Gov. Newsom’s Bar Closure Order Mostly Hits Nunes & McCarthy Districts

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Sunday he was “ordering” and “recommending” bars to close in 7 counties because as he said, “Covid-19 is still circulating in California, and in some parts of the state, growing stronger.”

The governor has required bars in Fresno, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles and Tulare counties to close, while Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Stanislaus and Ventura counties were only “recommended” to close.

The mandatory bar closures in Fresno, Tulare, Kern and Northeast Los Angeles Counties cover the congressional districts of Republicans Rep. Devin Nunes and House Minority Speaker Kevin McCarthy, while the “recommended” bar closure counties are all represented by Democrats.

Newsom’s order impacts bars, brewpubs, breweries, and pubs unless they serve food. Alcohol can only be sold in the same transaction as a meal.

Kings County is represented by Democrat Rep. T.J. Cox, who looks as if he may lose District 21 back to Republican David Valadeo, who represented the district until the 2018 election.

Fresno County (Nunes) has a population of 1 million and 72 Covid-19 deaths.

Tulare County (Nunes, McCarthy) has a population of 466, 195 and 122 Covid-19 deaths.

Kern County (McCarthy) has a population of 900,202 and 67 Covid-19 deaths.

Kings County (Cox) has a population of 152,940 and 8 Covid-19 deaths.

Northeast Los Angeles County (McCarthy) only has 167,924 residents. The two cities in NE Los Angeles County, Lancaster and Palmdale, don’t even list Covid deaths on their websites. Perhaps there are none.

Northeastern Los Angeles County and eastern Kern County are also the sites of Edwards Air Force Base, the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division at China Lake, the Mojave Air & Space Port, and NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center.

‘Recommended’ Bar Closures

Of the counties with “recommended” bar closures, Riverside County (Takano – D) has a population of 2.4 million and 438 deaths, most of which were in long term care facilities.

San Bernardino County (Aguilar-D) has a population of 2.18 million and 249 Covid-19 deaths.

Stanislaus County (Harder-D) has a population of 550,660 and 41 Covid-19 deaths.

Ventura County (Brownly-D) has a population of 846,006 and 44 Covid-19 deaths.

Sacramento County (Bera-D) has a population of 1.55 million and 66 Covid deaths (all over the age of 65).

Santa Barbara County (Carbajal-D) has a population of 446,499 and 27 Covid-19 deaths.

When the governor speaks and the media reports a “spike” in “cases,” that only means those who test positive for the virus. It does not translate into overrun hospitalizations or increased COVID-related deaths. Only 8 percent of the hospital beds in the state are even being used. And most people are asymptomatic.

There were reports of deaths in Los Angeles County going up, but that was not truthful. It was because LA County did a massive document dump of backlog reports. “This is the third time CA data dumped a massive backlog. Tracking day-to-day movements is noise, not signal. No context and poor data quality. Promotes panic. “The state reported a huge batch of negative tests on April 4 and again on April 22.” – COVID Tracking Project,” California Globe reported.

Covid-19 mostly impacts those over the age of 65, and even higher percentages over 85, particularly those in nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities, and accounts for 80 percent of California Covid-19 fatalities.