Approximately 2 million Floridians have tested positive for the coronavirus and more than 32,000 have died, the disbursement of unemployment benefits has been stingy and uneven, the vaccine rollout has been pockmarked by tales of lengthy waits, balky websites and numerous charges of socioeconomic inequities and political favoritism.
Now, though, it’s a year into the pandemic-and the apocalypse has yet to arrive. Six months ago, as the state’s caseload surged again and DeSantis nonetheless pressed to open schools, his critics piled on. He scrapped testily with reporters over the emerging consensus-at least within conventional media-that Florida surely would become a downright peninsula-of-death. He was dogged by images of crowded beaches and bars teeming with heedless tourists. A year ago, after all, at the outset of the pandemic, the name Ron DeSantis had reached the stature of some dark meme, derided as “ DuhSantis,” “ DeathSantis” and “ DeSatan.” He was pilloried as a reckless Republican governor driven more by ideology than science. “We’ve had,” he concluded, “tremendous success.”Īll successful politicians tell stories most favorable to their electoral aims, but this one surprised me. “Forty states throughout the country have higher per-capita Covid mortality for seniors than the state of Florida - 40 other states - and I think if you look at that, most of those states that have higher senior mortality locked down hard, they closed schools …”
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