There is GREAT MUSSAR to be learned from the following two articles. Young people won't stop their partying and elderly people insist on continuing to play golf and going to casinos - despite the severe health risks.
Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. For Modern G-dless man - a life without fun and parties is not worth living.
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A week ago, Jordan Rodriguez and his fiancée met up with two friends for tacos, chicken wings, and pitchers of beer at a local pub in Pembroke Pines, Fla., one of several outings the 38-year-old has enjoyed since the Sunshine State reopened for business in May.
“I wouldn’t say I felt safer, but I had started venturing out again a little bit. I still wear a face mask whenever I go out and I have always been a germaphobe, so I’m regularly washing my hands with soap.”
Little did he know that the coronavirus was likely already gestating inside him. The following morning, Rodriguez felt lousy when he woke up. Initially, he chalked it up to a few too many beers. But as the day progressed, Rodriguez wasn’t feeling better. “I took my temperature and I had a fever of 99.9,” he said. “I knew I had to get tested.”
Rodriguez drove to the emergency room of the Cleveland Clinic Florida in nearby Weston, where he took a rapid test confirming he was positive for COVID-19, he recalled. His fiancée and his two friends got tested as well, but came up negative, Rodriguez said. “Since that day, I’ve felt no symptoms. I check my temperature regularly and it hasn’t gone up. But I’ve been quarantined in my bedroom.”
With the Sunshine State’s COVID-19 surge gathering strength like a monstrous hurricane, emergency rooms across the pandemic epicenter of South Florida are experiencing more and more patients in their 20s and 30s carrying the coronavirus. That squares with repeated explanations for case surges in the state by Gov. Ron DeSantis—that reckless, often young people are a big part of the problem. While DeSantis does acknowledge they pose a risk to others, the implication of his appraisal, critics say, is that the state’s hospital system is not in danger of being overloaded.
But some local hospitals have already reached or are nearing capacity, and these facilities are processing people like Rodriguez who took part in a reopening their government endorsed—only to get infected and exhibit mild symptoms. Such patients are often being quickly discharged, posing that very risk of spreading the deadly respiratory disease to elder family members, significant others, friends, and strangers should they not properly quarantine, health experts warned.
In other words, the state’s health-care system isn’t yet underwater. But it could be soon, according to hospital workers, internal correspondence, and experts familiar with state medical data. And the people sending asymptomatic younger people on their way have a front-row seat to the danger wrought by a reopening that, experts say, set the state on course for disaster.
“We know from the data that the cases are trending younger and we have a pretty good idea that it is related to the behavior of young folks going out to bars and house parties,” said Cindy Prins, a University of Florida epidemiology professor. “We tend to take more risks and live in the moment when we are younger. They may believe they are not at risk of being hospitalized, but they do pose a risk to others.”
When the state was in its version of lockdown mode, Cleveland Clinic had days when not a single person came in with COVID-19 symptoms, according to a nurse in the hospital’s emergency room who asked that their name not be used because they were not speaking on behalf of the hospital.
That’s changed.
“Now, it’s about 10 a day,” the nurse said. “I had seven the last night I worked. All the ones I’ve treated are in their mid-20s to early-50s.”
“They test positive but they are not critical,” the nurse said in a separate interview last month. “We send them home with instructions to take ibuprofen, rest, and quarantine for 14 days.”
The hospital’s number of admissions, or people taking up beds, is lower than the number of people coming in to get tested. Cleveland Clinic’s Weston location is admitting an average of about three COVID-19 patients a day and only 20 percent of infected individuals admitted into the hospital were under 40.
Still, at a Sunday press conference, Gov. DeSantis said his state’s skyrocketing COVID-19 case count was largely due to young people going out and congregating in large groups without precautions such as face masks and social distancing. (He had also previously insisted the upward track was in part due to an increase in testing, and outbreaks among predominantly Hispanic migrant farming communities.) The governor pointed to statistics showing Floridians aged 18-44 were the primary spreaders of the recent spike.
