As the state is about to reopen here are all the reasons why it should.

Anyone who has followed coronavirus news to any degree should be aware by now that Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has been a regular target in the press. He has handled the crisis in a high population state well and has avoided panic while pushing for pragmatism. Of course this has angered the media, who have been raptrous over Andrew Cuomo while he was endangering the elderly in nursing homes while ushering in a death total  3-4 times higher than Florida with fewer residents.

Another reason for journalists to despise DeSantis is he tosses their figures and predictions right back at them to show they are incorrect, and on the eve of opening up Florida to Phase 2 he launched some statistics to both silence and anger the critics even more. What is sure to get the teeth grinding on the left is that all of the figures he lays out in a Twitter thread are illustrating what has been called for all this time — a flattening of the curve.

FL COVID Update:

1) The number of COVID+ patients currently hospitalized is down more than 70% since July

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) September 11, 2020

Of note here, July is when Florida had it its initial Phase of reopening — and the numbers decreased. Here are the other stats DeSantis offers up for review.

• Hospitalized COVID+ patients represent less than 5% of total licensed beds in FL
• 24% of all hospital beds are empty; 22% of all ICU beds are also empty
• The number of COVID+ patients in the ICU has declined by almost 65% since July
• % positive of diagnostic tests for 9/10: — 4.87% in Miami-Dade  3.19 % in Broward 
• Daily hospital admissions for COVID have declined by 74% since July

These numbers are delivered at a time when testing continues to rise in the state. And as the governor points out, the positive results mostly do not mean dire news. “Over the last however many couple weeks … tens of thousands of people tested positive, and they haven’t found one hospital admission yet,“ DeSantis said. “Sometimes you just got to put these cases in perspective.”

This follows another time DeSantis held the press to task, needing to remind them of the promised disaster they said the state was going to endure. The media declared massive caseloads and hospitals so overrun with patients that beds would be unavailable. It never materialized. Yet Andrew Cuomo for some reason is held up as the shining example of how to handle this pandemic. New York exceeds Florida in Covid deaths while this state has far more positive cases, as well as being a home to numerous elderly residents. The death rate in New York is over 7% while Florida stands at a lowly 1.8%.

This is why on Monday much of Florida will see businesses like bars reopening and a wider capacity allowed in restaurants.