The final COVID report for January in Escambia County has been released by the Florida Department of Health. The county ended the month with total 31,029 cases, of which 27,798 were Floridians. By our count, we show January had 7,499 new cases with a monthly positive rate of 15.8% – both the highest monthly totals since pandemic started in March 2020.
We had 156 deaths reported, also a monthly record. We also set a monthly record for tests – 47,496.
On a positive note, the state has “finally” created a COVID-19 Vaccine website where you can select the county where you live – hit the “Get In Line” box – and then enter your data:
https://myvaccine.fl.gov/ They should have done this early last year. Importantly, you can specify how you would like to be contacted to set up a future appointment: 1) phone; 2) text message; or 3) e-mail. I have encouraged my neighbors still trying to get an appointment to sign up on the state website while at the same time regularly checking the Publix website – https://www.publix.com/covid-vaccine – and concurrently trying to get an appointment that way. The COVID-19 vaccine appointment system is still disjointed but Ascension Sacred Heart periodically pops up some appointments at this website – https://shhs-covid-vaccine.inquicker.com/ Two weeks ago, I tried and failed to guide a neighbor through the process when 35+ appointments seemed to just appear around 9 pm one night. He and his wife showed up the next day at Sacred Heart. As I suspected, because I know how the system is supposed to work having gotten my wife her first and now second shot, he did not do it right. Many people seem too impatient to follow simple instructions even in a life & death situation like getting a vaccine appointment. After confirming that he did not have an appointment, the very helpful person at Sacred Heart told that they had some cancellations that day, took his cell phone number and called later asking him and his wife to come back to the hospital to get shots. They did. That was “leadership” on the part of the person who took that initiative to get two more people vaccinated. Mask wearing remains a hit or miss proposition with some stores having 100% compliance like Fresh Market (in the city) and the Tractor Store (up on Nine Mile Road) and other stores like Walmart and Winn-Dixie (both in Uptown Pensacola) COVID-19 super-spreader stores where a lot of people refuse to wear masks and the store management, or the PPD officer working in Walmart, will not say anything and so the store employees most at risk of getting the disease are forced to deal with customers at the check-out not wearing masks. Pensacola’s hyper-Republican Mayor Grover Robinson’s failure or refusal to enforce his own Declaration of Emergency 20-03 (June 26) “and” the city’s mask law Ordinance 15-20 (June 30) constitutes willful Neglect of Duty. Last week, a council member told me that they were told that 121 people working for the city had been infected to date. Another council member told me last week that the reason the yard trash is not being picked up in a timely manner is because of a COVID-19 issue in the city’s sanitation division. Someone on the Pensacola City Council needs to propose amendment of Ordinance 15-20 to require that the Mayor “retroactively” provide the City Council, the public and media with a detailed weekly report, back to June 26, of all citations issued to a business owner, business manager, business employee or individual for violation of the mask order and mask law. A good first start would be to require that all businesses put back the city mask ordinance sign they began to take down in September when Mayor Robinson said that he wanted to repeal the mask ordinance. Amend the ordinance to require that all stores have masks at the entrance. They each cost pennies. Quint Studer is Mayor Robinson’s political mentor. When Mr. Studer pulls his strings, Mayor Robinson does as he is told. Mr. Studer always talks about the the simple leadership tactic that what matters most is what you measure. He once told me how odd it was that people paid him enormous amounts of money to tell them common sense stuff. I replied that common sense is not very common. Mr. Studer knows a bit about the health care business. If he told Mayor Robinson to stop being a “Facebook Mayor” and become a “Leadership Mayor,” at least during the COVID-19 crisis, starting with the active enforcement of Ordinance 15-20, he would, or Mr. Studer would replace him in 2022. When the story of this hellish disaster is told, Mayor Robinson’s active efforts in late September to end the mask wearing requirement and, his inexplicable Neglect of Duty from June 26 to present, will be his real political legacy. On September 24, Mayor Robinson said – “It’s a question of management. It’s not a question of masks. The mask certainly works.” In truth, it’s a “question of leadership.” Leadership is what is missing in city hall during this crisis.