Florida's second COVID Christmas marred by 320% infection hike

[Zorro]

Source: Tampa Bay Times

The contagious omicron variant is likely driving a surge of more than 17,800 infections a day.

The omicron variant is Florida’s unwelcome Christmas visitor, likely driving a 320 percent surge of COVID-19 cases in just one week.

The state on Christmas Eve reported 125,201 cases from Dec. 17-23, a daily average of more than 17,800 over the seven-day period. That’s the highest infection rate since early September, when the delta wave was cresting.

In just two weeks, Florida’s seven-day average has gone from 4,200 cases a week to 17,800, according to the data released Friday. The Sunshine State has already surpassed the 16,000 daily cases recorded at the peak of last year’s winter wave and could soon surpass the summer delta wave, which peaked at 25,000 daily cases.

The Florida Department of Health has not released any data that shows how much of the surge is driven by the omicron variant. But the fast-spreading mutant virus has repeated this pattern in South Africa and Great Britain and is now the dominant strain in the U.S., spreading to all 50 states in less than a month.

Read more: https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2021/12/24/floridas-second-covid-christmas-marred-by-320-infection-hike/

[Evolve Dammit]

1. Death Sentence don't care.

[JI7]

14. Neither do most of the people in that state

[IronLionZion]

18. Dude might not win reelection

let alone the presidency if he has fewer voters.

[Akoto]

2. I live in Florida.

A month ago, I was fortunate enough to have my first visit with a new pain management doctor my psychiatrist (also a chronic pain patient) had helped introduce me to. I waited in the office for my appointment and was very impressed. Everything was immaculate, you could tell they were cleaning. The staff were behind not only masks, but shields as well (as was the doctor later on).

Then, as I wait standing and watching their TV, out comes a patient who had been seen before me. The ... typical of the above, I want to say. Even though there is a request on the door that people wear masks, he didn't have one. Further, he bellows - one could be forgiven because he was elderly, but you could tell he just had an entitled attitude - at the nurse about having to be there at noon when he's usually seen no later than 8am. I was annoyed that he wasn't grateful to be cared for by an otherwise wall to wall booked specialist, but more so, that he was complaining about something so minuscule as a few hours while breathing all over an office which kindly let him be seen despite not having a mask.

That kind of behavior is everywhere here. Once the original lockdown ended, so did any sense of self-restraint. A lot of people in the stores and such do wear masks, so we're not all nuts, but plenty of others swagger about without a care. At my house, everyone takes off their shoes outside following a trip anywhere, during which we are always masked. We're fortunate to be able to enter from garage straight into laundry room. Clothes go into the washer, you sanitize your hands, you go shower, and *then* you can go about the rest of your day at home. We're vaccinated/boosted and we take no chances, especially as my dad has cancer.

I wanted to say something to the guy. "Dude, you're in a medical facility. Pain management. There could be dying people here who can't risk so much as a cold, and you can't be bothered to wear a mask?" But, I didn't. Did not want to make a bad impression by talking down to what sounded like a repeat patient on my first visit. Regrets.

[Skittles]

6. hmmmm

in that situation a cough and a FUCK YOU at the same time would suffice

[NJCher]

9. Now you listen to

DU’s Miss Manners (Skittles), Akoto. She is the sensible voice of appropriate behavior in the pandemic.

👍

[flying rabbit]

19. "DU's Miss Manners (Skittles)"

[orangecrush]

22. ...

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

15. Your post is spot-on!

Especially the part where you describe how they swagger around with an entitled attitude.

These people have ZERO respect and empathy for others. It is all about them and their feelings. It just makes me so disheartened and disgusted.

My job requires masks so I have gotten used to wearing them. It is no big deal and I feel the same about getting the vaccination and boosters. No big deal but it has been made into one by these Covidiots because once again, it is all about them and their selfish, entitled attitude and their feelings.

