In an interview with MSNBC’s Morning Joe at the end of March, Mike Barnicle suggested Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) made a huge mistake not following the advice of the experts and immediately issuing stay-at-home orders. Barnicle cited five states that did listen: Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Illinois and California:

DeSantis eventually issued a lockdown order for Florida. However, it was nowhere near as stringent as the other states, because DeSantis believes in protecting people’s liberties.

When it came to the lockdown, the Florida governor was one of the last to implement it, and one of the first to end it.

So at the end of May, blogger Stacy McCain calculated the death rates per capita to see how badly Florida did, compared to those other expert-listening states.

Here are McCain’s calculation of death rates per million for all those states in question:

New York ………………………. 1,519
Massachusetts ………………… 950
Michigan ………………………… 534
Illinois ……………………………. 400
Florida …………………………… 108
California ……………………….. 100

McCain writes:

So, Florida’s death rate has been 93% lower than New York, 89% lower than Massachusetts, 80% lower than Michigan, 73% lower than Illinois. The only state named by Barnicle that has done better than Florida in terms of its COVID-19 death rate is California. 

I think the numbers speak for themselves.

READ: ‘Fact-Based Truth’: MSNBC Demonized Ron DeSantis; Where’s the Apology? AND MSNBC analyst’s smear of Florida governor hasn’t aged well AND Horowitz: Science and liberty over power: Ron DeSantis delivers for the people of Florida