California Becomes First State In Nation To Adopt “Endemic” COVID Policy
Given that the transmission rate in California (and almost everywhere else in this shithole country) is still as high at it’s ever been, and given that over 2,000 people are still dying every day, it’s sad to see so many blue states dropping all their COVID rules (not that anyone enforced or followed the rules). But, the desperate Democrats are too afraid of being wiped out in the midterm elections later this year, so now they have to pretend like everything’s fine. What’s funny is that the Dems will lose control of Congress regardless (what’s even funnier is that they had control for two years, and they still accomplished absolutely nothing lol), and still more people will die.
I understand that people want a return to “normal” (whatever that means) and this can’t go on forever, but until transmission goes down dramatically, my N95 mask will stay on in all public places, despite this news from Newsom yesterday:
California became the first state to formally shift to an “endemic” approach to the coronavirus with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement Thursday of a plan that emphasizes prevention and quick reaction to outbreaks over mandated masking and business shutdowns.
The milestone, nearly two years in the making, envisions a return to a more normal existence with the help of a variety of initiatives and billions in new spending to more quickly spot surges or variants, add health care workers, stockpile tests and push back against false claims and other misinformation.
“We are moving past the crisis phase into a phase where we will work to live with this virus,” he said during a news conference from a state warehouse brimming with pandemic supplies in Fontana, east of Los Angeles.
A disease reaches the endemic stage when the virus still exists in a community but becomes manageable as immunity builds. But there will be no definitive turn of the switch, the Democratic governor said, unlike the case with Wednesday’s lifting of the state’s indoor masking requirements or an announcement coming Feb. 28 of when precisely schoolchildren can stop wearing face coverings.
“This pandemic won’t have a defined end. There’s no finish line,” Newsom said.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020, and with omicron fading in many parts of the world some countries have begun planning for the endemic stage. But no state has taken the step Newsom did and offered a detailed forward-looking plan.
Newsom’s plan sets specific goals, such as stockpiling 75 million masks, establishing the infrastructure to provide up to 200,000 vaccinations and 500,000 tests a day in the event of an outbreak, and adding 3,000 medical workers within three weeks in surge areas.
Newsom’s administration came up with a shorthand acronym to capsulize key elements of its new approach: SMARTER. The letters stand for Shots, Masks, Awareness, Readiness, Testing, Education and Rx, a reference to improving treatments for COVID-19.
[KTLA: California adopts nation’s 1st ‘endemic’ virus policy]
