Kathryn Barger, the chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said she disagrees with Dr. Barbara Ferrer's recommendation to ban in-person dining at restaurants because the science to punish that industry is not justified.
The ban on in-person dining in L.A. County is set to take place on Wednesday, right before the Thanksgiving holiday. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said such a move was necessary because of the rise of COVID-19 cases.
"I'm hoping that I, and hopefully some of my colleagues, can convince [Ferrer] that this is not the right path to take. When you look at the numbers, by the Public Health's own account, 10 to 15 percent can be traced to restaurants and it's not a perfect science, so that's an estimate. But yet we know that 50 percent of those that are testing positive got it while they were at large gatherings," Barger said.
"And I just feel this is punishing an industry that has bent over backwards to comply," she added. "To close down one industry based off no science concerns me...I feel it's arbitrary and it's punitive."
.@kathrynbarger is AGAINST Dr. Barbara Ferrer's suggestion to shut down in person dining at restaurants starting Wednesday.
— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) November 24, 2020
"To close down one industry based off no science concerns me...I feel its arbitrary and its punitive."
MORE: https://t.co/EHuWKU6XI0 pic.twitter.com/ePFYzCBlWa
In a press release from Saturday, the L.A. County DPH said there have been "34 new deaths and 4,522 new cases of COVID-19. New COVID-19 cases reported remain high and the number of people hospitalized is increasing. Over the last four days, there have been a total of 17,769 new cases reported," while acknowledging that, "Ninety-three percent of the people who died from COVID-19 had underlying health conditions."
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