Newsom’s leadership is falling short

Gov. Gavin Newsom bears responsibility for the current surge of COVID-19 cases in California. Early on, he wisely adopted health officials’ strategy for controlling the coronavirus. It was working as the number of cases leveled off in early April. But then the governor, ignoring warnings from some of those same health officials to take it slow, reversed course and opened up the state much too fast.

The result: California is now plagued with a major spike of coronavirus cases. The numbers had been steadily increasing since late April but then started sharply rising in midJune. Each day now, the state’s seven-day trend line reaches record-high levels.

That resulted on Monday in Newsom once again shutting down the state.

He doesn’t bear the responsibility alone. We have also contributed to the pandemic by going out in public unnecessarily, not wearing our masks and generally treating the disease as an inconvenience, where the young are immune and our seniors at risk. But as of Tuesday morning in Yolo County, there were 966 cases, an increase of 38 from the day before. Woodland alone now has 487 cases with 15 reported in one day. Meanwhile, our senior care facilities are reporting 94 cases.

The increase in cases is not merely due to more testing; it’s also due to a larger percentage of those tested having the virus. The portion of tests that come back positive has increased more than 50% in the past 2½ weeks. Now, about 7% of those tested are infected.

Which helps explain why California hospitalizations for COVID-19 have increased 60% since June 13 and have surpassed the statewide peaks seen in April. Once again, some hospitals are preparing to stop doing elective surgeries so they can open up more beds for virus patients. Yolo County has no intensive care capacity. It’s all used up.

This is the scenario health experts warned about. While the state is better prepared than back in March, it’s still woefully short on testing and contact tracing needed to stem the spread of the virus.

And, this time, it lacks clear direction from its governor. While Newsom implores us to all do our part — to wear masks, wash our hands and socially distance — he has sent confusing and mixed messages about what constitutes compliance. He has teeter-tottered between warnings about the dangers of the virus and declarations of the urgent need to reopen the state’s economy.

It doesn’t help that some people out there are still skeptics and feel it’s OK to sacrifice a few people for the sake of the economy. Just look at the anger some people are expressing in Woodland over the reopening of schools. They either want in-class instruction for students, keeping schools closed and allowing for online learning only, or canceling school altogether.

Meanwhile, not even members of Newsom’s own health department are clear on how the rules differ from county to county, which is why Yolo County went back into lockdown. \Unlike President Donald Trump, Newsom clearly understands the dangers and science of COVID-19. But, like Trump, Newsom keeps trying to push responsibility down to the next-lower layer of government. Trump says it’s up to the states to deal with the coronavirus; Newsom says it’s up to the counties.

Both leaders threatened that if they didn’t like the results, they would step in. Yet, the pushes by Trump and Newsom to reopen have undermined conscientious local health officials’ attempts to hold the line.

To be sure, Newsom shows far deeper understanding of the coronavirus threat than Trump. Unfortunately, the governor has focused too much time in the past couple of months on the reopening side of the challenge rather than containing the virus.

Until there’s a vaccine, the best treatment is widespread and systematic testing to ensure people don’t return to workplaces or otherwise venture out without first being checked for the virus.

Newsom’s leadership has fallen woefully short. In the weeks ahead, we will see how short as the rising number of cases in California are followed by commensurate increases in hospitalizations and then deaths.

Sadly, that will be the ultimate measure of Newsom’s performance.

It doesn’t help that some people out there feel it’s OK to sacrifice a few people for the economy.