The United States economy gained 194,000 jobs in the month of September, severely missing economists’ expectations. However, Florida alone gained 84,500 jobs during the same period Florida created 44% of all jobs in September All other 49 states created 110,000 jobs (average 2250 each state) Nice work Brandon
Do us a favor, and hold your breath while you wait? I'm sure it will be coming soon - just like your Gaetz thread calling for his indictment.
DeSantis' new state Surgeon General made the absurd statement that he doesn't wear a mask because he can't communicate with a mask on. Many doctors and medical professionals wear masks all the time -- maybe he can explain how doctors communicate with masks on. This is the type of idiot appointed by DeSantis. Entire Universe Dunks on Florida Surgeon General After Insane Mask Standoff After refusing to wear a mask with a sick state senator, the vaccine skeptical health official tried to defend himself. https://www.thedailybeast.com/flori...over-absurd-maskless-meeting-with-tina-polsky Florida’s top medical official is once again under fire for his stance on COVID-19 safety measures—this time for claiming a face mask limits his ability to communicate. Amid controversy over his refusal to wear a mask in a meeting last week with state Sen. Tina Polsky, Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo insisted in a Tuesday statement his decision to flout pandemic safety measures—despite the politician indicating she was sick—stemmed from his inability to “communicate clearly and effectively” with his face covered. “Having a conversation with someone while wearing a mask is not something I find productive, especially when other options exist,” Ladapo said. “It is important to me to communicate clearly and effectively with people. I can’t do that when half of my face is covered.” The statement, which did not include an apology to the ailing senator even as it did express sympathy for her since-revealed breast cancer diagnosis, sparked furious backlash—and fresh calls for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to rescind his nomination of the vaccine-skeptical medical professional. “You’re supposed to be the leading medical expert for the State… and this letter is on brand for who you have presented yourself to be—political. We don’t need another distraction, we need a doctor,” state Sen. Shevrin Jones (D-West Park) tweeted on Tuesday. “I have supported the Gov other appt, but won’t support this one. Dr. Jennifer Gunter, a Bay Area physician board certified in OB/GYN and activist who has written for The Daily Beast, also called out Ladapo for claiming he can’t speak in a mask—when wearing one can be a daily practice as a professional physician. “We surgeons manage to have conversations while wearing a surgical mask. As do anesthesiologists and OR nurses and scrub techs and the ECMO teams etc,” Gunter mused on Twitter. “Should we give up masks in the OR?” In an interview, Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and a specialist in infectious diseases, insisted that it is, in fact, perfectly feasible to communicate with a mask—something most people know 20 months into a pandemic. “There are transparent masks available for situations when communication is difficult,” Adalja told The Daily Beast, adding, “With patients that are hard of hearing it can sometimes be a difficulty, but it is rare.” According to Polsky (D-Boca Raton), the Oct. 20 meeting began after Ladapo had requested they discuss his confirmation in the state Senate—he is currently serving without confirmation—after being appointed last month. When he arrived at her Tallahassee office with two aides, however, the group was maskless and refused face coverings that were offered to them at the door, she said. While Polsky has admitted she did not tell the surgeon general at that time that she had been diagnosed with cancer, she did tell him she had a serious condition and asked him to wear a mask. Ladapo refused and offered to have the meeting outside, which the doctor also notes in his statement. The senator said she refused his request to go outside and asked him to leave her office. “I don’t want to see him sitting there as surgeon general this whole time without a proper nomination process, or his nomination should just be pulled,” Polsky told MSNBC on Monday. “This man is not fit to serve as our surgeon general. He certainly didn’t care about my health, so I don’t know how he’s going to care about the public health of 21 million Floridians.” The incident itself spurred immediate backlash for Ladapo—from both sides of the aisle. While he did not mention Ladapo by name, state Senate President Wilton Simpson (R-Trilby) released a memo in support of his Democratic