Scott Powers
A few weeks into what could become a long and much deeper crisis, Gov. Ron DeSantis let loose in Orlando Wednesday with a freewheeling jeremiad on why he thinks across-the-state orders could be harmful. He also lamented the state having to deal with people coming from the coronavirus hot spot of New York.
Though the Governor closed schools and bars, restricted restaurants to take-out and recommended people avoid crowds and stay home as much as possible, DeSantis has taken a far more conservative approach to date than many other Governors. Many other states took many of those actions much earlier than he, and many have since gone much further. Seventeen have issued statewide stay-at-home orders.
DeSantis has increasingly been the target of calls and criticisms from others, for the most part Democrats, who want to see him take bolder, swifter statewide actions. On Wednesday he again dismissed those, saying Florida needs to target its efforts whenever possible.
And he even expressed skepticism about measures already taken, notably closing schools statewide.
Meanwhile, Florida’s caseload has more than doubled just this week, to 1,682 confirmed cases of COVID-19, about half of them in South Florida.
In Orlando, during the question-and-answer portion of a press conference highlighting the new drive-thru testing center being established, DeSantis let loose.
The Governor bemoaned the prospect that people from New York, perhaps the globe’s hottest zone for COVID-19 infections outside of Italy right now, are allowed to fly to Florida. Earlier this week he ordered them quarantined for 14 days.
He said areas like Central Florida do not need the attention or resources being sent to South Florida because the Orlando area is fortunate that it has so few cases, 77 at last count.
DeSantis said he is concerned about health care issues of people getting sick, but he stressed that he also has strong concerns about the mental health ramifications of people losing jobs, businesses closing, and people being stuck at home.
“The unemployment numbers in the state of Florida? You know, we’d get 200, 500, a thousand a day for most of the time up until this point. Now we’re getting 15 to 20,000 unemployment claims a day. What’s going to happen to those people? What’s going to happen to them if they can’t put food on the table, if they can’t pay their rent, or they can’t pay their bills, or take care of their families?” he asked.
“You’re going to see not only economic consequences from that, you are going to see a lot of public health consequences from that,” he continued. “I’m worried about the mental health impact of what’s happened. I’m worried about drug abuse, based on some of the dislocations. I’m worried about suicides. I’m worried about domestic violence. And I’m worried about child abuse. In any situation like that, all this stuff goes up. This is one of maybe the most significant situations people have faced.”
“And so, if they’re going to be put in with some of these policies, and yet the policies are ineffective because you have flights, people are on this, or that. You know, I think it doesn’t sit well with me, and I think it probably doesn’t sit well with a lot of folks in America,” DeSantis concluded.
He expressed concerns about second- and third-order consequences of decisions like closing schools, such as causing problems for health care workers who have to stay home to take care of children.
In fact, the Governor openly questioned the wisdom of closing the schools until April 15, saying the decision was made with input but no data. He said now there is no evidence to support the theory that closing the schools would slow the spread of the pandemic disease.
“I think there is a question about whether the school closures have been effective. There’s really no evidence and we kind of worked with our Commissioner of Education. Singapore, I don’t think Singapore closed their schools. And there’s no difference in how the virus spread in either of the countries based on that. There’s just not a lot of data that supports it,” DeSantis said. “So you need to look to say, ‘OK; if the schools are closed, then what stress does that put on the parents?”
However, during his 10 minutes or so of largely free-flowing observations during the press conference, DeSantis never explicitly mentioned any concerns of Floridians dying from the disease.
Nor did the Governor mention concerns about growth lines that show caseloads statewide and in metropolitan areas doubling every two or three or four days, or where some of the grimmer scenario projections suggest that those trend lines, if not radically checked, could lead to hundreds of thousands of serious cases, overwhelmed hospitals, and thousands of deaths in Florida.
In short, the Governor expressed a variety of frustrations about there being so little clear data indicating what to do, with the consequences of millions of people losing jobs, while different approaches are tried or advocated, yet with holes.
“You talk about these orders, about saying this, this. There really is no data to support it. It’s just people saying, ‘Do it!’ Wouldn’t it be nice to have more data so that we know exactly how this virus may be operating in some of those communities?” he implored.
“It does kind of make no sense,” DeSantis said of some of the measures being taken, and some of the ways people are responding.
“You’re telling people if you live in some random town somewhere that you must be imprisoned in your home. You know: ‘Don’t leave your home. Don’t do it!’ But yet people are riding the subway in New York City. People are flying all over the place from some of the hot zones,” he said. “I mean, really? How does that make any sense if we’re trying to contain this thing.”
