The question is how fast will the people of Florida wake up and take this seriously or will they just let it get worse before it gets better. Current Covid levels are almost unmanageable it seems.
Not satisfied to merely threaten and abuse reporters -- DeSantis' spokesperson, Christina Pushaw moves on to now threatening and abuses judges. DeSantis' spokesperson's attack on judge 'unfounded and inexcusable' https://www.tallahassee.com/story/o...john-cooper-unfounded-inexcusable/5687724001/ Judges must be free to exercise their judgment without concern for the popularity of their decisions or the political consequences. When elected officials and their spokespersons engage in personal attacks on judges for their analysis of our laws, they undermine the rule of law and proper administration of the judicial branch. Judges are not allowed to defend themselves from such attacks. That is why the American Board of Trial Advocates, Tallahassee chapter is stepping forward to defend Leon County Circuit Court Judge John Cooper. Judge Cooper recently conducted a trial in a case filed by the parents of school aged children against various government officials challenging the governor’s executive order prohibiting school boards from requiring masks. As he does in every case, Judge Cooper gave all parties a thorough and complete opportunity to present their evidence and make their arguments. He worked long hours weighing the evidence and analyzing those arguments. In the end, he spent over two hours dictating his detailed findings and sharing his in-depth analysis of the law. Regardless of how anyone feels about the merits of the decision, the personal attack on Judge Cooper by the governor’s communications director was unfounded and inexcusable. Judge Cooper ruled to the best of his ability on the issues presented. The governor’s spokesperson’s insinuation that Judge Cooper issued a partisan decision is wrong, and improperly attacks the independence of the judiciary. Her statement that he ruled “in favor of elected politicians” is ironic; the only politician in the case was the governor. Anyone who watched the trial is familiar with the volume of evidence presented and the professionalism and competency of the court. Anyone who watched Judge Cooper render his two-hour ruling would understand how carefully he evaluated that evidence and applied it to the existing law. ABOTA takes no position regarding the merits of the case. It has condemned politicians of both parties for irresponsible comments undermining the rule of law. Judge Cooper ruled for the parents on some issues and the government on others. Ultimately the appellate courts will decide if he was right. That is the role of the judiciary in our system, and it is highly improper for the executive to challenge his motives or independence.
The DeSantis administration will not provide COVID statistics by county. His administration also pressures counties not to report this data. Want to know how many people died in your Florida county by Covid? Good luck with that. Florida won't even provide correct data to the CDC. Want to know how many are hospitalized with Covid in your Florida county? Good luck with that except getting data from the hospitals directly. At this point the hiding of Covid by DeSantis to drive his political agenda is absurd. How many people have died of COVID in Palm Beach County? The state won’t tell you https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story...-palm-beach-county-state-wont-say/5721491001/ COVID-19 killed one Floridian an average of about every four minutes last week, the second worst in the nation. But for those wanting to know how many people are dying every day in their own communities – good luck. The state of Florida won’t say. Nor will most local public health officials. At least one county acknowledged it doesn’t know. Federal websites show either incomplete or inconsistent data for Florida's counties. We know that Florida last week reported 2,345 COVID-19 deaths for the state. But, almost uniquely throughout the United States, Florida has not reported deaths at the county level — for three months. The intensity of this worst wave of the pandemic in a given locale is anyone’s guess. The state Department of Health says to look to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website for county death tolls. But the number reported on one CDC webpage undercounts Florida's tally by thousands, and the CDC’s most prominent map of county-level COVID-19 deaths shows only blanks for each of the state's 67 counties. (More at above url)
Miami Herald Shreds Ron DeSantis Over Latest Vaccine Claim: ‘Profile In Selfishness’ The newspaper’s editorial board ripped the Florida Republican’s latest take on COVID-19 shots. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/miam...-desantis-covid-19_n_6137067de4b0aac9c01afa09 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) latest comments about COVID-19 vaccines earned a stern rebuke from the Miami Herald editorial board. DeSantis claimed last week — as his state continued to experience a surge in the highly contagious delta variant ― that receiving the shot is “about your health and whether you want that protection or not” and “doesn’t impact me or anyone else.” The newspaper’s board called out DeSantis — a prominent Donald Trump apologist and possible 2024 presidential contender — for “dismissing the role of vaccines in reducing community spread.” “Doesn’t impact anyone else? Talk about a profile in selfishness,” it wrote. The role of the shots are actually “the opposite of what he says” because the spread of COVID-19 “is a community problem, and solving it starts with vaccines,” it continued. DeSantis has already banned schools from mandating the use of face masks and fought cruise line companies requiring passengers to be vaccinated, the board noted. Read the full editorial here.
