If You Don't Like the Policy, Wait Five Minutes

Tenderloin district, San Francisco, June 11, 2020 (Chron photo)

In April we noted how San Francisco, which had been trying to reduce homeless encampments for years, reversed course by distributing tents as a solution to the coronavirus.

What happened in April and May was predictable: [bold added]

With time, however, tents took over block-long stretches of the neighborhood, making it difficult for people to walk and at times serving as a cover for drug dealing. Residents said conditions on the streets were so bad that they were afraid to leave their apartments and felt like they were being held hostage.

After months of frustration, Tenderloin residents and businesses, together with UC Hastings College of the Law, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on May 5. The suit demanded the city clear out the “dangerously crowded” encampments, find housing for the homeless and stop the open-air drug dealing.

An out-of-court settlement was reached on June 12, with the city agreeing to remove 70% of the tents by July 20. The city also agreed to “discourage” new tents and their residents from settling in the Tenderloin.

San Francisco has made progress in clearing the tents.

San Francisco City Hall’s overdue efforts to clear the tents from the Tenderloin appear to be working, with more than 388 homeless people moved off the sidewalks and into hotels or safe sleeping camps since June 10.

The block-by-block cleanup and counseling effort has reduced the number of tents in the 49-block Tenderloin area to 172 as of Tuesday morning, compared with the 443 when the cleanup began last month.

The cost of housing, feeding, and providing medical care to the homeless is about $200 per person per day.

Tents-bad / tents-good / tents-bad is yet another example of authorities reversing themselves completely (don't bother wearing a mask unless it's N95, oops, wear some kind of face covering; young people are safe, oops, no they're not; don't gather outdoors with strangers, oops, Black Lives Matter crowds are fine, etc.).

We can't keep up, but unlike others we don't pretend to have wisdom or knowledge.

Who Did It? Then I'll Tell You How Outraged I am

In one NoCal hospital, nurses store their PPE in
marked paper bags for re-use. (Chron photo)

Given the nationwide shortage of PPE (personal protective equipment), this headline is another example of criminal neglect by the government:

"Coronavirus: 21 million N95 masks stockpiled. All are expired."

Actually, below is the real headline from the Chronicle (belated April Fool's) with three words restored:

Coronavirus: The state had 21 million N95 masks stockpiled. All are expired.

Credit to the Chronicle for pressing California agencies and Governor Newsom until they admitted the mistake. Also, it's quite refreshing to read a story that's devoid of outrage about government errors. (If it were President Trump's responsibility for the expired masks, would the tone be the same? This is an example of a rhetorical question.)

It's not so bad because the expired N95 masks can still be useful. Said John Balmes, a UCSF pulmonologist: [bold added]

“It would be nice to see the state purchasing new masks on a regular basis, but ... I think the expired masks should be distributed for protection of frontline health care workers to hospitals that are running out of non-expired N95s,” he said. “An expired N95 is very much more effective in protecting against SARS-CoV-2 infection than homemade cloth masks.”

It's also not so bad because we're really not out of masks. UCSF spokeswoman Kristen Bole:

“We have received expired masks from the state, but we are not refurbishing them at this time,” she said. “At the current time, we have an adequate supply of new N95s to meet our needs, at least for the time being, so we are reserving the state masks for backup use.”

Ditto from Kaiser Permanente:

“We are providing our staff with the protective equipment that is aligned with the latest science and guidance from public health authorities,” said Karl Sonkin, a Kaiser spokesman. “We are not providing expired masks to our medical staff. We would do so only if every other possible source of masks was exhausted.”

Here in California individual hospitals are responsible for their own purchasing decisions. They can judge best whether to stockpile items for wildfires (yes), earthquakes (yes), or tornados (no), with the State as backup.

In New York City it appears that the Federal Government, i.e.,President Trump, is responsible for shortages of ventilators, masks, and hospital beds. As of this writing NYC's deaths from COVID-19 are approximately 1,400, which is 27% of the U.S. death toll of 5,112. For perspective NYC comprises under 3% of the U.S. population.

You may resume your outrage.