San Francisco Chronicle:
Former San Francisco Mayor and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown recently wrote:
“From the top down, you can sum up the current fight against the coronavirus in one word: confusion.
Nobody seems able to interpret or explain the various and at times contradictory rules, orders or advice. And that includes the people who make the rules and give the advice.”
Click here to read Willie Brown’s commentary published in the San Francisco Chronicle.
CALmatters columnist Dan Walters wrote:
Just a few weeks ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom was boasting about California’s apparent success in suppressing COVID-19 infections…
He called it “bending the curve” of the infection rate and decided to reopen vast sections of the economy that he had shuttered in March.
… In recent days, however, Newsom has reversed course, citing alarming increases in infection rates and deaths. …
The governor closed bars, made wearing protective facemasks mandatory, reinstituted bans on indoor activities in 19 counties with high infection rates, formed “multi-agency strike teams” to crack down on “people who are thumbing their noses” at restrictions, and threatened counties with a loss of state funds if they balk. ….
With these and other actions, Newsom dropped the pretense that fighting the pandemic was fundamentally in the hands of local officials and made it clear that he’s calling the shots. Newsom now owns the pandemic in California …
There’s another aspect to the situation that’s also on Newsom — a fierce outbreak of infection in the state’s prisons. …
… California prisons have emerged as raging COVID-19 hot spots, even as the state annually spends more on inmate health care than other big states …
However, if it doesn’t bend, Newsom — fairly or not — will bear the onus. It’s his pandemic now.
Click here to read Dan Walters’ article published in CalMatters.