Thousands flock to Florida beaches despite global push to practice social distancing (Miami: spring break, hotels)

[JD59]

TAMPA, Fla. — While spring breakers head to beach communities, some Florida cities are enacting extra measures amid coronavirus concerns.

In some areas of Fort Lauderdale, public beaches are closing daily at 4:30 p.m. and bars and restaurants must close before 10 p.m. Miami Beach reportedly enacted similar measures with an 11 p.m. curfew for bars and restaurants, as well as 4:30 p.m. beach closures, including on South Beach. Other states are closing bars and limiting restaurants to take-out only.

https://www.newschannel5.com/news/co...ial-distancing

[billl]

Clearwater Beach will be closed starting Monday.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/health...to-the-public/

I found this interesting ... a potentially valid reason to keep beaches open:

"The decision is a break from the unified stance reached Tuesday by Pinellas County and city leaders to keep the public beaches open amid fears that thousands of tourists would be displaced to more susceptible areas like hotels and restaurants, and that restless residents would congregate elsewhere."

I haven't been out to Clearwater Beach in ages, but my recollection is that it can get very crowded during peak times ... way more than other beaches. On the other hand, I would expect the number of tourists to be down significantly right now.

[chiluvr1228]

^^This^^ to a certain extent. The concern here is that the spring breakers will catch Corona and then pass it on to people when they get home. However, like was mentioned they are probably better off being at the beach than in a movie theatre, bar, etc.

Fort Myers Beach is closing their beaches. Not sure about Sanibel.

[ndcairngorm]

My thought is that a beach is one of the least problematic places to gather in this new age. It's outside, you can space yourselves, you can wash off in the water.

As long as the nearby restaurants and bars are closed, this seems to me to be a good outlet for tourists and winter-breakers.

[columbusboy8]

It's time for parents and grandparents, who fund beach trips, to SAY NO! Many of these beach vacationers live rent-free in their parents' or grandparents' basements! It's time for these "kids" to grow up! Hopefully, they won't bring home any viruses, diseases, or future babies. Tough love is in order!

[seain dublin]

Originally Posted by JD59

TAMPA, Fla. — While spring breakers head to beach communities, some Florida cities are enacting extra measures amid coronavirus concerns.

In some areas of Fort Lauderdale, public beaches are closing daily at 4:30 p.m. and bars and restaurants must close before 10 p.m. Miami Beach reportedly enacted similar measures with an 11 p.m. curfew for bars and restaurants, as well as 4:30 p.m. beach closures, including on South Beach. Other states are closing bars and limiting restaurants to take-out only.

https://www.newschannel5.com/news/co...ial-distancing

Not good enough. FL needs to get with the program and follow other states. No bars, no restaurants.

It sucks but that's how you do it, other states are including CA.

A virus doesn't know a curfew.

[Charlie Allnut]

Originally Posted by seain dublin

Not good enough. FL needs to get with the program and follow other states. No bars, no restaurants.

It sucks but that's how you do it, other states are including CA.

A virus doesn't know a curfew.

Glad to see you tempered your rude, general comments about Florida by editing your post.

Spring Breakers DO need to go back home to their northern homes and bars/restuarants are now closing.
However, I was surf fishing this morning with no one with 100 yards, so let's not get too totalitarian and close the beaches alltogether.

Hope California's homeless dilemma does not affect the Coronavirus situation as Gov. Newsome predicts.
Do you have any thoughts that might help alleviate some of these concerns for your state of California?


https://www.latimes.com/homeless-hou...sk-150-million

[WRnative]

Florida should have shuttered its beaches, hotels, bars and restaurants BEFORE spring break. And, given the risk to the nation, the federal government should have implemented the closures if Florida refused to act.


I wonder what percentage of the kids on the beaches are from Florida and not from elsewhere?


At least some of the partiers are Floridians, so Florida also may pay heavy toll in coming weeks as asymptomatic yet infected youth take the disease home to their families, especially their grandparents and other elderly friends and relatives, as well as the vulnerable individuals in the public.


<<The study found that people with COVID-19 who didn't get diagnosed, likely because they didn't feel very sick, were the source of at least two-thirds of documented COVID-19 cases in China in the early days of the outbreak....


"Undetected cases can expose a far greater portion of the population to [the] virus than would otherwise occur. … These 'stealth transmissions' will continue to present a major challenge to the containment of this outbreak going forward," Shaman said.>>


https://www.livescience.com/coronavi...ed-spread.html


And contrary to popular opinion, the young are NOT immune to the disease.


