Florida Is Now A Blue State

Florida is now a blue state.

Florida has a Republican Governor and Republicans control of both houses of the state legislature by fairly substantial margins.

It voted for Donald Trump in the last two Presidential elections.

How could I say it is now a blue state?

This is the latest CDC chart on the level of community transmission of Covid by county across the entire United States.

Community Transmission of Covid by County
11/22/21 to 11/28/21
Source: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/index.html#county-view

Almost every county in Florida is considered to have low community transmission of Covid over the last week.

It all adds ups to a very blue state based on the CDC's color-coded transmission levels.

You may recall that Joe Biden was highly critical of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis this past August stating that what DeSantis was doing was "bad health policy".

Source: https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2021/08/04/joe-biden-criticizes-florida-gov-ron-desantis-covid-19-response-calling-it-bad-health-policy

“I believe the results of their decisions are not good for their constituents,” Biden said, according to a transcript released by the White House. “And it's clear to me and to most of the medical experts that the decisions being made, like not allowing mask mandates in school and the like, are bad health policy —- bad health policy.” 

That policy does not look so bad right now. 

It is true that Florida went through a surge of cases in the summer and it did not look good.

To his credit, DeSantis did not cave to the pressure at the time when it would have been easy to do so. He was confident in his position and it has benefited the people of Florida in a big way.

“We are having schools open. We are protecting every Floridian’s job in this state. We are protecting peoples’ small businesses,” DeSantis said. “These interventions have failed time and time again throughout this pandemic, not just in the United States, but abroad. They have not stopped the spread, And particularly with delta that is even more transmissible. It if didn’t stop it before, it definitely ain’t going to stop it now. I think it’s very important we understand that.” 

Why is it that everyone who was saying that DeSantis was presiding over a disaster is not saying a word about Florida right now?

The exact opposite of Florida is California under the leadership of Gavin Newsom.

The people of that state have been living under various lockdowns, mandates and school restrictions for almost two years.

Looking at the map above, California is in a better position than most other states right now on transmission. However, it has almost double the number of cases per capita as Florida does right now.

California does have fewer per capita cumulative cases and deaths than Florida over the entire course of the pandemic (approximately 30% lower).

However, Florida has a much greater percentage of senior citizens. Florida ranks second in the nation in the percent of its population over age 65.

Florida's median age is 42.5. California's median age is 37.0. That is the 6th youngest population in the United States.

Florida is dealing with a much more vulnerable population to Covid than California.

Although DeSantis has made it clear he opposed vaccine mandates and banned businesses attempting to use them as a condition of employment or to enter a venue, Florida (61%) and California (63%) have nearly identical percentages of the population fully vaccinated.  California is also mandating Covid vaccines for children to attend school.

On Oct. 1, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state would require all K-12 students to be fully vaccinated in the school term after the FDA grants full approval for the vaccine for those age groups. California would become the first state with such a requirement.

DeSantis prohibits school districts in the state from even mandating the wearing of a mask.

California's strict Covid policies have come at huge economic cost to the state.

California currently has the highest unemployment rate in the nation (tied with Nevada) at 7.3%. Florida's rate is 4.6%.

People are streaming into Florida from across the country---to permanently relocate and to vacation.

Florida just announced that the number travel visitors to the state is now higher than it was in 2019 before the pandemic.

Source: https://www.flgov.com/2021/11/23/governor-desantis-announces-florida-visitation-tops-pre-pandemic-levels/

On the other hand, California saw its population drop by 182,000 last year. That is the first annual decrease ever recorded in the state's history.

Businesses are also leaving California at unprecedented levels. Tesla, Oracle and Hewlett Packard are all big corporate names who announced they were moving their headquarters out of California in the last year.

At the same time that Biden was criticizing Florida's Covid policies under DeSantis, he was pointing to states such as New York, Vermont and Maine which had strict Covid policies and strong vaccination policies as models. These are all politically Democrat "blue states". For example, in New York City you cannot enter most restaurants, gyms and buildings without being fully vaccinated.

This is what Biden said about Vermont and Maine on August 3, 2021.

