Life after COVID won’t be the same in California – Orange County Register

Life after the Spanish flu pandemic that killed tens of millions of people in the late and early 20s of the last century was never the same.

Some public health measures, such as mass vaccinations, have become normalized. New health and cleanliness standards apply to restaurants and other businesses. So it would be completely unrealistic to see no change because the COVID-19 pandemic that has caused over the past two years has gradually turned into an endemic disease that we have to deal with regularly, not programs. collision and emergency tactics.

One change that is supposed to be permanent is the relocation of millions of workers, in California and elsewhere, out of office buildings and into home offices. That has opened up billions of square feet of vacant office space that can be turned into housing much more quickly and economically than building new.

So the solution to both homelessness and the shortage of affordable housing is upon us and is starting to happen, even as Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature are largely sponsored by developers who ignored it.

Another potentially permanent change: While it won’t be mandatory in many places, trust grocery stores, gyms, theaters and other privately owned public venues require or recommend that unvaccinated people (at least) wear face masks in the future indefinitely, with the most health-conscious among us happily accompanying them.

State, county, and city mask requirements have been substantially eliminated or relaxed, partly as an indirect consequence of Newsom and Mayors Eric Garcetti and London Breed of Los Angeles and San Francisco being filmed maskless video in a sky box during a professional football knockout match in January in Inglewood.

Hopefully mask-wearing in schools will fade away, and vaccination remains a significant political issue. They were there before COVID appeared; The virus has highlighted the conflict as millions of people claim vaccinations are enforced in violation of basic freedoms.

Of course, the people making those claims are basically saying that they have a right to infect everyone around them for their own temporary benefit, as COVID can be transmitted even by people who have no symptoms. sick. If someone dies as a result of their refusal – and many have – it causes some to refuse less than premeditated killers, since most now know the possible consequences. happens when they are not wearing a mask or a vaxx.

All of this has led to a massive expansion of the anti-vaccination movement, which opposes compulsory vaccination of schoolchildren long before anyone has heard of coronavirus or its Greek-lettered variants. its like Delta and Omicron.

So it’s very likely that California in the near future will be an even fiercer vaccine battleground before the pandemic.

At the time, throughout 2019, anti-vaccination protesters were regularly arrested for various forms of disorderly conduct and some even assaulted a state lawmaker.

It was Senator Richard Pan of Sacramento, Democrat, who enacted two state bills that made it much more difficult for dissidents to claim religious-faith exemptions to bring their children. they enter schools, public and private, without protection against threats such as smallpox, rubella and whooping cough.

Pan was beaten while walking on the sidewalk in his district, not far from the state Capitol.