You could see and almost feel the passion on both sides in the still on-going debate over the pandemic.

At 2:30 Monday afternoon, San Diego County Supervisors Greg Cox and Nathan Fletcher calling on residents to follow health orders and Public Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten sounding an alarm over a dramatic rise in the number of coronavirus cases. You could hear the urgency in her voice.

Then just an hour later, along Harbor Drive, on an afternoon that saw a high temperature record set at the airport, emotions were heated as dozens of citizen activists and County Supervisor Jim Desmond spoke out against the state’s Purple Tier restrictions, saying businesses are hurting and many more may have to go out of business. You could hear the urgency of their plea in all their voices.

All of this happening shortly after Governor Newsom and California’s Health and Human Services Secretary described in unsettled voices their worries about how to reverse the more than 50-percent increase in cases of the COVID virus and prevent it from putting a strain on hospitals and leading to more pandemic deaths. The governor even saying they’re considering curfews to slow the surge.

They’ve been used in a couple of other states and in a number of cities around the country, a country which has seen one million new cases in just the last week, overwhelming some hospitals.

So the news the last few days about the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines being 90-to-95 percent effective was just the kind of good news we can use. With the start of the holidays now just days away, we need a season of hope.

WATCH below County officials news briefing Monday.

(Photo reporting partner 10News)

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