Each year I use the final newsletter of the year to do a look back. In any other year it’d be a month-by-month retrospective on the things we fostered and achieved with your help through the W6 office. Obviously 2020 is a bit different. I’ll still do the monthly review, but much of this will be tracking how COVID occupied our energies. I hope you find it an interesting walk back through the last year.
January
Remember New Year’s, 2020? Things began pretty normally. We ushered in a new mayor and a couple of new council members, and the business of the City was headed in a familiar direction. A couple of the themes I wrote about in January continued throughout the year. One was the proposed new TEP substation and power pole project. They were early in the public outreach in January, and a year later are about to come to M&C and the Arizona Corporation Commission hoping for approvals. Another big topic that I wrote about in January was PFAS and our water security. We’re litigating against 3M and other product manufacturers. We’re also working with the Air Force and Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to determine the extent of the contamination out by DM. Early in ‘21 I’ll be hosting an informational/educational meeting with midtown residents, DOD, Tucson Water, ADEQ and some legal folks to bring us all up to speed on the progress of the issue.
Two items unique to January that are worth a mention. First, I joined Mayor Romero and Mom’s Demand Action for Gun Sense in a call to action on gun control. The Mayor was to form a working group with Mom’s, and I remain committed to advocating for common sense gun legislation. That battle continues, but with a new administration coming in D.C., hope springs eternal.
In January we also cut the ribbon on Health on University. It’s the El Rio/TMC health clinic partnership that’s now serving residents of the West University and 4th Avenue area. None of us knew at the time we met to celebrate the opening that in a matter of a couple months, the world would be turned upside down by a pandemic and this clinic would join every other health care institution in the region testing and treating COVID victims. Notably, the event was my last public opportunity to share a mic with friend, Supervisor Richard Elias. He passed away shortly after this photo was taken – a huge loss to the community.
February
February began and life was still normal. We hosted the pre-construction meeting for the Benedictine project. That’s now well underway. They hope to be open for occupancy around the third quarter of ‘21. In February I sent along information on how you could provide input on the F-35 environmental impacts. It appears for now at least they’ve decided to ‘bed down’ that aircraft at other locations. And I shared some good news about Sun Tran receiving a Federal Grant aimed at helping to identify and address human trafficking. If it hadn’t been for other events popping up during the year, my office would have by now asked M&C for changes to our local ordinances that also address trafficking. We’ll see how ‘21 goes. But in February, things were chugging along.
One development issue that gained quite a bit of attention was the Mountain Enclave Subdivision (MES.) It was being developed using a tool called Flexible Lot Development (FLD.) In a vote that I ultimately lost 6-1 at the dais, I believe the wider community won due to the public conversation/confrontation. Issues such as how we define flexible open space, adjacencies and others were front and center. For example – many of us in the community do not consider this to be ‘flexible open space’ - although it was granted that status during review:
The MES project wasn’t in W6, but staff is now attuned to many of the sensitive areas and I expect we’ll have more robust input early in FLD projects.
Two items we addressed in February that continue to be key topics today are evictions and mental health. I hosted a meeting that included the Pima County Constable for the area, Pima County and City staff as well as landlords and tenant advocates. We began a conversation that has resulted in some process changes between the Constables and Courts, giving tenants more notice of an upcoming eviction. That change is to the credit of the County staffers who attended the meeting and their work directly with the Constables in its aftermath. So often positive change begins by simply sitting down with others and learning about the challenges they’re experiencing. Because of COVID, evictions are temporarily halted if the reason for non-payment is due to the virus, but the entire eviction issue will only gain in importance in the immediate future. And while mental health needs were large pre-COVID, the combination of shelter-in-place, social isolation and the impacts COVID is having on tens of thousands of people here in Pima County has increased the importance of behavioral health interventions. If you know someone who is exhibiting signs that are troubling, please share the 24/7 national suicide prevention hotline – 800.273.8255.
As a sign that we were all planning life as usual, I advertised the then upcoming Festival of Books for March 14 on the UA mall. The event never took place.
March
The month began with some more issues that continue through today. Genna’s ‘motion hearing’ was scheduled for March 16th. It never happened. Canceled due to COVID. We continued taking donations for families being dropped at the Alitas Center. We still are – and asylum seekers are still finding their way from Central America up to the border. And horse doping was again uncovered at some of the large and very profitable racetracks in the U.S. I didn’t then, and I continue to not support our granting off track betting licenses that support a sport that’s abusive to the animals.
