Halloween Costume Contest
I’ll open with some fun stuff. Thank you to all of you who submitted your Halloween costume contest entries. I’m probably in trouble with our friends at the zoo because we made an executive decision to give more than 3 people and 1 pet prize. We’ll negotiate something with Nancy and her team, but here are this year’s winners:
First, the critters (you knew I’d go there...)
This is Zeus. I’m certain his family didn’t have any trouble getting him to hold still while they gently slipped his ‘arms’ into the costume.
Here’s Sturgill in the middle. We’ll use this as the transition into the ‘people’ section. Flanking the pup are Blaise and Corbin. We’ll judge this one as only having one critter. Yogi will count as ‘people'. As for Sturgill, may be easier to get on, but I suspect he didn’t have much trouble ‘easing’ himself out of the get-up.
And the kiddos (and mom):
We’ll start with ‘mom’ - this is Jordyn and Jace. It looks like Jordyn is getting the leftover Almond Joy’s on Halloween. I don’t see any teeth in the little guy’s smile quite yet.
Here’s Will. A kid after my heart (no shoes)
Finally, a threesome of Gnomes. Charlie, Ben and Bud – another family who agrees with me that shoes are optional equipment. Or maybe Gnomes just don’t wear them?
Laim and Noah appear ready for battle – unless they get ‘treated’
Closing out with Jamie and Lilly. Good for Jamie for carrying a flashlight. I hope all of your treaters had a safe and fun evening on Sunday.
Thank you all for playing along. We’ll be in touch with the zoo passes as soon as my staff and I work off the extra ‘credit’ they’re now extending. There might be some cage cleaning in our near future.
Election
While the kids and pups have your attention, there’s an election tomorrow. You cannot mail in your ballot today. This chart shows where you can go to cast your vote. The sad reality is that roughly 30% of the electorate is going to choose council seats for Wards 3, 5, and 6. That means your vote will have a relatively larger effect than in an election where more people take part. Look at this newsletter – we handle some critically important issues in these jobs. Please do your homework on the candidates and go vote on Tuesday.
 PFAS
Tucson Water does regular testing of our water wells to be sure we’re on top of where the PFAS contaminants are appearing. The federal health advisory for PFAS is 70 parts per trillion (ppt.) If Tucson Water finds concentrations at 18ppt, the well is shut down. We’ve got over 20 of them shut down right now. That recently happened at a well that serves the Silverbell West neighborhood – this map shows the general location.
 The well is out west of I-10, about a mile from the Santa Cruz riverbed. Tucson Water has had 2 wells serving roughly 90 customers out there. One had already been removed from service due to PFAS. Now both are. Beginning last week, when the detect was found, Tucson Water began hauling water in to blend with the existing well water, taking the system down below the 18ppt operating target. It’s a short-term solution that will ensure the cleanliness of the water while Tucson Water works out a longer-term fix. The source of this contamination has not been determined.
There’s another area of concern to me that’s out on the west side – actually the northwest part of the area, up by Marana. Marana is a party in our 3M lawsuit. They likely joined due to the PFAS that was being found in the wastewater treatment plant out in their neck of the woods. What’s also out there is the Pinal County Air Park. I’ve got it circled in red on this aerial view:
 We know from testing that there are PFAS levels in the Santa Cruz riverbed at around 85ppt back around downtown Tucson. It’s not anything we’re serving. We also know those levels get higher as we get closer to Marana. What’s significant about the Pinal County Air Park is that they did DOD and CIA operations from the facility years ago. The DOD specifies the fire fighting foam AFFF for use at their operations. AFFF is the main PFAS contributor out by DM and over at the Air Guard facility by Tucson International Airport.
In the photo I have above, you can see lots if agricultural and irrigation district areas surrounding Pinal Air Park. They’re private property, so Tucson Water doesn’t go in and do any PFAS testing for them. I’m sure we’d help if asked, though. I’ve written about the cattle farmer in New Mexico who had to dump millions of gallons of milk his cows had provided because of PFAS contamination in the feed he was giving them. That was due to DOD operations in his area. The Pinal County agricultural industry should be on their game when it comes to monitoring PFAS in their irrigation systems.
I point all of this out to keep us all on the alert and to signal once again to our federal delegation that Tucson and this region generally needs the DOD to step up their game when it comes to testing, treating, replacing our lost well capacity, and paying for those remediation efforts. While my main focus is on the 2 Tucson-area plumes, they’re not alone in the region. This is a big deal, and as we continue our talks with other basin states about dropping water levels on the Colorado, we must keep in mind that those conversations and the condition of the Colorado and Lake Mead impact the timing of our need to serve the groundwater that we’re right now finding these PFAS contaminants in.
