Responding to a public health crisis should be apolitical

Let’s be clear: Decision making that serves the best interests of our communities should be apolitical. And yet, in our current polarized era, it is not.

Florida’s abysmal unemployment system — which impacts all residents of the state, regardless of party affiliation — is an unfortunate example of the ways the negligent implementation of a public relief program can have detrimental effects on well-being and health. As a result, thousands of Florida families have been plunged into crisis, scrambling to put food on the table, pay rent, and keep the lights on.

Attempts to offer solutions for Florida’s unemployment system woes have been rebuffed on a partisan basis. At the end of April, Democratic state Reps. Evan Jenne and Bobby DuBose led an effort to convene a special session of the Florida Legislature to address unemployment. Last week, that effort was rejected along party lines.

Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried, the lone Democrat serving in the Florida Cabinet, offered 40 members of her staff to help process the backlog of unemployment applications; her offer was refused. She was also the only Cabinet member left off of the Re-Open Florida Task Force Executive Committee, and the Commissioner’s repeated requests for a cabinet meeting on coronavirus have essentially been ignored. (Commissioner Fried’s office plays a critical role in ensuring food security and consumer protection throughout the state.)

So, if we can’t trust the current state government to handle unemployment relief — a program that should be uncontroversial and nonpartisan — how can we trust those in power to respond to the current public health crisis apolitically?

Gov. Ron DeSantis has effectively declared victory over COVID-19, and the state began its phased re-opening on May 4. Yet, a probable resurgence looms on the horizon and a number of questions foundational for the safety of re-opening remain unanswered. For example:

Contact tracing is critical to tracking and controlling the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). The Contact Tracing Workforce Estimator from the Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity at George Washington University estimates Florida needs more than 4,700 contact tracers, according to the latest projections. The current number of contact tracers in the state is unclear. What plans does the state government have to scale up and maintain the number of contact tracers in the state?

When will the state reach at least 33,000 tests per day, which experts recommend for safe re-opening? On May 11, 23,908 tests were conducted, the highest number of daily tests over the past two weeks (based on data available at the time of writing).

To effectively stop the transmission of communicable disease, we must ensure ALL members of our communities are properly cared for. What plans are in place to address the outsized impacts, direct and indirect, that COVID-19 is having on groups already suffering from inequitable access to healthcare, including those without socioeconomic means, individuals working in high-risk occupations, minority groups, the LGBTQ+ community, individuals with disabilities, and incarcerated populations? How is the state ensuring these groups have equitable access to testing?

Several other critical issues remain open questions. All are questions our humanity should compel us to ask, regardless of our party affiliation. The answers should drive decision making. Yet, when Gov. DeSantis assembled the Re-Open Florida Task

Force Executive Committee, not one epidemiologist or public health expert was included. Instead, leadership on the Executive Committee centered on corporate interests rather than the public’s health.

Human beings crave certainty. No expert can predict exactly how this public health emergency will unfold next. However, Floridians deserve the certainty of knowing their state government is using every scientific tool in its possession to mount a vigorous response that prioritizes the health and well-being of its citizens over partisan interests. That we have not been provided that certainty is a terrible reality — a reality that will contribute to the loss of lives over a sustained period of time.

We understand the urgency with which many Floridians wish to return to some sense of normalcy. Parents want to get back to work to provide for their families; small business owners have employees relying on them. But we must balance this with the reality that as of May 15, 1,917 Floridian lives have already been lost, and that number increases daily. An economy rebuilt on a rising death toll will not be sustainable for long. A resurgence in cases that causes the state to shut down again will be costly. For both the health and economic well-being of Floridians, evidence-based public health interventions, implemented apolitically, should guide us through this time of crisis.