Recently Florida has been the state with the most cases of COVID every day.
I'll take a bit of a "in all fairness" approach on this one.
While, in many ways, I feel like he panders to a certain base, and is attempting to present himself as sort of a more polished "Trump 2.0"...and that can be concerning for a couple of reasons...but I'll get to that later.
In this particular instance, there are a few things that I think he's doing right.
1) He's c
rediting the efficacy of vaccines with the ability to fully re-open (given that vaccine hesitancy is the highest among republican men, and many won't do anything unless one of the "right people" says it's okay...and many in that demographic seem to like him), at the very least, he's sending a somewhat encouraging message about vaccination. (encouraging, as in, encouraging people to get it)
2) He's opened up his state for "vaccine tourism", opening up the vaccine to anyone, without needing to provide proof of Florida residency. I don't think there's anyone (regardless of how much they dislike him on a personal level) that can spin that as a bad thing. If demand in one's own state has flatlined, and you've got excess inventory...no harm in allowing people in other states from benefiting... It's my understanding that even several Canadian snowbirds have benefited from it.
As far as the re-opening itself...
That's where one has to consider the benefit:risk trade-off.
COVID Data Tracker
While it's true they have the most cases total, when you adjust for population sizes, they're running at 22 per 100k, they're on-par with these other states
(and they're trending in the right direction)
In terms of hospitalizations per 100K, they're doing a lot better than many other states that are much more tightly locked down. Which, given how loose their restrictions have been for quite some time, and given that they have one of the most elderly populations in the country, they're not doing all that bad in that regard. (especially after just coming off of the spring break rush which everyone thought was going to cause a massive spike)
In terms of deaths per 100k, they're currently doing better than a lot of other states as well.
Given they have the climate and culture that lends itself quite well to spending much more time outdoors than indoors (outdoor activities, a lot of outdoor dining...the weather's nice enough), they have a built-in advantage in that regard that many other states don't have (yet -- it'll get warmer in other places soon, but still cold and rainy up here in Ohio).
So, at a certain point, one has to calculate the benefit:risk tradeoff of shutting down vs. reopening.
If it was a case where shutting down meant only 500 new cases per day, and re-opening meant 20,000 new cases per day (like they saw in their 2nd wave), then it'd be a no brainer... lock it down.
However, if you're talking about a case where it's going to be 3,500 new cases per day with lockdown measures, or 4,500 per day with things opened up. (especially given that they have a high percentage of their 65+ residents fully vaccinated, which means that those additional cases would be among groups that aren't as likely to experience dire outcomes, and less likely cause excess burden on the healthcare system)
At that point, one does need to consider the trade-off with regards to economic factors.
As a point of principle, I'm not crazy about the notion of him using the "state government hammer" to usurp certain local ordinances.
I think that's where there has to be consideration for key differences on a state by state basis.
There are things that are different about Florida and say... Wisconsin or Michigan, that means that what may be an "okay" idea for Florida wouldn't be a good idea for Michigan... and a policy of reopening that could spell disaster (for a places like Michigan or Illinois, where it's not nice enough to do a lot of things outside yet...which means that reopening would lend itself to higher amounts of people congregating indoors...unlike Florida, where, if it's a nice 75 degree evening, many folks are going to opt to dine or do things outside even if indoor was an option).
