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- [Man] Florida This Week is made possible in part by support from the Tampa Bay Times.

- [Rob] Coming up next, Florida sees a big spike in coronavirus cases.

The red tide outbreak expands to the beaches and several significant endorsements in the St. Petersburg Mayor's race.

All this and more next on "Florida This Week."

(upbeat music) - Welcome back.

The highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is now the dominant form of COVID in the country.

According to the CDC, 20% of all new COVID-19 cases in the country are occurring right here in Florida.

Governor DeSantis this week urged people to get vaccinated.

- If you are vaccinated though, the number of people that end up hospitalized after having is almost zero, it's incredibly credibly low.

So I think there's some misinformation out there where someone will say, oh, these people were vaccinated and they tested positive.

Understand a positive test is not a clinical diagnosis of illness.

- [Rob] The Governor's call for vaccinations came as the governor's campaign issued this t-shirt, attacking the nation's top scientist on COVID-19.

And red tide, which has already killed millions of fish and other marine animals in Tampa Bay, especially in St. Petersburg, is now spreading with high concentrations of the harmful algae blooms found from Sarasota, north to Pasco County.

Already workers in Pinellas county have picked up more than 1400 tons of dead fish.

And this week two men involved in the attempt to take over the capital by force were in court.

One man, a 38 year old, who had carried rope and a Trump flag into the Capitol, was sentenced to eight months in prison.

Another man, a 20-year-old member of the Far-Right Oath Keepers, pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy and obstruction charges.

He admitted to authorities that he intended to stop the certification of the Electoral College vote by intimidating and coercing government personnel.

He'll be sentenced in September and has promised to cooperate with the federal investigation.

And after just two years on the job, the President of the University of South Florida, Steven C. Currall announced he will resign next month.

Currall cited the strain the job has put on his health and his family as reasons for stepping down.

Ralph Wilcox, the Provost and Executive Vice President will serve as acting president, while the USF board begins the search for a new one.

And at the white house this week, President Biden celebrated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl victory with the team.

Biden traded jokes with Buccs quarterback, Tom Brady, a long time friend of Donald Trump, and Brady aimed some barbs at Trump.

- Not a lot of people think that we could have won, and fact, I think about 40% of the people still don't think we won.

- [Biden] I understand that.

- You understand that Mr. President?

- [Biden] I understand that.

- And personally, it's nice for me to be back here.

We had a game in Chicago where I forgot where Donald was, I lost track of one down in 21 years of playing, and they started to call me sleepy Tom.

(crowd laughing) Why would they do that to me?

- I don't know.

You know a lot is made about the fact that we have the oldest coach ever to win the super bowl, and the oldest quarterback to win the super bowl.

Well, I'll tell you right now, you won't hear any jokes about that from me.

As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with being the oldest guy to make it to the mountain top.

- Well, as we've mentioned, COVID-19 is on the rise again here in Florida, and the Delta variant is raising a lot of concern on how to deal with this phase of the pandemic.

Joining us now to shed some light on this is Dr. Donna Peterson, Senior Associate Vice President at USF Health, and the Dean of the College of Public Health.

And Dr. Peterson, welcome back.

- Rob.

It's great to see you.

- Good to see you.

So we're seeing this spike in Florida and around the country.

Can we blame the spike on the people who have not yet been vaccinated?

- Well, I think there are many forces conspiring to create the situation that we are now in.

The variant itself, it's far easier to transmit, this particular form of the virus it's far more infectious, and yes, if people are unvaccinated, they are at much higher risk, they are much more susceptible to being exposed and to pick up the disease.

I think we're also seeing people have relaxed and are not as worried about staying away from events and coming together not maintaining distancing and not wearing a mask.

So I think all of those things come together to let a strain like this really burn through the population at a really rapid rate.

- What's the danger, for those people that haven't been vaccinated, what's the danger in the long run, the longer a sizeable portion of the public remains unvaccinated, and I'm getting to the point of the mutation of the virus.

I mean, right now the Delta variant is not as deadly as I understand it as it could be, but it spreads rapidly.

What happens if we get further mutations?

- Well, that's the concern, right?

That if we don't burn this virus out, and you, and I've had this conversation, the more people that are immune to the virus, that the harder it is to be transmitted, and the fewer susceptible people, there are, there aren't as many hosts for the virus, it will burn itself out.

When there are susceptible host available to the virus, it can mutate, which is in its best interest to do, and we may in fact see strains that are even more transmissible, more infectious, and cause more severe illness, that's been the concern all along.

So we're still coping with this virus.

- Could those new strains be deadlier?

- They could be, that's always possible.

Now, you know, partly why so many younger people are being infected now is because they're not vaccinated, as you said, so our older population who are the more susceptible to severe illness and death, tend to be more likely to have gotten the vaccine, so they're at less risk.

