Doctors Beg Ron DeSantis To Do Something To Slow COVID Spread In Florida - Ring of Fire

[Rhiannon12866]

Doctors in Florida, along with Democratic lawmakers, are begging governor Ron DeSantis to do more to try to slow the spread of COVID in the Sunshine State, but those cries have fallen on deaf ears. DeSantis wants to have his cake and eat it, too, by pandering to the low-information Republican base in Florida that doesn't want to protect anyone (including themselves) from the worsening pandemic. DeSantis could be setting himself up for an electoral defeat because of this, which might be the only silver lining. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

[SheltieLover]

1. It's really a shame drs & nurses have to risk their lives treating covid idiots

Seriously!

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Not to mention all the spreading they do on the way to the rest of the community

[SheltieLover]

3. For sure!

Ridiculous!

[Rhiannon12866]

4. I met a woman from Florida last week

(I mentioned that this is "tourist season" in this area, have seen license plates from far off states, especially Florida). And she said that she refuses to take precautions, if she dies, she'll just accept it!

Now it's not quite as simple as that. By refusing to take precautions, she's liable to become a super spreader, spreading the virus wherever she goes (she just came up here from New Jersey), but it's not like the "dying" she's talking about is like blowing out a candle - in the meantime, besides spreading disease, she'll be hospitalized, exposing front line workers and other patients, but will be subjected to pretty harsh treatments, like a ventilator, that she's not aware of... And it's preventable!

[SheltieLover]

5. You are correct, of course

Covidiot.

What is it with these people & their aversion to masks?

And, although we will likely never know her fate, I'd be willing to bet such an egocentric moron would be rushing to the hospital, whining about everything.

[Rhiannon12866]

7. And they're descending on my neck-of-the-woods in droves this time of year

My New York county is leading the state in positive tests - though it's a largely rural county. This month I've seen license plate from a lot farther than the usual Vermont (we're near the border) and New Jersey. Besides Florida, I've seen Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama and Utah! Not to mention a lot from closer states like Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. And just this week I saw 2 from Ontario! Have they opened the border? In the summer we frequently see those from Ontario and Quebec, but in the past year there have been none.

[SheltieLover]

8. I wish you could just stay away from all those people

Wth are people thinking traveling for fun during the pandemic?

Can they not sit still until this is over?

[Warpy]

9. Our tourist season starts in ernest in fall

and extends through the ski season. It's really too damned hot right now. They've announced the State Fair and Balloon Fiesta will both take place. I just hope we don't see a spike in cases before then but so far, so good. It helps that 65% are vaccinated and the number is going up again. It also help that people in the cities are still wearing masks.

That Florida lady (and I use the word advisedly) would be invited to take her bare face outside here. She wouldn't be treated uncompassionately, flatlanders all have trouble breathing at this altitude. She just wouldn't be allowed indoors.

Front line workers have been vaccinated and know how to protect themselves. I never caught anything from a patient, only from co irkers who came to work sick to preserve their PTO and slimed the phones and keyboards.

[Rhiannon12866]

12. Well, I'm just south of Lake George, and they descend from all over in the summer

We get skiers too, there's a ski center on the nearby mountain that I can see from my window, but it's the lake that attracts the summer crowds - and I mean crowds. When I've driven north through Lake George Village, the streets are packed, without a mask in sight.

Last year everything was closed, not to mention that there was a quarantine here in New York, so I guess they're making up for it now. And until this month, there's been a mask mandate, too, for over a year - and it was enforced. No one could enter any grocery, pharmacy, gas station, Walmart, convenience store, bank or any business at all without a mask. So that was lifted just in time for tourist season, masks are still mandated for the unvaccinated, and I still see a few masks, but it's mostly me and a few employees. And, needless to say, I do not trust the "honor system."

I have 2 friends who work at the local hospital, one in the ER with psych patients, and the other in the office. They were the first I knew who were vaccinated, they had to drive downstate to a major hospital to get the Pfizer in January. But now the vaccines are offered at every pharmacy - and pharmacies in grocery stores and Walmart - plus a large state run site at the local mall. And many take walk-ins, so there is no excuse. But my county is holding at 65% vaccinated - though we're doing better than those to the south and west.

And I posted here earlier that I know an older man (mid 80s) who I see at local meetings. When I was finally able to get the vaccine (got the Moderna back in March, though I had to drive to the CVS south of here when it was first offered since appointments at the local pharmacy were immediately booked) I was so relieved that I told people. And this man who I'm friendly with said he wasn't getting vaccinated since his daughter is a nurse at the local hospital and she's not getting vaccinated and he gets his medical advice from her. *sigh*

[Warpy]

13. maybe when she gets hit with the "take the jab or los your job" that is definitely coming

and she doesn't drop dead from it, he'll get his shots, too.

That's likely what it will take for some people. Losing family to the disease doesn't seem to have done it.

