Gov. Gavin Newsom seized emergency powers nearly two years ago and has maintained them. The Democrat super-majority in both houses of the Legislature has refused to pass a Republican-introduced measure to end his one-man rule. Finally, the Senate has set a hearing for March 15, nearly two years to the day after Newsom imposed emergency measures, to consider such an action.
And then there’s East Bay Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, a member of the Assembly’s pandemic working group. She introduced a bill last week to mandate vaccinations for all employers in Californians—ignoring the Supreme Court ruling that refused to allow the federal government to impose such a mandate. I write this as an overweight 71-year-old guy who has been double vaxxed and boosted.
That was my doctor’s recommendation and my decision. As I have written before, mandates change the game. It’s not the state’s business to determine what goes into anyone’s body. The bill is a government overreach and likely will spark a strong reaction.
It’s one of several pandemic-related bills in the Legislature. Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco has introduced SB688 that would allow children from 12-17 to be vaccinated without their parent or guardian’s knowledge or consent. Sen. Richard Pan, a pediatrician by training, has a bill that would force social media platforms to disclose how their algorithms work and share data. This goes at the “so-called misinformation” about the pandemic and vaccines. What’s apparent is how much the platforms censor almost any posts critical of official government positions regardless of the professional qualifications of the writer. Pan believes the tech companies are determining how society should react—a position that I think is opposite reality. When it comes to the CDC and pandemic response, the companies have been partners of the agencies.
Pan also has a measure that would eliminate the personal belief exemption for students. He has been working to tighten vaccination requirements for students. And, incidentally, the mask mandate for students remains even though research shows children are at minimal risk to catch and spread the virus.
Wicks said that vaccination is the key to living with the virus in an endemic stage. That misses the natural immunity that comes from having contracted the virus. As contagious as the Omicron variant is and how many people showed no symptoms, without wide-spread testing there’s no telling how close we are to “herd immunity.”
I’m reminded of Australian officials who refused to allow tennis star Novak Djokovic to enter the country to participate in the Australian Open tournament, one of the four majors. He has not been vaccinated, but had tested positive for the virus in the past so he was carrying antibodies. That meant nothing to the health authorities.
It appears that Democrat elected officials are trying to continue taking California down the same path.
