Goofy Governor DeSantis Endangering the Lives of Floridians

"Oops-- what's a variant?"

The restaurant business is booming in Florida, propped up by "a huge spring break and tourist influx," as prelude to yet another story about how Americans are still not eagerly lining up to take the worst jobs in America even though restaurant owners really, really would prefer they did.  But something else is booming in Florida as well, due to that same "huge" spring break: The COVID-19 pandemic.

Florida is not just home to an explosion of new pandemic cases in the weeks following spring break, but now has "the most variant COVID-19 cases in the country."  Nearly 12,000 tested COVID-19 cases involved variants, mostly of the United Kingdom and Brazilian varieties, as the Florida government's continued indifference towards pandemic safety measures turns the state into a petri dish of variants that could weaken vaccine protection and jump-start the U.S. pandemic into another, even more lethal round.

Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis, however, has already proclaimed the lifting of all local pandemic safety restrictions.  If Floridians are going to protect themselves from the new surge of variant cases, they're on their own.  DeSantis has long had his eye on even higher office, and winning higher office within the Trump-ified GOP means declaring victory loudly and often—even while undermining health officials' efforts to bring that victory about.

To repeat: allowing the pandemic to last long enough to produce genetic variants of the virus is extraordinarily dangerous. The more the virus exists, the more commonplace genetic mutations of the virus will become-- and the more that mutations exist, the less likely it becomes that current vaccines, can produce antibodies.  Mutations may spread faster than the original virus could or may mutate into strains far more deadly.  Every passing month in which the pandemic is not contained produces new variants. It takes only one to bring us back to day zero—or worse.

Reaching herd immunity is becoming more and more difficult as states allow virus-spreading events and anti-science types furiously demand safety precautions not be followed because of "Freedoms", but there's no reason to make yourself part of this alarming little experiment.  What can one do to protect oneself despite the actions of these reckless GOP governors?  Get vaccinated as soon as you can; continue to wear a mask indoors if you live with unvaccinated people and practice social distancing outdoors even if there's no public orders demanding it.