California Governor Gavin Newsom has refused to take responsibility for his state’s decision to keep entertainment companies open amid the COVID-19 pandemic while shutting down churches.
In an interview with Axios, Newsom said the decision was made in the early days of the pandemic, when officials had limited information about how the virus spread.
“When we made that decision back in March of 2020, we didn’t know a lot of things,” he said.
Newsom also noted that some churches had opened up, which exacerbated the virus’s spread. He said that California has “been progressive” in its approach to allowing places of worship to open “as safely as possible.”
He concluded by saying that the state has “been very, very respectful” of religious worshipers in the state and that churches have been able to “find an equilibrium that, again, I think respects the fact that public safety has to be the priority.”
