To the Editor:
The Florida and the U.S. response to COVID-19 compared to France, Germany and the United Kingdom is a disgrace and a deadly disaster.
From Sept. 1 to 14, Florida reported 1,415 COVID-19 deaths compared to 543 total reported deaths for France, Germany, and United Kingdom combined for the same period.
Yet Florida has a population of 22 million people vs. 216 million for the above countries. Adjusted for population size, Florida had 25 times more COVID-19 deaths than those countries.
During that same period the U.S. had 11,033 deaths with a population of 328 million people. Adjusted for population, the U.S. death rate is 13 times worse than France, Germany and the U.K.
If Florida and the U.S. efforts to combat COVID-19 was as effective as the above European countries for the period of Sept. 1 to 14, Florida would have saved 1,360 lives and the U.S., 10,000 lives. For just the first 14 days in September, the U.S. would have saved more lives than 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined, if we had an effective response to the virus.
The fact that eight months into the COVID-19 epidemic the U.S. is doing so much worse than France, Germany and the UK is a disgrace. Gov. DeSantis and President Trump should be ashamed of their performance. Their leadership in addressing this epidemic has been a deadly disaster.
Jon Joel
Village of Charlotte
