Greetings!
The City and County of San Francisco needs to change Directive 2020-09b that was issued late Sunday. SFDS relayed the contents of this directive to you within one hour of having received it on Sunday night.
To the best of our knowledge, this misguided directive was implemented without consulting with any branch of organized dentistry. It seeks to prevent the spread of Covid19, but instead it is filled with inconsistencies and requests that are not in San Francisco’s best interest.
Section 6.1 on page 9 requires a test for SARS-CoV-2. The type of test is not specified because no workable test yet exists.
- Antibody tests are fast, but don’t tell you if the patient is an active carrier.
- Reliable, molecular tests require several days for lab interpretation. The patient can become infected after the test, but before coming into your practice.
- There are no fast, reliable tests that are endorsed by the FDA.
This request for testing is a barrier that keeps us from seeing even emergency patients that require procedures utilizing a hand-piece.
This directive is not consistent with the requirements of the state or neighboring counties and will result in patients seeking dental treatment outside of San Francisco. Patients don’t want to risk a false positive test result that will separate them from their families or places of employment.
We sent the
attached letter
to the leaders of San Francisco and I ask that you also reach out to all of them because the thousand emails and calls SFDS received need to be heard by the City Leaders. CDA sent the
attached letter
to the Governor requesting for the immediate alignment of Dental Health Care Directives with the State’s Directives. Let’s work together to convey our concerns to the Health Officer and to convince San Francisco Leadership to change this misguided directive.
Sincerely,
