A Pandemic Paradox.

Despite the crowing of its governor and state PR machinem the predictions and projectinos of anti-maskers and of lockdown devotees, Florida is neither the ideal covid-19 response model, nor the worst, at least based on two specific metrics. It is, as they say, smack dab in the middle.

Article by Derek Thompson in the Atlantic: The Curious Case of Florida’s Pandemic Response. A good, quick read.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/03/the-curious-case-of-fl...?

Everybody be well and have a good one

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Lily O Lady's picture

reporting in Florida was fired. Then when she continued to report the statistics on her own she was arrested and her computers were seized, even those that weren’t used for statistical reporting like her child’s tablet. Somebody’s lying.

Here in Georgia we have two kinds of Covid19 deaths, confirmed and probable. I wonder about the criteria for that.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lily O Lady

numbers, they haven't discovered the ideal practices, or so it seems.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Granma's picture

@Lily O Lady speaks for itself. Some states count as probable Covid caused deaths, deaths believed to be Covid caused, but the person had not been tested.

To me, that seems a straightforward way of doing it, rather than counting a given death as definitely Covid without a positive test or an autopsy. Stretched as thin as we've been, I suppose they don't try to test people after they have died.

Are you thinking there is something funny going on with those counts?

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Granma's picture

@Lily O Lady I think her name is Rebecca Jones, the woman in charge of Florida's health statistics, who was fired for refusing to fudge the numbers, and then hounded and arrested.

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Lily O Lady's picture

@Granma

went to a lot of trouble to pursue their ex employee to silence her.

I’m not sure about Georgia. I do think we should take as much care as possible to understand who has died from Covid19 and what strain or variant killed them. I think that economics comes before public health which could have dire consequences. Considering that economics means capitalism and how capitalism rewards the few at the expense of the many, putting economics first seems cruel.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

@Lily O Lady
If a man with heart disease dies and he has covid, did he die from covid or from heart disease. likewise pneumonia, cancer, lung failure.

But the authorities have obscured this by listing overweight as a "co-morbidity" since almost everyone is overweight now ...
Also "high blood pressure". What's considered high now was considered low when I was a teenager. So everyone is on blood thinners and pills to stop your liver function even if it was okay because "You are old" or "We changed the criteria". Funny how the criteria changes so that practically everyone needs prescription drugs, isn't it?

I'd like to see figures from the UK, Germany, France and Italy before determining what "normal blood pressure" or "normal cholesterol".

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Granma's picture

I'm very curious about just how accurate Florida's Covid data is. The author mentioned there are questions about the veracity of Florida's data, then said for his purposes writing, he would assume accuracy. Since his article is all about Florida's Covid record, comparing it to that of other states, that seems ridiculous to me.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Granma

show that their claim to be the very best is false, then there is no point in challenging them if your sole purpose is to refute that claim since they did it for you.

be well and have a good one

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5 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

snoopydawg's picture

It’s one way around making them mandatory, which they can’t do just yet.

How does that work for people who can’t get vaccines for whatever reasons? They can’t go shopping if they have no passport?

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Pricknick's picture

@snoopydawg
other than pissing in the back yard with my canines.
A passport to travel? The world can do without my money.
I haven't enough to piss around thank you.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

@snoopydawg
First "Real ID" now covid passports. Strange position from a party that wants everyone to be able to vote without registering and without ID.

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7 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

E6E94C84-3904-48D1-8780-139235A9F0D7.jpeg
[Vertical red line indicates approximate date of Osterholm video linked below]

We are far from done with SARS CoV-2 . The British variant, B.1.1.7 is widely present in the U.S. and cases counts of this variant are doubling every ten days or so. Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm in this PBS video aired on Feb. 19, 2021 explains implications and makes suggestions on how we should meet the challenges of this next ‘wave’.

Since the interview aired, a little over five weeks have passed. The area to the right of the red line illustrates the trends in case counts based on population. I thought it would be useful to refer back to as you listen to Osterholm’s predictions and advice.
[video:https://youtu.be/IR5sdtbb9As]

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

gulfgal98's picture

Full disclosure: I live part of the year in Florida and part of the year in North Carolina. I am as close to a native Floridian as you can get without having been born there. My parents moved to Floridan when I was an infant and I have watched it explosive growth over my life time.

Florida is like three different states with south Florida being vastly different than central or north Florida. South Florida is densely populated and has had the greatest rate of positive cases and deaths in Florida. North Florida is still relatively less populated with a few major centers of population in Jacksonville, Tallahassee, and the Pensacola area. This map reflects the incidence of cases of COVID are generally greater in the centers of population.

I live in the state capital of Tallahassee which is in north Florida. I personally know eleven people who tested positive for COVID, including one family member. They ranged in age from 29 to 94. The 94 year old had received her first vaccination prior to testing positive and fortunately experienced only mild symptoms. One of the eleven people I know was asymptomatic while all the others experienced symptoms ranging from relatively mild to significant, and some have had long range lingering effects from COVID. All who have had COVID do not brush it off lightly, including the 29 year old family member who caught his at the office where he works.

While the governor has been very loosy goosey about restrictions, some localities, including my own home county passed ordinances requiring face masks in all public locations. My own experience in going to the grocery store or other businesses has been that the overwhelming amount of patrons do wear masks. The only exception I have seen is in home improvement stores where many of the male, white patrons go unmasked. Overall, I can say that non-student residents of my home county have taken mask wearing seriously.

My home county was doing very well until the two universities and one college re-opened last fall. That is when cases significantly rose. The other thing I have noticed is that bars and restaurants seems to be packed, mostly with younger (under 40) patrons. Do I think Florida is doing great? No. I believe that the main reason the statistics for Florida are not worse is that residents and most businesses have taken the virus very seriously and many require their patrons to wear masks upon entry.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy