CA Governor Puts Kibosh On Bars, Indoor Dining Amid ‘Alarming’ COVID-19 Spread | Talking Points Memo

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#21

Interestingly states in the Northeast opened several weeks back with no spike.

I think simply that the testing was so inadequate we had no idea put infection rate.

I suspect NY and MA were in this same 15k cases a day, we just couldn’t measure it at the time and east coast got the EU variant which spreads faster, whereas CA shut down earlier and likely had a lower infection rate in March than Northeast.

I don’t think that the Northeast attained “Herd Immunity” but I do suspect that our pool of folks who are immune is a bit larger, .aking later spread less as the is less “fuel” for spread.

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#22

There is huge spread among seasonal agricultural workers. Not surprising, of course. They needed something more than shutting down restaurant & nail salons. Better testing, better living conditions, more safeguards on the job & in transit to-from job sites.

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#23

California’s waaaay premature opening would never have happened if Trump had not shifted the discussion to “which states can open first to bail out businesses” – and if Newsom hadn’t inexplicably started trying to triangulate between public health experts and Trump (as an “economy expert”?). It only goes to show that Trump knows nothing about medicine and even less about the economy – the month of unsteady income those businesses got will be far outweighed by a much longer (and totally preventable) period of closure. Many more businesses will fold.

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#24

The hair salon I use opened about 2 weeks ago with those risk reduction strategies.

  1. Client calls shop to announce arrival.
  2. Wait in the car until the shop calls that the stylist is ready
  3. Mask up before entering and upon entering wash hands for 20 seconds.
  4. Proceed immediately to hair washing station. Each station is cordoned off with plastic partitions.
  5. Mask on AND towel over face while hair is washed.
  6. Client waits in stylist’s chair while stylist disinfects shampoo station
  7. Hair cut and styled mask on
  8. Credit card only on a long stick receipt emailed
  9. Stylist disinfects the chair and surfaces where client had hair cut.
  10. It costs about $10 more and requires about 15-20 min. extra time for stylist.

Dentists are doing about the same thing and I go for that appt. this week.

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#25

And who is going to do the teaching? What are they planning to do to protect teachers & support staff? They are a completely different demographic and at much higher risk. My wife works at a school and she knows a number of staff members that will just retire, they are not risking their lives for the crappy pay from the school district.

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#26

I was shocked to learn that California had re-opened theaters.

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#27

God I miss the gym.

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#28

I could go for some veggie kibosh.

#29

To be fair, Newsom was presented with numbers that looked reasonably stable, and big protests from the conservative areas, including some counties that decided they were going to ignore the governor’s orders to keep things closed. I don’t think he could have continued politically with the full lockdown, there would have been enough blowback from counties rebelling that it would have been huge mess. I do wish he had been more controlled in opening things…the first little bit appeared fine so they rushed through everything else, when they should have opened a little, waited, then a bit more, and so on. They also should have reacted a bit more quickly when the numbers went up…in LA county things were reasonably good as far as following the orders, though now it’s more relaxed (there’s more people not wearing masks walking around than before despite the mask order).

We’ll see how this new step goes…if new test results haven’t leveled off in a week they will probably have to order a full lockdown again. That’s going to hurt a lot of businesses, but there’s no way around it. The selfish assholes will protest again, and, honestly, I think they should just let them, we can watch them get sick and die from their stupidity.

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#30

It’s hot in Orange County, California, just like in Orange County, Florida! So many similarities… beautiful similarities… take my word on that…beautiful I tell you…

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#31

I know Alameda County issued its own shutdown a few days ago. I myself am in Contra Costa (after 30-someodd years in Oakland), and I was unaware that any of that stuff (bars/gyms/indoor dining) was even happening. It’d be outrageous if so.

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#32

Seriously we need to recognize the strong probability that restaurants (except those that can do a volume of takeout and outdoor, socially distanced, dining and bars are heading for an extinction event. The best we can do is find a way to allow them to go bankrupt with any personal debt of the owners being extinguished. Then in a year or two or several when things are under control we can get a new set of restaurants and bars.

And in the meantime we need to have government financial relief for the workers who have no place to work.

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#33

Get back to me when they change their name to Blue County.

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#34

LA Unified, on the other hand:

It’s the only safe decision, and glad they announced it as soon as they did. I still really feel for the parents/teachers/everyone, really.

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#35

What a bunch of dumb-masks!

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#36

Oh stop. He did far more than most. Unfortunately, we have a lot of Republicans and “my freedom” dead-enders who think this is an effing joke. Not to mention dumb ass kids.

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#37

“And they’re both orange: Everybody’s favorite color!”

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#38

Opening bars (and indoor restaurants, gyms etc) was absolutely suicidal. There is no way to do that stuff with a mask on, it’s not necessary to live, disproportionately attracts the people who are taking this the least seriously, crams people indoors in poorly ventilated spaces – the list goes on. And I say this as someone who truly loves bars! Until there’s a vaccine or a really effective test, trace, and quarantine system this will never work.

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#39

I know of at least one large state (of California) agency has just let employees know they’ll be working from home until the end of the year.

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#40

That’s a pretty low bar. Newsom opened up too soon, failed to get contact tracing worked up before opening, and failed to lock back down when it became clear that case numbers were going up. California has had more daily new cases than Texas for the last week or two, and our governor is utterly terrible.

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