Newsom hasn’t learned from virus mistakes
Gavin Newsom just doesn’t get it.
The governor last week rolled out his latest “blueprint” for determining when it’s safe for California counties to reopen for business. It’s a recipe for a replay of the July surge that resulted in a devastating wave of new cases and deaths.
Shut beaches, malls and businesses. Numbers decrease. Reopen beaches, malls and businesses. Numbers increase. Repeat. That strategy had resulted in 714,391 cases and 13,123 deaths in California. About 50% more Californians are dying each day from the virus than in the spring.
The only proven approach, governor, for controlling the pandemic is sufficient testing and contact tracing. On that front, the state, and Newsom, are failing. Miserably.
The novel coronavirus is highly contagious even when those infected show no symptoms. Without adequate testing, businesses can’t ensure their workers are disease-free and prevent employees from spreading COVID-19.
Newsom announced last week a new plan that would more than double California’s testing capacity through a public-private partnership with life sciences company PerkinElmer. That sounds promising. But the governor also said the lab wouldn’t reach full capacity of 150,000 tests per day until March 1. That’s right. March 1, six months away.
It’s unacceptable. California now processes about 100,000 tests a day. Even if the state reaches 250,000 tests a day by March, that would barely surpass the 223,000 tests a day researchers at the Harvard Global Health Institute say are necessary just to mitigate the virus. In order to suppress COVID-19, California must conduct 825,000 tests a day. That should be the governor’s goal.
The state must also speed
In order to suppress COVID-19, California must conduct 825,000 tests a day. That should be the governor’s goal.
up test turnaround times, which are often more than a week. Health officials said the agreement with PerkinElmer would guarantee results within 24-48 hours, but again that’s six months away.
Meanwhile, the delays not only leave individuals in the lurch about whether they’ve been infected, they also undermine attempts to notify their friends, family and co-workers in a timely way if they’ve been exposed to the virus. Effective contact tracing is critical for stemming the spread of the virus.
To be fair, the federal government should have taken the lead ensuring adequate testing. President Trump’s disgraceful failure to develop a national testing strategy remains a primary reason the nation, with 185,000 deaths, leads the world in fatalities.
California does not have the same power as the federal government to implement a coordinated, national testing strategy. But the governor does have the authority to prevent the state from reopening the economy until it has sufficient testing and contact tracing in place to prevent another surge.
Newsom earned national praise in March for following Bay Area health officials’ science-based strategy for controlling the coronavirus. But in April the governor ignored health officials’ warnings and his own criteria for reopening the economy. The result has been a deadly roller-coaster ride that won’t end until California develops sufficient testing capacity to control COVID-19.