‘One death is too many’: Florida mayors urge DeSantis to reconsider his approach to managing Covid-19

With Covid-19 cases continuing to skyrocket statewide, Mayor Rick Kriseman, along with four South Florida mayors, urged Governor Ron DeSantis to change his approach to managing the pandemic and outlined suggestions for bringing it under control before more lives are lost and more economic damage is done.

“It has become pretty clear that what Florida is doing isn’t working,” Miami Beach mayor Dan Gelber said at a virtual press conference Wednesday afternoon. “Florida’s approach to managing this pandemic is failing pretty horribly.”

One by one, the mayors spoke of their fear and frustration over what they’re seeing in their communities right now, and expressed concern about what’s to come in the future in terms of both public and economic health. They also decried a lack of leadership from DeSantis, who has repeatedly vowed that the state will never again issue lockdowns, and criticized his “herd immunity approach,” which public health experts say could strain the hospital systems and dramatically raise the death toll from the virus. 

“One death is too many deaths, and I find it hard to understand how the governor doesn’t seem to be very troubled with the concept that there could be 50,000 deaths that take place that don’t need to because we’re following herd immunity,” Kriseman said. “You have to question the people he’s listening to and getting information from.”

The five mayors urged DeSantis to consider four main recommendations:

• Implementing a statewide mask mandate
• Giving local governments autonomy in making decisions
• Restoring the state’s testing facilities to full capacity
• Improving contact tracing

These measures largely went away in late September, when DeSantis ordered to move Florida into Phase 3 of reopening, which ended Covid-related business closures and capacity limitations. It also took the teeth out of countywide mask mandates and social distancing requirements by eliminating the fines associated with them. If these types of measures aren’t implemented and the numbers continue to rise, mayors, including Kriseman, worry about the long-term economic impact on their communities.

“If we don’t deal with this now, the economic catastrophe we are facing will be far worse if we have to go to a complete shutdown,” he said. 

As for whether DeSantis will consider any of these suggestions, several mayors said they’re holding out hope that he pays attention and is willing to change his mind. 

“Our way out of this is to enact these measures, and we’re asking the governor to change direction,” Gelber said. “The direction we’re going in is killing people.”

Florida has now had more 914,000 people test positive for the virus, and Pinellas County reported another 269 cases of Covid-19 Thursday. Four more deaths were also recorded overnight, bringing the county’s total to 866 since the start of the pandemic. As of Thursday, the county now has just over 30,000 positive cases and a rolling two-week positivity rate of 6.5 percent. Five percent is the number that some public health officials say should be a threshold for potential restrictions, although state and federal reopening guidelines cite a 10 percent threshold for imposing restrictions. The St. Pete Catalyst has a daily update on total cases by ZIP code, which you can find here.