Different age groups also have different degrees of protection against the delta variant. Nearly nine in 10 Floridians over the age of 65 are vaccinated, giving a high level of protection to the people most vulnerable to getting severely ill from Covid-19.
But less than 60 percent of people ages 30 to 39 are vaccinated, as are less than 50 percent of those ages 12 to 29, according to state data. Large numbers of young people in Florida are fully vulnerable to the delta variant, and some of them are getting very sick. One hospital system serving central Florida reported last week that half of its patients currently hospitalized with Covid-19 are under 40.
Hospitals are feeling the strain of the current surge. Just 7 percent of the state’s ICU beds are currently available, according to the Florida Hospital Association, and more than half of the people currently in ICUs statewide have Covid-19.
“Several hospitals have had to procure and request more [ventilators], and oxygen deliveries continue to be a challenge,” Savannah Kelly, an FHA spokesperson, said in an email.
Governor DeSantis, who has presidential aspirations in 2024, has positioned himself and his state’s Covid-19 response against the public health establishment and, more recently, the Biden administration.
Though he, like most governors, closed many businesses last spring, they were allowed to reopen in May of 2020; DeSantis steadfastly refused to consider any new closures during following waves in the summer and winter. He ended the state’s mask mandates on May 4, 2021, before the CDC changed its own masking guidance, and he has resisted calls to reimpose them even as cases surged again.
The governor tried to block local school districts from setting their own mask mandates for the new school year and threatened to withhold the salaries of any officials who implement a masking policy. Some school districts are pushing ahead anyway. He also has opposed businesses requiring vaccines for their employees or customers.
Experts said the state’s policies, which have signaled to the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike that it’s okay to go about their normal lives, are making it easier for the virus to spread.
“There are still a large absolute number of unvaccinated people, relatively few people practicing social distancing or masking, by choice and also due to the absence of policies requiring them,” Joshua Michaud, associate director for global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told me. “Schools and universities going back into session, and lots of delta introductions in the state all happening at the same time.”