Give Me Drink or Give Me Death

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For weeks in multiple states, armed protestors, encouraged by Donald Trump have been demanding the freedom to get back to work. Governor Tony Evers of Wisconsin wanted to move slower than the president in re-opening his state during the pandemic. Conservative justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court overruled the governors stay at home order leaving the state with no public health restrictions or any plan on a re-opening safely. Wisconsin is now the only state in the nation without a single protective measure in place to combat Codid-19. The judges made this ruling from the safety of a video conference.

Across the lake in Michigan, armed protestors entered the state capitol and stood in the upper gallery above law makers prompting at least one lawmaker to put on a bullet proof vest. Protestors chanted: “Our House” and “Let Us In”. Despite this, Governor Gretchen Whitmer extended the stay at home order to May 28, 2020. She has issued over 75 executive orders in an attempt to keep her constituents safe. Law makers have been arguing about weather to ban guns in the capitol. One argument is that State Police should arrest anyone entering the building with a weapon. A 32 years old man was arrested on counts of terrorism for making death threats against Governor Whitmer. Joe Biden is considering Whitmer as a possible running mate.

After the Wisconsin “Safer at Home” order was overruled, nurse Katie Koutsky, decided to help her sister re-open her bar. She was filmed by a local news station in the crowded bar not wearing a mask. She said, “I don’t think the risk presents any higher than me going to a grocery store.” She later walked back that statement saying, “I’d like to express my regret for not wearing a mask or practicing social distancing while there,” she said in a statement released by Advocate Aurora Health. She is quarantining herself for the next seven days.

Health care workers are usually seen as the heroes fighting against the virus putting themselves in harms way. They sacrifice for the greater good. Her flippant disregard for public safety put her in the camp of the protestors, who demand and threaten without concern for others. Protestors wanted the liberty to rush and crowd back into bars. Drunks are not great at social distancing.

The Orlando Weekly reported that several downtown bars have not been following Phase 1 rules about re-opening. If a business earns more than half its income from the sale of alcohol it is supposed to remain closed. On May 4, the OPD found four Orlando bars operating despite the Ron DeSantis Phase 1 executive order which states that a bar should not be open for on-premise consumption of alcohol. Officers advised the owners on the guidelines. Despite this, two bars continues serving drinks for consumption. The Dapper Duck and Downtown Pourhouse continued serving drinks. Since they saw no penalty to not do so. No one has been reprimanded or fined. Three days later the bars still were not complying. Bars being closed are a flashpoint for many. Some would kill for a drink.

Are you helping or complaining?

Phase 1

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that Florida will go into a Full Phase One Opening on Monday May 18, 2020. Gyms throughout the state will reopen along with restaurants and retail stores, which so far have been allowed to reopen at 25 percent capacity. They can now serve patrons at 50 percent capacity. Theme parks will remain closed for now. Movie theaters throughout the state will also remain closed. Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said during a virtual town hall Friday that fitness centers and gyms in Miami-Dade County will remain closed for the time being.

Over 40 states are at some stage of re-opening at the height of the pandemic. Public health experts warn that this increased activity is likely to cause a surge of new infections. Most states are seeing a plateau, with neither a significant rise nor fall in reported daily cases. Far fewer states are seeing a sustained decline – or a “downward trajectory of documented cases within a 14-day period” as recommended by the White House reopening guidelines.

“There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control” by reopening too quickly, said infectious-disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci in Senate testimony May 12, 2020 “leading to some suffering and death that could be avoided.”

Dr. Rick Bright the ousted director of a key federal office charged with developing medical countermeasures, testified before the senate om May 14, 2020. He said, “Our window of opportunity is closing. If we fail to develop a national coordinated response, based in science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged, causing unprecedented illness and fatalities. Without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be darkest winter in modern history.”

Experts at Harvard University have said 900,000 tests a day are needed in the US to reopen the economy. That’s about 275 tests per 100,000 people per day – only nine states are around this level of testing currently. Many other states which have already begun to reopen fall below that benchmark, such as Georgia, Florida and Colorado. Trump seems to think testing is overrated.

