Un-Re-Opening... California Takes The Step

"Die For Him Grandpa" by Nancy Ohanian

California is a COVID-mess, particularly the southern part of the state, where all the counties followed Gov. Gavin Newsom into a wait-and-see approach (while the Bay Area counties ignored Newsom's cowardice and shut down fast and managed to stave off the worst of the pandemic that is devastating southern California. Even though Newsom is making it next to impossible to get tested in L.A. County any more, on Sunday the state reported 7,702 confirmed new cases-- bringing the state total to second in the nation and 8,293 cases for every million Californians. California will be number one in the country in August. Yesterday the state reported another 8,350 new cases, bringing the state total to 336,037 and 8,505 cases per million Californians. L.A., Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties are all out of control.

L.A. Unified, America's second largest school district (730,00 students) and the San Diego Unified (135,000 students), the two largest districts in the state, announced yesterday what was inevitable-- the autumn will be all on-line classes. In case anyone was having any second thoughts about that, the teachers unions-- with 83% backing from the rank and file-- said teachers would not be showing up for scheduled classes on August 18.

The NY Times noted that the "joint announcement came as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos continued to press the Trump administration’s case to quickly reopen public schools, not only for students’ social and emotional development, but also to allow parents to return to work fully. In television appearances over the weekend, she downplayed both the virus and the school reopening guidelines issued by the administration’s own public health officials. 'I think the go-to needs to be kids in school, in person, in the classroom, because we know for most kids, that’s the best environment for them,' Ms. DeVos said on CNN’s State of the Union. She also reiterated the administration’s stance that guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deeming in-person classes the 'highest risk' option were not mandatory. President Trump threatened last week to cut off federal funding to schools that did not reopen their campuses."

Los Angeles school superintendent Austin Beutner, seeming to answer DeVos, said, "There’s a public health imperative to keep schools from becoming a petri dish." He added that schools "can’t just tap our heels together" like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and "pretend it’s appropriate to bring people back" despite "skyrocketing" rates of new infections.

Reopening by Nancy Ohanian

No reputable public health experts agree with Trump and DeVos that reopening in locales undergoing massive spikes is OK. "The recommendations from the president and Ms. DeVos," wrote The Times reporters, "have been disputed by many public health officials and teachers. On Friday, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and AASA, the School Superintendents Association issued a statement saying that reopening recommendations should be 'based on evidence, not politics.' The groups added that 'we should leave it to health experts to tell us when the time is best to open up school buildings, and listen to educators and administrators to shape how we do it.'"

School districts in San Jose, Oakland and San Bernardino are following suit and sticking to remote teaching only.

The decision also comes as districts throughout the state are confronting resistance from California’s politically powerful teachers’ unions. Like many districts, both Los Angeles and San Diego have been engaged in tense negotiations over pandemic working conditions.

The Los Angeles teachers’ union called last week for campuses to remain closed and for learning to be fully remote when the district resumes classes on Aug. 18, saying Mr. Trump’s reopening push was part of a “dangerous, anti-science agenda.” In an informal survey released Friday of 18,000 United Teachers Los Angeles members, 83 percent agreed that campuses should not physically reopen.

And the state’s largest teachers’ union wrote a sharply worded letter last week to Gov. Gavin Newsom-- a Democrat elected with their support-- expressing concern “that politics are being played with the lives of children and the educators who serve them.”

“It is clear that communities and school districts have not come close to meeting the threshold for a safe return to in-person learning, even under a hybrid model,” the 310,000-member California Teachers Association wrote.

Some $13.5 billion went to K-12 education from the federal relief package passed in March by Congress. But education groups and school districts estimate that schools will need much more money to safely reopen, and with the economic impact of the pandemic having depleted many local and state budgets, it is unclear where it will come from.

