15 years ago, Florida predicted a pandemic like the one we're facing now. Then state leaders cut, cu
Source: Tampa Bay Times
Fifteen years ago, Florida braced for a pandemic.
Officials knew as early as 2005 that an outbreak could devastate the state and infect much of the population. They wrote reports predicting a crisis remarkably similar to the one playing out now: a virus that could infect more than a million Florida residents.
And they responded in force, bolstering the state health department with resources and specialized workers to combat a potential crisis.
But that operation was dismantled by governors and lawmakers more worried about the bottom line, the Tampa Bay Times has found. They slashed research funding, cut thousands of jobs and ignored gaps in the states defense against fast-spreading diseases.
Read more: https://www.tampabay.com/investigations/2020/04/04/florida-saw-a-pandemic-coming-and-prepared-then-state-leaders-started-to-cut/?trk_msg=LDDVNA959HU4HF6RK42PU3BMG0&trk_contact=2LVUQ22E7IOMM9DEEA726PIHT4&trk_sid=9NAMR29KLNP0TKA8KP8IQKIAPC&utm_email=1422E4C1E5F9350FC5E7646FE6&utm_source=DayStarter&utm_medium=MG2_Newsletter&utm_term=15+years+ago%2c+Florida+predicted+a+pandemic+like+the+one+were+facing+now.+Then+state+leaders+cut%2c+cut+and+cut+some+more.&utm_campaign=How+Florida+prepared+for+a+pandemic++and+then+started+cutting
lark
(23,088 posts)FL Repugs are some of the worst, pretty trumpian and there is no worst insult in the world.
ancianita
(36,017 posts)their pandemic sections of the state dept of public health.
More in the article:
DeSantis first budget last year cut nearly 600 more public health positions.
The state has shed hundreds of doctors, nurses and clinicians people who could have staffed drive-through testing centers, answered local coronavirus helplines or examined patients outside of a hospital, experts told the Times...
Today, the FL health dept is lying when they say they contract trace each and every confirmed covid-19 case. Lying.
FL update as of 4/6/2020 : 12,350 confirmed
221 dead, and many many more dead who were not tested.
Sancho
(9,067 posts)...it is truly a bunch of criminals.
ancianita
(36,017 posts)After this pandemic period, all deaths from "pneumonia" or "flu" need to be cold case reviewed.
crickets
(25,960 posts)paleotn
(17,911 posts)Anyone remember Richard Preston's The Hot Zone? There was another book I read back in 93 / 94 I think. Paperback, Orangish yellow cover and quite long. Don't remember the title and can't find my copy now, but it was published several years prior to Preston's best seller, and scared the shit out of me.
Toorich
(391 posts)...........nobody could predict this anymore than someone could
have predicted terrorists would hijack planes and crash into buildings.