California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom is hiding key coronavirus data from the public while inexplicably allowing several counties in the state to reopen.
Following a surge in November, Newsom unveiled new lockdown orders that divided the state into five regions, with each region locking down whenever ICU hospital capacity dipped below 15 percent. Before long, about 98 percent of the state's population fell under the new restrictions.
Despite ICU capacity still south of 15 percent, the governor has lifted restrictions for 13 counties in the Greater Sacramento area, the AP reported. State data updated daily shows the Sacramento region currently has an ICU capacity of around 7.8 percent at the time of this writing.
In those 13 counties, restaurants are once again allowed to offer outdoor dining, worshipers can attend church services, hair salons and other businesses are allowed to make money and retailers can operate at a higher capacity. Lucky them.
When asked about the underlying data used to justify the reopening of those counties, state health officials cited "projections" purportedly showing ICU capacity in those counties rising above the 15-percent threshold in coming weeks.
"At the moment the projections are not being shared publicly," Department of Public Health spokeswoman Ali Bay said in an email to the AP.
"These fluid, on-the-ground conditions cannot be boiled down to a single data point — and to do so would mislead and create greater uncertainty for Californians," California Health and Human Services Agency spokeswoman Kate Folmasaid said in a statement to the AP.
But a lack of transparency is sure to only add to the uncertainty.
Californians are expected to simply give up their liberties while watching their neighbors enjoy their freedoms because the governor thinks residents are too stupid to understand the reasons behind it all.
In related news, hundreds of thousands of Californians upset with Newsom's response to the coronavirus have signed a petition to recall the governor. Earlier this month, the recall effort reached 1 million signatures. The recall campaign will need to obtain some 1,495,709 signatures in order to trigger a special election.