It’s too early for mask burning, Florida. A new ‘double mutant’ COVID variant is looming | Opinion

The next frontier in the mutating coronavirus pandemic has arrived in Ron DeSantis’ wacky Florida.

With vaccinations now open to people over 18 — and the governor who encouraged super-spreader crowds of spring breakers and is now eager to send everyone cruising — too many people are shedding their masks and declaring victony over the virus.

In Fort Lauderdale, where the maskless have been packing bars for months, a group is staging a “mask burning” party on Las Olas on Saturday.

In Miami-Dade, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava lifted the midnight curfew and whittled down the county’s COVID-19 guidelines to almost nothing other than mask up, social distance and stay home if you’re sick.

The mayor said she decided to loosen up with the counsel of Peter G. Paige, executive vice president and chief physician executive at Jackson Health System. But in reality she (and all the state’s local leaders) arrived on the job with her hands tied by the business-first, health-second governor.

You can get your lap dances now, guys and gals — but mask up.

Miami-Dade lifts COVID-19 restrictions on boats, locker rooms, toothpicks and more

Coronavirus mutations

It’s all happening, once again, a bit premature.

Hate to play the party pooper, but here’s some news you may not have heard yet: There’s a new weird coronavirus mutation in this country.

Reports the Los Angeles Times: “A possibly worrisome variant of the coronavirus first identified in India — so new that it has no official name — has been found in California by scientists at Stanford University.”

They’ve nicknamed the variant “double mutant” because it’s a two-on-one mutation and it appeared in the San Francisco Bay area — only one day after it was identified in Mumbai. Dr. Benjamin Pinsky, director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory at Stanford, told the Times: “This rapid spread across the globe is pretty impressive.”

How long will it take until the double mutant makes it to South Florida like the British, Brazilian and South African variants?

These mutated strains of COVID-19 have reached at least 41 of Florida’s 67 counties, and South Florida is the leader in variant infections, according to data released to the Orlando Sentinel in March by the Florida Department of Health.

All it takes is a symptom-less person infected with a variant traveling to the state.

Imagine the multiplied opportunities for infection from all those more highly contagious variants if the infected hop on DeSantis’ rushed cruises.

Vaccine passport ban

To make matters worse, from the strip club to the cruise-ship cabin, there won’t be any guarantees that your fellow partiers or passengers will be vaccinated.

The pro-business governor has prohibited businesses from asking for proof of vaccination.

You can’t be asked in Florida to show the so-called “vaccine passport,” which amounts to the card we all got from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after our shots. According to DeSantis, the act of asking for it impinges on Floridians’ personal freedoms, which leaves the rest of us with the inalienable right to die from an excessive amount of American foolishness.

So, no, you’re not allowed to ask the stripper to show you the card, either.

It’s worth noting, however, that it’s OK for the Republican National Committee (RNC) to require their wealthy donors to present proof of a negative COVID test before they’re allowed to check in to a spring retreat in Florida this weekend, part of which takes place at Mar-a-Lago.

The rest of us schmucks will just have to wing it and take our chances.

So mask up and don’t listen to the naysayers.

If the mutating coronavirus doesn’t motivate you to keep your mask on, here’s another alarming statistic: On Thursday, the day DeSantis filed a frivolous lawsuit against the federal government to force cruise ships to resume sailing immediately, the state reported 7,939 new cases of coronavirus infection — the most in a single day since Feb. 11.

Some health experts are warning about signs of a fourth surge in the making if people don’t vaccinate in large numbers in a timely fashion, if we become lax about wearing a mask or, if once vaccinated, begin behaving as if the pandemic were over.

Experts also say children must be part of the vaccinated population before the country can return to pre-pandemic life.

Better days are “on the way,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said this week. “Hang in there.”

But DeSantis says trust him — and sail!

See what I mean about the extra dose of wackiness in pandemic Florida?

Unlike the St. Johns River, it flows from the top down.