Fox News medical contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier compares coronavirus strategies used in different states across the U.S.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Florida has much lower per
capita covid mortality,
much lower per capita
hospitalizations
a much lower unemployment rate,
open schools, and actually we
have businesses starting up
anew.
Ainsley floridas governor RON,
Desantis touting his response to
the pandemic, and the data is now
backing the Sunshines States
approach when compared to the
closed states like California.
Both states yielded roughly the
same results
here to discuss Fox NEWS: medical
contributor, Dr Nic, sole
sapphire,
Hey Dr Saphier
Good Morning, Ainsley
Ainsley good Morning,
so lets compare the two states
when you look at cases per
one hundred thousand people Florida about
eight thousand five hundred
California, eight thousand seven hundred
death per thousand people
Florida, one hundred and thirty five, California, one hundred and nineteen
hospitalizations per one million
people, Florida, two hundred and eighteen California,
two hundred and forty four
and deaths per one million people
on a seven day, rolling average
Florida, seven and California ten.
So why cant California open up
and do exactly what they are
doing in Florida? If the numbers
are relatively the same?
Well Ainsley its important
to highlight that we are still
in the midst of this pandemic.
We have about sixty five thousand people,
still hospitalized and several
thousand still dying every day,
but at this point we can start
to look back objectively at what
has worked. What has not worked
and start comparing the states
outcomes.
Florida has been an outliner
throughout this entire thing,
as you have just pointed out,
despite not having the same
strict lockdown measures as many
of the other states, including
California,
Florida is actually too long
pretty. He will, with
one thing that isnt pointed
out, we have been trying to
compare Florida to say the
northeast, which is very
difficult to do, because we have
different climates
demographics, less square
footage in the northeast,
comparing the sunshine state to
the golden state is apples to
apples.
One thing you have to look at
Florida has more greater than
sixty five years old, so more senior
citizens per capita than
California does
yet. They still have a lower
fatality rate.
Well, when over sixty five years olds
comes with a greater than sixty
times greater death, you would
have expected Florida to have
much more deaths.
So why is that? Ainsley?
And the truth is in the
beginning of the pandemic. Some
of these restrictions did make
sense.
We didnt have the ability to
test.
We didnt know where the virus
was.
We had limited information and
we didnt have any treatments.
They do not make sense now the
way that we have moved forward
throughout this pandemic.
Ainsley okay,
Florida has focused on
presenting the elderly,
vaccinating the elderly and
putting some of the onus on the
citizens of the state.
You know how to protect yourself
from this virus.
Do what you can
similar to what happened in
Switzerland. While there were not
these strict mandates, people
were still choosing to stay home
a little bit more.
They were choosing to wear, masks
and thats. Really what Florida
has done,
Ainsley? What about school
closures?
Do you think that these schools
are safe to open up
Ainsley? We have been talking
about this for months.
The data is clear at this point.
It is safe for children to go
back to school, especially when
there are physical, distancing
measures and wearing masks.
We have looked at ninety thousand
children across many districts
across the United States.
There is exceedingly limited
spread in the school.
In fact, the majority of spread
comes from the adults,
the staff, the teachers bringing
it in to the school from the
community
and spreading it amongst
themselves.
So if you want to keep our kids
safe, our schools safe, then the
adults have to actually be
having more responsibility and
not bringing infections into the.
Transcript generated on 2021-03-09.