We're Dying Here': Florida Newspaper Pleads With DeSantis To Step Up COVID-19 Fight

[FM123]

(HuffPost) “Your daily upbeat message is hopelessly at odds with what Floridians are going through,” said a Sun Sentinel editorial calling for mask mandate.

A leading Florida newspaper pleaded in an editorial for more action by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to battle COVID-19, reminding him: “We’re dying here.”

“With each passing day, COVID-19 continues to careen out of control in Florida,” said the Thursday editorial in the Sun Sentinel. “Your daily upbeat message is hopelessly at odds with what Floridians are going through. You make it sound like everything is headed in the right direction. But it’s not.”

Florida hit a record number of deaths from COVID-19 three days running this week, climbing from 191 deaths on Tuesday to the latest record of 253 deaths on Thursday. The state surpassed New York’s total number of cases last Saturday.

The editorial pleaded with DeSantis to issue a statewide mask requirement — which is already a regulation in 32 other states. A new Quinnipiac poll has found that 79% of Floridians support a mask requirement, including 60% of Republicans, the editorial noted. “If that’s not a mandate, what is?” the newspaper asked.

DeSantis was one of the last governors in the nation to lock down his state amid the COVID-19 crisis, and among the first to open it back up. A blistering article in The Washington Post revealed that DeSantis sidelined health experts as the disease ravaged his state, instead turning to the White House for marching orders on getting businesses back up and running despite the risks.

Florida’s record on addressing the pandemic is so abysmal that at least 12 states have “singled out Floridians for 14-day quarantines should we dare to fly north to escape the heat and whatever lurks in the air,” noted the Sun Sentinel.

“Who can blame them? Florida now boasts the second highest number of cases per 100,000 people, with 2,008,” it added. (New Jersey currently has the highest number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in the nation.)

“Help us out, governor,” the editorial was headlined. “We’re dying here.”

It concluded: “The science is clear: Face coverings reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus and can save lives. Issue a mask mandate, governor.”

DeSantis has not commented on the editorial, which can be read in its entirety here. https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-op-edit-desantis-masks-20200729-klyb3eypgfcyhpsb3ezmxx4fkm-story.html

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dying-desantis-florida-covid-19-help-sun-sentinel_n_5f233f52c5b68fbfc880d27f

[NCjack]

1. Your plea "Help us out, governor" has been received by Gov. DeSantos. He has

bucked it to Pres. Trump, who is expected to buck it to Comrade Putin. Expect action about January 21, 2021.

[snowybirdie]

2. People have to

just follow their own beliefs at this point. We can't look for leadership in Florida any longer. So we stay home for the most part, shop only when necessary, and wear a mask when we do. That's life for us seniors for the next few years. No one needs bars and restaurants all the time. Very sorry for that industry, but people need to protect themselves and loved ones. After all, beer is deliverable, as is wine. Grub hub etc delivers restaurant food and the internet provides a vast amount of entertainment. Hope it works for us and we pray for those it doesnt. Good luck my fellow Floridians!

[NCjack]

3. His current term ends on January 3, 2023. Perhaps he should be terminated by recall before

he murders half of the people in Florida.

[NCDem47]

4. Truth. Pretty much sums it up.

Florida...so much potential. But, ugh. (I was born and raised there). There's a reason wackos gravitate toward end-of-the-line. Strong Democratic clusters along Southeast Fla., I-4 corridor and college towns. But damn those RW nut jobs that have infiltrated SW Fla, The Villages and the panhandle. Florida gets socked with the yin and yang of horrible Republicans: 1.) low-infomation working class/retirees and 2.) Millionaires and billionaires seeking a tax shelter. The politics in Tallahassee are atrocious!!

[avebury]

5. Republican mind boggling mishandling of COVID-19 has reached the point

where they should be charged with crimes against humanity.

[spinbaby]

6. They're solving it with less testing

Not only did testing in Florida drop by 45% over two weeks, they’ve shut down testing until Tuesday because a cat 1 hurricane is clipping the east coast.

[genxlib]

7. My daughter is going to be stuck in dorm jail for 2 weeks

On her way to college in Ohio State and we have been singled out as a plague state in need of a quarantine.

Thanks deSantis.

As an aside, I think it speaks to the state of testing in this Country that a 14 day quarantine is the answer to this problem. A quick and accurate test would accomplish the same thing but we are stuck with the solution from the dark ages because we can't get our shit together. Argh!!!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. Kick