After a solid year living with a pandemic, the national press is beginning to ask the question that even Democrats have been quietly thinking about in the State of the Sun: was Governor Ron DeSantis’ response to the pandemic appropriate for Florida?
Do not forget: More than 32,000 Florida residents have died, a number that state leaders rarely recognize, but our mortality rate is no worse than the national average – and better than some states with stricter restrictions.
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The Los Angeles Times compared the responses from Florida and California:
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“California imposed numerous restrictions that affected the economy and left most public school students learning at home for a year. … Florida took a more laissez-faire approach condemned by public health experts – allowing meals in closed restaurants , leaving optional masks and bringing the kids back to class early. “
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But, he points out, “If California had Florida’s death rate, about 6,000 Californians would have been killed by COVID-19, and tens of thousands of additional patients would likely have landed in already overburdened hospitals. And if Florida had the rate of California mortality, about 3,000 fewer Florida residents would die from COVID-19. “
On the front page of Sunday, the New York Times explored the positive aspects – of the booming housing market to Florida’s low unemployment rate – of an early reopening: “Much of the state has a feeling of an expanding city,” writes Patricia Mazzei, “a sense of compensating for months of wasted time. “
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The Times notes that Florida’s unemployment rate is 5.1%, compared with 9.3% in California, 8.7% in New York and 6.9% in Texas.
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“That debate about reopening schools? It came and went months ago. Children have been in classrooms since fall.”
The big picture: Much of the public part of the response to the DeSantis pandemic increasingly looks like an audition for a presidential race in 2024, which Politico’s Marc Caputo noted.
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“With COVID’s death count cover-up consuming New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and a pandemic-related recall effort that haunts California Governor Gavin Newsom, Republicans are adopting DeSantis as an example of the red state. “
Our thought bubble: We have long known that the state’s Republican pro-business leadership was making a kind of big bargain: that the death toll was the price paid to keep trade flowing and children in school.
This story first appeared in the Axios Tampa Bay newsletter, designed to help readers get smarter and faster on the most important news unfolding in their own backyard.
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