Florida Gov. DeSantis credits Sunshine State pandemic ‘success’ to open economy

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Florida, California see similar COVID numbers despite vastly different lockdown policies

Dr. Marc Siegel weighs in on coronavirus case numbers in Florida and California despite entirely different restrictions.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week said his state handled the pandemic effectively, despite the criticism he took for keeping business largely open throughout the past year.

DeSantis lamented that the formula being used to administer federal funding to states is based on unemployment rates at the end of 2020, suggesting it penalizes a state like Florida that has kept business solvent and kept individuals employed.

"Those lockdowns have not worked, they’ve done great damage to our country. We can never let something like this happen again," DeSantis said during a press conference on Tuesday. "Florida took a different path – we’ve had more success as a result."

The Florida Republican added that by awarding the funds based on that formula, instead of by state population, the government is favoring states that have handled the pandemic ineffectively – like New York, California and Illinois.

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During a separate press conference in Naples on Wednesday, DeSantis credited "different policies" for the fact that the Sunshine State is doing "much better" than states like New York and New Jersey.

"For age 65 and up, which is where we focused most of our efforts protecting our seniors. There’s 40 states in this country that have higher per capita mortality for seniors for COVID than the state of Florida and yet we’re open for business, our unemployment’s 4.8%," DeSantis said. "I could be under 4% [unemployment] if I had leisure and hospitality back where it was … some of these lockdown states, they’re 8% or 9% on unemployment and they have worse COVID results – and California’s done worse than us too."’

DeSantis said on Wednesday that nearly two-thirds of all the state’s seniors have received doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

"If you are a senior citizen, you were less likely to die with COVID in Florida than you were in California even though they are the quintessential lockdown, drag-out, close schools, close businesses state."

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Meanwhile, DeSantis is dealing with renewed criticism as images emerge of maskless Spring Break revelers flooding beaches in places like Miami Beach.

Several Florida cities have issued new rules to try and curtail the rowdy spring break crowds. (Reportajes El Molinon for foxnews.1eye.us)

A wild spring break has long been a tradition of lore for students across the country. (Reportajes El Molinon for foxnews.1eye.us)

Health experts have warned of a surge in cases following spring break travel.

According to data from the CDC, over the last seven days Florida has reported more than 144 virus cases for every 100,000 people.