Jeanece Gilmer says she has lost all confidence in local public health officials after learning this week that the reported COVID-19 “outbreak” within the Willcox School District consisted of only two students testing positive over a two-week period.
The issue arose Tuesday night when the board of the Willcox Unified School District debated whether some schools in the district should close per a Cochise County Health Department. Health officials advocated for the closure because of a COVID-19 outbreak, although the board voted to remain open.
Gilmer has a granddaughter who attends Willcox High School and says she understands why some families may decide to keep students home. In fact she initially believed closure was warranted to combat the reported outbreak, thinking it would help get the virus under control before Christmas.
But then Gilmer found out the public health recommendation was based on exactly two students who had no apparent connection to each other who tested positive for COVID-19. That, she learned, was the extent of the outbreak.
“I don’t see how any intelligent person in Willcox can consider two positives within two weeks as an outbreak,” she told Arizona Daily Independent.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a COVID-19 outbreak is defined as two or more contacts having active COVID-19. Another definition is two or more people who are not contacts but share some probable common link, such as a location.
Gilmer, however, says there is a major disconnect between what the CDC and local health officials consider an outbreak compared to what that word means to most people. She points to the World Health Organization and a worn English dictionary which define an outbreak as the occurrence of disease cases in excess of normal expectancy.
“We should all be able to agree the normal expectancy should be that people here and everywhere are going to continue to test positive for a long time to come,” Gilmer said. “It’s time for our health providers and government folks to speak a language we understand.
Public schools in Arizona are operating under guidelines issued by the CDC and the Arizona Department of Health Services.
One issue is that some Willcox school board members and educators discussed in connection to keeping classrooms open was whether doing so could pose a financial threat to the district. It took was another source of irritation for Gilmer, who says she was disgusted by the lack of definite information about whether the district could lose insurance coverage for being open.
“I listened to their what-ifs and maybes during the meeting but never heard any facts being discussed,” Gilmer said. “They are horrible role models for kids. It was leadership by rumors.”
Back in early October, Principal Tammy Hall released a letter advising families that a student had tested positive for COVID-19. The county health department conducted contact tracing and made recommendations to certain students to quarantine.
Hall’s letter noted students must wear face coverings on school property when social distancing of at least six feet cannot be maintained.