Florida Strong
rickdugan
Verified and Certifiable Super-Reviewer
I have been impressed with how Florida, including the state government and its people, have handled the COVID 19 situation. Despite the current flare up of cases, there is no sense of panic here. Our people continue to return to work, our children are returning to their activities and schools, and our businesses continue to come back online.
The reasons for these successes are multiple. First, FL has done a fantastic job of protecting its elderly vs. certain other states. We have locked down nursing homes and those who are not in them have ample access to affordable PPE, including free access at many county public health departments. For these reasons, are death rates are multitudes lower than many other states and will likely remain that way.
Second, our citizenry is very well informed. Here we have something called the Sunshine Act, which forces all levels of government to make almost everything public. So we know where the worst of the flareups are and we know the demographics involved. And if the very comprehensive and easy to read data published by the Health Department is not enough, we have the Governor giving us routine updates using Powerpoint presentations that break down this information even further, including age trends in positive tests and deaths. This allows each resident and tourist to make their own informed decisions.
So when the national media gets its panties in a twist and squeals about our case numbers, private parties and beach crowding, we shrug at the silliness of it all. Because we know that it is young people being young people and that they are not likely to drop from it. We know that our elderly continue to be protected and/or protect themselves, as they should.
I will just add that I am one of Florida's 315,775 (and climbing) positive test results. I got it a month ago, most likely from a club. But even then I did not panic because I was well informed. And as expected, the symptoms were mild and went away within 10 days. I have of course since retested and am now confirmed negative.
When this all shakes out and everything is tallied, places like NY, NJ and CA are going to find that they should have handled this much more judiciously. I have never been happier that I made the decision to move my family to FL almost a decade ago.
The reasons for these successes are multiple. First, FL has done a fantastic job of protecting its elderly vs. certain other states. We have locked down nursing homes and those who are not in them have ample access to affordable PPE, including free access at many county public health departments. For these reasons, are death rates are multitudes lower than many other states and will likely remain that way.
Second, our citizenry is very well informed. Here we have something called the Sunshine Act, which forces all levels of government to make almost everything public. So we know where the worst of the flareups are and we know the demographics involved. And if the very comprehensive and easy to read data published by the Health Department is not enough, we have the Governor giving us routine updates using Powerpoint presentations that break down this information even further, including age trends in positive tests and deaths. This allows each resident and tourist to make their own informed decisions.
So when the national media gets its panties in a twist and squeals about our case numbers, private parties and beach crowding, we shrug at the silliness of it all. Because we know that it is young people being young people and that they are not likely to drop from it. We know that our elderly continue to be protected and/or protect themselves, as they should.
I will just add that I am one of Florida's 315,775 (and climbing) positive test results. I got it a month ago, most likely from a club. But even then I did not panic because I was well informed. And as expected, the symptoms were mild and went away within 10 days. I have of course since retested and am now confirmed negative.
When this all shakes out and everything is tallied, places like NY, NJ and CA are going to find that they should have handled this much more judiciously. I have never been happier that I made the decision to move my family to FL almost a decade ago.
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96 comments
I hate that the Press makes everything political. This is a health matter and health decisions are personal.
So, did you share this with wife and kids?
Florida gets the hate because the leaders dont pander to the wacked out MSM
But it turns out Colorado has a very lenient definition of what a restaurant is—offering frozen microwaveable food allows it to be a restaurant—so most places in practice aren’t actually closed. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out later that bars net less overall shut down days. But of course, it’s still too early to make such declarations. Out of curiosity, I might start a timeline of multiple states, if somebody hasn’t done it already. I suspect it’s places like Wyoming that’s been the most lenient of all.
Which doesn’t detract from the main point of Florida being a great state. I could have seen myself enjoying it if I had ended up settling in the Orlando or Tampa area. 😁
So, @Dugan, you may have been an asymptomatic carrier for some period, and yet you're on here stating that masks are unnecessary. Luckily you didn't infect your family, but it's possible you infected some friend (if you have any) or a colleague. There's evidence that antibodies fade in a matter of weeks. Do you plan to modify your behavior?
I'd be interested to know if you have any lingering trouble with shortness of breath?
As far as the rest, it's possible that I did. And? It's a contagious virus. Shit happens. I have been actively avoiding close contact with elderly people for some time and the strippers I have fun with are young, so anyone i might have infected has doubtless long recovered too.
And yes I've modified my behavior, by having more fun than ever. I don't buy into the notion that this virus is such a unique creature that anti-body immunity to it functions differently than it does for almost every other virus in existence. The "evidence" you referenced is highly disputed by more recent studies.
No lingering shortness of breath. In fact I've been back in the gym for over a week now.
