Florida Governor Celebrates Ban on School Mask Mandates as More Kids Die From COVID Ron DeSantis’ war on public health continues as back-to-school season brings alarming statistics in Florida and elsewhere. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/202...ool-mask-mandates-as-more-kids-die-from-covid
Governor DeSantis quickly moves "I wanna kill your kids Rally" to a private venue when word got out it was at a public venue. DeSantis to hold “anti-vaccine mandate” rally in Alachua County https://www.wcjb.com/2021/09/13/desantis-hold-anti-vaccine-mandate-rally-alachua-county/
Washington Post Says Gov. Ron DeSantis Just Sank To A ‘Jaw-Dropping’ New Low... Ron DeSantis reaches a new low of cynicism and recklessness https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...santis-reaches-new-low-cynicism-recklessness/ Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican, has descended to a jaw-dropping level of cynicism. At a news conference on Monday, he announced that if local governments in Florida impose vaccine mandates on their employees, he would fine them $5,000 for every worker. Then he stood silently by as Gainesville city employees made false claims about the mRNA vaccines that have saved countless lives during the pandemic. Although the wave of illness from the delta variant appears to be receding in Florida, the state has suffered a terrible summer toll of hospitalizations and deaths. A governor facing such a cataclysm might naturally be expected to use all methods to keep people safe. Instead, Mr. DeSantis, an ally of former president Donald Trump, has for months been campaigning against mask and vaccine mandates and actively sought to prevent business, government and schools from imposing them. These are vital tools to save lives in the face of a highly transmissible disease, but the governor insists that everyone should have the right to make their own decision. He casts himself as a defender of personal freedom. This is a favorite argument of Republican governors and others, including Mr. Trump, who last year amid lockdowns was tweeting “LIBERATE MICHIGAN” and other states. But personal freedom does not give an individual the right to hurt others. Those not wearing masks and refusing to get vaccinated are spreading the virus and overcrowding the nation’s hospitals. They are the majority of those who are dying. This is not freedom; it is recklessness. Mr. DeSantis’s threat came in response to a policy by the city of Gainesville requiring that employees be vaccinated by the end of the month or be terminated, with exemptions for religious or medical reasons. More than 200 city employees filed a lawsuit seeking to strike down the mandate. “The vaccine changes your RNA, so for me that’s a problem,” said Darris Friend, a 22-year city employee who is the lead plaintiff. “We don’t want to have the vaccine. It’s about our freedom and liberty.” Mr. Friend’s assertion is wrong. The vaccines do not change RNA; they simply train the body’s immune system to fight the virus. Mr. DeSantis claims to favor vaccination. By aligning himself with such misinformation, he adds to the vaccine hesitancy that has become a major roadblock to greater immunity and ending the pandemic. Certainly, vaccine mandates will be difficult for local governments and businesses if valued employees are terminated during a tight labor market. Some local governments in Florida, including Miami-Dade County, have adopted a less onerous approach, requiring testing with an opt-out for employees who display proof of vaccination. Some school districts in the state are wisely resisting the governor’s ban on mask mandates, too. Mr. DeSantis harbors national political ambitions. But what he’s displaying here is crass opportunism and disregard for the greater good. As he stokes the ignorance and misguided impulses of some in the Republican base, he is acting against the very tools needed to save lives and stop the pandemic.