colleague, stressing that “what occurred in Senator Polsky’s office was unprofessional and will not be tolerated in the Senate.” “It shouldn't take a cancer diagnosis for people to respect each other's level of comfort with social interactions during a pandemic,” Simpson wrote. In a statement to The Daily Beast, responding to the surgeon general’s Tuesday explanation of himself, Polsky said his “shameful excuse that he can’t communicate with a mask on is not only absurd, it is insulting.” “It is especially insulting in that immediately following our abruptly canceled meeting, he was bragging to staff that he was ‘having fun’ arguing the point with me,” Polsky added. The lawmaker also noted that mask use is common in the medical field, stating that “physicians, nurses, and support staff wear masks during surgery and other procedures where communicating clearly is literally a matter of life and death.” She added that Ladapo’s “outlandish notion that one cannot communicate with a mask on all but renders his qualifications as our state’s surgeon general an absurdity.” Adalja, the Johns Hopkins scholar, added that because of Polsky’s diagnosis, “it’s important to know the vaccination status of the person involved and whether or not the person with breast cancer is receiving cytotoxic chemotherapy,” noting that “breast cancer, in and of itself, is not immunosuppressive.” One would expect vaccination status, at least, to be crystal clear when it comes to the top medical official in a state that has seen more than its fair share of pandemic death. But this is Florida. “I am unable to share details about the surgeon general’s private medical decisions. Just like I wouldn’t be able to tell you if anyone at the Department of Health has gotten their annual physical this year, I am not privy to such personal medical information,” a DOH spokeswoman said in a statement provided to The Daily Beast. Ladapo’s actions—and bizarro statement–mark just the latest example of his COVID-19 safety skepticism. Among other highlights, he claimed in an April Wall Street Journal op-ed that “mandating masks may help in some settings, but masks are not the panacea officials have presented them as.” After being appointed in September, Ladapo also suggested vaccines were somehow getting too much hype as a safety measure. “It’s been treated almost like a religion, and that’s just senseless,” he said at the time. Ladapo also appeared with other doctors at a notorious July 2020 press conference touting the benefits of far-right favorite hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for coronavirus. Included in that group: Dr. Stella Immanuel, a woman who, in other settings, has suggested medical ailments are caused by dream-sex with demons and that alien DNA can be used in actual treatment. Dr. Simone Gold, who is now facing charges for participating in the Capital riot, was also present that day. Just like the incident itself, Ladapo’s Tuesday statement about his meeting with Polsky was met with outrage online. “As an academic physician in Florida who has for decades rounded on immunocompromised patients wearing a mask, I think this defense by our surgeon general is absolute bullshit,” Krishna Komanduri, the chief of the division of transplantation and cellular therapy at the University of Miami, said. Despite the backlash, a spokesperson for DeSantis told The Daily Beast the Republican has no plans to rescind Ladapo’s nomination. Under Florida law, Ladapo can remain in his position for up to two years even if the state Senate does not confirm him. It remains to be seen if he will actually last that long. “It took our new [Florida Surgeon General] (whose vaccination status is UNKNOWN) more than 2 days to explain his smug refusal to mask-up during an indoor meeting with Senator Tina Polsky, who has breast cancer. His sad excuse—he can’t ‘communicate’ with a mask on,” State Rep. Carlos Smith (D-Orlando) said Tuesday. “Florida deserves better.”
He's totally correct. I can't tell you how many times I've asked people to repeat themselves because they are wearing a mask. Even waiters and store clerks. Eventually, you can see how frustrated they are and they rip off their mask and explain how they hate them so much. Even young school children are suffering because they overly rely on expressions and lip movement for communication. Adults are much better at this, but remove it and it becomes problematic at times. Only NPCs think this is a problem. You're an NPC. Ergo, you think it is a problem. Oh, and the senator who complained he wouldn't wear a mask went out not 15 min later and - didn't wear a mask in a public setting. Its all theatre. Only NPCs don't think it is theatre. You're an NPC. Hence, you don't think it is theatre.
