[donkey687]

But I disagree strongly with your charge that Santa Clara County's health officer believes "she knows better than everyone else and she will impose her will indiscriminately." I know her very well and can say without qualification that she absolutely does not believe she knows better than everyone else. Much the opposite: she is extremely humble and has more humility than most people I know. That does not come across in her official pronouncements for obvious reasons (hard to get people to do things they don't want to do by starting off saying, well, I could very well be wrong about this, but on the off chance that I'm right, hopefully at least in part, I want you all to obey the following rules . . .) She simply is in a position where she must make decisions, based on her training, experience, and judgment--the first two of which are incontrovertibly excellent. It is fair game and easy for us to criticize her decisions, but to portray her as using the opportunity to indiscriminately impose her will on everyone under her control is, in my view, completely wrong. It is fine to believe she is overly conservative in her decisions, and you have plenty of company, but if so that would be because of an honest difference in judgment, not some egotistical personality disorder. I understand your frustration, but disagree with your causal analysis.

This thread should probably get moved to the COVID board and I am risking throwing fuel onto the fire, but I do have to disagree with your statement that she doesn't feel that she knows better than everyone else. While I don't question her intentions and that she feels that she is doing the right thing, she is making a decision that is different than everyone else. Thus, she must feel that she knows better. There are thousands of counties in this country and SCC appears to be the biggest outlier with the tightest restrictions especially for a county with good numbers.  All these thousands of counties should have access to similar information and when one of them makes a different decision, they think they know better than everyone else.

[donkey687]

But I disagree strongly with your charge that Santa Clara County's health officer believes "she knows better than everyone else and she will impose her will indiscriminately." I know her very well and can say without qualification that she absolutely does not believe she knows better than everyone else. Much the opposite: she is extremely humble and has more humility than most people I know. That does not come across in her official pronouncements for obvious reasons (hard to get people to do things they don't want to do by starting off saying, well, I could very well be wrong about this, but on the off chance that I'm right, hopefully at least in part, I want you all to obey the following rules . . .) She simply is in a position where she must make decisions, based on her training, experience, and judgment--the first two of which are incontrovertibly excellent. It is fair game and easy for us to criticize her decisions, but to portray her as using the opportunity to indiscriminately impose her will on everyone under her control is, in my view, completely wrong. It is fine to believe she is overly conservative in her decisions, and you have plenty of company, but if so that would be because of an honest difference in judgment, not some egotistical personality disorder. I understand your frustration, but disagree with your causal analysis.

This thread should probably get moved to the COVID board and I am risking throwing fuel onto the fire, but I do have to disagree with your statement that she doesn't feel that she knows better than everyone else. While I don't question her intentions and that she feels that she is doing the right thing, she is making a decision that is different than everyone else. Thus, she must feel that she knows better. There are thousands of counties in this country and SCC appears to be the biggest outlier with the tightest restrictions especially for a county with good numbers.  All these thousands of counties should have access to similar information and when one of them makes a different decision, they think they know better than everyone else.