With millions of unvaccinated residents and the Delta variant on the rise, Florida, Georgia, and Texas are facing some of the worst surges of COVID since cases peaked earlier this year. While residents are in crisis, death rates are spiking, and hospitals are overflowing with patients, Republican governors and state lawmakers are claiming “great success” against the virus. Meanwhile, Florida experiences its worst outbreak since the pandemic began, claiming hundreds of lives each day, Texas’ governor blocks local school boards from keeping schools safe, and Georgia is calling in the National Guard to help beleaguered health care workers.
Governors DeSantis, Kemp, and Abbott are allowing COVID to run rampant through their states by fighting against common sense solutions for cheap political points. Action must be taken now to slow the spike in cases and protect health and lives. In response, Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach issued the following statement:
“Out of all of the failures by Republican leaders during the pandemic, Governors DeSantis, Kemp, and Abbot’s may be the most alarming. From the very beginning, these governors have denied science and dismissed public experts — rejecting basic measures to slow the spread of the virus and contributing to extreme vaccine hesitancy in their states. While Florida, Georgia, and Texas are needlessly suffering some of the highest caseloads and death rates in the country, their Republican Governors are bragging about their abysmal leadership. Shame on them.”
COVID Cases And Hospitalizations Are Surging Across The South
Florida, Georgia, And Texas Together Are Experiencing Nearly 50,000 New Cases Daily. Surging cases are sweeping the south, with daily counts in Florida reaching 21,673, Georgia averaging more than 8,428 new cases a day, and Texas experiencing cases stretching to 17,022. Daily hospitalizations are also on the rise, with admissions soaring to 17,183 in Florida, 5,766 in Georgia, and 13,478 in Texas.
Intensive Care Units Are Nearing Capacity. More than 90 percent ICU beds are currently in use across Florida, Georgia, and Texas, with the vast majority of ICU patients unvaccinated. Rather than take preventative measures to slow COVID’s spread, like requiring vaccination for state workers or enforcing indoor masking, the Republican governors of these states are relying on soley reactive measures. In Florida, the Department of Health and Human Services and Strategic National Stockpile confirmed 200 ventilators and 100 high-flow nasal cannula kits were sent to Florida to assist with the state’s skyrocketing hospitalized population. Georgia has been forced to deploy the National Guard to assist health care workers with the state’s recent surge. In Texas, 2,500 nurses have been brought in from across the country to assist in the face of soaring hospitalizations.
Three Of The Top Four States For New Covid Cases. Florida currently ranks number one in the nation for new COVID cases, with Texas ranking second, and Georgia’s surge resulting in their position as number four. The current rate of new cases in Florida is 30 percent higher than its staggering January peak.
Many Residents Are Unvaccinated And Remain Vulnerable To Infection. As of August 25, 48 percent of Florida residents were not fully vaccinated, with 53 percent in Texas, and 59 percent in Georgia. Hospitalizations among the unvaccinated continue to surge as a result, nearly tripling in Florida over the past month, forcing the Orlando’s mayor to ask residents to “conserve water to limit the strain on the city’s supply of liquid oxygen, which is needed both to purify drinking water and to treat Covid-19 patients.”
GOP Governors Putting Residents In Harm’s Way
Florida
Republican State Lawmakers And DeSantis Ban Vaccine Passports. Gov. DeSantis signed Senate Bill 2006 into law in early May 2021 to ban vaccine passports and “government overreach.” This limits when the state and local governments can call for an emergency order and allows the Governor of Florida to invalidate a local emergency order if it unnecessarily restricts the rights or liberties of individuals. This law and Executive Orders 21-101 and 21-102 ended local emergency orders. On June 27, 2021, DeSantis did not renew the state’s emergency order.
DeSantis’ Failed Attempt To Block Cruise Ships Requiring Proof Of Vaccination. A U.S. judge agreed with a Norwegian Cruise Line challenge on DeSantis’ vaccine passport ban saying that the ban “jeopardizes public health and is an unconstitutional infringement” on the cruise liner’s rights. After shutting down in March 2020 from the CDC’s “no sail order,” Norwegian promised a 95 percent vaccination rate for passengers to resume its cruises on August 15, 2021.
DeSantis Bans Mask Mandates In Schools. On July 30, 2021, Gov. DeSantis issued Executive Order 21-075 to ban mask mandates in schools and allow parents the right to decide if their children wear masks. After facing backlash from school districts with mask mandates already in place, DeSantis threatened to withhold salaries of superintendents and school boards disregarding his executive order. Later on August 12, 2021, DeSantis backed down from that threat – legally, he can’t take away school officials’ salaries – and is now considering “hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines” to school districts that intentionally defy the order.
DeSantis Facing Lawsuits For Denying Access To Safe And Healthy Schools. A lawsuit filed August 6, 2021 challenges DeSantis’ executive order on the basis that banning masks denies students access to safe and healthy schools. Many of the parents in the group that filed the suit have children who are immunocompromised or have pre-existing conditions. With the recent spread of the Delta variant, a record high of over 1,900 children have been hospitalized with Covid-19 as of August 14, 2021. A fifth of current Covid-19 hospitalizations in the United States are located in Florida. Since children under 12 years old still aren’t eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine, DeSantis’ mask ban and the Delta variant surge is particularly worrisome for parents of school aged children.
Georgia
No Plan To Protect Residents. Despite experiencing the worst health crisis in a generation, Georgia has refused to accept Medicaid expansion that would provide lifesaving care at this pivotal moment. Stacey Abrams’ aide, Lauren Groh-Wargo described the situation in Georgia best when she said, “Georgia is in crisis, but the governor acts like all is well. No mask mandates. No Medicaid expansion to shore up hospitals and cover the uninsured in a pandemic. No deep community outreach or incentives to get vaccinated. He’s just throwing up his hands like he has no power to save lives.”
Governor Kemp Has Banned Vaccine Passports. Gov. Kemp signed the “Prohibition of COVID-19 Vaccine Passports” Executive Order into law in May, banning state agencies, state service providers, and state properties from requiring COVID-19 vaccine passports.
Kemp Refuses To Protect Georgia’s Children Returning To School. Kemp refuses to institute a mask requirement for schools, despite the fact that a recent Axios-Ipsos poll found that 69 percent of Americans support required masking in schools by students, teachers, and administrators. 66 percent are opposed to state laws prohibiting local governments from creating mask requirements. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, more than 180,000 new cases among children were reported in the week prior to August 19, making up approximately 22 percent of all reported cases.
Texas
Governor Abbott Is Putting Children In Harm’s Way. In July, Governor Abbott signed an executive order banning schools from requiring masks, despite Texas’ ongoing spike in COVID infections. When San Antonio schools continued to mandate masks to protect the health of students and teachers, Abbott took legal action, which resulted in the Texas Supreme Court siding with Abbott and blocking any attempt to require masks in Texas schools.
Governor Abbott Has Banned Vaccine Mandates. Governor Abbott has doubled down on his opposition to lifesaving vaccine mandates. Governor Abbott previously issued an executive order barring governments or schools from requiring a vaccine that was under an emergency use authorization. On August 25, he reissued his ban on COVID vaccination requirements by state and local governments, in light of Pfizer’s full approval by the FDA. Texas Seeks Out-Of-State Assistance Against Covid. At the beginning of August, Texas officials began denying requests for additional hospital staff. Hospitals were directed to appeal to their city and county leaders to use already accounted for federal Covid relief funds to accommodate the shortages. On August 9, 2021, Gov. Abbott was forced to request out-of-state help regarding staff and hospital bed shortages and appealed to the Texas Hospital Association to postpone all elective surgeries.