Florida, Georgia and the Southwest are following the Swedish model to achieve “herd immunity”. People under 50 will get infected, many will be tested and the number of documented cases will increase. However most will recover without serious illness or hospitalization. The key statistic to follow would be the number of hospitalizations, intubations and death rate. Knowing from the Northeast experience that mostly elderly are susceptible to serious illness and death allows for rational behavior. Right now it is best for the elderly and susceptible to isolate themselves. But absent an effective vaccine they will inevitably at some point be exposed to this virus. Some will die. Too bad our crack scientists at the CDC have not been able to analyze the data in an apolitical manner and define just what factors lead to susceptibility to severe Covid-19 infection.
>> Knowing from the Northeast experience that mostly elderly are susceptible to serious illness and death allows for rational behavior.
Governor Desantis in FL and Governor Kemp in GA both acted early on to deploy resources to clean up nursing homes and assisted living facilities. This has made their number in this area look much better than NY and NJ. Not something you get watching the drive-bys.