DeSantis defends the unvaccinated. Schools, cruise lines and employers raise stakes. Hello sports bets. Farewell dear Bobby.

It’s Monday, Aug. 9 and the week has not started well for Florida’s governor.

Cruise line defeat: Late Sunday, a federal judge in Miami granted Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ request for preliminary injunction against the Florida law sought by Gov. Ron DeSantis barring companies from requiring passengers to show proof of COVID vaccinations. The cruise company sued Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees in July, arguing the state law, which DeSantis pushed for before the latest COVID surge, puts passengers and crew at risk, violates federal law, and the company’s constitutional rights. After hearing arguments on Friday, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Mary Williams blocked the state from enforcing the law against Norwegian when the company restarts cruises from Florida this month.

It was the second round in the legal battle with the powerful cruise industry. The governor won the first legal fight early this summer, when he successfully blocked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from enforcing its cruise safety rules in Florida. But DeSantis lost the battle when all cruise companies operating in Florida voluntarily imposed the CDC’s regulations anyway.

The second reason the week didn’t start well: COVID math is now taking its toll.

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

Florida’s COVID numbers lead nation: Florida broke another record for COVID cases in a 24-hour period on Saturday with 23,903 new COVID-19 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Friday was also a record-breaker with 22,783 new novel coronavirus cases. There are more people than ever in Florida hospitals who are sick with the virus. Statewide, 24.4% of all Florida hospital patients are classified as COVID-19 patients — compared with 8.7% nationally. As for ICU beds, 43.8% of those are taken up by COVID-19 patients in Florida. Nationally, that number is 19.4%.

Hospitalized kids: Florida also leads the nation in the hospitalization rate of kids who have been infected with COVID-19. There are 0.76 kids being hospitalized per 100,000 residents, according to the CDC. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported Friday that 168 pediatric patients were hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in Florida..

Although cases have spiked across all age groups, a Miami Herald analysis of weekly case data revealed that the sharpest increase over the past month has occurred among kids under 12. The state has reported 15 deaths among children under 16. The most recent child to die of COVID-19 was an unvaccinated 16-year-old who had no underlying health conditions. She died Thursday at Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, the Florida-Times Union reported.

Unvaccinated = now more vulnerable: The governor continued to underplay the uptick in COVID-19 cases and surge in hospitalizations last week as a “seasonal event.” His staff celebrated the fact that bars and restaurants in Tampa and Miami were crowded. And, at an news conference with hospital administrators, the governor bypassed the grim numbers and focused on a treatment that state health experts say are keeping Floridians alive: monoclonal antibody treatments.

But the governor’s suggestion that this was a predictable “seasonal pattern” fails to account for the fact that, unlike last year, 52% of all Floridians are vaccinated. Because the delta variant is twice as contagious as previous variants, because vaccinated people with symptomatic breakthrough infections can transmit it to others, and because fewer people are distancing and wearing face coverings than last year, simple math suggests that the unvaccinated half of the state — especially children — are more vulnerable than ever to COVID-19.

Mask madness: The statistics have an increasing number of school boards wary of outbreaks. A week after the CDC updated its guidelines to recommend that in places like Florida, where cases are surging, fully vaccinated people should wear masks indoors, DeSantis was also forced to back off his threat that school districts will have state funds withheld if they enforce a mask requirement.

The Florida Department of Health said Friday that school districts could mandate masks but had to give parents the option of opting out. The Florida Board of Education then adopted an emergency rule allowing parents to apply to transfer their student to another school if the child experiences “COVID-19 harassment” by a school’s rules on masking, COVID testing or isolation.

Two parents asked the board if the new rule will allow them to apply for vouchers to send their kids to “safe schools that require masks.” Board members did not answer.

Schools requiring masks: Despite the governor’s efforts, the list of school districts requiring kids to wear masks when school returns is growing. Broward and Palm Beach counties have imposed mask requirements, allowing parents to opt out. On Saturday, Hillsborough County schools required students to wear face coverings.

And a growing number of private schools, where some of the transferred students hoped to go, are also requiring face coverings. Among them: the Archdiocese of Miami, which last week issued a mask mandate for Catholic school students who are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and Maclay School, the private Tallahassee-based school where some of the state’s top elected officials send their children.

The dilemma: Brown University’s Ashish K. Jha explained why Florida children are more at risk of COVID than kids in other states. “Adjusted for population Florida had 12X as many kids infected as Massachusetts last week.” He said that “while vaccination rates for kids under 12 are identical (0%) across states, infection numbers are not. In Massachusetts, about 250 kids under 10 years of age [were] infected last week. In Florida, it was about 9,000.”

