Recently, Florida has become an epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, as the rise of what’s known as the delta variant of the virus has driven up cases and hospitalizations — and, to a lesser but still present extent, deaths — around the country. No matter the dire situation, with the most recent numbers (as of early this Tuesday) revealing over 16,800 COVID-19 hospitalizations across the state, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has resisted taking the situation more seriously. He even continues to stand against basic safety precautions like mandates to wear masks in schools.
Previously, DeSantis has touted his supposed success in responding to the pandemic, and on Tuesday, the anti-Trump conservative group known as The Lincoln Project pointed out just how poorly that Desantis’s prior proclamations of success had aged. Alongside a video showing DeSantis insisting that “Florida got it right,” the group commented as follows:
‘This aged like milk.’
Check out the post below:
This aged like milk. pic.twitter.com/iHy8Aql4vD
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) August 17, 2021
Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried, who is a Democrat, has been seeking to provide more constructive leadership from the Florida state government for residents of the state. (Fried is also running in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in hopes of taking on DeSantis in next year’s general election.) On Tuesday, Fried shared the grim news of the latest COVID-19 hospitalization levels in the state. As of early this Tuesday, merely 7.8 percent of Florida’s ICU beds were left available, and as of that same point, Florida had hit 16,832 COVID-19 hospitalizations. That number of individual hospitalizations with COVID-19 in Florida is the highest that has been recorded in the state at any point of the pandemic — and yet, DeSantis continues to resist measures like mandates to wear masks in schools.
Florida is exploding with sickness — our hospitalizations and ICU occupancy just set new records, again.
16,832 hospitalizations.
And only 7.8% of ICU beds are left.This is an unprecedented emergency.
Source: @HHSGov— Nikki Fried (@NikkiFried) August 17, 2021
