Good video. It is important to note that the 4th issue mentioned was labs reporting all positives and no negatives. 5th issue (in the video) was listing deaths like the motorcycle crash as a covid death and the 7th issue is people claiming they received positive results when they never actually took a test. So there are issues all over the place. The state's data issues are profound and they are systemic. Florida has had issues with data since the 2000 election, and probably before. I'll bet if other states had similar scrutiny applied, they'd find all sorts of issues as well.
And let me say that I do not believe that any of these seven data issues are due to deliberate political interference. They seem to be the results of sloppy collection and data handling -- in a systemic manner. If the state had the correct data and made a political decision to hide, alter, or manipulate the data then that would be political interference. For example, the allegations (most likely true IMO) that political appointees of DeSantis ordered the state COVID portal to not publish and/or alter data is an example of deliberate political interference to drive the governor's political agenda --- these seven systemic data errors in the news video are not (based on the available information).
The state has always been shoddy when it comes to governmental functions. But Floridians normally don't care. We don't pay state tax so funding has to come from places of use. For example, titling a car in Florida is much more expensive. But I (and almost all Floridians) prefer this method. We pay for what we use. As a result, the state government is known for its inefficiency. And I'm being kind. You saw the unemployment fiasco. This is no different. But it would have been the case regardless of whether it was DeSantis, Gillum or a Cheshire Cat.
COVID appears in Florida's largest retirement community and starts reaping a toll... More than 1,700 COVID-19 cases in and around The Villages as state tops 400,000 https://www.villages-news.com/2020/...and-around-the-villages-as-state-tops-400000/ COVID-19 continues to run rampant throughout The Villages and the local area, with 79 new cases reported Friday and more than 1,700 identified in and around Florida’s Friendliest Hometown. Thirteen new cases were reported Friday in The Villages, bringing the total in the community to 340. Those are divided among 316 cases in Sumter County, 22 in Lake County and two in the Marion County section of the sprawling retirement mecca. In addition, 66 new cases were reported in communities just outside the confines of the massive retirement community, bringing the total in those nearby areas to 1,366. Those include: Leesburg up 15 for a total of 588; Lady Lake up 14 for a total of 141; Oxford up 12 for a total of 66; Wildwood up seven for a total of 149; Summerfield up seven for a total of 179; Fruitland Park up five for a total of 64; Belleview up five for a total of 155; Lady Lake portion of Sumter County up one for a total of 24. New cases also were reported at three area long-term care facilities. Those include: An employee tested positive at Summerfield Suites, located at S.E. 109th Terrace Rd. in Summerfield; Sixteen residents, six residents who transferred out of the facility and 16 employees have tested positive at Cypress Care Center, located at 490 S. Old Wire Rd. in Wildwood. That’s an increase of nine patients, two patients who transferred out and 10 employees in a two-day period; and Ten residents, two residents who transferred out and 14 employees have tested positive at Trinity Springs, located at 12120 County Rd. 103 in Oxford. That’s an increase of two residents, one resident who transferred out and six employees in two days, a report from the Florida Department of Health shows. Overall, the tri-county area is reporting 7,936 COVID-19 cases – an increase of 350 from Thursday to Friday – among 3,760 men, 4,039 women, 46 non-residents and 91 people listed as unknown. There have been 105 deaths and 623 people have been hospitalized. Sumter County is now reporting 941 cases – an increase of 39 in a 24-hour period – among 513 men, 416 women, seven non-residents and five people listed as unknown. Their median age is 63. There have been 24 deaths and 132 people have been treated in area hospitals. There have been 195 cases reported in Bushnell, with 127 of those at the Sumter Correctional Institution among 103 inmates and 24 staff members. Other cases have been identified in Lake Panasoffkee (45), Webster (37), Coleman (31), Center Hill (29) and Sumterville (14). The federal prison in Coleman also is reporting 372 cases among 297 inmates and 75 staff members. Lake County continues to pace the local area with 3,890 cases – an increase of 133. Those are divided among 1,820 men, 1,979 women, 31 non-residents and 60 people listed as unknown. Their median age is 41. There have been 38 deaths and 188 people have been hospitalized. Clermont continues to lead Lake County with 967 cases. Others have been identified in Tavares (505, 23 of which are at the Lake County Jail