A new president. Can partisans agree on COVID truths? DeSantis shifts the message

It’s Monday, Jan. 25, and we have a new president. “At this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.” With those words, Joe Biden began his term as the 46th president of the United States. But while violence was averted and democracy prevailed for the moment, the news of the week demonstrated there is an enormous amount of work still needed to preserve it.

Consider this: After years of information warfare, the nation is in the midst of an epistemic crisis. Partisans disagree not just over policy, but on facts themselves. As Biden appeared to restore the norms of the presidency, mistrust in media and the willingness to tell truth from fiction are, as MIT’s Yochai Benkler writes, “not symmetric across the partisan divide.”

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

One prolonged example of this cleavage is how COVID-19 has inexplicably become a springboard for misinformation and partisan division. As one of his first acts in office, the nation’s new president issued a blizzard of executive orders aimed at curbing the virus’ spread.

Mask mandates: Biden signed an executive order requiring international travelers to the U.S. to quarantine upon arrival and anyone crossing state lines to wear a mask to travel. The restrictions were welcome news for Rolando Aedo, chief operating officer of Miami-Dade’s chief tourism marketing agency. The county has a mask mandate in a state where the Republican governor has banned local governments from enforcing it. “Whatever happens that will mitigate the spread of the virus while aggressively expanding the vaccinations will support traveler confidence,” Aedo told us.

But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has resisted endorsing mask mandates despite the scientific evidence that shows they prevent the spread of the virus. And last week, he declared that Florida doesn’t need the new distribution and messaging plan Biden outlined to improve allocation of the coronavirus vaccine, the state just needs more vaccine.

Vaccine hesitancy and inequity: DeSantis is right that many problems would be solved with more vaccine, but data from the Florida Department of Health continues to show high amounts of vaccine hesitancy and inequity across the state, raising doubts about how effective the state’s messaging is. Of the roughly 138,000 people who have gotten the vaccines in Miami-Dade for example, just 8,265 — or 6% — identified as Black. And no one seems to know why large numbers of hospital workers, firefighters and paramedics who were offered early vaccinations for the virus declined.

Meanwhile, there are communities in Florida that want the vaccine but are losing out to people with better connections. A Miami Herald analysis of state vaccination data by zip code found that the wealthiest neighborhoods in Miami-Dade County have the most protection against COVID-19, while the poorest areas have the least.

Overbooking chaos: Despite the sputtering vaccine supply, local distribution sites have spent the last month raising peoples’ hopes but disappointing many. Two of Miami-Dade County’s largest hospitals canceled thousands of COVID-19 vaccination appointments due to lack of supply last week, prompting Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to sign an emergency order Friday to give the county more control over the vaccination process by ending hospital overbooking.

With little state direction, local officials are doing their best to handle the chaos. The head of Jackson Health told Miami-Dade’s 13 county commissioners Friday that they would each receive 100 vaccine slots to fill, with the idea that commissioners will bridge the gap for those most in need. The idea was greeted with trepidation.

Florida leads variant cases: Also baffling is why Florida is leading the nation with the highest number of cases of the highly infectious B.1.1.7 ‘UK’ coronavirus variant, 46.

Shifting message: As cases in Florida surge, DeSantis, who previously said his priority was to protect the elderly from getting infected with the virus, has shifted his message to talking only about the vaccine. For the last month, he has traveled across the state touting new vaccine distribution sites, focused on getting shots in the arms of people over age 65. Absent from every event, however, is any talk about preventing infection for everyone else. Meanwhile, about four times as many Floridians are now dying from the disease every day, on average, compared to early November.

College superspreaders: A study of 30 college campuses suggests they are COVID-19 superspreaders in their communities, with one in five students having gotten sick by end of fall semester.

Meanwhile, post-holiday surges in COVID-19 infections are combining with the seasonal increase in patients and hospital officials throughout Florida now worry they will face serious staff shortages in the coming months.

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

The change in governing style between Biden and Donald Trump will serve as an interesting contrast for Floridians who watch state government. When Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki held her first press briefing, she began by saying: “I have deep respect for the role of a free and independent press in our democracy and for the role all of you play.”

She then went on to answer questions. She held press conferences every day, saying that Biden wants to bring truth and transparency back. And while Biden delivered remarks every day last week, his policy leaders, in health care and the economy for example, provided the details.

By contrast, DeSantis has adopted Trump’s approach to messaging and has positioned himself as the only person to explain his policies. He also uses his press staff to echo his talking points, instead of using them to provide data, insight and elaboration on his ideas and policies.

The result is that scores of questions from the media — seeking detail, clarity and justification — never get answered. News organizations have had to sue the administration three times to get COVID-related public records. If transparency was a priority, would this be necessary?

Bomb threat: A day after the inauguration, Florida law-enforcement officials arrested a 61-year-old man who they say made a false bomb threat against the Florida Capitol in the wee hours of the night.

