It’s not like there haven’t been a bunch of missteps in the way that Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has handled the COVID19 pandemic and the economic and social crisis it has caused.
There have been delays in action, an early reluctance to close events and businesses, amendments to executive orders, then amendments to those amendments. There were, still is, insufficient testing. There were exceptions for construction sites and auto dealerships. There was an early push to open restaurants 
at twice the capacity recommended and used elsewhere. There was a questionable deal with some fancy schmancy gourmet home-delivered food vendor with insider connections.
It took a frightening spike in cases for Gimenez to issue a 10 p.m. curfew, regulate alcohol sales and finally mandate masks in public and private places — just the other day.
But if he’s failed on his response to the COVID19 crisis here, Gimenez — who is now mostly a congressional candidate — sure has gotten high points for earned media coverage. Not just with daily 
video messages to voters. No, those were baby steps. He’s gone prime time now.
The position as mayor in one of the coronavirus hot spots of the country has had him getting enviable exposure on the national scene, with an interview on CNN Saturday and a spot on CBS News’ Face the Nation Sunday, where he actually disagreed with President Donald Trump‘s newest baseless announcement that 99% of coronavirus cases are “harmless.”
Read related: COVID19 spike in Miami-Dade makes Mayor Carlos Gimenez warn businesses
“The virus is not harmless. No, absolutely not,” Gimenez, a Republican candidate in congressional district 26, said on Face the Nation Sunday. What a brilliant observation. He added that Miami-Dade is averaging more than 20% positives in testing (it’s at about 25%) and that 70% of the intensive care units at area hospitals are currently in use by COVID-related patients.
The Florida Department of Health COVID19 dashboard shows that there have been more than 2,000 positives every day in Miami-Dade for the first four days of July. We were at a total of 46,445 positive COVID19 patients in the county as of July 4, with 4,144 hospitalizations and 1,043 deaths.
Jackson Health System President and CEO Carlos Migoya told Michael Putney and Glenna Milberg at 
WPLG Local 10’s This Week in South Florida that they have seen a significant increase in COVID-19 patients at Jackson Memorial, where they have slowed down on elective and non-urgent surgeries. At Baptist Hospital, one cancer patient told Political Cortadito that a nurse called her Sunday to cancel the COVID test scheduled for Monday, which is needed before her surgery to remove her port for chemotherapy. She can’t have the COVID test done Monday because there are too many COVID patients.
Gimenez, who last week told Fox News that the virus wasn’t so deadly, sounded like he didn’t know what to do, or say, next on Sunday, but he wouldn’t hear of blaming the reopening for the spike.
“We just have more people that are being positive. And so the more you have at the end, you’re going to have more people, you know, pass away, unfortunately, because it’s just a question of, of numbers,” 
Gimenez told CBS’ Margaret Brennan, sounding again like a rocket scientist.
“And, so we do have a lot of young people that have gotten positive results. We have had, seen an increase in the number of hospitalizations. We have seen an increase in the number of ICUs and also an increase in the number of ventilators simply because we have a… more of our people are actually testing positive, which indicates more of the people of Miami-Dade County are coming up with COVID-19.”
Read related: Another Carlos Gimenez faux pas on COVID19 — or is he campaigning?
Real insight, ladies and gentlemen. More people are testing positive, which indicates more people of Miami-Dade are coming up with COVID19. Coming up with. You know, like, all on their own.
“And so when you have more, you, obviously, will have more hospitalizations, more ICUs, more, more respirators, and, unfortunately, you’ll have more fatalities.”
He is batting them out of the park. So glad he’s in charge.
But he’s also being dishonest and reluctant to take any responsibility for the surge in cases, which came almost exactly two weeks after the soft reopening of our local economy, as predicted.
In recent days, and on the CBS morning show, Gimenez blamed the spike in Miami-Dade on graduation 
parties and the Black Lives Matter protests.
“Obviously, the protests had a lot to do with it,” he said, after he was asked if the reopening caused the flurry of cases. “We had, you know, thousands of young people together outside, a lot of them not wearing masks. And we know that when you’re — when you do that and you are talking and you are chanting, etcetera, that really spreads the virus.”
He also blames the rest of us for “letting our guard down.” But he has taken no responsibility for reopening too heavily, too quickly. For letting restaurants go from zero to 50% capacity. For sending mixed signals from the very start.
This spike was predicted before the protests began and was based mostly on the reopening measures and the increased testing — which Ladra has not seen much evidence of, actually.
If anyone has let their guard down, they were following the mayor’s lead.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez gets F for COVID19, A for coverage added by Ladra on
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