On Covid protections, Florida isn't buying what DeSantis is selling
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 3 years ago • 27 commentsBy: Steve Benen (MSNBC. com)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Aug. 25, 2021, 1:20 PM UTC By Steve Benen
When it comes to the pandemic, conditions in Florida remain dire. While the total number of Covid-19 cases is no longer spiking, statewide hospitalizations and fatalities continue to climb.
Indeed, the NBC affiliate in Tampa reported this morning that there's a backlog at local funeral homes and crematories, which are "overwhelmed" with "an influx of bodies like they've never seen." The report referenced one local facility where bodies have been "stacked to the ceiling."
It's against this backdrop that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis refuses to abandon his position of passivity, recently touting his opposition to state "restrictions" of any kind -- including schools that want to require mask protections for children.
The Republican governor may believe his constituents agree with him, but there's fresh evidence to the contrary.
As Florida deals with a surge in Covid-19 cases and a battle intensifies over an executive order issued by Governor Ron DeSantis to ban mask mandates in schools, a majority of people in Florida say 60 - 36 percent that they support requiring students, teachers, and staff to wear masks in schools, according to a Quinnipiac University poll of Florida adults released today.
That was not the only discouraging result for DeSantis in the survey. Quinnipiac also found that 69 percent of Floridians oppose the governor's plan to withhold school leaders' salaries if they require masks; 68 percent believe local officials should be able to require masks in indoor public spaces if they believe it is necessary; and 64 percent believe masks are effective in slowing the spread of Covid-19.
DeSantis, on the other hand, supports withholding school board members' salaries, opposes local control and recently suggested that mask protections have "not proven to be effective," reality notwithstanding.
In other words, when it comes to key elements of the public response to the pandemic, Florida's governor and Florida's electorate are not on the same page.
For DeSantis, whose political ambitions are hardly a secret, the circumstances are hardly ideal.
But electoral considerations are not the only relevant element here. Local officials having to decide between the governor's political vision and protecting the public during a health crisis are increasingly concluding that DeSantis' wishes just aren't that important -- and the more Floridians reject the governor's vision, the more likely it is that communities will feel justified in defying him.
For example, it was initially two school districts that said they would ignore DeSantis' order and require mask protections for children to curtal the spread of the virus. Then the total grew to four. Then five. As of last night, 10 school districts in Florida have prioritized public health over the governor's political plans.
Given the size of the relevant counties, The Washington Post reported this morning that more than half of Florida's students "are now enrolled in public school districts with mask mandates despite threats of sanctions."
For its part, the DeSantis administration still intends to punish communities that try to curtail the spread of the virus through mask protections. The Biden administration, meanwhile, has reached out to local officials in the state, suggesting there may be federal reimbursement funds available. Watch this space.
Update: Walt Disney Company's cruise division is going to require proof of vaccination from all passengers above the age of 12 traveling from Florida to the Bahamas. This, too, is in defiance of DeSantis' order, raising questions about the governor's appetite for going up against Disney.
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Read today that Florida is in the worst place it's been since the pandemic began.
And you conservatives want this guy for president?
what the hell makes people so damn ignorant to the FACTS, the FACTS that seem to prove masks DO HELP keep this deadly virus from spreading like a false fact on social diseased media, cause this media , matters, as their bull shit splatters ALL CONSERVATIVES, deservedly so. Have not much pity for these ignorant ones, who've already lost, and at such a damn high cost to US ALL
DeSantis has been a right wing hero for over a year now. It is inexplicable.
what the hell makes people so damn ignorant to the FACTS,
The MAGA-Cult. And make no mistake-- it is a very deranged and a very dangerous cult.
(Ironically, they have "true-believers" that believe every word they are told--even if it means their own deaths-- and the deaths of their some members of their families as well as close friends!
They are all too willing to "drink the Kool-Aid" (to coin a phrase.
(Because that's the way cult members act...)
it's apparently a chore for cult members, like a yogurt culture, only dumber
And Abbott
www.msn.com /en-us/news/us/in-florida-pandemic-is-worse-now-than-it-has-ever-been-before/ar-AANK64e
In Florida, Pandemic Is Worse Now Than It Has Ever Been Before
Dan Levin 3 hrs ago 4-5 minutes
More people in Florida are catching the coronavirus, being hospitalized and dying of Covid-19 now than at any previous point in the pandemic, underscoring the perils of limiting public health measures as the Delta variant rips through the state.
This week, 227 virus deaths were being reported each day in Florida, on average, as of Tuesday, a record for the state and by far the most in the United States right now. The average for new known cases reached 23,314 a day on the weekend, 30 percent higher than the state’s previous peak in January, according to a New York Times database . Across the country, new deaths have climbed to more than 1,000 a day, on average.
