As many South Florida cities continue to reevaluate policies pertaining to the virus, IE the mandated use of masks throughout much of South Florida in public, something has become crystal clear. Florida is faring far better than most of the country during the pandemic. While Florida’s projected peak, according to the latest University of Washington model is now April 26th, five days later than last week’s projection, the death toll is expected to be much lower. Previously peak COVID-19 deaths in Florida were expected to be 240 per day. The new estimate calls for a peak of 112 deaths per day. This is consistent with what we’ve seen right along in our state. Despite having the third-largest population in the country, with the most vulnerable population to COVID-19, we're faring far better than the country as a whole.
As we head towards mid-April, essentially a month into the public response to the virus in Florida, here’s where we stand on a relative basis.
- Florida’s test rate – 5% greater than the national average
- Florida’s infected rate – 43% lower than the national average
- Florida’s death rate – 65% lower than the national average
Florida’s performance managing the pandemic across all categories is easily the best of any large state in the country. While California and Texas seemingly have low relative numbers of cases and deaths, they also have well below average testing. The test rate of those states is less than half Florida's, meaning the actual numbers may be much higher but we wouldn’t know due to a lack of testing. That’s not the case here where we are testing far more aggressively than most states while also seeing a much lower infection and death rate than the rest of the country. For all of the criticism DeSantis’ decision making and handling of the pandemic in the early weeks, it's clear he and we have managed better than most. This includes local governments in Florida which were granted the freedom early on to craft specific policy for their communities.
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. 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.
Photo by: Getty Images North America