It’s time for your Tuesday update from The New Tropic.
Please don’t write off today’s punny subject line as a complete joke: If we don’t sneak in a laugh or two, we’re going to cry.
The last few days have been filled with chatter over Florida’s explosive numbers of new coronavirus cases. Sunday’s total of 15,300 not only marks the largest single-day amount reported by any U.S. state since the COVID-19 crisis began, but also reportedly dwarves the number of new infections being reported across all of Europe. (No, Florida’s comparatively large size to many European countries does not make that an easier pill to swallow.)
Yesterday’s tally of 12,264 additional cases prompted Lilian M. Abbo, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Miami Health System, to remark “Miami is now the epicenter for the virus.”
“What we were seeing in Wuhan [China] five months ago, we’re now seeing here,” she said during a press conference with Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez yesterday.
The New Tropic has always strived to be a community-minded newsletter and publication, not a political rag. But when a historic public health crisis has been politicized and is being actively worsened by governmental mismanagement, we’re not going to sit idly by and pretend it isn’t happening.
*deep breath* But as with all things, life goes on, and there’s still happenings in Miami besides COVID-19. Let’s take care of one another and make sure we’re all still around to enjoy them, OK?
