The press has clear documented the DeSantis administration hiding data and reports. Only someone in a tin foil hat would deny this fact.
They have his administration not sharing data to their liking. That doesn't mean he is deliberately hiding anything. Unless, of course, they have something where he is ordering people to not share data. At the end of the day, I don't care. I don't care if he's hiding anything or not sharing something. It simply doesn't matter enough to me. You can chase it down until you're exhausted (and we know you will). All I care about is the amount of people who die in Florida, and the economic output of Florida. That's it.
Funny exchange on CNBC where one host tells Santelli "It's Science" that big box retailers are safer than a restaurant (but he can't explain why, apart from "it's science".) That pesky MSM with it's facts, I tell ya.
The attempt to deflect attention from negative news is called “blue sky” messaging, and that’s how it was described to local health representatives, according to three health department spokespeople. “Nothing gets approved without it passing through the governor’s office,” said one county health department spokesperson. “If it’s not blue sky, then it’s held up or we’re told to hold off and it never gets approved.” Yep.... let's be sure factual data about COVID is never reported to the public.
Let me guess...anonymous source? Or does this on the record source at the "county health department" know what goes on in the governor's office?
"Florida health officials said they were told by the governor's office not to speak about COVID-19 until after the election. Instead, they were instructed to talk about other health issues like the flu and hearing loss" https://thehill.com/homenews/state-...medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark
"DeSantis for the win" - Our state is overrun with COVID, let's not urge people to be vaccinated edition. DeSantis not planning statewide campaign in Florida to urge coronavirus vaccine use https://www.heraldtribune.com/story...ut-education-efforts-anti-vaxxers/3801252001/
It's common sense. One place you have to remove your mask to consume the product, the other you don't.
DeSantis must follow the data for an effective COVID-19 pandemic response in Florida https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story...ovid-19-pandemic-response-florida/3795246001/ Florida is clearly headed for another disastrous surge in COVID-19 cases, surpassing one million infected and nearly 20,000 deaths. These Floridians are not just statistics. They are our family, friends and neighbors. They are our teachers, doctors, nurses, emergency responders, front-line workers and numerous other individuals who have contributed so much to protecting, healing and caring for our communities. As numbers of infections increase daily, the public has understandably become numb to the reports of increasing hospitalizations and deaths. In addition to the profound toll on lives, countless Floridians have also lost their jobs, savings and educational opportunities with no assured federal relief on the horizon. Publicly available data is collected and reported in inconsistent ways, making it challenging for local health officials to respond in an informed manner. As physicians with scientific training we had hoped by now that there would be greater appreciation and acceptance from our political leaders of the proven approaches to curtailing the spread of this dreadful virus.Usually one learns from mistakes and does not repeat them. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ill-advised policies have fueled repeated surges of the pandemic, and he has apparently adopted the dangerous strategy of encouraging widespread infections to slow the pandemic. Though he will not use the phrase publicly, this is the definition of a "herd-immunity" approach. Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard shows just over 4% of Florida’s population has been infected to date; using even the lowest prevalence estimates for herd immunity -- about 50% -- nearly 10 million more Floridians will need to be infected before the virus’s spread will slow. And some researchers estimate the prevalence needed to significantly reduce COVID-19 infections to be closer to 80 or 90%, nearly doubling the number of Floridians who would need immunity. In May, DeSantis prematurely opened various venues for Memorial Day weekend, which contributed to Florida shattering the nation’s record of the largest single day increase of COVID-19 cases with over 15,000 new cases reported. The governor reassured the public not to be concerned since the cases were spreading among younger, healthy people. Although true, these younger Floridians do not live in a bubble. They regularly expose other, more vulnerable members of the community in places like grocery stores, drug stores and doctors’ offices. Recently, we experienced over 1,000 Floridians dying each week due to COVID-19. At the end of September, the governor opened businesses fully, including the highest risk venues such as bars and nightclubs, despite warnings from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), health care experts, and even his own Rebound Florida Committee. He condoned risky behavior despite larger daily numbers of new Florida COVID-19 cases than were seen prior to Memorial Day. DeSantis’ apparent embrace of herd immunity will lead to an excess of deaths and disability in Florida. Natural herd immunity successfully occurs when most individuals in a population contract a disease generating long term immunity for those who survive. Given the current 3% mortality rate, over 300,000 Floridians would be expected to die under this approach, but many more will have serious long-term complications, often requiring lengthy physical therapy and even organ transplants to make a full recovery. Already outpatient centers for post-COVID care -- clinics dedicated to treating the “long-hauler” symptoms that can keep individuals from returning to work many months after viral infection -- are filling up quickly. New patient waits can be months long. Even young, healthy individuals are subject to these risks, invalidating DeSantis’ reassurances that viral infection in young people poses little personal risk. Nearly 15 percent of elite college athletes were found to have myocarditis, a potentially lethal heart condition, long after their COVID-19 recovery; nearly all of them had minimal