[Farm93]

This would make more sense if the severe lockdown had not been overextended (in my opinion) causing much more stress than necessary. 

The sticking point in SCC has been testing, which has been at about a quarter of the level daily that is apparently thought necessary to detect whether a phase of reopening is causing too rapid a rise in cases. Whether that's true, and if so whether it should be overridden by the economic urgency, is unclear to me. Also there should be some differentiation within counties: at a minimum the north part of SCC should have been able to reopen already. I do think, as a structural matter, that that public health officers should not have sole power to make these decisions at this point in the pandemic. Better to have elected officials balance the trade-offs.

Elected officials do have this power.  Governor Newsom could easily have issued an order releasing the full state at the same time.   Could have easily noted that citizens from a restrictive county could easily go to a nearby county causing economic damage to the business while doing little to mitigate the spread of the virus.

Newsom did not do this primarily because of LA county, but he could have issued a statewide declaration.

The government needs to pay for these trackers, it probably should be the federal government since many citizens outside of CA can live and work in different states.  Still, got to hire and train trackers ASAP with the goal of keeping all of them active until at least March 2021.

FWIW - CA only appears slow because of the go for broke approach utilized in most of the USA.  Many G7 health officials have openly expressed their concern that the USA is opening up while having so many new cases and so few tracing resources.

[Farm93]

This would make more sense if the severe lockdown had not been overextended (in my opinion) causing much more stress than necessary. 

The sticking point in SCC has been testing, which has been at about a quarter of the level daily that is apparently thought necessary to detect whether a phase of reopening is causing too rapid a rise in cases. Whether that's true, and if so whether it should be overridden by the economic urgency, is unclear to me. Also there should be some differentiation within counties: at a minimum the north part of SCC should have been able to reopen already. I do think, as a structural matter, that that public health officers should not have sole power to make these decisions at this point in the pandemic. Better to have elected officials balance the trade-offs.

Elected officials do have this power.  Governor Newsom could easily have issued an order releasing the full state at the same time.   Could have easily noted that citizens from a restrictive county could easily go to a nearby county causing economic damage to the business while doing little to mitigate the spread of the virus.

Newsom did not do this primarily because of LA county, but he could have issued a statewide declaration.

The government needs to pay for these trackers, it probably should be the federal government since many citizens outside of CA can live and work in different states.  Still, got to hire and train trackers ASAP with the goal of keeping all of them active until at least March 2021.

FWIW - CA only appears slow because of the go for broke approach utilized in most of the USA.  Many G7 health officials have openly expressed their concern that the USA is opening up while having so many new cases and so few tracing resources.