Whooping cough cases in Florida have soared this year, marking an 81% increase from 2024’s number.

As of Sept. 27, 2025, there have been 1,295 cases reported to the Florida Department of Health (DOH), compared to 715 cases for the entirety of 2024, according to the department’s Reportable Diseases Frequency Report.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Why would the Democrats do this?

    You can’t just come out in favor of vaccinations. That’s electoral poison. You need to meet people in the middle. Vaccines for some, little American flags for others.

    If you start taking a hard stance in favor of vaccinations, you are going to lose the election and you’re going to get more Republicans in office. Florida’s a winnable state, but we have to be moderate. We have to respect the longstanding cultural viewpoint that vaccines cause autism. We need to include people who hate vaccines in the conversation and promise to bring them into any future administration, because anti-vaxxers are an influential voting block we are obligated to respect and court.

    If anything, the party needs more anti-vax Democrats. This is the path forward, because it is what the people organically and entirely rationally want. Arguing against it is just more Big Government Overreach. It costs tax payers money. And it doesn’t respect the views of the working class.

    If you’re suggesting that the Democratic Party should become the party of vaccination, you are rooting for failure. In fact, you may be attempting to undermine the party from within, because you secretly support Trump. And why would you support Trump? Because you support Russia and China as a Communist. You’re a Tankie and you shouldn’t be in this conversation.

    We need to purge the lingering stench of Communism from the Democratic Party of Florida. And that means taking a hard stance against far-left ideas like vaccination, public education, and potable water. That’s why we’re going to reach out to our close friends across the aisle and ask Ron DeSantis to carry our banner as the Democratic Nominee for the Governor of Florida in 2026.

    • Spacehooks@reddthat.com
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      4 days ago

      Lol all I could think is if we branded masks as little american flags to show patriotism I legitimately wonder if covid would have gone differently. Why didnt you bring this up sooner!

      • Hazor@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Seriously. If Republicans during covid had framed protecting each other with masks as protecting the country itself and thus a patriotic duty, we’d have had far fewer deaths. But instead they decided to kill their own voters with utter stupidity. Not that it cost them any electoral outcomes, evidently.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      5 days ago

      At this point I think most people would be in favor of just letting Florida burn.

      Fence it off or something, and in twenty years when they’re all dead from preventable illnesses and accidents, we can just walk in and use the land. It would be so much easier

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        I mean, the thing about Florida is that its full of genuinely cool, fun, happy people who - on any other day - would be totally normal. But then its also full of the most insane and toxic corporate flacks and hustlers this country can produce. And they have found a way to pump the state for all its worth (which is quite a bit) and suck that limp dick dry.

        Just ground zero for what endless waves of the most vile political propaganda can do to the human brain. And Florida (plus Texas and Ohio) have become test sites for what corporate media plans to do to everyone else.

      • warbond@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        I don’t really mind that it’s AI generated, I mind that you waited to tell us 😔