The answer: The conclusion, he said: “Kid infection numbers [are] driven largely by infection numbers in adults. In Israel, we saw that as adults got vaccinated, infection numbers in kids plummeted....Very few kids in highly vaccinated places are getting sick. So if you want to protect unvaccinated kids, make sure everyone around them has the shot.”

Vaccine mandates: Beginning the week of Aug. 16, Miami-Dade County will require weekly COVID testing of all county employees, a workforce of about 29,000 people. Those employees who wish to opt out can show proof of vaccination. As pediatric cases continue to surge, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami announced it will require all employees and vendors to get vaccinated.

Surfside revelations: A deeply-reported analysis of the construction and design of Champlain Towers by the Miami Herald reveals that, according to engineering, architecutural and design experts, the design of the building was inherently flawed and violated building code. “This is a piece of junk, this building,” said a contractor who reviewed the analysis for the Herald. The design problems “should have been picked up by everyone.”

They weren’t. So that leaves some questions for state regulators and local officials: How many more buildings in Florida were built violating code? How many more inspections fail to find structural and design flaws? And what is being done about it? Florida’s building booms have always favored developers over regulation. Will we now know at what cost?

Miami targets improvements: Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava last week announced a group of local, state and federal officeholders will convene to recommend improvements to building-safety regulations after the condominium collapse in Surfside.

Inspection neglect: Meanwhile, more than a decade after a sprawling North Miami Beach complex known as Jade Winds was flagged for repairs as part of its 40-year recertification, the repairs remain incomplete and the building is occupied. It’s the longest-standing unresolved recertification case among buildings flagged by the county in a post-Surfside audit.

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

Goodbye Bobby: Legendary college football coach Bobby Bowden, who won two national championships and made the Florida State Seminoles matter, died Sunday at age 91. He was at home, surrounded by his family. Greg Cote reminds us Bowden is survived by “a legion of FSU fans to whom he willed a thousand memories.” Dozens of them made a pilgrimage to his statue outside Doak Campbell stadium on Sunday, compelled by those memories.

Sports betting gets a go: Federal regulators on Friday quietly and passively allowed the gambling agreement between the state of Florida and the Seminole Tribe to take effect, opening the door for sports betting to begin on Oct. 15, and setting off potential battles in court and on the ballot over what direction sports betting will take in Florida. The Department of Interior ruled that it will neither approve nor deny the compact and so it will become effective upon the publication of the letter to the state and Tribe in the Federal Register, which is expected sometime this week.

Also expected are more lawsuits, in addition to the one pending from Magic City Casino. No Casinos, the non-profit organization formed to oppose gambling expansion in Florida, has already hinted it will sue, and there could be others legal challenges from Draft Kings and Fan Duel, the sports betting giants that were iced out of the deal with the state.

Campaigning with no campaign: DeSantis has not officially filed for re-election, but his official events increasingly have all the elements of a campaign event. Is the governor skirting the state law that prohibits state employees from using state resources to campaign? The experts say Florida law is vague, opening the door for “wink and a nod” arrangements.

“Get out of the way” The White House offered coronavirus surge response teams and other federal resources to Florida and other states last week, an offer that has not been accepted by DeSantis. The next day, President Joe Biden delivered a rebuke to DeSantis and other GOP governors, saying: “I say to these governors please help. But if you are not going to help, at least get out of the way of the people who are trying to do the right thing. Use your power to save lives.”

DeSantis responded by turning talk to the border wars, lashing out against Biden and suggesting that illegal border crossing by migrants arriving in Texas is “helping facilitate” the surge in COVID cases in Florida. He then used Biden’s words as ammunition for a fundraising pitch.

Biden was asked by reporters to respond. He laughed and replied: “Governor who?”

Bonus bonus: The $1,000 pandemic bonuses going out to Florida’s teachers, principals and first responders won’t include a governor’s logo after all, the state says, but it may include his signature. The Legislature decided to spend more than $400 million in federal coronavirus relief money on $1,000 “bonuses” to teachers, principals, police, firefighters and paramedics and included a provision that allowed for the governor to get credit.

Salazar draws opponent: Janelle Perez, a former GOP staffer for Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, announced she will run as a Democrat and challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar in Florida’s 27th Congressional District. Salazar won the Democrat-leaning seat in 2020 by defeating incumbent Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala. The district is now likely to get rearranged again in redistricting.

Stay well and we’d love to hear from you. Miami Herald Capitol Bureau Chief Mary Ellen Klas curates the Politics and Policy in the Sunshine State newsletter. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please drop me a note at meklas@miamiherald.com.

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