Unit2Sucks said:
Thought it would be a good time to revisit vaccination progress. Some people here were complaining when we were a point or two behind other states but look at things now. As was quite obvious early on, California came roaring back and is making as much progress as any other big state on vaccinations. More than half the state has already had their first jab and we are continuing to see healthy demand. By contrast, Texas is one of the worst performing states (under 40% have received a dose) and Florida is below average.
Meanwhile, on transmission California is doing better than every other state per capita. Texas has 2x as many cases per capita over the last few weeks and Florida has 5x.
As has been widely reported, counties are starting to move to the yellow tier and Newsom says the state will fully reopen June 15. So long as bad variants don't take hold here, I think we are likely to do so on a safer basis than many of the other states that still have heavier transmission of COVID.
This has to hurt the anti-California anti-progressive brigade, but facts are stubborn things.
Comparing CA to other states is clearly impossible because of the number of variables. To begin with is the geographical size of the state: the distance from the Oregon border to the Mexican border is the almost the same as the distance from Boston to Charlotte
NC. And it has probably the greatest geographical diversity in the nation.
Two highly respected medical experts John Swartzberg of Cal and Robert Kim-Farley of UCLA have both commented that it is difficult to compare CA's response to the pandemic with that of other states because of such factors as population density, the large numbers of agricultural and essential workers and the number of homeless.
It is possible they say that if CA had taken a less restrictive approach to the pandemic in CA the results might have left CA in an impossible position. Instead despite a serious second wave CA has currently among the best per capita position in the nation for large states.
They both reported that it would take years to sort through the data to determine what efforts worked and what did not.
My own view is based upon my military training. When you find yourself facing a dilemma or multiple dilemmas you have to DO SOMETHING quickly. Make your best informed decision and the act upon it. The worst thing you can do is to ignore the problem hope it doesn't exist or will just go away. TAKE CHARGE and ACT.
Nether of the two medical experts criticized Newsom since he acted based upon the best medical knowledge available at the time.
IMO It may later be determined that the best medical information was not completely accurate and that there were other/better things that could have been done. But a good leader can't sit on his hands and wait for that better information to arrive while your troops are dying all around you.
As it was pointed out in a recent USA Today article lots of businesses were closed and lost due to the shutdown in CA. But it is easier for the owners to restart a new business than for the dead to come back to life.
