His first-in-the-nation decision to issue a statewide stay-at-home order set a public health precedent other states would follow. But in public Newsom gave no hint if he was aware that COVID-19 was developing into the crisis it would soon become. Dr. Sonia Angell, who was then serving as California's public health officer, advised that "the risk to the general public remains low." "The conversation at that point and all of our concerns were about public health," Mendonca said. The struggle inside Newsom's office to steer California through a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic has been talked about less often.