among one inmate, 20 staff members and two contracted nurses), Eustis (331), Groveland (270), Mount Dora (245), Mascotte (140), Minneola (110), Sorrento (106), Montverde (74), Umatilla (74), Grand Island (37), Howey-in-the-Hills (30), Astor (23), Astatula (20), Yalaha (17), Altoona (14), Paisley (12), Okahumpka (11), Ferndale (3) and Mount Plymouth (3). Marion County now has 3,105 cases – an increase of 178 – among 1,427 men, 1,644 women, eight non-residents and 26 people listed as unknown. Their median age is 42. There have been 43 deaths and 303 people have required some form of hospital care. As has been the case for weeks, the overwhelming majority of Marion County cases – 2,289 – have been reported in Ocala, which saw an increase of 145 overnight. Others have been identified in Dunnellon (112), Citra (41), Silver Springs (39), Ocklawaha (40), Reddick (38), Weirsdale (22), Anthony (18), Fort McCoy (8), Orange Lake (5), Candler (3), East Lake (3), Lowell (3), Sparr (2) and Morriston (1). A total of 209 cases have been identified among inmates at the Marion County Jail and 148 cases also have been reported among inmates and staff members at Lowell Correctional Institution and Marion Correctional Institution. All told, Florida is reporting 402,312 COVID-19 cases – an increase of 12,444 from Thursday to Friday. Of those, 397,470 are residents. There have been 5,768 deaths and 23,225 people have been hospitalized across the Sunshine State. Those numbers show 136 more deaths – including nine new tri-county fatalities – since Thursday and an additional 581 people requiring hospital care. Those new deaths in the tri-county area include: 46-year-old Sumter County woman who tested positive July 1, hadn’t traveled recently and hadn’t been in contact with someone else suffering from the virus; 90-year-old Sumter County woman who tested positive July 3 and hadn’t traveled recently; 85-year-old Sumter County man who tested positive July 5, hadn’t traveled recently but had been in contact with another patient; 84-year-old Lake County man who tested positive on July 19; 75-year-old Marion County man who tested positive July 4, hadn’t traveled recently but had been in contact with another patient; 89-year-old Marion County woman who tested positive July 6, hadn’t traveled recently but had been in contact with another patient; 86-year-old Marion County man who tested positive July 7, hadn’t traveled recently but had been in contact with another patient; 56-year-old Marion County woman who tested positive July 15, hadn’t traveled recently nor been in contact with another patient; and 72-year-old Marion County man who tested positive July 22, hadn’t traveled recently but had been in contact with another patient.
Let's see how things are going in The Villages, Florida's largest retirement community.... Oh shiat, over 9% infected (1700 minimum), local hospitals overrun, and 8 dead.... just in the last two weeks. (note figures from the previous article). Let's see what DeSantis had to say in April... 'The Villages had initially seemed to escape the worst of the virus had been a point of pride for Gov. Ron DeSantis. The governor, a Republican who has strong support from the community, brushed off concerns about the risks during a visit in April. “There were articles written saying, ʻOh, the Villages is going to crash and burn,’” he said. “They have like a 2 percent or 2.5 percent infection rate.”' But of course when DeSantis returned early in July, the infection rate had jumped to 9 percent. Now it is expect to be near 20% based on estimates And the residents are dropping like flies -- with few measures being taken to control coronavirus. If Itʼs Here, Itʼs Hereʼ: Americaʼs Retirees Confront the Virus in Florida As cases spike across Florida, the virus appears to have caught up with the residents of the Villages NYT Article placed at - https://dogma.net/IfItsHere.pdf THE VILLAGES, Fla. — For months, many of the residents at one of America’s biggest retirement communities went about their lives as ifthe coronavirus barely existed. They played bridge. They held dances. They went to house parties in souped-up golf carts that looked like miniature Jaguars and Rolls-Royces. And for months they appeared to have avoided the worst of the pandemic. From March through mid-June, there were fewer than 100 cases in the Villages, a sprawling community in Central Florida where about 120,000 people mostly 55 and older live. But now as cases spike across Florida, the virus appears to have caught up with the residents of the Villages. Since the beginning of July, hospital admissions of residents from the Villages have quadrupled at University of Florida Health The Villages, the hospital’s critical care doctors said. As of last week, the hospital admitted 29 Villages residents, all of them with the virus, said Dr. Anil Gogineni, a pulmonologist and critical care doctor there. That was up from the single digits three weeks before. (full article at above url) Some quotes from the article - let's see everything The Villages is doing wrong following the