Every time there’s a bout of bad news out of Florida regarding the coronavirus pandemic, the media work itself into a tizzy to try and pin everything on Gov. Ron DeSantis and make him out to be some sort of villain.
Here are just a few examples: MSNBC’s Dean Obeidallah claimed Florida’s children are “less safe” because DeSantis “wants to be president some day.” CNN declared DeSantis’s decision not to reimpose lockdown restrictions on his state is a “reckless experiment” that could “yield some alarming results.” The Los Angeles Times’s Harry Litman alleged DeSantis’s opposition to school mask mandates is “borderline criminal behavior.” CNN’s Jim Acosta even suggested changing the name of the delta variant to the “DeSantis variant.”
“Instead of the delta variant, why not call it the DeSantis variant?” Acosta asked. “We could sell beer koozies that say ‘Don’t Florida My Fauci,’ and use the money to help pay for all of the funerals in the days to come.”
One would be forgiven for thinking Acosta is actually enjoying the state’s recent uptick in positive cases and hospitalizations.
The facts, however, tell a much different story than the one the media are pushing. Although hospitalization rates have increased throughout the state over the past few weeks, Florida is still fourth in the seven-day rolling death per capita average. There are still only about 0.41 daily deaths per 100,000 residents in the state, which is less than Democratic-run Nevada’s, and much less than Arkansas and Louisiana’s, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.
And overall, there are 25 states that have worse total death per capita rates than Florida has had over the past 15 months. Considering the state has the second-largest elderly population in the country and experienced a lot of foot traffic throughout the pandemic, this is quite the accomplishment.
The claim that DeSantis is somehow threatening the lives of Florida’s children is also ridiculous. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal notes that as of July 31, the rate at which children were being hospitalized with coronavirus nationally was 0.5 per 100,000, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which amounts to roughly 250 patients. Moreover, the CDC acknowledged that not all of these children were even in the hospital for COVID-19, the article states. Even the doctors who have reported an increase in COVID-19 cases among children have admitted that it’s extremely unlikely that they fall seriously ill from the virus. So forgive me if I don’t buy into the hysteria.
It is also absurd to suggest that DeSantis’s opposition to sweeping mask mandates and other restrictions caused this spike. There are a number of other states that have similarly refrained from reimposing masking requirements, such as Idaho, without experiencing a significant increase in case rates. Idaho also has a much smaller vaccination percentage than Florida, but that has not been reflected in the state’s caseload either.
There are a couple of other factors at play that explain Florida’s spike, and none of them have to do with DeSantis: First, although Florida has led the country in vaccinating its elderly population, there are still many at-risk persons who have chosen not to get the shot, which means they are more likely to end up in the hospital. Second, Florida’s residents spend more time indoors during the summer months, where they’re more likely to spread the virus.
The fact is that DeSantis has been and is still exactly right about the coronavirus: Further restrictions are not the solution, but the vaccines are. This is why he has vigorously promoted vaccination in every part of the state, working with local community centers such as churches to make sure everyone who wants the jab has access to one, and inundating Floridians with vaccination advertisements.
The state still has some work to do to boost its vaccination rate, but to claim that this recent spike proves DeSantis has been a failure is just not true. He’s been much better than most state leaders, and he has the numbers to prove it.
