Opinion: Defy Grinch Newsom

December 14, 2020, 4:10 am 13.3k Views 69 Comments

By Lisa Sloan of Goleta

Dear Honorable County Supervisors,

Thank you kindly to Chair Hart and Supervisors Hartman and Williams for responding to my letter from last week.  You each described the plan to send a letter formally requesting Governor Newsom to ungroup our county from the Southern California Region and to form a Central Coast region with Ventura and San Luis Obispo.  Meanwhile, each day that goes by waiting for a response, our county continues to suffer.  

Would you please help your constituents who wish to make a living, go to school, and worship God in church? These lockdowns are political and are not based upon science.  The data does not warrant the closures for a virus with a 99.8% survival rate, according to the CDC.  Besides, nowhere in the U.S. Constitution is there a provision for the Bill of Rights to become void in time of pestilence or any other emergency crisis.  

What makes us think that a tyrannical Grinch Newsom will respond in a timely manner to our pitiful letter?  Businesses that have submitted their attestations obviously intend to be protective of their customers.  Meanwhile, Newsom breaks his own guidelines.  Do his actions demonstrate that he believes his guidelines are effective?  No, the only goal of this Grinch is to steal Christmas.

Stop the interminable unscientific and unconstitutional closures of businesses, schools and churches, whether our hospital capacity is measured as a sole County or as the entire Southern California region.  Don’t wait for a response to your letter that may never come!  Please protect your constituents now.  Uphold your oath of office.  Defy the Grinch!

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  7. How does “science” say it’s safe to sit on full plane, mere inches from strangers, while taking off your mask to eat and drink, while flying for 7 hours cross-country, but it is not safe to eat outside? California Health and Human Services Mark Ghaly: “The decision to include among other sectors outdoor dining and limiting that — turning to restaurants to deliver and provide takeout options instead — really has to do with the goal of trying to keep people at home, not a comment on the relative safety of outdoor dining,” Here the state is admitting that the “science” behind banning outdoor dining is psychology not epidemiology. The federal government didn’t shut down any business, the state did, while admitting is was to compel a different action and not because outdoor dining was a problematic source of the spread. It is simply not okay to use this rational to destroy the lives of so many people in California. I can’t express how disappointed I am that so many in our community support these tyrannical actions that don’t effect themselves while having serious and long-lasting health and wellness consequences for those directly impacted by it. It isn’t like there are no alternatives to this, there are! There is a 100% guaranteed way to keep anyone who chooses safe, JUST STAY HOME.

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  8. The California government doesn’t have the authority to restrict airline policies. Our state and local governments tried to do what they could. They want people to wear masks and stay away from each other. The shutdowns are their only tool. Not ideal, by far, but stepping back and making no attempt to lower infections would be dereliction of duty.

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  9. Voice: It’s NEVER been a safe bet to fly during a pandemic and no one has ever said it is, yet it is allowed because flying is a necessity is some cases (business, medical, etc), eating outdoors isn’t. You can purchase take out from restaurants or cook for yourself.

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  10. VOR, it is possible that there is an essential reason to travel cross country. It’s absolutely not essential for you to enjoy your meal at Chili’s. It all comes down to risks. And your right to dine at your establishment falls way down on the chain of potential necessary risks. Stay at home, don’t eat out at restaurants, and only travel if you need to. It ain’t that hard

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  14. VOR – I’m well aware of that. My point is and has been, you’re blame is misguided. Stop lashing out at those who support the restrictions as being selfish. We’re not the ones refusing to pay people to shut their businesses. It’s getting old.

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  15. 420 and VOR: It’s the scientific method. Hypothesis: “Non-essential business” are the cause of COVID spread. Prediction: Closing “non-essential businesses” will stop COVID spread. Test: Close “non-essential businesses”. Observations: COVID continues to spread and is increasing in some places. Analysis: Closing “non-essential businesses” has no effect on stopping COVID spread and may even create situations/behaviors which cause the spread of COVID to increase. Conclusion: Closing “non-essential businesses” does not stop the spread of COVID.

