Yesterday, a resident messaged me with a lengthy concern about my COVID-19 spread risk chart, stating that I was just adding to community anxiety and that I should stop. I’ve been posting it sporadically for nearly two years now and to continue to do so weekly until the Black Hawk County Public Health Department moves the county out of the “High Risk of Community Transmission”. This will require a sum of daily new cases per 100K pop to be less than 100.0, and 14-day positivity to be less than 10%. I’ll then continue to post it infrequently as we move through various milestones, or until COVID is no longer considered a public health emergency.
As a mayor, I am responsible for the protecting public health, safety, and welfare of Cedar Falls residents, and I take that responsibility very seriously. While I’ve not seen another public official post a similar chart elsewhere, I believe it’s in the public interest for me to spend ten minutes once a week to plug in the previous week’s data and post the chart when we’re at High Risk. I want to ensure the public has access to current trends -- particularly if a new covid variant emerges that’s more readily spread or more severe in its effects.
At this point, what residents do with that information is entirely up to you. I interpret current state law as prohibiting cities from issuing mask requirements (because the state legislature has reserved those kinds of decisions to itself). The vast majority of residents appear to no longer be wearing masks or maintaining physical distance from others -- and again, that’s entirely your decision.
The City of Cedar Falls still uses the COVID risk level to determine mask-wearing by city staff in our workspaces, and also to decide whether the public can participate in city meetings via Zoom rather than in-person (the council decreed that by resolution a while back). So the city still needs to monitor the Covid risk chart, regardless of whether or not the public is doing so.
About the comment that posting the COVID risk chart increases people’s anxiety and makes them afraid...while I can’t control how people respond to anything I post, I do wish to note that I’ve heard from many residents directly that they appreciate my posting the chart. Understanding provides a sense of agency and empowerment. If I can give residents a better understanding of our current situation, I’ve done my job. I try not to offer opinions or explanations, because I’m not a medical professional -- I’m a data science guy. The chart helps me as an elected official to better appreciate what’s happening in our county, and it appears to help others, too. That, for me, is enough reason to keep updating the chart.
I’m also keenly aware that just because COVID only gave me cold-like symptoms three weeks ago, that’s not the case for everyone. When people say that COVID is not a problem, what they mean is that COVID is not a problem for them. But it’s a far different case for those who’ve been severely impacted by the virus, had long-term impacts (and the inevitable medical bills that follow) or who have lost loved ones to it. That said, for as long as the CDC and our other health professionals consider COVID worth closely monitoring (and worthy of a Public Health Emergency declaration), I will too as Mayor.
I don't expect everyone to agree with me on this, but I want to be transparent about my thought process here for continuing to post the COVID risk chart.
Thanks for reading to the end, and for doing the work to be an informed and engaged resident.