All I can say it seems like you are doing your very best to stay safe and I commend you for that. Happy Holidays to you and all of our fellow DUers!

[machoneman]

23. Sorry, but if he and others die due to personal malfeasance,,,,,,

...let God sort them out , I say!

[Initech]

3. I'm seriously surprised Florida doesn't have its' own home-grown variant.

[monkeyman1]

4. it do - call deathsentence variant !!!

[C Moon]

13. I know, right?

[Turbineguy]

5. Having that tube in your rectum is really owning the libs.

[progree]

8. When you are in an ICU - if you have a hole, we put a tube in it. And we make more holes to put

more tubes in. Tubes for the ventilator, rectal, multiple chest tubes, catheter, ... -- Mother Jones January 2022

Now THAT is owning the libs.

[Eyeball_Kid]

20. Hopefully for them, they only hope that the local crematorium isn't owned by libs. n/t

[progree]

7. The southeast is getting real fucked-up looking on the Covid map lately

Last edited Sat Dec 25, 2021, 04:47 AM - Edit history (1)

south of the southern borders of N. Carolina and Tennessee and that latitude all the way west into Oklahoma -- everything south of that line except West Texas had been pretty much all pale yellow on the map for months up to say 2-3 weeks ago (pale yellow is the lowest level of per capita covid new cases).

Then it started getting ever growing darker and darker splotches, and each time it looks worse.

The U.S. map shown at the county level:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html
(no paywall no quota)

Notice too the graph at the top of the page -- U.S. overall daily new cases have blown way past the September peak and are now the highest since January. If it increases by just 25% it will be at it's all-time high. Cases have increase 65% in 14 days, so its not unreasonable to expect a 25% increase in another week.

In the table below, I see Florida is now #9 in daily new cases per capita (7 day moving average), and it has increased 860% in 2 weeks -- that's a 9.6-fold increase.

28 states are increasing and 22 states are decreasing (14 days).

But the increases in a lot of the increasing states are multi-fold increases, while the biggest decrease is just 33%, which is like going from a "3" to a "2", or a 50% increase in reverse --

going from 3 to 2 is a 33% decrease, going from 2 to 3 is a 50% increase, that's just the way percentage changes work -- the "from" is always in the denominator of

Percent Increase = ( ( (from-to)/from ) - 1 )*100% .

Yes, I know I have one more set of parenthesis than is needed, but just to make clear that one calculates (from-to) / from first, before subtracting the one.

[NJCher]

10. DeathSentence primed the pump

By telling everyone your body/your choice.

[SoCalDavidS]

11. Except Of Course For A Woman's Right To "Choice" nt

[monkeyman1]

12. Floriduh gov. want's the prez slot !! if that's all repub's got , deep shit time !!!

[Eyeball_Kid]

21. DeSantis won't shake his national reputation as a mass murderer. There's no charisma flowing

from mass murdering. DeSantis is history.

[Crazyleftie]

16. delta vs omnicron...any stats?

[Hortensis]

17. May all those who are trying stay safe,

including all the necessary workers.

[C Moon]

24. The latest republican nut-head reply to COVID seems to be:

I'm tired of COVID. I'm not afraid of it—if I get it, I get it.
It's getting pretty nutty out there on the right.

[Initech]

27. I've come to the realization that we're all going to get it.

It's pretty much an inevitability at this point. Had we had competent leadership at the time this wretched virus was discovered, we might have been able to contain it. But we didn't and had the biggest jackass in the world as our president and he didn't give a flying fuck about it and now it's too late.

The question is do you want a mild cough or do you want to wind up in the ICU on a ventilator? If the chance is living or dying, I personally choose living. And I'll live with whatever restrictions I have to until the virus mutates itself out of existence like with 1918 influenza.

[appalachiablue]

25. Sorry to see this scary news about Fla. Tx for posting.

[Initech]

26. How does Florida not have its' own home grown variant yet?

It's truly mind boggling!