Florida Politics (11/18/2021)
(Florida is averaging 55 deaths per day)
Setting his state up for disaster during the next wave of the virus.
“It’s a disgrace the Governor chooses to call a symbol of technological and medical advancement ‘the jab’ to continue scaring people and confusing them about the effectiveness of the vaccine,” said House Democratic Leader Bobby DuBose. “We need to continue listening to public health and medical experts to get over this pandemic and truly let Floridians prosper.”
Others, like House Democratic Whip Ramon Alexander and House Democratic Policy Chair Fentrice Driskell, called the bills the “DeSantis Ambition Tax,” an allusion to the Governor’s re-election and possible presidential ambitions. They said politicizing the pandemic will come at the cost of taxpayers and businesses. [emphasis added]
November 14 update starts here
Florida Politics (11/14/2021)
(Florida is averaging 52 deaths per day)
GET ME REWRITE: Ron DeSantis's handling of COVID has been deadly. Florida is in 8th among states with the high death rate per 1,000,000 population.
November 10 update starts here
Florida Politics (11/9/2021)
(Florida is averaging 107 deaths per day)
Now we know why DeSantis hired him: Lapado lies without compuntion.
“They also said that his numerous op-eds (columns published in newspapers) greatly mischaracterized the type of work that he was doing during the pandemic,” Maddow added.
She said her show also obtained scheduling documents from UCLA covering the period from June 2019, through September 2021. The documents showed numerous UCLA doctors assigned to treat COVID patients at various times, but never Ladapo.
She specifically cited one Ladapo op-ed column, published in USA Today on March 24, 2020, in which he wrote that he had “spent the past week taking care of patients with COVID-19 at UCLA’s flagship hospital.” She said the scheduling records for that month do not show Ladapo ever treating anyone in the hospital’s COVID-19 unit.
November 4 update starts here
DeSantis has been offensive since his days as a Freedom Caucus Crazy in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Republican Governor — a 2024 presidential prospect — blasted Fauci and Silicon Valley’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Big Tech, he argued, is censoring the truth about the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
DeSantis also bashed Fauci over reports detailing the mistreatment of puppies during experiments funded by the infectious disease doctor.
November 3 update starts here
(Florida is averaging 105 deaths per day)
Running into the open arms of Laura Ingraham. Again.
DeSantis recorded an interview with Fox News personality Laura Ingraham on Thursday, but part of it did not air until late Friday.
November 1 update starts here
Headline from Miami Herald (10/29/2021)
(Florida is averaging 124 deaths per day)
Nothing can hide Florida’s descent into Crazyville. Not the “Don’t Tread on Florida” alligator signs held by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ supporters at his latest COVID-19 policy proposal announcement. Not the state’s new Ivy League-educated surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who, as reported by FloridaPolitics.com, refused — refused! — to wear a mask when he met with state Sen. Tina Polsky in her office in Tallahassee. The state senator, who represents parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties, has cancer.
Crazy.
We thought things couldn’t get much worse in DeSantis’ handling of the pandemic, but we were wrong — then we were wrong again. Just when you think he’s done enough to undermine our chances of exiting a pandemic that has killed nearly 60,000 Floridians, he has a new trick up his sleeve.
DeSantis’ latest move, announced Thursday, is to call a special legislative session to undermine federal requirements announced by President Biden that some workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
October 31 update stats here
Headline from Orlando Sentinel 10/29/2021
(Florida is averaging 124 deaths per day)
October 30 update starts here
DeSantis plays to an appreciate audience, one that knows he's politicized Covid since the start of the pandemic.
Headline from Frolida Politics, 10/28/2021
How a liar and a crook sets the stage.
Ladapo came under fire last week after he refused to don a mask inside the office of Democratic Sen. Tina Polsky, a Boca Raton lawmaker who was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer in August.
Speaking for the first time about the dust-up, DeSantis mounted a two-pronged defense. There’s more to the incident than what it seems, DeSantis suggested.
____________________________________________________________________________
Gearing up for 2024
Headline froom Florida Politics, 10/29/2021
(Florida is averaging 127 deaths per day)
With a Special Session expected the week of Nov. 15, DeSantis vowed to supplement legislation with litigation, and Ingraham was favored with the national showcase of the suit the state filed Thursday in the Middle District of Florida.
October 28 update starts here
Headline froom Florida Politics, 10/27/2021
(Florida is averaging 113 deaths per day)
Simpson, though, is the first high-ranking Florida Republican to admonish Ladapo. [emphasis added]
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats turned to social media to call on the upper chamber to deny Ladapo’s confirmation during the upcoming 2022 Legislative Session.
The story has made national headlines and Ladapo has since issued a statement explaining his behavior.
But Simpson, who was in Orlando attending the Florida Chamber of Commerce annual conference and two-day Future of Florida Forum, doesn’t seem impressed.
October 27 update starts here
Headline froom Florida Politics, 10/25/2021
(Florida is averaging 113 deaths per day)
A statement from the Governor published across multiple social media platforms made no mention of that incident. Rather, DeSantis praised Ladapo’s prior policies on the COVID-19 pandemic and a low-regulation approach mirroring the Governor’s rhetoric and actions over the past year. Specifically, he credited Ladapo for a reduced infection rate in Florida schools.
Which, of course, registers at the high end of the bullshit meter.
October 25 update starts here
Headline froom Florida Politics, 10/25/2021
(Florida is averaging 135 deaths per day)
As detailed by Florida Politics, Democratic Sen. Tina Polsky of Boca Raton, who was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer in August, asked Ladapo and his aides to leave her office last week after Ladapo repeatedly refused her request for him to wear a mask.
Cancer patients are at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19 and may not build the same immunity to vaccines as otherwise healthy subjects, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ladapo was “very smug” and responded with “that’s OK” when Polsky told him she had a serious medical condition and didn’t feel comfortable speaking to him without a mask. As Ladapo was leaving, she said, he told her, “Sometimes I try to reason with unreasonable people for fun.”
October 24 update starts here
Correct on both counts
Headline froom Florida Politics, 10/23/2021
(Florida is averaging 135 deaths per day)
Jones, who filed to run for Florida’s 1st Congressional District on Sept. 29, garnered national attention after Florida and Tallahassee police raided her home in response to a hack of the Department of Health’s emergency communications system. Jones had called into question the accuracy of the agency’s information and said management had pushed her to manipulate data to project a more positive outlook.
October 23 update starts here
Headline froom Florida Politics, 10/22/2021
(Florida is averaging 135 deaths per day)
In a word, it’s about masks.
The state Commission on Ethics Friday became the latest to be ensnared in the struggle between Gov. Ron DeSantis and a handful of school boards that have voted to require students wear masks in defiance of DeSantis’ prohibition against mask mandates.
Broward County School Board Chairwoman Rosalind Osgood asked for the ethics panel’s advisory opinion because of a $420,957 federal grant to compensate Broward School Board members who have lost their salaries
October 22 update starts here
Headline froom Florida Politics, 10/22/2021
Stats from Worldometer with its dubious FLA new deaths stats (box added)
(Florida is averaging 128 deaths per day)
Fried, who is running to replace DeSantis in the Governor’s Mansion, released data Thursday showing how Florida’s school districts are performing in COVID-19 infections, adding to an Oct. 7 release. The data shows students in school districts with stricter policies are less likely to contract the virus. DeSantis issued an edict prohibiting school districts from requiring students wear masks, and schools that have defied him are facing losses in state funding.
