By Clarence McKee | Newsmax
Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis (L) while meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in the
Oval Office of the White House on April 28, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Doug
Mills/The New York Times/Pool/Getty Images)
Congratulations to Florida Republican Governor Ron
DeSantis.
After being excoriated by Democrats and the media for
being cautious and not ordering draconian state-wide lockdowns as have many
other state Democratic governors, he debunked many media-driven doom and gloom
predictions of the coronavirus pandemic's impacts on Florida.
On April 29, the day after he met
with President Trump regarding Florida’s progress in fighting
COVID-19, he held a press
conference to outline his "Safe, Smart,
Step-by-Step" plan to re-open most of Florida.
He correctly declared, "Fear is our enemy. We need
to focus on facts and not fear."
DeSantis then cited several examples of how the media
publicized COVID-19 models fostering fear:
—The Washington
Examiner: "Florida Could Be the Next New York in the
Coronavirus Outbreak."
—FLAPOL: "Demographer
Says Glorida Could Be 'Like an Uber-Italy' During Coronavirus
Outbreak."
—Tampa
Bay Times: " . . . the model predicts 465,699 people will
be hospitalized because of COVID-19 . . . by April 24 but there will only be
36,384 hospital beds available by that date."
—The Orlando
Sentinel: "Projections say the state could run out of ICU beds by
April 14."
—Spectrum
News’ Bay News 9 (Tampa Bay): "There will likely come a point
when there will be no more ventilators to shuffle around, and when that
happens, what's next?"
The preceding serve as excellent examples of fostering
COVID-19 fear.
DeSantis promptly shot down this media hype with the latest
data from Florida’s Department of Health and the Agency for Health Care
Administration (ACHA).
He gave Floridians and the nation the real facts:
- New
York had 117 fatalities per 100,000, and Florida had only 5.2, lower
than eight other states.
- Italy
had 45.8 fatalities per 100,000 compared to Florida’s 5.2.
- As
of April 24, there were only 2,111 hospitalizations, 463,588 less than the
465,699 than the media publicized model predicted.
- Florida’s
Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed availability is 36.5%.
- Florida
has never had a shortage of ventilators and currently has a 74.6%
availability.
You have to look far and wide to find extensive coverage
of these facts, which DeSantis laid out in detail with charts in a presentation
that lasted nearly an hour.
Unfortunately, much of the media and many Democratic
politicians rarely focus on the positive things happening in Florida (and other
states) with pro-Trump governors like Greg Abbott of Texas.
Their preference seems to be media darling Democrats such
as New York's Andrew Cuomo and California's Gavin Newsom.
Or, GOP governors like Mike DeWine of Ohio and Larry
Hogan of Maryland, whose shutdown actions are similar to some of their
Democratic colleagues.
The major media wants us to believe that it is concerned
about the public and the COVID-19 virus. However, its apparent goal is to use
whatever it can to attack the president and those governors, like DeSantis,
whom he supports and who support him.
Many believe there are some Democratic leaders — and
their allies in the press — who either want shutdowns to continue; or, if
ended, result in subsequent waves of virus cases.
Why?
They believe that continued economic pain will allow them
to defeat Trump — forget the nation and the people.
DeSantis is winning for Florida in the fight against
COVID-19, though his critics don't dare admit it.
When he refused
to follow the knee-jerk lead of some governors who immediately
ordered state-wide lockdowns or refused requests of media critics, he was
accused of doing "too
little too late."
Now that he has released his plan to re-open the Sunshine
State, you can bet that some critics will say he is "doing
too much too soon."
Clarence
V. McKee is president of McKee Communications, Inc., a government, political,
and media relations consulting firm in Florida. He held several positions in
the Reagan administration as well as in the Reagan presidential campaigns. He
is a former co-owner of WTVT-TV in Tampa and former president of the Florida
Association of Broadcasters. Read Clarence V. McKee's Reports — More Here.
