Governor Gavin Newsom, despite promises of months of transparency in his decisions about the coronavirus, has kept the data his government is using to conduct state-implemented blockades a secret.
On May 28, the Center for American Liberty (CAL) filed a request for public records with the California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS) seeking the science and data that Newsom used to conduct 1st blockade decisions. from October 2019 until that day. CAL’s executive director, Mark Trammell, said the state pointed the CAL back to the state’s website and withheld other data under a “deliberative process” exception, used to exempt the state from its obligation to release public records.
Under Newsom’s blockade, internal religious services are strictly prohibited. Trammell said he had, for example, requested data that explains why these services were banned while other retailers remained open. “If it is safe to go to a marijuana dispensary or to Macy’s or Costco, that same standard should apply to parishioners in our congregation, they should be able to split up in banks and wear a mask,” Trammell told Fox News in an interview.
On Friday, the Associated Press released a report detailing the secrecy surrounding one of the longest and most stringent blockades in the country.
State health officials said that releasing the data would confuse the public.
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California became the epicenter of the virus in December, but throughout the pandemic it fared above average compared to other states, although the dust has not yet settled. California is 24th in cases per capita, with 7,773 per 100,000 inhabitants, and 38th in deaths per capita, with 90 per 100,000.
Newsom, a Democrat, was the first to impose an order to stay at home in early March. Until early December, the state had a four-tier system of reference for reopening, instituted on a county-by-county basis.
But after Thanksgiving Day, the Newsom administration rejected the locally-focused tier system and instead created five regions whose plans to reopen would be determined by a single measure – the capacity of the ICU. Each region should have more than 15% of the ICU’s capacity to escape the restriction of stay at home.
But the new system was more gray than it looked. Newsom had enacted a “capital component” a month earlier. In order to combat racial disparities in health, local authorities had to contain the virus not only across the county, but mainly in low-income communities.
To increase complexity, the state uses a weighted percentage to determine ICU capacity. COVID-19 patients tend to need longer care, penalizing regions like Southern California, which have a higher proportion.
So when the state says that the Southern California and San Joaquin Valley regions have 0% of the ICU capacity, that means that most patients in the ICUs are COVID-19 patients, not that there are no ICU beds. , Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist and infectious – disease control specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, said.
Asked if it was clear how regional ICU percentages were determined, LA County Science Director Paul Simon told Deadline: “I can’t comment. I didn’t see the news. I’m not sure what considerations were made on that limit . “
At the beginning of last week, nowhere in the Golden State did it seem likely that restrictions would be lifted, as its capacity was well below 15%. But suddenly, the state announced that the Greater Sacramento region, which comprises 13 counties, would have its blockade order suspended.
Outdoor dining and worship services were allowed again, salons and other businesses were able to reopen and retailers were able to allow more buyers to enter. Business owners were surprised, albeit pleasantly, by the reopening.
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State officials did not describe his reasoning, except to say that it was based on a projection for ICU capacity. They said they relied on a complex formula to determine that, although the capacity of the Sacramento ICU was only 9%, they projected that it would increase to more than 15% in four weeks.
“What happened to the 15%? What was that about?” Rutherford said. “I was surprised. I assume they know something that I don’t know.”
Even county officials were unaware of the data being used, according to San Bernardino county spokesman David Wert.
“At the moment, the projections are not being shared publicly,” said Department of Public Health spokeswoman Ali Bay in an email to the AP.
CHHS spokeswoman Kate Folmar said the ICU’s projected capacity is based on several variables, including available beds and staff. “These fluid conditions on the ground cannot be reduced to a single data point – and to do so would be misleading and create greater uncertainty for Californians,” she said in a statement.
“This is the height of arrogance,” Trammell fired back. “The idea that just because someone works for a state agency makes someone more qualified or more intelligent to understand data or scientific research, it is simply illusory.”
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“If science is so compelling to justify what the state has done, the governor should be excited to share this research with as many people as he can.”