Saturday, May 9, 2020

Opening Up From Covid19. Compare the Governors

Last night we ate out in a restaurant in Naples. They're just open this week and people are coming back. The beaches here in southwest Florida are now open. The golf courses have never been closed. "Social distancing" is the rule but masks are discretionary. There's been a light touch on the less populated areas of the state. So far, so good. It's been pointed out that The Villages, with its 100,000+ population of older residents has had very limited number of cases with no Covid19 patients presently in its hospital.

Governor DeSantis has been getting praise for his decision making. Going by "Suttons Law" he went where the money was and early on took aggressive measures to protect nursing home patients. Also, given the known characteristics of the virus he judged that being outdoors in the sun was a good place to start reopening. Of course, the climate here is a big advantage since getting outside is what everyone does. Overall, the pace of opening is fast enough to prevent the grumbling and protesting faced by some governors such as Governor Whitmer in Michigan.

I'm informed now that NEPA will continue to be locked down until June 4th. As much as we'd enjoy getting back to our townhouse there's not much sense in going back to sit in the house all day. At the same time I saw reported that almost 70% of the deaths in PA were in nursing home or assisted living residents. Is that something just to be accepted or is it possible that more aggressive efforts, such as those taken in Florida, to protect those individuals could make a big change in the total picture.

Governor Cuomo, in contrast to Governor DeSantis, seems to have made significant blunders. He called for wildly inflated numbers of ventilators and hospital beds, which were nevertheless provided by the federal government. But when faced with the problem of nursing homes reluctant to take back residents hospitalized and likely still infected with Covid 19 he mandated their return instead of considering having them convalesce in the available empty virus adapted beds.

Leaving the removal of restrictions to the discretion of the individual states was a good plan. The idea is very much in keeping with our very salutary governmental philosophy of federalism which allows for the dispersion of political power into the hands of the of the citizens where it belongs. Decisions are therefore adapted to the local situation. It also allows us to compare and contrast, and learn from, the various approaches to the problem.

Personal freedom, requiring at the same time self-control and responsibility, is the hallmark of our republic. So make your feelings known folks. You're the boss.

 

 

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

 

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