lead of Florida's governor Finally in the last two weeks they took small steps Even with the spike, many residents at the Villages say they are conflicted about the virus and what to do now. "Some steps have been taken to help slow infections. Crowds around the faux Spanish colonial buildings and fountains are smaller, theaters are closed and the bands have stopped playing." "Yet, residents still congregate every day without wearing masks. They turn up the volume on a radio and dance in the squares. They crowd bars where songs by Elvis Presley and Bobby Sherman play. There are picnics and water aerobics classes" If you have COVID - hide it Even if they have had the virus, most Villages residents are reluctant to talk about it. One resident declined to be interviewed because he was embarrassed after getting infected at a party.“ People are being very secretive,” said Neil Craver, 66, who said he got the virus two weeks ago. “It’s like the plague and they don’t want to let anybody else know that they’re sick. ”Residents say they have not received any directions about informing the management if they get sick. Republicans don't wear masks -- it is entirely political "About two-thirds of the residents are Republicans, according to local party chairs, and like elsewhere, some precautions are drawn politically.“ You can tell who is a Democrat, who is a Republican by their masks,” said Chris Stanley, the leader of the Villages Democratic Club." Let's record COVID deaths as something else Amy Rose, a Villages resident, lost her husband, Chad, a lab technician at one of the Villages hospitals, to what she believes was the coronavirus. His death, however, was recorded as a heart attack. What has their Chief Medical Officer said In an email to residents last week, Jeffrey Lowenkron, the chief medical officer of the Villages, said cases were increasing and urged them to take “proactive steps to reduce the risk of disease transmission.” (Yet the parties go on, the pools and facilities are open, the restaurants are open for eat-in dining, bars in full swing, over 2/3s of the residents don't wear masks..... few precautions are taken even as the toll becomes obvious & rises every day.) You think a reasonable governor would step in with a few suggestions and regulations for the state's largest retirement community --- rather than urging them to "open up".)
Let's see what a summary of an in-depth report has to say about DeSantis' COVID-19 performance... Ron DeSantis failed because his choices were ‘shaped by politics and divorced from scientific evidence’: report https://www.rawstory.com/2020/07/ro...and-divorced-from-scientific-evidence-report/ Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis was the focus of an in-depth Washington Post exposé examining why Florida is failing at coronavirus. “As Florida became a global epicenter of the coronavirus, Gov. Ron DeSantis held one meeting this month with his top public health official, Scott Rivkees, according to the governor’s schedule. His health department has sidelined scientists, halting briefings last month with disease specialists and telling the experts there was not sufficient personnel from the state to continue participating,” the newspaper reported. The newspaper interviewed scores of sources for the story. “As the virus spread out of control in Florida, decision-making became increasingly shaped by politics and divorced from scientific evidence according to interviews with 64 current and former state and administration officials, health administrators, epidemiologists, political operatives and hospital executives. The crisis in Florida, these observers say, has revealed the shortcomings of a response built on shifting metrics, influenced by a small group of advisers and tethered at every stage to the Trump administration, which has no unified plan for addressing the national health emergency but has pushed for states to reopen,” The Post explained. DeSantis has largely ignored experts. “DeSantis relies primarily on the advice of his wife, Casey, a former television reporter and host, and his chief of staff, Shane Strum, a former hospital executive, according to Republican political operatives, including a former member of his administration,” the newspaper noted. The approach has resulted in widespread destruction. “The response — which DeSantis boasted weeks ago was among the best in the nation — has quickly sunk Florida into a deadly morass. Nearly 5,800 Floridians have now died of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus — more deaths than were suffered in combat by Americans in Afghanistan or Iraq after 2001. One out of every 52 Floridians has been infected with the virus. The state’s intensive care units are being pushed to the brink, with some over capacity. Florida’s unemployment system is overwhelmed, and its tourism industry is a shambles,” the newspaper reported. Trump, however, praised DeSantis in a statement. “Ron DeSantis is doing a great job and will go down in history as a great governor of Florida,” Trump claimed. Read the full report.
