Following weeks of the words "Florida" and "coronavirus" frequently appearing as an unfortunate duo in numerous headlines, the city of Miami is now being considered the new "epicenter" of COVID-19.
During a press conference hosted by Miami-Dade County mayor Carlos A. Giménez, an infectious disease expert from the Jackson Health System compared the current conditions in the area to those found in Wuhan months ago.
"Miami is now the epicenter of the pandemic ... What we were seeing in Wuhan—six months ago, five months ago—now we are there," Lilian Abbo said, perCNN.
Meanwhile, Rebekah Jones—a scientist who says she was fired from the state's health apartment for refusing to manipulate virus data—recently said the current situation in Florida is actually worse than what the public narrative would have Americans believe.
"In many counties, there are currently more people hospitalized right now than DOH is reporting have been hospitalized ever," Jones said when asked to dive into the disparity between the facts and what's often presented to the public.
To put the problem of Florida in firmer perspective, consider this: Over the past 13 days, Miami-Dade County alone is currently nearing 68,000 confirmed cases of the virus.
During Monday's press conference, Abbo urged media outlets to assist health officials to the best of their ability in getting accurate word out to the public regarding virus concerns, which will clearly be continuing for the foreseeable future.