“It is cruel partisan gamesmanship to take money from already-underfunded schools that are trying to protect children,” Fried said in a news release.
.
October 21 update starts here
Headline froom Florida Politics, 10/20/2021
Stats from Worldometer with its dubious FLA new deaths stats (box added)
(Florida is averaging 120 deaths per day)
The company DeSantis keeps.
Florida Board of Education Chair Tom Grady faces a federal misdemeanor charge for excavating property in waters around the Florida Keys, a violation punishable by up to one year in prison.
Grady, a lawyer and former Republican state lawmaker, insurance executive and state financial regulator, has been accused in a federal indictment of “obstruction of navigable water” in April 2017 off the coast of Islamorada.
October 20 update starts here
Headline froom Florida Politics, 10/15/2021
Stats from Worldometer with its dubious FLA new deaths stats (box added)
(Florida is averaging 120 deaths per day)
The Republican Party of Sarasota honor has gone in past years to an array of national figures, including two-time winner and former President Donald Trump. U.S. Sen. Rick Scott has also earned the award, as have national figures like South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
October 19 update starts here
Headline froom Florida Politics, 10/15/2021
Stats from Worldometer with its dubious FLA new deaths stats (box added)
(Florida is averaging 211 deaths per day)
Donald Trump whispering sweet nothings in his ear.
“If a business forces somebody to do this then that employee, if there’s anything that happens negative as a result of that coercion, you know, they should be able to go in and then sue and get compensation, get damages for that,” the governor said during a news conference Thursday in Fort Myers.
“We worked very hard in Florida to provide protections against COVID liability for businesses, because we worried about people just going in and starting to sue, to say, ‘Hey, I was in your business and I caught COVID, therefore it’s your fault.’ That’s just not the way respiratory viruses work. We’ve just never done it that way.
“So, we provided good protection. But, you know, businesses turn around and now they’re imposing mandates. Then that protection, to me, is something that we would probably want to peel back from those businesses,” DeSantis said.
October 17 update starts here
Headline froom Florida Politics, 10/15/2021
Stats from Worldometer with its dubious FLA new deaths stats (box added)
(Florida is averaging 170 deaths per day).
Then came Florida’s summer surge, fueled by the delta variant, which began emerging by July 9. By July 30 Florida was reporting more than 100,000 new cases each week. Those case numbers began falling again in late August.
While the latest report confirms the dramatic downward trend of new cases — now reaching pre-summer surge levels — the lagging wave of death reports remains high, exposing the grim results of the summer surge.
Friday’s weekly report showed 1,192 more deaths were added to the state’s total in the previous week
October 16 update starts here
Headline froom Florida Politics, 10/16/2021
Stats from Worldometer with its dubious FLA new deaths stats (box added)
(Florida is averaging 170 deaths per day)
After a series of official announcements in Southwest Florida, the Governor ended Friday at the Hyatt Regency Sarasota, where he picked up the Statesman of the Year award from the Sarasota GOP. Supporters, including members of the Florida Cabinet, praised DeSantis’ leadership through the pandemic.
Meet Joe Gruters, chairman of the Sarasota County Republican Party
As Sarasota GOP chair, Gruters twice gave Trump the party’s “statesman of the year” award. (Herald-Tribune, 1/16/2021)
October 15 update starts here
The despicable Florida gov continues to politicize every aspect of the pandemic.
Headline froom Florida Politics, 10/14/2021
Stats from Worldometer with its dubious FLA new deaths stats (box added)
(Florida is averaging 186 deaths per day)
The Governor has vowed to challenge the federal government’s authority to place vaccine requirements on businesses through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Meanwhile, the Florida Department of Health, under Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, has levied $3.6 million in fines on Leon County for mandating vaccines and firing people who failed to meet the requirement. The county is the first local government the state has punished. Gainesville backed down on its proposed mandate after threats from the DeSantis administration.
October 14 update starts here
Headline froom AlterNet, 10/13/2021
(Florida is averaging 240 deaths per day)
"Unbelievable!" Sen. Loranne Ausley (D-Tallahassee, Fla.) said in a statement. "We don't need the State bullying our communities or private businesses who are simply trying to serve the people and get on the other side of this pandemic. It's going to take all of us standing together to make this happen."
However, officials are not the only people angered by the fine. Describing DeSantis' action as "political posturing," Christopher Link, of Tallahassee, Fla., explained how the imposed fine will impact residents."
It's all just political posturing," Christopher Link, a Tallahassee resident, told the publication on Tuesday. " t makes no sense and only hurts the taxpayer. The fact that the better good for the health of the state is so wrongly politicized is insane. The crazies have taken over, really." He added,
"This pandemic has been going on for over a year, and I've never really felt like the priority in Florida was about saving lives. Just careers."
October 14 update starts here
Headline froom Washington Post, 10/11/2021
Stats from Worldometer with its dubious FLA new deaths stats (box added)
(Florida is averaging 240 deaths per day)
Two months ago, DeSantis (R) forbade school district administrators to require masks. Now, school boards that mandate them are being fined. They cannot force covid-exposed students to quarantine. And Florida almost lost out on $2.3 billion in federal aid for schools this fall because it was the only state that chose not to apply for the third round of covid relief. After a swift and loud outcry, the DeSantis administration reversed course on Thursday.
School boards, staff members and teachers across Florida say they feel their jobs put them in danger. They are worried about both covid’s stubborn persistence and angry parents who reject mask-wearing. A furious group of such parents showed up Monday outside the Sarasota school board chairwoman’s home, waving signs and chanting. One could be heard saying, “We see you in there, Shirley. We want you to come out for a redress of grievances. This is the line we will die on. Shirley, come out.”
As Robinson aptly said, “When you have the leader of the state setting a poor example, it’s going to happen. [emphasis added]
October 12 update starts here
Megalomania in full flower
Headline from Florida Politics, 10/2/2021
Map from New York Times
(Florida is averaging 150 deaths per day)
Letters! He gets letters!
“How do I know that? Because I have people writing to me from Australia and Canada and some of these places, saying that they’re looking to Florida for leadership, and they appreciate that we’re actually standing and defending people’s rights and liberties,” DeSantis said.
October 10 update starts here
Headline from Florida Politics, 10/9/2021
Stats from Worldometer with its dubious FLA new deaths stats (box added)
(Florida is averaging 195 deaths per day)
Just how much learning suffered during the pandemic is presented in stark terms in the Florida Department of Education’s application to receive $2.3 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds that was submitted this week.
October 9 update starts here
Headline from Florida Politics, 10/7/2021
Stats from Worldometer with its dubious FLA new deaths stats (box added)
(Florida is averaging 195 deaths per day)
DeSantis and his administration have argued that mask mandates haven’t reduced the spread of COVID-19.
“Ron DeSantis is lying to you about masks in schools, In every single case, kids were better off in school districts that required masks than school districts that did not,” Fried said.
