Pandemical
(The author has more than 40 years of experience in healthcare and healthcare policy)
The Needle is Stuck …
Political criticism is easy to dish out these days, especially when constitutionally challenged governmental chief executives are slow to respond to a rapidly expanding crisis like the novel coronavirus pandemic currently harassing America. Especially, too, when more than 40 million Americans lost their jobs or applied for unemployment benefits due to the pandemic in the process. Never mind that America also went trillions of dollars into more debt valiantly trying to stave off the horrific unexpected economic impact of the coronavirus.
In the early days of the COVID-19 surge through Asia, Europe, and the United States, President Trump did call the virus a hoax manufactured by his Democrat opponents. The 45th President said the virus would miraculously disappear.
The New York real estate developer (he may still be dabbling in the business as president) later projected that fewer than 100,000 people would lose their lives to the virus, which he said, was no worse really than the annual flu bug death count.
The novel coronavirus fatality tally now officially stands at 117,000 with 24,832 new daily cases on June 16, 2020. Twenty states have seen new case increases; 20 states have seen decreases (including the District of Columbia); and, 10 states remained essentially the same for new cases.
Once the Trump Administration finally publicly acknowledged they had a real health crisis on their hands they reluctantly ordered citizens and businesses to stay at home to stop the uncontrolled virus spread.
Several Governors around the country, a majority of Republican governors, rushed to reopen those same states more quickly than they should have given parameters that had been advocated by the more knowledgeable medical experts at the U.S. Center for Disease Control and its National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
One Governor, Florida’s Ron DeSantis, even went so far as to intentionally underreport the spread of the coronavirus in the Sunshine State, a state that has more than 21.5 million residents and more than 125 million visitors annually.
For context, Florida had 1,260 new cases on April 3, 2020, the day that Governor DeSantis’ stay-at-home order took effect. On June 16, 2020, registered an alarming 2,783 new cases for the day. That represents a 120 percent increase since the Governor realized that he needed to essentially shut down the state.
President Trump and Governor DeSantis want you to believe that the number of new cases is rising each day in Florida and some parts of the United States because of an increase in virus testing. This is not true. The number of cases is rising because we are not being honest with ourselves about when, where, how, and why the virus continues to assault our neighborhoods.
Making matters even more controversial in Florida, Rebekah Jones, the state’s COVID-19 data manager for the Florida Department of Health was fired for ignoring an order that the Governor and his office gave her to remove records showing people who had COVID-19 symptoms or tested positive before the cases were announced.
So, apparent valid criticism aside, what should a state like Florida do to better deal with containing and overcoming a pandemic crisis like COVID-19?
