Last update: Saturday 2/11/23
Nevertheless, that note went on to present CDC data that showed that his management of the COVID pandemic in Florida attained the same low number of deaths per 100,000 members of his red state's vulnerable 65+ residents as did California, the bluest of blue states.
A. The DeSantis strategy -- opportunities, not mandates
Governor DeSantis rejected all CDC guidance with one crucial exception: he used his state's considerable resources to provide extensive opportunities for all residents who were 65+ and their caregivers to become vaccinated -- opportunities, not mandates. By rejecting all guidance about lockdowns, social distancing, masks, remote classes, etc, etc, etc, he enabled Floridians to return to normal living in early 2021. Florida thereby ended the disruptions to its economy and to its school systems that continued to be endured by other states that adhered to the CDC's guidance, e.g., California. See the previous note on this blog for a full discussion of the governor's policies and their results.
Governor DeSantis was reelected in 2022 in a landslide because his message to the GOP voters and to the independent voters of Florida that he provided opportunity without disruptive mandates was more appealing to them than the messages of disruptive mandates that were endlessly repeated by the CDC and the mainstream media. Unfortunately, the governor was a very imperfect messenger.
B. Thousands of lives might have been saved in Texas
A recent op ed in the New York Times discussed the tactics of Governor DeSantis' as a culture warrior, referring to his "wicked wisdom" as the engine driving his recent national political gains, specifically, to his decision to focus on issues that set minority interest groups against one another.
- "The ‘Wicked Wisdom’ of Ron DeSantis", Charles M. Blow, NY Times, 2/16/23
Of course, being an op ed in the nation's leading mainstream newspaper, the note also conveyed misinformation to its liberal/progressive readers by failing to mention the substantial political power the governor consolidated in Florida and elsewhere by his data-driven COVID policies that enabled Floridians to return to normal living in early 2021, two years ahead of the rest of the country.
Had other red state governors adopted the DeSantis "vaccinate the elderly and their caregivers" strategy, a strategy that was far more acceptable to most GOP voters, then thousands of lives might have been saved in other red states. The following paragraphs estimate the number of lives that might have been saved in Texas, a red state and the nation's second most populous state.
The editor of this blog extracted data for COVID deaths by age groups shown in the following table from the CDC's Provisional COVID-19 Deaths by Sex and Age dataset in June 2022. Populations of the 65+ age groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau's NST_EST2021_POP table. The editor's complete analysis was included in the following note on this blog:
Table 2D. Deaths per 100,000 in Ages 65+
| Florida | Texas | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TotDeaths65plus | 51,942 | 63,194 | |||
| TotPop65plus | 4,347,912 | 3,593,369 | |||
| DeathsPer100K65plus | 1,195 | 1,759 |
Note that the deaths per 100,00 for the 65+ age group in Florida is only 1,195 whereas the death rate for this age group in Texas is 1,759. Had the governor of Texas followed the DeSantis GOP-acceptable vaccination strategy -- with the same enthusiasm as Governor DeSantis -- the Texas death rate would have been about the same as the death rate in Florida; therefore only 1,195 / 100,00 * 3,593,369 = 42,940 older Texas residents would have died. This would have saved 63,194 - 42,940 = 20,254 lives in Texas.
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Links to related notes on this blog:
"COVID misinformation from infectious disease experts", Last update: 2/4/23
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