The state of California lifted many of its pandemic restrictions on June 15, with more being removed last week. So with “freedom day” behind them, things are moving closer to whatever passes for “normal” in 2021, right? That’s probably true in many places, but not if you happen to work at the state Capitol in Sacramento. Yesterday, the hammer came crashing back down and a mandate to wear face masks while in any of the Capitol complex buildings was reinstated. And that includes the people who are fully vaccinated, as well. The orders were handed down by the Secretary of the state Senate and the Chief Administrative Officer of the Assembly. So what happened? A handful of people tested positive for COVID. (SF Chronicle)

Effective immediately, people are required to wear a mask at all times while in the Capitol, Legislative Office Building and district offices, Secretary of the Senate Erika Contreras and Assembly Chief Administrative Officer Debra Gravert wrote in memos Tuesday.

Unvaccinated legislators and employees are also required to be tested for the coronavirus twice a week, beginning Thursday. Contreras urged vaccinated lawmakers and employees to be tested voluntarily.

Rare “breakthrough” infections can occur in fully vaccinated people, but public health experts believe they are less likely to lead to more serious COVID-19 outcomes, including hospitalization and death.

They aren’t stopping with just the mask mandate. Any non-vaccinated employees will be required to take a COVID test twice per week. And if Democratic state Senator Scott Wiener of San Francisco gets his way, all of those people will be ordered to go get vaccinated pronto or lose their jobs.

All public employees — including all employees of the Legislature — should be mandated to get a COVID vaccine, absent a medical reason.

Public employees not getting vaccinated puts others at risk & undermines government’s ability to serve the public. It’s not acceptable.

— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) July 1, 2021

This was all done as a result of another “outbreak” of COVID in the Capitol building. But they seem to be asking the word “outbreak” to do some heavy lifting here. They had a total of nine people test positive, with seven of them all coming from one office. Four of those who tested positive were already fully vaccinated.

Is that what it takes to send these people into a panic? Nine people? There are 120 legislators in the two chambers and every one of them has a full staff. Then there are all of the administrative employees, maintenance people and all the rest. There are literally thousands of people who work there on a daily basis and they brought back the mask mandate after nine of them tested positive, likely because of some work event they all attended.

Here’s a thought. Why don’t you just tell those nine people to go back to working from home until they recover? You can probably pick up some vaccinated temp workers to fill in for them if their jobs don’t allow remote work. Heck, since you’re probably planning to fire anyone who refuses to take the vaccine fairly soon, you’re going to be needing to do a lot of hiring anyway.

This is what the pandemic has done to far too many people, including many holding powerful elected offices. We’ve become afraid of our own shadows. And the first response to any hint of COVID news is to go back to instituting draconian mandates. The four people in that office who were vaccinated are virtually 100% guaranteed to only suffer mild effects from the virus. If the other five are at least relatively young and healthy, their outlook is pretty much the same.

This is ridiculous. I feel sorry for the workers at the Capitol complex in Sacramento, and this is coming from someone who isn’t exactly a huge fan of California.