Top Three Takeaways – April 12th, 2021
- Up, up and away... That’s what comes to mind as I’m looking at Florida’s COVID-19 case count. A month ago, we were averaging about 4,500 new daily cases of COVID across our state. Today it’s 6,000. No, I’m not getting caught up in the “4th wave” stuff, but the bottom line is that you’re far more likely to come across the virus today than you were a month ago today. We’re about 56 weeks into the impact of the pandemic in South Florida. Over 90% of Floridians haven’t contracted COVID-19 to date. The last thing you want to do today, after 13 months of avoiding it and staying healthy, is to get careless and become part of tomorrow’s reporting by the Florida Department of Health. And it’s not like we can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. Over 42% of Floridian’s have either already had the virus and recovered from it or have at least started the vaccination process against it. We’re currently pacing a late May time horizon for breaking above 70% - the entry level estimate for herd immunity. This too shall pass and there’s room to be optimistic we’ll have turned the final corner of the pandemic next month. For now, it’s too early to let your guard down. Especially given the prevalence of it driven by...
- Spring Break. In our current society which seems bent on finding something new to be offended by and to cancel daily... How about something that’d have to potential to be constructive this time? How about canceling Spring Break? Actually, Florida’s colleges did that this year and it wasn’t that big of a deal, was it? But the rest of the country didn’t, and you can draw a straight line from the onset of the Spring Break season to the proliferation of cases in Florida. About a month ago I brought you the story that it’s not what happens on the beach that’s a problem as far as the virus goes – it's what’s happening when the Spring Breakers aren’t at the beach. Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber already said it’s a net negative for South Florida’s most visible destination – as anyone who doesn’t want to be part of debauchery stays away anyway. The Spring Break season may finally be over and the college kids along with older adults looking to prey on the college kids may be gone, but unfortunately what happened in Florida – stayed in Florida – speaking of their spreading of the virus.
- In DeSantis he trusts. Last week in a multi-part Q&A I made a strong call on what I felt the future looked like for Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and the Republican party saying...For the moment, DeSantis’s toughest 2024 challenger wouldn’t be whoever runs in Joe Biden’s stead in my view, it’d be Donald Trump if he were to run. I’m of the view that if Donald Trump feels that the Republican Party will turn back to the Romney’s and McCain’s of the party he’ll run. If, however, a candidate that will grow his movement to both reform the Republican Party and put America First takes the helm – I think he’ll support them. I believe that one of Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump will run for president in 2024. I don’t believe both will. Fast forward to this weekend’s GOP retreat at Mar-a-Lago where Trump had this to say... I stand before you this evening filled with confidence that in 2022, we are going to take back the House and we are going to reclaim the Senate — and then in 2024, a Republican candidate is going to win the White House. The choice of words is key. While he clearly left the door open to running again in 2024, he left just as much room open for a, or perhaps better said – the Republican candidate he trusts.
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