Anonymous
Post 08/18/2021 18:08     Subject: Travis Gayles to resign - MoCo

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.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2021 18:08     Subject: Travis Gayles to resign - MoCo

Anonymous wrote:Wasn’t this the guy that people emailed about the closures last year (outdoor spaces/playgrounds, and the attempts to close private schools), and he responded by forwarding their emails to other members of the local govt to make fun of them and call them Karens?


Worse than that, sadly. He said "The privileged class of Montgomery County are showing their a$$es." He is horrendous. So glad he is gone.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2021 18:05     Subject: Travis Gayles to resign - MoCo

He had no empathy for parents and kids. Despite being a pediatrician he seemed completely unaware of children’s needs and unsympathetic to what they were going through. He was arrogant. He showed distain for constituents. Not a nice guy. Good riddance to him and Jack Smith.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2021 17:58     Subject: Travis Gayles to resign - MoCo

There’s actually a travel warning to france over covid abd our health director goes to france on vacation
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2021 17:50     Subject: Travis Gayles to resign - MoCo

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.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2021 17:32     Subject: Travis Gayles to resign - MoCo

i think this thread may have the most deleted posts in history. is gayles directly involved w this site?
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2021 17:31     Subject: Travis Gayles to resign - MoCo

Anonymous wrote:To the person harping about the playgrounds - they were closed for what, three weeks? You couldn’t figure out how to entertain your kids for three weeks? Nobody had complete information back then, we thought that covid could spread on surfaces and that we had to avoid any and all gatherings.


Ours had fencing around it for a few months.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2021 17:29     Subject: Travis Gayles to resign - MoCo

To the person harping about the playgrounds - they were closed for what, three weeks? You couldn’t figure out how to entertain your kids for three weeks? Nobody had complete information back then, we thought that covid could spread on surfaces and that we had to avoid any and all gatherings.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2021 17:12     Subject: Travis Gayles to resign - MoCo

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wasn’t this the guy that people emailed about the closures last year (outdoor spaces/playgrounds, and the attempts to close private schools), and he responded by forwarding their emails to other members of the local govt to make fun of them and call them Karens?


They were absolutely 100% Karens. I don't blame him at all. That's the BS health care workers and PH professionals have had to deal with during this entire pandemic.

And many were racists too


Racists to call someone a Karen? Yes. And sexist and ageist.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2021 15:59     Subject: Travis Gayles to resign - MoCo

Anonymous wrote:Not only did he mock the constituents of this county in his email he also mocked his boss! This was a long time coming. Based on his released emails he is not a nice guy!


This. He’s a jerk AND incompetent. Glad to see him go.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2021 15:43     Subject: Re:Travis Gayles to resign - MoCo

Anonymous wrote:I love him and thank him for keeping our kids and families safe. I appreciate all of his hard work and I think he was on the right side of history.



That’s weird. I think it’s pretty common knowledge that playgrounds shouldn’t have been closed. And neither of my kids’ private schools closed a single day. Yeah. Good thing we didn’t listen to him. We’d have a depressed stunted seven year old that had been chained to a computer for 30 hrs a week. We are back at public and I’m wondering if the kids in my kids’ classes will all be woefully damaged. My friends’ rising first grader can’t even form a sentence poor thing (parents are clueless and just thankful she was “safe”).
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2021 15:24     Subject: Travis Gayles to resign - MoCo

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wasn’t this the guy that people emailed about the closures last year (outdoor spaces/playgrounds, and the attempts to close private schools), and he responded by forwarding their emails to other members of the local govt to make fun of them and call them Karens?


They were absolutely 100% Karens. I don't blame him at all. That's the BS health care workers and PH professionals have had to deal with during this entire pandemic.

And many were racists too
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2021 15:16     Subject: Travis Gayles to resign - MoCo

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wasn’t this the guy that people emailed about the closures last year (outdoor spaces/playgrounds, and the attempts to close private schools), and he responded by forwarding their emails to other members of the local govt to make fun of them and call them Karens?


They were absolutely 100% Karens. I don't blame him at all. That's the BS health care workers and PH professionals have had to deal with during this entire pandemic.


Haha, what a weak retort. If you can’t refute, double down. Typical.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2021 15:11     Subject: Travis Gayles to resign - MoCo

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/travis-gayles-montgomery-county-health-resigns/2021/08/18/9967bc1c-001a-11ec-ba7e-2cf966e88e93_story.html

Says he’ll resign in September. I wonder why.
Getting death threats from crazy anti-masker people who don’t even live her probably doesn’t help.


What death threats? His e-mails were all made public. Where were the threats? They weren't in the e-mails.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2021 15:09     Subject: Travis Gayles to resign - MoCo

Anonymous wrote:Wasn’t this the guy that people emailed about the closures last year (outdoor spaces/playgrounds, and the attempts to close private schools), and he responded by forwarding their emails to other members of the local govt to make fun of them and call them Karens?


They were absolutely 100% Karens. I don't blame him at all. That's the BS health care workers and PH professionals have had to deal with during this entire pandemic.