On March 16th I wrote about “Coronavirus - COVID-19" for the first time. It became a weekly topic through the remainder of the year. I was joined by Nikki Lee and Paul Durham in hosting a phone bank where over 300 people placed calls in the 90 minutes we were on the line. Everyone was asking about this strange new virus. We were joined by Dr. Bob from Pima County, and representatives of TUSD, the Community Food Bank, TMC, Pima Council on Aging, Sun Tran and the UA. It was new to all of us.
March saw the start of the trend of Proclamations and Executive Orders that became competing policy statements. The Governor declared a public health emergency. Then the Mayor issued a Proclamation that closed some local businesses. Finally, on March 31st, the Governor joined the public health community’s outcry for a Statewide approach. His Executive Order (EO) drew lines around what localities could do by defining ‘essential services’ - very broadly.
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Some of the essential services were easy calls to make. Health care facilities, grocery stores, long term care facilities and public transportation. But others were more questionable – barbers and hair salons, pedicures, businesses that sell paint, laundromats, convenience stores, bakeries and a long list of others. The EO was advertised as encouraging ‘staying connected’ - it contained this section:
Given the lengthy list of ‘essentials’, it wasn’t the effective tool public health professionals were hoping to see. In March I began sharing two items that would continue for the rest of the year. One, a weekly piece centered on thanking our health care workers and other first responders. That list grew to also include people working as grocery store clerks, teachers, and eventually the scientists who helped get a vaccine to market.
And I began sharing the Statewide COVID data, County by County. Here’s the first map. It shows where we were at the end of March. I’ll include its counterpart for the rest of the newsletter showing the progression at the end of each month.
In March there were 4 Counties with zero COVID cases, 2 Counties with 2 cases, one with 3 and one with 4. That was enough for Ducey to declare a public health emergency. You’ll see how the policy surrounding his response wavered later in the summer and fall, despite the numbers escalating to the point at which hospitals are right now turning away people needing care.
In March, hospitals began limiting visitors, the UA graduation was canceled, March Madness was canceled, schools shut down, the Book Festival was canceled, and we began offering free bus service as people were starting to suffer reduced hours and/or loss of employment.
April
At the end of April, this was the Statewide COVID map. There were no longer any Counties untouched by the virus. Pima County had grown from 42 cases to over 1,100.
April was when “Zoom” became a new word in most of our lives. At least in the way we now understand it. It was also when health care workers began their first round of running out of N95 masks and other personal protective equipment. With masks becoming the ‘issue of the day,’ I ran a primer on mask safety that covered the N95s, surgical, handmade and others. Sadly, we still have too many people who don’t accept the public health benefit of wearing a mask.
Nursing homes began to shut down to visitors. We offered for the first time free parking for take-out service at restaurants. Our buses got their own sanitizing and PPE for drivers. And in April I hosted a Zoom with the Pima Council on Aging in which we had medical experts share thoughts on Social Isolation. The impacts of being alone can be very serious. Please keep an eye out for friends and loved ones who are alone.
Looking back I found it interesting to find a piece in my April 13th newsletter called “When will we know it’s over?” I wrote it based on comments made by health care experts from a Statewide call I had participated in. One of them was UA President Robbins. They offered 4 benchmarks that would signal a ‘return to normalcy.’ Those are:
A) Hospitals must be able to safely treat all patients requiring hospitalization, without resorting to crisis standards of care. That means having adequate beds, ventilators and staff.
B) The authorities must be able to test everyone who has symptoms, and to get reliable results quickly. That would be well more than 750,000 tests a week in the U.S.
C) Health agencies must be able to monitor confirmed cases, trace contacts of the infected, and have at-risk people into isolation or quarantine.
D) There must be a sustained reduction in cases for at least 14 days – that's how long it can take for symptoms to appear.
We’re not meeting any of those, with the possible exception of testing capacity.
And in April our work with homeless shelters expanded. Ann is affiliated with the Kaimas Foundation. They funded the purchase and distribution of numerous Tippy Taps to help the homeless find some basic level of cleanliness prior to entering or receiving food from a shelter. As difficult as COVID has been for those of us who go home to a house every night, for those living on the street or in shelters, it has been so much more challenging.
May
As April came to an end, the numbers were escalating. I included the map that shows the increase up above. But as May opened, Ducey felt the State should too. In early May he partially reopened restaurants for expanded curb-side pick-up. No problem there. But on May 15th he pushed the reopening envelope even further with yet another Executive Order. In that one he included this language:
They’re all valid precautions, but they opened the door so widely that we began to see our first major resurgence of COVID shortly after his EO went into effect. It’s the science the UA should have considered when I began pushing them to conduct mandatory testing for off-campus students. And now as I urge them to push back the date for in-person resumption of classes in January.
