California Gov. Gavin Newsom is rolling back COVID restrictions in his state – but he won’t say why.
The Democrat governor, who’s come under increasing fire for nearly a year for his draconian COVID restrictions that have shut down large swaths of his state and bankrupted countless businesses, is expected to announce Monday that he’s lifting his statewide stay-at-home order, allowing cities and counties to return to “tiered” restrictions based on COVID case numbers in the local area.
"We see promising signs that California is slowly emerging from the most intense stage of this pandemic. We continue to look at what that means for the Regional Stay at Home order and anticipate that the state Department of Public Health will provide a formal update tomorrow morning," Brian Ferguson, Newsom’s Deputy Director for Crisis Communication & Public Affairs, said over the weekend.
But if it weren’t sketchy enough that Newsom is lifting his restrictions less than one week after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, it only adds to the suspicion that he won’t release the state data supposedly driving the change, saying it would only “confuse” the public.
According to the Associated Press, “State health officials said they rely on a very complex set of measurements that would confuse and potentially mislead the public if they were made public.”
On top of that, it looks like the state may be ignoring its own pre-stated guidance for when the stay-at-home order is lifted. Previously, Newsom had divided the state into five regions, saying they would be placed under a stay-at-home order if their ICU capacity fell below a 15% availability. As of last week, not a single region had met the criteria.
The AP reports:
At the start of last week, no regions appeared likely to have the stay-at-home order lifted soon because their capacity was well below 15%. But within a day, the state announced it was lifting the order for the 13-county Greater Sacramento area.
Suddenly, outdoor dining and worship services were OK again, hair and nail salons and other businesses could reopen, and retailers were allowed more shoppers inside.
Local officials and businesses were caught off guard. State officials did not describe their reasoning other than to say it was based on a projection for ICU capacity.
Now, state health officials – at the direction of the governor’s office – say they can’t share the “complex” data behind their decision because the public simply wouldn’t understand it.
Which, of course, is crystal clear leftwing speak for "we simply don't need this pandemic anymore, carry on" - which isn't confusing at all.
In fact, it's predictable.
(Cover Photo: Gage Skidmore)