Amid Plunging COVID Stats, Gov Newsom Says Wear Two Masks

One puzzling phenomenon in recent weeks has been that Gov Newsom, facing a likely recall election this fall, with vaccinations underway, and with pandemic statistics plummeting, has made little change in his, or the state's, COVID messaging. In fact, in a clear rebuke to Texas, Florida, Mississippi, and other states, he's now recommending that Californians wear two masks, not one.

“We are encouraging people basically to double down on mask wearing, particularly in light of all of what I would argue is bad information coming from at least four states in this country,” Newsom said. “We will not be walking down their path. We’re mindful of your health and our future.”

Newsom’s remarks come after Mississippi and Texas governors ended their mask mandates.

But Newsom recently faced criticism after making a Tik Tok video from inside a Fresno restaurant, where indoor dining is not allowed.

What's puzzling is that it might be appropriate to recommend two masks at times like late last year, when cases were surging and additional preventive measures might seem reasonable -- but instead, Newsom closed barber shops and hair salons, putting people out of work during the holidays, with no perceptible effect on the disease.

Public orders to avoid holiday "gstherings" also seem to have had no perceptible result, with no surge in cases seven to 10 days after New Year's, while cases continued to decline during and after the Super Bowl and Presidents' Day weekends.

In addition, for whatever reason, the PSAs that featured ladies with various homespun messages advocating social isolation scribbled on their masks seem t\o have disappeared from Facebook.

But Newsom seems to be stuck someplace in last November. The problem I see, just handicapping the likely future course of the pandemic, is that conditions on the ground will likely continue to improve, but there will be little benefit to Californians even if they're allowed to do things like eat indoors with most restaurant seats blocked off.

But the continuing contrast will be in states like Texas and Florida, where such controls are abolished or minimal, while their statistics are no worse than California's.

This has got to be a losing bet.