Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Severely Ill Floridians Forced To Wait For Treatment On Floor Of Library
Florida Times-Union: Viral Reddit Photo Of COVID Patients On Floor In Florida Library
Louie Lopez showed up to the downtown Jacksonville Main Library Conference Center in the early afternoon for a Regeneron therapy appointment. His primary care doctor recommended it after Lopez tested positive for COVID-19 and was experiencing moderate to severe symptoms. While waiting in line for his turn, two other people got in the line behind Lopez. Both of them, he says, sat down on the floor immediately. They eventually laid down “sick and moaning.” Lopez, 59, told The Florida Times-Union, part of the USA TODAY Network, that the woman pictured in yellow was dragging herself on the floor as the line slowly moved forward. Lopez took a photo and sent it to his wife. (Lewin, 8/19)
CNN: A Florida Library Is Converted To A Covid-19 Treatment Site: 'These People Were In Bad, Bad Shape,' One Patient Says
The scene at the Jacksonville main public library was haunting, Louis Lopez recalled. As he waited for a Covid-19 monoclonal antibody treatment, he saw people so sick they couldn't even stand. "These people were in bad, bad shape," he said. His experience Wednesday at the library, set up by the state as a location for treatment, has made him even more grateful he's fully vaccinated. "I lost two cousins to Covid in San Diego," he told CNN in an interview. "If I was unvaccinated there's no doubt in my mind it would have taken me out." (Murphy, 8/20)
On what's next for Florida —
AP: 'Bracing For The Worst' In Florida's COVID-19 Hot Zone
As quickly as one COVID patient is discharged, another waits for a bed in northeast Florida, the hot zone of the state’s latest surge. But the patients at Baptist Health’s five hospitals across Jacksonville are younger and getting sick from the virus faster than people did last summer. Baptist has over 500 COVID patients, more than twice the number they had at the peak of Florida’s July 2020 surge, and the onslaught isn’t letting up. Hospital officials are anxiously monitoring 10 forecast models, converting empty spaces, adding over 100 beds and “bracing for the worst,” said Dr. Timothy Groover, the hospitals’ interim chief medical officer. (Kennedy and Jackson, 8/20)
Fox News: Florida COVID-19 Surge To Peak Next Week, Researchers Project
Florida could hit the peak of its latest COVID-19 surge next week with some 23,000 cases, with herd immunity to follow in mid-September, according to an epidemiologist at the University of South Florida. Edwin Michael, PhD, professor of epidemiology at the USF College of Public Health, projected the peak will occur on Aug. 24, and along with the current pace of vaccinations, the state could see herd immunity by Sept. 11. Herd immunity was defined as 90% of the population with antibodies from prior infection or vaccination. (Rivas, 8/19)
In news about mask mandates —
Politico: GOP Governors Embrace Covid Cocktails Over Masks As Cases Surge
Republican governors in some of the states hardest hit by the pandemic are pushing expensive Covid cocktails over cheap masks. The governors in Florida, Missouri and Texas are promising millions of dollars in antibody treatments for infected people even as they oppose vaccine and mask mandates, saying they can potentially keep people with mild Covid symptoms out of hospitals that are being swamped by new cases. But the treatments and cost of providing them are thousands of dollars more than preventive vaccines, and tricky to administer because they work best early in the course of an infection. (Goldberg, 8/19)
Bloomberg: Florida’s DeSantis Must Face Suit Over School Mask Rule Ban
A judge denied a request by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to throw out a lawsuit challenging his ban on mask mandates in schools, setting up a clash next week that could see the court block his executive order. Parents who claim the ban is putting their children at risk just as the delta variant of the coronavirus is ravaging the state can proceed with their suit to block the governor’s action, Judge John C. Cooper ruled Thursday after a hearing in Florida’s Second Judicial Circuit in Tallahassee. Cooper said he will hold a hearing over two to three days starting Monday, with testimony from health experts and parents on both sides before ruling on the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction against DeSantis. (Larson, 8/19)
