Dr. Marty Fenstersheib has seen his share of health crises.

In his more than 30-year career in public health, Fenstersheib has battled such challenges as the HIV epidemic and the H1N1 virus.

Fenstersheib, who retired in 2013 after 29 years with Santa Clara County as its health officer, returned to the county as its Covid-19 testing officer after a stint as San Benito County’s health officer.

He recently discussed his experience as well as why people should get tested for Covid-19.

Why is it important for people to get tested for Covid-19?

It’s important in order for us to find out who is infected; then we can keep those people separated from others so they won’t infect other people. That protects coworkers, families and the community. We can also then identify people who may have already been exposed to an infected person and keep those people away from others and thus contain the infections in the community.

Some people have questioned the need to get tested, saying that they could unknowingly contract Covid-19 in the hours/days after, making their test result irrelevant. What would you say to them?

Testing is not a one-time act. Our recommendation is for people in frontline work to get tested at least once a month. We understand the potential for exposure is ongoing and so testing, too, needs to be ongoing.

You retired from Santa Clara County after nearly 30 years in public health, and recently left San Benito County after a stint there. Why did you decide to come back to Santa Clara County?

This is the community where I live and I still have a desire to help. I want to add my career experiences to the efforts being made to help the community stay safe.

What differences do you see in the virus’ spread in San Benito County, with its smaller population, compared with the larger Santa Clara County?

The virus doesn’t care which county you are in; the virus spreads the same way in large counties as it does in small ones. People work and live in different places and cross county lines, so everybody must follow the same guidance.

You have been the top health official during other health crises, such as the HIV epidemic and the more recent H1N1 virus. Do you see any similarities or differences with the current pandemic?

Each pandemic or epidemic requires extensive honest and accurate communication with the community. In comparison, HIV is not easily spread—it’s not a respiratory disease—but in each of these cases there were a lot of fears and misinformation within the community. H1N1 was similar in that it was a respiratory disease, but it wasn’t the same because it was a flu virus and a vaccine was developed very quickly so it didn’t have the same economic impacts as Covid-19. Covid-19 is different because it will take much longer to develop a vaccine, and the economic impacts are huge.

Looking back at the early days of the pandemic in March, how has the county’s response to Covid-19 evolved over the last three months?

We’ve learned a lot more about the virus itself. We’ve moved from mitigation—where everybody was staying inside—to more of a containment model. That means that as we open up we know there will be more exposure and infection. That’s why we have augmented our testing capacity so we can quickly identify these additional infections and contain them through our case investigation and contact tracing. We’ve also learned that using facemasks is critical and serves a very important role in preventing people from exposing others.