Listening to the daily COVID-19 virus updates from Governor Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti, brings to mind one of the best-known quotes from Clara Peller who was a manicurist and American character actress who, at the age of 81, starred in the 1984 “where’s the beef?” advertising campaign for the Wendy’s fast food restaurant chain. Today, neither Newsom nor Garcetti provide the “science” numbers to support their authority to shut down the California economy.
The COVID-19 “science” is the actual statistical numbers. The virus is hard on the elderly, with those 65 and older accounting for 80% of the California fatalities. The population age 65 and over represent about 15 percent of the population. It does not make a lot of statistical sense for our elected leadership to be blind to the “real science numbers” and hold the other 85 percent of the population (approximately 34 million) hostage, which results in catastrophic damage to the economy.
Where is the virus “science”? The Center for Disease Control (CDC) data shows California experienced more than 200,000 fatalities per year from 2014 thru 2017 from ALL causes including Heart Disease, Cancer, Stroke, Alzheimer’s Disease, Respiratory, Accidents, Diabetes, Influenza/Pneumonia, Hypertension, and Liver Disease.
If we double the CA COVID-19 virus 3,753 fatalities through May 24, 2020, we get 7,500, compared to the 6,340 in 2017for the entire year from Influenza/Pneumonia.
Here’s a more concise look at the CDC science that shows the fatalities from those flu-like symptoms has remained constant at less than 4 percent of California’s annual fatalities.
| CDC Statistics | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
| 1. Cancer | 58,412 | 61,289 | 61,573 | 62,797 |
| 2. Heart Disease | 58,189 | 59,629 | 59,515 | 59,516 |
| 3. Stroke | 13,731 | 15,065 | 15,680 | 16,355 |
| 4. Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases | 12,780 | 15,065 | 15,570 | 16,238 |
| 5. Alzheimer’s Disease | 12,644 | 13,621 | 13,710 | 13,881 |
| 6. Accidents | 11,804 | 12,544 | 13,213 | 13,840 |
| 7. Diabetes | 8,249 | 8,845 | 9,124 | 9,595 |
| 8. Influenza/Pneumonia | 5,970 | 6,188 | 5,981 | 6,340 |
| 9. Chronic Liver Disease/Cirrhosis | 5,013 | 5,425 | 5,287 | 5,596 |
| 10. Hypertension | 4,573 | 5,118 | 5,100 | 5,325 |
| Annual Fatalities | 191,365 | 202,789 | 204,753 | 209,483 |
| % of the fatalities from Influenzas/Pneumonia | 3.120% | 3.051% | 2.921% | 3.026% |
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| Double the CA COVID-19 virus 3,753 fatalities through May 24, 2020, we get 7,500 for a 2019 projected 209,000 annual fatalities | 3.589% | |||
As a result of the leadership from Newsom and Garcetti, here are a few quick notes about the COVID-19 carnage on the job market that has been exposed, as our elected officials have been oblivious to basic math for decades, and continue to be void of a few economic basics such as:
- The State’s much-touted $21 billion operating-budget surplus is likely to disappear entirely due to declining tax revenues and rising public welfare costs. California is expected to face a $54.3 billion deficit over the next year.
- We have gone from an unemployment level of 3.5 percent a few months ago to 4.5 million in unemployment claims representing 23.3 percent of the current California workforce of 19.3 million – — that is nearly 1 in 5 Californians without jobs!
- In California alone, there are more than 4 million small businesses which employ more than 7 million people across the Golden state.
- The 4 million small businesses in California may see a 30 percent closure rate with the ramifications on employment devastating.
- Among the largest sector of small businesses in California are the 90,000 restaurants, of which 30,000 may close permanently as a result of the COVID-19 impacts.
- California has begun paying out massive amounts in unemployment and welfare benefits and continues to support the hiring of undocumented workers and has virtually eliminated the independent contractors, you can see how this house of cards is starting to crumble.
- Once the world’s 5th largest economy, tax-paying Californians now must cope with uncertain future bureaucracy-distributed State and local monetary expenditures along with the state’s unfunded pension debt liabilities of one trillion dollars, or almost 5 times the State’s $220 billion-dollar 2020-21 budget!
In four years from now, before Governor Newsom decides to take a run at the Presidency of the USA, and before Mayor Garcetti decides to take a run at the Governorship of California, they both owe an explanation to the 40 million residents of the state as to why they were oblivious to the CDC science numbers that demonstrate that flu virus fatalities have been constantly less than 4 percent of all fatalities, and continued to use their authority to virtually kill the California economy.