Pre-Pandemic: Dickson Azalia Park

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Prior to the Pandemic I was doing a series of sketches of Orlando’s Significant Trees. This was the final series f sketches I was doing before the sate wide lock down. Dickson Azalea Park (100 Rose Garden Drive) is a rare gem in Orlando. Of note in this scene are the Long Leaf Pine trees which are about 100 years old. They are extremely tall because they had to compete for light against the Oak trees which grow along the upper edge of the ravine.

The paths in this park follow a stream and the entire park is sunk because of erosion, sort of like a mini grand canyon only less orange. I have become infatuated with the pattern that tree branches make against the sky. Working with the complexity of natural forms I also have an excuse to just play with the paint, sometimes just splattering the page for pattern.

I have just 3 of these locations yet to visit, but I stopped after the stay at home order. I have no need to have my work labeled #floridamoron because I risk my life for the sake of any one painting. Instead, I stay in and paint the nightmare that is modern politics that first didn’t recognize the problem and then does as little as possible to resolve it.

On March 3, 2020 the day this sketch was done, California Governor Gavin Newsom released millions of N-95 face masks to be used in low emergency health settings. That state was mobilizing every level of government to address the impending threat of the virus. On March 3, the third case of Covid-19 was diagnosed in Florida. One was a 29-year-old Hillsborough County woman who had recently traveled
to Italy and the second was a 63-year-old Manatee County man who had
contact with someone who tested positive. The third patient, was a 22-year-old California woman, who was the sister of the
29-year-old Hillsborough County woman who was diagnosed after traveling
to Italy. On this day the Florida Department of Health first set up a Covid-19 hotline. On the day after this sketch was done Florida Governor Ron DeSantis informed Orlando residents, “that the risk of contracting the coronavirus is low for Floridians.” He was clearly WRONG, and should have been preparing for what was to come.

A few people have complained about my dark pandemic illustration series, so periodically I will just post a pretty tree for contrast with the harsh realities we face. There is good reason to someday, somehow return to a new normal. But this can not happen until our country gets serious about testing and tracing to isolate those that are infected. People are protesting the stay at home orders, but they are risking their own lives and the lives of others because anyone carrying a picket sign could be infected.

Today over 27,000 people are infected in Florida and 800 have died. The numbers don’t begin to hint at the precious lives lost and the creative potential of every person who died needlessly. One of my favorite artists, Egon Schile died in the pandemic of 1918. Who knows what he might have created had he survived.

Florida Restaurants Re-Open

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had issued an order allowing restaurants to re-open in Florida. Phase one of the re-opening plan allows restaurants and retail stores to reopen Monday, May 4, 2020.

Restaurants will be able to use outdoor seating if they have a permit. Inside, they’ll be able
in the first phase of the state’s plan to use just 25% of their seating
capacity.  Violation of 25% capacity limits and
other restrictions remain a second-degree misdemeanor with a fine up to
$500. Regulated businesses may face enforcement action for violations
from their regulatory agency.

A statewide shelter-in-place order expires Thursday May 30, 2020, but DeSantis says
people should continue to practice social distancing and not socialize
in groups larger than 10. He’s also asked those who are medically
vulnerable and the elderly to remain at home as much as possible. Officials said the 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew in Orange County will remain
through next week and then county leaders will reassess.

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said, “We don’t want it to open too quickly without a plan in place.” “In order for people to have ample time to prepare to get their workers
back to work and get all the equipment they need, it takes some
planning,” He said.

AdventHealth’s Dr. Scott Brady brought a list of six guidelines he recommends for all businesses.

Those guidelines include:

  • Universal masking of all employees and guests
  • Continue keeping people six feet apart
  • Quickly sending symptomatic people for testing and treatment
  • Make sure employees practice aggressive hand hygiene
  • Sanitize work surfaces after contact with employees and guests
  • Temperature checks for all employees and guests

Many
of the business owners within the task force expressed concerns with
requiring businesses to give temperature checks to all customers too. Chuck Whitall, President of
Unicorp National Development, a title which clearly makes him a self proclaimed medical expert, said, “I don’t think it’s
practical to do this to customers,” Brady stood by his recommendations with a stern warning for the group. “Just
breathing with a fever spreads this virus,” Brady said. “There is more a
chance that this virus spreads and we have to shut everything down,
there is more of a chance than less of a chance. I just want to caution
you to be very, very careful.” 

