CORAL SPRINGS, FL - First it started with a spike in Florida to more than 2,000 Covid-19 cases a day. It rose to about 2,500 cases a day and stayed there until…it then jumped to 4,000 cases a day and now to around 6,000 cases a day. Coral Springs itself has more than 5,000 cases total and the scientists say they can see the tsunami heading towards us.
In case Gov. Ron DeSantis and Broward County and Coral Springs officials are asking for scientific and legal knowledge on what they should do and can do, here are some thoughts.
The should do is easy.
Strictly enforce a curfew that allows establishments to get by financially, but close at a time when people aren’t too drunk that they forget the world around them.
With a prayer for forgiveness to restaurateurs, keep to outdoor dining and about 24% to 30% capacity indoors with tables spaced at 6 feet apart. Make sure the ventilation systems are in order, the filters are clean, and that unless a patron is about to put something in his or her mouth strict mask enforcement is the rule. Bathrooms should be rigorously cleaned, and often. They should have both soap and sanitizer; the hot water valve should be turned on. The towel rack should have paper towels, not cloth. There’s more but that’ll cover the basics.
Then there’s what can they do.
Most municipalities are between a rock and a hard place. The rock is the governor; the hard place is “covid fatigue,” what people won’t do now regardless of what they are told. It’s the old “you can lead a horse to water…” deal. I would be hard-pressed to think that a lot of people don’t know what they should be doing. They just don’t want to do it. It doesn’t matter the reason. To do or not to do, that is the question, not why I’m not going to do. No one cares about the reason; the result is the same. You don’t do, you’re a public menace.
It will be interesting, and maybe shocking, to look at the stats on cases in two to three weeks. Thanksgiving travel will have come and gone. Check those crew and passenger manifests. Hard to do, but if there is any contract testing still being done, check those folks who popped out of their cars and into highway rest stops. And the weatherman says by the middle of next week we’ll get our first cold front. It will be chilly enough down here, and more so up the state to make people think twice about eating outside. Check those folks too in about 3 weeks after they’ve hunkered down inside. We have already breached the beachhead of 6,000 plus cases a day. How high can we go-- 7500, 8,000, even higher?
What we will have is a viral version of a snowball rolling down a hill. The further it rolls, the more it picks up, the larger it gets. In our viral model, more cases mean more illnesses. More illnesses mean more hospitalizations. More hospitalizations mean more shortages of staff and equipment. And all of that means more deaths.
Unlike Trump’s dimwit comment that vaccines could be available next week, we are closer to the finish line than we are to the start. June they say is probably the time mass distribution will begin to cover the country.
As the song implored us… Hang on, Sloopy, Sloopy hang on!
Read William A. Gralnick’s recent columns for TAPinto Coral Springs:
Do The Right Thing in Coral Springs: Bake A Pie For A Neighbor, Start A Club
Coral Springs Diversity: It’s All In A Name
Coral Springs: You're Becoming an Ethnic Art Project
Hey Coral Springs! We’re Baaaaaaak (Your Nasty Friends, The Coronavirus)
Coral Springs: You’re On Your Own In The Pandemic
A resident of South Florida for more than 30 years, Bill Gralnick has written more than 900 op-eds and columns for newspapers around the country, including columns for the Brooklyn Eagle.
His latest book, found on Amazon.com, Kindle or paperback, is the coming-of-age memoir, “The War of the Itchy Balls and Other Tales from Brooklyn.”
His writings can be found on his website: williamgralnickauthor.com
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