More to come, I’m sure. For now, though, high marks to our Tucson Water team for staying ahead of problems in our own area.
Afghan Donations
I’m pleased to announce some new partnerships my office has established in the past week, each related to getting donations to our incoming Afghan refugee families. First, though, I thought it’d be good for you to see some of the people you’re helping with these donations. They’re families. They’re here. And they’re grateful.
The woman in the white scarf is Lynn. I’ve known her since our work began in support of the Islamic Center of Tucson (ICT) when they were having bottles, and other items dropped into their playground and parking lot from the student housing towers. She came by last week and picked up hygiene products and food. This is Lynn out distributing some of that to refugee families.
More broadly, the new partnership is with the Muslim Community Center of Tucson (MCCT). This is a shot of their facility out on the NW side of Tucson.
 MCCT is much more spacious than the ICT. And they have a staff that jumped at the opportunity to partner in the distribution of donations. Many of their own internal community members are from the Afghanistan/Pakistan region, so the outreach to this group is already established at MCCT. Last week some of their members came by, and we filled a van full of bedding, towels, and similar donations. They’ll now be back on a weekly basis, collecting donations and using the MCCT as the distribution center. I’m very glad to have this relationship in place. You all are great in bringing your donations to Ward 6. Now I’m comfortable with the back end of the giving cycle.
Lynn and her team will also be by weekly collecting the hygiene products and food. Between her group and the MCCT team that’s being led by new friend Maqsood, we’re well-positioned to get all the items you’re bringing by into the intended hands.
The Habitat for Humanity relationship continues in place. That’s for the furniture you’ve got that you can’t cart down to the Ward 6 office. Their donation hotline is 230.5323. Habitat will come to your home and pick up the furniture you’ve got, sell it at the HabiStore, and dedicate half of those sales to an Afghan refugee fund. Kaimas Foundation changed their ‘matching grant’ to a straight out $5,000 donation into that fund to get it kick-started. When Afghan families go into HabiStore to buy household goods, that fund is now in place to assist in those purchases.
This quick note of empathy for the guy who brought his mom’s furniture by last week. They had to move her into assisted living. It’s such a difficult decision, and in the midst of it, he thought of these refugees.
Please do not take anything but furniture to Habitat. Bring all other kinds of donations here to the Ward 6 office, 9-noon, Monday through Friday. Habitat cannot use anything but the furniture. We’re having to cart all the other things over here anyway, so please save us that trip by coming here. We’re at 3202 E. 1st.
Also, last Thursday night, I joined 21 others on a Zoom call that had as its goal to organize the relief efforts among the local Mulsim community. Ann from my staff joined, along with representatives from the International Rescue Committee. The rest were members of the Phoenix and Tucson Muslim community, joined under the umbrella of the Arizona Muslim Alliance.
After the IRC, Ann and I gave the group a description of what’s already happening ‘on the ground’ in Tucson, we dropped off the call to allow them to work among themselves, divide up work tasks and put support plans into place. I appreciate the AMA’s involvement. And with it, I’m confident the families coming to Tucson from Afghanistan will be well cared for. And with your donations, they’ll have many of their creature comfort needs taken care of.
Thank you for all you’re doing in support of these families. A special note of thanks here for the significant financial donations committed by El Rio, St. Marks, Kaimas, and by the MCCT. We at the Ward 6 office are grateful for the community spirit that emerges every time a need such as this pops onto our radar screen. And we’re grateful for the expanded partnership we now have with MCCT, Lynn and her team.
Vaccine Update
The city manager is meeting pretty much daily with all of the city department heads, working out approaches to assure service delivery isn’t compromised by the workers who choose to remain unvaccinated and voluntarily terminate on December 1st. The timeline in place is different depending on the kind of vaccine used.
Moderna: First dose must be received by Nov. 3, 2021
Pfizer: First dose must be received by Nov. 10, 2021
Johnson & Johnson: This is a single-dose vaccine and must be received by Dec. 1, 2021.
Both of the doses in the two-dose vaccines must be received by December 1st, or the termination process begins.
I’ve shared this chart before. It shows which departments are impacted and to what extent. What’s not shown in those numbers are the 85% of city workers who are doing what tens of millions of others in the U.S. have done; get a vaccination and help prevent the spread of COVID. You haven’t seen any of them interviewed, but I hear from them daily, grateful that the M&C have taken action to assure them a safe work environment and to assure the safe public interactions with every city worker they come into contact with.