“You can’t control… they’re younger people. They’re going to do what they’re going to do,” DeSantis said.
According to the Miami Herald, the Florida Department of Health recorded 43,964 new COVID-19 cases the week of June 21-28—the highest weekly number of infections to date. The state also set records for single day counts over the weekend. The 9,585 new cases on Saturday set a new single-day record that beat the previous record from just 24 hours earlier, when the state reported nearly 9,000 new cases.
The latest update from the health department on Tuesday showed 52 percent of Florida’s 149,781 cases were people between the ages of 15 and 44. However, tracking the demographics and the number of infected individuals who need hospital care is trickier. The health department doesn’t publicize the number of people currently hospitalized, providing only the total number of hospitalizations since the pandemic started.
“The state hasn’t released any criteria or metrics related to how they’re determining whether or not an ICU patient ‘needs intensive care’ and could simply be kicked out of the bed if a sicker patient came along,” she said. A spokesperson for the state health department did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
As of Monday, ICU bed capacity in Miami-Dade area hospitals had hit 70 percent and the number of incoming patients was outpacing the number of patients being discharged, according to the county’s report. For instance, on Saturday and Sunday, 250 new patients were admitted, while 186 were discharged. A few hospitals in the county were veering toward maximum capacity.
Homestead Hospital reached capacity last week, according to CBS4 Miami. And its sister facility, Baptist Hospital of Miami, saw its count of positive patients and patients suspected of having COVID-19 rise from 98 to 124 between Sunday and Monday morning. The memo stated Baptist was actively transferring patients to other facilities in its network, but that all its hospitals were filling up fast.
The document also noted that Miami-Dade was converting a shuttered hospital into a facility that will house positive patients, possibly providing relief to Homestead Hospital, which has seen a high number of migrant farm workers testing for COVID-19. That much, at least, was consistent with DeSantis’ line. County spokeswoman Patty Abril said Miami-Dade’s hospital site will only house COVID-19 patients from nursing homes who are being treated in hospitals, which in turn will free up more beds at area hospitals. A spokesperson for DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
“We are still at capacity with people waiting for beds,” said a Homestead Hospital nurse who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity because their employer, Baptist Health South Florida, has enacted a policy prohibiting staff from speaking to the media. “Most of the people receiving a COVID-positive diagnosis are completely asymptomatic.”
A Baptist spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
At Aventura Hospital, which is located in northern Miami-Dade, first responders are bringing in more patients with COVID-19 symptoms comparable to the numbers during the early days of the pandemic, according to a paramedic who works there who also spoke on the condition of anonymity because Aventura has a no-media policy for employees. “A few of them needed ventilators, but most of them are stable,” the paramedic said, adding that they’ve also transported patients going to the emergency room for non-COVID reasons who still get tested and come back positive.
The paramedic was sure that the number of infected people would remain high, since individuals were not abiding by social distancing and face mask precautions, as everyone from health experts to DeSantis has said. “We’re seeing a lot of 18-35 year olds getting it,” the paramedic said. “Two of my coworkers are actually out sick now cause they got it… nothing severe, but they have to stay home until they’re negative.”
The paramedic hadn’t been tested, but was worried about catching COVID-19. “It’s been hella stressful… I’m starting to feel a little bit more concerned about getting infected simply because I feel like I’m seeing so much more COVID now than before.”
Aventura Hospital’s spokesperson did not return two voice messages seeking comment.
Beyond the real possibility of infecting loved ones and frontline workers, young people showing mild to no symptoms can also disrupt businesses that have resumed regular work schedules.
Karlie McCutcheson, a 23-year-old from Jacksonville, said she tested positive on Saturday after feeling run-down the previous week. “I was getting absurdly tired at work,” McCutcheson said. “Even my bosses noticed it. But it wasn’t until Friday night that I really believed I had caught COVID.”
