WRITTEN PUBLIC COMMENTS
NOT READ INTO THE RECORD
From: Scott Balsitis
To: Houman Hemmati
Cc: WebCBH MAYORANDCITYCOUNCIL; City Clerk; Ellen Goldstein; Wade Major; Ross Novie; Ross Novie; Jeffrey Klausner; Kat Blandino; Phil Brock; Julie Hamill; Roxanne Hoge; Suverna Mistry; Barbara Ferrer; Robert Gilchick; Ben Allen; Board of Education; Ben Drati; Claudia Bautista-Nicholas; [email protected]; [email protected]; nsood; Sheila Kuehl; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; Afshine Emrani; Heather Alfano Subject: Re: July 25, 2022 BH City Council Agenda C-1 LA County Mask Mandate Date: Monday, July 25, 2022 9:56:20 AM
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Dear Mayor Bosse and honorable City Council Members,
I am one of Houman's co-authors on the mentioned Op-Ed. In recent months I've spoken with a number of local administrators on this topic, and I sympathize with how challenging the situation is when you're getting diametrically opposed opinions from different sets of experts.
I've found that making the scientific data available in a readily accessible manner is the most helpful way to support your work. You don't have to simply choose whose interpretation to believe; you can see the data for yourself. To that end, I've assembled a thread here that parallels the Op-Ed and while bringing out the key charts for ease of review:
https://twitter.com/DrScottBalsitis/status/1550742122424201217 If time is limiting, please consider the single chart below. It shows the outcomes when Alameda county recently imposed a mask mandate and neighboring counties did not. As you can see from the chart, there is clearly no difference in COVID rates with and without the mask mandate.
All the best,
Scott Balsitis, PhD
From https://www.sfgate.com/coronavirus/article/bay-area-mask-mandate-results17271294.php On Sun, Jul 24, 2022 at 9:40 AM Houman Hemmati <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Mayor Bosse & honorable members of the Beverly Hills City Council, Thank you for arranging a special meeting of the Beverly Hill City Council on July 25 to discuss the proposed/pending LACDPH mask mandate (Agenda Item C-1).
I am writing you as a parent of 2 school-aged kids, someone with deep ties to Beverly Hills (1/2 my family is there and I had an office on Wilshire for several years until before COVID), PhD research scientist with a federal COVID treatment research grant, board certified MD and former USC Med faculty, national authority on COVID policy who appears on national television several times a week and is a regular print/media contributor on the topic, and member of LA Uprising (coalition of citizens/parents committed to evidence based COVID policies, particularly in schools) and Urgency of Normal - https://www.urgencyofnormal.com/ (encourage you to visit the site) to urge you to oppose and not enforce Barbara Ferrer’s unjustified and harmful mandate.
Rather than copy and paste an highly referenced OpEd I co-authored with prominent experts Drs. Balsitis, Klausner and Sood (and which appeared in 11 newspapers this weekend), I’ll allow you to read it here: https://www.ocregister.com/2022/07/22/bringing-back-a-maskmandate-in-los-angeles-county-is-unjustified/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=twocregister&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social In it, we prove using data from LA County USC Medical Center, which cares for the poorest/sickest patients at highest risk of COVID that we are NOT in a COVID emergency and that Ferrer’s numbers are artificially elevated by a factor of 10 or more and there hasn’t been a SINGLE patient intubated in the ICU FOR (not with) COVID for several MONTHS.
Therefore, we are not anywhere close to justifying a mask mandate, even if it had solid proof of meaningfully reducing deaths and serious infections.
I also urge you to weigh the MANY known societal/economic/academic/psychological harms of mask mandates (particularly on kids) against the slim benefits of such mandates, if any.
Without your health department (which I urge you to create - I’ll help), you may be technically forced to “accept” LACDPH’s mandates. But you’re also free to decide how to enforce them. During the Super Bowl, with 80,000 adults from around the world indoor in one place, during a prior mandate, in the presence of Dr. Ferrer, there was hardly a mask to be seen. Even Governor Newsom and Mayor Garcetti didn’t mask. Enforce this pending mandate with the same level of rigor and consequence, to children and adults, as was applied during the Super Bowl and which the wealthy and ruling elite apply to themselves.
Finally, you recently voted No Confidence in LA County DA George Gascón https://beverlyhillscourier.com/2021/03/18/council-votes-no-confidence-inda/amp/ - I am respectfully asking that you consider voting No Confidence in Barbara Ferrer as well. As you know, this week has produced 4 scandals by her alone (with another rumored to be published by media this week):
1. Caught lying about COVID numbers
2. Caught not disclosing relationship with and denying involvement in a “research” paper co-written by her daughter, a LACOE employee, published by CDC, used to justify mandates at schools, despite being acknowledged on the paper
3. Caught on video wearing her mask on her arm, not her face, at the Baseball All Star game around thousands of people despite an “emergency” that warrants mask mandates
4. Caught not disclosing her own powerful pro-mandate staffer’s marital relationship to a teacher’s union boss and sibling relationship to a powerful/influential pro-mandate State Senator, himself a former school board member with great influence in public schools Beverly Hills is an iconic and influential city that everyone in the world recognizes. A vote of No Confidence in Dr. Ferrer, alongside a demand for transparency and an independent investigation into the workings of her office, would send a strong message that would carry a degree of weight disproportionate to the size of your city. Therefore, you have a moral dirty to speak up because (as experienced with Gascon) people listen when Beverly Hills speaks.