Prediction on the 2024 Presidential battle. Cuomo Vs Desantis.
For a while there it seemed that Newsom in CA understood this too and said as much, but unlike DeSasntis, Newsom did not have the courage to see it through. Perhaps if Newsom had constituents with a little more grit and awareness, he could of stuck to his guns as well, but instead he rolled over for fear that media would pin every single new COVID death on him.
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Have you ever been east of Colorado in the last 5 years or are you making a statement based in something you read somewhere? Btw sort of a rhetorical question, no need to answer we already know.
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Yeah an example of uneployment rates below the national average where people can afford to pay their bills and arent living scared of foreclosure.
It does NOT readily spread outdoors.
And @rick.... glad you're ok. I agree with your assessment of the virus and I too plan to live life.
@Muddy: Unless the death rates spike, I think that DeSantis is looking to do just that - let it blow through while isolating the most vulnerable. It's a political gamble for sure, but he seems pretty confident that we can weather it while minimizing casualties. We shall see, but it's clear by now that the shutdowns didn't get rid of this, but just delayed the inevitable. We can't stay shut down forever, so IMHO sooner or later more states are going to have to embrace a similar model.
The fact that people are forced to work in these conditions and spread the virus is sick. But hey you guys should have tuscl day at Disney World
ICUs run at 90% capacity even in the best of times because because maintaining excess ICU space is prohibitively expensive. We have plenty of surge capacity if it is needed.
And I hope if you did pass it on to some youngin, they don't pass it on to anyone less young or lucky.
May the luck be with you.
Cause chance does not favor all.
From what I understand, before 'rona hospitals were trying to run in the low 90% capacity range just to stay in business.
@nicespice: it would be awesome to have you back this way! Lately, I've started to notice all of the hooka bars around that I've never paid attention to and wondered if it was one of the ones that you had visited when you were in town.
As far as the rest, I get it, but spread is inevitable now. It's been 4 months with no end in sight. Human beings are social creatures. Lockdowns and heavy social distancing have a shelf life and more and more people are tiring of it, especially the young.
As I said above...at some point we have to stop being afraid of the notion that more people are going to get it or else we'll be frozen in place forever, because it's clear now that this isn't going away. every state is eventually going to have to embrace a more realistic model, which will likely include continuing to protect the vulnerable while letting others take their chances.
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Spoken like a true lazy socialist millenial looking for the government to kiss the boo boo and make everything better.
Hospitals are just like any business. They don't make money by being empty. Truth is, the hospitals were less busy during Covid only times than I had ever seen them. Now they are not under that limitation almost everywhere so they are reaching capacity like they normally would. The press just loves to make everything sound worse than it is in actuality.
Nah desert. I may be a dog but I'm not a snake. I wouldn't knowingly expose a girl to it, so no fun for me while I was quarantined.
The federal government is classifying the deaths of patients infected with the coronavirus as COVID-19 deaths, regardless of any underlying health issues that could have contributed to the loss of someone's life.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for the White House coronavirus task force, said the federal government is continuing to count the suspected COVID-19 deaths, despite other nations doing the opposite.
"There are other countries that if you had a pre-existing condition, and let's say the virus caused you to go to the ICU [intensive care unit] and then have a heart or kidney problem," she said during a Tuesday news briefing at the White House. "Some countries are recording that as a heart issue or a kidney issue and not a COVID-19 death.
"The intent is ... if someone dies with COVID-19 we are counting that," she added.
Asked whether the numbers could skew data the government is trying to collect, Birx said that would mostly apply more to rural areas where testing isn't being implemented on a wide scale.
I’ve said before that arguing with incomplete and inaccurate data is futile. And all the currently existing data is both incomplete and inaccurate.
As for @docsavage’s example of intentionally skewed deaths, it could be considered anecdotal and yours could be discounted as non-specific comments “taken out of context” but I previously posted about the state of Colorado being caught intentionally inflating the numbers by nearly 30%:
https://tuscl.net/discussion/72643/10564…
“You simply can’t do meaningful analysis based on incomplete or “questionable” data and ALL the numbers floating around are known to be bad. Garbage in/garbage out. The US numbers are maybe more transparent and arguably more accurate than other places but they are still NOT good numbers. For instance, the State of Colorado was caught red handed inflating the number of Covid–19 dead. They weren’t caught by some investigative journalist but by a doctor who discovered that some State employed bureaucrat changed the cause of death to Covid-19 on a death certificate that he had already signed. So from 15 May Colorado has now been reporting deaths “from” Covid-19 separately from deaths of people “with” Covid-19 but who died from something else. ( covid19.colorado.gov ). The discrepancy prior to being caught? They were inflating the number of Covid-19 deaths by about 30%. I hope no one would argue that 30% is a rounding error.”