Source: https://twitter.com/FrogNews/status/1465694787223183371

What do cases look like in these states right now? 

Vermont leads the nation in the percentage of its population fully vaccinated (73%).

Cases are much higher than they have ever been in Vermont. The 7-day average of cases is 7x higher than it was on the date that Biden made the statement above.

New Reported Cases in Vermont
Source: The New York Times

Maine is the second most vaccinated state (72%).

Cases have also surged in Maine hitting a new record high in cases last week until falling back over the last few days. 

New Reported Cases in Maine
Source: The New York Times

Some say that we should ignore new cases and focus on hospitalization numbers instead. They argue that the vaccines were only intended to prevent severe disease. Of course, this is contradicted by the evidence in which all of the vaccines were given their emergency use authorization based on the representation that they prevented Covid-19 disease. There was nothing in the application that mentioned it was intended only to prevent severe disease, hospitalization or death.

This is taken directly from the FDA authorization review memorandum for the Pfizer vaccine. Similar language is in the Moderna and J&J authorizations.

Source: Source: https://www.fda.gov/media/144416/download

What do hospitalizations look like in Vermont in 2021 compared to 2020 based on HHS data?

The vaccines are not keeping people in heavily vaccinated Vermont out of the hospital in 2021.

It is much worse than in 2020 when there was no vaccine.

Covid Hospitalizations in Vermont-2020 vs. 2021
Source: https://twitter.com/Hold2LLC/status/1465763642650079240/photo/3

You see the same trend in Maine's hospitalization numbers.

Covid Hospitalizations in Maine-2020 vs. 2021
Source: https://twitter.com/Hold2LLC/status/1465763642650079240/photo/3

New York is faring better but hospitalizations have not been this high since last April. The number is also on the rise in the state right now.

Covid Hospitalizations in New York per HHS-2020 vs, 2021
Source: https://twitter.com/Hold2LLC/status/1465763642650079240/photo/1

Looking at New York's numbers, as well as Florida's, I can't help but wonder whether the previous wave of infections in those states has produced a higher level of natural immunity that is more protective than the vaccines.

Vermont and Maine did not have the same underlying level of previous Covid cases as Florida and New York. There is a much smaller reservoir of natural immunity from prior infections. They have been relying on the vaccines. It appears to be failing them.

We could have the same effect occurring in Europe.

Europe is going through a major surge in cases right now despite the fact that vaccination rates are generally much higher there than in the United States.

There is one outlier.

Sweden.

The one country in the world that everyone criticized because they did not lockdown, close their schools and all the rest.

Donald Trump strongly criticized the Swedish approach early in the pandemic. 

“Despite reports to the contrary, Sweden is paying heavily for its decision not to lockdown,” tweeted in May, 2020.

Trump was not alone. Almost every other country criticized Sweden's Covid strategy.

Sweden's approach has been similar to that of Ron DeSantis in Florida.

Protect the vulnerable. Emphasize early treatment. Don't destroy the economy, people's livelihoods or children's futures as you take on Covid.

Tony Fauci likes to claim that he knows all and anyone who questions him is questioning SCIENCE itself.

Source: https://bgr.com/science/dr-fauci-if-you-attack-me-youre-attacking-science/

He has continually stated there is no other way than his way. Any other way is simply defying SCIENCE.

Real science is indisputable. A scientific fact is the law of gravity, the boiling point of water or the distance to the moon. 

What Fauci calls SCIENCE is nothing more than his opinion and the opinions of those he surrounds himself with.

Consensus of opinion is not science. Prior to the 15th century, the consensus of scientists was that the earth was the center of the universe.

In the 18th century, the consensus of medical scientists was that blood letting was the best method to cure illness.

As recently as 25 years ago the consensus was that peptic ulcers were caused by stress. We now know it is caused by bacteria.

I could go on and on. In fact, in most cases like these, the consensus of scientists was proven wrong by one person who did not believe the consensus and proved it wrong.

Has Dr. Fauci and the others ever considered that they might be the ones who are wrong?

A simple question for Fauci.

If it is SCIENCE then how then do you explain away everything I just wrote about?