Santa Barbara City Council Declares an Emergency and Listens to Cottage Doctor

Dr. David Fisk is a preternaturally coolheaded man who calmly delivered some coolheaded news to the Santa Barbara City Council, where several of its members were anything but cool. Fisk runs Cottage Health’s infection prevention and control, which makes him point person for the health system’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as it makes its way into Santa Barbara. Fisk was pressed by several councilmembers this Tuesday, March 17, who asked whether Santa Barbara should be taking more aggressive, proactive steps to combat the virus. Does he think the city should follow the example of the City of San Francisco and Santa Clara County, Councilmember Meagan Harmon asked, where all bars and restaurants have been shut down, and residents have been ordered to shelter in place? His answer was a decisive: “No, I do not.”

“Our situation here is very, very different from the Bay Area,” he said. “What is proactive in one community may not apply in another community.” Since Santa Barbara has had no deaths from the coronavirus, with no patients even hospitalized yet, Fisk outlined a new protocol the medical community had crafted to more clearly outline which patients would be tested for COVID-19, under what conditions, and with which test. This should help doctors decide when to prescribe the test. Some had been hesitating to do so because there were so few testing kits.

Fisk outlined steps being taken to increase production of the test kits. He added that Cottage has solidified its supply chain over protective gear needed by medical professionals who were taking samples for the test. It just secured 3,000 new face shields in the last 24 hours, he said. Inventory of gowns, gloves, battery-powered respirators, and masks have been solidified.