Written by William Hekman
With COVID numbers increasing over the last weeks in California, many are laying the blame at the feet of Governor Gavin Newsom. Newsom had promised to deliver quick testing, but he has failed to deliver quick, rapid, at-home tests for all California students to take so they could return to school after winter break all healthy.
Just over 6 million students are enrolled in California public schools, and while millions did receive tests, millions did not, creating uncertainty in safely returning students back to the classroom. According to the California Department of Health, the government distributed 2 million tests at the beginning of December. Newsom said that the government would purchase 6 million more tests just a few days before Christmas. Newsom said that the reason for at-home testing over the holidays was to know, “that they have not contracted the disease over the holidays”. Unfortunately, half of the tests did not make it to homes. Tests were sent to local governments and districts to distribute to students.
The tests that did not make it were blamed on weather delays and “distribution challenges”. Even the left-leaning paper the Los Angeles Times criticized Newsom in an editorial piece published on Tuesday, “ Too many California kids went back to school this week without knowing whether they’re spreading the highly contagious Omicron variant”.
While children are not the highest risk when it comes to COVID, Newsom should answer why this is so challenging.
Photo Cred: Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group via AP