The three school districts that required masks from the first day of school — Alachua, Broward and Miami-Dade counties — have more than 3.5 times fewer COVID-19 cases per student than school districts that never required masks. School districts with increasingly strict masking rules, from no rules and parental opt-outs to medical opt-outs and complete masking, also saw fewer cases per student.
October 8 update starts here
Headline from Florida Politics, 10/8/2021
Stats from Worldometer with its dubious FLA new deaths stats (box added)
(Florida is averaging 200 deaths per day)
More people were reported to have died in Florida since June 20 than in any other state — more than Texas, California, or Arizona. Even when Florida’s large population is factored in, Florida’s per-capita death rate was worse than all other states’, including smaller Southern states that suffered harsh summer surges, such as Louisiana and Arkansas.
Compared today's headline with yesterday's.
October 7 update starts here
\Headline from Florida Politics, 10/6/2021
Stats from Worldometer with its dubious FLA new deaths stats (box added)
(Florida is averaging 222 deaths per day)
While the DeSantis administration claims the report validates Florida’s response, it never singles out Florida’s response.
More like hoisted on his own petard. The spikes get bigger and sharper with each wave of the virus.
October 6 update starts here
\Headline from Florida Politics, 10/6/2021
Stats from Worldometer with its dubious FLA new deaths stats (box added)
(Florida is averaging 222 deaths per day)
What an incompetence administration!
Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking heat from Democrats for making Florida the only state in the country not to apply for billions in relief for school districts to help students impacted by the pandemic.
Florida was cleared to receive more than $7 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act for programs to support student health and safety and address social, academic and mental health needs in response to the pandemic.
The DeSantis administration has left $2.3 billion of that sitting on the table for months because it hasn’t yet submitted a plan for the remaining funds, according to Ian Rosenblum, deputy assistant secretary for policy and programs at the U.S. Department of Education.
The plan was due June 7.7
October 3 update starts here
\Headline from Florida Politics, 10/1/2021
Stats from Worldometer with its dubious FLA new deaths stats (box added)
(Florida is averaging 246 deaths per day)
With federal approval for COVID-19 vaccinations for younger school-age children imminent, two Orlando pediatricians Thursday urged parents to vaccinate their children when federal approval comes — and to vaccinate themselves.
“That’s how you express to your children the fact that you care about them, the fact that you love them. This is what responsible parenting and membership in a community is all about,” said Dr. Kenneth Alexander, the pediatrics infectious disease resident at Nemour’s Children’s Health in Orlando.
Alexander and Dr. Adriana Cadilla, a pediatric infectious disease consultant at Nemours, spoke Thursday at Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings‘ biweekly COVID-19 update briefing. They made it clear they harbor no doubts that vaccinating children — or anyone — would be the right thing to do if and when federal approval comes, which they expect.
October 2 update starts here
\Headline from Florida Politics, 10/1/2021
Stats from Worldometer with its dubious FLA new deaths stats (box added)
(Florida is averaging 246 deaths per day)
Before this summer, Florida had never reported as many as 1,300 new COIVID-19 deaths in a single week. With Friday’s announcement, Florida exceeded that level for seven consecutive weekly reports.
The latest release shows that Florida reached16,220 deaths since the end of July. That means for that stretch, there was an average of more than 250 fatalities per day. That chronicles Florida’s most dire news of the 2021 summer surge’s worst period, driven by the emergence of the more infectious delta variant.
Almost 30% of all official COVID-19 deaths in Florida during the 19-month pandemic have been counted just in the past nine weeks. [emphasis added]
October 1 update starts here
\Headline from Florida Politics, 9/30/2021
Stats from Worldometer (box added)
(Florida is averaging 272 deaths per day)
Two lawmakers are proposing legislation in the upcoming Session to ensure a department store is never more “essential” than a church.
September 30 update starts here
\Headline from Florida Politics, 9/28/2021
Map from New York Times
(Florida is averaging 311 deaths per day)
Speaking at the International Boatbuilders Exhibition in Tampa on Tuesday, DeSantis lamented the strict pandemic approach from one of the United States’ closest allies.
“That’s not a free country. It’s not a free country at all,” DeSantis said. “In fact, I wonder why we would still have the same diplomatic relations when they’re doing that. Is Australia freer than communist China right now? I don’t know. The fact that that’s even a question tells you something has gone dramatically off the rails with some of this stuff.”
Australia is currenlty getting hammered by the delta variant.
Graphs from Worldometer
September 29 update starts here
All but 4 of Florida's 67 coutnies remains at extremely high risk of Covid spread.
\Headline from Florida Politics, 9/28/2021
(Florida is averaging 311 deaths per day)
The district was under a Florida Department of Education order that the district’s state aid would be withheld in an amount equal to the salaries of its nine board members.
The reduction means the district is receiving $35,080 less in state aid for each month the mandate is in effect, according to a district news release. To date, $70,160 has been withheld, with the most recent funding withheld on Friday, according to a district news release.
“We are grateful for the support of the federal government in helping us continue to protect our students and staff from COVID-19,” said Broward County Schools’ Interim Superintendent Vickie Cartwright.
September 28 update starts here
A fiery ferret?
\Headline from Florida Politics, 9/25/2021
(Florida is averaging 311 deaths per day)
The Panhandle is the least vaccinated and the Trumpiest area of Florida.
9/27/2021 update starts here
You know him by the company he keeps.
Headlibe from Florida Politics, 9/23/2021
Map from New York Times
Charles Craig, a 40-year-old handyman from Apollo Beach, said that the White House had “grabbed” hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin and were doing the same with Regeneron-branded monoclonal antibody treatment.
“To think that they’re limiting the access of this is sickening. It works. It’s awesome. Another reason you know it works,” Craig said. “In the beginning, hydroxychloroquine worked. They grabbed it. More recently, ivermectin worked. They grabbed it. And now they’re grabbing my Regeneron.”
All but 1 of Florida's 67 counties remain at extrmely high risk of Covid spread.
September 26 update starts here
Loser by default
\Headline from Florida Politics, 9/26/2021
Stats (including dubious FLA death count) from Worldometers
(Florida is averaging 334 deaths per day)
The biggest winner: Alachua County school officials. One can only imagine the satisfaction Biden must have had when he grabbed the chance to slam dunk over DeSantis.
That’s just what happened when the U.S. Department of Education provided the Alachua school district with $147,719 through Project SAFE (Support America’s Families and Educators).
That’s the federal program formed this month by the President. Alachua is the first district in the country to receive the funds. The cash reimburses schools for money withheld by the state because they followed COVID-19 safety measures such as requiring students to wear masks. DeSantis and Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran are arguably the highest-profile opponents of mask mandates.
Florida’s Department of Education has withheld two months’ worth of salaries, about $27,000, for the four Alachua School Board members who voted to defy DeSantis and impose mask mandates without parental opt-outs.