We are finally seeing some good news coming out of Florida over the past week or so. Cases and Hospitalizations have been dropping. Deaths are still rising -- because they lag by a few weeks. While this "getting over the peak" is outside the August time-frame provided by two Florida university models -- at least it appears the state is "over the peak" and the trend for this Covid Delta wave is down. Florida's COVID-19 Hospitalizations Are At Their Lowest Level In Over A Month https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/healt...ons-are-at-their-lowest-level-in-over-a-month
Welcome to DeSantis' Florida... GOP Group That Fights Against Vaccine Mandates And For Election Integrity Might Miss Campaign Filing Deadline After Bookkeeper Dies From Covid https://www.forbes.com/sites/zachev...r-bookkeeper-dies-from-covid/?sh=7a9fd7b11fcb
Let compare California to other states now... California coronavirus cases dropping, CDC says https://www.sandiegouniontribune.co...alifornia-coronavirus-cases-dropping-cdc-says California’s coronavirus transmission rates are dropping, a hopeful sign amid a summer surge fueled by the Delta variant, according to new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state’s coronavirus transmission level has fallen from “high” to “substantial,” the second-highest tier as defined by the CDC. As of Tuesday night, California is the only state that has fallen into this category, as has Puerto Rico. The CDC’s scale evaluating coronavirus transmission levels categorizes states as being in one of four tiers: the worst — high — is color-coded as red; followed by substantial (orange), moderate (yellow) and low (blue). California is “the only large state to improve from red to orange COVID-19 community levels of transmission,” state epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan said in a tweet Monday night. She credited relatively high vaccination rates, as well as indoor masking practices, in helping drive down new coronavirus infections. Mask orders are in place in counties where a majority of Californians live, but there is no statewide order requiring indoor mask use in public settings. California entered the second-highest tier of coronavirus transmission on Monday night, a tier it shared with just two other states, Connecticut and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. By Tuesday night, Connecticut, Vermont and the District of Columbia had fallen back into the worst tier. It was not immediately clear whether data-processing delays were a factor in California’s lower rate of community transmission. Los Angeles County did not report any cases Saturday or Sunday because of a planned system upgrade. As a result, it likely will take a couple of days to determine whether the change in California’s status is the result of a blip in data or represents a true change in conditions. The CDC updates its tier assignments for each state every evening Monday through Saturday. Nonetheless, the trend in new weekly coronavirus cases headed into last weekend suggests a notable decline in recent weeks, which could bring eventual relief to areas like the Central Valley and rural Northern California, where many hospitals are still overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients. As of Friday night, California reported a 27% decline in weekly cases over the last two weeks, from an average of 13,400 cases a day for the seven-day period that ended Aug. 27 to about 9,800 cases a day for the week that ended Friday, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of data provided by the state Department of Public Health. Over the same period, the San Francisco Bay Area reported a decline in weekly cases of 36%; Southern California, 28%; the Greater Sacramento area, 27%; the San Joaquin Valley, 18%; and rural Northern California, 15%. The nation as a whole is also seeing new weekly coronavirus cases begin to fall. About 118,000 new coronavirus cases a day were reported across the U.S. over the seven-day period that ended Sunday; the previous week’s average was about 152,000 cases a day. Hospitals, however, remain under stress in parts of California, especially in areas like rural Northern California and the Central Valley. The regions have the state’s worst rates of hospitalization for COVID-19: For every 100,000 residents, the San Joaquin Valley has 37 people in the hospital with COVID-19; in rural Northern California, there are 30; and in the Greater Sacramento area, there are 27, according to The Times’ analysis. By contrast, Southern California’s rate is 15 and the Bay Area’s is 10. Some experts say when COVID-19 hospitalizations rise beyond five hospitalizations for every 100,000 residents, it can be prudent to take emergency COVID-19 measures, such as indoor mask orders. The San Joaquin Valley has reported the least relief in COVID-19 hospitalizations in the last two weeks. COVID-19 hospitalizations fell by only 2% in the San Joaquin Valley, 13% in the Greater Sacramento area and 14% in rural Northern California. By contrast, those hospitalizations fell by 24% in Southern California and the Bay Area over that same time. In the most populous county of the San Joaquin Valley, Fresno County, officials warned last week they were so overwhelmed that hospitals were on the precipice of being forced to ration healthcare to patients. Home to more than 4 million people — more populous than 24 other states — the San Joaquin Valley has faced an extreme shortage of available staffed intensive care unit beds, so much that some critically ill patients have had to be airlifted more than 100 miles away. Regional ICU availability in the San Joaquin Valley has been below 10% for 13 consecutive days, and state officials have ordered surge protocols that stipulate general acute-care hospitals must accept transfer patients if directed — provided they have room and that doing so is considered “clinically appropriate.” In Del Norte County, on the northern edge of California, more than half of hospitalized patients at the main hospital in Crescent City have COVID-19. By contrast, in Los Angeles County, just 11% of hospitalized patients have COVID-19, according to The Times’ COVID-19 hospital tracker. Nationwide, new daily COVID-19 hospital admissions have fallen. For the seven-day period that ended Saturday, the nation was recording about 11,100 new COVID-19 hospital admissions a day, a reduction of 8% from the previous week, according to the CDC. Daily COVID-19 deaths continue rising, however. California was reporting about 116 COVID-19 deaths a day for the seven-day period that ended Friday. That’s up nearly 50% from the week that ended Aug. 27, when California was recording about 79 deaths a day. The latest daily death tallies are still markedly smaller than during the winter surge, during which most Californians were not fully vaccinated. At its height, California was recording nearly 550 COVID-19 deaths a day.
