Floridians need to stay at home to help beat the coronavirus | Opinion

People are afraid, and with good reason, about their own health, the health of their loved ones, and about the economic hardship this virus has brought with it. There is no doubt that what we do in this moment will shape our health and our economic future. That is why we must take decisive action to ensure the health, safety, and economic health of Floridians. This means clearly defining a short and long term plan to deal with both the health and the economic crisis. Short term, we need to enact a stay at home order to protect the health of our community and institute stronger measures to provide economic help for individuals and businesses. Long-term, we need a back to work plan that ensures our citizens and local businesses bounce back as quickly as possible.

Short term, a stay at home order is critical for the health and safety of Floridians in order to ensure our hospitals do not become overwhelmed. Because we have tested so few of our almost 22 million residents,16,046 as of March 25th, and because we do not have the capability to scale testing in a way that will allow us to understand the scope of this pandemic, we must do everything we can to ensure individuals with COVID and those with everyday health issues can receive care. The most effective way to accomplish this is through social distancing. That means staying home. Period. This is a temporary solution that will allow our healthcare system to assess its needs and capabilities and will allow our healthcare providers to take action to expand the number of beds available.

Governor Desantis, in defense of not putting a stay at home order in place, stated that there were a number of counties that do not have any COVID-19 cases. However, because the testing criteria has been so limited, the truth is there are counties that don’t have any documented cases, that does not mean those counties don’t have any actual cases. This is a pandemic. No one and no community is immune. We must address this issue head on. This means requiring our citizens to stay home for the short term. I applaud the governor for the mandatory quarantine he is instating for individuals coming from COVID hot spots in New York and New Jersey, but we need to recognize that this virus is not just coming from outside Florida, it is now in our communities and we need to act accordingly.

Short-term, we must immediately increase our aid to individuals and small businesses that are being sidelined. Hundreds of thousands of people are losing their jobs because of this virus and Florida’s unemployment system is not equipped to handle this crisis. Florida ranks in the bottom 5 states in the nation for unemployment benefits. Currently, Florida pays $275/week in unemployment benefits for only 12 weeks. Not only that, currently, it is virtually impossible to get through to the Department of Economic Opportunity to claim these benefits because their systems are overwhelmed. We must immediately decrease the red tape and increase the staff of the Department of Economic Opportunity so that individuals can receive immediate relief. We must also increase the amount paid in unemployment benefits and the length of time this assistance is available.

Small businesses are the economic backbone of most communities in Florida and we must support them. We can help small businesses in the short term by forgiving or deferring sales tax payments and by providing easy to access and economically sound small business loans. The loan program needs to be dramatically re-geared to ensure short term liquidity does not come at the expense of long term economic stability for business owners and their employees. The business loans recently announced have a balloon interest rate of 12% after the first year. It is foreseeable that this economic downturn could last longer than a year and these loans should be truly relief and not become a burden.

Long term, we need to begin creating a back to work plan that will ensure that our economy comes back stronger than ever. We will need to stimulate our economy, provide economic incentives for businesses that had to close to allow them to re-open, and we will need to provide stimulus for new investments in our communities.

Lastly, as we move to the other side of this crisis, we must recognize the glaring holes in our healthcare system. Our public health system has long been ignored and underfunded and that underfunding means that we have challenges with testing and with getting healthcare to people that need it. We have 2.7 million Floridians without health coverage. In a pandemic like this, it is the most vulnerable among us that lose the most. We were not prepared and, as a state, have struggled to address health issues that have arisen as a result of coronavirus.

We can do all of this and more with strong leadership and when we all work together. Let’s prioritize Floridians, our families, and our local businesses to ensure our health, safety, and economic prosperity.

Margaret Good is a Democratic state representative from Sarasota. She also is a candidate for the 16th Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.