September 25 update starts here
\Headline from CNN, 9/23/2021
Stats (including dubious FLA death count) from Worldometers
(Florida is averaging 328 deaths per day)
"This rule is likely to promote the spread of Covid-19 by preventing schools from implementing the common-sense masking and quarantine policies recommended by the vast majority of health care professionals, including those here in Alachua County," said Alachua County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Carlee Simon in a statement. "The State is, in fact, doubling down on policies that may ultimately put students, staff and the entire community at greater risk." [emphasis added]
September 25 update starts here
Headline from New York Times, 9/24/2021
Stats (including dubious FLA death count) from Worldometers
(Florida is averaging 328 deaths per day)
But to even get to the 2024 starting line, Mr. DeSantis will first have to make it through re-election in Florida — and the treacherous politics of Covid-19. Lately, his approval ratings have slumped, and his re-election has looked like a lot less of a slam dunk. By tacking hard right on some issues, especially on Covid mandates, he may have left himself potentially vulnerable to a Democratic challenger. His stumbles also suggest the possibility that the sort of harsh, inflexible Covid policies usually associated with Donald Trump may prove a hindrance for some G.O.P. candidates who embrace them in 2022 and beyond.
September 23 update starts here
Headline from Florida Politics, 9/23/2021
Stats (including dubious FLA death count) from Worldometers
There's a new nutburger in town. A day after assuming his job, Florida’s newly appointed surgeon general on Wednesday signed new protocols allowing parents to decide whether their children should quarantine or stay in school if they are asymptomatic after being exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
The new guidelines signed by Dr. Joseph Ladapo also tweaked the state’s prohibition against school mask mandates, prompting an administrative law judge to dismiss a lawsuit against the old rule that had been filed by various school boards.
September 22 update starts here
Florida is #3 is Covid clases per 1 million population.
Stats (including dubious FLA death count) from Worldometers
(Florida is averaging 376 deaths per day)
State lawmakers, news companies and government accountability organizations have been requesting COVID-19 information from the state for months. Numerous information requests Florida Politics sent FDOH and its spokesperson, Weesam Khoury, have gone unanswered.
Smith sent the Orange County Health Department a public records request on July 23. The information he asked for would not have identified anyone, but it “would illustrate the larger impacts of the virus on Orange County — including the ages, sex, ethnic and racial demographics of those with confirmed cases of the virus, and vaccination rates for the county,” his office said.
September 21 update starts here
Map from New York Times
(Florida is averaging 454 deaths per day)
DeSantis on Monday threatened to fine local governmental entities requiring employee vaccinations $5,000 for each employee required to get the shot. It could mean millions in fines. But South Florida’s constitutionally elected officers who have required COVID-19 vaccinations are not backing down.
“He has no legal authority,” said Anne Gannon, Palm Beach County Tax Collector, who mandated her 315 employees get vaccinated back in April.
Eight employees quit over the mandate. But she doesn’t think DeSantis’ threatened fines, which could cost her office $1.5 million, will amount to much.
Similarly, Joe Scott, Broward County’s Supervisor of Elections, is not losing any sleep over DeSantis’ threat that could cost his office $5 million. He’s in the process of hiring 1,000 employees to work the Special Primary Election coming up Nov. 2 to elect a successor to the late U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings and they all must be vaccinated against COVID-19.
It’s all about making his poll workers and voters feel more comfortable.
September 20 update states here
Map from New York Times
(Florida is averaging 454 deaths per day)
A new poll released Thursday by the Committee to Protect Health Care, a group launched in 2016 to oppose President Trump’s promises to eliminate Obamacare, shows the governor’s approval rating at -7 among likely Florida voters when asked about his handling of the pandemic (45% approval, 52% disapproval).
While this polling was done by progressive group Data for Progress, three other polls in the past month show at least 60% support among Floridians for mask mandates in schools.
September 19 update starts here
Stats (including dubious FLA death count) from Worldometers
(Florida is averaging 353 deaths per day)
Gov. Ron DeSantis is Florida’s chief reality-denier. On Monday, he threw a tantrum disguised as a news conference in Gainesville, flanked by Attorney General Ashley Moody and CFO Jimmy Patronis. He ranted against the federal vaccine mandate, threatening to fine cities and counties requiring employees to get the COVID-19 jab $5,000 per infraction.
I mean, how dare the government try to save people’s lives?
Then, a couple of characters who were either disgruntled city employees or escapees from the local psych ward got to air their anti-vaccine foolishness.
One woman implied that the vaccine might kill her and she didn’t want her children left motherless: “My body, my choice, my business,” she said. “I will not comply.”
Darris Friend, who said he’d worked for the city of Gainesville for 22 years, asserted, “The vaccine changes your RNA.”
Pro tips: The vaccine does not change your RNA. Nor will it kill you.
Want to know what will kill you? The delta variant. And the cruel cynicism of Florida’s Republican leadership.
September 18 update starts here
Headline from Sun-Sentinel, 9/17/2021
Stats (including dubious FLA death count) from Worldometers
(Florida is averaging 353 deaths per day)
September 17 update starts here
Headline from Politico, 9/16/2021
Stats (including dubious FLA death county) from Worldometers
(Florida is averaging 363 deaths per day)
“I think we could have averted, in this country, a lot of people going to the hospital,” DeSantis said. “I think it would have saved a lot of lives.” [emphasis added]
DeSantis has prioritized monoclonal treatments such as Regeneron in his Florida pandemic battle plan, spending the past several weeks flying across the state supporting the treatments. Monoclonal antibody treatments are considered effective if administered early in an infection. At the same time, he has opposed Covid-related restrictions such as requiring students to wear face coverings, vaccine passports or mandatory vaccine mandates for workers. That has put him repeatedly at odds with the Biden administration.
DeSantis’ opposition to Covid mandates has raised his profile, with conservatives across the nation cheering him on as he prepares to run for reelection and possibly challenge Biden in 2024. But the summer surge in Florida’s Delta variant cases pose a threat to DeSantis’ electoral ambitions, with the governor’s approval ratings dropping as the state broke grim Covid milestones such hospitalizations and new infections almost weekly. [emphasis added]
All 67 Florida counties remain at extremely high risk of Covid spread.
September 16 update starts here
Headline from News4JAX, 9/16/2021
Stats (including dubious FLA death count) from Worldometers
(Florida is averaging 326 deaths per day)
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the state’s only statewide elected Democrat and a candidate hoping to challenge DeSantis for governor next year, was critical of the fines when they were announced.
“Governor DeSantis is retaliating against Floridians who are trying to protect themselves and their communities from COVID-19," Fried said in an emailed statement. “This not only goes against common sense — it’s also an insult to the free market principles that he claims to champion."
September 15 update starts here
Headline from Florida Politics, 9/14/2021
Stats (including dubious FLA death count) from Worldometers
(Florida is averaging 325 deaths per day)
The question that DeSantis sidestepped was from POLITICO reporter Marc Caputo: “At yesterday’s press conference, the guy next to you said that the vaccines changed (his?) RNA. As you’ve said, you’re a data-driven guy. That doesn’t line up with the data. Two questions. Do you believe that? And if you don’t believe it, how come you didn’t say anything at the moment?”
Along with Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis and Attorney General Ashley Moody, DeSantis stood by silently as an invited speaker claimed that COVID-19 vaccines changed genetics.
Darris Friend, an employee at Gainesville Regional Utilities, defended refusing a vaccine on those grounds.
“The vaccine changes your RNA, so for me, that’s a problem,” Friend said.
Friend was trafficking in vaccine misinformation.
September 14 update starts here
Headline from Reuters, 9/14/2021
See FLA Covid stats at New York Times
"If a government agency in the state of Florida forces a vaccine as a condition to employment, that violates Florida law," DeSantis said in a press conference.
