Almost a year ago to the day, San Francisco and several Bay Area counties led the nation in shutting down amid a growing viral threat.
Only days before, the World Health Organization had declared the coronavirus a pandemic, officially setting off alarm bells across the world as the virus continued its unrelenting and largely undetected spread.
"I’m really proud of the decisions that we made and to act quickly and it was hard," San Francisco Mayor London Breed said. "Part of a decision-making process in the midst of something none of us ever anticipate has everything to do with focusing on the data and the science. That’s what we did in making the decision."
Compared to other major cities, San Francisco has fared well.
Data released by the city’s Department of Public Health showed just under 35,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 455 deaths related to COVID-19 as of Monday. The numbers pale in comparison to Los Angeles, which has reported 1.2 million confirmed infections and a staggering 22,476 deaths.
New York City has seen just over 30,000 deaths.
"I know a lot of people were upset when I declared a state of emergency," Breed said of the pandemic’s early days. "It impacted our economy when I started to shut things down. Our hotel industry took a hit, our conventions took a hit. People’s businesses will probably not even recover from the pandemic."
Despite that pushback, the mayor told KCBS Radio’s "The State of California" she wouldn’t change a thing. "There are some people who, of course, are still angry and upset at what they’ve had to sacrifice as a result of our shutdown. But ultimately, we had to put lives ahead of anything else. It definitely made a difference."
The Bay Area itself, like the rest of the state, has experienced two major surges of the virus, both coming with restrictive lockdowns and stay-at-home orders.
"Look, we saved lives," she said. "We had to make that a priority."
Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats on Monday officially launched a campaign to counter efforts to recall the governor.
It’s also the first time that Gov. Newsom has publicly acknowledged the campaign for his removal, calling it a partisan effort by Republicans. It comes as a new poll shows Californians evenly split on the governor’s performance.
"It’s been a really challenging time not just for the governor, but for the mayors across this state and this country in terms of the hard decisions that we’ve had to make to save lives," Breed said of the recall effort. "I think sadly this is not only a distraction, it’s an expensive distraction."
While Breed said she’s hopeful the recall campaign doesn’t gather the required 1.5 million verified signatures to force a recall election, she conceded it’s likely to go through, saying the state "should be prepared."
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