In response, many local businesses began their own campaign – Too Soon Arizona.
The UA began offering an antibody test as part of a pilot program. That’s the test showing whether or not you’ve ever had COVID. And our eviction discussion continued. In his EO, Ducey provided some protections against eviction. But the bills are continuing to climb – it's rent delay, not rent elimination.
My staff and I hosted 2 important Zooms in May. Both were titled “Reopening the City; what should that look like?” The first one had members of the business community on the call. The second had members of the health care industry. As was predictable, we heard ‘reopen now’ from one group and ‘stay home and stay safe’ from the other. There was a portion of Ducey’s newest EO that prevented us from adopting any measures stricter than his, so our ability to positively impact the concerns coming from the health care people was limited. That restriction continues in effect today. The Governor’s misuse of that authority is so egregious that even the Republicans in the State Legislature are talking about ways to challenge it.
As the month came to a close, the Statewide coronavirus numbers continued to increase. And not surprisingly, because the Governor had opened things up more so than before, they were going up fast.
Our Pima County infection total had nearly doubled during May.
June
This graph shows what happened in the aftermath of Ducey reopening things:
The UA began talking about reopening for the fall semester. That signaled the beginning of my concern for their plan to test students who live on-campus, but to ignore the more than 30,000 of them who live in off-campus housing. Much more on that below.
Our regular City issues continued. We adopted a budget that included funding for police, despite a group wanting us to defund them. We also included in the budget money for staff with non-law enforcement skill sets to assist when a call warranted a different sort of response than a cop. It was a good step towards reforming policing, without eviscerating our police budget and exacerbating our TPD turnover rate. In the process, the rest of the M&C rescinded an ordinance we had in place that allowed police to establish a reasonable crime scene boundary. I believe that was an unfortunate message to send to our public safety workers. Last summer was a tough one for law enforcement across the nation. But in our budget, I believe we found a good and responsible middle ground between public safety and police reform.
In June the Governor gave a little ground. He allowed local jurisdictions to adopt their own mandatory mask ordinances. We did. It’s still not a Statewide mandate. Our friends on 4th Avenue began a campaign to get customers to comply.
Also, Pima County Health issued new guidelines. Those included their own mask mandate when you’re indoors in a public setting and when maintaining at least 6’ social distance isn’t possible. It was mandated for people age 5 and older. And there were exemptions for people with medical conditions, hearing impaired, law enforcement, people getting treatment involving the face (ear, nose, throat specialists, dentists, etc.,) and some others. But the goal was to make the mask mandate Countywide – and they did that.
At the end of May, Pima County had about 2,000 cases of COVID. Here’s the map for the end of June. It reflects the impact of the premature reopening Ducey allowed – and the extremely contagious nature of the coronavirus. We tripled our case load in the month of June.
July
And they doubled again in July.
And the UA continued their plans to open campus in August. It became very clear that their motivating factor was student tuition and fees first, and the public health impacts on the surrounding community were a distant second.
The Governor finally recognized what was happening and took some added action in July. This letter I sent out the first week of July outlines what actions he took. Based on the numbers, it’s clear he had waited too long.
Then, a week later he eased off yet again. Another Executive Order called for restaurants to allow indoor seating, but at 50% capacity, as long as they could maintain 6’ space between tables. He made no changes restricting any of the activities listed as Moderate or High Risk. In essence, the COVID increases had a negligible impact on Ducey’s response. Meanwhile, according to Johns Hopkins Arizona was #1 in the world for new cases.
The County put a company under contract to expand contact tracing, and TPD was working areas around the UA campus to try to shut down off-campus parties. The UA continued to take the position that they had no authority to mandate testing unless a student lived in an on-campus dorm. That was later to be proven false. Many believe my advocacy in support of mandating testing cost me my job.
COVID’s impact extended over into the case involving Genna’s killing. Since no in-person trials were being conducted, the hearing was pushed back to March of ’21. For over 8 years the family has watched the justice system fail them. Now COVID is aiding and abetting that process.
And a very local impact was the UA warning people who walk Tumamoc Hill that unless they started following the masking and distancing guidelines, the hill would be closed to visitors. Multiple media releases, signage, this newsletter and I’m sure peer pressure ended up in the Hill remaining open. But the issue highlighted the difficulty of managing isolation, and the need to get out, socialize and get some exercise. It has truly been an exhausting experience for all of us.