<<Among the first reported cases in the US, around 40 percent of the patients that required hospitalization were between the ages of 20 and 54, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).>>


https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/17/2...d-severe-cases


So this spring break fiasco also will result in the infection of older siblings and parents, including healthcare workers and first responders desperately needed on the front lines of the fight against the virus.

[Charlie Allnut]

Originally Posted by WRnative

Florida should have shuttered its beaches, hotels, bars and restaurants BEFORE spring break. And, given the risk to the nation, the federal government should have implemented the closures if Florida refused to act.

Whoa, take a deep breath, we will make it through this.

Granted, hindsight is always 20/20, but Spring Break started mid to late February. It would be safe to say that states did not start closing bars and such until this past week. Even your state of Ohio did not order the closing unitil 4 days ago.

Regardless of the right or wrong, to suggest the Federal government take over State rights is dangerous territory. SO instead of pointing divisive fingers of blame, let's seek workable solutions and not plunge into mass panic.

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by Charlie Allnut

Whoa, take a deep breath, we will make it through this.

Granted, hindsight is always 20/20, but Spring Break started mid to late February. It would be safe to say that states did not start closing bars and such until this past week. Even your state of Ohio did not order the closing unitil 4 days ago.


Regardless of the right or wrong, to suggest the Federal government take over State rights is dangerous territory. SO instead of pointing divisive fingers of blame, let's seek workable solutions and not plunge into mass panic.

It's more dangerous for the federal government not to act when state and local government officials allow behavior that impacts the entire nation, let alone their own states, such as in the current epidemic.


BTW, Ohio also has closed barbers, hair parlors, and mandated the postponement of non-emergency dental procedures. Veterinarian services are restricted. Bank lobbies are closed, with only some banks allowing personal appointments.


<<In response to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s request that all veterinarians postpone elective and non-lifesaving procedures, they’ve also started temporarily discontinuing all wellness visits and procedures.>>


https://fox8.com/news/coronavirus/oh...-with-clients/



It's sad if all of these sacrifices are negated by spring breakers returning to Ohio. And the irresponsible inaction in some states may result in a nationwide lock down within weeks.


The "workable solution" is social distancing, as even now promoted by President Trump.



And there's a possibility that Florida has doomed itself to an Italy-like outcome by inadequately enforcing social distancing.



https://nypost.com/2020/03/19/soldie...-italian-city/

What we've been experiencing in the financial markets and real economy is a "mass panic." As I write this, a CNBC discussion centers on whether Boeing will survive this crisis. Admittedly, like many Florida seniors, Boeing had "preexisting conditions" before the onslaught of this financial crisis.



Sadly, if we had responded like Korea, many weeks ago, much of this could have been avoided. Foresight and informed action trumps hindsight always.


Inexcusably, despite repeated promises, we still have vastly inadequate testing capabilities in the U.S. and have done much too little to secure needed supplies of personal protection equipment.



https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/16/opini...itz/index.html


Mass testing in South Korea allowed that nation to protect better it's elderly population, as it has been shown that younger, often asymptomatic carriers of the virus greatly fuel the stealth transmission of the disease.



<<By contrast, the outbreak in South Korea has occurred among much younger people. There, only 20% of cases have been diagnosed in those 60 years old and up. The largest affected group is those in their 20s, who account for almost 30% of all cases.>>


https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/16/opini...itz/index.html


https://www.livescience.com/coronavi...ed-spread.html


Given the insufficient social distancing in Florida, combined with shortages of personal protection equipment nationwide, Florida health personnel and first responders may succumb to the COVID-19 virus, as is occurring in Italy despite apparently adequate supplies of personal protection equipment.



Would you condemn Florida health personnel and first responders, especially those with families, for abandoning their posts under these circumstances especially given the insufficiently casual approach to this crisis by Florida leaders and many of the state's residents?


Those who have exacerbated this mess will praise those on the front line even as they have put them in much greater jeopardy.


I know we'll make it through this. We made it through the Spanish Influenza in 1918 which claimed 675,000 Americans, many of them young, even though the population of the country was less than 110 million. After a nasty 1920-21 recession, the nation soon entered the Roaring 20s and really began to party!


Oh, yeah, the federal government likely will spend trillions to protect individuals and the economy from this health crisis. This is on top of already staggering federal debt and unfunded liabilities. The Fed appears likely to monetize this debt. And the impact on state budgets likely will be profound. No big deal, yet. Were you alive during the Great Stagflation of the 1970s to the early 1980s?