Happy Spring ! I don ’ t know about you , but I ’ m ready for some warmer weather . And being a sports nut , I ’ m also ready for spring training . As we venture into another year of unknowns , I ’ m reminded of everyone ’ s favorite baseball-philosopher , Yogi Berra , who said it best : “ It ' s tough to make predictions , especially about the future .”

It has been nearly two and a half years since a cluster of patients overseas began to experience shortness of breath and fever . Soon after , the COVID-19 virus appeared around the world . But fear and uncertainty has spread even faster and penetrated deeply into the collective consciousness . There is no question that the health , economic , and mental toll of this pandemic will define a generation .

It certainly has made a dramatic impact on Santa Clara County , the sixth largest county in California . Our organization employs 22,000 individuals in more than 70 agencies and departments who provide essential services to a diverse population of almost 2 million people .

In the face of fear and uncertainty , County government continues to address each new challenge . The County health system employs more than 9,400 workers who provide services for 900,000 outpatient visits each year . And that was before COVID-19 . Since March of 2020 , more than 4,800 County employees have been deployed as Disaster Service Workers to support pandemic response efforts . These County employees had to put their careers on hold to join forces with the existing 9,400 Health System employees to serve in brand new frontline roles .

It is also worth noting that the County ’ s Emergency Operations Center built an entire crisis response for 1.9 million people almost overnight . Most government planning is carefully orchestrated over the course of months and years , not days and weeks . The scope and scale of the work performed was and is still herculean , to say the least :

• Mass vaccination and mobile sites were located , secured , staffed , and publicized .

• Mobile vaccination ( MoVax ) units seek out the most vulnerable communities and bring services to them .

• 1,000 “ pop-up ” clinic days have been performed at community centers , schools , churches , long-term care facilities , worksites , and senior centers throughout the County .

• Outreach is conducted in five languages and distributed through a variety of culturally effectives means .

• Door to door teams have knocked on 319,000 doors in the highest risk areas .

Since the pandemic started , the County Health System has provided 1.6 million COVID-19 tests and 1.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines . The result is that Santa Clara County leads all large counties with more than 92 % of residents ages 12 years and older vaccinated , and leads our region in booster shots . This has helped keep our virus case counts lower than most counties our size and deaths lower than the state average .

Life has changed ; life will be better . Stay strong .

Mike Wasserman , District 1 Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors www . supervisorwasserman . com e-mail : district1 @ bos . sccgov . org office : 408-299-5010

Supervisor Mike Wasserman is the President of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors . He was elected to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in 2010 and re-elected in 2014 and 2018 . He represents District 1 , which includes Gilroy , San Martin , Morgan Hill , and 300,000 people in San Jose .

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