Demings was not ready to give an exact date for reopening in
Orange County yet but, he noted that any plan
would need to include a phased approach. He said having the economy back
in its pre-Covid-19 swing by May 11, 2020 was not “very realistic.” “Our work isn’t over and while these plans will provide a path to
gradually and safely restart our economy, they must not lure us into
thinking that we’re going to go back into business as normal because the
virus is still going to be here and life is not normal,” Orlando Mayor
Buddy Dyer said. “The hard truth is that we are building a new normal
and it will be a different way of life for everyone and a different way
of doing things to keep us all safe.”

A new study of a Covid-19 outbreak tied to a restaurant in China is re-igniting questions about how far the novel Covid-19 could spread in the air and how airflow through ventilators or air conditioners, and the air quality itself, could play a role. 
The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention have long maintained that the virus is spread primarily
through droplets in person-to-person contact and in some cases from
contaminated surfaces, and rarely travels more than
six feet in the air. However, the recent study, conducted by the Guangzhou Center for Disease
Control, suggests that the virus not only passes through
person-to-person spread at close range, but can travel farther with help
from air currents blowing from ventilation systems. The study concluded that crowded gatherings and “poor ventilation” with little
outside air brought into the room created an isolated loop, allowing
virus particles to be transferred from table to table.

A map of the restaurant showed how one infected individual infected 9 others. An air conditioner and exhaust fan were the sources of circulation in the room. The main point is that the virus can travel much further than 6 feet. The conclusions are worrisome and worthy of further investigation as
American restaurants and other buildings look to re-open their doors. The data suggests that it’s crowded, poorly ventilated places where there have been outbreaks. The Covid-19 is “not behaving like an airborne virus, but that
doesn’t rule out the possibility of airborne transmission in certain
circumstances,” Dr. Todd Ellerin, the director of infectious diseases at South Shore Health in Massachusetts said.

A small sandwich shop owner in Windermere said on Twitter,  “Not sure about you, but we are over this.” The owner said she will re-open on May 1, 2020 despite orders from the county and state. In a tik tok video the owner mocked the Covid-19 virus by feigning to cough outside the establishment. Seeing a restaurant owner mocking public health is NOT appetizing. There was a huge backlash of people complaining about her disregard for public safely and the offending posts by the restaurant owner were removed. The owner claimed her life had been threatened but she did not report the offenses to police. The place did not open on May 1, but will open on May 4 when the DeSantis First Phase kicks in. I don’t expect any honest attempts at maintaining public safety from this place. I will never dine there.

Miami Cranes

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In a press briefing on April 29, 2020, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spoke about Miami-Dade which has to remain under lock down as he opens up the state… “Before this “Dade Broward and Palm Beach we’re all doing so well… You drive in Miami, you couldn’t move 10′ without seeing a crane somewhere.” He was referring to the building boom in downtown Miami, but with fewer people and cars on the streets, wildlife is finding its way back. An image search on google images shows an amazing array of wildlife reclaiming cities around the world.

Phase one of the Governors plan to re-open Florida includes:

  • Schools must keep distance learning
  • Visits to senior living facilities are prohibited
  • Elective surgeries can resume
  • Restaurants may offer outdoor seating with six feet of space between tables
  • Indoor seating at restaurants must be at 25% capacity
  • No change for bars, gyms and personal services, like hair dressers
  • Vulnerable individuals should avoid close contact with people outside the home
  • Everyone should maximize physical distance from others while in public
  • Avoid socializing in groups of more than 10 people in circumstances that do not “readily allow for physical distancing”
  • Face masks are recommended for those in face-to-face interactions and where you can’t social distance.

The Governor’s reopening plan applies for all Florida counties except Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Broward counties, Governor DeSantis said. Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said it could be a while longer before
businesses begin reopening in his county because they will need more
time to prepare for the new guidelines. Central Florida  has seen the most cases of Covid-19.  A curfew remains for all of Orange County from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily.
The mayor said he has no plans to lift that anytime soon. Demings didn’t give an exact date for when businesses would reopen but
said he doesn’t want to rush it and risk seeing a spike in Covid-19
cases.

