I’ll start by saying this story is based on the information in hand on Sunday, April 5th, and may be subject to change going forward. One of my great frustrations of the past couple of weeks in Florida has been the difference in narratives bandied about in news media compared to the actual results observed in combating the virus in our state. While politicians with political agendas, and similarly jaded news media, reported about Governor DeSantis’s reluctance to lock down the entire state, Florida proved highly successful in managing the crisis in the earliest weeks of the outbreak. Unsurprisingly, with the order in effect for several days now, we continue to perform much better than the rest of the country on a relative basis.
First, our demographics. By age we’re nearly two years older than the next closet large state, and only four states of any size have an older population than Florida. This places Florida as essentially the most at-risk state in the country as we’re also the third most populous state. So, how have we performed? On an absolute case basis Florida is 7th, with only California having a larger population than ours. This also isn’t a case of Florida simply not testing as aggressively as other states either. Adjusted for population size, Florida’s 20th in test rate or more aggressive in testing than the country as a whole. The rate of tests in Florida is greater than double that of the two states larger than us in California and Texas. There is strong evidence that the case count is as low as it is in those two states due to the lack of relative testing. This makes Florida’s outperformance even more impressive. Additionally, most states don’t have people consistently fleeing hotbeds of activity and cruise ships with infected passengers docking, but ours does. It’s clear the state-especially our healthcare professionals and first responders on the front lines have done an exceptional job managing a threat from the outside as it’s made its way to us in Florida.
I don’t know when or how this story ends for us but I do know it’s not worse today because of the actions taken by those in leadership in our state and our professionals working tirelessly to combat the spread while treating the ill. Our responsiveness is a key cog in this puzzle. Remaining patient smart and safe is important until the threat posed by this virus abates. In the meantime, there’s not a single data point that can be analytically argued pointing to anything other than highly successful handling of this crisis to state. Politicians and related critics, who’ve argued the contrary, are evidenced to be wrong generally. Worse still, they’ve attempted to use a national crisis to play a petty game of politics. The character of these individuals is clearly on display with information in hand. Here’s to the next month of this crisis being as successfully managed as the first in Florida.
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