Travis Gayles to resign - MoCo

[Anonymous]

People, please stop with the child care bashing. Child care is an essential service that helps the economy function, that allows our hospitals to continue to operate and allows women to continue to do our jobs, which contribute to society. I do not work just for my own entertainment, f&ck you very much. Every time someone bashes another poster because they allegedly "just want child care" I disregard everything else they have to say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who cares if he’s in France? He’s vaccinated! And not like he took unvaccinated kids or anything. I hope Elrich didn’t ask for his resignation because of that.

Plus France is way better than FL right now which is where all the DCUM families are flocking!

I personally don't care that much, but you don't see any hypocrisy in a county health executive, who has been one of if not the most conservative/stringent on COVID precautions in the country, blatantly ignoring CDV guidance? France is a Level 4 do not travel. "Avoid travel to France." It says if you MUST travel to France then be fully vaccinated. Did he have urgent essential travel to France? The reports say he is on vacation.

How is anyone supposed to take a guy like this seriously when he says to follow/not follow other CDC guidance? And he sometimes recommends restrictions beyond CDC guidance but he can't follow it himself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who cares if he’s in France? He’s vaccinated! And not like he took unvaccinated kids or anything. I hope Elrich didn’t ask for his resignation because of that.

Plus France is way better than FL right now which is where all the DCUM families are flocking!

I personally don't care that much, but you don't see any hypocrisy in a county health executive, who has been one of if not the most conservative/stringent on COVID precautions in the country, blatantly ignoring CDV guidance? France is a Level 4 do not travel. "Avoid travel to France." It says if you MUST travel to France then be fully vaccinated. Did he have urgent essential travel to France? The reports say he is on vacation.

How is anyone supposed to take a guy like this seriously when he says to follow/not follow other CDC guidance? And he sometimes recommends restrictions beyond CDC guidance but he can't follow it himself.

Maybe he was one of the posters in the travel forum asking if they should still take their vacation or cancel and lose a lot of money. Probably booked it when things looked fine and as a public servant that’s a lot to lose money wise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People, please stop with the child care bashing. Child care is an essential service that helps the economy function, that allows our hospitals to continue to operate and allows women to continue to do our jobs, which contribute to society. I do not work just for my own entertainment, f&ck you very much. Every time someone bashes another poster because they allegedly "just want child care" I disregard everything else they have to say.

"Just want childcare" is code for "I'm a privileged entitled idiot." Safe to ignore.

And I have no need of childcare. My kids are nearly college age.

[Anonymous]

Let's get real. A county health officer blatantly ignoring CDC guidance to vacation in France is an epic blunder. Many of you will rush to his defense and say lots of people are vacationing and doing things like that. That's true, but they're not the public face of the county's COVID response. With public service comes certain responsibilities. Optics is one of them. This is not good. And he absolutely should know better.

- senior fed official (and a D if that matters ... )

[Anonymous]

So is the France vacay the real reason he resigned then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So is the France vacay the real reason he resigned then?

Nobody knows. Maybe he was sitting on the beach enjoying the nice weather and said "screw it with all the stress of my job". He can probabl make some $$ being a CNN commentator. I know when I take vacation, I have time to reassess my career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So is the France vacay the real reason he resigned then?

Nobody knows. Maybe he was sitting on the beach enjoying the nice weather and said "screw it with all the stress of my job". He can probabl make some $$ being a CNN commentator. I know when I take vacation, I have time to reassess my career.

But do you resign WHILE you are on vacation? Super weird. And stress? What stress does he have? He just makes ridiculous decisions and doesn’t care about the consequences.

I bet you’re right though. Maybe we’ll see him on CNN as a health reporter/advisor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is terrible he was getting death and other threats. Absolutely unacceptable.
He was also horrible in this role during the pandemic crisis time.
He probably would have been adequate in 'normal times' dealing with whatever the 'normal' set of issues would be that he would need to manage. But during the pandemic, he was terrible and actually not very science driven.

We have the highest vaccination rate around and relatively lowest transmission of large counties (we were last in the region to go from ‘moderate’ to ‘substantial’)

Nothing to do with gayles. We all drove an hour plus for vaccines on our own in April. A lot of people can and are working from home. Moco’s population (liberal, educated, affluent, covid cautious) is why.

It's both. Rational leadership and rational population (for the most part). You can't just have one, and end up with the vaccination rates and mostly good behavior we've had since March 2020.

