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With such a large state full of seniors, Governor Ron DeSantis should have been among the worst states in terms of mortality with regard to the coronavirus. But heâs not even close, because he followed the science and didnât do what other reckless governors like Cuomo and Murphy did up north.
This brilliant op-ed in the WSJ explains how the facts of what DeSantis did in Florida vindicates him now and itâs long past time for him to get the recognition he deserves:
Absolute vindication for the leadership of âŠ@GovRonDeSantisâ©. He actually followed the science.
Floridaâs death rate among seniors is about 20% lower than Californiaâs and 50% lower than New Yorkâs, based on CDC data. https://t.co/v5bp5Wlrdi
â Ryan Petty (@rpetty) March 6, 2021
In the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo imposed strict lockdown policiesâmany still in placeâand became the mediaâs golden boy. âThe governor of New Yorkâs morning news conferences have become part of the countryâs new daily rhythm,â the Washington Postâs Style section gushed in March 2020. âHeâs the strongman who can admit heâs wrong. He speaks fluently about the facts. He worries about his mother, and by extension, yours, too.â
Gov. Ron DeSantis took a different approach and was pilloried. He was among the first to lift his state lockdown, adopting something resembling Swedenâs strategy of protecting the vulnerable while keeping businesses and schools open. âFlorida Man Leads His State to the Morgue,â read a June headline in the New Republic. âRon DeSantis is the latest in a long line of Republicans who made the state a plutocratic dystopia. Now heâs letting its residents die to save the plutocrats.â
A year after the virus hit the U.S., Mr. Cuomoâs luster has faded, and Mr. DeSantis can claim vindication. The Sunshine State appears to have weathered the pandemic better than others like New York and California, which stayed locked down harder and longer.
Mortality data bear out this conclusion. The Covid death risk increases enormously with each decade of age. More than 80% of Covid deaths in the U.S. have occurred among seniors over 65. They make up a larger share of Floridaâs population than any other state except Maine. Based on demographics, Floridaâs per-capita Covid death rate would be expected to be one of the highest in the country.
Nope. Floridaâs death rate is in the middle of the pack and only slightly higher than in California, which has a much younger population. Floridaâs death rate among seniors is about 20% lower than Californiaâs and 50% lower than New Yorkâs, based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
NURSING HOMES
Several Democratic governors, including Mr. Cuomo and New Jerseyâs Phil Murphy, early in the pandemic required nursing homes to accept Covid patients discharged from hospitals, though many were short-staffed and unable to care for them properly. The New York investigation by Attorney General Letitia James estimated that the stateâs nursing home deaths were 50% higher than Mr. Cuomoâs official figures, though itâs impossible to know how many deaths his order caused. The Journal reported Thursday that Mr. Cuomoâs aides rewrote a report by state health officials in June to omit the number of New York nursing-home residents whoâd died in hospitals during the pandemic.
Mr. DeSantis took a smarter approach. His administration halted outside visitations to nursing homes and bolstered their stockpile of personal protective equipment. Floridaâs government also set up 23 Covid-dedicated nursing centers for elderly patients discharged from hospitals. Nursing-home residents who tested positive and couldnât be isolated in their facilities were sent to these Covid-only wards. Florida set up field hospitals to handle a surge in cases that models predicted in the spring, although it never materialized.
âThose models about hospital overcrowding never even came close to bearing out, even in New York,â Mr. DeSantis says in an interview. âSome of those policies that were done in these other states, they really were motivated by those models. And those models did do a lot of damage.â
LOCKDOWNS
Like most governors, Mr. DeSantis shut down most businesses when President Trump issued guidelines for a national lockdown on March 16. âWe did the 15 days to slow the spread,â Mr. DeSantis says. The governor kept restrictions on ânonessentialâ businesses for several more weeks, but he let more places stay open than other states, including child-care facilities, construction sites, hotels and beaches. National media published photos of crowded Florida beaches. âDeSantis in Florida let everybody go crazy over spring break,â CNNâs Chris Cuomo, the New York governorâs brother, said in June. âHe then exported all that virus back to whereverâwherever they wanted to go, OK?â
But Floridaâs infection rate during April stayed on par with California, where most beaches and residential construction were restricted. âI was not convinced that a lot of those [lockdown] policies were making a huge difference as data came in,â Mr. DeSantis says.