18 comments
Pedro
March 25, 2020 at 2:44 pm
When it comes to the schools and our students Governor, I think the better safe than sorry approach works and is working!
Margaret
March 25, 2020 at 2:50 pm
It’s not mostly Democrats who are critical of the Governor, it’s mostly everyone including Republicans like me who voted for him. He is doing a terrible job and we are likely to see the consequences 2-3 weeks from now when it is much to late.
Erin Marshall
March 26, 2020 at 10:50 am
100% agreed! I am a Republican, and I am angry about the lack of timely response to this crisis. I am also completely appalled that he thinks there is no evidence closing schools prevents the spread of the disease. Absolute ignorance!
Ana M Salazar-Bodnaruk
March 25, 2020 at 3:11 pm
I agree with you I don’t feel the need to experiment with our children. My son is an asthmatic, I’m a Nurse Practitioner, no one is going to argue with me the risks he is taking going to school. Not everyone understands the process. I have heard people say you can catch this virus by touch only!?!?!?!? And the governor is regretful about keeping our children home? What is happening to morals and ethics that now this is happening, is money that important?
Tammy
March 25, 2020 at 10:53 pm
I totally agree! I am raising my 10 year old grandson and my youngest son lives with us (he has a rare fatal heart condition). I myself have emphysema, diabetes plus more. I have three other adult children and every single one have high blood pressure, auto immune problems and my eldest sons girlfriend has non Hodgkin lymphoma. I already lost one son at age 24. If my grandson goes to school and gets the virus… if he just gets it mildly at best and spreads it thru our family..who will raise him? Like seriously?? The Governor needs to do a shelter in place across the state. Everyone in the USA should all shelter in place at the same time ASAP then worry about bringing up the stock markets etc. Who will even want to work if we have so much death of our loved ones??
Ward Posey
March 25, 2020 at 3:05 pm
Without more testing the argument from the Governor is moot We don’t know how many cases are in the State. Until we know, we are twisting in the wind. DeSantis needs to tell his mentor trump to get more test kits to the State.
realism
March 25, 2020 at 3:16 pm
21 Counties don’t have any cases. Why should they destroy their economies right now? He’s making decisions based on the data he has.
JC
March 25, 2020 at 4:10 pm
What happens if people in those 21 counties have the virus without the State Gov knowing?
Erin Marshall
March 26, 2020 at 10:53 am
There is no accurate count of the cases in FL because we don’t have the test kits available. I guarantee you the numbers are WAY higher than we know.
Sonja Fitch
March 25, 2020 at 4:21 pm
Sir YOU ARE ELECTED TO MAKE the DAMN DECISIONS !!! Stfu and shut it down. This is about the Damn Common Good!!!! Or just resign!
Jodi Cohen
March 25, 2020 at 5:45 pm
He assumes that the virus will respect County lines!! He doesn’t see any need for preparation!! How much Trumpian fantasy is this?!!
Andriana c riera
March 26, 2020 at 7:51 am
We closed travel from hot spots yet can’t ask New Yorkers to not travel. Thats marshall law.
School is often times the safest place for kids. Only meals they get. Not abused.
I appreciate Governor Desantis as much I do President Trump. Don’t want the cure to do more damage than the disease.
Janice Mitchell
March 25, 2020 at 7:01 pm
Wow he is really out of touch !
Judy
March 25, 2020 at 7:59 pm
The governor said the kids in china went to school where did he get that idea?? China was shut down for 2 months..is the governor going to follow trump and put everyone back to work by easter??? You can not replace a life, are you going to wait until 50 or 100 people die in this state before you shut it down..whats your number????
John Kociuba
March 25, 2020 at 9:26 pm
Dear Citizens ~
Re: TV Propaganda And Democrat Communists
Search engine “JOHN HOPKINS COVID 19 TRACKER” and please remember there’s 7.8 Billion people on earth.
Moreover Florida has 21.3 million citizens and 1900 infected COVID 19 patients…care to divide that ratio?
Corbin Supak
March 25, 2020 at 10:08 pm
He will need to resign this summer, Rick Scott too. They are truly idiots.
Charlotte Greenbarg
March 26, 2020 at 8:18 am
Just lovely to see the far left jump on the Governor because he’s actually talking about data instead of knee jerking. But that’s what happens when the leaders of the “resistance” give direction on destroying the country. The report exemplifies what media bias is …jeremiad? Really?
Frankie M.
March 26, 2020 at 2:19 pm
Sounds like someone is channeling his inner Trump. When I want to know what DeSantis thinks I’ll ask Trump. DeSantis knows his re-election hopes are riding on his boss.
Comments are closed.