Covid trends are not encouraging in the state. Over the last week, Florida has averaged 9,552 new cases. While vaccines have been talked about by public officials (except by Governor DeSantis and his team who abruptly went from pro-vaccine to anti-vaccine, when it was clearly a political advantage to flip), masking remains the most non-obtrusive way to mitigate the spread of the virus. We encourage VACCINATION AND BOOSTERS, but it’s pretty clear any momentum for vaccines has stalled. I could go on and on about the culprits on this, but I think all our readers know who is to blame. Masks too, are super-controversial, but today, more effective n95 and kn95 masks are widely available unlike previous points in the pandemic.

These graphics telling the current story in Florida come from The New York Times

While masking has become almost passé in wide swaths of Florida, and I am the first to admit that cheap paper mask you bought or the cloth mask you fashionably wear does little good, high-end n95 and kn95 masks do work well and are now widely available. Heck, I even have a subscription on Amazon for a monthly supply of kn95 masks. So they are available widely and inexpensively now.

So mask up Florida! It’s time again.