Floridians fret over virus as young revellers try to keep the party going
Some of the most Instagrammable beaches in the world, barricaded. Wet Willie’s – home of the 26-flavour daiquiri bar – reduced to peddling take out. Neon-tinted dens of iniquity from Ocean Drive to Fort Lauderdale Beach under curfew or patrolled by cops ready to break up a good time.
This is what the novel coronavirus has wrought in Party Central, USA: Operation Cancel Spring Break.
‘‘Last weekend, I walked down Ocean Drive, shocked at the amount of young people that could care less that this thing was going on,’’ said Dan Gelber, Mayor of Miami Beach.
‘‘They think the coronavirus is some kind of singing band. I came back to City Hall and said, ‘We’re shutting down the beaches. It’s got to stop.’’’
And yet, what worries Gelber and millions of Floridians – particularly an elderly population more susceptible to the Covid-19 disease caused by the novel coronavirus – is that across the Sunshine State a whole mess of body-contact-loving spring breakers haven’t got the memo.
In a state plagued by killer storms, dog-eating pythons and the clickbait tales of ‘‘Florida man,’’ the coronavirus has put the fate of Floridians at least partly in the hands of responsibility-challenged teenagers and 20-somethings. Authorities are telling the tens of thousands of young revellers who regularly come here this time of year to do the right thing: follow national guidelines and emergency laws to limit gatherings and social contact, and to wash those hands.
A statewide edict has forced bars and nightclubs to shutter. Miami-Dade County yesterday ordered the closure of all beaches and county parks. Mayors have told the raucous visitors in no uncertain terms: Go home.
The throngs of scantily clad students have unquestionably thinned during the past day, officials say.
But gone, they most definitely are not.
In Panama City Beach, on the Panhandle, it’s still fun at Hammerhead Fred’s.
DJ Pauly D, of ‘‘Jersey Shore’’ fame, cancelled his set because of the coronavirus. But oblivious youths certain the virus would affect them less than older Americans partied on in one of the few places they could – a restaurant that avoided closure because it serves food.
For some, the limited options smarted, despite the fact that younger adults in the United States appear to be a large percentage of patients hospitalised with the virus.
‘‘They’re not letting us party,’’ said an irate Allie Shoman, 21, a junior at the University of Wisconsin. Her friend McKenzie Feyen chimed in, saying the virus doesn’t scare her at all: ‘‘There’s more cases where we go to school than here. We might as well stay and get hammered.’’
‘‘We’re having a great time,’’
Shoman said. ‘‘But it would’ve been more fun if they hadn’t shut down the bars.’’
Asked whether she worried about her own safety, Shoman said she wasn’t concerned. ‘‘If we get sick, we get sick. We’re not going to die.’’ – Washington Post