MANATEE COUNTY – The Manatee County community remains divided regarding the countywide curfew that remains in effect from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily.
Enacted in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the curfew limits vehicular and pedestrian travel during those overnight hours to the essential businesses, services and activities defined in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Executive Order 20-91.
On Friday, April 3 the commission voted 5-2 in favor on enacting the curfew. On Friday, April 10, the commission voted 5-2 to extend an amended version of the curfew for seven more days.
During Friday’s meeting, several members of the public appeared in person to speak in opposition or support of extending the curfew.
Curfew opposition
County resident Betty Sales Rhodes spoke first. She said she was glad the commission removed language from the original curfew resolution that pertained to police enforcement at gatherings on private residential property.
She then expressed concerns about the curfew as a whole.
“We as people have rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and you all sometimes as county commissioners be stepping overboard. You’ve got to treat people as you want yourselves to be treated,” Rhodes said.
Bradenton resident Andra Griffin said, “Last week, five of you chose to violate our rights by unconstitutionally broadening police power. Our Constitution doesn’t say that if you have a medical emergency you can violate our constitutional, civil or property rights.”
“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness all begin with life. There can be no happiness, there can be no liberty without life.” – Dr. Joseph Haider
Bradenton resident Kevin Wright said, “The Constitution was not designed to government’s job easier. To the contrary, it was designed to make it more difficult. The ease with which you implemented a decision prevented you from giving due consideration to how difficult it should have been to arrive at that decision. One citizen told me she did not feel her rights were violated by the resolution. She missed a more important point: Choosing not to exercise a right does not mean that right does not exist.”
Bradenton resident George Kruse said, “After the stay-at-home (order) was initiated, Manatee County elected to take one step further and initiate our curfew. I question why we’d do this because we’ve got a Republican governor and he’s looking out for our best interest. At the very least, six out of the seven of you run as Republicans. So, I think you would give our Republican governor the benefit of the doubt that he knows what’s best for us.
“We can’t come to consensus on why we have this curfew in place. This was put in place to scare us. It was put in place for fear. It was an opportunity to tell us that if we don’t follow the orders of Gov. DeSantis, then there is a chance that even more stringent requirements and restrictions are going to be placed upon us,” Kruse said.
“The citizens of Manatee County are capped out with fear. We don’t need our elected officials to add another layer of that onto our lives. Get rid of this curfew. You can either govern from above through fear or lead side-by-side through hope,” Kruse concluded.
“I’m not in support of the curfew unless there is some medical evidence that shows the coronavirus is more active after 11 o’clock,” Bradenton resident Rodney Jones said.
Bradenton resident Ruth Lyerly said, “It is not in the Constitution that you should trample on rights or scare citizens. Where do we draw the line?”
Curfew support
Dr. Scott Clulow represented the Manatee County Medical Society in support of the curfew, and he read aloud a letter the society sent to the commissioners earlier in the week.
“The Manatee County Medical Society applauds your decision to enact a curfew in Manatee County to further protect its citizens above and beyond the governor’s most recent order. We know this was a difficult decision and took courage to do so, even with the opposition of some citizens concerned with the violation of their civil rights,” Clulow said.
“Manatee County is home to more than 400,000 residents. Our community’s median age is 49 years; however, 27% of our residents are older than 65 years. We have 13 nursing homes with approximately 1,500 residents and three of them currently have residents diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus. There is a significant proportion of our population in the highest risk group that could be seriously affected by this horrible virus,” Clulow said.
“Get rid of this curfew. You can either govern from above through fear or lead side-by-side through hope.” – George Kruse, Bradenton resident
“Taking into consideration our population, it is possible to have an excess of 4,000 people infected. Approximately 15% of those people could require hospitalization with up to 5% becoming critically ill, with an estimated 2.5% mortality rate in people older than 65. These numbers are abysmal. The Florida peak date has been moved up to April 21st. The capacity of our community to take care of these cases can be easily overtaken if we do not continue to take immediate bold measures to flatten this curve,” Clulow said.
“The Manatee County Medical Society is extremely concerned for the potential risk to our community. It is for this reason we make the following recommendations: In addition to the brave decision to impose a local curfew, social distancing and following safe-at-home protocols, we request the Board of County Commissioners make a recommendation to encourage all Manatee County citizens and visitors to wear masks – not N95 masks, regular masks – when out in public, especially when making commercial transactions,” Clulow said.
During Friday’s meeting, the commission made no such recommendation.
Dr. Joseph Haider is a physician at Manatee Memorial Hospital in Bradenton.
“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness all begin with life. There can be no happiness, there can be no liberty without life. We have to take measures and we have to act now because flattening the curve doesn’t mean we’re not all going to get sick. Flattening the curve means we’re not overrun in the hospitals which are already short on ventilators. Flattening the curve means I’m not making decisions, or other people are not making decisions, whether you or someone else in the county gets a ventilator or not,” Haider said.
Haider said he just finished working two 84-hour work weeks in a row before getting some time off.
“Everybody is tired, but what keeps us going is that we’re all on Team Humanity. Those nurses in that COVID unit dressing up with a pound of PPE are hot. Wearing a N95 for four to six hours before being allowed to use the bathroom or have a drink of water, that’s physically taxing. Everybody is exhausted,’ Haider said.
“The message here is simple. Republican, Democrat, anything in between is out the door. We all belong to humanity at this point. It’s about giving everyone the chance to have the pursuit of life, therefore on another day pursuing their liberty and coming home and being happy with their families,” Haider said.
Dr. Werther Marciales is the Director of the Internal Medicine Department at Manatee Memorial Hospital. He is one of the doctors in charge of the hospital’s COVID unit and he is treating COVID-19 patients.
“We all know this is not the flu. This is a very transmissible virus which has shown deadly consequences, especially in the population that we serve in Manatee County. Our role as primary care providers is to give guidance to the county commissioners about proper measures that will preserve the health of the population of this county,” Marciales said.
Marciales thanked the commission majority for voting in favor of “commonsense restrictions that were shown in other models to be the best way to prevent the spread of the disease.”
He then said, “As my colleague (Dr. Haider) eloquently expressed, flattening the curve doesn’t mean that this disease is going away. What it means is that if we can spread the disease over a long period of time we’re not going to have this surge in which we’re going to have more people that need beds than what we have in Manatee County. At that point, the health care professionals will need to make very difficult decisions to see who’s going to get the vent and who’s not,” Marciales said.
“I listen to the points that other people have made in terms of civil liberties and infringement of their rights. Your right as county commissioners is to protect the health of the citizens of this county and for that you need to listen to the experts,” Marciales said.
Dr. Juliana Dale is a physician at Manatee Memorial Hospital. She said on Friday there were 24 COVID-19 patients at that hospital and approximately half of them were on ventilators. Another 12 patients were quarantined at home.
“Two weeks ago, we had four patients,” she said.
“This disease is spreading faster than we thought it would and our peak is now April 21st. I’ve seen nurses who have not seen their family in weeks. I’ve seen them in tears, just being overwhelmed right now, and we’re not even at our full capacity yet,” Dale said.
“The point of this curfew is not to limit people’s rights. It’s really to protect our citizens. It’s about getting traffic off the road from 11 to 5. If we don’t have those accidents, it gives the ER more time to take care of the patients that are getting sick from this virus, while also saving protective equipment. We’re not putting this curfew in to create fear. We’re putting this curfew in to give hope and the chance to pursue happiness,” Dale said.