- So if somebody has already had COVID, if they've had the disease, but they have not had the vaccine, can they assume that they have enough antibodies to resist another infection and come through with flying colors?

- Well, I certainly understand why people would think that, but in fact, there's so much we still don't know about this virus, when were they infected?

What strain were they infected with?

How much of an immune response did their body create?

It's really in everyone's best interest to get the vaccine, regardless of if you've had COVID-19, if you've had a mild case or severe case, it really doesn't matter, it's in your best interest to protect yourself from these new strains, this one, and perhaps future strains, to get the vaccine.

- So as we head into the school year, there's a big debate about masks, and there's a debate around the country about whether or not to reenact the mask mandates, in Florida, local governments are not allowed to on their own to enact a mask mandate, but in the past, when local governments here in Florida were able to enact a mask mandate, were they helpful in preventing the spread of the disease?

- Well, we certainly believe they were, if you remember back when this virus first emerged, and we were learning about it, we didn't have a vaccine, we didn't have a treatment, so the only thing we had, the only tools we had, were the tools we had to try to prevent people from transmitting the virus, one to the other, and the combination of the social distancing, and the face coverings and not bringing large groups of people together in one place, we really believe had had an impact, it helped reduce the spread of the virus.

Did everyone follow a mass mandate?

Did people wear masks effectively?

I mean, those were always concerns that we had, but it seemed that certainly during that period of time, when we had no other tools, those tools certainly helped keep the number of cases down.

- So a lot of people say taking the vaccine is a matter of personal choice, it's up to them, and that the government shouldn't be asking or coercing, although governments don't do that right now, but it should be up to the individual to decide whether or not to take the vaccine.

What do you think about that as a public health expert?

- Well, again, I certainly understand people feeling that way and believing that way, this is the United States, we prize our autonomy almost above all other things.

But what's interesting about vaccines, is vaccines are a public health tool used to try to stop the spread of infectious diseases, and in fact, in 1904, there was a Supreme Court case around smallpox, someone didn't want to be vaccinated, the particular state had made the smallpox vaccine compulsory, and the Supreme court ruled that it was important for the state, in this case, the public health department of the state, to be able to compel people to get a vaccine, to stop the spread of an infectious disease that was causing so much illness and death.

So vaccines have always been a very important part of the public health toolkit, and they are most effective when most people get the vaccine.

Again, that's how we close the door to the virus, we don't let the virus find a home.

So they protect, those of us who get the vaccine, we're protected, but in the greater sense, they provide a collective protection for the entire community.

So I understand when people say, it's my choice to get a vaccine or not, the challenge there is you're making a choice that may affect people other than you, and I think we have to think about our responsibility to other members of our families, of our communities, our coworkers, so that we think about the decision we're making and the impact that it may have.

- Dr. Peterson, thanks, thanks for coming on the program.

- Thanks Rob, stay safe out there.

(cheerful music) - The Gulf waters on the west coast of Florida continue to be inundated with red tide and death to fish in the areas, raising concerns about human health too.

Joining us now to discuss the impact of red tide is captain Chris Whittman, the co-founder of Captains for Clean Water.

That's an advocacy group, seeking solutions for water protection.

And captain Whitman welcome to "Florida this Week."

- Hey Rob, thanks for having me.

- So first of all, how bad is it?

What are you hearing today about the situation red tide off the coast of Manatee and Sarasota and Pinellas county and Pasco and the shores of Tampa Bay, How bad is it?

- Unfortunately, it's pretty bad, we've been in contact with a number of our supporters and business owners in that area, my team was up in the Tampa area last week, and it's not a good situation, we've seen a pretty severe outbreak as far north is kind of Tarpon Springs area, all the way south, as far south as almost Sarasota.

- You know, we see the pictures of these fish and I think a lot of people wonder, can the fish population ever make a comeback, 'cause we're seeing millions of these fish killed by the red tide.

How long does it take for the population to recharge itself?

- That's really hard to say, we are still in recovery in the Southern and Southwest Florida, Fort Myers area from the red tide outbreak that we had in 2018.

So that's really hard to say, and really depends on how long the outbreaks last, as well as, You know, just how severe they are in duration.

So I guess that's yet to be seen.

- You're a fishing guide, and you know, a lot of people that work on the water.

So tell me, do we have any estimate of the economic impact to businesses, small businesses such as yourself and others, what's this cost so far, and if we don't know when might we know the economic impact?

- Yeah, we don't know that yet, but what we can do is look historically at events like this, the 2018 red tide outbreak in Southwest Florida, just on the barrier islands of Sanibel and Captiva, those businesses that took part in the survey, which I'm sure is not all of them, they suffered a $47 million economic loss just in six months.

