Florida county sheriff's office decimated by COVID-19 as nearly 10 percent of employees now out sick According to local news station WFLA, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office is being decimated by COVID-19 and currently has 94 employees out sick, roughly two-thirds of which have tested positive for the virus. In total, the office estimates that it's missing around 10 percent of its total workforce. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken criticism for refusing to do anything that could slow the spread of the virus in his state, as he has refused to implement vaccine mandates for state employees while at the same time tried to bar schools from implementing mask mandates for teachers and students.
"It hurts to breathe": Sick Florida anti-vaxxer waits in 2-hour line, hoping for Regeneron https://boingboing.net/2021/08/24/i...aits-in-2-hour-line-hoping-for-regeneron.html
Florida seriously need some sobering leadership.... Florida woman stabs family and drowns her own baby in anti-COVID bathtub 'baptism' gone wrong: report On Tuesday, The Daily Beast reported that a woman in South Florida stabbed her husband and daughter and drowned her baby in a bathtub in an anti-COVID "baptism" ritual. "Miami-Dade police believe the incident ... was the result of a mental health crisis," reported the Daily Beast's Cheyenne Ubiera. "The baby was found unresponsive in a bathtub by police and rushed to the hospital but did not survive. The couple's four other young children were found in a neighbor's home. The mom has been hospitalized along with her husband and the teen child." Although vaccines for COVID-19 are readily available and effective, particularly at preventing hospitalization and death, many people around the country have resorted to alternative methods of prevention and treatment. Among these are hydroxychloroquine, a drug for malaria and autoimmune diseases, which even led one couple to eat fish tank cleaner that contained a similar compound; and ivermectin, a drug used to deworm horses and cows, which has led people to poison themselves with livestock medicine bought at farmer supply centers. Right-wing televangelist Jim Bakker was even sanctioned after hawking a liquid silver solution as a cure for COVID-19.
Another dead teacher for the governor... Florida Teacher’s Cancer Meant She Couldn’t Get Vaxxed. Now She’s Dead of COVID. https://www.thedailybeast.com/kelly...-cancer-unable-to-be-vaccinated-dies-of-covid A 41-year-old teacher in Florida who was unable to get the coronavirus vaccine died Monday of COVID-19 after her family says she caught the virus in her classroom. Kelly Peterson’s doctor thought the side effects of the vaccine would be too hard on her while she underwent treatment for leukemia, so she did not receive the preventative. Peterson taught fifth grade at Lake Shipp Elementary in Winter Haven, Florida, and was required to teach in-person when the school year started. Polk County schools did not implement a mask mandate. Her sister Christin told local outlets, “Because her leukemia was so bad at this point, their concern was by getting the vaccine that potentially could put too much stress on her body. She had voiced concerns many times that if she contracted COVID, she was afraid that it would kill her, and unfortunately that’s what happened.” Read it at KTVU "The teachers union says the 41-year-old contracted the virus in the classroom at Lake Shipp Elementary. Her family is heartbroken over the fact that she was put at risk in the school that she loved and wasn't able to get the vaccine due to her doctor's orders. "
Just another typical day in DeSantis' Florida... 'A nightmare': Florida woman survives COVID-19, discovers husband had died at home https://www.wesh.com/article/florida-woman-survives-covid-19-discovers-husband-died-home/37397948#
@Tsing Tao has been whining "where are the deaths in Florida?" Well as demonstrated by the Feds in the past week, when they forced Florida to correct its death data, the deaths in Florida are significantly under-counted by the DeSantis administration. Florida funeral homes overwhelmed with bodies amid COVID-19 surges https://www.wptv.com/coronavirus/florida-funeral-homes-overwhelmed-with-bodies-amid-covid-19-surges Bodies Stacked to the Ceiling in Florida Funeral Homes as COVID Rages https://www.thedailybeast.com/bodie...in-florida-funeral-homes-as-coronavirus-rages Florida funeral director buries 2 friends, says no funerals available for weeks due to COVID https://www.cbs17.com/news/south/fl...no-funerals-available-for-weeks-due-to-covid/
In news that should surprise nobody -- let's see if you can guess the four states before reading the article... Regeneron says half its COVID-19 treatment doses are being sent to 4 low-vaccination states https://theweek.com/vaccines/100416...id-19-treatment-doses-are-being-sent-to-4-low Health officials agree that if you are newly infected with COVID-19 and have an above-average risk of getting seriously ill, you should quickly seek treatment with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals' monoclonal antibody therapy. The federal government is covering the costs, some states have set up free infusion centers, and the antibody cocktail has been shown to reduce hospitalization rates by 70 percent for high-risk COVID-19 patients treated within 10 days. "They are safe, they are free, they keep people out of the hospital and help keep them alive," Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a senior adviser to the White House's COVID-19 response team, said at an Aug. 12 White House briefing. But the loudest promotion of Regeneron's experimental treatment is coming from the governors of Texas and Florida, "where vaccinations lag and hospitalizations are soaring with Delta-variant infections" even as the governors "downplay vaccination and other measures that health officials say can prevent illness in the first place,"Kaiser Health Newsreports. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who received Regeneron's lab-produced antibody cocktail earlier this month, on Wednesda ybanned government entitie sfrom requiring FDA-approved vaccinations. The FDA approved Regeneron's treatment on an emergency use basi slate last year, but few people used it as the vaccines became available and helped crush infections and hospitalizations. Then the Delta variant took hold. Since mid-July, Regeneron deliveries have "soared from 25,000 doses to 125,000 doses per week, with about half shipped to four states: Florida, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama,"Kaiser Health Newsreports, citing Regeneron spokeswoman Alexandra Bowie. This "expensive, cumbersome, and difficult-to-use therapy" is "not a substitute for vaccine, by any means," Dr. Christian Ramers, an infectious disease specialist at Family Health Centers of San Diego, tellsKaiser Health News. "It's like playing defense with no offense." Regeneron's infusions cost about $1,250 a dose, not counting the hundreds of dollars to transport the drug and administer the hour-long infusion, Kaiser Health Newsnotes. "The federal government is also covering the costs of COVID vaccination, at about $20 a dose." Both of those interventions are much less expensive than hospitalizing COVID-19 patients. But it's "fiscally irresponsible" and "downright despicable for 'small government conservatives' to look to the federal government to dole out the most extravagant rescues for their states when they've so willingly squandered — and impeded — the far more prudent and effective measures" like vaccines and masks, Neil J. Young writes atThe Week.