One definition of “insanity” is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
If that is the case, than New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s response to the Omicron COVID-19 variant is insane.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Friday to postpone elective hospital surgeries — something that hasn’t been done since the worst of the initial coronavirus outbreak last year.Hochul said she made the move to deal with staffing shortages and boost bed capacity amid an anticipated “spike” in new cases and the emergence of the new Omicron variant in South Africa. The strain is named after a letter of the Greek alphabet.“We’ve taken extraordinary action to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and combat this pandemic. However, we continue to see warning signs of spikes this upcoming winter, and while the new Omicron variant has yet to be detected in New York State, it’s coming,” Hochul said.
Hochul is clearly using the developments to assume sweeping powers and readopting policies that clearly did not halt the virus nor stop it from mutating in the first place.
The declaration unlocks sweeping powers for her to take emergency measures, without the usual state congressional approval.’We continue to see warning signs of spikes in COVID this winter, and while the new Omicron variant has yet to be detected in New York State, it’s coming,’ Hochul tweeted….Hochul’s declaration of a disaster emergency acknowledges that the state is struggling – even before Omicron possibly hits.’A disaster has occurred in New York State, for which the affected local governments are unable to respond adequately,’ the declaration states.’New York is now experiencing COVID-19 transmission at rates the State has not seen since April 2020.
It must be noted that Hochul isn’t the only politician bitterly clinging to emergency powers. Earlier this month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an order allowing his emergency powers to remain in place until March 2022.
California has been under a state of emergency since March 4, 2020. Since then, Newsom has authorized billions of dollars in emergency spending and issued at least 47 executive orders to alter or suspend 200 state laws and regulations because of the virus, according to a resolution authored by Republican state senators.With this extension, Newsom will have emergency orders for more than two years.With the emergency remaining in effect, Newsom has the flexibility to take certain steps in case something were to happen.
Of course, his retention of said emergency powers has not broken the cycles of infection being experienced in the Golden State.
In central California, a region that struggled with resistance to masks and vaccines throughout the pandemic, the strained public health system has been pushed to the brink. Hospitals this week are over-capacity and officials are seeking to transfer more patients out of the region for treatment in Los Angeles.“We’re just running around like crazy,” said Rachel Spray, a nurse at the Kaiser hospital in Fresno. “Call lights are going off, alarms are going off. We just don’t have the resources.” The hospital’s emergency room, intensive care unit, coronavirus overflow zones, and tent are not enough to accommodate the surge of sick patients, she said. “It’s not slowing down.”
Contrast their responses to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Wisely, DeSantis has avoided vaccine mandates, has emphasized treatments as part of his state’s approach, and has met with success.
Florida is reporting the lowest amount of coronavirus cases per capita in the nation after Gov. Ron DeSantis was widely criticized by media outlets for his handling of the virus.DeSantis has been slammed by critics in the media since the start of the pandemic over his opposition to government-imposed mask and vaccine mandates. In 2020, DeSantis was accused by a Democratic politician of going on a “killing spree” for opposing mask mandates and a Vanity Fair headline from September of this year referred to the governor as an “angel of death.”At the same time Florida reported the lowest amount of new cases in the country per capita, coronavirus cases are surging in many states where strict lockdown orders were issued by Democratic governors.Michigan, where Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer imposed some of the most controversial restrictions in the nation during the height of the pandemic, leads the nation in daily coronavirus cases per capita.The Sunshine State reported a daily average of 1,393 coronavirus cases as of Friday, six per 100,000, which was a two percent decrease over the last two weeks.
There are so many reasons for the media and political focus on Omicron: Distraction from Bay Area crime sprees and the Waukesha slaughter, diversion from news related to inflation and the supply chain crisis, and the upcoming mid-terms (perhaps paving the way for more mail-in ballot harvesting). But given the limited information on the variant, the amount of attention and hysteria is absurd.
And implementing the same policies over and over, and expecting the now-endemic coronavirus to disappear, is insane.
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