How California and Florida took different approaches and ended up with the same result

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, no two states have been more different in their approaches than California and Florida.

In early March, the California government Gavin Newsom restricted gatherings, closed bars and restaurants in restaurants, implemented mask mandates, and begged residents to stay home.

By comparison, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took little action to repeal an ordinance that banned people from doing business and dining, as well as lifting fines and penalties related to COVID-19 in September.

Lighter restrictions mean schools have not been closed nationwide and mask mandates have never been imposed.

In November, he even criticized states like California for having stricter restrictions, saying he trusted its residents to “use common sense”.

In an interview with Fox News Business on Sunday, DeSantis argued that Florida “focused on lifting people” during the pandemic but “lockdown states” were “putting people out of business”.

“There are quite a number of things we’ve done for COVID, but at the same time we’ve raised our state, we’ve saved our economy, and I think we’ll be the first to get out of the gate as soon as we can COVID behind bring the country, ”he told Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.

Despite these different approaches, both states achieved roughly the same result. A DailyMail.com analysis shows that the states have decreased cases, deaths and hospitalizations by about a third over the past two months.

So were locks necessary and did they work? The answer is complicated, but researchers say they were beneficial in the first few months as we don’t know how COVID-19 spreads or how to treat it.

Studies have shown that staying at home jobs and restrictions saved numerous lives, but that they may now be less useful as a larger segment of the population gains natural immunity through infection or immunity through vaccination – but that social distancing and Masks continue to be necessary to continue lowering case and death rates.

As the pandemic progressed, California (left) had a rate of approximately 8,499 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population, while Florida had approximately 8,306 (right) per 100,000 population. Currently, both are rapidly declining, with fewer than 10,000 cases being reported daily. The dashed line represents the national seven-day average and the solid line represents the seven-day average for California and Florida

Both California (left) and Florida (right) have recorded between 10 and 20 deaths per million people in the past two months. Historically, Florida has had about 130 cases per 100,000 people, compared to 117 deaths per 100,000 in California. The dashed line represents the national seven-day average and the solid line represents the seven-day average for California and Florida