I would be more than happy to discuss any of this with you personally.
Very best regards,
Houman David Hemmati MD PhD
From: Houman Hemmati
To: WebCBH MAYORANDCITYCOUNCIL; City Clerk
Cc: Ellen Goldstein; Wade Major; Ross Novie; Ross Novie; Scott Balsitis; Jeffrey Klausner; Kat Blandino; Phil Brock; Julie Hamill; Roxanne Hoge; Suverna Mistry; Barbara Ferrer; Robert Gilchick; Ben Allen; Board of Education; Ben Drati; Claudia Bautista-Nicholas; [email protected]; [email protected]; nsood; Sheila Kuehl; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; Afshine Emrani; Heather Alfano
Subject: July 25, 2022 BH City Council Agenda C-1 LA County Mask Mandate Date: Sunday, July 24, 2022 9:40:45 AM
CAUTION: External Sender
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Dear Mayor Bosse & honorable members of the Beverly Hills City Council, Thank you for arranging a special meeting of the Beverly Hill City Council on July 25 to discuss the proposed/pending LACDPH mask mandate (Agenda Item C-1).
I am writing you as a parent of 2 school-aged kids, someone with deep ties to Beverly Hills (1/2 my family is there and I had an office on Wilshire for several years until before COVID), PhD research scientist with a federal COVID treatment research grant, board certified MD and former USC Med faculty, national authority on COVID policy who appears on national television several times a week and is a regular print/media contributor on the topic, and member of LA Uprising (coalition of citizens/parents committed to evidence based COVID policies, particularly in schools) and Urgency of Normal - https://www.urgencyofnormal.com/ (encourage you to visit the site) to urge you to oppose and not enforce Barbara Ferrer’s unjustified and harmful mandate.
Rather than copy and paste an highly referenced OpEd I co-authored with prominent experts Drs. Balsitis, Klausner and Sood (and which appeared in 11 newspapers this weekend), I’ll allow you to read it here: https://www.ocregister.com/2022/07/22/bringing-back-a-maskmandate-in-los-angeles-county-is-unjustified/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=twocregister&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social In it, we prove using data from LA County USC Medical Center, which cares for the poorest/sickest patients at highest risk of COVID that we are NOT in a COVID emergency and that Ferrer’s numbers are artificially elevated by a factor of 10 or more and there hasn’t been a SINGLE patient intubated in the ICU FOR (not with) COVID for several MONTHS.
Therefore, we are not anywhere close to justifying a mask mandate, even if it had solid proof of meaningfully reducing deaths and serious infections.
I also urge you to weigh the MANY known societal/economic/academic/psychological harms of mask mandates (particularly on kids) against the slim benefits of such mandates, if any.
Without your health department (which I urge you to create - I’ll help), you may be technically forced to “accept” LACDPH’s mandates. But you’re also free to decide how to enforce them. During the Super Bowl, with 80,000 adults from around the world indoor in one place, during a prior mandate, in the presence of Dr. Ferrer, there was hardly a mask to be seen. Even Governor Newsom and Mayor Garcetti didn’t mask. Enforce this pending mandate with the same level of rigor and consequence, to children and adults, as was applied during the Super Bowl and which the wealthy and ruling elite apply to themselves.
Finally, you recently voted No Confidence in LA County DA George Gascón https://beverlyhillscourier.com/2021/03/18/council-votes-no-confidence-in-da/amp/ - I am respectfully asking that you consider voting No Confidence in Barbara Ferrer as well. As you know, this week has produced 4 scandals by her alone (with another rumored to be published by media this week):
1. Caught lying about COVID numbers
2. Caught not disclosing relationship with and denying involvement in a “research” paper cowritten by her daughter, a LACOE employee, published by CDC, used to justify mandates at schools, despite being acknowledged on the paper
3. Caught on video wearing her mask on her arm, not her face, at the Baseball All Star game around thousands of people despite an “emergency” that warrants mask mandates
4. Caught not disclosing her own powerful pro-mandate staffer’s marital relationship to a teacher’s union boss and sibling relationship to a powerful/influential pro-mandate State Senator, himself a former school board member with great influence in public schools Beverly Hills is an iconic and influential city that everyone in the world recognizes. A vote of No Confidence in Dr. Ferrer, alongside a demand for transparency and an independent investigation into the workings of her office, would send a strong message that would carry a degree of weight disproportionate to the size of your city. Therefore, you have a moral dirty to speak up because (as experienced with Gascon) people listen when Beverly Hills speaks.
I would be more than happy to discuss any of this with you personally.
Very best regards,
Houman David Hemmati MD PhD