Just as families were making plans for their holiday gatherings, Gavin Newsom and his top-secret number-people pulled out their comforters and firehoses, because they were ready to start laying down some wet blankets.  Under the guise of “protecting Californians,” Newsom ordered everyone to stay home.  His people, with super-secret data, that they cannot share with us nor provide through legal orders under Freedom of Information requests, said that the virus was out of control and that we had to do our part to protect everyone from getting sick.

Predictably, many of us said these orders were just economic hurdles to hurt the Trump administration in its final days.  We said that the orders were without merit and likely would lead to further damage to California’s already fragile economy.  Now, remember, the stay-at-home order started the last week of November 2020 and was then extended at the end of December of an “indefinite period.”  Everything we know about the virus would tell us that orders keeping people home would slow the spread in two weeks.  Fewer people out sharing it around, 10-14 day incubation, and boom, numbers would be dropping off around the middle of December.

Except they didn’t.  Both active cases and deaths continued to rise. Many would like to blame this on the rebellious people who ignored the Emperor’s orders, however, if Christmas and New Years were the days of heavy gathering, two weeks after that should have seen another drop off in the numbers.  Except there wasn’t.  January 21st saw the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the State since the beginning of the pandemic.

Newsom told us that the measures were to save hospitals from being overwhelmed, stating that nothing would begin to open until hospitals fell below the 85% capacity levels.  As of this morning, that hasn’t happened.  Since the 15th of January, the numbers of new cases have begun to slide, however, it still remains more than twice higher than it was when the stay-at-home order was issued, AND just happens to coincide with a drop in demand for testing.  In other words, the old Trumpism “if we test less, we will have fewer positives,” is accurate in this case.  Previous testing locations have been closed to usher in the distribution of the vaccine, which ironically, has been handled about as well as you’d expect the government in California to handle it.

I mean, what do you expect from the State that got rid of our emergency stockpile of ventilators, only then to shift blame to Trump.  California now leads the country in total cases, current active cases as well as placing 2nd in the nation for COVID-19 Deaths (behind that other liberal paradise, New York).  Newsom’s orders have proven ineffective, damaging, and completely unnecessary.  Florida for instance has had few-to-no mitigation efforts, yet has half of the cases of California, less than half of the active cases, 12,000 fewer deaths, and a lower number of cases per million.  DeSantis has been absolutely trashed in the past by the media for his “lack of action” however, his state has its theme parks open, the tourist industry is recovering, and the numbers in the state continue to be less than that of California.  While Florida’s highest day of deaths was from August, at 276, in fairness Florida does have a slightly higher number of deaths per capita and has had a more even distribution of their COVID-19 deaths.

It appears, however, that some numbers do alarm, Newsom.  Those numbers are not favorable to him and could lead to a single death;  The death of his political career.  In 2003, Californians recalled Governor Gray Davis over a rise in California’s car tax.  That car tax may have cost Californians a few hundred dollars a year.  Now imagine the wrath of an electorate, many of which have lost jobs, homes, life savings, and other opportunities because of the outright idiocy that has been displayed by Governor Newsom.  The numbers Newsom fears aren’t that of COVID-19 deaths or hospital capacities, but his own approval rating.  This morning’s removal of the stay-at-home orders is simply Newsom’s attempt to avoid responsibility for the irreparable damage he has done to California’s economy. Sure that damage started decades ago, but with companies like Disney, Oracle, Tesla, Space X, and others, (multi-billion dollar businesses), all shoulders in the Governor’s continued orders, you know that something is up.  Newsom’s shut down at best, was an effort to “appear” to be doing something to save his political hide, and at worst, a calculated effort to continue to stall the economy under the Trump administration, to punish the outgoing President.  There really isn’t any middle ground or another explanation that fits the numbers and data that continue to come out.  Nothing has changed since the end of November.  If anything, it is worse, yet Newsom’s dumping of his orders either is to benefit the new occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania or his attempt at bailing out his own behind.

Either way, it has nothing to do with science.