Top Three Takeaways – April 1st, 2021
- Play Ball! For the first time since 1968, every Major League Baseball team will play on Opening Day. Baseball’s my first love so Opening Day has always been pretty special to me. Having all teams back in action is especially cool. Much more so after losing 102 games to the pandemic last year. Aside from baseball being back - which is great - the return of America’s pastime, complete with fans in the stands, also illustrates a turning point in the pandemic. So, when we hear: play ball! Today - it’ll be that much sweeter. Btw, the Marlins play ball at 4:10 this afternoon at Marlins Park, now known as loanDepot Park. That’ll take some getting used to. Speaking of which...we’ll have to get used to pitchers hitting again...what’s old is new again in that regard as well.
- No April Fools, just fools. Yeah, Volkswagen executed a weird pre-April fools' prank earlier this week in which they said they’d rebrand their American operations “Voltswagen”. I’m not sure how you can claim “April Fools” on March 29th but they tried? Anyway, whether it’s March 29th or April 1st, people who are intent on carrying out pranks today are likely themselves the April fools. There’s time and place for everything in life and the age of innocence has long passed us by. More than a year into a pandemic we’ve all had enough jokes played on us by real-life. It’s probably foolish to stress folks out in the name of cheap laugh today. That said you could always just listen to President Biden if you’re looking for a few laughs today (before the reality of it makes you cry).
- 800,000. That’s today’s magic number. Why? Because it’s the number of vaccines set to ship to Florida next week according to the CDC’s tracker – the highest total of any week yet. That’s mostly due to a jump in the total of one-dose J&J vaccines...which leads me to my next thought. As of Monday, over 17.2 million of Florida’s 21.5 million residents will be vaccine eligible. Vaccine eligibility is one thing. Vaccine appointments are another. With 5.8 million Floridians having started the vaccination process that leaves...well most of the state potentially vying for appointments. It’s not quite Powerball odds to get an appointment for next week but it’s probably like a Florida Lottery scratcher. With my wife and I already 0 for 4 on the Publix appointment scheduling site and 0 for two weeks with state’s preregistration site...here’s my selfish wish. I’m not in it for the easiest, I’m in it for the best. I’m hoping those newly eligible will vie for the one-dose J&J and will clear the deck for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. After all, at this pace, some who want vaccines today will be waiting until the first week of July to get one. And that’s a two-week improvement from last week. But at a minimum I’d at least like to be able to get vaccinated before 800,000 illegal immigrants in Florida do. That’s the other reason 800k is the magic number today. There’s an effort underway by several interest groups to pressure Governor DeSantis to waive the Florida residency requirement for vaccine appointments. Not so non-Floridians can crash our vax party, but so non-Americans can. That’s because there are an estimated 800,000 illegal immigrants living in Florida right now. Yes, there are those that’d have every one of the vaccines allocated for Florida next week go to those who aren’t even legally here. Good times. Losing out on a vaccine appointment to a fellow Floridian is one thing. Losing out to an illegal immigrant would be outrageous. Thank you for Governor DeSantis.
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