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 KOLD ran a good story last week that highlighted how its first responders who are most likely to get COVID. Here’s a link to Megan McNeil’s story. It’s a key part of our decision because it’s first responders who are most directly in contact with the public on a daily basis.
https://www.kold.com/2021/10/28/police-fire-other-first-responders-twice-likely-get-covid-19-study-says/?fbclid=IwAR2oEOywbO2Y1_b_EiKZwqLo3-fEiwhCA8AOLq3uz-ADGrn2nTnqcJsfYuM
The CDC ran a series of reports last week identifying ‘vaccine skepticism’ as the most likely cause of COVID case increases. Several of the current hot spots are in cold northern parts of the country, where people may be taking their activities indoors. But the biggest problem areas are in Alaska and the Mountain West, where we’re seeing low vaccination rates. Idaho, for example, is one of the least vaccinated states in the country. Other Western states are only slightly better. That’s where we’re seeing the correlation between case increases and vax rates. For example, here’s the vaccination rate for Idaho County, Idaho:
Here’s the COVID case count:
As a state, Idaho is 43% vaccinated.
Compare that to our rates.
We’re at 36 cases per 100,000 population. Idaho County is at 49. What neither region is experiencing is a flood of people into hospitals who are having adverse reactions to vaccinations. Not from the COVID vaccination, and not from any of these:
 One thing the data is showing is that the positive effects of the vaccines wanes after about 6 months. Boosters are common with all vaccines. It’s now time for those who were vaccinated early in the year to consider a booster. This chart shows how it’s in the Western states that the COVID trend may be tipping back up again:
 The vaccines are working. After a time, they need a boost. But if you looked at this kind of data for any disease other than COVID, the take-away we’d be talking about is the vast difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated people. That’s what’s being lost with any no-vax, my body/my liberty person.
Here are some charts comparing how the case rates have compared this year for vaccinated and unvaccinated people. They’re broken down by age group.
 Deaths by vaccination status tells the same story. You’re 12x more likely to die from COVID if you’re unvaccinated.
 The message to city employees is clear. Thank you to the 85% who looked at the data and protected yourself, your co-workers, your family, and the public.
But scroll back up to my graphic showing Pima County’s case rates vs. Idaho County. Yes, we’re better than them at 36 cases per 100,000 population. But last week, I had this graphic in the newsletter:
We’re now at 36 cases per 100,000 and averaging 374 cases over the past 14 days. We’re headed in the wrong direction. Remember what I just shared about vaccine efficacy waning. Please consider your booster. And consider your flu booster as well.
Here’s the national map showing the risk levels
 Key in on Arizona – this is what I had for us in last week’s newsletter. We took a big step backward.
No cost/no appointment needed. Pima County health is doing its part to help bring this to closure.
 And this is their list of standing points of vaccine distribution. I know some of the pharmacies are requiring appointments for both COVID and flu vaccinations, so you should call ahead to be sure.
 Go to the Pima County Health site if you want to find the list of pharmacies that’ll give you a dose or if you’re a veteran looking to be vaccinated. Use this link - www.pima.gov/covid19vaccine.
More COVID Data
Nationally there has been a 16% drop in COVID over the past 14 days. We were lagging the national rate of decrease for the past couple of weeks, but in the immediate past week, we shifted to an increase.
 Our neighbors aren’t faring any better. The 14-day trend is up 31% in New Mexico, up 25% in California, and up 23% in both Utah and Colorado.
The ‘35 cases per 100,000’ is a bit lower than what the NY Times reported that I shared above. Both are headed in the wrong direction. And those of you who follow this newsletter know that I’ve been tracking our Pima County counts since the last week of July. The week of July 26th, we had 827 new cases. The last week in August, we had 2,025 new cases. In the last week of September, we had 1,877 new cases. Here’s what October has looked like in Pima County. The past 2 weeks are the highest new case count 14 day period we’ve had in months. We’re trending in the wrong direction again.
Week of 10/4 - 1,964 new cases
Week of 10/11 - 1,521 new cases
Week of 10/18 - 2,233 new cases
Week of 10/25 - 2,746 new cases
And reminding you, during the first week in June, we had 130 new cases.
The UA says on their site that they update the data daily. The most recent update they indicate as of Sunday is October 30th. The Rt – spread rate – data hasn’t been updated since October 5th. So there’s nothing much to gain from that dated information.
