The Hill’s breathless headline wants you to know that this is a BIG deal:
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From the piece:
“Amid signs of improving COVID-19 conditions in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) lifted statewide stay-at-home orders Monday, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) said.
“The move allows restaurants to open for outdoor dining options and salons to resume indoor appointments. Outdoor church services are also permitted. Reopening options apply to regions including the San Francisco Bay Area, Central Valley and Southern California and marks the first reopening opportunity since December.
“The state will now revert to a county tier system, which eases lockdowns depending on case rates and gives local officials the option to set their own restrictions, KCRA reports.”
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The January 8-10 Re-Open Cal Now Public Policy Conference would not have happened without the vision and commitment of California County Supervisors who chose to go against the grain of conventional wisdom.
Don Wagner is the District 3 Supervisor in Orange County who saw that more answers, proper science, and an inclusion, rather than exclusion, of local and regional elected officials was needed in order to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in California and to safely re-open the State. Wagner speaks more about this in his opening remarks at the conference on Friday, January 8.
Jeff Hewitt is the District 5 Supervisor in Riverside County whom Supervisor Wagner asked to come on as co-organizer. I was able to do a brief interview with him where he explained why he felt this conference was needed, and how he wanted to bring back knowledge to Riverside County to see it safely re-open.
The third panel,
Are the Lockdowns Moving Cases Forward? Science and Treatments, was helmed by Dr. Jayanta (Jay) Bhattacharya, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, and Dr. George Fareed, whom I had the opportunity to interview.
Dr. Bhattacharya is a Professor of Medicine and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He is a Professor of Economics and Health Research and Policy, and focuses on the researching the health and well-being of vulnerable populations. As Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Hewitt pointed out, someone with both an M.D. and Ph.D in economics “can relate to not only the damage to our health, but the damage to the health of our economy.”