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Hello.
“An outbreak in addition to an outbreak” of the coronavirus is imminent, Governor Gavin Newsom warned on Monday during his first briefing of what is already shaping up to be an exhausting year.
With the holidays over, the governor said, more than 2.4 million Californians have been infected, some 27,000 have died, hospitals are overwhelmed and only about a third of the state’s 1.3 million vaccine doses are passed into the arms of patients.
This lag, he said, is a function of California’s size and its complex logistics. More than 450,000 people have received their first dose, but “it is not enough”.
In Los Angeles County, people with Covid-19 have waited hours in emergency halls as exhausted staff members try to find room to sleep; Health officials have ordered ambulance teams to stop transporting patients who are unlikely to survive and to start conserving oxygen.
In San Bernardino County, a clinical director at a large hospital told reporters baby cots have been placed in conference rooms, with plans to place overflow patients in the cafeteria and lobby. In San Diego County, Mr Newsom said, the new, highly transmissible variant of the virus has now been identified in at least four cases, for a total of at least half a dozen statewide.
What is done
If the terrifying numbers from the California pandemic appear to have leveled off, Mr Newsom said, it’s only because more Californians are getting the message – and because the inevitable deaths and infections generated by those who could not or did not want to stay home or wear masks. will take a few days.
Mr Newsom, who will open state budget negotiations this week, said he plans to ask the legislature for $ 300 million to help pay for vaccine distribution and awareness. He also deployed members of the California National Guard and licensed dentists and pharmacy technicians to help with the beating. Additional nursing reinforcements were dispatched to help treat the flood of patients and to help deliver and refill the oxygen tanks.
Talk reminder
The governor delivered his report in such a deep voice after a year of daily pandemic reports that his direct hecklers commented on him between their usual requests to kick him out of the drum office. “Leave my living room open!” they were kidding digitally. “Lies lies lies lies!” “Let’s talk about your recall!”
At least one Republican-led effort to oust the governor has, in fact, gained momentum. A mysterious Orange County organization with limited written records and a Biblical name recently donated $ 500,000, which is already being used to solicit support, campaign records show.
On Monday, Ann Ravel, a former Federal Election Commission chairperson who lives in northern California and is a Democrat, like Mr Newsom, accused the group, Prov 3: 9, LLC, of being an established shell company to hide the identity of black money donors, and filed a lawsuit urging the state attorney general and election officials to get to the bottom of this. Organizers of the recall campaign said his concern was only an attempt to discredit their campaign.
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Here’s what else to know today
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As the governor briefed media on slow vaccine delivery in California on Monday, a Mendocino County hospital was furiously inoculating hundreds of people in an ad hoc response to a broken freezer where 830 doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine were thawing, rapidly. [The Los Angeles Times]
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This outbreak at San Jose hospital is linked to an inflatable Christmas tree costume not only infected 44 people, but also claimed the life of a Kaiser Permanente employee. [The Mercury News]
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Anti-mask protesters stormed Ralph grocery store and the Westfield Century City shopping center on Sunday, calling customers “hiding the Nazis” and ram masked buyers with shopping carts. The disruption comes a week after people wearing Trump outfits orchestrated a similar clash at a Fairfax grocery store. [The Los Angeles Times]
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Seven Costcos. Eight Home Depots. Ten targets, six McDonald’s branches, four Chick-Fil-As, three Apple stores, the Cerritos Nordstrom. Netflix, LAX. Workplace outbreaks are a big driver of coronavirus infections in Los Angeles County. [The Los Angeles Times]
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More than 225 engineers and other Google employees have formed a union, crowning years of growing activism in one of the world’s largest companies and presenting a rare beachhead for unionists in the staunchly anti-union Silicon Valley. [The New York Times]
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The first working week of 2021 started on Monday with a major disruption to San Francisco-based software company Slack. [The New York Times]
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The American Legion removed an Escondido post commander from two national leadership roles in the veterans service organization after he boasted on social media about joining the Proud Boys and violently attack a liberal protester as part of a pro-Trump protest. [The San Diego Union-Tribune]
And finally …
The White House on Monday awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Representative Devin Nunes, calling out President Trump’s defense of President Trump by Republicans in the Central Valley during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as an act of “unassailable integrity”.
The award is the country’s highest civilian honor, intended to recognize “outstanding contributions” to national security, world peace, or cultural and other “significant” endeavors. Former California winners have included former Governor and Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, record test pilot Chuck Yeager and President Ronald Reagan.
White House officials told Maggie Haberman and Nicholas Fandos that Mr. Trump wanted to recognize Mr. Nunes’ political loyalty in an investigation that the president condemned as a partisan “witch hunt”, even as several Congressional committees and U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia meddled in the election in an attempt to send Mr. Trump to the White House.
A White House press release said Mr. Nunes “had the courage to confront the media, the FBI, the intelligence community, the Democratic Party, foreign spies and the full power of the Deep State.” . The Government Accountability Project, a watchdog group, condemned the award, saying Mr. Nunes had “harmed our national interests” with attacks on government employees who risked careers to expose the wrongdoing of the Trump camp.
On Twitter, a critic pursued unsuccessfully by the congressman for making fun of him by posing as his cow tweeted that the medal “will look great in the offices of our lawyers.”
The president also plans to award a medal to Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, another outspoken ally.
California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. weekdays Pacific Time. Tell us what you want to see: [email protected]. Have you been forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here and read each edition online here.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from UC Berkeley.
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