Here’s what federal plan to combat COVID-19 means for Florida

TALLAHASSEE

President Joe Biden ran on beating the coronavirus.

After nearly a year of what Biden has characterized as a national failure to contain the virus — America ranks 12th globally in deaths per capita — the federal government says it’s stepping up the response.

Biden issued a blizzard of executive orders aimed at curbing the virus’ spread, many of which originated in his coronavirus campaign plan.

Here’s how those orders will affect Florida.

BIDEN SETS A GOAL ON VACCINE DISTRIBUTION — THAT FLORIDA IS ALREADY HITTING

Biden wants 100 million Americans vaccinated in the first 100 days of his office. Florida has about 6.5% of America’s population. That means Florida has to vaccinate some 65,000 people per day to hold up its end of Biden’s national bargain.

The Sunshine State is already doing that. In a seven-day span ending Wednesday, Florida vaccinated at least 68,000 people per day.

“Florida’s vaccination efforts remain unchanged,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spokeswoman Meredith Beatrice said in a statement.

Still, hospitals and government officials in Florida say vaccine doses from the federal government are in woefully short supply. Biden’s policies could change that. In one of his executive orders, the Biden administration has said it will expand the federal government’s use of the Defense Production Act. Under that 1950 law, the government can require private businesses to ramp up production of

products necessary for the national defense. The Biden team says vaccines and personal protective gear fall under that umbrella.

The new president also hopes to improve communication between the state and federal governments when it comes to vaccine distribution.

Last week, Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz criticized the Trump administration for failing to give states clear messaging about how many vaccine doses to expect in a given week.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that states can expect “more clear guidance from the federal level in terms of how we’re planning to operate.”

BIDEN IS PROPOSING OTHER THINGS THAT DESANTIS IS ALREADY DOING

In one of his executive orders, Biden said he would formulate a strategy for safely reopening schools. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered school districts and state universities to offer at least some in-person instruction for much of the school year. (Parents may also opt for virtual learning.)

In a speech last week, DeSantis slammed Biden’s cautious approach to reopening schools, arguing every school in the country should already be open. The risk of the virus spreading at school — which it has, particularly at the state’s universities — is far outweighed by the risk of lost educational opportunities, DeSantis has said.

“I think how people like Biden and these unions have behaved with schools is one of the most disgraceful things I’ve ever seen,” DeSantis said at a conservative think tank in Texas. “Keeping schools closed for a year and a half is one of the biggest policy blunders in the history of our country.”

According to another of Biden’s proposals,

America needs more testing to get the virus under control. Researchers at Harvard’s Global Health Institute say the United States needs to be testing about 2.3 million people per day in order to fight the virus’ spread. Florida’s share of that is about 150,000 tests per day.

But testing availability hasn’t been a recent issue in Florida. In the past two weeks, the state has surpassed experts’ 150,000 test per day target, reporting more than 154,000 daily tests of residents on average, according to state data.

MASKS ENCOURAGED, NOT REQUIRED

President Biden did not enact a federal mask mandate, which would live or die in subsequent court rulings. Instead, he opted for a more modest approach, requiring that masks be worn on interstate vehicles like buses, trains and planes in one executive order. In another, he required that anyone “in federal buildings and on federal lands” wear masks and socially distance.

That means people who go to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, or visitors of Everglades National Park — to give two examples — will be asked to wear a mask in most situations under Biden’s executive order.

Biden’s order has no teeth. There is no mention of any penalties for those who defy the mask order, and one section even reads: “Independent agencies are strongly encouraged to comply with the requirements of this order.”

Still, studies show that masks are an effective way to stop transmission of the coronavirus, which is most commonly spread via respiratory droplets.

DeSantis, for his part, has long argued the mandates don’t work, pointing out that states with mask mandates like California have seen spikes anyway.

BIDEN IS CALLING

FOR RADICAL DATA TRANSPARENCY

Throughout the pandemic response, DeSantis has been dogged by accusations that the state is not leveling with its residents about the extent of the COVID-19 crisis. Despite numerous requests from news agencies, the Department of Health hasn’t released contact tracing data. The Sun-Sentinel reported that the state reported fewer COVID-19 deaths in the run-up to the November election. And the Orlando Sentinel sued to get the governor’s office to turn over federal Coronavirus Task Force reports that recommended mitigation measures resisted by DeSantis.

Biden’s government is promising to collect state data and publish it in a way that’s “open to the public and machine-readable to the maximum extent permissible to track performance, support forecasting, ensure transparency, and promote scientific research.”

BIDEN EXTENDED THE FEDERAL EVICTION MORATORIUM

State Department of Children and Families Secretary Chad Poppell said roughly 40,000 evictions were filed last year during the pandemic. Some of those cases, which didn’t fit the exact requirements of the federal moratorium, have already gone through. But once the federal eviction moratorium expires, many more of those cases would proceed, and families could be forced to leave their homes.

Biden has announced he will extend the moratorium through March. However, some advocates worry the federal moratorium needs stronger enforcement mechanisms.

ENDING RACIALLY DISPARATE HEALTH OUTCOMES

According to state data collected by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the coronavirus has not affected all ethnic and racial groups in Florida equally. White Floridians are underrepresented in their share of the state’s coronavirus cases. Black Floridians comprise 15% of the state’s population, and at least 15% of the state’s cases. Hispanics have suffered a disproportionately high percentage of the state’s infections.

Biden hopes to address this imbalance with an executive order establishing a “Health Equity Task Force.” That group will be charged with telling the White House how to fight “the health inequities caused or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic” and how to stop “such inequities in the future.”

Luckily, in Florida, COVID-19 treatments in general have become more effective over the course of the nearly year-long pandemic. Florida Hospital Association CEO and President Mary Mayhew, who ran Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration, reported that ventilator use in hospitals is down to just “a fraction” of the rate Florida saw during its deadly summer surge.