Q&A of the Day – How subjective is the reopening process in South Florida?
Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
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Today’s entry: Why are we (Palm Beach County) behind Miami-Dade and Broward opening businesses up?!? Our counts are lower.
Bottom Line: What we’re witnessing with local decision makers is completely subjective. That’s where we have to start this question in order to provide an answer. We’ve not been through this before. No South Florida government has ever imposed the executive authority over our lives which has occurred during this pandemic and thus it’s all just being made up on the fly. That’s not to suggest all actions are wrong or to inherently condemn actions that have and continue to be taken, but context is key. I have a saying that somewhat applies to what we’re living through. Don’t try to rationalize the inherently irrational.
Your question, about why Palm Beach County would be trailing opening measures in Broward and Miami-Dade is based on logic. There’s nothing to suggest decision makers in Palm Beach County are using it generally – ditto governments in Broward and Miami-Dade. For example, is classroom education taking place throughout Asia? Yes. Is classroom education taking place throughout, Europe? Yes. Are there widespread issues with the virus related to classroom education in these countries? No. Is this part of the conversation taking place with our school districts? No. Is that logical? What about lockdowns. Where was the pandemic worst? New York City. When was it worst? During the lockdowns. When did it improve? When masks were worn and social distancing used. In fact, is there any empirical evidence lockdowns are more effective than the use of masks and social distancing in public? No. So, is it logical that businesses would still be shut down?
About our test rates. Here’s something else that will illustrate a point regarding the subjectivity. 64 of Florida’s 67 counties are in phase two reopening. Only the TriCounty is not. Is the county with the highest relative case count one of them? No. It’s Lafayette in Florida’s panhandle. In fact, when it comes to Broward and Palm Beach Counties here’s something that will really make you go hmm. There are 16 counties – 16, that have a higher population adjusted case count. As for Palm Beach County – yes, the comparisons are even more absurd. 29 counties have a higher population adjusted case count than Palm Beach County. Yes, nearly half of the state of Florida.
Have you heard this anywhere? Is this a topic of conversation at any of the county commission meetings? Have the school districts discussed this information? Yet It's all readily available all of the time on the Florida Department of Health’s dashboard. So back to where I started. In a subjective process, with a policy response being made up on the go by local officials, we’re being governed by what we voted for – whether it’s logical or as mostly appears to be the case in South Florida...not.