Florida shares deep connections with Puerto Rico as home to the territory’s largest diaspora community on the US mainland. But when it comes to Covid-19, the two places have little in common.
While Florida, like many states in the South, has seen high infection rates and troubling death counts, Puerto Rico has been something of a coronavirus success story. As of November 22, Puerto Rico had fully vaccinated 74 percent of its population — a higher proportion than any other US state or territory — and had among the lowest Covid-19 death rates since the start of the pandemic, with 102 in 100,000 people dying from the virus.
By comparison, Florida’s vaccination rate is far more typical for the US; it has administered two shots to 60.9 percent of its population, slightly above the national average of 59.2 percent. That’s after Florida led the country in total caseloads for months, and after significant loss of life: Florida residents have died of the virus at nearly triple the rate of Puerto Rico residents.
Throughout the US, politics has been a key factor in determining how states have fared during the Covid-19 pandemic. States that embraced the individualistic approach of the Trump administration, sometimes ignoring scientific guidelines and avoiding mandates, have seen worse outcomes than states that took more comprehensive actions to stop the spread of Covid-19.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron De Santis has been threatening government agencies with millions in fines if they mandate vaccines for employees and has boosted the voices of anti-vaxxers. At the same time, Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro R. Pierluisi, a member of the Partido Nuevo Progresista who caucused with Democrats while a commissioner in Congress, has quietly implemented some of the broadest vaccine mandates in the country across the private and public sectors.
And while Floridians have taken to the streets with signs reading “No jab, no job, no way,” Puerto Ricans have largely embraced the mandates without protest. Though coronavirus cases have risen across the mainland in recent weeks, Puerto Rico has avoided a spike, with cases and hospitalizations even trending downward.