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  17. 420722 – Just because the numbers aren’t going down since the regional shutdown does not in any way mean it’s “obvious” that non-essential businesses were the source of the spread. That’s really a simple view of things. When faced with a rising spike in numbers, we had to do what we could to slow it down, that means closing non-essential businesses. No one has this perfect, we’re just trying to do what we can to slow it. I’m getting tired of explaining these incredibly simple concepts. If people are losing money, there’s only one entity to blame – the government that refuses to provide help.
    And seriously, what do you think is driving Newsom’s decisions? What’s his motive for shutting things down? I would love to hear why you think Newsom is shutting us down “for no reason.”
    Further, please tell me you are aware that Newsom doesn’t sit and make unilateral decisions. You know that, right? He has a team of scientists, doctors, other policy advisors that, wait for it….. ADVISE him. You’re too intelligent to keep regurgitating the simpleton version of things.

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  18. SAC-“Just because the numbers aren’t going down since the regional shutdown does not in any way mean it’s “obvious” that non-essential businesses were the source of the spread”, ummm…dude, I’m trying to be nice but do you even hear yourself?

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  19. SAC: Sorry to butt into this conversation, but I think I understand you. Not going down quickly is your point, and the shutdown has not had time to work its magic. Is that right? So will you feel the same way come New Year’s, when the numbers keep going up? At what point do you think the shutdown will have clearly failed to achieve it’s goal? Most people being honest know that this rise in cases is from people hanging out together on their private property. Even Ansorg, et al. (including his shiny new award) state that the majority of documented and confirmed transmissions are from community close contact (i.e., family and friends).

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  21. Here is another one GT, the American Medical Association officially rescinding their statement to stop prescribing HCQ for covid. In the references it links to the several retracted studies saying HCQ showed no benefit. How many tens of thousands of lives could have been saved if it wasn’t for TDS and the knee jerk reaction to oppose anything Trump says? TDS has done more damage and been more divisive to our society and county than Trump could have ever done. Now our response to covid-19 (including it’s politicization which resulted beneficial drugs like HCQ not being widely used) is doing more damage than the actual virus. I feel like someone warned us about this but half the country decided not to listen…. TDS strikes again… (not defending Trump, but many here need a reality check as much as they like casting blame on others).
    https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/2020-10/nov20-handbook-addendum.pdf

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  22. An AMA resolution that doctors can prescribe a minimally harmful hair growth drug for off-label treatment of ingrown toenails does not mean that it has any effect on that problem. Drinking two cups of water daily may not be harmful, but that doesn’t mean it will cure brain cancer (or ignorance). If your trusted Dr. Seuss prescribes it for you, good luck. For anyone wanting actual recent scientific info, you might check the 11/4/2020 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanrhe/article/PIIS2665-9913(20)30390-8/fulltext

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  23. If everyone were following the guidelines and we had science-based competent federal leadership things would be quite different. Not just a much stronger economy, but a tiny fraction of the people killed or suffering severe illness and possible long-term complications.

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  26. The 99.8% survival rate figure quoted, neatly sidesteps the issue of long haulers who experience extensive damage from the virus that lasts for months or longer. A number of studies have shown that 78%-87% of all infected individuals are included. For details read the 11/28 article from EMS World. https://www.emsworld.com/article/1225291/long-haulers-continuing-casualties-covid-19 BTW, the mortality rate for over-60s is 1.71%.

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  27. VOR, your post at 5:27pm makes incredibly good sense to me. I like to eat out once or twice a week, and feel perfectly safe with the mandated outdoor seating and distancing. I don’t think hindering the operation of restaurants is the right thing to do, given our struggling economy. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to pay rent to the property owner. Some restaurants have already shut their doors forever.

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  28. VOR- I support your common sense posts. Open up!
    Others- if I had a choice which WE don’t, I would rather put my 90 year old father at risk of dying then what is happening to my 2 recently graduated adults which are having their life, mental well being, & future impacted for this politicized virus.

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  29. Early this year? When there were shortages of PPE? Before the nation and world had agreed it was airborne? I dunno. I was locked up at home, since first week of March, because I can. Using the last ten medical paper-type masks I used when nursing family through home peritoneal dialysis, years ago, thank goodness.

