Hospital Ship Kabuki

Last week, LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn wrote to Gov Newsom asking that he try to get the Navy hospital ship Mercy back to LA, although it went largely unused when it was sent here last spring.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn has written a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom supporting SEIU 721’s request for additional healthcare workers in Los Angeles County hospitals in response to the surge of COVID-19 hospitalizations. Hahn is also requesting that Governor Newsom call on federal partners to dispatch the USNS Mercy hospital ship to the Port of Los Angeles.

“Our SEIU healthcare workers are exhausted and our hospitals are overwhelmed. They need backup,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn. “This surge is the crisis that we dreaded all along. We need as much support as we can get for our healthcare workers and we need the USNS Mercy back in the Port of Los Angeles.”

As far as I'm aware, Gov Newsom hasn't replied to the request, and in fact the Mercy is in drydock up in Portland and won't be serviceable for some months. Supervisor Hahn is engaging in kabuki for the benefit of her special-interest donors.

On the other hand, Hahn is also exploiting the leadership vacuum higher up. Gov Newsom has had almost nothing to say for several weeks, other than to extend the latest lockdowns.But California has been slow and inefficient in distributing vaccines:

As of Tuesday [Jan 5], California had administered 456,980 vaccine doses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — just 23 percent of the 2 million doses the federal government has distributed to the state. California Department of Public Health figures varied slightly, reporting a somewhat smaller 1.8 million doses allocated and 459,564 administered, or 26 percent.

. . . By comparison, nearly 1.4 million doses were distributed to Texas, of which 451,210, or 33%, were administered, the CDC reported. Florida administered 264,512 doses, or 23%, out of 1.2 million distributed. New York administered 299,428 doses, or 32%, out of 934,925 distributed.

It appears that Newsom is overwhelmed by COVID, while the Recall Newsom movement seems to leave him with few options if he maintains his present course of continued lockdowns but no improvement in statistics. Why doesn't he simply take a highly visible role in making sure the faccine gets out? That would solve the problem while portraying him as someone who should be kept in office to do an important job.

Not sure if that's in him.