Florida Goes Viral Again Con't

With the fast-spreading Delta variant of COVID-19, state mask regulations eliminated, and a third of American adults refusing the vaccine, we're right back to October 2020 daily case numbers and heading for six digits.

 

The United States recorded 79,310 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University. 

The number is the highest in the world, exceeding recorded totals from Indonesia (54,000), the United Kingdom (51,949), and Brazil (45,591), and doubling that of India (38,079). 

The spiking case number matches the level hit in October 2020, a record at the time, though it would not remain so for long. Despite the effectiveness of multiple vaccines against the virus, vaccine hesitancy is fueling “a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” according to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. 

The vast majority of all patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, according to the CDC.

 

And let's remember, red states are increasingly limiting data reporting because the pandemic is "over".

Florida will no longer update its COVID-19 dashboard or release daily updates about COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Now the Florida Department of Health will provide reports about coronavirus cases and vaccines on a weekly basis each Friday, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

There’s no longer a need to create daily reports, Christina Pushaw, press secretary for Gov. Ron DeSantis, told The News Service of Florida on Friday.

“COVID-19 cases have significantly decreased over the past year as we have a less than 5% positivity rate, and our state is returning to normal, with vaccines widely available throughout Florida,” she wrote in an email.

The latest weekly report, issued on Friday, showed 11,900 new COVID-19 cases and 35 new deaths during the past week. The case positivity rate is 3.6%.

In addition, 10 million Floridians have now received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, which covers about 53% of the population. More than 8.2 million residents are considered fully vaccinated.

Florida’s COVID-19 state of emergency remains in effect until June 26. DeSantis has said that he doesn’t plan to extend it further, The News Service of Florida reported.

 

 That  was last month. This month, Florida is now responsible for 20% of all new US cases.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta late Saturday stayed a judge’s order that would’ve declared the CDC’s COVID-19 regulations for the cruise ship industry as mere recommendations, not rules.

The judge’s order had been expected to go into effect Sunday.

U.S. Federal District Judge Steven Merryday’s decision, now on hold, meant that by July 18 cruise ships would no longer have to enforce COVID-19 safety protocols for its passengers or employees, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s precautions would’ve been nothing more than recommendations for any cruise line to follow, or not follow, as they see fit.

The panel’s 2-1 ruling marked a win for the CDC.

In its request for the stay of the injunction, the CDC said that by keeping its safety protocols for cruises in place, it was not shutting the cruise industry down but rather providing a framework for them to continue operating safely during the pandemic.

The CDC has battled the state of Florida over the department’s regulations for cruise ships for the past few months. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis originally filed the lawsuit against the CDC in April.

The CDC issued a conditional sail order last October to work on keeping cases down on ships and from the virus spreading in local communities. The order set forth a four-phased approach that would let ships start sailing again, ranging from testing of crew members, testing requirements for passengers and restricted voyage lengths among other things.

The state of Florida previously sued the CDC over its regulations for the cruise ship industry, arguing that the rules were hurting Florida’s unemployment rate and the state’s ability to do business.

This latest reversal comes as Florida has become a flashpoint in a resurgence of COVID-19 cases. Cases in Florida doubled over the past week, with the Department of Health reporting 45,604 new cases. The positivity rate also climbed to over 11%.

On Friday, the White House said that the state, which accounts for 6.5% of the country’s population, was responsible for 20% of the country’s new infections, the latter figure more than three times greater than the former.

 

Things are going to get bad, fast. By Labor Day it's going to be clear that in unvaccinated counties, people are going to be in dire straits, and Republican governors and legislatures will do nothing as their constituents die in droves.

I did warn you that the rest of the year was going to be bad.

Get vaccinated before Republicans outlaw those, too.