A coda to yesterday’s post about the recent Associated Press story contrasting the divergent pandemic mitigation efforts of California and Florida, which took starkly different policy paths on restrictions, then ended up in nearly the exact same place on COVID — and distinctly different places on the economy and other key measures. Despite “almost identical” health outcomes, per the AP, California has destroyed far more jobs and businesses, with unemployment jumping sharply, and in-person classroom instruction is among the worst in the nation. Florida has been far more open, has held down economic suffering, and is near the front of the class on open schools. In my tweet on the issue, I asked the question, “where would you rather live?” It seems as though Florida Democrats who are eager to defeat Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022 are struggling with the realization that his much-maligned decisions, demonized endlessly in the media, might have been…right:
After a solid year of living with a pandemic, the national press is beginning to ask the question that even Democrats have been quietly pondering in the Sunshine State: Was Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pandemic response right for Florida? … Our death rate is no worse than the national average — and better than some states with tighter restrictions … The New York Times explored the positives — from the booming real-estate market to Florida’s low unemployment rate — of an early reopening: “Much of the state has a boomtown feel,” writes Patricia Mazzei, “a sense of making up for months of lost time.” The Times notes that Florida’s unemployment rate is 5.1%, compared to 9.3% in California, 8.7% in New York and 6.9% in Texas. “That debate about reopening schools? It came and went months ago. Children have been in classrooms since the fall.”