"And you will face a $5,000 fine for every single violation," he added. "That's millions and millions of dollars potentially in fines."
Florida has recorded more than 3.4 million cases of COVID-19 and over 49,000 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.
September 13 update starts here
Headline from U.S. News and World Report, 9/10/2021
Backed by Republican legislators, DeSantis ushered into law the Parents Bill of Rights, which says government "may not infringe on the fundamental rights" of parents to steer children's education, health care and everything else.
The way things are going, DeSantis might come to regret signing that bill. A Tallahassee state court judge used it as the reason to issue a ruling, now on appeal, that DeSantis may not order local school boards to drop the masking rules they adopted when the school year began, amid an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. [emphasis added]
September 12 update starts here
Headline from Florida Politics, 9/10/2021
Stats (including dubious FLA death county) from Worldometers
(Florida is averaging 350 deaths per day)
Alachua County schools Superintendent Carlee Simon, leading one of the financially penalized school districts for its student mask mandate, hailed the action.
“I appreciate the U.S. Department of Education’s support of our efforts to limit the spread of COVID in our schools and community,” Simon said. “When we spoke a couple of weeks ago, (U.S. Education) Secretary Miguel Cardona told me that his department would back us up, and he’s been true to his word. We agree with Secretary Cardona that School Board members deserve praise for protecting their communities, not sanctions.”
All 67 counties remain at extremely high risk of Covid spread.
September 11 update starts here
Headline from local10.com, 9/10/2021
Stats (including dubious FLA death county) from Worldometers
Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper on Wednesday lifted an automatic stay of his decision last week that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and state education officials exceeded their authority by imposing the blanket ban through executive order and tagging defiant pro-mask local school boards with financial penalties.
But the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee, which next gets the case, re-imposed the stay.
Meanwhile, in the real world.....
September 10 update starts here
Headline from Miami Herald, 9/9/2021
Stats (including dubious FLA death county) from Worldometers
The lawyers for the 12 parents, whose children go to school in eight school districts across the state, including Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, argue the children’s disabilities put them at particular risk of becoming ill or dying from COVID-19 if any of their peers attend school in-person without facial coverings.
“If students with disabilities cannot go to school safely, then no one can go to school safely,” Miami attorneys Matthew Dietz and Stephanie Langer wrote in the lawsuit, filed on behalf of the parents on Aug. 6 in Florida’s U.S. Southern District Court in Miami.
All 67 of Florida counties remain at extremely high risk of Covid spread.
September 9 update starts here
Headline from NPR, 9/7/2021
Stats (including dubious FLA death county) from Worldometers
"If [DeSantis] feels that vaccines are not important for people, that they're just important for some people, that's completely incorrect," Fauci said after being asked about DeSantis' views during an interview Tuesday with CNN.
Vaccines have been the solution to public health crises such as smallpox, polio and measles, Fauci said — but they rely on wide adoption to work, he added.
"When you're dealing with an outbreak of an infectious disease, it isn't only about you," Fauci said. "There's a societal responsibility that we all have."
September 8 update starts here
Headline from WFLA, 9/3/2021
Admittedly dubious stats from Worldometers
(need to find an alternate top 10 listing)
Ray Williams Funeral Home in Tampa told 8 On Your Side they’ve doubled their Saturday services and even added some on Sunday. “We have to convert some of our office space into viewing rooms and we’ve been doing that now for the past three weeks,” said Jeffrey Rhodes, the funeral home director.
September 7 update starts here
Map from New Y(ork Times
Headline from CNN, 8/2/2021
The fundamental flaw afflicting Gov. Ron DeSantis is not the hubris that offended the gods and brought the protagonists in Greek tragedies to ruin, although the gods cannot have failed to notice his overabundant and unwarranted self-esteem. No, DeSantis’ flaw is unbridled ambition. He wants to be president so badly that he can taste it. In fact, he wants to be president so badly that all of us can taste it.
It is this ambition that led to the Faustian bargain that won him Donald Trump’s endorsement in the 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary and cost him his soul. And it is this ambition that has caused him to do a face plant right in the middle of the road to the White House. I refer, of course, to his shambolic performance during the COVID delta variant surge that has inundated Florida.
September 6 update starts here
Headline from WFLA, 9/2/2021
Screenshot from New York Times
According to reports, at least 29 Florida law enforcement officers have died from COVID-19. At least five died over the course of one week in South Florida. Three officers in Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg police officer Michael Weiskopf, 52, Manatee Corrections Department worker Douglas Clark, 67, and Polk County sheriff’s deputy Christopher Broadhead, 32 died of the virus within days of each other last month.
Vaccines were offered to mourners at both Broadhead’s and Weiskopf’s funerals.
“This virus is real and it’s deadly and Christopher is the poster child for how deadly it is. He was only 32,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.
In an op-ed following Broadhead’s death, Judd urged those who are eligible to get the vaccine.
September 5 update starts here
Headline from Florida Politics, 9/4/2021
Graphs from New York Times
DeSantis’ 32% puts him over former Vice President Mike Pence at 24%, Sen. Ted Cruz at 13%, and former Gov. Nikki Haley at 10%, with the rest of the field still farther back.
[snip]
While DeSantis is still well-positioned as a Trump stand-in in 2024, some caveats abound, including polling showing that his governance style is wearying on Floridians.
Much of Florida remains at extremely high risk of Covid spread.
September 4 update starts here
Headline from TC Plam, 9/4/2021
Stats from Worldometer
We recently purchased a condo in Vero Beach, which we have greatly enjoyed during the winter/spring season. We are now back to our home in New York. We had planned on returning to Vero in November but because of the gross mishandling of the COVID-19 emergency by Gov. Ron DeSantis, we will not return until things are as good as they are in New York.
But wait, there's more!
News-Press, 9/4/2021
September 3 update starts here
Headline from Reuters, 9/3/2020
Stats from Worldometers (red box added)
Since DeSantis' order, more than a dozen Florida counties have rebelled and voted to require masks to protect students and teachers as the Delta variant sweeps across the state. This week, the state's Department of Education sanctioned two counties that passed school mask requirements.
The battle between DeSantis and the state's school systems echoes larger fights across the country. Other Republican-run states such as Arizona and Texas have also banned mask mandates in schools even as COVID cases have soared in their states, as parents and voters are sharply divided over safety measures and personal freedoms.
That would be the freedom to die, the freedom to infect, the freedome to kill.
Florida is averaging 325 deaths per day.
New York Times (red box added)
September 2 update starts here
Headline from Florida Politics, 9/2/2021
Stats from Worldometers
He was asked if he had words to share with Florida families affected by recent COVID-19 deaths, as Florida has suffered a significant increase in recent weeks.
DeSantis said it was “a really sad thing.” But he expressed no sympathy or condolences toward families, nor any remorse regarding the skyrocketing numbers of people dying of COVID-19 in Florida recently. He skirted the subject briefly then moved on to talk about the treatment he has been promoting as an alternative to death.
Last week, more than 1,800 new Florida deaths attributed to COVID-19 were reported, a record week for the state.