Of course -- revealing the destruction DeSantis has reaped is not complete without the Washington Post report. Coronavirus ravaged Florida, as Ron DeSantis sidelined scientists and followed Trump https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...8008da-c648-11ea-b037-f9711f89ee46_story.html As Florida became a global epicenter of the coronavirus, Gov. Ron DeSantis held one meeting this month with his top public health official, Scott Rivkees, according to the governor's schedule. His health department has sidelined scientists, halting briefings last month with disease specialists and telling the experts there was not sufficient personnel from the state to continue participating. "I never received information about what happened with my ideas or results," said Thomas Hladish, a University of Florida research scientist whose regular calls with the health department ended June 29. "But I did hear the governor say the models were wrong about everything." DeSantis (R) this month traveled to Miami to hold a roundtable with South Florida mayors, whose region was struggling as a novel coronavirus hot spot. But the Republican mayor of Hialeah was shut out, weeks after saying the governor "hasn't done much" for a city disproportionately affected by the virus. As the virus spread out of control in Florida, decision-making became increasingly shaped by politics and divorced from scientific evidence,according to interviews with 64 current and former state and administration officials, health administrators, epidemiologists, political operatives and hospital executives. The crisis in Florida, these observers say, has revealed the shortcomings of a response built on shifting metrics, influenced by a small group of advisers and tethered at every stage to the Trump administration, which has no unified plan for addressing the national health emergency but has pushed for states to reopen. DeSantis relies primarily on the advice of his wife, Casey, a former television reporter and host, and his chief of staff, Shane Strum, a former hospital executive, according to Republican political operatives, including a former member of his administration. “It’s a universe of three — Shane and Casey,” said one Republican consultant close to DeSantis’s team who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment. The response — which DeSantis boasted weeks ago was among the best in the nation — has quickly sunk Florida into a deadly morass. Nearly 5,800 Floridians have now died of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus — more deaths than were suffered in combat by Americans in Afghanistan or Iraq after 2001. One out of every 52 Floridians has been infected with the virus. The state’s intensive care units are being pushed to the brink, with some over capacity. Florida’s unemployment system is overwhelmed, and its tourism industry is a shambles. DeSantis began the year as a popular governor, well-positioned to help his close ally President Trump win this crucial state in November's election. DeSantis is now suffering from sagging approval ratings. Trump is polling behind Democrat Joe Biden in recent polls of Florida voters. And both men, after weeks of pushing for a splashy Republican convention in Jacksonville, succumbed to the reality of the public health risks Thursday when Trump called off the event. Trump asked DeSantis in a phone call in May whether he would require masks for the convention and whether the virus would be a problem, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation. DeSantis said he would not require masks and the virus would not be a major problem in August in Florida. “You were elected to be the governor of our state and make decisions about what is best for us in Florida,” Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernández said of DeSantis. “If he was more concerned with what the president thought of him, the outcomes are here.” DeSantis’s office did not respond to interview requests or to a set of detailed questions sent by The Washington Post. In response to questions, a spokesman for the health department said the governor and Rivkees, the surgeon general, “are continuing to remind all Floridians to protect the vulnerable by avoiding the Three Cs: Closed Spaces, Crowded Places and Close-Contact Settings and by wearing a mask in public.” The spokesman, Alberto Moscoso, did not explain why the department had ended its work with the university modeling team or why Rivkees appears only once this month on the governor’s schedules, which have been released through July 23. During the same period, DeSantis spoke regularly to members of the Trump administration. He appeared twice on Fox News and called in to Rush Limbaugh’s radio show. “Ron DeSantis is doing a great job and will go down in history as a great governor of Florida,” the president told The Post through a spokeswoman. Those who defend the governor’s approach point to his early efforts to protect nursing homes. They also dispute claims that he has been inflexible, emphasizing his decision to re-close bars and clubs last monthafter a spike in infections. The governor’s allies have also commended him for securing more remdesivir, an antiviral drug used to treat the most severe coronavirus patients, which is in short supply across the country. