DeSantis claimed he would not pay school officials who support a mask mandate. The Feds have a fix for this...
Florida requests ventilators from Administration. https://www.local10.com/news/local/...se-record-as-hospitals-face-sheer-exhaustion/
Florida hospital CEOs managing COVID spike https://www.wctv.tv/2021/08/04/florida-hospital-ceos-managing-covid-spike/ The consensus is the current surge will be short, is more contagious, but less dangerous, and that new treatments are working. The Governor was also told that many of the patients classified with COVID went to the hospital for other reasons, tested positive and are counted as virus infected patients when they see few symptoms. “Almost 100 percent of our patients have told us that 24 to 48 hours later, they feel much better,” said Tampa General CEO John Couris.
Florida's COVID Death Rate Is More Than 32 States Combined https://www.newsweek.com/florida-covid-death-rate-more-32-states-1617823 Florida's death rate from COVID is now more than 32 states combined, as it continues to be badly affected by the highly contagious Delta variant spreading across the U.S. According to a COVID tracker created byThe New York Times, Florida is currently recording a seven-day average of 122.1 deaths in the state from the virus, a figure larger than 32 other states combined. Florida's figure is also more than double that of the second most affected state, Texas, which is currently recording a seven-day average of 57.6, closely followed by California with around 42 people dying every day. Louisiana and Missouri have also been badly affected, with average death rates of 33.4 and 25.1 each, while Maine and Vermont are faring the best, reporting figures of 0.1 and 0.3 respectively. Maine and Vermont have the highest percentage of their residents vaccinated, with 60 and 64 percent respectively, while the figures for Florida are much lower on 50 percent, according to the tracker. Studies have shown that being vaccinated offers the greatest protection against COVID compared to having been infected by the virus previously, as breakthrough cases in the U.S. are very rare. Although the graphic below provided by Statista last week shows that around 6,000 people had contracted COVID after getting vaccinated by July 26, the number is still very small compared to the 166 million people who are fully vaccinated in the country. The latest figures from Florida have been released as the state battles record-breaking figures due to the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, which has badly affected states across the U.S. Florida saw 15,319 new COVID cases as of Sunday, according to data released on Monday by the Florida Department of Health, giving it a three-day average from Friday to Sunday of 18,795. Although still a high figure, the cases had decreased from Thursday, where the state set a new record of 22,783 new positive tests. Florida then broke its record for the number of hospitalizations from COVID on Friday, with 13,747 in medical facilities and 2,750 patients in intensive care. Florida is also reporting the highest number of children currently hospitalized from COVID of any state in the country, with 172 currently being treated in medical facilities, according to data shared by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Despite the dramatic numbers of cases and hospitalizations currently being recorded in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis is continuing with his plans to keep the state open and to limit COVID restrictions on its residents. However, DeSantis has faced several blows to his plans to limit COVID restrictions over the past week, as multiple school districts in the state have announced they will enforce the use of face masks in schools, and Norwegian Cruise Line successfully challenged his ban on cruise ships requiring written proof of vaccination before boarding a vessel. The governor issued an executive order last week threatening funding to facilities that defied the ban on mandates, but several school districts have announced that they will not comply with the rule in line with advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, Norwegian Cruise Line was granted a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of the state's vaccine passport ban on Monday, despite DeSantis signing the bill into law citing that it is important that Florida's citizens have "personal choice" surrounding the vaccine.
