MIAMI – By the end of next week, Nancy Krinick expects to receive her second dose of COVID-19 vaccine. But the 67-year-old legal secretary from Sunrise, Florida, plans to maintain her daily routine to avoid virtually any human contact, even after she has been fully vaccinated. The same goes for her sister and her brother-in-law, who are both over 65 and who took their first photos with her in Marlins Park in Miami, Krinick told The Daily Beast.
“With these new variants we are still concerned,” she said, adding, “It seems like this will never end.”
She will have her groceries delivered to her home through Instacart, go out to dinner, and delay a visit to her daughter in Knoxsville, Tennessee until a majority of the U.S. population is immunized, Krinick said.
While extra-contagious coronavirus mutations are getting stronger as a hurricane churning off the Atlantic coast, Floridians like Krinick see no sign of delay. While they are not yet required to provide formal guidelines on getting vaccinated people together, state and national health experts have assured the general public that the vaccines are effective – even, if less so, against the variants that are on the rise nationwide.
But in a state with a long history of pandemic recklessness and where mask mandates don’t exist, vaccinated Floridians don’t want to risk getting infected by going out in public.
Here, getting a photo offers little more than a little relief.
Deadly COVID mutations can’t stop the Florida party
Thanks to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s ongoing approach to forcing his state to be wide open for business and pleasure, spikes in the spread of the community seem almost inevitable. Last weekend, despite warnings from state epidemiologists, a host of potential superspreader events took Tampa by storm, punctuated by legions of Buccaneers fans, most of them maskless, celebrating the hometown victory when the Super Bowl closed.
“Whenever I see such superspreading events, it does scare me,” said Mark Zeitlin, a 70-year-old from Boynton Beach, Florida, who took both photos. It’s not just Tampa. It happens everywhere. “
Glenn Charnizon, a 66-year-old from Delray Beach, Florida, who also received both doses, said he and his wife don’t eat out, travel, or go to the grocery store for a “ long, long time. ”
“Just because we’ve been vaccinated doesn’t mean we can’t get a COVID,” Charinzon said. “We don’t take any risks until 70 to 80 percent of the population has been vaccinated.”
Meanwhile, Biden’s White House is reportedly considering new restrictions on domestic travel with huge implications in Florida, which accounts for more than a third of all documented U.S. cases of the B-117 variant, also known as the highly contagious British variant. Investigators are also monitoring any Florida outbreaks of other variants from Brazil and South Africa found elsewhere in the United States, but not – officially – in the Sunshine State.
DeSantis’ response was to punish reporters for allegedly downplaying the coronavirus dangers of social justice protests and celebrations of Biden’s election victory over Donald Trump, voicing a defiant tone about any travel restrictions. At a press conference on Thursday, DeSantis said, “We will oppose it 100 percent. It wouldn’t be based on science. It would be a purely political attack on the people of Florida. A spokesman for the governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment by email.
Seniors speaking with The Daily Beast said DeSantis has been deliberately stupid in what goes on here to contain the pandemic. “The governor of this state has no control,” Charnizon said. Krinick, the legal secretary, added, “DeSantis? Not a fan. I don’t think he’s doing anything. “
Certainly, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, recently said that getting both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine is the best way to stay ahead of the new mutant variants. And Dr. Mary Jo Trepka, a Florida International University professor of infectious diseases, told The Daily Beast that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are very effective at preventing people from getting sick – including the British variety.
Still, given the basic limitations of each vaccine and the proliferation of several cases in a state marked by pandemic absurdity, Floridians can’t hold back anytime soon.
“It’s possible that people who got their second dose could still contract the virus,” Trepka said. “They can be asymptomatic and become contagious. But we are very concerned that more variants are emerging, because we might get one that vaccines don’t work on. “
‘Nobody Thinks of COVID’: Get Ready for Super Bowl Superspreaders
Due to the high rate of spread in the Florida community, vaccines alone won’t end the pandemic, she argued – even if the shots have been DeSantis’ only strategy lately.
“Even if you’re one of those who got a full dose, you’re still around a lot of people who haven’t been vaccinated,” she said. “We need people who wear masks, travel physical distances and avoid crowds. Many people follow it religiously and many do not. “
The fear and anger about the dangers that arise even after vaccination is not limited to the seniors. DeSantis has given precedence over almost all others. In the labor and delivery department of the Northshore Medical Center in North Miami, health workers who have been fully vaccinated are still wary, said a nurse who asked for anonymity because she did not have permission from the hospital to speak to the media.
“Because of the new variants and because people are not safe, I still wear a mask when I go out and I still don’t go to family functions because I know I can’t trust some family members who are on the street. take the right precautions, ”she said.
The terrifying reality that Florida is a living petri dish for mutations in the coronavirus means seniors like Carla Golembe continue to isolate themselves, even though she got both of her photos.
“The variants are scary,” the 67-year-old artist from Delray Beach, Florida, told The Daily Beast. ‘We don’t know much about them. Just when we think we are starting to understand this virus, there are more curveballs now. “
In two weeks, once her body is fully immune, the only major outing she has planned is a trip to her dentist, she said.
“Maybe I’ll go into a grocery store on a quiet afternoon, wearing a double mask,” she said. “I hope my husband, who also got both his injections, can get together with other friends who have been fully vaccinated. We want to hang out again, but at a distance and outside of course. “
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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