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said the governor’s relationships in Washington have benefited Florida. In the spring, the state emerged on top “in terms of supplies and resources,” because, in the telling of Trump, “we’re really good at asking for stuff,” Gaetz said. Jared Moskowitz, a former Democratic state legislator who now heads the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said DeSantis has been “completely accessible” and “open-minded in our conversations.” He continued: “Anything that I have needed or asked for, dollars that are going to be required to respond appropriately have always been available.” The department’s command center was temporarily shuttered this month after a series of infections among staff working there. Some of Florida’s woes are shared by other states, especially in the Sun Belt: economies powered by tourism and hospitality whose leaders sought reasons to invite people back to their states; skeletal public health systems that could not adequately respond with contact tracing and other interventions; and holiday celebrations that caused residents, particularly young people, to flout guidelines. But the crisis in Florida has been especially acute, infectious-disease specialists say, because politics have dictated the response at crucial junctures — never more so than with the state’s reopening, which was cast by the governor as a return to normal rather than as a new and even more precarious phase of the pandemic. Trump told aides that Florida’s early success gave other states a justification to reopen, according to three administration officials. Meanwhile, DeSantis quickly turned presidential rhetoric into gubernatorial orders, all while rejecting measures, including a statewide mask mandate and an extended stay-at-home order, that helped other states contain their outbreaks. Officials involved in the local health and emergency response say DeSantis has selectively highlighted favorable metrics, such as a decline in the median age of people who are testing positive, rather than developing more serious mitigation strategies. “I think we’re on the right course,” he said as cases surpassed 400,000 and he continued to push for schools to open for in-person classes in a few weeks. Some on the front lines are drawing different conclusions. “The numbers are up, my man,” said Frank Rollason, the emergency management director in hard-hit Miami-Dade County. “They speak for themselves.” 'Chance to rubber-stamp it' The governor’s small inner circle stands in contrast to the number of people tapped for his reopening task force in April. The group included more than 100 participants but only five doctors, who were placed on a working group alongside representatives from the elder-care industry and farming leaders. The working group met twice for 2½ hours, said one member, dentist Rudy Liddell, and did not develop written recommendations or provide continued input once the report of the executive committee was released at the end of the month. The guidelines that emerged from the executive committee closely mirrored the reopening recommendations issued by the White House. There were few specific benchmarks following the first phase of a statewide reopening on May 18 — after about six weeks of sweeping restrictions — with movement into new phases premised instead on “adequate health care capacity” and the absence of a resurgence of the virus. In early June, DeSantis announced that much of the state could move into the second phase, lifting restrictions on bars and movie theaters, on the same day the state recorded 1,317 new cases, the largest surge in six weeks. “It was outcome-determinative — they knew what they wanted to do,” said state Sen. Gary Farmer, the incoming Senate minority leader. “It was a joke. . . . It was, ‘Here’s the plan. Here’s the chance to rubber-stamp it.’ ” As the state shifted into reopening, the Republican National Committee announced plans for its convention. The National Basketball Association opted to finish its season in Orlando. Disney World reopened July 11. Compliance in April with the sweeping stay-at-home order brought the state’s numbers down to a point that reopening looked feasible, said Cindy Prins, an epidemiologist at the University of Florida. The problem, she said, was the speed with which the state moved through the subsequent phases of its economic restart. “There was hardly enough time for the new infections even to show up,” she said. The governor’s quest to put the pandemic behind him undermined the very message — that the virus was still a deadly threat — that could have made his reopening a success, said J. Glenn Morris, director of the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute. “One of the areas where we failed in Florida was in convincing people that as things began to open up, that we still had a serious situation, that the virus was still present in the community and that there remained a critical need to maintain the basic practices recommended by the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention],” he said. Critical mitigation strategies remain inadequate, according to lawmakers and experts, owing to years of disinvestment in the state’s public health infrastructure. One estimate, by a researcher at Florida International University, found that the state had slashed public health spending 35 percent between 2009 and 2015. The health department’s 2017 budget request warned of “insufficient individuals at the local level who have the skills to perform epidemiological analyses” and manage outbreaks. Contact tracing, which has been central to controlling outbreaks in other settings, has been highly limited in Florida. State Rep. Rene Plasencia, a Republican representing parts of Orange County and Brevard County, said not a single family member or friend sickened by the virus has been contacted by the health department. With the virus tearing through urban centers, “we’re at a point where I don’t even know how you would do contact tracing anymore,” Plasencia said. The lesson of the pandemic for Florida, said Charles Lockwood, dean of the University of South Florida’s College of Medicine, was, “Never declare victory until the referee blows the whistle.” When the wave of cases predicted this spring did not initially crash down on the state, Tampa General Hospital and the University of South Florida used the time to order ventilators and stockpile personal protective equipment, Lockwood said. Meanwhile, steps he suggested to health officials in his county were not acted upon, including a recommendation to use cellphone technology to track at-risk patients and encouragement to stand up a more robust system of contact tracing. In both instances, he said, local health officials indicated they were constrained because these were functions controlled in Tallahassee, the state capital. The health administrator in Hillsborough County, Douglas A. Holt, declined to be interviewed. Efforts to offer advice on contact tracing at the state