Florida And Georgia, Who Reopened First, See COVID Declines

Weeks ago, when Florida and Georgia started their reopening process, there were doomsday warnings for both. Some experts declared it would be a swift catastrophe, while experts on social media started a 14 day countdown to a massive spike in deaths due to COVID-19.

But now more than two weeks after that, the cases in the two states are shrinking.

A new report from Axios says both states are seeing regular double-digit declines in cases. With Florida's down 14% and Georgia's down 12%. These were the two states that skeptical experts predicted would see massive increases, but the data doesn't show that.

Some of those skeptics are now pivoting to a new point, saying that "new cases" may not be the best metric, because they're limited to the testing in one area. Which may be the case, but that also limits the tracking of hospitalization and death rate. Johns Hopkins says the number of asymptomatic carriers could be as high as 90%, meaning those people would never seek a test, even if available. If they were to test positive, their numbers would severely lower the rates of hospitalizations and deaths in any area.

Florida's Governor, Ron DeSantis, has painted a picture of "fear mongering" leading the way for some in the COVID pandemic. He was pointed to the data in his state as proof, while others have called it luck.

While many of the same skeptics of Florida and Georgia cried out for "data" to lead the way in policy making, its not yet known how they will apply this new data after the reopenings, or if they will also just call it "luck".