Florida now has America's lowest COVID rate. Does Ron DeSantis deserve credit? https://news.yahoo.com/florida-now-...s-ron-de-santis-deserve-credit-090013615.html Which U.S. state has the lowest COVID-19 rate right now? It’s not California, home of America’s strictest mask and vaccine requirements. Nor is it Vermont, even though 71 percent of residents there have been fully inoculated — the most in the country. No, the state with the fewest daily COVID cases per capita is the same one that recently had more than any other: Florida. It’s been quite the reversal. In mid-August, Florida was averaging about 25,000 new cases a day, or about 116 for every 100,000 residents. That was the worst rate in the U.S. — and one of the worst in the world. Awash in the hypercontagious Delta variant, the Sunshine State became one of the epicenters of the global pandemic. During the past two months, however, Florida’s daily average has plummeted by more than 90 percent, to about 1,700 cases, or eight for every 100,000 residents. That’s roughly half of California’s current COVID rate and less than a quarter of Vermont’s. Hawaii (with nine cases for every 100,000 residents) is the only other state in single digits. But don’t congratulate Florida just yet. Like everything else about America’s COVID ordeal, the state’s declining infection numbers are being turned into political talking points. Conservatives on Twitter and Fox News now claim that Florida’s turnaround vindicates the hands-off policies of Republican Gov. (and likely 2024 presidential hopeful) Ron DeSantis, who spent his summer prohibiting local schools, businesses and governments from trying to minimize transmission by requiring masks or vaccination while emphasizing costly post-infection treatments such as monoclonal antibodies instead. “DeSantis critics and the mainstream media remain quiet as Florida's COVID numbers drop,” read a recent headline on Newsmax, a right-wing site. “Well it’s official, Florida currently has the LOWEST per capita COVID cases among the contiguous 48 states,” Steven Krakauer, executive producer of "The Megyn Kelly Show," tweeted last week. “Looking forward to the next batch of DeSantis media coverage that's sure to be coming soon…” “And they’ve done it without mask or vaccine mandates,” added conservative radio host Clay Travis. “This is why Ron DeSantis terrifies the coronabros. Because all their shutdowns & mandates, which destroy freedoms, provide no benefits.” But is that true? Did DeSantis “do” anything to improve Florida’s COVID numbers? And does the state’s 180-degree turn somehow prove that more cautious policies “provide no benefits”? The answer is no. It’s doubtful even DeSantis himself would claim he’s the reason Florida is recording so many fewer COVID cases today than in August. The virus, we’ve known for some time, comes in waves — waves that ascend, peak and ultimately recede on a remarkably consistent timeline. According to the New York Times’s David Leonhardt, “Covid has often followed a regular — if mysterious — cycle. In one country after another, the number of new cases has often surged for roughly two months before starting to fall.” And “the Delta variant, despite its intense contagiousness, has followed this pattern.” Florida is no exception: Cases started rising there in late June and started falling in late August — right on schedule. Likewise, all the states where COVID cases have fallen the most during the past two weeks — Tennessee, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, North Carolina — are states that endured huge peaks in mid-September. And the higher the peak — the more people recently infected — the sharper the descent. Epidemiologists aren’t sure why COVID seems to come and go in two-month intervals. Maybe that’s how long it takes to reach the easiest targets within a particular cluster of humanity; maybe people themselves “follow cycles of taking more and then fewer COVID precautions, depending on their level of concern,” as Leonhardt put it. Probably it’s a bit of both. Either way, the DeSantis argument acknowledges all this. Waves of infection are inevitable — and Florida tends to suffer in the summer, when the heat and humidity force people indoors, his proponents say. Insisting on precautions like vaccines and masks won’t stop these waves. So what’s the point of continuing to infringe on people’s freedom? There’s a certain logic at work here. One day, experts predict, SARS-CoV-2 will become endemic, spreading seasonally around the globe in ever-evolving variations that might make a lot of people feel ill for a few days but are ultimately much less damaging and deadly because everybody has some degree of immunity through vaccination or prior infection. At that point, mask mandates and vaccine passports will be more trouble than