The OHA spent months saying that indoor restaurants and bars weren’t a major source for Covid transmission. This is, of course, completely wrong. (OHA didn’t even track outbreaks from restaurants and bars, but there have been plenty in other states and countries.)
Once the governor shut restaurants and bars, OHA was forced to reverse course and defend shutting them. They are quite at home with logical inconsistencies.
Today’s update to the governor’s orders offers something of a reprieve—outdoor dining allowed again—while throwing caution to the wind (or, if you prefer, Christians to the lions): “Churches will be allowed to resume services, limited to 25% of a building’s capacity or 100 people indoors, whichever is smaller.”
This sort of thinking is why blasphemous speech must remain legal in our society. Because it’s otherwise difficult to convey how goddamned stupid this is. It’s like no one’s ever read Matthew 4:7. That people will end up dying from this policy change is almost a statistical certainty. I could not be more adamantly opposed or more thoroughly disgusted.
It is increasingly difficult to have faith in institutions (whether they be church or state) when they take actions which unnecessarily put people at risk.