timschochet
Footballguy
You’re right about all of this.I think Florida had the nation's largest delta surge in Jul-Sep 2021. Higher case rate, hospitalization rate, higher death rate than in Florida's earlier surges and higher than any of California's state-wide surges. About equal to the LA county Dec 2020 - Feb 2021 surge. At its peak in Florida, 200 people were dying daily and hospitals had their highest covid census ever, mostly unvaxxed people with diabetes, COPD, etc, many in their 40s and 50s.
Florida survived and cases dropped dramatically with no real shutdown. Mask requirements returned in many stores, and people became more cautious. Nurses and doctors got burned out again and some medical procedures were post-poned. In-person schooling remained with mask mandates in blue counties. BTW, the superintendent of the Miami-Dade school system is leaving to fix the LA school system. He successfully pushed back against DeSantis and stuck with school mask mandates.
But- let’s suppose the absolute worst being reported is correct: that Omicron is 70 times more contagious and no more mild than Delta. If that is the case then the hospitals will fill up like nothing we saw in 2020- and if that happens then even a guy like DeSantis will be forced to go along with a shutdown.