Report Debunks Narrative About How Florida Is Handling COVID & Shows They Are Putting States Like New York To Shame
A reporter from the New York Post, Karol Markowicz recently traveled to Florida and found out they are putting states like New York to shame over how they are dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
Markowicz wrote that she hasn’t left New York since March and had learned that Florida has been able to keep a case rate similar or lower than New York without destroying their state with lockdowns. She admits she was nervous and many were telling her to, “be careful” because nobody “wears a mask.”
She conceded that Florida has been considered a “loser states.” Yet after a short lockdown after DeSantis allowed beaches to reopen and the naysayers were proved wrong.
Markowicz admitted when she stepped off the plane she was surprised, people were wearing masks and hand sanitizer was “everywhere.”
She detailed what the main differences were between New York and Florida:
The main difference: Masks aren’t worn in no-risk situations. In Gotham, it’s very common to see people masked even when all alone on empty streets. Small children wear masks outside. In Florida, we saw maskless children playing together outside. It looked like the Before Times.
Which is a good thing: We act like it’s no big deal to wear masks even where risk is nonexistent. But, of course, it does matter. In Florida, we saw the smiling faces of strangers for the first time in nine months. It’s hard to overstate how much that mattered to our well-being and the feeling of normality.
Markowicz wrote that the narrative Floridians aren’t taking the virus seriously is “a lie.” That Florida has gotten rid of the policies that didn’t work and has kept the ones that have shown to work.
She praised DeSantis for prioritizing school openings and hammered Cuomo for his failure to get schools open and walking away when things go hard.
She wrote:
And Florida’s policies bore good fruit. On Jan. 9, New York reported 17,839 new cases. Florida, with about 2 million more people than New York, had 15,445. An open state like Florida having fewer COVID cases than a mostly closed state like New York proves protracted lockdowns are a failure.
Markowicz admits thanks to Florida’s weather they can be outside more unlike in New York but as she pointed out, why is California having such a hard time?
People are starting to wake up.