level were rebuffed, as well, according to experts involved in the response. Hladish, the infectious-disease researcher, said he and other specialists had tried to raise the subject during one of their calls with department staff but were told contact tracing was handled by a different team. “We were told that they were too busy to talk,” he said. Even health department staff were constrained in the nature of the advice they could offer, according to state health officials stationed in counties, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing response. They said conversations with state officials have recently included reminders that they were not authorized to advise school districts about whether to reopen but simply to “provide them with information,” as one official put it. These officials said calls that once occurred daily with Rivkees, the surgeon general, have been scaled back to three times a week. Rivkees, a pediatrician whose specialty is not epidemiology or disease surveillance, was escorted out of a news conference by the governor’s communications director in April after saying Floridians may have to practice social distancing and wear masks for up to a year, a prediction at odds with statements from DeSantis and Trump. Some of his top staff have left the department mid-pandemic. The administrator of the department’s surveillance section left in March for a job at Pfizer. Rebekah Jones, who had been managing the department’s public-facing data portal, was dismissed in May after a dispute over changes to the dashboard, which she said were designed to hide relevant information. State officials, who accused Jones of “insubordination,” said the changes were aimed at increased accuracy. Scott Pritchard, who headed the department’s investigations unit, left last month. He informed his team he was leaving on the day DeSantis announced plans to reopen schools at “full capacity,” according to people familiar with the matter. Pritchard, who did not respond to a request for comment, then left the state altogether. 'Government has failed us' DeSantis has left Florida for the White House numerous times during the pandemic. At an April briefing in the Oval Office, Trump offered to hold the governor’s foam display boards as DeSantis detailed how Florida had corralled the coronavirus better than almost any other state. “Everyone in the media was saying Florida was going to be like New York or Italy, and that has not happened,” DeSantis said. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Florida now eclipses New York’s caseload by more than 3,300. Florida has at least 168,000 more cases than Italy, a country with about three times the state’s population. DeSantis joined Trump for a White House event on drug pricing Friday, when the state recorded 12,444 new cases of the virus and 136 deaths. DeSantis was a little-known congressman in the first half of the Trump administration who made a name for himself with appearances on Fox News denouncing the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He netted the president’s endorsement in the 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary, riding it all the way to the governor’s office. “What’s the old phrase — dance with the one who brought you,” said Farmer, the incoming Florida Senate minority leader. “That’s what he’s doing. His political fortune in becoming governor was not just closely tied, but almost exclusively tied, to the Donald Trump train.” Trump feels bonhomie with DeSantis, likes having him in the Oval Office and regularly speaks with him on the phone, even though many around the president do not trust the governor, people familiar with the matter say. DeSantis also regularly consults with Brad Parscale, the president’s recently deposed campaign manager. Florida’s initial ability to skirt the worst effects of the virus was a boon for DeSantis and for Trump: The governor’s aggressive efforts to jump-start hiseconomy were right out of Trump’s playbook, perceived at the time as a benefit in the battleground state. Administration officials regularly sent reports and clips of DeSantis bragging about Florida not having cases early in the outbreak, to argue that many states were overreacting and, at times, that seasonal heat could cure the virus. Now, with the virus spreading uncontrolled in Florida, former health officials think DeSantis has joined the president in seeking to manage expectations about its consequences rather than formulate a plan to bring it under control. “They keep hoping it’s going to go away by itself,” said Richard Hopkins, an epidemiologist who spent 19 years at the Florida Department of Health. “I don’t know what’s going on — whether they’re afraid that they will get primaried by someone to their right if they take appropriate public health action.” Approval of DeSantis’s handling of the pandemic has fallen by double digits since April, when 50 percent of registered voters in Florida backed the governor’s approach. Now, 38 percent of residents approve of his response, while 57 percent disapprove, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday. The return this summer to crisis conditions has felt like whiplash for front-line workers. In June, employees at the six-hospital Memorial Healthcare System based in Hollywood, Fla., thought they had dodged a wave of coronavirus patients that threatened to overwhelm their hospitals. Exhaling workers began to dismantle surge areas from auditoriums and classrooms that had been converted into treatment areas. But it was premature. By the end of the month, covid-related hospitalizations had begun to soar, said the system’s chief medical officer, Stanley Marks. “We converted them back,” Marks said. “By early July, we again were in full emergency mode.” Darlene Dempsey, a nurse in West Palm Beach and a lifelong Republican, said she could no longer support Trump or DeSantis, both of whom, she added, had chosen to “gaslight nurses” instead of using the time in March and April to ramp up production of medical equipment and develop a testing plan. “The fairy tales about all being under control are nonsense,” she said. “Our government has failed us.”