You can find the most current data at this site: https://covid19.arizona.edu/dashboard.
Accessory Dwelling Units
When we voted on the ADUs, I expected support for smaller sizes from the rest of the M&C. Ward 6, and the area immediately around campus is a very different animal than anyplace else in the city. We do not need 1,000 sq/ft structures to accommodate the goals we’ve all expressed. Out in Ward 5, for example, the new Cabana Bridges will have 468 sq/ft studios, 624 sq/ft 1 bedroom apartments, and 828 sq/ft 2 bedroom apartments. Each would fit within the proposed size limitations I expressed during our council meeting. The Cabana Bridges are being billed as ‘attainable’ housing to bridge the growing gap between people in the $40K to $60K range who are right now priced out of the housing market. The ‘missing middle’ that some like to point to. There is nothing ‘affordable’ about what the M&C just approved.
KOLD did a nice job of explaining my displeasure with the vote on ADUs last council meeting. As I said during the meeting, it had nothing to do with the concept. Had M&C agreed to decrease the size of what was being allowed, the vote would have been unanimous. Here’s Bud Foster’s piece making that point.
https://www.kold.com/2021/10/28/tiny-houses-may-be-too-big-some-tucson-neighborhoods/
On Friday, I spoke to a Daily Wildcat reporter about ADUs. Again I made the point that the areas surrounding the UA campus are different than any other area of the city. These charts show the percent of rentals in several of the neighborhoods around the UA. These data are from 2015. We know they’ve only skewed more towards rentals since then.
The city overall is right around 50% rentals. Around campus, it’s a much different story.
  This area of Tucson is impacted by the growth of the UA more so than any other. That’s why they’re north of 75% rentals. And it’s why allowing ADUs of up to 1,000 sq/ft will only be an invitation to real estate investors to buy up parcels and add what will become student housing. Since the council allowed 1,000 sq/ft ‘casitas’ last week, there have been two articles about housing investors buying up properties. These aren’t where an investor buys one or two at a time. In Tucson, they bought 50. In Phoenix, the headline was ‘Investors are shutting the door on first-time home buyers.’ Protecting those neighbors’ investment in their relatively small primary living units is achieved by decreasing the allowable size of the accessory units that will go on their lots. That’s the entirety of my interest in reconsidering the vote, but it’s a ‘must have’ for me on this item.
Reconsideration was pushed back to the 11/23 agenda for discussion. This whole conversation should not be this tough.
Strong Towns
A part of preserving the character of our neighborhoods is also providing an efficient and properly scaled transportation network. Expanding Broadway to 8 lanes and 150’ was not that. But we will hear some ideas consistent with scaled and appropriate development when Chuck Marohn comes to share thoughts on his book Confessions of a Recovering Engineer.
I’m grateful to Supervisor Matt Heinz and his staff for taking the lead on bringing this book tour to Tucson and for inviting me to co-promote it with him. Also involved in this event are Living Streets Alliance and the College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture. There will be two opportunities to hear Chuck’s talk.
Because of COVID, registration is being limited, so use this link here to register for either or both of the events. They’ll be held here on November 16th and 17th. The link also gives a brief description of Chuck and his focus. And if you can kick in some financial help to LSA for speaker fees, A/V support, and renting the venue, you can do so through this secure link. It’ll be earmarked for this event.
the link
RTA Next
I sat in (virtually) on the most recent PAG/RTA board meeting. Regina represents the city in those meetings. Rex Scott represents the county. Each tribe is represented by their chair, and the small towns that ring Tucson are represented by their respective mayors. Ted Maxwell is there to represent ADOT.
Since April, the city has been asking for a discussion of some form of change in how votes are ‘weighted’ on the board. They’ve now had 2 meetings in which that topic was openly discussed.
Right now, everyone gets an equal vote. Getting towns or tribes that represent tiny fractions of the regional population or tax base to give up that equal standing is meeting clear resistance. If I were representing, say Oro Valley, I’d likely be taking that position, too. Making the point that we’re all in this together, the Oro Valley mayor said to Regina ‘your roads are my roads.’ Well, no. They really aren’t. And suggesting Oro Valley should determine our projects and priorities at the same level of input that whoever the Tucson representative is doesn’t compute.
Ted Maxwell made the correct point: “If I were the city, I’d be concerned about the remaining projects, too.” Right – and that’s why we’re insisting on this conversation.
