Opinion Op-Ed : Even by Florida standards, Gov. Ron DeSantis is a covid-19 catastrophe

Welcome to Florida — America’s sun-drenched State of Suspended Disbelief. From the pandemic’s infancy, DeSantis has conveniently, even diabolically, airbrushed covid-19 out of public life here. The result: 1.2 million total covid-19 cases, nearly 61,000 total hospitalizations and a new seven-day case-positivity rate of 9.7 percent — all rapidly rising toward crisis levels. Even Texas, which isn’t exactly a model of coronavirus caution, has a statewide mask mandate and lower cumulative infection rate than Florida.

The governor has consistently played down the risks of covid-19, ignored credentialed scientists, sided with herd-immunity advocates, withheld information about hospitalizations and cases in nursing homes and schools, and cherry-picked numbers.

In a state with a strong open-records law, DeSantis smothers transparency. As part of a “Blue Skies” initiative, reported by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, our governor even made clear that the state health department’s media people should not mention covid-19 until after the election; instead, department communications encouraged Floridians to get their flu shots and sign up for hearing-loss screenings.

The Republican governor’s response to the pandemic, in other words, has been a disaster — yet he shows no signs of changing course. Today, amid the state’s third surge, Floridians and tourists stand shoulder-to-shoulder in bars and restaurants and sashay into nightclubs and strip clubs. At the same time, DeSantis continues to shrug off statewide mask and distancing orders along with any real effort at contact tracing. ...