Come on DeSantis.... let's hear you poke some more fun at New York regarding coronavirus... Florida surpasses New York to become the state with the second highest number of coronavirus cases https://www.wral.com/coronavirus/fl...highest-number-of-coronavirus-cases/19204732/
"DeSantis for the win" ‘Flori-duh,’ DeSantis in national spotlight for bungling pandemic https://www.floridatoday.com/story/...ional-spotlight-bungling-pandemic/5515102002/ Florida — long a national running joke since the 2000 presidential election debacle — took hit after hit on Sunday in the national media for the handling of the coronavirus that made it the new epicenter of the pandemic. Most of the news reports focused on how Florida on Saturday usurped New York in the number of coronavirus cases and now only trails California, a far more more populous state with nearly twice the population. Gov. Ron DeSantis was also the subject of the Washington Post piece that detailed how he ignored scientists and followed President Trump’s denials of the severity of the outbreak. The bad news for the governor followed the cancellation of the Republican National Convention that he had lobbied to come to Florida. Then there was the sad story of a 9-year-old who succumbed to COVID-19 even though she had no underlying health issues — negating DeSantis well-worn refrain that children don’t get seriously ill. And last, but not least, were the comments of DeSantis’ top business regulator, who said he wants to find a way to open up Florida bars, and the swirling debate among medical professionals to open up public schools for in-person classes. Just another typical news cycle for the nation’s peninsula during a once-in-a-century pandemic. “Ever since the 2000 election Florida has kind of been looked as being a little incompetent when it comes to handling their politics,” said political analyst Brian Crowley. “All of these things kind of add to the rest of the country looking at Florida as this weird place that can’t seem to get anything done right. You toss the pandemic into the mix, and, once again, Florida looks like the Flori-DUH state instead of the Sunshine State.” The grim daily recitation of COVID-19 numbers for the state repeated itself again on Sunday. It was only in May that conservatives demanded an apology to Gov. Ron DeSantis for early predictions that the state would be mired in COVID-19. Now, though, DeSantis’ boasting two months ago has boomeranged on the governor. “By all measures Florida is failing,” said Dr. Terry Adirim, a dean and professor of pediatrics at Florida Atlantic University’s medical school. “New cases per capita is the highest in the United States.” On Sunday, DeSantis wasn’t scheduled to hold one of his patented explain-away-the-virus news conferences as the national media spoke of the spike in his state and reported that dozens of Florida hospitals were at capacity. The state reported 9,344 new COVID-19 cases and 78 new deaths on Sunday with 11 percent of all new tests coming back positive. Florida now has for a total of 423,855 cases and 5,972 deaths. In Palm Beach County, there were 598 new cases reported Sunday. The Washington Post, in its exposé, said DeSantis’ schedule showed only one meeting in the month of July with his top public health official, Scott Rivkees. “Decision-making became increasingly shaped by politics and divorced from scientific evidence,” according to 64 current and former state and administration officials interviewed by The Washington Post. “DeSantis has made the classic mistake that we are seeing from some governors all over the county. He has put politics first and the pandemic second,” Crowley, the political analyst, said. “There is a time politics doesn’t matter and it shouldn’t matter when you are dealing with a health crisis.” Before summer, DeSantis loved to chide New York when deaths were growing there. At one point, he established highway checkpoints entering Florida and implemented a 14-day self-isolation order for people arriving from New York. “DeSantis has made the classic mistake that we are seeing from some governors all over the county. He has put politics first and the pandemic second,” Crowley, the political analyst, said. “There is a time politics doesn’t matter and it shouldn’t matter when you are dealing with a health crisis.” Before summer, DeSantis loved to chide New York when deaths were growing there. At one point, he established highway checkpoints entering Florida and implemented a 14-day self-isolation order for people arriving from New York. A Quinnipiac University Poll released Thursday found that 83% of Floridians said spread of the coronavirus is a serious problem in the state, while just 16% say it is not. Seventy percent consider the spread of the coronavirus in Florida “out of control.” Only 24% felt it is “under control.” Looking back, 61% of