WEST PALM BEACH — District 6 Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay gave some personal and emotional testimony to fellow commissioners and all listeners at this week’s county board …
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WEST PALM BEACH — District 6 Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay gave some personal and emotional testimony to fellow commissioners and all listeners at this week’s county board meeting.
She asked for personal privilege to speak before the COVID-19 presentation customarily given by Florida Department of Health-PBC Director Alina Alonso.
“I would like to thank Dr. Alonso for her very good counsel very early this morning,” McKinlay began. “I’m frustrated and I just want to give a heads-up to those that might be addressing this board today on this particular issue — and some of my colleagues. For the past six months I have listened very, very patiently to the folks in our community who want to deny the seriousness of this virus. Well…” she said, clearing her throat.
“As I sit here right now, my 19-year-old daughter is sitting in an emergency room in Orlando; she tested positive for this virus over the weekend and over the night, at 2 a.m., sent me a text message that she had excruciating, shooting leg pains. So, we don’t know if she is dehydrated or if she is throwing blood clots and the virus is attacking her musculoskeletal system,” the commissioner said shakily.
“So I absolutely will be making my decisions today from a personal experience because people who continue to come before this board and tell us that we need herd immunity … Well, I’m here to tell you that that’s not true. And you never know which one of the young people are going to be attacked seriously by this virus, and that is not a chance that I am willing to take.”
McKinlay repeated that she did not want to hear from “quack denier doctors” or about “underground media reports that this is a virus that should not be taken seriously.
“It absolutely is … you don’t know how it’s going to attack your system.”
McKinlay conceded that she knows of the economic hardships happening because of COVID-19 shutdowns of businesses, as her other two, healthy children “work in the restaurant industry and have been severely financially impacted by this virus…”
“But I’m not willing to have another mother sit in the position that I sit in today … because I can NOT go to Orlando which, believe me, at 7 a.m. I wanted to hit the highway and get up there. But I can’t be with her in the hospital. And when she texts me that she’s scared, I don’t want any other mother to ever have to get that text message and feel the way that I feel right now,” Commissioner McKinlay went on.
“So, do NOT come up to this podium today and try to tell me that this is a virus that doesn’t need to be taken seriously. Thank you, Mayor.”
Mayor Dave Kerner replied, “Thank you, Commissioner McKinlay, and your daughter remains in our prayers, of course.”
He then turned it over to Dr. Alonso “for a special presentation on COVID-19.”
She began with, “Commissioner McKinlay … Um, I hope she does well. I’ll keep you in my prayers.”
Dr. Alonso said that as of this past Sunday, Sept. 13, fully one-third of new coronavirus cases were occurring in the 15- to 24-year-old age group and asked, “What else can we do to stop those people from becoming positive?”
She stated, and McKinlay affirmed, that Palm Beach County now needs to focus on how to prevent COVID-19’s spread among youth because of the virus’s unpredictable medical consequences.
