I dunno how true it is but it sure feels like an awful lot of people who said things like "I don't need to wear a mask" and "That virus will never come to my town" are now vying for the few available hospital beds in their towns where the virus was never going to come. You keep seeing stories like this. I've rearranged a few paragraphs quoting it here…
As coronavirus cases surged throughout much of the Northeast in April and May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) declared victory.
Florida was one of the last states to impose a stay-at-home order, and one of the first to reopen. DeSantis earned praise from President Trump for his response to the pandemic and attacked the media for fearmongering after the state reopened its beaches.
Professional sports leagues, including the NBA and Major League Soccer, announced they would resume their seasons in Florida. The Republican National Convention was moved to Jacksonville from Charlotte, N.C., because there would be fewer restrictions.
But weeks later, infections are skyrocketing. Some sports teams have already arrived in the state, and league leaders are facing questions about whether it's safe to continue with their plans. On Wednesday, Florida reported nearly 10,000 new cases. There are nearly 220,500 positive cases statewide, and the test positivity rate has been above 14 percent for more than a week.
This is so sad I can't even muster a "serves you right" or anything snarky. What I can muster though is the following cynicism: Any predictions that the virus is passing or on its way out or that it'll be safe to resume Normal Life (assuming we even remember what that is) on such-and-such a date should be presumed wrong.
They might turn out to be right. No one except Larry Kudlow is wrong 100% of the time. But the guys telling us it'll be safe to send kids back to school in September — or whenever they're saying — are the same people who told us this virus would kill very few people, would be gone by the end of April, would not spread to areas where it's now rampant, etc. It's like taking advice on how to manage your money from Willie Nelson.
I just turned down an invite from some folks who are trying to throw together a comic book convention for next February. They're optimistic that COVID-19 will be a socially-distant memory by then and I'd sure like to believe they're right. I think it's more pragmatic though to presume that their optimistic predictions are wrong. Because so far, everyone's have been.