California’s New COVID Rules Reveal Gov. Newsom’s & Public Health Officials’ Deliberate Confusion Tactic

The CalOSHA Board just revised its less-than-one-week-old rule which would have allowed the state’s employees to work without masks only if every employee in a room is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

This starkly contrasted with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s April promise to reopen the state and do away with mask wearing and social distancing requirements by June 15.

Deliberate confusion is a tactic used when a negotiator is losing ground.

The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards came out of nowhere. Or did they?

Newsom announced last Friday that the mask mandate will not be ending in full, breaking the promise he made last month of all mask mandates ending on June 15th, the Globe reported. Instead, he will be following new Cal/OSHA recommendations requiring masks in many workplaces until at least July 31st.

Despite the mask order lacking any science behind it, this announcement made it clear that the people are being manipulated and controlled.

Employers and business groups responded immediately, pressuring Gov. Newsom to override CalOSHA’s arbitrary rules. CalOSHA’s involvement however, was meant to strike fear in the hearts of the state’s employers.

San Francisco strip clubs will be reopening next week, with no masks or vaccination requirements, so apparently CalOSHA doesn’t regulate strip clubs?.

Yet restaurants, bars, retail, and large event organizers are feeling the pressure to keep masks on because of the deliberate confusion by the governor and CalOSHA, which has to power to shut businesses down.

“The reversal came after State Health Officer Dr. Tomás Aragón reiterated to board members at a hastily scheduled special meeting that the state next week will end most masking rules for people who are vaccinated, while continuing to require face coverings for unvaccinated people in indoor public settings and businesses,” the AP reported.

“Exceptions where everyone must remain masked include public transit, indoor school classes, in health care and correctional facilities, and in places like homeless shelters and cooling centers, Aragón said. Individual businesses are also free to require everyone to remain masked under the general rules, he said.”

Helen Cleary, director of the Phylmar Regulatory Roundtable, a coalition of large businesses with major California operations, was among numerous business representatives urging the board to conform its rule with public health requirements, AP reported. “Employers cannot plan with this high level of uncertainty,” she said. “We are disappointed and frustrated with the confusion, the process, the substance and the lack of leadership.”

The California Business Roundtable weighed in as well:

“After the confusion and lack of clarity on reopening guidelines at the Cal/OSHA hearing tonight, the statewide business community must once again request the governor issue an Executive Order before June 15 to provide all employers with the consistency and certainty in guidelines,” Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable said in a statement after the vote. That, he said, “will be the catalyst for a full economic reopening and create a powerful incentive to get even more Californians vaccinated.”

With all of the science available, as well as the release of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s emails by Buzzfeed, obtained with a FOIA request, show he lied to the public about key COVID protocols, including masking, not backed by science.

The best response to Fauci’s exposure came from Sen. Rand Paul:

Told you ????

#firefauci

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 2, 2021

Stanford epidemiologist Jay Bhattacharya told Fox News host Laura Ingraham over the weekend that Dr. Anthony Fauci’s “credibility is entirely shot” after his conflicting advice on face masks throughout the pandemic. “I think he’s been all over the place on masks.”

Governors across the country have lifted mask mandates to align with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you Google “Governors across the country lift mask mandates,” the first headline says, Calif. governor seems unlikely to lift worker mask mandate, ahead of other articles reporting Texas, Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, Indiana, North Carolina, Kentucky and even New Jersey lifted mask mandates.

CalOSHA “Board member Laura Stock said it is important to keep protecting employees who don’t have a realistic choice but to go to work,” according to the AP. “For instance, state data shows that in the retail sector in the last 30 days ‘there were 70 outbreaks, more than two a day,’ said Stock, who directs the Labor Occupational Health Program at UC Berkeley. “Outbreaks are still occurring,” she said.

CalOSHA is hysterical about “in the last 30 days ‘there were 70 outbreaks, more than two a day?”

Here is the California Department of Public Health’s Updated Face Coverings Guidance to Take Effect on June 15:

CDPH today released updated Guidance for Face Coverings to align with CDC Guidance, which will go into effect on June 15, when the state reopens its economy and moves Beyond the Blueprint.

Beginning June 15, fully vaccinated people will be able to resume everyday activities without wearing a mask. Masks will be required for unvaccinated individuals in indoor public settings and businesses. Masks will be required in some limited situations regardless of vaccination status including on public transit, at schools and childcare centers (pending updated CDC guidance), in healthcare and long-term care facilities, in prisons, and at emergency or homeless shelters.

In workplaces, employers are subject to the Cal/OSHA COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) or the CalOSHA Aerosol Transmissible Diseases Standard, and should consult those regulations for additional applicable requirements.

Here is the Cal/OSHA COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards:

Changes to Emergency Temporary Standards

On Thursday June 3, 2021 the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board convened to vote on proposed changes to the COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS). The revisions include updates to face coverings, physical distancing and other prevention measures for vaccinated and unvaccinated workers. The ETS applies to most workers in California. Upon approval by the Office of Administrative Law, these new standards will be effective June 15, 2021. Please visit Cal/OSHA’s COVID-19 resources webpage for more information on the ETS, including updated FAQs.

The California Department of Public Health’s Updated Face Coverings Guidance refers to CalOSHA’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards, and CalOSHA’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards refer to The California Department of Public Health’s Updated Face Coverings Guidance.

At this point, shouldn’t they just defer to the CDC? Unless the motive is deliberate confusion.

For your reading pleasure, this is the CA Department of Public Health’s silly, unscientific Guidance For the Use of Face Masks:

1. For fully vaccinated persons, face coverings are not required outdoors except when attending crowded outdoor events, such as live performances, parades, fairs, festivals, sports events, or other similar settings.
2. For unvaccinated persons, face coverings are required outdoors any time physical distancing cannot be maintained, including when attending crowded outdoor events, such as live performances, parades, fairs, festivals, sports events, or other similar settings.
3. In indoor settings outside of one’s home, including public transportation, face coverings continue to be required regardless of vaccination status, except as outlined below.
4. As defined in the CDPH Fully Vaccinated Persons Guidance, fully vaccinated people can*:
   • Visit, without wearing masks or physical distancing, with other fully vaccinated people in indoor or outdoor settings; and
   • Visit, without wearing masks or physical distancing, with unvaccinated people (including children) from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease in indoor and outdoor settings

Can’t wait to see the media try to spin the Fauci FOIA emails.

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 2, 2021