In a broad stroke description, the PAG board makes decisions about the regional transportation system and is the recipient of federal funds. The RTA board specifically manages the 20 year RTA ½ cent sales tax package.
The RTA board is made up of the same group that comprises the PAG board. And both bodies follow the same voting process; one jurisdiction, one vote. For the RTA, it will take a change in the state legislation to alter that voting pattern. And the governor will have to support a change at the PAG level. Neither of those is possible if the local board doesn’t come together and request the change. And if you follow this newsletter, you know that we’re juggling whether or not to support continuing our support of the Next RTA package or going it alone and funding our own local roadwork. Most would agree that sticking with some regional relationship would be best. But you know about the devil and details. That’s what this conversation is all about.
Rex Scott offered an idea intended to advance the conversation. Right now, everyone is dug in; one side (Tucson) saying there needs to be a change, and the rest saying, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ Some of us think it’s broke, but are willing to look for a middle ground. That’s what Rex was trying to achieve.
His idea was to leave the RTA voting as it is but to change the PAG voting structure. The change would more closely reflect the relative population base among the various cities, towns, and tribes that make up the PAG. Tucson would get 4 votes on each item, the county would get 3, and all of the other jurisdictions would get one each. The result would be if the city and county joined forces, they still would not win a majority vote, and if all of the other jurisdictions joined forces, they wouldn’t either. Nobody agreed. Both sides continued to entrench. Ted Maxwell said he’d come back at the next meeting with some more ideas. I’ve reached out to him and let him know I’ll be interested in seeing what he has to suggest. And I reached out to Rex and suggested perhaps adding 3 more Tucson representatives, and 2 more county representatives to his idea would be worth considering. That places the possibility of a split vote among those 4 and 3 people, an idea the smaller jurisdictions might find more appealing than just giving us the weight of 4 of their votes.
The city is facing nearly $185M of our projects being un, or underfunded by the time the current RTA plan expires in 2026. We can argue about why ours were pushed to the back of the package or why the funding is short, but that doesn’t fix the problem. As Ted said, he’d be concerned, too.
Inflation and the RTA
One of the indisputable reasons for the funding shortfall is inflation. The budgets were set in 2006. The RTA is now saying there should be no budget escalation to take inflation into effect, and so any increase over the original budget is the responsibility of the jurisdiction. And since most of the unfinished work is ours, we’d own the shortfall. The problem with their position is that it’s inconsistent with the RTA’s own internal policies.
Here’s a link to the original 2006 RTA administrative code. If you open it and scroll to Section 3-2, you’ll see in items 11 and 12 that inflation was indeed intended to be factored into project budgets over time. I’ve saved you the trouble – those sections are circled in red below.
https://rtamobility.com/wp-content/docs/2020/07/RTA-Administrative-Code.pdf
Section 3-2, items 11 and 12
Ok, so right now, some of the RTA ‘it ain’t broke’ crowd is chomping at the bit to tell me those policies were updated. And they’re correct. In January 2014, the RTA changed policies. But inflation is still a factor in considering budget creep. Here’s how they altered what I’ve got circled above. Note that they still recognize the reality of inflation, and they’re committed to ‘funding adjustments’ being reviewed every 3 years.
And from that same 2014 update, this section again clearly shows they planned to make jurisdictions whole for inflation.
We’ve submitted our project list to the RTA, and we’ve also submitted this more broad list of long-term priorities for the city. The $1.5B for road repair isn’t for Oro Valley roads, so no, ‘our roads are not his roads.’ And we have a short time frame to decide what to do with our relationship within the PAG and RTA. Our local road repair tax expires on June 30th of next year. We’ve called an election for next May to ask you to consider an extension. What goes on that ballot is going to be determined by how our talks with the RTA/PAG board go.
 I agree with the notion that staying in a regional collaboration is preferred. I’m looking forward to continuing my conversation with Rex, and in seeing what, Ted Maxwell is going to suggest.
Ready, Set, Rec Van
The Ready, Set, Rec van schedule is out for November. This is the van that comes to parks throughout the city and offers hands on recreational activities. It’s for ‘children’ of all ages – including those who are kids at heart. There are also craft projects included. Below is the schedule for the Ward 6 van. I’m grateful to the Parks staff who manages the program. It’s an asset to the community, especially as we slowly dig our way out from the COVID restrictions.
