Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson busted the media’s coronavirus panic, with some amazing new stats coming out of Florida.
Cases are skyrocketing in Florida and on Sunday the Sunshine state hit a single-day record high of over 15,000 new coronavirus cases.
The State of Florida’s health department is reporting hospital bed space and it exposes the media’s hype.
Berenson posts some stats from Florida’s Department of Health bed space tracker:
“And after a week of nightmare headlines about Florida, and about 70,000 new cases (aka positive tests), hospitals have a grand total of 130 more patients (~2.5%) in ICU beds statewide than last Sunday. Can’t make it up. 45 deaths today, in a state with 20 million people.”
And after a week of nightmare headlines about Florida, and about 70,000 new cases (aka positive tests), hospitals have a grand total of 130 more patients (~2.5%) in ICU beds statewide than last Sunday. Can’t make it up. 45 deaths today, in a state with 20 million people. pic.twitter.com/dGahbynrsl
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) July 12, 2020
Click here if you wish to take a look at the data for yourself.
Last week Gov. Ron DeSantis called into the Rush Limbaugh show and gave more details on what is really going on in Florida.
Rush asked Governor DeSantis about Dr. Fauci claiming that states with high infection but a low death rate is a false premise.
Below is a partial transcript:
RUSH: Well, the news every day, the media every day, we are being inundated, we’re being pummeled with record number of new cases reported, every day, setting records in your state, in Florida, Texas, Arizona. And as I look at it, it appears that an effort’s being made to associate number of cases with either instant death or ultimate death, that this number that they’re reporting is going to lead to that same number dying.
And I looked at the death rate. The death rate is actually coming way, way down as the number of cases — and this is true in Florida as well — as the number of cases rise, the death rate is down. And Dr. Fauci today said that’s a false premise. And I don’t understand what he means by that. Why in the world is that not good news?
DESANTIS: Well, obviously, I mean, I think it is good news. Part of the reason we have a lower fatality rate in Florida is because we really focused on protecting those people who are most vulnerable to the virus, such as our senior citizens living in long-term care facilities. We barred hospitals from sending the sick coronavirus patients back into nursing homes ’cause we knew it would lead to spread and more death amongst the most vulnerable population.
And if you compare us to states that did the opposite where they forced them back in, you know, the numbers speak for themselves. But what we’ve also done since March and April is we’ve established 12 COVID-only nursing facilities around the state so that if someone tests positive in a nursing home and they can’t be isolated properly we have a place where they could be transferred and be safe and not put the other residents at risk.
So we’ve done a lot of things like that to lower the burden on the most vulnerable. But, you know, you also look at things like we are testing way more than what we were testing in March and April. And it’s definitely true, California, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, we have seen more spread over the past three weeks, that is true, but we’re also testing anyone that walks in the door. March and April around the country, to get a test, you had to be symptomatic and initially you had to be 65 and older at a lot of these drive-through test sites.
Well, now, people can come in in their twenties and they don’t have to have symptoms, you test, and, you know, some of them test positive. The number one age right now in Florida that has the most cases is age 21, which that would not have been the case in March and April ’cause a lot of those 21-year-olds wouldn’t have even qualified for a test. So what we’re dealing with now is different than the Northeast in March and April. And if you look at Texas, you look at Florida, you look at some of those states, we’ve had what we thought everybody said we wanted was a flatter curve. You know, we flattened it out in March and April.
And now obviously you still have infections that you deal with. But we’re in really good shape to be able to deal with it. I mean, the nursing home situation, you know, we’ve got all those 12 facilities. We do have every hospital can test anyone that comes in now so they’re able to prevent it from spreading, you know, in the hospital. We have therapeutics available now. And it’s just down the line, I think that’s contributing to these better outcomes.
But, yeah, I think the outcomes, you know, are really what matters. And look, Rush, if I could just snap my fingers and get rid of the virus I would do it, but that’s not how these viruses work. Flatten the curve was never that you wouldn’t have any more infections. It was that you would spread ’em out over a longer period of time.
So if I have my druthers, I’d obviously rather those infections go to people who are healthy and can fight it off rather than the most vulnerable. And if you’re able to do that and shield the most vulnerable, you will have a lower fatality rate. And our case fatality rate is like four to five times lower than some of the higher-death states, you know, that we had in the Northeast.