voters think Governor Ron DeSantis reopened the economy “too quickly.” Thirty-one percent think he reopened “at about the right pace” and 6% say he reopened “too slowly.” Altogether, DeSantis’ approval rating for handling the pandemic has plummeted a dozen points to 38% since April, the Quinnipiac poll reported. Florida’s unabated rise in COVID-19 cases comes as private schools plan to open in-person classes, while public schools plan to put all lessons on-line to start the semester. Also making national headlines was the death of Kimora “Kimmie” Lynum, who became the youngest person to die from COVID-19 complications in Florida at the age of 9. The Putnam County resident died on July 17 and her family said the youngster had no underlying conditions. Five minors have died of COVID-19 in the state. “No one deserves this, words can’t express that she was just amazing. And she didn’t have a chance to live her life but she was always happy, she was resilient and she just was an outgoing young lady,” her cousin Dejeon Cain told Gainesville television station WCJB. National media also mentioned a tweet by Halsey Beshears, the secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. He said Saturday that he is planning to start setting up meetings with owners of bars and breweries across the state to discuss how they can reopen. Florida banned alcohol consumption at its bars to stem the spike in coronavirus cases. With this backdrop, the debate over opening schools remains a festering topic. The Palm Beach County Medical Society last week endorsed the Centers for Disease Control full-throated call for students to head back to brick-and-mortar classrooms. However, it also endorsed the measure approach by the School District. The CDC issued a statement entitled “The Importance of Reopening America’s School this Fall,” noting that the infection rate among children is low. The medical society called on “school-based health facilities” to follow the CDC guidance to keep students safe. However, the Health Care District, which employs school nurses, furloughed all healthcare professionals for the start of the school year. “Schools can determine in collaboration with state and local health officials to the extent possible whether and how to implement the CDC considerations while adjusting to meet the unique needs and circumstances of the local community,” read the statement from the Medical Society. Dr. Larry Bush, an infectious disease specialist and president of the society, said the infection rate is going down and there is no evidence that children would carry the disease back home or infect teachers like a “Trojan horse.” He called on the school district to define what it would consider “safe” to be for students to return to the classroom. “If I had a child here, I’d send him to school,” Bush said. A number of doctors and experts populated a Zoom meeting this week on the subject put on by the Medical Society. The webinar wasn’t a formal statement by the organization. Adirim, at FAU medical school, said that the closing of schools hurt disadvantaged children who don’t have computer access and rely on a variety of services, such as meals. “Getting all children back into school for in-person instruction is paramount for in person instruction is paramount,” Dr. Terry Adirim, a dean and professor of pediatrics at Florida Atlantic University’s medical school. “Opening schools is not just critical for our children’s benefit but their parents, many of whom need to to work, and therefore is vitally important to our economy.” But she added Florida can’t just open up the doors of public schools as the pandemic is out of control. “The environment is just not safe right now in Florida for our community, our families, our teachers,” Adirim said. All eyes are on the positivity rate among children, but the state’s data has been all over the place. The Florida Department of Health admitted this week that an error for children resulted in an error that put positivity rates above 30%. The adjustment now puts the positivity rate at around 13%. Adirim said that is still not good enough to open up schools to in-person class instruction, saying it is well above the World Health Organization recommendation of 5%.
Yep Florida has problems. Some of those problems are similar to Oregon. Allowing degenerate rioters to destroy public property is not one of those problems. Florida has no state income tax and runs on moderate sales taxes and moderate property taxes. They do pretty well for how much they take in for tax revenue. I'm heading down to Florida in days. Then I have the minor problem of my boat being in the Pacific ocean. Somewhere in my near future is a tense little solo passage through the hurricane slot during hurricane season. Trying to explain to friends that they would be sick the entire passage and I need to haul ass 24x7.