So we know that that actual number is a lot greater than that, but that does give us a baseline of just how severe these types of things do impact the economy.

- You know, I'm wondering do many people, are they forced to go out of business?

Many of the guides forced to go out of business, and is there state aid available to help rescue these businesses?

- Again, it depends on how long the duration of this is, You know, an issue like this on the heels of something like the COVID outbreak, definitely has a pretty major impact on the business community, not just fishing guides, but here in Florida, our economy is largely tourism based, and that tourism is definitely dependent on clean water.

- So what about the cause, in your industry, this is something that we don't usually see rise up in the summer, we usually see it begin in the fall, now we're seeing a midsummer outbreak of red tide.

What's your best estimate, or what are your thoughts about the cause of this this time?

- The cause is hard to say, but what we know is Karenia brevis, the red tide organism is not a picky eater, and although those blooms are natural when they form, the magnitude in which they grow, the toxicity levels and the duration are absolutely impacted by land-based nutrients, way too much food for that organism basically.

So events like the Piney Point leak, events like sewage infrastructure failures, fertilizer, all of those things are available food for that organism to take up, and we know that that Tampa is just an example of the issues that we're seeing around the state, and that's way too much nutrients, way too much pollution making its way into our waters, that in turn is fueling these outbreaks to very unnatural proportions.

- So, Chris, one last question, and we only have about 30 seconds.

We have heavy rains Lake Okeechobee is also affected, and then there have to be releases from Lake Okeechobee to the Indian River Lagoon, and also the Caloosahatchee.

Could we possibly see another dump of nitrogen into our coastal waterways because of the heavy rains?

- Yeah, we absolutely can.

Anytime we're looking at large scale discharges from lake Okeechobee, it is a concern.

We know the waters within the lake are very high in pollutants and nutrients, and those nutrients have the ability to fuel red tides, so that is definitely a real concern.

- Chris Whittman, thanks a lot, thanks for keeping watch for us.

- Thank you, have a great night.

(cheerful music) - In our political segment, I'm joined now in the studio by Joe Henderson, who is a columnist for floridapolitics.com, and by Tara Newsom who teaches political science at St. Petersburg College.

And Joe and Tara, welcome back to the program, great to have you here.

- Thank you.

- Let me start by asking you about the governor and the governor who seems to be of two minds on coronavirus.

This week, he came out very strongly for vaccinations, he's been quiet for a while, now he's back, he's strong, at the same time, his campaign is selling t-shirts that suggest that the nation's leading vaccination expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the t-shirts say, Don't Fauci Florida.

So Joe, let me start with you.

The governor and his take on vaccinations.

- He's having it both ways, we say he can't have it both ways, but that's what he's doing, and you know, now he's railing against if there's a federal mask mandate, which there won't be because there can't be.

So what that is, is just another talking point, kind of like critical race theory, going after an item that doesn't exist and never will exist, but the base loves it, so that's why he does it.

- Tara what do you think?

Why is the governor selling these t-shirts, that throw shade on Dr. Anthony Fauci?

- I think he's starting a strategy towards his presidential election to trump Trump, in his efforts to meet the base.

And I think that that strategy may backfire, considering we don't know what the Delta variant will do, and hopefully the Delta variant doesn't hit Florida, and are unprotected, but if it does, I think this will backfire on him.

- Tara, the governor is standing firm, he supports the law, the statewide law, that says that only Tallahassee can issue a mask mandates, and the local governments no longer have that power.

What do you think?

I mean, should local governments in Florida be able, if they see a really bad outbreak, be able to institute their own mask mandates?

- This is the hypocrisy of the governor right now, that he's a Republican that used to have a storied history of supporting home rule and local government, that's government being not run by the local communities on which the decisions need to be made.

So I think it's gonna be real problematic if he takes away the power from the local communities, and it will also be a real problem if he doesn't fund the activities to keep our community safe.

So if he doesn't allow the communities to protect their citizens, and then we get into another crisis, and then he doesn't fund those communities trying to respond to it, it's really gonna make him look unsavory for the 2022 gubernatorial election.

- I wanna ask about 2024, Joe, what do you make of the polls that show that governor DeSantis is either the first or second choice of many Republicans around the country to be their presidential nominee in a few years.

- I think it's significant because, and many Republicans would never admit this, but they wish, I think they wish Trump would go away.

And DeSantis is a pure conservative as we've seen, he's young, he's forceful, and he backs up his talk, and he's also not crazy, which helps.

- Tara, what do you think?

Tara, you're on vacation in Michigan, I shouldn't say that, but, so what are you seeing in Michigan?

Are you seeing any DeSantis, indication that DeSantis is popular there in Michigan?

