Massachusetts vs Florida: Do Restrictions Really Work?

By: Faith Buttrick

Across the country, there have been radically different strategies for responding to coronavirus, a deadly virus that spreads quickly and often without detection. Both Massachusetts and Florida are in the top ten states with the most coronavirus cases. Florida is in the number two spot and Massachusetts is number ten in the country. These states have both been in crisis with skyrocketing cases but decided to reopen their states with different restrictions. 

 

The varying responses throughout the country have left many wondering why politicians with no experience in disease prevention are the ones who get to decide how their state should respond to the threat of coronavirus.

 

Massachusetts proceeded with caution and cancelled it’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 9th and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued a two week stay at home order on March 23rd. 

 

These were all on the early side of the outbreak and Massachusetts Governor Baker is reopening the state in four phases which are still in effect. 

 

Phase one allowed places of worship to open with strict guidelines and construction to resume as long as they met certain standards. The governor still urged people to stay home unless absolutely necessary for activities like shopping or essential work. 

 

Phase two permitted restaurants, businesses, and nail salons to open with restrictions. Stores and restaurants were forced to comply with these limitations or they could be closed down.  

 

The third and fourth phases served to open up the rest of the remaining businesses but even in the final stage people were still urged to wear face coverings and continue with social distancing.  

 

Coronavirus cases in Massachusetts on June 7th totaled 304 new cases. Then a month later there were only 201 cases. This decrease in cases can be attributed to the strict regulations put in by the state government to ensure the safety of the people. 

 

These measures were put in place by elected officials who chose to listen to scientists and public health officials. But that begs the question of what would happen if elected officials decided not to listen to scientists. Florida is the perfect example of what happens when elected officials do not take a pandemic seriously and choose not to listen to the science. 

 

Florida’s first case was confirmed on March 1st and soon after the state was crowded with spring breakers. Florida allowed the Winter Party Festival to go forward in early March as usual despite the buildup of cases. Even after the Center for Disease Control declared coronavirus to be a pandemic, Florida governor DeSantis only closed the restaurants to half capacity on March 17th. Florida issued their stay at home order on April 1st. 

 

The closures of Florida and Massachusetts happened within a week of each other but their differing reopening strategies directly impacted the number of cases in these states. 

 

DeSantis allowed many businesses to return to full capacity including gyms, museums, and sports venues on June 5th despite their growing cases. On June 7th, Florida hit a five day streak of 1,000 new cases each day, which was just the beginning of the problem. There were 64,528 cases in Florida on June 7th and then one month later on July 7th there were 223,540 cases. This is a little under four times as many cases after only one month of reopening. This is because there was such a quick reopening of a state that had not yet been able to contain the virus. 

 

These two plans, one very slow and controlled and the other like opening the floodgates, directly impacted the health and safety of the people in these states. 

 

The job of governor typically involves policy decisions and managing the budget. Because of coronavirus this same person is now in charge of the safety of their constituents when a global pandemic breaks out. Not to mention there is a shortage of both testing materials and proper personal protective gear to help fight the spread of the virus. 

 

Why did the American people have to rely on their state governors to decide how their states should respond to this deadly virus? Why was the decision for the response to an outbreak of a global pandemic placed into the hands of politicians rather than scientists?

 

Some believe that the United States should not be blamed for the spread of coronavirus because this is an unprecedented pandemic and no one could have predicted this to take so many lives. But after looking at how other countries responded to this virus and how they have been able to contain the spread shows that what America truly lacked was a solid plan of action and good governance. 

 

President Trump was warned as early as the beginning of January that there was a virus spreading that could turn into a pandemic. Once there was a confirmed case in the United States President Trump reported that everything is going to be “just fine” and that he was not concerned. As it turns out everything was not “just fine” and many countries whose leaders took this threat to their people seriously did not take this virus lightly. 

 

Taking a glance at the response to coronavirus by New Zealand gives an example of a country whose leaders decided to listen to scientists when deciding to close and reopen their countries. The New Zealand policy created the concept of ‘bubbles’ which helped reinforce the idea that people needed to not interact with others who were not in their same group of containment. 

 

They implemented four levels of restrictions which were decided based on likeness of the containment of coronavirus. These seem like strict measures at the time given that New Zealand had so few cases but in the end the measures worked because the number of cases never had a huge spike like most other countries. 

 

New Zealand, a country of 4.88 million people never saw more than 1,600 confirmed and probable cases because of the strict measures put together by a government that listened to scientists. 

 

Many people across the United States are questioning why governors decided to ignore the science and put human lives at risk when deciding to open their states. With a lack of a national plan of response to the coronavirus, these governors knew their re-elections would depend on how well they responded to the virus. 

 

Many Republican states pushed for a quick opening of the states whereas many Democratic states favored a slower opening. Politics seems to be a defining factor for the American people when deciding between saving the economy or saving the people. 

 

The decision to reopen states should never have been left up to the state governors who have no expertise in how to properly respond to pandemics. The country should have instead looked to the experts and allowed people who have studied pandemics to have input about how to contain the spread of this virus.