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  31. Yes, PPE shortages was the true reason. However, Fauci and other experts said not to wear masks because they specifically would not prevent the spread of COVID. That was a bold faced lie, regardless if they did it to help first responders and health care providers maintain a adequate supply. I don’t know about you, but once someone lies to me that’s it—I’m done listening to them.

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  34. Pit, that’s like saying continue the lockdowns all you want just give your paycheck to those that can’t get one….but you won’t do that will you? “God will take care of you at home” you realize many won’t have a home when the eviction moratorium ends? Thank you for pointing out that those masking and isolating are still getting sick, I said that yesterday and several thought I was full of it. It is clear 9 months in, the extreme measures we’re taking only have a nominal effect.

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  36. Without commerce there is no community. Livelihoods are life being practiced for the good of the community. This one only kills less than 1% –we have treatments now so the panic is uncalled for.
    We are driving people indoors with excess controls and resistant conduct. If people are working to support their families they are afraid of tests and internment away from work, This panic “the sky is falling” is over” but not for people working to live. One cannot even see a doctor now. Better to have them in the open with masks on praying they work. Glasses fogged! One just has to live a few more months with good habits , a decent anti-oxidant diet, less political nonsense and get those medical attendants, “essentials vaccinated”. Could we just enjoy spirit of Christmas a little? A lot of lights are up–safe decor everywhere to celebrate some peace. Can we? Lighten up!

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  37. Sea Dog, the head of California Health and Human Services, Mark Ghaly, said the same thing about outdoor dining. It is not about the science anymore. Also crazy they prohibited an activity that as a direct result, will increase private gatherings in homes, where the majority of spread is occurring. Mr. Slug, that would require an efficient and well run government with leaders that put the needs of their constituents first rather than prioritizing their next election and toeing the party line.

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  39. This is like the old statistic where they say most car accidents happen close to home. That is because with every trip you are going to be close to your home at the start and end. 100% of us are in our homes most of the time, so most transmissions are going to occur there. What percent of us and for how long are we in restaurants? Once you factor in the time of stay in each location, that 1.5% starts to look pretty big.

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  42. 420722 and VOR – yeah yeah we get, it’s really all you ever say – “if you support the restrictions, you must not care about people who aren’t working blah blah blah blah blah blah blah” – rinse and repeat. You’re both intelligent enough to separate ideas in your heads. Just because we support restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of a deadly virus doesn’t mean we don’t care or somehow should be responsible for the people who can’t work. Where’s your outrage at our government for failing to provide ANY relief other than a 1200 check to last them for 10 months? It is not Pit’s, nor mine, responsibility to care for anyone other than our selves and our families. I’m sorry people are losing money. I am. My family has been eating into our savings to make up for the lost of income since March. BUT…. we are able to see the bigger picture. Why aren’t you?

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  43. LUCKY777 – thank you for pointing that out! The Government paid the workers that were shut down. See? THAT is how you do this. The US has failed so miserably at this and now we have people like VOR and 420722 placing the blame on those of us who simply want to decrease the spread of the virus, even if it means some businesses finding other means of income (home haircuts, take out orders, etc).

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  45. On a good note…. looks like (some) youth sports will be allowed to engage in competition once again, even if we’re in the purple tier, at the end of January!
    https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/outdoor-indoor-recreational-sports.aspx#
    Finally, some good news! Kids need to be out there playing and competing. I’ve seen too many kids lose interest in active play and resort to video games all day. I can’t wait to go watch some games! While I feel bad for the fall high school sports (football, now basketball, etc) likely not being able to play, they had a season last year. The spring sports (baseball, track) lost their seasons last year and the thought of losing another season, especially for varsity players, would have been awful.