Though you wouldn't know it from Worldometers' meager tallies day after day. (The chart on the right is a screenshot from the New York Times. Daily average of Covid death in Florida is 263, which puts it ahead of Texas. Worldometer reported 10 deaths in the state yesterday. Nonsense.)
September 1 update starts here
Headline from New York Times, 8/28/2021
Stats from Worldometers
Perhaps no politician has taken the reins from Trump with more vigor — and disastrous effects — than Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a man who thinks he could be the next Republican president. But to supplant the last leader of his party, he has to out-Trump Trump.
To accomplish this meteoric rise, he needed to do two things. First, become the darling of the Trump freedom fighters, fighting for the right to get sick and die. And second, he has to be the opposite of the establishment, in this case Joe Biden and his administration. If Biden swerves left, DeSantis must swerve right, even if the hospitals in his state are overrun and the funeral parlors reach capacity.
August 31 update starts here
Headline from Politico, 8/27/2021
Stats from Worldometers
Covid infection rates continue to climb as the state faces shortages of health care staff, morgue space and even oxygen for patients. About 16,000 people are hospitalized. Child infection rates have shot up. School districts — even in Republican strongholds — have rebelled against DeSantis’ anti-mask mandates. And cruise lines are resisting DeSantis’ vaccine passport ban. Even his recent poll numbers are slipping.
It’s new terrain for a Republican governor who defied dire expectation during the first wave of Covid-19 but has continued his hands-off approach as the more contagious Delta variant infects large swaths of Florida’s unvaccinated population.
It's also new terrain for the news media, veering away from their fawning coverage after they anointed him the 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner.
August 30 update starts here
Screenshot from New York Times
Heaadline from Tampa Bay Times, 8/29/2021
A California psychiatrist who has advised Gov. Ron DeSantis on the coronavirus pandemic recently promoted a drug for COVID-19 patients that federal disease experts have strongly warned against after a spike in calls to poison control centers.
August 29 update starts here
Headline from Tampa Bay Times, 8/28/2021
Stats from Worldometers
The surge of COVID-19 cases that ushered in the new school year has quickened dramatically.
Public school systems in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties reported 5,334 cases of the virus this past week among students and staff — far outpacing the 2,153 cases they reported the previous week.
August 28 update starts here
Headline from Tampa Bay Times, 8/27/2021
Why is Worldometers consistently undercounting Florida's Covid deaths?From the Tampa Bay Times: The state reported 1,727 deaths from Aug. 20 through Thursday, the most recent seven-day period of data released by the state. That is the highest number of COVID-19 fatalities reported in a single week since the start of the pandemic. [emphasis added]
August deaths match the peak fatalities from the last wave of infections in January. And that number could continue to climb as new data rolls in, said University of South Florida epidemiologist Jason Salemi.
August 27 update starts here
Headline from Salon, 8/26/2021
Stats from Worldometers
Ana Ceballos, a state government reporter for the Miami Herald, remembered one of the last times Dr. Rivkees was seen with DeSantis.
"Floridians will be keeping their distance and wearing face masks for up to a year until a COVID-19 vaccine exists, Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees said Monday before being whisked away by the governor's spokeswoman," the Tampa Bay Times reported in April of 2020. "The surgeon general's comments appear to conflict with what Gov. Ron DeSantis and his political ally, President Donald Trump, have said about returning to pre-coronavirus life." [emphasis added]
August 26 update starts here
Headline: Florida Politics, 8/25/2021
Stats: Worldometer
While Gov. Ron DeSantis barnstorms Florida encouraging people to try monoclonal antibody treatment if they get COVID-19, and while he and his staff battle with news media over how that effort is being reported, an average of more than 200 new COVID-19 deaths are being quietly tallied in Florida every day.
Previously, Florida’s worst one-week increase in cumulative deaths was recorded during the week leading up to the Jan. 29 state report, when 1,296 new COVID-19 deaths were added to the state’s total.
August 25 update starts here
Headline from Democracy Now, 8/25/2021
Stats from Worldometers
Meanwhile, Florida’s hospitals are overrun with COVID-19 patients — the vast majority of whom are unvaccinated. On Monday, 75 South Florida doctors staged a symbolic walkout from Palm Beach Gardens hospital, pleading with members of their community to wear masks and get vaccinated. This is Dr. Rupesh Dharia.
Dr. Rupesh Dharia: “We are not only your doctors, but we are your neighbors and your friends. Many of our children go to school here with your children. We are exhausted. Our patience and resources are running low. And we need your help.”
August 24 update starts here
Headline from Florida Politics, 8/23/2021
Excerpt from article: .
Asked to rate DeSantis’ handling of the pandemic, nearly 54% of voters have an unfavorable or very unfavorable view of the Governor’s performance, including nearly 34% with a very unfavorable view. By comparison, just 43% gave a favorable response of any sort, with 27% rating DeSantis’ leadership as very favorable.
Crist, a Democratic Congressman and former Republican Governor running for his old job, leads 57% to DeSantis’ 43% in a head-to-head matchup. The pollsters report a 3.1% margin of error.
August 23 update starts here
No report from Florida yesterday. (As opposed to nothing to report.)
Headline from Florida Politics, 8/22/2021
Screenshot from New York Times
The CNN/school board blast is not a new one, but is an interesting gambit from someone who owes his political rise and current position in no small part to Fox News primetime shows and the “fanfare” they provide.
August 22 update starts here
DeSantis is now killing Florida's kids with his ideological pigheadedness.
Headline from Tampa Bay Times, 8/21/2021
Stats from Worldometers
The state reported 1,486 deaths, a 141 percent increase from two weeks ago. And it’s the most deaths since Feb. 10, as federal data shows Florida approaching the weekly death toll last seen this past winter.
One out of every four COVID-19 infections recorded by the state in the most recent seven-day period were 19 or younger.
Younger Floridians are also testing positive at a higher rate than other age groups: Children 12 and under have a positivity rate of 23 percent and ages 12-19 have a positivity rate of 25 percent.
August 21 update starts here
Headlione from WFLA, 8/21/2021
Graph screenshot from New York Times
The delta variant of COVID-19 is taking a major toll on Florid, but as it continues to spread across the state, there are now two new variants that have arrived here in Florida and have health officials concerned.
“One of them is called Lambda, and it’s been named as a variant of interest by the WHO, and it’s the dominant variant in South America and Peru” said Michael Teng, associate professor of the College of Medicine Internal Medicine at USF Health.
The lambda variant has also made its way to Florida and 43 other US states. Experts are closely watching this variant because a Japanese study found that it may be more resistant to current Covid vaccines.
August 20 update starts here
Headline from Click Orlando, 8/20/2021
Stats from Worldometers
[Dr. Leonardo]Alfonso says vaccinations could have blunted this surge, but when he asks patients if they got their shots, “I get this deer in the headlights headlights look, kind of just a blank stare, like they didn’t give it importance or they just blew it off or they thought they were young and healthy.”
Persuading the hesitant to protect themselves and the people around them is a ground game, experts say. “We’re getting out in front of every audience we possibly can,” said Dr. Groover.
August 19 update starts here
Headline from Tampa Bay Times, 8/19/2021
Stats from Worldometer
Ron DeSantis is a governor uninterested in actually governing, a lawyer with little respect for the law, an anti-elitist with an Ivy League education and a hypocrite unbothered by inconsistency. Populist politics, not public policy, is his long suit.
