Top Three Takeaways – June 1st, 2021
- A new month, a new hurricane season & a new campaign. I’ll start with some good news because there’s plenty of it, starting with how much has changed in a year. We entered last June with COVID-19 cases starting to spike in our state. After having fared especially well in the earliest months of the pandemic, June was the month where COVID-19 began to make its presence felt in a big way. For six weeks, starting June 1st, Florida’s trend for new cases rose daily taking Florida from fewer than 1,000 per day to nearly 12,000 six weeks later. One year later it’s the opposite. Our trend for new cases has decreased for six consecutive weeks and by the end of last week, Florida’s trend for coronavirus cases was the lowest it’s been since June 17th of last year. And unlike last year, nearly 60% of Florida’s adults have been vaccinated with at least a first dose of a vaccine and another 10% or so have had the virus. Herd immunity conversations generally begin at around 70% and that’s just about where we appear to be in Florida entering the month. Hopefully that trend continues as well as an improved trend for...
- A new hurricane season. As this season kicks off there are already two positives. Last year we’d already had two named storms on our way to a record setting 30 during the season. This year there’s just been one and hopefully that’ll start a trend of halving the activity during the course of the season which would put it near the midpoint of NOAA’s forecast. Also, we’re starting the season with the Hurricane Center’s five day forecast in the clear. Speaking of good trends here’s another that’d be great to continue. No hurricanes in South Florida. While we’ve had close calls with monsters like Dorian & Matthew did you realize that last hurricane which brought hurricane force winds to Southeast Florida was Irma in 2017? And for that matter can you name the last hurricane to make landfall in Southeast Florida? Remarkably, it was Wilma in 2005. While our fellow Floridians in the keys and on the gulf coast of Florida haven’t been so fortunate, we’re entering this hurricane season three full years removed from the last time we faced hurricane force conditions and 15 full years since we took a direct impact. Given the increase in activity in recent years that’s especially remarkable. Here’s to lucky number 16.
- A campaign that officially kicks off. And today’s the day that Nikki Fried officially enters the governor’s race. As I mentioned on Friday, things haven’t exactly gone according to her plan. After having been proved a liar for asserting Governor DeSantis engaged in pay-for-play vaccines, she enters the race with not even a quarter of Democrats wanting her to be governor - with Democrats currently opting for Charlie Crist by a greater than 2 to 1 margin. What’s more is that her continued failure as Agriculture Commissioner to comply with the Clean Water Ways Act since last summer, has already culminated in record readings for toxic algae in Lake Okeechobee and most recently, toxic algae found in the drinking water of Palm Beach, South Palm Beach and West Palm Beach residents over Memorial Day weekend. The icing on the cake...a lawsuit challenging Florida’s medical marijuana laws, which she supported, was struck down on Friday by 6-1 ruling in Florida’s Supreme Court. Unlike our positive coronavirus and hurricane season trends, Nikki’s currently on the quite the losing streak. Unfortunately, Floridians are too, in part, because she continues to fail our waterways in her current job.
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