August
In August the UA campaign to justify reopening ramped up. President Robbins and Ducey both cited positive trends in COVID. This is the graph showing the County-by-County numbers that existed at the end of August.
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In Pima County we added another 6,000 new cases in the month of August. Every county in the state was increasing. Those were the positive trends the UA cited. True to their word, classes resumed on August 24th. Students began arriving back into Tucson the week prior to that.
Both mask wearing and testing were the emerging hot topics in August. In the August 10th newsletter I shared this photo:
It shows droplets that ended up in a petri dish – the dishes on the left were from a person wearing a mask, and the ones on the right the same person is unmasked. The top dishes are from a sneeze 2’ away, and the ones on the bottom are from a cough from 2’ away. Even today we see people who argue masks are not effective in stopping the spread. It was also in August the Sturgis, South Dakota biker rally took place.
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And like clockwork, South Dakota became a national hot spot weeks after the event.
It was also in August that I first reached out to the student housing towers next to campus and asked if they’d help get the word out we were offering free COVID testing. Our friends at the Islamic Center let us use their parking lot, and for a couple of nights I joined forces with Rescue Me Wellness and we gave free tests to any student who wanted one. The results were predictable; over 35% positive in some of the high rises. The UA sent some guy over to observe the testing operation. He wasn’t there to learn; he was there to criticize. Remember, this was off-campus and at that point the UA hadn’t concocted the constitutionality objection, so they were just throwing stones at how we did the testing. The mole reported back with 3 critiques. Here’s how I addressed them in the newsletter:
I was then, and I continue to be amazed that the UA would rather fight over mandatory testing than reach out and work together.
COVID was showing its impact on the piece of our budget that relies on tourism. Hotel occupancy had dropped to an average of 44%, and the daily rates were substantially less than they were charging the year earlier. One positive that happened in August was the reopening of Reid Park Zoo. Even though they had to limit the number of visitors, and many of the public spaces had to remain closed, the animals were there and many of you took the opportunity for some outdoor enjoyment. The zoo remains open. You can find their hours and sign up for tickets at www.reidparkzoo.org.
September
In September, the County joined me in expanding their testing of the off-campus student housing. They’re the regional public health authority so it was nice to have that validation. The UA continued pushing back, at first saying they had no access to the off-campus housing. I gained access with a phone call. So did Pima County. All you’ve gotta do is try.
In the September 14th newsletter I shared this graphic. It demonstrates community spread, and given that we have multiple high rises, each containing hundreds of students, the idea of leaving them untested because it’s inconvenient is irresponsible.
Here’s the County-by-County count for the end of September. These numbers reflect the false claim the UA team was making with respect to a positive trend. No college town in the country sustained a positive COVID trend once students returned to their area.
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Pima County gained another 4,000 cases in September, and the UA was an identified hot spot. This is a graphic from the County COVID dashboard showing what they were finding around campus:
While the wrangling was going on about the UA allowing over 30,000 students to attend class without having to be tested, both the City and the County were distributing millions of Coronavirus Relief dollars out into the community. We received over $95M. It went to City operations, but also to businesses, non-profits, families, childcare facilities, the arts, and yes...to testing. The UA could have joined my effort to mandate testing and it would not have cost them a penny. Their insistence that mandating testing would be a ‘bad look’ for recruiting out-of-State students is specious; superficially plausible, but wrong.
October
Classes resumed and throughout October the COVID numbers escalated. Here’s the month ending map.
It was in October that we joined some Sam Hughes folks in hosting the Week of Mourning over on Hippie Hill in Himmel Park. We kicked it off on a Sunday evening with some music and reflection. At the time we had 622 flags posted, one for each of the loved ones lost in Pima County due to COVID. Now that number is 983. Since the middle of October we’ve lost another 361 loved ones in Pima County due to COVID.
Normal City business continued of course. The TEP issue ramped up. I was supported by Paul Cunningham in a study session calling out the utility for not including true anticipated costs for undergrounding. That conversation is still unresolved. And I also asked for a study session item on the small cell pole issue. We’re making modest progress with a couple of the providers, but the ultimate resolution will have to come from the State legislature. And our Slow Streets program continued. It’s a hit with Feldman’s and will be in any neighborhood that has the opportunity to get involved during ‘21.
The UA/UAPD campus COVID team continued busting up large gatherings. This graphic was shared during one of the weekly Robbins press briefings. It shows the parties that were discovered and broken up. The UA President continued to ‘beg’ students to comply with the need for limiting gatherings, masking and distancing.