they’re worth. The problem, though, is that the U.S. had not achieved endemicity this summer — and probably hasn’t achieved it even now. Forty-three percent of Americans still haven’t been fully vaccinated, including a third of the eligible population. Boosters have yet to restore full protection against serious illness to older and medically vulnerable Americans who’ve seen their immunity wane over time and in the face of Delta’s evasive properties. And kids, the vast majority of whom aren’t vaccinated, are back in classrooms nationwide for the first time since the start of the pandemic. As a result, letting the virus rip without encouraging precautionary measures such as indoor masking and universal vaccination remains a very risky proposition. In DeSantis’s case, he has effectively discouraged such measures, going so far as to tweet about monoclonal antibodies — an expensive treatment that helps only after you’ve gotten infected and potentially transmitted the virus to others — 30 times more often than vaccines. And in addition to banning mask requirements, he’s seeking to reward those who resist vaccine mandates at work with unemployment benefits and, in an effort to get anti-vax police officers to move to Florida, $5,000 bonuses. So while it’s true that COVID waves may come — and go — regardless of what leaders like DeSantis do, the more important question is how their constituents do when those waves inevitably arrive. And the bottom line is that this summer in Florida, people did not do as well as they should have. Why? Because far too many of them died. The raw numbers alone are staggering. In all of 2020 — before vaccines essentially eliminated the risk of death for most recipients — 23,384 Floridians died of COVID-19. Now nearly as many — 21,000 and counting — have died in the past four months alone. And another 135 Floridians are still dying, on average, every single day. The relative numbers are even more damning. Before Delta hit, Florida ranked 26th in the nation for cumulative COVID deaths per capita; now it ranks ninth. What’s more, three of the states above Florida on that list — New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts — suffered the bulk of their deaths right in the beginning of the pandemic, long before vaccinations and other interventions drastically reduced the virus’s deadliness. In contrast, Florida is one of the only states where more people have been dying each day during the Delta wave — long after free, safe and effective vaccines became widely available to all Americans age 12 or older — than during any previous wave of the virus. Most of the other states in that category — Mississippi, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Kentucky, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Alaska — are places where conservative leaders have prioritized freedom from COVID restrictions over freedom from COVID itself. The tragedy is that, unlike before, the vast majority of these deaths were preventable. DeSantis and his defenders might argue that it’s only a matter of time before the worst of Delta hits places like California too, further proving that a more cautious approach to the virus “provide no benefits.” But that doesn’t explain why Florida’s peak daily COVID death rate was 2.5 times higher than California’s last summer — and nearly six times higher this summer. It doesn’t explain why California fell about 10 places on the state-by-state list of cumulative death rates at the same time Florida climbed nearly 20. And it doesn’t explain why whatever price Californians paid this summer — no lockdowns, no business closures, no shuttered classrooms, no official curbs on indoor drinking or dining; just masks and tests in school and masks and vaccinations at some indoor businesses — was less acceptable than the price tens of thousands of Floridians paid when they lost their lives. In the end, policy can do only so much during a pandemic. But leaders like DeSantis do have some power to encourage or discourage safety measures, and some responsibility for the behaviors they help to normalize (or not). Their supporters can give them credit for declining case numbers if they choose. But they’re also accountable for how much damage each wave of infection leaves in its wake.
DeSantis doesn't get credit for low numbers, just as he doesn't get blame for high ones. That's how the virus works, and its nice to see you and your media posts finally catching up to that fact. What you ignore is all the calls that Florida would be a graveyard and other hyperbolic predictions about how the virus would ravage the state. You're finally coming around!
Chris, quit being a drama queen. No one is wearing masks anymore. You’re suffering one of the worst cases of GWBDS in the history of this crappy forum. Get it together!