Nationwide, the vast majority of Americans support stay-at-home orders. Seventy-two percent of Americans support the public health measures to “flatten the curve” of infections and save lives, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos survey.
This makes sense. Life, and health, are extremely valuable. Most of us want to stay alive – and we also want our friends and loved ones to survive. Such care is a basic human instinct.
COVID-19 has killed nearly 50,000 Americans so far. This week, California had its deadliest day yet, with 118 deaths on Wednesday alone, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. But it could be much worse. Millions of Americans could die if we don’t continue to take strong measures to slow the virus’ spread. That’s why Californians, and people around the nation and the world, are engaged in an unprecedented act of “physical distancing” to reduce the death toll.
Unfortunately, a tiny but extreme minority of people has started agitating against our smart public health measures. This small but vocal fraction engaged in protests around the nation this week, including in Sacramento. The anti-quarantine protests – which, according to the Washington Post, are backed by groups funded by conservative billionaires – demand that governors scale back the COVID-19 responses in their states.
The protesters argue that the temporary economic shutdown is worse than death. But while the economic consequences have been painful, there’s no guarantee that ignoring medical science and unleashing mass deaths on our communities would help the economy. In fact, a second wave of COVID-19 infections could do even deeper economic damage – and extinguish millions of lives, creating permanent hardships for many families.
The protesters are uninformed and outlandish, but some Republicans in the California State Capitol are working to make their arguments seem legitimate. On Thursday, the Republican caucus of the California State Senate sent a letter to Newsom asking that counties be allowed to evade the shutdown mandate. The letter, authored by state Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), asked the governor to “seriously consider modifying” the state’s stay-at-home order to allow local governments to abandon public safety measures before it’s safe to do so.
But Newsom has no reason to consider such requests. His strategy, based in science, is saving lives. It’s also extremely popular. While Republican governors in states like Georgia and Florida seem happy to sacrifice lives by defying expert advice, California has taken a better path.
The California Republicans’ request tries to make a deadly idea seem reasonable and rational, but it won’t work. Conservative commentators have already made it clear that reopening the economy will result in many preventable deaths.
Last week, Scott Adams – the conservative-leaning California resident and famed Dilbert cartoonist – declared that “losing a few hundred thousand people (or fewer if we are clever) is an acceptable price for reopening the economy. I’m in a higher risk category and agree.”
He added one caveat: “I would like an option for assisted suicide just to skip the last day or two of drowning in my own lung juice.”
This argument won’t persuade anyone, but at least it’s honest. And let’s be clear: This is what the protesters – and California Senate Republicans – are essentially saying.
California has proven it can do better. Gov. Newsom should ignore such defeatist drivel and stay the course.
©2020 The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Governing's opinion columns reflect the views of their authors and not necessarily those of Governing editors or management.
