After a solid year with a pandemic, the national press is beginning to ask the question that even Democrats quietly pondered in the Sunshine State: Was right Ron DeSantis’ pandemic response ready for Florida?
Do not forget: More than 32,000 Florida residents have been killed, a number that state leaders rarely recognize, but our death toll is no worse than the national average – and better than some states with stricter restrictions.
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The Los Angeles Times Florida and California’s answers compare:
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‘California has imposed a host of restrictions that have hurt the economy, leaving most public school students to study at home for a year. … Florida has adopted a more laissez-faire approach that has been rejected by public health experts – leaving indoor restaurants, leaving masks optional and getting children back to classrooms earlier. ‘
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But, it points out: “If California had had a Florida death toll in Florida, about 6,000 California residents would have died from COVID-19, and tens of thousands of additional patients would probably have ended up in already overcrowded hospitals. And if Florida’s California death toll had about 3,000 fewer Florida residents would have died from COVID-19. ‘
On Sunday’s front page, The New York Times examined the positive aspects – from the booming real estate market to the low unemployment rate in Florida – of an early reopening: “A large part of the state has a thriving feel in the city,” Patricia Mazzei writes. “a feeling of making up months of lost 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 the classroom since the fall.”
The whole picture: Much of the public outcry over DeSantis’ pandemic response feels more and more like an audition for a 2024 presidential election, noted by Marc Caputo of Politico.
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“With a COVID death toll consuming the New York government, Andrew Cuomo, and a pandemic – related recall effort haunting the California government, Gavin Newsom, embraces Republican DeSantis as an example of a red state.”
Our thought bubble: We have known for a long time that the Republican leadership of the state is making a kind of big bargain: that the death toll was the price to keep the trade flowing and to keep children in school.
This story first appears in the Axios Tampa Bay newsletter, designed to help readers get smarter, faster with the most important news that appears in their own backyard.
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