She had picked up food from Chipotle, McCutcheson said. “I bit into my food and I couldn’t taste anything,” she said, relaying one of the telltale indicators of COVID-19. When she informed her bosses of her positive test over the weekend, they closed the office, McCutcheson said. “Everyone is working from home and has to get tested,” she said. “Each employee had to come in one by one to get their stuff.”
McCutcheson also believes her father and her brother caught COVID-19 from her when they went out to dinner for Father’s Day two Sundays ago. Her dad and sibling also tested positive last week. On Monday, Jacksonville—putative site of President Donald Trump’s Republican Convention acceptance speech at the end of August—adopted a mandatory mask requirement for public and indoor locations to slow the community spread.
McCutcheson said she thinks she got COVID-19 from her boyfriend before Father’s Day when they saw each other at her apartment. He tested positive shortly after their encounter. “In Jacksonville, it was like COVID was no longer a big deal,” she said. “Everyone had gone back to living their normal lives.”
Back in Pembroke Pines, Rodriguez said he will remain sequestered in his bedroom until he tests negative for COVID-19, noting he doesn’t want to infect his fiancée or her parents, who live with them.
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ALLANDALE BEACH, Florida—John Pica leaned against the open driver's side door of his blue Jeep Wrangler, parked in a handicapped spot close to the entrance of the Big Easy Casino. It was early afternoon on Tuesday, and the 71-year-old with a full white beard was fiddling with a broken strap on his surgical face mask.
It was Pica’s second trip to the 70,000 square-foot gambling den since the Big Easy and other Broward County casinos reopened five days ago. “I was already inside but I had to leave because mine broke".
That morning, Florida health department officials confirmed the state had logged a record 2,783 new coronavirus cases on June 15, marking it the third day in four that the state had 2,000 or more cases. Yet even though he’s in the age group most vulnerable to succumbing to COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, Pica was elated to be hitting the electronic gaming machines. Despite the odds of being infected via person-to-person contact, Pica didn’t see a problem gambling with his health.
“There’s also the risk of dying at home alone,” he said. “They have good precautions here.”
Pica’s quest was just one window into how Floridians 65 and over have been quickly resuming leisure activities since state, county, and city officials began loosening lockdowns meant to slow the spread of COVID-19. Health experts generally agree that society cannot live in a state of perpetual lockdown. But they have consistently warned that senior citizens should be more vigilant about reigniting their social interactions, especially in states like Florida, Texas, and Arizona, that have seen their coronavirus trajectories veer off into the stratosphere in recent days.
Still, many Boomers seem determined not to spend their golden years in isolation, and are doing everything they can to live their best lives in this new reality—even if it means traversing a mushrooming outbreak.
Determined to go back inside the Big Easy, Pica rigged the mask so the strap stayed in place around his ears. "I'll probably play for a couple of hours," he said. “It’s not as busy as other casinos in Broward and I don't talk to anybody.”
Another Big Easy patron, 68-year-old Michael Duchon, said he stopped by to catch the morning horse-racing simulcast. "Of course I have some concerns, but I wanted to get out of my house,” Duchon said. “The casino was open and I like to play the horses.”
Walking into the Big Easy, players were greeted by signs on the glass doors, on the walls, and on advertising stands that instructed them to maintain a six-foot distance and to keep their masks on at all times. A digital thermometer read people's temperatures as they entered the main floor lined with rows of electronic gaming machines.
More than half of roughly 175 patrons were elderly, and some of the more frail-looking gamblers shuffled across the carpeted floor with the help of walkers and canes.
In the poker room, about half a dozen tables had the maximum number of six players. They sat elbow-to-elbow and in a semi-circle. Casino staff did not appear to be aggressively enforcing social distancing requirements, but they constantly wiped down empty machines. (The Big Easy on-duty floor casino manager did not immediately return a phone call requesting comment and the company that owns it did not respond to emailed questions prior to publication.)
