California Burns While Newsom Fiddles
It’s the opening of fire season in California.
But the biggest threat to the people of the state right now is Gov. Gavin Newsom and his shifting rules about closing businesses and schools to fight the coronavirus.
Until last week, things were starting to look up out here, pandemic-wise.
Los Angeles County, where I live, has been the worst hit county in the state, by far, with 5,112 of its 10,813 COVID-19 deaths.
As in every other state between here and Boston, the already very sick and the very old accounted for most of the deaths. About 75 percent were over age 65 and 4,486 were living in nursing homes.
California was struggling to come back to life in mid-June when Newsom finally allowed dine-in restaurants, retail stores, bars, religious services and gyms in some counties to re-open under certain state guidelines.
More recently, deaths per day have been in a slight decline. So have new positive case numbers per day, COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admissions.
Those and other hopeful trends weren’t good enough for Newsom, however.
Last week, seizing on a spike in hospitalizations, he and his health experts again effectively shut down most of the state’s economic and social life.
Newsom forced gyms, houses of worship, hair salons, malls and other businesses to lock their doors again. He also outlawed all indoor dining and ordered the closing of bars, zoos and museums.
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Copyright 2020 Michael Reagan, All Rights Reserved. Credit: Cagle.com
