Field Report: Virus Response in South Florida

South Florida is a hotspot.

A hotspot of warm climate, of senior citizens, of ethnic diversity, and of Covid infection and death.

Thad Guyer gives a field report on conditions there. 

Thad is about my age, a boomer, a veteran, an activist attorney who now fights for whistleblowing employees. Earlier in his career took on cases on behalf of people victims of police brutality while being arrested or incarcerated. 

I get complaints about Thad's Guest Posts here, saying he is extreme, that he has unreasonable hatred for Biden, that he sounds like Trump sometimes, only sort of liberal.nAll fair points.

But Thad also provides this blog with useful information on facts on the ground, in previous posts and this one. Who is wearing a mast; what is the Covid testing regimen; how are young people behaving in bars. He also offers a first person perspective on what Thad--and perhaps people like him--think.

Firm handshake, big smile.

I don't share Thad's contempt for Biden. I have seen Biden up close. He comes across more like a old-time Senator windbag than as a vigorous, dynamic leader, but he is not the drooling spaced out fool that he is made out to be in GOP ads. He is better in set teleprompter speeches than when speaking extemporaneously, when his answers ramble. 

He is not just not-Trump. In some respects he is the opposite of Trump, and that may be all this political moment can handle. Trump has been a white hot center of attention, and has exhausted a lot of Americans. Biden is time out, a time for the county to sit quietly, and just what the county might want.

Below is the long comment Thad Guyer sent me today. I am doing more Guest Posts than usual, just now. I tested negative for Covid, but positive for cellulitis, a bacterial infection that has caused my right foot and leg to swell up. It is under control and the antibiotics are working, but this is a good time to quote others, while I elevate my leg and sit quietly, a bit of time out. It is what feels right after a period of high fever.

Guest Post by Thad Guyer

“Deep Blue South Florida: Covid-19, Boring!”

     If the premise that one’s sensitivity to the virus is whether they know someone who was hospitalized or died, that would explain why young Democrats here (under age 55) could care less about the virus. Much of the divide between blue and red demographics is based on the overt politicization of the virus by both parties.  Biden clearly believes that to win, Democrats must paint the worst possible picture of Trump’s Covid-19 response, the GOP believes it must depict the best possible picture.  And since the media is the news distributor, and since Americans trust it less than ever before, Covid-19 news is doubted by both red and blue readers.

     People most believe what they see, not what they hear second hand.  To date, I don’t first-hand know a single person who tested positive, much less was hospitalized or died, with one exception—my neighbors husband and wife team, both in their 40’s tested positive, but have experienced no debilitating symptoms whatsoever. Both Democrats, they wear masks and socially distance, but they don’t quarantine.  Our main street and beach fronts are packed all the time with diners and drinkers, which means they don’t have to wear masks as food and beverage customers. And that’s a big plus to at least 70% of the blue population here.  

     I live 100 yards from a private Catholic grade school that has 40% Black and Hispanic kids.  Today was the first day of school, the cars were lined up for the drop off service, kids and parents super excited and supportive of school reopening.  They are blue voters.

     Almost everyone I meet is well informed about the virus, which means they have a lot of incomplete and changing information as the CDC and local health officials lurch from one theory to another about masks, viral loads, surface contamination, etc.  People have reasonably concluded (1) the chances of infection are very high, (2) the chances of serious health consequences are very low, (3) the chances of death are almost non-existent for their demographic, (4) the “millions will die, hide in your home” initial storyline was grossly exaggerated, and (5) neither party is more credible than the other on what to fear or not.

     A low death rate pandemic like Covid-19 is a dangerous thing to build a campaign on if what you need is a high death rate to attribute to Trump.  Biden is being ridiculed by pundits in both parties for his quick proclamation to ABC News that he would “shut down the country” again if his “scientists” told him too.  There is no vaccine for idiocy.  

There is no serum that will allow Democrats to win the White House with an idiot as our candidate to unseat a personality impaired autocrat willing to say or do almost anything to take the election.

Dump Biden!




[Note: Coming later, some comments on the GOP convention. They are trying to make Trump seem kinder and gentler.]