show their new models. Let Procter & Gamble pay to promote Downy and Tide. Let Fox News and CNN tout their news show hosts.
Janet Little, Turlock
Thinking outside the mailbox
This year, our mail-in ballots will be post paid. To support our Postal Service, I suggest we put our own stamp on this ballot.
Pat Oliver, Modesto
Trump wrecks Postal Service
Kamala Harris said it: Everything Trump inherits he drives into the ground. That is exactly what he is trying to do with the November presidential election. He has appointed a megadonor bootlicker, Louis DeJoy, to postmaster general. Trump said he would underfund the U.S. Postal Service so that the mail-in ballot process would be wrecked. Trump is so worried about losing the election that he is openly, brazenly sabotaging the election process. This is frightening. Every U.S. senator, every U.S. representative, every state, every citizen in the U.S. should be outraged.
We must do whatever we can to prevent Trump from driving this country into the ground. We must not let the U.S. become another autocracy — another Nazi Germany, another Russia, or North Korea. We must protect the November election. Contact your local, state, and national representatives, and demand that they defeat Trump’s plan. It shouldn’t matter what your political party is.
Buda Kajer-Crain, Modesto
Pandemic body-slams USA
Sadly, as COVID-19 cases in the U.S. continue to rise, the denial of the gravity of the situation from our top leadership continues to rise right alongside. Metaphorically, if the U.S. were part of a “COVID-19 League,” or major league of big countries, with 5.42 million cases we are in last place. The cellar, by far. Two other contenders for this ugly distinction, India and Brazil, have 3.32 and 2.6 million respectively. We have 25% of all cases worldwide. Those other major players – Russia, China, Japan, Indonesia, S. Africa – all have under 1 million cases.
Lest this news depress you, relief is one click of the remote away. Tune into Fox News any evening and you will hear glowing reports of just how successfully we are fighting and conquering the epidemic. Bio-speak about tests, tracking, ventilators, vaccines on-the-way, etc. Especially if the speaker is Donald Trump, or our straight-talking VP Mike Pence. Forget the fake news on main-stream media. We’re doing way more than all other countries combined in fighting the virus. Never mind that we’re in last place; we are still the best team in the league. And our MVP? Why, our modest manager-in-chief, of course.
Randall Brown, Turlock
Follow the money
Everything has a logical explanation. The failure of Republicans in the Senate to extend unemployment benefits during the pandemic seems illogical. However, sometimes logic is hidden by rhetoric.
Based on behavior these past four years, Republican senators have established a pattern of doing everything that favors the wealthiest 1 percent. The tax cut favoring the wealthy two years ago was telling.
So how does denying unemployment benefit the wealthy? It forces people to work at risky job sites. But, it also will cause numerous home foreclosures. When homes are foreclosed, as in 2008, corporations will swoop in and buy tens of thousands of homes lost by distressed citizens, at bargain basement prices.
Even though I am not a Democrat, the evil in the Republican Party knows no bounds. An election is coming up. Vote in your own best interest.
Bruce R. Frohman, Modesto
This story was originally published August 23, 2020 at 4:00 AM.