Kinsa Atypical Map Apr 17, 2020: https://healthweather.us/?mode=Atypical

For a few days now, New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has given a bit of good news in his press conferences. He has said that there is no longer a big growth in the number of new cases in NYC and that the number of deaths in NYC has started to stabilize. He has also cautioned that this does not mean that NYC residents should let up. He warns that suddenly letting up on things like social distancing could cause another spike in infections and deaths.

Unlike New York Governor Cuomo, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis apparently has no such qualms. To him, a bit of good news means something to the effect of, “Hey, let’s reopen some beaches!”:

Florida’s governor on Friday gave the green light for some beaches and parks to reopen if it can be done safely, and north Florida beaches became among the first to allow allow beach-goers to return since closures because of the coronavirus. Mayor Lenny Curry said Duval County beaches were reopening Friday afternoon with restricted hours, and they can only be used for walking, biking, hiking, fishing, running, swimming, taking care of pets and surfing. The beaches will be open from 6 to 11 a.m. and 5 to 8 p.m., Curry said in a video posted to social media. Gatherings of 50 or more people are prohibited and people must still practice social distancing.

While it might be nice that the beach hours are a wee bit restricted as compared to the usual hours, it does not look like the beach activities are not much that restricted at all. What exactly did they leave off the list of things people can do on the beach? All I can think of is beach volleyball, using metal detectors, and building sandcastles.

As for not having gatherings above 50 people—big fat, hairy deal. You can pass a lot of germs among 50 people, and with that much flesh exposed, and all kinds of winds possible, I doubt that six feet is really going to cut it, or even that social distancing will be followed much by beachgoers.

Apparently, Governor Desantis believes that because the number of new cases in 24 hours in Duvall Country, Florida (where Jacksonville is located) dropped from 43 to 17, this means that it must be time to open the Jacksonville beaches. So, Governor Desantis now has a plan to reopen Florida’s beaches, starting with the beaches in Jacksonville. This is a really bad idea.

You see, not nearly enough testing has been done in Florida. Because of this, neither Governor DeSantis or anyone else is truly sure just how many cases of COVID-19 there are in Florida. However, we can get some idea of just how widespread COVID-19 infections may be in Florida from Kinsa temperature maps. Kinsa makes electronic thermometers that upload their data to a central database. From that database, Kinsa can usually tell where the next big outbreak that involves rising temperatures is going to be. Check out the Kinsa map at the top of this article, or click on this link to go to the same map at Kinsa’s site. This map can be enlarged by clicking on it. Make sure that it says “Atypical” in the upper right of the map so that it indicates any temperature spikes above normal.

That bright red spot that you see in the top right of Florida represents Jacksonville and Duval county. The bright red spots on the bottom right of Floria represent Miami and its famous Miami beaches. From the map, one can presume that Florida has some of the worst atypical high-temperature spikes in the country--especially where Florida’s beaches are. If Ron DeSantis starts re-opening the beaches when things look this bad, imagine what is going to happen.

Also, notice where the fewest number of atypical temperatures in the country appear to be. Why, they appear to be in the area from South of the San Francisco Bay Area—home of the first lockdowns in the country—and going down South towards Los Angeles. The rest of California locked down shortly after the Bay Area did. Look how high-fever free those folks are. Yeah, those lockdown-loving Democrats in California have no idea what they are doing, do they?