Florida rises above the COVID-19 scare by not imposing lockdowns and mandatory wearing of masks.
WebMD published early in December 2020 that according to Gov. Ron DeSantis, the imposed precautionary measures are ineffective.
"No lockdowns. No fines. No school closures...That is totally off the table," the governor said in December during his first press briefing on coronavirus.
"The lie of the lockdown was that if you just locked down, then you can beat the virus," he said. "Then why are people having to lockdown two or three times then?"
The governor further argued that wearing masks shouldn't be mandatory saying,
"I'm opposed to mandates, period. I don't think they work. People in Florida wear them when they go out. I don't think you have to be strung up by a bayonet to do it."
People outside the state are also welcome to relish their time to do business or simply just have a good time with less to no restrictions on their movements. These have been ongoing for several months.
That said, Central Florida is seeing a rise in COVID-19 cases. ClickOrlando reported that health facilities are now in 'red status' as they're seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases with no signs of stopping.
Dr. Marissa J. Levine predicts that the phenomenon will get worse before it gets better. She's the director of the University of South Florida's Center for Leadership in Public Health Practice.
"We haven't even seen the New Year's Eve impact on top of the current surge, so I think all bets are off that this is going to end quickly. This will be several weeks, maybe a couple of months," she added.
Over the past weeks, the number of cases per day climbed to 16,808, a far cry from the 9,345 a month before.
COVID-19 ForecastHub also showed that Florida might end with 91,137 new cases this week from the 90,245 reported new cases last week.
Additionally, Florida's infection rate is 28th on the list as per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Wednesday, the state reported 129 COVID-19 related deaths and more than 7,000 people admitted to hospitals with symptoms of the virus.
Despite the rise of infections, Cindy Prins, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Florida said,
"We're not as bad as some places where they don't have ICU capacity, but my worry is, are we going to get to that point?"
Despite the scare, however, the hospitalization rate related to COVID-19 remains manageable in Florida. The current COVID hospitalization rates are actually similar to the rates for the flu in 2018, which also plagued the nation for a season. This is what The Blaze's Daniel Horowitz found out after comparing recorded data.
"Well, actually, you can barely see an increase in the hospitalization level in the Sunshine State from previous years, and the current level appears to be on par with the 2018 flu season, which was more of a pandemic flu than other flus in recent years. And in 2018, we did nothing as a nation to suspend liberties," Horowitz said.
As per Horowitz's investigation and calculation of the data from Florida's Healthcare Administration, flu cases are 98.8% down in 2020, seemingly correlating to the rise in COVID-19 cases. He commented that COVID-19 is this year's version of the flu.
Gathering all his findings, Horowitz's conclusion is that "the entire pretext for shutting down our liberties is built upon misinformation and lack of context."
A 98.8% decline. https://t.co/7TqHwMfYQV
"” Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) January 4, 2021
