Stay-at-home orders don’t work. If anything, it encourages people to go out even more because they don’t want the government telling them what they can and cannot do.
It has been clear from the start that Californians have absolutely no faith in Governor Gavin Newsom to guide them through the pandemic. He says one thing and they all choose to do the opposite. Even Nancy Pelosi can’t manage to listen to him. After all, she needs a blow out from time to time.
Newsom has decided to issue some new stay-at-home orders as COVID-19 numbers continue to spike.
The order has divided the state into five regions. When a region enters an ICU threshold, meaning that the ICU centers have reached capacity, they’ll move into the order for three weeks.
When a region enters the stay-at-home category, for three weeks, bars, wineries, personal services, and salons/barbershops will be forced to close. Further, retail will only be able to operate at 20 percent capacity and restaurants will only be able to offer take-out and delivery.
Oh, and Newsom also wants to restrict non-essential travel statewide.
These are “orders” but they’re not laws. He’s put out plenty of orders before only to be ignored. Major counties like Los Angeles and San Diego have chosen to ignore him in the past. It means that people can do what they want without fear of getting into any kind of legal trouble.
There’s absolutely no way for Newsom to prevent non-essential travel around the state. People will continue to drive in and out of the state because the police aren’t going to put up barriers. The police are dealing with enough – they’re not going to put up checkpoints just to question residents about their whereabouts.
Newsom gets to make it look like he’s making a difference. But, really, no one is going to listen.
There are already quite a few regions where the ICU capacity could be reached within days – Southern California, Greater Sacramento, San Joaquin Valley, and Northern California are all dangerously close.
Residents don’t even want to help themselves at this point. They don’t want to be locked away in their houses for any longer. They’ve already spent the time inside of their homes. They’re done. They’re frustrated. They’ve followed the rules only to see Newsom himself violate the rules to attend a birthday party.
Most of the people who get COVID recover. Stories have been shared all over Facebook and Instagram where people tested positive. They stayed at home for two weeks, dealt with a fever, a cough, and a loss of taste and smell. Then, they recovered. They feel fine, they never had to go to the hospital, and they’re free to live their lives.
We can certainly get the COVID vaccine and wear masks and socially distance ourselves. But we have to be able to live our lives – and this is where Newsom doesn’t seem to get it. There’s a way to be safe and still live. Most people who go to a salon where a mask the entire time – unlike Pelosi who was seen going mask-free when she violated orders.
The only thing that Newsom is doing is sending the California economy into a further downward spiral than it already is.
Will California be able to recover simply from Newsom’s new orders? It’s highly unlikely. Although he’ll close the businesses that can lead to spreading, there’s nothing that can be done about those who choose to gather in parks, houses, or even grocery stores. No law enforcement official wants to be the one to carry out the orders. They don’t have the manpower to do it and no one wants to deal with the nonsense.
So, it ends up being orders that make Newsom look foolish. Yet, he’ll be the first one with his hand out once Biden is inaugurated in order to get federal aid to fix the state’s economy.
