(LifeSiteNews) — COVID-19 cases in Florida have dropped for the fifth consecutive week and new cases are among the lowest in the nation after a temporary increase which caused a flurry of media coverage over the summer. Major outlets had accused the Sunshine State’s Gov. Ron DeSantis of causing the surge with his pro-freedom policies.
“Florida is now outperforming every state in the contiguous United States in terms of new COVID-19 cases per capita. And they did it all without a Vax Pass system, widespread business closures, mask mandates, and/or draconian lockdowns,” wrote independent investigative journalist Jordan Schachtel for the Brownstone Institute.
“And it all happened under the leadership of a man who the corporate media and ruling class have taken to labeling. ‘DeathSantis’ for his refusal to implement draconian COVID policies, such as mandatory masks, pharmaceutical injection mandates, business closures, and the like,” Schachtel added.
According to a New York Times interactive map and case count of COVID-19 reported cases in the U.S., Florida saw a 45.5% decrease in reported cases over the past 14 days.
The data shows that Florida, which has come under fire by Democrat politicians and legacy media outlets for its laws defending the freedoms of Floridians against coercive vaccine mandates, forced masking, and lockdowns, has experienced the most significant drop in COVID cases in the U.S. second only to Hawaii, which saw a 50% drop in reported cases over the past two weeks.
Well it’s official, Florida currently has the LOWEST per capita COVID cases among the contiguous 48 states.
Looking forward to the next batch of DeSantis media coverage that’s sure to be coming soon…https://t.co/xBFQSLJKdz pic.twitter.com/ZzrIDDU6ct
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) October 18, 2021
According to the data, Florida, the third-most populous state in the union, is recording a daily average of 2,357 COVID-19 cases per day, compared with 5,501 in heavily-restricted California. The numbers indicate Floridians experience some 11 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people, while California records 14 per 100,000.
Despite nearly even vaccination rates between Florida and California, however (59% and 60% respectively), the New York Times data indicates Florida has recorded some 120 deaths per day attributed to the virus while California has recorded just over 100.
It's official: Joe Biden has announced that his Administration will be forcing COVID vaccinations on nearly 1/3rd of American citizens, blatantly disregarding the personal objections of millions of people and moving America ever closer towards a medical dictatorship.
We cannot stand for this unprecedented overreach, and we will not submit to Biden's tyrannical public coercion efforts.
Please SIGN this urgent petition informing the President that you will NOT comply with these unconstitutional vaccine mandate orders issued by the Biden Administration, and that elected officials should act in their capacity to block these intrusive demands.
On Thursday, September 9th, Joe Biden announced the latest round of federal orders meant to further coerce large swaths of the public into getting the COVID vaccine -- many against their will.
While the legal standing of these measures is, at best, dubious, the Biden Administration appears more ready than ever to gut our individual rights and practically erase medical autonomy in our country.
This latest escalation in overreach was announced via a televised speech in which Biden outlined a new "six-point plan" that includes far more than just six avenues to achieve mass medical compliance.
Among the most egregious new federal mandates are the following:
- A requirement that all private businesses employing more than 100 people mandate their workers get the Covid-19 vaccine or submit to weekly testing (to be implemented by way of a new Department of Labor rule)
- A requirement that all federal employees and federal contractors get the COVID vaccine
- A requirement that all healthcare workers in facilities that receive reimbursement from Medicare and/or Medicaid (an estimated 17 million) get the Covid-19 vaccine without an alternative testing option
- A requirement that all Head Start teachers get the COVID vaccine
- A federal effort to lobby states to implement vaccine mandates for all school employees, and require regular testing of all students and school staff
- A federal effort to lobby entertainment venues to require proof of vaccination or testing in order to grant entry to the public
- A continuation of mask mandates on all federal properties and during interstate travel (i.e. planes, trains, buses)
All in all, these new vaccine mandates, which will go into effect within the coming weeks, will affect an estimated 100 million American workers -- 2/3rds of the entire workforce!
And, according to an administration official, violations of these unconstitutional requirements could result in fines of up to $14,000.
While this is clearly a political ploy on the part of the Joe Biden and his team of power-hungry Washington insiders to shift the focus from their disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the American public knows better: After nearly a year and a half's worth of arbitrary, ever-changing, and unconstitutional government mandates in response to the COVID outbreak, it was always a given that the Biden Administration would ramp things up even further when it behooved them.
And now, it would seem that time has officially come.
