Months ago, as businesses began to close their doors and people were told to stay home, many of us imagined that by July, the coronavirus numbers would have gone way down across the country. But while some states have been able to flatten the curve and keep people out of the hospital, others are seeing their numbers surge — and in the middle of summer. Florida, in particular, has seen its numbers continue to rise steadily. Now nearly one-third of children who have been tested have tested positive.
The new numbers are pretty staggering as Florida becomes the new epicenter for COVID-19 cases. Florida is largely a tourist state where people gather from all over while vacationing. But more importantly, the state was slower than most to shut down. It was also quick to reopen bars, restaurants, and popular tourist spots. Even as cases began to surge once again in the state, authorities didn't halt or slow down their efforts toward reopening.
Of the 54,022 people under the age of 18 who have been tested for COVID-19 in Florida, 16,797 of them, which is about 31%, have tested positive, according to new data. While at first it appeared that children weren't contracting the virus as easily as adults, these new numbers are massive. By comparison, only about 11% of everyone in the state who has been tested for the virus has tested positive.
It has many asking questions about how safely Florida officials have handled the pandemic and what that means for kids, families, and the greater public. States have taken massively different approaches toward shutting down. But in Florida, it's hard to ignore the fact that those efforts were minimal and lagging. Beaches, bars, restaurants, movie theaters, and entertainment venues are mostly open again, earlier than most other states. Even as numbers continue to grow, Governor Ron DeSantis has said that the state has no plans to roll back its reopening efforts. He has also repeatedly rejected making wearing masks mandatory.
Just after reporting the state's highest one-day spike since the pandemic began, officials said it had nothing to do with how quickly they reopened. Governor DeSantis said they would not slow their approach either. "We're not shutting down. We're going to go forward. We're not rolling back. You have to have society function," DeSantis said at the end of June.
Universal Orlando Resort welcomed back guests on June 5, and Disney World reopened this week. "The world is a different place, but we feel really prepared to operate in this new environment that we're in," Josh D'Amaro, Disney chairman of parks, experiences and products, told CNN.
Still, Disney World employees have said they don't feel safe coming to work. And there has already been a ton of criticism about the reopening of the park. At the opening of the Magic Kingdom on July 11, images of long lines at Guest Services were circulated on social media. It appeared that social distancing protocols were not being enforced.
Many parents are feeling more uneasy now than ever about the idea of sending their kids back to school. With one in three kids testing positive in the state of Florida, that plan seems a bit confounding. But Governor DeSantis is continuing to push for schools to reopen.
While it seems accurate to say that kids aren't as high risk as older individuals in most cases, they still play a serious role in community transmission. Dr. Megan Culler Freeman, a virologist and pediatrician at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, told NPR that a possible reason we haven't seen high numbers in kids is because they simply aren't as likely to be tested, probably because their symptoms are more mild.
Still, we clearly know that kids are contracting the virus. The death rate has been low for those children. Of the 213 children who have been hospitalized for the virus in Florida, four of them have died. But there have been warnings from health experts about long-term impacts of the virus.
Dr. Alina Alonso is the director of Palm Beach County's health department. She says there is a lot that remains to be seen in how the virus impacts children and what the long-term effects are. "They are seeing there is damage to the lungs in these asymptomatic children," she said, citing X-ray records, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "We don't know how that is going to manifest a year from now or two years from now," she said. "Is that child going to have chronic pulmonary problems or not?"
While cases continue to rise, officials in Florida seem largely unfazed by the reports. Governor DeSantis recently blamed the media for the state's quick reopening, which he has repeatedly stood behind anyway. He claimed the media stopped reporting on COVID-19 back in May, and he wasn't asked questions about it during media briefings, therefore the public got complacent.
Just yesterday, Florida set a new one-day death record for COVID-19 with 156 deaths. These new numbers should help Floridians understand the real risks of the virus and encourage them to take proper precautions. However, the state also needs leadership, and right now it seems that the pandemic is still not being taken seriously by some elected officials set on keeping the state open at all costs.
