Charles PillerScience's COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.California was a COVID-19 success story—until suddenly it wasn’t.
Early in the pandemic, the state seemed to have the new coronavirus under control, but the pandemic has begun to ride a wave there, with records set in daily cases several times this month, and deaths on the rise.California officials whose COVID-19 responses were once hailed as enlightened are now receiving criticism—and some of the sharpest is coming from scientists seeking to help guide the state’s fight against the virus.