Gayles literally outlawed outdoor playgrounds and tried to close private schools that were set to follow the CDC guidelines at the time; he perpetuated restrictions for reopening MCPS-- while other large school districts around the country successfully opened in hybrid fashions. He made the mask mandate in MoCo start at age 2 instead of age 5-- once it was reduced from I think 9 at the initial outset-- and never provided data for that. Much of NOVA with similar demographics/numbers has had an age 5 mandate. I could go on...
I have no idea exactly where the locus of control on this was, but everyone I knew was driving/traveling at least 45 minutes in each direction to get vaccines for a LONG time-- at the least, he did not succeed in any advocacy about getting reasonable amount of vaccines downcounty.
Yes, keeping businesses at very reduced capacity for a while obviously impeded the spread of the virus...but at what cost? A very compliant and risk-averse population is the driver here, IMHO, of a lot of the 'success.'
To his credit, it does appear that he and his team were successful in reaching (from what I've read) harder to reach minority populations who have significant vaccine hesitancy (as illustrated by the inner city of Baltimore and their abysmal vaccine numbers).
But overall? Not rational leadership at all.

Well summarized. Then there were his nasty internal emails regarding a parent who was trying to get more info. He was divisive - everything was class warfare to him. Good riddance.

Member when we were wiping down groceries? That’s because we thought there might be surface transmission. Don’t say this wasn’t a thing because it was. That’s why they initially shut the playgrounds. He also didn’t try to shut down private schools who were trying to follow cdc guidelines. He knew that some private schools had good plans set up and knew others did NOT have good plans. Listen, these are schools not health experts or doctors! So he wanted to work together with them to develop and implement plans that were actually safe. He could not do this if they didn’t communicate their plans to the health dept. As for vaccine access, you can thank Hogan for his allocations to mass sites everywhere except MoCo. That was not Gayles at all who made you drive to six flags. You may think he kept things shut longer than you would have. But you cannot say that anything he did put the community at more risk. He minimized our community spread very effectively and reached all kinds of groups with vaccine hesitancy and access issues. I can’t believe you are whining that your 4 year old or whatever had to play in your own backyard and had to wear a mask and you had to drive 45 minutes twice (when you prob drive 6 hrs to obx like everyone else around here). This man was the one making the tough choices and I hope he knows there are many of us who are thankful for his efforts even as people treated him so incredibly poorly.

Yes, to all of this.

Wow to the pp. talk about revisionist history. He refused to look at any private school plans or work with private schools or entertain the idea that any could open. You have no idea what you are talking about. But. They opened. And everything was fine. Just like everywhere else that opened. You must have family in states where schools opened? I do. Even blue states. The sky didn’t fall. It was fine. Gayles was wrong.

+1. I was never in favor opening without mitigation measures. However, seeing family from other areas this summer, even from just a few hours away in PA, really opened my eyes to just how anxiety ridden and catastrophizing our area is. Family members' kids went to school with masks and hybrid schedules well before ours did, without significant community spread. This area is unhealthy when it comes to its zero-COVID demands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So is the France vacay the real reason he resigned then?

Nobody knows. Maybe he was sitting on the beach enjoying the nice weather and said "screw it with all the stress of my job". He can probabl make some $$ being a CNN commentator. I know when I take vacation, I have time to reassess my career.

But do you resign WHILE you are on vacation? Super weird. And stress? What stress does he have? He just makes ridiculous decisions and doesn’t care about the consequences.

I bet you’re right though. Maybe we’ll see him on CNN as a health reporter/advisor.

Eh, I didn’t agree with a lot of his decisions, but don’t doubt it’s a stressful, thankless job. He probably thought, like many, that the worst was behind us and doesn’t want to go through a fall/winter surge again. Plus cnN probably pays better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is terrible he was getting death and other threats. Absolutely unacceptable.
He was also horrible in this role during the pandemic crisis time.
He probably would have been adequate in 'normal times' dealing with whatever the 'normal' set of issues would be that he would need to manage. But during the pandemic, he was terrible and actually not very science driven.

We have the highest vaccination rate around and relatively lowest transmission of large counties (we were last in the region to go from ‘moderate’ to ‘substantial’)

Nothing to do with gayles. We all drove an hour plus for vaccines on our own in April. A lot of people can and are working from home. Moco’s population (liberal, educated, affluent, covid cautious) is why.

It's both. Rational leadership and rational population (for the most part). You can't just have one, and end up with the vaccination rates and mostly good behavior we've had since March 2020.