Florida pardons: On the way out the door, the former president made news. First were the pardons, releasing the stain of federal conviction or charges from rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, convicted in Miami on weapons charges; Robert Zangrillo, the CEO of Miami-based investment firm Dragon Global, charged with bribery to get his daughter into USC; influential Miami banker Abel Holtz, who lied about bribes: Joe Exotic, of Tiger King fame whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage and whose Oklahoma property was handed over to rival Carole Baskin of Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, and Palm Beach eye doctor Salomon Melgen, convicted for healthcare fraud case, whose sentence was commuted.

Deferred deportations: Then there was Trump’s eleventh-hour executive order deferring the removal of Venezuelans currently in the United States for 18 months. The surprise decision was greeted with mixed emotions among immigration advocates and policy experts. Though the decision could benefit as many as 200,000 Venezuelans at risk of being sent back to the troubled South American nation, the benefit is only temporary.

Expanded waiver: Finally, the Trump administration gave Florida a parting gift of a Medicaid waiver of $1.5 billion per year until 2030. Florida had asked for two years. Was this intended to diminish the odds of the state expanding Medicaid, long an objective of state Democrats? Some say it is.

As Trump ended his speech at Joint Base Andrews, he said: “We will be back in some form...Have a good life. We will see you soon.” Then Trump flew into Palm Beach International Airport, completing his snub of his successor’s inaugural ceremony.

There are defections: Paul Hernandez, a Hialeah city councilman for the past decade, told us he changed his voter registration from Republican to Democrat just hours after he watched a mob of Donald Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol.

There are loyalists: South Florida lawyer Carlos E. Silva, who helped Republicans try to challenge the results of the presidential election in Georgia, was among tens of thousands of Twitter users removed from the site in the aftermath of the riot in Washington. He had posted messages he said were given to him by one of Trump’s most controversial allies.

Resisting climate accord: Miami’s Congressional Republicans may represent some of the country’s most vulnerable communities threatened by sea level rise but they gave signs last week that they are not going to support Biden’s climate change legislation.

Immigration ambition: Biden’s immigration plan came into sharper focus last week as Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., provided the details. The proposal would offer a fast-track to legal status for approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants and will help reunite families. In a symbolic change, it also strikes the word “alien” from U.S. immigration documents.

Florida’s two U.S. Senators have already expressed opposition to Biden’s immigration bill and suggested that it will likely be a political issue raised by Republicans during the 2022 election cycle.

Immigration opposition: Sen. Marco Rubio said Biden’s plan is a non-starter that amounts to “blanket amnesty.” Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who will lead Senate Republicans’ political arm for the next two years, released a statement blasting Biden’s “radical immigration plan” and listed a number of Senate Democrats up for reelection in 2022.

But U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, issued a statement pledging to work with the Biden Administration “to fix our broken immigration system once and for all.”

Barrier breaking: As the U.S.’s next vice president, Kamala Harris is a person of many firsts: the nation’s first female, first Black, first South Asian American and first Jamaican American to hold the second highest office. Artists, politicians and other luminaries from Antigua to Barbados to Jamaica celebrated her historical rise as “America’s first Black Caribbean-American” vice president in a virtual celebration ahead of Wednesday’s inauguration.

Jones surrenders: Former state employee Rebekah Jones, who was fired after claiming Florida was manipulating COVID data, surrendered last week to state police to face computer-related charges. She is fighting them.

No Jai Alai expansion: A controversial proposal to bring a jai alai fronton to Edgewater has been shot down in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Judge Michael Hanzmann ruled the push by the owners of Magic City Casino, to bring gambling to Edgewater in downtown Miami was a “land use issue” that overruled any other permissions the company had been granted to pursue its pari-mutuel facilities.

Goodbye Nilda: Nilda Pedrosa, a top-ranking federal official from Miami-Dade County who led multiple Florida Republicans into victory, passed away on Saturday night after battling cancer. She was 46.

Biden taps Miami advocate: Shannon Estenoz, a longtime Everglades restoration advocate, was named the U.S. Department of Interior’s principal deputy assistant secretary overseeing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service.

Elon and the mayor: After a Twitter exchange with Elon Musk, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said he’s trying to bring the Tesla and tunnel mogul to the city to “see what he has in mind.”

Hope for Puerto Rican women: Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi declared a state of emergency Sunday over the island’s gender violence crisis, a measure local groups have demanded from the government for years. The executive order allocates public resources to address femicides and other forms of violence against women.

It’s all right: As singer Jon Bon Jovi sang on a South Florida pier as part of the virtual inaugural celebration: “Here Comes the Sun.”

Stay well and we’d love to hear from you. Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau Chief Mary Ellen Klas curated this newsletter. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please drop me a note at meklas@miamiherald.com.

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