The mayor said under the
governor’s order restaurants and retail shops can reopen in the county
if they are able to comply with the guidelines, including 6-feet between
customers and maintaining a 25% occupancy. “In the
absence of recommendations from our task force that they can get to me
in a timely manner, those entities will be able to reopen on Monday as
long as they do so in compliance with the governor’s order.” Demings
said. There is a nationwide shortage on personal protective equipment as well
as hand sanitizer, two requirements of the governor’s mandate.

The Guidelines for Reopening Businesses Group is expected to
put out a finalized list of guidelines businesses would have to follow,
both recommendations and mandates. The group, which included major
theme parks and business leaders, met Wednesday morning, turning to
health care officials with both Orlando Health and AdventHealth for
guidance on what those guidelines could look like.

The group is expected to meet again Thursday and Friday to continue developing a plan to safely reopen the county.

At last check, there were more than 33,690 confirmed cases in Florida with 1,268 deaths. There were 1,339 confirmed cases in Orange C0unty with 30 deaths. Florida Medical Examiners Commission chairman Dr. Stephen Nelson said that state officials asked them to withhold Covid-19 death figures. The pause in reporting, has been occurring for nine days. The blackout comes as Republican Governor Ron DeSantis contemplates how Florida will begin to reopen amid the pandemic.

83 Seats

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83 people died in Florida on Tuesday April 28, 2020, the highest total so far for a single day. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis decided it was the best day to fly to Washington D.C. to visit Donald Trump and tell him what a great job he has done to keep the state safe. I started to wonder what that flight to DC would have been like. How many seats would be on that plane? Then I realized that 83 people could have flown on that flight had they been alive. People with husbands, wives, children and friends. People DeSantis seems to feel are acceptable collateral damage as he makes plans to reopen Florida to help Trumps re-election plans.

The Florida Department of Health on Tuesday reported
a total of 1,171 deaths and nearly 33,000 confirmed cases, although the
true number of infections in the state is believed to be significantly
higher. Meanwhile, Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity has
struggled to process nearly 2 million unemployment claims in a state
where the economy relies heavily on tourism and hospitality.

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article242339311.html#storylink=cpy

Trump has not been back to his Mara Lago estate in Florida since the beginning of March and he fired his whole staff. His popularity in Florida has been slipping away to his opponent Joe Biden. I can’t imagine what he might have said to make his numbers drop.  Florida has been the recipient of critical personal protective equipment. Trump is pushing states to reopen businesses “as quickly as possible.” DeSantis is falling lock step in line. The planned meeting was mired in confusion after the White House
abruptly announced the two men would hold a formal press conference,
then abruptly announced they would not.

The Governor said he would be reviewing a document issued by his re-opening task force. Phase one of the DeSantis plan to re-open Florida will begin Monday May 4, 2020. The plan will allow limited reopening of stores and restaurants everywhere except
the hardest-hit counties of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach
counties. Capacity for retail stores and dine-in restaurants will be limited to 25
percent, more conservative than the 50-percent threshold in neighboring
Georgia, which began reopening last week. He stressed the importance of social distancing and continued
testing in the first phase, but sought to convey a sense that the state
was committed to moving forward. Then he mangled FDR, saying, “The only thing we have to fear is letting fear overwhelm our sense of purpose and determination,”

Florida should test potentially triple the number of people now
being tested every day to re-open safely. But DeSantis said Tuesday that Florida’s testing
capacity exceeds current demand. However, without testing, you have no idea how many are infected. Like Trump he loves to deny reality. “We have challenges. This is not an easy situation,” DeSantis said. “But
I have less than 500 people in a state of 22 million on ventilators as
of last night. And I have 6,500 ventilators sitting unused in the state
of Florida.” DeSantis’ month-long stay-at-home order expires on Thursday April 30, 2020.