Florida's 7-day average of new Covid cases:
- August 19, 2020 = 4,735
- August 19, 2021 = 24,517
That's a 400% increase.
Heckuva job, Ron!
August 18 update starts here
Headline from Los Angeles Times, 8/18/2021
Stats from Worldometers
DeSantis has been flying around the state promoting Regeneron, a monoclonal antibody treatment that was used on then-President Trump after he tested positive for COVID-19. The governor first began talking about it as a treatment last year.
Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund, has $15.9 million in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceutical, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has donated $10.75 million to a political committee that supports DeSantis — $5.75 million in 2018 and $5 million last April.
August 17 update starts here
Headline from Florida Politics, 8/16/2021
Stats from Worldometers
Agriculture Secretary Nikki Fried said she’s doing her best to fill the void that Gov. Ron DeSantis has left in his refusal to deal with the resurgence of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths.
Fried, a Democrat candidate for Governor, spoke via Zoom to the Mid-County Democratic Club in Palm Beach County Monday night and 15 listeners came.
“I feel like I’m wearing four hats at this point — Commissioner, Governor, emergency management (director) and candidate,”
Fried said. Fried slammed DeSantis’ refusal to provide daily data on COVID-19 infections, his order that takes away school districts’ authority to order that all students wear masks, and the way he’s selling merchandise poking fun at Dr. Anthony Fauci, an American physician-scientist and immunologist serving as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical adviser to the President. She decried how the “radical right” has taken over the state’s agenda.
DeSantis's response should come as no surprise to anyone. He was a founding Crazy of the U.S. House Freedom Caucus, a group of white men, all hard-line conservatives, who worship at the altar of limited government.
August 16 update starts here
New York Times (arrows, box and highlight added)
Headline from New York Times, 8/15/2021
Florida’s cases are soaring. The state reported a seven-day rolling average of 21,706 new daily cases on Saturday amid the worst surge of the pandemic. Deaths and hospitalizations are spiking, yet the number of tests administered has decreased.
Broward County has lost two teachers and an educational assistant to complications from Covid-19, Dr. Osgood said. The school board imposed a mask mandate for students, staff members and visitors; a doctor’s note is required for student exemptions.
“We believe that we have a constitutional obligation to protect the lives of our students and staff,” Dr. Osgood said.
8/15/2021 update starts here
In Florida, all but one of the state's 67 counties are at extremely high risk.
Headline from Orlando Sentinel
Stats from Worldometeres
It wouldn’t matter as much if Florida had a governor willing to fill the void. Ron DeSantis is not that governor. His focus has been stigmatizing masks, placating anti-vaxxers and letting misinformation go unchallenged. His neglect, timidity and inaction during this latest outbreak is unforgivable.
The governor has cozied up to health-care professionals whose chief concern is politics, not public health. He held an unannounced roundtable in late July that included a California psychiatrist who called masking children “child abuse.” At least the good doctor, Mark McDonald, didn’t call mask-wearers “retards” as he did in a February tweet.
August 14 update starts here
Headline from Vox, 8/13/2021
Stats from Worldometers
DeSantis’s remarks are at odds with data from his own state Department of Health showing that RSV cases have decreased in recent weeks and can currently be counted on one hand. By contrast, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported earlier this month that Florida had more than 30 Covid-stricken kids in the hospital each day between July 24 and 30.
That press conference came one day after DeSantis expressed confusion about officials from his own state requesting ventilators and smaller breathing devices from the federal government — equipment needed to prevent the state’s hospitals from becoming overwhelmed.
August 14 update starts here
Headline from Florida Politics, 8/12/2021
Stats from Worldometers
“As the virus burns through Florida, health care providers feel we are fighting this fire without any leadership from Gov. Ron DeSantis,” the doctors wrote in their open letter.
“Blocking communities from making local decisions to protect themselves with his top-down, one-size-fits-all edict will only make matters worse. His executive order prohibiting local school districts from implementing COVID-19 safeguards exposes every child to a virus that is deadlier than the flu, as contagious as smallpox and preventable with two basic mitigation measures: mask use and vaccinations. Gov. DeSantis has effectively outlawed the former, and all but ignored the latter. With schools resuming and children returning to classrooms, Gov. DeSantis’ anti-safety strategy puts people at risk, including children.”
August 12 update starts here
Headline from Washington Post
Stats from WorldometersNot with those spreading misinformation about vaccines or refusing to take protective measures. DeSantis instead railed against reporters for creating “hysteria” about rising hospitalizations and accused President Biden of facilitating the virus by not reducing immigration through the southern border.
Florida is the epicenter of a summer coronavirus spike fueled by the highly transmissible delta variant, reporting a fifth of all new U.S. infections and current hospitalizations. New cases and admissions have surpassed last summer’s Sun Belt surge. Florida is center stage of a dangerous phase of the pandemic where a new strain spreads more rapidly in a fully reopened society, attacking young and middle-aged adults and filling up hospital beds faster than ever. On Friday, the state reported 22,783 new cases of the virus and 199 deaths.
August 11 update starts here
The media needs to take a hard look at its own complicity here
Headline from The New Republic, 8/10/2021
In mid-April, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took a victory lap. With Covid-19 vaccinations readily available and the pandemic surely coming to an end, his laissez-faire approach to the public health crisis had been surely vindicated. “It’s interesting,” a delighted DeSantis said in a press conference. “Now you’re starting to see some of the mainstream and national media admit: Oh, Florida had schools open—it was the right decision. Oh, Florida has a 4.8 unemployment rate, and yet their mortality rate for Covid is less than a lot of these lockdown states. People were saying Florida was going to end up hit the worst on everything.” But the doubters and haters were wrong. The DeSantis way had “proven to be a better approach.”
And many in the media were ready to preside over DeSantis’s coronation.
Meanwhile, back in the real world.....
August 10 update starts here
Headline from NPR, 8/9/2021
Stats from Worldometers
Florida is ensnared in an alarming COVID-19 spike fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, making many pockets of the state dangerous hot spots. Case numbers are soaring and hospitals are filling up with COVID patients, including children. As of Sunday, at least 135 children were hospitalized with the coronavirus. Children 12 and older are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccines, but Dr. Marcos Mestre, who works at the Niklaus Children's Foundation Hospital in Miami, told NPR all of the patients he has seen within that age range have not been inoculated.
8/9/2021 update starts here
Headline from NPR, 8/8/2021
That said, as several school boards contemplated reimplementing protective measures for students returning to classrooms this fall, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order at the end of last month prohibiting mask mandates in schools. Despite the rise in cases and hospitalizations, the Republican governor has not changed course.
For the first time since February, the U.S. is now reporting an average of more than 100,000 cases per day. COVID-19 deaths are also on the rise, averaging 454 daily fatal cases, with close to one-fifth of those deadly cases from Florida. [emphasis added]
8/8/2021 update starts here
Headline from Tampa Bay Times, 8'/7/2021
Stats from Worldometer
Gov. Ron DeSantis remains opposed to any preventative measures that experts say could slow the spread of the virus, including mask and social distancing mandates.
