The Florida Gamble

On Friday, Florida Governor Rick DeSantis ended state-wide restaurant seating restrictions.

So far, Florida has reported 87,141 deaths from COVID-19, although that number is almost certainly low. Examining excess death statistics, Florida has over 20,000 excess deaths through early September.

More relevant, as of late September, Florida leads the nation in weekly deaths.

So, this is a big gamble with the lives of Florida’s citizens. How much economic stimulus will opening up generate and will the excess deaths be worth it?

For the curious, in that restaurant with 50 people? It’s dropping, but here’s still a 98% chance one of them is currently infectious” (multiple occurrences) for the state overall. The table below is by county.

Please be careful.

Note: imported from Covid Proxima. Click here to see all the interactive elements.