I understand the reluctance on the part of some educated people. the mRNA vaccine process is a new one. I dived into molecular biology and virology last year to try to understand it, but I had the leisure to do so. People who don't should at least take the J&J vaccine, which uses an adenovirus carrier, an old process used in most other vaccine production.

I tend to wait before taking a lot of new drugs, you never know unintended consequences until they've been in wide circulation for a while, but vaccines are different. This is an emergency, and I'm afraid a lot of people are going to find that out the hard way when they run out of time and get sick.

[Rhiannon12866]

15. I can't imagine that vaccine mandates for hospital workers isn't coming

The local paper reports Covid news on the front page and the last I knew there were 36 cases in the county and 2 deaths in the past 2 weeks. It's not like there aren't active cases at the hospital - and anyone working there was offered the vaccine before anyone else - and they also received a $100 bonus for making the trip.

And I can't say that I understand exactly how it works, either, though I've tried. But I didn't understand how the numerous vaccines I received as a kid worked, either - though my mother may have. But Dr. Fauci said to get it and he certainly understands it - I was kind of tickled to learn that he got the Moderna, too.

I also got the Shingrix vaccine last year and didn't understand that one at all, but I did have chicken pox as a kid and after talking to a woman I know who got Shingles - and found it so painful that she cut all her hair off - that was good enough for me.

As for the nurse/daughter, the last I heard from my elderly friend, he said that if they mandated vaccinations at the local hospital she would quit her job. And the way this variant is spreading, I don't think that's far off...

[Warpy]

17. Nope, it's not far off. They're saying it spreads like chicken pox, and that is very contagious

to the point that kids who come into the hospital with it are put into special rooms that don't allow air mixing with the hallway or the rest of the hospital.

She says she'll quit, but my guess is that she'll just get the shot, instead. Threats are easy, but the job market isn't that great for health care workers who don't want to do bedside care right now.

The day the flu vaccine came in to work was always a fun one, we'd just assemble and do a circle jab and spend the rest of the shift kvetching about our sore arms.

I got the Moderna vax, also. Mixing manufacturers doesn't seem to present much of a problem, the second dose of antigen gets the information into the long term immune system. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/19/mixing-covid-vaccines-what-you-need-to-know

[rickyhall]

6. I'm so glad this attitude didn't exist in the '40s or we'd be speaking German.

[magicguido]

10. For some reason DeSantis wants to kill Florida Kids.

[turbinetree]

11. He doesn't care Florida.....you might as well go and talk to a wall.....

this guy and his staff and the legislators in the state that are republicans just don't care....they just don't care about, you, family, kids' uncles, aunts, cousins....nobody.....they got this states right thing so far up there selfish ass....

[Warpy]

14. Rin of Fire is based in Florida? Poor bastard.

My dad never could understand why I refused to snap up any of the real estate deals he found over the years and move there, especially when I was shoveling multiple feet of snow in a typical Boston winter. I think if he were alive today, he might be catching a clue why I opted for a poor, waterless, and progressive state like NM.

My mother knew. She said she loved to see them building all those high rise time shares and condos, they'd make Florida sink faster.

Goiv. Death Sentence seems like he rarely gets out of Tallahassee, which is up in the panhandle near the border with AL and GA and has the lowest vaccination rates in the state. Maybe if he visited parts of his state that weren't chockablock with Chumps, he might catch a clue that there is a backlash building, especially among health care workers. Since Florida has such a huge retiree population, thee are a lot more health care people there per capita than most other states. I'm hoping they deliver the GOP some surprises next year.

I still won't live there. I have always been deeply grateful my parents moved shortly after I was born and didn't go back until I was gone.

[Rhiannon12866]

16. Yes, that's a big part about why Farron Cousins is so passionate about this issue

He has kids who go to school in Florida, and school inexplicably starts early there, just in time for DeSantis' mandate making masks "optional" in schools. I'm in New York, and I've seen even the youngest kids getting off school buses - and they were all masked. There were numerous outbreaks in local schools throughout the past year causing several school shutdowns, and the youngest kids aren't yet eligible to receive the vaccine, so that only made sense. The kids got used to it.

And here in New York, also serious snow country, there are a whole lot of "snowbirds," older folks who spend winters in Florida. My grandmother did that for several years, we often visited her for Christmas, until she moved permanently to a retirement community in NC. I would certainly not recommend going there now, Florida has become a Covid hotspot - because of DeSantis' dangerous and failed policies.

[Warpy]

18. Mask compliance is easier in winter, even here in NM

because instead of making your face hot and swampy, the mask keeps your nose pleasantly warm. Altitude gives us real winters here.

That's one of the problems with Florida, maks are hot and swampy year round because Florida is hot and swampy.

Still, I hope his dogma addled stance causes enough backlash to end his meteoric rise with the typical meteor's fate: burnout and crash.

[Rhiannon12866]

19. That's a good point, they rescinded the mask mandate here in New York in time for hot weather

As well as the tourists. Though we've had a rough summer, so far, some pretty extreme rainstorms, this is not a good year to be camping.