The COVID emergency is over, it’s time for Newsom to do the same – Orange County Register

On March 4, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in California.

“If COVID-19 spreads in California at a rate comparable to that in other countries, the number of people requiring medical care could exceed locally available resources,” the statement said. “Experts predict that while a high percentage of people affected by COVID-19 will have mild flu-like symptoms, some will have more severe symptoms and require hospitalization, particularly are people who are elderly or have underlying chronic health conditions.”

In response to the emergency, Newsom suspended “the applicable provisions of the Government Code and the Public Contracts Code, including but not limited to travel, advertising and competitive bidding requirements.” painting”.

This allows Newsom to award no-bid contracts, hidden from any public process that might allow terms to be questioned. A CapRadio investigation in 2021 found that more than a few of those contracts went to Newsom’s biggest sponsors.

Today, a growing list of governments are dropping COVID restrictions and returning to normal life. In the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Norway, not to mention Florida, the pandemic is over. In California, however, the “state of emergency” has achieved immortality.

“This pandemic will not have a definite end,” Newsom told The Associated Press on Thursday, “There is no end.”

His new plan for what he calls a luxurious communist-sounding “endemic” phase for starters, promises that the state’s “way forward” will be “foreseeable.” based on our individual smarter actions” to “bring a better overall outcome” for the state.

But the Red Riding Hoods in the media store couldn’t hide the real soul of the plan, which was the creation of a permanent justification for awarding no-bid contracts. Observe the variety of contracts needed to execute the governor’s “endemic” plan, cutely named with the acronym SMARTER: “Shots, Masks, Awareness, Ready, Testing, Education, Rx.”

It was a non-auction purchase. Every school district, government agency, business, and organization in the state will be tasked with driving an endless cycle of spending. And don’t miss this: the governor’s plan notes that “properly worn masks with good filtration will help slow the spread of COVID-19 or other respiratory viruses.”

Other respiratory viruses? Is that a hint that children in California will be forced to wear masks in schools forever?

Here’s what the plan says in the “E” for Education: “California will continue to work to keep schools open and children safe in the classroom for in-person instruction.”

That really gives the game away. “Will continue to work to keep schools open” is an obvious threat to closing schools; “Safety” is defined in contract negotiations with teacher unions; reference to “direct instruction” implies that the Zoom field is permanently part of the assembly.

It’s a pandemic response without a pandemic.

California law requires the governor to “declare the end of the state of emergency on the earliest date practicable under the conditions.” When the state of emergency is terminated, all executive orders issued during the state of emergency will be terminated and emergency powers, state and local, no longer available.

But that means no more no-bid contracts for masks, testing kits, pharmaceuticals, healthcare administration, voter education, consulting and public relations. It means no more “emergency” negotiations with labor unions to come up with new requirements mid-contract, just before an election.

So the governor invented the world’s first “endemic” emergency plan: California will have a “COVID-19 Assessment and Action Unit” that will analyze data from “wastewater monitoring.” . It can be awkward when the Action Unit’s analysis finds traces of all the small businesses that have gone to the toilet in accordance with Governor Newsom’s policy.

On April 1, 2020, a month into the emergency, Newsom was asked during a press conference if he saw the potential for “a new era of progress” because of the COVID crisis.

Newsom begins, then begins a monologue about inequality, globalization, “the lens of fairness,” his alcohol business, and consumer trust. “Forgive me for being so verbose,” he said, “but we absolutely see this as an opportunity to reshape the way we do business and the way we operate.”

They certainly did. They reshaped a dying respiratory virus into a mechanism to throw tax dollars to teammates and fans.

And speaking of fans, America’s 70,000 richest and best-connected people enjoy attending the Super Bowl in Los Angeles, where the county’s outdoor masking mandate is completely unrestricted. If the pandemic emergency rules were really about health and safety, it wouldn’t have happened.