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The COVID-19 public health emergency is over. How will that affect Monterey Bay counties?

Amid what some health experts are calling ‘triple-demic,’ hospitals in the Monterey Bay have seen an increase in hospitalizations due to COVID-19, RSV, and influenza.
Richard Green
/
Salinas Valley Health
Ambulances parked outside the Salinas Valley Health Hospital in Salinas, California.

Santa Cruz County Deputy Health Officer David Ghilarducci reacts to the end of the national COVID-19 public health emergency, which was lifted today.

Today, President Biden is lifting the national COVID-19 public health emergency — nearly 1,200 days since it began.

David Ghilarducci is a health officer for Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties.

He says despite the end of the national emergency declaration , COVID-19 remains a health threat.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

David Ghilarducci (DG): It certainly still is an important disease, a dangerous disease for certain persons. And so we continue to recommend vaccinations, testing, and staying home if you're sick. All of those precautions that we've sort of gotten used to over the last three years are still important, even with the end of the emergency. But what the emergency ending signifies is a kind of shift from this focus on trying to prevent as many deaths as possible. This shift from trying to keep our health care system functional. Now we're dealing more with how we're going to live with this disease going forward.

Photo of David Ghilarducci. He serves as the health officer for San Benito County and deputy health officer for Santa Cruz County.
Courtesy of David Ghilarducci
Photo of David Ghilarducci. He serves as the health officer for San Benito County and deputy health officer for Santa Cruz County.

Jonathan Linden (JL): And what's been your general reaction to this decision being made by President Biden to lift this health emergency?

(DG): I think it makes sense. And of course, the World Health Organization just did the same thing, recognizing that this is now going to be something we're going to live with for probably the rest of our lives. So one can't perpetuate an emergency forever.

(JL): It sounds like you do think it was the right time to lift this emergency?

(DG): Yeah, I do. We initially were very concerned about our health care system standing up. We came very close to the breaking point here in Santa Cruz County but managed to avoid that. I think the same is true statewide and nationwide. Certainly, some places were hit harder than others, but we're kind of beyond that stage. At this point, probably 95% of us have either been infected or vaccinated, or both. So our immune systems aren't as naive as they were early on.

(JL): Can you talk more about how this will directly affect the counties that you help oversee, Santa Cruz and San Benito?

(DG): We'll see some funding cutbacks. We're not going to be able to provide the support that we used to. All of the testing and vaccination that we saw through schools will be ending. The vaccination fairs, the testing centers that we've been supporting for the past three years… those will be scaling back. We'll see most of these activities being shifted back to the regular healthcare system.

(JL): What communities will this decision impact most?

(DG): Those most at risk in my mind are those that already have traditional barriers to access to care. So that would be uninsured or underinsured individuals. One group, in particular, is those that are Medi-Cal recipients. Over the past three years, they had automatic re-enrollment in Medi-Cal. They didn't have to do anything. That is ending as well. So I'm worried that people are going to find that their coverage will lapse. So we're doing an all-hands-on-deck effort to advise people that they need to re-enroll in Medi-Cal before it expires so that they can maintain their coverage.

(JL): With your roles through Santa Cruz and San Benito counties, what will be changing now that this federal health (emergency) is over?

(DG): If you can think of the COVID pandemic as kind of an earthquake. What we're seeing now are, I think, the aftershocks of the pandemic. We're seeing a rise in childhood depression. We're seeing difficulties in school. Part of that from the shutdown, part of it from social isolation. Then we're seeing this explosion in fentanyl and opioid-related deaths. I think all of these were issues that were there before but have been intensified and are sort of aftershocks of this pandemic.

(JL): Is there anything else that you would like to share with our listeners about the end of this public health emergency?

(DG): One of the other aftershocks is the threat to hospitals, especially small rural hospitals. I'll speak specifically to Hazel Hawkins Hospital in Hollister. As the only hospital that's available to that community. Otherwise, it's a long drive. So the COVID emergency and the pandemic exposed weaknesses that we knew were there before, but have exacerbated those to the extent that we need to find ways to more systematically and structurally change the way we provide health care in our country in a way that's more sustainable and equitable.

Jonathan Linden was a reporter at 90.3 KAZU in Seaside, Calif. He served at the station from Oct. 2022 to July 2023.