Good Morning.
Coronavirus “wave after wave” is coming, Governor Gavin Newsom warned on Monday in his first briefing about what already looks like an exhausting year.
With the end of the vacation, the governor said, more than 2.4 million Californians were infected, about 27,000 died, hospitals are overburdened and only about a third of the state’s 1.3 million doses of vaccines reached the arms of patients.
This delay, he said, is a function of California’s size and complex logistics. Over 450,000 people received their first dose, but “this is not good enough”.
In Los Angeles County, people suffering from Covid-19 are waiting in emergency corridors for hours while exhausted members of the team try to find sleeping space; health officials instructed ambulance staff to stop transporting patients whose survival is unlikely and to start conserving oxygen.
In San Bernardino County, a clinical director at a large hospital told reporters that cribs were placed in conference rooms, with plans to place crowded patients in the cafeteria and lobby. In San Diego County, Newsom said, the new highly transmissible variant of the virus has already been identified in at least four cases, out of a total of at least half a dozen across the state.
What is being done
If the terrifying numbers of the California pandemic appear to have stabilized, Newsom said, it is only because more Californians are getting the message – and because the inevitable deaths and infections caused by those who could not or did not want to stay at home or wear masks it will take a few days.
Newsom, which will begin state budget negotiations this week, said it planned to ask the legislature for $ 300 million to help pay for the distribution and dissemination of the vaccine. He also appointed members of the California National Guard and authorized dentists and pharmacy technicians to help administer injections. Additional nursing reinforcements were sent to help care for the flooding of patients and to help deliver and refill the oxygen tanks.
Talk about recall
The governor delivered his report in such a grave voice after a year of daily pandemic reports that his Live broadcast questioners commented on this among their usual demands that he be removed from office. “Let my salon open!” they scoffed digitally. “Lies, lies, lies, lies!” “Let’s talk about your recall!”
At least one Republican-led effort to oust the governor has, in fact, been gaining momentum. A mysterious Orange County organization, with few papers and a biblical name, recently donated $ 500,000, which is already being used to solicit support, the campaign records indicate.
On Monday, Ann Ravel, a former president of the Federal Election Commission who lives in northern California and is a Democrat, like Newsom, accused the Prov 3: 9, LLC group of being a front company created to hide donor identities. of dark money and filed a complaint urging the state attorney general and election officials to find out. The recall campaign organizers said their concern was only an attempt to discredit the campaign.
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Here’s what else you should know today
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While the governor informed the media about the slow distribution of the vaccine in California on Monday, a hospital in Mendocino County was furiously inoculating hundreds of people in an ad hoc response to a broken freezer where 830 doses of the Modern Covid-19 vaccine were thawing rapidly. [The Los Angeles Times]
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That outbreak at the San Jose hospital linked to an inflatable Christmas tree costume not only infected 44 people, but now also took the life of a Kaiser Permanente employee. [The Mercury News]
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Anti-mask protesters stormed Ralph’s grocery store and the Westfield Century City mall on Sunday, calling customers “masking Nazis” and forcing masked buyers with shopping carts. The disruption comes a week after people in typical Trump costumes orchestrated a similar confrontation at a Fairfax supermarket. [The Los Angeles Times]
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Seven Costcos. Eight Home Depots. Ten Targets, six McDonald’s locations, four Chick-Fil-As, three Apple stores, Cerritos Nordstrom. Netflix, LAX. Outbreaks in the workplace are a major driver of coronavirus infections in Los Angeles County. [The Los Angeles Times]
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More than 225 engineers and other Google employees formed a union, crowning years of growing activism in one of the largest companies in the world and presenting a rare bridgehead to labor organizers in Silicon Valley that is strongly anti-union. [The New York Times]
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The first 2021 work week started on Monday with a major disruption at the San Francisco-based software company for the Slack workplace. [The New York Times]
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American Legion removed a commander from the Escondido post from two national leadership roles in the veterans service organization after he bragged on social media about joining the Proud Boys and violently attacking a liberal protester as part of a pro-Trump protest. [The San Diego Union-Tribune]
And finally …
The White House on Monday awarded Representative Devin Nunes the Presidential Medal of Freedom, characterizing President Trump’s Republican defense of the Central Valley during the investigation into interference in Russia’s 2016 elections as an act of “unassailable integrity”.
The award is the nation’s highest civilian tribute, with the aim of recognizing “exceptional contributions” to national security, world peace or cultural and other “significant” efforts. Previous California winners included former Governor and Supreme Court President Earl Warren, record test pilot Chuck Yeager and President Ronald Reagan.
White House officials told Maggie Haberman and Nicholas Fandos that Trump wanted to acknowledge Nunes’s political loyalty during an investigation that the president condemned as a partisan “witch hunt”, even when several Congressional committees and U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia had meddled in the election with the aim of sending Mr. Trump to the White House.
A White House press release said Nunes had “the courage to stand up to the media, the FBI, the Intelligence Community, the Democratic Party, foreign spies and all the power of the Deep State.” The Government Accountability Project, a watchdog group, condemned the award, saying that Mr. Nunes had “harmed our national interests” with attacks on government officials who risked their careers to expose the irregularities of the Trump camp.
On Twitter, a critic sued unsuccessfully by Congressman for mocking him by pretending to be his cow tweeted that the medal “will look great in our law firms”.
The president also plans to award a medal to Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, another avowed ally.
California Today airs at 6:30 am Pacific time during the week. Tell us what you want to see: [email protected]. Have you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here and read all online editions here.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from UC Berkeley.