Overstepping his bounds in the coronvirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 crisis, 52-year-old Califiornia Gov. Gavin Newsom has crossed a line, now faces a grassroots revolt against his tyrannical public health edicts. Told by his medical experts that California would face 25.5 million or 60% of the States’s 29.51 million population infected with coronvirus, Newsom clamped down March 19, issuing the nation’s strictest “shelter in place” orders. With 52,197 total cases and 2,134 deaths, Newsom’s models have proved all wrong. Shelter-in-place orders do not account for why Newsom’s March 19 forecasts proved incorrect, showing gross errors by medical statisticians to predict the future. While mitigation efforts helped, they’re not primarily responsible for California’s relatively modes SARS CoV-2 numbers. Newsom’s statewide edict shutting down Orange County’s beaches goes over the top.
Watching video of Huntington and Newport beaches during last week’s heat wave, Newsom went overboard, imposing a statewide ban on all beaches. Newsom has no reliable data to show that opening up beaches or public parks would have any measurable impact on the state’s coronvirus numbers. Yet Newsom acted defiantly, issuing his draconic order banning all state’s beaches. Watching record levels of state unemployment, Newsom faces budget shortfalls for the foreseeable future. Yet Gavin acts like he can keep the State quarantined indefinitely, as long as his medical experts and number-crunchers call the shots. Watching the State’s $21 billion Rainy Day Fund evaporate overnight, Newsom doesn’t know what’s about to hit the state. He assumers that 73-uyear-old President Donald Trump’s going to show mercy on the State when Newsom runs crying for money..
Newsom said March 19 that his computer models show State’s 72,000 hospital bed and 7,200 Intensive Care Unit [ICU] beds running out of room in mid-May. Now forecasts show none of the dire predictions made when Newsom shut down the State. Pivoting now out of necessity, Newsom knows that yesterday’s statewide beach ban went over-the-top. Today Newsom said he w as going to make some important announcements in a matter of “days not weeks,” after saying California’s shelter-in-place orders would remain in effect until May 15. Now saying that changes were the works in “days not weeks” Newsom pivoted due to California’s dire economy. “I feel some confidence over the course of the next week we’re going to be able to make some announcements that will give people some more confidence in the ability for California to get back on its economic feet,” Newsom said today.
Newsom’s heavy-handed approach to the SARS CoV-2 crisis was entirely unnecessary. Unlike Trump who wanted states to make up their own minds about shelter-in-place orders, Newsom overstepped his authority, leaving Californians with a bad taste. It’s one thing to try to save lives, still another to not see the carnage caused by rampant unemployment. Because of Newsom’s extreme orders, the State now faces budget shortfalls, possibly a credit downgrade, for the foreseeable future. Judging by the State’s actual metrics of coronavirus cases and deaths, Newsom should have acted weeks ago to methodically return Calfiornai’s back to work. Newsom admitted that ICU beds were flat and hospitalizations have begun to drop, defying his past forecasts. Newsome asked Trump to order the 1,000-bed Navy hospital Ship Comfort to San Pedro, when it wasn’t necessary.
Newsom didn’t operate with an abundance of caution, he relied on bad medical advice, and drove California’s economy into the tank. Before issuing his stay at home orders, California’s economy was rolling along with 3.5% unemployment, adding billions of dollars into the State treasury. But Newsom couldn’t deal with SAR CoV-2 without resorting to extremes. Once he realized that the State was not going to come remotely near his forecasts of coronvirus cases and deaths, he should have worked diligently on a plan to reopen the economy. Instead of following the White House plans for reopening, Newsom made up his own arbitrary rules designed to keep the State closed indefinitely. Now that he’s running out of cash because of his own decisions, he expects Trump to bail the State out. Pulling the statewide beaches ban yesterday, Newsom showed that he had lost touch with the people.
Newsom faces a backlash from Orange County officials, unwilling to continue placating the governor while State’s unemployed goes through the roof. Orange County plans to file for injunctive relief in federal court, asserting the governor has no proof that opening up the beaches would accelerate a public health hazard. “The only thing, I mean it, the only thing that’s going to hold us back is a spread of his virus,” Newsom said, not admitting that his March 19 forecasts were off-the-wall. “And the only thing that is assure to advance the spread of the virus is thousands of people congregated together no practicing social distancing or physical distancing,” Newsom said, repeating his old talking points that no longer work. Instead of picking on Orange County beachgoers, Newsom should focus on getting California back to work before the State runs out of cash, really putting residents at risk.
