Now that Steve Brandau has COVID-19, will Fresno County supervisor stop downplaying it?
Fresno County Supervisor Steve Brandau is under quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19, and the only surprise is that it took this long.
By that, I don’t mean Brandau specifically. I mean the inevitable march of mathematics. There have been 32,278 positive cases in Fresno County since the start of the pandemic, and 120 or so more positives are being recorded every day. No sign of slowing down.
So it was only a matter of time until a Fresno-area politician or some other government official contracted the coronavirus.
According to Ballotpedia.com, 26 federal politicians, candidates and bureaucrats have contracted COVID-19 since March, plus 111 at the state level and 24 at county and local levels. Brandau is in good company. He joins five U.S. Senators, 18 House members, three governors, attorney generals, state supreme court justices, mayors and city council members.
Even President Donald Trump, not to mention at least six members of the White House staff.
That Brandau became Fresno’s first elected to contract the virus could be cosmic comeuppance or plain ol’ bad luck. That’s not for me to judge. I sincerely hope the supervisor makes a full and rapid recovery — and that the experience makes him re-examine his own role in a pandemic he has spent months downplaying.
Remember what happened in May? Just as Fresno County Interim Health Officer Rais Vohra was about to implement a countywide mask order, Brandau and fellow supervisor Buddy Mendes interceded to weaken the language.
Instead of saying all residents “shall” wear cloth masks indoors or while in public, the wording was changed to “should.”
“Should.” Seriously.
COVID-19 leadership needed
Brandau explained his rationale in a Facebook video. Making mask-wearing mandatory, in his opinion, was unfair to small businesses.
“The big-box stores have a lot of reason to pull people in. A lot of people will come to them and they can probably sacrifice a few customers by telling people masks are mandatory,” Brandau said.
“Small businesses are much more concerned about offending their customers, and if you put some restrictions upon them some customers are simply going to order those products online. I talked to a flooring business yesterday on Blackstone Avenue, and that was his concern.”
At the time, I hammered Brandau (and Mendes) for undermining public health in order to fall in line with Trump’s nonsense — and earlier for his use of the term “Chinese virus” during a public meeting.
Both were richly deserved.
But now that Brandau has firsthand experience with the virus, which somehow didn’t magically disappear after Election Day, let’s hope he has a change of heart.
Instead of surrendering to the unfounded fears of one business owner, maybe Brandau will stand up and act like a leader. Explain to the flooring guy on Blackstone, and to the rest of the mask deniers in his district, that face coverings aren’t an attack on their personal freedoms but the easiest, simplest remedy we have to reduce the spread.
Show them that wearing a mask isn’t an admission of weakness, or complicity, but a tool of strength and empathy for their fellow county residents.
Brandau’s careless behavior
Brandau says he’s changed his tone since the beginning of the pandemic, that he supports “low-hanging fruit” such as masks and social distancing.
Glad to hear that. But Brandau certainly wasn’t wearing a mask during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting — after he started feeling mild symptoms. Did he wear a mask that evening at an election watch party with his fellow Republicans?
I can’t say because I wasn’t invited. But it sounds like a lot of local politicians and political insiders were. They’ve likely undergone testing and are probably quarantining at home. Just like the dozens of Fresno County employees, as well as city of Fresno officials and staff members, Brandau may have exposed.
Will Brandau take responsibility for his careless behavior? Will he stop questioning whether the severity of the virus is being overblown? Will the county mask order finally get the unambiguous wording it needs, with his full endorsement?
Ball’s in your court, Steve.
This story was originally published November 9, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