During this pandemic airlines are still packing flights full with no social distancing measures in place. It is business as usual. After seeing a viral video about the viral flight crowding, American Airlines announced it will start distributing face masks, sanitizing wipes and gel to passengers in May. Starting May 4, 2020 Jet Blue Airline will require passengers to wear face masks saying, “This is the new flying etiquette.” Air Asia has come up with new flight attendant uniforms that consist of long sleeves, a face mask and hood.

It turns out that none of this should matter to Ron DeSantis, because he flies a 15.5 million dollar business jet. This is good for him since he doesn’t know how to put on a face mask. The airplane model is a Cessna Citation Latitude from Textron Aviation Inc.
The company advertises it as a jet with “elegant and lean design,” an
electronic door, touch-screen avionics and a spacious 6-foot standing
cabin.  The plane is being funded by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Which is of course funded by you.

To date there have been 1,171deaths due to Covid-19 in Florida.

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article242339311.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article242339311.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article242339311.html#storylink=cpy

Walkers Rush to Jacksonville Beach

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On April 1, 2020 Ron DeSantis issued a sat at home order which was to last 30 days. The order limits movement outside homes to providing or getting
essential services or carrying out essential activities and applies to
interaction with other people outside of residents’ homes. 17 days later he issued an order allowing Florida beaches to open. With the state experiencing 27,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry was the first to decide to open it’s beach prompting #FloridaMorons hashtags on Twitter. On the day DeSantis allowed municipalities to open their beaches, there were 1,400 new infections, in the state’s highest one-day jump yet. Curry seems to feel that by limiting gatherings to less than 50 people will keep the beaches safe. Jacksonville has the largest population of any city in Florida at 900,000 people. With 794 cases of COVID-19 and 14 deaths so far it has become a hot spot.

Other cites including Coco Beach are planning to open their beaches soon. Coco will allow locals to sunbathe and sit in chairs on beaches, as long as
people practice social distancing and don’t gather in groups of more
than five people.

Lake Worth Beach City Commissioner Omari Hardy weighed in on Twitter, “When a person
doesn’t believe in science, they do dumb things. When a person in power
doesn’t believe in science, they do dumb things that hurt the public.
This move is so dumb that I had to make sure it wasn’t fake news. You
guys, it isn’t fake news.”

According to DeSantis, “You look at how this disease is transmitted, it’s transmitted
overwhelmingly when you are in close, sustained contact with people,
usually in an indoor environment,” DeSantis said. “Going forward, we got
to be promoting people to get exercise, do it in a good way, to do it
in a safe way.” However recent research shows that the virus spreads much further then 6 feet and an ocean breeze is a perfect vehicle to allow the spread.

The Mayor of Miami Beach, Dan Gelber, said in a video statement, “I’m
sorry but we will just have to do without beach access for the near
future,” adding that it’s unlikely that Miami’s beaches will reopen
before early June. Miami-Dade County closed its beaches on March 19, after thousands gathered at the beach
for Spring Break. As of April 22, there are more than 10,000 confirmed
cases and more than 200 deaths of COVID-19 in Miami-Dade county.

Some from Orlando must have also flocked to Jacksonville, where hundreds crowded together in line and then rushed the beach when it opened at 5pm on April 17, since vehicles with surf boards strapped to the roof were seen leaving town. Social distancing seemed to be the last thing on anyone’s mind when the beach opened. Thousands of people were seen on the beach within 26 minutes of the beach opening. The decision to open beaches goes against Trump’s re-opening recommendations that cases should have declined for 14 days. 



As of today April 23, 2020 Florida has 28,576 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 927 deaths. 60 people died today from the virus.

#StayHome

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As County Mayor Jerry Demings and City Mayor Buddy Dyer were giving a Covid-19 pandemic briefing inside the County Administration Building, an itty bitty crowd of protestors assembled outside. Protestors were demanding that the state re-open in the midst of the pandemic.  Jerry Demings said “In my humble opinion, it’s much of a circus. Perhaps one person has
the right to risk their health and safety, but they don’t have the right
to endanger the health and safety of others in the community. I
wouldn’t want to play Russian roulette with myself like that.” 