Still no mandatory testing which would allow us to contact trace and contain the virus. As a result, I brought a Resolution to the M&C and asked for their support in sending to the UA a non-binding message that we wanted them to mandate COVID testing for all students taking classes. Here’s the Resolution:
In the week run-up to the vote, the UA President and some of his government outreach people made the rounds to M&C. Robbins never contacted me, but he did make personal contacts to several others on the M&C. They were advocating against the Resolution, and even during our M&C meeting, ahead of the vote they took the position that it was both ‘pandering’ to you, and ‘unconstitutional.’ They made the claims with a straight face. And neither is true. The vote went 5-1 against the Resolution. I wrote an op/ed for the Star defending it, and the week after it ran the UA ‘eliminated’ my job. Many people believe that was retaliatory. The UA was concerned with the optics of the Resolution. I’d suggest the optics of the timing of their actions is more problematic.
October was Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I shared updates throughout the month from Emerge. And I reminded people at the end of the month that COVID was placing victims in close quarters with their abusers. If you know of someone who is in a compromised living situation, please share the Emerge 24 hour DV hotline with them; 795.4266.
November
Early in November I shared a graphic comparing the symptoms of the flu with those common to COVID. Since we’re right in the middle of both virus outbreaks, I’ll reshare it here. Please remember, these are generally recognized symptoms. We know from the experience of people in the W6 office that other symptoms can come, and they can linger with COVID.
You can get free flu shots all over town. They won’t prevent COVID, but docs say they may make the symptoms less severe and possibly less long-lasting if you get one.
On the same day I was advised my job at the UA was being eliminated, Robbins was on his weekly briefing announcing the UA would be conducting some form of mandatory testing that would include students who lived off campus. It’s nice they figured out the claims that it was unconstitutional were clearly false. As I noted in the November 2nd newsletter, ASU has been making COVID testing mandatory for any student who wanted to use campus assets – without any constitutional challenges. Those assets amount to coming onto campus. They do random testing and anyone who doesn’t submit results gets paid a visit from the Dean of Students. And if they ignore the mandatory daily health check, ASU turns off their campus accounts. Shortly after I made that public, the UA decided it should follow ASU’s lead.
As we headed towards Thanksgiving, it became even more of a heated battle to get the UA to mandate testing, at least prior to students returning to campus in January. In the week prior to the fall break, this graphic made it clear the UA had become the hot spot many of us had predicted that it would.
The 85719 zip code is the area immediately surrounding campus. And the 2.22 infectivity rate meant every COVID positive person was infecting more than 2 others. The message from campus leadership was to ‘please test’ before leaving, and that they were looking into ways to mandate testing for students taking in-person classes in January. That plan left tens of thousands of other students out in the community, untested and possibly infecting other people around them.
Here’s the end-of-November County-by-County COVID map:
That 12,000 gain in Pima County in just the month of November was by far the largest we had experienced – until December. I’m grateful to the residents and neighborhood associations who wrote Robbins and Dave Heeke (UA athletics director – for the many who are unfamiliar with him) letters pointing out the connection between my advocacy and their actions.
Other work of the City continued. I began forming a PFAS study group that will meet with Tucson Water and others early in ‘21. The TEP power pole, RTA Next, recycling glass, and the small cell tower issues continue. We made a significant refinancing of our public safety pension debt that will save future M&Cs tens of millions of dollars. This graphic shows how the debt service would have tanked our General Fund if we hadn’t acted. Debt service for just the public safety pension was headed for $214M annually. Our entire General Fund is around $490M. Our City Manager and CFO’s office showed leadership in bringing this opportunity to us. This was the most significant budget action we’ve taken since I started doing this in 2009, and it got zero local media coverage.
And the major rezoning project being planned for 6th and Campbell got its first formal public airing. The plan is for a student housing complex at roughly 140’ in height, a 70’ hotel, and some retail, all sharing the SW corner of that intersection. It’s immediately adjacent to Rincon Heights and Sam Hughes neighborhoods. During the neighborhood presentation, the developer made it clear that he will need outside financing, that student housing and the massing he’s proposing are necessary for him to make the project work, and that he has been in touch with both the UA and the athletics department ‘leadership’ about his plan. When questioned, the UA community relations person said ‘no current contacts’ are happening. That’s deceptively dodging the intent of the question. It piles on the many other recent acts by the UA that are not good for building trust in the community.
