They're what, in Florida? Dying in the streets? Booming economically? Florida's approach to the pandemic has been criticized and praised, and right now they're trying to keep Spring Break from becoming too broken without sending all those high-spending students back to their dorms -- but the real story is a lot more nuanced than the simplistic narratives of Left and Right.
A writer at The Atlantic dug into it. He found a lot to chew on. It's worth reading, though nobody's preferred narrative holds up. That last statement probably deserves to be inside a fortune cookie.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
3 comments:
My reading of the article is that by remaining open, nothing happened. They are mid-pack in COVID deaths and employment. I guess what I would have wanted to see in the article was some kind of causation. What did the top (and bottom) states do that may have put them at the top or bottom?
It's saying that not locking down didn't make a difference. Can we then assume that the opposite is also true? That would be scary, if no matter what we did, it didn't make a difference. If that's true, I guess I'd rather not be locked down, I rather not wear a mask, I'd rather not social distance.
Florida did undertake some measures to limit the spread, especially at the city and county level, and they didn't do outstandingly well compared to the states with the best results (and, in most cases, stricter limits).
Controlling a largely unknown (in the early going) infectious disease it a matter oc chasing decimals. Not congregating indoors in close proximity for extended period of time made a big difference. Social distancing and masks made a significant difference. So-called "lockdowns" (in most places in the U. S., only a closure of businesses deemed non-essential and occupancy limits in the ones that remained open) helped -- but how much they helped, and how much of that was a direct effect, and how much by means of convincing people this was a serious problem, we don't know.
It's an ongoing experiment. It's still running, as restrictions relax well in advance of a degree of immunization that is most likely to provide herd immunity. Maybe we could have gotten by with less; maybe some places should have done more. We still don't know, and it's likely to be years before we do. Everybody made their best guess, well- or ill-informed, and now all the survivors are here, still learning to make better guesses.
I tend to listen to the medical and scientific experts and not the politicians. The people who study this sort of thing were the best situated to make good guesses. I knew they weren't going to guess right every time (nobody does), and I tried to err on the side of caution. It has worked for me so far.
I actually live in Fl. Lockdowns varied wildly, but so do population density, hospital availability, people's willingness to mask up. There's also a good deal of bureaucratic ineptness, and statistics may be unreliable because of that. No need to conjure malice.
DeSantis has a tendency to interfere with local decisions and acts like he is mostly concerned with running for POTUS in 2024.
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