If it weren’t for the fact that this involves illness and death, keeping tabs on Florida and COVID-19 could be entertaining.
That said, I’m having a hard time facing the current news this afternoon.
Instead, I’m going to look back to the 2020 summer surge in Florida, and list off off all the people and things that the governor of Florida tried to blame for that surge.
If nothing else, it give current headlines a sense of deja vu.
Summer 2020
In summer 2020, Florida had a surge in cases. At that time, the governor of Florida outdid himself in pointing the finger at things that were either untrue or irrelevant.
Let me start with a snippet from something I posted at the time.
First, the increase in cases was all due to increased testing.
Source: WINK news, June 11, 2020.
Until it wasn’t.
Source: Politico, June 20, 2020.
Time lag: 9 days.
Well, then, if it’s not testing, it must be due to Hispanic farm workers. At this time, recall, Trump was President. So the governor of Florida couldn’t blame illegal immigrants, because those no longer existed at that time.
No, wait, it was all due to media hype. No, wait again, it was spread by left-wing protesters.
Source: https://floridapolitics.com/archives/345938-desantis-media-protest-virus/
No, wait, none of the above. It’s those gosh-darned young people:
I’ve been studying this for more than a year now, and I have no clue what he meant in blaming this on a “flatter curve”. I think he meant “it didn’t go away, but instead, the curve stayed flat”.
And, like any Southern good ol’ boy, it never hurts to blame it on those damned Yankees. Although I believe the preferred term is carpetbaggers.
Source: Politifact
Eisenhower he is not, but capable of stealing a phrase he is. Actually, we can blame last year’s so-called surge on the testing-industrial complex, plus fake death counts.
Source: Newsweek
No, guess again, the people who are really to blame are those who won’t wear masks:
He was saying that, of course, except when he was saying that masks don’t work, and mask mandates are useless.
Source: Clickorlando.com
But, in terms of a timeless headline, I’d say that the Guardian captured it quite well. This was true in 2020, it’s true in 2021, and if this pandemic continues, it’s a fair bet it’ll be true next year as well:
