Florida Governor Ron DeathSantis suggested that hugging nursing home residents who are vulnerable to COVID-19 if fine so long as you wear PPE. He is notorious for wearing one blue glove during a press conference and not knowing how to put on a mask. He spoke against “fixating” on testing for COVID-19 when developing plans for allowing loved ones to visit vulnerable residents of long-term care facilities.
He said, “Do not only fixate on testing… look, I’m comfortable with the PPE,” DeathSantis said. “Hell, hug ’em, I mean come on. If you have PPE on and you hug and don’t sneeze or do something on them, you’re going to be fine… obviously, if you’re there for 30 minutes doing that and then you do, well then that’s going to be a different situation.” He followed with, “But to just have… just go give a hug, I think you could do that, and I think that would be very meaningful,” he added. “I kind of feel like to stay six feet away, it’s kind of still, you know, providing the reminder that it’s still not normal… so I do think the touch is important.”
Yesterday Florida saw over 16,000 new cases of COVID-19 as testing re-opened after testing sites were shut down due to the hurricane. That is a new record for any state of recorded cases in a single day. To date the state has 550,101 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 8238 deaths.
Despite the surge, DeathSantis hopes to again allow visits to nursing and other care homes, which had been halted in mid-March when the Florida outbreak was much smaller. He supports immediately allowing those who test positive for COVID-19 antibodies to visit loved ones, claiming that a positive antibody test indicates that a person is immune to the virus for “six months.” There is no clear consensus among experts that an antibody test proves a person is immune to the virus. There are over 11,000 cases of COVID-19 in Retirement Communities and over 2900 deaths.
In an interview with CNN‘s Brianna Keilar, Dr. Adrian Burrowes from Orlando said it is reckless and irresponsible for Florida Governor Ron DeathSantis to say it is safe to hug with PPE on during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A hug can communicate that we are safe, that we are loved and that we are not alone. However in the age of COVID-19, the safest thing is to avoid hugs. If you need a hug, take precautions. Wear a mask. Hug outdoors. Try to avoid touching the other person’s body or clothes with your face and your mask. Don’t hug someone who is coughing or has other symptoms. Try not to cry. Tears and runny noses increase the risk for coming into contact with more fluids that contain the virus.