Florida began a phased reopening in early May, allowing restaurants, barbershops, nail salons, gyms and other retailers to operate initially at 50% capacity provided they follow social-distancing and sanitary protocols. Bars and pubs were later allowed to open at 50% capacity, and limits for other businesses were increased.
Mr. DeSantis also let theme parksâimportant Florida employers and tourist attractionsâreopen at reduced capacity. SeaWorld Orlando and Universal Studios reopened in June. âDisney World took a little longer, but that was just because of their [own] business decisions.â Californiaâs government still hasnât allowed the Disneyland or Universal Studios theme parks to reopen.
SURGES
Floridaâs cases started climbing in June as people socialized more, including at graduation parties, summer cookouts and on Fatherâs Day. Experts and the media castigated the governor for reopening too fast and too soon. âDespite the guidelines and the recommendations to open up carefully and prudently, some states skipped over those and just opened up too quickly,â the National Institutes of Healthâs Anthony Fauci said in July. âCertainly Florida I know, you know, I think jumped over a couple of checkpoints.â
But cases spiked across the Sun Belt, including in California, which maintained much stricter business restrictions. Still, political pressure intensified on Mr. DeSantis to shut down his state again. He refused. âIâm like, âNo, weâre not going to lock down. It doesnât work. It compounds problems,â â he says. The virus is not âgoing to be governed by simply closing someoneâs business, or not letting people go to work.â
Mr. DeSantis says he listened to a different cast of experts such as Stanfordâs Jay Bhattacharya, Harvardâs Martin Kulldorff and Oxfordâs Carl Heneghan and Sunetra Gupta. Instead of shutting down businesses in the summer, he ordered more-frequent testing for nursing-home workers and deployed more personnel to hard-hit hospitals. In late July, cases in Florida and across the Sun Belt began to fall.
THE GREAT REOPENING
In September Mr. DeSantis lifted capacity restrictions on restaurants and bars. He also overrode local jurisdictions that tried to keep them closed. âWe said every business has the right to operate; you cannot close anything. Everyone has the right to work. You have to let people earn a living,â he says. Mr. DeSantis also required local school districts to offer in-person instruction five days a week in the fall, though parents could choose remote learning instead. âThe union sued us, but we beat them in court.â
Teachers unions in large school districts in California, meanwhile, have refused to return to classrooms. They claim schools are unsafe. But per capita Covid cases among children are about the same in Florida and California.
When cases began to rise again in the fall, Democratic governors like Mr. Cuomo and Californiaâs Gavin Newsom tightened business shutdowns and even sought to limit Thanksgiving gatherings to 10 people. Mr. Cuomo griped that police werenât strictly enforcing his household limits.
RESULTS
The fall and winter lockdowns donât appear to have made any difference in the virus spread. Between Nov. 1 and Feb. 28, there were 5.8 new cases per 100 people in New York, 6.4 in California, and only 5 in Florida, where businesses could stay open at full capacity. But the economic impact of the lockdowns has been enormous.
Employment declined by 4.6% in Florida in 2020, compared with 8% in California and 10.4% in New York. Leisure and hospitality jobs fell 15% in Florida, vs. 30% in California and 39% in New York.
The rest of the article goes on to explain that everything is turning up roses in Florida compared to other large states, from the economy to new business growth to tourism to real estate. Florida is doing so much better than many of these states and they did it without all of the scary lockdowns.
DeSantis has been derided by the media from day one while the Cuomos of the county were being praised. It just goes to show just how ridiculous our garbage media is in this country and, of course, donât expect them to acknowledge the truth of what this article explains.
Iâll leave you with this:
A truly incredible super cut here.pic.twitter.com/X8aou7Tp7D
â Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) March 7, 2021
DeSantis has been derided by the media from day one while the Cuomos of the county were being praised. It just goes to show just how ridiculous our garbage media is in this country and, of course, donât expect them to acknowledge the truth of what this article explains. AMEN!