Gayles literally outlawed outdoor playgrounds and tried to close private schools that were set to follow the CDC guidelines at the time; he perpetuated restrictions for reopening MCPS-- while other large school districts around the country successfully opened in hybrid fashions. He made the mask mandate in MoCo start at age 2 instead of age 5-- once it was reduced from I think 9 at the initial outset-- and never provided data for that. Much of NOVA with similar demographics/numbers has had an age 5 mandate. I could go on...
I have no idea exactly where the locus of control on this was, but everyone I knew was driving/traveling at least 45 minutes in each direction to get vaccines for a LONG time-- at the least, he did not succeed in any advocacy about getting reasonable amount of vaccines downcounty.
Yes, keeping businesses at very reduced capacity for a while obviously impeded the spread of the virus...but at what cost? A very compliant and risk-averse population is the driver here, IMHO, of a lot of the 'success.'
To his credit, it does appear that he and his team were successful in reaching (from what I've read) harder to reach minority populations who have significant vaccine hesitancy (as illustrated by the inner city of Baltimore and their abysmal vaccine numbers).
But overall? Not rational leadership at all.

Well summarized. Then there were his nasty internal emails regarding a parent who was trying to get more info. He was divisive - everything was class warfare to him. Good riddance.

Member when we were wiping down groceries? That’s because we thought there might be surface transmission. Don’t say this wasn’t a thing because it was. That’s why they initially shut the playgrounds. He also didn’t try to shut down private schools who were trying to follow cdc guidelines. He knew that some private schools had good plans set up and knew others did NOT have good plans. Listen, these are schools not health experts or doctors! So he wanted to work together with them to develop and implement plans that were actually safe. He could not do this if they didn’t communicate their plans to the health dept. As for vaccine access, you can thank Hogan for his allocations to mass sites everywhere except MoCo. That was not Gayles at all who made you drive to six flags. You may think he kept things shut longer than you would have. But you cannot say that anything he did put the community at more risk. He minimized our community spread very effectively and reached all kinds of groups with vaccine hesitancy and access issues. I can’t believe you are whining that your 4 year old or whatever had to play in your own backyard and had to wear a mask and you had to drive 45 minutes twice (when you prob drive 6 hrs to obx like everyone else around here). This man was the one making the tough choices and I hope he knows there are many of us who are thankful for his efforts even as people treated him so incredibly poorly.

Yes, to all of this.

Wow to the pp. talk about revisionist history. He refused to look at any private school plans or work with private schools or entertain the idea that any could open. You have no idea what you are talking about. But. They opened. And everything was fine. Just like everywhere else that opened. You must have family in states where schools opened? I do. Even blue states. The sky didn’t fall. It was fine. Gayles was wrong.

+1. I was never in favor opening without mitigation measures. However, seeing family from other areas this summer, even from just a few hours away in PA, really opened my eyes to just how anxiety ridden and catastrophizing our area is. Family members' kids went to school with masks and hybrid schedules well before ours did, without significant community spread. This area is unhealthy when it comes to its zero-COVID demands.

Same here.

I have family in friends in other parts of the country. Every single kid we know was back in school last year before my kids were. And it was fine.

This area is insane and dysfunctional. Our kids have suffered the most because of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People, please stop with the child care bashing. Child care is an essential service that helps the economy function, that allows our hospitals to continue to operate and allows women to continue to do our jobs, which contribute to society. I do not work just for my own entertainment, f&ck you very much. Every time someone bashes another poster because they allegedly "just want child care" I disregard everything else they have to say.

Then you pay for child care. You aren't entitled to free child care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is terrible he was getting death and other threats. Absolutely unacceptable.
He was also horrible in this role during the pandemic crisis time.
He probably would have been adequate in 'normal times' dealing with whatever the 'normal' set of issues would be that he would need to manage. But during the pandemic, he was terrible and actually not very science driven.

We have the highest vaccination rate around and relatively lowest transmission of large counties (we were last in the region to go from ‘moderate’ to ‘substantial’)

Nothing to do with gayles. We all drove an hour plus for vaccines on our own in April. A lot of people can and are working from home. Moco’s population (liberal, educated, affluent, covid cautious) is why.

It's both. Rational leadership and rational population (for the most part). You can't just have one, and end up with the vaccination rates and mostly good behavior we've had since March 2020.

