March 27, 2020--Mendocino County Public Health Officer Dr. Noemi Mimi Doohan spoke with KZYX on Friday evening, with the latest update about the local coronavirus response in our community.
Dr. Doohan said, "What would really help me as your health officer is for our community to know, first of all, I am here with you, I am devoted to you for the duration of this pandemic. I may be working from home, but I’m not far away. I want the community to know that every single decision I make is based on facts and science and the inside information I have from my health officer colleagues, that I’m making it for you. I’m making it for our community, because I care and I love this county.
So the more that the community can understand that if I put out an order, it’s because I know it’s the right thing to do for our community. Even though I know it hurts. Even though I know people are going to be harmed, with their businesses. That makes my heart so heavy. But I also know that if we don’t do this the harm to us will be much much worse. We’ll collapse our healthcare system, our elders will be killed. I mean, it’s just horrifying when you look at what’s happening in New York City. That could be us.
We’re rural, but our healthcare system is much more fragile. So we need to protect this community.
So I ask the community to know that I’m doing this for you. And that every day you stay home, every day you have physical distancing, is a day that you are helping our county. And when we get through this, when this pandemic is part of our history, and we look back on it, every day you did this hard work is a day that you helped."
Watch Dr. Doohan's recently posted video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HadpI1N76EU