(Headline USA) Although California Gov. Gavin Newsom is widely believed to have become seriously ill from his own coronavirus vaccine “booster,” that did not stop the radical Democrat from rushing headfirst into an alarming new trend: booster mandates.
To be his guineau pigs in the new power-grabbing policy, he chose the state’s already fully vaxxed frontline caregivers.
California already requires health care workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, a directive that took effect in September and has since led to the firing or suspension of thousands of people.
Now it will join New Mexico as at least the second state to require booster shots for health care workers.
Newsom announced the order Tuesday on his personal Twitter account and planned to provide more details at a Wednesday news conference.
He said California health care workers will be required to have coronavirus booster shots to ensure that hospitals are ready to deal with a surge in cases as the more-transmissible omicron variant spreads throughout the state.
However, evidence suggests that omicron requires significantly fewer hospitalizations than prior strains, while also indicating that those who receive a booster shot are 4.5x more likely to contract it.
Last week, Newsom, who imposed the first statewide shutdown order in March 2020, warned that cases would likely rise and re-imposed a rule requiring everyone to wear masks at public indoor gatherings.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists California as a place with “high” transmission of the virus, along with nearly everywhere else in the country. But in the last week California averaged 114 new cases per 100,000 people, less than half the national rate.
While 70% of Californians have been fully vaccinated, that still leaves 30%—or roughly 12 million people—who haven’t been. It is unclear whether the statistics factored in the number of unvaccinated illegal immigrants who are free to come and go as they please through the state’s open borders.
Coronavirus related hospitalizations have been rising slowly in California, up 15% in the last 11 days to 3,852. That’s less than half as many as during the late summer peak and one-fifth of a year ago, before vaccines were widely available.
But while hospitals overall have fewer patients than last winter, many have fewer workers to treat the patients they do have because of the previous vaccine mandates.
A recent study by the University of California-San Francisco estimated the state’s nursing shortage could persist until 2026.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