Of course, casinos aren’t the only way Florida seniors are getting their rocks off.
Al Levy was anxious to make up for lost time on the greens. So he set up camp at the Trump National Doral Miami, among four golf courses the Trump Organization reopened shortly after Miami-Dade County allowed golfing facilities to resume operations.
“I started playing as much as I could,” the 65-year-old advertising company owner told The Daily Beast. “It’s been quite often. I’d say about 12 to 15 times.”
Following his most recent 18-hole round this past Saturday, Levy and his three golfing buddies ventured to a nearby pizzeria for their first sit-down dining experience since March. “The tables were spread six feet apart, but we were the only ones inside,” he said. “We had to wear masks going into the restaurant, but took them off when we were eating. Our server also wore a mask and gloves.”
The same day, June 13, Florida health officials reported 2,340 new positive COVID-19 cases, which at the time was the most recorded in the Sunshine State since the pandemic began. Of the total 80,109 Floridians who have tested positive, roughly 44 percent (nearly 35,273) had been identified as coming into contact with a person who had the disease.
Despite the sobering statistics, Levy was ambivalent about the health risks for people his age and older, who account for 20 percent of Florida’s 21.4 million residents. “I am not more or less concerned,” he said. “I try to do what you are supposed to do such as wearing a face-mask whenever possible, and maintaining my social distance.”
On his golf outings, he rides alone in a golf cart, opposing players keep their distance, and no one touches the flagstick, the marker inside each golf hole, Levy explained.
The people getting sick, he argued, are individuals attending large gatherings such as recent George Floyd protests and going to dining establishments or public places where social distancing and face coverings are not being enforced. “Those individuals are just asking for trouble,” Levy said.
Experts suggested seniors were trying to walk an impossible line.
“When you have the level of infection Florida has and, in particular, Miami-Dade has, you should be acting like everybody is infected,” said Dr. William Haseltine, chair of the US-China Health Summit. “It is possible to have a life that is not completely restricted, but you have to be extraordinarily careful.”
Haseltine, who played a key role in the U.S response to the HIV/AIDS and anthrax crises, said seniors who engage in social activities must have situational awareness about being in an enclosed space, how big the space is, how many people are in the space, how many of those individuals are not wearing masks, how long they are going to be in the space, and the positive infection rate of their community.
“If they can’t factor any of those things, they are putting themselves and everybody they love at risk,” Haseltine said.
Kathleen C. Brown, a University of Tennessee public health professor and epidemiologist, put it more simply: People 65 and older should continue staying at home and limiting contact with people who don’t live with them. “We haven’t made enough progress to assume the risk is low,” she told The Daily Beast.
“But it’s a tough call,” she added, of politicians easing restrictions. “At some point, you have to make that decision to reopen knowing that when we put people back together, we will see more cases.”
Under the reopening guidelines set forth by Gov. Ron DeSantis, senior citizens and people with serious medical conditions can leave their homes to “obtain or provide open services or conduct open activities.”
Schmidt’s friend, 68-year-old harmonica player Williee Armenelli, has been a little more adventurous. A resident of Miami Springs, home to the Florida nursing facility with the most COVID-19 deaths in the state, Armenelli said he had a drink and listened to live music in the town’s golf and country club on a Saturday night two weeks ago.
“As a casual observer sitting in the corner, I could see how six feet can easily become six inches when you’re drinking,” he said. “Social distancing just doesn’t work in a bar atmosphere.”
Last week, on different occasions, Gov. DeSantis told reporters the state’s ominous trend-lines were a product of more testing and isolated outbreaks in nursing homes, prisons, and farming communities. DeSantis has also pointed to a low overall positive rate despite the surge in new cases. On Saturday, the state’s positive rate was 4.42 percent, the lowest in five days; on Monday, it shot up to 7.46 percent.
[The Daily Beast]
