What Next - A Doctor in the Middle of the Florida Surge
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 9 August 2021
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The delta variant is making its way through the country, becoming the leading strain of the coronavirus and increasing case counts as it goes. In few places is the crisis more severe than in Florida, where new daily case counts are hitting all-time highs and vaccination rates have leveled out around 50%. Gov. Ron DeSantis has refused to instate a mask mandate and insists that the spike is just a “seasonal wave” -- even as healthcare workers are pushed to the brink trying to care for ill patients.
Guest: Bernard Ashby, a vascular cardiologist in Miami and the Florida director of the Committee to Protect Healthcare.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I was a little hesitant to speak with Dr. Bernard Ashby. |
| 0:08.7 | Dr. Ashby works in Florida, takes care of COVID patients. |
| 0:12.8 | He's bearing witness to that state's record-breaking surge of infections at the moment. |
| 0:18.5 | It's not that I didn't think Dr. Ashby would have interesting things to say. |
| 0:22.5 | It's just how many times can you repeat the exact same thing? |
| 0:27.2 | Wear a mask indoors, get vaccinated, support health care workers. |
| 0:32.5 | But when we get on the phone, Dr. Ashby sounded just as frustrated as I am. |
| 0:37.7 | The transmission rate is ridiculous down here. |
| 0:42.5 | Yeah, how are you seeing it? |
| 0:44.5 | So I'm seeing it in my office, seeing it in the hospital. |
| 0:48.6 | Patients are coming in by the boatloads. |
| 0:52.1 | They're younger. They're sicker. |
| 0:55.1 | And unfortunately, you know, we weren't really prepared for the surge that we've gotten, |
| 1:02.9 | but we were never prepared. |
| 1:08.6 | I wanted to know who a frontline physician would hold accountable for this COVID spike, |
| 1:14.2 | a dark rerun, complete with the same overcrowded hospitals and regretful patients we've seen before. |
| 1:21.4 | Watching the news, it feels easy to find a villain. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. |
| 1:26.6 | South of the border, COVID-19 numbers |
| 1:28.8 | are surging in Florida. |
| 1:30.8 | Yesterday, the state reported its highest daily case count |
| 1:34.2 | since the pandemic started, |
| 1:36.1 | and some are blaming the governor. |
... |
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