Might be some good news from Florida -- looks like new cases have dropped 15% and hospitalization dropped. Let's hope the trend continues... New COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations drop in Florida https://cbs12.com/news/local/new-cases-of-covid-19-drop-in-florida Collier County's COVID cases fall more than 5% while Florida cases plummet 15% https://www.naplesnews.com/story/ne...rida-covid-19-cases-tracker-deaths/118603072/
Poll: Ron DeSantis net approval falls 14 points among Florida voters as COVID-19 cases soar https://floridapolitics.com/archive...-among-florida-voters-as-covid-19-cases-soar/ He lost ground among Republicans, Democrats and independent voters. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ popularity among Florida voters is waning as COVID-19 continues to rip through the state, according to newly published polling results showing he has suffered a double-digit drop in approval since July. A Morning Consult survey of nearly 4,200 voters in the Sunshine State revealed the pronounced negative shift in public perception of the first-term Florida Governor, who over the last two months has overseen an unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases. During that time, his net approval rating — the share of voters who approve of his job performance minus the share who disapprove — fell 14 percentage points. Changes among Democrats and Republicans moved predictably. More than three-quarters of Democrats now disapprove of DeSantis, while a 4-percentage-point approval drop among Republicans still afforded him an 83% thumbs-up ranking. The most marked change came among independents, 50% of whom approved of his work in late June to early July compared to 38% who did not. Of those polled Aug. 21-30, however, just 40% said he was doing a satisfactory job. Fifty-one percent frowned upon his service. DeSantis’ 14-point loss was double that of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the other Governor examined in the poll. The two governors have approached the pandemic similarly, both blocking mask and vaccine mandates in their respective states, including in schools where many children still aren’t cleared to be vaccinated. Schools have since fought back, passing mask mandates in defiance of an executive order DeSantis signed to block schools from requiring them without parental opt-out options. By Friday, Florida had recorded more than 3.3 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 46,324 deaths since the pandemic’s onset, according to weekly data published by the Florida Department of Health. Hospitalizations and COVID-19-related deaths in Florida reached all-time highs in August as the delta variant of the virus ravaged the state, prompting renewed attacks from Democrats — including President Joe Biden and gubernatorial candidates Nikki Fried and Charlie Crist — and others who argue DeSantis’ pandemic policies have had malignant effects. To what degree DeSantis’ downturn in favorability affects his other assumed political aspirations, including a potential run for the White House in 2024, remains to be seen. However, recent polling indicates he would have an uphill climb if he were to challenge Biden, whose strongest challenger remains former President Donald Trump.
Lawsuit for COVID-19 data in Florida moves forward https://www.wesh.com/article/lawsuit-for-covid-19-data-in-florida-moves-forward/37506415# A lawsuit filed by a Central Florida state representative against the state and its health department is moving forward. The lawsuit is over a public records request for coronavirus information that was denied. The lawsuit will go to the same Leon County judge who issued a decision that recently knocked down the governor's mask mandate ban, calling it unlawful. This lawsuit over records was filed by Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith against the state last week. The lawsuit hinges on previously public COVID-19 data. The state’s dashboard used to be updated daily but was shut down and replaced with weekly reports which are not as detailed as previous reports. Guillermo Smith says his original request and the lawsuit stem from a conversation with local officials in Orlando who wanted better access to make decisions. "I was talking to members of the Orange County Public School Board and they were frustrated that they could not get basic COVID-19 information, data on case counts, hospitalizations, particularly as they affect children in our area,” Guillermo Smith said. The non-partisan group Florida Center for Government Accountability has also joined the case against the health department. Leon Circuit Judge John Cooper has been assigned the case. Smith has requested an emergency hearing, but no date has been set yet WESH 2 News reached out to the state health department and the governor's office for comment but have not yet heard back.
The wave is over, obviously. As some of us have been saying. Meanwhile - remember how we've been hearing about how cases are at the same level and higher as last year in Florida because of DeSantis? Remember how some of us have been saying about how the "fun" is coming to the rest of the country very soon? Its working its way north. The DeSantis calamity is coming to a state near you, just like last year.
And of course, while no one gives a shit about the 51st state, Nine_ender will invariably show up here once he takes me off ignore for the 5th time to tell me how wonderful Canada is doing. Except...uh oh... Wave a comin'!
Health Professionals No Longer Willing to Put Up With DeSantis' Nonsense Fauci hits back at Ron DeSantis claim that vaccinations don’t ‘impact me or anyone else’ Anthony Fauci points to the critical role vaccines play against disease outbreaks https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-florida-desantis-covid-vaccine-b1916116.html Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s claim that getting a Covid vaccine “doesn’t impact me or anyone else” was “completely incorrect,” Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday, highlighting the critical role vaccines play against disease outbreaks. “If he feels that vaccines are not important for people, that they are just important for some people, that’s completely incorrect,” Dr Fauci, the director of the US’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview to CNN. Vaccinations have been the solution to every major public health issue, including smallpox, polio, measles, the country’s top infectious diseases expert said. “I’m not sure what people are talking about when they push back on vaccinations. It [vaccines] is historically, over decades and decades and decades, shown to be the way you control an infectious disease.” During a news conference earlier on Friday, the Republican governor said, while vaccines have helped people avoid severe illness, they were “about your health and whether you want that protection or not. It really doesn’t impact me or anyone else.” Dr Fauci, responding to Mr DeSantis’s remarks, said they were “not true at all”, pointing out that those who remain unvaccinated were “part of the problem”. “I mean, obviously it’s important for you as an individual for your own personal protection, safety and health,” he said. “But when you have a virus that’s circulating in the community and you are not vaccinated, you are part of the problem because you are allowing yourself to be a vehicle for the virus to be spreading to someone else.” Dr Fauci then pointed out that those who were unvaccinated could be asymptomatic and could pass on the coronavirus infection to others who were much more vulnerable healthwise, compared to them. He also said getting vaccinated was not just a responsibility towards individual health, but a collective responsibility. “It isn’t as if it stops with you. If that were the case, then it would be only about you. But it doesn’t,” he said. “You can get infected even if you get no symptoms or minimally symptomatic and then pass it on to someone who in fact might be very vulnerable – an elderly person, a person with an underlying disease. So when you’re dealing with an outbreak of an infectious disease, it isn’t only about you. There is a societal responsibility that we all have.” Earlier, an editorial published byThe Miami Herald offered a stinging rebuke of the governor’s remarks. The piece, titled “Your ‘personal choice’ not to get COVID vaccine is putting our ‘healthcare heroes’ at risk”, by the paper’s editorial board slammed the governor’s statement, calling it a “profile in selfishness” for ignoring the role the vaccine plays in reducing the community spread of the virus.