"This is not about freedom or personal choice," Biden uttered in his remarks, confirming his administration's blatant dismissal of all Americans' right(s) to accept or decline the experimental Covid-19 vaccine.
This is a stunning reversal from Biden's declaration last December that "I don’t think [the vaccine] should be mandatory, I wouldn’t demand it to be mandatory."
In fact, Biden even confirmed his intention to flout states' rights in the process, warning that "If these governors won’t help us beat the pandemic I’ll use my power as president to get them out of the way."
These are not the words of an "empathetic" leader; these are the words of an aspiring dictator. And, for the time being, the only way to stop Joe Biden's tyranny is through mass noncompliance.
As we've said from the beginning, science, basic logic, and common sense should dictate policy regarding COVID and the Delta variant.
But Joe Biden and the federal government have long abandoned those principles throughout this crisis, culminating into this disturbing yet inevitable flurry of intrusive vaccine mandates that use people's jobs, individual autonomy, and livelihood as leverage.
This assault on our individual rights, private businesses, and American workers cannot be tolerated, and the easiest way to combat these unlawful orders is to just say NO.
Please SIGN and SHARE this most important petition letting Joe Biden know that you will NOT comply with the unconstitutional medical demands being made by this administration, and that action should be taken to block any intrusive action against working Americans and private employers.
Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Biden announces vaccine requirements for private businesses, impacting tens of millions of Americans': https://www.
While it is unclear what has caused the disparity, it may have something to do with the fact that Florida, a popular retirement destination, has the second-highest percentage of elderly residents in the country, with 20.5% of the population aged 65 and older out of a total population of 21.5 million, while California ranks 45th in the union for its percentage of elderly residents with 14.5% of its total population of 39.5 million in the 65 and over category.
Additionally, studies have shown that something as simple as the weather can have a lot to do with the transmission of any respiratory disease.
Florida cases rose over the summer while Floridians battled high humidity, tropical storms, and spiking temperatures, leading many residents to seek refuge indoors where respiratory transmission rates are known to be higher.
States with milder summer climates, with more people enjoying the outdoors, saw lower transmission rates over the past months. But as cold weather hits northern and midwestern states and residents of those states head indoors, rates of infection are already beginning to rise, suggesting that cyclical weather patterns, rather than coercive mandates and restrictions, tend to have a more measurable impact on infection rates.
CNN acknowledged the phenomenon in a Tuesday article, noting that “Southern states, many of which have been hotspots, are now starting to see a decrease in Covid-19 cases while many states that have started experiencing cold weather — mostly in the North and Midwest — are seeing an uptick, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.”
Daily Wire podcast host, author, and new Florida resident Ben Shapiro also observed that as temperatures began to cool in the south, cases of COVID-19 dropped off.
Or, alternatively, it got less hot in the South and Delta naturally wanes after passing through populations https://t.co/dcdQC5hRcE
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 20, 2021
According to CNN, as reported new cases in Florida and its northern neighbor Georgia headed downward, with both states recording “among the 10 lowest case rates in the past week,” the spread of COVID-19 is shifting toward colder areas, in a pattern “similar to what happened last year.”
“Five states saw Covid-19 cases increase more than 10% compared to last week, JHU data shows. Those states include Iowa, Oklahoma, Alaska, Vermont and New Hampshire,” CNN reported.
Meanwhile, TownHall.com writer Scott Morefield pointed out that deeply Democrat New York is now seeing nearly double the daily average case rate as Florida.
Let me get this straight. You can’t walk into a restaurant in New York City without a vaccine card, Florida is wide open with almost zero restrictions … Yet, Covid cases in New York are now trending almost double over Florida’s. And NY’s Delta wave may be just getting started.
— Scott Morefield (@SKMorefield) October 18, 2021
Last year, disgraced former Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo was lauded for his pandemic response before evidence emerged indicating he sent infected elderly people back into nursing homes and covered up the total number of COVID-19-related deaths.
Meanwhile, New York has recorded 55,588 deaths attributed to COVID since 2020, compared to 58,143 deaths in Florida, despite the fact that Florida has a population exceeding New York’s by more than 2 million people. New York has a population of 19.5 million people.
Writing for the Brownstone Institute, Schachtel argued that “Florida is currently ‘stopping the spread’ better than the rest of the nation. No more masks, no more closures, no more lockdowns, and no more restrictions whatsoever.”
According to Schachtel, Florida’s declining numbers of COVID-19 infections, in spite of no statewide jab or mask mandates, means “[a]ll mandates must be extinguished immediately in the name of The Science.’”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect the accurate population of New York.