Buddy Dyer said, “So, there are some people that don’t accept science or facts, and I
suspect that’s a bunch of them that are out front. What I’d probably do
is suggest they speak to family members of someone who has died of
COVID-19. Maybe that would wake them up a little bit.”

Facebook has begun closing down some sites that promote the anti say
at home protests. They will not close every site. The protests run afoul
of the states’ social distancing guidelines, Facebook spokesman Andy
Stone said. The problem is that the POTUS himself who in a series of
tweets on Friday appeared to condone people
disobeying rules intended to blunt Covid-19, many based on his
own recommendations.
People are justifiably on edge, with unemployment souring and the
promise of the next meal on the table is uncertain. Strange conspiracy
theories flicker to life in this wasteland of despair. 

As far as reopening the state’s economy, Gov. Blue Glove (DeSantis) has faced criticism for suggesting that schools could soon reopen. On Monday April 20, 2020, just 18 days into his 30 day stay at home order, he unveiled his Re-Open Florida Task Force, a 22-person panel
that has until Friday to come up with recommendations for cracking open
the state’s economy more than a month after it started to seize up. Gov. Blue Gloves instinct is to open the state quickly.

He announced that beaches were permitted to reopen Friday April, 17, 2020, if they
could do so safely; by early evening, some beaches in north Florida had
removed police barriers, allowing residents to stroll and surf. Photos of huge crowds on Jacksonville beaches triggered the well deserved hashtag #FloridaMorons. “No chairs, coolers, sunbathing, or towels/blankets laid out to sit on,”
read a tweet from the city of Jacksonville’s official account. Florida’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic was and continues to be haphazard. He only closed the beaches when images of spring breakers partying in large crowds garnered headlines.

Cumulative cases of Covid-19 have been rising steadily in Florida. Daily deaths from COVID-19 also showed a glimmer of hope in the past
several days in Florida, according to FDOH’s provisional data. Daily
deaths in the state from the new virus peaked at 43 deaths on April 6,
but dipped to 14 deaths on April 18.

Some modelling of the disease shows signs of hope, as well. The
University of Washington model, relied on by the White House at the
beginning of the outbreak, this week lowered its prediction
to 1,363 deaths in Florida from the virus by Aug. 4, down from an April
4 run of the model that had predicted 6,770 deaths in Florida through
the Aug. 4 “first wave,” with a high estimate of 11,242 deaths and a low
estimate of 3,629 deaths in the state. However low case numbers result from inconsistent and or insufficient testing.

As of April 21. 2020 the number of Covid-19 cases topped 27,000 with 823 deaths in Florida.

Winter Party Festival Covid-19 Infections

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The Winter Party Festival took place in Miami Beach March 4 – 10, 2020. More than 10,000 men gathered to party for the week despite the Center for Disease Control’s recommendation at that time that gatherings should be limited to no more than 250 people. Now, two people have died, and at least 38 others have
tested positive for the Covid-19 virus. Once the party was over, people
flew home to all corners of the country, possibly spreading the virus far and
wide. Some people chose not to attend the event although event
organizers were not offering them refunds. Precautions at the Winter Party included “educational posters”
that were posted at venues and 10,000 bottles of hand sanitizer placed throughout.

On March 1, 2020, Florida became the third state in the United States with a documented Covid-19 case.
On March 9, 2020, Donald Trump tweeted that the Fake News Media and the
Democratic Party were inflaming the CoronaVirus situation, far beyond
what the facts would
warrant.  Governor Ron DeSantis was dragging his feet about closing Florida beaches as spring breakers descended on the state. The Mayor of Miami had already contracted the virus. A week after the festival was over, Miami Beach announced they were finally closing the beaches.

On March 15, a Boston doctor who had attended the Winter Party tested positive for the virus after returning home. Thousands of e-mails were sent out to attendees to let people know of the spread of the virus. It is impossible to prove that the people infected caught the virus at the festival. With the long incubation period, they might have caught it on the plane or elsewhere, but were most certainly contagious carriers at party time.

Israel Carrera, a 40 year old from North Miami, was the first to die of the virus after attending the Winter Party. The second was Ron Rich, a 65 year old volunteer who did not attend the main party which counted 3,000 in attendance.