- I got to tell you anybody that's been on social media for the last six months has seen DeSantis 2024, it's been all over social media, and it's even in Northern Michigan, I went to go do a little mom and pop shop, and I saw a hat that said DeSantis is 2024.

So he's really making inroads all over the country, and I think that it's gonna be very interesting to see the DeSantis go head to head with his mentor.

We have to remember DeSantis was an unremarkable Congressman in 2018, and Trump really elevated him to his position.

So to see him go against him is gonna really result some fireworks, and I think it's gonna result in some real Florida politics.

- Joe, let me bring it a little bit closer to home, this week in the St. Pete mayor's race, which is a little bit more than a month from now, some significant endorsements for Ken Welch, the former mayor Bill Foster, the current mayor, Rick Kriseman, two city council members, Lisa Wheeler-Bowman, and Deborah Figgs-Sanders endorsed, Charlie Crist has endorsed Ken Welch for mayor, and Darden Rice has put out this mailer this week, saying that Ken Welch has ties to Donald Trump.

So what's your take on the mayor's race, which is getting really interesting right now.

- Well, to your point about endorsements, I think collectively they do create a certain momentum, individually maybe not so much, but Ken Welch has all the momentum right now, but, the site that I write for floridapolitics.com, today on Friday, released a poll that has Ken Welch ahead, but only by a little more than a point over Robert Blackman.

- [Rob] The Republican.

- The Republican, the only Republican in the race, and Darden Rice slipped to 16% in the poll, she's about five, six points behind Blackman.

And I think her dubious mailer on Welch may have backfired on her, she probably would love to have a do-over on that.

- Okay, Tara, what do you think about the race for mayor in St. Petersburg?

- I think that endorsements are part of an overall campaign strategy.

What's notable about this narrow race is who Welsh was endorsed by, and of course the handful of folks across Pinellas County was interesting.

But Mayor Kriseman endorsement of Welch was very interesting because of Kriseman's long history with Darden Rice and the LGBTQ community, and it showed me a shift in progressive politics, that's what it really triggered for me, that perhaps Ken Welch is just trying to redefine what a progressive means in St. Pete, that he knows that every vote counts in the primary, and that means someone who's a little more inclusive and having a little bit bigger of a tent for lots of folks to come under the Democratic ticket, might prove to be very successful.

I also think that, the primary's traditionally non-partisan and although after the primary, it gets ugly and St. Pete, for this kind of ugly electioneering early on, I'm a hundred percent in agreement with Joe, that I don't think it's gonna sit well with folks in St. Pete.

- Okay Joe, in a minute, I mean the mailer that Darden Rice put out was pretty tough on Ken Welch and tied him to a fairly unpopular figure among Democrats dominance.

- Fairly?

(both laughs) - But, it's a month out from the election.

Is this the right time for a negative piece like that?

And does it-- - You know, in local politics, I don't think so, those tend to work better in larger scale races and so on and so forth.

But the people of St. Pete know Ken Welch, they've known him for a long time, and they're going, hey, wait a minute, what is this?

And to me, it was a sign of desperation by Darden's campaign, and she knows it's kind of slipping away from her, and it was a blunder.

- All right.

Well, Joe Henderson and Tara Newsom, thanks a lot for coming on "Florida this Week."

- [Joe] My pleasure.

Thank you for joining us.

You can view this and past shows online @wedu.org or on the PBS app, and "Florida this Week," is now available as a podcast.

You can subscribe to it on our website or wherever you get your podcasts.

Before we go, we're also tired of the pandemic and want it to be over, and in London, comedian and conductor Reiner Hersch brings us this sea shanty to describe how many of us feel.

Stay safe, take care of each other, we'll see you next week.

(violin music) ♪ It's six months since my hair was done ♪ ♪ Twice daily calls from the Amazon it's Netflix series 501 ♪ ♪ And I've had my kids adopted ♪ ♪ Soon may the vaccine come ♪ ♪ Two days in bed and my arm's gone numb ♪ ♪ But stuck with your family's much less fun ♪ ♪ And all my teeth have rotted ♪ ♪ When this is done to you, I swear ♪ ♪ I'll take my family to Wuhan where ♪ ♪ Bat man can live with them one year ♪ ♪ See how much he likes it ♪ ♪ Get lost COVID, don't come back ♪ ♪ You pointless spiky viral sack ♪ ♪ Pick up your graphs and hit the track ♪ ♪ You microscopic has been ♪ ♪ Get lost COVID, don't come back ♪ ♪ You pointless spikey viral sack ♪ ♪ We'll have no more of eating bat ♪ ♪ And waiting for the vaccine ♪ (crowd applauding) (cheerful music) - [Announcer] Florida this week is a production of WEDU who is solely responsible for its content.

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