Florida beach goers, April 19. Photo credit: Wall Street Journal
by James A. Bacon
Given the average age of Florida’s population — second highest in the nation — and the proclivity of the COVID-19 virus for killing the elderly, one might expect Florida to have one of the higher death rates among the 50 states. But, as the Wall Street Journal reports today, Florida’s death rate from the epidemic was about six per 100,000 people as of Sunday, compared to 42 in Louisiana, 58 in Massachusetts, and 99 in New York. (Virginia’s death rate so far is about 8 per 100,000 population.)
Florida Governor Rick DeSantis, widely loathed in the mainstream media as an ally of President Trump, took fairly aggressive measures early in the epidemic to limit the spread of the virus. He closed schools, banned nonessential medical procedures, and issued a stay-at-home order. But he also gave wide discretion to municipal authorities to take additional action, such as closing beaches, based on local conditions. Now that the seven-day average of new deaths has plateaued and the seven-day average of new cases has been declining, DeSantis has begun rolling back emergency measures.
The Journal sums up his approach this way:
Mr. DeSantis … chose to take a targeted approach aimed at the hardest-hit counties and to defer to local officials on implementing restrictions A large state like Florida, where many counties were far less affected by the outbreak and wold suffer economic pain from a lockdown, doesn’t lend itself to a uniform strategy, he said in a news conference in March.
Wow. What a concept. Tailor epidemic-control policies to local conditions. Delegate more power to local officials. Where have we heard that before? Oh, here on Bacon’s Rebellion!
It’s a shame that DeSantis is associated with President Trump because that means all reason goes out the window. By definition, he must be a right-wing zealot, or incompetent, or indifferent to human life, or all three. Therefore, anything he says or does must be illegitimate. That’s too bad, because his light-handed approach is similar to what Governor Ralph Northam needs to embrace in Virginia.
By the logic of shutdown advocates, Florida should be a morgue by now. Its millions of elderly are prime targets for the virus. But a funny thing happened. Emergency measures focused on hotspots such as the Miami metro area and nursing homes. DeSantis acted aggressively in highly targeted ways, such as curtailing almost all visits to nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Otherwise, DeSantis counted on people to take rational precautions to protect themselves. And they did.
The strategy worked. Now that DeSantis has begun winding back Florida’s shutdown, Virginians should keep a close eye on the Sunshine State. Will Florida turn into a New York-style hell hole of overloaded hospitals and bodies stacked up in freezers (even as the state’s governor is lauded for his personable style on television)?
If COVID-19 cases and deaths spike, then Florida can serve as a warning for Virginia, where Northam is under pressure to relax the state’s restrictions. If, on the other hand, Florida sees no significant uptick in the virus, perhaps local governments, businesses and individuals can be trusted to what’s needed when appropriate.