My Local Tucson items all year have been showing some great ways the community is being served by local entrepreneurs. In November, I introduced you to Crusin’ and Campfires – the local website that shares tips on activities for toddlers during road trips. With COVID a part of our lives for the foreseeable future, it’s a site you might want to get familiar with. You can find it at www.crusinandcampfires.com.
December
As December started, COVID numbers resulting from the Thanksgiving holiday were surging. All month our hospital workers were overworked, in life threatening working conditions. Patient care for non-COVID elective procedures were delayed. Bed capacity was thin. In the first week of the month, we adopted a mandatory 10pm curfew. Some bar owners objected, but the entire health care industry was not only supportive, they wanted the State to go even farther. This graphic shows what led us to the curfew:
Pima County issued a health advisory for the region. The response to the surge was unified between the City and County leaders. The UA administration however has now begun to reconsider even the limited mandatory testing they had announced for the re-entry of their students. Unless the over-riding concern is simply retaining student tuition dollars and not the health of the community at-large, it’s a head-scratching direction to take.
In the December 14th newsletter I included a section on “Guns and COVID”. I started the year working with Mom’s Demand Action. I ended the year sharing data they’ve compiled. This year there were 43% more background checks than during 2019, but they estimate 600,000 of them took longer than the 3 day grace period allowed by the Feds. That means at least 600,000 people bought guns this past year without any idea of their criminal or psychological background. COVID is having collateral impacts well beyond the disease.
Also, in December I shared what the Chronicle of Higher Education listed as the 5 biggest COVID lessons we’ve learned. None should come as a surprise. They include schools having spent millions to make classrooms clean, and it seems to have worked within the classrooms; large social gatherings off-campus are significant causes of community spread; residence halls are a big problem – especially those off-campus towers the UA has thus far resisted mandating testing for student/tenants; entry and repeat testing is critical for controlling outbreaks; and college student outbreaks can lead to outbreaks and fatalities of vulnerable people out in the community.
Just before Christmas week, I put out this Release. It relates the huge infection surge, the impact on hospital capacity, the sure prediction that the infections will only increase after Christmas, New Year’s and student returns – and it calls on the UA to delay the start of in-person classes until science indicates inviting nearly 40,000 students back into Tucson from out-of-State is a responsible decision, from a public health perspective:
There has been no response from the UA. I will be following up.
The year 2020 has been one for the record books. It has been all-things-COVID, which back in January was something the vast majority of us had never even heard of. Now it consumes our lives. I’ve sprinkled into this look-back examples of important issues we’ve continued to tackle: the pension refinancing, TEP power poles, small cell poles, PFAS, the progress in reusing crushed glass, the 6th/Campbell rezoning, RTA Next, and the looming eviction challenges. It was nice to end the year writing about the coming vaccines, and how they’re finally making their way to local health care providers. Our year ending County-by-County Statewide map looks like this:
When I first showed this map back in March, Pima County had 42 COVID cases. A month ago it was 39,000. By the time you read this, we’ll be over 66,000. And we’re pushing towards 1,000 fatalities.
And the Harvard Global Health Institute has virtually the entire Country in the High Risk category. All of Arizona is at High Risk.
Many of us can share personal stories of COVID impacts. A friend of mine died from COVID. A niece is still working through health impacts from her bout with COVID. A husband and wife couple I know are both troublingly symptomatic and are living together in a local retirement condo community. Both are in their ‘80’s. Another friend spent Christmas in a local ICU due to COVID. A cousin-in-law is working through a COVID/pneumonia combination while her husband has had fevers of over 100 for 7 straight weeks. Two households of my staff have been, and still are suffering the impacts of COVID infections. My advocacy for certain public health measures may have cost me the job at the UA I had held for 32 years. Friends are out of work, out of rent money, and are watching the Feds mangle another round of financial assistance. 2021 needs to be better.
Being given the opportunity to sit in the Parks globe and wave at the excited little kids (and parents) reminded me there are still some magical moments we need to grab onto. There will be more in the coming year. Please keep an eye out for them when they come your way. There’s a song I do called “I hope you dance”. One line is ‘when you get the chance to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.’ Stay engaged, and look for all the reasons to embrace the many good things we have in our lives. Even as we wave good-bye to 2020.
For the current Rt value (infection rate) to Rt.live.
For the NY Times data sets, use this link:
The State Department of Health site is at this link: www.azdhs.gov.
Sincerely,
Steve Kozachik Council Member, Ward 6 ward6@tucsonaz.gov
City of Tucson Resources
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