Rich Lowry Applauds Florida’s Approach on Coronavirus, Slams Endless Shutdowns
Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took the right approach by allowing local leaders to take the initiative in leading his state’s coronavirus response, National Review editor Rich Lowry wrote on Monday, adding that “pro-lockdown extremists” have moved the goalposts when it comes to lockdowns.
“The lockdowns of much of the country were undertaken ‘to flatten the curve’ and largely to prevent the hospital system from being overrun,” Lowry wrote in his syndicated column. “It was a near-run thing in New York and New Jersey, but the dikes held, thanks to the incredible sacrifices of front-line health workers. Now, the rhetoric around the shutdowns has shifted, and not very subtly — flattening the curve and saving the hospitals are ‘out,’ and not allowing any additional cases to emerge is ‘in.’”
He added that acknowledging “the need to strike a balance between the economy and public health is now considered tantamount to murder,” and said DeSantis was right to take a hands-off approach in Florida.
“In announcing his reopening plan, he recalled all the dire projections of what would befall Florida because he was supposedly late in issuing a stay-at-home order, effective April 3,” Lowry wrote. “Yet Florida is coming out of this phase of the epidemic vastly better off than Louisiana, Massachusetts and New York. About 40 percent of its hospital beds have been available at any given time. In retrospect, there was wisdom in DeSantis letting municipalities and counties take the initiative in a big, diverse state.”
Florida on Monday entered the first phase of the Trump administration’s three-phase reopening plan, with the exception of South Florida’s Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The state has seen about 37,000 coronavirus cases and around 1,400 deaths, but on a per-capita basis, it is outperforming national totals. The state had 1,818 cases per million residents as of Tuesday, compared to the national total of 3,672.
DeSantis has nonetheless faced criticism for declining to lock down the state earlier. He ordered bars and restaurants to close on March 17 and ordered a statewide lockdown to take effect April 3.
The lockdowns were initially promoted by health officials as a way to “flatten the curve” of coronavirus infections. While most people might still face infection at some point, slowing the spread would prevent a precipitous rise in the need for medical resources. Experts this week suggested the lockdowns have not been as effective as many hoped. The Centers for Disease Control estimates coronavirus-linked deaths will nearly double to 3,000 by June 1, and a University of Washington model revised on May 4 anticipates a total number of 135,000 deaths, nearly twice as many as previously anticipated.
Dr. Anthony Fauci warned about the contagious nature of Covid-19 in a Monday interview, saying, “One thing this virus has that’s really different from so many other viruses that we have experience with, it has a phenomenal capability and efficiency in spreading from person to person.”
Lowry wrote that people could make their own choices about how to proceed more effectively than government.
“People are capable of making their own decisions. They decided to stay at home before the state formally told them to. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the movements of people began declining in mid-March, well before the statewide stay-at-home order,” Lowry wrote. “In a better world, the lockdowns wouldn’t have merely avoided the worst but crushed the spread of the disease. That hasn’t happened. We will be engaged in a Dance for some time, even if one faction in our national life only ever wants to wield a Hammer.”
—