And hospitalizations in Florida have almost tripled in the past month, according to federal data, stretching many hospitals to the breaking point. The surge prompted the mayor of Orlando to ask residents to conserve water in order to limit the strain on the city’s supply of liquid oxygen , which is needed both to purify drinking water and to treat Covid-19 patients.
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Even as cases continue to surge, with more than 17,200 people hospitalized with the virus across Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has held firm on banning vaccine and mask mandates. Several school districts have gone ahead with mask mandates anyway.
Overall, 52 percent of Floridians are fully vaccinated, but the figure is less than 30 percent in some of the state’s hardest-hit counties.
On Monday, dozens of doctors and hospital employees in Palm Beach County gathered for an early morning news conference to beseech the unvaccinated to get shots , emphasizing that the surge was overwhelming the health care system and destroying lives.
“We are exhausted,” said Dr. Rupesh Dharia, an internal medicine specialist. “Our patience and resources are running low.”
A growing proportion of the people inundating hospitals and dying in Florida now are coming from younger segments of the population, particularly those ages 40 to 59, which were less vulnerable in earlier waves of the pandemic. The Delta variant is spreading among younger people, many who thought they were healthy and did not get vaccinated.
Dr. Chirag Patel, the assistant chief medical officer of UF Health Jacksonville, a hospital system in Northeast Florida, said the patients hospitalized with the virus during this latest surge tend to be younger and have fewer other health issues, but are nearly all unvaccinated. Of those who have died, including patients ranging in age from their 20s to their 40s, more than 90 percent were not inoculated, Dr. Patel said.
“We’ve had more patients this time around that have passed away at a younger age with very few if any medical problems,” he said. “They simply come in with Covid, and they don’t make it out of the hospital.”
Two months ago, the number of Covid-19 patients admitted at the system’s two University of Florida hospitals in Jacksonville was down to 14 . On Tuesday morning, 188 coronavirus patients were in the hospitals, including 56 in the intensive care units.
One of the hardest parts of his job, Dr. Patel said, is having to tell family members that their unvaccinated loved one had succumbed to the virus. “It’s just such a senseless and preventable way of ultimately dying,” he said.
stupidity apparently knows no bounds
“We’ve had more patients this time around that have passed away at a younger age with very few if any medical problems,” he said. “They simply come in with Covid, and they don’t make it out of the hospital.”
There are many similarities between this new variant-- and the original one. But also some significant differences.
During the initial outbreak, few kids got it. Many doctors that somehow kids had much stronger immune systems than adults.
But one of the differences with this newer viral mutation ("The Delta Variant") is that many young adults as well as children are getting it-- and many are even being hospitalized!
.
And like true cult members-- they have no respect or any concern for their fellow humans-- the are like lemmings who follow their "Dear Leader" off a cliff...and try to tale others with them!
More and more businesses are ignoring his no mask mandate as are more school districts.
desantis is a fricking moron
I get why people might not want to wear a mask. I hate them, too. But I wear one because I think it helps. It’s not 100%, but it helps.
What I don’t get it is why a governor would go to such lengths to prohibit any institution from requiring it. Yes, they are inconvenient, but minimally so. And common sense alone tells you they should help, at least a little. It’s like he’s trying to perpetuate the pandemic.
Ron DeSantis: Plague Enthusiast.
Tacos! , i find myself agreeing with you more and more, what happened ...?
Well, we’re maybe talking more about real issues these days.
So anthropogenic global warming is not a real issue?
Not right now. It's never been a 'real' issue..
That would seem to be a non sequitur.
“The results show that a standard surgical and three-ply cloth masks … filter at apparent efficiencies of only 12.4% and 9.8%, respectively,” according to the University of Waterloo study’s conclusion.
But KN95 and N95 masks afford “substantially higher apparent filtration efficiencies (60% and 46% for R95 and KN95 masks, respectively) than the more commonly used cloth (10%) and surgical masks (12%), and therefore are still the recommended choice in mitigating airborne disease transmission indoors,” reads a summary of the study, published July 21. "
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who has been criticized for opposing mask mandates and vaccine passports — is now touting a COVID-19 antibody treatment in which a top donor's company has invested millions of dollars.
Hmmmmm
He opposes local control? What kind of republican does he call himself?
Red state Republican governors ensuring they lose more Republican voters is just a level of crazy that cannot be explained.
They'll just breed more
Just great, now I have another image to rip out.
I hear watching beige paint dry is just as efficacious.