Gayles literally outlawed outdoor playgrounds and tried to close private schools that were set to follow the CDC guidelines at the time; he perpetuated restrictions for reopening MCPS-- while other large school districts around the country successfully opened in hybrid fashions. He made the mask mandate in MoCo start at age 2 instead of age 5-- once it was reduced from I think 9 at the initial outset-- and never provided data for that. Much of NOVA with similar demographics/numbers has had an age 5 mandate. I could go on...
I have no idea exactly where the locus of control on this was, but everyone I knew was driving/traveling at least 45 minutes in each direction to get vaccines for a LONG time-- at the least, he did not succeed in any advocacy about getting reasonable amount of vaccines downcounty.
Yes, keeping businesses at very reduced capacity for a while obviously impeded the spread of the virus...but at what cost? A very compliant and risk-averse population is the driver here, IMHO, of a lot of the 'success.'
To his credit, it does appear that he and his team were successful in reaching (from what I've read) harder to reach minority populations who have significant vaccine hesitancy (as illustrated by the inner city of Baltimore and their abysmal vaccine numbers).
But overall? Not rational leadership at all.

Well summarized. Then there were his nasty internal emails regarding a parent who was trying to get more info. He was divisive - everything was class warfare to him. Good riddance.

Member when we were wiping down groceries? That’s because we thought there might be surface transmission. Don’t say this wasn’t a thing because it was. That’s why they initially shut the playgrounds. He also didn’t try to shut down private schools who were trying to follow cdc guidelines. He knew that some private schools had good plans set up and knew others did NOT have good plans. Listen, these are schools not health experts or doctors! So he wanted to work together with them to develop and implement plans that were actually safe. He could not do this if they didn’t communicate their plans to the health dept. As for vaccine access, you can thank Hogan for his allocations to mass sites everywhere except MoCo. That was not Gayles at all who made you drive to six flags. You may think he kept things shut longer than you would have. But you cannot say that anything he did put the community at more risk. He minimized our community spread very effectively and reached all kinds of groups with vaccine hesitancy and access issues. I can’t believe you are whining that your 4 year old or whatever had to play in your own backyard and had to wear a mask and you had to drive 45 minutes twice (when you prob drive 6 hrs to obx like everyone else around here). This man was the one making the tough choices and I hope he knows there are many of us who are thankful for his efforts even as people treated him so incredibly poorly.

Yes, to all of this.

Wow to the pp. talk about revisionist history. He refused to look at any private school plans or work with private schools or entertain the idea that any could open. You have no idea what you are talking about. But. They opened. And everything was fine. Just like everywhere else that opened. You must have family in states where schools opened? I do. Even blue states. The sky didn’t fall. It was fine. Gayles was wrong.

+1. I was never in favor opening without mitigation measures. However, seeing family from other areas this summer, even from just a few hours away in PA, really opened my eyes to just how anxiety ridden and catastrophizing our area is. Family members' kids went to school with masks and hybrid schedules well before ours did, without significant community spread. This area is unhealthy when it comes to its zero-COVID demands.

Same here.

I have family in friends in other parts of the country. Every single kid we know was back in school last year before my kids were. And it was fine.

This area is insane and dysfunctional. Our kids have suffered the most because of it.

It is much easier with smaller schools in smaller school districts. Don't claim "our" kids have suffered. Your kids suffered as you weren't willing to make it work. Some of "our" kids were just fine in virtual and made the best of the situation vs. complaining.

Don't complain when your kids get sick to us. We'll remind you you decided it was all fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So is the France vacay the real reason he resigned then?

Nobody knows. Maybe he was sitting on the beach enjoying the nice weather and said "screw it with all the stress of my job". He can probabl make some $$ being a CNN commentator. I know when I take vacation, I have time to reassess my career.

I suspect he got a better job offer. However, given how everyone else is behaving, I don't see why people hold him more accountable than their own actions. He probably gave up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People, please stop with the child care bashing. Child care is an essential service that helps the economy function, that allows our hospitals to continue to operate and allows women to continue to do our jobs, which contribute to society. I do not work just for my own entertainment, f&ck you very much. Every time someone bashes another poster because they allegedly "just want child care" I disregard everything else they have to say.

Then you pay for child care. You aren't entitled to free child care.

The teachers who post stuff like this is just fascinating. It shows their insecurity that they don't want to be considered a child care provider. Well I have news for you. You have been and will be as long as you are in that position. I know we see this a lot on the school forums, but here there are again spewing hatred for their students and families. So glad we left public school long long ago. And we had a full year of in person last year without incident.