County health's judgment raises class prejudice issues
North Coast Journal Editor Hank Sims, in his weekly column The Town Dandy, takes the county health department to task for the way it disseminated information, or failed to, in the recent norovirus outbreak at Baywood golf and country club. The health department issued a press release but failed to identify Baywood as the location where the outbreak was traced to.
When Sims asked why, Public Health Director Alexandra Wineland responded in an e-mail: “Revealing the name of the facility may give a false impression that there is something wrong with the facility, and that is not necessarily the case. We would only reveal the name of the facility if it was necessary to inform people that they should seek treatment. There is no treatment for the suspected norovirus.”
What? Wasn’t county health trying to locate everyone who became sick after eating at Baywood to aid its investigation into how the norovirus was introduced to the country club? Doesn’t keeping the public in the dark about the location of the outbreak hinder county health’s efforts? Why even bother with a press release then? If I am not getting something here, people please let me know.
Baywood’s president Jim Hoff (I so wanted to add an “a”) apparently saw it differently. He made no attempt to cover up his club as the source of the outbreak, and he’s been quite open to the media.
When the press release went to the media, the Times-Standard did some reporting and identified Baywood in its story the following day. The Eureka Reporter just rewrote the press release, and didn’t even try to identify the source of the outbreak.
“In the aftermath, some people assumed that the county was simply covering up for Baywood. As it turns out, those people are more or less right,” Sims writes.
I don’t know if anyone at county health was trying to protect Baywood. But it does have a bad odor to it.
County health is cracking down hard on an Arcata “cafeteria,” the Sai Om Shree at 11th & K , filing a criminal complaint charging the proprietor with eight misdemeanor counts. The Sai Om Shree is a mysterious place. Nobody but the proprietor, Steven Gasparas, knows exactly where the Indian food served there is prepared. It’s not cooked on site. What’s in the food is apparently as mysterious, according to the Arcata Eye. And it’s not entirely clear what, or if, the Sai Om Shree charges for its food. But if you peruse the local blogosphere, well, apparently a lot of poor people eat there.
Brian Cox, director of environmental health, charges the Sai Om Shree is violating health codes. I’m sure he’s right. However nobody has gotten sick eating at Sai Om Shree, that we know of. But at least 166 people, at last count, and probably many more than that, got sick eating at Humboldt’s most swank country club.
Apples and oranges? Yes. But it still has the stench of classism to many in Humboldt County. Failing to identify Baywood in a press release but going after Sai Om Shree in a very public way reinforces this perception.
Comments
Like this is a big surprise?
Posted by: GMF | December 16, 2007 07:36 AM
Andy:
Class does indeed matter, and I am glad you pointed this out as it sailed right past me. I was annoyed at the failure to identify the "banquet facility, a subject which has already well explored, and am still bothered by the failure of anyone to admit the number sickened was closer to 500, which is a lot more dramatic. I can see why both County Environmental Health and Baywood would rather use the figure of 166, even if is not accurate. I am, however, disappointed the Times-Standard never picked up on this so as you pointed out appear to be making class judgments in its reporting.
The other thing the newspaper never picked up on was that Baywood was aware of this out break on Monday, and yet continued to serve meals through Wednesday noon. Was this a case of no one being able to make a good management decision, or an economic one?
Posted by: Hayduke | December 16, 2007 11:14 AM
Hayduke:
Maybe the Times-Standard or the Eureka Reporter will pick up on this, try to give us a more accurate number of those who got sick. I personally know several people who contracted the virus. That tells me a lot of people got sick.
Posted by: Andrew Bird | December 16, 2007 11:21 AM