Davie Police Chief, Dale Engle, was placed on administrative leave
after officers at his Florida station filed a union complaint alleging
that he dismissed their concerns about Covid-19 protection measures
and that he blamed the Covid-19 fatality of a Broward County Deputy Sheriff, Shannon Bennett, on his sexuality. He claimed that Bennett died because he was a “homosexual who attended homosexual events.” The National Fraternal Order of Police tweeted that, if Engle’s “disgusting” alleged remarks are true, he should be fired.

On March 4, 2020, I was at a press event at the Rep Theater about the future onePULSE Memorial and Museum. It wasn’t an overly crowded event, but I was still going to theaters and sketching. On March 10, 2020, I was sketching at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s sold-out 12th Annual John R. Hamilton Mock Trial. I therefore can confirm that public events were still being staged in the Sunshine State. Though concerned, I felt it was impotent to keep documenting the arts. Information about the virus and circumstances were changing rapidly by the hour at the time. Hindsight might make it easy to judge, but I was still sketching in crowds despite concerns and the conflicting information from officials.

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, Trump used a prime-time oval office address to announce a ban on travel for non-Americans from most of Europe. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis finally instated stricter social distancing on March 12, 2020, which was two days after the Winter Party Festival was over.

It is unknown exactly how many people might have contracted the Covid-19 virus at the Winter Party Festival. Rea Carey, the Executive Director of the LGBT Task Force, which organized the Festival said on Instagram, “I am deeply saddened by the death of Israel Carrera. I
extend my care and condolences to his loved ones, his friends and
family. He was so clearly loved by many. The particular cruelty of this
virus, this pandemic, is our inability to be together in grief, to hold
each other and to care for each other. We hold Israel and everyone being
affected by COVID-19 in our hearts.”

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article241133076.html#storylink=cpy

Unemployment Line

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Hundreds of people risked exposure to the Covid-19 virus to stand in line in Hialeah, Florida on Tuesday April 7, 2020. The line was for people who don’t have internet access or printers, so they could pick up unemployment forms in person.The line snaked outside of the John F. Kennedy Library, and around the block, before it opened at 11
a.m. Social isolation to lower  cases of COVID-19, prompted an unemployment crisis
that the state government was not prepared for. Some people had been out of work for a whole month.

Many are still having issues submitting
applications for benefits after having lost their jobs through no fault
of their own. Applicants who had access to the Internet were dealing with error
messages and hours of waiting on the phone while calling a helpline that
was of no help. People started lining up as early as 6-7 a.m. The online servers could not handle the sudden influx of people seeking claims. The online server had to be taken down overnight Sunday April 5, 2020 into Monday. From about 10 p.m. until 5 a.m., the Florida Department of Economic
Opportunity will not be accepting reemployment benefit applications
online. The agency had received 1.5 million calls in the past week.

By the end of the week, there will 82 new servers to increase connectivity. Last week, DEO had nearly 200 staff working on the claims. There are now
579 additional employees and more than 2,300 state employees. In the past two weeks, the department has spent $25 million on
improvements to the computer and phone systems it uses to collect
unemployment benefits applications.

The Department of Labor reported Thursday that 227,000 Floridians
initiated unemployment claims the week prior, up from 74,313 the
previous week. Another 56,000 were expected last week as Governor Ron
DeSantis issued a statewide stay-at-home order that took effect on
Friday.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as
the CARES Act, signed into law on March 27, 2020, expands benefits. DEO
is working to incorporate the new provisions of the CARES Act to ensure
all Floridians who are eligible get their full amount of Pandemic
Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Assistance
as it becomes available. Benefits will be paid from the date they became
eligible under the CARES Act. 

It was horrifying to watch people standing in line with no social distancing. Tempers flared as people stood in the oppressive Florida heat. If any one person was infected their could be a flair up of infections and deaths.

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In an equally callous and short sighted instance, Michigan held it’s primary voting in the midst of the Pandemic. Voters had to chose between their health and their civic duty. Wisconsin Republicans, the state’s conservative supreme court risked voters’ lives by sending them to polls. People will die.