I Love ‘Newsom at Noon,’ but It Needs a New Star

Let Nonpartisan Scientists and Doctors Lead the State’s Daily COVID-19 Briefings

Dear Governor,

Your lunchtime COVID-19 briefings—“Newsom at Noon”—are must-see TV.

No California governor has ever had such a regular, closely observed platform, and you are making the most of it. Your memory, your command of policy and operational detail, and your rambling verbal dexterity, especially with the long words you favor (do you ever stop to breathe?), are almost superhuman. With these briefings, you are giving California’s most preeminent polysyllabic performance since Julie Andrews sang “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” for Disney’s Mary Poppins.

Your skilled delivery of so much epidemiological data and so many …