Governor Newsom Declares State of Emergency in California Due to Bird Flu As Shock Move Sparks Fear of Covid-Like Pandemic Shutdown
California is now in a state of emergency due to bird flu.
Dec. 18 2024, Published 3:54 p.m. ET
California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency due to H5N1, or bird flu, proclaiming the state is "committed to further protecting public health", as citizens across the country fear a Covid-like shutdown looms.
At the moment, there have been no cases of human transmission of bird flu in the state as all infections are currently linked to exposure to infected cattle, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
California is now in a state of emergency due to bird flu.
The governor stated on his website: "This proclamation is a targeted action to ensure government agencies have the resources and flexibility they need to respond quickly to this outbreak.
"Building on California's testing and monitoring system — the largest in the nation — we are committed to further protecting public health, supporting our agriculture industry [and] ensuring that Californians have access to accurate, up-to-date information."
He added: "While the risk to the public remains low, we will continue to take all necessary steps to prevent the spread of this virus."
Newsom called the state of emergency to 'prevent the state of the virus'.
California has recorded just over half of all bird flu infections detected in humans in 2024, or 32 out of the 61 total cases according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, all the cases are linked to exposure to cattle, or wild or domestic birds, as no spread from person-to-person has yet to be detected.
The emergency comes after an outbreak of the virus among dairy cows in Southern California farms. After first being reported in other states including Texas and Kansas earlier this year, bird flu has now been confirmed in cattle across 16 states, according to the CDC.
Newson's decision led citizens to take it to X as they posted about their concerns about a possible shutdown similar to Covid-19's 2020 pandemic.
One person wrote: "... The bird flu spreading... what's next? If only people would’ve complied and wore masks, maybe Covid would not be so out of control."
Another said: "One case of bird flu and Newsom wants to shut California down like Covid again," while a third added, "People still trying to recover from Covid and now we have to worry about the bird flu."
A user raged: "But I was told the bird flu wasn't that bad compared to Covid so why be scared?"
People are now worried a Covid-like pandemic may be looming.
The state of emergency will enable California to activate emergency powers and resources, and may allow Newson to act quickly without legislative approval and freeing up emergency funds for disaster response.
Newson's shocking move comes after a 520-Page Congress report revealed Covid-19 leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China in the fall of 2019.
The report, released by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, stated: "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis.
"By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced."
The report claimed the research lab in Wuhan "has a history of conducting gain-of-function research at inadequate biosafety levels" and researchers that worked in the lab "were sick with a COVID-like virus in the fall of 2019, months before COVID-19 was discovered at the wet market".
The documents also called out Dr. Anthony Fauci – who became the face of the Covid-19 pandemic – for shutting down any theories claiming the virus was leaked from the lab.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci was criticized for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Although Dr. Fauci believed the lab leak theory to be a conspiracy theory at the start of the pandemic, it now appears that his position is that he does have an open mind about the origin of the virus – so long as it does not implicate EcoHealth Alliance, and by extension himself and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases," the report read.
