Covid-19 Update | March 31 at 9:52 PM

Time again for the corona virus update brought to you by Snickers. Not going anywhere for a while? Grab a Snickers! So tomorrow begins the 30 days to Slow the Spread. These guidelines are to follow the directions of state and local authorities; to stay home if you are sick or if someone in your household has tested positive for CoVID-19; to stay home if you are an older person or if you have a serious underlying medical condition. For those not affected by these recommendations, it is suggested to work from home if possible, avoid social gatherings of more than 10 people, avoid discretionary travel, and practice good hygiene. Also included is not going to restaurants or bars and not visiting nursing facilities, which is already barred in Florida at this time. These are the recommendations from the CDC and the White House Task Force and are fantastic common-sense recommendations to flatten the curve. Now some analysis. Nothing major in the US. NY/NJ still bad; deaths there are increasing as this lags behind new cases. Dr. Birx showed the cases of each state graphed and the two lines that were not at all like the others were NY and NJ. The other point I keep hearing from the White House task force is their concern are the major metro areas. They know density is the biggest risk factor for a lot of cases and overwhelming the healthcare system and resultant deaths. They won’t come out and say less populated areas don’t have to be as diligent, but reading between the lines and looking at the data it’s clear that all the areas above the national average of cases per million are the densely packed cities. NYC metro, Miami, New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, DC, and Detroit all have high rates of cases. Seattle and San Francisco have been singled out as cities that responded to outbreaks early and flattened their curves dramatically. Moving down from national level to state level. Gov. Desantis is not giving in to the media pressure and hysterical populace pressure to “lockdown” the state. He instituted a stay at home order for the counties with rates of CoVID-19 which are near the national average in South Florida. He recognizes that Florida is not requiring stricter measures and we are already effectively flattening the curve in Florida. He reported hospitals in the state are at 37% of their maximum capacity at this time and our state is well equipped to respond to any surge in hospitalized patients. Despite the data, the media and all of Florida’s Congressional Democrats are calling for a statewide lockdown. I suggest the governor impose a lockdown on those Congressional districts and prove you get the elected officials you deserve. We have 2 new cases of corona virus in Bay County. Their locations have not yet been published by DOH but I’ll let you all know once that data becomes public. Even with those two cases, we are still lower than all 50 states in cases per million at 47 (the national average is 570). So, if you are under 65 and healthy its ok to go out and run errands or enjoy the great outdoors as long as you social distance. You are still being responsible according to the CDC. Don’t let your social media feed make you feel like you are literally killing an older or sick person if you leave your house. Enough for one night. I’ll give you all more tomorrow.