 Becton, Dickinson Air Quality Permit
Becton, Dickinson, and Company (BD) is applying for an Air Permit in advance of opening a new product sterilization facility out on 7345 E. Valencia. It’s out by the DM Air Force base. The operation will sterilize medical and surgical equipment. The facility will operate 3 boilers and will have emergency generators on-site to assure continuous operation. And they’ll be emitting a pollutant called Ethylene Oxide (EO.)
The Pima County Department of Environmental Quality is hosting a virtual public hearing to determine whether or not to issue an Air Quality permit for the operation. Use this link to register and sign into the event. It begins at 5 pm on Wednesday of this week.
There is also a 90 day public comment period. We’re in the middle of it right now. It’ll end on December 17th, and following that, PDEQ will decide on whether or not to issue the permit.
https://pimacounty.webex.com/mw3300/mywebex/default.do?nomenu=true&siteurl=pimacounty&service=6&rnd=0.8493145886280349&main_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpimacounty.webex.com%2Fec3300%2Feventcenter%2Fevent%2FeventAction.do%3FtheAction%3Ddetail%26%26%26EMK%3D4832534b00000005565261fbcda1f72f55a3ba700c7ed341073397cbf94eb9f88f8e781408d796dc%26siteurl%3Dpimacounty%26confViewID%3D208715893719449094%26encryptTicket%3DSDJTSwAAAAVFW66xo0ENxCkyaWxl0UlKfCk8e2gSQi8Fhu8-TbOlMw2%26
This is what OSHA has to say about EO:
Ethylene oxide (EtO) is produced in large volumes and is primarily used as an intermediate in the production of several industrial chemicals, the most notable of which is ethylene glycol. It is also used as a fumigant in certain agricultural products and as a sterilant for medical equipment and supplies. Unfortunately, EtO possesses several physical and health hazards that merit special attention. EtO is both flammable and highly reactive. Acute exposures to EtO gas may result in respiratory irritation and lung injury, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, shortness of breath, and cyanosis. Chronic exposure has been associated with the occurrence of cancer, reproductive effects, mutagenic changes, neurotoxicity, and sensitization.
We certainly need the economic boost this plant would bring, and yet with PFAS, we also certainly have plenty of pollution-related activity out by the base that we’re already trying to abate. Please do your homework on EO, then tune into the public hearing to see what protective measures BD is planning on installing at the plant. Then let PDEQ know your thoughts.
Harvard Global Health Institute
Last week I used this spot in the newsletter to introduce the new Delta Plus variant. At the time, the medical experts speculated that it constituted about 6% of the COVID cases in the U.K. This week the estimate is that it accounts for about 10% of the new cases.
The new strain appears to be more transmissible than Delta. It is still unclear as to whether Delta Plus results in a more severe case of COVID than Delta. Right now its appearance is not changing any of the CDC recommendations related to COVID. While it’s present in the U.S., it accounts for a tiny percentage of our COVID cases. That’s currently guess work because in the U.S. we don’t have as vigilant a sequencing system as they do in the U.K, so it may be flying under our radar. One thing medical experts agree on is that subsequent strains will descend from Delta.
The Harvard risk map looks worse for Arizona this week as compared to last week. Here’s what I had in the previous newsletter.
And here’s what they have posted for this week’s national risk assessment. Arizona is now back to being fully in the red risk level. You can scroll back and forth, but generally the picture is pretty much what we’ve come to expect; COVID is alive and well throughout the country.
 Last week Harvard had our cases per 100,000 at 25.3, with a 7 day moving average of 265 new cases per day. This week, consistent with the NY Times data I shared above, those numbers have gotten worse in Pima County. And pretty significantly worse.
 It has certainly been a roller coaster since April 2020. Sadly, we seem to be on the uphill in Pima County again.
You can check what’s going on in your home county by hovering your cursor over it on the Harvard map. Use this link to access it:
https://globalepidemics.org/key-metrics-for-covid-suppression/
COVID has killed over 21,000 Arizonans, and statewide we’ve had over 1.1 million cases.
COVID kills 19x more people than the flu. Please get your flu vaccination, get your COVID vaccination and booster, wear a mask when in confined areas, and watch out for the misinformation that’s being spread.
In the March 2020 newsletter, this is the COVID map I shared.
Here’s this week’s statewide COVID map. We now have a vaccine. If you’re one of the vast majority of city workers who understand the severity of these data and have gotten your vaccine, thank you. If you’re in the minority who would rather fight the data and science, that’s an employment decision you’re making on your own.
Sincerely,
Steve Kozachik
Council Member, Ward 6
ward6@tucsonaz.gov
City of Tucson Resources
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