Covid-19 Update | April 10 at 11:46 PM

So, tonight’s coronavirus update is brought to you by founding father Ben Franklin. He has many quotes that are poignant, but for tonight I feel this one is the best: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety.” We do have a few more cases in Bay County and an additional 1,110 cases in Florida, which is a 7% increase. The number of deaths in Florida continues to come in well below the estimates of the IHME model and we are on track to have fewer COVID-19 deaths in the state than we do in a bad flu season. In good news today, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced he is ready to unveil a plan to put Texas back to work. When the IHME model had apocalyptic projections 2 weeks ago, Gov. Abbott and many other governors issued Stay-At-Home orders, but when those projections proved wrong, he is the first to reassess and change course. Just 10 days after his executive order closing non-essential businesses, on Monday, he is likely to re-open Texas for business. This is a great sign as 5 states never did close businesses and they are doing great compared with states that did close businesses. I see other states, including Florida, following the lead of Texas in the coming week to decide it’s time to put everyone back to work. These orders will likely continue to recommend social distancing, hand washing, and maybe even wearing masks. There will likely be recommended Stay-at-home orders for the elderly and very ill, who do have an increased risk of mortality. The most difficult decision will be the resumption of schools which is fine from a health standpoint but is it worth the trouble to bring kids back for 4-5 weeks of school and the political costs from those who are convinced COVID-19 can kill their kids, even though it’s far less lethal to children than the flu. We’ll see… the major trends in the nation continue, 60% of all deaths in the country are still coming from NYC metro and Detroit; and 60% of deaths in our state are from Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade counties. Outside of metro NYC and a few other metro areas, hospitals sit empty and health care workers are having hours cut or they are being laid off. In Florida, even in Palm Beach, Miami Dade and Broward counties, hospitals and their ICUs have nearly half of their beds empty. Bay County is still sitting with a lower case per million rate than any of the 50 states in the nation, so we are truly blessed even though we are up to 36 total cases. Another thing to be truly thankful for is the leadership of our governor, Ron Desantis. He issued the weakest possible Safer-At-Home order to appease the media, who were clamoring for it. He has not ruled out the possibility of school coming back in May, even though the media cries foul over it. He told them that COVID-19 doesn’t kill children and they find a handful of children in the nation that had it and died and claim he’s an idiot when in reality the flu is and has been proven to be far more lethal to children and it’s not even medically debatable. Do we close school for the flu? Anyway, we could be stuck with the Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, who signed an executive order in her state today making it a misdemeanor with a $1,000 fine to go to your neighbor’s house. She is still allowing people to visit relatives in nursing homes, but have your kids play across the street with friends and you’re a criminal. That’s all for tonight.