Parents of Florida students with disabilities are taking a stand over masks. They're suing Gov. DeSantis https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/10/us/florida-mask-lawsuit-school-orlando-ada-trnd/index.html Will Hayes was supposed to start the new school year Tuesday, but instead he's staying home because of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' ban on mask mandates in schools, his mother said. Will, 10, has Down syndrome and other underlying health conditions, but has always been included in a general education class in a public K-8 school his mom, Judi Hayes, told CNN's Brianna Keilar. Now, because her son is immunocompromised, she says his health will keep him from attending school with his peers in the Orange County Public Schools district. The district's policy requires masks for students and staff, but parents can easily opt out with a signed note. "Opting out means sending a simple note with your child on the first day of school such as 'I am opting out of the face mask requirement for (child's name)' with your signature, the school district's policy states. The district's mask mandate is effective for 30 days and begins the first day of the school year on Tuesday. In July, as Covid-19 cases surged in Florida, DeSantis issued an executive order directing the state's health and education departments to issue rules preventing the implementation of school mask mandates. The order came "in response to several Florida school boards considering or implementing mask mandates," the governor's office said, and is meant to "protect parents' freedom to choose whether their children wear masks." "If we don't have enough kids wearing masks, that effectively makes it unsafe for my child to go to school at all," Hayes said. "And if he can't go to school in person, he can't just pivot to digital learning like most kids could because he wouldn't have access to the educational supports, so not having a mask mandate just completely deprives him of the opportunity to be educated along with his typical peers." DeSantis is lodging a 'culture war' Judi Hayes and a handful of other concerned parents with students who have disabilities filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida and DeSantis on Friday. It's the second lawsuit DeSantis is facing over his mask mandate ban. "It is a common sense, reasonable accommodation for a vulnerable child who is immunocompromised or at risk of a serious disease to require a public entity to implement simple precautions to ensure that the most vulnerable children are safe," the lawsuit states. "While this proposition should not be in dispute, Governor DeSantis' executive order requires school districts to defy their obligations under Federal Law and harms the children who the disability discrimination laws were enacted to protect." The lawsuit claims violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. "I feel like this is yet another culture war that Gov. DeSantis is lodging against the people of Florida," Hayes said. "Parents like me are terrified. School starts in an hour and a half and we have no options, we have no idea what we're supposed to do and it's almost as though (DeSantis is) actively trying to harm our children. He's definitely not doing anything to keep them safe." CNN has reached out to the office of the governor and the Florida Education Commissioner for comment. "This is no different from a child with a peanut allergy going to a school and saying you cannot bring peanuts in or else I'm going to get sick," said Matthew Dietz, Judi Hayes' attorney and litigation director at the nonprofit Disability Independence Group Inc. Florida's second-largest school district, Broward County Public Schools announced in late July that the district would require everyone in their buildings to wear masks to guard against Covid-19. That came after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance recommending everyone in K-12 schools wear a mask regardless of vaccination status. The district said it will withdraw its mask mandate after the governor threatened to withhold funding from districts that require face coverings. "It terrifies me, I've lived in Florida practically my entire life and I never envisioned that I would be in this position, that the governor would actively be trying to harm my child," Hayes said. "Epidemiology doesn't work that way, it doesn't care about your freedom, it doesn't care about your feelings." Will's 13-year-old brother, who is vaccinated, will go to school, according to his mother. "He will wear probably two masks all day long and he has a short schedule and I feel like that's reasonably safe, like maybe he will be okay," she said. "I'm still going to worry about it all day long: I'm going to make him take a shower as soon as he walks in the door ... but for Will it's not on the table." "It's absolutely unsafe and I can't in good conscience send him into an environment like that."
Florida Punches Back After CDC Posts Fake COVID Numbers https://trendingpolitics.com/florida-punches-back-after-cdc-posts-fake-covid-numbers-crugg/ The Florida Health Department is punching back against the Biden Administration’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after they allegedly posted false information about coronavirus numbers in the state of Florida. On Monday, the Florida health department blasted the CDC for combining multiple days of COVID-19 cases into one which displayed a terrifying graph which greatly misled the public. “Wrong again. The number of cases @CDCgov released for Florida today is incorrect. They combined MULTIPLE days into one. We anticipate CDC will correct the record,” the health department said in a tweet.
You know Florida could avoid all this confusion if DeSantis would allow them to simply provide daily COVID data like other states. Why is DeSantis refusing to report daily COVID data? What is DeSantis hiding as COVID overruns Florida? As another note -- the CDC was proven mostly correct in their figures. Florida's failure to provide proper daily data to the federal government was the root cause of the issue. This leads to the Feds to extract the information from other sources such as hospitals networks and testing labs. In this case the CDC took a two day total from Florida and simply divided it by two -- placing it across two days -- because the state of Florida would provide no insight into how many cases were on each day. At this point Florida's claims of daily cases via their twitter feed is still off from the CDC which has provided documentation and proof for their figures.