Newsom Calls California's 2020 COVID Beach Closures Insane in Hindsight, Says Schools Stayed Shut Too Long
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Sep 23
Newsom Calls California's 2020 COVID Beach Closures Insane in Hindsight, Says Schools Stayed Shut Too Long
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 23
Summary
Gavin Newsom said in a CNN interview that California's COVID-era beach closures were "insane in hindsight" and that some of the state's biggest school districts remained closed longer than they should have.
The Democratic governor framed the comments as a retrospective on mistakes made during the pandemic, saying officials focused too much on sanitizer shortages and other early responses instead of the virus itself.
The remarks triggered a sharp online backlash, with conservative critics and some Californians arguing the problems were obvious in 2020 and reviving disputes over beach shutdowns, school closures and other restrictions.
California imposed the nation's first statewide stay-at-home order on March 19, 2020, affecting nearly 40 million residents, and Newsom's pandemic policies later helped fuel a 2021 recall that he survived.