California Governor Gavin Newsom is an authoritarian. He’s worse than Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. He’s worse than Washington Governor Jay Inslee. When it comes to consolidating power over the little people of his state, nobody flexes their executive muscles more than Newsom.
But for now, his draconian mandates are on hold. He has a recall election to try to win next month, so he dares not make any politically unpopular moves until then. One extremely unpopular move, particularly for Black and Hispanic voters, will not be initiated until after the election. According to Just The News:
Californians wanting to attend events with more than 1,000 people will have to prove they have received a COVID-19 vaccine.
The California Department of Public Health announced attending indoor events with 1,000 or more guests will require either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within the last 72 hours. The requirement previously was triggered at events with 5,000 or more attendees.
“The Delta variant has proven to be highly transmissible, making it easier to spread in large crowds where people are near each other for long periods of time,” CDPH Director Dr. Tomás J. Aragón said. “By requiring individuals to be vaccinated, or test negative for COVID-19 at large events, we are decreasing the risk of infection, hospitalization and death.”
The department also announced self-attestation to verify a person’s vaccination status no longer would be accepted.
The change will take place on Sept. 20, six days after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recall election. It will remain in effect until Nov. 1. CDPH told CalMatters its chose the date to give businesses time to prepare for the change.
Newsom hinted on Tuesday the state could see mandatory water rationing in the weeks after the recall election since pleas for voluntary conservation measures fell on deaf ears.
There are two takeaways from this. First and foremost, requiring proof of vaccination or proof of Covid tests is ludicrous because it is the vaccinated who are spreading the Delta Variant faster than the unvaccinated. If he really wanted to slow down the spread, he’d require testing for everyone, unvaccinated or not. I’m not advocating that for a disease that has a 99.93% recovery rate for those under the age of 45, but if there was any consistency between his actions and the science, proof of vaccination does not replace testing.
The second is obvious. Contrary to statements from Sacramento bureaucrats, the timing of this mandate is 100% driven by the recall election. This mandate would be in place today if he wasn’t facing recall. The fact that it goes into effect less than a week after the election is purely evil political posturing.
California has been slipping into the abyss for years, but Gavin Newsom has made things much worse. Considering the state of affairs today, if he isn’t recalled, the state is guaranteed to fall off the edge completely.