USA at 3.77%
World at 4.22%
Hot weather?
Man you really do keep working hard to live down to your nickname.
But here's something else much more relevant to consider: NY had 410k confirmed cases with 32k deaths. We have already had 327k cases, yet only 4,800 deaths. Why do you think that is?
I have to say Randumb that you would benefit from looking at this with a wider lens. We can't stay locked down forever and eventually we need a more realistic model. FL, TX and others have just embraced this reality sooner. Heck if the northern states don't do the same soon they are going to start having trouble funding basic services.
I'm sure you've looked at the curves for the US and the EU and both peaked about mid-march. But the US chose to open things up before the curve really flattened and we're paying the price now. As I said, having a daily per-capita death rate in Florida 20x that of the entire EU is nothing to brag about. The death totals won't be known for a long time.
Will the EU flare up again? I don't know, but taking reasonable steps with masks, social distancing, tracing, etc may help. The EU is doing much better than we are and at this point and we're pitied by the rest of the world for our cartoonish lack of leadership.
Hey 25, when you have a solution that doesn't involve widespread economic carnage, social misery that grows exponentially the longer it goes on, irreparable losses of educational instruction for millions of children (especially the poor and special needs) and untold deaths from other untreated medical conditions, please let us know.
I think that DeSantis is encouraged enough by the low death rates to allow this to run its course, girly squeals of the much overused word "pandemic" notwithstanding. He sees what is happening with the economic, state budget and social fallout in places like NY, NJ and CA and doesn't want FL to suffer the same fate. FL is still a long way from healthy again, but it is in an enormously better position than most of the blue states right now. As long as FL can continue to manage the death rates to a reasonably low number, I agree with him.
Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results, it also shows how little regard you have for your children and wife, you just keep putting them at risk, one day your luck is going to run out, I feel bad for those people that will be suffering the consequences of your action. Unfortunately it's going to be someone who trusted you to keep them safe, you will need to live with that I won't.
The person who is deluding himself is you 25. You're so scared of this thing that you have tunnel vision, unable to see the broader ramifications of things like lockdowns. it's a somewhat normal fear reaction, but kinda' sad to see play out like this in a grown man.
Anyone can believe what every they wish. CDC, I trust them less than 0%. They don't collect their data, they simply compile others data, which is flawed. A simple quick example. A lady I know well when to get tested. After waiting over 2 hours she was pissed and just left. She later received a letter stating she tested positive. Another testing center tested 86 people, ALL positive. On further inception, it was SIX. You really think these are isolated incidents? If so I have some wonderful land to sell you in SW Florida, Cheap to!
The only downside is that this leveling off seems to coincide (factoring incubation periods and 10 day delays in turning around testing results) with FL re-closing its bars. That does not fare well for some of the strip clubs in our state as DeSantis may see keeping bars closed for an extended length of time to be a small price to pay to keep everything else open.
>>>>>Hey 25, when you have a solution that doesn't involve widespread economic carnage, social misery that grows exponentially the longer it goes on, irreparable losses of educational instruction for millions of children (especially the poor and special needs) and untold deaths from other untreated medical conditions, please let us know.
At that point you became an attack troll so fuck you RickiBoi quit the aw shucks routine we all know you are no Beaver Cleaver
Just to make the point the way you describe it is excellent but you forget to mention that DeSantis is the Governor and there are many things that he could do to mitigate the, "widespread economic carnage, social misery that grows exponentially the longer it goes on, irreparable losses of educational instruction for millions of children (especially the poor and special needs) and untold deaths from other untreated medical conditions,"
All he needs to do is follow the guidelines of the federal government, they have a bunch of solutions up on their website that he is not doing so please spare us your false narrative.
Really? Like what? Assuming you are not advocating shutdowns, what would you like Emperor DeSantis to do to stop an invisible contagious virus from spreading?
https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/fox-35…
What additional material benefit would be gained by imposing these requirements upon sparsely populated FL counties with extremely low transmission risks and rates? Remember that this is a very large and diverse state and the vast bulk of all of our COVID cases are coming from the small number of more densely populated counties identified above.
Is there something important that you see falling through the cracks with the county orders?
Because, as a general principle, we should not desire that our government go beyond what is absolutely necessary whenever it must exert unusual control over our activities. We have 67 counties in FL, only a handful of which are the source of our statewide COVID numbers. What is appropriate in Dade or even Duval counties is not necessarily needed or enforceable in a rural county with natural distancing and minimal spread risk.
"^ That's really all you have in response to all of that?"
That could fallow EVERY twentyfive post. :)