๐๐๐ฅ๐ข๐๐จ๐ซ๐ง๐ข๐ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฅ๐๐๐ซ๐ง ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐จ๐ฅ๐จ๐ซ๐๐๐จ’๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐ฏ๐ข๐ ๐๐ก๐จ๐ข๐๐
Which decision is correct?
Californiaโs mandate comes not come from Governor Gavin Newsom. It comes from Dr. Tomรกs Aragรณn, the Director of the California Department of Public Health. This is an unelected position given power to issue such edicts due to the state of emergency declared by the governor almost two years ago. California has been in an ongoing state of emergency since, despite vaccines available to all and dramatic drops in infection rates.
Before becoming director earlier this year, Dr. Aragon was the health officer for the City and County of San Francisco. Before that he was in charge of public health at University of California, Berkeley, where he is still an adjunct professor. He has degrees from Berkeley and Harvard.
The new edict begins by noting that the “vaccines remain effective in preventing serious disease, hospitalization, and death from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.” Nonetheless, it goes on to state the Department “is requiring masks to be worn in all indoor public settings, irrespective of vaccine status, for the next four weeks (December 15, 2021, through January 15, 2022).”
The Order states the mandate is necessary because, “Since Thanksgiving, the statewide seven-day average case rate has increased by 47 percent and hospitalizations have increased by 14 percent.” But it ignores the fact that mask mandates have already long been in place in many counties in the State. The Order expands the rule to all counties.
Yet, it provides zero analysis of the spread of Covid in counties with the mandate versus those without it! Should this not be the most basic due diligence to conduct before issuing an order infringing on individual liberty, and which overrides decisions of local governments and impacts people from Bakersfield to Barstow and Modesto to Tahoe?
Compare this to Colorado — same virus, same human species — where Governor Jared Polis just announced: “The emergency is overโฆ Frankly, people who want to be protected [have gotten vaccinated]. Those who get sick, it’s almost entirely their own darn fault.”
No new mask mandate in response to another new variant. Rather, Polis said, “Our top goal is always to follow the science, and there was a time when there was no vaccine, and masks were all we had, and we needed to wear them. The truth is we now have highly effective vaccines that work far better than masksโฆ You donโt tell people to wear a jacket when they go out in winter and force them to [wear it]. If they get frostbite, itโs their own darn fault.”
Wow! Finally, a Democrat leader applying common sense and personal responsibility. He could not be more correct.
Americans should be free to take whatever measure they wish to stay healthy. Control their immunity through nutrition, exercise, and taking vitamins — or not. Go out to restaurants or eat at home. Go to the movies or watch Netflix.
Wear a mask, or two masks, or not. Get vaccinated or not. Get boosted or not.
In Colorado, thanks to the governor, Americans now are free to decide for themselves. While in California, Americans remain subject to the arbitrary edicts of a woke Berkeley professor.
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