“By the time you see deaths rise, we’re long past the point of mitigation having any impact whatsoever,” the governor’s spokesperson, Christina Pushaw, wrote in a Thursday email to the Tampa Bay Times.
“Ergo, taking new actions due to the delayed reporting of deaths — an artifact of the past — would be a trivial exercise,” she wrote.
Meet Covidiot Christina Pushaw
Screenshot from Capitolist
August 7 update starts here
Headline from Newsweek, 8/6/2021
Stats from Worldometers
Respondents were asked whether they approved of the job DeSantis is doing and 48.3 percent said they didn't approve, while 43.7 percent said they did. This represents a significant decline since a Florida Chamber of Commerce poll in May showed the governor's approval at 55 percent.
August 6 update starts here
Headline from NPR, 8/6/2021
South Florida's Broward County Public Schools, the second-largest district in Florida, cited safety as its top priority announcing the decision to maintain its mask requirement pending further guidance from the state as coronavirus cases surge in Florida.
The Sunshine State has seen a rash of new COVID-19 infections in recent weeks. On Saturday, it recorded 21,683 new coronavirus cases, its highest single-day total since the pandemic began. [emphasis added]
Florida continues to lead the way in daily new Covid cases.
August 5 update starts here
Headline from CNN, 8/5/2021
Florida continues to lead the way in daily new Covid cases.
Florida is approaching it peak 7-day average of new cases (17,991), which occurred on January 8, 2021.
August 4 update starts here
Headline from Click Orlando, 8/3/2021
Damning state from Worldometers
DeSantis said he expects hospitalizations to drop in the next couple weeks, insisting that the spike is seasonal as Floridians spend more time together indoors to escape the summer heat and humidity. With the much more contagious delta variant now spreading exponentially, Florida hit 11,515 hospitalized patients Tuesday, breaking last year’s record for the third straight day. Hospitalizations have increased 11 times over the 1,000 COVID patients hospitalized in mid-June. About 2,400 patients are now in intensive care.
Wonder how he explains January 2021.
8/3/2021 update, "Ron DeSantis fiddles while Florida burns with the delta variant (part 2)", starts here.
Headline from Washington Post, 8/1/2021
The data shows the severity of the surge in Florida, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak and now responsible for 1 in 5 new infections nationally. The previous peak in Florida had been on Jan. 7, when the state reported 19,334 cases, according to the CDC — before the widespread availability of coronavirus vaccinations. Florida has reported an average of 15,818 new cases a day over the past seven days, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. [emphasis added]
8/2/2021 update, "Ron DeSantis fiddles while Florida burns with the delta variant (part 1), starts here
How does DeSantis explain his seeming dismissal of those CDC recommendations?\
"We think that's the most fair way to do it," DeSantis said of his mask move, adding: "Many Florida schoolchildren have suffered under forced masking policies, and it is prudent to protect the ability of parents to make decisions regarding the wearing of masks by their children."
How does DeSantis explains this?
He doesn't even try. This former Freedom Caucus Crazy knows he's a loser.
7/27/2012 update, "Meet Florida governor Ron DeSantis, looking ahead to 2024 and playing to the cheap seats". starts here.
Florida has exceeded its 2020 summer peak
New York Times
Leading the pack again
Worldometer
7/27/2021 update starts here
Headline: Washington Post, 7/23/2021
More than 640,000 more Americans have been confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus this month. About 1 in 5 of those new infections were recorded in Florida.
The timing on this would seem to be a bit awkward for the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis (R). He’s leaned hard into the idea that he found the perfect balance of coronavirus restrictions and personal freedoms, standing athwart the big-government mandates in favor of the little man. Somewhat awkwardly, his campaign is selling merchandise mocking the federal government’s top infectious-disease expert, Anthony S. Fauci, whose cautious approach to containing the virus annoyed former president Donald Trump and, by extension, Trump’s base of support. For a Republican with an eye on 2024 — such as DeSantis — it’s a valuable audience to which one might play.
7/26/2021 update starts here
The State of Florida didn't issue a Covid update yesterday, but the virus rampages on.
New York Times, 7/23/2021
Florida’s leaders expected a summer wave. For many weeks, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said the coronavirus would likely return in bigger numbers — as it did last summer, to devastating effect — because hotter temperatures drive people indoors, into the air-conditioning. [Emphasis added.]
“It’s a seasonal virus, and this is the seasonal pattern it follows in the Sun Belt states,” he said on Monday.
But Mr. DeSantis, a possible 2024 Republican presidential hopeful who has seen his popularity among conservatives skyrocket for bucking some federal guidelines related to public health and being early to reopen Florida’s economy, insisted that — summer wave or not — the state would not impose any new mandates. (Florida never instituted a statewide mask mandate, though local governments did.)
Retiring Guy is not sure what's worse here: Ron DeSantis' inane excuses or Patricia Mazzei's mindless transcription.
7/25/2021 update starts here
Headline: news4jax, 7/23/2021
Stats from Worldometers
Yesterday Florida reported nearly 40% of new Covid-19 cases in the U.S. Heckuva job!
From the news4jax report:
Gov. Ron DeSantis has drawn national attention for bucking federal health-care officials over the handling of the novel coronavirus, but a group of Florida physicians said Thursday the governor’s push to reopen the state and block precautions are a main reason for a sharp increase in the number of residents suffering from COVID-19.
Bernard Ashby, a Miami cardiologist and leader of the Florida chapter of the Committee to Protect Health Care, said DeSantis should spend more time talking to people about the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and less time attacking federal infectious-disease expert Anthony Fauci in hopes of scoring political points.
“While hospitals in our state were filling up, DeSantis was shouting about ‘Freedom over Faucism,’” said Ashby who leads the group of 405 Florida physicians. “If DeSantis were as concerned about stopping COVID-19 spread as he was about coming up with these clever jabs about Dr. Fauci, we might not be in this position.”
Ashby said DeSantis has bragged about Florida’s approach to handling the pandemic, but he accused the governor of being reactive and not having a plan to protect residents.__________________________________________
July 24 update starts here
They weren't the only ones. (See 7/22/2021 update below.
Yesterday Florida reported 20% of new Covid-19 cases in the U.S. Heckuva job!
Headline from Wall Street Journal, 3/5/2021
Stats from Worldometers
____________________________________________________________________________
7/23/2021 update, "GET ME REWRITE: 3 states report 40% of new COVID-19 cases in US: Florida leads the way", starts here.
Headline: CNN, 7/23/2021 (box added)
Stats: Worldometers
Extremely risky business in FLA.
7/22/2021 update, "March 2021 Ron DeSantis headline at Politico is egregiously, hilariously off the mark", starts here.
Politico nonsense found here.
Stats from Worldometers
A sample:
“There’s a sweet spot in there that most governors have searched for but few have found,” said GOP pollster Whit Ayres, who’s worked for DeSantis in the past. “He’s managed to figure out the sweet spot between good policy and good politics.”
“He’s in the catbird’s seat,” powerful Trump-tied lobbyist Brian Ballard told me. “The future of the party.”
Original 7/21/2021 post, "Chris Cillizza headline still on the mark one year later", starts here.
Sources:
Yesterday, Florida reported 18% of new Covid cases in the U.S.
DeSantis has been trying to happy talk his way out of his incompetence since last summer.
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