It is once again time to outline that Florida's efforts to protect nursing home residents under DeSantis has been a total disaster. As outlined by the AARP, Florida is "among the lowest rates in the nation of fully vaccinated nursing-home workers and residents during the period. The report said 48.5 percent of nursing-home staff members were fully vaccinated, with only Louisiana lower at 47.9 percent. It said 73.6 percent of Florida nursing-home residents were fully vaccinated, with only Nevada and Arizona having lower rates." Sadly these recent deaths were entirely preventable. AARP Report: 237 Florida Nursing Home Residents Died From COVID During 4-Week Period https://miami.cbslocal.com/2021/09/...sidents-died-from-covid-during-4-week-period/ TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) — As the delta variant of the coronavirus caused Florida to become a hotspot for COVID-19 in late July and August, the state’s nursing homes also felt the brunt. Using federal data, the senior-advocacy group AARP released a report Wednesday that said 237 Florida nursing-home residents died of COVID-19 during a four-week period that ended Aug. 22 — tied for the highest death rate in the nation. Also, the report pointed to other indications of continuing struggles with COVID-19 in the state’s nursing homes, including lagging vaccination rates of workers and residents. AARP Florida State Director Jeff Johnson said in a prepared statement that the numbers are a “heartbreaking reminder that the pandemic is not over” and urged people to get vaccinated. “These sadly predictable data trends are also preventable,” Johnson said. “Our most vulnerable residents deserve to be protected from this devastating disease. The best way to protect yourself and your loved ones is to get vaccinated.” With COVID-19 particularly dangerous to seniors and people with underlying health conditions, nursing homes and other long-term care facilities have drawn heavy attention throughout the pandemic. For months, visitors were barred from entering nursing homes to try to prevent the spread of the virus, and Gov. Ron DeSantis made vaccinating nursing-home residents a priority after shots became available in December. As an indication of the toll, a Florida Department of Health report in early June said 11,531 residents and staff members of long-term care facilities had died of COVID-19. The department subsequently stopped releasing such information. AARP releases periodic COVID-19 reports about all states, using data that nursing homes submit to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The information is compiled by the AARP Public Policy Institute and the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University in Ohio. The report released Wednesday showed that Florida during the four weeks that ended Aug. 22 had a COVID-19 death rate for nursing-home residents — 0.36 per 100 residents — that was tied with Alaska for the highest in the nation. The report also said 13 Florida nursing-home staff members died of COVID-19 during the period. Florida also had among the lowest rates in the nation of fully vaccinated nursing-home workers and residents during the period. The report said 48.5 percent of nursing-home staff members were fully vaccinated, with only Louisiana lower at 47.9 percent. It said 73.6 percent of Florida nursing-home residents were fully vaccinated, with only Nevada and Arizona having lower rates. The Biden administration in August announced that it will require nursing homes that participate in the Medicaid and Medicare programs to have fully vaccinated staffs. The White House last week expanded the vaccination mandate to other types of health-care facilities, such as hospitals. The Florida Health Care Association, the state’s largest nursing-home industry group, expressed initial concerns about a vaccination requirement that would only apply to nursing homes because of the potential that it could lead to workers leaving for other jobs. But the association indicated last week that expanding the requirement to other types of facilities helped ease concerns. “We appreciate the administration and CMS (the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) for listening to the concerns about a federal mandate that only applied to nursing home staff,” Emmett Reed, the association’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. “A broadened vaccination policy will help protect our residents who often interact with other health care professionals for their care needs. We know the vaccine is the safest way to protect our residents, and we support efforts that will help get more people vaccinated.”
Newsom used DeSantis to win California recall. Does it mean anything in Florida? “Don’t DeSantis my California” became a rallying cry for Democrats, but it’s unclear what the results mean for 2022. https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2021/09/18/newsom-used-desantis-to-win-california-recall-does-it-mean-anything-in-florida/