As recently as late last week, leaders in San Diego Unified were promoting their plan to reopen five days a week, in person, for all students whose families chose that option. But the district had also warned that the health, sanitation and educational costs of reopening physical classrooms safely were so steep-- a minimum of $90 million for the coming school year-- that they would not be able to do so without a significant infusion of federal dollars.

So, that's the schools. What about the rest? It's widely believed that Newsom, pushed by his corporate donors and generally a real coward with the spine of a jellyfish, opened the state up too soon. So now he's trying to institute another lockdown-- ordering restaurants, bars, gyms, movie theaters and other businesses that serve customers indoors, and he ordered bars to close. USA Today reporter Nicole Hayden went into the fine-points of an order than goes into effect immediately.

She wrote that the order indicates that "all counties are required to close indoor operations of restaurants, wineries, tasting rooms, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, zoos, museums, card rooms and all bars. The 30 counties that are on the state’s targeted engagement list are ordered to close additional businesses. The targeted counties, which account for 80% of the state’s population, are also required to close indoor operations of fitness centers, places of worship, offices for non-critical sectors, personal hair services, and indoor malls. The state's engagement list details counties that are struggling to contain the spread of the virus. A week ago, just 23 counties were on this list. Placer, Sonoma, Sutter and Yuba counties were added to the list today."

As intensive care bed usage continues to surge across the state-- ICU capacity in Riverside County hit 100% on Friday-- Newsom says his actions will become more aggressive.

About 36% of the states total ICU beds remain available. In Placer, Lake and Butte counties, less than 20% of ICU beds are available, Newsom says.

"This continues to be a deadly disease," he said on Monday. "This continues to be a disease that puts people in our ICUs, in our hospitals and is currently putting a strain on our hospital system ... We're starting to see in some rural parts of the state an increase in ICU use that is generating some concern."

Across the state, COVID-19 hospitalizations increased 28% over a two-week period, which is better than the 50% increase presented about a week ago. However, officials expect to see another surge in cases and hospitalizations in the coming weeks because of the July 4 holiday.

"When you start to see ... constraint in terms of ICU beds an additional increase in use and utilization in ventilators it then draws our attention. The data then bears a consequence. The consequence being the data driving the decision to utilize that dimmer switch," Newsom said.

This "dimming" of the economy, as Newsom refers to the closures, comes after his administration allowed counties to reopen before they were prepared.

Of the 49 counties that were allowed to follow a quicker path in mid-May, 49% failed to meet at least one of the reopening criteria mandated by the state, according to an analysis by the Palm Springs Desert Sun.

At that time, nearly a third of the counties that received the green light didn’t have enough contact tracers, and more than 20% were failing to conduct enough coronavirus tests on a daily basis.

Newsom on Monday acknowledged that testing in California is currently "inadequate" to meet the needs of the state. He said it is "unacceptable" that the state is not able to do more widespread testing. Just last week, San Bernardino County canceled 11,000 coronavirus tests due to a supply shortage.

Counties began to show signs of struggle in June, as cases began increasing as a result of the reopening. Newsom said if counties didn't shape up, the state would step in, and gave a two-week deadline from the date they were initially placed on the targeted engagement list.

However, eight counties-- home to 35% of the state’s population-- were allowed to blow past that deadline, according to a Desert Sun analysis, and the state took no concrete action.

It wasn't until early July that the state took action, threatening to withhold funding from counties and closing bars ahead of the Fourth of July weekend in counties on the watch list.

Now, Newsom says he plans to use the "dimmer switch ... a little bit more forcefully."

The governor acknowledged that the state was able to control the spread of the virus following the initial sweeping stay-at-home orders.

"We were able to suppress the spread of this virus, we were able to knock down the growth of this in the beginning. We are going to do that again, there is no doubt in my mind," he said.  

Oregon is taking a similar path, banning indoor social gatherings of more than 10 people and requiring all people to wear face coverings outdoors when they cannot maintain a 6-foot distance from people outside their households. California and Oregon... 48 to go.