or even no symptoms from the initial COVID-19 infection, but now their chances for professional league careers are in jeopardy. There also have been individuals re-infected with COVID-19 generating concern that prior infection does not provide long term immunity -- so the goal of eventually attaining natural herd immunity may be futile. Now that an effective and safe vaccine will be available soon, the governor should abandon the ill-advised efforts to promote the spread of the virus. Rather he should aggressively pursue policies and public health interventions proven to save lives so that more Floridians will be able to benefit from effective vaccines and therapies. The governor knows his premature re-opening of businesses will cause a significant increase in COVID-19 cases. He reassured Floridians that the state’s hospitals have plenty of intensive-care unit beds available to handle an increase in cases just like this summer. What he didn’t mention was that as Florida’s cases climbed in July, the state repeatedly ran out of treatments such as Remdesivir and convalescent plasma, as well as the desperately needed staffing for the “available ICU beds.” Nurses had to be brought in from other states to help manage the caseload of patients. With the rising demand for treatments and healthcare staffing elsewhere in the country, we can expect a shortage in Florida when Floridians will need them most; and this time it will be much harder to divert resources from other states. Moreover, there is increasing evidence that when local communities’ healthcare systems are strained, deaths are higher. We know enough now to prevent a surge of disease. Available ICU beds is not the metric on which we should be focusing. We have the tools to prevent new infections: masking, social distancing, testing and contact tracing. The governor’s focus should be on resourcing and deploying these tools to our local communities, including a ordering a statewide mask mandate and the rescinding of the executive orders that don’t allow enforcement of local community mask mandates. Taking away individual communities’ ability to enforce mitigation measures like mask directives hampers local officials’ ability to tailor interventions and choose the mitigation measures best for their own community. Even more concerning is the governor’s Students’ Bill of Rights, which prohibits universities from limiting parties and large gatherings and prevents universities from requiring those who test positive for COVID-19 to isolate. These executive orders show no concern for the teachers, administrators and other community members who get infected, and may get seriously ill and die as a result. Moreover, public K-12 schools are open in many places in Florida without the necessary safeguards for teachers and support staff. Florida’s economy will continue to suffer if tourists are afraid to visit. Simple measures could create environments that people want to visit, thus supporting our businesses and improving our state’s economy. Who would want to self-quarantine in their home state for two weeks just because they visited Florida for a weekend this winter? This pandemic can be managed without having to shut down the economy. Science-based public health measures should be implemented in Florida such as allowing mask mandates similar to Arizona, which experienced a 75% decline in COVID-19 cases after their governor allowed local communities to institute mask mandates -- a measure that was widely adopted across the state. Occupancy at high-risk venues such as bars and indoor restaurants should be determined based on data: COVID -19 test positivity, number of new cases per capita per day, as well as ventilation assessments of the locations. Local municipalities, universities and other large institutions should be able to develop additional restrictions when necessary to curtail the spread of COVID-19 without interference from the governor. We must increase access to testing. Rapid antigen testing should not be limited to schools, senior care facilities, and select testing sites; all doctors should be able to provide this test in their offices so that sick patients are not waiting days for results from commercial laboratories. The novel antibody therapies from Eli Lilly and Regeneron touted by the federal government as well as by DeSantis are only effective when given early in the course of disease; without easy, accessible, fast testing before someone is sick enough to be hospitalized, these treatments cannot save the lives our governor implies they will. Effective administration of these drugs will require local infusion centers with stocked medication and updated inventories available to primary care physicians in real time--otherwise only the elite will get access to these promising treatments. Current wait times at high volume testing sites can be prohibitive, even if the test results themselves only take minutes. Only those individuals sick enough to miss work have the time to wait hours in line for testing. Those with mild symptoms, unsure if they are suffering from allergies, a light cold, or early symptoms of COVID19, will be more likely to forgo testing if it is not easily accessible, ultimately risking exposure to many other individuals at their workplaces and within their communities. Allowing private doctors' offices to pursue mass testing will further broaden access, meaning millions more Floridians could easily be tested. Florida is blessed with some of the finest medical schools in the country. The governor should embrace recommendations from the public health and medical experts of these centers rather than pursuing policies of those who are not experts. Simple public health measures can enable the economy by allowing businesses to operate in a safe manner. All it takes is responsible leadership based on science, medicine, and accurate, current data. Steven P. Rosenberg, MD, past chair of the Florida Board of Medicine; Terry Adirim, MD, senior associate dean of Clinical Affairs at Florida Atlantic University; Brent Schillinger, MD, past president of the Palm Beach County Medical Society; Shannon Fox-Levine, MD, president of the Palm Beach County Pediatric Society; Martha Rodriguez, MD, member of the Palm Beach County School District Medical Advisory Board; Jeff Berman, MD, executive director of the Florida Pulmonary Society; Chad R. Sanborn, MD, Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Palm Beach Children’s Hospital.