Last Call for 8.17.21 — A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics

Last Call — A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.

First Shot

The Florida Hospital Association is warning of a system at its “absolute limits” as Florida logged another record-breaking day of COVID-19 hospitalizations Monday.

Data released Tuesday showed a spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations following a slight tapering off over the weekend.

There are now 16,521 people in Florida hospitalized with COVID-19. Nearly 50% of all adult ICU patients are infected with COVID-19.

“There can be no question that many Florida hospitals are stretched to their absolute limits,” read a written statement from Mary C. Mayhew, President and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association.

Nearly 30% of hospitals surveyed by the Florida Hospital Association will start expanding into non-care areas in the next seven days.

Some of those hospitals are in Broward County, which reports being almost out of hospital beds entirely. The county released a report that stated 187 out of 4,441 total staffed hospital beds in the county are still available, but hospitals can work to add beds through “repurposing.”

As hospitals fill up and face staffing shortages, more and more are refusing to accept transfer patients from other facilities.

“While hospitalizations continue to increase, three out of four Florida hospitals expect to face critical staff shortages in the next seven days, an increase of nearly 10% since last week, and half of our hospitals will no longer accept transfer patients from other facilities,” read Mayhew’s statement.

Palm Beach County officials are trying to get ahead of expected hospital staff shortages by declaring a state of emergency, which could allow Palm Beach to pull additional health care workers from other areas in the state.

Some metrics look promising. Week to week increases in new COVID-19 cases is starting to decline in some areas of the state, indicating case counts may be flattening before an eventual dip.

But that won’t help the state’s strained hospital system, which can expect to treat patients days or even weeks after initial infection. 

Evening Reads

“The coronavirus is here forever. This is how we live with it.” via Sarah Zhang of The Atlantic

“Why are so many knowledge workers quitting?” via Cal Newport of The New Yorker

“Most Americans support requiring masks in public places, yet few report experiencing actual employer or government mandates” via Chris Jackson, Mallory Newall and Jinhee Yi of Axios

“Delta variant threatens small businesses as it slows return-to-office plans” via Peter Grant of The Wall Street Journal

“Republican views on immigration are shifting even further to the right under Joe Biden” via Michael Tesler of FiveThirtyEight

“How the U.S. made affordable homes illegal” via Jerusalem Demsas and Ranjani Chakraborty of Vox

“She was the only member of Congress to vote against war in Afghanistan. Some called her a traitor.” via Gillian Brockell of The Washington Post

“The one big thing Biden got right about Afghanistan” via Fred Kaplan of Slate

“Gov. Ron DeSantis’ lawyers ask judge to toss parents’ lawsuit over school mask policy” via Michael Moline of the Florida Phoenix

“15% of Paycheck Protection Program loans could be fraudulent, study shows” via Stacy Cowley of The New York Times

“Cities are making mammals bigger” via Natalie van Hoose of the Florida Museum

“Q2 cord-cutting review: A quarter of pay-tv subs exited since 2016” via Gavin Bridge of Variety

Quote of the Day

“It would be worth losing that rather than losing the lives of our students or staff.” — Alachua County School Board Chair Leanetta McNealy, on threats to withhold state money for school districts that impose mask mandates.

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