It’s another tale of too many mistakes, too many shortcomings and a lot of putting politics before science.
The story of the novel coronavirus and Florida’s response to it is one of many controversies and up’s and down’s. Well, now, mostly up’s – in the number of Covid-19 cases reported each day.
Just this weekend Florida officially overtaked New York State in the number of cases with a total of 423,855 cases as of Sunday. New York, which once was the US epicenter of the virus, now has 411,736 cases. Florida, right now is only behind California with 453,659 cases, but we should note that California has almost double the population that Florida has.
Where did it go wrong?
Well, you probably remember the times when conservatives talk show hosts and Republican politicians were congratulating Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis for his great success handling the coronavirus pandemic in his state.
It’s not that far away. It was something that we were hearing about every day in May. Fox News said it many times. Even President Trump said it.
They all agreed – DeSantis was doing a great job. He was a leader in the whole country. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York state didn’t have a clue what to do. He was unnecessarily keeping people locked up at home for weeks…
And yet…
And yet…
When we compare the two states we can clearly see the difference.
The difference between great leadership, caution and listening to science versus putting politics first and premature reopening.
Florida was among the last states to issue stay at home order. It was issued on April 3, and it expired on May 4. Just as a reminder, California closed on March 19 and New York on March 22.
And of course that it was among the first states to reopen for business. As of May 18, all of Florida’s 67 counties were in phase 1 of reopening. And we are talking here about a full reopening. Salons, gyms, bars, indoor dining… everything.
And yes, that’s the time when conservatives were saying “bravo” to governor DeSantis. Probably the same time when coronavirus cases were piling up but the state was not testing enough people so we didn’t know what was really happening.
And now we know.
Now we have the results.
What are the next steps for Florida?
What can it do to stop the spread of the virus?
Is fast reopening of schools the right call?
What do you think?
Tell us in the comments HERE.