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  48. I think I was called a loon, “anti-science”, and a follower of quack doctors several times on this board for bringing up the HCQ cocktail. Politicians should have no say in medicine. How many hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved, how many businesses didn’t need to be shuttered, how many jobs didn’t need to be lost, how much despair avoided, had people and politicians not banned and discourage prophylactic HCQ use solely because Orange Man bad…

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  50. here is one from a while ago https://www.henryford.com/news/2020/07/hydro-treatment-study Key difference between the studies that showed no effect is those gave it to patients on deaths door, not ASAP once admitted, or on a preventative basis. Let that sink in, even if it showed only the smallest benefit, shouldn’t it have had widespread use? Especially if we’re going to resort closing down hundreds of thousands of small businesses. This drug has been in use for over 50 years and continually taken prophylactically for malaria, with less side effects that any of the new vaccines. Aside from TDS preventing it’s use, big pharma also didn’t like it because it’s cheap and generic, no money in if for them but BILLIONS associated with a new vaccine.

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  54. Sac-Everything “inessential” has been closed for over two weeks now and the cases are not going down not even a little so OBVIOUSLY they weren’t the cause of the spread and there is nothing to justify driving those business owners into poverty, homelessness or bankruptcy. Science is no longer the driving factor behind the kings decisions.

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  57. GT, there are limitations in every study, included those used for emergency approval of the vaccine, and that article doesn’t even dispute the findings, just points out limitations. So even if this safe, cheap drug that has been in use for decades only provides a nominal benefit, why not use it? We’re using masks walking around outside FCS!

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  61. Eggs, no one isn’t masking nor is anyone here saying we shouldn’t take covdi seriously. We also wouldn’t be contesting the restrictions if the government didn’t force small businesses to close without providing relief (whose responsibility to provide the relief would be the entity forcing the closure), if the people or entity imposing the restrictions actually followed them, and more importantly, after 9 months if we had data showing these restrictions significantly slow the spread. To often these restrictions have been arbitrary and non-science based (like the recent outdoor dining ban). 420722, you hit the nail on the head.

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  62. The New Yorker article written Dec 8.
    “ In a chaotic and overwhelmed hospital in Siberia, a physician received the kind of indifferent medical care that he spent his life trying to overcome.”
    “ hospitals accepting covid-19 patients in Tomsk were overflowing.”
    Doesn’t sound like the “plague “ was halted.
    Also look at places like New Zealand that closed the entire country.
    In the end viruses have been around fir thousands of years. Now the CDC is talking herd immunity again. Showing that most people will get Covid.
    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-life-and-covid-death-of-a-revered-siberian-doctor/amp

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  63. How many people have gotten Covid while following the guidelines completely?
    Ask Salud & Oscar and others that “always flowed social distancing & mask guidelines”.
    So either the guidelines don’t work or out Leaders are lying about their compliance.

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  64. Because they’ve been listening to lying and deceiving politicians talk about following the “science and data” (while not actually following the science and data) for the past 9 months and now have a skewed view of what that actually means?

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  66. I think the reason why so many folks are confused is because now Flip-Flopping = changing due to the evolution of scientific knowledge. The same name-calling folks would call me a “dog hater” or “animal hater” if I don’t want to rent a room to someone who has a dog/cat/pot-belly pig. But I wold not be a superstar/hero if I refused to rent a room to someone because they like to eat at Chik-Fil-A. Because a person does not agree with your position one way or the other doesn’t make them a denier or hater. It’s incredible how divided we are these days in not allowing others to belong to a different political party, believe/not believe in God, and so on. Give a break peeps…..let peeps be their own person….live and let live kinda thing. Leadbetter a bit flat at the moment…may pick up a bit when tide goes down….small lines at C-Street.

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  68. Well Sac…. had Hillary not conspired with the DNC to steal the nomination from Bernie, Bernie would have been running for reelection this year, Trump would still be just that rich realty show guy, and when covid hit, Bernie would have prioritized the people and small businesses rather than the current leaders (on both sides) who politicized the virus to increase their political clout while siphoning as much money from the people to the .1%’s, mega corporations, wall street, and big pharma (aka their donors) as possible.

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  69. Sacjon for the win and the final answer as to why people are fighting against the shutdown and pushing to reopen, “ It is not Pit’s, nor mine, responsibility to care for anyone other than our selves and our families”, EXACTLY! It’s not anyone’s responsibility to shutdown and lose it all so that you feel safe.

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